The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 36: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

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

   The Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 36: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

   “Her Highness, Her Highness its bad!” Zhilan returned and reported to Noble Consort Hui, “There are a lot of people outside! They’re all coming to the Yonghe Palace!”

   The eunuchs who were banging on the door stopped and one by one looked towards Noble Consort Hui.

   “What are you looking at?” Noble Consort Hui, unwilling to give up halfway, gritted her teeth and said, “I thought they weren’t here yet, break down the door! Or else you’ll all be in for a treat!”

   “Someone!”

   The gate has been topped for a long time but finally it can’t be topped.

   With a loud boom, it was lifted off the ground along with the table and chairs behind it.

   Noble Consort Hui, overjoyed, led the crowd into the hall and, with a glance, fell upon the fire pot resting by the window, where not only were candles burning but also torn bed netting and black smoke was billowing out of the pot, blackening half the sky.

   Her gaze slowly moved and landed on the person who started it all next to the basin, Noble Consort Hui’s heart was surprised at first and then a feeling of anger that she was being teased said: “It’s you!”

   That fool who ate seven bowls of lotus root balls right in front of her!

   To be able to save Noble Lady Yu from the hands of the assassinating eunuch, to be able to use smoke and fire to get the whole palace to act as rescuers, how could such a person be a real fool!

   At this moment, Noble Consort Hui even ignored Noble Lady Yu and raised her hand to point at Wei Yingluo and said: “Kill her!”

   One by one the eunuchs came towards Wei Yingluo, like a web of spiders crawling in all directions, with nowhere to run and as they approached, dark shadows covered Wei Yingluo’s face from their bodies and suddenly a ray of light shone into Wei Yingluo’s eyes. Her eyes lit up and she cried out with all her strength: “Lord Fucha, help me!”

   The ray of light rushed to her.

   Stopping Wei Yingluo behind him, sword in hand than a few eunuchs in front of him, Fucha Fuheng questioned with a stony face: “Her Highness Noble Consort, what’s going on?”

   The Noble Consort Hui’s red lips flicked open and she opened her mouth to say something that would ruin people’s innocence: “I was passing by the Yonghe Palace today and thought I’d stop by to see Noble Lady Yu and I ran into this girl trying to kill someone, so I had to arrest her!”

   Wei Yingluo had expected her to do this and said at once: “What the truth is, we shall know when Noble Lady Yu wakes up and asks.”

   Only then did they notice the unconscious Noble Lady Yu and immediately went to check on her, to find the Royal Physician and to find the Royal Physician. Noble Lady Yu’s condition, Fucha Fuheng took Wei Yingluo aside and asked her in a low voice: “Tell me clearly what is going on.”

   “I came here to visit Noble Lady Yu on the orders of the Empress and found this eunuch trying to strangle Noble Lady.” Wei Yingluo pointed to the murderer, who had just woken up and said, “I couldn’t beat him, so I ran out of the hall to ask for help but I met Noble Consort Hui, who immediately tried to kill me! I had no choice but to hide in the hall and use smoke to draw the crowd to save myself!

   Fucha Fuheng’s gaze fell on the other man and he said coldly: “Say, who are you and who sent you?”

   This eunuch is fishier than Wei Yingluo.

   He was covered in blood and when asked, he wasn’t even from the Yonghe Palace.

   This was surrounded by the crowd and he slowly raised his head and his blood-stained face suddenly showed an eerie smile and said: “It was Her Highness Empress who sent me.”

   “When did I mastermind you to kill?”

   The crowd looked around and saw the Empress standing in front of the door at some point, apparently having heard what the eunuch had just said and a rare look of anger appeared on her always calm and uncontested face.

