The punishment of the female imperial court

"Has the Junior Minister seen my master?" Bo Yi only heard three words before he grabbed Shang Fu's wrist, feeling the rapid pulse beneath his cold skin: "Where is she? Why hasn't she left the palace yet?"

“Why are you all asking me this?” Shang Fu shrank his neck in grievance, and the jade cicada on his hair ornament trembled slightly. “Lord Yu was walking along peacefully when she suddenly said she wanted to go back to find Her Majesty the Empress. I wanted to give her the lantern I was holding, but before I could, she disappeared. I even tripped and fell.”

One or two?
Bo Yi almost squeezed himself through the window. "Has anyone else asked about Lord Yu?"

Shang Fu was terrified by his expression and repeatedly pushed him away: "Granny Cui, she was ordered to escort Lord Yu out of the palace, but Lord Yu has disappeared, and she is very anxious."

Bo Yi released Shang Fu, his face displeased.

Shang Fu bent down to pick up the handkerchief and pressed it to his forehead again: "Brother Boyi, can I go now? I feel dizzy and really uncomfortable."

Bo Yi took a few steps back and nodded.

The complex smells inside the sedan chair were blocked by the curtains. The four palace servants struggled to lift the sedan chair and headed south.

The complex smells from earlier had disturbed his peace.

Could it be that Granny Cui also has a problem?

But she was Empress Zheng's person. The two of them had just entered the palace, so how could they be involved in what happened back then?

The sound of horses' hooves grew louder as Yu Anning rode up, the gilded sachet hanging from the saddle jingling softly.

As she dismounted, the jade pendant at her waist made a crisp sound.

"Brother Boyi!" she gasped as she pulled out her calling card, a few strands of horsehair tangling in the gold hairpin in her hair. "I don't know what's wrong with me, everything's going wrong today. No matter what I do, someone is always delaying me. I've been rushing here, but the roads are always blocked, so I've had to take detours. It was only with great difficulty that I finally got here. I'll go to the palace gate now to deliver the card."

“Princess, please forgive me.” He handed back the name card with both hands: “The drums have sounded, and the palace gates are closed. Now that the drums have sounded more than a hundred times, it is too late to go inside the palace to inform them.”

Yu Anning snatched back the name card, the silk-made card crumpled in her hand: "But the drums haven't stopped yet, so why can't I enter the palace? When have you ever seen me need to announce my arrival when entering the palace? If you're not at ease, you can always send someone to watch me enter the Brocade Gate, right?"

The general was unmoved by reason and instead began instructing the palace servants to prepare to close the palace gates.

She turned to Boyi for help, only to find him standing there with his head down, seemingly lost in thought.

"Don't just stand there like that!" Yu Anning said anxiously. "Think of something quick!"

They had arranged to go to Lingyun Pavilion together this morning, which means that Sister Yu did not plan to spend the night in the palace.

Even if she were held back, she should have sent someone to inform her.

Even if she were oblivious to everything, she felt that everything that happened today was strange, as if someone was preventing her from bringing people into the palace to find her.

“I’ve got an idea.” Boyi looked at the horse that Yu Anning had ridden up and was snorting beside her. “There really is something that I need the princess’s help with.”

*
Yu Qian Si suddenly opened her eyes, and the intertwined branches embroidered on the blue tent top kept swaying in her vision.

She instinctively tried to get up, but a metallic clang came from her left foot—a dark iron chain, like a venomous snake, was wrapped around her ankle, the other end of which was deeply embedded in the crack of the blue brick wall, gleaming coldly in the candlelight.

She pressed her throbbing temples, the stinging pain of her nails digging into her flesh bringing back memories. She remembered being in the palace, she remembered the crucial point, and then...
With cold, stern eyes, she lifted the curtain from the bed and looked at the screen opposite the bed.

The candlelight behind the screen cast a shadow on the plain silk. The person's gesture of holding the cup was elegant to the point of being affected, and the rim of the cup reflected a crescent-shaped arc on the silk.

"Lord Yu, you're awake." The voice was deliberately lowered, but it still sounded familiar. "Lord Yu is truly remarkable. You noticed it just because I said one wrong sentence."

"Now that things have come to this, there's no need to keep playing tricks." Yu Qiansi snorted coldly, sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed, the iron chains on her feet making a sound: "Should I call you Lord Shaoqing, or Lord Yunzhong?"

The candlelight crackled and popped, distorting the silhouette on the screen into a bizarre shape.

The hand holding the cup slowly lowered, and a figure strolled out from the edge of the screen.

The white cloth wrapped around his forehead was still soaked with blood, but he had already changed into a brocade robe with cloud patterns, and the jade pendant at his waist made no sound as he moved.

It was Shang Fu, who had just fallen and injured his head and looked pitiful.

“Yesterday, Lord Yu saw both Lord Yunzhong and the Second Young Master of the Shang family at the same time,” he paused at the boundary between light and shadow, half of his face hidden in the shadows, “yet today he was able to sense something was wrong in an instant. I must have lost more than just because of that one word, ‘Senior Brother.’” A folding fan slid out from his sleeve and unfolded with a “whoosh,” the landscape painting on the fan surface exuding the fresh scent of pine soot ink.

Yesterday, Yu Anning dragged him to Yunzhong City. Coincidentally, Yunzhong City received Yu Qiansi's invitation, so he thought he could kill two birds with one stone and at the same time solidify his identity by finding a substitute to accompany Yu Anning.

Unexpectedly, the very next day, he let slip that his identity had been discovered.

Yu Qiansi squinted, enduring her headache, trying to find traces of Yun Zhongjun and Shang Fu in him.

"The Yu family does not judge medical skills based on bloodline, but rather selects talented orphans as apprentices. Those who are included in the Yu family genealogy are actually just disciples who have changed their surname to Yu. This is the most important secret that has allowed the Yu family's medical skills to continue to exist. In this world today, besides Yu Linyi, Yu Qianshan and I are the only other people who know this secret."

Last time, she argued with Yu Qianshan in the private jail of the Ghost Market and accidentally let it slip.

No wonder she felt something was off when she first met Yun Zhongjun.

The rumored middle-aged man had white fingernails, making him look more like a teenager than a middle-aged man.

Now, everything makes sense.

"When you first saw the mortuary filled with corpses, your eyes were filled with excitement, not fear."

Shang Fu suddenly realized: "Back then, I was only focused on pleasing you, afraid that you would find me a burden and abandon me. I didn't expect that this would backfire."

"After that, Lord Yu never stopped suspecting me?"

Shang Fu snapped his fan shut. A sudden gust of wind swept in from outside the window, causing the candlelight to flicker violently and shattering the shadows on his face. When he spoke again, his tone had reverted to its usual nonchalant one: "Lord Yu, this is truly unfair of me. I'm playing two roles, which is an extraordinary skill even in the best opera troupes in the capital. And you're just going to watch me perform like this? You must be paying me a hefty performance fee."

“You enjoy acting, and it helps me with my investigations. I don’t care if you play the role of the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review who is wholeheartedly devoted to the Ministry of Justice.”

Yu Qian Si had always been very curious about what he was trying to achieve by doing all this. (End of Chapter)