Concubine Jing shook out the red belt for a little bit, getting rid of all the ashes that had attached to it. It was practically frozen by then. The atmosphere between her and Li Mu was very awkward at this time.
She then poured some hot water into a wooden bucket and dropped the belt inside and soaked it for a while, waiting for the bloodstains to clear before she began washing it.
The belt was then cooked in a bronze pot for half an hour before it was finally hung up to dry.
Li Mu learned a lot watching all that process.
So, this is how ancient women dealt with their periods, eh?
"Xiaolizi, I've asked the eunuch in charge of the coal, and he said that no one has been sending more coal over. Where did all the coal come from?"
"Well... umm…it was the Ninth Prince who got someone to deliver some coal from outside the palace," Li Mu lied.
"Yah. It's been a while since I've seen him."
She wore a warm, happy smile right away.
But the smile gradually turned into an expression of worry.
The concubine missed her child.
Li Mu stayed quiet.
The Ninth Prince was not allowed to enter the palace grounds if it wasn't for a really important matter.
Concubine Jing had been confined to the palace for the rest of her life, and she was not allowed to step outside the Jingning Palace ever.
So basically, the mother and the son were not allowed to see each other, and they could only think of each other from afar.
Li Mu had been around the concubine for a while.
He now felt some warmth for her.
Sigh~
Why did a woman with such a large emotional capacity let herself get trapped inside the palace, eh?
This is probably why she was condemned to a "cold" palace in the first place.
I guess the previous emperor had been protecting her in a way after all.
Thoughts like these ran inside his head.
They had to continue to live their lives.
The Imperial Household Department never bothered sending another court lady to Jingning Palace.
It seemed as if the department didn't pay any attention to the Jingning Palace at all.
He figured that no court lady would want to be attached to the Jingning Palace anyway.
Concubine Jing talked a lot in the days that followed.
It was then that Li Mu learned that not only was the old court lady a court lady, but she had also been the concubine's wet nurse as well.
She'd watched the concubine grow up, and she had moved into the royal palace with her when she was married.
So it was no wonder that she was willing to stay around when all the other court ladies from the Jingning Palace left.
It had even gotten to the extent that she was willing to freeze to death just so that Concubine Jing would stay safe.
Lately, he had indeed been busy taking care of Concubine Jing all on his own.
The Jingning Palace had two compounds and tens of rooms to take care of after all.
Aside from cleaning all the rooms and trimming the fauna, now he had to attend to the concubine personally as well.
All that meant that he had much less time to train.
He could only get on with his check-ins outside after midnight, when the concubine was asleep.
"I wonder how Yu is doing now, if he's suffering out there." Concubine Jing would say these kind of depressing and bleak things every day.
"The Ninth Prince will be fine, my lady. The Third Prince won't act against him or do him any disfavor at all."
Li Mu would always try to comfort Concubine Jing at such times.
"I can't stop worrying if I can't see him."
Her thoughts got rather crazy one night.
She, who had never been angry at anything, broke everything that could be broken in her bedchamber.
Li Mu stayed silent all the while.
Concubine Jing lived quite a miserable life after all.
Other than the son who she could never see, she had no other person dear to her.
That was how sad her world was.
Li Mu got an idea all of a sudden.
People were beings of emotion after all.
He left the Jingning Palace after he'd coaxed the concubine to sleep, heading outside the royal palace complex.
He felt that it was time for him to start checking in on the areas outside the royal palace.
There were fewer and fewer places that he could check in inside the royal palace after all.
The rewards paled in comparison to what they had been before.
He'd been able to get Minor Recovery Pills when he'd paid a visit to the Imperial Dispensary before, and currently he could only get Source Gathering Pills.
The Source Gathering Pills used to come in a bottle, and, at present, he often only got a single pill. Plus, their quality had been downgraded from supreme grade to common grade as well.
It was only the thought that he had yet to locate the Imperial Ancestral Temple that gave him any hope at the moment.
He was quickly dumbfounded as soon as he got outside the royal palace.
The royal palace was a huge place, and the imperial city around it was even larger. It was so large that even the capital city paled in comparison.
"Just where is the Ninth Prince's place?" Li Mu scratched his head.
It was late at night and a curfew was in place.
It was impossible to even ask anyone for directions.
"Whatever, I'll get on with the check-ins first."
He took a look at a compound that looked rather decent and made his way there.
