A feeble Honorable Lady who had fallen out of favor for many years. Two deadweight children. No wonder Mingyue Palace was easily discounted and disregarded because it was simply a gathering of the weak and sickly.
Xiao Lan’s only current concern was that the person who threw the pebbles might turn on her family and report them to the authorities. She was so worried that her mind wandered off while she was offering incense to the prayer altar, until the incense ash fell and scalded the back of her hand. Startled, she hastily chanted “Amitabha Buddha” twice before inserting the incense into the incense burner.
Standing beside her, Lin Feilu took her mother’s hand and blew on it gently. She spoke in a soothing tone, “Mother, nothing will happen, everything is now over.”
Xiao Lan frowned and said softly, “I can’t stop feeling uneasy. Who else would help us? Do they mean us harm or is this an act of kindness? Why would they do this?”
Lin Feilu did not seem to care, “No matter who it was, whether he had good or bad intentions, the matter is over now. The deceased is dead, and even if they have other plans, there is no evidence to point to us. Mother has no need to worry. “
In truth, she could already guess who it was. She was certain that the other party was not malicious.
In this Imperial Palace, there were only a few people she had good affinity with. Additionally, since the other party could get over palace walls in the middle of the night, they must know martial arts. She recalled that the calluses on Song Jinglan’s palm were thicker than Xi Xingjiang’s, who had studied martial arts under a military expert since he was a child.
To survive living in a foreign nation, naturally he would have picked up a few life-saving skills unknown to others.
It’s just that she did not expect that he would take such a great risk to help her.
Was it just because of the silver charcoal she gave him earlier?
She internally sighed, Doing good deeds without seeking any recognition at all, that pretty boy is not only grateful but benevolent as well.
Since the other party was unwilling to reveal themselves, she certainly would not look into it and just continued to pretend as if she did not figure out who helped them.
The benevolent pretty boy was ineligible to participate in the year-end banquet, thus he was not present to witness the events of that night. Although the authorities in the Imperial Palace imposed a gag order, the world’s best gossip-scout and swordsman, Ji Liang, was there as the events unfolded that night. That was how Song Jinglan managed to learn of the details of the matter.
After listening to Ji Liang’s recount of that night, Tiandong was stunned, “She planned all of that?” When the shock had passed, he looked at His Highness and asked hesitantly, “Did Your Highness help plan this?”
Song Jinglan leaned back lazily in his chair and flipped through his book, “All I did was to inform her of Imperial Concubine Jing’s plan.”
He originally thought that the fifth princess would just simply avoid this disastrous affair. After all, she was just a young girl. At her age, perhaps she could deal with Lin Xi, but she could not have possibly take on Imperial Concubine Jing. So, he thought she would just sidestep Imperial Concubine Jing’s schemes this time, then find a way to retaliate at her in the future.
Yet it never occurred to him that the fifth princess was bold enough to take this opportunity and was capable of completely obliterating the other party.
It seems that he had underestimated that little girl.
Tiandong did not realize that the lady that His Highness was referring to was actually the fifth princess. He naively commented with a sigh, “I did not expect Honorable Lady Lan to be such a masterful schemer. The women of the Great Lin Imperial Harem are truly frightening.”
Song Jinglan laughed. He did not plan on revealing the truth. He changed his sitting posture to a more comfortable one and turned his fingers to flip over the next page of the book.