Nanjing, Fengzao Palace, Forbidden City.
His Royal Highness Prince Yi Yang returned to the palace before the palace gates were locked yesterday and reported to the Queen that Princess Yongjia had been kidnapped. The Queen was furious and punished him to kneel outside the main hall of Fengzao Palace. It has been a whole night now.
Chanjuan, the senior palace maid serving the Queen, raised Prince Yi Yang from childhood. She hated to see Prince Yi Yang being punished like this, but she wanted to plead for mercy but was refused due to the Queen's majesty.
When the Mao hour arrived, it was time for the Queen to get up in the morning. She stepped forward to help the Queen wash and change clothes. When she helped the Queen to the dressing table, she finally found an opportunity: "Queen, Your Highness has been kneeling for a whole night. I hope Your Highness will sympathize with Your Highness's fatigue and forgive His Highness."
"You don't need to beg for mercy for a rebellious son." The queen did not sleep all night, and was extremely worried about Princess Yongjia. When she woke up, her trusted maid mentioned the matter of forgiving Prince Yi Yang, and she was naturally even more angry. Although Prince Yi Yang was punished, in her heart, her daughter, whose life or death was uncertain, was more important.
She threw the comb away and said coldly, "The concubines in the harem are here to pay their respects to me today. Why don't you hurry up and help me with my makeup ? If that bitch Defei makes a fool of herself, you will be blamed."
When Chanjuan saw that the Queen was still angry, she knew that she had caused a big disaster and brought bad luck to the Queen. She apologized quickly and picked up a comb to comb the Queen's bun.
Gu Ru'an got up early and went to the Shanggong Bureau to retrieve the Queen's broken phoenix crown. Today was the day for the harem to pay respects to the emperor. Not to mention the concubines in the harem, even the concubines and concubines in the Cining Palace had to rush to the Fengzao Palace. The Queen's phoenix crown had lost a bead a few days ago, and she had to retrieve it today.
She carefully carried the Phoenix Coronet into the Queen's bedroom, knelt down steadily and reported: "The Queen is in good health. I have retrieved the Phoenix Coronet."
In Fengzao Palace, apart from Chanjuan, the maidservant of the Queen since childhood, the most prominent servant is Gu Ru'an. She was born in a noble family and was the eldest daughter of the Prime Minister's Mansion. She served the Queen diligently for many years in Fengzao Palace and was deeply trusted by the Queen. Chanjuan was responsible for the Queen's daily life and the arrangement of interpersonal relationships in the harem, while Gu Ru'an was responsible for all matters related to finance. All the money flowing in Fengzao Palace was recorded by her.
Gu Ruan was able to get to this point not because the Queen trusted her most. It was because among the 3,000 palace maids, only Gu Ruan could read and write, and as the daughter of the Prime Minister, her life and death would affect her father, who was second only to the Prime Minister and above everyone else. The Queen was confident that she held the life and death of Gu Ruan's father in her hands, and Gu Ruan would never betray her.
"Thank you for your hard work." The Queen couldn't turn around because she was dressing, so she raised her hand to Gu Ru'an and said, "Go down and rest for a while. When Concubine Shaoqin and Concubine Limi come, you can go and meet them."
Gu Ru'an took the order and left, but the queen kept looking at her reflection in the bronze mirror .
In the twenty years since Gu Ru'an entered the palace, the queen had never doubted her and had always kept all her secrets to her. But after Yu Linzhi returned to Lin'an eight years ago, her suspicions grew day by day.
Maybe, Gu Ruan is fine.
But her son, the son of the leader of the martial arts world, is not simple.
Now the abduction of Princess Yongjia, whom she had always cherished, further deepened her suspicion. The disappearance of Princess Yongjia was definitely not accidental.
At this time, the leader of the martial arts world, Yu Jianwu, was detained. If Yu Linzhi was not stupid, he would definitely use this incident to negotiate with the court to release his father. She believed from the beginning to the end that Yongjia was captured by Yu Linzhi. In the eyes of the queen, no small country in the Western Regions had the courage to kidnap a princess.
The queen thought for a moment and instructed Chanjuan, "Go and ask Prince Yiyang to get up and go to the side hall to rest first. Ask an imperial physician to take a look at him, so that he won't get hurt from kneeling."
