The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 35: Visiting the Sick

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

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 35: Visiting the Sick

   “Drink this bowl of ginger soup.”

   “Thank you Zhuzi for the reward.”

   Wei Yingluo took the ginger soup handed to her by the other woman and took a slight sip, the heat sending a shiver down her cold body.

   “Thanks to you, the flowers in the flower garden have been saved.” the Empress looked at her curiously and said, “But how did you get there?”

   “There was a moon halo last night and early in the morning there were dark clouds in the east, I’m afraid there will be a storm today, I’m afraid the flowers in the courtyard will suffer, so I rushed over there in the morning after sweeping the inner and outer courtyard.”  Wei Yingluo replied respectfully.

   The Empress sniffed but gave Mingyu a sidelong glance.

   It’s not a job that one person can do, at least seven or eight palace maids have to do it together and if it’s like she said, if you sweep the whole courtyard in the morning, you might have to get up before dawn--Mingyu, that’s different from what you said before.

   “If you knew it was going to rain today, why didn’t you tell the others in advance?” After all, having been at the Changchun Palace for so long, Erqing wanted to say something on Mingyu’s behalf, so she asked Wei Yingluo, “If I had told everyone in advance and prepared for it, there wouldn’t have been so many flowers falling in the flower garden.”

   Wei Yingluo, despite her best efforts, was unable to save all the jasmine flowers, which fell in the rain, leaving a field of red in the flowerbed.

   “What I said...” To his surprise, Wei Yingluo returned, then glanced at Mingyu with an unintentional glance.

   She didn’t say specifically who she had told but everyone in the palace has one more eye than the next person.

   She shook her head gently and said softly to Wei Yingluo: “Well, you don’t have to work anymore today, finish this bowl of ginger soup, go back and take a hot bath, then rest early. After drinking this bowl of ginger soup, go back and take a hot bath, then rest early, don’t catch the wind chill.”

   “Thanks, Her Highness.” Wei Yingluo finished her ginger soup and left backwards, without saying half a bad word about Erqing from start to finish.

   But the disappointment in the Empress’s eyes could not be hidden.

   “Zhuzi, I...” Erqing racked her brains trying to come up with a plausible excuse for her actions.

   The Empress raised her hand, stopping her from arguing, or rather stopping her from continuing to muddle herself as a fool.

   “I have eyes, I can see for myself.” the Empress, half warning, half admonishing, said to her, “Remember the saying, too much talk is too little!”

   Erqing hung her head in mock shame but raised a pair of resentful eyes the moment the Empress turned away.

   The next day, Wei Yingluo did not catch the wind chill but the Empress had a headache and fever.

   Zhang Yuanpan put his finger on the pulse of the other party and after a long time, he made a judgment and said: “Her Highness headache and body pain is due to heat in the lung meridian and wind and cold outside, it is not a problem. I will use ginger and pear as a remedy and take care of it for half a month and Feng’s body will be cured.”

   The Empress leaned back in her tent, her voice slightly nasal as she said: “Zhang Yuanpan is a master of the apricot grove, I would not have trusted you with Noble Lady Yu. Speaking of Noble Lady Yu, how has she been?”

   “This...” Zhang Yuanpan hesitated for a moment and said, “Her Highness Empress, Noble Lady Yu often suffers from vertigo and I have taken great pains to regulate her but unfortunately with very little success. The root of the problem is that Noble Lady Yu is too preoccupied and her emotions are out of balance. In the long run, the fear of ... Fear of ...”

   “It would affect the dragon child in her womb, wouldn’t it?” the Empress Finishing what he was afraid to say.

   Zhang Yuanpan sighed with relief and said back: “Yes.”

   After having Zhang Yuanpan sent away, the Empress struggled to get out of bed and said: “Erqing, dress me, ahem, I’m going to visit Noble Lady Yu, ahem ...”

   “Zhuzi, don’t do that, you’ve just caught a cold, you should get well, how can you go out into the wind at this time?” Erqing patted her back and smoothed her breath.

   A trace of hesitation flashed through the Empress’s eyes, she didn’t really care about this small illness in her body but she was afraid of giving it to Noble Lady Yu and affecting the baby in her womb. Empress suddenly said: “Mingyu, you go for me.”

   “Me?” Mingyu froze at the words.

   The Empress nodded and said: “Take the box of tribute ginseng that has just arrived from the storehouse and you send it to the Yonghe Palace and tell Noble Lady Yu to tell her to take care of her baby and that I will visit soon.”

   “... Yes.”  Mingyu replied with extreme reluctance.

   When she came out of the treasury, Mingyu was full of grievances...

   Suddenly, Mingyu shouted in front of her: “Come here!”

   Wei Yingluo was sweeping the great hall when she heard the words and stopped the broom in her hand and walked towards her.

   Mingyu raised her hand and threw the ginseng box, which arced through the air and was narrowly caught by Wei Yingluo.

   “Run to the Yonghe Palace and tell Noble Lady Yu that Her Highness Empress is thinking of her and that she should rest in peace, remember?” Mingyu finished her instructions and immediately turned around and left, not giving the other party a chance to refuse.

   Wei Yingluo didn’t think to refuse either.

   It’s been a long time and I wonder how that poor Noble Lady Yu is doing.

