
"Your Majesty, do you need anything?" A servant came and bowed politely in front of Emperor Xuan.
ZiXuan glanced at him at a glance, then refocused on the chessboard in front of him.
"Can you play chess?"
The waiter nodded slowly. His head remained lowered, not daring to stare at the person in front of him.
"Right, people like you can usually only be used as pawns by their masters."
Although it was still clueless as to the purpose of Emperor Xuan calling him here, the servant was able to sense that perhaps this would not be good.
"Brother Li, you're the one playing with me."
"Good." Li Wei immediately sat down before ZiXuan and accompanied him to play chess.
"Brother, do you think the empress' personal servant can play chess?"
Li Wei raised his face, frowning, confused. "You mean..."
"Mn, who is it? A yunlang? Yue Nian?"
"That's Yunniang?" li Wei asked.
"Ah, that's it."
"Hamba is not sure. But why does His Majesty call it today?"
"Yesterday I went to Empress Xuan, she couldn't sleep. I was just about to give him some advice, but his servant had already found the solution first. Do you also know something that can make someone sleep well?" ZiXuan turned his head, looking at the servant who had been standing in front of him.
"This, I don't know, Your Majesty," he replied as calmly as possible.
"What about you, brother?"
"That's not my field. But sometimes women do know more about things like that. But—" Li Wei stared at ZiXuan unconvinced.
"That's it. Let's discuss the others. Brother, how close do you think the relationship between Empress Xuan and her personal servant is?"
"Women can tell anything to their female friends, especially if they have known each other since childhood. I think the Empress must have shared a secret with her personal servant as well. More precisely, Miss Jingli probably knew some of Empress Xuan's secrets. But that Miss Yunniang, she was the new servant in the White Lotus Palace. So, Empress Xuan might not have been too open to him yet," Li Wei replied analyzing. "It may not differ much like the relationship between the servant and His Majesty as well" he continued.
ZiXuan nodded slowly. "What about you? Haven't you been with your master since childhood? Did he treat you well?" tanyanya looked back at the waiter.
"That's right. Young lady treated me well."
"Everything he does, you know that too, right? Maybe you helped her."
The servant lowered his head. He even started squeezing his sweaty fingers.
"Hows it? Is my guess right?"
"Hamba doesn't understand, Your Majesty."
ZiXuan chuckled. "If you don't understand it's okay. Just answer what you know. That day, the one who tried to hurt my empress was him, right? Nonamu, Qiu Ying?"
Hearing ZiXuan's words, the look on the servant's face stiffened. "Hamba doesn't know, Your Majesty."
"You know the punishment for someone who dared to lie to the emperor? Can you bear it?" ask ZiXuan slowly. His eyes focused on moving the pawn on the chess piece in front of him. "Try to cover up his mistake, is it worth it?" continued.
ZiXuan let out a rough breath. "Stupid. Let's change the way he plays. Since she wanted Empress Xuan's death so badly, why don't you help her?"
***
The waiter looked down with a face that looked deathly pale. "Hamba, understand," he said. He stepped back before finally turning around and leaving from there.
"Your Majesty, will this work?" asked Li Wei in question. He knew exactly what the man was thinking.
"Why? You doubted me?"
Li Wei shook his head and said, "No, but this is too risky. We don't know if the waiter actually did it as you ordered. What's more, you make per—"
Li Wei looked riled up. He of course knew that he could not change ZiXuan's stance. "Aren't you being too cruel?"
"When am I not cruel?"
"Your Majesty, but he is—"
"Brother, let's change this conversation. What do you think of YuNian?" tanya ZiXuan again interrupted the man's conversation.
Li Wei snorted in annoyance. "He'll be mad at you. Regarding Yunniang this was also uncertain. Didn't he ever work at Grand Concubine Zhu's palace? It could be learned from there."
"Before, I had already asked Consort Zhu's Mother and she said as long as the maid worked in her palace, the maid really could not do anything. Always making mistakes. But because Mother Concubine felt sorry for him, she kept him. It was also impossible to move the Yun anywhere else," he said.
Li Wei nodded slowly. "It's a little suspicious."
"Front of him, you pay more attention to him."
The man smiled seductively and said, "Your Majesty don't worry, I will definitely watch over him and ensure the safety of Her Majesty Empress Xuan."
"Omong empty!"
***
The sun is set in the western horizon. The lanterns are installed in several places. Even though it was late at night, it did not make the activities in the palace immediately stop. The changing of the guards is done every hour.
"Your Majesty, I forgot to ask. How did you sleep last night? Is the plant effective?"
Yuan smiled and nodded. "Very good. You did very well."
"Thank God. I hope Your Majesty the Empress rests well and recovers soon."
"I remember. Yunniang, make yourself comfortable here."
"Sister Yunniang, you are great! I have to learn more from you too!"
"alright. You two can leave now. Rest."
"Good."
After the departure of the two personal servants, Yuan took a deep breath. Despite not doing a hard job this past week, he still felt very tired.
Slowly, Yuan laid down. He pulled the blanket over his entire body except for his head and began to close his eyes.
When he was about to fall asleep, Yuan felt something cover his gaze. He opened his eyes and was surprised.
It happened very quickly, but Yuan had faster reflexes.
He whimpered in pain, and a single drop fell on his face. Yuan shook his hand in front of him and shouted, "Who are you!"
That guy wears a face mask. Feeling that his plan had failed, the person immediately ran away.
Yuan pulled out a long robe and immediately put it on to cover the nightgown he was wearing. The girl quickly ran after the killer. He chased her all the way out of the harem territory.
"Your Majesty, what happened?"
Yuan turned his head and found a eunuch along with some soldiers on duty and some servants walking hurriedly towards him.
The girl immediately pointed at the shadow that was almost gone and said, "Capture the killer now!"
Hearing what Empress Xuan said, the soldier immediately chased in the designated direction.
Yuan pressed his chest. The girl's breath was heard hunting.
"Emer, you're hurt! Quickly call the palace physician!" the eunuch's orders panicked when he realized that there was a deep red liquid flowing from both Yuan palms.
"Xiao Li, what happened to you?"
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