   The eunuch gave an imperceptible glance at Noble Consort Hui, who narrowed his eyes for a moment as he dropped his head again and kowtowed to Her Highness Empress: “Her Highness Empress, I didn’t want to say anything but now that it has come to light, I have to! You have lost your first son and are jealous that Noble Lady Yu is pregnant with a dragon child, so you used the Internal Affairs Ministry as a reason to place your servant in the Yonghe Palace and asked your servant to take the opportunity to get rid of Noble Lady Yu! Today, on the 7th day of Concubine Yi’s death, no memorial services are allowed in the palace, so Noble Lady Yu had to leave everyone behind and only then did I find the opportunity to...”

   “What a load of nonsense!” the Empress was trembling with anger, already unwell and now her eyes were even more blackened.

   “Her Highness Empress, be careful with your body!” Fucha Fuheng hastily reassured him and when he turned his face to the eunuch, the snow in his eyes was as cold as the light of a sword and he took a few steps to the other man, lifted him up and said, “Who told you to accuse the Empress! Do you know that this is a crime that will destroy all of your family?”

   “I dare not! If Her Highness hadn’t told me to, I wouldn’t have dared to come and kill. But I want to die, so that I can fulfill my loyalty to Her Highness!” After saying this, the eunuch’s lips rose and he smiled slightly at him and as he smiled, a line of black and red blood flowed down the corner of his lips.

   Fucha Fuheng, astonished, cried out: “Call the Royal Physician!”

   The Royal Physician, who was diagnosing Noble Lady Yu, rushed out from inside, put his fingers on the eunuch’s neck, opened his eyelids and lips, shook his head and said to Fucha Fuheng: “The poison is between his teeth. The poison is so strong that it cannot be saved.”

   Dead men can’t accuse a crime --these words flashed violently through Fucha Fuheng’s mind.

   “He’s lying.” Just as Fucha Fuheng’s heart was burning, a cold voice sounded in his ears and he looked over to see Wei Yingluo standing long and proud, like a pine climbing a cliff, saying coldly to the crowd, “If Her Highness Empress wanted to kill Noble Lady Yu, why did she ask me to come and see her? The Royal Physician, will you please tell everyone how many wounds are on this eunuch?”

   The Royal Physician did not understand what she meant but with a look from Fucha Fuheng, he replied honestly: “The eunuch has three wounds of various sizes, a bloody mark on his neck from the tip of a hairpin and a swollen bruise on the back of his head from a heavy object.”

   “It’s all my doing.” Wei Yingluo admitted quickly, rolling up one of her sleeves to reveal bruises and bruises, saying, “I have many similar wounds from fighting with him. If Her Highness Empress really wanted to take Noble Lady Yu’s life, why would she send me to stop him?”

   Seeing the crowd in deep thought, Noble Consort Hui narrowed her eyes and said lightly: “Perhaps ... the Empress asked you to kill someone?”

   “See how messed up I look?” Wei Yingluo took a few steps in front of the crowd, showing her wounds, her disheveled hair, her most disheveled side to the crowd and then asked with a smile, “If I came to kill and kill, why do I have both hands empty, not to mention a dagger and not even a club!”

   No?

   There is already a disparity in power between men and women and if you don’t even have a weapon at your disposal, you might even be silenced, not to mention killed and silenced.

   “It is you, on the contrary.” Wei Yingluo suddenly fixed her gaze on the group of court officials behind her and asked gently, “Why have you come to the Yonghe Palace today? If you say you are visiting, you are empty handed and have only a group of fierce eunuchs with you ...”

   The crowd looked at Noble Consort Hui with an immediately different look.

   “How dare you!” Noble Consort Hui said angrily, “How dare you doubt me!”

   Behind her, a crowd of palace men were watching her and at her command they would pounce and take Wei Yingluo down.

   “I don’t think she’s wrong about a single thing!”

   But in this place, there is another person of high standing and at her word alone, no one would dare lay a hand on Wei Yingluo.

   After a short rest, the Empress had recovered a little and, assisted by Erqing, she came up to Noble Consort Hui and, looking at each other, she said indifferently: “Yingluo has made her explanation, have you? Noble Consort Hui, what explanation do you have for your actions?”

