[1] â Wei chen â â this small official; humble servant
It was night. There was not a single star in the sky, even the crescent moon was covered by a dark cloud.
Li Luo let the palace maid on duty that night bring in a few dishes of dessert from the imperial kitchen. After the palace maid came in, Li Luo stood to the side right away. He watched the palace maid take out the desserts from the boxes and arrange them on the table.
When the palace maid lowered her guard, Li Luo slowly approached her. His footsteps were very light, just like a cat walking on a rug, without making any noise.
The palace maid was completely unaware of his approach. Her head was still lowered, as she took out a plate of walnut crisp from a box, and carefully placed it on the table.
Under the guidance of Xiao Qi, in a fast movement, Li Luo struck the back of the palace maid with his hand ruthlessly. The palace maidâs eyes rolled back as she fainted. Her body collapsed in an instant. Li Luo quickly reached out his hand and caught the palace maidâs body. Afterwards, he dragged her body and put her onto the bed.
The palace maidâs clothes also have pants to wear inside, so there wasnât much psychological pressure on Li Luo. Li Luo only needed to take off the palace maidâs robe, and change his clothes into it. Finished, Li Luo transmitted his thoughts into the Universal Disguise Pill that hung around his neck. Soon afterwards, his appearance turned into the palace maid on the bed, including the mole on the back of palace maidâs ear, even his reactions were the same.
Li Luo covered the palace maidâs body with a quilt, then he walked to the table and let Xiao Qi take all of the desserts on the table into its space. He had collected these desserts for more than a week, and now he needed to escape from Bian Capital City. Even if he was on the road for a whole week, he would be able to maintain his physical strength even if he didnât encounter a place to rest.
After he finished these things, Li Luo picked up the box of food. He lowered his head, opened the door, and went out.
After he walked out of the room, he immediately felt several people gaze at him as they checked around his body several times, their eyes alert. Only when they were completely certain of his identity, did they turned away their gazes from him.
Li Luo tried his best to walk like a woman. With a small step, step by step, he slowly walked out of the courtyard where he was held captive.
Obviously, those imperial guards who had carefully sized him up and checked him previously had no longer suspected his identity, so as he left the courtyard, no one gave him a glance.
ăCongratulations Great Host for successfully making it out alive, and moving toward a free and unrestrained life ă (^ o ^) ă \ (^ _ ^) ~ă Xiao Qi, after Li Luo stepped out of the courtyardâs gate, sprinkled flowers in Li Luoâs mind.
Li Luo looked at Xiao Qi in his mind that was cheerfully churning, almost immediately making his footsteps slip, and he fell down to the ground. The corner of his mouth could not help but twitch. Making it out alive, free and unrestrained, what the hell?
Since for the time being, he still needed Xiao Qiâs help, so Li Luo didnât let Xiao Qi sink into a hibernation state. Although Xiao Qi was somewhat out of line, but in this case, to have someone to talk with wasnât bad. Moreover, he only had Xiao Qi to help him.
Li Luo rejoiced that at this moment he still had Xiao Qi, this system. If he didnât have Xiao Qiâs system functions, even if he was able to strike his palace maid into fainting, and disguised as her, those imperial guards outside would have found something fishy about him. It wouldâve been impossible for him to have successfully left this courtyard where he being held captive.
Since it was night, all of palaceâs people were holding a lamp in their hand. You could see many brightly lit lights even from a very distant place. Every time Li Luo saw a light in the distance get close, Li Luo would quickly turn around, or find a place to hide. He didnât want to encounter those palace people. After all, he did not understand the rules inside this palace, and if he encountered a person of high rank he would need to give a ceremonious greeting, if he wasnât able to react and was delayed for so much time, it would be bad.
All the way Li Luo was being careful and cautious. He continuously dodged to the east and hiding on the west, making him spend nearly two hours. Finally he arrived at the secret tunnel that Xiao Qi spoke about, the secret tunnel that lead to the outside of the imperial palace inside the large garden.
ăâŚâŚGreat Host, can you see the roadmap clearly? ă
After Xiao Qi finished speaking, a half translucent hologram of a map appeared before Li Luoâs eyes, just like the Baidu map in his original world that he often used. The red dot indicated the destination and the blue dot was the location he was standing in now. Since it was half translucent, it wouldnât block his sight.
Li Luo walked in the direction of the red dot. Very soon he found a bamboo forest that was hidden from view inside the rockery.
âŚâŚ
Inside the luxuriously decorated room, there was hot steam floating in the air, the thick musky fragrance that was able to make one intoxicated filled into the entire hall. From the inside of the doorway of the hall there hung layer after layer of dark red muslin that was soft to the touch. So that people stationed outside the doorway couldnât clearly see the scene inside.
Jing Chun Empress Dowager was lying on a royal couch as she supported her head with one of her hands. Her eyes were slightly closed, and seemed to be caught up in a fast asleep.
There were several palace maids that surrounded her sides. One palace maids was fanning her. Another one was standing behind her, and massaged her shoulders. Furthermore, two palace maids were kneeling at her feet, as they meticulously kneaded her legs.
This tranquil scene was broken when a palace maid came in hurriedly from the doorway. She lifted up layer upon layer of soft muslin, and quietly walked to the side of Jing Chun Empress Dowager as she immediately knelt down toward Jing Chun Empress Dowager. The palace maid stole a glance at Jing Chun Empress Dowagerâs complexion, and then said softly, âEmpress Dowager, Yunyang Hall Imperial Guard asks for an audience.â
âOh? Yunyang Hall?â Yunyang Hall, was it not the place where they held that boy captive at? Jing Chun Empress Dowager suddenly opened her eyes, âAllow him to come in.â
âYes.â The palace maid that received the order immediately stood up and quickly left the room. After a moment, the Commander of the Imperial Guards come in, sweat dotted his forehead.
When Jing Chun Empress Dowager saw the Commander of the Imperial Guardâs expression, she knew something was wrong. Jing Chun Empress Dowager slightly frowned, her tone had become a lot sharper as she asked, âWhatâs the matter?â
âEmpress Dowager, wei chen [1] had failed to meet your expectations. Even though wei chen guarded Su Mucheng the whole time, wei chen carelessly let him run away.â
âRun away?!â Although Jing Chun Empress Dowager already guessed three quarters of it in her heart, but when she truly heard this news, she still somewhat could not believe it. In order to not make any mistakes, she made sure Li Luo didnât have the opportunity to escape. How could it be, she had sent so many of her elite subordinates to guard Li Luo, and really couldnât imagine how Li Luo was able to run away.
And now, the Commander of the Imperial Guardsâ squad that she had carefully chosen unexpectedly said to her that the person she ordered them to guard was gone?!
Itâs simply unbelievable!!
Jing Chun Empress Dowagerâs face darkened. The Commander of the Imperial Guards that was kneeling, completely did not dare to look at Jing Chun Empress Dowagerâs complexion. Under Jing Chun Empress Dowagerâs pressure, he could only bite the bullet and continued, âYes, thatâs right. After the palace maid on duty this morning went inside the room, she found that the person that lying on the bed was not him, but another palace maid.â