Aoyama

Kunning Palace usually has more than twenty maids at its disposal, but today only Aunt Yuanjin and four maids are present, making the palace seem much quieter.

Bai Li realized that after months of planning, the time had finally come to see the outcome, but she still didn't know how to leave.

The Forbidden City is a prison. No one is allowed to leave the palace without an imperial edict or decree. Even the empress and imperial concubines can only leave the palace when worshipping the silkworm god, visiting the imperial tombs, visiting relatives by imperial decree, or during grand ceremonies. Not to mention the palace maids and nuns.
Even for eunuchs serving in the inner palace, having a waist token alone was not enough to leave the Forbidden City. Only eunuchs registered with the Jiefan Guard and with legitimate business requiring them to leave the palace could leave. The Jiefan Guard not only registered eunuchs but also remembered their appearance; unfamiliar eunuchs, even with all the necessary paperwork, were not allowed to leave.

Bai Li looked at the Empress: "Your Majesty, how can I leave? Will I implicate you?"

The Empress was taken aback, then stepped forward and embraced her, whispering, "What's the point of thinking about others now? As long as we can get out of here, it would be worth it even if we trampled everyone under our feet..."

Bai Li whispered, "No."

The Empress smiled and said, "Don't worry, it won't implicate me. The time hasn't come yet, come and have the Mid-Autumn Festival reunion dinner with me first."

Bai Li forced herself to stay alert and looked at the empty and desolate Kunning Palace, asking, "How did Your Highness send the maids away?"

The Empress pulled her to sit down at the table and said slyly, "I am not usually strict with them. Today I just lost my temper, and they quietly slipped out to avoid being implicated. I do this when I want peace and quiet. I pretend to lose my temper and it keeps Kunning Palace quiet all day."

The white carp, holding the dark cloud, looked at the table.

There were no exquisite dishes from the palace on the table, nor were the dishes complicated by their names; they were all her favorite home-style dishes: pan-fried tofu, stir-fried bok choy, water spinach with garlic, and braised carp.

At this moment, Bai Li noticed a jar of wine on the table. The Empress followed her gaze and smiled as she unsealed the jar: "How can we part without a farewell drink? Sometimes I secretly drink it in Kunning Palace. Life is short, only a few decades. It's good to be carefree. Fame and fortune, when you're drunk, you don't think about anything."

Aunt Yuan Jin stood guard at the door, glancing sideways at the hall, but said nothing.

The Empress laughed: "When I first entered the palace, I was only seventeen years old. I was still young and had to hide from Aunt Yuan Jin when I drank. She didn't care about these things after I turned twenty."

As the Empress poured herself wine, Bai Li was about to hand her her empty bowl to pour more when the Empress put down the wine jar and picked up a piece of food for her: "You can't drink; you have important business to attend to today."

After serving the white carp some food, she specially picked up a piece of meat from the belly of the fish and placed it in the bowl, pushing it in front of Wuyun: "Of course, the reunion dinner can't be without you, eat up."

Wu Yun leaped onto the table and lowered his head to eat fish, but the Empress didn't seem to mind.

The empress silently drank a bowl of wine, and her cheeks instantly flushed red.

Looking at the white carp and the dark clouds, her eyes were filled with tenderness: "What I longed for most in the past was to be able to have a home-cooked meal with my family like ordinary people. The dishes at Fengxian Hall yesterday were quite beautiful, and the singing and dancing were also wonderful, but they tasted bland and were all cold. I wonder how many people had tried poisoning them before they were served... But I can't say these things to others, otherwise they will definitely think I'm pretentious."

Bai Li said softly, "I understand Your Majesty's distress."

The Empress smiled and said, "By the way, you didn't come to Kunning Palace yesterday, so you haven't read the newspapers from the past two days."

As she spoke, she beckoned to the maid behind her, who brought over a stack of newspapers and handed them to Bai Li.

Bai Li put down his chopsticks and unfolded the newspaper to read it carefully.

The Empress remarked, "This newspaper published by the Wuxiang County government is quite a good thing. In the past, I was like a blind person in Kunning Palace, completely unaware of what was happening outside the palace. Now, thanks to this newspaper, I know everything... I never imagined that life outside the palace would be so interesting."

She took a sip of her wine and, seeing Bai Li reading the second edition, immediately teased, "What's the point of watching these damn officials get promoted? Hurry up and read the sixth edition. That Master Wang is truly an unlucky fellow. He abandoned his wife for a courtesan, and in the end, the courtesan ran off with his life savings and then went to seduce that Master Duan. But he deserves it; everyone gets their retribution. Who told him to abandon his wife? And that Master Ma..."

The Empress chattered on about the novel things she had read in the newspapers, acting nothing like the proper lady of the palace.

When she was happy, she raised her bowl and drank it all, then filled it again for herself, her voice softening: "I only learned from the newspaper that girls from ordinary families are now forming clubs to go on outings. They can fly kites as high as the city walls, listen to storytelling in teahouses, buy rouge from foreigners in the outer city, and even go with their fathers and brothers to the outskirts of Beijing to escape the summer heat."

Bai Li's fingers tightened slightly as she held the newspaper.

The Queen was referring to a world she was about to travel to, a world the other could never reach.

"When I entered the palace at the age of seventeen," the Empress suddenly changed the subject, "my mother secretly slipped a packet of osmanthus sugar into the bottom of my trunk. She said that the palace pastries were exquisite, but they might not taste like this. However, before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Aunt Yuanjin discovered the packet of sugar. She said that the Empress could not eat such common food, as it was against etiquette."

