She had long known that Imperial Concubine Mei was not one to play nice. Hence, she always took precautions and safety measures to ensure that she wouldn’t be betrayed by the Imperial Concubine. However, she never would have imagined that her plans were thorough to the point where she was able to start taking necessary measures already.
The fact remained that Imperial Concubine Mei wasn’t as influential as she was before. In this game of chess, Consort Hui was the one who made the first move— the doctor was dead and the links to the medication also steered clear of her way too. Now, the only remaining threat was none other than Imperial Concubine Mei herself…
Consort Hui looked at the blue sky outside the window as her gaze gradually darkened.
…
The Yinshuang Palace that was once proud of the spring breeze was only desolate and deserted at this moment.
In the summer, when the sun got stronger, Imperial Concubine Mei found that her face became even more uncomfortable as the purple scars didn’t fade away. She stayed in her room for too long and occasionally, she wanted to go out and get some fresh air outside, but her skin would start to become sore when it was exposed to the sun.
After calling upon an imperial doctor, he said that her skin no longer possessed the tolerance to withstand the sunlight.
In other words, she would have to live in the dark for the rest of her life.
Whenever she thought about this, she couldn’t wait to slash apart the old and the young imbeciles of the Mingyue Palace. She made two witchcraft voodoo dolls and hid them in the room. Every day, she would stab needles into them, but impaling one thousand or even ten thousand needles were insufficient to fully vent the unparalleled anger in her heart.
When she heard that Emperor Lin would start to reinvestigate the premature birth of Xiao Lan that year, the hatred in her heart eventually morphed into fear.
Once it was revealed that she was the culprit, with the way His Majesty was treating her now, she wouldn’t even have the time to appeal for a chance at proving her innocence. Being by his side for so many years, she was more than aware of how heartless he could be.
Besides, her father was still handling matters at the Southern River. Coupled with the fact that her family had lost all the benefits they reaped once she lost her imperial favour, the agility of her actions could not compare to Consort Hui’s as she hadn’t even gotten a reply letter from her family.
Now, there are only two maidservants and one eunuch left in the Yinshuang Palace, all of whom belonged to the Liu family. Otherwise, they would not remain loyal to her in such a situation. Imperial Concubine Mei’s intelligence was not to be undermined; she did notice the warning signs rather early on, after all.
The person who assassinated Lin Feilu was none other than the eunuch who sided with her. He was called Liu San and he had quite a variety of skills as he was able to silently handle a number of matters for her throughout the years.
Imperial Concubine Mei ordered Xixiang, “Send Liu San to guard my room.”
Xixiang accepted the order and went out to look for Liu San. She remembered that he was heading to the Imperial Household Department to obtain his share of wages, so she didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until the sky turned dark and signalled the passing of evening that Xixiang started to panic slightly when she still didn’t see him return.
After hurriedly reporting the situation to Imperial Concubine Mei, her face turned pale. When she glanced at the dark sky outside the window, she felt a strong wave of anxiety rousing in her heart.