Chapter 46 Part 2

 

It was still early in the evening when they returned to Yongning Mansion. Pei Xiaoyuan sent her back to Ziming Courtyard, stopped outside the gate, and suddenly said to her: “Luwu Division is still short of some manpower. I have recently been considering recruiting some valiant fighter who are familiar with the alleys of Chang’an. After they come in, if they can make contributions, they may be transferred to full-time positions in the future and join the Sixteen Guards as imperial guard. I think that Gu Twelve is quite suitable. It happens that he also has military experience. I will go and make arrangements and ask him to recruit some more suitable people.”

On the way back, she was so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice him, only that he had been riding silently by her side. She didn’t expect him to suddenly say all of this thing.

She was stunned, but then reacted and understood his intention.

The boy was tall and strong, and he had learned martial arts from Gu Twelve before. If he could work for Luwu Division, what would happen in the future maybe be unknown, and it would depend on his own ability and luck, but at least for now, he was given a chance to change his fate. This was much better than her asking to bring him back and keep him by her side.

For a moment, Xuyu was extremely moved.

“That’s great. Thank you!”

She didn’t know how to fully express her gratitude at the moment, and looked at him with joy.

He smiled slightly and nodded.

“I’ll go and take care of this matter. You take a rest.” After saying this, he turned around and was about to leave. Suddenly, as if remembered something, he turned around again and said: “Your hand is not healed yet, don’t paint!” He then left quickly.

Xuyu watched his back disappear, and her depressed mood was swept away, then she entered briskly.

He seemed to have a pair of eyes that could see through her thoughts.

After coming back from outside with nothing to do, she was indeed wanted to paint.

There was no need to paint the Pleasure at Qujiang painting. With something like that happened, even if she painted it, Prince Ning would probably feel it was unlucky. But she could paint something else, both to practice and to kill time.

However, since he specifically reminded her, Xuyu could only obeyed.

Qingtou was in the middle of directing the hired servants in the west courtyard to clean the courtyard and paths, and some noises could be heard from the partition walls from time to time.

It turned out that they moved in too hastily. Yesterday, they only cleaned up her place, and they hadn’t even had time to clear the weeds in the west courtyard where he lived.

He was not around, and she had nothing to do.

Xuyu went there and stopped outside the courtyard gate and looked inside.

Qingtou ran over and asked if he had disturbed her.

Xuyu said it was fine and asked if there was anything she could help with.

“How dare I let Young Master help here? You are a guest. But if you have nothing to do, please come in and help me see if there is anything missing in Master’s room. If so, I can go to the West Market to buy some.”

If He Amu was here, she would definitely take care of everything. However, the young master was also a delicate lady, so it should be fine to ask her opinion.

Xuyu hesitated slightly, then walked through the courtyard and followed Qingtou inside.

There were three rooms in the west courtyard. His bedroom was in the middle, with a square layout. Against the wall were a simple bed, a bamboo table, and a few wardrobe trunks. Outside the west window were a few square bamboo poles, casting sparse shadows. By the window was a desk with writing brushes and ink on it, which should be used for reading and writing.

Looking around, the walls of the house were empty and free of clutter.

Xuyu walked over, opened the window and took a look, and told him to build a bamboo shed outside the window when he had time.

This house was facing west, and as the weather getting hotter, before next month, the sun would start to invade the room. Build a shed to block the sun, so that the house could be cooler at night. Then go buy a bed curtain to hang over the bed.

“Go buy those light gauze curtain with a dense mesh. They are both ventilated and insect-proof.”

Qingtou sighed, “That kind is not cheap! I think a light gauze curtain like that in the West Market would cost at least ten thousand coins! We need money to reorganize the courtyards and hiring people to carry soil. How about buying a blue cloth curtain? Master used to use a blue cloth curtain anyway.”

“I’ll give you the money! The cloth curtain is only suitable for winter and is too stuffy in summer. Besides, this is the west house, it’s already hot.” Xuyu said.

Seeing Qingtou turn his head and look at her, she hurriedly said, “Didn’t I receive some rewards today? There is money in it. Consider it as a loan to your master. You don’t have to tell him. Whenever you have money in the future, you can return it to me quietly.”

“Alright, alright! Then please lend it to me!”

Qingtou rubbed his hands and said, “I will go buy it tomorrow! Thanks to Young Master’s blessing, Master can also enjoy it!”

Xuyu nodded and was about to ask him to follow her to get the money when suddenly, a guard that Pei Xiaoyuan left in the house came over and said that a palace eunuch named Cao had come to the mansion and asked for her.

Xuyu hurriedly came out.

It was indeed Eunuch Cao, standing solemnly in the courtyard with a stern look on his face. When he saw her, he flicked the rhinoceros-head whisk in his hand and ordered her to follow him into the palace immediately.

Xuyu was unsure and asked tentatively what was going on.

“You’ll know when you get there! Hurry up! Don’t delay!”

Xuyu looked back at Qingtou, and then she could only hurriedly go out the door and rode to the palace. When she arrived, she found that instead of going to the Jixian Hall as she thought, she was taken directly through the third palace gate, through the Academy of Scholars, several connected halls, and finally, to the Ziyun Palace that she could only look at from afar but was not allowed to get close to.

She didn’t know what had happened, and her first reaction was, could it be that the emperor summoned her to ask about what happened yesterday when Prince Kang abandoned the two county princesses and escaped on his own?

Her heart was pounding—nervous, excited, with a faint sense of anticipation, and finally, that indescribable fear that rose from the deepest part of her soul.

At this moment, she was afraid. She knew it.

When she followed Eunuch Cao up the palace steps, her mind was too distracted and didn’t pay attention to the steps under her feet. As a result, she tripped and fell in front of the palace gate. Her knee hurt and she also knocked her wrist. The skin where the bleeding had stopped was scratched again, and blood slowly oozed out.

Eunuch Cao stopped, turned his head to look at her, and frowned impatiently: “What’s going on? Watch out! If you do anything careless after you go in, you will be punished!”

Xuyu ignored the pain, hurriedly got up, and followed him into the most mysterious and supreme palace of this holy dynasty.

She did not go through the main gate, but entered the palace through the side door, walked through the corridors and halls, and finally seemed to have arrived at a side hall located in the west.

The hall was silent with curtains hanging down to the ground, and the smoke of burning incense rose from the incense burner.

At this moment, the sun was still shining brightly outside, but it was dim inside.

As soon as Xuyu entered, she felt a chill all over her body, her arms breaking out in goosebumps. It took her a moment for her eyes to fully adjust to the dim light within the hall.

Eunuch Cao led her in and then left, leaving Xuyu alone in this spacious, dark, damp and cool side hall.

Xuyu didn’t dare to move around, she held her breath and waited. After a long time, she finally heard footsteps and turned around to look.

A palace eunuch led a group of people, each holding a basin, towel, soap, clothes, socks, boots, incense burner, etc. He ordered her to wash her hands, take off her outer clothes and leave only her inner clothes, and then dressed her in a new set of clothes similar to those worn by the eunuchs. After putting on new boots, he thoroughly fumigated her from head to toe with incense. Only then he led her to the inner hall and pointed to the west wall and said, “By His Majesty’s order, you are to paint a picture of the Golden Mother Yuanjun here.”

Golden Mother Yuanjun was the Queen Mother of the West.

Goddess paintings with the Queen Mother of the West as the core were common mural subjects in Taoist temples.

It was really a surprise that she was asked to come here to paint.

Xuyu was stunned when she suddenly thought of something.

Previously, when she was studying in the painting academy, she had heard some inside stories about how the former chief of the painting department was killed because his paintings angered the emperor.

The chief was ordered to paint a picture of the Queen Mother of the West in Ziyun Palace. Unexpectedly, not long after the painting was completed, the Queen Mother of the West on the wall began to bleed inexplicably from all seven orifices.

What’s even more terrible was that it was said that the image of the Queen Mother of the West was based on the late Empress Zhaode.

After such a thing happened, it was obviously impossible to survive from the emperor’s hands.

Xuyu came back to her senses, hesitated for a moment, and asked tentatively: “Is there a specific face to include in the painting?”

The palace eunuch ordered her to come. Walked to a small pavilion nearby, gently opened the door, and led her in.

Walking into the small pavilion, the palace eunuch’s steps seemed to become pious. He walked silently to a painting table, first knelt down and kowtowed respectfully, and ordered Xuyu to do the same.

After kneeling, the palace eunuch stood up, carefully lifted the brocade cloth covering it, and signaled her with his eyes to come forward and have a look.

Xuyu’s eyes fell on the table and she froze on the spot.

This was an old painting that looks quite old. The silk surface was slightly yellowed. Not only that, it had probably been thrown into a furnace in the past, so not only have the corners been burned, but there were also several holes caused by the fire.

The people in the painting were a pair of mother and daughter.

The woman was wearing a palace dress, very young and exceptionally beautiful. She was sitting on the couch, with a leisurely posture, slightly lowering her head, smiling at the girl at her feet. The girl was about three or four years old, with her hair styled into twin buns, wore a high-waisted small ruqun and carried a small gilded embroidered pouch on her back. She was squatting in front of her mother, touching a white Persian cat on the ground.

Although the painting was severely damaged, it was still clear that the artist paid extraordinary attention to detail. Every stroke was carefully considered, with the tenderness in the woman’s expression and the joyful innocence on the little girl’s face vividly portrayed, not only that, but even a strand of hair was depicted in great detail.

She stared fixedly at the broken painting of the cat on the table, motionless, not even noticing when the palace eunuch had left her side, until she suddenly heard an eerie cold voice: “Why are you crying?”

Only then did she realize that she was crying.

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