Five Years To Ascend The Throne, Three Years Of Mock Simulations - Chapter 3

However, even though the emperor had expressed full trust in her and promised to continue investigating the matter in depth, Ming Tan still could not swallow this anger.

Before transmigrating, she had never been someone with a good temper. In the workplace, she could be called ruthless and someone who repaid every slight. Now that she had arrived in Tiancheng, her nature was still hard to change. How could she let someone casually pour dirty water on her?

Even if “having a palace maid beaten to death with rods” was not exactly some unforgivable crime in this palace… Ming Tan’s reputation was already bad enough. She had no desire to keep adding bricks and tiles to her own notoriety.

Besides, little Ming Tan truly had never done such a thing.

She was only an eight-year-old girl. No matter how bossy and overbearing she was, she was merely a bit too playful and a bit too willful. After looking through her memories, the transmigrated Ming Tan even felt that, compared with the little brats from her previous life, this girl fell far short.

How could a child like that kill someone?

Whether to repay a debt of gratitude or to plan for her own days from now on, Ming Tan could not easily allow this matter to end unresolved.

A few days ago, keeping her confined indoors had nearly cost Ming Tan her life instead. This time, the empress no longer dared to punish her by making her shut herself inside to reflect. She merely supervised Ming Tan through several days of medicine, then agreed to her daughter’s request to “go out and get some air.”

“Mother Empress will have Jinkui follow you.” The empress straightened the ties of Ming Tan’s ruqun and reminded her helplessly, “Playing near Kunning Palace is enough. Do not run around, understand?”

“Yes, I respectfully obey Mother Empress’s decree.” Ming Tan smiled brightly and curtsied to her, then took Jinkui, the palace maid assigned to watch over her, and ran out of Kunning Palace in high spirits.

It was early summer now. The sunlight was just right, and outside the palace halls, everything was warm and gentle. Even the breeze that drifted over carried a faint fragrance, refreshing enough to soothe the heart.

Ming Tan stood in place for a while, studying the ingenious palace architecture of the Tiancheng Dynasty, and quietly sighed in her heart.

In her previous life, this dynasty had never existed.

It was like the shaft of a carriage had turned in another direction, like the track had bent onto another path. The Tiancheng Dynasty was like a new road that opened after the willows darkened and flowers bloomed bright. Although it had inherited the history, allusions, ancient texts, poetry, and so on that existed in her previous life, from top to bottom, inside and out, it was still a brand-new and unfamiliar era.

In other words, Ming Tan would not meet anyone here whom she had once known from history books, nor could she rely on her identity as a transmigrator to plan for the future.

She had come here alone, and she had already been completely severed from her past.

“…Your Highness, Your Highness?”

No one knew how long she had been silently thinking before Jinkui, who had been waiting beside her, finally spoke and called back Ming Tan’s wandering soul.

“You…” Jinkui glanced at the scenery before them and seemed hesitant to speak. “Are you going to the imperial garden?”

Ming Tan paused. Only when she raised her head did she realize that, without noticing it, she had walked to a stone bridge by one of the entrances to the imperial garden.

The imperial garden of Tiancheng’s palace was very interesting. It had been built against a crescent-shaped garden lake, surrounded by water on the west, south, and north sides, while its eastern side was adjacent to the emperor’s bedchamber, Tianhong Palace. Rare and precious plants inside were too numerous to count. Flowers in season competed to bloom throughout all four seasons, and the surface of the lake was sometimes calm as a mirror, sometimes shimmering with rippling light. It could truly be called one of the palace’s great beautiful sights.

The bridge Ming Tan was standing on now was one of the entrances leading to the imperial garden from the south.

Because the lake was crescent-shaped, the water flowing beneath the southern bridge had already narrowed into a small river. It gave off a soft, murmuring sound as it flowed, clear and tinkling like jade pendants striking together.

Ming Tan tilted her head, looked at Jinkui, and said with great innocence, “The flowers in the imperial garden are blooming so beautifully. How could I not go appreciate them?”

“But Your Highness has only just recovered from a serious illness…”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Before Jinkui could finish, Ming Tan turned and stepped onto the bridge, deliberately pretending to be impatient as she put on a princess’s airs. “Don’t worry. This princess simply won’t touch those flowers and plants. I absolutely won’t make it impossible for you to answer to Mother Empress!”

