While Zhou Weizhao was busy quelling the rebellion in Yangquan County, Song Chuyi also received news from Qing Zhuo, and couldn’t help but feel somewhat astonished: “Yangquan County rebelled?” The entire county’s people had followed a wealthy household in revolt over coal mines, wanting to seize the mines for themselves. Wealth moves hearts, not to mention the local common people were all terrified of poverty. The wealthy household promised to share the profits equally among them, so naturally they all became bloodthirsty.

While swiftly arranging her hair into a hanging coil parted-bun style, Ziyun searched through the jewelry box for a jade hairpin carved in the shape of crabapple flowers to pin in her hair. Looking at Song Chuyi in the mirror, she nodded affirmatively: “I heard they became so bloodthirsty they even killed the county magistrate and county deputy, and seized the yamen. For a coal mine, every one of them no longer cares even about having nine generations of their families exterminated.”

Terrified of poverty, they naturally became reckless. Song Chuyi recalled what she had seen and heard on the boat earlier and suddenly closed her eyes.

Qing Ying shot Ziyun a look—when passing through rapids, they had vaguely seen many small bundles faintly visible in a stretch of water. When they curiously asked what those were, the answer was truly unbearable to hear—they were all corpses of baby girls. Many families who bore daughters considered them money-losing goods and directly threw them into the water. It had even become a custom.

Ziyun also knew she had misspoken and hastily changed the subject: “Qing Zhuo also said that His Highness is going together with the Prince Consort to Yangquan to quell the rebellion this time. He wants to go along and requests that Miss write a letter to His Highness.”

Zhou Weizhao had given both Qing Zhuo and Han Feng to Song Chuyi for her use. These two had always remained loyally by Song Chuyi’s side, extremely measured in their conduct, never overstepping boundaries by even half a step, never saying an extra word. They were truly worry-free.

Song Chuyi nodded thoughtfully. In her memories from her previous life, there had been no such incident at Yangquan County. She hadn’t even heard of this county name, so she didn’t know if she could help. But regardless of whether she could help, it was only natural to think of some strategies for Zhou Weizhao. Speaking of it, it was somewhat amusing—she found the Empress’s impatient desire to use her to bind the Song and Cui families for the Eastern Palace’s use unbearable, yet facing Zhou Weizhao, she harbored not a trace of resentment.

Perhaps it was because His Highness had helped her far too many times. From their first meeting when he helped her deal with Fang Deng from the Five Cities Military Commissioner’s Office, to later with Lianyi at Tongzhou—all along this journey he had truly helped her immensely.

She sat at the small table, took up her brush to write a letter, and handed it to Ziyun: “Send this out to Qing Zhuo. Tell him it’s my instruction—he may take this letter and seek out His Highness the Crown Prince’s son.”

Ziyun nodded and went out, returning quickly. This time she brought along two people. She walked quickly to Song Chuyi’s side, crouched down, and told her: “Qing Zhuo says these two young ladies were sent by His Highness. I hear they also came down from Longhu Mountain and are highly skilled. Originally they were to be sent before we left the capital, but when they arrived in the capital, we had already boarded the boat, so they came together with His Highness the Crown Prince’s son.”

Song Chuyi felt somewhat bewildered. Wasn’t Longhu Mountain a place for Daoist priests? How could there be female Daoists? She couldn’t quite figure it out and, after deep consideration, had Ziyun lead them in.

Once they were led in, Song Chuyi was somewhat surprised. These two young girls were probably about the same age as Ziyun and Qing Ying, at most around fifteen. She had thought that being highly skilled in martial arts and being Daoist nuns, they should be somewhat older.

She recalled that Qing Zhuo and Han Feng were about this age too, and couldn’t help but ask them curiously: “Do you know Qing Zhuo and Han Feng as well? What are your names?”

The two were identical in height, build, and even figure. Now both wore ordinary dress—one in a water-blue jacket, the other in a light pink jacket. Upon hearing this, the girl on the left spoke first: “I’m called Qing Luo, and she’s Han Yan. Qing Zhuo and Han Feng are our senior martial brothers.”

As if she had no intention of continuing, Song Chuyi didn’t ask further. After thinking for a moment, she smiled: “You’ve just arrived, so why don’t you first follow Ziyun to learn the rules for a while? It’s just that I’m putting you to waste—having you stay by my side with all your martial skills is rather underutilizing your talents.”

Han Yan pursed her lips and quickly lifted her head to glance at her. With this one glance, her eyes couldn’t bear to look away—Song Chuyi wore a pink silk gauze shirt embroidered with crabapple flower borders, with a snowflake gauze eight-panel flowing skirt below. Her hair was simply adorned with a single crabapple jade hairpin, decorated only with pearl-sized beads. Her pair of eyes sparkled with flowing radiance, indescribably beautiful.

Qing Luo inconspicuously tugged at her clothing to pull her head down, then replied softly in affirmation. As they were about to leave, she turned back to look at Song Chuyi and asked somewhat hesitantly: “Sixth Miss, I see your brow area is tinged with blue and your eye circles are dark. You must have lost proper care during the arduous boat journey.”

Song Chuyi had indeed lost proper care, which was why she lacked energy today. After accompanying Old Madam Cui in conversation for a while, she felt extremely fatigued. Hearing this, Ziyun looked at her in surprise: “You know medicine?”

Qing Luo nodded: “I have some knowledge. Let me prepare medicine for Sixth Miss first. Will Sixth Miss drink it for a while?”

Not only skilled in martial arts but also knowledgeable in medicine—and from her manner, it was definitely not as simple as “some knowledge.” Song Chuyi hardly knew how to thank Zhou Weizhao for his thoughtfulness. Her smile became a few degrees warmer: “Since that’s the case, thank you very much.”

Qing Luo herself breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this Sixth Miss was easy to deal with and wouldn’t insist on getting to the bottom of everything no matter what.

Ziyun led them downstairs and told Nanny Xu of their origins, then had Nanny Xu inform the stewards. Suddenly adding two people, she still needed to let the Cui family’s steward nannies know, otherwise they might think it was due to inadequate hospitality on their part. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?

Qing Ying attended to Song Chuyi, adding a bright red feathered satin-faced昭君兜 lined and trimmed with white fox fur. As she tied the strings for her, she said: “On the boat, the repeated fevers truly frightened us. Miss really suffered quite a bit. Now having a maid skilled in medicine by your side, who knows how much trouble it will save us. His Highness is truly thoughtful.”

She had originally come from the Empress’s palace. Although she had been bestowed by the Empress to Madam Cui, who then gave her to Song Chuyi, no matter how many layers separated them, she still remembered her former mistress. Added to the fact that Zhou Weizhao had helped Song Chuyi considerably on several occasions, she naturally felt that His Highness the Crown Prince’s son was excellent in every way.

Just as she finished putting on the Zhaojun vest, Qing Tao outside called out with a smile for Nanny Qian and lifted the curtain to usher Nanny Qian through the door.