Su Xiaonan was dumbfounded, "Plague God? Who dares to be your plague god?"
Xue Ranmei asked nonchalantly, "Does Big Brother Qing count?"
Although Su Xiaonan didn't expect Xue Ranmei to bring up Qing Qingxian in this way, he didn't have the attention right now to care. He only scrunched up his brows a little and confirmed, "Qing…Qingxian? Sect Leader Qing?"
"Mm-hm." Xue Ranmei nodded and kept looking at Qing Qingxian's dot on the map, making peachy keen sure that they would never come across each other. It seems like Xue Ranmei had guessed right and Qing Qingxian's rigid and self-dignified personality actually brought him a punishment since the dot was going in the direction of the Reflection Hall. This entire time, there also seems to be another dot in front of Qing Qingxian and Qin Conglin and it was a maid. 'Huh, so someone is even willing to help lead the way for him if he doesn't know where it is just because he is the ML and looks good.' Of course, this thought was extremely ungrateful and disrespectful to the high-tech APP that's right under his nose.
Ever since he heard about Qing Qingxian's arrival, Su Xiaonan became more and more unsettled. "A'Rui, why do you think Sect Leader Qing is here? Why would he be caught up in that ghost's memories too? And how do you know so much? It started when we were in the forest...did the forest do anything to you?"
"..." These were too many questions for Xue Ranmei since he didn't know how to answer any of them. First, he had no idea why Qing Qingxian would be here. Second, he couldn't tell Su Xiaonan that 'I have an APP that--although is very mean--still gives me some information.' Third, he also couldn't tell Su Xiaonan, 'Your Sect Leader swapped bodies with the scriptwriter who created him in an alternate universe while taking a little nap back in the forest.'
Xue Ranmei thought quickly for a moment and decided to push it onto his cultivation. After all, it seems like (from his experience of watching wuxia and xianxia dramas) that those 'powerful cultivation masters' can make almost anything happen. "Ahem—perhaps my cultivation increased a lot lately and my senses are very developed." He quickly added, just in case that no one would find him to help them every time they had a little problem, "Of course, that doesn't mean that I have infinite capability. Those fortune-telling things and the power to switch day and night…I can't do any of those."
It was totally nonsense, but Su Xiaonan believed it. "Oh," he nodded. 'Wow, I didn't know that cultivation could even help in such a way. Seems like my cultivation is too low and I still have a lot more to learn...'
Nevertheless, Su Xiaonan didn't give up asking, "A'Rui, do you have any idea why Sect Leader Qing would be here? Perhaps he had to discuss something with you and got captured into that ghost's memories at the Dark Yard?"
Xue Ranmei wanted to know too. Is it possible that the range of the whirlpool became so large that even Qing Qingxian was trapped in it from his place far away? No, that doesn't make sense since if the whirlpool really got that serious, the whole sect and neighboring villagers would 'travel' here too and cause a population problem for this Handi Kingdom. Then the only possibility left is that Qing Qingxian came to the Dark Yard. '...for what?' Xue Ranmei wondered.
Right now, this was no time to be trying to figure out that twisted-brained ML. God knows why he went to the Dark Yard, maybe he wanted to go there and give Xue Ranmei a hard time, or maybe he just had something to ask or say like Su Xiaonan guessed. What's important is that they needed to get out of Nage Aila's memories. Nage Aila's memories are full of wrath and mourning, which turned her into a dangerous ghost. Xue Ranmei has to fix her memories to fix her.
Xue Ranmei was silent for too long again so Su Xiaonan called, "A'Rui?" 'Ugh, it still feels so awkward calling Sect Leader A'Rui,' Su Xiaonan couldn't help thinking.
"I'm okay," Xue Ranmei replied quickly. "We need to resolve some things in the ghost's memories and then we will be able to return."
Su Xiaonan nodded in agreement. "Should we first find that ghost in her own memories? Do your senses tell you anything?"
"No," Xue Ranmei swallowed. "Let's ask someone, she's probably already at the Cold Palace."
Su Xiaonan actually wanted to ask again how Xue Ranmei knew in the first place that Nage Aila was someone from the harem of this Kingdom, since that can't be explained by 'developed senses,' but still decided to hold it off. He agreed with Xue Ranmei that their top priority right now should be resolving the seedlings of wrath in Nage Aila's memories.
