The Empress Arrives: Rebirth of Concubine Hua

Chapter 180 Finding Bauhinia
Ulanara saw Zijing with his hands and feet tied and his mouth gagged in an uninhabited side hall of the palace.

Zijing looked like she had been tortured. Her clothes were torn and she lay on the ground weakly. There were puddles of water on the ground, and no one knew what they were. There was a very unpleasant smell in the room, a mixture of urine and blood.

When Ulanara entered the room and saw this scene, she frowned. Jianqiu hurriedly ordered people to open the doors and windows. After all, this place was far away from the concubines' residences and almost no one came here, so there was no need to worry about being heard.

There was a clean chair in the room, covered with a brocade cushion. The bright and shiny color formed a sharp contrast with the disheveled bauhinia on the ground.

Ulanara sat down and looked at the Bauhinia on the ground.

"Don't be afraid. I won't kill you. I just want to know where did your master Shu get the spices she gave me? Who taught her? You should know that even if a runaway slave is among the common people, he will die if caught, let alone a member of the royal family. Whatever I ask you today, if you tell the truth, I am not a hard-hearted person and will spare your life."

Zijing struggled to get up, but she had no strength at all. Jiang Fuhai pointed to a guard beside him and helped Zijing up, got her to sit on the ground, and took the ball of rag out of her mouth.

Zijing's mouth was sore from having the rag stuffed in it for so long. She took a moment to speak in a mosquito-like voice. But just as she said "Reporting to Her Majesty the Queen", Jiang Fuhai swung his whisk at her face and scolded her.

"You should speak loudly when answering the Queen! You have learned all the rules!"

Zijing fell to the ground in pain. Ulanara raised her hand to stop Jiang Fuhai and said.

"It's okay. I think she has a sore mouth, so her voice is naturally lower. Let her speak slowly."

The guard lifted Zijing up and sat her down. Zijing cried for a long time before she spoke with a trembling voice.

"Thank you very much, Queen, for your consideration. I don't know where the spices came from. I only know that she had them since she entered the palace. Although I am her personal servant, I really don't know who taught her."

Ulanara said again.

"You mean, since Shu came with me as a dowry, she has had those things around her?"

At this point, Ulanara suddenly understood what she had been thinking about. Since she married into the palace, her daily meals had always been served by people around her. At that time, Hu and Shu were her dowry and they also had to serve her.

Ulanara had a difficult time when she was pregnant with the eldest prince. She had spotting in the early stages of pregnancy. She managed to survive and give birth to the baby, but the fetus was always sick due to insufficiency.

Later, the eldest prince died, and Ulanara was heartbroken. It happened that her eldest sister Yunxi was pregnant at that time, so it was Shu who took care of Ulanara.

Shu was a quiet and docile woman, who made soup and drinks for Ulanara every day. Ulanara had been suffering from constant bleeding for a while, and the imperial physician diagnosed it as excessive grief.

Now that I think about it, it's possible that Shu had added something to her diet at that time.

Ulanara suppressed her anger, looked at Zijing with a smile, and said.

"Just tell the truth."

Zijing's mouth no longer felt sore, she said.

"Your Majesty is wise, that's true. But I didn't know she dared to add something to the spices for you. Fortunately, you don't like spices, so you escaped. If I had known earlier, I would have told Your Majesty!"

Ulanara leaned over, took the handkerchief in her hand, gently wiped the blood from the corner of Zijing's mouth, and sighed.

"You are a good person, but you followed the wrong master. In the future, are you willing to serve me?"

Zijing sneered in her heart, what an old-fashioned way of appeasement, but she looked terrified and kept dodging Ulanara's attempts to wipe the blood for her.

"Your Majesty, just tell me what to do. I am dirty and have soiled your handkerchief."

Ulanara ordered someone to untie Zijing's rope, and she casually folded the handkerchief in half and held it in her hand. "Don't be afraid, Shu is dead, and I will not hold you servants who served her responsible. I want to know, besides these spices, what other spices did she make on a daily basis, and where did she use them?"

Zijing gently moved her hands and feet. They were numb from being tied for so long. When she heard the queen's question, she quickly knelt down and spoke.

"I only know that every time the emperor comes, she will light a kind of incense that I have never seen before. The fragrance is very good and makes people feel warm. But every time she lights this incense, no one stays in the room anymore."

Ulanara stared at Zijing and asked.

"Do you know what spice that is?"

Zijing lowered her head and said tremblingly.

"I guess it's a spice that can help people have sex. I secretly hid a piece behind the fifth brick on the left of the second to last row of the back wall of Changchun Palace."

Ulanara glanced at Jiang Fuhai, who immediately understood and went to find her quickly.

“Are there any other spices that work?”

Ulanara asked, holding the handkerchief.

Zijing bit her lip and suddenly raised her head.

"The Queen said she would spare my life. Is that true?"

Ulanara handed the handkerchief in her hand to Jianqiu and said with a smile.

"I am the queen, so my words are binding. But you, it seems, want to negotiate with me. Ask yourself, what can you afford to negotiate with me now?"

Zijing just wanted to confirm whether the Queen would kill her. But after hearing what the Queen said, she knew that if she didn't say anything, she would definitely die.

"Please forgive me, Queen. How dare I negotiate with you? I am just too afraid of death!"

Ulanara said patiently while waiting for Jiang Fuhai to come back with the things.

"There is no one in the world who is not afraid of death. Since you are afraid of death, you should seek my favor, don't you think?"

Zijing finally said.

"Your Highness is right. I am afraid of death and I want to live! I once saw her holding an ancient book that seemed to contain a recipe for incense, but I don't know many words. When the Emperor ordered her to be banished to the cold palace, I took advantage of the chaos and tore up half of the ancient book. I wanted to escape from the palace and make a living by reading what was written in the ancient book, but I didn't know how difficult it was to escape from the palace until I was caught."

Ulanara sneered and said as if mocking herself.

"You know that the palace you want to escape from is a place that everyone in the world wants to enter. Everyone in the world says that the palace is magnificent, but only those who are in it know how many people's lives can be imprisoned by the four-sided sky and four-sided walls. Well, tell me where you hid the ancient book, and I will order someone to get it. If what you said is true, you will serve in my palace in the future, but you are not allowed to show up in front of others. If you are lying to me."

Zijing kowtowed repeatedly.

"Empress, I dare not lie to you! I didn't have time to think carefully, and I hid the ancient book in the rockery in the imperial garden in a hurry! But the place where I hid it is so hidden that I can't even describe it. I must go and find it myself! Everything I said is true!"

This servant is quite smart. Ulanara said nothing and waited for Jiang Fuhai to come back.

(End of this chapter)