Chapter 67: The Empress's Bizarre Behavior

Looking at the delicate, fair-skinned, and ambiguous-looking person before her, Yan Ziyu could not help but frown deeply!

What was this person here for?

Judging from the newcomer's voice, tone, and lofty, condescending posture, Yan Ziyu could roughly guess his identity, but she still had no idea what his purpose was.

"You are..." Yan Ziyu asked, a trace of confusion lingering between her brows.

The man pinched his fingers into an orchid gesture, looked at the confusion in Yan Ziyu's eyes, and chuckled behind his hand. "This humble servant is a eunuch from the Empress's palace. Long ago, I heard of the Princess's renowned beauty. When we parted in haste last time, the Princess likely did not remember this humble servant, but this servant has always kept the Princess in mind. Being ordered to invite the Princess into the palace this time is the utmost honor for this servant."

Yan Ziyu directly ignored the flattery, focusing only on the final sentence.

Ordered to invite her into the palace—whose order was it?

He was a eunuch from the Empress's palace; could it be the Empress's command?

After a moment of thought, Yan Ziyu deemed this unlikely. In her memory, the Empress was dignified, virtuous, and reticent, with no other intersections between them. Her most vivid memory of the Empress was the day of her wedding to Long Xiaoyan, when the Empress had personally attended and gifted her a multicoloured cloud dress. Alas, that exquisite dress had been chewed to pieces by rats the year she gave birth to Rui'er...

"Ziyu is dull-witted; I must ask the Eunuch to speak more plainly." Though Yan Ziyu suspected it was the Empress, sometimes playing the fool appropriately was necessary.

The eunuch smiled knowingly, giving Yan Ziyu a deep look. "Most people in this world are foolish, yet the Princess is like a snow lotus atop a snowy peak—aloof and independent, proud and untainted, looking down upon the ignorance of the mortal world with a mind as clear and bright as a mirror." As he spoke, he revealed a token in his hand, the embroidered dancing phoenix clearly signaling the identity of the master he served.

Yan Ziyu was startled. She had certainly caught the tone of praise in the eunuch's words, which was precisely why she was so shocked!

If this eunuch had acted with arrogance and disdain, it would have been easily explainable, given her notorious reputation in past years! Yet, his sudden outburst of such praise caught her off guard and left her dumbfounded!

"The Eunuch flatters me far beyond what I deserve. Ziyu is merely an ordinary mortal woman; how could I possibly bear such high praise? You flatter me too much," Yan Ziyu replied modestly, her eyes carrying a trace of caution.

"The Princess jests. This servant is merely following orders. If it is convenient for the Princess, perhaps you might accompany this servant into the palace. The Empress Dowager—ah, the Empress has important matters to discuss with the Princess." The eunuch nodded slightly at Yan Ziyu, and beneath the undisguised admiration in his eyes lay a deeply concealed shock!

Such a woman was truly a brilliant pearl wrapped in dust. If given the right opportunity in the future, she would surely soar to great heights with boundless prospects.

***

Had Yan Ziyu known how highly this palace eunuch rated her, she likely wouldn't have known how to react.

Yet at this moment, she seemed to have no choice left. Someone from the Empress's palace had come to invite her so politely, claiming there were matters to discuss; if she stubbornly refused to go, she might offend the Empress.

Which woman in the inner palace was simple? A single Noble Consort Rou was already giving her headaches; if she added the Empress to the mix, her days would truly become unlivable. After weighing her options, she decided to accompany the eunuch into the palace.

Of course, she harbored other thoughts as well—if she could use external strength to counter external strength, leveraging the Empress's influence to suppress Noble Consort Rou, keeping the consort too busy fighting the Empress to bother her, wouldn't that be wonderful?

"How could Ziyu dare to disobey the Empress's command? Please wait a moment, Eunuch; I will change my attire and accompany you into the palace."

The eunuch readily agreed to everything. Soon, Yan Ziyu appeared before him in a fresh set of clothes. It was still a plain white long dress. Ever since arriving in this world, she had grown increasingly fond of white, always feeling that human hearts were murky and that white allowed her to feel she remained untainted...

She had re-styled her hair into a neat bun, adorned with a golden dangling hairpin and a transparent jade hairpin, which made her delicate face appear even more tender. At a glance, she looked dignified yet elegant, simple without being petty, and her gentle, water-like disposition made it impossible for anyone to look away.

Boarding the carriage the eunuch had prepared in advance, Yan Ziyu closed her eyes to rest throughout the journey without uttering a single word. By her side sat the meticulous and gentle-tempered Green Willow.

Golden towers and jade pavilions, painted verandas and carved eaves all exuded an aura of royal majesty. The moment she stepped through the palace gates, Yan Ziyu felt an overwhelming sense of constriction, much like a bird with clipped wings, unable to spread them or soar.

"Please wait a moment, Princess; this servant will go and announce your arrival to the Empress." They had quickly arrived at the Empress's Shouxi Palace. The eunuch led Yan Ziyu inside to rest and wait while he went to report to the Empress.

"Then I must trouble the Eunuch," Yan Ziyu said with a smile.

After waiting for quite a while without a sign of the Empress, Yan Ziyu grew truly restless sitting there and decided to stand up and walk around. Inadvertently, her gaze fell upon a pot of coin grass resting on the window sill. The leaves of the coin grass were bluish-green, marked with gray coin-like patterns on the upper surface, hence its name. Yan Ziyu had deliberately studied the plant previously due to its amusing name, but this particular pot of coin grass seemed somewhat different from what she had read in her books.

According to ancient texts, coin grass could be used as medicine to treat insomnia. Every night, it emitted a unique fragrance, highly effective for those with light sleep or restless minds, and especially beneficial to martial artists—making it an exceedingly rare medicinal herb. At the same time, there was a remarkably similar herb called "wire grass." The greatest distinction between the two lay in the upper surface of the leaves: the gray coin pattern of the wire grass had a faint, extremely thin line running right through the middle. Despite this microscopic difference, their effects were worlds apart!

Coin grass was a life-saving herb, whereas wire grass was a harmful demon plant with effects diametrically opposed to the former. Prolonged inhalation of the scent emitted by wire grass would not only cause mental trance and incessant nightmares, but would also gradually shatter a person's sanity, turning them into a raving madman in the eyes of the world until it finally claimed their life. Most terrifyingly, even royal physicians could not determine the true cause of death. It could truly be described as killing without spilling blood and the ultimate method of murdering through a borrowed knife.

After careful observation, Yan Ziyu realized that this pot was not the calming and sleep-inducing coin grass, but the lethal wire grass. A deep shock gripped her heart. To think that a simple trip into the palace would yield such an astonishing discovery!

Who on earth would go to such painstaking lengths to harm the Empress?

***

If something were to happen to the Empress, who would be the ultimate beneficiary?

Could it be that the imperial physicians had failed to detect this pot of wire grass? Or had they discovered it and dared not speak out?

...

Various thoughts swirled in her mind, and Yan Ziyu furrowed her brows deeply, lost in speculation.

A moment later—

"The Empress has arrived—" Following a shrill cry, Yan Ziyu immediately composed her expression and walked to the doorway to greet the Empress.

"This concubine pays her respects to the Empress. May Your Majesty live for ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times!" Watching the Empress approach gracefully, Yan Ziyu lowered her head and bowed.

"No need for formalities, rise!" The Empress's gentle voice rang out. Her eyes gazed at the simply-dressed woman before her. There was none of the heavy, pungent fragrance typical of women in the inner palace about her; instead, her scent was faint, carrying a wisp of ethereal fragrance that was exceedingly pleasant.

The Empress held a very favorable impression of Yan Ziyu. She knew a thing or two about the events of years past, which was why she had bestowed the multicoloured cloud dress upon her during her wedding out of pure sympathy. However, the reports she had received recently made her feel that her past gesture was somewhat redundant!

"I am a few years older than the Princess; how about I simply address you as Ziyu? Would that be alright?" Looking at the delicate countenance—so different from years past—and the quiet confidence resting upon Yan Ziyu's face, a fleeting flash of surprise crossed the depths of the Empress's eyes. This woman truly was different from before. No wonder...

The flash of strangeness in the Empress's eyes did not escape Yan Ziyu's notice. Maintaining her composure, Yan Ziyu smiled and replied, "If Your Majesty does not disdain me, it would be my honor."

Simultaneously, she inwardly wondered what on earth could have caused the Empress to lower her status and befriend her so graciously. The more courteous the Empress was, the more uneasy Yan Ziyu felt inside.

"I remember when I first laid eyes on you, you were still swaddled in your infancy. In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed. Now you are both a wife and a mother. Truly, time flies and ages us all!" Looking at the face that bore such a striking resemblance to an old friend, the Empress's expression grew tinged with nostalgia.

It was Yan Ziyu who was stunned instead. Did her mother know the Empress? Judging by the Empress's demeanor, they seemed to have shared a rather close relationship. That being the case, why hadn't the Empress extended a helping hand in past years to shield her from some of the bullying?

Harboring these doubts, Yan Ziyu probed cautiously, "Does Your Majesty know my mother? Why have I never heard her mention it?" If the Empress had truly known her mother, why hadn't she offered any assistance, allowing her mother's life within the general's estate to be so wretched that her beauty had faded prematurely?