20demayo Chapter 73 Keep to Your Own Business
Chapter 73 Keep to Your Own Business
After lunch, the sun was at its zenith.
Chu Qingyin dismissed the palace maids who were serving her and secretly followed Kang Luhai to the Cold Palace.
"Your Majesty, please wait a moment."
After Kang Luhai finished speaking, he stepped forward and knocked on the door of the Cold Palace.
There was no response from inside.
Kang Luhai thought the person inside hadn't heard him, so he knocked again, but still no one answered.
Fearing that Chu Qingyin would get impatient, he pushed the palace gate hard, and unexpectedly it opened.
It looks like there's no one inside.
"This……"
Kang Luhai explained somewhat reluctantly, "Your Majesty, please forgive me, but Master may have gone out on business and has not yet returned."
When did your master arrive here?
Chu Qingyin had initially thought that the old eunuch was an old friend of hers, and that was why he wanted to meet her. But now, she realized that he might not be an old friend at all.
"Your Majesty, my master, Eunuch Chen Shou, was an old servant who served the late Emperor. After the late Emperor passed away, he was allowed to leave the palace. However, my master was unwilling and stayed in the palace. The Empress Dowager pitied his advanced age and no longer served other masters."
"My master was originally assigned to guard and clean the Chengde Hall, where the late emperor used to stay when he was cooling off. After Consort Chu passed away in the Cold Palace at the beginning of the year, he requested an imperial decree to come here to keep vigil for her."
Keeping vigil?
A hint of doubt flashed in Chu Qingyin's eyes, and she quickly recalled the name Chen Shou in her mind.
But no matter how hard she tried to recall, she couldn't find a single memory related to this person in her mind.
She didn't know him.
Why did he volunteer to keep vigil for someone who was a complete stranger like her?
"Your Majesty, why don't we come another day?" Kang Luhai suggested after much hesitation.
He and Chen Shou were said to be master and disciple, but they didn't have a deep relationship. It was only when he first entered the palace that he saw Chen Shou serving by the late emperor's side, and he tried to curry favor with him.
Therefore, he couldn't pinpoint Chen Shou's whereabouts, but he figured that since it was Chen Shou who had taken the initiative to ask to see Consort Qiao, he probably wouldn't go back on his word.
"You go back first, I'll wander around the area."
Chu Qingyin was unaware of Kang Luhai's thoughts. She wanted to go into the Cold Palace to take a look, after all, it was the place where she had lost her life.
"Your Majesty, this Cold Palace is unlike other palaces; it is very cold and gloomy. You should come back with me to avoid being disturbed by any unclean things here."
Chu Qingyin couldn't help but sneer. What filthy thing could be colder than her, a lonely soul who had died once?
"It's alright, I know what I'm doing."
Kang Luhai wanted to persuade her further, but seeing Chu Qingyin's resolute attitude, he dared not disobey his master: "Then Your Highness, please be careful. This servant will take his leave now."
After Kang Luhai left, Chu Qingyin stepped into the Cold Palace.
Following her memory, she walked step by step into the empty house.
Those painful and unbearable memories from the past flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern—
At that time, Pei Yuanling banished her to the cold palace.
Although Pei Yuanling did not strip her of her title, people in the palace were always inclined to fawn over the powerful and belittle the weak. Seeing that she had lost power and that the Chu family had no chance of making a comeback, they became even more disrespectful to her.
They dared not do anything to her openly, but secretly they cut back on her allowances, and it was common for her to suffer from hunger and cold in the dead of winter.
At the time, she always thought that Pei Yuanling was just angry for a moment and wanted to teach her a lesson; he wouldn't really abandon her.
She told herself to be patient, to be patient some more, and that when Pei Yuanling arrived, she would definitely teach these blind lackeys a lesson to vent her anger.
But in her final moments, she didn't wait for Pei Yuanling; instead, she received a cup of poisoned wine.
Humiliation and resentment overwhelmed him, and his eyes couldn't help but well up with tears.
The excruciating pain of the poison piercing her intestines, like a thousand arrows piercing her heart, swept over her rapidly as this memory returned. She unconsciously raised her hand and pressed it forcefully against her chest—
"Qiao Qingyin!"
Just as Chu Qingyin's vision went black and she nearly fell to the side, she heard an anxious male voice in her ear.
The next moment, a pair of large hands held her tightly.
