"Orphaned at a young age and raised by those around you?"
Qiu Su thought of the hundred or so people on the mountain, pursed her lips and pretended to be surprised, saying, "The people around you? They were just picked up and raised by an aunt."
"Oh?" Consort Li looked very curious and asked with a smile, "Why didn't you ask someone to look for your biological parents, sister? Alas, I can't bear to see your life story so tragic."
"I've looked for her." Qiu Su sighed sadly. "My aunt said she didn't have anything on her when she found me, so it's hard to find her. She must be from a poor family, and maybe they didn't want to raise a girl." Qiu Su smiled. "Fortunately, I met my husband."
Consort Li lowered her eyelids. "What a coincidence, we just happened to run into each other."
"Hehe." Qiu Su laughed happily, "It's quite a coincidence. He encountered danger on the way, and my uncle just happened to run into him, took him home and cared for him for a month. It's like a dream."
Consort Li smiled as well, "My sister looks very happy."
"Yes, life is very leisurely."
Consort Li lifted her eyelids and said to the maid beside her, "Why aren't you serving tea to the lady? Don't neglect her."
The palace maid agreed and went to leave, returning with a tray. The teacups were exquisite, made of almost transparent, thin porcelain. Qiu Su smiled and accepted them, "Thank you, Your Highness."
Qiu Su turned the porcelain cup in her hand without drinking, and after examining it for a long time, she exclaimed, "This cup is really beautiful."
Consort Li narrowed her eyes, glanced at the curtain on one side, and chuckled softly, saying, "Why isn't my sister drinking?"
"Ah, my husband won't let me drink tea or iced drinks. If he finds out, I'll be punished by copying scriptures." Look at how obedient my wife is.
Consort Li covered her mouth and laughed, "Sister, hehe, you're so obedient." Consort Li stopped laughing, coughed, and said, "It was my oversight, sister is currently pregnant. But this tea is different from ordinary tea, it's so weak, it's fine to drink it."
Qiu Su smiled, but as she looked down at the cup of tea, her heart trembled slightly. Perhaps Consort Li wouldn't cause any trouble on her first visit to the palace, but... well, other people's food can't taste good. Who knows what nutritious ingredients have been added to it?
"What, are you afraid of being punished by Young Master Pei? I'll have someone say so later. I have plenty of good food here. My uncle sent some fresh fruit to the palace a few days ago, and there's still some left. I can't finish it all by myself, so you can have some later."
Qiu Su glanced at the curtain, and just then a gentle breeze blew by, causing the curtain to flutter slightly. From Qiu Su's angle, she could just see a pair of black shoes that did not belong to a woman.
Qiu Su brought the teacup to her lips, then suddenly moved it away, covering her mouth and gagging. She glanced at Consort Li, placed the teacup on the table, rose, and curtsied. Just as she was about to speak, the gagging interrupted her again. Qiu Su seemed to be in great pain, and without caring about anything else, she covered her mouth and ran out the door.
Consort Li's smile froze, and before her lips could even form a line, a loud "whoosh" sound came from outside, accompanied by a nauseating vomiting sound.
Consort Li frowned and fanned herself with her sleeve. A maidservant quickly handed her a sachet. Consort Li leaned in and smelled it, then, with the maidservant's help, she stood up, walked to the door, and saw Qiu Su still leaning against an osmanthus tree, vomiting miserably. Suppressing her nausea, she called out, "Sister, what's wrong? Should we call the imperial physician?"
Qiu Su weakly leaned against the tree trunk and waved her hand, "Thank you, Your Majesty. No... ugh..."
Consort Li looked at the filth at the base of the osmanthus tree, her disgust barely concealed. She turned to a maid beside her and said, "Go and ask the old lady to come and take her home. In her condition, she should go home and rest."
Qiu Su finally stopped for a moment, then turned around and knelt down, saying, "I have defiled Mother... Your Majesty's courtyard."
"It's alright." Consort Li waved her hand. "I'm tired too. You should find a place to rest for a while. Someone will come to pick you up soon."
"Thank you for not blaming me, Your Majesty."
So quickly you've gone from being my sister to me! And thank you my foot! If you hadn't forced me, would I have willingly smelled the emetic? Qiu Su felt nauseous, her stomach churning. She glanced at Consort Li as she entered, then pushed away the hand of the maid who was supporting her, saying, "Sister, please go ahead with your work. Sigh, I... I'll find somewhere to get some fresh air."
Qiu Su dared not go far, but tried to stay away from Consort Li's room. She found a stone step near the palace gate and sat down, cursing Pei Yuan in her heart despite her stomach cramping from time to time.
