Empress Xue Chi is currently fixing her hair with her wooden comb while facing the mirror. She's still inside the empress dowager's hall and is planning to ask permission to go outside.
She wants to see Xu Zhengming and check his condition now. Ever since the empress is hidden in this hall, she hasn't heard anything about this eunuch. And so, she can't help herself from worrying about his well-being.
"Ah Chi." The empress dowager is back in her palace. She went somewhere and the empress didn't bother to ask where she's gone from.
"Your highness!" Empress Xue Chi puts her comb down and comes closer to the empress dowager. "Can I go out of this hall now?"
The empress dowager doesn't seem to like her request. Despite that, she still asked, "Why? Where are you planning to go?"
The empress lowers her head and plays with her fingers. Her cheeks slightly turn rosy. "I'd like to check Ming--- I mean, Eunuch Xu's condition. The last time I heard about him was that his state got worse."
There's literally no day that passed that she's not thinking about Xu Zhengming ever since she heard that there are evident signs of him turning into s bloodthirsty monster. Up to this day, she still blames herself that Eunuch Xu's life being in danger. It is because she's the one who contributed the most to that drug, bringing it to existence.
However, the empress dowager would not like to grant her permission to leave. Even though the grand empress dowager is no longer a threat to the empress, the empress dowager would like to keep her hidden for a little longer. She wants her to do something and if she'll show herself to the public, the emperor might have an eye on the empress, making it hard for the empress dowager to come close by then.
Hoping the empress will shut her mouth and stop bothering her for that matter, she said, "You need not worry. I saw him just now. He's well."
The empress is indeed delighted to hear the good news. However, this only added to her eagerness to see the eunuch. "That's good to hear. I'd like to see him now. Can I, your highness?"
The empress dowager narrows her eyes. "I'm afraid you cannot."
"Why?" The empress' smile slowly fades away.
Truth to be told, she misses him. Ever since Xu Zhengming came back to the imperial palace, she makes excuses to see him every day. May it be in secret or showing her appearance to the other. With the empress hidden in the empress dowager's hall, she can't go see Eunuch Xu outside.
The empress dowager tries to explain, "That eunuch seemed to anger the emperor. His majesty is so enraged just earlier. I think he imprisoned him somewhere to punish his servant, and make that eunuch reflect for his actions."
"Is that so?" Empress Xue Chi normally doesn't know what's going on these days, including the recent incident about his majesty dragging Eunuch Xu to his hall. Not even the circulating fake news about the emperor's death.
"Then I'll just ask his majesty if I could see him."
Starting to get irritated, the empress dowager asked, "Why do you want to see him that much?"
The empress' persistence makes it hard for the empress dowager to achieve the plans that she plotted for years. If only she's not included in her plans, she might have just killed her. But the empress' response to her question made the empress dowager freeze for a second or two.
"Xu Zhengming... he's my friend."
Friend. A friend that she took for granted in the past. A friend that she left behind without a proper explanation. A friend she has special feelings with but still faced her back on him.
All for the sake of what she's told to do.
This story isn't new to the empress dowager anymore. Even she had a special person back then. He's an excellent teacher with long patience, a good friend, and eventually became her favorite person. But their worlds are too different. It's impossible for them to happen in the first place.
'Ye Feng, many years had passed but my heart is still longing for you.'
But then again, the past is past. It's not going back whatever she does. His body may have risen from the ground but his consciousness isn't there. It's just a mere puppet that takes her commands.
This unnecessary feeling really is just nothing but a hindrance.
The empress dowager just looks at her with a disappointed expression. This girl is too naïve, and insensitive. Based on her own experience, this 'friendship' won't take her anywhere.
"Ah Chi, that won't do. For some reason, his majesty is very protective of this mere servant. I doubt he'll let you see him. And besides, I have a task for you."
"A task?" She subconsciously took a step backward. She could only hope that this isn't something related to dark arts.
"That's right." The empress dowager reaches for her sleeves.
She withdraws the talisman she just got from the grand empress dowager. She then took Empress Xue Chi's hand and make her hold it.
"I want you to activate this spell when the full moon comes. The full moon is in two days so do the necessary preparations beforehand. The formation is ready and only needs to get activated.
The moment the empress got a good look at the talisman in her hand, she feels that her hand is slightly shaking, and her knees a little weaker. Goosebumps all over her body, like there's a pail of ice-cold water that just poured on her.
"N-no... I don't want to. That's horrible. You know that very well, your highness."
Of course, she recognizes this talisman. It's her own blood that's used to write the characters on it after all.
The empress dowager reaches for Empress Xue Chi's lock of hair. She plays with it with her fingers. "Come on. This will be the last time I'll be asking you a favor."
While the empress dowager's voice sounds so soothing, the empress' voice is shaking. "I'm so sorry, Empress Dowager. I... I don't think I can do that." She doesn't want to do any of these things anymore. She just wants to live peacefully. Away from this dark method of cultivation.
Surprisingly, the empress dowager is not angered. Instead, she just gives her a sweet smile. "I know you'll say that."
She claps her hands twice, "Let them in."
The door of the empress dowager's hall slides open. Two significant persons in the empress' life showed up with a smile on their faces as they walk across the hall.
"Chi'er." The woman called with tears slowly forming in her eyes.
