The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 33: Revenge to ease the grudge

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

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 33: Revenge to ease the grudge

   The Prudence and Punishments Bureau’s Cell.

   With two dirty hands, she grabbed the wooden railing and said pitifully to the guards outside: “Brother guards, could you, please, give me a basin of water to wipe my body, I have ... I haven't wiped myself for seven days.”

   I hadn't bathed for a few days and the worst thing was that there were still lice in this place and it itched so much that when I slapped it, the palm of my hand was sticky and when I looked, black and red, it was the corpse of the lice with my own blood.

   Linglong felt like she was going to go crazy before she had to wait for the execution to come down.

   “Water, give me some water ...” Linglong hung her head with a slight sob.

   From far away, a rustling sound came from beyond the railings.

   The last thing that stopped beyond the railing was a pair of shoes, the snow-white uppers of which were so spotlessly clean that they were cleaner than her hands. Linglong looked slowly up the shoe and said: “... Wei Yingluo!”

   Wei Yingluo stood outside the railing, looking down on her with a smirk.

   “How dare you come to see me! You bitch!” Linglong's hands passed through the gap between the railings, like an evil ghost collecting debts, desperately trying to grab Wei Yingluo outside.

   Wei Yingluo stepped back gingerly, avoiding her smudged black fingers.

   “It cost me two taels of silver to get in to see you.” Wei Yingluo slowly squatted down and stared at her with a look that made Linglong's hair stand on end, her eyes glowing, saying, “Of course I had to look, properly and carefully ...”

   A chill ran down Linglong's back and with trembling lips she asked, “I have no wrongdoing, why are you setting me up like this?”

   “No wrongdoing?” Wei Yingluo laughed at her words and said, “What right did you do to Jixiang? Linglong, you are the one who brought this on yourself. I was trying to think of a way to lure you in but before I even mentioned it, you offered to fight first. Linglong, I know you too well, you're jealous but not talented, you'll lose this match but you won't concede, in the end you'll steal my good uniform “

   Linglong could have guessed what happened after that without her having to say it.

   Wei Yingluo has secretly sewn a silver needle into the collar, which is usually hard to notice but as soon as the emperor wears it, it will go when he moves.

   Sooner or later, the emperor, who has been wounded by the needle, will surely send someone in his anger.

   “... I know you and Jixiang are like sisters but you can't deliberately frame me, an innocent person, because of her!” Linglong had to cry in anguish, trying to use her tears to gain sympathy from the other party, saying, “... she was beaten to death by Manager Wu for stealing something, what does it have to do with me?”

   “Do you take me for a fool?” Wei Yingluo laughed and said, “Why did Jixiang steal my things and why did she keep them on her person when Manager Wu came to investigate the matter thoroughly? And how did you know she had it on her? That day ... I think you must have given her the scented bag with the stolen goods as a birthday present on the pretext of celebrating her birthday, didn't you?”

   Linglong looked at her opponent in horror.

   She got it right, every word, every step of the way.

   It was as if I had seen the whole thing with my own eyes.

   Linglong had always known Wei Yingluo was clever but she had never imagined that she would be this clever and she knew that Wei Yingluo would definitely retaliate but she never expected her revenge to come so quickly and so ruthlessly.

   “Yingluo ...” Linglong prostrated herself on the ground, one hand reaching out through the railing to touch Wei Yingluo's leg, wagging her tail in a gesture as if she were a cat begging for food.

   “Save your breath, I don't believe that...” Wei Yingluo still smiled but not a hint of laughter in her eyes said, “No matter how much you beg me, I will not let you go, you cry, it will only make me happy, you bleed, so that you can pay tribute to Jixiang's spirit.”

   Linglong looked at her carefully for a moment and her face gradually changed, from pitiful to wildly distorted and suddenly burst into a wild laugh, so that she sat down on the ground with an emboldened look and said: “Yes, I did it! I stole the stuff and Jixiang was killed by me! But so what? It's just one more needle in my clothes, it's not a big deal.

   “A few dozen boards, exile to the Ningguta, never to return to the capital...” Wei Yingluo said with a yawn.

   Linglong flinched at that and said, “What did you say?”

   “Your sentence has come down...” Wei Yingluo repeated it with a smile, saying, “The cane is eighty and the exile to the Ningguta, never to return to the capital.”

   Little by little Linglong's face turned white, the last trace of blood was gone, as pale as a ghost.

   “With a caning of eighty good ones, you might be able to make it through. But the Ningguta is a place where the Qing Dynasty exiles criminals and the climate is extremely unusual.” Wei Yingluo rose slowly, turned her back and said in a long tone trailing behind her, “You deserve to live but not to die.”

