maidservant

The moment Yunshan's eyes fell on the familiar figure, her tense nerves suddenly broke, her legs went limp, and she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.

Before her consciousness faded, she felt the world spinning and darkness engulfed her completely like a surging tide.

When she opened her eyes again, Yunshan found herself lying on the familiar and stable bed in Liuhua Palace.

Her gaze slowly moved downwards. Her clothes, sleeves and waist were stained with blood. The dried bloodstains were dark and black, like hideous scars.

"This must have been stained on Lin Xiao's armor." She murmured to herself, and her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to before she fainted, when Lin Xiao's hand hurriedly reached out to her.

Yunshan took a deep breath, endured the aches and pains all over her body, and struggled to stand up.

She slipped out of the room, her shoes twitching, and was met with a deathly silence. It was as if the Liuhua Palace had been drained of its life force, becoming eerily quiet. Even the usual sounds of birdsong and the gentle footsteps of the palace servants had vanished.

In an instant, fear climbed up her spine like an icy vine, and the coldness rushed from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, running crookedly towards the main hall.

The main hall was empty, Lin Yu was not there. Yunshan's heart sank suddenly, as if she had fallen into a bottomless abyss.

At this moment, the nurse's voice came from outside the side hall: "Miss, the Queen and Yunjin have gone to the Imperial Study to respond."

Yunshan's tense nerves relaxed a little upon hearing this, and she hurried to the side room. When she opened the door, she saw the two princes sleeping soundly, already dressed.

She looked at the scene in front of her, her eyes slightly red. She twisted her waist hard, "hiss", a piercing pain came over her, but she couldn't help laughing. This was not a dream, they really came back alive!
"Miss, the steward has sent a message. You should reply after you wake up."

Yunshan did not dare to delay and hurried back to her room, washed the blood and fatigue off her face, combed her messy hair, changed into official uniform, and hurried to the imperial study to meet the emperor.

Along the way, the Imperial Guards stood tall and straight, like tall pine trees, firmly guarding their positions. However, the busy palace maids and eunuchs who used to be busy running around were much less common.

Occasionally, I would meet a few palace maids. They all had wooden expressions and were cleaning the palace mechanically. The entire palace seemed to be shrouded in a layer of depressing haze. No one spoke and the silence was suffocating.

Outside the imperial study, Yunshan saw Aunt Zhuang and the others already waiting there, all kneeling on the ground. Despite her high official rank, she quickly walked over to Aunt Zhuang and slowly knelt down with her.

"The Queen and Yunjin are inside." Aunt Zhuang said softly.

Yunshan responded softly and began to look around. This time, she felt a little puzzled and couldn't help asking, "Why are Feiye and the other three missing?"

Upon hearing this, Aunt Zhuang's expression darkened. She sighed heavily and slowly shook her head. Yunshan instantly understood, a pang of pain piercing her heart. These three palace maids, with whom she had worked for years, had finally perished in this brutal war.

Aunt Zhuang seemed to continue in a low voice:

"The situation in our palace is relatively good. The main force of the Imperial Guards is protecting us. Only two eunuchs and three palace maids from the outer chambers died. The other talented women suffered much more miserably. Concubine Gao, the Empress Gao, had a miscarriage!"

"What?!" Yun Shan couldn't help but exclaim, "Empress Gao is already very pregnant, is she okay?"

"Alas," Aunt Zhuang's voice was filled with sorrow, "She is paralyzed in bed. The imperial physician said she might not be able to get out of bed for the rest of her life!"

Yunshan felt dizzy and overwhelmed with mixed emotions. The pain brought by this war was far more severe than she had imagined.

In the blink of an eye, the eunuch in charge summoned Yunshan inside.

Yunshan stepped into the hall and immediately bowed: "Your humble servant greets His Majesty and pays homage to the Virtuous Consort."

With that, she stood up, her eyes casually glancing at Lin Yu. Lin Yu was fine, though his eyes were red and swollen from crying, and his eyelids were slightly puffy. The emperor began to inquire about the details of his escape from the rebels, his voice hoarse, evident from the day's exhaustion. Yunshan didn't dare to conceal a single detail, and she reported everything truthfully.

"Song Yao remained calm in this critical moment and did his best to protect my prince. He is truly a meritorious official of Dali." The emperor said slowly.

"The virtuous concubine has informed me of the matter concerning Ma Bo of Xijiaomen. He is a loyal servant, so I will grant him a favor by raising him to a good official position and granting him fifty acres of good farmland in Wen County, Nanzhou. He will go with his old master."

"I would like to thank Your Majesty on behalf of Uncle Ma." Lin Yu spoke softly, her voice was weak. It seemed that she had been worried and frightened before, which had depleted a lot of energy.

The emperor then turned his gaze to Yunshan and said, "Song Yao has made preparations for a rainy day and has performed meritorious service in protecting the emperor. What reward do you wish for?"

Faced with this sudden grace from the emperor, Yunshan was speechless for a moment.

After a moment's thought, she calmly replied, "Protecting the prince is my duty. With the emperor's immense grace and the blessing of heaven, I have been blessed to have him safely protected. I have nothing more to ask for."

The emperor's eyes fell on Yunshan's official uniform:

"I see your official uniform has faded. Pass the decree to promote Song Yunshan, the seventh-rank chief of the Song Pharmacy, to the sixth-rank chief of the Pharmacy, and reward him with one hundred taels of gold."

----

After returning to Liuhua Palace, Yunshan and the others sat around the couch, looking solemn and frightened.

"Seeing that the queen is well, my heart finally settles down."

Lin Yu smiled bitterly, his face full of sadness: "You almost couldn't see me."

She paused, her voice hoarse, still feeling frightened as she recalled the scene.

"The rebels came with such force that they swept through the palaces like a surging tide. They brandished their swords at any palace dweller who dared to resist. For a time, there were constant screams and blood flowed like a river."

Yun Jin handed Lin Yu the hand warmer and continued speaking.

"At dawn today, the scene was horrific. The palace gates were splattered with blood, and outside the walls lay corpses scattered about, some with their heads severed, their limbs scattered. The strong smell of blood filled the air, making people nauseous."

Yunshan thought that she had not seen any corpses along the way, so she knew that the emperor must have stabilized the situation long ago, and the palace people had enough time to clean up.

It seemed that this bloody battle could be over in just a few hours.

I heard that Kyoto is like playing chess, and the world affairs over the past hundred years are too sad to bear.

Yunjin continued:
"Our palace was nearly lost last night by the Imperial Guards. To force the Empress to hand over the two princes, the rebels killed one in our palace as a warning to the rest. Five palace maids have already been killed!"

"Fortunately! Fortunately, at the critical moment, the Second Young Master's several cloud-piercing arrows disappeared without a trace, frightening the rebels into panic and throwing them into disarray. This allowed the Yulin Army to seize the opportunity and capture them."

"What a pity, Feiye," Lin Yu said, his face filled with regret and self-blame. "I was wary of her before, but I didn't expect that at the critical moment of life and death, she would stand in front without hesitation, desperately using her body to hold the palace gate beam tightly, and was pierced by the rebels' swords one by one... I misunderstood her."

She calmed down and instructed Yunjin, "Yunjin, give each of these poor people's families fifty taels of silver. Carefully organize their personal belongings and return them to their families." (End of this chapter)