A Mistaken Marriage Match: Mysteries in the Imperial Harem - chapter-99

Mysteries in the Imperial Harem: Chapter 99
Chapter 99: Facial Appearance

Zhuo Qing told Gu Yun in detail the situation during this period and also
the result of the check on the body. Both of them discussed a while and
was unable to come to a conclusion at that moment of time, thus Gu Yun
decided to enter the Palace to take a look at Qing Feng.

As Zhuo Qing had the token from Yan Hong Tian, both of them could enter
the Palace smoothly. When they entered Qing Feng Hall, they saw a small
baby cradle under a big tree in the middle of the courtyard and beside
it, Qing Feng, clad in a simple was at the side half kneeing as she kept
her eyes on the small cradle with only Fu Ling accompanying her.

Seeing that they had arrived, Fu Ling bent down as if afraid that she
would scare her and said in a very light voice, “Mistress, Lou Furen and
Miss Qing are here to see you.”

Gu Yun’s brow tightly knitted together, the Qing Feng now and during the
full month banquet were two different persons. Her chin was thin, her
eyes were dull, her pale face and her frail body, made her look like she
would faint at any moment. With a bitterness piercing her heart, Gu Yun
softly called out, “Elder Sister.”

After a long time Qing Feng then turned around and her eyes stopped at Gu
Yun’s face for a long time before she seemed to recognise who she was.
She then calmly said, “You have returned. Sit then.” The hoarse voice
sounded weak, like it was blown away by the win, it seemed that she had
immersed herself in endless grief and disregard everyone and everything
around her. Gu Yun softly consoled, “A person would not be able to come
back to life after death. You must restrain your grief and don’t ruin
your health.”

Qing Feng seemed like she did not hear anything and just stared at the
child’s little cradle unblinkingly. From time to time, there was a hint
of a smile on her face, but that smile was filled with bitterness.

A fire emerge suddenly in Gu Yun’s heart. Who was so vicious that even a
baby was not spared?! And to torment a mother to such a state! If it was
truly a homicide, she wanted to seek justice for that child.

“Come over here for a while.”

Fu Ling did not understand why Gu Yun called for her but Qing Feng did
not stop it so she followed Gu Yun to the other side of the courtyard.
When both of them stood still, Gu Yu asked, “Who was the first to
discover the child’s death?”

Fu Ling hesitated and replied in a whisper, “It’s this servant.”

“Repeat again what happened on the day of the incident. Think about it
clearly and do not miss out any details.”

Fu Ling hesitated for a moment and she slightly turned around to look at
the direction of Qing Feng. Gu Yun blocked her line of sight and spoke
lowly, “Speak the truth.”

Gu Yun’s voice was not loud but it had a kind of imposing manner that one
would not dare to defy. After thinking for a long time, Fu Ling then
whispered in reply, “After the full month banquet, the Prince had
contracted a cold and was constantly having fever. The Imperial Physician
would come every day at Sishi (modern timing: 9 – 11 am) to diagnose and
perform treatment. That morning, before Sishi, Imperial Physician Hu and
Imperial Physician Wang came…”

“Don’t talk about it anymore. Withdraw.” Fu Ling only said a sentence
before Qing Feng scolded her severely. Fu Ling was scared and quickly
stepped out.

Qing Feng’s face was livid and no longer had a numb expression. She
seemed to be suppressing a certain sentiment so Gu Yun walked up to her
and asked, “Why stop her from speaking?”

Turning her head to the other side, Qing Feng did not meet Gu Yun eyes as
she softly reply, “Imperial son is gone, I do not wish for this matter to
be mentioned again.”

Her obvious evading and avoiding reply made Gu Yun felt more suspicious
and Zhuo Qing was also puzzled. She remembered the last time when Qing
Feng question her on how her child died, it was certainly not like how it
was now. Gu Yun asked tentatively, “Knowing that he did not die due to an
illness, you do not intend to pursue the matter?”

Qing Feng abruptly raised her hand and stared at Gu Yun with pain in her
eyes and a hoarse voice that sounded miserable as it grips one’s heart,
“How do you want to pursue? All the Imperial Physicians said that the
Prince died due to the illness, who do I pursue with? Even if his death
was not caused by illness, the events in the Inner Palace would not be
managed by the Ministry of Justice and at the end it would fall upon Lou
Shu Xin and Xin Yue Ning to investigate! He is already dead, what is the
use of investigating it so clearly!”

Her weak body could not withstand such a big agitation and she started to
cough. She clutched her chest before turning over and said unyieldingly,
“The child has been put to rest so you both should not be bothered about
this matter. I am tired so you both can leave.”

Zhuo Qing and Gu Yun exchanged a look and they did not provoke her
further. They then left Qing Feng Hall together.

Gu Yun sombrely said, “Qing Feng should know that this matter is
suspicious and must have gotten a clue but do not want to get us
involved.” And she had seen Qing Feng suppressing immensely the cold
violence on her face when she was talking to her. This was definitely not
a person who would not intend to pursue the matter.

Zhuo Qing apparently could also see it and sighed as she whispered, “This
matter is very different from the cases that you previously handled. It
is not just a homicide case as it also involve with many political
powers. Yan Hong Tian is also not a fool, he already had two sons that
died prematurely, why was he still indifferent. There are many checks and
balances and the conflicting interests are far more complicated than we
would imagine. In short, you must not act rashly.”

Naturally Zhuo Qing understand clearly the implication that Zhuo Qing
mentioned and she could not help but scowled, “It’s truly troublesome.”

Zhuo Qing pat Gu Yun’s hand and lowered her voice to speak, “I know that
you are a person who can distinguish right from wrong and everything in
your heart would be either black or white. But the Inner Palace is a grey
place where everything cannot be too clear and cannot be too muddled. The
first time when I saw Qing Feng, she is intensely stubborn and now she
already slowly understand how to survive in the Palace. This matter is
something we cannot not care about but also manage it with great fanfare.
Since she is not willing for us to be intervene then we will investigate
it in secret and look for opportunity to help her since she would not let
it go with her temperament.”

Gu Yun was silent for a long time but she finally nodded, “Alright. Will
follow as you say.” She believed in the logic in laws but never
understood politics.

After Zhuo Qing and Gu Yun left, Qing Feng stood up from the cradle and
sat at the stone stool, where her grieving expression seemed lesser.
After a while, she then faced Fu Ling to speak, “In the future if they
were to ask you any questions privately, you can just speak truthfully.”

“Yes.” These days Fu Ling’s brows were not relaxed as her Mistress was
becoming stranger and more elusive. At times she would be in extreme
grief, at times she would be indifferent. If this continued on, what
could be done?

Fu Ling had a face of concern which made Qing Feng sighed in her heart.
She gently pulled Fu Ling’s hand and softly said, “Fu Ling, I am a little
hungry.”

“Ah?” How long has it been for Mistress to take the initiative to say
that she was hungry? Fu Ling happily nodded, “Yes. This servant will call
for the meal now.”

When Fu Ling just leave, Ru Yi walked in from outside and stood by Qing
Feng, “Your Ladyship.”

“How was it?” Qing Feng’s voice was cold and no longer warm like she was
speaking to Fu Ling.

Ru Yi glance at the outside of the door before bending down slightly and
said some sentence at Qing Feng’s side.

Because of these few short sentences, Qing Feng’s expression changed a
lot. She starred back at Ru Yi and shouted, “For real?”

Ru Yi immediately knelt down and spoke quickly, “This servant dare not
deceive your Ladyship.” Ru Yi was able to hear her Ladyship clenching her
fists as her bones made cracking sounds. Ru Yi kept her head down and did
not dare to move a muscle.

After a while, Ru Yi was then able to hear Qing Feng calmly say,
“Withdraw.” Ru Yi did dare to stay longer and quickly backed out.

The constantly tightly fisted hands on her chest showed that internally
Qing Feng was not as calm as her voice had portrayed to be.

Yan Hong Tian!

Yan Hong Tian, you are really good!

*****

Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing went to see Qing Feng once every three days and she
remained the same, staring at the cradle for the entire day and at times
she would say a few sentences to them. Gu Yun did not agitate her again
but still privately questioned the eunuchs and mamas who were still in
Qing Feng Hall. The Imperial Palace was indeed a scary place. It made
people cautious and careful of their words. No matter what Gu Yun asked,
the answer was almost always that they did not know anything.

This day was another day that Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing would enter the Palace
to see Qing Feng and Qing Feng’s spirits seemed good and wanted to talk
to them when she saw them entering. But she saw that there was a male
following them. That person seemed to be in his thirties, of medium build
and looked very ordinary but he was filled with an air of arrogance which
made one hard to ignore.

