All say that one borrows wine to drown sorrow.
Tonight, Hua Yanyun lay slumped over the desk, her whole body reeking of wine, having drunk herself thoroughly plastered.
She swayed her body and sat up, raising the empty bowl in her hand above her head.
“Hic…. Someone come. Serve Us…. serve wine!”
After Hua Yanyun finished speaking, she toppled forward once more.
The ice-porcelain wine bowl smashed upon the ground, splitting into four or five fragments, and a crisp sound rang out.
“Your Majesty, you cannot drink any more.”
Cultivators had many methods to dispel drunkenness, but the maidservant attending Hua Yanyun dared not take matters into her own hands.
“Cough cough……. We are not drunk. We… are perfectly fine!”
“Hic….. Could it be that you… wish to defy a monarch’s command?”
“This servant would not dare.”
The maidservant lowered her head, not daring to look at Hua Yanyun’s current appearance, and according to the order fetched a new bowl and filled it.
Hua Yanyun was thoroughly drunk.
She suddenly looped an arm around the maidservant’s waist and pulled her into her embrace.
The maidservant let out a startled cry.
She had been frightened by Hua Yanyun’s action.
“Come…. drink a cup with Us as compensation.”
Hua Yanyun made a slip, and the maidservant was drenched from head to toe in wine, yet she rigidly did not dare make a sound.
It’s over, it’s over.
When Her Majesty sobers up tomorrow and thinks back on this, I fear I will lose my head.
But…. I am not even 20 years old.
The maidservant tightly shut her eyes.
She felt her own frame was small and could not bear the charge of a subordinate offending a superior.
Outside the pavilion, steep mountains and ridges stood silent without a sound.
A gust of breeze entered the pavilion, bringing a faint coolness that made the maidservant’s heart grow colder by another half measure.
“Your Majesty the Monarch! This slave did not intentionally offend a superior. I beg Your Majesty to look upon the portion of this slave having served Your Majesty for so many years and spare this slave’s life!”
Hua Yanyun could no longer hear the maidservant’s words, because she had already fallen asleep from drunkenness.
After a long time without receiving Hua Yanyun’s response, the maidservant gathered her courage and opened her tightly shut eyes, only to see that Hua Yanyun’s breathing was calm and she had already fallen asleep.
Seeing this, the maidservant let out a breath of relief, but immediately her heart lifted once more.
Her own body was still tightly embraced by the monarch and could not be broken free of at all.
If tomorrow the monarch woke and flew into a rage at her without distinguishing right from wrong, what was she supposed to do?
Heavens above, earth below, I beg that some good soul comes and sends Her Majesty back….
Perhaps Heaven truly felt a pitying intent, or perhaps this maidservant’s life was not yet meant to end.
A mere quarter hour later, someone truly came to save the scene.
The moment the maidservant saw the newcomer, it was as if she had seized a life-saving straw, and she hurriedly called for help in a low voice.
“Lord Clan Minister! Please save this slave! Her Majesty the Monarch is drunk!”
The Clan Minister the maidservant spoke of was Hua Ling, who managed the trivial affairs of the Hua imperial clan and concurrently served as Chief Steward of the Internal Affairs Office.
Hua Ling did not speak, and there was no need to speak.
She first rescued the maidservant from Hua Yanyun’s embrace, then hoisted the sleeping Hua Yanyun onto her shoulder, flew out of the pavilion, and hurried back to Cloud Mist Immortal City.
Inside the pavilion, only the maidservant remained, thankful to have survived the disaster.
Hua Ling flew among the clouds, employing spells to restrain her aura and conceal her figure, and all the way delivered Hua Yanyun back into the bedchamber.
Hua Yanyun was laid flat upon the bed by Hua Ling.
Her breathing was steady, her cheeks faintly red, a look of being at anyone’s disposal that was a world apart from her usual appearance.
“She really did drink herself huge.”
Hua Ling tried reaching out to poke Hua Yanyun’s face and confirmed that she was indeed sleeping like the dead.
Ai~
Promoting new policies, frontier incidents, court affairs truly are heavy.
The pressure the Grand Elder carries on her shoulders is not small either.
Resting like this is actually rather good.
Hua Ling extinguished the lamps of the bedchamber and slowly closed the door.
