Compared to the north, where the infamous Snake Mouth Demon Grotto is known to almost everyone, Beijing seems like a relatively safe place to outsiders. But only those who are still in Beijing today know how cold it is.
Since before the Lunar New Year, the former Confucius Temple in Beijing has been transformed into some eerie and sinister temples. Although there did not seem to be any large-scale demonic incidents in Beijing, most of the people living there gradually felt that something was wrong.
The streets grew increasingly cold and eerie, and the gazes of some of the neighbors became more and more terrifying. Wherever you went, you felt as if you were being watched. Even at home at night, lying on the tatami mat, you couldn't help but shiver, as if there was a draft somewhere in the house.
But at night you don't dare get up to look, you don't dare to look for any drafts, because deep down you know it's not a draft at all, but something else entirely.
This oppressive terror is now spreading throughout the capital. Many people, despite having plenty of food and clothing every day, are emaciated and have bloodshot eyes.
The same applies to the imperial palace.
Those women without family harems have been dying one after another lately, and Xiao Mingxue has no idea how much longer she can hold on.
For the past few days, she had been sleeping with Little Seven Xiao Mingrui. She remembered that the girl was very cautious. After her mother died, she was always like a frightened rabbit. After getting to know her, she would come over and sleep next to her every night. She would curl up into a ball at night and look pitiful. At that time, she even felt a bit protective of her.
Thinking that if anything happened, they had to protect Little Seven no matter what.
Then Little Seven died!
He died suddenly in his own bed.
That night, Little Seven was terribly cold, shivering all over. She mustered up her courage to add some charcoal to the fire in the room. It was probably the bravest thing she had ever done in her life, but the result was not good. When she returned with the charcoal in high spirits, Little Seven was already dead.
The imperial physician said he froze to death, but how could that be?
There were three layers of quilts, and a warm charcoal fire inside the hall. He even made a point of warming Little Seven's little feet before he left.
result
Every time she closes her eyes, she can picture Little Seven in bed, pale all over, her eyes bulging out like a goldfish. She definitely didn't die of cold.
But the Emperor wasn't even interested in seeing him. The person in charge of collecting Little Seven's body was a eunuch from beginning to end.
What about myself?
Will I one day end up like Little Seven, cold and lifeless, carried out by a eunuch?
"Your Highness? Your Highness?"
"Hmm?" Xiao Mingxue came back to her senses and looked at the palace maid who had asked the question.
"Your Highness, you haven't eaten anything this morning, that's not good. Shall I have the imperial chef make you a bowl of fish soup?"
The palace maid seemed very concerned. Judging from her clothes, she was of a high rank. Nowadays, the palace is in chaos. Not to mention the princesses who are ignored, even the young princes are dying suddenly from time to time. The higher-ups don't care, and the people below no longer take these princes and princesses seriously. They are all secretly working hard to amass wealth and acting as if they are the masters.
Xiao Mingxue knew that the palace maid in front of her was very influential. Even the Imperial Concubine's palace couldn't get silver charcoal, but she could get it for her. Clearly, she was a very capable person. The reason she was so eager to please her was not because of her status as a princess.
It's not because of her future status King of Qin!
"Then I'll have to trouble you Du Niang."
"Your Highness is too kind. It is what this servant should do." The other party bowed respectfully, her face beaming with joy.
Just as Xiao Mingxue thought, what the palace maid valued was indeed Xiao Mingxue's status King of Qin. Now, the palace was filled with a gloomy atmosphere, and people were dying Heavenly Capital. Everyone wanted to leave this hellish place as soon as possible!
Everyone outside is saying how wonderful Jiangnan. She's already done that. She'll marry her husband and go to Jiangnan. The gold and silver jewelry she's saved over the years will be enough for her to live very well Jiangnan. She now regrets that last year she was so focused on getting promoted to a higher rank that she didn't resign and return to Jiangnan with her fellow townsmen. According to the rules of the palace, a 25-year-old palace maid can resign and go home if she hasn't been promoted. She must have been out of her mind to stay.
A few months ago, when I went out of the palace to shop, I asked a merchant from Jiangnan about my sister. I heard that she married a strong Fighter Army, lived in the best building in Jiangnan, the Star-Picking Tower, and drank red ginseng wine that couldn't be bought for a hundred gold coins in the capital. She was living a very comfortable life.
Her fellow villager was far less attractive than herself, yet she managed to marry a general. Surely, things wouldn't get any worse for her if she went to Jiangnan?
After instructing someone in the kitchen to warm up the chicken soup, the palace maid surnamed Du personally carried the soup over while it was still hot. Many people had tried to curry favor with Princess Mingxue recently, and she couldn't let anyone else get there first.
"Your Highness, drink it while it's hot."
" Du Niang." Xiao Mingxue didn't touch the soup, but looked up at the other woman with a sigh, "I heard that someone from the Southern Barbarians is proposing to me?"
"Your Highness, rest assured." The palace maid gently skimmed the foam off the chicken soup and handed over a spoon with a smile. "Your Highness is of noble birth and has a decreed marriage agreement with King of Qin. I'm sure neither the Empress nor His Majesty will allow that Southern Barbarians who wants to eat swan meat to succeed."
"It's hard to say right now." Xiao Mingxue shook her head with a wry smile.
"Your Highness is overthinking it," the palace maid said with a smile, though a shadow fell over her heart.
The Southern Barbarians and Jiangnan are two completely different concepts. It is said that the place is full of deadly miasma and poisonous insects. The people there eat centipedes and ants, and even eat people.
She's not going to that place!
I really don't Dao Palace is thinking?
Now that things are thriving in Jiangnan, even General Yuchi's troops couldn't gain any advantage in their encirclement and suppression efforts. And now, rumors are circulating that someone's fiancée is to be married off to Jiangnan. Is this trying to force Jiangnan into rebellion?
As for the court's talk of making peace with the Southern Barbarians, what's so great about those savage, blood-drinking creatures?
Did they offer those black scorpions as sacrifices?
"It's said that the man who proposed to me is the second prince of the Wutu Kingdom, a powerful figure who commands a large Wutu Kingdom and acts with impunity. He even forcibly took his own mother as his concubine, and no one dared to say anything. If I were to go to such a person..."
"Your Highness, please don't speak nonsense," the palace maid quickly interrupted. "You must believe that His Majesty and the Empress would not treat you like this."
Xiao Mingxue smiled bitterly upon hearing this. Did she really believe His Majesty and the Empress?
What can we trust about the current emperor? In the past, although he was indifferent to his children, he at least treated them as proper princesses. Now that so many princesses have died in the palace, does that mean he even bothered to look at them?
As for that lady...
Xiao Mingxue shuddered. In the palace these days, who didn't know what kind of person that empress was?
Many rumors even circulated that the deaths in the palace were related to the Empress who suddenly came back to life.
Seeing Xiao Mingxue's increasingly grim expression, the palace maid grew anxious. She didn't know what the final outcome would be, but there was still a possibility that this girl would marry into Jiangnan, and she didn't want to give up easily.
So he quickly said, "Your Highness, even if you don't trust the palace, you must trust His Highness King of Qin!"
"Your Highness, King of Qin?" Xiao Mingxue was slightly taken aback, and immediately recalled two years ago, when the delicate and handsome scholar in white robes was teased by her mother until he blushed, and she couldn't help but laugh while watching from behind the curtain.
It's hard to believe that such a thin-skinned scholar could be the Prince of King of Qin, who now controls the Jiangnan!
Will he remember himself?
Will he come and marry me?
--
Achoo!
In a place thousands of miles away, the white-robed scholar whom someone had been longing for was now dressed in rags, looking even more miserable than a beggar.
"What's wrong with you today? You keep sneezing. Are there too many people thinking about you?"
Behind Chen Qing was an old man whose clothes were even more tattered. The thicket of thorns made the two of them look like savages.
"Nonsense! I control seven counties in Jiangnan and am loved by millions of my people. Do you think you're the one, you old scoundrel?"
Heavenly Secrets: "."
"Your personality is exactly the same as it was back then." Heavenly Secrets shook his head. "But the King of Qin was just like you at the beginning."
"Does that mean your personality has changed drastically?" Chen Qing sat on the ground, warming himself by the fire, waiting for dawn to break.
"If you had experienced what he went through, your personality would have changed drastically too." Heavenly Secrets shook his head, then picked up a skewer of grilled meat. "Really not eating?"
"I won't eat it!" Chen Qing shook her head without hesitation.
"Pretentious!" the other person scoffed. "Didn't you ever eat roasted grasshoppers when you were a kid?"
"I've never eaten such a big grasshopper before." Chen Qing rolled her eyes at the grasshopper on the other person's string, which was bigger than a fist, and she really couldn't muster any appetite.
"Don't you people from Jiangnan eat worms?"
"I'm not eating it."
Heavenly Secrets: "."
"Alright, let's get down to business." Chen Qing looked around. "Are you really sure we're still on the original map? We've been walking for half a year and still haven't found our way out!"
He is very worried about Jiangnan now. After all, he knows that the mixed forces in Jiangnan are only barely held together because of him, and they could collapse at any time if he is not around.
"It's definitely on the original map," Heavenly Secrets said with certainty. "But the bad news is we might be in the Sealed Land!"
" The Sealed Land?" Chen Qing was taken aback. As the chief designer, he had never heard of such a concept before.
"The so-called Sealed Land," Heavenly Secrets said, glancing at Chen Qing, "Is the place where players are sealed!"
Chen Qing: "."
A new volume is here! Veteran players will gradually appear, and the grand backdrop of this world will slowly unfold. Bonus chapters will begin after mid-month. Thank you for your support!