The Cold Palace

Lingbao's eyes lit up when he saw so many medicinal herbs. He excitedly rushed forward, circling the medicine shelves, overjoyed.

"This is delicious, that's good too, wow! This warehouse is really nice."

Zhou Wanwan patted Lingbao's head and said, "Eat, eat more, don't be shy."

Lingbao chuckled and lowered his head to eat.

Lingbao ate extremely fast; perhaps it was because it had been asleep for a long time and was starving.

Having consumed over twenty kinds of precious medicinal herbs, it patted its belly, let out a satisfied burp, and said:

"So delicious! It's so different inside the palace!"

"Wanwan, what are you doing in the palace? It's not a safe place to live."

Zhou Wanwan waved her hand and said, "No, no, no, I think it's super easy to get by in this palace. The food is different every day."

Zhou Wanwan suddenly felt a noise outside, and the whole ground was shaking.

Zhou Wanwan frowned and asked, "What is this?"

I don't know what happened outside, but all I heard were all sorts of wails and the wind was blowing very hard.

Zhou Wanwan wanted to go out, but then she heard the Old Scholar Tree's voice say, "Wanwan, stay inside and don't go out."

Half an hour later, the Old Scholar Tree finally said, panting, "That thing is really powerful."

Zhou Wanwan quickly channeled her spiritual energy into the Old Scholar Tree, and the Old Scholar Tree finally recovered.

Zhou Wanwan asked, "What exactly is that thing?"

"A dragon, it must be a thousand years old, right?"

Zhou Wanwan shuddered and said, "The palace actually has something like this? Then who among you is more powerful?"

The Old Scholar Tree snorted coldly:

"Of course I'm better, but that thing is a bit troublesome. We've already agreed to keep to ourselves."

As long as we don't provoke it, it won't provoke us.

It also knew that neither I nor our Old Ancestor were easy to mess with.

Zhou Wanwan asked with a face full of curiosity, "Are there really dragons? I really want to go see them."

The Old Scholar Tree said helplessly, "What's so interesting about a dragon? If you want to see one, I'll take you."

After saying that, the Old Scholar Tree took Zhou Wanwan and sped away into the depths of the palace.

It didn't stop until they reached the Cold Palace.

Looking at the desolate palace, Zhou Wanwan said, "How bleak! So this is the Cold Palace!"

The Old Scholar Tree looked at Zhou Wanwan and said, "There's nothing to see in this Cold Palace."

Before Zhou Wanwan could speak, a woman came out from inside, muttering to herself, "My girl, my girl, sob sob... Where are you! Your mother has been looking for you for so long!"

The Old Scholar Tree looked at the woman and said, "This concubine used to be very favored, but unfortunately, she went mad after her child was drowned by Noble Consort Ning."

The woman rushed over to Zhou Wanwan, crying, "My child, my child, my little girl, sob sob sob... You've finally appeared! Your mother has missed you so much!"

A young palace maid rushed over and, upon seeing Zhou Wanwan, exclaimed in surprise, "You... you are Princess Jianning!"

Zhou Wanwan looked at the young palace maid and asked, "Who is Princess Jianning?"

The palace maid glanced at it several more times before swallowing hard and saying:

"I'm sorry, I mistook you for Princess Jianning!"

You look so much like Princess Jianning.

The mad concubine held Zhou Wanwan's hand tightly and refused to let go.

Zhou Wanwan patted her hand and said, "Okay, I'm not leaving. Let go of me first, my hand hurts."

The mad concubine stared blankly at Zhou Wanwan and said, "Ajiu, are you really not leaving? I'm scared. I'm afraid that if I let you go, you'll disappear."

Zhou Wanwan looked at her and said, "I promised you I wouldn't leave, so you don't need to be afraid."

The mad concubine then slowly released her grip.

Zhou Wanwan looked at the maid beside her and asked, "What's going on, my mistress?"

The palace maid's eyes reddened as she said:

"My mistress was driven mad by Noble Consort Ning. Back then, my mistress was considered the most favored concubine in the palace."

However, when the little princess was born and raised to the age of four, the nanny in Noble Consort Ning's palace pushed the little princess directly into the river.

At that time, Consort Zhen went mad, always feeling that her child was still alive.

When the emperor saw her like this, he placed her under house arrest.

Later, she was confined to the cold palace.

Zhou Wanwan looked at Consort Zhen and said, "Alright, you all wait for me here. I have other matters to attend to. I'll come back after I've finished dealing with them."

Upon hearing this, Consort Zhen took Zhou Wanwan's hand and said:

"Ajiu, don't go, your mother has prepared lots of delicious food for you."

There's still so much jewelry. Please don't leave your mother, okay?

Zhou Wanwan was also somewhat helpless. What was wrong with this Consort Zhen? Why was she keeping pulling her along?

However, Zhou Wanwan couldn't simply ignore her, so she followed Consort Zhen back to the Cold Palace.

This cold palace is indeed not much different from the ones in TV dramas; it's overgrown with weeds and dilapidated.

Consort Zhen pulled Zhou Wanwan back to her room. There was only a quilt and a charcoal brazier next to it, but the brazier was empty.

Consort Zhen took out a box from under the bed and said, "Ajiu, this is your dowry prepared by your mother. Keep it safe and don't lose it."

Zhou Wanwan thought Consort Zhen was talking nonsense, but she was dumbfounded the moment she opened the small box.

A set of red gold filigree dragon and phoenix headdress inlaid with pearls, a pair of deep-sea Mingzhu from the South China Sea, a set of icy jadeite openwork comb, icy bright green jadeite dragon and phoenix bracelet, and black jade openwork carved jade pendant.

The maid beside her whispered:

"These were all prepared by Her Majesty for Princess Jianning, but unfortunately they will never be needed."

Even in her most destitute moments, the Empress couldn't bear to take out these things.

Consort Zhen placed these items into Zhou Wanwan's arms.

"These are all for you, Wanwan. Please don't despise your mother."

"Your mother is useless; she couldn't protect you. You must take good care of yourself."

Zhou Wanwan reluctantly accepted the box.

As she was leaving, Consort Zhen's tears streamed down her face, and she choked out, "Ajiu, come back to visit your mother when you have time. Your mother will always be here waiting for you."

Zhou Wanwan nodded and said, "Don't worry! I'll be back."

She looked at the Old Scholar Tree, Old Scholar Tree had kept some things in the Cold Palace.

Zhou Wanwan sighed and said, "The women in the Cold Palace are really pitiful."

She had barely finished speaking when she heard the strains of opera singing not far away, which startled her in the middle of the night.

Not far away, a woman dressed in a red opera costume could be seen singing in the darkness.

Zhou Wanwan was speechless; there weren't many normal people in this cold palace.

The Old Scholar Tree led her deeper and deeper into the cold palace, and the deeper they went, the colder it felt.

Soon they saw a well in the innermost palace. The well was sealed very well, and the top was made of jade.

The entire piece of jade sealed the well opening, and suddenly Zhou Wanwan felt a strong wind.

She was pulled into the treehouse by the Old Scholar Tree, where she saw a dragon crawling out of the well, its appearance extremely lewd.

He rolled his eyes and said, "Old Scholar Tree, didn't we agree to keep to ourselves? What are you doing here?"