Chapter 39: The Mad Queen

  "I don't want to learn piano!" I don't know why, but every time I see her, I feel uncomfortable in my heart. It's probably because of her status. The family I yearn for doesn't accept me, and no one accepts me, including her. As the same Miss of Zuo Xiang Fu, our treatment is worlds apart.

  "Mei Lingxue! This morning I came here, thinking a thousand times about how to get close to you, but your one sentence just wiped out everything I wanted to say. I know the prince likes you... She hugged her guitar, gritted her teeth and endured it, finally saying: "But you can't look down on people like this either, he asked me to teach you piano, so I have to deliver, whether or not you learn is your business!"

  After finishing speaking, Mei Lingxue put down the zither and sat down.

  She plucked a few notes, began to explain, then suddenly pressed the piano and looked up at me with entangled eyes, her face flushed for a long time before saying: "I... can I call you sister?"

  "Boom" My ears suddenly burst open, I looked at her in surprise, she was so beautiful, with a gentle and elegant demeanor, her eyes were so soft.

  I knew she must have hesitated for half a day before asking such a question.

  Mei Ling stood up and walked to my side: "I know Father has never liked you, but that doesn't mean we all don't like you. He didn't let us get close to you, so we couldn't do anything about it. Now we're both people of the East Palace, running into each other every time we turn around - are you really not going to acknowledge me as your sister?"

  I'm stupid, thoroughly stupid. My expectations for family have left me directionless, but Mei Ling's single utterance of "sister" has somehow given me a sense of belonging.

  Mei Ling hugged me tightly, sobbing softly and whispering "sister" in my ear.

  She wiped away the tears from her eyes, pulled me in front of the piano and taught me how to play.

  When Xuan Yuan returned in the evening, he saw such a scene and was overjoyed. He walked over and asked, "How's your study going?"

  "Lingxue is very smart and learns quickly. The piano skills I learned in three days when I was young, she mastered in just half a day!" Mei Linghua replied happily.

  I also smiled, although I haven't called her sister yet, but this is the happiest day for me in so many years.

  "Alright! Don't be too eager to succeed, it's exhausting. Fine, you can stay for lunch and have a meal with her, I... have already eaten!" Xuan Yuan Mu didn't need to eat at all, that's why he said that.

  Mei Ling was particularly happy, busy back and forth helping to set the dinner table, and later even helped me change into a slightly dirty outer garment.

  My heart feels warm, I didn't do anything, just watching her busy herself, it feels great to have a sister.

  This afternoon, I went to the Imperial Pharmacy to pick up some mugwort. On the way, I accidentally heard that someone had drowned at the Fengyue Waterside Pavilion. The three eunuchs who went down to rescue him have not come back up yet. He fell into the water this morning and by this afternoon his body still hasn't floated to the surface.

  A sense of fear crept over me and I quickened my pace, hurrying back to the Eastern Palace to secretly inform Xuan Yuan Mu.

  Xuanyuan was very surprised and called Xue Qiufeng over.

  "It's all over, something bad must have happened. The female corpse has been brought back to the original place of death by Guoshi, and her resentment must have deepened again. This time, the drowning is definitely her doing. She wants to find a scapegoat, if she can't find the right one or the body can't be resolved, she'll keep causing trouble like this. Xue big sister, you absolutely cannot go near Fengyue Water Pavilion for the next few days, it's best not to even approach the water's edge, we must think of a solution!"

  Xue Qiufeng gritted his teeth, his fingers waving back and forth as he calculated, looking particularly tricky. "Really can't do it, must get rid of it, otherwise more people will die!" After finishing speaking, he walked out.

  Xuanyuan Mu also looked worried, looking at me and then said: "Follow me for the next few days! Wherever I go, you'll follow, you're my personal maid, no one can say anything about it!"

  Like this, I followed Xuan Yuan to the front hall to handle memorials in the morning, and returned to the East Palace to study guqin in the afternoon. At night, I honestly stayed in my room reading books or doing some needlework.

  Everything looks so calm, as if no one had ever drowned in the palace, as if we all had nothing to do with this matter.

  That night, Gao Gong from the front hall came with a message that the Emperor was unwell and the imperial physician was taking his pulse. In the past, the Crown Prince would have hurried over to offer his condolences, but Xuan Yuan sat motionless in his chair, watching me practice the zither.

  "Go quickly, you are after all the crown prince!" I pressed down on the zither and looked up at him.

  "Sometimes I wonder, before he died, would he have told me all the hidden secrets? Today we had another argument in the imperial study, and he pointed at my nose saying I shouldn't have come back, haha!" Xuan Yuan Mu smiled bitterly.

  "I asked him if he was the one who made people do that, to dismember me with red thread? He changed his face, sat on the dragon chair, shaking his head, looking very troubled, why? Why is all this happening?" Xuan Yuan Mu slammed the teacup in his hand to the ground and stood up.

  I furrowed my brow, unsure of how to comfort him, that kind of distress and confusion I understood.

  Xuanyuan left and didn't let me follow him. He said the night air was thick with yin energy, and it was also drizzling outside, so he told me to stay in my room.

  I sat alone in the room, with two palace maids who had also followed Xuan Yuan out. As night deepened, I couldn't fall asleep. I plucked a few strings on the guqin, and after the lantern flickered and dimmed, it went out. I got up to relight it, when suddenly I saw a figure outside casting a shadow from the window, moving slowly and calmly.

  I rushed out of the room, outside was drizzling, that figure in white clothes swayed forward in the rain, with a pace that was clearly human.

  I followed her out, and it was a woman with very long hair, although she had a bun on the side of her head, but it was messy. Her arms hung down limply, looking very weak. She muttered something in her mouth that couldn't be heard clearly.

  She was searching around the corner of the wall in the courtyard, sometimes using her hand to scrape off the mud on the ground, and sometimes picking up a stick to poke at the ground.

  "What are you looking for?" I asked strangely from behind her, this woman was absolutely not from the East Palace, who was she?

  "Find my son, have you seen my son?"

  The woman suddenly turned her head, startling me and taking a step back. The woman in front of me was... surprisingly the Empress.

  Her eyes were sunken, her cheekbones high, and the flesh on her thin face was almost gone. Her dark complexion, in the dim light of the lanterns, looked like an undead vengeful spirit.

  "I'm looking for my son, I want my son, where have they hidden him? Have you seen him? Tell me, have you seen him? You...you say...!" Suddenly the queen rushed up like a madwoman, pinching my neck tightly and shaking my body "Give me back my son, he's all I have left, you've taken away all my children, not even leaving me one child, you're a devil, you're a devil!"