One day, as he was finishing work, Uncle Wu, the shopkeeper of Yusheng Granary, gave Ding Lei a letter and asked him to deliver it to Bai Sheng personally.
Seeing how serious Uncle Wu was, Ding Lei and Uncle Da Fa wasted no time and hurried to Yuhua Lane. After all, Lu Fan and Lu Cai of Tian Guo Garden were men, and they could go home on their own after work, so Ding Lei and Uncle Da Fa didn't need to worry about them.
Upon returning home, Ding Lei immediately handed the letter to Bai Sheng. When Bai Sheng heard that the letter was forwarded by Uncle Wu, she already vaguely guessed what it was about.
Uncle Wu of Yusheng Granary and Shopkeeper Cao of Tian Guo Garden were both people of King Yu's mother, Consort Mei. If Uncle Wu delivered the letter, it must be related to Consort Mei.
Presumably, the letter from King Yu had already reached Consort Mei.
Bai Sheng opened the letter, and it was indeed Consort Mei asking her to come to the palace for a meeting.
Tomorrow at noon, Consort Mei would send someone to Yuhua Lane to pick up Bai Sheng and escort her into the palace.
Bai Sheng was a little surprised that Consort Mei would send someone to pick her up in person! This was quite a high-profile arrangement. Could it be another stunt pulled by that dramatic King Yu? However, perhaps they were just cautious in their actions, wanting to take the opportunity to see where she lived and confirm the situation.
Lu Ye, being an outside male, naturally could not accompany her into the palace. However, he handed Bai Sheng three "confession letters."
The first confession letter was written by the first batch of assassins dispatched by the Empress. Lu Ye had already made the assassins write confession letters before they departed for the capital.
Any assassin who wrote a confession letter and signed and thumb-printed it would receive an extra chicken leg every day. The assassins, who hadn't tasted meat for months, were naturally willing to do so.
After all, their martial arts were completely crippled. The capital, the palace, the Empress, and the Crown Prince meant nothing to them now, but chicken legs were the most important things at the moment.
The second letter was written by County Magistrate Guo of Tashan Commandery. To save his own life and to leave a bloodline for the Guo family, Magistrate Guo wrote a very slick confession. Not only did he confess to colluding with Zheng Wei, sent by the Empress, to assassinate King Yu and Lu Ye, but he also exposed a lot of scandals about the Empress and the Crown Prince.
The third letter was written by two secret guards.
These three confession letters should be enough to strip the Empress and the Crown Prince of another layer of skin.
Bai Sheng had something to ask of Consort Mei during this trip to the palace, so she definitely couldn't go empty-handed. Consort Mei was not lacking in gold, silver, and soft goods, so she planned to pick some rare fruits of the Great Xia Kingdom from her spatial dimension as a meeting gift.
The strawberries in her spatial dimension were large and sweet, mangosteens were nutritious and delicious, seedless grapes were very sweet, and there was also the king of fruits, durian.
There was no durian in the Great Xia Kingdom. The durian tree in her spatial dimension was found during her last trip to the Yuan Qinghuang Kingdom region.
Because the taste of durian was too unique, those who liked it loved it madly, while those who didn't like it would vomit just by smelling it. Therefore, Bai Sheng was not sure if Consort Mei would like it.
But she still wanted to give it a try.
To prevent the smell from leaking, she wrapped the durian layer by layer and packed it into a large crate. The other fruits were also packed into a crate.
At the hour of 11 AM the next day, a well-decorated carriage indeed stopped punctually outside the Lu Residence.
The driver was a fair-skinned man with no beard. He had a delicate face but was not effeminate.
Uncle Ding invited him into the residence for tea and rest, but he politely declined, saying that picking up Miss Bai to enter the palace was an important matter that could not be delayed.
Uncle Ding did not insist and immediately went to inform the two masters.
Bai Sheng and Lu Ye came out together to greet him.
Bai Sheng saw that the driver was around thirty years old, with delicate skin and no beard around his lips. She guessed he was an eunuch from the palace, but it was not appropriate to call him an eunuch directly, and calling him "big brother" seemed inappropriate as well.
