The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 29: Good Sisters

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》Yanxi Gonglue

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 29: Good Sisters

   “Have you heard?” A maid whispered to Linglong's ear and said, “Her Highness Empress likes Yingluo so much that Manager Wu specially instructed Zhang Momo that day to transfer Yingluo to the Changchun Palace!”

   With a tremor of his fingers, a bead of blood came out of the needle and Linglong wiped it away without leaving a trace.

   “What a blessing for her to go and serve Her Highness Empress.” The court maid sighed and said, “Linglong, what a pity for you.”

   Linglong said with a cloudy smile, “What do I have to be sorry about?”

   “In terms of looks and embroidery, you're no worse than her but Zhang Momo is so biased! If you had been the one to present the gift, Wei Yingluo would not be the one to go to the Changchun Palace now!” Seeing Linglong's face getting worse, the court maid hastily changed her words and said, “But it's good that she's gone, you'll have a head start without her!”

   Who gives a shit about the Embroidery Workshop!”

   Linglong managed to maintain poise on her face but the needle under her hand was getting more and more disorganized and the images she had accidentally spied that day kept appearing in front of her eyes.

   “Momo, you take too much care of me.”

   “Your silly sister is my most prized pupil, even for her sake, I'll look after you a little more.”

   That's more than a little more!

   The best resources, the best opportunities, are all tied up in Wei Yingluo alone! The rest of us don't have a chance to get ahead!

   “If Zhang Momo had taken care of me like this, I would have been appreciated by the Empress and I would have gotten my share of the two silks and the hairpin! Ouch!” Linglong took her stubbed finger into her mouth and looked at the embroidery bandage in front of her, looking at the messy designs on it.

   “Linglong!”

   With a shake of her hand, Linglong pulled a long slit in the embroidery bandage, on which was her best picture of a brocade cat and with a slash, from left to right, she cut the neck of the cat, severing its head.

   Linglong, who had been busy putting her embroidery bandage on the table, rose to meet her and said: “Momo, I am here, what can I do for you?”

   “It's not me looking for you.” Zhang Momo said, “It's Manager Wu looking for you.”

   Two lights burst from Linglong's eyes and she wondered if it was finally her turn to be appreciated by Noble Lady?”

   “... Her Highness Empress has orders to order Manager Wu to find the thief who stole the peacock feather thread.” But Zhang Momo's next words were, “Starting with you, you will answer one by one, whatever Manager Wu asks, do you understand.”

   With each additional word she said, Linglong's face turned a shade whiter.

   Even my legs are a little sore.

   It was as if a severed cat was clutching her leg and an unsettling pair of cat eyes were staring at her.

   Not everyone has to be cross examined, at least not Wei Yingluo.

   In fact, Manager Wu came over and she was the first person he saw.

   “With these eyes, I've never been wrong about anyone.” He said kindly, “From the first time I saw you, I knew that you were not a piece of work and that sooner or later you would fly out of this little the Embroidery Workshop.”

   “It was all thanks to you.” Wei Yingluo, still looking as respectful as when she first met him, bent her head and said, “If you hadn't done justice to me, I wouldn't be here today and I would have been killed by Fang Gugu because of that unwarranted slander. I will always remember this kindness and if there is anything I can do in the future, please feel free to ask Manager Wu.”

   “Haha, you're welcome, you're welcome, let's help each other out!” Manager Wu haha big smile.

   There is no such thing as goodness in the palace without a reason. To be good to you today is to be rewarded in the future.

   Manager Wu thinks very highly of Wei Yingluo and does not intend to use up his precious favors at this time. Her Highness Empress is kind hearted but that doesn't mean that the people around her are kind hearted.

   Wei Yingluo nodded with a heartbeat, “Yingluo knows, thanks Manager Wu for reminding me.”

   The more powerful a person is, the more careful he is with his words and every word he utters is deliberated only after he has gone through the nine twists and turns in his stomach and twisted and turned countless times.

   Every word has a deeper meaning.

   “Never mind, I'll think about it later.” Looking at the sky, Wei Yingluo smiled and said, “There are more important things to do today.”

   A bowl of longevity noodles is gently placed in front of Jixiang in the dining room of the palace house.

   Snow-white noodles rolled in soup, topped with a big, flavorful red meat froth and bright green greens.

   “When you know that the day you are in love with the gods, the peach is not as fresh as the peach, the ties that can be tied to it are repeated, the years are tied to each other, the dragon's beard curls up to 3,000 feet, the crane counts to 800 years, the longevity noodles can be wished longevity, the heavenly family and the moon are reunited, a bowl of longevity noodles is not a tribute.” Wei Yingluo winked at Jixiang across the table and said, “May you live a long and peaceful life.”

   “Sister Yingluo ...” This was a big surprise, Jixiang took half a day to come back to her senses, so excited that she spoke with a bit of a stutter and said, “You, how did you know that I, I had a birthday today?”

   “Didn't the steward eunuchs specifically report this when they checked everyone's list on the day they entered the palace?” Wei Yingluo laughed.

   “He only said it once and you remembered it?” Jixiang looked at her adoringly and said, “You have a good memory.”

   “Yeah, I have a good memory.” Wei Yingluo laughed.

   It was she who saw Jixiang's recent depression and asked the eunuch in charge to ask her about it.

   Even this bowl of noodles is not easy to come by.

   Zhuzi naturally ate whatever she wanted but if the palace maids wanted to order something extra, they had to put silver in the hands of the cooks in the imperial dining room. The bowl of noodles.

   “Eat it quickly, it will get cold if you put it in.” Wei Yingluo handed the chopsticks to the other person and said, “Eat the whole thing, so that you can live a long life.”

