Chapter 124: Change in the Yuzhen Palace! (2/2)
Given the deep prejudice Li Chengqi held toward her, it was clear that this envelope was filled with insults toward her.
“Your Highness, what should we do with this envelope?”
“Do I even have to tell you what to do? Burn it!”
Consort Taizhen uttered coldly.
“Yes, your humble servant will have it settled now!”
Coldness welled up in the body of the old nanny as she hurriedly lowered her head and left.
In the vast and radiant side palace of the Yuzhen Palace, a teenage palace maid was currently kneeling on the floor, lighting a fire. On a table beside her was a pile of beautiful clothes.
Before long, blazing flames crackled in the room.
In the royal court, the old clothes of the consorts and concubines couldn’t be thrown away. They had to be burnt so as to prevent anyone from defiling them.
And the place where it was done was called the Clothes Incineration Section.
“Take this envelope. Her Highness has ordered to have it incinerated.”
The old nanny threw King Song’s envelope on the side of the table, and before the palace maid could react, the old nanny had already left. There were many matters to attend in the royal palace, and it was more than sufficient to leave these young palace maids to deal with the minor matters.
Experienced old nannies like her had more important matters to manage.
The young palace maid stared at the back of the departing old nanny blankly. After a moment of silence, she picked up the envelope on the table and opened it. She had a habit of looking at the exquisite possessions in the royal palace before incinerating it.
However, upon seeing the content of the letter, the young palace maid was stunned.
…
Consort Taizhen felt that the atmosphere in Yuzhen Palace had been bizarre recently.
Whenever those young palace maids delivered clothes to her, they would always secretly examine her from outside the tent. It was the same for those who sent pastries as well; even though she was already done eating, they would be staring at her with those empty plates on their hands. This peculiarity seemed to be contagious, and before long, even the older nannies were acting in the same way as well.
In Consort Taizhen’s palace, one could occasionally hear someone reciting something about clouds or flowers.
Initially, she didn’t think much of it. However, in the next few days, not only did the bizarre atmosphere not disappear, it became even more severe.
Eventually, even the Chamberlains of Imperial Insignia stationed at the corners of the tent started to act peculiarly as well.
“What is going on?”
Eventually, when a palace maid accidentally dropped the plate of pastries while secretly peeking at her, Consort Taizhen couldn’t take it any longer.
“Your Highness, please forgive me! Your Highness, please forgive me!”
The palace maid kneeled the floor as she begged with a trembling body. No matter how ignorant she was, she knew that it was a grievous crime to drop the pastries His Majesty sent to Her Highness.
“Xiao Yue, what’s wrong with you recently? Why do you seem so distracted? What are you up to?”
Consort Taizhen’s voice sounded from the tent.
“Your Highness, I’m sorry. Your humble servant only happened to hear a poem praising Your Highness’s beauty so I couldn’t help but take a peek at Your Highness.”
Kneeling on the floor, the palace maid answered fearfully.
“A poem praising me?”
Consort Taizhen was stunned. Her anger abruptly vanished.
“Indeed, I’m not the only one. Xiao Ying, Xiao Mei, and the others were talking about it as well. Everyone has been saying how ravishing Your Highness must be for someone to write such a beautiful poem. That’s the reason why I couldn’t help but peek at you.”
Knowing that she had committed a grievous crime, the palace maid quickly said everything that she knew.
“Bring Xiao Ying, Xiao Mei, and the others here!”
This time, Consort Taizhen was truly intrigued.
In just a moment, everyone in the Yuzhen Palace had been summoned over. The palace maids, old nannies, and even the eunuchs were brought over. A huge crowd kneeled outside the tent.
All of them said that they couldn’t help but peek at her because they thought that she was beautiful. This made Consort Taizhen even more curious.
However, something even more bizarre happened when Consort Taizhen asked about the poem. Even though everyone said that the poem was beautiful, no one remembered the entire content of that poem. Everyone only knew bits and pieces of it.
Someone said ‘the cloud toward the rain’, some said ‘the cloud reminiscent of the flowers’, some said ‘the spring wind blew strongly’, while some said ‘the dews were pretty’. All in all, no one recalled the content of the poem.
For every single verse, there seemed to be many different versions.
This left Consort Taizhen even more perplexed. But one thing she could confirm was that there was indeed such a poem, otherwise it wouldn’t have caused such a huge uproar in Yuzhen Palace.
“Tell me who did you all hear this poem from?”
Eventually, Consort Taizhen thought of a method to trace down the origin of the poem.
“Xiao Ying!”
“Xiao Mei!”
“Xiao Yue!”
…
Tracing all the way down, the poem came from someone that no one could have imagined.
“I heard it from Xiao Zhu of the Clothes Incineration Section!”
When Xiao Zhu of the Clothes Incineration Section was brought over, she immediately kneeled to the floor trembling. Consort Taizhen received an answer that she could have never imagined.
“Your Highness, please forgive me! I saw this poem from the letter King Song sent!”
“King Song?!”
Consort Taizhen was dumbfounded.