"That'...... Well, since you insist on protecting her, I'll just do it, don't you get angry because of this? ”

Ah Kui saw that Concubine Shuniang was angry, and he was silent for a while.

"I'm sorry, Aque, maybe I lost my temper just now, and I shouldn't have spoken so seriously to you, but I hope you can understand my troubles. In this way, you will also leave the palace tonight and prepare for a long journey. Tomorrow morning, I will secretly follow Ah Xiyan to the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons. Since Ah Xiyan can confidently lead others across the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons, she will definitely let General A and the soldiers who escorted her take things like the antidote she made before entering the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons. Then as long as you find a way to steal one of those antidotes, you can also follow them into the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons. I'm sure it's not hard to do that with your skills, right? And your task along the way is to secretly monitor General A and A Xiyan's every move. If you confirm that General Ah and Ah Xiyan recognize each other's father-daughter relationship behind my back, and unreservedly tell Ah Xiyan everything about seventeen years ago, let them stay in the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons forever. It's just that it all has to be done cleanly, and it's best to look like an accident. But if General A kept his promise and took the opportunity to escort Ah Xiyan to gain her trust, and learned that Ah Xiyan came to the imperial city purely to find her biological parents and live with her family, he had no intention of tracking down the truth for seventeen years. Then you will help me secretly protect General A and A Xiyan until they come back safely from the border pass. I'm sure you know what I mean, and you won't let me down, right? ”

After listening to Akui's words, Concubine Niangniang also seemed to realize that she was a little out of shape, and said apologetically.

and temporarily decided to let Akui leave the palace overnight, and secretly follow Axi Yan and them across the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons to the border tomorrow morning.

This approach is also in line with the cautious character of the lady and minimizes any risk against herself.

"Don't worry, this little thing won't bother me. You can wait for my good news in the palace with peace of mind, right? It's just that I can't protect you secretly in the palace during this time, so you have to be more careful. Try to avoid arguing with people as much as possible, leave a line in everything, don't deal with it impulsively until the last resort, and wait for me to come back. ”

Aqua reassured cheerfully.

He looked deeply at the back of Concubine Shu and suggested, obviously worried that during his departure from the palace, Concubine Shu would be hurt in any way, so he would not be able to forgive himself for leaving.

After all, although Concubine Shuniang is high, she is domineering by nature, and she has secretly done a lot of things to hurt others, and she has offended many people because of this, so naturally there are not a few enemies who hate her.

In the past, he secretly protected her in the palace, and Concubine Shuniang could do almost whatever she wanted, even if she left the palace, she was not afraid of anyone assassinating her, but he couldn't predict when he would come back from this trip to the border, so he also kindly reminded Concubine Shuniang before leaving, so that he could leave the imperial city for a period of time.

"I know, I'll be restrained, and I won't leave the palace easily without anything special, so you can do this with peace of mind. Remember! Be careful along the way, and be sure to come back alive to see me! ”

Concubine Niangniang turned to look into Akui's eyes and agreed with a complicated expression.

In another unquestioning tone, he ordered Aqua to come back safely.

"Then I can go to the border with peace of mind. As for my own safety, you can rest assured that there are only a handful of people in this world who can kill me, and I will not meet them so coincidentally. There's nothing else to do, I'll borrow the underground secret passage in your palace to do some private business, and then I can leave the palace at night to prepare for going to the border early tomorrow morning. ”

Aqua replied reassuringly.

He also swore that he would be able to come back from the border pass alive.

"You're going to the Meditation Garden, right? After all these years, she still doesn't want to see you? Hey, but every time you leave the imperial city, you go to see her, it's really hard for you. Go ahead, I hope she'll see you this time, right? ”

Concubine Niangniang looked at Akui with a sympathetic look and asked.

It seems that she also remembered something that made her feel extremely troublesome.

"yes, who made her the other person I care about the most in this world besides you? Even if she doesn't want to see me again in her life, I won't give up on her. ”

Aqua also said in a rather sad tone.

After saying that, he disappeared again in the shadows of the rockery.

After returning to the underground secret room under the rockery, Aqua opened the mechanism from the secret room and entered the secret passage, and rushed to the meditation garden along the secret passage that extended in all directions.

The secret passage under the ground in this palace is only known to the emperor, and it is a secret that the emperors of all dynasties passed down from mouth to mouth to the next emperor.

It is convenient for the emperor to temporarily escape when facing a major palace crisis.

This secret passage connects all the important palaces in the palace through the underground, so that the emperor can hide in the underground secret passage to resolve the crisis when he encounters a sudden crisis in the palace.

It's just that for security reasons, there is only one entrance and exit to the outside of the palace.

At this only exit, there are elite soldiers loyal to the emperor guarding it, so except for the emperor himself, if anyone else approaches that entrance, they will be killed by random arrows.

It stands to reason that Concubine Shuniang shouldn't know this secret passage, but because the emperor doted on Concubine Shuniang too much, when she stayed in Xiangfeng Palace when she was drunk, she accidentally said it with the strength of wine, but the emperor didn't remember it afterwards.

When Akui knew about this underground secret passage, it also became his shelter, so that he could use the secret passage in the palace to help Concubine Niangniang handle some unsightly things.

It has also become a special secret passage for him to enter and exit the palace freely in the dead of night.

……

Meditation Garden.

Jingxin Garden is located near the north gate of the northernmost part of the palace, and it is also the most remote courtyard, and it is the place where no one wants to go in the palace, and even everyone avoids mentioning this place, so as not to be contaminated with bad luck.

The reason why this is the case is because since ancient times, Jingxin Garden has been a cold palace in the palace where the emperor's concubines who have fallen out of favor forever have died alone.

Of course, there are also a very small number of concubines who have been wronged, and once they are fortunate enough to be rehabilitated by the emperor one day, they can still leave here and live a rich life of fine clothes and food again.

And the name of this place is Jingxin Garden, which is also to hope that the abandoned concubines in the cold palace can calm down and reflect on their mistakes, and if they have the opportunity to leave here, they can also avoid mistakes again and again.

Even if you really can't leave here forever, you can only survive this lonely and old age time if you calm down and figure it out, otherwise if you are impetuous, you will definitely live like a year, and life is better than death.

Although the Meditation Garden is also part of the palace, everything inside is very different from the other palaces outside, and it is even miserable and desolate.

If it weren't for the occasional sight of one or two women with demented eyes walking by, and two royal guards guarding the entrance of the Meditation Garden, I don't know if I thought there was no one living here!

It stands to reason that except for the eunuchs who deliver meals regularly, no one else will come to this annoying cold palace, so the two royal guards at the door are also sitting listlessly at the door, or chatting, or simply napping.

But at this moment, there was a palace maid who walked towards the door of Jingxin Garden with a curious face.

She is none other than Ah Xiyan, who originally planned to go out of the palace to see Mo Gongzi.

In fact, Ah Xiyan had seen Aunt Chang in Weiyang Hall before, and after telling Aunt Chang about the trip to the border pass, she left Weiyang Palace, planning to go out of the palace to see Mo Gongzi to say goodbye.

In view of the fact that Ah Xiyan has not been officially declared by the emperor to become the chief imperial physician, and there is no special token that represents this noble status and can enter and leave any place in the palace at will, plus she wears a palace maid costume, she is not qualified to enter and leave the palace at will.

Therefore, in order to facilitate Ah Xiyan to go out of the palace to see Mo Gongzi, and to return to the palace at night, Aunt Chang gave Ah Xiyan a token for ordinary palace maids and eunuchs to go out to buy temporarily, so that she could enter and leave the palace in the afternoon to do the so-called private affairs she wanted to do.

However, the holder of this token is not allowed to enter and exit the palace through the main entrance of the palace, and can only leave the palace through the north gate of the palace, which is rarely entered.

That's why Ah Xiyan came to the north gate near Jingxin Garden.

Because when Aunt Chang temporarily trained Ah Xiyan in the common sense in the palace, she also introduced the Meditation Garden, a cold palace located near the north gate, so Ah Xiyan knew that the Meditation Garden was a matter of the cold palace.

When she walked towards the entrance and exit of the north gate, she also inadvertently glanced at the tall wall of the Meditation Garden next to her, although she couldn't see the bleak scene inside, but she had heard Aunt Chang probably introduce the situation inside the Meditation Garden, and she could also imagine the miserable appearance of the concubines inside who were worse than death.

In addition to expressing deep sympathy, Ah Xiyan also felt that she was fortunate to be the chief imperial doctor, not the concubine in this deep palace compound, otherwise she would inevitably be framed one day, and she might have to die alone here.

She believes that most of the people in this cold palace are indeed concubines who have made big mistakes, but it is inevitable that there are still a few concubines who have been framed, but they can't prove their innocence.

For such a place, Ah Xiyan doesn't have a good feeling, and she doesn't plan to go in and see it one day.

But just as she was about to come to the entrance and exit of the north gate, she overheard a woman's crying song from the high wall of the Meditation Garden.

And this singing voice, which almost grew up with A Xiyan since childhood, made A Xiyan stop in shock.

Because her adoptive mother sang this song repeatedly every time she put her to sleep.

After that, she couldn't help but come to the high wall of the Meditation Garden and listen.

While listening to the woman singing this song over and over again, Ah Xiyan was sure that the woman singing this song in the Meditation Garden at the moment must be the person her adoptive mother entrusted her to help find after she left the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons before her death.

And this person is the biological mother of her adoptive mother......