Marrying Gold and Jade

Lin Yu nodded, remembering that last time she carried her all the way out of Wenhua Palace and said that she could go find her. She thought that unlike the Queen, she at least didn't dislike her.

When I feel better, I can go look for her.

But for a whole day, Lin Yu sat under the window lattice of the side hall, looking at the gray sky outside, lost in thought for a long time, unable to speak.

Qing Dai couldn't bear to watch it any longer, so she came over with a full plum vase and asked tentatively, "Look, young lady, these are the winter plums in the courtyard, which just bloomed today."

Lin Yu smelled the rich floral scent without turning around, and caught a glimpse of the pale, light little flowers piled at the mouth of the vase. He could only think: How pitiful, they are picked just after they bloom.

But when she met Qingdai's expectant eyes, she only said, "It looks good."

"Then I'll put it next to the girl!"

This was the third time she had spoken to him today. While she was squatting down to place the plum vase, Lin Yu couldn't help but persuade her: "Go and rest for a while. I'll just sit here by myself."

The little girl was happy for a moment, but when she heard this, her eyebrows drooped again.

When he stood up, he said, "I'm not tired, I just want to accompany the girl."

How can a person with something on his mind be left alone? He is already upset and if he is alone, won't he get even more upset the more he thinks?

Therefore, Qingdai thought that even if Lin Yu disliked her, she couldn't leave.

Lin Yu sighed softly, as if he was helpless, but also as if he was moved by her persistence.

At this time, Zhu Lian came in and reminded her: "The Fifth Prince is back."

The girl was distracted for a moment, then said "oh" and didn't intend to do anything.

After all, he was the master of Chonghua Palace, and she was living under someone else's roof. It was just fun for her to be petty and show a bad temper. She knew she couldn't make a fuss like before, as she didn't have the energy and there was no need to do so.

Xu Jinxuan was not surprised to learn that she was moving back to the side hall. He moved to the door and hesitated. He stood outside the door and said to the people, "Someone is here to see you."

Only then did Lin Yu turn away.

She has no relatives or friends in the imperial capital, who would come to see her?

"It frightened me!"

As soon as the side hall door closed, Cheng Kejia hurriedly took the cup of water handed to him by Zhu Lian, swallowed the hot tea and said, "This lady specifically asked me to enter the palace, and I thought I had done something wrong, but it turned out to be for you."

"You vaguely said you wanted to go to the capital, and I heard that the Fifth Prince brought a woman from Songjiang, but I didn't know it was you, Lin Yu!"

What do you mean by coming to see her? After hearing a few words, Lin Yu knew that it was Xu Jinxuan who brought the person here.

Cheng Kejia has always been decisive and resolute. When facing her, Lin Yu always deals with her with all his heart and soul and never thinks of anything else.

I had to ask her first: "How are you doing recently?"

"Don't say that. Shen Lian is too busy. The noble ladies in the capital are very arrogant. Seeing that I am a foreigner, they smile in front of others but don't treat me as a human being behind others' backs!"

"Then the conversation is like an unpaved mountain road, winding around and around, giving me a headache!"

Seeing Lin Yu sitting quietly and listening to her talk, she felt that she had never been so pleasing to the eye. She paused and asked, "What about you? How are you?"

"Me? I'm fine."

Cheng Kejia stared at her closely, looking her up and down, and finally came to a conclusion: "No wonder you look so pitiful, you've lost weight again."

In fact, she should be described as pitiful and delicate. She had no makeup on and her clothes were plain, but she had a delicate beauty. However, Cheng Kejia did not like women who looked so weak that they would fall down if the wind blew. This was not a good thing.

"I'm already sad outside, let alone you in the palace. I heard that the Queen and the Fifth Prince's biological mother had a bad relationship. Will she let you go?"

Speaking of the Queen, Lin Yu remembered that she had never made things difficult for him again. He didn't know if the scare she gave him back then was really that effective or what.

She only asked Cheng Kejia: "Do you know about the Ling Fei and the Queen?"

Xu Jinxuan refused to say, and she didn't dare to ask the palace servants.

"You don't know this?"

Cheng Kejia also became alert when he heard this. He looked around and saw that there was no one around. He then pulled her deeper into the palace and said, "It was Shen Lian who told me that the Fifth Prince's biological mother, Concubine Ling, was a woman that the Emperor met when he went to Jiangnan. She was already pregnant when she returned to the palace."

"It was said that she was fierce and jealous. After giving birth to the prince, she forced the emperor to dismiss the six palaces. It was winter at that time. The queen and the court officials knelt outside the Qianqing Palace for a day and a night before the emperor changed his mind."

"But this Concubine Ling was like a madman. Two years later, the Sixth and Seventh Princes were born, and she actually used poison to harm the heirs! This aroused public outrage, so the Emperor had no choice but to execute her. Two years later, he even sent the young Fifth Prince out of the palace to cultivate himself."

Poison, killing the royal heir.

Lin Yu had heard of this matter before, and only knew that refining Gu was banned because of it, but he never thought it would be so close to him.

"Ling Fei... may not be jealous."

"What did you say?" Cheng Kejia's mouth was dry. The two of them walked around and returned to the table. She poured herself another glass of water.

"I say, Ling Fei may not be as bad as the rumors say."

Even though we had never met before and that woman passed away before I was born, how was her situation any different from mine?

After travelling thousands of miles to the imperial capital and entering the solemn and majestic palace gate, no one understood better than her how a woman without family background had little influence.

Dismiss the six palaces? How could she force the emperor to do this?

Seeing her pinching her sleeves with an embarrassed look on her face, Cheng Kejia also thought of something and said, "That's what the rumor is. If they don't say that Concubine Ling is bad, then are they going to say that the emperor is..."

She didn't say anything else, she suppressed it with half a cup of tea.

Cheng Kejia talked to her for a while, pouring out everything he had been reluctant to tell others since arriving in Beijing. Two hours passed, and when the red curtain knocked on the door to remind her that the palace gate would be closed, she realized that she had been talking for a very long time.

She also said that the New Year was approaching and they could go out again then.

Lin Yu suddenly grabbed her sleeve.

"……What's wrong?"

When the two of them were together, Lin Yu was always the one who listened silently and rarely took the initiative to say anything to her.

But today, when her lips opened and closed, there was almost only breath, no sound.

Cheng Kejia understood what she meant. She wanted to leave.

The imperial city was locked at 12 o'clock. As the carriage passed by the gate at dusk, the woman's eyes were still filled with the look on Lin Yu's face at that moment.

What a beautiful woman she used to be, now she has never shown such a helpless and sad look.

Although she knew she shouldn't help with this kind of thing, she still tried to tell Shen Lian after returning home: "I met Lin Yu today, and she didn't seem to be doing well in the palace."

Shen Lian came back late and was unable to catch her dinner. After taking off his black hat and before he could sit down, he heard his wife say this.

"You want to help her?"

Cheng Kejia said nothing and just pursed his lips.

She believed that she and Shen Lian treated each other with respect. She used his career to maintain face in her mother's family, and she kept his mansion in order. It could be said that they owed each other nothing.

But Lin Yu’s matter is not a trivial matter. If I ask him for help, what should I give in return?