Part 2
It took quite some time to arrange a complicated hairstyle.
When Zhao Yiyi finished dressing and came out in a pomegranate skirt, she saw Zhao Duanduan kicking a shuttlecock outside.
A group of little palace maids surrounded her, counting: “Seventy-eight, seventy-nine…”
Turning to see the Empress, they instantly fell silent, bowing.
After counting to ninety-nine, Zhao Duanduan kicked the shuttlecock high one last time, then caught it in her hand, turning to smile at Zhao Yiyi. “Sister, you’re up?”
She beckoned her over, wiped the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief, and said helplessly, “Since you’re up, why didn’t you eat breakfast first?”
“I was waiting for you. It hasn’t been too long.” Zhao Duanduan whispered, then took two steps forward.
Zhao Duanduan wanted to hug her and act spoiled, but Zhao Yiyi took a step back to stop her, frowning. “Don’t. I just changed into a new skirt. Go wash up quickly, then come eat.”
Rejected by her sister, Zhao Duanduan pouted, hummed lightly, clutched the shuttlecock tightly, and went down with the palace maids to change.
It was getting late; the attendants had already served breakfast. Zhao Yiyi ate little in the morning: two small bowls of fish porridge, a few side dishes, and a few honeyed olives made up her meal.
Zhao Duanduan changed her clothes and came over. While eating, she constantly stole glances, looking careful and cautious, making one want to smile.
“What do you want to say?” Zhao Yiyi put down her chopsticks and asked calmly.
Caught, Zhao Duanduan blushed, then whispered, “Sister, I just heard Sister Yunzhu say that the Zuo family went to the government office to sue Father for adultery, and they’ve been arguing for days?”
“Mm,” Zhao Yiyi responded lightly, her voice low. “They cohabited without a matchmaker back then; both had families. If the case concludes, it should be the crime of consensual adultery. According to the laws of Great Chu, consensual adulterers are sentenced to one and a half years of penal servitude.”
Zhao Duanduan was startled, then whispered, “Sister, will Father be sentenced to one and a half years?”
A smile hovered on Zhao Yiyi’s lips, but the look in her apricot eyes was indifferent. “That depends on the Zuo family’s capability.”
After the meal, Zhao Yiyi routinely went to check the zither being made by the craftsman to see if any additions or fixes were needed.
Half a year had passed, and the zither was taking shape.
After asking for advice in Chang’an last time, she had gained more insight.
Zhao Duanduan was playful; she got bored after watching for a while. Zhao Yiyi knew this, teased her deliberately for a bit, then said, “The weather is nice today. I’ll let Mancao take you to play by the Dragon Pool. Didn’t you want to take a boat to the lake pavilion last time? Go today.”
“Really?!” Zhao Duanduan immediately became happy, circling her and asking repeatedly for a while. Only after receiving a definite answer did she relax.
Changing into beautiful clothes and putting on some jewelry, she led Zhao A-Huang and left Jiao Fang Palace with the palace maids.
Approaching noon, Zhao Yiyi had just finished handling palace affairs and was napping on the couch when a little palace maid in a green skirt stumbled in, tear-streaked. “Your Highness, Your Highness! The Second Miss… she fell into the Dragon Pool!”
This little palace maid was one of those who had followed Zhao Duanduan out.
Zhao Yiyi froze first, then her expression changed drastically. She stood up and asked, “What?” She rushed forward a few steps, asking with a trembling voice, “What happened? How could she fall into the pool when she was fine?”
Wiping her tears, the little palace maid choked out, “The Second Miss got into a dispute with Princess Linchuan by the pool. They were deadlocked and fell in together.”
Zhao Yiyi’s face turned dark instantly. Gripping the door frame, her hand tightened until her knuckles turned white.
Suppressing a ball of anger in her heart, before she could ask more, someone came from Wan Chun Palace asking her to go over.
“Your Highness had better hurry. The Princess is still unconscious; the Empress Dowager is getting impatient,” the middle-aged female official said rigidly, her face solemn and heavy.
But immediately following, she saw the Empress, who usually treated her with courtesy, walk past without even giving her a glance, heading straight out of the hall.