   Wei Yingluo’s words were a good relief to her.

   Dead men can’t accuse a crime is not just for the Empress but also for Noble Consort Hui.

   On the basis of words and motive alone, the two men are half equal and neither can escape suspicion and Noble Consort Hui is even more suspicious.

   If it goes before the Emperor, who do you think he will help? Who will he believe?

   With so many eyes watching and ears listening, Noble Consort Hui had to take a deep breath, swallow her teeth and say: “... I was wrong. I was wrong, how can I trust the words of a murderer, I think he deliberately framed Her Highness in order to hide the mastermind behind it.”

   “Yes, how can one trust the words of a murderer.” the Empress said, half exhortation, half warning, “As a Noble Consort, your every word is an example to all, all the more reason to be careful with your words, so go back to the Chuxiu Palace and meditate on your past!”

   Her Highness Empress’ heart was in the right place and she had already guessed the whole story.

   On the way back to the Changchun Palace, she raised her hand and called Wei Yingluo to her side, letting her hold her hand as she walked: “Noble Consort Hui will hate you to the bone if she suffers this secret loss, are you afraid? Are you afraid?”

   “I am afraid.” Wei Yingluo said with a low brow, “But for Her Highness Empress, for Noble Lady Yu, these are the words I have to say.”

   The Empress smiled with satisfaction and looked at her with compassion and said: “If it wasn’t for your words, I wouldn’t have been able to wash this pot of sewage today, good girl, don’t worry, I won’t let Noble Consort Hui touch you.”

   The implication of her words was that she was going to cultivate Wei Yingluo as a confidant.

   Since they are the beloved ones, they are naturally not like other small palace maids and eunuchs who can be handed over to be disposed of at will and they should be carefully taken care of like the feathers that grow on them.

   “Thank you, Zhuzi.” After Wei Yingluo had thanked her, she asked her tentatively, “But we ... Just leave it at that?”

   “The most important witness is dead and what can His Majesty do with empty words, even if he is sued by His Majesty?” Well versed in the ways of the court and nurturing, the Empress analyzed Wei Yingluo in detail, saying, “Above all, Noble Lady Yu has also done something she should not have done ...”

   “You mean...” Wei Yingluo furrowed her brow.

   “I know that she and Concubine Yi were like sisters and that Concubine Yi died because of her and that is why on the seventh day of Concubine Yi’s death, she sent everyone around her away and set up a private funeral hall alone to pay tribute to her deceased.” the Empress narrowed her eyes and said, “But you must know that in the Forbidden City, only the emperor is worthy of the rite of tribute and Noble Lady Yu’s act is, to put it mildly, against the rules of the palace and, to put it seriously, a blatant curse on His Majesty and the Empress Dowager, therefore, even if it is to save Noble Lady Yu and the child in her womb, the matter must not be made a big deal, especially not in front of His Majesty!

   “I see...” Wei Yingluo’s mouth said so but her heart felt a hint of sadness at the death of a rabbit.

   Poor Concubine Yi.

   Also, like her sister, she suffered an injustice and died without even a proper tablet and only one person in the whole world remembered her and paid tribute to her in secret.

   With a heavy heart, the bruises on her body also hurt and she could not show her teeth in front of the Empress, Wei Yingluo helped the Empress all the way back to the Changchun Palace and waited for her to take her medicine and sleep, before silently exiting the door and limped to her room.

   Wei Yingluo rolled up one sleeve and looked at the bruise on her white arm, frowning as she thought, ‘Perhaps I should go to the Royal Physician and ask for a bottle of medicine.

   “Take it.”

   A man’s voice suddenly came from across the room from her.

   Wei Yingluo paused in her footsteps and slowly looked up.

   Before me was a snow-white vial of medicine.

   His eyes slid down to the hand holding the vial, bony, long and strong and finally to his face and Wei Yingluo asked with some surprise: “Young Master?”

  

  

   The Story of Yanxi Palace《延禧攻略》CHAPTERS