They were walking between high walls of the Kingdom, with no one to be seen within several meters. Xue Ranmei sighed and continued walking, getting a little impatient at the desolateness of this place. It almost seemed to him like he was in one of those horror movies where the protagonist gets trapped inside a world where everything looks the same and ends up walking in loops until he or she dies of exhaustion. Xue Ranmei quickly abandoned that thought, reminding himself to not scare himself. They would often come across with a diverted path or heavy metal doors that open up to God-knows-what.
'How do people even eat here? You'll starve to death before you catch glimpse of a kitchen? Even if they have servants who send their meals, how come the servants haven't got totally lost and exhausted to death already?!'
Oh well, talk about Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives[1]. They finally saw a maid in her pink uniform walking hastily, holding the handle of a wooden box. She was most likely a maid retrieving her master of mistress's food. The maid took quick peeks at her surroundings but her head remained low. However, when she saw Xue Ranmei, her gaze froze and she raised her head, standing still where she was.
Xue Ranmei waved and smiled amicably, deciding to approach her and ask. He didn't expect, however, that the maid would first run towards him, her eyes gleaming like he was her last streak of hope. "Prince!" she called, "Prince, you're finally back! Queen was so worried when she heard that you were summoned to serve King and that Bei Yan!"
'Oh, so that crazy person is called Bei Yan…' Xue Ranmei realized that this girl was probably Nage Aila's close maid, which also explains why she was wal He comforted her, "I'm sorry for not letting you two know beforehand. Don't worry, I'm all good. Where is Mother, is it convenient for me to see her right now?"
The maid, A'Xin, nodded vigorously, "Of course, Queen is just at her place right n…now…" She noticed Su Xiaonan standing behind Xue Ranmei, trying to determine if this person can be trusted. 'This person is very likely Prince's friend, I should trust Prince's judgement in people…but there's no such person who won't ever be deceived. What if…?'
Su Xiaonan detected A'Xin's uneasiness and took the initiative to placate her, "Please don't worry, I'm a good friend of—uh, your Prince's."
"Indeed," Xue Ranmei added, "He even tried to protect me against Bei Yan."
A'Xin observed Su Xiaonan's innocent face that made him look like a half-child. She was somewhat persuaded and led the way, "Prince, this way please."
"Thanks!" Xue Ranmei followed her delightedly.
Su Xiaonan seems to hold doubts towards the structure of the Kingdom too, tugging on Xue Ranmei's sleeve a little.
"A'Rui, is this place safe? This girl wouldn't be tricking us, right?" Su Xiaonan whispered.
Xue Ranmei, "Honestly, I definitely wouldn't prefer this place, but do we have a choice?"
A'Xin happened to turn around and thought that there was something wrong, "Prince, is everything okay?" She stopped in her tracks.
Xue Ranmei shook his head, replying in a calm manner, "Nothing at all. Let's keep walking!"
"Yes," A'Xin continued.
Xue Ranmei decided to dig out some information about Nage Aila from A'Xin's mouth, so he asked, "How is Queen Mother since I was summoned?"
A'Xin, "Prince was gone for three days. Queen…she's all fine." Her voice became more timid. Xue Ranmei knew that she was probably covering up the truth on the orders of Nage Aila.
"A'Xin, I know Queen Mother doesn't want to worry me, but you need to be honest with me. If I know nothing, then how can I help?"
A'Xin sighed lightly, "Prince, actually…King issued an order and removed Queen from her palace to…to the…"
Xue Ranmei knew that it was the Cold Palace, but it would seem too incomprehensible for him to say that as his first guess. Even though it was unlikely, but it couldn't be avoided to sound like Xue Ranmei knew what was going to happen, or even looking forward to it. He only asked, "Where?"
"The…the Cold Palace." They all stopped walking here, since A'Xin suddenly knelt in front of them. "It was all this maid's fault, I wasn't able to protect Queen!"
Xue Ranmei and Su Xiaonan both reached to get her up. Su Xiaonan frowned a little from hearing that, as he understands a little about the background of Nage Aila and the King from what her ghost said. 'No wonder why that ghost was so vengeful. That King really owed her,' he thought.
