Wolf King And His Fox Consort

The outside wall of the Cold Palace looked rundown and dilapidated, as if there had been no repairs done to it in many years.

They walked through a moon gate and into an overgrown and unkempt courtyard. Gu Wei stepped through the frosted over weeds with confidence, sidestepping rocks and holes on the ground with practised ease. There was only one door leading to the building adjacent to the courtyard, and it was latched from the outside.

Anyone could open it by sliding open the latch, but then again, Chu Yun assumed no one came here, and whoever did knew better than to release Xiao Yuan's mother.

"How long has she been here?" Chu Yun asked, stepping inside the Cold Palace behind Gu Wei.

"More than a decade," he said, as if he didn't care to keep exact count.

Chu Yun looked around the decrepit palace. It looked as derelict on the inside as it did on the outside, splintered floorboards, ripped panelling and water-stained walls. Everything smelled faintly of rot and mildew. 

The palace was of a considerable size on the inside, but it was obvious that most rooms were too damaged to be of any use. Gu Wei crossed the dank hallway and stopped in front of one of the only few standing doors.

On the other side was a surprisingly lavish bedroom, like a flower blooming from manure. Unlike the rest of the palace this room was impeccably decorated, furnished with all kinds of priceless paintings, porcelain vases, and dark lacquered furniture. A large canopied bed stood in the middle of the room, illuminated by the diffuse sun rays streaming in from the paper window panes.

Gu Wei's guard stayed by the door, his dark gaze fixed on a point on the wall in front of him. Chu Yun had no idea if he was acting so stoic for his benefit, or if he was that serious naturally. In any case it was hard to see what the appeal was for Gu Wei -- perhaps his lover was another guard.

Gu Wei pulled the dark purple canopy aside and called to the figure sleeping on the bed, "Sister Qin? It's Gu Wei here to see you."

Something moved among the covers and then a dishevelled woman sat up in the middle of the bed. Her hair was untidy and there were stains down the front of her inner robes. Among the pristine bedroom, she was the only thing that looked out of place.

"What do you want?" the woman hissed from her nest of bed covers, curling her lips up at Chu Yun and showing her darkened teeth. She must have been a beautiful woman one day, but neglect, and perhaps illness, had left only a hollow ravage behind.

"I came to see if Sister Qin is doing well." Gu Wei said, dragging a cushioned chair in front of the bed and sitting in front of Concubine Qin. 

She hissed at him. "No, you came to gloat! You came to laugh at me!" She pressed the heel of her hand against the side of her head and squeezed her eyes shut. "Everything is a mess in here because of you. It hurts to think!"

Gu Wei shifted in the chair, balancing his elbows on the armrests languidly. "Then don't think. It's because you thought too much that you ended up here."

Chu Yun looked between the two of them with unease. Concubine Qin was as ruined as the Cold Palace itself. Whatever she had done, Gu Wei had made sure to destroy her completely for it. It sent a cold pulse of dread down Chu Yun's spine. It was one thing to know a person was merciless, and another to see it for himself. 

Perhaps sensing the trajectory of Chu Yun's thoughts Gu Wei shot him an amused look. "I bet this is confirming all your most uncharitable thoughts about me."

Yes. "I'm sure father-in-law had his reasons."

He would like to hear them as soon as possible so that he could leave this place and its terrible atmosphere. 

Gu Wei smiled as if laughing at a private joke. "I had plenty of reasons, but I know you won't take what I say at face value, so I want you to hear it from her."

Chu Yun shot a skeptic look at the unkempt woman on the bed. She didn't look to be in any condition to share the details of her last meal, let alone recall events that happened years ago.

"Has Sister Qin seen her Royal Highness the Queen Consort lately?"

Immediately the woman started to screech, holding both her hands over her ears as if blocking out a piercing noise. "That bitch, that bitch! She haunts my dreams, she haunts my dreams, and all she does is laugh and laugh."

Chu Yun went very still, his gaze locked on the writhing concubine. Gu Wei's words had unlocked something in her, worsening whatever condition afflicted her.

"Why does the Queen Consort haunt your dreams? Did you do something to her?"

The screeches from the concubine grew in volume, making Chu Yun flinch and take a step backwards. 

"I killed her, I killed her! It took her hours to die!" The sudden shift from shouting to yelling pulled her doughy features in two different directions. "I cut out her baby and left her to die, she bled out on the floor while I watched."

So that was the reason behind the Queen Consort's unusual death during childbirth, but how had the rumours ended up levelling the responsibility at Gu Wei? Chu Yun couldn't look away from Concubine Qin, still thrashing in the middle of the bed, pulling at her own hair in an attempt to distract herself from the pain in her head.

Gu Wei turned to Chu Yun again, hooking one arm over the back of the chair and twisting his body sideways, in an unusually relaxed sprawl. "She said it," he smiled, and then asked, almost as an afterthought, "Who made Sister Qin this way?"

"You!! It was you, you snake, you cheap whore," she let out a pained growl. "My head hurts with all the ghosts you put inside it."

A cold smiled stretched across Gu Wei's lips. "Maybe you shouldn't have collected so many ghosts."