Meanwhile, Li Shutiao remained unaware of the bold plan her dear friend had conceived.
She cheerfully carried the food box back to the Palace Maidens Quarters. It was the time when lanterns were being lit across the palace compounds and palace staff were changing shifts. Numerous people hurried in and out of the Palace Maidens Quarters, each passing Li Shutiao with unconcealed astonishment on their faces, as if witnessing something utterly unbelievable.
Li Shutiao touched her own face.
What was wrong with them?
While puzzling over this, a palace maiden suddenly approached. Seeing her standing at the entrance, the maiden pulled her into a corner, furrowing her brows with concern as she asked, “Where have you been all afternoon? I went to your room but couldn’t find you. Also, how is the injury on your face?”
“I brought this ointment from the Taiyiyuan. They say it’s very effective for skin damage and won’t harm your complexion. Why don’t you take it back and try it tonight?” As she spoke, she produced a porcelain-white bottle from her sleeve and pressed it into Li Shutiao’s hand without waiting for a response.
Li Shutiao glanced down at the porcelain bottle, then looked up at the maiden. In the dim moonlight, she vaguely recognized this person as Wanliuha Yueshu—the consort who lived the longest and reached the greatest age during the Kangxi Dynasty.
Her appearances in the novel weren’t particularly frequent. She maintained good relations with both Guo Luoluo Qingyao and Wuya Lianchu, remaining neutral in their conflicts, yet managed to survive peacefully until the very end.
Such a person—Li Shutiao didn’t believe she could be a simple character.
Yet Guo Luoluo Qingyao had previously said: “Yueshu’s nature is honest and compliant. She does everything by the book, without any devious intentions…”
After a moment’s contemplation, Li Shutiao decided to trust Qingyao’s judgment. Clutching the porcelain bottle tightly, she looked up and smiled at Yueshu, her gaze clear and gentle as she said softly, “I went to speak with Qingyao this afternoon.”
Yueshu started at this, “You saw her?”
Li Shutiao tilted her head, her expression puzzled. “Yes, I did. Why? Did you go looking for her before and she refused to see you?”
Yueshu shook her head, her expression hidden in the shadows of the bushes, barely discernible. Only her tone carried hesitation and melancholy as she murmured quietly, “No, that’s not it.”
“It’s just… didn’t Lianchu say that Qingyao is different from us now? She’s a mistress, and we’re servants. So it’s better to have fewer connections…”
Li Shutiao fell silent for a moment, then slowly widened her eyes like a startled deer in the forest.
“Just because Lianchu said you shouldn’t go, you actually stopped going?”
Yueshu nodded very honestly, then nervously clenched the hem of her clothes and didn’t speak further.
Li Shutiao: “…”
She couldn’t help asking, “Haven’t you thought about verifying this with Qingyao?”
Yueshu nodded, then shook her head, biting her lip with a hesitant expression. She remained silent for a long while, leaving Li Shutiao somewhat unable to decipher her meaning.
Li Shutiao parted her lips: “You…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Yueshu, clutching her clothes, retreated two steps backward. Moonlight streamed over her face like water, and Li Shutiao clearly saw the resistance in her expression.
…Since she didn’t want to speak, Li Shutiao was content not to press further.
She had been carrying the food box all the way, its weight pressing heavily on her finger joints, making her somewhat uncomfortable. She simply turned and placed the food box on a stone table nearby. The stone table felt cold to the touch, and Li Shutiao worried that the pastries inside the box might become unappetizing if they cooled. After hesitating for a moment, she still picked the food box back up.
Yueshu noticed her struggling, her fair fingers already marked with deep red lines from the strain, and immediately forgot their previous topic, reaching out to help support it.
Together, the two silently delivered the food box to the small kitchen in the Palace Maidens Quarters.
The small kitchen in the Palace Maidens Quarters was crudely constructed. At the very back stood two rows of wooden cabinets leaning against the wall, with two stoves in the middle. Between the stoves and the cabinets were piles of firewood. Further out, near the doorway, three or four low wooden tables and about a dozen small stools were scattered sparsely across the open space.
—After all, this place was not originally intended for preparing meals.
Normally, palace maids and eunuchs would either collect their meals from the outer Imperial Kitchen and eat there or bring them back to their own rooms. The small kitchen in the Palace Maidens Quarters served two purposes: reheating meals and boiling water, either for drinking or for bathing. Naturally, it didn’t need to be particularly well-equipped.
At that moment, the small kitchen was bustling with noise, with about a dozen palace maids gathered around the small tables, chatting and eating. When they saw Li Shutiao and Wanliuha Yueshu walk in together, they were all so astonished they forgot to speak.
Li Shutiao—wasn’t she punished by Jiya Momo? She, who usually cared so much about face, publicly slapped as punishment—shouldn’t she be hiding in her room, weeping inconsolably? How could she brazenly come out to face everyone?
And what was that thing in her hand?
The palace maids remained absorbed in their surprise, no one speaking, and the scene fell into an eerily quiet stillness.
Yet Li Shutiao, being rather oblivious, didn’t notice the strange emotions in their eyes. She cheerfully waved and greeted the nearest palace maid, then placed the food box on the only empty table in the small kitchen.
In a clear, lively voice, she said to them, “I went to the Enclosure Room this afternoon and brought back some pastries. These are ones Qingyao usually enjoys, and she asked me to bring them back for all you sisters to try.”
“Qingyao?” The palace maids were momentarily stunned.
Once they processed it, they quickly stood up and crowded around.
“Did Qingyao really ask you to bring these back?”
“Hey, they smell quite fragrant.”
“They look lovely too—see this little rabbit-shaped one, how adorable! It almost feels a shame to eat it.”
“And, Shutiao, what made you think of going to the Enclosure Room?”
“Is the momo there fierce? Did she give you a hard time? How did you manage to see Qingyao…”
“How is Qingyao doing now? Did she mention anything about the Long Live Lord? And did she say if she’d come back to visit us?”
The palace maids swarmed around Li Shutiao, chattering incessantly. No sooner had one question been asked than another was eagerly posed from another side, leaving Li Shutiao utterly overwhelmed, unsure which to answer first.
“What’s all this noise about?”
Likely disturbed by the commotion from the small kitchen, an elderly figure suddenly appeared at the doorway. Her stern, unsmiling face was etched with deep wrinkles, her dark eyes sharp as an eagle’s, and her tightly pressed lips exuded obvious displeasure.
With just one sharp command, the palace maids surrounding Li Shutiao instantly fell silent, trembling like quails, then quickly stepped aside, revealing Li Shutiao within Jiya Momo’s line of sight.
When Jiya Momo saw Li Shutiao, her expression momentarily froze in surprise before swiftly returning to its usual severity. Her gaze swept across the room. “Li Shutiao, why aren’t you staying properly in your own room? What are you doing in the small kitchen?”
Li Shutiao hurriedly lowered her hands, adopting a restrained posture as she repeated her earlier explanation.
There was no helping it—the lingering intimidation was so strong that seeing Jiya Momo evoked the same dread a high school student feels upon encountering their homeroom teacher. Even without having done anything wrong, hearing her full name uttered aloud sent an involuntary shiver down Li Shutiao’s spine, making her instinctively wonder if she had committed some offense.
Upon hearing that Guo Luoluo Qingyao had specifically asked Li Shutiao to deliver pastries to the Palace Maidens Quarters, Jiya Momo’s tense expression did not soften in the slightest.
She merely fixed Li Shutiao with a deep, penetrating stare from her dark eyes, then waved a hand dismissively and coldly ordered the maids, “Finish quickly and disperse! If any of you are late for duty tomorrow, watch your heads!”
The maids chorused their assent, tiptoed to the table, bent down to pick a pastry from the food box, hastily chewed and swallowed a few bites—likely without even tasting them—and then nervously took their leave.
Li Shutiao inwardly sighed in regret.
Her wistful gaze lingered on the food box for a moment before she, too, bowed to Jiya Momo, took Yueshu’s hand, and hurried out of the small kitchen.
…
After apologizing to Guo Luoluo Qingyao and unburdening herself of this pressing worry, Li Shutiao slept soundly that night.
By the time she woke the next day, it was already Chen Hour. The early spring sunlight spilled brilliantly across the courtyard, brightening up her otherwise cramped room.
Perhaps out of concern for Li Shutiao’s still-unhealed facial injury, or maybe due to some other unspoken reason, Jiya Momo did not rush to assign her any duties. Thus, Li Shutiao spent two days lounging at ease—so much so that she began to feel genuinely embarrassed. Eventually, she sought out Jiya Momo to request work.
Yes, work.
During her two days of leisurely idleness, Li Shutiao had already formulated a plan: for now, she would work diligently at the Qianqing Palace, saving every bit of her monthly “wages.” Then, after the grand bestowal of titles in the rear palace at the end of August, she would use the savings to bribe the Qianqing Palace’s HR—that is, Wu Momo, who handled personnel transfers—to reassign her to a more leisurely post where she could continue idling and waiting…
Oh, no—not waiting to die, but waiting to return to the modern era!
Upon hearing Li Shutiao’s request, Jiya Momo only lazily lifted her eyelids to glance at her. After a moment of contemplation, she took out a ledger, made a few marks in it, and then said to Li Shutiao, “Starting tomorrow, you’ll be working here.”
Summoning her courage, Li Shutiao leaned in for a look. On the page, two large, crudely scrawled characters were written: Warehouse.
Li Shutiao was immediately astonished, her dewy peach-blossom eyes filled with disbelief. She looked at Jiya Momo, hoping for a clear explanation.
Unexpectedly, Jiya Momo coldly put away the notebook and spoke in a deep voice, “What are you still standing there for? Get out!”
“Yes!” Li Shutiao instinctively replied, then walked out of Jiya Momo’s room with stiff, uncoordinated steps.
Even after returning to her own room, Li Shutiao remained completely immersed in shock and confusion.
Was Jiya Momo assigning her to the Warehouse to repeat the same old tricks?
Surely… surely not?
Li Shutiao felt both tangled and bewildered.
Yet she had to comply, after all, Jiya Momo was now her direct superior.
Though Li Shutiao was still just an innocent college student with no internship experience and hadn’t suffered the harsh realities of society, she understood the principle of having to bow under someone else’s roof.
So the next day, she mustered her courage and reported to the Warehouse.
The matron in charge of the Warehouse was surnamed Rong. Though her attitude was gentle and she often wore a smile at the corner of her lips, the mere thought of that surname made Li Shutiao unable to feel close to her.
Not being afraid was already good enough.
She spent two more days in the Warehouse trembling with anxiety. Just when she was feeling mentally exhausted, she suddenly received news from the visibly conflicted Jiya Momo that shocked her to the core—
She had been transferred to the Qianqing Palace tea room as a Tea-Serving Maid!