Chapter 22: Refreshing breeze, bright moon and bitter love (2)

"Niang, you call me." Huiju walked in with a smile.
I sat up on the bed, Hui Ju took a short shawl and put it on my shoulder, I stretched my hands together and looked at her, "When does the palace gate open every day?"
"It opened at Mao."
I bit my lip, looked straight at her and asked, "So, if I want to go to the palace tomorrow morning, is there a way?"
Huiju looked at me in surprise, "Manny, this..."
I took her hand, "Tomorrow I have something very important to do."
Huiju stopped talking, frowned for a moment, and looked up at me, "Can't you find someone to help the empress? What about Miss Haoyue? She is your personal maid, so it should be possible."
"I must do this."
"But, this is not a trivial matter, it's not easy."
"There are ways, but you have to help me."
"Me? Can I help the empress?"
I nodded solemnly, and Huiju looked at me puzzled.
I smiled and stood up and walked to Huiju's side, took her hand, and said softly: "Your eldest brother, isn't he responsible for delivering food to the palace every morning?"
Huiju turned her head to look at me abruptly, with an unbelievable look, but the expression swept away, and calmly said: "Manny, there is only one child in the slave house, and no brother."
I looked at her closely, and there was a hint of panic and fear on her face, even though she tried to hide it.
"Girl Huiju may not have one, but Zhang Ying still has two older brothers."
Huiju covered her mouth with one hand and took a step back, "Manny, you..."
I smiled without talking, just stared at her straight.
Most of the maids in the palace were the daughters of inferior officials. Hui Ju was originally the daughter of Zhang Fu, a subordinate of my Ling Mansion, named Zhang Ying.
Zhang Fu took a good bet and lost a large sum of money to Li Canjun. Li Canjun’s daughter Huiju was old enough to enter the palace as a maid, and Li Canjun was reluctant, so she asked Zhang Fu to let Zhang Ying replace Huiju into the palace to offset the bet that Zhang Fu might not pay off for a lifetime Account.
Zhang Ying has two elder brothers, a younger sister and a younger brother. She is caught in the middle and cannot be loved by her parents. Naturally, Zhang Fu is still willing to use her daughter to pay off debts, not to mention just let her daughter enter the palace to be a maid.
Maybe he didn't know this deep palace was sinister, maybe he knew, but it was better than selling his daughter into that nasty place. Zhang Ying had no choice but to accept the order of his father to enter the palace. Originally just a rough maid. Seeing her delicate and smart, I picked her. Of course, I have secretly asked someone to find out their respective origins.
"Manny, how do you... how do you know?" Huiju stammered, obviously frightened by me. Although it is not uncommon to replace this kind of situation in the palace, once it is found to be reported, it is to deceive the emperor. Neither the Zhang family nor the Li family can bear such a serious crime.
I stepped forward to trim the silk flowers on her placket, smoothed out the small folds, and calmly said in her ear: "You forgot, I'm a young lady from the Ling family."
Huiju's face became a little pale, I looked at her with a smile, "What's going on tomorrow, is there a way?"
Huiju bit her lip and nodded, "Huiju can't guarantee, but she will try her best."
My smile spread out, I walked back to the bed and sat down, as if nothing had happened before and said, "It's getting late, you can rest too."
Huiju stepped forward to help me fix the quilt, gently put down the curtain of the bed to blow out the candles, and my surroundings became dark.
"Huiju." I whispered as she walked to the door.
"What's the matter?" Hui Ju hurriedly walked to my bed and opened the curtain.
"Light a candle, it's so dark." I grasped the quilt and stared blankly at the delicate veins of the luxurious embroidery on the bed curtains appearing in the dark night, feeling a little nervous about tomorrow's affairs.
Huiju turned around and lit a candle not far from the bed. There was a soft light around her, and my heart became calmer.
"Niang, I'm outside, Xiao Luzi is waiting at the door, if you have anything to do, call us." Hui Ju whispered.
I nodded and closed my eyes.
"Niangniang, Niangniang, it's time to get up." Someone called me in the dimness.
I slowly opened my eyes and Huiju stood by the bed. Look at the sky outside the window, it's still dark. In a daze, I was helped by Huiju to get up and saw a set of men's clothes in Huiju's hands. I woke up and pointed to the clothes and asked, "Will this change now?"
Huiju nodded.
I shook my head and said, "Now that I am wearing it, how can I walk in this palace? You go get me Xiao Rongzi's clothes. This will change when I see your brother."
Huiju said "Oh", and hurried out to get Xiao Rongzi's suit for me to change into it, the size was good. I sat in front of the vanity mirror and watched Huiju comb my hair into a man's style. The woman before in the mirror immediately became a handsome man.
Huiju looked at me and smiled, "I'm dressed like this, if she really goes out, she will definitely fascinate this woman in Beijing."
I turned around and pretended to hit her, Huiju smiled and avoided. I stood up and looked at it, took another picture in the mirror, and looked at Huiju next to me with a grin, "You poor-mouthed girl. Let's see what happens. We'll leave when we are done."