   Carrying the ginseng box out of the Changchun Palace, Wei Yingluo made her way through the woods and down the aisles to the Yonghe Palace, where the red door was closed and she raised her hand and knocked: “Her Highness Empress has ordered me to come and visit Noble Lady Yu. Empress has ordered me to come and visit Noble Lady Yu, please open the door.”

   After waiting for half a while, no one answered the door.

   “Noble Lady Yu, Noble Lady Yu?” Wei Yingluo knocked on the door again and said, “Is there anyone there?”

   Still no one answered.

   A strange feeling rose in Wei Yingluo’s heart, the palace was not like the outside world, even if Zhuzi was out on a visit, at least one or two eunuchs and palace maids would be left to guard the palace.

   For a few moments more he hovered in front of the door, uncertain whether to wait or leave, when he suddenly heard a loud clanging sound inside the door.

   A bad feeling hit her, Wei Yingluo suddenly gritted her teeth and said with a low growl: “Noble Lady Yu, I’m sorry!”

   Wei Yingluo took a step back, then leaned down and slammed into the door with all her strength and with a loud thud the doorway opened in both directions and she stumbled a few steps before staring dumbfounded at the image before her.

   Inside the Yonghe Palace, it was decorated as if it were a shrine.

   There were joss sticks, tributes, white cloths, everything and a brass fire bowl resting on the floor, the remaining flames in the bowl still burning little by little with paper money and yuanbao.

   There was also a tablet rolled on the floor and it was not known whether it had been touched or whether it had fallen off the table itself but it was because of the sound of it hitting the floor that Wei Yingluo rushed in and saw--

   Noble Lady Yu lying on her back with her neck raised high and a white scarf wrapped around her head.

   A eunuch rode behind her, his hands wrapped around the end of a white scarf with such force that the backs of his hands were already bursting with hideous bruises.

   “What are you doing!” Wei Yingluo shouted in a stern voice.

   He left Noble Lady Yu behind and lunged at Wei Yingluo, grabbing her by the neck with both hands and trying to kill her!

   “Ah!!”

   A scream--from the eunuch’s mouth.

   He stumbled backwards, his right-hand dead over the side of his neck--where a hairpin was tied.

   Wei Yingluo was never one to take a loss and as soon as she saw her opponent coming towards her, she pulled off her hairpin and thrust it through and if she hadn’t avoided him in time, it would have stabbed him in the eye.

   The eunuch pulled off the pin and held it in his hand.

   Wei Yingluo backed away slowly--there was no longer a second hairpin on her head.

   Suddenly he turned and ran and Wei Yingluo, while running, shouted: “Somebody, somebody! There’s an assassin!”

   She rushed all the way into the inner courtyard, the sound of chaotic footsteps ahead of her, her joy just rising to Wei Yingluo’s cheeks before it froze.

   Only to see a line of palace eunuchs, embracing a Consort, a palace as flamboyant as a peony, marching aggressively this way.

   “Noble Consort Hui.” Wei Yingluo said with her heart beating wildly, “What’s she doing here?”

   Something is wrong, something is very wrong.

   The Yonghe Palace may be cold but Noble Lady Yu is a Zhuzi after all and a pregnant Zhuzi at that, so there’s not a single person to wait on.

   Where did those people go, were they turned away, stalled or silenced by someone?

   And the uninvited guests in front of me ...

   As the visitors approached, Noble Consort Hui’s group also saw Wei Yingluo and seeing Noble Consort Hui’s frown, Zhilan immediately raised her hand and pointed at Wei Yingluo: “Get her!”

   Run!

   Wei Yingluo turned and rushed back into the Great Hall, shutting and bolting the door quickly, then moving the table and chairs to block behind it.

   “Somebody! Break the door down!”

   “Someone!”

   A smashing and banging of doors rose and fell like increasingly urgent waves lapping at the shore.

   The situation inside the house was also very bad, when Wei Yingluo returned, the eunuch laughed and lunged at her and they struggled together but fortunately he was wounded in the neck and kept bleeding and Wei Yingluo saw this and kept pinching her fingers at his wound.

   At last it was the eunuch who could not hold out first and fell to the ground with both eyes blackened.

   “Phew, phew...” Wei Yingluo was no better, her clothes and hair were all in disarray and she had been stabbed with a hairpin and with every step she took, her clothes became red with blood and she staggered over to Noble Lady Yu, holding her up and saying, “Noble Lady, wake up. “Noble Lady, wake up, wake up.”

   Noble Lady Yu never woke up.

   “What should I do?” Wei Yingluo murmured, glancing around the room, finally landing on the fire bowl with the paper money still burning, hesitating slightly and saying through clenched teeth, “There’s no choice but to use external forces ...”

   Half a tea time later, the entire Forbidden City was in chaos.

   “Quick, this way, this way!”

   “This is not enough water, get a bigger bucket.”

   “Coming! Coming!”

   Fucha Fuheng, who was on his way to visit his sick sister, stopped in his tracks, pulled a young eunuch who was in a hurry and asked: “What’s the matter?”

   The little eunuch, with a barrel full of water in his hand, looked behind him, panting and said: “Over there ... the Yonghe Palace is on fire. the Yonghe Palace is on fire.”

   Fucha Fuheng froze at his words and he looked back to see a rolling column of smoke rising to the sky in the direction of the Yonghe Palace.

  

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS