Cui Yunfeng was incredibly familiar with the sleeping quarters of Consort Liang. She could enter accurately without the head court lady leading the way.
However, today, the person took a winding path, ultimately choosing a route that was quite a bit out of the way.
"Auntie Zhao, where are we going?" Cui Yunfeng asked, furrowing her brows.
Lady Zhao did not stop walking. She turned slightly and replied, "To answer the Second Miss, a few gossiping servants are receiving the rod and have blocked the main path. This old servant is taking the two young ladies via an alternate route."
Cui Yunfeng felt that something was amiss and grabbed Cui Yunchu's wrist.
Cui Yunchu's expression remained indifferent.
It was absolutely impossible for Consort Liang to do anything to the two sisters.
Cui Yunchu comfortingly patted the back of Cui Yunfeng's hand. The three continued forward, but suddenly, a chorus of begging for mercy reached their ears.
The cries were piercing, mixed with the dull thuds of wooden boards striking flesh.
Lady Zhao instinctively halted her steps.
Cui Yunchu and Cui Yunfeng also stopped. Looking up towards the opposite side, they saw several young eunuchs pressing three palace maids onto long benches. The boards swung down again and again without the slightest mercy.
The crying and begging gradually grew fainter with each fall of the board.
Lady Zhao stood unmoving, a smile even hanging on the corners of her lips. "These three must have eaten the heart of a bear and the gall of a leopard. How dare they gossip about the Crown Prince and Crown Princess in the imperial garden? Her Majesty the Empress has ordered them to be beaten to death."
As her voice fell, Cui Yunfeng's face visibly and rapidly paled.
Lady Zhao continued, "However, since these people belong to Her Highness's palace, the Empress held her accountable and changed the execution site to right outside Her Highness's palace gates, to serve as a warning to others."
Cui Yunfeng's eyelashes fluttered violently.
Her slightly cold fingertips, curled together, were suddenly grasped. She looked up and met Cui Yunchu's steady gaze.
Cui Yunchu calmly watched the three palace maids opposite them until they gradually lost their breath, before turning her eyes to Lady Zhao. "They seem to be dead. Shall we continue watching?"
Lady Zhao looked back, meeting Cui Yunchu's tranquil gaze, and her heart could not help but skip a beat. Shouldn't a proper young lady from a good family be terrified and screaming upon seeing such a scene?
Who would be like this Eldest Miss of the Cui family, still wearing a smile on her face?
Was she afraid? A little. There was no girl who wasn't afraid of dead bodies. But Cui Yunchu wasn't that frightened. After all, how could someone who had hugged her own mother's corpse for days without letting go be scared by a scene like this?
Lady Zhao was silent for a few breaths. She made a gesture of invitation and continued towards Consort Liang's palace.
Cui Yunchu withdrew the hand holding Cui Yunfeng's wrist. She lowered her head, took a handkerchief, and wiped away the fine sweat on her palm.
Every step to ascend to a high position was piled with corpses and bones. Or rather, when her older female cousin was scheming, she had already anticipated the fate of those three.
Innocent? Pitiful?
Being born as a human, there was never any fairness to speak of. If her Cui family were the meat on the chopping block today, they would be slaughtered just the same.
Of the people in the imperial palace, who wasn't innocent and pitiful?
Cui Yunchu thought that if her cousin were here today, she would certainly be able to remain completely unfazed. Her own innate talents were limited, but she excelled in being naturally cold and detached.
But this move by Consort Liang was quite thought-provoking.
Was it dissatisfaction? Condemnation? A warning? Or something else?
The white cat held in Yun'er's arms suddenly let out a sharp cry, darted down from Yun'er's embrace, and scampered toward the nearby palace.
That was Consort Liang's sleeping quarters.
Cui Yunfeng was startled and immediately ordered Yun'er to stop it.
Lady Zhao said, "Second Miss, there is no need to worry. This cat used to be raised by Her Highness's side and is very familiar with this place. Perhaps it is just excited to suddenly return."
...
Inside the sleeping quarters.
Consort Liang looked at her son sitting below her, feeling quite a headache. "What are you doing here?"
Xiao Yi replied, "I heard that Imperial Mother summoned Yunfeng into the palace."
Consort Liang found it simply unbelievable. The person hadn't even entered the palace yet, and this boy had already caught wind of the news and rushed over.
"Xiao Yi, have you even planted spies in my palace?"
Xiao Yi did not answer, but calmly said, "Those three were ordered by me. It has nothing to do with Yunfeng."
Consort Liang gave a cold snort, glaring sideways at Xiao Yi with a look that said, Do you think I believe that?
"Xiao Yi, can you be a little more promising? Has Yunfeng captured your brain as well? To think you would actually go and help the Crown Princess..."
Consort Liang felt as if the sky was about to fall.
If this continued, what great ambition was there left to speak of? They would just be sitting targets for the Cui and Tang families.
"Are you so cheap that you just strike wherever she points?" Consort Liang descended the steps in two or three strides and fiercely poked Prince An's head.
"Why don't you just drop the surname Xiao and change it to Cui."
This wasn't even the most infuriating part. The most infuriating part was...
Consort Liang's face turned livid. "Those three were my most capable subordinates. Even if you wanted to plot, couldn't you have used someone else?"
Xiao Yi said, "Yunfeng said that we must use more reliable people so as not to be easily discovered."
Otherwise, if the Empress and the Crown Prince noticed something, it would only be more detrimental to Tang Qingwan.
"If she told you to eat shit, would you eat it?"
Consort Liang's lungs were about to explode from anger. Those were veterans who had been by her side, and just like that, they were gone.
But looking at her son's completely unconcerned appearance...
Consort Liang knew exactly what kind of character her own son was. To win a smile from a beauty, let alone three lives, even thirty lives were nothing to him.
And Cui Yunfeng was someone she had watched grow up, so she also understood her mindset very well.
"Yunfeng is good in every way, except she isn't very... smart. If she truly marries you but still thinks of her maiden family in everything she does, it will be extremely disadvantageous for you."
Consort Liang hoped to gain the support of the Cui family and also had some genuine affection for Cui Yunfeng, but given the current situation, she didn't think very highly of Cui Yunfeng's prospects.
"The Cui family also disapproves of you two being together. Yi'er, why don't you listen to your mother? Choose a woman of both virtue and capability from your maternal grandfather's family to be your wife. She will be able to assist you."
Xiao Yi remained silent. His indifferent and cold gaze swept over Consort Liang, and the latter immediately stopped talking.
"I was just... saying that casually."
No one knew better than her what kind of monster she had given birth to.
What was even more hateful was that three of her people had died, yet he hadn't made the slightest bit of progress. He hadn't even managed to grasp a hair on Yunfeng's head.
How useless could he be!
Consort Liang was genuinely worried that if she didn't intervene soon, her own sleeping quarters would become just another prop in this useless son's wife-chasing endeavors.
"You don't need to worry about this matter anymore. I have my own methods. Just wait to get married."
Right at that moment, a white cat suddenly darted in and, with incredible speed, nestled into Prince An's arms.
A smile immediately appeared on the corners of Xiao Yi's lips. "Xiaobai, where is she?"
Consort Liang curled her lip. "Even the weather in June doesn't change as fast as your face."
"Also, don't think I don't know what you've been up to lately. That top scholar, you are not allowed to touch him."
Xiao Yi nodded in an extremely perfunctory manner, stroking the white cat's fur over and over again.
