Chapter 84

Chapter 84: Zhen Huan Chronicles, An Ling Rong

The Empress did not stop her. Then she added with a pointed look, “Children scare easily. If something spooky suddenly appears and frightens the Sixth Prince, that won’t do.”

“Your Majesty worries too much.” Li Si Qi smiled. “Yong Shou Palace is clean and proper. How could such things come knocking? As the saying goes, if you do nothing shameful in life, you won’t fear ghosts knocking at midnight. I think the ones who should be afraid are those who like to do shameful things. I’ve heard that gods and ghosts also repay hatred with hatred, and grudges with grudges. The living don’t know who the true culprit is, but the dead surely do. Your Majesty, I’m not wrong, am I? I take my leave!”

No matter how ugly the Empress’s expression turned, Li Si Qi simply spun around and left. The remaining concubines stared, dumbfounded. As expected of Consort Xian, the one who ran with Noble Consort Hua – she was already going head-to-head with the Empress. Impressive!… Li Si Qi sat in her sedan chair.

She looked like she was resting with her eyes closed, but in fact…

“Xiao Hu Zi.” Li Si Qi let out a cold laugh. “Looks like our Empress has forgotten what nightmares feel like again. Since she misses it so much, we can’t disappoint her. Starting tonight, let her enjoy what it feels like to be bitten by ghosts.”

“Master, you mean you’ll have her bitten herself?” Xiao Hu Zi asked. “Not make her watch her son get bitten?”

“Let her enjoy it herself first,” Li Si Qi said coldly. “We can arrange for her to watch later. Besides, if she watches too much, she’ll get used to it. If we keep making her watch her son being bitten, it won’t affect her that much. This time, we’ll let the Empress ‘enjoy’ it properly. Only when she’s ‘enjoyed’ that feeling herself will it carve itself into her bones and make sure she never forgets.”

“Brilliant, Master!” Xiao Hu Zi agreed. “That Empress really needs a lesson. She drags the dragon-and-phoenix twins into everything.”

“She’s too idle,” Li Si Qi said lightly. “If she has the energy to scheme against people, then we’ll make sure she has no energy or mind left to harm anyone.” “Exactly.” Xiao Hu Zi added, “Master, I didn’t expect Zhen Huan to use this method again.”

“That’s normal,” Li Si Qi replied. “The haunted act counts as a famous scene. Zhen Huan likes to make a big spectacle when she takes revenge. And whether it was in the show or now, she still uses the haunted act to scare Concubine Li.”

“Master, in the show, the first unlucky one was Concubine Tian,” Xiao Hu Zi said. “Now Concubine Tian isn’t close with her. I don’t know if she’ll still scare her.”

“Concubine Tian isn’t the same Concubine Tian anymore.” Li Si Qi sneered. “If she dares to use Concubine Tian as her knife, I’ll make her understand just how powerful the Fu Cha surname is. As long as she has a brain, she won’t dare to act recklessly. Oh, right – didn’t you say First Attendant Fang ran into a ghost yesterday? Wasn’t she Zhen Huan’s first target?”

“No,” Xiao Hu Zi explained. “Xiao Yun Zi went out to scare maids and eunuchs. When he came back, he didn’t change out of his costume. First Attendant Fang happened to get up at night, and her maid had just helped her dress and come out. They ran into Xiao Yun Zi and he scared the mistress and servant so badly they both fainted on the spot.”

“Xiao Yun Zi?” Li Si Qi said softly. “I’m really curious how Zhen Huan’s brain is built. The Emperor changed his brothers’ names from ‘Yin’ to ‘Yun’ to avoid the taboo of his own name. Yet Zhen Huan goes and calls her eunuch Xiao Yun Zi. She truly doesn’t take the imperial family seriously at all.”

“It’s a TV drama,” Xiao Hu Zi re minded her. “Of course there are things that don’t make sense. Master, this Xiao Yun Zi can even wipe out the Emperor’s shadow guard chief, Xia Yi. In the show, he counts as one of Zhen Huan’s right-hand men. Why not wipe him out completely this time?”

“Not a bad idea.”

… Catch the ghost within three days? Setting aside whether Noble Consort Hua would even follow that order, Li Si Qi and Consort Jing still looked like it had nothing to do with them. Noble Consort Hua only ordered everyone to stop spreading rumors and had the guards expand their patrol routes and increase their numbers. The first day passed quietly, and nothing happened in the palace.

But the Empress suffered in Jing Ren Palace. For an entire night, she “enjoyed” bloody infants gnawing at her. The pain that felt like dying over and over was terrifying. After just one night, the Empress’s complexion turned awful.

Since she felt miserable, she couldn’t stand seeing the other concubines doing well either. After stirring them up with a few casual remarks, she dismissed them at once. The second day was still calm in the rear palace, as if the ghost incident that had been raging a few days ago had completely vanished. Everyone finally felt a little more at ease.

After enduring another night of pain, the Empress began to suspect the ghosts only came to bite her at night, which was why they never showed themselves to anyone else.

“Your Majesty, summon Imperial Physician Zhang,” Jian Qiu urged, aching for her mistress. “This can’t go on. At least let an imperial physician take a look and see what’s happening.”

“An imperial physician can’t treat this,” the Empress said softly, shaking her head. “It’s the same as last time.”

As she spoke, hatred and disgust flickered in her eyes. “It’s just a pack of vile little wretches. My Prince Hong Hui is gone, and now they still won’t leave me alone. If we want to solve this, we need to find someone outside to handle it.”

Jian Qiu immediately understood. “Your Majesty means… going to temples and Taoist monasteries again to hold rituals and pray for blessings?”

“Yes.” The Empress rubbed her aching temples. “Not only do we need rituals and prayers, we also need something with spiritual power. Talismans, a jade token, prayer beads – anything. I don’t care what it is, as long as it can protect me and keep those ghosts from getting their hands on me.”

“Yes. This servant will send someone to the Ula-Nara residence at once!” Jian Qiu went out to find Head Eunuch Jiang Fu Hai. After he learned of the task, a young eunuch took a token and left the palace.

He arrived at the Ula-Nara residence and delivered the Empress’s order. The Ula-Nara clansmen looked like they’d swallowed a live fly, their faces ugly to the extreme. Last year, they had already spent a great deal of silver praying for Prince Hong Hui. Now the Empress was doing it again, and they could barely endure her torment.

Whether they wanted to or not, the Ula-Nara clansmen had to obey. After all, the Ula-Nara men were all useless. They lived by freeloading off their elders – no, they lived off the honor of being the Empress’s maternal clan, using it to amass wealth. They couldn’t afford to have the Empress turn on them, so they obediently complied and immediately sent people to stir up trouble at temples and Taoist monasteries….

At Sui Yu Pavilion, Zhen Huan and Shen Mei Zhuang sat side by side. Neither of them looked very good.

“Sister Mei, I can’t accept giving up like this.” Zhen Huan’s eyes filled with rage. “It took so much effort to stir things up. Noble Consort Hua didn’t personally come out to catch ghosts, but she added so many patrol guards. No matter how skilled Xiao Yun Zi is, he can’t avoid every patrol. If Xiao Yun Zi can’t go out, it means the ghost uproar has passed, and we’ll miss the chance to deal with Concubine Li.”