Sure enough, the first thing Consort Hui did once she woke up was to ask about the situation with Lin Feilu. Her palace maid reported the truth. Consort Hui thought that her daughter would only wake up around this time. Why had she woke up earlier than usual today?
She dressed herself and went to her daughter’s room. Lin Nianzhi was sitting on the daybed, playing with a rouge box, when Consort Hui asked, “What is that?”
Seeing her mother was approaching, Lin Nianzhi slipped the box into her sleeves, “It’s nothing.”
Concubine Hui: “???”
This daughter of mine has never kept any secrets from me. This is the child I raised with my own hands, both mother and daughter should be of one mind and work together. So, when has she learned to lie so blatantly in front of me?!
Concubine Hui said angrily, “Did that little b*tch give you something?”
Lin Nianzhi frowned, “Mother, Fifth Sister is also an imperial princess, and is also Father’s daughter. If you keep calling her that, and if someone were to hear it, I fear we may be implicated.”
Concubine Hui smiled, but snarled with angry tone, “Are you reprimanding your Mother on behalf of that little b*tch?”
Lin Nianzhi looked at her seriously, “I am sincerely concerned for Mother. Fifth Sister is still a child, and she has nothing to do with the grievances that happened in the past. I hope Mother will not make things difficult for her anymore.”
Concubine Hui was so angry that she no longer wanted to talk to her, so she turned her head and left.
Lin Nianzhi sighed to herself, feeling caught between a rock and a hard place.
♠♠♠
Ever since that first day of snowfall, the skies never cleared in the capital city. Heavy snow blanketed this imperial city, and the new year was approaching closer and closer.
At the end of each year, the empress would hold a banquet to celebrate the end of the year in the Imperial Harem. Xiao Lan was not invited to the banquet in the previous years. After all, there were many concubines in the Imperial Harem, and those who were not favored became invisible and were forgotten.
But this year was different from the past. With Consort Xian around, Xiao Lan was now included in the list. The imperial princes and princesses would also attend the end-of-year banquet, thus Xiao Lan naturally had to bring Lin Feilu along.
This was Lin Feilu’s first participation in a palace banquet and her first official appearance since her birth. Therefore, she could not afford to make any careless mistakes. Consort Xian also sent many bales of satin and new jewelry to Mingyue Palace so that Xiao Lan could properly prepare themselves.
All palaces were busy preparing for the end-of-year banquet, however, the only palace that remained quiet was Imperial Concubine Jing’s Zhaoyang Palace.
Ever since the haunting of the evil spirits, fewer people were willing to visit Zhaoyang Palace. Later, Lin Xi was punished by the eldest prince and placed under house arrest. No one soul wanted to risk offending the eldest prince and Noble Consort Ruan, thus they avoided any association with Imperial Concubine Jing.
Buried under the heavy snow, a cold, eerie atmosphere enveloped the entire Zhaoyang Palace.
The days were short in winter, and in the evening, darkness descended just as snow fell. The lights in Zhaoyang Palace flickered and dimmed, as sounds of whispers could be heard from time to time. No one seemed to notice, up on the rooftop, there stood a dark figure holding onto a sword.
Only when night had completely enveloped the palace did the dark figure move. Lighter than the snowflakes falling from the sky, he flew down from the rooftop without making a single sound.
(T/N: That person is not literally flying down but it is a kind of Chinese martial art.)