   “Mmm!” Jixiang took the chopsticks, picked up the noodles and put them in her mouth, sucking and slurping them, suddenly falling into tears.

   “What's wrong?” Wei Yingluo flinched and said, “Is it not good?”

   She dipped her other chopstick into the soup and put it in her mouth for a taste ... It tasted great, it was worthy of the few embroideries she had paid for, so how come it made people cry?”

   “Sister Yingluo, you are so kind to me.” Jixiang choked up and said, “You're the only one in the palace who really cares about me, oooh, when you go to the Changchun Palace, no one will care about me.”

   “It's not like I won't return once I'm gone.” Wei Yingluo's heart softened and she hugged her and said, “Even if I don't come back, can't you come and see me?”

   “I ... Can I really come to see you?” Jixiang looked at her expectantly and worriedly and said, “Will it be difficult for you? I may be stupid but I know that the Changchun Palace is not for everyone ...”

   “What's so difficult about it.” Wei Yingluo slipped a handkerchief that she had already prepared into her hand and said, “Take it, it's a birthday present for you, if you miss me later, come to the Changchun Palace, if you can't get in, ask someone to send this handkerchief in, when I see the handkerchief, I will know that you miss me and come out to see you at once on leave, okay?”

   Jixiang's heart burned as she listened and her eyes fell again, slightly salty tears falling into the soup but she ate it in her mouth but it tasted only of honey.

   “Wei Yingluo, Wei Yingluo!” A maid's voice rang out at the door saying, “Is it there?”

   “In, what is it?” Wei Yingluo answered back.

   “The Changchun Palace someone is coming, follow me there.” The palace maid said.

   “Sister Yingluo, you should go now.” When Jixiang heard this, she was even more anxious than Wei Yingluo, pushing her arm and saying, “I'll stay here and eat the noodles, this bowl has enough ingredients for me to eat for a long time.”

   “Well, I'll be back when I go.” Wei Yingluo gave her an apologetic look before leaving with the palace maid.

   After she left, Jixiang didn't rush to eat the noodles but looked at the pad in her hands.

   On the paddle is embroidered a yellow dog, the one Jixiang kept in her old home. She had a difficult life in the palace and also in her old home, where her parents favored sons over daughters and her brother ate while she could only have soup and sometimes she couldn't even have soup and cried with hunger, or her grandmother, who couldn't stand it, took her with her and squeezed some food out of her teeth for her.

   It was not her parents who supported her but the old yellow dog, who, despite his appearance, was a good hunter and used to bring back sparrows and mice from outside, otherwise she and her grandmother would have died of hunger.

   All this rambling about the past, she rarely told anyone else because no one liked to hear it.

   Only Wei Yingluo not only heard it but took it to heart.

   “Thank you.” Jixiang pressed the handkerchief to her burning heart and kept saying silently, “Thank you, Sister Yingluo, it's wonderful to be in the palace and to know you ... Jixiang, as long as I live to be fifty years old, I will give you the rest of my life and I hope you will live long and safely.

   “Oops.”

   A soft sigh interrupted Jixiang's thoughts and she turned her head to look and immediately pulled a face.

   At some point, Linglong sat down beside her, not knowing what she had been through earlier, her face as pale as paper and a sense of fear and anxiety between her brows.

   Jixiang picked up the longevity noodles and was about to leave but Linglong reached out and pulled them back.

   “Jixiang, how did you become such a person?” Linglong said glumly, “You weren't like this when you were a child.”

   They were from the same village and were neighbors but Linglong's family was much better off than Jixiang's. Sometimes she would throw her own snacks to her, because she was greedy for a bite of food in her hand. When she was young, Jixiang would do whatever she was told.

   “We used to be so close but as soon as we entered the palace, you became distant from me.” Linglong sighed again and said, “Is it because of Wei Yingluo?”

   “Hmph, you still know that!” Jixiang, who is straightforward, immediately said back, “She didn't provoke you, yet you always gossip about her behind her back!”

   To hide the coldness on her face, Linglong lifted up one of her sleeves and said, “You blame me for targeting her but why don't you think about it, I work so hard and my embroidery is not much worse than hers but Momo always favors her, can I not have a problem in my heart?”

   “It's a lot worse, you're only good at cat embroidery but not anything else, unlike Yingluo, who can embroider all kinds of patterns and stitches.” Jixiang gave her a strange look and rightly said, “If you want Momo to value you, you should work harder, don't always embroider cats, embroider something else ... You don't think you keep embroidering cats because you can't compete with Yingluo in everything else, do you?”

   Linglong's wiping of tears stopped as a cold chill emerged from her body.

   “... Good.” After a long time, she slowly lowered her sleeve and said to Jixiang in a pitiful voice, “I'll embroider more later.”

   Jixiang is not a person who holds grudges and when she saw her hairdresser looking so pitiful, she softened her heart and said, “Forget it, as long as you don't target Yingluo in the future, we will still be good sisters.”

   “Well, I swear here to heaven.” Linglong put her three fingers together and pointed to the sky and said, “If I have half a bad intention towards you, towards Wei Yingluo, I will be punished by God for crashing into the wall and dying a horrible death!”

   Jixiang was quick to pressing her finger pointing to the sky down and whispering her complaint, “Stop it, it's taboo!”

   “So, we've made up?” Linglong looked at her expectantly.

   She has already done this, what else can Jixiang do, grunting for half a day and finally just nodding.

   “Good Jixiang!” Linglong reached out and hugged her, resting her jaw on her shoulder, her eyes fierce but her mouth smiling sweetly, “Speaking of which, it's your birthday, I've got a present for you ...”

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS