“What’s the matter with you? You look like you have no spirit.” Nearing the time when their duty would be over, in the inner partition at the back of the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, Yu Gan took advantage of everyone being busy with their errands and sneaked in then said this to Hui Ming.
Since taking the initiative to speak in response in front of Imperial Concubine Xian for Yu Gan, a lot of goodwill towards her grew from Yu Gan, although there were concerns about Wei-gugu, and she did not dare to get along with her openly, but in private she became much closer to her.
Yu Gan was also an interesting person, she made it clear to Hui Ming early on—— “I’m don’t mean to deliberately ignore you when we’re outside, I’m just afraid that Wei-gugu would make it difficult for me1, also my elder sister had repeatedly ordered me not to stand out, if you fault me, I also won’t say anything, I won’t come look for you in the future too, but if you don’t blame me, we can still talk privately.”
Hui Ming naturally wouldn’t blame her, even though she shared a room and had a somewhat mutual affection in the beginning with Qiu Ya, since the incident happened she had stayed at a respectful distance from her, let alone Yu Gan, a fellow-worker who generally was not familiar with her, but hearing what she said instead felt that this girl was unexpectedly somewhat frank and adorable, and she had lived again, so although she didn’t mind being alienated by others, it was not her natural disposition to willingly be cut off from others, even when it was happening on the spot.
She didn’t expect that Yu Gan turned out to be indeed sincere, unexpectedly noticed her feeling dispirited today, and especially came over to ask.
It’s only the matter about Su-gonggong, which was not easy to talk about with other people, so Hui Ming hearing this just shook her head, but didn’t say anything, Yu Gan looked at her complexion, then sat down on the wooden chest on the side, and guessed: “The errands are all good… is it because of Chief Steward Su?” She paused after saying this, then seeing Hui Ming didn’t refute, Yu Gan thought that she had guessed the reason, lowered her voice, and in a somewhat hateful manner said: “Didn’t I tell you, that you should flatter properly, didn’t you coax well? Did he bully you? “
When Hui Ming heard this, she gave a wry smile, it’s true that she wasn’t able to coax well, but to say that Su-gonggong bullied her… on the account that she was already familiar with Yu Gan, Hui Ming couldn’t help defend Su-gongong and sort it out with some words: “You misunderstood, Su-gonggong is not that kind of person, and I don’t need to deceive him.”
“Not deceiving, then are you sincere?” Yu Gan stuck out her tongue after hearing this and didn’t seem to believe what she said: “Being unwilling is being unwilling, why speak like this, I even told you that I was just cajoling His Majesty, if you still don’t believe me then there’s nothing I can do, right?”
In fact, this was why Yu Gan was willing to be good friends with Hui Ming, the people around thought that this Song Hui Ming was interested in clinging to power and wealth, and that before arriving to serve the emperor was just putting on an act of being anxious and worried all day long, but it was only Yu Gan who was somewhat wholeheartedly clear about Hui Ming’s feelings.
No matter how powerful, good-looking, and noble, unwilling was unwilling, she herself didn’t even want to serve His Majesty, the Royal Prerogative2, so what’s so strange about Hui Ming not wanting to share food3 with Steward Su? It’s clear that they were unwilling but were simply not allowed to disobey, she and Hui Ming, the both of them were similar to what her older sister had said, they were what’s called fellow sufferers that empathize with each other!
Hui Ming only smiled at this, knowing she couldn’t clearly explain it to Yu Gan, so she didn’t say anything more, and just let her silence acknowledge her statement, then said, “I’m fine, I know what you mean, but your words about His Majesty, don’t mention it so casually, a mishap might happen sooner or later.”
Yu Gan, after hearing what she said, pursed her lips revealing a small dimple: “I’m not afraid, I’ve been prepared to serve in the bedroom since I was ten years old, and am already unhappy enough, if I still act as cautious as my sister, and dare not say anything, then what’s the point of living?”
Hearing these words, Hui Ming became silent for a little while, these two, Yu Gan and her sister, were indeed serving in the bedroom, and it seemed that His Majesty’s health became a little better around the period during the year before last, she even vaguely remembered that of the two sisters, due to Yu Gan being more easygoing, was more favored by His Majesty, and was rewarded with many things, yet in private was talked about by many palace maids with sour jealousy.
And finally …
When the Little Majesty replaced the person staying inside the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, these familiar imperial servants were almost gone, as for Yu Gan who was living well, she went to another place after His Majesty died, she was also unlucky and lost her life, but because they were not familiar with each other in her previous life, Hui Ming really didn’t pay attention to it.
It’s just that thinking about it, after Rui Wang staged a rebellion in the previous life the imperial servants were harvested like Chinese leeks4, and she was afraid that Yu Gan was also…
With this thought Hui Ming’s heart sank, but she also really closed her mouth, she stopped calling out Yu Gan about the cautious subject she was speaking of, and on one hand simply listened to Yu Gan’s gossip, while on the other hand one by one locked the gold-plated boxes containing His Majesty’s ornaments, she checked them carefully, and put them back neatly in the yellow rosewood cabinet against the wall, only then did she clap her hands and turned her head, saying, “Have you sorted out all your errands?”
When Yu Gan heard this, she made an “ah” sound, and looking at the sky outside then also took her leave: “Not yet, I have to call my sister!”
Hui Ming clearly understood her meaning, and also gave her a wave, pretending to be unfamiliar with her, appearing to just be properly tidying up, she too wore her big outdoor clothes, and went out the door with gloves on.
However, Hui Ming didn’t directly go back to the covered walkway, but went to the corner gate where the imperial servants went in and out, and stood waiting in the cold wind for about half an hour, only then did she see the person she waited for from a distance.
“Hui-gugu?”
This time Hui Ming didn’t take the initiative to say hello, but walked slowly forward, then as soon as Su-gonggong and Yuan Bao caught up after her, she heard Yuan Bao give a somewhat astonished cry: “I thought I saw wrong, but it’s really gugu.”
Hui Ming, seeming to have just discovered the two of them, stopped in her steps, gave a slight courtesy to Su-gonggong, and with her face still as calm, nodded and replied, “What a coincidence.”
Though after saying that this time, Hui Ming didn’t take the initiative to talk with Su-gonggong like before, instead, she bowed her head slightly and took a step back, waited and looked, with the meaning of wanting to behave according to the rules, waiting for the two of them to pass by before continuing on her own way after them.
Su Jin upon seeing this, imperceptibly tightened his palms, and although knew that he really shouldn’t meddle at this time, it’s just that at this moment …
Looking up at the already dark sky, Su Jin who had currently taken a few steps, originally wanting to take this opportunity to quicken his speed and walk past, but against all reason it seemed like something was dragging at his feet, so instead, the more he walked the slower he got, until he finally stopped, turned around, and waited for Hui Ming to arrive, then he spoke to the person behind him with a heavy voice: “There’s still another hour before it’s time to close the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, what are you doing here?”
Su-gonggong sure enough did ask.
Hui Ming, when she heard this, couldn’t help but slightly curve her eyebrows, the sullen feeling she had in her heart the whole day seemed to have dissipated a lot, but she still deliberately showed the same customary behavior on the surface: “Replying to Gonggong, the cold wind had been strong these couple of days, and I was wondering if Xu-momo‘s legs are hurting badly, so I thought I would go down early, then drop by on the way.”
What on the way? Hui Ming resided in the small side room, there’s no need to go out of the palace gate, while with Xu-momo’s status as as a close female attendant resided outside the Hall of Heavenly Virtue on the west side, which was almost isolated, it’ll take two quarters of an hour to go through the palace, what is there to see, can’t it wait until tomorrow during the day when on duty, did you have to pick this dark night to go?
Su Jin hearing this just firmly frowned, in his mind words to dissuade was already at the tip of his tongue, but on second thought, remembering his own intentions, and at the last minute swallowed it back again.
This was originally a private matter, he and Hui Ming should not be involved … talking too much like this would inevitably lead to troublesome suspicion, having endured for six days, he couldn’t fall short, and say such things again to make her misunderstand.
Su Jin inwardly gritted his teeth, and after slightly nodding, went ahead first.
Hui Ming, who followed behind, didn’t notice Su-gonggong’s thoughts at all, after that, she just slowly followed, her pace almost brisk.
Although she understood Su-gonggong’s estrangement early in the morning, Hui Ming’s heart felt inevitably wronged, but having stayed in this palace for several decades, Hui Ming was no longer the kind of person who delayed importatant matters because of a temporary mood.
After coming to her senses, she also knew that wanting to get close to others, especially a superior, was never an easy thing, not to mention that now in order for Su-gonggong to avoid suspicion, had intentionally alienated her.
Since she had refused to give up so easily, in that case, if the mountain doesn’t want to come to me, then I will go to the mountain.
Hui Ming had clearly thought about it, to avoid suspicion when she directly looked for Su-gonggong, or called out to Su-gonggong, in the palace where there were major rules, and no easy way to have a talk, it just had to wait for after duty, and try to find a way to meet Su-gonggong.
This so-called going to see Xu-momo, she of course also intentionally found this reason, all palace attendants with ample status lived in the slightly remote but spacious and quiet west side area, Xu-momo’s residence in the palace was not far from where Su-gonggong resided in, and it all passed through the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, naturally, it was also on the way, so to happen to meet on the road, it was reasonable to invariably greet each other.
It was often said that it’s harder to be cold and detached when you look someone in the eyes, she kept to the rules well, moreover to frequently run into each other would she still worry about not having something to talk about? Right now, there’s still time, as long as they find a common language, so she would properly grasp a sense of propriety again, and after Su-gonggong felt reassured, without any unecessary misgivings, she would little by little persist until she succeeded, even a piece of stone can be polished round, not to mention, she was still right about Su-gonggong’s gentleman’s kind temperament.
Because she had already made such preparations on this day, Hui Ming was able to shrug off Su-gongong’s silence at the moment, in fact, to have made it to this situation, she was even very satisfied.
With today’s admonishment, she was without exception a little worried that Su-gonggong would just walk away and simply not pay attention to her at all.
Although she was ready, she was also an ordinary person, if people were always avoided and disliked so plainly and clearly as it was right now, although she could hold on, she would still feel uncomfortable deep down …
Recalling the scene early that morning, Hui Ming couldn’t help but caress the somewhat tightness in her chest, but after recovering, she told herself to forget the inexplicable grievance.
It was just a bit of polite alienation, compared with the disgust and loathing she expressed towards Su-gonggong in her previous life, what was this?
In the silence where both sides had their own worries, they would soon already walk out the short distance of the palace, walking around the palace was not a trifling matter, aside from how the floor tiles were flat and clean, lanterns were hung at the doorways, and there were stone-carved jewel-encrusted lampposts5 standing at intervals along the road, you could almost draw a picture from it, from time to time, you could also encounter some imperial guards at the side, it could be said that nothing can happen even with your eyes closed.
Up to the time they came near the west side area, the residence of the palace attendants had noticeably become a lot darker, in addition, waste water on the ground formed into snow ice from time to time, if not careful it could make people slip, apart from the pain and trouble, the palace was not a place for idlers to nurse injuries.
When they arrived, Hui Ming also disregarded keeping up with Su-gongong’s footsteps, but kept her head lowered, opened her eyes wide, and walked step by step with particular stability and caution—
Until she saw the illumination of a lantern suddenly stop in front of her.
Hui Ming looked up and saw the figure of Su-gonggong concealed in the dark night, through the warm light of the thick white mulberry paper, she only heard the cold voice of Su Gonggong as he deeply uttered: “Where is the lantern6 that you brought back last time?”
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
1. 穿小鞋: idiom, lit. make sb. wear tight shoes ↩ 2. 九五之尊: lit. the honor of nine-five [to which only the emperor is entitled;] imperial throne; the title of emperor. (I found this hard to translate, basically it’s a title to describe the emperor). ↩ 3. 对食: Refers to the relationship between palace maids and eunuchs. They fall in love privately, meaning that they can’t sleep together because of a eunuch’s predisposition, but they eat together and comfort each other’s loneliness. ↩ 4. 割韭菜: often used as a metaphor in the Chinese stock market, where unexperienced individual investors abound and continuously have their riches “harvested” by institutions and more experienced investors during the constant fluctuation of stock prices; retail investors who lose their money to more experienced operators (i.e., they are “harvested” like garlic chives). ↩ 5. 石雕的宝盖灯柱↩ 6. Chapter 23↩
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
Thank you for reading. If you like the story, consider supporting the author! Also, if you like my work so far kindly consider fueling my coffee addiction! (❤ω❤)
In vague confusion, Hui Ming blankly stood by the outside wall of Hall of Heavenly Virtue for a while with her heart full of doubt.
Why was she here? What was she doing?
Oh, that’s right, Hui Ming suddenly remembered, Rui-wang had rebelled, and hearing that many imperial servants inside the Hall of Heavenly Virtue were killed, she had wanted to inquire who had perished, were there any female maids she was acquainted with, in addition, there were rumors that Su-gonggong also …
She needed to take a look.
She wanted to figure it out right now, then all at once, Hui Ming’s eyes turned to the old imperial servant who was sweeping the outer courtyard of the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, that’s right, she could ask him, Hui Ming walked forward, but before she could speak, the wrinkled old imperial servant already knew her purpose, and shaking his head chanted the same words: “Dead, all dead …”
Hui Ming froze in place, then heard her own voice as light as a feather say: “What about Chief Eunuch Su, Su-gonggong?”
“Chief Eunuch Su?” The murky gaze of the old imperial servant showed impatience: “Dead! Also dead!”
Dead, too!
——————————
Dreaming up to here, Hui Ming struggled for a while, and as if finally struggling out of cold water, suddenly sat up.
With her chest still throbbing violently, Hui Ming faintly gasped for breath, she turned to look at the dark sky outside, only to discover that at this time her palms were filled with cold sweat.
Lu An, who was beside her, noticed her movement, turned over, and called out in a daze, “Gugu?”
“It’s nothing, I had a nightmare.” Hui Ming gently shook her head, her voice a bit hoarse.
She had been having this dream for several days now, Hui Ming stroked her chest and took a moment before coming back to reality.
Strangely enough, when she learned of the news of Su-gonggong’s death in her previous life, she was clearly just shocked for a while, besides feeling somewhat desolate, she kept watch over the Young Royal Highness following that, looking after him for more than 20 years, there was no other obvious response at all.
Even in the few days after she came back, when she found out that Su-gonggong was still alive, though she admittedly was glad from the bottom of her heart, thinking about repaying his kindness, but it was not like this where she couldn’t even sleep peacefully.
Since she had sent the steamed hibiscus egg the day before yesterday, then afterwards listened to Su-gonggong’s long speech of carefully warning her repeatedly, after coming back she would be awakened by such a nightmare time and time again, and had been going on for several days, which she seriously didn’t know why.
Maybe thinking about it all day, so she dreamt of it at night? Hui Ming thought, this was not to say that it’s unreasonable, these days, she was really thinking practically all the time about how to get Su-gonggong to escape from the matter of the Ghost Festival two years later, and live a long life in this lifetime.
She lightly turned and leaned against the kang1, reached for a bowl of water from the small table under the kang and took a few sips, although the pot was placed on a rattan holder2, it had already turned cold after the night, Hui Ming taking a few mouthfuls used this coolness as stimulation to wake up instantly, and being tightly covered by a thick quilt, she slowly recovered, then leaned on the pillow and pondered about having not been able to speak with Su-gonggong for several days now.
It’s been four… five days already? Hui Ming used her fingers and calculated, it was not just Su-gonggong, to speak of it, she hasn’t even seen Yuan Bao in these four or five days, when the charcoal was delivered yesterday, she happened to be out, and it was Lu An who received it.
This won’t do, at this rate, how could she get close to Su-gopnggong so that she could ask about the major event involving Rui-wangye? After a few more days, she ought to become diligent and go again! As it happened, having not seen them for a few days, she didn’t know if Su-gonggong’s stomach problem had improved, and whether he drank the millet and fuling herb powder every day.
Thinking like this, Hui Ming laid down for a while, then hearing outside that the time was almost near, she simply sat up under the dimness of the night, took out a few silver coins from the wooden box rewarded by Imperial Concubine Xian last time which was placed at the end of the bed, got up and quickly tidied up, then went to the kitchen like last time and asked for a bowl of non-glutinous rice congee boiled with oil, at the time she was about to leave, she saw that there were thinly sliced dishes of cucumber in the kitchen, though it was something simple, but it looked fresh and tasty, so she cheekily asked for a plate and put them in the food box then sent them to Su-gonggong’s room.
It was still quite early, but there wasn’t anyone in Su-gonggong’s room already, even the door was tightly locked, this made Hui Ming slightly surprised, this room was originally a servant room to temporarily rest in, it was at the back of the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, and there was nothing valuable inside, whenever she used to come and go there the door was usually unlocked, especially after she started to send meals to Su-gonggong, Yuan Bao also specifically mentioned it to her, saying that if there was no one in the future, she could just go right in, and by all means don’t stay outside under the cold.
Why is it locked today?
Did Yuan Bao forget? Hui Ming paused, she waited outside for a moment while stamping her feet in the cold wind, but seeing that Yuan Bao and Su-gonggong were late in coming, and was afraid that the hot congee would soon turn cold on such a day, after thinking for a moment, she had to turn around, carried the food box and hurried back to her own room, she quickly placed her hands and feet next to the brazier to keep warm, and then without delay, immediately went back to her duty.
The snow was slowly melting, and although the path around the Hall of Heavenly Virtue was already being cleaned by the imperial servants every day, the snow that were melting would inevitably seep out a little, especially around the rooms and corridors where the masters won’t step foot in, there were still a lot of dirt and mud on the floor tiles.
The imperial servants didn’t want the snow to stain their shoes, so they all walked around using the clean walkways, but Hui Ming with her hurried steps, nevertheless did not have such skills, so she just picked up her skirt and went straight to the floor tiles with the snow.
Running around in the snow like this, her shoes were already mostly wet, fortunately, because she picked up her skirt, the corners were fairly clean, and nothing could be seen when it was smoothed down, it was just that the shoes and socks that were wrapped around her feet were all wet, and she had to endure this difficulty all the way.
Hui Ming inwardly frowned, but she couldn’t care about this too much at the moment, she could only receive the instructions of Wei-gugu together with the other maids on duty today, and as usual, she prepared His Majesty’s accessories for the day, holding the lacquered tray to wait outside the curtain of the bedroom, then before long, following a command, she stepped forward.
Hui Ming was very familiar with such daily errands, and could hardly go wrong even with her eyes closed, therefore at the moment, most of her mind were divided into paying attention to Su-gonggong.
According to His Majesty’s routine, it was always the job of the female attendants to personally serve, and the eunuchs never got involved, therefore, Su-gonggong just stood there with his eyes lowered, quietly standing at the entrance, nose lowered and head down, as if he had no interest in anything inside the hall.
Hui Ming stared at him for a long time, but today’s Su-gonggong did not look as acute as before, even until Hui Ming served holding the lacquer tray and retreated, Su-gonggong didn’t give her a look, but just stood where he was, simply determined to stay like that!
Hui Ming lightly pursed her lips, somehow in a bit of a depressed mood when she went back out.
Although Hui Ming was also on duty in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, compared with Su-gonggong who was chosen by the emperor, it was only when His Majesty changed clothes that she would come forward to serve, when there was no errand, she wouldn’t serve in front of the emperor, when His Majesty has finished his morning meal, he would go to Yang Qian Hall to deal with the state affairs, and Su-gonggong would also accompany him, so as the morning passed, Hui Ming failed to find any opportunity to meet Su-gonggong when he was free, and she had to drink the rice congee she had asked for early that day to warm herself.
In this way, until noon came, when His Majesty took a nap, Hui Ming who was paying attention the whole day finally found a free time, and at the gate west of the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, she caught sight of Su-gonggong wearing a large black coat with Yuan Bao who were in a hurry and were just about to leave.
“Su-gonggong!” Hui Ming’s face carried a smile, then called out a greeting from the distance.
Su Jin’s footsteps stopped, and under the cover of the large coat, the palm of his hand holding the ruyi knot trembled slightly, but his face was just like the gloomy weather, without the slightest billows.
“Where is Gonggong going?” Hui Ming raised the corners of her mouth, a light tone, and a somewhat concerned look on her face: “I wanted to send Gonggong a bowl of rice congee this morning, but unfortunately the door was locked, and I still didn’t see you until the hour of chen3,Gonggong being this busy, have you had breakfast?”
Su Jin raised his head stiffly, his eyes almost greedily swept across Hui Ming’s face, he had not spoken to her for six days, and at the moment, towards this kind of Hui Ming who was showing her utmost care, he wanted to lift his head and properly look at her, but the shame and timidity in his heart made him not dare to look at her.
Su Jin bowed his head again, at this time, he knew that he should say something cold, so that she could back down, and from now on not pay attention to him, but …
“Going to the Palace of Eternal Longevity.” He spoke with great effort, and immediately after, the corners of his mouth moved slightly a few times, but it turned out that he was unable to say even one of the whatever hurtful words he wanted to say.
Hui Ming hasn’t noticed anything wrong yet, and seeing Su-gonggong’s silence, somewhat in a baffle asked: “What did Gonggong want to say?” Then after a pause, she felt a little embarrassed: “But did I delay your errand?”
“No, no…” Su Jin clenched his palms tightly again, almost exhausting all his strength, and finally he just followed his remark by twisting his head to escape, saying, “I still have some important errands, if you have something, just tell Yuan Bao.”
Su-gonggong bowed his head and hurriedly spoke, then turned away and left in an almost panic, leaving only Yuan Bao standing in place smiling dryly at Hui Ming and calling out a Hui-gugu.
Hui Ming still didn’t realize what was wrong at this moment, but wondered, “Is there something wrong with Gonggong? By the way, why is the door locked in the servant room, you should have told me so I didn’t have to make a trip in vain. “
“Blame me, blame me, it’s this lowly person who forgot.” Yuan Bao lowered and scratched the back of his head, his eyes looking away, with his face full of embarrassment.
Hui Ming paused, this look was familiar to her, when she offended Wei-gugu before, Qiu Ya, Yun Hua, including Yu Gan and Ku Kou faced her like this, all of them were somewhat embarrassed and had a look that wished for her to stay away.
Thinking about the situation in the past few days, Hui Ming seemed to understand something.
Su-gonggong, in addition to the post of being the chief eunuch, there was the managing of the sacrifice for the first empress’s death anniversary, every day, he would go out early and come back late, he wasn’t deliberately dodging, just no longer purposely made room for her like in the past, so it’s really hard to have time to meet Hui Ming in private.
It was also for this reason that Hui Ming felt that Su-gonggong was getting busier these days, but she really hasn’t noticed that this was Su-gonggong intentionally alienating from her.
Until now, when she saw Yuan Bao dodging away, so being tactful and keen she suddenly realized—
Su-gonggong, did he already resent her troublesome meddling, also thoroughly explained it to Yuan Bao, and wanted to stay at a respectful distance from her?
This was also right, Su-gonggong was originally a man of honor, in her previous life, she was self-indulgent, treating him with disdain in all aspects, Su-gonggong was magnanimous and naturally didn’t care, as it happened, she was diligently attentive this time, and Su-gonggong was afraid of her misunderstanding, so naturally wanted to be polite and distant, it turned out to be something normal.
“In that case, I won’t keep you, next time when Su-gonggong has time, I’ll just express my gratitude then.” Hui Ming still smiled generously, and still spoke to Yuan Bao with the same appearance.
Hui Ming in her heart told herself, it’s just as well, it should have been originally so, she acted too hastily, she’ll just be more careful in the future, and try to find another way to get close to Su-gonggong slowly.
Even so, though in her heart she was clear about and understood this, but—
Hui Ming stretched out her hand and touched her chest, it made no sense, but she felt a little wronged.
===========================
The author has something to say:
No, don’t panic! Put down the blades in your hands! You have to trust this author, believe in the female lead! This is a short chapter! Forge through what lies ahead, which is the truth that Su-gonggong would love to see~
Small Theatre # Very fragrant2—
Su Jin: No, it’s impossible to ignore you, I’m hurting to death! I’ll jump down from here! Tell Rui-wang to die in a pit! I also have to endure ignoring you!
Hui Ming: QVQ~
Su Jin: I, I…
Hui Ming: But I came back to look for you~
Su Jin: Ahh, I can’t help it, actually I super like you! \(≧▽≦)/~
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
1. 炕: is a kind of surface that is used to sleep in like a bed, coal can be burned underneath, so that the temperature can be maintained in winter. ↩ 2. 藤编的瓷壶 ↩ 3. 辰时: 07:00-09:00 in the morning. ↩
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
Thank you for reading. If you like the story, consider supporting the author! Also, if you like my work so far kindly consider fueling my coffee addiction! (❤ω❤)
After Yu Gan said that, she became frightened that others would find out so she turned and ran away, leaving Hui Ming standing there stunned for a moment, she was originally merely listening not knowing whether to laugh or cry, until she reacted to the meaning of when Yu Gan said “make… make it difficult for you with regards to that matter”, which on the surface just made her redder, but was actually burning astonishingly!
To… to be really worthy of originally being a servant supposed to be sent to wait in the bedroom, not looking at her young age, but after passing through and had been specially transferred and taught by the Palace Office, with regards to these matters compared to other ordinary palace maids she was clearly a lot bolder, but for an “old gugu” like her(HM) who was already a dozen years old she felt ashamed for her(HM) shortcomings.
Hui Ming held out her hand and pressed her burning cheeks, originally, she thought that after she finished tidying up His Majesty’s ornaments, she would immediately send the reward of Imperial Concubine Xian to Su-gonggong. But it happened that Yu Gan made such an unscrupulous remark, so she momentarily wasn’t able to leave for a while, otherwise with her face so flushed, if someone discovered this, they would know that there was something wrong with her.
It’s just that from Yu Gan’s words, is Su-gonggong actually such a terribly terrifying person? Hui Ming came back to her senses, and while cooling her cheeks with her outstretched hands, couldn’t help but feel some doubt in her heart.
How come for her, she had never noticed it? Hui Ming recalled Su-gonggong’s deeds and words before and after her two lives.
Not to mention this time, even in her last life, though she treated Su-gonggong with coldness and a lot of disgust, that she couldn’t hold her head up when she thought about it now, but Su-gonggong was still as polite like that time, and never even spoke loudly to her.
Was it a misunderstanding by others, or… had Su-gonggong always treated her differently?
When she just thought of this, Hui Ming promptly patted her face lightly, what was this moment? Su-gonggong’s life was still hanging in the heavens, how could she still have the endeavor to tangle herself with such minor matters!
———————————————
At the same time, the other protagonist from Yu Gan’s mouth, Chief Steward Su, Su Jin was looking at the steamed egg in front of him, although he tried his best to cover it up, but he still couldn’t help show a look of hope and uncertainty.
Yuan Bao on the side was unaware of his master’s thoughts, and he built up his hope with one sentence: “It must be Hui-gugu! Coming to our room, beside Hui-gugu there’s no one else!”
Su Jin stepped forward and slowly lifted the porcelain lid, the hibiscus steamed egg1 made by the cook in the palace was smooth and tender, it was lightly decorated with a few pink hibiscus petals, and as soon as it was opened water droplets accumulated on the porcelain lid dripped, slowly sliding down the delicate and bright hibiscus petals then slightly tremblingly unto the jade-like crystal steamed egg in the round-mouth white porcelain cup, swaying increasingly, and making people’s mouth open wide.
It’s enough to deliver the meal to the master, but a palace servant wanting something like this had to speak with varnish, silver and face were even more indispensable, if it was really Hui Ming, how much words of praise did she have to say to the kitchen steward? She was young and gentle, and thin-skinned, she loathed him, but was polite and perfunctory towards him in order to protect herself, how could she lay down her face for him and beg for this kind of food?
Su Jin tightly pursed his lips, he knew that being disappointed after having hope was far more painful than having had no hope from the beginning at all, so at this moment, he simply did not let himself give birth to any slight amount of extravagant thoughts, and turned to think about other possibilities, then coldly said: “This has nothing to do with Hui Ming, go and check, there are nonetheless those that do not have eyes who think themselves as clever and do such stupid things.”
In the past, there were many inner officials inside the palace with little power in their hands that often thought very highly of themselves, every day, they would only ask the kitchen to make meals that were generally the same as their masters, this had even indistinctly become a common practice at the time of the previous emperor, they didn’t even need to take the initiative to ask, so in addition to the preparations for the masters in the imperial kitchen, another stove would naturally be set up to prepare meals for such class of inner officials, at the most rampant time, even the unfavored masters had ranked behind these class of servants.
Not long after His Majesty ascended the throne, there had been a hot-tempered noble master that often got his meals delayed due to this reason, and in anger didn’t have the least misgiving in disclosing this to the empress, the empress was furious when she heard it, and regardless of what kind of honorable qualifications they had, but all those who violated the rules, even the inner officials around the Queen Mother were all detained outside the palace gate, and was beaten with a board for no less than three days making this trend stop.
It’s just now that a few decades have passed, Empress Qi Sheng had left early, the current empress is bedridden all year round and lacks energy, this rule was no longer as strict as before, although no one dared to do it in public, there were always few brave one’s underneath, relying on those above not checking, and turning back to the behaviors of the past.
In fact, just when Su Jin was promoted to Chief Steward, there was already a “clever” person in the kitchen who took the initiative to personally present four dishes and eight bowls for his three meals, but he remembered the previous empress’ admonishment, and not only did he not welcome this, but on the contrary demoted that clever kitchen steward that day, after that incident was spread, there was no longer such a thing as a short-sighted person waiting to slam into the furnace.
It’s these kinds of people that Su-gonggong was talking about.
However, even though he was clear about his master’s meaning, Yuan Bao was an onlooker, in his heart there was still a kind of somewhat unacceptance.
Not to mention whether there was such a silly bug that would flatter the horse’s hooves, to say that even if it was to curry favor with the superior, it definitely wouldn’t be this bland as sending a bowl of steamed egg over? How can this be something presentable?
After much deliberation, the only possibility was Hui-gugu felt distressed for Master and sent it specially!
It’s just that Master insisted that it was not, although Yuan Bao didn’t agree with it in his heart, he would naturally not be so stupid as to refute it, and at the moment, merely responded neatly, then bent down to pick up the steamed egg and went out, let’s find out first.
Su Jin looked down and watched as the little lotus ceramic porcelain bewitchingly move away from his eyes, which he originally considered as nothing, but when Yuan Bao turned around, and was about to leave the door, he still couldn’t help but call out: “Wait a moment!”
In case, what if… it really was Hui Ming? With Su Jin’s intelligence, if Yuan Bao could think that there was something amiss, how could he not notice it? At this moment, he couldn’t help but have some hope in his heart, in case, if it was really Hui Ming that had sent the steamed egg for him, but then he personally instructed Yuan Bao to take it out, doing such a thing, wouldn’t it be too late to regret it?
Seeing the confusion on Yuan Bao’s face, Su Jin imperceptibly grasped the ruyi segment in his hand, and with his voice as calm as before: “Place it down first, let’s find out who sent it first.”
Coincidentally, just as Yuan Bao responded in bewilderment and was about to return, a familiar and melodious voice suddenly came from behind the curtain: “Is Su-gonggong here?”
This voice had a clear sweetness with some degree of calmness, it was Hui Ming.
Su Jin heard the sound and stood up unconsciously, but Yuan Bao who was at the door didn’t notice this and nimbly made space while his hands lifted the curtain, then smiled enthusiastically: “Master is here, Gugu came at the right time!”
Hui Ming also bowed her head and crossed the threshold, she still hasn’t seen Su-gonggong who was inside, but at first glance saw the familiar little porcelain cup in Yuan Bao’s hand, and she couldn’t help but wonder: “This is?”
Although he could be seen by the master, Yuan Bao just hurriedly said, “Gugu has come, we saw this steamed egg as soon as we came back, I had said that it was from Gugu, but Master still didn’t believe me, so I have been asked to investigate.”
“Chen Yuan Bao.” Su Jin abruptly stood behind him, rarely speaking this coldly in front of Hui Ming.
Hui Ming was also startled by this scolding, and looked up with a bit of alarm, when Su-gonggong had just recovered himself, a flash of concern flew past his eyes, and he took a few moments, then with the same somewhat stiffness said: “No, it’s nothing…”
If it was such a Su-gonggong, then there was a reason for Yu Gan’s fear this morning.
Hui Ming blinked, but unlike before where she would secretly wonder in her heart whether she had done something wrong, instead, she waited for a moment, and seeing that Su-gonggong didn’t speak anymore, she simply said: “It’s true I did send it, I am aware that Gonggong does not allow for servants to ask for separate meals from the kitchen, so I didn’t mention Gonggong’s name, the kitchen steward didn’t know who I was, and it was just a steamed egg, such a thing is common inside the palace, I thought that there was no harm in it, if it was wrong, then Gonggong also mustn’t take offense.”
This behavior of hers, was also the result after slowly thinking about it while tossing and turning last night, no matter what, Su-gonggong showed consideration towards her in all aspects, full of benevolence, and she was determined to repay his kindness, also a still more ulterior motive, to try her best to think of a method for Su-gonggong to survive the Ghost Festival rebellion less than two years from now.
Since she wanted to be involved in such a big thing, she also wanted to intervene in Su-gonggong’s decision, and as before she still had many misgivings, so it was absolutely impossible to stay away, at the very least, she could become a person that Su-gonggong trusted like Yuan Bao, only then could she speak up.
And to gain the trust of Su-gonggong, why wouldn’t she rely on herself to take the initiative to approach, is it possible to ask Su-gonggong who is a gentleman to take the initiative to get closer to her by himself? She would be someone seriously muddled then, she had wanted to repay his kindness, but how could she be reserved and scrupulous as if she were a 15-year-old girl?
Even if it was really misunderstood by Su-gonggong, at worst she would just admit it for the time being, compared to Su-gonggong’s conduct, could she really suffer a loss?
In the face of Su-gonggong’s life, this bit of her reputation is really just something trivial, even if it was thrown away, what about it?
After all, she had also been in charge inside the Imperial Palace in her previous life, Song Hui Ming, who had managed the female servants for more than ten years, Song-gugu, once she was convinced of something, she would completely put aside any unnecessary scruples, putting down the wooden box she was carrying, she took the steamed egg from Yuan Bao, then she said frankly in front of Su-gonggong with a smile: “It’s just that I have already brought it, Gonggong should eat it while it’s hot, having a stomach ailment to begin with, yet always being inconsistent when having meals, you will suffer when you grow old.”
Su Jin hadn’t recovered from the surprise that the steamed egg was really sent by Hui Ming, so when Hui Ming spoke such a long series of words without hardly stopping to rest, it all made his chest pound.
Having been caught off guard, the always cheerless and self-controlled unchanging face even when Mount Tai collapsed, Su-gonggong, became somewhat frenetically at a loss, he blankly stood there for a moment before quickly shaking his head: “How could I, what of the matter with the imperial servants, occasionally asking for certain meals is something that had existed since ancient times, where is it wrong, the thing I forbade is not this either, more— moreover, it has nothing to do with you, I should thank you…this, for this inconvenience.”
This was also true, if an imperial servant was unwell and wanted to eat something soft, or if there was a happy occasion and they wanted to celebrate, if they had the ability, it was not uncommon to spend a few silvers to ask for several dishes and snacks from the kitchen, if both were willing, and it was convenient for the servant, there was oil and water in the kitchen, it was also not done every day, so if this was not even allowed, it would be truly unreasonable.
Hui Ming in response to this smiled again, bent down and opened the lid, then said: “I had looked for Steward Zhao in the imperial kitchen for this, though it is said that a steamed egg is something simple, Steward Zhao’s handicraft is unique, Gonggong should give it a try.”
Su Jin certainly knew of Steward Zhao’s craftsmanship, the main wife in the Duke of Zhen’s2 residence was not abundant in producing an heir, after the old madam gave birth to the eldest daughter, that is the previous empress, she had a difficult time giving birth to a son at the age of nearly forty, which was Su Jin’s biological father.
As an older sister with a younger brother, the first empress had the mind of always wanting to care for her younger brother, but only for the reason that she was the empress, the whip couldn’t reach3, so as soon as her first nephew was born, the empress became even more delighted and often called him into the palace to see each other.
At that time, he was still young, but the first prince was already a bright seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy, and he was already following His Majesty in leaving early and returning late to deal with the affairs of the government, he was so busy that he didn’t even make an exemption to greet her, which made the empress feel distressed.
The previous empress having no children accompanying her4, pitied him for looking frail, and every time he entered the palace, she would prepare a variety of creamy steamed eggs, sweet and soft foods that were suitable for children, telling him to eat whatever he wanted, and would often personally feed him, saying that she regarded him as her own child, so this wasn’t doing too much.
Steward Zhao’s other craftmanship in the imperial kitchen was only mediocre at best, but this steamed egg was no secret, it was something well-known and delicious, such a reputation was naturally consumed by Su Jin when he was young.
It’s just that afterwards…
Thinking of this, Su Jin gradually lowered his eyes, slowly picked up the spoon, and placed the steamed egg in his mouth, it was clearly the same as before, sweet and soft that could be swallowed immediately after putting it inside the mouth, but what arose was only the inextricable thick taste of bitter hardship.
Hui Ming stood nearby, and although Su-gonggong didn’t say a word, she was wholeheartedly paying attention, so she naturally saw his face turn downcast.
For some unknown reason, seeing this kind of Su-gonggong, Hui Ming somehow felt her heart immediately sank as well, she thought about it, then just quietly came forward, and with her voice also lightly unhurried, almost a bit beseeching: “Don’t be angry, I have violated the rules because of my being meddlesome, I won’t be like this again.”
With Hui Ming’s gentle and soft voice, just this one sentence seemed like the clear fragrant spring had rushed through, and vaguely, the bitterness in Su Jin’s mouth seemed to have a faint sweet and sour aftertaste, this sweet and sour bitterness that indistinctly came from the tip of his tongue rushed forth into the rim of his eyes, making his movement stop, then he tightly closed his eyes, resisting the faint moistness inside them.
No, this was too shameful, he had wasted ten years inside the palace, and had long been incapable of showing emotions and anger, how come in front of her, it was unexpectedly unbearable?
Su Jin thinking this tightly clenched the spoon in his hand, even though he used this kind of pain to come to his senses, he could only keep his head down, and say in a slightly hoarse voice: “I’m not angry.” Then after a pause, did he only realize that this short explanation was too casual, and worried that Hui Ming might misunderstand, so just took a slight breath, looked up at her again, and with particular earnest said: “Hui Ming, many thanks.”
Although Hui Ming was aware that Su-gonggong actually had a pair of prominent peach blossom eyes, she never seriously kept it in mind, with his reddish eyes that apparently seemed to be slightly moist and sentimental, looking at him like this, it would make people feel unbearable, even for Su-gonggong who was usually an upright and cold person, it made her heart skip.
No, it should be said that it was precisely because Su-gonggong was like this, calm and serene, that when indifferent people looked over, it made them increasingly more flustered, almost impossible to control themselves.
Hui Ming’s expression stagnated, she stood there blankly for several breaths before compelling herself to turn her head, then hurriedly took the small wooden box she had brought with her, and pulled the conversation to proper business: “Yes, that’s right! I just went to Wan Xi5 Palace, the Imperial Concubine asked who chose me to enter the palace, this— this is the reward that Concubine Xian asked me to bring back to Gonggong.”
Not only did Hui Ming use Imperial Concubine Xian to forget Su-gonggong’s peach blossom eyes, however when Su-gonggong heard this he turned and looked straight at her, then said: “Imperial Concubine Xian?”
Hui Ming feeling flustered having been called just then didn’t dare to raise her head, so naturally, she didn’t notice the somber look on Su-gonggong’s face, hearing what he said she kept her lowered head, looked at her shoes and responded, that Imperial Concubine Xian had just asked who was the person that transferred her, and she explained the matter with Su-gonggong one after another.
Su-gonggong looked at the pear blossom wooden box engraved with the words fortune and longevity, then following Hui Ming’s explanation, he reached out and opened the wooden box, took a five-bats patterned6 gold coin, and turned it a few times in his fingertips, then slowly, gradually exerted more force again, and tightly squeezed it in his hand.
When Hui Ming looked up again, she only saw the calm face of Su-gonggong, and even had a smile on his face, then in a particularly gentle way said, “So that’s the case, then thank you very much.”
Although Su-gonggong always had a gentle attitude with her, but this sentence seemed to be extraordinarily kind and complicated, his eyes also gleamed with dew, as if there was an endless poignant feeling inside, that people couldn’t help but want to fall into those tender bottomless eyes.
This warm sentiment unexpectedly made Hui Ming catch her breath, and opening her mouth she originally wanted to say that it didn’t matter, but for some reason, after she said it, it came out as a low breath and was almost inaudible, a faint red tint also unconsciously appeared on her face, and that easy-mannered steadiness of hers when she first entered the door could actually no longer be seen.
Becoming aware of her own behavior at the moment, Hui Ming after a pause, besides gritting her teeth a little annoyed, lowered her head and inwardly took a breath, then raised her head and repeated: “It’s not a problem, Gonggong is too polite! “
Su Jin hearing this nodded slightly, the deep emotions in his eyes not only did not diminish, but became even more intense, he only looked at Hui Ming and did not take his eyes way: “They’re just some gold coins, you having asked for this steamed egg today must have wasted a lot of persuasion, it would be better to take these coins, it may be useful in the future and save some effort too.”
Facing this kind of Su-gonggong, Hui Ming didn’t know why, yet she couldn’t help but rub the corner of her clothes: “How could I, it’s just saying a few words of praise, anyway I’m also a servant of the palace, it didn’t cost anything.”
Hearing this, in addition to that deep emotion just now, Su Jin’s face showed an all the more distressed look, and his voice seemed to become especially pleasant: “In the future, you don’t have to do this anymore, if you want to do something, just ask Lu An to go, she is also experienced in her conduct and came from the Palace Affairs Office, everyone knows that she is the niece of Steward Liu, and doing things would be more inexpensive.”
Hui Ming hearing this, paused, and when she was about to speak, she heard Su-gonggong both instruct and continue to look at her: “You used to be a female embroiderer at the Bureau of Administration, fortunately there wasn’t anything troublesome and it was peaceful. But you are now in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue and it’s different, to be able to be an imperial palace servant is not simple, even those servants employed to sweep in remote places are relied on, all the more those who can enter to serve inside the palace, do not look at faces of people as nothing out of the ordinary, as who can say for sure what’s inside. You are young and has also always been simple-minded, unable to distinguish the layers upon layers of connections underneath. A few days ago, an incident such as this has happened again, although it’s not a good thing, but it can make you take care of yourself, it can be regarded as having profited from a disaster7, though no one paid attention to it, look it’s become quieter, but as long as you can accept the situation and avoid dwelling on unpleasant things, it’s actually better than forming circles and taking great pains to feel at ease.”
“And Xu-momo.” Su-gonggong paused, he touched the garment he was wearing inside: “You had previously made a pair of knee pads for her, this is very good, Momo is getting older, though she looks stubborn and willful on the outside, but actually quite soft inside, and also has a mutual affection with His Majesty growing up, you treat her sincerely and she can see that, she will also remember this in her heart, she will protect you and won’t let others bully you.”
Up until this time, Hui Ming had also finally noticed something wrong, Su-gonggong had always been cold and reticent, but now he suddenly said such long mouthful of words, it’s just that this careful exhortation appeared like…
Why did it feel like never seeing each other again?
At the thought of this, Hui Ming also secretly shook her head, they were all servants in the Imperial Palace, and they were all in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, even so, she opened her mouth and asked, “What’s the matter with Gonggong? “
Su Jin hearing this stopped for a moment then smiled warmly at her again, even that pair of prominent peach blossom eyes were bent into crescents, seeming to actually be particularly happy, and in a soft voice: “It’s nothing, you are young, and also came to serve in the Imperial Palace by my hand, afraid that you won’t be mindful and cause others to bully you.”
With that said, calculating it, she was however already several years older than Su-gonggong, Hui Ming hearing him found it a little embarrassing to offer an explanation, Su-gonggong did not refute either, and just quietly watched and listened earnestly.
In this way, seeing the time was not early, both of them were on duty, and it was not good to always delay due to small talks, Hui Ming took the initiative to take her leave.
Su-gonggong didn’t detain her, he just nodded silently, but he still seriously watched as Hui Ming’s figure disappeared out of the curtain in a few steps, ———————————————
It wasn’t until she went beyond the west side door of the Hall of Heavenly Virtue and Yuan Bao had sent Hui Ming out, that he handed the gold and silver coins wrapped in a handkerchief in her hands.
Before leaving, perhaps he saw the somewhat hesitant look in Hui Ming’s face, so Yuan Bao also explained with a smile: “Gugu there’s no need to be modest, the meal you gave Master cannot do without using silver, it’s better to just use these coins, this pattern is unique to Wan Xi Palace, anyone who has eyes can see this, if you use these coins to request for meals, not to mention it being cheap, looking at Concubine Xian’s reputation, no one would dare to be difficult again.”
Hui Ming was a little surprised when she heard this, the gold and silver coins in the palace had no other meaning but auspicious symbols of power and good fortune, the general craftsmanship in the Capital was naturally the same, but she did not expect that Concubine Xian’s to be actually this impressive and prestigious, that her palace has made its own unique five-bat-style coins, there was no one like her in the whole palace!
If this was the case, it was exactly as Yuan Bao said, it would be really useful and honorable to use in the imperial kitchen, and it could save a lot of trivial persuasion, so she nodded and agreed.
But what Yuan Bao didn’t know was that she had also once been a female attendant-in-charge in the Imperial Palace for more than ten years, she knew that an inner official could climb ranks even without relying on the master’s reward, using just their actual monthly salary plus the conventional filial respect, so it’s also unlikely to put these gold coins in their heart.
Therefore, what Hui Ming cared about at this moment was naturally not the reward of this small box, she recalled the dismal appearance of Su-gonggong, and after thinking about it, directly asked: “I saw that Su-gonggong looked seemingly unhappy, is it that he doesn’t like people violating the rules like this?”
“That’s not true.” Yuan Bao was stunned when he heard this, seeming to hesitate for a while before he slowly told the story about the issue of the late empress when she punished the palace servant, explaining: “Master deeply respects the previous empress, so naturally is unwilling for the practice of the former days to repeat itself, but the fact is nowadays there’s no harm in the occasional solicitations, there’s no need for Gugu to mind too much.”
Hui Ming instantly nodded when she heard this, the previous empress was not only the former ruler of the harem, but also the biological paternal aunt of Su-gonggong, this approach of handling this matter was normal.
It’s just that, Hui Ming became somewhat tangled up again, Su-gonggong suffers from stomach problems, she was afraid that he may not be able to drink the spicy soup prepared by the kitchen in the coming few months, she originally wanted to go to the imperial kitchen and send some soft steamed egg congee every few days so that Su-gonggong can have proper nourishment, but since there was this kind of reason, it was contrarily not good for her to ask too often.
After all, there was nothing inescapable inside the palace, merely once or twice was still nothing much, but going more frequently would always make people know that she was serving meals for Su-gonggong, when those broken mouths become aware of it, disgusting words might spread about how on the surface Su-gonggong with regards to indulging in histrionics gave repeated orders against it, but in private, he himself didn’t attach importance to the rules.
“I was thinking about asking Su-gonggong to consume more rice congee to nourish his stomach.” Hui Ming thought in place for a while, and was obliged to say again: “This being the case, I will go to the pharmacy and ask them for some stomach nourishing medicine, it’s better to have some fried crushed millet seeds, mixed with fuling8 herb powder and rinsed in warm water every morning, using a warm bowl is also suitable.”
Hui Ming didn’t formulate this prescription herself, but in the previous life from when after His Highness ascended the throne, he was often reluctant to sit at the table and eat accordingly, so in order for His Majesty not to go hungry, the imperial physician’s hall pondered and ordered the imperial kitchen to prepare his meals like this, as such the young emperor could carry his bowl and hide where no one else was while taking one bite at a time.
It’s only that although millet powder and fuling herb powder were not considered very precious, it took time to finely grind them and was also quite troublesome, Hui Ming fearing that with her status, she couldn’t use it to order those servants in the imperial kitchen, thus, she had to tell Yuan Bao for him to think of a solution.
Yuan Bao, this man of extensive experience naturally understood what she meant in an instant, and simply immediately repeatedly responded, then half respectfully and half flattery said: “Isn’t this why Gugu is amazing? This lowly one has been with the master for several years, I am only able to persuade, and in vain can only make the master chide me for a long time, it is also not a tiny bit useful, not like how Gugu has come up with a method like this!”
Hui Ming just smiled and shook her head, then urged: “I can’t keep watch of Gonggong, yet will bother you to prepare this early every morning, and must persuade him to take the medicine and drink them on time every day.”
“Very well!” Yuan Bao was smiling with happiness again, only without Master around did he dare to make some harmless jesting with Hui Ming: “If I say that this is your, Gugu’s order, Master would definitely not dare to not listen!”
When Hui Ming heard this teasing, her face revealed a sense of loss that she herself hadn’t noticed: “How can you believe in these rumors? Didn’t your master tell you?”
Yuan Bao’s face was full of confusion: “Tell me what?”
Hui Ming was taken aback in response, Su-gonggong haven’t said a word of this to Yuan Bao yet?
Hui Ming opened her mouth to explain, but on second thought felt that since Su-gonggong hadn’t talked about this yet, if she eagerly took the initiative to explain, wouldn’t it appear like she disliked Su-gonggong? What’s more, clearly distinguishing it this way wouldn’t actually be conducive for her to get close to Su-gonggong, in order for her to have a chance to save Su-gonggong’s life from Rui-wang’s matter in the future.
It’s better to just be vague, for her to pretend to be oblivious, and come visit Su-gonggong here a few times!
Thinking this way, Hui Ming swallowed the words she was about to say again, just nodded and said, “It’s nothing, I will return to my duty first, if there’s something the matter with Su-gonggong, please do tell me.”
“Of course.” Yuan Bao bent over with a smile and courteously watched Hui Ming walk away, then turned back towards the room and told Su Jin word by word what Hui-gugu had instructed just now.
“Gugu specifically instructed this and asked this humble one watch you take the medicine every day, even a day can’t be missed!”
But contrary to Yuan Bao’s expectations, after hearing this, Master’s expression didn’t look happy at all, he just stood there like before, tapping his fingertips slightly on the thing that Hui-gugu had just sent, the peony carved wooden box which had contained the gold coins with a heavy complexion, but not saying a word.
Yuan Bao’s intuition was that there’s was something wrong, so he instantly closed his mouth, lowered his head and stood quietly on the side.
“In the future, towards Hui Ming… don’t pay more attention to her again.”
As if struggling for a lifetime, Yuan Bao standing at the door became a little restless, then finally with a heavy voice Su Jin spoke: “Don’t be too obvious to let others make out something and slight her again, don’t worry, just… slowly distance yourself.”
Yuan Bao raised his head in surprise and he looked at Master’s clear straight back, as his figure fell in his eyes and his heart abruptly became sour, he swallowed back the words that had rushed to his mouth, then after a long while, lowered his head and he reluctantly replied: “This one understands.”
2. 镇国公: Duke who Guards the State ↩ 3. 鞭长莫及: idiom, the whip cannot reach; beyond one’s influence; too far to be able to help ↩ 4. 膝下空虚: idiom; hollow under the knees ↩ 5. 万禧: thousand joy ↩ 6. 五蝠图样的金裸子: ↩ 7. 因祸得福: idiom; blessing in disguise, some good comes out of a setback ↩ 8. 茯苓: Fu-ling Chinese herb ↩
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Before the watchman’s clapper rang outside the palace, Hui Ming, who was lying on the kang1in the gallery in front of the hall, already had her eyes wide open.
No, it should be said that since she returned from Su-gonggong’s place yesterday, she really had not been able to sleep all night. Ple ase read at insidethemirror trans lations. DO NOT REPOST.
Hui Ming turned and tossed in bed until the middle of the night, and even if she forced herself to close her eyes, she could barely sleep, Su-gonggong’s family possessions being confiscated and his entire family exterminated, getting castrated and entering the palace, suffering all kinds of hardships, but his hardships never ending, then in the end, he died and turned to ashes in the rebellion of Rui-wang, these thoughts would constantly run through her mind, making her unable to have a peaceful sleep no matter what.
Hui Ming abruptly sat up, then bit her lips and wiped the cold sweat on her forehead, she sat in a daze on the kang for a little while before determinedly making up her mind, she shook her head and threw away those annoying voices that invaded her thoughts, then just quietly changed her clothes and shoes, and got out of bed.
The heavy snow just stopped a few days ago, and at this moment, both the inside and outside of the palace were covered with a thick layer of silver.
This translation is based on my small knowledge of the novel’s original language, please DO NOT REPOST this to any other website and read at insidethemirror translations only. The VIP chapters of the novels that have been translated has been purchased from the original website to support the original author. This translation is being offered for free, if you paid for this in any way then you are being taken
It was now the winter months, and Hui Ming knew that this month the pig trotters, goose feet, and other meat has already been cured in the pantry, the masters would eat mutton dumplings and wontons during this season, and would make the palace servants prepare more meat, especially during the morning meal, sour soup were also prepared every day to keep out the cold.
Hui Ming was swift to pull up her braids, in such weather, for ordinary palace servants to get up early and drink a bowl of nice and warm sour soup was natural and very comfortable, but she remembered that Su-gonggong seemed to suffer from stomach problems, and surely couldn’t stand the stimulation of such sour soup.
She had already made a decision during the night, and seeing that it was still too early, she took her monthly wage, then went to the pantry ahead of time to look for the person in charge, with a smile she implored the one person in the kitchen to prepare an additional steamed egg, although the steward had a look that was full of impatience, but seeing her sincerely asking, he agreed after receiving the money.
Hui Ming had experienced the ups and downs inside the palace for half her life, and had long been accustomed to such cold treatment, she hardly cared about this, but still expressed her gratitude, then just stood there while waiting for the eggs to be steamed, after that she went to Su-gonggong’s residence while it was still hot.
Su-gonggong must have gone to Wan Xi Palace, because there was no one inside the room, Hui Ming called a few times and hearing no one respond, she was not polite, and she pushed the door straight in and put the porcelain bowl with the steamed egg in a conspicuous place not far from the brazier to simmer, ensuring that Su-gonggong or Yuan Bao would be able to see it as soon as they came back, then she took care of the brazier, so as not for it to go out after a while.
Having settled all these things, Hui Ming seeing the time of day hurried back to the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, but despite having gotten up early, she had squandered a bit of time and was somewhat late.
Fortunately, she was different now, there were two great beings, Su-gonggong and Xu-momo, that she could lean back on, Wei-gugu also ignored and did not pay emphatic attention to her, and no one took notice of her somewhat tardiness.
After Hui Ming entered the hall, knowing from the small palace servant that His Majesty having slept at Imperial Concubine Xian’s place last night had not yet returned, also felt relieved, then she went to the back room to find the two sisters Ku Kou and Yu Gan who were on duty today, and asked when they would go to Wan Xi Palace to bring back the clothes and ornaments that His Majesty had changed out off yesterday?
Although Hui Ming nowadays really didn’t care about being alone, but it was undoubtedly clear that she should work together with others, she also wouldn’t go to nearby palaces by herself and let people see that she was being isolated, which would add trouble for her.
Due to the lesson from Bai Hao’s mistake in the past, without Wei-gugu’s instigation, Ku Kou and Yu Gan, the both of them would naturally not refuse, so they just settled on meeting outside the west entry after their morning meal, then seeing Hui Ming agree, they turned around and left.
In response Hui Ming also didn’t delay, after finishing her morning meal, she went and waited at the west gate early, and after another quarter of an hour, she saw the petite Yu Gan rushing over. Ple ase read at insidethemirror trans lations. DO NOT REPOST.
“Your older sister won’t be coming.” Overtime, Hui Ming could already recognize them, as the younger sister, Yu Gan was more immature, and when she laughed the single dimple on the side of her face would become visible.
Yu Gan nodded: “Older Sister still have some errands.”
Hui Ming hearing her reply nodded, knowing that these fellow servants that served the emperor had no intention of chatting and laughing with her, she just closed her mouth and straightened her back then went with Yu Gan to Wan Xi Palace.
She originally thought that except for Lu An, all the maids that served the emperor would keep a distance from her, but she didn’t expect that when they were not even halfway towards Wan Xi Palace, Yu Gan, who was beside her had been secretly glancing at her several times, and a reluctance to say what she wanted was written all over her face.
Although Hui Ming noticed it, she neither revealed it, and when the two of them could already see the corners of Wan Xi Palace from a distance, Yu Gan finally couldn’t help but ask: “Sister Song, in a moment… if Imperial Concubine Xian asks us about something, Sister Song, can you be the one to reply?”
The one to reply? Hui Ming raised her eyebrows, this was not a big matter, it’s just that when working in the palace, the most taboo was not being clear.
Hui Ming didn’t respond, and just asked: “Why? How did you offend the Imperial Concubine?”
Yu Gan bit her lips, and vaguely said: “Older Sister and I were originally supposed to serve in the bedroom… you know, and Imperial Concubine Xian…”
With that said, Hui Ming also suddenly felt that the errand of serving in the bedroom was a bit of a grind, but it was also the easiest to “make progress”, after all, this was personally serving for His Majesty to have a peaceful sleep, so if he was interested, it was common to have one or two benefits, if they were lucky, they could sometimes be bestowed with a reward on the next day, and the carp could leap and transform into a dragon2 and become a proper master.
The two sisters Ku Kou and Yu Gan, were both beautiful palace ladies with elegant faces and graceful figures, beautiful sisters of the same parents were hard to come by, and they were new, so the Palace Office originally sent them to do errands inside the bedroom, it’s just that when His Majesty saw how young they were, he opened his mouth and just kept them by his side for a few years, when they first arrived to serve the emperor, she was thirteen, and now if she remembered correctly, Yu Gan was already fourteen, and Ku Kou should be sixteen? This period would be their best years, if it weren’t for His Majesty’s illness, the two sisters would have already changed to serving inside the sleeping quarters.
Although Imperial Concubine Xian was virtuous and considerate in front of His Majesty, everyone in the palace knew that in private she was harsh and severe when treating the servants, especially with Ku Kou and Yu Gan’s situation, although Concubine Xian couldn’t easily kill those that served the emperor, but their status had a large disparity, and they could often be faulted at every turn, things could also be made difficult for them in every aspect, yet it would be hard for them to avoid it.
Yu Gan begged her to take the initiative to respond, but it was nothing more than the idea of holding oneself without appearing as much as possible, that talking less meant making fewer mistake. The reason why she wasn’t able to remember this matter for a while was because Qiu Ya was previously there, so she rarely went to other palaces for errands, in addition to the six female servants that served inside the bedroom, it was not every day that both these sisters, Ku Kou and Yu Gan, would be on duty, which made it more difficult for them to run to each other.
Having understood this, Hui Ming simply answered, and comforted: “Let’s find the senior palace maid-in-charge, then Imperial Concubine Xian might not take notice of us.”
Yu Gan nodded with a bitter smile on her face, obviously not expecting much.
In reality it was indeed so, after Hui Ming and her looked for the personal palace maid of Imperial Concubine Xian and explained their purpose in coming, the palace maid only told them to wait, then after going back to report, she came out again with a cold attitude and said, “Imperial Concubine has something to ask you, follow me in!”
Yu Gan’s face turned pale when she heard this, it’s just that when the master summoned you there was no reason not to go, so she immediately had to follow behind Hui Ming, with her head lowered as they walked all the way to the receiving pavilion inside the palace.
Imperial Concubine Xian was dressed in a sapphire blue imperial dress, she was leaning against a pillow, and was inclined on the divan, looking at her she did not have the elegant bearing that she had in front of His Majesty, and her expression was filled with disdain for those beneath and contempt that was set up high above.
Hui Ming’s swept a glance out of the corner of her eyes, then lowered them according to the rules, she knelt down with Yu Gan, but Concubine Xian who was on the divan never called them, and from the start did not look at the two of them at all, she just gently scraped the edge of her tea cup.
The origin and prospects of Yu Gan and her sister could not impend on the status of Imperial Concubine Xian in any way, they were merely small maidservants that served inside the sleeping quarters, who did not have the slightest amount of threat but nevertheless she still made things difficult for them, this indicated that this Imperial Concubine Xian’s temperament was narrow-minded by nature.
Hui Ming secretly sighed in her heart, but didn’t dare show it on her face, on the contrary her body leaned even more deferentially.
After waiting for a short amount of time, Imperial Concubine Xian who was on the divan slowly said: “Lift your head, let bengong3 take a look.”
Hearing this, Hui Ming straightened up, and from her position of having her eyes lowered, she showed her face, when she saw her Imperial Concubine Xian looked a little surprised, then with merely a smile yet not a smile casted her eyes toward Yu Gan: “Previously, you two sisters were always inseparable, why did one of you change today?”
Naturally, they were unwilling to come together and let you become upset after seeing them.
Hui Ming was generous, and because she had already promised Yu Gan, she could only correct her expression, take out the upright and honest “Song-gugu” of her previous life, and say in a scrupulous manner: “Ku Kou still had some errands to do, this servant Hui Ming, and Yu Gan came together to fetch His Majesty’s clothes and accessories from yesterday.”
Imperial Concubine Xian looked at her, her features and appearance were passable, but her whole body was rigid and steady, with only a tiny bit of vitality, which did not arouse people’s interest, but Imperial Concubine Xian seeing this was very satisfied, so much so that she deigned to ask: “You don’t look familiar, when did you arrive here?”
Hui Ming kowtowed and concisely said: “Responding to Imperial Concubine, on the tenth month.”
“Not bad, an imperial servant ought to be chosen this way, someone who understands the established rule. Mei Hua, open the chest, reward her!” Imperial Concubine Xian nodded with increasing satisfaction, and then cast a cold glance at the pale faced Yu Gan: “Not like others with ignorant hearts, who only knows how to flatter, just some alluring witch that was sent over?”
Panic tensely spread through Yu Gan’s forehead, and she did not dare move. Although Hui Ming was rewarded, she also did not dare to be negligent, she accepted the gold leaves4 from the senior palace maid called Mei Hua using both hands, and as before according to practice thanked her for her grace, then believing that the matter would stop there, she never thought that Imperial Concubine Xian would unexpectedly be very interested, and ask again: “Who had chosen you, I should also mention this to His Majesty, such talented person is truly loyal and competent, they ought to also be rewarded.”
Hui Ming’s complexion remained as usual: “It’s Su-gonggong, the chief steward that’s serving His Majesty.”
She originally believed that this was an ordinary response, and never thought that when Imperial Concubine Xian heard it, her initial face beaming in smile would stiffen, she lowered her head and carefully looked at her, after a while, she opened her lips and once again smiled towards Hui Ming’s prudence: “Su-gonggong? Indeed good, Mei Hua, go, prepare another reward, ask this…”
Imperial Concubine Xian paused, then looked at her again and said, “What is your name?”
Hui Ming imperceptibly tightened her palms: “This servant is Hui Ming.”
“Hui Ming.” Imperial Concubine Xian slowly repeated her name, before once again leaning and relaxing back on the round pillow, then she squinted her eyes in boredom, and continued: “Ask this Hui Ming to go and bring it back to Su-gonggong. “
Even until they left the gate of Wan Xi Palace, with Hui Ming carrying the crown and court beads His Majesty has used yesterday, along with the reward that Imperial Concubine Xian ordered her to bring to Su-gonggong, she still hadn’t recovered.
The reward Imperial Concubine Xian gave Su-gonggong was a small wooden box, inside should be some plain gold and silver that were commonly rewarded to the people in the palace.
It wasn’t uncommon for the master of the palace to give rewards to palace servants, as the chief steward that’s serving the emperor, Imperial Concubine Xian knowing Su-gonggong was perfectly normal, however Hui Ming couldn’t help but ponder over the look and attitude of Imperial Concubine Xian when she mentioned Su-gonggong, for some reason, she felt that it was somewhat suspicious.
Beside her, Yu Gan didn’t notice her being preoccupied, and seeing that they were already far away from Wan Xi Palace, only then did she dare speak, “Hui Ming, you’re really amazing, you were unexpectedly able to let us quickly leave from the Imperial Concubine’s place, every time I come to Imperial Concubines Xian’s Palace, it only made her irritated, and we would have to kneel until our knees are all blue.”
When Hui Ming heard this, she turned her head and looked at her with pity, but also advised: “You shouldn’t be afraid, Imperial Concubine Xian dislikes those timid and enchanting ones, the more delicate, miserable and pitiful, resembling someone who’s been bullied you are, the more she’ll feel like you’re putting on an act, so she would naturally be more unhappy.” Ple ase read at insidethemirror trans lations. DO NOT REPOST.
Although Yu Gan couldn’t be regarded as young at this moment, but perhaps because her older sister has been protecting her all the time, her disposition was a bit innocent about the affairs of the world, and hearing this she just cried: “I don’t want to be like this either, but I am afraid…”
Despite having something significant in her mind at the moment, Hui Ming couldn’t help but laugh when she saw this: “Afraid of what? You are a maid serving His Majesty, as long as you don’t make a big mistake, even Imperial Concubine Xian cannot punish you, it’s just kneeling upright for a while longer, are we palace maids still afraid of this?”
Perhaps due to having gone through this “shared trial and tribulation”, Yu Gan also forgot that she should stay away from Song Hui Ming at this moment, having heard her say this she just curled her lips and looked downhearted: “I’m not afraid to kneel, just afraid of Imperial Concubine Xian, as soon as I see her, my heart would panic.”
Then there’s nothing to be done, but from Yu Gan’s point of view with her status as a palace maid, Imperial Concubine Xian was indeed a very scary existence. Hui Ming was thinking about this on one side, and on the other heard Yu Gan continue with envy: “You are still amazing, to say nothing about not being punished by protracted kneeling, you were even conferred a reward!”
Hui Ming was unconcerned, and just casually said: “It’s nothing, the reward is merely for Su-gonggong’s face.”
Yu Gan was probably frightened in front of Imperial Concubine Xian just now, but hearing this she suddenly returned to her usual self, nodded and said: “That’s true, the masters have a particular deep trust towards Steward Su, and frequently bestow rewards.”
Hui Ming’s footsteps paused: “Really?”
“Yes.” Yu Gan briskly nodded: “Even when the previous Empress Dowager was still here, she conferred him with a portrait of the Bodhisattva.”
This translation is based on my small knowledge of the novel’s original language, please DO NOT REPOST this to any other website and read at insidethemirror translations only. The VIP chapters of the novels that have been translated has been purchased from the original website to support the original author. This translation is being offered for free, if you paid for this in any way then you are being taken
Hui Ming only smiled and nodded when she heard this, but she nevertheless understood the origin of the suspicion in her mind just now.
Su-gonggong came as an official slave, the son of a criminal, in the eyes of the masters, such a person being able to keep his life and atone as a slave was already a great reward, how can he be made into the chief steward of the imperial palace and be rewarded in being placed in such an important position?
Think about it again, nearly every people in the palace did not know Su-gonggong’s past history, only His Majesty, the princes, and even Imperial Concubine Xian and several masters seemed to be clear about this.
Although she didn’t know the inside story at this moment, Hui Ming was faintly aware that among those involved there must’ve been some great accountability, not to say that this was the reason why Su-gonggong joined Rui-wang when he went to force the emperor to abdicate in chaos during the Ghost Festival in his previous life!
There were layers upon layers of worry in Hui Ming’s mind, and her complexion became heavy, when Yu Gan who was beside her saw this, she thought that she had understood something, she bit her lips and thought for a while, then whispered with some sympathy: “The masters all value Su-gonggong, you can’t offend him, even if you make a big noise, no one would give you justice. Even though you are unwilling, you’re also pretending to comply, right? Look at me, before His Majesty, even if I am unwilling in my heart, don’t I also pretend to be good?”
Since Hui Ming was transferred to serve the emperor at the beginning of last month, she had indeed appeared to be apprehensive, unwilling and having been aggrieved, one could see her resistance, so it was not surprising that Yu Gan had misunderstood, only having heard this, towards Yu Gan’s innocent boldness made her shake her head: “Such nonsense, you dare to carelessly drivel? Did it ever occur to you that if this got out that you will bear the implication!”
Yu Gan curled the corners of her lips, revealing the small dimple on her left cheek: “How are you someone who gossips and meddles, if you don’t tell others, wouldn’t that do?”
Despite this Hui Ming couldn’t help but smile at such a Yu Gan, only she couldn’t help but persuade her with a somewhat older generation’s frame of mind: “One may know a person for a long time without understanding their true nature, gossiping is just a moment’s pleasure, is it worth the trouble?”
Yu Gan just shook her head and shrugged it off: “Although you are one year older than me, and have done errands inside the palace, I have been here longer than you, and I have my own sense of discretion.”
Hui Ming in response didn’t say anymore, the two of them only returned to the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, where Yu Gan sent the emperor’s dragon robe to be cleaned, while Hui Ming one by one went to clean the court beads and gold crown, then stored them away properly.
Before Yu Gan left, she looked around and when she saw no one, carried a somewhat intimate and somewhat fawning attitude to invite her if there was such an errand like this, they would also go together, seeing Hui Ming nod in response, she however felt a bit embarrassed, and thought for a while, then lowered her head and with a strained voice said, “I heard others say that inside the palace, although the eunuchs have been castrated, if they are sharing food, for the most part they would grant whatever you ask for, through that relationship you would be coaxed in the palm of their hands, which is much better than being with those rough men outside. Chief Steward Su…”
Speaking of Su Jin, Yu Gan’s voice became smaller and smaller, and she had a look of fear, although it was not comparable with Imperial Concubine Xian’s, it also wasn’t much worse: “Although Chief Steward Su is a little scary, but you have to cope with it for the time being, maybe after a couple of years, Chief Steward Su would get bored?” Ple ase read at insidethemirror trans lations. DO NOT REPOST.
Hui Ming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and nodded, just thinking of perfunctorily responding for the time being, then she heard Yu Gan ambiguously continue: “You are flexible, coax Su-gonggong a little, as long as he doesn’t make it difficult for you with regards to that matter, other things can be counted as nothing.”
That…that matter?
Hui Ming’s eyes widened, and her complexion instantly flushed!
This translation is based on my small knowledge of the novel’s original language, please DO NOT REPOST this to any other website and read at insidethemirror translations only. The VIP chapters of the novels that have been translated has been purchased from the original website to support the original author. This translation is being offered for free, if you paid for this in any way then you are being taken advantage of.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
1. 炕: kang (a heatable brick bed) ↩ 2. 鲤鱼跃龙门: to gain quick success; to make a significant advance in one’s career ↩ 3. 本宮: A pronoun used by the empress or a high-ranking consort when speaking to a person or an audience of lower rank or status: “I, who owns this palace” ↩ 4. Gold leaves↩
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
Having recovered, Hui Ming couldn’t help taking a deep breath, although she had earlier known about the status and honor of the Mansion of the Duke of Zhen1, she really did not expect that it was the late empress’ maternal home! Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
No, it should be said that it had never occurred to her that the previous empress’ maternal home would be searched and their possessions confiscated then sentenced to death by beheading, that in the whole family only Su Jin, Su-gonggong was left!
Hui Ming’s eyes widened in shock, her mouth opened and closed several times, but nevertheless couldn’t say anything for a while.
The first empress passed away early, at that time she was still young and didn’t know the situation, however she clearly remembered the moment when His Highness the Crown Prince died of an illness, it was three years ago, at that time the death knell echoed in the entire palace, and His Majesty ignored the political affairs in the imperial court for a month, even a little palace maid such as her who had just entered the palace needed to be in mourning clothes, weeping in memorial to the dead both morning and evening, occasionally those few ignorant palace maids that displayed a bit of happy laughter in their appearances, would all be ruthlessly lambasted by the momo-in-charge, that after being beaten, their face would be filled with sadness.
His Majesty’s deep affection and memory towards the first mother empress was clearly visible throughout the whole palace, and towards the late crown prince, His Majesty’s heart was also filled with devotion and sorrow, so as the maternal home of Empress Qi Sheng Chun, the grandparents of the late crown prince, such honorable status of being the emperor’s relatives what great sin was it that they could not be absolved? Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Such a big matter, why was it that not one person in the palace knew about it? Even though Su-gonggong, was already heavily trusted by His Majesty inside the palace at such a young age, only a few old people in the palace knew that he was an official slave, but no one mentioned that he was actually the son of Empress Qi Shi Chun’s brother, and the cousin of the late crown prince!
Su Jin could naturally see the shocked look on Hui Ming’s face, he sat quietly finishing the warm tea in his hand, the weather was cold so the tea had already gone cold, and it became colder as he drank, even though he was facing Hui Ming he was using all his effort to control himself, but it couldn’t be helped that this coldness had also caused his countenance to darken.
This kind of Su-gonggong was enough to frighten witless the servants outside, but contrarily when Hui Ming saw this, she nevertheless couldn’t help but get up and take a step forward, she steeped another cup of hot tea and gave it to him, holding back the distress that emerged in her heart, and apologized: “Pardon me, I shouldn’t have asked.”
Su Jin’s hand slightly moved and took the cup of tea, he was trying his best to stay calm, but the voice that came out when he spoke was slightly low and hoarse: “It doesn’t matter.” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
After that, because Su Jin didn’t want the other person to see his mood, he just turned around and looked at the sky outside: “It’s getting late, I’ll ask Yuan Bao to send you back.”
Seeing Su-gonggong not wanting to show weakness in front of her, Hui Ming also resisted with difficulty the fluctuations in her heart, and merely shook her head as if nothing had happened: “It’s just a few steps, no need.”
Su Jin hearing this, nonetheless still insisted: “Then take the lantern, it was snowing just a moment ago, it’s unknown which portion had frozen over, carefully watch at where you’re going.”
To go as far as remember to ask her to bring a light even when he was like this? Hui Ming’s heart softened, the more she interacted with him, the more she felt that Su-gonggong was not as ruthless as what people say, so much so that he was more extraordinarily gentle and meticulous, a person such as this, what kind of stuff blinded her, that she actually thought that Su-gonggong was an evil person using his status to oppress others?
Thinking better of it, Hui Ming regretted and blamed herself, and she resolutely made up her mind again, thus did not turn it down this time, after thanking him, she took the lantern and turned away. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Yuan Bao sent Hui Ming out the door, then once again turned back towards the room, as if perceiving that his master was in a bad mood, he lowered his head and carefully reported, “About the Hall of Calm Fragrance, this one asked about it today, they all said that they had never seen Hui Ming-gugu before, and have never heard of Wang-momo having nominal kinship inside the palace.”
Su Jin looked down and held the warm cup of tea in his hand, and said nothing.
Yuan Bao who was standing on the side originally wanted to take the initiative and ask if he wanted for him to go back and properly investigate, but in a flash, thinking of the lessons he learned from his mistakes in the past few days, he changed his mind and well-behavedly closed his mouth, just waiting for Master’s command.
Sure enough, he didn’t wait long, and he heard the master faintly speak: “Since they are nominal kin, you should just tell Zheng Ge Guang to take more care of those in the Hall of Calm Fragrance in the future.”
Su Jin slightly lowered his eyes, a gentleman’s love extended to the crows in that persons house2, yet right now he had already abandoned himself, he was an unscrupulous incomplete person, he was no longer a man of virtue, but when it came to her, only towards her, Su Jin however still hoped that he could be like as if he had not fallen, to be able to stand magnanimous, clean and dignified, without even the slightest shadow of evil thoughts.
For his own selfish desires, without permission he placed Hui Ming to serve in front of the emperor, she had to be cautious and solemn, with numerous worries all day long, and because of Wei-shi ordering everyone to isolate her, he already felt sorry for her. Although he didn’t know the reason, since she wanted to save Wang-momo, while he still had some influence, if he could use his strength to meet her needs then that’s good, with him supporting behind her, as long as it was not asking to exploit and defraud others, this achievement and virtue of saving a person’s life, what harm was there in helping her amass such merits? Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Yuan Bao would not have been able to guess what his master was thinking, and hearing what he had said he was merely fortunate to have had his own foresight, and did not act on his own initiative and claim to quietly investigate the facts of Hui Ming-gugu, at this time, he made up his mind even more, that regarding the future matters of Gugu, a word from him was already saying too much, and doing one thing was not doing much, he would just treat himself as an abacus bead, waiting for Master’s command to do things one step at a time, without seeking any meritorious deed, not doing anything won’t let him make any mistakes, right?
While still mulling about it, he heard Su Jin who was sitting down command: “Tomorrow go to the Palace of Eternal Longevity and supervise from the top beams to the floor tiles, every corner should be cleaned and tidied up, from today onwards, there shouldn’t be a trace of dust in the Palace of Eternal Longevity, the six offerings should be freshly enshrined every day and it is not allowed to be interrupted.”
The Palace of Eternal Longevity was the former Kunhe Palace, and also the Late Empress Qi Sheng Chun’s resting place, since the first empress passed away, His Majesty decreed for the gates of the palace to be sealed, only permitting it to be used for mourning and offering sacrifices for the ancestors, also the current name of the Palace of Eternal Longevity, it was the second empress when she was conferred afterwards that had changed it, as it was carrying an inconvenient name.
In matters that had nothing to do with Hui Ming-gugu, Yuan Bao was still fairly clever, hearing this he somewhat hesitatingly said: “It is still a month before the particular day, according to customs, the six offerings are not enshrined until seven days before the anniversary of death…” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
“It doesn’t matter.” Su Jin slightly lowered his eyes, but said very flatly: “I feel that the Palace of Eternal Longevity is too lonely, and I have already presented this to His Majesty this morning, another twenty-four palace servants will be especially assigned to enshrine them, from now on, sprinkling water and powder, also setting up the six offerings, it cannot be interrupted even for a day, I will eventually go to the Palace of Eternal Longevity to see it in person every day.”
In the past, the ritual of offering sacrifices to the late empress was presided over by the current empress and Xin-wangye, admittedly they dared not be perfunctory and slight the ceremony, many ceremonial sacrifices were done in accordance with the rules, although they were not bad at all, they were also not in the least bit in excess, and did not add any special extravagance, now that Master was involved in it, it was as if the previous empress was still inside the Palace of Eternal Longevity, dispatching palace servants to worship and sprinkle water and sweep the floor every day—
There was nothing wrong with emphasizing the importance of the previous empress’ death anniversary, but to bluntly say to His Majesty about the favored empress, that the Palace of Eternal Longevity was desolate and lonely, this was almost equivalent to glaringly hitting the face of the current empress.
Master, this is blatantly making it difficult to the current empress and Xin-wangye…
Yuan Bao somewhat fearfully shrank his neck, then submissively responded “Yes.”
Su Jin seemed to see his fear, and he merely pulled the corners of his mouth in a smile yet not a smile, the said unpredictably, “Why, are you afraid?” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Yuan Bao panicked, facing Su Jin he didn’t dare to deceive, only knelt down and pleaded: “This small one is useless.”
“What are you afraid of?” Su Jin slowly stood up, his tone of voice was still methodical and unhurried, but like the cold winter wind, even if the doors and windows were closed, the feeling of coldness squeezed in from the small gaps: “Don’t worry, with His Majesty around, he can’t raise any waves, even if His Majesty passes away, as long as I am still here, Xin-wang will not be able to sit on the imperial throne, and it will not be his turn to settle any accounts.”
Even knowing that there were no others around, Yuan Bao couldn’t help but feel a little worried after hearing such a rebellious remark, so he first turned and looked outside the door, then when he saw that there was no one around, he closed the door tightly and bowed again, he took the tea cup in Su Jin’s hand, and he exceedingly became more respectful: “Master is right.” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
1. 镇国公: Duke who Guards the State ↩ 2. 爱屋及乌: lit. love the house and its crow (idiom); involvement with sb and everyone connected ↩
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
“You’ve worked hard, there was no need to trouble yourself.”
Su-gonggong’s complexion remained calm, and she couldn’t see if he was serious or not, but Hui Ming upon hearing this absolutely insisted: “I originally owe you for taking care of me for a long time, but I have troubled you for the sake of Wang-momo, I don’t have anything decent, merely this garment that I can show my appreciation with, so by all means do not refuse.” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Fortunately, Su-gonggong perhaps was able to see her sincerity, so although he said that, after hearing this, he nevertheless nodded and took a few steps forward, he took off his hood and cloak, then immediately tried the clothes she had brought.
Seeing Su-gonggong accept, Hui Ming’s heart also relaxed, and because it was an inner garment, for it to properly fit she deliberately added a few more button knots, then as she watched Su-gonggong having an inconvenient time as he fastened them one by one, it was very natural for her to come forward and help him tie each button.
Not expecting Hui Ming to suddenly come forward, Su Jin’s movements suddenly stilled, although his fingers were still slowly moving, he still failed to fasten the button he had been tying for a while now, luckily Hui Ming’s head was lowered as she buckled each from the bottom up, but didn’t notice this for the moment.
Su Jin vigorously blinked his eyes and slightly looked down, the little girl stood in front of him with her head down to help him fasten the buttons, they were not more than half an arm apart, and their thick clothes clearly separated them, but her slender fingers seemed to directly brush his chest, and with every button, the nimbleness of the dragonfly would lightly touch the water1, leaving behind ripples, it was hot and itchy as it endlessly went on, making his heart beat like a drum, astonishing him, so much so that it somewhat worried him that she would hear this.
Consequently, when Hui Ming looked up again, she saw Su-gonggong’s tightly pursed lips, she didn’t know if she misread it, but his expression appeared especially solemn.
Hui Ming was taken aback: “What’s wrong? Is it not suitable?”
Up until Hui Ming left his chest, that’s when Su Jin imperceptibly stepped back, and owing to Hui Ming’s distance, like a drum roll the beating of his heart gradually subsided.
Seeing the worry on Hui Ming’s face, Su Jin lowered his head and coughed lightly, his voice seeming to have become hoarse: “No, it feels very comfortable”
Hui Ming carefully stared, she felt that this statement of Su-gonggong’s did not seem to be false, although it was a little indescribable, she was relieved, and explained: “I made it a bit tighter thinking that when it gets colder, Gonggong can wear it inside your robe without it appearing cumbersome, if Gonggong is uncomfortable, I will loosen it a bit more.”
“No, no need.” Su Jin felt that warmth seemed to spread all over his body from the inner garment, and heat roved everywhere filling his heart from the pit of his stomach, after a long while, the words that he could say was only a calm line: “I’ve troubled you with such thoughts.”
Hui Ming didn’t feel that this was anything special, so she just smiled and said, “Where can I, compared to your kindness in saving Wang-momo’s life, I merely made you a garment, and also used the mink fur that you sent to offer as a present, it’s really not worth mentioning.”
Having brought up Wang-momo, Su Jin’s mind seemed to be abruptly pulled away from the confusion that he was just in, then he gently stroked the ruyi on the side of his waist, and just calmly asked, “How is Wang-momo’s health?”
“I just went to see her today, she could already be considered as doing great, as for hereafter, she’s already old, so she just has to slowly recuperate.”
“I heard the female physician say that it had been delayed for quite a long time.” Su Jin walked to the table, and put down some tea cups, while Hui Ming habitually went and slowly added the tea leaves: “I haven’t seen you speak about this before, when did you become nominal kin with Wang-momo? If this had been known earlier, the situation wouldn’t have been this difficult.” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
When this matter was mentioned, Hui Ming’s words became slightly frenetic: “This, it’s been a long time…”
This was impossible, Su Jin’s action of pouring the water didn’t stop, but his thoughts were like a mirror without a speck of dust, because regardless of Hui Ming’s every action in the past five years, he had observed them all, and even if he really overlooked this, with Hui Ming’s temperament, if she really recognized this nominal kinship, she would not be so careless as to only know to ask for help when this illness had already caused this Momo’s life to hang by a thread.
Su Jin turned around and slightly raised his head only to see the helplessness in her eyes, although he was fully aware that the other person was telling a lie, he actually couldn’t bear to make things difficult for her anymore, so at the moment, he just passed over this nominal kinship matter, then lifted his hand as he poured the hot water and handed it to her: “It’s not early anymore, having tea will make you sleepless, just drink a cup of hot water to warm up.”
Although it wasn’t something major, but lying to Su-gonggong still made Hui Ming feel a little uneasy and ashamed, so in response she quickly got up, took it with both hands, making use of the opportunity of bowing her head to drink the water and conceal the shameful look on her face.
Hui Ming did not speak, so Su-gonggong also calmly sat by the side without talking, and the room momentarily became silent, after a long while, Hui Ming couldn’t bear the awkwardness anymore, and took the initiative to open her mouth: “His Majesty is resting in Concubine Xian’s Palace, will Gonggong go to Wan Xi Palace later to accompany the emperor?”
Su-gonggong shook his head: “Having taken the task he had assigned, His Majesty ordered me not to follow him all the time, it’s much more important to concentrate on the late empress’ death anniversary, it’s already late, so I won’t go anymore, I’ll just go serve early tomorrow morning.”
Hui Ming lowered her head again when she heard this: “Leaving such an important matter to you, it can clearly be seen that His Majesty really feels assured in Gonggong’s ability…”
Su-gonggong paused when he heard this, then his voice suddenly lowered a bit, and he just modestly denied, “It’s nothing.”
Hearing Su-gonggong not wanting to speak about it in details, Hui Ming knew that she ought to hold her tongue, but thinking about how she hit the wall2 with Xu-momo two days ago, Hui Ming who had no other way paused for a while then clenched her teeth and continued to ask: “Speaking about this is also strange, it’s clear that it would be more convenient for the Masters inside the palace, why did His Majesty appoint it to you?”
After Hui Ming finished speaking, she saw Su-gonggong look up at herself after hearing her words, without saying anything, his appearance was unclear in the dim light, but that peach blossom eyes were exceptionally bright, looking at her without hiding anything.
Hui Ming’s heart panicked, and she was reminded of Xu-momo’s words “It’s about the late empress, the reason cannot be told to just anyone”, she couldn’t help tighten her palms, and just felt that Su-gonggong’s silence and gaze was aptly confirming the term “anyone.”
Indeed, who was she, how could she be this meddlesome?
“I have talked too much, hope that Gonggong doesn’t blame.” Having thought of this, Hui Ming promptly spoke, but her face was flushed with embarrassment, were it not for the several decades of face she had for support, she wouldn’t have even been able to say this.
But when Hui Ming was pondering whether it was time for her to withdraw, Su-gonggong recovered, as if he saw her embarrassed predicament, and yet again shook his head: “Why would I, this couldn’t be counted as something that cannot be mentioned, it’s merely an old matter, I’m just afraid you will find it uninteresting.”
“How is that possible? I was just afraid that I had acted in a muddle and asked something that shouldn’t be asked…” Hui Ming loosened her clenched palm, and before she could feel happy for Su-gonggong’s willingness to talk, her mind unexpectedly thought about another thing that Xu-momo said:
“If Su Jin doesn’t treat you as an outsider, he would naturally be willing to tell you.”
So… with Su-gonggong willing to tell her at this moment, does he not take her as an outsider?
No, this isn’t it. Hui Ming quickly shook her head, from her point of view, if anything, compared to being intimidated by people, the most alarming and difficult matter to bear was her own cautiousness, treating the other person with disdain and contempt for a long time, just before the person involved had settled and informed her that in fact, he had no intentions towards her at all, it was merely her own wishful thinking.
When Su-gonggong sent her away in her last life, he especially called Yuan Bao to explain to her, so much so that Hui Ming would still flush red with embarrassment and shame when she recalled it even now, and this one experience should have been enough, enough to keep her thoughts from indulging in flights of fancy, so conversely her mind turned towards this explanation.
Maybe, it’s just that Su-gonggong had a gentle temperament, because she had asked, it wasn’t good to refuse?
Only, having recognized that Song-gugu was no longer the confused and ignorant Song Hui Ming, even if she gave such an explanation to herself, a faint thought nevertheless still couldn’t help creep out:
With Su-gonggong’s status, them having only once met five years ago, does it warrant things being this way?
Because of the incessant turmoil in her heart and complicated thoughts in her mind, when Su-gonggong started to talk, Hui Ming couldn’t even manage to react to those hidden connotations, and it was not until she came back to her senses, then heard Su-gonggong’s words, that she suddenly realized the weight of it——
“The late empress is also surnamed Su, when my family hasn’t been convicted, and I… had also not yet entered the palace as a slave, I would pay a formal visit to Empress Qi Sheng Chun in private, sometimes overstepping the rule, and would call her aunt3, His Majesty ordered me to offer the sacrifice, merely viewing it as us being blood related.” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
1. 蜻蜓点水: lit. the dragonfly touches the water lightly; idiom; superficial contact. ↩ 2. 碰壁: to hit a brick wall; to hit a snag; to have the door slammed in one’s face. ↩ 3. 姑母: his father’s sister or his paternal aunt. ↩
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
“Many, thanks…cough, cough.” In the inner room behind the Hall of Calm Fragrance, although Wang-momo was already awake, but after having passed this serious illness, she had lost weight and her cheeks were sunken, her appearance looked wan and sallow, that before she could even finish her sentence, she was already coughing from being out of breath. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Upon seeing this, Hui Ming, who had just entered the room, quickly went to fetch the pills on the side table, then took a few steps forward to support Wang-momo with ease, after that she turned her head and fetched the warm water on the side, holding it and slowly feeding it to her, after waiting for quite a while, Wang-momo with great difficulty finally recovered, panting with some embarrassment as she said, “Really troubled you, young lady.”
Hui Ming shook her head: “There’s no need to be polite with me, nowadays the Hall of Calm Fragrance is already aware that you are my elder, and you being polite to me, I can’t afford it.”
After a few days of explanation, Wang-momo has also admitted to this “old nominal kinship” version of events, but whenever this was mentioned, she still blamed herself and would smile in embarrassment: “You kindly saved my life, but with this body of mine… I am afraid that it will be difficult to repay you in the future, so where could I even have the face to speak of things such as being your elder.”
With Su-gonggong’s token, the young steward in Imperial Concubine Kang’s Palace did not dare to delay, after reporting Wang-momo having fallen ill, a female physician was sent by the Palace Office to the Hall of Calm Fragrance, who was naturally the best in the art of medicine, then after coming to check on her pulse, she only made her take a few medicine, but after one night, Wang-momo’s high fever dropped right away, only according to the words of the female physician, that although it was merely common typhoid, it had been delayed for too long, with Wang-momo’s age not being young anymore, even if her fever went down, it’s very likely that the root cause of the disease wouldn’t be cured, and she would need to be carefully nursed in the future, which indeed proved this point when Wang-momo woke up in poor health.
It’s just that Hui Ming’s heart stirred when she heard this, so her words became a bit solemn: “You misunderstood, it was not me who saved you, it was Su Jin, Su-gonggong that serves His Majesty, if he hadn’t stepped in, how could I invite a female physician? If you have a chance in the future, just repay him.”
Not to mention age, but in the future, most of his body would be abandoned, that even Hui Ming, who had become the woman in charge of serving the emperor was unable to return the favor, so how else could she help the imperial chief steward? Wang-momo smiled wryly when she heard her words, only thinking that Hui Ming was just casually saying words to humbly decline, and didn’t take it to heart, but she didn’t know that these words from Hui Ming, was seriously genuine and sincere.
Wang-momo, including His Seventh Royal Highness, was admittedly of no interest to anyone at this moment, but when His Seventh Royal Highness ascended the throne in the future, she would be the closest and most useful person to the Little Majesty, even more incredible than the position Xu-momo currently has.
In addition, Hui Ming had already made up her mind, whatever the case, this time she would not go to the Hall of Calm Fragrance to hide by herself and leave Su-gonggong, even if she didn’t have the chance to be called the sole personal palace maid that His Little Majesty relied on like last time.
In this way, thinking in retrospect after Rui Wang forced the emperor to abdicate, she and Su-gonggong won’t know what the situation would be, so if they really couldn’t go against it, then it’s just that their life would cease, but if they were lucky enough to survive, at that time, taking care of Wang-momo couldn’t be inevitably avoided.
When Hui Ming saved her, it was certainly not for the purpose of wanting gratitude, but since she had been saved, she also had to think about Su-gonggong’s future.
For this reason, when facing the frail Wang-momo at this moment, Hui Ming had never made pretentions about this, and after a few words of comfort, she turned her gaze to the Little Majesty who was quietly staring at the brazier: “You are well, and it looks like His Highness also feels very relieved.”
“His Royal Highness is timid, but he has the best intention, my having been ill for several days also really frightened him.” Having mentioned His Seventh Royal Highness, Wang-momo’s appearance became increasingly kind: “Speaking of which, in front of strangers there are very few people that His Royal Highness would put his guard down, you and His Highness are also predestined.”
Hui Ming nodded understandingly, in the previous life, whenever a stranger appeared beside His Highness, even if they didn’t come close, he would become nervous and tense, staying somber, that once he receives even a little stimulation he would explode.
But these days, it seemed that His Seventh Highness at most would just retreat in a corner all by himself while counting beads, and not only had he become used to being close to Hui Ming, even when a stranger such as the female palace physician arrived, although he became tense, but as long as no one paid attention to him, he could remain calm by counting the Buddhist beads, he did not even have a shadow of becoming insane, and having the behavior of harming himself while screaming like in the previous life, thus in Hui Ming’s eyes, he wouldn’t be too bad in front of ordinary people anymore. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
“Yes, His Seventh Highness is deeply blessed, and your blessing is also yet to come.” Thinking of this, Hui Ming also nodded in agreement, and stroked Wang-momo’s palm in comfort.
Hui Ming at this time had rushed over when His Majesty was at the palace of Concubine Xian, she just found some time to come over to take a quick look, so although Lu An had remained there to cover for her, she could not tarry too long, as such after saying a few more words she stood up again, and before leaving, regardless of the person’s refusal, stubbornly left half of the monthly wage that she had just received, then asked the old steward who she had met a few days ago to take good care of her, then seeing the time of day, she turned back towards the Hall of Heavenly Virtue.
His Majesty had not yet returned, and not only had he not come back, but a small inner eunuch came to pass on a message, saying that His Majesty will sleep at Concubine Xian’s tonight, and instructed the palace maids to prepare his court beads and dragon robe for tomorrow morning, and also for the servants to bring it to Concubine Xian’s Palace, Wan Xi Palace.
Hui Ming and the others were servants in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, so with His Majesty resting elsewhere, it also meant that they could have a rest in the evening, which was why after hearing this message, except for those few with ulterior motives and those particularly “motivated”, the rest of the people inside the palace breathed a sigh of relief, they merely took care of their own duty, and except for a few guards who were left behind, the rest wore their cloaks, and gathered together in twos and threes, gossiping as they walked back along the cloisters to rest.
As usual, no one dared to speak or chat with her, all of them dodged and remained at a respectful distance from her, fortunately Hui Ming also seized this moment to do something, Su-gonggong’s mink fur garment was just a few stitches away from being complete, seeing that the weather was getting colder, she had remembered to make it early, so she just entrusted Lu An in helping bring back the evening meals, then rushed back, and no more than half an hour later, she had also finished the garment.
Looking at the color of the sky, it was painted in black winter night, but although it was already dark, in reality it was just early in the evening1, and was not yet too late, Hui Ming thought about it and decided that it was neither too early nor too late, so she wrapped the garment, then got up and put on her mantle and walked towards Su-gonggong’s residence.
At such an hour, she originally thought that Su-gonggong would still be accompanying His Majesty, and might not even return, who knew, that when Hui Ming just got to the rear entrance, she happened to meet Su-gonggong and Yuan Bao who was walking back carrying a lantern.
Seeing Su-gonggong’s slender figure, Hui Ming unexpectedly thought of what Xu-momo had said to her a few days ago, and her face immediately went red again, so she just stood there for a while, waiting for Su-gonggong to come nearer before opening her mouth and calling out.
Su-gonggong raised his head when he heard her voice, but before responding back, he first took out his hand from his sleeve and reached out to take the lantern in Yuan Bao’s hand and pointed it at Hui Ming’s feet: “Coming out so late, why aren’t you carrying a lamp?”
“I’m used to walking, there’s no harm in it.” Hui Ming slightly bowed her head and followed behind Su-gonggong: “His Majesty is resting at Concubine Xian’s, so I originally thought that you also wouldn’t be able to come back, but we coincidentally met.”
Before Su Jin could reply, Yuan Bao who was behind him wanted to please, so he laughed and said, “It is clear that Gugu and Master are predestined!”
Hui Ming’s heart jumped, wanting to see Su-gonggong’s face, but the lantern was lighting her feet, and looking up, only unclear darkness could be seen, then for a moment she recalled that in her past life before leaving from serving the emperor Su-gonggong sent Yuan Bao to explain to her, Hui Ming’s heart tensed up, she paused then smiled and said: “Others don’t know the real story, it’s just a misunderstanding, Yuan Bao why are you talking nonsense like this?”
Su-gonggong became silent for a moment, his face indistinguishable in the curtain of the night, but his voice was still dull without a bit of fluctuations: “I watched over the sacrifice for the late empress with Xin-wang this afternoon, the prince had just left the palace, so I came back to have a look.”
Seeing Su-gonggong ignore this stumble, Hui Ming’s heart also relaxed, and it happened that they had arrived at Su-gonggong’s door, so she took a step forward, opened the door with one hand then turned back and said: “That’s a coincidence, previously when Yuan Bao sent me some mink fur, I’ve made a garment, please try it on, if it’s not suitable, I can alter it.”
Su-gonggong’s steps paused, and there was an imperceptible undulation in his voice: “You’re giving it to me?”
Coming over to give a mink garment that she had personally made, this clearly looked like two people having affection for each other, why couldn’t this be spoken of? Yuan Bao felt puzzled, and when he turned his head, he saw his Master staring at him with a serenely deep gaze.
This stare made Yuan Bao’s scalp feel numb, he felt extremely helpless, he opened his mouth wanting to both laugh and cry, intending to explain, only to see that Master had already walked past him and entered the room.
Yuan Bao was about to follow, but immediately before his eyes the door was slammed with a “bang” in his face, and only the gentle voice of Master could be heard coming from a distance: “You’ve worked hard, there was no need to trouble yourself.”
Yuan Bao: … Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
==========================
The author has something to say:
Yuan Bao: When the fish cries, the water knows, but when I cry, who will know!
Hearing His Seventh Highness begging, Hui Ming’s eyes widened in surprise, His Royal Highness spoke very little, even when he was with her in the previous life, he usually just stayed quiet, and when Hui Ming would send his tea and meals, he only accepted them using his actions, although Hui Ming had always known that His Little Royal Highness’ mind was in fact clear and calm, and he was just incapable of revealing it, that’s why everyone thought he was a fool.
Yet in her last life, though she tried all kinds of methods, she had never succeeded in getting the Little Highness to talk to her, and even more so, to proactively ask for help from a “stranger” like her. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
In just less than two years, without Wang-momo, the condition of His Little Highness became so severe?
Although her thoughts were in a complicated mix, but in fact it was only something momentary, and Hui Ming immediately nodded, responding to the plea of His Seventh Highness, after having brushed the quilt on the bed that had been used for quite a time, and was already a bit dirty, she turned around and took the white fox fur that she brought and covered Wang-momo’s body, then she placed the quilt on top. Knowing the situation of His Seventh Highness, she knew that she couldn’t ask him anything, so she searched the house by herself and found a half basket of charcoal, then she lit the brazier and put it in front of the bed, after that she took out her handkerchief, soaked it in the cold-water basin in the house, wrung it and put it on Wang-momo’s forehead.
Having done all this, Hui Ming touched her pouch, then went out to find the old steward, and asked him to bring some hot water and ginger soup.
Because she was coming to the Hall of Calm Fragrance, she had brought a few pieces of silver just in case, but if it was for the long-term, she feared that it would not be enough, not to mention, His Little Highness did not even have anyone useful by his side, with Wang-momo in such a situation, even if there were silver, no one could take care of her, after all, she herself also still had errands to do in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, how could she have time to look after her?
That’s right, His Seventh Highness also needed someone to take care of him, so Hui Ming turned her head to look at the little ball at the corner of the bed, and tried to call out to him again, but His Seventh Highness’ hands holding the Buddhist beads were still slightly trembling, hence Hui Ming didn’t know if he understood what she said, as there was no response from him after having heard her words, and his body withdrew even more.
Upon seeing this, Hui Ming no longer persisted, and according to the experience in her previous life, she just treated it like he did not exist, then she turned around and changed the handkerchief on Wang-momo’s forehead, waiting for the hot water to be delivered, then tried to get her to drink some of the hot water.
But the result was not very good Wang-momo’s mouth were tightly closed, and trying to feed her with the bowl of hot water, caused half of the water to be poured out, her body temperature also didn’t decrease, and the hotness of her breath made Hui Ming feel a little bit apprehensive.
No, this illness cannot be overcome by oneself, according to the rules of the palace, there were exceptions for when the esteemed Masters falls ill and an imperial physician could be called, but for the servants it was absolutely impossible, it could only be for the those somewhat decent Masters who would invite a female physician to take a look, but with the Hall of Calm Fragrance being unfavored, this room was too dirty to decoct medicinal herbs, she could only find the steward in charge to get a token, then go to the pharmacy to get some readily available pills.
But with Wang-momo’s present condition, can a few medicinal pills cure her better?
It just so happened that the steward had come back to deliver the ginger soup, so Hui Ming took the leftover money together with the pair of twisted silk thread bracelets on her wrist and stuffed it in his hands: “I’ll trouble you to take care of her first, and I’ll go get a female physician to come and have a look.”
The old steward who was guarding the door looked down at her stunned: “You can invite a female physician to come?”
Speaking of this, Hui Ming also lowered her head: “I’ll try…”
Calling for a female physician was really something that she could only try, because she was just a no rank little palace servant, she was not qualified, and in line with the established standard rule, it was needed for the respective administrative division to make a report, or at the very least for an eight-grade senior eunuch or a high ranking female public official to make a report, then only after verifying the state of the person’s condition, could they issue a token to call a female physician into the palace for a consultation, naturally, this matter also depended on the person that went, if it was a favored important servant, it would naturally be simple, but towards those with ranks that weren’t worth mentioning, those that completely lacked the resources to offer gifts in order to win any favor, this “unlucky” matter of summoning a female physician, the less it was spoken about the better.
The old steward had stayed in the palace all his life, and needless to say he had been particularly selected, so hearing her words, he understood and made a clear sigh, he merely accepted the few pieces of silver, and pushed the pair of bracelets back to her: “I am also acquainted with Wang-momo, it’s not worth anything, you keep this bracelet, go on your way then.”
Hui Ming heaved a sigh of relief, and also did not insist, but before leaving, she turned her head and specifically said: “Oh by the way, regarding His Seventh Royal Highness, you don’t need to disturb him, just put his meal and hot water on the small table, he will eat by himself when he gets hungry.”
After that, even though she saw the old steward fail to understand what she said but still nodded, Hui Ming tightened her mantle and walked out of the room from the side.
By simply seeing the rustling snow outside, Hui Ming nevertheless got momentarily caught up in a period of hesitation, if she wanted to ask for a female physician, it would be quicker to go and directly find Su-gonggong, though if it was possible, she naturally didn’t want to trouble Su-gonggong, but—
If she wanted to save her, according to the rules, to invite a female physician for Wang-momo, she should first go to the steward in Imperial Concubine Kang’s palace to report, and since having lived again, she naturally knew who the young steward in Imperial Concubine Kang’s palace was, that person flattered his superiors and stepped on his subordinates, a greedy creature, and with her assets, even if she cleaned out those that she had saved every month and have accumulated for many years, whether she could succeed with this, the chance was only fifty-fifty, after that, for the female physician to diagnose her pulse and prescribe the medicine to treat her illness, there were still more things that would inevitably needed bribes for, furthermore even if the young steward agreed, it was not certain whether the senior steward above would be willing to agree, not to mention that taking Wang-momo’s current situation, she was afraid that she really couldn’t wait for such forestalling and prevarications.
Of course, if the young steward was well-informed and had heard that she was “sharing food” with Su-gonggong, he would naturally consider Su-gonggong’s face and handle the matter adequately, so that he could seize the opportunity to stay in Su-gonggong’s good grace, it’s just that slyly inquiring about while using Su-gonggong’s name to lie to herself and others, behaving by unfairly taking advantage of one’s superior to deceive those that were on a lower position, wouldn’t that be more hateful? Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Instead of doing this, it was really better to just bluntly ask, regardless of whether Su-gonggong would agree or not, she just had to try her best!
After figuring it out, Hui Ming didn’t hesitate anymore, she slightly clutched her palms together, then hurriedly walked towards the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, though at this hour, the morning court may not necessarily be done yet, and if there was an important matter to discuss, His Majesty would keep the ministers to discuss, so Su-gonggong would also be alongside to attend upon him, and even more so wouldn’t be allowed to leave.
Fortunately, Yuan Bao remained in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, and since Hui Ming was not on duty today, when she didn’t see him inside, she had no other choice but to search for Yuan Bao, to ask him for help in informing her as soon as Su-gonggong had returned.
Seeing Yuan Bao agree in response she then turned and left, although she knew it wouldn’t be in just a short amount of time, Hui Ming was anxious and couldn’t sit still, so after waiting for a while, she initially went to the only road from the Hall of Supreme Harmony that led back to the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, thinking that if His Majesty came back, she would be able to see it first.
Who knew that Hui Ming didn’t have to wait for His Majesty at the mouth of the road, but actually for one person alone, Su Jin, who was hurriedly walking back.
“Su-gonggong!” Hui Ming called out from a distance, and then walked up to greet him.
Su Jin’s footsteps paused, and perhaps due to him walking rapidly, so when he spoke, he was slightly out of breath, but his expression was still very calm: “Don’t panic, what happened?”
Seeing Su-gonggong, although Hui Ming was unaware of it, but her heart felt relieved in an instant, then after settling her mind, she describe Wang-momo’s situation in the Hall of Calm Fragrance, telling him the circumstances one by one, then finally with a solemn obeisance she begged: “I shouldn’t have inconvenienced Gonggong, but, Wang-momo,” Hui Ming said, then paused, although she didn’t want to deceive, but because she really couldn’t find a suitable reason to properly explain why she went to the Hall of Calm Fragrance and save a total stranger’s life, she nevertheless continued to speak: “Wang-momo is an elder I’ve known for many years, her life is close to death, and I really cannot just ignore it.”
Hearing her last few words, Su Jin’s serene complexion was slightly shaken, and he lowered his eyes slightly, as if wanting to say something, but after hesitating for a moment, he just yielded and took out his own chief eunuch’s waist tag: “In the palace of Imperial Concubine Kang, Zheng Ge Guang is the person in charge, you take my token, and ask Yuan Bao to accompany you, then go to the Palace Affairs Office to look for him and make arrangements.”
“Thank you very much, Gonggong!” Hui Ming was eager to save that person, so after thanking him, she immediately turned and hurried away, but did not notice Su Jin who stood behind, slightly grasping the ruyi knot, and looking at her back with complicated eyes.
Calling a female physician and saving people, these were just trivial things for Su Jin, but… from the Palace Affairs Office, to the Bureau of Administration, having secretly watched her for five years, he knew very clearly without exceptions all the palace maids she was close with, and there was no mistake—
Among them, there was no such Wang-momo. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
T/N: I’ve changed the following translation from Hall of Virtue to Hall of Heavenly Virtue, and from Hall of Tranquility to Hall of Calm Fragrance.
Having been circumvented by Xu-momo, even before Hui Ming was able to clearly resolve the matter, she was neatly driven out the door with words of seeing off the guest. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
And then, apart from carefully doing her errands, Hui Ming didn’t have the nerve to do as what Xu-momo had suggested, to go and personally ask Su-gonggong the reason why His Majesty instructed him to preside over the sacrifice for the previous empress.
After sending the knee pads to Xu-momo, she had yet to start on the garment for Su-gonggong, nor figured out the words that Xu-momo said to her early that morning, when the sky suddenly became heavy, that by evening, heavy snow started to fall, and overnight, the entire palace was already wrapped in silver, covered in a thick layer of pure white, but the rustling snow still continued for a while, without knowing when it would stop.
In this kind of weather, if everyone could they were determined not to go out and suffer the cold, while the occasional servants that would come and go from the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, would all put on hooded cloaks that had long ago been issued to them, bowing their heads as they rushed, ignoring any trivial matters around them.
Hui Ming and Lu An were on alternate duty, and yesterday it was her turn on doing errands, so today, she happened to be free for half the day, coupled with such heavy snow, if there was an appropriate time to send the fox fur to His Seventh Highness, when could there be such a suitable time than now?
Seeing that the palace servants who were on duty today had already left, and in the end, since she was still unclear about the situation with Su-gonggong, Hui Ming thought about it for a while, then changed her clothes to go out, she hugged the fox fur coat inside her mantle and rushed early towards the Hall of Calm Fragrance.
Hui Ming couldn’t be clearer on what the situation was inside the Hall of Calm Fragrance, not to mention the circumstances when His Seventh Royal Highness came last time with Wang-momo, Hui Ming still remembered that with such a significant matter as meeting the emperor, it was probably the most decent clothes that they could find, but His Seventh Royal Highness still had to wear layers of clothing that made him look bloated and felt cumbersome, not to mention Wang-momo, who was wearing half-old clothing that weren’t new, clearly, the charcoal fire and winter clothes over at His Seventh Royal Highness’ were nothing to be desired.