The dizziness gradually subsided, replaced by the loud, rapid beating of a man's heart beside her ear.
Chu Qingyin raised her eyes in confusion, only to be met with a face with thick eyebrows, bright eyes, and a cold, arrogant demeanor.
"How could it be you?"
Chu Qingyin's dark eyes widened in astonishment. The man before her was none other than Lu Zhiheng, who was like a persistent ghost!
Why is he here?
Lu Zhiheng did not answer, but stared intently at the woman's pale, bloodless face. His thin lips were tightly pressed together, and he felt both fear and a strange, indescribable anger.
What's wrong with this woman?
He walked in perfectly fine just now, but after only a few steps, he collapsed, clutching his chest, as if suffering from a poisoning attack.
If he hadn't been quick enough to catch her in his arms, she might have hit her head and broken it if she had fallen.
Taking a deep breath, Lu Zhiheng frowned at her and asked, "What happened to you just now?"
Chu Qingyin then realized that she was still being held tightly in Lu Zhiheng's arms. She immediately struggled to get up, but the man forcefully restrained her hands and then lifted her up in his arms.
"Lu Zhiheng, what are you doing!"
Chu Qingyin's face, which had just regained some color, was instantly filled with embarrassment and anger.
She didn't understand what Lu Zhiheng meant.
Surely it couldn't be that he was lusting after her and wanted to do something to her while she was in a weak state?
Thinking of this, she wrapped her arms around Lu Zhiheng's neck, lifted her head forcefully, and bit down hard on his shoulder—
The man couldn't help but hiss, but his grip didn't loosen in the slightest.
He quickly stopped.
Before Chu Qingyin could react, she felt the man lean down slightly. While she was still wondering what was happening, he placed her on a relatively clean soft couch.
It turned out that he was afraid she would lose her balance, so he carried her to the bedside.
She misunderstood his good intentions and even bit him...
"that……"
Chu Qingyin lowered her eyes, her voice slightly embarrassed, "I'm sorry, I thought you..."
"What did you think?"
"No...it's nothing."
"..."
Lu Zhiheng rubbed his slightly sore shoulders; she really was very keen on leaving marks on him.
Last time it was his palm, this time it's his shoulder. Where will it be next time?
"Is Miss Qiao born in the Year of the Dog, always ready to bite someone she sees?"
The man's usually deep voice carried a rare hint of teasing.
"you--"
Chu Qingyin raised her face in anger, just in time to see the faint smile in Lu Zhiheng's eyes.
Lu Zhiheng used to smile, but that smile rarely reached his eyes. But now, he seemed genuinely happy.
Moreover, his smile was completely different from his usual cold and aloof demeanor; it was like the warm and gentle sunlight of early spring.
Chu Qingyin was unconsciously drawn to that light and was momentarily dazed.
"Miss Qiao still hasn't told me what happened just now?"
Chu Qingyin snapped out of her daze and met the man's obvious scrutiny and probing gaze. She couldn't help but be annoyed that she had almost been bewitched by this scoundrel's good looks.
"I'm here on some business."
She spoke slowly, subtly shifting her gaze away to avoid meeting his eyes.
"Oh? Miss Qiao is truly a busy person, so busy that she's ended up in the Cold Palace?"
"Do I need to report to you, Lord Lu, where I go on business?"
Chu Qingyin frowned and retorted sarcastically, "On the contrary, what brings you here, Lord Lu? The Cold Palace is not a place for you to come here."
Lu Zhiheng's eyes swept casually across the woman's face before he said slowly, "What a coincidence, I'm here on business too."
Chu Qingyin frowned even more deeply and asked, "What is it?"
Lu Zhiheng's lips curled slightly: "Do I have to report to Miss Qiao when I do things?"
Chu Qingyin choked for a moment.
Looking at the man's slightly raised eyebrows, I couldn't help but think to myself, "What a stingy and petty man!"
"Yes, I don't need to report to Lord Lu when I do things, and Lord Lu naturally doesn't need to report to me either."
Chu Qingyin said, getting up. "In that case, you go your way and I'll go mine. We'll keep to ourselves and not interfere with each other. Don't ask me anything, and I won't ask you anything either. Goodbye."
Just as she was about to sit up, a man's voice sounded above her head, "Are you really leaving like this?"
"What if I said I had information about the person Miss Qiao was looking for?"