Big Boss – Chapter 35

Startled twice for no reason

Why is he here, like a lingering spirit? Today, all who came are womenfolk, thinking it safer to enter the palace, but never expected…

Ye Youqing suddenly got up and said, “You wait here, I’ll be right back.”

With that, she picked up her skirts and disappeared into the crowd.

There were many women around, each holding a few bunches of mugwort, gathering together to play a game, making the scene lively.

In this situation, finding someone became much more difficult. Ye Youqing looked around but could not see Ci Ke and Qin Wang’s figures. She guessed that Ci Ke had already gone to the harem, so she turned her body and moved away from the noise.

The road to the harem was much quieter, as if the buzz and joy of the Imperial Garden were separated by a thin film, faintly audible but with a sense of loneliness.

The bluestone path was clear and bright, with palace walls rigidly extending on both sides. Occasionally, a few red apricot trees protruded from the walls, their branches hanging lonely over the wall. Passing by on the road were some palace attendants dressed uniformly. Upon seeing Ye Youqing, they all nodded respectfully.

Ye Youqing couldn’t find anyone and grew increasingly anxious. She casually grabbed a lagging attendant and asked softly, “Have you seen a woman followed by a suspicious man pass by?”

The attendant she grabbed seemed a bit flustered and pointed to the side, answering quietly, “It seems like there was one who went to the harem, but she walked too quickly for me to see clearly.”

Getting a clue, Ye Youqing’s heart eased slightly. She hurriedly asked again, “Was the man following her tall in stature, obviously a martial arts practitioner at first glance?”

The palace attendant trembled nervously, pondered deeply, and then nodded abruptly.

“Adult men are not allowed into the harem, so no one stopped him?” Ye Youqing, filled with inexplicable anger, frightened the attendant even more, causing her to shrink her neck and whisper, “This servant, this servant is just a lowly tea server, how dare I speak out. Perhaps the guards were lazy and let him in…”

Ye Youqing didn’t wait for her to finish speaking. She released her grip, lifted her leg, and ran towards the direction the attendant pointed.

Qin Wang was determined to kill Ci Ke, and who knows if he might make a move in the harem in secret. At that time, nobody would know it was him behind it all. This was truly making a good plan!

Perhaps it was due to the Daoist techniques learned from Shi Li, Ye Youqing ran extremely fast. The palace walls on both sides almost blended into a fiery red, leading the way to a secluded path.

As she continued in this direction, things seemed to become increasingly strange. Gradually, all signs of human activity disappeared, leaving behind boundless desolation. Even with summer approaching, the atmosphere felt eerie. The palace attendants and the people’s laughter vanished, and the ground covered with fallen leaves seemed as if it had not been cleared for a long time.

In front of her stood an unkept courtyard, long neglected. The walls were mottled, the bricks and tiles shattered, the dark eaves tilted against the clear blue sky, with several crows perched on top.

Could this be the rumored Cold Palace as mentioned in the novel?

Ye Youqing couldn’t help but slow her pace, listening intently.

Surrounded by a dead silence, only the sound of the wind blowing could be heard. After a while, a side of the dilapidated courtyard in front of her suddenly emitted the sound of a branch snapping, followed by a suppressed, painful wail.

The sound was intermittent and indistinct, making Ye Youqing unable to listen carefully. She suddenly felt her pores open wide, filled with anger, and approached. Under a stout old apricot tree, she saw a man in black pressing down on a slender figure. The subdued figure was too delicate to struggle, only revealing pale hands being torn by the man.

It was as if something exploded in her mind, and a surge of anger quickly enveloped Ye Youqing, stirring up a desire to kill for the first time.

Ye Youqing didn’t act immediately. She just kept a stern face, looked around, bent down, and picked up a fist-sized stone that fit perfectly in her palm.

Aiming at the back of the man’s head, she fiercely struck him. There was a muffled groan, and the man’s movements abruptly ceased.

Finally, the struggling figure exerted force to push the man away, revealing a delicate face with wounds and a look of resentment.

Ye Youqing was stunned.

It turned out that it wasn’t Ci Ke at all, but another person. His dark, shining eyes were like rich ink, his thin lips pale and lacking color, his features delicate and clean, with fair skin stained with blood, like a flawless jade.

Ye Youqing frowned and looked at the person’s chest, which was flat. It was actually a young boy?

Where did a boy like this come from in the harem?

Since it wasn’t Ci Ke, Ye Youqing realized she had mistaken the person. Uncertain about what to do, she dropped the stone in her hand and turned to leave.

But then she heard the rustling of leaves. When she turned back, she saw the young boy desperately climbing up the old apricot tree, as if trying to scale the wall of the Cold Palace.

It seemed that the man from earlier was trying to prevent the boy from entering the Cold Palace.

The boy moved swiftly like a cat, using both his hands and feet. Just as he was about to climb over the wall over ten feet high, unexpectedly the man on the ground, who had not yet passed out, suddenly threw something and viciously hit the boy’s knee.

To save or not to save, as the boy struggled to hold onto the branch and his whole body teetered on the edge, Ye Youqing’s eyebrows furrowed tighter and tighter.

Forget it, saving a life is more significant than building a seven-story pagoda, Ye Youqing silently thought.

At that moment, with the sound of the tree branch breaking in the boy’s hand, his slim body plummeted vertically. In a critical moment, Ye Youqing took two steps forward, half-crouching and reaching out her hand. Just in time, she caught the falling body of the boy, holding him close in her arms.