With regards to the thing about the charcoal, it was something Hui Ming couldn’t do anything to replenish, but with this fox fur coat, according to Su-gonggong, it could be used as bedding that does the job well, as long as the weather wasn’t extremely cold, it could be used for more than ten years.
Although the snow fell heavily last night, but the roads along the palace where the Masters and their children lived, were nevertheless already being swept and shoveled by menial palace servants for most of the snow that had fallen early in the middle of the night, and regardless of the chilly wind they also spread coarse salt on the ground to prevent it from freezing over.
It’s just that in the remote palace of Imperial Concubine Kang that no one cared about, it was natural that there was no such treatment, the further west one went, the thicker the snow was on the ground, and when one arrived at the Hall of Calm Fragrance in the distant, Hui Ming’s shoes had already been soaked with the snow, the cold air seeping in along with it, and her feet had frozen from the cold.
Having been serving in the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, it seemed that she had been spoiled with the hearth that was constantly lit all through the night, with just this bit of coldness, she unexpectedly couldn’t help it, and Hui Ming stomped her feet outside the entrance, while she inwardly shook her head.
Maybe it was because she came too early today and with such heavy snow, the gate at the corner closest to the Hall of Calm Fragrance was still closed, Hui Ming had to knock for a long time before an impatient old steward finally opened the door. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
Hui Ming only said that she knew Wang-momo and came to see her, then she stuffed a piece of silver she had prepared to him, which made him reluctantly open his mouth, and led the way while speaking in a gruff manner: “I haven’t seen you before, did you come here to collect the corpse?”
Hui Ming frowned when she heard the words, but owing to the fact that saying more meant making more mistakes, so she didn’t dig into the cause of what this servant was saying, until he took her to the side door of the Hall of Calm Fragrance, then thanked him politely before calling out to Wang-momo, but after waiting for a moment without anyone answering, she then opened the door and entered the room.
The brazier inside was cold, and the room wasn’t much warmer compared to the outside, Hui Ming frowned and slowly went in, she walked past the wooden partition and looked in, with just a glance, she vaguely understood what the old steward meant by “collecting the corpse”?
There was a person lying under the quilt on the bed, with only their grey hair exposed, seeing Wang-momo, who she had just met a few days ago, Hui Ming’s heart tightened, she put down the fox fur coat and rushed forward, and the moment she got a clear look at her face inside the bed, her heart sank, but also couldn’t help breathe a sigh of relief.
The sinking feeling she felt was because the person on the bed with their eyes tightly closed was unmistakably Wang-momo, her complexion looked flushed, that at first glance she looked really ill, and breathing a sigh of relief was precisely because her face looked flushed, in so much so that she could still slightly hear her gasping when she went closer, in any case this couldn’t be said of her coming over to “collect the corpse.”
Hui Ming took a few steps closer and sat down on the corner of the bed, she was going to take a good look at Wang-momo’s situation, but who knew that when she placed her palm on Wang-momo’s forehead, her eyes incidentally swept over the corner of the room, and it suddenly made her jump in fright!
His Seventh Royal Highness was crouching down with his hands holding his knees, he was nesting at the corner of the bed, quietly looking at her with a pair of clear black eyes!
“Seventh, Seventh Highness…” Hui Ming came back to her senses, Little Seventh Highness was not at all frightened, instead he was just sitting very quietly, it’s just that when she suddenly saw him, it scared her just a little, Hui Ming stroked her chest still a little unsure: “Why are you here alone?”
Seventh Highness looked at Hui Ming motionlessly, and with the usual practice that Hui Ming had also undergone for more than ten years in her previous life, towards such a Little Highness, she could only be patient and quietly wait for the other person to speak. After a long time being like this, Seventh Royal Highness just turned to the person lying on the bed, then slowly opened his mouth, but only called out with a hoarse voice: “Momo.”
At the same time, Hui Ming’s palms had already touched Wang-momo’s cheeks and forehead— it was burning hot, then thinking about the last time Wang-momo went to the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, where she couldn’t help coughing and shaking, it was obvious that it’s wasn’t just a day or two when Wang-momo had fallen ill.
Recalling the time when she arrived at the Hall of Calm Fragrance in her past life, but had never seen a trace of Wang-momo, Hui Ming’s heart sank again, having been very ill, but only the young Seventh Highness keeping watch over her, let alone inviting a physician for medicine, she was afraid that there wasn’t even a person who lit the fire and fed her water, so how could Wang-momo in her age survive? In her previous life, it’s very likely that Wang-momo must’ve fallen ill this winter, so it was no wonder that when Hui Ming came here in the previous life, His Seventh Royal Highness wasn’t being cared for at all, and his affliction had become much worse than it was now.
But with it being like this, along with His Seventh Highness’ temperament, in the previous life, was he also keeping watch like this, and watched as Wang-momo went?
Hui Ming felt stifled looking at the thin figure nestled in the corner of the bed, then after pressing down the sadness in her heart for a moment, she slowly sat down, and softly said: “Your Majesty, Momo won’t wake up for a while, why don’t you come out first?”
His Seventh Royal Highness having heard her raised his head and looked at Hui Ming, he ignored this chance, and although he was trembling with fear and his words were not as clever as a normal child, his every word, made people’s heart ache:
“Help, Momo, please.” Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
“This, how could I? I just need a few pieces of broken pelt, those remaining, it would be better to take them back.” In the corridor of the Hall of Heavenly Virtue, Hui Ming looked at the pile of animal skin sent by Yuan Bao, and refused again and again. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
“Aiyo, good Gugu.” Yuan Bao’s face had a wry smile: “You should accept them, just think of it as helping this little one!”
Hui Ming still hesitated, this wasn’t due to him though, but it was for no other reason than the pile of pelts brought by Yuan Bao was too expensive.
These were even the fur used by the masters in the palace, those that were very valuable, these were fine mink furs, Hui Ming only wanted to give Xu-momo a pair of knee pads, which didn’t take much, and she also knew that there were often some broken pieces of animal skins that were left over from those given to the masters in the Bureau of Administration, only then did she dare to use her monthly earnings and ask an acquaintance to request for it, who would have thought that Yuan Bao on one hand would bluntly deliver two pieces of one square foot of high quality mink fur, and also, a folded thick fox fur coat on top!
Yuan Bao bent toward Hui Ming again: “Gugu, this fox fur was rewarded by His Majesty when Master first arrived to serve, it hasn’t been used after all these years, Master said that this fox fur was too expensive, and it was not good for an Imperial steward to act ostentatiously, so it is a waste to leave it with him, it would be much better to send it to you, there is no fireplace in this corridor, you can spread it under you at night and it will be warm to sleep on.”
Seeing Hui Ming still having some hesitation. Lu An on the side also helped to persuade: “Towards Su-gonggong’s kindness, it is not good to refuse again and again, it’s much better to just properly accept it with gratitude.”
Yuan Bao casted grateful eyes towards Lu An, and repeatedly appreciated her help, Hui Ming in response thought about it, and contrariwise an idea came to her mind, so she no longer refused, and received it, then asked Yuan Bao to go back and thank Su-gonggong for her first.
For such a big thing, Yuan Bao had waited until it had gotten dark, so that when he delivered it there would only be few people around, because it was almost time for people to rest, so when Hui Ming accepted it, he no longer delayed, and quickly turned and went out the door.
Lu An turned and smiled at Hui Ming: “Gugu is too polite, this is clearly Su-gonggong’s kindness, you refusing like this, wouldn’t it hurt Su-gonggong’s sentiment?”
Hui Ming heard the teasing in Lu An’s tone, but didn’t say anything, Lu An was an discerning person, seeing Hui Ming’s expression, she seemed to have noticed something, and she immediately closed her mouth then instead turned to go and help Hui Ming prepare the bedding.
Hui Ming seeing this stopped her: “I’m not busy, you can sleep inside, I’ll do some more sewing, this way the light of the fire won’t shine on you.”
Lu An turned to look at the time and hesitated. “Are you in such a hurry? Wouldn’t it be better to wait for a good day so there would less strain on the eyes?”
Hui Ming still insisted with a smile, when Lu An arrived at the Hall of Heavenly Virtue to serve, her uncle had repeatedly given her instructions, to originally consider herself as an indistinct palace maid, and respond by not daring to obstruct someone’s path, but just assist in lighting more candles at the back1, so under the persuasion of Hui Ming she went to lie down and rest inside.
Hui Ming compared the sizes of two minks under the lamp, and having seen the size with her own eyes accordingly thought about something, she felt that it should be enough, she carefully put away the pillow first, then having found half of the knee pads that she had already made for Xu-momo, she planned to take advantage of the whole night to handle her sewing.
Regarding Xu-momo’s kneepads, Hui Ming still planned to sew them using the pieces of broken mink pelts bought from the Bureau of Administration, it wasn’t that she was stingy, but one, she had already made half of it, so there was no need for her to take it apart and replace it, two, the kneepads originally only needed two pieces of palm sized fur, so even with the whole piece of pelts that Su-gonggong had sent, it was still necessary to cut it, which would be a waste, she might as well just keep it, then starting tomorrow, she could make time, and make a pair of items for Su-gonggong. Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
That’s right, in fact, as early as when Hui Ming decided to prepare some kneepads for Xu-momo, she had also thought about whether to make something for Su-gonggong, it was just the seasonal clothes for the people in the palace, were uniformly sewn and distributed by the Bureau of Administration, and it could not be easily changed, not to say whether Hui Ming had the same skill and materials to do it, if she made something, it would just be superfluous, as for the other things, originally making a double soled shoe was the most comfortable and practical, but something like that looked somewhat extremely conspicuously intimate, it was not appropriate behavior, and Su-gonggong was an upright gentleman, if there was a misunderstanding, explaining the misunderstanding could cause it to become more complicated.
Hui Ming had already been hesitating when Yuan Bao brought these two pieces of fine mink skin, and for an Imperial steward to wear mink was somewhat ostentatious, but the sizes of these two pieces was actually just enough for the mink fur to be sewn as an item that could be worn inside, which would be inconspicuous, so that when one went outside where cold wind was waiting, it would be comfortable enough to wear, and sending it to Su-gonggong would be perfectly appropriate!
As for the very expensive white fox fur… Hui Ming actually really had some selfish motive, she had planned to meet Hid Little Seventh Highness after a couple of days and secretly send it to him in the Hall of Calm Fragrance.
With this idea in mind, Hui Ming found a piece of cloth, wrapped the fox fur robe then placed it away inside her own trunk for the time being, waiting for when a suitable time came. At present, she abandoned all distractions and busied herself with the kneepads she was making for Xu-momo, she was careful and quick, and since it wasn’t something big, she kept focused, that it only took an hour before she finished what she was working on in her hands.
Hui Ming didn’t delay, and early the next morning, she took it with her when she went to work, after waiting for His Majesty to get up and deal with the state affairs, she found some time and went to find Xu-momo in the rear chamber with the kneepads.
Xu-momo proved to be stubborn and tough, although she didn’t go out, but at such an hour, she had already meticulous tidied up everywhere, she was sitting slightly askew and leaning on the chair warming herself on the brazier, but after seeing Hui Ming, her relaxed bearing immediately disappeared, and she sat up straight, then asked about her purpose for being there.
Even though in the eyes of others, she, Song Hui Ming had long become a close confidant of Xu-momo, but whenever she was in front of momo, she didn’t give her any preferential treatment, she still used such formal tone, which Hui Ming had long become used to, after greeting her, she took out the pair of kneepads and presented them, then courteously said, “It’s the fine mink fur that was sent by Su-gonggong, to show respect.”
Although Hui Ming didn’t mention herself, Xu-momo lowered her head and touched the kneepads, the fur was soft and it had fine stitches, compared with those ordinary female embroiderers the attention in this was exceedingly more meticulous, how could she not know that this was Hui Ming’s kind intention?
Although she didn’t inquire about it herself, but in Hui Ming’s eyes, it was obvious that Xu-momo had a look of gentleness, though her voice still held a serious tone: “Did Wei-shi bother you again these days?”
Hui Ming hurriedly shook her head, she thanked her once again, then spoke highly of Xu-momo’s identity and influence, seeing that all the words that should be said had been said, due to Xu-momo’s temper, she was afraid that the next words she would say was to urge her to immediately go back, and not delay her errands, so she rushed ahead of the other party and quickly asked: “Momo, there is one more thing…”
Xu-momo straightened her body, and Hui Ming looked at her with her head down, then she spoke of her doubts about His Majesty sending Su-gonggong to handle the previous empress’ death anniversary.
Xu-momo frowned, and instead of giving a direct answer, she asked, “Such a thing, why don’t you directly ask Su-gonggong about it?”
Hui Ming certainly knew that it is was quicker to directly ask Su-gonggong about it, in fact, not only the death anniversary of the previous empress, but she also couldn’t wait to ask Su-gonggong directly whether he was involved with the two princes competing to seize the throne at the moment, however, regarding such an important event, if Su-gonggong didn’t trust that person how could he easily open his mouth, in addition to having a deep conversation with a stranger, to assume that she could ask without exposing any bit of trace, it was hard, it would also arouse Su-gonggong’s suspicion, thus until today she still couldn’t find a chance to mention it in front of Su-gonggong.
Seeing the hesitation on Hui Ming’s face, Xu-momo sighed like she hated iron for not becoming steel2: “You are so close to that boy Jin3, yet you don’t ask him if something’s wrong, but turn a corner and ask other people instead? This is not the way for a husband and wife to get along! “
Hui Ming hearing the first half of her words in her mind already felt that something was wrong, and when she finally heard the words “husband and wife”, her heart jumped even more, at this time, she jumped up from her seat and shook her head to deny it “I am not, I didn’t!”.
It’s just that, when she heard such words in her previous life, her heart was filled with resentment and injustice, wanting to prove her innocence, but what about now? Hui Ming was stunned as she thought, now she was also in a panic and denied it, but the feeling in her heart, turned out to be something that she herself couldn’t tell…
Hui Ming was in a daze then she heard Xu-momo say again, “When you first came here, I had thought that you were unwilling, but looking at you these days it seems that I was wrong, since you have come around, you should properly get along, also how did you think of this kind of silly matter?”
After hearing this, Hui Ming finally recovered, and since she couldn’t clearly speak of it, she pressed down the complicated feeling in her heart and stood up for Su-gonggong: “Momo misunderstood, it’s because I had once met Su-gonggong when I first entered the palace, then after that when he saw me being punished by the head momo in the Bureau of Administration before, he offered a hand to help me, Su-gonggong is a man of honor, not as rumored by the others …”
Having listened to this, Xu-momo tilted her head and looked at her then grunted coldly: “Although it is not a secret, since it is related to the previous empress’ death anniversary, the reason cannot be told to just anyone, since you say that boy Jin has no intention towards of you, he certainly doesn’t want you to know, so how can I speak about it with you?”
Hui Ming hearing this was at a loss, then she heard Xu-momo open her mouth again: “You might as well go back and ask first, if that boy Jin doesn’t treat you as an outsider, he would naturally be willing to tell you, if you come back here again, then I will tell you the reason.”
Hui Ming: … Please read at insidethemirror translations. DO NOT REPOST.
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The author has something to say:
Hui Ming: Wait, I’m a little dizzy, something seems to be wrong? God assists * sees everything clearly * doesn’t eat dog food *
Xu-momo: Humph, you two are pretending with me again!
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
1. 根蜡烛: stay silent ↩ 2. 恨铁不成钢: idiom, to feel resentful towards sb for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement ↩ 3. 瑾: Su Gonggong, his name is Su Jin ↩
If there are any mistakes, please do not hesitate to point it out.
insidethemirror translation nook 