Shen Qingyu had always been more favored by her than the prince since he was a child. Although she was still angry now, she still couldn't bear to let him suffer too much. She made him kneel for a whole night, first for the emperor to see, second for the royal family to see, and third for Concubine De to see.
She always suspected that Concubine De was behind Yu Jianwu. Otherwise, how could a knight-errant like him become the leader of the martial arts world in just ten years?
After finishing her makeup, the eunuch came in to announce that Concubine Li Mi had left early and arrived before Concubine Shao Qin and other concubines of the previous emperor. The queen asked Chan Juan to help her out, and Gu Ru'an had been accompanying Concubine Li Mi for a long time, holding the fan for her.
The queen walked to the side of Concubine Li Mi and took her arm affectionately: "Your Highness is here. Your daughter-in-law has been waiting for you for a long time."
Concubine Li Mi's attitude was stiff, completely different from her previous gentle demeanor. She coldly shook off the queen's hand and asked directly: "I want to ask you, did you punish Prince Yi Yang?"
"Yes." The Queen had not expected that the news would reach Concubine Limi so quickly, so she could only agree with embarrassment.
Concubine Li Mi was the younger sister of the late Empress Dowager, the biological mother of Prince Duanjing who died in battle, the grandmother of Princess Yongjia Shen Hanyan, and could be considered the half-adoptive mother of the current emperor.
When the Empress Dowager passed away in her prime, the Emperor was still young and had not yet appointed a harem. All matters in the harem were handled by Concubine Limi. It was not until the Queen married and entered the palace that the power was transferred to the Queen. However, Concubine Limi's majesty remained the same. Even after so many years, the Queen still respected and feared her. Now Concubine Limi was angry, and the Queen did not dare to disobey her and could only obey her.
"Empress, do you know why you are not as good as Concubine De?" Concubine Limi turned around and looked at Concubine De who was coming in from the main gate of Fengzao Palace in a sedan chair in the distance.
She spoke to the queen in a cold and distant tone, full of warning: "The last thing you should do now is to punish Prince Yi Yang, but to use Prince Yi Yang to show goodwill to the people in the martial arts world and ask them to find Yan'er as soon as possible."
She had always looked down on the Queen, believing that she was inflexible and stubborn , and could not adapt to changing circumstances. This time it was her own granddaughter who was missing, and she was even more dissatisfied when she saw how the Queen dealt with Prince Yiyang.
In fact, Concubine Li Mi did not come from the Cining Palace, but from the Emperor in the Purple Palace. She rarely went to the front court, and this time, she came to see the emperor specifically for Prince Yi Yang. The Queen had always been confused, and she was worried that the Queen was bent on overthrowing Concubine De and misunderstood the serious matter of rescuing Princess Yongjia.
"I just went to pay my respects to the Emperor and asked for his opinion." When Concubine Li Mi saw Concubine De getting off the sedan chair with the help of the eunuch, she turned around and looked at the Queen who looked uncomfortable.
She knew that the Queen's pain point for many years was Concubine De, so she deliberately led the topic to Concubine De to make the Queen pay attention.
"My daughter-in-law would like to hear the details. Please convey the emperor's will to me, Your Majesty." The queen pursed her lips tightly and gritted her teeth secretly, wishing she could squeeze the marrow out of Concubine De.
Concubine Li Mi gestured to Gu Ru'an to support her and walked straight to the main hall of Fengzao Palace. The Queen immediately followed behind them tactfully. All the palace maids and eunuchs stayed away from them, leaving the two of them enough time to have a good chat.
"Please ask the Emperor to stop pursuing the crime of Prince Yi Yang's brother for his negligence, and order him to bring a team to negotiate with Yu Linzhi to jointly rescue Princess Yongjia." Although Concubine Li Mi lowered her voice cautiously, Gu Ru'an was standing nearby and it was difficult for her not to hear. "This matter is difficult for the court to handle, but Your Majesty cannot take the initiative to issue an order, so you can only ask the Queen to act out a show."
On that day, none of the concubines in Fengzao Palace saw the queen. Only Defei, who arrived first, and Yuan Zhaoyi, who was about to enter Fengzao Gate, saw her and ran to Zichen Hall in dark-colored clothes.
That night, the emperor announced the decree to all the palaces.