"Mother... Father... You came!" Empress Xue Chi run towards the couple and hugged them.
Even though it's been two decades since they last saw each other, she could never forget how her biological parents look like. She felt relief when she sees them with proper clothes. The last time she saw them, they are only wearing old robes that look like rags.
Although their clothing now isn't as luxurious as the one she's wearing, it's enough to tell that they are living a good life unlike in the past.
"We really missed you so much. I'm so sorry that you have to be separated from us." Her mother can't take it any longer and burst into tears.
She really missed her daughter. She regretted so much that she gave her away. But the thought that their Chi'er will live a luxurious life in the imperial palace keeps her from doing nothing to retrieve her child.
Tears also flow down across the empress' cheek. It's not tears of sadness but tears of joy. She doesn't think she'll be able to see her family once again because it's part of the agreement that her family and the Xue clan agreed on. And so she's very happy to finally see her parents after twenty long years.
"Please don't apologize, mother. It's also my will to get adopted by the Xue clan. I want you all to escape poverty and live a good life."
Her father didn't shed tears but it's evident in his voice that he's emotional. "We are indeed having a good life with the help of the Xue clan but your absence keeps on bothering us."
The empress gives him a reassuring smile yet it's not as effective as it should be because of her tears. "You need not worry about me. I am already a grown-up woman. I can handle myself."
They just hugged each other for a little while. Words are cheap. Sometimes it's not enough to express one's feelings. In silence, they communicated with their hearts.
Impatient, the empress dowager interrupted their reunion. "Now that I did you a little favor, will you do the task I asked you to take care of?"
"That's..." Being reminded of what the empress dowager wants her to do, her face shows her hesitations once again.
If she's given a choice beforehand, to do the task or not to see her parents again, she'd choose not to see them again. They are indeed separated for so long but that's not enough of a bargaining chip for the empress to do something horrible.
Seeing her worries, her father asks his child in a low voice. "What is this task that her highness is talking about?"
Empress Xue Chi gritted her teeth before she defeatedly replies. "She... she wants me to commit mass murder."
Once that array is activated, a lot of people will lose their lives in a horrifying way. She doesn't even want to imagine it.
"What?" It looks like all the blood in her mother's body drained in an instant. Her face becomes ashen. Never did it cross her mind that any of her children will kill someone. And the empress dowager wants her to commit a mass murder?! "No..."
"Your highness,  I beg of you." Empress Xue Chi's father kneels towards the empress dowager and even leans his forehead to the wooden floor. "Please don't make my daughter a murderer."
The empress dowager just stared at him coldly ad snorted. "She's not your daughter anymore ever since you gave her to my clan." She then turns her gaze towards the empress, walks closer to them, and pulled her away from her mother's embrace. "Now, if you are still not willing to do it..."
The empress dowager made a hand seal and cast a spell towards the couple. A barrier enclosed them, and it's slowly filling up with water. If this continues, the empress' biological parents will drown.
Everything happened so fast that Empress Xue Chi becomes speechless. Her eyes are wide open with shock and panic. In an instant, her biological parents' lives are at risk.
The empress dowager leans closer to the empress' ears. In a low voice, she speaks. "If you'll do the thing I ask of you, I'll let these peasants live."
Her highness is left with no choice. In an instant, she changed her mind completely. "I will! I will! Please let them go."
Not seeing them until the last day of her life is one thing. But their lives are at stake, it's a different story.
The intense aura that surrounds the empress dowager somehow clears the moment she receives her response. "Good. It's settled then. However, I cannot just let them go yet. I need you to activate the array first."
"I understand but please don't harm my family." Empress Xue Chi's whole body is slightly trembling, and her hand that holds the talisman tightens its grip. She doesn't want to be the antagonist of her own life story but she's left with no choice. She's pushed into the edge with no more options.
The empress' statement made the empress dowager sneer. "Family? You still call them your family despite the fact that you got forsaken? Alright, alright. I won't do anything bad to them as long as you obey me." Her head is slowly shaking from left to right and vice versa. "Ah Chi, your stubbornness brought you here. I told you before and I'll still tell you now, don't try to anger me."
"Empress Dowager, please pardon my rudeness but this is an emergency!" The empress dowager's court lady yells from the outside of her hall.
The empress dowager's eyebrows knitted. What emergency is there that involves her? But then again, she wouldn't know it if she won't hear it. "Come in."
Her court lady comes in and headed towards the empress dowager. Her face is ashen and from the looks of it, she's nervous. The court lady whispered the emergency to the empress dowager's ear.
Whatever the court lady said, it enraged the empress dowager. Because of how upset she is, she lost her composure and slaps the court lady real hard. "You're a fool! How could you let this happen?!"
The poor court lady cries as she got to her knees to kowtow. "Please forgive me, your highness."
This court lady knows how this news could ruin the empress dowager and her unknown plans so she somehow expected this reaction of hers.
The empress dowager yells at her. "Will your apology do anything? Go take all the servants under your command and find him!"
"Yes, your highness." The court lady immediately rises on her feet and exits the hall, and hurried to find 'him' together with the empress dowager's personal maids. This news made the empress dowager's mood go bad. She's even pulling her hair, and sometimes massaging the bridge of her nose, trying to calm down.
Whatever it is, Empress Xue Chi couldn't care less. She's just staring anxiously at her parents imprisoned in a barrier.