"Ren-sama didn't mean to go overboard with his prank. Can you forgive him?" Yijun was guiding her back from the Diamond Palace, Consort Hui's residence. His master, due to the incident just then, was at the Jade Palace still being severely lectured by Consort Gina.
"Go on back to your master, I have something to do," Yen said.
There was a lot of things about is sad, especially, Luo's role, her father's friend took the fall for it.
"A message from Consort Gina?" Fong asked.
"That's right. She told me to deliver it personally," Yen said.
"Ah, Duo-sama is out for a tea party though."
The plump head maid, Fong, looked at Yen, troubled.
Yen opened the letterbox she presented. Inside, instead of a document, was a small bottle and one red trumpet-shaped flower. A familiar sweet scent came from the bottle.
As for what that was, it seemed Fong knew as well. Her shoulders gave a twitch.
"There is something I want to talk to Fong-sama about," Yen said.
"I understand." Fong stiffly invited her into the Garnet Palace.
The makeup of Fong's room was roughly the same as Hong's room, but for some reason, her belongings were compacted to the corner of the room. It was like she was done with packing.
They faced each other in the room she was invited into with the round table between them. There was a blended tea that warmed the body, and hard bread accompanied it as teacakes. Fruits boiled in honey hung overhead.
"Just what's happening? The spring cleaning was already good enough." Though Yen's tone was gentle, she said it searchingly.
"That's right. When will you be made to move?" She glanced at the baggage left in the corner of the room.
"Your judgment is good," Fong said. The spring cleaning was the cover-up.
A consort who cannot give birth is unneeded at the inner palace. It was the same even for a consort who was married for a long time. Consort Ah Duo didn't have a strong backing. Being milk siblings with the emperor – a relation deeper than actual blood ties – had probably maintained her position up until now.
The gallant figure that was like a young man. That wasn't a feminine aura. It was as if, the woman had become something close to a eunuch. She hated talking about speculation. But, if she had conviction, she could only speak out.
"Consort Ah Duo can't give birth anymore," Maomao said.
"…." Fong's silence was an affirmation. Her expression quickly stiffened.
"Something happened during childbirth."
"That is unrelated to this." The middle-aged head maid narrowed her eyes. That wasn't the helpful, gentle woman. Hostility burned in her eyes.
"It is related to this. The one who was at the place of childbirth was my foster father" she lied
Fong stood up and expressionlessly looked at Yen
The inner palace was always shorthanded on court physicians. The quack doctor was doing as much as he could in his current position to continue to stay. It was unnecessary to expressly become a eunuch while holding the special position of a court physician. This was what happened to clumsy Luo; he was probably gently pressured to become one.
"Wasn't the unfortunate thing being that it overlapped with the birth of the emperor's younger brother? Because of where the scales tipped, Consort Yahui's child-birthing was postponed," Yen said.
At the end of a difficult birth, the child was born with no issues, but Consort Yahui's womb was lost.
Although in the same way as the previous poisonous face powder incident, it was questioned whether Consort Ah Duo made her child pass away due to that.
"Does Fong-sama feel responsible for that? At that time, the one who assisted on behalf of the Consort Yahui who was weak after childbirth should be you."
"You know anything. You're just the daughter of the quack who couldn't even help Yahui-sama."
"I guess so."
"I was sure that quack prohibited the use of face powder that contained mercury. Because of that, the intelligent you did not let the babies die," Fong said.
Yen opened the small bottle that was in the letter box. The viscous honey sparkled as she put the red flower that was in it in her mouth. It tasted like sweet honey. She held the flower, twirled it around with her finger.
"A lot of flowers have poison like Aconite and Renge Azalea. There is poison in their honey," Maomao said.
"I know," the head maid said.
"I thought so." It wasn't strange for her to have that knowledge if her family were beekeepers. She wouldn't give poison that would cause poisoning symptoms to adults to a baby. "It was fine even when you tasted for poison. You never thought that the medicine you gave to nourish the baby would completely backfire on you."
At the time, her father who used to be the court physician, Luo, was banished from the inner palace due to his frequent mistakes, together with the treatment at the time of childbirth. As a physical punishment, the bone of one of his knees was extracted.
"You didn't want her to know. Consort Yahui." Her gaze became a little deadly "That's why you wanted to make Consort Hui disappear."
Consort Hui had become emotionally attached to Consort Yahui, who was the older daughter-in-law, during the era of the previous emperor. Consort Yahui was affectionate to Consort Hui. A young girl who was far from home, and a woman who couldn't have children. It created a type of co-dependency.
However, suddenly, one day, Consort Hui was rejected by Consort Yahui. No matter how many times she came to see her, she was chased out by Fong. And so, just like this, the previous emperor died, and Consort Hui retired into religion.
"Consort Hui told you that there was poison in the honey, right?" If Consort Hui continued to visit, she might talk about that. The inquisitive Consort Yahui might notice something from those words. Fong just wanted to avoid that. The girl who retired to religion, and never thought she would meet a second time, appeared back in the inner palace again.
This time as the same high-ranking consort. This time with the position to drive off Consort Yahui. And yet, that shameless young girl came to meet Consort Yahui as if to seek a mother. A young girl who couldn't read the atmosphere, who was ignorant of the ways of the world. That's why she thought to make her disappear.
The gentle, helpful head maid wasn't there. Instead, a woman faced her with a chilling stare. "What do you want?"
"I don't need that kind of thing." Yen felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck.
On the shelf behind Fong was the knife she had used to cut the bread before. She only needed to stretch her arms out to reach for it.
"Anything is fine," the head maid said.
Yen smiled "Don't worry. I'll disappear. Your Consort will never know the truth."
"Huh?" Fong said confused. At that moment Yen had grabbed with forced and cut the head maid throat. All of it happening in an instant as the maid dropped dead. Yen had wiped the blood from her face and slightly smirked.