The old granny trembled violently all over, then instinctively dodged to the side again and again.
[Ah! I'm going to be beaten again!]
[These little sluts! Every time they're in a bad mood, they only dare to bully an old woman who is deaf, blind and can't speak. They have no other skills but to take their anger out on me. If they have the guts, they should go find those who bullied them and fight back!]
Such a reaction and inner thoughts clearly indicated that she really didn't know there was someone behind her.
Yun Xi felt relieved.
In this case, the whereabouts of her group should not be exposed.
She also felt a bit guilty for scaring the old woman.
She thought that gold and silver would not be of much use to an old woman in the palace. It might be discovered and snatched away by those who bullied her at any time.
After thinking for a while, Saixing still had a bag of candies used to coax the injured Hunyuan to take medicine. Wrapped in oilcloth, there was no eye - catching packaging or label, and the candies inside were just ordinary sugar frost, which would not expose her identity.
So she asked for it and stuffed it into the old woman's hand. Knowing that she couldn't hear, she still whispered "sorry".
Feeling that Yun Xi and the others meant no harm, the old woman relaxed a little. She carefully felt the square oilcloth in her hand, then opened it, took out a piece of candy and smelled it carefully.
After confirming that it was candy, a look of extreme joy instantly appeared on her haggard face.
[Candy! It's candy!]
[I haven't eaten candy for more than ten years! I didn't expect that after being thrown into the Cold Palace and suffering from hunger and cold for so many years, I could still have a chance to eat candy again!]
However, after the brief joy came suspicion:
[Who is this? Why did they give me candy?]
[Could it be that the Eleventh Prince sent someone to harm me? But so many years have passed. He has already poisoned me. I can't speak, hear or see. Even if I wanted to expose his affair with Concubine Qing, I couldn't. ]
[Well... No. The Eleventh Prince always listened to Concubine Qing. Back then, when Concubine Qing begged him to spare my life, he agreed. He didn't do anything for more than a decade. He wouldn't suddenly come to kill me now. ]
[This candy should be safe. I just don't know who this kind - hearted person is. How brave they are to come to a place like the Cold Palace. It's a pity that my eyesight is almost gone...]
Yun Xi didn't listen to the old woman's later ramblings.
These inner thoughts were like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky, shocking Yun Xi so much that she couldn't even close her mouth.
She had wrongly blamed the old prince!
The one who had an affair with Concubine Qing was actually him!
The then Eleventh Prince - Yi Qu!
That was the current emperor, Emperor Zhaohuan!
No wonder Concubine Qing was willing to speak for him and whisper in the late emperor's ear to help him fight for the throne. It turned out that there was such a secret between them!
Did Emperor Zhaohuan know that Concubine Qing was from the Ying State? That she was a spy sent by them to unify the world?
No, it wasn't a matter of whether he knew or not, but - he must know!
Previously, Yun Xi had always been very puzzled as to why the late emperor had hidden almost all the records of Concubine Qing in the palace.
She was clearly the late emperor's favorite concubine, but there were the fewest things left about her.
Now it seemed that these things were not hidden by the late emperor, but by Emperor Zhaohuan - Yi Qu! He was afraid that others would discover Concubine Qing's identity and his affair with her, so he deliberately erased them!
He was protecting her!
Even though Concubine Qing was no longer in the world, he was still protecting her reputation.
No wonder Emperor Zhaohuan had used the late emperor's name to carefully preserve the Jianjia Palace and prohibited others from entering; no wonder she had unexpectedly met Emperor Zhaohuan in the Jianjia Palace that day; no wonder Emperor Zhaohuan not only doted on Noble Consort Shen but also favored Yi Zhen especially.
It turned out that it was because they both looked so much like Concubine Qing!
Like the person he had once loved deeply!
Yun Xi never expected to learn such a secret and terrifying piece of news under such circumstances. If even a bit of it was leaked, the entire Yun family would probably not survive.
Yun Xi broke out in cold sweat again and again.
For the first time, she had the thought that "I wish I didn't have this ability" regarding her mind - reading ability.
Saixing and Lingyan both noticed that something was wrong with Yun Xi.
They thought she had read the old woman's mind and found something wrong with her.
They glanced at each other. A cold glint flashed in Lingyan's eyes. She leaned close to Yun Xi and whispered:
"Miss, is there something abnormal? Do you need me to..."
She didn't finish the rest of the sentence because Yun Xi grabbed her hand that was about to draw the sword. Her face was pale and her voice trembled slightly:
"Don't... don't touch her. She's not pretending. She really doesn't know anything."
"Don't ask. Let's go. We... hurry back to the mansion. Don't ask anything else."
Saying that, Yun Xi didn't dare to stay for a moment. She tried her best to move her weak legs. After taking just two steps, she suddenly stopped, turned back, glanced at the Cold Palace and the old woman who still didn't know she had leaked an important secret and was slowly tasting a piece of candy by herself. She said anxiously:
"Restore everything as much as possible. Hurry up. We mustn't let anyone notice the slightest trace of our coming. Hurry!"
"Yes."
Lingyan and Saixing answered in unison. Although they didn't know why Yun Xi was suddenly so anxious, as long as Yun Xi gave an order, they would just follow it.
The two were quick - witted and skillful. In a short time, they almost completely erased the traces of the three people's coming.
On the way back, the horses' hooves clattered. Yun Xi's mind was in a complete mess.
Compared with the affair between Emperor Zhaohuan and Concubine Qing, she thought of an even more terrifying possibility.
Since Emperor Zhaohuan knew that Concubine Qing was from the Ying State, how much had he participated in the plague back then?
After all, if it hadn't been for the plague, with Emperor Zhaohuan's lack of reputation and influence at that time, he would have had almost no chance to ascend to the throne.
And what role did the old prince Yi Fu play in all this?
He had always had a good relationship with Emperor Zhaohuan and was also very close to Concubine Qing.
If Emperor Zhaohuan had really had a hand in that plague, was Yi Fu also an accomplice?
Now that people from the Ying State had come and the Holy Master was the key figure in the plague back then, if Emperor Zhaohuan had really participated in the plague, didn't he have a handle in the Holy Master's hands?
With such a deadly handle, if the Holy Master wanted something that wasn't too excessive, like herself, wouldn't Emperor Zhaohuan easily agree?
At that time, who would dare to disobey the emperor's order?
But Yun Xi was sure that if she refused to obey to the death, her A Yuan, father and mother would surely be willing to resist the imperial order for her and fall out with Emperor Zhaohuan.
But in that case, there would be bloodshed and turmoil in the Great Yin. It would only be the people of the Great Yin who would suffer, and the outsiders would surely benefit.
A strong sense of uneasiness welled up in her heart.
Yun Xi remembered Emperor Zhaohuan's ambiguous attitude when Zongzheng Fengyi proposed to marry her in the Xingqing Palace. She felt a chill at the tip of her heart and had a splitting headache.
She was preoccupied all the way back to the mansion and didn't hear many of the discussions outside.
It wasn't until she was about to step into the mansion gate that Liu Jingyue and Yun Weisheng immediately sent someone to call her over. Only then did Yun Xi know that the following rumor was spreading everywhere outside:
Hunyuan's Taoist heart was not pure. He harbored unruly thoughts and was unworthy of protecting the people of the Great Yin.
Previously, when the Great Yin suffered disasters and the refugees fled everywhere, it was all because of Hunyuan's fault. And it was precisely because Hunyuan lacked self - control and had a wandering heart that something suddenly went wrong during his apprentice - accepting ceremony. This was a warning from the heavens to the world.