"The Emperor, in compliance with the Will of Heaven, proclaims: Princess Yongjia Hanyan is missing. The Empress cried and pleaded in the Purple Palace, praising the love between mother and daughter and blaming her for failing in motherly duties. She begs me to issue an order to find the princess's whereabouts. Although the princess is the orphan of Prince Duanjing, she is also my child. I hereby order the eleventh prince, Prince Yiyang Qingyu, to lead a thousand artillery teams to Lin'an to join forces with the Wulin Alliance to track down the princess's whereabouts. I decree this."
The news of Princess Yongjia's disappearance spread throughout the world, and Prince Yi Yang was exempted from punishment and ordered to search for the princess.
At nightfall, in the Yu Mansion in Lin'an, the candlelight flickered, the lights were on brightly, and no one was asleep.
Yu Linzhi had a high fever, his lips were pale, and the handkerchiefs on his forehead were changed again and again, but his temperature did not go down. Mu Lingsu did not sleep for two days and two nights, and stayed by his side all the time. She only managed to stabilize his body temperature temporarily the night before, but it did not last long.
Just now, Yu Linzhi's body temperature returned to normal, and Mu Lingsu, who had not slept a wink, finally had a chance to rest .
"Miss Mu." The housekeeper brought a bowl of ginseng soup to Mu Lingsu, wanting her to drink it to replenish her body. "You haven't slept for two days. Even a body made of iron can't stand it. Go to the next room and rest. I'll keep an eye on you here. If there's any situation, send someone to report it to you, Miss."
He led the few servants in the mansion to run back and forth, buying medicine, decocting medicine, ventilating, changing quilts, and was busy all the time. But he couldn't take care of himself at all. He was more worried that Mu Lingsu would collapse due to exhaustion, and the young master would not be able to save her.
Mu Lingsu declined the housekeeper's kindness, walked to the doorstep and sat down, holding her forehead with one hand and closing her eyes: "No ginseng soup... Go and get a bowl of sugar water."
She sat in front of the bed, busying herself around, and had not eaten a single grain of rice for three meals. At this moment, she felt nothing except that her vision was dark and her steps were weak.
Just now, Yu Linzhi's temperature returned to normal, so she dared to walk to the door to rest for a while. The room was full of the smell of medicine, which was stuffy and greasy. She was dizzy to begin with, and she was afraid she would vomit if she stayed any longer.
"Okay." The housekeeper understood Mu Lingsu's meaning and asked a passing maid to take the ginseng soup back to the kitchen and cook a bowl of sugar water.
He carefully observed Mu Lingsu's face and found that she was extremely tired and pale. He was afraid that something might happen to her: "Miss Mu, please take care of yourself. The young master is still in danger. You can't fall down too."
Mu Lingsu relaxed and felt much better. She put her hand down from her forehead and opened her eyes. The blurry vision was gone. She said, "Butler, you should also go and have a rest. You have been busy for two days. Have a good sleep. I will watch over him here."
The housekeeper was also in his fifties, and his body really couldn't take it anymore. Even if Mu Lingsu didn't persuade him, he would go to rest. The housekeeper gave her a few instructions, and then notified the maids and servants to wash up and go to bed.
Mu Lingsu and Yu Linzhi were the only ones left in the room.
Mu Lingsu was still sitting on the doorstep waiting for her sweet soup. She was still sleepy, but she didn't want to fall asleep. Firstly, she was still waiting for the sweet soup, and secondly, it was almost dawn.
She had always had a bad sleep and couldn't sleep when there was light. If she was in the guest room, it would be fine with a bed curtain, but now she could only sleep on the chaise longue, and there was nothing to block the light, so it was a waste of effort for her to lie down.
Mu Lingsu just sat on the doorstep in a daze. The maid who brought her sweet soup had gone back to sleep, but she was still sitting there.
It was already daybreak, and the clock had just struck chen.
She was very sleepy, but still couldn't fall asleep.
"Are you still not asleep? " Yu Linzhi had stood behind her without her noticing, with a robe draped over his shoulders.
Mu Lingsu had no idea that he would get out of bed. When she heard someone talking behind her, she was startled and stood up from the threshold. She was frightened and panicked. When she turned around and found that it was Yu Linzhi standing there, she was worried.
She raised her hand and placed it on his forehead to test whether his body temperature had returned to normal, and kept saying, "The temperature has dropped. You really can't sit still. You dare to stand in the wind."
