Chapter 52 Outbreak
Zheng Haoyuan obediently took his medicine and lied down on the bed. After everyone thought he had fallen asleep and the palace maids had dozed off, he quietly opened his eyes.
The palace maid on the ground had been replaced, but Zheng Haoyuan was even more unfamiliar with this one, unsure if he had ever seen her in the Bushou Palace.
Zheng Haoyuan tiptoed past the palace maid snoozing at the foot of his bed and slipped out the door. He was unfamiliar with the yard of the Traveling Palace, but it was much simpler than the Imperial Palace, and the security patrol of the passageways was not as tight.
Upon leaving the yard, Zheng Haoyuan remembered he didn’t know Eunuch Ho Sheng’s whereabouts at that moment. But he couldn’t bear the thought of going back. Should he go looking for his cousin?
Zheng Haoyuan hesitated; he needed to find out what exactly Ho Sheng had said.
Just then, an imperial physician hurried towards the yard with a medicine chest, followed by two little eunuchs—who were from his palace.
Zheng Haoyuan immediately followed them. One of the little eunuchs turned around and shuddered before Zheng Haoyuan’s glare sent him reeling back in fright. Zheng Haoyuan pointed towards the path ahead, looking at the little eunuch, who nodded tremblingly.
"What’s the matter, why the sudden seizure?"
"Sir, we didn’t dare leave him for a moment. The steward’s strength is terribly frightening. Four or five guards couldn’t subdue him, and that black qi is starting to rise from his foot again."
Zheng Haoyuan frowned, black qi? His mind flashed again to that living mass of black qi. What in the world was it?
Before Zheng Haoyuan could enter Noble Consort Wen’s secluded courtyard, he heard the terrifying screams of Ho Sheng from inside. The voice was already hoarse, even exuding a hysteria that suggested blood was coming up his throat, indicating Ho Sheng had been yelling for quite some time.