While she was desperately thinking about how to address him, the fair-skinned man smiled and said, "Miss Bai, Young Master Lu, I am an eunuch by Consort Mei's side, named Zhu Hou. You can call me Eunuch Zhu."
"Greetings, Eunuch Zhu," Bai Sheng said, relieved, and immediately greeted him respectfully.
Lu Ye also cupped his hands in greeting, "Greetings, Eunuch Zhu."
Eunuch Zhu was gentle and courteous, giving a very comfortable impression. Bai Sheng guessed that Consort Mei was probably also a gentle, watery, and quiet woman.
Eunuch Zhu said in a gentle voice, "My mistress is already waiting for Miss Bai in the palace. Let's set off quickly."
"Thank you, Eunuch Zhu," Bai Sheng bowed to Eunuch Zhu and then lightly leaped onto the carriage.
Eunuch Zhu smiled slightly, thinking that Miss Bai's temperament had a few similarities to his mistress.
The carriage slowly drove towards the imperial city.
As someone with a modern soul, Bai Sheng's understanding of palaces was limited to TV dramas. She recalled that seemingly every corner was decorated with complex patterns, and there was also a lot of yellowish-brown.
It was only when she truly entered the imperial city gate that she truly felt what imperial city majesty was.
On both sides of the entrance stood two large stone lions, each over two meters tall. Their mouths were wide open, and their eyes were glaring, looking extremely majestic.
The vermilion gate was tall and grand. Guards in armor stood on both sides, conducting strict checks on all personnel entering the palace.
At this moment, Bai Sheng finally understood why Consort Mei had sent Eunuch Zhu to pick her up in person and why she had asked her to enter the palace as a medical woman.
The guards at the gate recognized Eunuch Zhu and let them through quickly.
Entering the imperial city, Bai Sheng could only describe it with two words: many houses, wide avenues, uniform walls, sparse human traffic. Occasionally, people walked by, but they were mostly bowing and scraping eunuchs and palace maids.
The deep and wide corridors were silent, exuding the majesty of imperial power everywhere. In such an atmosphere, it was not suitable to look around randomly. Bai Sheng lowered her head and followed Eunuch Zhu forward.
After绕ing through who knows how many long corridors, they finally reached the harem.
The atmosphere in the harem was completely different from that of the front hall. There were pavilions and towers everywhere, flowerbeds and lotus ponds, and various palace residences distributed in different locations.
As they passed by a white jade corridor bridge, a group of people walked towards them. In the center was a girl of fourteen or fifteen years old, with a bright appearance and luxurious clothing. The jewels on her head flashed brilliantly in the sunlight.
She was followed by several girls who looked like palace maids and a few handsome young eunuchs.
"This is the Fifth Princess, Princess Xinyao," Eunuch Zhu whispered to Bai Sheng and then signaled her to bow and stand aside to make way for Princess Xinyao.
Princess Xinyao arrogantly walked up to Eunuch Zhu and Bai Sheng, snorting disdainfully, "Blind dog servant!"
These words were clearly directed at Eunuch Zhu, but Eunuch Zhu still kept his head down, with a respectful expression, showing no emotional fluctuation.
After walking a few steps, Princess Xinyao suddenly stopped and looked back at Bai Sheng, "Who is she? She doesn't look like someone from the palace!"
Eunuch Zhu immediately stepped forward and knelt beside Princess Xinyao, saying very respectfully, "This is a medical woman invited by Consort Mei from a clinic outside the palace. Consort Mei has been unwell for the past two days, and the imperial physicians in the palace are all outside males, which is inconvenient."
"Hmph," Princess Xinyao snorted coldly, "Ugly people make trouble. Why bring such an indecent and lowly woman into the palace!"
A cold glint flashed in Eunuch Zhu's eyes, but his expression remained calm.
Although it was their first meeting, Bai Sheng had already had dozens of impulses to slap Princess Xinyao.
Princess Xinyao's gaze lingered on Bai Sheng's face for a moment. She snorted contemptuously again, lifted her skirt, and turned to leave.
Bai Sheng intended to teach her a lesson. She had just met her, and she had already called her an indecent and lowly woman. She couldn't tolerate that!