Xue Ranmei tried to sound surprised, "Such a thing happened? Why? It's not your fault, even if we were to blame someone, we should blame who actually did the deeds. After all, your position was only a maid, you couldn't have stopped anything."
A'Xin's voice was full of content, "Who could it be other than that Bei Yan. Prince, you probably didn't know, but she spent a great amount of effort trying to delude the King!"
Xue Ranmei, "I know, she even tried to push the King to denounce Queen Mother's position as Queen."
"Really? That woman is too audacious!" A'Xin's facial expression became twisted.
Xue Ranmei, "It's okay, I won't let that happen. Let's go see Queen Mother first."
A'Xin bowed and they reached the Cold Palace without further words. The Cold Palace was situated at the borders of the Kingdom, a desolate-seeming large yard complex built with ashen stone and guarded by rusted steel gates. The big size was due to the Kings' habit of going through lots of women and since those women usually had a hard time finding a decent husband after their history with the King, the King had no choice but to unwillingly take on the minimum responsibility of providing them with basic housing, food, and clothing.
Usually, the Cold Palace was not as quiet and free of problems as its name implies on the surface. Inside those gates and stone walls, in the middle of the yards, there would be constant bullying led by an relatively older member of this place who once considered herself as a potential Queen and has already lost eighty to ninety percent of her sanity, along with others who find themselves in a kind of similar situation to her. The target of bullying were always younger ones who were just sent here, often arousing the older people's jealousy because of her youth and beauty and her recent favor by the King. Most people only had the position of trying to hide and watch in terror, worrying about their own safety. It was both pathetic and pitiful, how some women really didn't see what was coming to them and received a big blow when it did, causing them to turn their rage towards others. Sometimes, they almost had the delusional mindset that they were still fighting and competing for someone just as the women in the harem—the King.
As soon as A'Xin pushed open the gates, she gasped and dropped the box that she was holding. The layers of the box fell open, contents scattering all over the ground. Xue Ranmei and Su Xiaonan were also shocked, quickly running over to help.
A group of women were chasing Nage Aila with extremely dangerous sticks and even cleavers, shouting threatening language as they ran. Nage Aila picked up things along and way and desperately threw them towards the pursuers in hope of obstructing them, but it was of little use.
"Stop it! Stop it, how dare you, this is the Queen!" A'Xin screamed. She was trying to help Nage Aila escape too while watching her back. Xue Ranmei and Su Xiaonan met up with the two of them and they ran into the closest room, barring the door behind them. The room was empty, which was expected, since whoever dared to still keep their door unlocked at this kind of moment must be actually mad.
Nage Aila panted and looked up at Xue Ranmei. "A'Ji! You're back!" she cried.
Xue Ranmei almost forgot that he returned to her memories as her son. "Uh, yes, I'm back. Don't worry about me, worry about those outside!" There were pounding sounds on the door, followed by more shouting.
"What, are you scared to come out?! We thought that you were feeling so good about yourself, being the lofty and favored Queen! If you don't come out, we will break this door and we won't let go of that little bastard son of yours either!"
Xue Ranmei suddenly felt a flow of lightness through his body and realized that his spiritual energy recovered. "An, my spiritual energy is back, I'll go out to deal with them, you take good care of them," he instructed Su Xiaonan.
Su Xiaonan wasn't able to respond at first, wondering who Xue Ranmei was talking to. Then he realized that he was calling him by his name too. "Okay, call me over if you need help!"
"Don't even think about getting out if your spiritual energy hasn't recovered, do you hear me?" Xue Ranmei warned. "Stay in this protective barrier." He released some spiritual energy from his palm and a water-like layer of white circulating with energy covered a corner of the room.
Su Xiaonan nodded, "I promise."
"You two, smash open the door!" the leading woman outside shouted.
"No need!" Xue Ranmei laughed lightly before blowing it into pieces with a strike of his hand. The people outside were indirectly thrown back by the big wave of spiritual energy, coughing in the middle of the disturbed sand while lying on the ground. "What? You're not going to keep shouting anymore?" Xue Ranmei imitated a distressed tone, "I thought you guys had so much energy back then, where is all the energy? Oh heavens[2], don't tell me that you can't even take such a little strike, I was only stretching my arm and happened to point in the direction of the door! Tsk tsk, is this what they call, 'your can't survive own sins[3]'?"
