Prince Jing was bound at the hands and gagged, though the ropes on his legs had been removed to allow him to walk. To prevent him from running off, Wang Daxia tied the leg ropes to his bound hands behind his back, leading him like a leashed dog.
His trousers and shoes had been stripped off by Wang Daxia and thrown down the cliff, leaving him completely exposed. Wang Daxia remarked, "Down the mountain, Consort Lu is hosting a chrysanthemum banquet attended by delicate court ladies. If we descend like this, with this lecher completely bare and wearing nothing below, it might disturb Consort Lu. I suggest we detour from the mountainside, head west to descend, and avoid the banquet area."
This lad is growing more attentive, Lu Ying thought. "As you propose," she said.
Upon hearing his mother was at the foot of the mountain, Prince Jing hurried barefoot toward Lu Ying, mumbling through his gag: You should recognize me! I am Prince Jing! Consort Lu's own son!
Though Prince Jing wore a round-collared robe covering his lower body, revealing only his ankles, Lu Ying, being a woman, instinctively recoiled at the thought of his unclothed state and dirty face, without bothering to scrutinize his features. She raised her Embroidered Spring Blade and snapped, "Step back!"
Wang Daxia yanked the rope, forcibly pulling Prince Jing to his side, and slapped the back of his head, scolding, "Still causing trouble at a time like this? First peeping at court ladies, now harassing our brilliant and mighty Embroidered Uniform Guard—no, the most dashing Commander Lu in the capital! Seems you won't yield until faced with dire consequences!"
Picking up a branch, Wang Daxia struck Prince Jing's shoulder. "Wrong way—head west."
How could Prince Jing endure such humiliation? He glared furiously at Wang Daxia, muttering incoherently: I will remember you, torment you, kill you, and exterminate your entire clan!
Wang Daxia whipped him with the branch again. "Dare to growl at me, you filthy lecher? Move!"
Stung by the pain, Prince Jing knew when to yield and grudgingly trudged westward.
Though the path was paved with stone steps, Prince Jing, who had never walked barefoot before, soon had his soles bleeding after just a few dozen steps.
Each step left a bloody print, feeling as if countless needles were piercing his feet, the agony nearly unbearable.
As Prince Jing slowed from the pain, Wang Daxia lashed his back with the branch.
Walk, and his feet ached. Stop, and his shoulders stung from the blows.
Caught between pain and more pain, when would this torment end?
In his heart, Prince Jing cursed Wang Daxia endlessly, envisioning him sliced to pieces a thousand times over. This journey felt interminable.
Meanwhile, at the chrysanthemum garden on the eastern side of Qionghua Island, as dusk approached, Consort Lu declared the banquet concluded. The court ladies bowed in unison, thanking her for the feast.
Forty-nine court ladies had been brought, but only forty-eight returned. The most foolish and gluttonous one had already soared to prominence, transforming from a sparrow into a phoenix.
Consort Lu remained distracted, still reeling from the shock: What exactly is so remarkable about Shang Qinglan? How could the Emperor favor such an unrefined creature!
Following protocol, Consort Lu departed first, with the court ladies trailing behind.
She boarded an eight-bearer Phoenix palanquin, escorted by a hundred attendants playing music as they slowly proceeded toward the eastern dock, the court ladies following on foot.
Upon reaching the dock, as Consort Lu prepared to board the boat, a middle-aged eunuch rushed over. "Consort Lu! This humble servant seeks an audience with Your Highness!"This man was none other than Prince Jing’s chief attendant and the supervising eunuch of the Jin Prince’s residence, Eunuch Wei. A graduate of the prestigious Inner Study Hall, Eunuch Wei was well-educated and had served as a scribe in the Directorate of Ceremonial. When Prince Jing began his formal studies, the Jiajing Emperor personally assigned Eunuch Wei to serve as his study companion, assisting with writing materials and keeping him company.
A prince’s chief attendant would follow his master for life, with his own fortunes rising and falling entirely depending on the prince’s future. The current Supervising Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial Affairs, Huang Jin, had once served as the Jiajing Emperor’s own chief attendant.
Seeing the panic on Eunuch Wei’s face, Consort Lu Jingfei sensed something was wrong. She dismissed the surrounding attendants and asked, “What has happened to make you so flustered?”
