His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

Chapter 279 The Forbidden Place

True enough, a woman came to Xiao Fang’s courtyard early in the morning and she was the one who was in charge of Xiao Fang’s disguise. A forty years old woman named Auntie Mao.

Xiao Fang only let Han Yi and Han Er inside her room, she let the others do other works. She only needed her trustest people around.

Uncle Qiu decided not to turn her into a servant but stayed as a woman by becoming a maidservant. However, Auntie Mao added a hideous scar on a large part of Xiao Fang’s smooth face, making no one would recognize Xiao Fang’s real face. Not only that, the scar was scary enough to make people unintentionally trying to evade looking at her face directly.

Xiao Fang was quite satisfied with Auntie Mao’s works. Another subordinate of Uncle Qiu explained that there was indeed a maidservant that had the same hideous scar as her and she was shunned by the others, thus, she rarely appeared outside. Uncle Qiu already arranged that maidservant to be hidden, so she wouldn’t suddenly appear and ruin their plan to infiltrate the forbidden place.

After that, she went to Uncle Qiu’s place. Uncle Qiu almost couldn’t recognize his own goddaughter and it proved that Ah Mao hadn’t lost her skills despite being stranded in this place along with him.

"Master... with a scar as big as mine, won’t it scare that person?" Xiao Fang asked. She had started to get into the role and that person referred to Aunt Yue. She didn’t know what she should call Aunt Yue, thus, she could only call her that person for now.

"She’s not a small-minded person, so it should be fine," Uncle Qiu answered leisurely. "You can call her ’The Sacred One’. This is how the Emperor wants her to be called by us --- just to show Aunt Yue that he respects her talents." Uncle Qiu said the last part in a sarcastic way because he could see how hypocrite the Emperor was.

"This maidservant... did she ever go along with you?" Xiao Fang asked curiously.If the answer was yes, she needed to know how this maidservant was usually behaving. Fortunately, Uncle Qiu said that she had never followed him there and it meant... she could just be herself.

Xiao Fang knew that she needed to do the mission more seriously, after all, this was for Yao Ling --- her best friend. Yao Ying had brought the news that Yao Ling hadn’t woken up yet and it somehow made Xiao Fang become concerned and worried at the same time. The sooner she could ask Aunt Yue, the better.

Uncle Qiu only brought her along and Xiao Fang needed to bring the gifts for Aunt Yue. He didn’t come in from the front gate where Yao Ling made the symbols glowing, instead, they went in from a side door --- which very small and this was the door where the maidservants in the forbidden place used to come and go.

The guards who were guarding the forbidden place asked them, "Da Ren, are you bringing a new maidservant today? You usually bring a few more people... how come there are only the two of you?"

Uncle Qiu merely laughed, "I don’t bring many gifts this time, hence one person is enough to accompany me."

The guards nodded their head and they didn’t really pay attention to Xiao Fang’s face, because they were disgusted by her scar. They just thought to themselves, ’Why bring such an ugly maidservant to meet the person inside?’

They were mere ordinary guards, so naturally, they didn’t know who was being confined inside the forbidden place. Not only that, Aunt Yue was old and she had never roaming around to the outer courtyard.

The guards let them in and Uncle Qiu quickly led her inside. She whispered to Uncle Qiu, "Godfather, can I ask her about my future?"

The latter only shook his head helplessly. "What kind of things inside your head? Don’t talk nonsense! Aunt Yue only says something that she wants to say..."

Xiao Fang nodded in understanding, even though she was slightly disappointed. Uncle Qiu saw that her hands were a bit shaky and he reminded her, "Don’t drop the gifts!"

"Yes, Master," Xiao Fang said politely. After that, they didn’t talk anymore because they knew that a few hidden guards were loitering around there. They didn’t bother to show up in front of Uncle Qiu, because this was indeed his schedule to meet with Aunt Yue.

Xiao Fang thought that the forbidden place would be decorated luxuriously, however, what laid in front of her eyes was quite different from her imagination. The garden was quite lush with greenery, however, that was it. No decoration like a fountain, a small statue, or a lovely gate. It gave her the feeling that they went inside an unkempt forest.

Unlike her courtyard, this forbidden place was desolate from any servants or maidservants. No one cleaned up the place where Aunt Yue stayed and it made the whole place look so dusty. How could anyone live in this place? She even saw a few cobwebs here and there.

She had thought that there would be an imaginable treasure inside this palace, however... in reality, Aunt Yue only lived in a small old house. What palace? What treasures? It was a mere exaggeration.

"Master, is... is this where The Sacred One lives?" Xiao Fang asked in disbelief.

She realized that this forbidden place was only luxurious from the outside just for the sake of an appearance. It showed how the Han Emperor treated Aunt Yue --- he didn’t even pretend to treat Aunt Yue kindly. She was a mere prisoner in his eyes, nothing more. Xiao Fang shook his head, knowing that the more she saw the truth... the more she felt disgusted by the Han Emperor’s pretentiousness!

Uncle Qiu nodded at her question. "Yes... I have tried to ask several times for the improvement of Aunt Yue’s treatment, however... it fell into deaf ears until I became tired of asking." He sighed sadly when he looked at the old woman’s living place.

There were limited things that he could do and he already did everything that he could. Uncle Qiu explained that there were two loyal maidservants that stayed by Aunt Yue’s side, but they were already dead... That was why the current condition of Aunt Yue was worse than before. Thus, she lived all alone. Her sight had been damaged and how could she clean up her own courtyard with her half blind condition?

There were no maidservants that would make their presence known, that was why Uncle Qiu said in a loud voice, "Aunt Yue... I’m here..."

A soft voice came from inside the house and there was an excited tone in it, "Little Qiu? Come in! Come in!"

Uncle Qiu and Xiao Fang quickly came inside the room. The inner part of the house looked better than the outside. At least, there was no dust and the decoration made it look warm. There was a woman sitting on a luohan bed. Xiao Fang had guessed that the old woman must have looked so... old, but contrary to the expectation... she looked so young! She looked half her real age!

Uncle Qiu laughed crispily and said, "Aunt Yue ah~! You look younger every time I see you!"

Aunt Yue let out a chuckle and said, "You always have such a sweet mouth! This old bone already can’t see things clearly ah~! Only you stay by my side all this time!" She felt grateful that the youngster was willing to come and chat with her once in a while. Even though she got the Han Emperor’s permission, if Little Qiu wasn’t willing to fulfill it, then there was nothing that she could do.