Chapter 922: Chapter 922: Little Beauty… Truly a Fierce One
Nanny Qi has recently been making small clothes. Those familiar with her know she has a small habit: when threading a needle, she likes to put the thread end in her mouth to keep it from fraying, making it easier to thread through the needle’s eye.
In the past, it was usually Lian Hua, Pang Ya, Xiao Qing, and others who helped Nanny Qi with the threading. Later, out of boredom, Lian Hua tinkered around and invented a simple needle-threader, which made threading much easier. Since then, Nanny Qi preferred to thread the needles herself, a habit only those in Canglan Court knew about.
Coincidentally, Xia Liu was one of those who knew. The food and water in Canglan Court were under Nanny Qi’s strict control, so strict that ordinary people couldn’t even get close, let alone have an opportunity to poison it. Soone like Xia Liu could only do trivial tasks unrelated to the Main Hall and Side Hall, which she rarely approached.
She was sowhat clever, avoiding tampering with food and water since she knew it wouldn’t succeed. Instead, she chose a different path, targeting things like needle and thread which were secretive enough that normal checks wouldn’t usually detect poison. When Nanny Qi eventually used them, it was easy to fall into the trap.
Moreover, Nanny Qi wouldn’t use them right away; by the ti she did, Xia Liu would have disposed of the evidence, exonerating herself from suspicion.
If not for the Emperor ordering soone to secretly monitor, Xia Liu might have succeeded.
It was precisely this incident with Xia Liu being caught that occupied Nanny Qi, causing her to co out just now.
Whenever Nanny Qi thought of those needles and threads, she broke out in a cold sweat considering Lian Hua, Pang Ya, and others often used them, and the small clothes were for Lian Hua’s child.
This tactic was indeed vicious. Thinking of the wild beasts outside attacking, Nanny Qi suspected it was rely a distraction to conceal the real threat—Xia Liu’s poison. She wasn’t afraid of being hard herself, but feared Lian Hua and others might also be implicated.
Having heard everything, Consort Xu De was extrely relieved and repeatedly exclaid how dangerous it was. She ordered Ming Xin to escort Xia Liu to the Punishnt Bureau to see if there were accomplices and identify the mastermind behind the plot.
Nanny Qi sighed again and said, who else could it be? In this palace, only Xue Wanjun had the capability to drive the Ferocious Beasts of the Imperial Animal Garden to attack Canglan Court and devise such a chain of poison sches. Knowing is one thing, handling is another—the latter is best left to the Emperor.
After briefly explaining the situation at Canglan Court to Consort Xu De, Nanny Qi gazed toward the Imperial Garden and then at the ferocious beasts tied up and snoring away, still feeling uneasy and insisting on personally going to the Star Palace to see Lian Hua to feel at ease.
Consort Xu De, concerned about the situation at the Imperial Animal Garden and unwilling to see Nanny Qi weary herself running about, persuaded Nanny Qi to stay at Canglan Court and wait. Since she herself wanted to ensure Lian Hua’s safety, she planned to visit the Star Palace first before sending soone to notify Nanny Qi. Lastly, she would check on the situation at the Imperial Animal Garden.
But Nanny Qi was determined to go herself to be reassured, leaving Consort Xu De with no choice but to have Pang Ya support her from one side, heading on their way.
Before long, the group saw the Emperor coming from the opposite direction leading a group of people.
Both sides faced each other and simultaneously asked aloud:
“Has Nannan returned?”
“Where is the little girl/sister?”
The scene fell silent for a mont, then both sides exclaid in shock:
“She hasn’t returned?”
“She hasn’t gone to the Star Palace?”
This was bad; she was neither at Canglan Court nor at the Star Palace, where could she be?
Instantly, the Emperor, Nanny Qi, and Consort Xu De’s eyes turned red with urgency. The Emperor imdiately dispatched Hu Miaomiao and others to search extensively, also personally joining the search, resolved to find her even if it ant scouring the Imperial Garden inch by inch.
Before leaving, seeing Nanny Qi trembling and wanting to follow, he sobered up a bit and persuaded her with a few words to stay at Canglan Court to avoid missing Lian Hua’s return.
Nanny Qi, in a fog of anxiety, knew she would only be a burden if she went, so she had to remain behind, anxiously waiting.
Ti was of the essence; the Emperor and Consort Xu De quickly divided their search parties.
While the Emperor and others were searching everywhere for Lian Hua, Cao De, leisurely playing with a bird feather he had picked up, strolled behind, while Mao Daniu, skilled in tracking, sniffed and sensed like a dog at the front, identifying the fugitive’s trail. The group from the Internal Guard Bureau pursued them as leisurely as a cat chasing a mouse.
In Cao De’s mind, those controlling the Ferocious Beasts were rely struggling in death throes, trapped and fighting futilely. Whether they fled or not made no difference, it was just a matter of sooner or later when they would die, so he wasn’t in any hurry.
“Ancestral Master, the scent is strong; they’re just ahead!” Mao Daniu whispered excitedly to Cao De.
Cao De perked up, tucked the bird feather behind his ear, gestured to the group, and they silently dispersed, hiding behind tree trunks to encircle and encroach.
Faint sounds ca from behind the palace wall as they stealthily peered through the trunks, spying the wide-open gates of the Imperial Animal Garden from which sounds emanated.
Cao De swiftly raised his hand to halt everyone, narrowing his fox-like eyes with an uncertain gleam. He thought to himself that either the thieves were fools, or they were incredibly audacious, driven to desperation, so they must not be underestimated or taken lightly.
The people from the Internal Guard Bureau stood ready outside the gates of the Imperial Animal Garden. The sounds within grew louder, as if soone was coming toward the gate.
The more Cao De listened, the stranger it seed. After discerning closely, he made an odd expression: why was the Little Beauty here? If Yuchi Zhao knew, he’d surely be frantic. No, he might have already been driven mad long ago.
“All our people, co out. No need to hide,” he said to everyone, striding out first, lounging nonchalantly in the center of the Imperial Animal Garden, waiting for the others to erge.
When the group of figures appeared, Cao De was a bit dumbfounded, a thought flashed in his mind: Little Beauty… truly a fierce character!
Leading the way was Lian Hua, with her big round belly, holding a fierce bird, talking animatedly.
There were three eunuchs and a palace maid surrounding her, one of the eunuchs carrying an older eunuch covered with a warm blanket.
Additionally, four Shadow Guards followed at the rear, each dragging one or two people. Among the six, there were males and females, five with pig-like swollen faces, disfigured beyond recognition—as if even their own mothers wouldn’t recognize them.
The only one not beaten beyond recognition still looked miserable, identifiable as a woman with eyes closed, clad in a Silver Gray Mouse Fur Cloak dragging on the ground. Her clothes were torn in places, her hairpins scattered in the dirt and snow, tangled into countless knots, looking no better than a beggar from folk stories.
If these six continued to be dragged, their rear scalps would probably be bald, and who knows if their hair would ever grow back.
Cao De took a long ti to recognize that the one not beaten unrecognizable should be from the Zhao family, holding the title of Beauty.
He couldn’t help but inwardly criticize; in the palace, sisterly facade matters most. But this Little Beauty didn’t care at all, making his scalp tingle. To treat servants so roughly is one thing, but treating soone of equal rank this way… truly, she was… deeply to his liking!
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