"Then why are you helping us?" Leng Ruoli asked casually.
"I want to atone for the mistakes I made before," Princess Anle replied with a sense of guilt, her eyes closing slightly.
"Alright, then tell us, where is Prince Ning most likely to have imprisoned our Imperial Grandmother?" Leng Ruoli asked her directly.
"Given my third imperial brother's temperament, he would definitely imprison the Imperial Grandmother in a place that is most easily overlooked yet most familiar to him," Princess Anle said seriously.
Upon hearing this, Leng Ruoli's apricot eyes lit up, and she suddenly realized, "A place that is most easily overlooked? And a place most familiar to him? Are you saying... the Imperial Grandmother might be imprisoned by Prince Ning in the palace where Consort Jing once lived."
Princess Anle nodded in response, "Yes, the Imperial Grandmother is very likely imprisoned in the palace where my mother consort once lived."
"Let's go, Jun Mohan, we must hurry to Consort Jing's palace."
As she spoke, Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan rushed towards Jinghua Palace, where Consort Jing had once resided.
Princess Anle, left behind by the two, also hurried to catch up.
After more than ten minutes, Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan arrived at Jinghua Palace.
To find the secret chamber mentioned by the Emperor, Leng Ruoli unhesitatingly released the snow fox she kept in her space to search for the scent of the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. Unexpectedly, her little snow fox went straight behind the rockery in Jinghua Palace and began to sniff around.
Seeing the snow fox constantly sniffing around the rockery in Jinghua Palace, Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan's hearts were certain that the secret chamber where the Empress Dowager was held was near this rockery.
Immediately, Leng Ruoli recalled her snow fox into her space. Then, she tapped and knocked around the rockery for a long time but found no mechanisms or anything similar around it. It was only later that Princess Anle, who was familiar with Consort Jing's habits, discovered what seemed to be a pattern on the bluestone brick floor, hidden by fallen yellow leaves.
"Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, I think I might have found the entrance to the secret chamber's switch."
Princess Anle was overjoyed, as if she had discovered a new continent. She crouched down and brushed away the yellow leaves from the bluestone slab, immediately revealing a cicada-shaped pattern.
The Cold King and his consort immediately turned around and looked at Princess Anle.
"Where?"
"It's here, right here!"
At this moment, the Cold King and his consort hurried over, lowering their gaze to the cicada-shaped pattern on the ground that Princess Anle was pointing to.
"Anle, this is just a large cicada-shaped pattern, there's nothing special about it?" Leng Ruoli asked with a slight frown, a hint of confusion in her voice.
"Second Sister-in-law, you might not know my mother consort's hobbies. She loved golden cicadas the most. I remember when I was a child, whenever my mother consort was happy, she would find someone to craft a golden cicada, as delicate as a fingernail, and place it in a box on her dressing table. But whenever she was unhappy, she would also have someone carve a white jade cicada and casually place it on her dressing table."
"Later, I was very curious about my mother consort's actions, so I asked her the reason. She told me that the golden cicada symbolized purity, spirituality, and nobility. As for the white jade cicada, it was something given to the deceased, signifying noble detachment, resurrection, and rebirth."
"So, if you can't find the entrance to the mechanism elsewhere, given my mother consort's personality, there will be an entrance to the mechanism around this cicada-shaped pattern," Princess Anle patiently explained to the Cold King and his consort.
Upon hearing Princess Anle's words, the Cold King and his consort exchanged glances, their hearts confirming something further.
The matter of Lin Zhenfan kidnapping Jun Mohan back then indeed involved Consort Jing; she had conspired with Lin Zhenfan to poison him with wolfsbane.
At that time, Jun Mohan had inadvertently seen the person who instructed her subordinates to administer the poison, and she wore a white jade cicada at her waist. But now Consort Jing had met a tragic end, and Lin Zhenfan would soon be dealt with by the Emperor. The revenge for the wolfsbane poisoning would soon be avenged.
For a long time after Princess Anle finished speaking, seeing that the Cold King and his consort remained silent, she assumed they didn't believe her.
Thus, she quickly added, "Are you not believing what I'm saying? In that case, I will find the entrance to the secret chamber's mechanism for you myself."
After speaking, Princess Anle lowered her head and carefully examined everything around the cicada-shaped pattern. She finally discovered that on the stone that the head of the cicada pattern pointed towards, there were two small circular indentations. Their size and shape were exactly the same as the cicada pattern's eyes.
Princess Anle touched the eyes of the cicada-shaped pattern with her fingertips and found that the eyeballs of this cicada pattern were actually movable and could be removed.
Suddenly, Princess Anle's eyes flashed, and she seemed to understand something.
"Second Brother, Second Sister-in-law, I know where the secret chamber's switch is. It's on that stone. If we place the two movable eyes of this cicada into the small indentations on that stone, the secret chamber's entrance will likely appear."
Upon hearing this, the Cold King and his consort both nodded.
In fact, they knew where the secret chamber's switch was even without Princess Anle saying it; it was such an obvious thing that they had noticed it at a glance.
Thus, Princess Anle, with a face full of excitement, took out the eyes of the cicada-shaped pattern and placed them into the two small indentations on that stone.
Time seemed to stand still for three seconds. Then, that stone suddenly rotated clockwise three times. Afterward, the stone moved aside automatically, revealing an underground passage.
When Jun Mohan and Leng Ruoli saw the underground passage fully open, they immediately went down the stairs.
Little did they know, at the bottom of the stairs, there appeared a large stone archway, and the two iron doors at the entrance were secured by a thick iron bar and a large lock.
Seeing this, Leng Ruoli pulled a golden hairpin from her head and, with a couple of tries, opened the large lock. Then, Jun Mohan quickly removed the thick iron bar, pushed open these two heavy iron doors, and walked inside.
What greeted their eyes were countless, brightly shining, thumb-sized golden cicadas, as well as crystal clear white jade cicadas carved from white jade. They were neatly arranged on two wooden bookshelves.
Leng Ruoli noticed something: there were several times more white jade cicadas than golden cicadas here. If what Princess Anle said was true – that golden cicadas represented Consort Jing's happiness and white jade cicadas represented her sorrow – then from the number of golden and white jade cicadas, Leng Ruoli could see that Consort Jing had not lived a happy life these past years.
As Leng Ruoli and Jun Mohan noticed the golden and white jade cicadas placed on the two bookshelves, they also noticed a large white marble door in the middle of the two bookshelves.
To the left of the marble door, a fish oil lamp was burning continuously, and a circular pendant hung below it. Leng Ruoli gently pulled it, and to her surprise, the marble door slowly opened.
As the stone door opened, the Empress Dowager's voice came from inside, "Lier girl, Han'er boy, I have finally waited for you to save me."