Disease rights policy

Qiao Ran had been recuperating for four or five days and was almost fully healed, and no one came to disturb her.

She stayed in her room, eating and drinking well. One day, Xu Shangjian returned with the young ladies after class. She was accompanied by a palace maid who was dressed elegantly, with a gold flower in her hair and fine fabric, indicating that she was of high status.

Supervisor Xu summoned Qiao Ran and Kong Hanyan over and said to the palace maid, "These are the two of them."

The palace maid looked the two of them up and down, nodded, and waved her hand to Xu Shangjian, saying, "In that case, I will take that person away from you, so that I can report back to Her Majesty in time. Her Majesty has asked about this several times already."

Qiao Ran understood immediately; so they were from the Empress's palace. No wonder.

Xu Shangjian smiled and said, "I'm sorry to have troubled Your Majesty."

"It's alright." The palace maid spoke with refined manners, and with a gentle smile, she turned to Qiao Ran and Kong Hanyan and said, "Come with me."

Before Qiao Ran could pack up, she hurriedly followed Liu Yun out of Shufang Palace. Besides, she didn't have much to pack. After waking up, she learned that Liu Yun had used her packing incident to frame her for running away. Qiao Ran really wanted to secretly beat Liu Yun up.

Although she was indeed planning to escape, the matter of her belongings could be easily dismissed with a single sentence. It was just a personal habit, and Liu Yun had no evidence to back down on her. How long could she hold onto this against her?

"The two young ladies were punished and transferred to Kunning Palace. They were supposed to do some cleaning and sweeping work, but Kunning Palace is currently very busy, so you may be assigned to other tasks," the maid said carefully, walking half a step ahead of Qiao Ran and the others. She added, "My name is Ying Zi. If you need anything in the future, you can come and ask me."

She seems like a kind and approachable person. To have developed such a temperament in the palace, her master must also be a kind and polite person.

Kong Hanyan pulled Qiao Ran along and obediently called out, "Sister Yingzi."

Yingzi turned around and smiled. They had encountered many palace maids along the way, who all recognized Yingzi and greeted her.

Kunning Palace is located in the center of the inner palace. After passing through many pavilions and towers, they finally saw the towering walls of Kunning Palace. The vermilion gate was bright and clear, and the polished plaque bore the three characters "Kunning Palace". Qiao Ran suddenly became very curious about this empress. What kind of master could make the court so sincerely convinced?

"Once you're in Kunning Palace, do more and talk less," Yingzi said. "Her Majesty prefers quiet."

"Understood." The two said in unison, their eyes simultaneously taking in the scene in the palace.

The main hall and the main gate face each other. The palace is adorned with flowers, and there are many palace maids, but they all seem to be very busy.

Yingzi explained, "The Empress's flower-viewing banquet is in three days. The empresses and a few noble ladies will bring their daughters, so Kunning Palace has been preparing to welcome guests these past few days. A new batch of potted plants arrived today, all of them are rare and precious varieties. You two can go to the backyard to take care of them and clean them up."

So it seems we won't see the Empress anytime soon. The two of them came to help out. Qiao Ran and Kong Hanyan pulled each other along as they followed Ying Zi to the backyard, where they were handed over to the nanny who was in charge of the backyard.

The fragrance of flowers in the backyard was delightful, and Qiao Ran felt much more relaxed as soon as she arrived.

The old woman, whose hair was completely white, looked very old and hunched over, beckoned to the two of them with her back to them, "You two stay in the innermost room for now and take good care of the flowers in the yard."

The old woman might have hearing problems, because she left abruptly after speaking, and Qiao Ran and Kong Hanyan began their life of growing flowers.

In the afternoon, Yingzi went to the Empress's palace to report. The Empress inquired about Qiao Ran and Kong Hanyan's situation for a few minutes, and then temporarily put the matter out of her mind.

-

In the evening, Pu Jing returned from outside and went to Yao Yuze's residence overnight. The candlelight in the study flickered. Yao Yuze had removed his armor at home and was wearing a loose robe. He looked down at the documents on the table.

"Have you checked it out?"

He asked without looking up.

Pu Jing said, "Qiao Shi, the prefect of Qianzhou, does indeed have a daughter named Qiao Xiaoran, who is the second daughter in his household. She did indeed enter the palace to participate in the selection of female officials, and her age matches that of Qiao Xiaoran in the palace."

Yao Yuze put down his pen, slowly raised his head, and his deep eyes were as sharp as an eagle's. "What about his appearance?"

“This humble servant has obtained a portrait of Qiao Xiaoran,” Pu Jing said, presenting it with both hands. “General, please take a look.”

Yao Yuze took it with one hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the portrait unfolded before him. The girl in the painting was lifelike, with a bright smile and a stunning beauty.

She really did look almost exactly like Qiao Xiaoran, whom he had seen in Shufang Palace.

He looked a few years younger than he had seen before, so the painting must have been from two or three years ago.

Things should have become clear, but Yao Yuze felt something was off. He put down the portrait in his hand and whispered, "Do you have a portrait of Qiao Xiuqi's daughter?"

Pu Jing thought about it carefully and shook his head, saying, "There really isn't one. What's strange is that we searched the entire Qiao residence at the time, but we couldn't find a single portrait of the young lady in the house, or even a letter written by her."

Therefore, the Jinwu Guard has yet to find out what Qiao Xiuqi's daughter's name was.

This is too strange.

Yao Yuze pinched the bridge of his nose, his brows relaxing slightly. He went through the ins and outs of the Qiao family incident one by one. Although he was acting under orders, the evidence of the Qiao family's crimes was undeniable and irrefutable. He led his men to raid and confiscate the Qiao family's property overnight, and everything was in order.

