Quick Wear: The host is really just a substitute!

Chapter 758: Five Kinds of Vegetables for the Deposed Empress in the Cold Palace (5)

"In that case... just pretend that Lin Jianzheng has never been here."

The Queen Mother waved her hand, signaling him to leave.

The palace door slammed shut, causing the flames on the candlesticks to shake violently.

The empress dowager's well-maintained fingers dug into the gilded armrests so tightly that her knuckles turned bluish-white.

The emerald Buddha beads scattered all over the floor looked like a pool of solidified blood under the light of the palace lanterns.

"My queen..." Aunt Dan knelt tremblingly to collect the beads, "Lin Jianzheng..."

"You don't know how to appreciate things!"

The Queen Mother suddenly swept the teacup off the table with a wave of her sleeve, and the broken porcelain splashed onto Aunt Dan's hand, leaving a bloody mark.

"When the late emperor was alive, I was just a servant watching the stars. Now you dare to put on airs in front of me!"

The sound of breaking porcelain startled the copper bells under the eaves, which made a messy and crisp sound in the wind and snow.

The Queen Mother was breathing heavily.

"Go and ask the concubine."

She suddenly calmed down, her voice was like ice

"Just say... my heart aches, and I want to hear her chant."

When Aunt Dan looked up, she saw the twisted smile on the Queen Mother's lips and shuddered.

The heating in Zhuoying Palace was burning too strongly, making He Yingxue's cheeks hot.

She stared at the bowl of dark brown medicine in front of her, and her troubled brows were reflected on the surface of the medicine.

"My lady, can you add some more Coptis chinensis?" Han Zhi asked in a low voice while holding the medicine grinder. "It didn't taste bitter enough just now..."

"No need."

He Yingxue stirred the medicine with a silver spoon and said, "I'm afraid you might get sick from drinking it."

"Miss!"

Han Su rushed in in a panic, with unmelted snow on her hair.

"Aunt Dan has arrived at the palace gate!"

The silver spoon fell into the bowl with a clang.

He Yingxue quickly lay back on the bed, and Han Zhi immediately placed a white handkerchief soaked in ginger juice on her forehead.

The twined branches embroidered on the edge of the handkerchief had become dark due to sweat.

When Aunt Dan came in, she brought in a pungent scent of agarwood.

She squinted her eyes and looked at the sickly imperial concubine in the bed curtains: "Your Majesty, what's going on..."

"Cough cough..."

He Yingxue propped herself up weakly, and the brocade quilt slipped off, revealing her plain white undergarment.

"I watched the snow this morning and caught a cold. I hope you can forgive me, aunt."

"But the Queen Yinshi wants to accompany His Majesty to the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

Aunt Dan suddenly approached, and her gilded armor picked up the medicine bowl, "I remember... the imperial concubine is most afraid of suffering?"

In the steaming medicinal vapor, He Yingxue saw the shrewd light in the old palace maid's eyes.

She suddenly started coughing violently, and a few "blood stains" leaked out from between her fingers.

——In fact, it was rouge that had been prepared earlier.

"I have asked Pingxi to report to His Majesty..." She pointed at the dressing table with a weak breath, "Please ask Auntie to present the box of blood swallows to the Queen Mother and tell her that Yingxue cannot serve by her side today."

Aunt Dan stared at the yellow silk bestowed by the emperor on the brocade box, and finally bowed and left.

The moment the palace door closed, He Yingxue pulled back the brocade quilt, and the ginger on her forehead shone suspiciously in the candlelight.

"Miss!"

Han Zhi stamped her feet anxiously, "You've spent so much time preparing for the ancestor worship, are you really not going?"

The wind and snow outside the window became more severe, and faintly there came an order for the imperial guards to change guard.

"The ancestral worship ceremony may seem grand and glorious, but in fact, every step is a trap."

He Yingxue's fingertips stroked the frost on the window frame. "If the incense burner is tilted by an inch or the sacrificial text is wrong by a word, it will be a crime worth losing your head."

The frost flowers melted into water under the body temperature and slid down the wrist bones into the sleeves.

Han Su suddenly gasped.

"Then it's better for us not to go."

"Yeah, it's better not to go."

He Yingxue looked at the swing in the yard covered with snow and murmured softly.

It was not her who had spent so long preparing for the ancestor worship.

The Taimiao enshrines emperors and meritorious royal family members since the founding of the country.

On the eve of ancestor worship, the dragon energy is weakest.

She was worried that if she went there now, the evil spirit would come looking for her again.

**

Three quarters before Yin hour.

Wen Yu put on his clothes and stood up.

The black cloak swept across the snow on the temple steps, and the dragon-patterned boots stepped on the bluestone slabs, leaving several deep marks.

He walked very slowly on the road from Taihe Hall to Canwu Hall.

The only person following behind him was his trusted eunuch Ping Xi, who didn't even carry a lantern.

The imperial guards who were supposed to be guarding outside the cold palace had already withdrawn, leaving only a few crooked torches stuck on the wall.

The fire flickered in the wind and snow, like a dying firefly.

When Wen Yu raised his hand, Ping Xi immediately bowed and retreated ten steps away.

He pushed open the mottled palace door alone.

"Squeak-"

The candles in the house were still burning.

Song Yuesheng didn't sleep.

She sat at a small desk by the window, holding an old book in her hand.

The candle wick burned very long, and the wax accumulated into a thick layer.

Hearing the noise, she looked up and said calmly, "It's almost Yin hour, why is Your Majesty here?"

Wen Yu did not answer her question, his eyes fell on the candlestick beside her.

The candle wax piled up like a mountain, obviously having burned all night.

"Still up so late?"

He stood in front of the window, the snow on his black cloak gradually melting, and water marks meandered down along the gold-woven dragon pattern.

Song Yuesheng chuckled: "There are no rules in the cold palace. I can sleep when I want to and wake up when I want to."

She yawned deliberately.

"I slept too much during the day, and now I feel very energetic."

Wen Yu's eyes swept across the room and paused for a moment on the charcoal basin in the corner: "You seem to be living a leisurely life."

"laid back?"

Song Yuesheng closed the book and tapped the table with his fingertips. "I worry about those vegetable seedlings every day. There was a heavy frost these days, and most of them were almost frozen to death."

She suddenly changed the subject.

"So, Your Majesty is visiting me at this time to warn me to behave myself?"

Wen Yu's eyes suddenly turned darker.

He suddenly strode forward, his black cloak bringing up a gust of cold wind: "Starting tomorrow, the Imperial Guards will be redeployed."

"why?"

"Do you really think that I don't know what you have been doing these days?"

She raised her head, a hint of amusement flashed in her eyes: "Oh? Then Your Majesty, why don't you tell me, what have I done?"

"The old items that should have been burned in Dichen Garden, the lost medicinal materials in the Imperial Hospital, the moldy ingredients in the Imperial Kitchen, and even..."

Wen Yu sneered.

"Even Shen Qihe and Su Zhenhe covered up for you."

He looked down at her, "Do you need me to explain the origins of every brick and tile in your cold palace?"

Song Yuesheng suddenly laughed out loud.

"Your Majesty, do you have any evidence?" She tilted her head. "Anyone can say something without any evidence."

Wen Yu said meaningfully: "What the palace lacks the least is evidence."

The extravagant lifestyle in the palace has decreased sharply in recent days, and he thought it was a good thing.

It was not until the palace maids from Dichen Garden came to report that the number of people burned did not match the records.

He sent a jackdaw to investigate, and the result vaguely pointed to this cold palace that was supposed to be isolated from the world.

In fact, she did it almost perfectly.

Those bowls and plates that appeared in Canwu Palace were all old items that should have been destroyed.

Even the soil she used to grow vegetables was mixed with medicinal residue discarded by the Imperial Hospital.

Song Yuesheng chuckled and put the book on the desk, tapping lightly with his fingertips on the yellowed pages.

"Yes, just like the secret letter with 'conclusive evidence'." When she raised her eyes, there seemed to be frost and snow condensing in them. "In this palace, to convict someone of a crime, only one piece of 'evidence' is enough."

Wen Yu frowned slightly, and the fingers in his sleeves unconsciously clenched.

"Duan Ning, this is the imperial palace."

His voice became deeper, as if he was suppressing something.

"Put away your temper. It's very easy to die here."

"How easy is it?"

Song Yuesheng suddenly stood up, and his white sleeves swept across the table.

She approached step by step, and the sound of her embroidered shoes stepping on the blue bricks was particularly clear in the quiet night.

"Like crushing an ant? Or like..." She stopped half a step in front of Wen Yu and looked up, "Is it as easy as deposing a queen?"

The candlelight flickered behind her, casting the shadows of the two people on the wall, entangled into a blurry shadow.

Wen Yu's breathing was slightly stagnant.

The faint scent of medicine mixed with the scent of ink wafted towards me from her body, and her eyes were shockingly bright.

It seems... there is no need to find evidence.

"Are you concerned about me?"

Song Yuesheng suddenly spoke, interrupting his thoughts.

The corners of her lips were slightly raised, but her eyes were cold.

Wen Yu suddenly took half a step back, and his black cloak swept across the books on the ground, making a rustling sound.

"Duan Ning, these few days..." He said in a low voice, "Take care of yourself."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Song Yuesheng stood there, listening to the footsteps gradually disappearing in the snowy night, and suddenly chuckled.

Wen Yu, you are the one who... should take care of yourself.

If the divine punishment is not handled properly, there will be big trouble.