sbdcsierra Chapter 115 Cold Palace
Chapter 115 Cold Palace
Yongzheng walked on without stopping, not giving Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang a chance to speak, leaving behind one sentence, "Send her to the cold palace."
Immediately, eunuchs came up and held An Lingrong back. An Lingrong took the opportunity to turn around and gave them a comforting look.
Caixing followed immediately.
Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang wanted to follow, but were stopped by the guards.
An Lingrong looked at Caixing who was following closely behind her and said, "Caixing, go back to your sister quickly and tell her not to worry and to take good care of the baby!"
"No, this slave girl will follow the young master!"
"You're stupid, I'm going to the cold palace, not on vacation."
"This servant follows the young master!"
Jiang Zhongmin, the head of the Imperial Household Department, said impatiently, "Why are you arguing? She's your personal maid, so naturally she has to follow you!"
"She is not. My personal maid is Su Ye. She is ordered by the emperor to take care of Concubine Hui. She is Concubine Hui's maid." An Lingrong explained quickly.
Jiang Zhongmin hesitated for a moment, then waved to Caixing, "Alright, go now!"
"I will follow the young lady!" Cai Xing said this sentence three times, and when she said it again, her voice was already filled with tears.
An Lingrong looked at her tears filling her eyes and said helplessly, "Why are you so stubborn, kid?"
A quarter of an hour later, they arrived in front of a mottled and peeling gate whose color could not be seen. Jiang Zhongmin said a few words to the guards, and the gate opened a little.
As An Lingrong and Caixing entered, a small package was thrown in. Caixing hurriedly picked it up, patted the dust off it and held it tightly in her arms. This was the young lady's underwear packed by the nanny of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and it was all their survival supplies!
After a while, a maid in her thirties or forties came out and looked An Lingrong up and down. "Are you Concubine Wen?"
An Lingrong looked her in the eye without any panic, "It's me!"
"Okay, stop acting like a master here, just follow me!"
The Cold Palace is located in a remote corner of the Imperial Palace. The lack of sunlight immerses the entire palace in a gloomy atmosphere. Whenever a cold wind blows, the mottled and crumbling stone walls seem to tell of a thousand years of vicissitudes, making people feel a strong chill.
The palace was covered in weeds, a desolate sight. Only the occasional stray cats wandered about, bringing a touch of life to the cold palace. A thick layer of fallen leaves covered the ground, emitting a lingering smell of decay.
An Lingrong followed the nanny to a hall. Pushing open the door, countless clouds of fine dust flew toward her. Caixing quickly used a handkerchief to disperse the dust for An Lingrong, allowing the master and servant to clearly see the hall's furnishings. Against the wall lay a pile of dry grass, atop which lay a blackened mattress. In the corner stood a shabby table, lit by an oil lamp covered in cobwebs. Glimpses of once magnificent decorations lingered on the walls, but now they had peeled away, revealing the crumbling brickwork.
In the corner, a woman in clothes of indistinguishable color, with disheveled hair, looked at them with an obsessed look. From time to time, she took out a louse from her head and threw it into her mouth, chewing it with a crunching sound.
A very impactful picture, "Ugh..."
The nanny sneered, "You can't bear it anymore? The hard times are still ahead!"
An Lingrong's stomach churned, and she leaned against the wall and vomited violently, even vomiting up the New Year's Eve meal. After she recovered, she asked weakly, "Who is she?"
"You should know her, Lipin!"
Lipin? Fei Yunyan? That beautiful woman, who once bullied Zhen Huan together with Concubine Hua, but now she has become this half-human, half-ghost appearance. An Lingrong felt her hair stand on end. She suppressed her nausea and asked, "Is there a private room?"
"Of course it is!" The nanny stretched out her index finger and thumb and rubbed them.
An Lingrong understood that the nanny wanted to get something out of her. However, she never liked wearing jewelry, so she didn't have many ornaments on her body. She took off her earrings and the jeweled gold hairpin on her head and handed them all to the nanny.
However, the nanny was obviously not satisfied with these things. She frowned and said, "Why is it just this little? I heard that you are very favored recently, aren't you?"
As she spoke, she suddenly noticed a jade bracelet on An Lingrong's hand. Her eyes lit up and she reached out to touch it. "This bracelet has a fine texture and a translucent color. It's made of top-quality jadeite..."
An Lingrong immediately retracted her hand, tightly protecting the jade bracelet, and said coldly: "You can take the other things, but this bracelet is absolutely not allowed!"
This bracelet was a gift from Shen Meizhuang to her. She, Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang each had one, symbolizing the deep friendship between them. The three of them never took it off since they put it on.
"Hmph, then you can live here!" After saying this, the nanny wanted to leave. Anyway, it wouldn't be long before all of An Lingrong's things would be in her hands, so she was not in a hurry.
"Wait a minute!" An Lingrong took out a jade pendant from her bosom with a painful look on her face. It was a reward from the top brother on the singing list today, and she had not had time to put it back in the hall.
The nanny carefully stroked the jade pendant and a smile appeared on her face. She took An Lingrong to another room. Although the environment was still damp and dirty, it was at least a single room and no one would eat snacks in front of her!
"You pack up. Come to me if you need anything. By the way, my last name is Liu."
At this point, Cai Xing didn't hesitate to be pretentious. She walked into the house, found a three-legged stool, and wiped it clean. "My lady, please take a rest first. I will go and clean up."
An Lingrong rolled up her sleeves and prepared to clean up with Caixing.
"My lady, how can I let you do it? Let me do it." Cai Xing hurriedly stopped her.
"Alright, Caixing, it's just the two of us here from now on. I certainly can't let you do everything!" An Lingrong ignored her, took out a broom and started sweeping the floor. "Alas, I told you to go back to Sister Mei, but you refused and insisted on suffering with me."
"This servant is not afraid of hardship."
"Don't worry, Caixing. My sister's due date is still two months away. We will definitely go back before then!"
"This servant believes in the young master."
After clearing a clean area, An Lingrong finally had time to think carefully about what had just happened.
Judging from the Queen's scheming and tactics, she must have taken all kinds of situations into consideration. It is almost impossible to overturn the case based on witnesses and evidence. She can only work on the source of musk, but it will take a lot of time, and she can't wait that long!
Fortunately, she had what Yongzheng wanted, which was the vaccination method to prevent smallpox.
Emperor Taizong and Emperor Shizu died of smallpox. Emperor Shengzu also contracted smallpox as a child, narrowly escaping death and leaving a few tiny pockmarks on his face. Smallpox was also the highest mortality rate among children in the imperial court. She believed that if she shared her vaccination method, even greater sins would be forgiven.