……
In the nameless mountain cave, He Shu had just returned from outside and landed near the cave mouth.
She patted the dust from her body and tossed the dying Golden Core demon fox in her hand onto the ground.
He Shu walked forward and kicked the Golden Core demon fox in the rear.
“Stop playing dead. I am asking you something. If you dare not speak, I will slaughter you!”
A trace of humanized fear appeared in the Golden Core demon fox’s eyes.
It actually spoke human words and transformed into a girl of 16.
The girl wore a full set of red clothes, with two reddish-brown fox ears growing from her head, and knelt on the ground with all five limbs prostrate.
The injuries on her body were not light.
“Heroine, spare my life! This little one will absolutely tell all she knows and hold nothing back!”
He Shu wore a falcon mask and lightly tsked, speaking with mockery.
“If you had known it would come to this, why act as you did at the start? If you had obediently cooperated then, you would not have been beaten half to death.”
The girl knelt on the ground, shivering.
He Shu’s gaze traveled up and down her body.
“And this is still a fox demon? No wonder you hid in the deep mountains and old forests. So you are a flat-chested princess, about the same as little Mu.”
It was He Shu’s first time seeing a fox demon with such poor aptitude, and she could not help letting out a wicked laugh.
The fox demon felt resentment in her heart.
She was at least a Golden Core demon cultivator, the mountain king of this stretch of land.
When had she ever suffered such humiliation?
I will endure it…..
Who told me I cannot beat the other party……
The fox demon thought miserably in her heart.
She dared not speak the words in her heart aloud.
“This little one is willing to be the heroine’s slave and maidservant, to follow the heroine’s lead in all things. If the heroine tells this little one to go east, this little one will absolutely not go west! If you do not believe it, this little one will serve you here and now!”
As she spoke, the fox demon spinelessly crawled over to He Shu’s feet.
He Shu’s face filled with disgust as she retreated several steps.
She had never seen anyone so shameless.
When it is a matter of living, there is nothing to be ashamed of.
He Shu blocked the fox demon’s continuing advance with one hand and supported her forehead with the other.
“I ask and you answer. First, how long have you lived here?”
“In reply to the heroine, this little one has lived here for sixteen years.”
“Mm. What is this place? What is the nearest super power to here?”
“This place is the Empty Rain Mountain Range. The nearest super power is the Junshan Sword Sect. The Junshan Sword Sect has a Soul Transformation ancestor stationed there. The current sect master is named Xu Qi.”
“Are you familiar with the terrain here? I need you to serve as a guide and lead me away from this place. Of course, during the time you serve as guide, do not try any little schemes.”
“This little one would not dare!”
The fox demon immediately agreed, without the slightest dragging of mud or water, yet in her heart she truly did have her own little schemes.
“That is good.”
He Shu saw through it but did not expose it.
She clapped her hands, and four people immediately walked out from the mountain cave.
The four were precisely Shen Qingci, Bai Liuli, Mu Xinlian, and He Qingyuan.
Two Golden Core and two Foundation Establishment, plus He Shu.
Such a lineup immediately made the fox demon dispel the bold ideas in her heart.
“Good. Last question. What is your name?”
The fox demon was also one who recognized the times.
The moment Shen Qingci and the other three appeared, she knew she was thoroughly finished this time, and even her speech became listless.
“This little one’s alias is Mei Hua. I have no surname.”
He Shu gave a slight nod.
“The name Mei Hua is not bad. From this day forth you will follow me. So long as you obediently listen to my words, there is nothing I will not permit.”
He Shu painted big pies for Mei Hua in an unending stream.
She had done no small amount of this sort of thing in the past as well.
He Shu struck with a stick and then gave a sweet date.
Under the unceasing offensive of painting pies, the thought actually sprouted in Mei Hua’s heart that perhaps following He Shu truly would be better.
“Good! Since you have chosen to follow me, then do not resist, and obediently cooperate.”
He Shu circulated a spell, bit open her fingertip, squeezed out a drop of fresh blood, and sketched the outline of an array in midair.
After the time of one incense stick, the array took form.
He Shu then struck it into Mei Hua’s body, leaving a faint plum-blossom-shaped mark at her collarbone.