The maid that was sneaking inside the cold palace was named Xiao Mi, she was the youngest out of Concubine Shen's maids but she was one of her trusted servants, after all, she once put her life on the line for her mistress and even got a scar on her face for the sake of her mistress. Thus, even if Xiao Mi was young, she was trusted by Concubine Shen because of her sacrifices, even this task of hiding the abortion medicine in the cold palace came into her hands, after all the Liu family was putting pressure on the Emperor to let Empress Liu go and since the evidence was faint, there was a chance that the Empress would be able to get away from this matter but what if they were to provide a piece of evidence? Then what will the Liu family do?
" Hehe, after I finish with this task, I will be rewarded by concubine Shen," Xiao Mi chuckled under her breath as she skipped past the guards that were guarding the gates and walked inside the cold palace through the dog hole that was at the wall of the back of the palace. " I just need to bury this thing here and then the Empress will be finished——" just as she took out a bowl to dig into the ground of the palace, she felt a burst of cold wind sweep past her, stunned she dropped the bowl and stuttered, " Wh...Who is here? I am telling you…I am concubine Shen's personal maid, don't even think about coming at me."
A cold voice snickered as a dark shadow swept through her. " Concubine Shen …Concubine Shen she says..! Ahahaha what fun! This little maid thinks that she can scare us off with the name of a mortal Concubine, Hehehehe!" The shrill voice echoed through the dark courtyard causing Xiao Mi's heart to turn cold. She was already spooked when the shadow walked through her, and when it went through her, she felt like she has been dumped into a frozen lake, she has been staying in the palace for a long time, and she has heard all the rumours about the cold palace being haunted because of the number of concubines and Empresses took their life here, at first she thought that they were just rumours but now that she was experiencing it, Xiao Mi felt like she was going to lose her life.
She immediately threw the abortion medicine carelessly on the ground and tried to flee but she was blocked by another dark shadow and a snickering voice echoed in the courtyard. " She is running, she is running…come and catch her or else our meal will be gone!"
Meal? She was going to be eaten?
Nervousness and fear flooded her system and she immediately turned around to leave but just as she was trying to run, she came face to face with a figure that was dressed in a long robe. " Are you running after sinning?" The black figure said in a loud and domineering voice causing Xiao Mi's face to turn purple and she shook her head, " I didn't...I didn't commit a sin."
" LIES!" The figure boomed loudly and raised his hand in the air as if he was clutching someone's throat and Xiao Mi suddenly couldn't breathe anymore. Her eyes popped as she looked at the figure and strutted, " Please...Please let me go...I didn't...I wasn't the one who did it…"
" But you lent your hand, didn't you?" said the black robe figure. " Because of you, an innocent soul will die… tonight …I cannot look away from this terrible sin… you will have to come with me and become the meal of those two…"
He unclenched his hands and Xiao Mi dropped to the floor, bursting with fear she turned her head to look over at the dark figures that were approaching her and shuddered. No, she couldn't be eaten! If she was to get eaten then what will happen to her brothers? But if she was, to tell the truth, she will be punished then as well.
Li Gang saw the calculations in her eyes and he immediately smirked, fooling and blackmailing people was something that he knew best. He immediately took a step forward and said, " If you don't tell the truth… and save that innocent soul from dying, then your entire family will die tonight...I will take them with myself!"
Xiao Mi shuddered as she turned to look at the black figure, its eyes were dark pits with a fire burning in them, she could almost imagine her family being roasted alive in that burning fire.
" I will...I will go and tell the truth to the Emperor right now! Just let me go!" Xiao Mi cried as she looked at the figure in front of her. " Please …I will do as you ask me to but let me go!"
" Uh-huh." The figure shook his head. " You have committed a sin, only when you correct it will you be freed."
Xiao Mi gulped and unsteadily got up from her spot and walked towards the exit of the cold palace when something came zooming towards her, smacking her right across the face. She was almost going to yell out loud when she saw that it was the pouch of the abortion medicine that she was burying in the ground just now, stunned she looked over at the figure who said, " Don't try to act smart with me, take out all the evidence you have against the concubine and go the Emperor with me or I will send you to hell along with your family."