It was still dark, but the east was slightly white. The morning wind was blowing softly and it was very cool. Huiju and I walked in tandem. I looked at the empty palace in front, and remembered that night, there was no one, only me and him, and I and Huiju were walking in tandem like now.
But at that time his tall figure was in front of me, at this time there was nothing in front of me. I looked back at Huiju, she was looking around carefully, but I was not worried about this, because it was already time for the and palace maid to get up to serve the master, even if she met the guards, she had to avoid it.
Fortunately along the way, no one met. I was wondering why the guards of the imperial city were so loose, Huiju was telling me. "Niang Niang, I will tell my elder brother later that you are the Xiaofuzi who is in the same house with me. There is an emergency at home and I want to secretly go out of the palace to have a look."
"Well, I see, don't worry.
The small warehouse behind the imperial dining room is in front. The palace walls here are not as bright and bright as the east and west palaces, and it feels less solemn.
Across the wall, I could hear someone inside-moving things "hey". Huiju told me that all the ingredients are unloaded here and put into the small warehouse.
When I entered a moon gate, I saw four large carts parked in front of a room. Several men were unloading the contents of the cart, some vegetables, and some chickens and ducks. A fat stood at the door of the house, directing the transport.
Huiju told me to hide outside the moon gate and walked in by herself. I saw her first say hello to the fat eunuch, and then went straight to a man in a white coat. When the man saw her, he immediately looked happy. I know that he is Hui Ju's eldest brother.
What Huiju said to him, his expression became serious. As Huiju spoke, she looked in the direction where I was from time to time. In a short while, she came back.
I asked her anxiously, and she smiled and said: "Manny, I told my eldest brother, you can take his car, but be careful not to be found by the guards."
I nodded, "I know how to measure, and I won't embarrass your brother."
"Little brother," Huiju's eldest brother came over, "Here will be finished immediately, you change clothes quickly, I will find a way to block Grandpa Liu. You will get in my car later."
I glanced at Hui Ju and motioned to her to take her brother aside. Huiju understood what I meant, and took her elder brother aside. I heard her asking about the situation at home, so I quickly put the man's clothes that Huiju had given me before over Xiao Rongzi's clothes.
This is a half-old dark blue long cedar, relatively large, completely covering the eunuch's clothes I wear inside. After putting it on, I straightened my hat and walked into the moon gate. When Huiju's brother saw this, he went to talk to the fat eunuch. With Huiju's help, I got into her brother's car and carefully cated behind a pile of empty baskets.
"Hurry up, it's time." The fat shouted, and the other men began to pack up and return to their car.
Huiju hurriedly stuffed something for me, and I received it directly into my clothes without seeing it.
"Mother," she lowered her voice, and I could feel the fear in that voice, "you must come back today."
"Don't worry, I have a way, I will definitely be able to come back."
A line of cars slowly drove out of the small courtyard where the Yushanfang warehouse was located, and the fat returned to the house without waiting for the last car to go out. Seeing this, my heart relaxed a little.
The car turned into a path with high walls on both sides. The car bumped up. This road is exclusively for vehicles transporting things to the palace, so it is not paved with large blue bricks and is separated from the inner palace by a high palace wall.
Huiju's eldest brother-Zhang, while driving, whispered to me: "My sister, thank you for taking care of her on weekdays."
I smiled and lowered my voice, and said with a rough voice: "Where is it, Miss Huiju has been taking care of me."
Brother Zhang laughed, but immediately stopped his voice.
I looked at him puzzledly, and he said: "This is the rule, we people are inferior people, this palace is where the master lives. We enter the palace and go in such a biased way. In fact, we don't see it at all. To whom, but still not allowed to speak."
"There are many rules in the palace, and it is possible if you are not careful..." I didn't go on, and Brother Zhang stopped talking, and they understood each other.
In this way, our carriage followed the carriage in front of it silently.
The trail is very long and narrow, making it uncomfortable. I looked up and saw that the sky was already bright, thinking about the time in my heart. I will go 30 miles outside the east gate of the city to see him. Even if the emperor sends him out of the city, he will not go that far.
I opened the small handkerchief bag that Huiju stuffed me just now. It was some broken silver. I boasted of her care and thoughtfulness in my heart. Suddenly, the front suddenly became clear, it should be the palace gate.
At the gate of the palace stood two teams of full-body armored guards, one by one majestic, and the armor had a dazzling light in the sun, which even showed the majesty and inviolability of the palace.
My heart beat faster and I curled up again.
The several cars ahead went out smoothly, our car was the last one.
Brother Zhang and the chief guard who guarded the gate greeted them naturally, and the chief guard waved to let him go.
I breathed a sigh of relief, and felt a little joyful. I didn't expect to be able to get out so easily.
Seeing that the car was about to leave the palace gate, a voice suddenly shouted: "Wait, stop the car in front, stop!"
I watched the captain of the guard running, his armor gleaming in the sun and stinging my eyes, and the heart that had just been let down again raised his throat.