Su Xi-er furrowed her brow and crouched down to inspect the object more carefully, rather than immediately reaching out her hand to grab onto it.
The cupboard has four corners, but only one has something padded underneath. It looks a little like woven silk fabric.
Her left hand lifted the empty cupboard slightly while her right hand grabbed the item from beneath the corner of the cupboard.
The woven silk fabric had yellowed with the passing of time, its edges frayed until it was deformed.
Su Xi-er brought the fabric with her to the door to take a better look. Only then was she finally able to discern a leaf design embroidered on it, but she could only make out the contours of the leaf.
This woven silk fabric only has a leaf embroidered? It’s not that simple, right?
She scrutinised it even more carefully. There’s a character embroidered on the outline of the leaf!
Her fingers trailed along the lines of the word on the textile. After carefully examining it, she was certain that the character was ‘Yun’.
Yun? A person’s name? The name is embroidered on the outline of the leaf? What does it represent?
“Su Xi-er.” Hong Li’s voice sounded. Her voice was particularly soft, barely audible with how much it was quivering.
Hong Li picked up her walking pace, stopping just outside the woodhouse. As she gazed at the shed, she trembled in fear and a look of trepidation was written across her face.
“It’s an abandoned woodhouse with only a few old items in it. Do you have to be this scared?” Su Xi-er asked as she kept the woven silk fabric into her sleeve.
“How could you have forgotten? When the matter occurred, it created quite a stir. At the very least, it caused a large sensation in the Palace Side Quarters.” Hong Li revealed an astonished expression.
Su Xi-er didn’t reply. Despite being reborn in this body, she had only received a limited amount of its memories. Of course she wasn’t aware of whatever affair Hong Li was talking about.
When she saw Su Xi-er’s baffled expression, Hong Li couldn’t bear it anymore and directly blurted it out, “You don’t even remember Liu Ye-er? She was an especially gentle and very good looking palace maid in the Palace Side Quarters who was seven years older than us. If it weren’t for that incident, she would have definitely become the head palace maid in the Palace Side Quarters, succeeding Old Maidservant Zhao’s position in the future.”
“Liu Ye-er…” Su Xi-er muttered in a low voice. She thought of the leaf1 sewn on the woven silk fabric.
“That’s right, Liu Ye-er. Have you remembered? She wasn’t as lucky as He Xiangyu. When she was sweeping the palace path, she met someone with tremendous power. At that time, no one knew that Liu Ye-er was calculating and kept her thoughts deeply concealed, having been really persistent in forging connections with puissant personages. In the end…”
Before she could finish speaking, she was interrupted by Su Xi-er.
“In the end, she offended the person with tremendous power and got punished by Old Maidservant Zhao to come to the woodhouse. Afterwards, she died a tragic death?”
Hong Li nodded, then shook her head again. “It was her who proposed that she come to the woodhouse to reflect upon her mistakes as punishment. However, she died just two days after she entered the woodhouse. I don’t know who on earth she had offended.”
“At the end of the day, a palace maid died in the woodhouse. Is people dying such an uncommon event in the palace that people are this terrified?”
Even if it is the repose palace of the late deposed Empress, nobody was this scared, right?
“It wouldn’t be such a big deal if only one person died. No one sweeps the palace path leading to the woodhouse and no one tends to the surrounding grass even when it’s so tall, the reason being that whenever anybody approached this location, the only result would be… death.” Hong Li’s body trembled as she became afraid once again.
Su Xi-er chuckled. “I don’t believe it. A person won’t die for no rhyme or reason. How can there be some forbidden death zone?”
“Old Maidservant Zhao instructed me to watch you. She has definitely started to get suspicious of me and wants me to die together with you.” Hong Li pursed her lips tightly, her face clearly showing that she was not resigned to it.
“You and I are in the same boat. If you want to continue living, you must listen to me.” Su Xi-er’s words were mild. She didn’t think anything of the rumours of guaranteed death in the forbidden death zone.
Right now, she was sure that the woven silk fabric belonged to Liu Ye-er. As for the ‘Yun’ character, is it the person who Liu Ye-er offended?
A person with tremendous power in Beimin and has a ‘Yun’ in the name…
It’s…Commandery Prince Xie, Xie Yun?
However, He Xiangyu had also offended Xie Yun. Not only was she not punished, but she was even taken into the Beauty Palace by Prince Hao by a freak combination of factors.