After saying that, she paid no attention to how Jinkui tried her best to explain behind her and headed into the imperial garden on her own.

Ming Tan’s purpose for this trip was very simple: she wanted to find out exactly what kind of background that palace maid Xia Tao had, the one who had not hesitated to commit suicide in order to cut off the trail.

Jinkui saw that she was slowly strolling while looking all around, appearing as if she truly had come to admire the flowers. So she said no more and only followed quietly behind the princess, not daring to make any sound and disturb her.

They had not walked for long when Ming Tan was just about to ask Jinkui where she should go to find the palace servants in charge of the imperial garden. Suddenly, she heard a burst of whispering from ahead.

“Hey, hey, you know about what happened in Kunning Palace, right?”

“How could I not? The Ninth Princess being poisoned is such a huge matter. His Majesty and Her Majesty the Empress were both furious! Yesterday, as soon as the princess woke up, Chief Steward Sheng gave an order, saying His Majesty had decreed a thorough investigation of the inner palace. The first place they came to question was our imperial garden!”

“Exactly… Yesterday evening, that Xia Tao who had only recently started working in the imperial garden was seized by the guards. One look and you could tell she couldn’t be unrelated to the Ninth Princess’s matter!”

“Xia Tao? You mean that Xia Tao who was personally brought over by Auntie and assigned to handle sweeping?”

“Who else but her! Sister, you actually didn’t know? That girl’s background isn’t so simple…”

The two voices gradually became almost inaudible.

Ming Tan narrowed her eyes and stared at the shrubs to the front left, which were taller than a person. Then she suddenly revealed a meaningful smile.

She lazily raised a hand and waved. Jinkui immediately understood. She stepped forward and shouted sternly, “Who dares gossip about Kunning Palace and Her Highness the Ninth Princess? Why have you not come out at once and admitted your guilt!”

Two cries of alarm came from behind the shrubs. Only after a long while did a pair of young palace maids slowly crawl out. When they raised their heads and saw Ming Tan, their knees instantly went weak. Half crying and half not, they knelt and bowed on the ground. “These servants know their mistake… Please forgive us, Your Highness Ninth Princess…”

Ming Tan clasped her hands behind her back and smiled with a face full of pure kindness. “Jinkui, what does palace law say again? What punishment should be given when servants gossip about their masters behind their backs?”

Jinkui’s expression was solemn as she respectfully said, “Replying to Your Highness, they should receive fifteen slaps and kneel in punishment for one hour.”

The two palace maids looked at each other in terror, then anxiously knocked their heads toward Ming Tan, trembling as they said, “Your Highness, spare us! It was all because these servants’ mouths were lowly. We lost our heads for a moment and gossiped nonsense… Please show mercy, Your Highness!”

The two of them were not very old, and they worked in the imperial garden. How could they have ever suffered any proper punishment? On top of that, Ming Tan was famously difficult to get along with. Now that she had caught them red-handed, they were naturally so frightened they trembled like chaff, terrified that she would truly have them dealt with according to palace law.

Being slapped would still count as light. Kneeling as punishment was the part that could kill.

Ming Tan smiled as she looked at the two palace maids for a while. Only when the younger one finally broke and let out a loud sob did she at last slowly open her noble mouth.

“Get up. This princess has something to ask you.”

The two still-terrified maids froze on the spot and looked up at Ming Tan in disbelief. It was only after Jinkui glared at them that they abruptly came back to their senses. As if they had been granted a great pardon, they rose and bowed. “These servants thank Your Highness for your mercy…”

“Mm.”

Just as they breathed a sigh of relief and were secretly rejoicing that they had escaped disaster, the young girl before them crossed her arms again. Her eyes curved with a smile as she said unhurriedly, “That palace maid Xia Tao you were talking about just now… why don’t you tell this princess about her as well?”

…

After questioning them for a while, Ming Tan waved her hand and finally let the two little palace maids, who were as frightened as startled birds, leave.

However, she did not hurry away. Instead, she turned and fixed her gaze on a hydrangea in full bloom, her expression thoughtful.

“Jinkui, what kind of place is Yeting?”

“Replying to Your Highness,” Jinkui said with some hesitation, “Yeting is the Yeting Secret Prison. It is located in a remote corner of the palace and is used specifically to imprison consorts and palace maids who have committed grave crimes.”

“Oh?” Ming Tan raised a brow. “Since it is a prison, naturally criminals cannot come and go as they please, correct?”

