"The Noble Consort of Virtue stealing vegetables?"
Noble Lady Jiang spat out her hot tea and reluctantly said, "Well, it's possible, after all, the vegetables in Imperial Noble Consort's palace are indeed delicious."
No matter how delicious they were, how could the Noble Consort of Virtue, one of the four highest-ranking consorts, stoop so low as to crawl through a dog hole to steal vegetables?
Noble Consort Ye, sitting below Noble Lady Jiang, got tea splashed all over her face. As palace maids were wiping her face with handkerchiefs, a young eunuch entered with a troubled expression: "My lady, Noble Lady Liu and Concubine Cheng are here again."
"Tsk!"
Noble Lady Jiang rubbed her temples impatiently: "Will this ever end? All the lotus pods in my Xihuo Palace are gone, yet they still have the nerve to come picking?"
How was this any different from the Noble Consort of Virtue crawling through dog holes to steal vegetables?
Equally shameless.
At least the Imperial Noble Consort's palace actually had fruits and vegetables to steal, but here the lotus flowers had withered by the end of August, and all the pods had been picked by palace servants. Why were these two still using lotus pod picking as an excuse to harass her?
"Noble Lady Jiang, perhaps they're actually here for me," Noble Consort Ye said.
Previously, Noble Consort Ye had been the lowest-ranking among the three. Whenever Concubine Cheng and Noble Lady Liu were in a bad mood, Noble Consort Ye was always their punching bag. But now that Noble Consort Ye had suddenly gained the favor of the Imperial Noble Consort, everyone in the palace had changed their attitude, and she was no longer someone they could bully.
So these two had formed an alliance again, just like they used to in Chuxiu Palace.
Having spent several months with the Imperial Noble Consort in the temporary palace, Noble Consort Ye now saw Concubine Cheng and Noble Lady Liu's alliance as child's play.
What kind of sisterhood was this?
Behind each other's backs, at the slightest provocation, they would wish the other dead and gone.
Noble Consort Ye wanted no part in such sisterhood.
Usually, when they came to admire the lotus flowers, Noble Lady Jiang couldn't be bothered to deal with them, but today she had invited the Imperial Noble Consort and Low Level Consort Yu for a game of leaf cards.
As for why they weren't playing regular cards, it was because the Imperial Noble Consort was unbeatable, and the three of them couldn't handle it, so they strongly requested to switch back to leaf cards.
The September weather in the capital was even warmer than July in Qin Province. Jiang Xinyue sat in her sedan chair while Xi Que continuously fanned her from below.
After returning from Qin Province, she had trouble adjusting to the climate and couldn't bear the heat anymore.
No wonder several fortune tellers had told her she was destined to be a pampered young mistress.
Well, wasn't she now indeed a "delicate" young mistress?
"Splash!"
"Ah—"
While crossing the long wooden bridge, suddenly a large basin of water flew out from behind the lotus leaves, drenching Xi Que, Shuang Jiang, and Xiao Xiangzi completely.
The eunuchs carrying the sedan chair were splashed with pond water and almost lost their grip.
"Hold steady! Don't let go!"
Though Jiang Xinyue's face and clothes were splashed, she ignored her wet clothes and quickly shouted while grabbing the sedan chair's handrail to prevent herself from falling into the pond.
The drenched sedan carriers, startled by the Imperial Noble Consort's angry shout, straightened up and gripped the poles tightly, preventing the embarrassing situation of Jiang Xinyue falling into the lake.
"Who's skulking behind there?"
Xi Que rolled up her sleeves, wiped the dirty water from her face, and pointed at the trembling lotus leaves: "Come out now, or I'll get some sticks and beat you to death."
Soon, two large wooden basins floated out from behind the lotus leaves. Noble Lady Liu smiled sweetly: "Please forgive us, Imperial Noble Consort. Concubine Cheng and I were just playing around. We truly didn't know you were crossing the bridge. It wasn't intentional."
Concubine Cheng glanced at her. This fool had gotten smarter – it was she who had spotted Jiang Xinyue's sedan chair and thrown the water, but now she knew to drag her into it.
Seeing the cold gaze from above, Concubine Cheng didn't dare speak. Her bottom was still aching!
"Ahhhhh!"
Suddenly, Shuang Jiang screamed as if she'd seen something terrifying, pointing at something in front of the wooden basins.
Jiang Xinyue leaned forward to look and was startled, drawing in a sharp breath.
Concubine Cheng followed Shuang Jiang's pointing finger and was so frightened by what she saw that she lost her voice, though her body instinctively stood up.
The eunuch steering Noble Lady Liu's basin let out a shriek and dropped the bamboo pole, splashing water into Noble Lady Liu's eyes, preventing her from seeing what it was.
"You worthless slave, what are you doing?"
"Imperial Noble Consort, you..."
At this moment, Noble Lady Jiang and Noble Consort Ye walked out and witnessed the eerie scene.
Seeing everyone around Jiang Xinyue soaked, Noble Consort Ye immediately understood that Noble Lady Liu was up to her foolish tricks again, so when she saw the horrifying thing, she screamed: "Noble Lady Liu, why is there a decomposed corpse in front of you? It's just bones now, it's terrifying!"
Three exclamation points, and not one was excessive.
Noble Lady Liu rubbed her eyes and looked carefully. Her soul nearly left her body as she screamed and tried to grab onto Concubine Cheng.
But Concubine Cheng's eunuch was already paddling away. In her panic, Noble Lady Liu grabbed Concubine Cheng's sleeve, but Concubine Cheng shook her off forcefully, causing both Noble Lady Liu and her eunuch to flip over into the pond with their basin.
"Gulp... ah... help... I can't... gulp gulp..."
What terrified Noble Lady Liu most wasn't her inability to swim, but that she had fallen right onto the skeleton. The arm bones still had rotting flesh on them, and as she thrashed about, they bent at an angle and held her in a death grip.
When she turned her head to break free, she saw the skeleton's half-rotted face, with one empty eye socket crawling with maggots. The sight frightened her so much that she fainted immediately.
Concubine Cheng, weak-kneed, barely managed to crawl ashore and pointed at Noble Lady Jiang, shouting: "Murder! Murder! Noble Lady Jiang has committed murder!"
Jiang Xinyue had already descended from her sedan chair, and her sharp eyes shot Concubine Cheng a warning glance. Already scared witless, Concubine Cheng clutched her throat, forcing herself to stay silent.
"Ignore her."
Jiang Xinyue grabbed Noble Lady Jiang and pointed at the now-submerged Noble Lady Liu: "Save her first."
Xiao Xiangzi had already brought a bamboo pole, using it to push away the skeleton while instructing the eunuch in the water: "Get Noble Lady Liu out."
The skeleton had been dredged up from the muddy pond bottom and still reeked of decay. Jiang Xinyue stepped far back, covering her nose and mouth with a handkerchief.
"Why are you all standing at the entrance? Are you that excited to welcome me?"
Low Level Consort Yu was swaying as she walked when she suddenly stumbled and fell flat on the ground.
"Who's lying... ahhhhhhh... ghost!"
The leaf card game was definitely not happening now. Two of the five consorts had fainted, and most crucially, Low Level Consort Yu had also fainted, leaving them one player short.
Officials from the Investigative Bureau rushed over, having heard that an old female corpse had been discovered outside Xihuo Palace, causing two consorts to faint, and now all the palace consorts and the Emperor were at the scene. They needed to uncover something to properly complete their investigation.
