"Who are you talking about?"

Instantly, Gu Yunxi astonishedly stood up from the chair. In her eyes, the clear waves spread, making the eyes darker and deeper.

Her numb heart which had been frozen long suddenly convulsed. When her whole body seemed to be struck by thunder, she was stunned.

Huanan He...

She was so familiar with the name which hadn't been heard long. It was just like the shackle of fate, twisting around her heart so that they couldn't be apart.

"Huanan He... Huanan He!"

Gu Yunxi muttered in a sad voice, as tears were going to flood from her swollen eyes. But she tried to refrain so that she wouldn't easily shed tears.

"Is the man you have talked about... Huanan He?"

Zhiqi was astonished, subconsciously nodding and lowering her eyebrows. She didn't know which word she said was wrong and made Gu Yunxi sad.

"Your Grace, the Ninth Prince's name is Huanan He indeed..."

"That's right... That's right..."

Gu Yunxi couldn't keep calm anymore, suddenly turning around and slightly sobbing. Under the delicate garment, her thin shoulders shrugged and trembled.

One year had passed by, but she eventually knew something about him. The effort that she individually lived and bitterly waited in the cruel Palace was deserved.

Instantly, time seemed to turn back and she reminded the past things.

Gu Yunxi seemed to see the handsome man again, who stood upright and appeared elegant, with his deep eyes overlapping hers. It was like a shadow or dream, where her fingers were warmed by his temperature...

"Your Grace, Your Grace! What's wrong with you? If I have said something wrong, please just punish me. But if there is any bitterness in your mind, please tell me..."

Being worried and nervous, Zhiqi stood there. As she saw beautiful and thin Gu Yunxi shedding tears in front of her, she felt so distressed.

Then a voice of the chef maid Dong Zhu occurred from the outside.

"Your Grace, Princess Huaishu is standing on the outside and she wants to visit you. I have told her that you are sick and can't meet her, but she insists on staying and doesn't leave."

Gu Yunxi stopped crying and looked around the door alertly with watery eyes. Then she sat in front of the dresser.

She seriously looked into the rhombic mirror engraved with flowers and saw her pale face. After thinking for a while, Gu Yunxi unwound the red string on her right waist.

"Zhiqi, you let Dong Zhu arrange the lunch for me. And you send Princess Huaishu out of Jingyang Palace in person. When arriving in a place without other people, you give this red string to her."

Zhiqi took it with two hands, seriously staring at her.

"Your Grace, are there any words you make me relay to Princess Huaishu?"

Gu Yunxi squinted her eyes.

"You only need to tell her four words, protect the witch well. Then she will understand everything."

"I have remembered that."

Zhiqi frowned but didn't ask questions anymore. After saluting, she softly stepped out of the bedroom.

Gu Yunxi puffed some apricot petals' powder on her face, and repaired the makeup destroyed by her tears. Then she made her garment tidy and walked out of the bedroom.

In front of the table, the chief maid Dong Zhu was setting bowls and plates upon it.

When she found Gu Yunxi, Dong Zhu quietly shifted her clear eyes on Gu Yunxi's perfect makeup. After quietly observing it for a while, she said.

"Your Grace, Princess Huaishu is so impolite. After marrying one man in the western tribes, she has forgotten all our regulations. Just now, she tried to walk into the hall and visit you, and I couldn't stop her!"

Gu Yunxi calmly sat on the chair, picking one bamboo shoot in the plate with jade chopsticks. After chewing it elegantly, she slowly said.

"If so, you just give up stopping her. Is it better that you let her in?"

Dong Zhu was choked and her chest slightly trembled. She blushed and hesitantly muttered.

"I am just worried that she might disrupt you. After all, you have just been recovered, and should be not energetic to talk with her..."

"So, good girl." Gu Yunxi lowered her mouth and mocked.

"You care about me so much. Just say, what I should reward you?"

Dong Zhu was a spy dispatched by Huanan Xin, so that she would absolutely obey Huanan Xin's orders.

Gu Yunxi clearly knew, if she let Huanan Jiyan in just now, Huanan Xin would have gained the message before they started talking.

When many things had not been found out, she must be careful in many ways.

Anyhow, now she was followed by Zhiqi and had a real assistant.

At that time, Dong Zhu didn't realize the irony in Gu Yunxi's words, but thought Gu Yunxi wanted to reward her sincerely. Immediately, she raised her eyebrows high and couldn't cover her happiness anymore. Lowering her eyebrows, she smiled and pretended to refuse.

"I am the chief maid in Jingyang Palace, so I should think about everything ahead of you. I just do what I should do, so how can I accept your reward?"

With her fair fingertips, Gu Yunxi plucked the slight and beaming silver strings ornamented in the front of chopsticks, saying with a fake smile.

"Previously, His Majesty ordered people in Shanggong Bureau to deliver a cloth of Su Silks. I think the pink color suits you, so I reward you. You can make a spring garment with the cloth."

Dong Zhu immediately appeared greedy, deeply lowering her body and saluting.

"Your Grace, I thank you for the reward."

...

Huanan Jiyan quietly followed Zhiqi, but when they reached in front of Suihan Hall, she suddenly stopped in a fit of pique. In serious expression, she asked Zhiqi.

"You, who are you? Just through seeing your garment, you are not the maid in Jingyang Palace! Now that you say that you want to deliver Yunxi's oral message to me, just speak it out! If you dare to cheat me, I will never forgive you!"

Zhiqi nodded and held up the thing in her palm to Huanan Jiyan.

"Do you know that thing?"

Instantly, Huanan Jiyan became quiet. Her sad eyes were lit up by the red string as brilliant as the fire.

"Is it Yunxi delivered to you?"

"Her Grace unwound it from her wrist and let me deliver it to you. She said that when you saw the string, you could know her mind."

Zhiqi stopped for a while, continuing to say.

"Please believe me, I had served Imperial Mother Yu and now I meet her little sister, Yunxi. So I will be loyal to her. Now she also wants to tell you four words."

Huanan Jiyan refrained her tears, quietly reaching her hand and taking the red string. In a trembling voice, she asked in the wind.

"What are the four words? You just tell me."

"Protect the witch well."

As tears flooded from her eyes, Huanan Jiyan firmly grasped the red string in her hands, being crying and smiling.

"She hasn't changed... She is Yunxi, she is still uncle's Yunxi..."

The red string represented the top rank in one's heart...

The red string was made by Leng Qingtang in person, also a token he gave to his beloved woman. At that time, Gu Yunxi delivered it to Huanan Jiyan in the place, just trying to express that she had never changed her love for Leng Qingtang.

But the situation was so sophisticated now, and she hadn't seen the person she wanted to see. As a result, she couldn't make Huanan Xin get anything on her when she did something.

To ask Huanan Jiyan to protect the witch, was just a preparation for her next action.

Based on Gu Yunxi's understanding of Huanan Xin, she knew clearly that he would never be satisfied with the current situation.

Huanan Xin had known the thing that she took a heart-by-heart blood bond with Leng Qingtang. In order to occupy her, even completely kill Leng Qingtang, he must dispatch someone to go to Udan and seek for the witch.

If she wanted to protect Leng Qingtang well, she must keep the power of the heart-by-heart blood bond.

Besides, whether the finished heart-by-heart bond could be removed or not, she didn't hope that because of her, one more ignorant person was harmed.

After lunch, Gu Yunxi leaned on the bed and stared at one albizzia outside the window. In the brilliant sunshine, its blossoming flowers were as red as the flames.

She was still worried, as she couldn't make sense of one thing.

Her darling Huanan He, also Leng Qingtang, was in the capital now. From the words of Zhiqi, she could learn Leng Qingtang seemed to somewhat keep in touch with Huanan Xin.

But why did he try to quickly seek for her?

Or perhaps, he had suffered something again within this year. Besides, he might make a certain agreement with Huanan Xin for her and reach an uneasy compromise, in order that he could remain in the capital?

As she ceaselessly thought, Gu Yunxi's eyes became clearer and clear. She had no mind to sleep.

The sunshine afternoon was soft and warm. The wonderful fragrance of makeup in the wind spread around all the weird corners in the Palace.

When Gu Yunxi got up, she heard something noisy outside, which made her feel tired.

She let Zhiqi have a look. Zhiqi quickly came back and said, Concubine Liang led four or five young concubines in the Palace in paying respects to Gu Yunxi.

Hearing that, Gu Yunxi felt it ridiculous.

"Concubine Liang is a concubine at the second rank and superior to me. She shouldn't pay respects to me?"

When Gu Yunxi felt confused, some steps occurred on the outside. Then a woman's smile which was strange but loud occurred.

"Where is Sister Yun? Dong Zhu, be quick to let her out. Then we can know each other."

Gu Yunxi sat in front of the dresser and heard the words clearly. In calm eyes, she looked at Zhiqi and coldly mocked.

"Look, how excellent the maid is! Before noon, she just had stopped Princess Huaishu. But at that time, when concubines want to visit me, she shouldn't stop them."

Zhiqi covered up Gu Yunxi with a white long-sleeved over-dress embroidered with twin lotus flowers, softly saying.

"Now that you don't like them, you just don't meet them. I will do something to persuade them to go back."

Gu Yunxi puckered her lips, but distaining.

"I meet them. Why not meet? The thing destined to happen will befall me one day. Anyhow, even though I avoid them today, I can't hedge them forever."

Given that she had even gone into the Palace and served concubines in the imperial harem, Gu Yunxi naturally knew the reality of the sophisticated imperial harem.

Before noon, she took the imperial carriage to go back to the hall, which must make someone unhappy.

Anyhow, she was free, and it was better to meet those "sisters".

She just wanted to see, between those concubines of Huanan and those of Huanan Xin's father, which was sharper.