This time Xiao Mi didn't act up anymore, she obediently walked to her room and took out all the letters and their responses that she has hidden under the cabinet and pulled out every single thing that she could find against Concubine Shen and brought it to the Emperor, what was even scarier…no one seemed to have seen her as she did what she does right now, it was as if she was invisible.
A shudder went through her spine as she approached the Emperor's palace and announced the reason for her arrival.
" Your majesty," the second prince, Zhai Heng came bursting inside the study of the Emperor. " A maid just came in, she is saying that she is here to prove the innocence of the Empress."
With his long hair tied up with a crown sitting on top of his head, Zhai Tianyu flipped through the book and lightly said, " Just ignore that maid of the Empress, she has been coming here ever since the last hour. Yet she has brought nothing at all …she just keeps repeating that the Empress is innocent as if someone from the Liu family can be innocent."
" But that's the thing," said Zhai Heng approaching Zhai Tian Yu's table. " The maid doesn't belong to the Empress, she belongs to Concubine Shen."
Zhai Tian Yu snapped his book close and looked at his brother, the two of them exchanging a glance.
Xiao Mi shuddered when the door of the Emperor's palace opened, she wanted to run till the last second but —— her gaze flickered to the black robe man and she almost passed out. The thing has dropped its mask and now she could see its skeletal face, it was as if someone has brought back a rotten corpse to life again, compared to that scary thing, she would rather face the Emperor.
" I greet the ruler of the heavens and earth," Xiao Mi bowed in front of Zhai Tian Yu and placed the letters and evidence that she has collected against Concubine Shen and said, " These are all the evidence that Concubine Shen's child wasn't the Emperor…that child.. it belonged to her lover…. After coming to the palace, she was abandoned by you, your majesty and she found solace in her lover… but unfortunately, she got pregnant and couldn't hide it on time, so she used this chance to frame the Empress and kill that child altogether."
Once those words were said a deadly silence spread all over the courtyard, a man being cheated on was never a good thing. Whether it was the past or the future.
"Uh huh, so that black hair is actually dark green huh?" commented Li Gang with an arch of his brow. " Cheated on and even named that child after himself, this might hurt."
Jia Li snorted. " Well he deserves that, didn't you hear that he abandoned that Concubine? Does a woman have no need? Only men do? That's so sexist."
" Why are you telling me that?" said Li Gang staring at her in stunned surprise. " I am not the one who is whoring here and there, why are you snapping at me huh?"
" With that ugly face of yours, you can hardly ever get close to a female ghost much less whore around," scoffed Jia Li, her voice disdainful.
" What do you mean by that?"
" I mean exactly what I said right now."
" You bitch!"
" You bastard."
" All right you two, that's enough," separating the two of them Grandma Lan Fen said, " Just look at what's happening, there is no need for you two to get all raging."
The two of them glared at each other but then for the sake of Grandma Lan Fen, the two of them separated and turned to look at the Emperor whose face had turned purple.
He motioned the eunuch behind and the latter picked the letters up and handed it to the Emperor. He took one of the letters and tore it open to read what he read must have been pretty smutty because his face turned red, then blue and finally he started looking like a badly mixed black current ice cream.
" That's what you get for keeping so many wives," said Jia Li channelling her inner Liu Hui Ying with a disgusted expression. " I can't believe that such a good looking man is such a slag of a man."
" I just hope that he allows Liu Hui Ying to get a divorce," said Grandma Lan Fen with a worried expression. " Not for her sake but his… Hui Ying is a stubborn woman and she really hates womanisers, she will rather chuck herself off a cliff than consummate her marriage with that man."
" More like chuck him off," amended Li Gang as he folded his arms and stared at the Emperor. " I don't think that there will be a divorce though, didn't you see that instead of sending her away, he ordered her to die…the relationships in this era were messy, I don't think that it's going to be that easy."
Jia Li only sneered. " Then I will pray for his and his little brother down there."
" Where are you looking?" Seeing that she was staring at another man's nether regions, Li Gang immediately whipped to stand in front of her.
" What is it to you? They are my eyes, I will look wherever I want to," said Jia Li with a huff.
" No, you don't .."
" Why not?"
Li Gang moved his mouth but when he couldn't say anything he just crossed his arms and said, " You just can't all right?"
" You …"
Grandma Lan Fen sighed and interrupted their bickering, " Is this the time or place for you two to flirt?"
" We are not flirting!"