A moderate wind started to blow at the beginning of the morning hour and has continued until now. The wind is getting stronger and stronger, and it is very windy at the door.
Yu Linzhi didn't want to go back to bed, but Mu Lingsu started to push him away, and he couldn't argue with her, so he could only reluctantly go back to the bed and sit down. He said, "I'm not sleepy anymore, you haven't slept all night, go back to your room and take a rest."
Although he was dazed by the fever, he could guess that Mu Lingsu must have been busy and didn't get enough rest. Two or three hours would be fine, but judging from the light, it must have been at least a whole night, or even several days, and Mu Lingsu didn't sleep a wink. At this time, he felt that he had recovered well, but he was worried that Mu Lingsu would collapse from exhaustion.
"Do you think you're cured now that you don't have a fever?" Mu Lingsu turned around and poured a cup of tea and drank it in one gulp, then sat down at the table. "You should lie down for a while. I'll just take a nap on the chaise longue."
This was the case yesterday afternoon. She wanted to go back to her room to rest for a while, but as soon as she entered the room, the maid reported that Yu Linzhi's temperature had risen again.
The knife wound on his back had not yet healed completely, but he took the initiative to take a bath. The wound got inflamed immediately after it came into contact with water, and Yu Linzhi fell ill again.
She dared not go anywhere now, fearing that his illness would relapse if she was not careful. It was okay for her to be tired, but he was weak to begin with, and if she was tired for a while, it was very likely that his old illness would not be cured, and he would develop a new one.
Yu Linzhi looked up at the chaise longue, which had only a soft quilt on it. "The chaise longue is so hard, you won't be able to sleep well. If you're really worried," he gave up the bed next to him and patted it with his hand, "you can come up and sleep. Everyone in the mansion must be asleep at this moment, no one will come."
Every time he got seriously ill, it affected everyone in the house. Now that his condition was stable, they must have gone to catch up on their sleep. Except for the cooks who would take turns and be on standby in the kitchen at any time, there were almost no servants walking around the house during the day, let alone entering his room.
Let's not talk about this anymore. Mu Lingsu looked in the direction where Yu Linzhi's hand was patting the bed, and the scene of them sleeping in the same bed that day appeared in front of her again.
She felt a little embarrassed and refused decisively: "No." Thinking of what happened last time, she would blame herself for being so busy sleeping that she forgot that she and Yu Linzhi were alone and couldn't be so intimate.
"Don't worry about those red tapes. Having a clear conscience is more important than anything else." Yu Linzhi saw through her concerns and said it directly. He pointed to the chaise longue, "If you care, I'll sit away from you."
He was not sleepy to begin with, and wanted to persuade Mu Lingsu to go back to her room and have a good sleep. Since she didn't want to sleep because she was worried about him, he followed her wishes and let her sleep here. However, he wanted to give her the whole bed.
Mu Lingsu was surprised that he could see through her thoughts, but she was unwilling to admit it. After all, as a girl, she was not as frank as a man, and he would misunderstand that she had something to hide.
Just as she was about to open her mouth to refute, she heard a sharp voice outside the door: "Master Yu, Miss Mu, Prince Yi Yang and Fengzao Palace maid Gu have come with His Majesty's imperial edict and the Empress's oral instructions respectively. Please accept the order as soon as possible."
Yu Mu and the others had been prepared for the visitor to the palace, but they had not expected that the Queen would be so alarmed by the disappearance of Princess Yongjia, and even sent Gu Ru'an to come even though she knew that she was Yu Lin's biological mother. It seemed that the Queen really regarded Princess Yongjia as the apple of her eye and was worried about her day and night.
All the people in the Yu Mansion came to the front hall to receive the imperial edict, and Shen Qingyu personally announced it. This imperial edict was a rare gentle one from the emperor, and the words revealed his and the queen's concerns about Shen Hanyan's safety. After hearing the contents of the imperial edict, Yu Linzhi felt more confident about the chances of successfully pardoning his father.
When Shen Qingyu handed the imperial edict to Yu Linzhi, Gu Ru'an saw him take it steadily and said in a serious tone, "Mr. Yu, His Majesty's order is important, but you must also listen to the Queen's order."
The call of "Mr. Yu" made everyone present feel embarrassed.