Qing Feng asked with precaution, “Who is her?”

Zhuo Qing and Qing Feng was closer to one another thus Gu Yun indicated
her to speak. Zhuo Qing walked to Qing Feng’s side and carefully replied,
“He is a physician.”

Qing Feng’s face immediately change and she replied in a cold voice, “I
am fine and do not need any physician. Let him leave.”

Zhuo Qing glanced with Gu Yun with a headache and just as two of them
were thinking of how to convince Qing Feng, Yue Sheng coldly scoffed,
“Each one more stubborn than the other. Getting me to leave is easy but
once I leave that face of yours would not have any more hope.”

What does that meant? Qing Feng looked questioning at Zhuo Qing and she
softly explained, “We got him here as we wanted to help to heal your
face. Even though there is nothing wrong having the scar on the face,
but…”

They thought that Qing Feng would definitely flip out but who knew that
she swept her anger away and asked seriously, “He can really heal my
face?”

Zhuo Qing immediately nodded, “En.”

“Alright. Then treat.”

Qing Feng’s frankness made Zhuo Qing and Gu Yun confused but the flash of
distraction in Qing Feng’s eyes did not escape Yue Sheng’s eyes.
Interesting! Yue Shen laughed, “The injury on your face is more serious
than theirs and you will need to suffer in order for it to be cured.”
This woman was actually more ruthless than her sisters, the two deep
scars wiped off seventh or eighth tenth of her stunning good looks. To
heal her face now was not because of just regaining a beautiful face only.

Qing Feng replied expressionless, “As long as it can be healed, I can
bear whatever suffering.”

“Good!” He like this kind of female who would be unscrupulous to achieve
their goals. Not only would he heal her face, she would also be one-third
more glamorous than how she looked previously!

“Bear what sort of suffering?” A domineering male voice with some chill
spoke from outside the courtyard.

“Long live the Emperor.” Yan Hong Tian just stepped into Qing Feng Hall
and all the accompanying eunuchs and palace maids were all kneeling on
the floor. Qing Feng got up to bow and Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing also
uncomfortably followed but Yue Shen continue to stand at the side and
seemingly had no intention to greet.

Raising her head slightly, Gu Yun saw that overbearing man and the corner
of her lips raised. Bringing in Yue Sheng into the Palace naturally
required Yan Hong Tian’s agreement thus Su Ling had went in the morning
to speak to him, thus it was nothing strange for Yan Hong Tian to come
over and take a look but for to not even change out of the bright yellow
court robes, he seemed to be slightly too anxious.

“You can treat her face?” The dark black eyes swept over that ordinary
face. This was not a light nor difficult sentence but it had gave an
oppressive blow to others.

Yan Hong Tian had always been temperamental which made Zhuo Qing worries
rose. With a normal expression on, Yue Sheng replied coldly, “As long as
I want to treat, don’t even mention about such a small injury like this,
even if the entire face is rotten, I can change a new one for her. But
during the three months that I am treating her face, other than me and
her close servants, she cannot see anyone. If this cannot be done then
there is no need to heal this face.”

His eyes darken as Yan Hong Tian spoke lowly, “Including Zhen?”

“Of course.â€‌

Qing Feng’s cold sweat also came out. Accordingly to Yan Hong Tian’s
character, he would not let people who go against him live easily and she
had experienced it many times since she entered the Palace. Sure enough,
Yan Hong Tian laughed coldly, “Alright, Zhen promise you, from today
onwards, there would be no one else stepping into Qing Feng Hall. If her
face is not healed after three months, Zhen want your life.” After the
sentence was completed, Yan Hong Tian left with a huff.

Everyone thought that Yan Hong Tian was annoyed by Yue Shen but Gu Yun
found out that before Yan Hong Tian turned to leave, he looked at Qing
Feng but Qing Feng quickly looked away and did not meet his eyes. Gu Yun
guessed that the black face that Yan Hong Tian had on when he leave was
because of Qing Feng.

Yue Sheng watched Yan Hong Tian’s brutal cold back and sneered, “Such
strong ferocious energy, no wonder the number of heirs are thin.”

After listening to those words, Qing Feng shivered and her face was much
more paler than before.

“Both of you can also leave.” Waving towards Gu Yun and Zhuo Qing, Yue
Sheng chased them out of Qing Feng Hall.