Eunuch Wei’s voice trembled as he spoke, “Your Highness, Prince Jing… he has gone missing.”
“What?” Consort Lu was horrified. All her hopes in life rested on her son. After years of maneuvering in the imperial harem, she was unwilling to remain merely a consort—her ultimate goal was to become Empress Dowager.
But without a son, her dream of becoming Empress Dowager would be impossible. Consort Lu demanded, “Where did he disappear? Why didn’t you report this earlier? Are you all incompetent fools?”
Eunuch Wei prostrated himself on the ground. “Today, Prince Jing entered the palace, claiming he wished to pay his respects to you. Upon learning that you were at Qionghua Island, he took a boat here. But after disembarking, Prince Jing said he wanted to stroll alone and dismissed both this old servant and the guards.”
“Before leaving, Prince Jing explicitly forbade this old servant from sending any covert guards to follow him at a distance, ordering everyone to wait at the dock for his return. This old servant thought to himself that Qionghua Island, surrounded by water, was a tranquil place. Although there were some rare birds and animals, none were dangerous beasts. Since Prince Jing had frequented this place since childhood and was unlikely to get lost, I did not dispatch any covert guards for protection.”
“This old servant waited and waited at the dock, but Prince Jing never returned. I sent someone to inquire at the Chrysanthemum Banquet, only to be told that Prince Jing had never appeared there, nor had he paid his respects to you, Consort Jingfei.”
“Assuming Prince Jing had become engrossed in the scenery and lost track of time, this old servant sent people to search the vicinity. Still, there was no sign of Prince Jing. However, at the Penglai Pavilion halfway up the mountain, this old servant found this—”
With trembling hands, Eunuch Wei unwrapped a bundle, revealing a shattered Western telescope and broken glass shards. Moreover, some of the glass fragments were stained with blood!
“Your Highness, this was Prince Jing’s beloved possession. This old servant cannot be mistaken—the brass barrel bears the imprint of a soaring eagle, Prince Jing’s personal mark.”
Consort Lu picked up the broken telescope and examined it closely. It was indeed as he described.
Consort Lu urgently declared, “Prince Jing must be in trouble! Why didn’t you report this sooner? Mobilize all the guards and palace attendants on the island to conduct a search!”
Eunuch Wei replied, “When Prince Jing arrived on the island, he did not inform the guards of Qionghua Island. He claimed he was here to pay respects to you, yet he never appeared. Moreover, with the Chrysanthemum Banquet for the selected maidens underway, the situation is complicated. How could this old servant act on his own authority? As soon as my subordinates discovered this item, I brought it immediately to seek your direction, Consort Jingfei.”
Eunuch Wei feared taking responsibility. He was merely a supervising eunuch of a princely residence, not a member of the imperial palace staff.
This area belonged to the Western Park of the Forbidden City, the emperor’s personal domain. For Prince Jing, a feudal prince, to arrive uninvited and without notification—how would the inherently suspicious Jiajing Emperor interpret such actions?
Thus, Eunuch Wei preferred to delay, shifting the burden to Consort Lu Jingfei. As the favored consort managing the imperial harem, her commands would carry far more legitimacy than those of a mere supervising eunuch from a princely residence.Consumed by maternal love, Lu Jingfei disregarded the forty-eight selected maidens following her and immediately commanded, "Everyone—whether my attendants or the island guards—form a circle from the foot of the hill and comb upward like a net to find Prince Jing!"
Eunuch Wei remarked, "Even if we encircle the base, I fear we still lack sufficient manpower."
Seeing the blood on the glass lens, Lu Jingfei burned with anxiety and snapped, "Include yourself, include me, and summon all forty-eight maidens and their accompanying grannies! Everyone must search for Prince Jing!"
Setting aside the dignity of a favored consort, Lu Jingfei changed into soft-soled embroidered shoes and personally ascended the hill to seek her son.
Everyone, including the palace female physician Wei Caiwei, joined the search for Prince Jing on the hill.
Wei Caiwei was perplexed: What was happening? How did Prince Jing come to Qionghua Island? And now he was missing? Such a major incident—why hadn’t Lu Ying and the others mentioned it?
Even with her rebirth into a second life, Wei Caiwei never imagined that Prince Jing was the very lecher Lu Ying, Wang Daxia, and the others were still pursuing!
What kind of feudal prince would stoop to spying on his own father’s women? This was sheer depravity!
Wei Caiwei wore lightweight lambskin boots for ease of movement.
The selected maidens, however, suffered greatly. To enhance their figures and gait during the selection process, the grannies had made them wear high-platform wooden shoes (similar to modern platform shoes with curved, boat-like soles—high in the middle and upturned at both ends). These shoes were fine on level ground, lending a light step and added height, but on mountainous terrain, they became unsteady and perilous. Most maidens were assigned search areas without smooth steps, making it dangerous to climb rocks and woods in such footwear.
Soon, maidens began spraining ankles or falling. As a physician, Wei Caiwei hurried with her medical bag to reset bones and treat the injured.
The unluckiest maiden stepped on a loose stone, lost her footing, and tumbled down from the mountainside.
"Ah!"
Screaming, the maiden rolled downhill, colliding with two other climbing maidens mid-fall. All three tumbled downward together.
The scene froze the other maidens in terror; they clung desperately to trees or rocks.
Granny Song, advanced in years, grew dizzy after a short climb and nearly got hit by the rolling maidens.
"Granny, be careful!" Li Jiubao grabbed Granny Song’s hand and pulled her toward the pine tree she was holding.
Of the three falling maidens, two were halted midway by pine trees blocking their waists. The most unfortunate one crashed straight down, slamming hard into a rock with a dull thud. She lay motionless, blood streaming from her forehead and splattering her python robe and the chrysanthemum mandarin square on her chest.
"A death has occurred! Help!" the maidens screamed in panic. Bonded by their weeks together in the Palace of Gathered Elegance, they felt a shared grief at the tragic sight. Defying Lu Jingfei’s search order, they stopped to remove their cumbersome platform shoes and rushed in stockings to aid the fallen trio.
Li Jiubao, hardened by childhood chores like roof repairs, was robust and agile. She was the first to kick off her shoes and dash down, checking the breath of the maiden who had hit the rock: "She’s still breathing!"Wei Caiwei set down the lightly injured court lady and rushed to rescue the one who had fainted from the impact. She immediately took out hemostatic powder and sprinkled it on the court lady’s forehead, then tightly bandaged it with gauze.
Eunuch Wei was still shouting from above, “Prince Jing has not been found yet—we cannot stop! Everyone, get back here!”
The court ladies had no choice but to continue, climbing up wearing only their socks—there was no other way, as wearing high-platform shoes would have been life-threatening.
Hearing Eunuch Wei’s selfish and callous attitude, Wei Caiwei’s anger surged. The demeanor of Wei, the influential court official from her past life, was instantly provoked. She roared at Eunuch Wei:
“Eunuch Wei is the chief steward of Prince Jing’s residence. His salary comes from Prince Jing’s accounts. These are court ladies from the Palace of Gathered Elegance, meticulously selected by the Directorate of Ceremonial from the capital region. How can a steward from Prince Jing’s residence arbitrarily command the court ladies of the Forbidden City?”
Eunuch Wei retorted angrily, “What does a lowly female physician like you understand? This is Consort Jing’s order!”
Wei Caiwei immediately refuted, “Times have changed. Now, lives are at stake—three are severely injured, and five are lightly injured. Consort Jing is benevolent; how could she knowingly send these court ladies to their deaths one by one, like lambs to the slaughter?”
Seeing that Wei Caiwei was sharp-tongued and reasoned logically, Eunuch Wei, unable to argue further, pointed at her and scolded, “Audacious female physician! How dare you incite discord and sow dissension here? Guards, seize her!”
“Who dares lay a hand on me!” Wei Caiwei raised her waist token. “I am Wei Caiwei, the female physician personally recommended to the Directorate of Ceremonial by Lord Lu, the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard! My duty is to protect the court ladies of the Palace of Gathered Elegance. If you, from Prince Jing’s residence, show no respect for Lord Lu and dare to lay hands on me in the Forbidden City, are you attempting rebellion?”
Author’s Note: Hahahaha, the situation is escalating, and the drama is intensifying wildly.
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