“Hong Li, there’s a saying called ‘calamity comes from a loose tongue’. Talk about Prince Hao less in the future. Where is the precise location you were pulling weeds today? Are you still going to pluck them tomorrow?”
Hong Li nodded repeatedly, sighing when she heard the words ‘pulling weeds.’ “Yeah. There is still a bunch of it. With how itchy I’m going to get, I don’t want to do this kind of work even if I do get the chance to meet…”
She immediately shut her mouth, biting back the words, ‘Prince Hao.’
“I’ll go with you tomorrow after eating breakfast. Wash yourself first. I will be going back to my room to rest.” Su Xi-er turned around the left the room.
Hong Li stood in the room alone. Why does Su Xi-er want to pull weeds with me? She didn’t scrub the chamber pots today. Does she not need to scrub the chamber pots tomorrow night too?
However, Hong Li didn’t think that her random conjecture was actually correct. Su Xi-er also didn’t need to scrub the chamber pots tomorrow because she had something more important to do.
~~~
The next day, Su Xi-er had already risen at 6.30am.
After freshening up, she went to the place for eating breakfast. After she sat down, palace maids started streaming in one after another.
The thin palace maid who often made caustic remarks about Su Xi-er snorted, “You slacked off last night and didn’t go scrub the chamber pots. It was poor Lian Qiao who helped you despite having to get up early this morning. Meanwhile, a certain tactless person hasn’t even uttered a single word of thanks.”
Su Xi-er looked at Lian Qiao. “Thank you. I wasn’t feeling well last night, resulting in you having to help me do it. I also can’t rest today and have to work.”
Lian Qiao immediately waved her hand. “It’s fine. You were feeling unwell, so it’s only natural that I helped you. Everyone in the Palace Side Quarters is in it together, and should assist each other.” At the same time, she carried her bowl and sat beside Su Xi-er.
The thin palace maid snorted. Lian Qiao is a coward who desperately latches onto others’ thigh to climb up with all her might.
Su Xi-er nodded and didn’t comment. Only after she had finished half her meal did she realise that Hong Li hadn’t come.
Lian Qiao sensed Su Xi-er’s gaze and guessed her thoughts so she immediately notified her, “Hong Li went to wash herself in the middle of the night yesterday and caught a cold. Old Maidservant Liu told her to stay in her room. There will be someone simmering medicine for her.”
In the past, when the Palace Side Quarters were still managed by Old Maidservant Zhao, the wellbeing of the palace maids was a non-factor. Even medicinal herbs had been withheld from them.
Otherwise, no matter how on good terms the old-maidservant-in-charge was with the Imperial Physician Institute, she wouldn’t have been able to hide so many medicinal herbs.
Some palace maids started to whisper. “If Hong Li is sick, who is going to pluck the grass in the woods beside the Palace Side Quarters for her?”
As soon as the palace maids who weren’t assigned to work in the woods beside the Palace Side Quarters heard that, their eyes shone. Some even began to straighten out their clothes. Maybe I’ll be able to meet Prince Hao!
Although Prince Hao had come to the Palace Side Quarters in a fit of rage not long ago, it had been due to Su Xi-er who is tired of living. After she had offended Prince Hao, the other maids viewed the fact that he hadn’t taken her to the Beauty Palace after such a long time as a sign of him growing bored of her.
Hence, everyone changed to another conjecture. Prince Hao is only watching a show. Once he’s done, he will take Su Xi-er’s life!
Su Xi-er didn’t even need to guess these palace maids’ thoughts but she was lazy to pay attention to them. Unless he has become muddle-headed, Prince Hao is unlikely to appear in the woods beside the Palace Side Quarters in broad daylight.
Su Xi-er only held onto this thought for a moment before she started when she realised something else. Pei Qianhao has never played his cards using common sense. What if he does come?
Just as she was pondering, Old Maidservant Liu walked into the room. Her gaze landed on Su Xi-er as she instructed solemnly, “Su Xi-er, replace Hong Li in pulling the weeds. You will still be scrubbing the chamber pots tonight.”
Su Xi-er rose and bowed. “Yes, Old Maidservant Liu.”