The Double

"Yes, when I came to see Your Highness the other day, weren’t you still in good health? How did you come to this state in such a short time?" Ji Shuran also wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

At this moment, Hong Zhu, the close palace maid of Consort Li, knelt before Emperor Hongxiao and said, "Your servant has something to say, and I dare to tell Your Majesty."

Emperor Hongxiao said, "Speak."

"Several years ago, Your Highness had encountered this situation. At that time, Your Highness was in grave danger, and it was... Chongxu Daoist Master who discovered the cause, which allowed Your Highness to escape from disaster. Now, without any reason, Your Highness has again met with this misfortune, yet no solution can be found. Your servant sees that it resembles the incident from years ago, and I boldly plead with Your Majesty, please summon Chongxu Daoist Master to diagnose Your Highness. Could it be that there are evil spirits haunting Your Highness in the palace!"

After saying this, Hong Zhu "bang bang bang" kowtowed several times to Emperor Hongxiao. Seeing this, Luwu also knelt down.

Years ago, Consort Li was envied and hated by other concubines in the palace, who somehow acquired Consort Li’s birth details and used a Warding Technique, causing Consort Li to wither away day by day, almost losing her life. It happened to be the Empress Dowager’s birthday, and Chongxu Daoist Master was invited to perform a ritual in Qing Palace, where he discovered something amiss. He found the placed effigy. The Empress Dowager was enraged that someone dared to do such a thing in the palace, and that concubine was given a cup of poisoned wine, but it was announced to outside parties that she died of illness. Because of this, Consort Li was able to reclaim her life and gradually recovered.

And now, at this moment, Hong Zhu suddenly spoke of the incident from those years ago.

One would expect that after hearing this, Emperor Hongxiao would be immediately pleased to have found a new method. But after a long wait, there was still no response from Emperor Hongxiao. For some reason, Hong Zhu felt uneasy, and cold sweat gradually seeped from her forehead. While she hesitated whether to kowtow a few more times, she heard the voice of Emperor Hongxiao above her head. He said, "Chongxu Daoist Master wanders all over the place, and now his whereabouts are even more unknown..."

"Is Your Majesty speaking of that esteemed Chongxu Daoist Master?" Lady Chen Ji stood up and looked over, saying, "This servant heard three days ago, that in a temple in Yanjing City, a revered individual performed a ritual, seeming to be Chongxu Daoist Master. In this case, Chongxu Daoist Master might still be in Yanjing City."

"Is that so?" Emperor Hongxiao’s voice betrayed no emotion, and he waved his hand, Eunuch Su quickly approached: "Issue our decree, summon Chongxu Daoist Master to the palace immediately, to diagnose Consort Li."

Eunuch Su left to execute the command.