Afterwards, they discovered that the deceased Miss Qiao had disappeared, and they investigated secretly for a long time without success.

If that thing really was taken away by the orphan girl from the Qiao family, she wouldn't have returned to the capital.

The scene of the girl crying and screaming in his memory reappeared in his mind. From then on, Yao Yuze dreamed every day of the tragic appearance of the innocent girl dying under the sword. But as time went by, he could no longer remember what the girl originally looked like.

All I remember is that night, the rain was icy and the night was pitch black, and only the girl's face was white.

Yao Yuze walked back to his desk, quickly picked up his pen, and slowly put it down after a long while. Pu Jing approached to look, "Qiao Xiaoran?"

How did the general manage to draw Qiao Xiaoran in such a short time?

Yao Yuze tilted his head slightly. "You also think she's Qiao Xiaoran?"

Pu Jing looked at it carefully again and insisted, "Yes, it's almost identical to the one in the painting next to it. You can tell it's the same person."

A person?

These three words were like clear water dripping into a dried-up lake. Yao Yuze's hand holding the paper twitched slightly. After a long while, he suddenly sneered, "Interesting."

Pu Jingdao asked, "General, do you perhaps suspect that Qiao Xiaoran in the palace is Qiao Xiuqi's daughter?"

Yao Yuze instantly became nonchalant again, "I didn't say that."

“That shouldn’t be the case,” Pu Jing said, finding it impossible to believe. “I investigated very thoroughly in Qianzhou and confirmed that Qiao Xiaoran is from Qianzhou. The governor of Qianzhou, Qiao Shi, has a fairly clean record. He wouldn’t allow someone to impersonate his own daughter. That would be a serious crime of deceiving the emperor. He wouldn’t have the guts to do that.”

Yao Yuze was also unsure, and after a moment of thought, he said, "Whether it's true or not, we'll know once we try."

Pu Jing retreated hesitantly; he needed to go down and investigate further.

-

Qiao Ran only realized after carefully tending to the flowers and plants for two days that there was a lot to learn about them. However, she had always been a snob, so while she was very familiar with some rare and expensive plants, she was not so sure about some very common ones that were so endearing.

Some of the potted plants in Kunning Palace were for flower-viewing banquets, while others were sent to various palaces as a token of the Empress's hospitality. Upon receiving them, the concubines naturally expressed their gratitude.

Qiao Ran spent half a day delivering flowers with the head palace maid, and had figured out the thoughts of everyone in the harem. Sure enough, none of them were simple and kind; they were all two-faced and sycophantic.

Fortunately, she was assigned to Yinghong, the head maid of Kunning Palace, who was of the same rank as Yingzi. Other concubines did not dare to make things difficult for her, so she was able to do the job relatively comfortably.

Unfortunately, a pot of orchids was delivered by mistake in the morning, and Qiao Ran was ordered to exchange it in the afternoon. Her arms were sore from carrying it, so she took a break halfway. Since she was close to the Imperial Garden, the air was filled with the fragrance of the garden. She placed the potted plant by the flower bed and was about to sit down when a cool voice came from behind her, "You've never seen such a beautiful peony on your escape, have you?"

Despite it being broad daylight, Qiao Ran shivered. She quickly picked up the potted plant, turned around to look at the person who had come, and hurriedly bowed in greeting, "General."

Yao Yuze approached and glanced at the orchid in her arms. "The Empress's palace is indeed nice; it seems to save you a lot of trouble."

Qiao Ran cursed Yao Yuze in her heart, but on the surface she still pretended to be timid and didn't dare to raise her head. She said in a low voice, "I don't understand what the general is saying."

"Don't understand?" Yao Yuze raised an eyebrow, his right hand lightly resting on the sword at his waist, his fingertips curling, and he chuckled, "Then ask Miss Qiao something she can understand. Is the governor's old ailment any better?"

"..."

It would be better to ask Qiao Ran something she doesn't understand.

Qiao Ran cautiously raised her head. "Does the general know my father?"

Yao Yuze suppressed the cold glint in his eyes. Qiao Ran was clever; she easily evaded his question by giving an irrelevant answer. But he wasn't about to let her off so easily.

Yao Yuze said, "I've met the governor a few times, but I don't know if his old illness has healed yet?"

Qiao Ran knew that Yao Yuze was testing her, but she couldn't be sure whether the Prefect of Qianzhou had any old ailments. Fortunately, she hit her head.

"General, please forgive me. I bumped my head a few days ago and my memory is a bit hazy. My father is always busy and it's inevitable that he has some minor illnesses. I just didn't know that the injury you were asking about was that one?"

"Three years ago, there was a major flood outside Qianzhou. Didn't your father injure his arm when he was hit by a falling tree while he was helping with disaster relief?"

Qiao Ran felt a chill run down her spine.

He could only continue to play dumb, "Huh? Three years ago, was there a major flood in the suburbs of Qianzhou? Such an important matter, I can't even remember it."

She held her forehead and murmured, "My head hurts..."

Yao Yuze's lips gradually tightened into a straight line, and he continued to ask with dark eyes, "Your eldest sister is getting married, aren't you going to ask for leave to go back?"

Qiao Ran had no idea how many daughters the Prefect of Qianzhou actually had!

She is going crazy!

Suppressing her fear, she replied weakly, "Why is the General so concerned about my affairs?"

After asking the question, she opened her eyes wide and stared at Yao Yuze with bright eyes. At this moment, she couldn't just let Yao Yuze lead her around. She had to take the initiative to reduce the chances of making mistakes.

Yao Yuze did not answer, but Qiao Ran pressed on, "The General is busy with many matters and does not need to worry about my affairs. After all, I am now in the palace, and it would be inappropriate for me to have too much contact with the General."