The female official opened her mouth, stunned, then gritted her teeth and followed.
As soon as Zhao Yiyi arrived at Wan Chun Palace, she heard chaos inside. Countless palace maids were going in and out, and several imperial physicians were waiting outside.
Getting off the palanquin, she rushed in without thinking. Then she saw Zhao Duanduan lying on a low couch in the outer room. Her body was wet, covered only by a thin blanket, with a brazier placed beside her.
Palace servants went in and out from the inner room.
Only the few palace maids she had sent out were guarding Zhao Duanduan’s couch, about to change her soaked clothes.
Zhao Yiyi almost shed tears.
She stepped forward to hug Zhao Duanduan gently, asking the maids hoarsely, “Is this how you watch over people?”
“Sister.”
A soft call came from her ear. Zhao Yiyi looked down abruptly to see Zhao Duanduan gripping her sleeve, staring at her with a pale face.
Though heartbroken, she couldn’t help scolding, “How can you be so careless!”
Zhao Duanduan struggled to sit up, holding onto Zhao Yiyi’s shoulder, and whispered, “Sister, she wanted to push me in, so I pulled her down with me.”
“You!” Zhao Yiyi looked at her in shock.
Zhao Duanduan muttered, “Who told her to scold you, Sister.”
“The Empress is finally here.” An angry voice came. The Empress Dowager, dressed in a pine-soot colored skirt, walked out from the inner hall supported by a female official, looking at her with a face as dark as water. “Look at the good deed your sister has done! Linchuan only said a few words to her—just a child’s joke—yet she dared to push Linchuan into the water!”
Zhao Yiyi sat on the low couch, hugging Zhao Duanduan, then looked up at the Empress Dowager. “My sister has always been well-behaved and timid. How could she push someone into the water? Besides, the autumn water is cold. My sister soaked in it for so long. If Mother wants to punish her, at least wait until she recovers from her illness.”
Both fell into the water; the servants would certainly save Linchuan first before attending to her sister. Thinking of her sister soaking in the water…
Blocked lightly by her, the Empress Dowager, who had initially felt some goodwill toward Zhao Duanduan due to the banquet, was now burning with rage, all goodwill gone. She said gravely, “Does the Empress think your sister is faultless?”
Zhao Yiyi looked at her calmly. “Mother is joking. Children playing around—what fault is there? If my sister really pushed her, why would she fall in herself?”
The Empress Dowager was furious, pointing a finger at her, trembling with anger.
Just as she was about to speak, Zhao Duanduan suddenly started crying, hugging Zhao Yiyi’s waist and whimpering, “Sister, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have reminded the Princess to watch out for the moss by the pool. That way, the Princess wouldn’t have gone over and wouldn’t have fallen in. Sister… wuu wuu…”
“I shouldn’t have reached out to pull the Princess either, or no one would have misunderstood… Empress Dowager, this subject-daughter was wrong. Please punish me.”
Zhao Yiyi patted her shoulder soothingly, then looked up at the Empress Dowager, her apricot eyes reflecting anger as well.
The Empress Dowager’s chest heaved. Hearing faint calls for “Mother” from the inner room, she glared fiercely and hurried back inside.
“Mother, I feel so awful.” Having been outside for so long, Linchuan’s small face had lost its flesh. She sobbed in the Empress Dowager’s arms. “She pushed me down, Mother. It was her.”
The Empress Dowager was not a person of strong will. Seeing Linchuan feverish and incoherent, she grew suspicious, patting her to comfort her.
Linchuan had returned to the palace for days; this was her first time leaving Wan Chun Palace.
She had long eyed a litter of newborn slender hounds in the Beast Garden. Remembering it today, she went to ask for one.
Unexpectedly, the keeper refused, telling her to report to the Emperor first.
She was terrified of the Emperor. How could she dare ask? So she left unhappily, planning to ask the Empress Dowager to get one for her.
Who knew she would see Zhao Duanduan playing with a slender hound by the Dragon Pool.
Asking about it, she found it was the healthiest one from the litter she wanted. Rage surged instantly, and she demanded Zhao Duanduan give her the dog.
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