In the next instant, with a cry, the two of them fell to the ground together.

“Hiss…” Ye Youqing took in a sharp breath of cold air. The boy hadn’t fallen from a great height, so it wasn’t that she couldn’t really catch him. It was just that the boy was much lighter than she had anticipated, not like a boy at all, almost comparable in weight to Qin Xin.

She lost her balance for a moment, which led to the fall.

The commotion finally alerted the guards, and the sounds of bustling footsteps approached. Ye Youqing didn’t want to be discovered there, so she tried to get up and leave. However, a hand suddenly grasped her wrist and pulled her in another direction.

“Where are you taking me?” Ye Youqing asked in a low voice, but received no answer.

The boy seemed to be taciturn, with a somewhat cold demeanor. His footsteps were swift, and in no time he led Ye Youqing into a dark alley. The alley was littered with garbage and forgotten old toys and rags, giving off a creepy vibe.

But the boy seemed accustomed to it, silently avoiding the obstacles and guiding Ye Youqing to hide behind some weeds at the end of the alley.

The sounds of the guards were loud and chaotic, as if searching for intruders in the vicinity. They lingered near the entrance of the alley a few times but never came in.

After a while, the sounds gradually faded away, and peace was restored in the area.

Ye Youqing finally released the breath she had been holding and whispered, “Why did they stop?”

“Many women have died here.” The boy finally spoke, his voice sounding as if he hadn’t gone through puberty yet, making it difficult to determine his gender.

Ye Youqing shifted her gaze to the boy’s Adam’s apple, feeling his awareness of her gaze. A fair hand instinctively adjusted the collar of his clothes, already higher than his Adam’s apple.

“Have you seen a beautiful woman being secretly followed by a tall man?” Ye Youqing, not wanting to beat around the bush, asked directly.

“Young General Qin?” the boy responded, then pressed his ear against the courtyard wall to listen carefully.

“Do you know him?” Ye Youqing asked cautiously.

The boy turned to look at Ye Youqing, his eyes deep like ancient wells, tranquil and unruffled. Ye Youqing couldn’t help but fall silent; what kind of experiences could lead a boy of this age to possess such a gaze?

“The young lady is clever, she ran out of the palace and headed towards a crowded area.” The boy said, then stepped on a depression in the wall, climbed up the palace wall a few times, and turned back to extend his hand to Ye Youqing.

His hands looked soft, but calloused in the palms, like someone who practices martial arts, while his pinky finger had traces of ink, resembling a scholar.

Ye Youqing hesitantly reached out her hand, and effortlessly climbed up the courtyard wall.

Sitting at a high vantage point, they could see the scene of the dragon boat race in the distance, likely in the midst of intense competition. The calls were synchronized and resonated in the air along with the drums, although far away, one could still feel their heart and lungs reverberate in response.

Originally a misunderstanding, Ye Youqing couldn’t help but shake her head.

“I have urgent matters to attend to, I’ll take my leave.” Ye Youqing said, one hand leaning on the wall, her right foot leaping over the tiles. The deep blue hem of her skirt created a petal-like arc in mid-air, then landed gracefully on the ground.

She was about to run when she heard a crisp voice behind her say, “Thank you.”

Ye Youqing didn’t look back; her slender figure quickly disappeared beyond the endless palace walls.

At the same time, by the sparsely populated area by the lake, there was a broad white jade platform extending out. A man and a woman were standing facing each other; it was Ci Ke and Qin Wang.

Qin Wang suddenly took a step forward, and Ci Ke involuntarily stepped back, getting closer and closer to the water’s surface. She appeared a bit nervous but had a smile on her lips, her gaze fixed on Qin Wang.

“Zhou Ci Ke, how could I not have seen that you have so many schemes? I thought you were simply pitiful, but turns out you are a cunning and cruel b*tch!” Qin Wang’s eyes widened, his tall figure almost completely casting Ci Ke in shadow.

“Young General Qin, what are you saying? This servant doesn’t understand,” Ci Ke said, trying to escape from Qin Wang’s side, but he reached out and stopped her in her tracks.

“You are really good at pretending, so much so that you fooled me, the mighty young general! You even found the secret passage in my study and stole those few letters.” When he mentioned the letters, Qin Wang became much more agitated, suddenly reached out to grab Ci Ke’s shoulder, causing her pain.

“Where are those letters?!” Qin Wang roared in a low voice.

Ci Ke furrowed her brows in pain and forcefully pushed Qin Wang away. “I told you, I don’t understand.”

“Zhou Ci Ke!” Qin Wang’s eyes gleamed with murderous intent, his voice becoming more sinister. “Give me the letter, don’t think just because we are in the palace, I won’t dare to use force.”

Upon hearing this, Ci Ke’s shoulders trembled slightly, then suddenly she seemed to notice something, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

In his rage, Qin Wang watched helplessly as Ci Ke, under his light touch, softened and fell towards the lake. In that moment of daze, another person suddenly flew in from behind him, reaching out to grab Ci Ke’s waist and pulling her back to shore steadily.

Confused, Qin Wang looked up to see a cold woman gripping Ci Ke’s wrist with one hand and wrapping her other arm around Ci Ke’s waist, staring at him with anger.

“Qin Wang, you dare lay a hand on a woman whose strength is not even enough to tie up a chicken?”