"Exactly! Young fellow, your fighting was great back then!" a little girl's voice called from behind.
Xue Ranmei turned his head to see which death-seeking girl just ran out to see such a dangerous scene. A young female in a handsome ponytail and cultivator robes leaning against a pole. From her appearance, she was probably another person from the central plains. That wasn't unusual, since Xue Ranmei already guessed that this King was more interested into central plains women. Bei Yan, those crazy women that he just beat up and most of the maids here were all of central plain descent. What was unusual was that, this girl seems too zestful and spectacular to be an ignored concubine.
"I'm Xiaoxian, a visitor from the Jinyue Sect of the central plains!" Miao Xiaoxian waved.
Xue Ranmei waved back too, "Oh, Maiden Xiaoxian, you're flattering me, I'm actually not that good. It's really that my opponents are—ahem—really," he mouthed the words, "good-for-nothings!"
Miao Xiaoxian snorted, watching the women climb up and rub their heads like they just suffered from memory loss. She then joked again, "No that's not it, little fellow, you're being too humble! Even if they are good-for-nothings, that level of, ah, energy is still hard to deal with!"
Xue Ranmei laughed too, "I didn't know that you would have such a sense of humor, Maiden Xiaoxian."
Miao Xiaoxian suddenly looked past Xue Ranmei and her smile disappeared, her pupils shrinking slightly. "Careful!" She shot an attack to the back of Xue Ranmei. He turned around and found a dagger sticking in the ground not far from him. Miao Xiaoxian walked over and took it out, "Huh, this is a good dagger. That one—she tried to take your life," Miao Xiaoxian pointed towards the leader of the group of people, who were now trying to flee the situation. "Hey, don't run!"
"It's fine," Xue Ranmei said carelessly, "good thing that they know to get lost."
Miao Xiaoxian found the scabbard that was littered on the ground when those women ran and slid the blade in triumphantly, tucking it in her belt. "Little fellow, you need to learn to watch your back and not get too excited after one round of victory. But I must say, you're a person with a pretty big heart, even able to let go of someone that tried to kill you. Right, what's your name?"
Xue Ranmei placed his hand on the opposite chest, which was the way of greeting for people living in the frontiers. "I'm from the Handi clan, my name is a single letter Ji." He only knew that because Nage Aila called him 'A'Ji'.
Miao Xiaoxian muttered, "Handi clan…you're from the royal family?!" Her eyes widened.
Xue Ranmei nodded, "Uh yes…just an unremarkable Prince by formality."
Miao Xiaoxian saluted, "Sorry for the disrespect, please forgive—"
"It's okay, like I said, I'm only a Prince by formality now. To tell you the truth, if you take that dagger and stab me to death, you would probably still be able to walk out of this palace like nothing happened."
Miao Xiaoxian smiled, "Prince, you should be acknowledged as the one with humor, why is that? Does the King really care about your death so little? Even if you are a commoner, I shouldn't be able to walk away after killing you."
Xue Ranmei shrugged, "Yeah, you could think of it like that, but for the most part, I don't even think that anyone would notice my disappearance before my corpse rots."
"A'Rui! A'Rui, are you able to deal with it?" Su Xiaonan's voice traveled outside.
"Let's talk inside, Maiden Xiaoxian," Xue Ranmei invited. Miao Xiaoxian nodded and followed.
"A'Rui, can you remove the barrier now?" Su Xiaonan requested. Xue Ranmei waved his hand and the barrier disappeared.
"Prince, things are okay outside, right?" A'Xin asked.
Xue Ranmei, "Don't worry, not enough to kill me."
[1]Talk about Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives (说曹操曹操到) describes when you talk about someone and that person appears. Cao Cao (courtesy name Mengde) was a famous dictator during the Three Kingdoms Period…forgive my bad knowledge. \(ToT)/
[2]'Oh heavens' (天呐) is a used more common than OMG in everyday Mandarin and it is less extreme than OMG (上帝啊).
[3]The full saying is, 'You can disobey the heaven's mistakes but you can't survive your own sins' (天作孽,犹可违;自作孽,不可活) means that you can't escape the results of your own actions.