Five days later at noon, Shang Xi asked a little eunuch to go and find Luo Wei. Luo Wei again asked the emperor for permission to go see the empress, and Xing Wu gave him leave. Luo Wei chatted with Luo Zhi Yi at the Hall of the Gracious Phoenix for a little while before saying goodbye, and followed Shang Xi to the secluded spot they spoke at last time.
"Consort Liu lost her child?" Luo Wei asked Shang Xi.
Shang Xi nodded quickly, "It was just as you predicted."
Luo Wei said, "Continue keeping an eye on her, let's see what Consort Liu does next."
Shang Xi continued, "Consort Liu is actually keeping this from the emperor, if His Imperial Majesty knew, he would never forgive her."
Luo Wei replied, "Let's not be hasty, Mister Shang. A very entertaining play is about to unfold, let's keep watching."
"Understood," At this point, Shang Xi was happy to follow any orders from Luo Wei.
"Keep this," Before he left, Luo Wei gave Shang Xi another five pieces of silver.
After getting back to the Hall of Eternal Light, Luo Wei didn't see anyone coming to report Consort Liu's miscarriage to Emperor Xing Wu. He sneered on the inside. For a mother to not be grieving for her lost child but instead to be scheming on how to use the miscarriage to hurt others, could the people living in the emperor's harem still be considered human? In actuality, they were all monsters driven mad by one word, "power".
As Emperor Xing Wu was busy commenting and reviewing missives with his head down, Luo Wei pretended to yawn and stretch.
"Tired?" It didn't escape the emperor's notice.
"Your Imperial Majesty," Luo Wei smiled, "The fish balls in clear soup was really good today."
Xing Wu smiled as well, "Yeah, you finished the entire bowl yourself. Wei Er, do you want to go back to being chubby?"
Luo Wei stuck his tongue out, "I feel kind of bloated now."
Emperor Xing Wu put his pen down, "Should we take a walk?"
"Okay," Luo Wei perked up.
Emperor Xing Wu sighed and shook his head, "I think someone here wants to go play outside."
Luo Wei frowned quickly, "Does Your Imperial Majesty not want to come with me?"
"I'll come," Emperor Xing Wu stood and watched Luo Wei with humor in his eyes. This kid knew proper decorum and protocol, his literary aptitude was superb, he was certainly very intelligent, but in the end he was still a kid.
Luo Wei thought for a bit, then addressed the emperor again, "Your Imperial Majesty, the moon is pretty and bright tonight, can we not take lanterns with us?"
"Sounds good," Emperor Xing Wu agreed without thinking about it. He agreed with most of Luo Wei's requests. Seeing Luo Wei's happy smile also made him happy, especially when this kid was so easy to please.
The emperor held Luo Wei's hand and walked around in the Imperial Garden without a goal in mind. As they walked further and further, they came to the Imperial Garden's Tian Chi Lake.
While Luo Wei looked around curiously, he asked Emperor Xing Wu, "Your Imperial Majesty, this water is so clear!"
Emperor Xing Wu responded, "Do you think so? You know, in the hottest times of summer, this lake would be filled with lotus flowers."
"It must be so pretty."
"Yeah," Emperor Xing Wu ruffled Luo Wei's hair, "I'll take you to see them once summer comes around."
"Okay!" Luo Wei smiled as he nodded, then pointed to a bamboo forest off the side of the walkway, "Your Imperial Majesty, there's a real bamboo forest here!"
"Do you want to take a walk in there?" Emperor Xing Wu followed Luo Wei's interest as readily as a river flowed.
"Yeah!" This time it was Luo Wei's turn to pull Emperor Xing Wu along by the hand.
In the past life when Long Xuan succeeded and became emperor, he ordered someone to dig up a fetal skeleton from the bamboo forest near Tian Chi lake. He had invited an eminent monk to perform the proper Buddhist rites on the remains, then interred the skeleton into the Imperial Tombs. Luo Wei understood very clearly what had happened. After Consort Liu had miscarried and before the remains of the fetus could rot, she ordered her closest servant to bury it in this rarely visited bamboo forest. All to conceal the scent of the rotting flesh so that no one would become suspicious. Consort Liu knew that this was very risky, but she couldn't be sure that in the Hall of the Blossoming Beauty that there wouldn't be spies from any other parts of the palace. So her only choice was to risk it. Besides, a fetus that'd just been miscarried and one that'd been dead for a few days would look very different. On the day that Consort Liu would try to trap the empress, her older brother, Junior Chancellor Liu Shuang Shi, would find a way to smuggle a fetus that had just died into the palace. Thus, there was no reason to keep this little princess who hadn't even seen the light of day.
TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:
YIKES!!! Consort Liu... wtf!!! Man, talk about heartless. :(