Chapter 5
No. Apart from me, at least one other person in this world knew there was something wrong with Siluo.
The maid who had warned me before.
After Siluo hanged herself, that maid had disappeared too. I had asked where she had gone. The servants stammered that, after slandering an innocent woman, she could no longer stay in Fucai Palace and had been transferred elsewhere.
She had been perceptive, and kind enough to warn me. Instead of receiving the reward she deserved, she had suffered for my stupidity and neglect.
Even if it achieved nothing, I had to find her first.
The palace was vast, but the Palace Service Bureau kept records of every servant. Whether she was dead or alive, and where she was now, would be easy to find out.
The following afternoon, while walking in the flower gardens, I found excuses to send away my attendants.
One young maid remained. She knelt at my feet and refused to leave. “Sister Ah Luo said I mustn’t leave Your Highness for even a moment.”
Losing the jade ring had evidently made Siluo watch me more closely.
I spoke coldly. “You obey her so faithfully. Aren’t you afraid I’ll punish you?”
She shivered. “Please spare me, Princess. Sister Ah Luo will be very angry if she finds out. I don’t want to end up like Ah Cai.”
That familiar name made me frown.
“Ah Cai? What happened to her?”
Trembling, the maid looked around before whispering, “You’re avoiding Sister Ah Luo because you have something to do, aren’t you? If you’re looking for someone, try the Long Alley. You mustn’t go to the Palace Service Bureau. There are too many eyes and ears there.”
Interesting. She appeared terrified of Siluo, yet seemed to understand what I wanted and volunteered the information.
She had a round face, and the dark eyes darting about were as round as grapes.
“Your name is Yuzhu?”
I remembered her, always trailing behind Siluo, with a sweet tongue. I hadn’t expected such a quick mind as well.
It seemed that, with my changed outlook in this second life, I was noticing details entirely different from before.
I hurried to the Long Alley with Yuzhu.
In a small, dingy courtyard, more than a hundred chamber pots were piled in the center.
Yuzhu covered her nose with one hand and pointed behind the courtyard with the other.
An older palace maid blocked my way with a bow and a scrape. “Oh, my lady, where are you going? This is no place for you.”
Yuzhu shook her head at me.
The people here could toil their whole lives without ever leaving the Long Alley. This woman had never seen me and assumed I had wandered in by mistake.
I walked straight ahead, brushing her aside.
Yuzhu hurried after me. She pulled a pearl from my cuff and pushed it into the woman’s hand.
“Keep your mouth shut if you want to live.”
Behind the courtyard, a dozen maids in coarse hemp clothes sat sprawled on the ground scrubbing chamber pots, their faces numb and dejected.
Only one was different.
Her hands were quicker, her eyes brighter. She was muttering to herself.
“Heaven gave me talents; they must have their use. Spend a thousand gold, and it will all come back! Another one thousand and five pots, and I’ll be a level-two Long Alley maid!”