Just then, Qing Xia suddenly extended her other hand, and with lightning speed, she grabbed that person’s hand firmly. With a slight application of force, her small, tender white palm followed the other’s retreating movement and reached forward, grasping the other person’s hand tightly in her palm.

The hand in her grasp clearly trembled, and Qing Xia felt thin streams of sweat slowly seeping out from that person’s palm.

Two hands, just like this, clasped tightly together in the dark hollow of the wall.

“Who are you?” Qing Xia leaned close to the opening, carefully looking out while lowering her voice to ask softly.

However, the person on the other side didn’t utter a word. The hand held by Qing Xia was somewhat stiff, with thick calluses between the slender fingers, as if accustomed to rough work, or perhaps to gripping swords and blades.

Qing Xia lifted her other hand, bringing the vermillion-colored bottle close to her nose. A familiar herbal medicine smell immediately wafted over, very similar to the medicinal soup she had drunk last night.

“Are you He Shun?” She asked softly, but there was still not a sound from the other side. At this moment, footsteps suddenly echoed from the direction of the main gate. Qing Xia knew it was the person who delivered meals today.

The person on the other side seemed to have heard the commotion as well, becoming somewhat anxious and gently tugging backward.

The footsteps grew closer and closer, but that person didn’t pull forcefully, only testing carefully once before still allowing Qing Xia to hold on.

The palace servants from the meal preparation room knocked gently on the door, then called out loudly without any politeness: “Your Ladyship, this servant is coming in!”

The sound of unlocking came through, and everything seemed to slow down.

Qing Xia knew that as soon as the maid from the meal preparation room entered, with the defensive strength of over two hundred personal guards outside, the person behind the wall would have no escape. Yet that person didn’t struggle to flee, as if placing all fate into Qing Xia’s hands.

Insects chirped from the withered grass, and the noon sunlight carried a bright, warm feeling despite the cold wind. Qing Xia leaned against the wall, holding a rough, large hand, and finally slowly let go.

“Your Ladyship, what are you doing standing there?” The maid asked loudly without any consideration, showing no fear whatsoever toward this noble lady of the Heavenly Dynasty. Everyone knew that this Your Ladyship had offended Concubine Dan and angered the Crown Prince, leaving no room for redemption.

Qing Xia raised an eyebrow, coldly forcing back the little maid’s questioning words. Her right hand nimbly retreated into her wide sleeve, and she stood against the wall, blocking the opening behind her, saying coldly: “Put down the things and leave immediately.”

“Already in this kind of place, still putting on airs.” The maid muttered quietly, but it still reached Qing Xia’s ears clearly. She didn’t speak, only looked coldly at this maid who, at merely fifteen or sixteen years old, had already developed such scheming eyes.

The maid rudely placed the food box on the stone plate in the courtyard, not even bothering to take the items inside, then turned and walked out the main gate. When leaving, she even slammed the gate shut with great force.

Hearing the sound of the door being locked, Qing Xia slowly turned around, only to see that the opening had disappeared. The green bricks that had been removed were once again blocking it up, and without close inspection, one couldn’t see any traces of loosening. A thin string slowly dropped down from the cracks in the wall, with an oil-paper wrapped package hanging below, hidden in the deep weeds where it wouldn’t be discovered unless one approached closely.

Qing Xia slowly crouched down against the wall and picked up the oil-paper package, opening it layer by layer.

A package of densely arranged Chinese herbs, still uncooked. Each herb was labeled with tiny calligraphy marking the herb’s name and medicinal properties. The handwriting was strong and powerful—it was truly hard to imagine how a man accustomed to writing like this could write characters so small. Qing Xia picked up the herb package and smelled it near her nose; indeed, it had the same herbal scent as the bottle.

She knew the other party hadn’t expected Qing Xia to brew the medicine herself. The purpose of doing this was merely to put her at ease, so she wouldn’t worry about poison in the medicine.

Playing with the vermillion-colored bottle, Qing Xia leaned against the yellowed grass. The noon sunlight was warm, not at all like winter. She hadn’t eaten anything for a long time, when suddenly an enticing aroma rushed into Qing Xia’s nostrils. Qing Xia frowned and looked down, only to see another small package beneath the oil paper. After opening it, she found steaming hot, fragrant beef.

The warmth from her palm flowed through her fingers into Qing Xia’s heart. In the sky, the clouds were snow white.

When she woke up in the morning, her spirits were much better. After doing several stretching exercises in the room, she walked out the door with her head held high.

The gloom of many days was completely swept away. After barring the door from inside, Qing Xia took out paper and brush to begin her preparatory work.

Carefully climbing up the wall, fortunately this southern climate was warm, and even in winter there were lush forests. Qing Xia made full concealment preparations and began her first serious observation of this place where she was situated.

To the west was the direction of the main gate. Correspondingly, there were obviously many more open sentries—about twenty-some guards, fully armed and standing there twenty-four hours a day. At the nine o’clock direction, there were obvious signs of compressed grass, indicating hidden sentries lurking there.

To the north was water—a vast lake with what had originally been an elegant suspension bridge. Since Qing Xia had been housed here, it had been dismantled. Without diving equipment, jumping into the bone-chillingly cold lake in this season would be no different from suicide, so this could be directly filtered out.

To the south was the Qianqing Four Compounds, with people coming and going, appearing much livelier than here, and seemingly nothing special. However, upon Qing Xia’s careful observation, she discovered over a dozen hidden sentries of various sizes, and a corner tower in the southeast that appeared decorative also concealed mysteries. Stealth operations definitely required catching the enemy off guard. Now that they were watching with wide eyes waiting for her to come out, under such deliberate circumstances, no matter how skilled Qing Xia might be, she dared not be so presumptuous.

Finally, only the eastern wall remained. Behind that was a dense forest. Chu Palace was different from the Forbidden City that Qing Xia had seen in modern times, with heavier natural traces. Not only was it vast in area, but the gardens had quite the artistic conception of Jiangnan gardens, with much less artificial modification. Strangely, there were also many hidden sentries here, and a patrol of soldiers frequently walked beneath the perimeter wall. Deep trenches had been dug below the wall, connecting to the northern lake and filled with water. Seeing this, Qing Xia couldn’t help but be startled. This meant that yesterday He Shun had been standing in water when delivering medicine to her. Although South Chu’s climate was somewhat milder, it was still winter after all, with temperatures around zero degrees, and the water temperature was bone-chillingly cold. Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but feel a trace of goodwill toward that foolishly loyal soldier.

After observing the full circle, Qing Xia sat on the stone plate in the courtyard, taking paper and brush. Before long, she had sketched out a floor plan of the Qianqing Four Compounds. Dozens of open and hidden sentries were marked with circles, densely packed like an ant colony. Qing Xia frowned as she drew for a while, then thought some more, and using her extraordinary memory, drew out a floor plan of Chu Palace and a layout map of Shengdu.

Perhaps due to professional habit, whenever Qing Xia arrived in a city, she always habitually found the best escape routes. After completing all this, the sun had already moved westward. Qing Xia walked to the eastern wall, and indeed, at the previous location, there was still an oil-paper wrapped package, with a vermillion-colored bottle quietly hanging on the thin rope.

Qing Xia spent a full three days recording the guard shift changes, discovering that this group of imperial guards worked on a three-shift rotation system, changing shifts every four hours. Perhaps the system established by Chu Li was seamless, but when implemented by these soldiers, they inevitably became somewhat lax. After all, everyone found it unreasonable to mobilize such forces to guard a sickly woman. Chu Li couldn’t tell them he was waiting for Prince Qi to walk into the trap again, thus giving Qing Xia an opportunity to exploit.

Using fine rope to bind her trouser legs and brocade embroidered shoes together, tying up her full head of long hair, inserting the dagger she had always kept on her person between her trouser legs, and finally taking a long rope to bind around her thigh. When the wide skirt was let down, everything was hidden within. After completing all this, the moon had reached the middle of the sky. Taking a deep breath, she opened the room door.

It was already midnight, with the bright moon hanging round in the sky, casting pale luminescence. On the ground covered with thick frost, a young man in jade-belted python robes stood steadily beside the courtyard, his eyes looking toward Qing Xia standing at the doorway, his gaze brilliant as stars.

“So late, where are you going?”

Qing Xia’s heart jumped with alarm, but her face remained unchanged as she said coldly: “Having reached this place, where do you think I could go?” While still inside the room, her body tilted and she quickly grabbed a cup. The door panel blocked the other party’s view, and Qing Xia walked out holding the cup without looking sideways. Coming to the corner of the house, she opened the water tank lid, scooped up a cup of water and drank it down in one gulp.

His brow immediately furrowed tightly, his voice carrying barely suppressed anger: “I heard you were ill.”

“Chu Li,” Qing Xia spoke lightly, slowly turning around with a cold smile: “You shouldn’t have come here.”

Chu Li’s expression froze, the darkness in his eyes deepening as he said in a heavy voice: “Whether I should have come or not, I know clearly in my heart.”

Qing Xia slowly shook her head, saying lightly: “Those who follow different paths cannot work together. Zhuang Qing Xia and you were never on the same road. You imprisoning her is perfectly justified. But if your heart harbors feelings for her, sooner or later you’ll reap what you sow.”

“Zhuang Qing Xia, you think too highly of yourself.” Chu Li snorted coldly, saying resentfully: “I came here only to confirm that you haven’t died yet. What Qi’an inflicted on me back then, I’ll recover a hundred, a thousand times over sooner or later!”

Qing Xia looked at him steadily, only feeling a wave of sorrow rising from the bottom of her heart. From an observer’s perspective, Zhuang Qing Xia had betrayed Chu Li for Prince Qi, so Chu Li imprisoning her was perfectly reasonable. Even in such a feudal society, Chu Li could very well have ground her bones to dust and scattered her ashes the moment he first became slightly suspicious. But Chu Li hadn’t done so. He had schemed painstakingly to verify this matter, simply wanting to give Zhuang Qing Xia a chance to live.