Night departure from the imperial palace, the emperor's illness is critical

  The cold wind was blowing gently, and under the cover of night, there were few people moving about in the palace. Gu Yunxi carried a palace lantern in front, followed by a man wearing a cloak, who had a basket in his right hand and walked with his head slightly bowed, looking extremely respectful.

  Another team of patrolling guards walked past Gu Yunxi's side, their eyes scanning the token at her waist before finally brushing past them. The palace lanterns flickered several times, and just as they were about to reach the inner courtyard exit, Gu Yunxi's gaze condensed, and she continued walking without stopping.

  "Halt!" The night watchman's face was stern as he looked up and down at Yun Xi, "The entire palace is under curfew tonight, what are you doing out?"

  Gu Yunxi's expression didn't change, "I am the guard of De Wang, at this moment the king is still inspecting the outer courtyard, seeing that it's getting late and the king hasn't had lunch yet, I'll take some food to the king."

  The soldier had already noticed that Gu Yunxi was someone by Gong Sunmo's side and knew that Gong Sunmo had received the emperor's order to investigate the assassination. At this moment, he was patrolling outside the courtyard, casting a suspicious glance at the basket in the man's hand behind Gu Yunxi. The soldier waved his hand, "Since you're delivering something for De Wang, hurry up and come back quickly. This afternoon, De Wang specifically instructed us not to let anyone out without permission."

  Gu Yunxi's mouth curved into a smile. "Since that's the case, thank you very much. Once I deliver these dishes to Prince Wang, I will naturally return."

  As the soldier opened the forbidden gate, Gu Yunxi felt a slight relief in her heart and walked out with quickened steps. She could sense the obvious excitement of the people behind her. Gu Yunxi pursed her lips, "Don't be in a hurry, the outer court is where the real challenge lies."

  The inner courtyard is usually the most heavily guarded place, and when the incident first occurred, no one would have thought that an assassin would hide there. However, Gong Sunlie was not present at that time, and many imperial relatives and concubines had left the inner courtyard, making it a deserted place, which also weakened the guards. The assassin could easily sneak in to avoid detection.

  After Gong Sunlie and others left, the entire inner courtyard was re-sealed off. With several times more patrolling forbidden troops than usual, plus his injuries, it's not easy for him to get out.

  After a day of patrolling, the Imperial Guards had no gains. Considering that there were many people and prying eyes in the outer courtyard, Gong Sunlie placed most of his men here. This was also what Gu Yunxi worried about the most. From the outer courtyard to the main gate of the imperial palace, it would take an incense stick's worth of time to walk. How much trouble she would encounter along this road, she had no idea.

  As soon as Gu Yunxi's words fell, a team of imperial guards came towards her direction. She narrowed her eyes slightly and walked past them with steady steps. Just like the previous imperial guards she had met, those people saw the token hanging from her waist and knew she was someone from the Duke's household. At this moment, they only took a couple more glances before walking past her as well.

  The residents of the outer courtyard were all relatives of Beijing officials. Although there was a curfew, some people still walked around outside. Gu Yunxi tried to avoid crowded areas and took small paths with dim lights. Not long after she started walking, several people coming towards her made her expression change slightly.

  Gu Yingxue was wearing a lake blue palace dress, with a white fox fur wrapped around her shoulders. Her delicate face under the dim light did not reduce her elegant demeanor by half. Her eyes swept across Gu Yunxi's body and then walked in this direction.

  Gu Yunxi's mouth twitched slightly as she gave a slight bow to Gu Yingxue, but didn't address her by any title.

  Gu Yingxue looked up and down at Gu Yunxi several times, "Sister is dressed like this out of the inner courtyard, where are you going?"

  The man standing behind Gu Yunxi took a deep breath, and only heard the person in front of him say in a soft voice, "It's getting late and the king hasn't had lunch yet. Cloud Xi, go and bring some food for the king."

  Gu Yingxue covered her mouth and smiled slightly, "Sister is indeed very dedicated to serving Prince Wang."

  Gū Yún Xī's eyes narrowed, "As a subject of the monarch, I naturally have to consider more for my lord. It's getting late, so I'll take my leave now."

  Gu Yingxue nodded, watching Gu Yunxi pass by in front of her, but her gaze fell lightly on the man following behind her. As she watched Gu Yunxi and the two men walk further and further away, Gu Yingxue's eyes narrowed slightly, "Jin Xin, follow her."

  The more she walked towards the gate, the more guards there were. Gu Yunxi felt that something was off, only because a strong bloody smell had emanated from the person behind her. The ones they had encountered earlier were just a small patrol team. This time, when they went out, the gate guards would definitely inspect them carefully. At that time...

  "Go back!"

  Two words fell to the ground, Gu Yunxi turned around and walked towards the meeting place. The man behind her also realized that his injuries were severe and it was impossible for so many people to pass through, so he too turned back. However, just as they had turned around, a low shout came over.

  "Halt!"

  Gu Yunxi's eyebrows suddenly furrowed, this voice was extremely familiar to her, if it wasn't the Imperial Guard Commander Lin Zhu, who else could it be! Gu Yunxi's entire body tensed up, she slowly turned around, and bowed, "Commander Lin."

  Lin Zhu's gaze swept over Gu Yunxi, and she had already hidden the Duke's token in her sleeve after turning around. Lin Zhu's eyes narrowed, "Who are you? What brings you to the palace gate so late?"

  Before her words had fallen, Lin Zhu's nose twitched and her eyes scanned over the two of them, "Which one of you... is injured?"

  As soon as the words came out, the guards standing far away all looked in this direction. The cold night wind whistled by, and Gu Yunxi's eyes narrowed slightly. She took a deep breath and was about to speak when a soft voice came from behind her, "Why haven't you two left yet?"

  Gu Yunxi's words were stuck at the corner of her mouth, she turned around and saw a four-man sedan chair walking not far behind him. As the sedan chair approached, a stronger smell of blood came over.

  Heavy black curtains hung down around the sedan chair, a cold and stern gaze shot out from behind the curtains, falling heavily on Gu Yunxi.

  The eunuch beside him glanced at Mu Yan and the man with a cloak, "Didn't you tell them to go ahead and prepare for the hot spring in the palace?"

  Gu Yun Xie's heart skipped a beat, "I forgot to take the token given by Your Highness when I left."

  Lin Zhu looked at this situation with a frown, her eyes looking towards the black curtain, "Is it Prince Chu sitting inside?"

  A cold wind suddenly blew, and the black curtain was lifted by the wind. Gu Yunxi raised her eyes and saw that Wan Qi Chen had his eyes closed, wearing a black cloak, leaning on the imperial carriage. At this moment, he was still covered with a white fox fur coat, and on top of the white fox fur coat, a striking red color was faintly visible.

  Lin Zhu's eyes changed, "Your Highness, this is——"

  Mu Yan's face was extremely unsightly, and at this moment, he bowed to Lin Zhuo, "My lord went to the hunting grounds today and encountered an assassin who attempted to assassinate him, which gave him a fright. Furthermore, he caught a chill and started coughing up blood from this afternoon onwards, and it hasn't stopped until now. There's a hot spring at the halfway point of Jialing Mountain, we were just about to send my lord there."

  The strange and complicated illness on Wan Xi's body had long been notorious in Yanjing, and Lin Zhuo didn't have much doubt about this dying person who was going to the hot spring, only hesitantly saying, "Your Highness leaving the palace due to illness is indeed unavoidable, but..."

  "General Lin can rest assured. His Highness has already obtained a token from the Emperor, so he can come and go as he pleases for the next few days. Please let him pass."

  Lin Zhu saw Mu Yan Liang take out a golden dragon-patterned token and nodded slightly, but his eyes scanned over Gu Yun Xue and the other person again, "What about these two..."

  Gu Yunxi's eyes slightly lifted, and although they were separated by layers of black veils, it seemed as if she had exchanged a glance with the person behind the curtain. Only to hear Wan Qi Chen lightly clear his throat twice, Mu Yan hastily said, "These two are the attendants of the prince, originally wanted them to go ahead and prepare at the hot spring, but they have extremely slow hands and feet, now they've even forgotten to bring their waist plaques, causing a huge delay."

  Lin Zhu nodded and bowed her hands towards the black sedan chair, "Since that's the case, please hurry up and leave the palace, Your Highness Chu!"

  Mu Yan bowed to Lin Zhu Yi, and was about to move forward when he suddenly remembered something and turned around to face Gu Yun Xi, "Today's journey is urgent, the ink orchid in the courtyard has not been brought in yet. You quickly go collect it and bring it inside, you don't need to follow us tonight."

  Gu Yunxi was still thinking about how she would get back in if she left the palace, but now it seemed like a good opportunity. She lowered her eyelids and nodded, "Yes."

  She turned to look at the man behind her, but found that the person behind her had already fixed his gaze on the black curtain from an unknown time. Her eyes circled between the two, "This food has cooled down, I suppose they will prepare over there, let me take it back then."

  The man's mind was shaken, and his eyes looking at Gu Yunxi were actually a little flustered. He handed the basket in his hand to Gu Yunxi, his mouth moved as if he wanted to speak but stopped, and then quickly lowered his head and followed behind Wan Qi's sedan chair.

  Gu Yunxi didn't dare to linger, but when she hastily left the palace gate, she didn't know that another pair of eyes had been staring at her for a long time.

  Digression

  What a coincidence! Of course, if it's too coincidental, then it's not a coincidence. Is it really a coincidence? Uh, I won't tell you...