If Xie Yun is really someone hard to deal with, Xie Yun, he would have definitely dealt with He Xiangyu and the original Su Xi-er.
But he didn’t. What exactly is going on with everything?
Su Xi-er knitted her eyebrows. Pei Qianhao’s face flashed across her mind. He was so egotistical and arrogant, thinking nothing of anyone else. In his eyes, your struggle is simply the desperate retaliation of a cornered beast.
Standing at one side, Hong Li didn’t notice any terror in Su Xi-er’s eyes. Feeling curious, she directly asked, “What exactly changed you? It has been so many years, but you have always been timid and afraid of getting into trouble. How can a person’s change be this huge?”
“They say curiosity killed the cat. It’s not good to be so curious.” Su Xi-er relaxed her brow and walked into the woodhouse.
Hong Li stayed outside and didn’t dare to enter.
After Su Xi-er entered the room, she untied the fragrance sachet from her waist and took out a little of the medicinal herb; squeezing out a bit of liquid from it and dripping it onto her left wrist.
Before she recovered, her left hand would be unable to carry heavy items. This is all thanks to Pei Qianhao.
The wind outside gradually became stronger as the sun gradually set in the west. The two had stayed in the woodhouse for a very long time.
“No one is sending the meals. I’m famished; I’ll go and have my meal first. If there are leftovers, I will bring a little for you.” Hong Li turned around and quickly left, not daring to stay any longer as the sun was almost setting and the area was slowly getting darker.
Su Xi-er sat on a wooden stool that she had wiped clean.
Although this was originally a woodhouse, it had been abandoned for so long that even the vestiges of firewood couldn’t be seen.
The sunset clouds rose, dying the sky red.
This scene…Rancour gradually emerged in Su Xi-er eyes. Torches. The red light illuminating the whole sky.
Has Yun Ruofeng already married Ning Anlian now? Is the child in Ning Anlian’s womb growing larger day by day?
To think that she had been planning on marrying him and giving birth to his children after the situation in Nanzhao had stabilized. Of course, the events that transpired subsequently had thoroughly destroyed that illusion, corroborating that her thoughts were too ridiculous.
A person can pretend so well and shroud my eyes.
Even as the sunset clouds dissipated and nightfall arrived, Su Xi-er’s hands remained tightly clenched.
In the end, she raised her hand and struck the wooden table heavily. Only after she felt the throbbing pain from her left wrist did she snap out of her stupor.
She raised her right hand and was about to massage her left wrist when her gaze landed on the edge of the wooden table.
Hm? There are letters carved on the wooden table. Although she couldn’t immediately tell what they were, her left hand could feel the scratch marks.
Su Xi-er immediately used her sleeve to wipe the dust on the table. The words also gradually became clearer.
Ye-er.
There were two more words behind but she couldn’t see them clearly. When she lowered her head for a closer look, a slight rustling sound suddenly came from outside.
There’s someone outside! Su Xi-er immediately stood up and walked towards the door.
She had only made a few steps when she saw a person suddenly dash in her direction and hastily lock the door of the room.
Clang! The lock fell.
Who exactly locked up the door?
“Anyone who comes here has to die!” The deep and low voice of a woman came from outside. Immediately after that, the sound of items being moved could be heard.
There was only one door and no windows in this shack.
Su Xi-er’s eyes were slightly narrowed as she looked in the direction of the door. If I want to get out from here, I can only kick the door open.
Right at this moment, a wisp of smokefrom burning firewood wafted into her nose.
The woman outside is setting a fire. She wants to burn me to death!
The smell of the smoke wasn’t thick, which meant that the intensity of the fire was still insignificant. Su Xi-er remained calm and tried to pry for more information instead of being in a hurry to escape, “Who are you? I don’t want to die without knowing the reason.”
“You know something you shouldn’t know. Besides, there are many people who want you dead!” The woman burst into laughter as she answered.
Su Xi-er was certain that this woman wasn’t sent by Old Maidservant Zhao. If it’s Old Maidservant Zhao instructing her, she would definitely secretly set the fire and not be so savage.
“There are many people who want me dead, but I want to do the opposite and live in an unrestrained way!” Su Xi-er chuckled. She narrowed her eyes and raised her leg. At full speed, she spun and kicked the door.
Her actions were swift and efficient, her pose as she kicked the door extremely elegant.
Bang! The door instantly fell from the impact of the kick.
At the same time, she also saw the real appearance of the woman setting the fire.