"Check in."
"Congratulations to the host for successfully checking in at Dali Temple. Laws of the State of Xia rewarded."
Li Mu frowned.
He then headed toward yet another compound.
"Successfully checked in at the Hanlin Academy. One jade ferule rewarded."
Jade ferule?
What am I supposed to do with this?
He then continued checking in at other places.
Li Mu returned to the royal palace four hours later with a dejected look on his face.
The city was just too huge.
He'd visited ten avenues and 27 wards throughout the night.
He sorted out his loot for the night and waited for the concubine to wake up in the morning.
He was resolved to keep going out at night until he found the Ninth Prince's residence.
He deemed that he would one day know all of the places there were to know about the city.
Li Mu continued checking in outside during the night of the next day.
He still failed to locate the Ninth Prince's residence.
However, he had gained a lot on that night.
He'd also heard some secrets when he was out doing check-ins.
Things were indeed different outside the royal palace.
The contents of the chatter of notable figures was a whole lot richer.
It was entirely unlike how it was within the palace grounds, where chatter between the court ladies and eunuchs simply revolved around the concubines.
His vistas were widened, and he got to learn more about the world he was in.
He learned that other than the State of Great Xia, there was also a State of Chen, a State of Qing, and others.
The states had warred against each other throughout the years.
Worse still, all those wars had been fought between those of the same race. There were still other races outside those states.
Li Mu found the Ninth Prince in a compound in the east on the third night he ventured outside.
He sat on the roof of the prince's residence, and he was startled by what he found out.
The Ninth Prince was picking up martial arts.
Whether back in the era of the previous emperor or now in the era of the current one, the Ninth Prince had never been allowed to practice martial arts.
The kid is practicing the martial arts in secret then. Boy, the consequences would be unimaginable if someone else found out about this.
The Ninth Prince had no backing from powerful noble clans. He was all on his own.
Picking up martial arts meant that he was thinking about seizing the throne.
"I'll give you something then, seeing how we've know each other for years."
The key that led to this decision was that Concubine Jing had always been humble.
And the Ninth Prince, due to the influence from his mother, had hardly bossed Li Mu around at all when he was still in the Jingning Palace.
Li Mu was the kind who had always liked to return his favors in kind.
He was able to humble himself like this and call himself a lowly servant due to it being Concubine Jing that he'd served throughout all these years.
He would have long ago killed people if he had had to serve the others from the royal palace.
Treating each other as equals led to the emergence of emotions as equal beings.
The sentiments between the old court lady and Concubine Jing had been equal and mutual.
Li Mu liked such equal give-and-take sentiments.
He didn't like when there was only one side that was giving all the time, while the other was only taking all the time.
If that were to happen, it wouldn't be all that different with how things were with the socialites back in my past life.
He had been caught in such a predicament back then.
He had been reborn as someone of low status in his current world.
Sentiments with others being equals were hard to come by.
Li Mu mulled all of this as he leapt off the roof.
There was a huge wooden barrel in Lord Yu's study room.
A thick scent of herbs billowed from the barrel.
Lord Yu was soaking in the barrel and training according to the methods that he had acquired at the moment.
He had missed the best age to begin training in martial arts.
Because of this, he had to expand his meridians through the use of medicinal baths at every step of the way during his training.
The Ninth Prince toughed through all the pain that had affected his body.
Huff~
He let out a sigh of relief.
He'd finally finished a stage.
"Have you ever thought of the consequences if your training was exposed?"
Suddenly, a voice was heard.
"Who goes there?"
"You have no need to know who I am. Have you ever thought of the consequences of practicing martial arts?"
Li Mu sounded rather angry when he asked him that question.
"Death. What else do I have to lose?"
The prince answered with his head held high, looking like he was ready to die at any moment.
The fact that he was unable to locate the intruder meant that the other party was someone formidable.
He had just never expected himself to be exposed as soon as he had gotten through the Warrior Realm.
Having his cover blown meant that his death was imminent.
"Have you ever thought of what would happen to your mother if you died?"
The questioning voice was heard once again.
The prince couldn't help but shudder.
"Hee, hee." He chuckled and scanned the room, saying, "All right, go decide what you're going to do with me. I'm the one who has decided to pick up the arts, and I'm doing so because I don't want to end up being caged for the rest of my life. I want to head outside. That's all there is to it."