The punishment of the female imperial court

Although Qiu Yi attributed all her experiences to Chun Tao, she actually knew quite a lot about the details of the "haunting" in the Prayer Hall.

These details could not have been remembered so vividly from hearsay.

"What position does the old lady hold in the palace now?" Yu Qiansi changed the subject.

Qiu Yi subconsciously pulled her hand into her sleeve: "Thanks to the blessings of my masters, I managed to get a job in purchasing. It's just that this old servant is dull and often makes mistakes in the accounts, so I've only been doing odd jobs in the Imperial Household Department ever since."

Yu Qiansi suddenly realized why she looked familiar.

The last time I left the palace, I encountered a palace maid who had been bullied in the garden with Boyi; that was her.

Her job was procurement, which allowed her to leave the palace. The next day, she again stumbled upon the blue leaf juice on the sole of her shoe.

Now, she has taken the initiative to appear again, this time when I was looking into purchasing people.

It went more smoothly than she had expected.

just
She caressed the jade's inner workings.

If they were truly involved, they would be hiding in the shadows; why would they voluntarily step forward and provide so much information?

Isn't she afraid of being silenced?

“I see,” she said, feigning sudden realization. “No wonder I saw someone making things difficult for you last time.”

"It's because I'm too clumsy." Qiu Yi lowered her head, revealing a small patch of skin on the back of her neck that didn't match the color of her face.

Upon hearing this, Empress Zheng looked at the composed Yu Qian Si and gradually frowned.

Without a moment's hesitation, Qiu Yi admitted to being bullied.

Either she was bullied every day, or when she was bullied, Yu Qian Si happened to intervene.

Ke Yuqiansi is probably not the kind of person who likes to meddle in other people's business.

How could this be?
"Does Granny know anything else?" Yu Qiansi asked.

Empress Zheng sat up slightly, becoming wary.

Qiu Yi said casually, "It's not a big deal. I just heard that Empress Mingdao was a talented woman. She could even write beautiful calligraphy with her left hand." Seeing Yu Qiansi's eyes flicker slightly, she added, "She even had palace maids do her hair combing."

Yu Qiansi understood: "Naturally, I don't know martial arts either."

A hint of approval flashed in the old palace maid's cloudy eyes: "Of course!"

Yu Qiansi chuckled.

Such bluntness is truly absurd.

She nodded slightly to Empress Zheng, who then dismissed her.

After the person left the palace, he specifically summoned Granny Cui and instructed her: "When you send her out, take the west side gate. Send some people to keep an eye on her."

Yu Qiansi finished her tea, stood up and bowed, saying, "Thank you, Your Majesty. It is a wonderful surprise to find the old man from the palace back then."

"With this, no one in the Imperial Hospital will dare to stop Lord Yu." Empress Zheng took a small jade token from the table in front of her and handed it to Yu Qiansi: "Although it cannot compare to His Majesty's Palace Passage Talisman, it can still allow you to enter the palace at any time, and there is no problem with entering and leaving the inner palace."

Yu Qiansi thanked her and left Qingning Palace.

With this jade token, all that was missing was the imperial medical record. No one on duty at the Imperial Hospital dared to stop her, and they readily brought Yu Qian Si what she wanted.

“Lord Yu,” the attending physician said, pointing to the pile of medical records covering the entire table, “these are all the medical records from the winter of the sixteenth year of Chengxi that you requested.”

She rolled up her sleeves and began to read in the dim light of the fading daylight outside the window. As the pages turned, tiny dust particles danced in the beam of light.

As time passed, the candle burned out, and wax dripped down the candlestick, piling up like melting snow. Suddenly, her fingers stopped on a yellowed page of a pulse table.

After the incident at the Qifu Hall, three imperial concubines consulted the imperial physician for external injuries: one was a deceased imperial concubine, and another was the Imperial Concubine Shang, whose medical record stated "injury to the hand from planting flowers."

Another one was Consort Cao of the Ning Temple.

"Embroidery thread hurts your hands?"

She put the medical records of Consort Shang and Consort Cao together.

One injured his hand while planting flowers, and the other was injured by embroidery thread.

Yu Qiansi gently stroked the pulse table with her fingertips, pondering deeply.

The candlelight flickered, and suddenly the surroundings darkened.

Yu Qiansi then realized with a start that dusk had already fallen outside the window.

The wind howled outside the window, as if it wanted to sweep her and the house away.

"Lord Yu, the palace gates are about to be locked," Granny Cui whispered outside the door. "Her Majesty has sent me to ask Lord Yu if he wishes to stay overnight in the palace."

“No need,” she said, putting the two medical records into her bosom and opening the door.

The cold wind immediately filled the entire room.

"It's cold tonight, so I've made plans to drink with a friend."

Granny Cui stood in the cold wind for a long time, and just thinking about the scene of warm candles and fragrant wine made her feel a little warmer.

“It looks like it’s going to snow. There has been a drought since the beginning of winter, and many families have had a hard time. This snow is just in time.” Granny Cui took the lantern from the palace maid, held it, and bowed, saying, “This servant is seeing Lord Yu out of the palace.”

"Thank you for your trouble." Yu Qiansi glanced one last time at the mountain of medical records on the table. The candlelight cast her long shadow, which stretched all the way to the dusty secret files in the deepest part of the storeroom.

The palace lanterns lit up one after another, like a string of hazy pearls, their rhythm disrupted by a gust of wind, like a tune no one paid attention to.

In the fading light of dawn, the rugged outlines of the Taihu stones in the Imperial Garden became apparent. Yu Qiansi walked along the cobblestone path, the pebbles crunching softly under her feet. Ahead, the glazed tiles of the Zhaixing Tower gleamed with a deep blue luster under the palace lanterns, like a piece of cold jade floating in the night.

"Lord Yu! Wait—"

Hurried footsteps sounded behind her. Yu Qiansi turned around and saw Shang Fu stumbling after her, carrying a hexagonal palace lantern. The lantern light cast flowing spots of light on his indigo clothes.

He ran so fast that the copper coins in the silver fish-shaped pouch at his waist jingled.

"What is this, Lord Shaoqing?"

Shang Fu stopped, panting, the lantern swaying slightly, illuminating a few drooping autumn chrysanthemums at his feet.

"Don't even mention it!" He wiped the sweat from his forehead, the jade cicada on his headdress trembling slightly with the movement. "Don't even mention it! My aunt is sick, and my brother is too busy to come, so he sent me to check on her. Turns out they did it on purpose. My aunt insists on arranging a blind date for me. If it weren't for the excuse that the palace gates were locked, I'd probably still be being nagged at there. Is Lord Yu also leaving the palace? Let's go together."

Seeing this, Granny Cui led the palace servants forward more than ten steps to give the two of them space to talk.

Seeing that Yu Qiansi's face had suddenly darkened, Shang Fu took a few steps closer and warmly held up the palace lantern in front of the two of them, illuminating the pebbles between them as smooth and lustrous as jade.

As Shang Fu approached, the candle inside the lantern suddenly crackled and popped, illuminating the pebbles between them, making them appear as lustrous as jade. The pebbles, with their moss-covered patterns, shimmered in the light like jade submerged at the bottom of a river.

"It's so cold tonight." Shang Fu sneezed and shrank his neck.

Yu Qiansi replied casually, "Yes, it might snow."

"That's wonderful! It hasn't snowed since winter began. This is the first snowfall of the season!" Shang Fu suddenly became excited, and the lantern swayed. The light flickered, and the pebbles under their feet, like the scales of a spirit fish in the Fen River under the moonlight, with strange patterns, leaped from the green bushes to the two of them. (End of Chapter)