“The princess is correct.” Jinkui nodded and said softly, “Those who are cast into Yeting cannot leave unless there is a general amnesty… Once someone enters that place, if His Majesty or one of the noble ladies does not show mercy, they may never see the light of day again.”

“Hmm…”

Ming Tan pondered for a moment. She narrowed her eyes, and the smile hooked at the corner of her lips gradually disappeared. Her entire aura suddenly became sharp.

“Then,” she asked again, “what kind of consort would have the qualifications to remove a criminal from Yeting?”

The aura around the young girl before her was utterly frightening. Jinkui instinctively took a deep breath and steadied herself before barely managing to answer calmly, “If one wishes to take someone out of Yeting, that noble lady would likely have to rank… at least above guipin.”

Below the rank of consort was guipin.

A strong gust of wind suddenly swept over. The dense branches and leaves shook up and down in the wind. Ming Tan continued staring at that hydrangea. Only when it was finally blown from the branch because it was too full and heavy did she accurately reach out and catch the pale pink ball of flowers in her palm.

“So then.”

She looked at the flower in her hand and gently curled her fingers around it.

“The person who rescued Xia Tao from Yeting, then arranged for her to enter the imperial garden and wait for an opportunity to secretly harm me… is one of those high-ranking consorts, starting from guipin and counting upward?”

Not long after returning to Kunning Palace, Ming Tan had just finished forcing down today’s dose of Chinese medicine when the empress summoned her over to speak.

“I heard Tan’er questioned two palace maids in the imperial garden today?”

The empress took her hand, had Ming Tan sit beside her, and asked in a soft, gentle voice.

Ming Tan was not surprised. Jinkui was the empress’s most capable palace maid after Du Ye. Besides, Xia Tao’s origins were an important matter. Naturally, she should report it to the empress.

“Yes, Mother Empress.”

Ming Tan guessed that Jinkui had already explained most of the matter, so she simply skipped the beginning and said directly, “Those two palace maids said that at the beginning of the month, an auntie who claimed to be from the Shanggong Bureau personally brought Xia Tao to the imperial garden and had her take the position of sweeping palace maid… The palace servants in the imperial garden found it quite strange. After chatting privately, they found out that Xia Tao had actually come from Yeting as a criminal. No one knows which noble person lifted her up, allowing her to work there.”

The empress oversaw the six palaces, so of course she was deeply familiar with the palace rules.

She thought for a moment and silently calculated in her heart, then said, “In that case, the Hundred-Flower Porridge also became fashionable starting at the end of last month…”

“Mother Empress,” Ming Tan said, gripping her hand in return, her tone firm, “someone definitely plotted deliberately to murder Tan’er!”

The empress pressed her lips together. A clear look of anger appeared on her face, and her willow-leaf brows furrowed tightly.

However, after a few breaths, she let out a long sigh. The gaze she turned toward Ming Tan gradually became stained with deep guilt.

“Tan’er…” the empress said in a grave voice. “Mother Empress has wronged you.”

Ming Tan raised her head blankly and met her eyes. In that instant, she realized something.

…A high-ranking consort.

“Your father emperor also knows that the person who dared poison you could not possibly be only a mere palace maid… But the forces in the inner palace are deeply entangled. If the investigation continues upward, I fear even the previous dynasty’s court will be shaken because of it…”

Ming Tan pressed her lips together and lowered her head.

She knew that this meant they were advising her to stop here.

Just as the empress continued speaking and was about to start crying from guilt again, Ming Tan sighed, threw her arms around her, and said in a soft, sticky voice, “Mother Empress, don’t be sad. Tan’er understands.”

A woman who could scheme step by step in the deep palace and become someone who looked down upon most others would certainly not be simple.

She either relied on her family background, or on her methods and temperament, or perhaps both…

After all, inside Ming Tan’s body was the soul of an adult. She understood the emperor’s difficulties and could also understand the empress swallowing this grievance in silence. This concerned the stability of the court, and on top of that, Ming Tan had safely turned danger into safety this time. After considering everything together, stopping the investigation here was the best strategy.

—But she still could not swallow this anger.

…Don’t worry. Rest in peace.

Ming Tan stretched out her hand and gently pressed it over her chest. She slightly closed her eyes and murmured softly in her heart.

I will definitely find the person who killed you and avenge both of us.