   “Come back! Wei Yingluo you come back! You're not leaving! Somebody, stop her! She's the real killer, I've been wrongly accused!” Linglong hated that she couldn't squeeze herself through the gap in the railing, one hand stretched out straight and eventually falling helplessly, whimpering sobs escaping from under her long, cascading hair.

   The wind was like a sword, the rain was biting, the snow was flying, a thousand miles were frozen, did she have to use her body to survive all these?”

   Even if we can get through it, so what? In addition to natural disasters, there are also human disasters.

   There are vicious criminals everywhere and she is a weak woman with no one to turn to, so she will not be just a lamb for anyone who wants a bite.

   “I'm not going to the Ningguta.” Linglong said in a dreamy voice from the back of her throat, “I'm not going to the Ningguta even if I die ...”

   In a flash, an image suddenly rushed into her eyes.

   The picture shows a steaming bowl of longevity noodles and a little Jixiang full of innocent eyes.

   “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!”

   Ha! Linglong almost burst into tears of laughter, this thief God has eyes!

   After laughing like a madman, Linglong suddenly turned her face to the grey wall beside her and said with an extremely strange smile screwed on her face: “Wei Yingluo, don't think that everything can be as you want it to be, if I can't choose how to live, can't I choose how to die?”

   Linglong has hit a wall and died.

   Wei Yingluo was making a dress when the news reached the Embroidery Workshop.

   Treasure blue satin with bats embroidered all over the satin, taking the character “福”, which is slightly old fashioned when worn by young people but blessed by old people.

   “All out.”

   A flurry of footsteps sounded and by the time the last maid's footsteps disappeared at the door, only Wei Yingluo and Zhang Momo were left in the Embroidery Workshop.

   “... She would not have had to die.” Zhang Momo's voice rang out above her head, saying, “His Majesty, in his anger, knew that it was only a slip of the tongue and that the crime was not worthy of death. He had clearly decreed that she should be punished with fifty strokes of the cane and sent to the Xinzheku Labor Bureau but Linglong had killed herself! I heard that before she died she was shouting that she would never go to the Ningguta.”

   “Momo, look.” Wei Yingluo's answer was somewhat inaccurate and when Zhang Momo questioned her about the reason why Linglong had killed herself, she spread the garment in her hands and smiled gently with her eyes, saying, “Jixiang's grandmother was over seventy years old and lived on Jixiang's meagre monthly salary and she had been suffering Jixiang often told me that when she returned home, she would bring her a dress she had made herself, made of precious blue satin and embroidered with bats, a symbol of good fortune...

   “Yingluo!”

   “Now Jixiang is gone and that old woman. I don't know if she'll be able to live after she finds out about this, one life, or two ahs.” Wei Yingluo slowly looked up at the other and said, “Momo, do you think the culprit who caused all this can be spared with a gentle fifty caning?”

   There was nothing but uncomplaining in her eyes.

   No regrets for what I have done!

   Zhang Momo looked at her for a moment but finally sighed lightly and said: “Yingluo, your strong love and hatred, your vengeful character, is not suitable for the palace ... After all, you are only a maid ...”

   If you're a Zhuzi, it's not a bad thing to be vindictive and a tougher attitude will keep the people underneath you at bay.

   But Wei Yingluo, like her, is only a servant to serve people ...

   “You will soon be going to the Changchun Palace.” Zhang Momo voiced her concern and said, “Once there, if you are still like this, sooner or later you will get into trouble.”

   “Momo, what are you afraid of?” Wei Yingluo chewed over her words and knew what she was afraid of, reaching out to pull her down beside her, like a little granddaughter clinging to her grandmother, nuzzling her head lightly against her shoulder, her gentle voice full of comfort, “I'm not going to do anything to Fucha Fuheng just yet and even if I did, before I do, I I'll ask him the truth first ...”

   These words did not dispel the uneasiness in Zhang Momo's heart but rather made the worry in her mind a little heavier. She stared straight at Wei Yingluo for a long time before suddenly asking tentatively, “What if he really did what happened to your sister?”

   Wei Yingluo laughed.

   That smile was so beautiful that it was as if one had seen those beautiful people of ancient times in a flash.

   Daji of the Shang dynasty who perished on the Deer Terrace together, Bao Si of the Zhou dynasty who perished on the Beacon Fire and Yang Yuhuan of the Tang dynasty who was buried on the Red Dust.

   Beauty is like a sword and a city is a country.

   It was night when Wei Yingluo finished her last embroidery for the Embroidery Workshop.

   A treasure blue peplum.

   After entrusting the garment to Zhang Momo, who would send it back to her hometown tomorrow morning with Jixiang's belongings, Wei Yingluo thought for a moment, put the jade pendant left behind by her sister on her waist, ran her fingers over the name engraved on it and said in a low voice: “The Changchun Palace, Fucha Fuheng, I'm coming. the Changchun Palace, Fucha Fuheng, here I come.”

 

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS