Chapter 83
Chapter 83
Shengsheng had imagined arriving at the Jiang estate openly in a carriage with Fusheng, while the entire family knelt and cried, “Greetings, Your Grace the Noble Consort!”
She had clearly underestimated his fear of inconvenience.
The personal arrival of an imperial consort would give every civil and military official a creative new reason to denounce him.
So Fusheng took her on a midnight raid of the Jiang estate instead.
The moon overhead was as large as a washbasin, and the cold wind whipped their hair into the air.
Oh, heavenly goose. Shengsheng was ever so grateful.
By the time the destination appeared, the wind had nearly frozen her face numb.
Heaven knew how Fusheng knew which courtyard belonged to Zhiyu. In any case, he dropped Shengsheng inside, then flew away with his qinggong.
For some reason, she felt he would never starve in the modern world.
Just look at the speed of that delivery service.
The original novel said Zhiyu and her mother occupied the smallest courtyard in the Jiang estate.
It held three rooms. The center belonged to her mother, the right housed the servants, which meant…
Shengsheng looked left. Seeing the well in the corner confirmed the place.
The lamp inside still burned, and she could faintly hear voices.
She knocked politely.
The voices stopped.
Footsteps approached. A lock opened, and the door creaked wide.
Meiren Liu stood there in a peach-red dress. Surprise crossed her face. Then she glanced nervously left and right, grabbed Shengsheng, and dragged her inside.
Shengsheng stared.
Did she look like a secret lover?
After closing the door, Meiren pulled her toward the inner room.
Before Shengsheng could speak, a moon-white figure raced toward her.
She smiled.
Now this was the correct reception.
Shengsheng opened her arms, ready to catch Zhiyu’s flying embrace.
And caught nothing.
Zhiyu stopped in front of Meiren instead.
“I understand! I understand! It must be a code leading to treasure!”
Shengsheng stared.
What treasure could be more precious than her?
“Huh? Shengsheng, when did you arrive?” Zhiyu appeared to notice her only then.
Shengsheng smiled. “You’ve grown up, Xiaoyu.”
There was no longer any place for Shengsheng in her eyes.
Zhiyu tugged her skirt bashfully. “Really?”
“No.”
Ignoring Zhiyu’s collapsing face, Shengsheng entered the room.
She intended to see what these two were doing that mattered more than her.
Objects lay scattered everywhere. Shengsheng’s face darkened.
Zhiyu rushed forward and began tidying.
“We… We only made this mess just now. It was clean before! Right, Meiren?”
She sent Meiren a desperate look.
Meiren gave her a reassuring smile. “Yes. It was clean only when we first returned.”
Then she winked playfully at Shengsheng, apparently awaiting praise.
Zhiyu fell silent.
Shengsheng smiled without warmth.
“Shengsheng, Meiren and I found a secret room in my mother’s chamber. We found this inside. I think it might be a code to a hidden treasure.”
Zhiyu spoke with a grave expression. If her right hand had not uncontrollably twisted her skirt, no one would know she was changing the subject.
Because they had only just reunited, Shengsheng decided to forgive her temporarily.
She accepted the aged paper and read it by lamplight.
Her pupils contracted.
It had been so many years since she last saw simplified Chinese.
Shengsheng steadied her racing heart and forced her breathing calm.
Perhaps some transmigrating predecessor had left it behind.
Perhaps it truly did lead to treasure.
“I wish my girlfriend were Lü Bu and I were his Fangtian halberd. Then she could hold my shaft.”
Shengsheng stared.
Her horizons had certainly expanded.
She would pay handsomely for a pair of eyes that had never read those words.
“What do you think, Shengsheng? It must be a code, right?” Zhiyu asked excitedly.
Even Meiren Liu looked expectantly at Shengsheng. In her eyes, the Chief could do anything.
Shengsheng said nothing.
How could she express her envy that neither woman understood?
“Where did you find this?” she finally asked after recovering her voice.
“I just told you. It was in the secret room in my mother’s chamber.” Zhiyu thought, then turned to fetch another sheet. “There’s more!”
Shengsheng pressed her lips together as she accepted it.
That damned, uncontrollable curiosity.
Do you remember what we once mentioned?
Curiosity was an essential part of being Shengsheng Zhou.
And so she courted death by unfolding the second page.
“While working as a nude model at an art academy, a girl once humiliated me in public. She demanded, ‘Are you going to let anyone draw or not? You keep getting bigger and smaller!'”
Shengsheng went still.
Predecessor, did you imagine yourself amusing?
She folded the wretched paper without expression.
She could now be certain its author had been a greasy, obscene male transmigrator.
Never mind. She had no need to claim this relative.
“Remember, neither of you must ever read these pages again,” Shengsheng told Zhiyu and Meiren sternly.
Both looked confused.
“They are cursed objects. If you study them too long, you become dirty.”
Meiren pressed, “How dirty?”
Shengsheng smiled. “Yellow and greasy.”
Meiren covered her face in horror. “I won’t look. Do you know how hard I worked to become this fair?”
Heaven knew where Fusheng had gone. In any case, Shengsheng had no choice but to stay with Zhiyu that night.
It had been so long since they shared a bed. Lying shoulder to shoulder felt wonderfully familiar.
Staring into the darkness, Shengsheng suddenly remembered how Zhiyu and Xiao Ming used to fight over sleeping beside her.
Xiao Ming…
She wondered how he was.
Thinking of him, she closed her eyes.
* * *
After Shengsheng exchanged her palace uniform for ordinary clothes, Meiren styled her hair in two little maid’s buns. The look made her seem several years younger.
She and Meiren followed Zhiyu, one on either side.
Shengsheng asked quietly, “Won’t her mother be suspicious when I suddenly appear?”
Meiren gave her a knowing smile. “Don’t worry, Chief. Her mother is a fool. She won’t notice.”
Shengsheng stared.
Was that truly not an insult?
The moment she crossed the threshold, a voice came from inside.
“Daughter, where did you pick up another little maid? What a pretty thing. Come give this lord a kiss.”
Shengsheng stopped.
The beauty at the table sat with one leg crossed, hair loose, and looked almost exactly like Zhiyu.
Some strange telepathy passed between them. The moment their eyes met, Zhiyu’s mother’s expression changed.
She shot to her feet, raced toward Shengsheng, and stared intently at her face.
“There are five kinds of delivery service: ZTO, YTO, Best Express, and…”
“This concubine accuses Noble Consort Xi of adultery!”
Something engraved in Shengsheng’s DNA forced out the answer.
The apparent maid–actually a spy Madam Jiang had planted there–jerked. Her eyes widened involuntarily.
Everyone knew the emperor’s newest, most favored consort had surpassed even Noble Consort Duan.
And her title was Noble Consort Xi.