Yu Linzhi's life experience was an open secret in the Yu Mansion and Fengzao Palace. Both Mu Lingsu and Shen Qingyu knew who Yu Linzhi's biological mother was. Now that the mother and son were so estranged, it really made others who knew Yu Linzhi's life experience unsure how to deal with it.
Yu Linzhi glanced at Gu Ruan and said coldly: "Grandfather has always been at odds with the Queen. I am wholeheartedly filial to him, but I still won't listen."
The atmosphere instantly fell into a stalemate, and Gu Ru'an's originally arrogant and indifferent expression quickly disappeared, replaced by anger and embarrassment.
Yu Linzhi didn't want to stay with her any longer, so he waved to Mu Lingsu, "Xiao Mu, go to the pharmacy and get me two ginseng nourishing pills. My fever just subsided this morning, and I'm not in a very good mood." Then he said to Shen Qingyu humbly, "Prince Yi Yang must have had a hard time on the bumpy journey. Please condescend to go to the side room to take a bath and rest first, and I'll host a banquet for you at lunch time."
At this moment, all the palace maids and eunuchs sent by the palace were present. It was not appropriate for him to be overly familiar with Shen Qingyu, so after exchanging a few words, they each left.
The housekeeper of the Yu Mansion had already arranged a place for Gu Ru'an to stay, which was in the same direction as Yu Linzhi's room. The mother and son walked to their residence one after the other, as if they were a pair of strangers, and they tacitly kept silent.
"Aunt Ru'an." Yu Linzhi was not too far from Gu Ru'an, just enough to clearly see the white hair mixed in her bun. Although this silvery white color was not very eye-catching, it suddenly hurt his heart. He endured it for a long time, but in the end he couldn't resist the impulse in his heart and called Gu Ru'an.
Gu Ru'an only wanted to go back to her room to rest, so she never expected Yu Linzhi to suddenly call her: "What's the matter?"
Yu Linzhi watched Gu Ru'an turn her head and look at him, and suddenly felt a little nervous.
He originally wanted to ask Gu Ru'an if she had a bad time in the palace in the past few years, and why she aged so quickly? But then he thought, he was already 23 years old, and Gu Ru'an was also 40 years old, and it was normal for her to have white hair. He was not worthy of asking these questions that were common between mother and son.
Gu Ru'an never needed his concern. She was so powerful, why did she need his concern?
But if he called her but she didn't say anything, it would be unreasonable. So he asked, "It's been a long time since we last met. Is Auntie in good health?"
"Not bad." Gu Ru'an was still very surprised by Yu Linzhi's greeting, and answered after a moment of hesitation. She didn't care much about Yu Linzhi, but now that she had a chance to be alone with him, she suddenly realized that her son had truly grown up. It was just that he looked quite like his father, which made her a little dissatisfied.
Yu Linzhi nodded, and then he didn't know what to say next. After racking his brains, he said, "That's good, it's worth it for Daddy to worry about it day and night." This was indeed true. When he and Yu Jianwu were alone in the past, Yu Jianwu always mentioned that Gu Ru'an was in poor health when he was young .
Gu Ru'an was secretly delighted, but she could not show her joy on her face. She just said calmly, "Thank you for your concern, Mr. Yu."
"Really?" Although Yu Linzhi was prepared for her cold reaction, when she showed the truth, the disappointment in his heart still exceeded his expectations. He already knew that Gu Ruan didn't love him, but he couldn't help but beg for her concern and asked her to talk to him more.
Seeing that he didn't want to continue talking, Gu Ru'an turned around and wanted to leave. Suddenly she remembered something and asked with a smile, "Lin'er, do you like Princess Yongjia ?"
"What do you mean, aunt?" When Yu Linzhi heard this question, his first reaction was the scene of chaos in his family after he and Princess Yongjia got married. This scene made him shudder, and then he said, "Marriage is rare, I never want to force it."
"Do you have a lover?" Gu Ru'an asked.
Yu Linzhi knew clearly in his heart that if he said the name in his mind, Gu Ruan would definitely object. The two of them finally met each other, and it would be meaningless if they just argued blindly. He wanted to avoid this topic: "Thank you for your concern, aunt. Aunt has been tired for several days. Go and rest."
Gu Ru'an also saw that he was unwilling to respond, so she stopped forcing him. She was very sure that she could change his mind. As long as he was willing to marry Princess Yongjia, the family's honor would be in her pocket.