She tilted her head back and drank another bowl: "Later, I learned not to eat, not to look, and not to think. Kunning Palace is an exquisite cage, woven with gold thread and embroidered with dragons and phoenixes. Last Mid-Autumn Festival, His Majesty came to Kunning Palace as usual and sat for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. That day, he asked me what reward I wanted. I said that I wanted to dress up as an ordinary woman and go to the Yongding River to release a river lantern, just one."

"His Majesty didn't agree, but only bestowed upon me a pair of South China Sea pearls, as big as pigeon eggs. But those pearls are still stored in the treasury, and I've never worn them. He knows that's not what I want... I can't tell anyone about my unhappiness. I'm already the Empress, what is there to be unhappy about? I have no right to be unhappy." Bai Li advised, "Your Majesty, please don't drink."

The Empress ignored her and downed another bowl of wine in one gulp. Staring at the empty bowl in her hand, she remained silent for a long time before letting out a long sigh: "I won't drink anymore."

The dark cloud brushed against the Empress's hand, and the Empress lowered her head to stroke its glossy back fur: "White Carp, what I envy most is actually Miss Zhang the Second. Don't be angry, the newspaper wrote about her story with the man from Wuxiang County, and I secretly read it three times last night... She dared to break into the White Tiger Hall, she dared to go to Chongli Pass with the man from Wuxiang County and then come back to fight... I bet there are traces of wind and frost on her face, and perhaps calluses on her hands from holding the reins, how wonderful."

Bai Li shook her head: "Your Majesty, I'm not angry, I'm envious too."

The Empress gently stroked her cheek: "It's so nice outside, how could I bear to see you trapped here like me? You should go out and have a look."

Just then, Aunt Yuan Jin coughed lightly.

Bai Li turned around and saw two eunuchs standing outside the hall. One of them was Xu Xi, a seventh-rank eunuch from the Imperial Wardrobe, who had been planted in the palace by the Grand Canal Gang. The other was someone he had never seen before.

Xu Xi led the young eunuch forward a few steps.

The young eunuch lowered his eyes, his features delicate and handsome. In the moonlight, he bore an uncanny resemblance to a white carp, making it difficult to distinguish him from the real thing in the darkness.

Xu Xi whispered, "Princess, it took the gang leader five months to find a suitable candidate, and another three months to quietly place this person in the Imperial Wardrobe. You can disguise yourself as this person later, and I will lead you away from the palace under the pretext of contacting imperial merchants. Leave through the Xuanwu Gate, where someone will be waiting to meet you at the foot of Wansui Mountain."

Bai Li suddenly turned to look at the Empress: "But if we just leave like this, they will definitely investigate Kunning Palace afterwards, and you and this person..."

The Empress smiled mischievously: "I also have my family backing me up. Unless I commit a transgression that damages the imperial family's prestige or violates ancestral laws, this little matter is not enough to depose me. At most, I'll just be neglected by His Majesty, but my Kunning Palace is already quiet enough, I'm not afraid of it getting even quieter. This little eunuch will also be fine, I will protect him."

The white carp remained silent.

The Empress's expression softened: "Bai Li, life is short, you shouldn't be trapped here. This Forbidden City has trapped you and the man from Wuxiang County."

At this moment, someone outside Kunning Palace started beating the night watchman's drum.

It's Hai hour (9-11 PM).

The Empress suddenly grabbed Bai Li's hand, gripping it tightly, her fingertips icy cold: "After you leave, go and get me a bowl of wontons from a street vendor, hot soup, with plenty of cilantro and dried shrimp. I heard the old man carrying them on a shoulder pole at the night market simmers the broth with chicken bones for three hours. Go and see the mountains for me, not the artificial mountains in the palace gardens, but real, continuous mountains covered in wild trees and blooming with nameless flowers. And go and see the sea, not a small pond like Taiye Pond, but a sea with seashells as big as your cheeks and whales as big as houses..."

Bai Li's tears finally fell: "Your Majesty..."

The Empress grabbed her wrist, interrupting her, her eyes red-rimmed, and smiled gently: "Go quickly, or you'll miss your chance."

Xu Xi pulled Bai Li out of the hall, but just as they were about to leave, the Empress suddenly called out to her, "Bai Li."

Bai Li broke free from Xu Xi's hand, stamped her foot, and turned around: "Your Majesty?"

The Empress paused for a moment, then waved her sleeve: "Go quickly, don't look back."

The white carp has left.

Inside Kunning Palace, the Empress slowly sat down, holding Wuyun in her arms, and touched Wuyun's head with the tip of her nose: "From now on, it'll just be the two of us."

Dark clouds nestled closer to her.

The Empress picked up the chopsticks that Bai Li had used, took a piece of the now-cold pan-fried tofu, and chewed it slowly.

Aunt Yuan Jin gestured to the maid to take the little eunuch who resembled a white carp to a secluded spot in the main hall before speaking to the Empress: "Your Majesty, the Master has said that you are only allowed to be willful this once; there can be no more disturbances in the future. Prince Fu is currently working diligently to govern the country, and he is only one step away from the throne. You just need to be patient a little longer..."

The Empress gently agreed, "Alright."

Aunt Yuan Jin hesitated for a long time: "Your Majesty, is it really worth taking this risk for such a young girl?"

The Empress looked at the bright moon outside the palace and replied with a smile, "Aunt Yuanjin, I'm not doing this for her, I'm doing it for myself." (End of Chapter)