A man emerged from behind the curtain in the hall. He was over forty years old; who else could it be but the Regent Prince? His eyes were far more piercing than those of Consort Li. The Regent Prince sat down at the table, toying with the teacup that Qiu Su had worn so much it was almost thinner. He frowned and turned it around for a long time before finally putting the teacup back down.
Consort Li sniffed the sachet several times, then turned to the palace maid with a hint of annoyance and said, "Have someone cut down that tree later and clean everything up." She took a deep breath, calmed herself, and then looked at the Regent Prince, "What does Uncle think?"
"What does my niece think?"
"She doesn't seem like a shrewd person; she always seems a bit dim-witted."
The regent chuckled, "Didn't you also not drink this cup of tea?"
“No ordinary person would dare to touch anything in the palace when they enter.” Consort Li chuckled self-deprecatingly. “When I first entered the palace, I hesitated for a long time before eating a dried fruit.”
"When the stranger entered the Pei residence, Pei Yuan soon left for Pingcheng. The stranger also left after him, but was lost. Hmph, the assassination failed, yet he coincidentally picked up a woman, and Prime Minister Pei accepted her without saying a word. Isn't there something suspicious about this?"
Consort Li frowned. "Uncle, are you overthinking this? The Ji family was wiped out back then. Even if a descendant survived, it should be a man older than her."
"We cannot rule out the possibility of Ji Yue's illegitimate daughter. In any case, we cannot allow the descendants of the Ji family to appear in the world."
Consort Li's forehead twitched. "Uncle is really overthinking things. If you want a descendant of the Ji family, there are plenty of them everywhere. Why bother traveling thousands of miles to find a village girl?"
"Hmm? What do you mean?"
Consort Li smiled and said, "If you say she is, then she is. If you say she isn't, then she isn't. If I were one of those men, I would definitely find a man who resembles Ji Yue, and say that I am Ji Heng who escaped from the fire back then. Why would I find a confused and timid woman to pretend to be the general's descendant?"
"Don't you think my niece's eyes look like someone else's?"
"Who does she resemble? I can't tell. She's so evasive. Her eyelashes tremble, as if she's afraid of doing something wrong. And those eyes..." Consort Li suddenly stopped speaking, raised her eyes, and said, "She keeps her eyes down, she's guarding against me!"
The regent nodded. "Yes, ever since she came in. I only caught a glimpse of her glancing quickly at the room the moment she entered. That look, along with her pursed lips, was just like Zang Ran back then."
"Ji Yue's wife?"
The regent frowned in thought, "I didn't hear that Zang Ran was pregnant again back then, but I haven't seen her for the past six months. I did see her once in between, but..."
The regent recalled seeing Zang Ran twice eighteen years ago, before the Ji family was wiped out. Thinking back, it seemed that once she merely peeked out of her sedan chair, raising an eyebrow and smiling lightly at him; the other time was at the general's mansion, where she sat at the banquet without ever standing up. Zang Ran was an extraordinary woman, but he had met her too late. If he hadn't been forced to, why would he have killed her along with him? He would rather she lived, even if each time she saw him she would only smirk and curse him inwardly.
The regent recalled the past, his eyes flickered, and he murmured, "It's not impossible."
Consort Li's gaze sharpened, "Then wouldn't the child in her womb be..."
The regent waved his hand and curled the corner of his mouth, saying, "Pei Yuan made a wrong move, actually bringing people into the capital."
**************************************
Qingfeng Theater:
Qiu Su: I'm throwing up, I'm throwing up, I'm throwing up~~ I really threw up, sigh, what a waste of the bowl of steamed egg custard I ate before leaving.
Little Gray Pigeon: I fly, I fly, I fly and fly~~ Upon seeing the pigeon egg porridge under the osmanthus tree, I breathed my last and fell to the ground.
33
33. So far away...
Qiu Su sat on the steps, tapping the ground to count the time, inwardly cursing the Consort Li who had left with a look of disgust, covering her nose. What a nuisance! She thought she'd called her "Mother" when she vomited. Good heavens, she'd completely missed a generational distinction.
Qiu Su chanted a spell in her heart, trying to calm her tormented mind while wondering who was behind the curtain. Suddenly, a human-shaped shadow appeared in her vision, and she instinctively knelt down before looking up at the person before her. Dressed in bright yellow, she knew who it was just by looking at their face; it seemed she hadn't knelt in the wrong place this time, and had knelt at just the right time.
Qiu Su lowered her head again and bowed deeply, saying, "Long live the Emperor." That's how she said it, right?
The feet didn't move. Qiu Su glanced at the black boots, and just as she was wondering, she heard a voice above her say, "Are you from Pei Yuan's family?"
"yes."