Pampered Consort of the Fragrant Orchard Chapter 105.2: A Night of Panic (2)

“Hehe, even unconscious you don’t forget to fight back, that’s right. Although he wants you alive, your presence will only distract him. I’ll send you to hell right now, you little meddling b*tch!”
Du Xiaoli could feel it getting harder and harder to breathe, but just when she felt on the verge of suffocation, a voice interjected, rescuing her life.
“Mistress, His Majesty the Emperor is here.”
“Bang—” She was thrown to the ground at once, her forehead smashing into the foot of a stool and immediately bruising.
“Hide her down there.”
Du Xiaoli felt herself feeling being lifted up again and heard some kind of lid being opened. Then she felt herself plummeting straight down as if riding a roller coaster, falling heavily to the ground. As she fell, she heard one last sentence, “Your Majesty the Emperor, it’s so late, why are you here?”
The lid had been placed on and muffled the sound from outside, furthermore she wasn’t fully conscious yet, making it impossible for her to hear the conversation outside.
However, since it was the Emperor that had come, she was definitely still in the palace– she just didn’t know exactly whose palace.
Because she had been directly tossed down just now with no internal force to shield herself, her entire body ached as if it was being torn apart. Yet this pain served to stimulate her nerves, allowing her to slowly regain consciousness and crack her eyes open, ever so slightly.
She was surrounded by darkness and had absolutely no idea where she was– but it was obvious that she was trapped.
She tried to stand up, but discovered that her body had no strength and she was unable to stand up on her own. Thinking of being stimulated by pain, she pulled a hairpin on her head, and stabbed it fiercely into her left arm.
The sharp pain in her arm helped clear her mind considerably. She took out a pill tucked into her waistband– this pill detoxified poison– but she didn’t know whether it was useful against this Gu insect.
She swallowed the pill, she would treat a dead horse as a living one!
This time, if she could come out of this, she would definitely study this practice of Gu properly!
Meanwhile, outside in the main hall, the Emperor respectfully greeted the Empress Dowager, saying, “It’s really not good to come and disturb the Empress Dowager so late, but this is also a matter of necessity.”
“Oh? Your Majesty the Emperor is this nervous, has something happened in the palace?” The Empress Dowager sat in her chair, calmly asking.
"It's like this, just now there were assassins in the palace, intending to assassinate me in the Imperial Study. Fortunately, the imperial guards risked their lives to subdue the assassins, but there are still two assassins who escaped, with unknown whereabouts. I have ordered people to search the entire palace, but considering it's inappropriate to let others into Mother’s place, I personally came with them. Did Empress Mother happen to see any suspicious people just now?"
“This Empress Dowager has been here chatting with the girls all this time and hasn’t noticed if anyone has entered,” The Empress Dowager said. “But I see those palace maids and eunuchs haven’t had any reaction, no assassins should have come in.”
“Empress Mother, the assassins that escaped are highly skilled in martial arts. For the sake of Empress Mother’s safety, it’s better to have people search your palace. This way, this Emperor can also feel at ease.” Han Mingze appeared to be concerned for the Empress Dowager.
“Since the Emperor feels uneasy, then just have people go in and search. In the case there are assassins, this Empress Dowager’s old bones can’t withstand this tossing and turning,” the Empress Dowager agreed.
“You guys go in and search through once. Be careful not to damage the furnishings here,” Han Mingze ordered, and started chatting with the Empress Dowager.
Meanwhile, in Han Mingxiang’s palace, Han Mingxiang– who was supposed to be resting– was pacing back and forth in the main hall. Two palace maids entered and she hurriedly asked, “Is there any news?”
“Responding to Princess, the Emperor has sent people to search all of the palaces, the imperial gardens, and so on, but they haven’t found the Princess in any of them,” the palace maid answered.”
"It's been so long and she still hasn’t been found." Han Mingxiang paced two steps back and said, "It's all my fault, why did I have her come to send me off, if it wasn’t for me, she wouldn't need to come to the palace, and wouldn't have disappeared."
Seeing Han Mingxiang blaming herself so heavily, Xia Yuan spoke up, "Princess don't blame yourself, Mistress has always been resourceful. If she truly did encounter any danger, she will definitely be able to turn it around. If the Mistress were to see the Princess blaming herself like this, she would definitely be sad."
After Du Xiaoli had been gone for a while, Xia Yuan and Ying Ge felt something was wrong, so they went to find Han Mingxiang. Han Mingxiang had been sleeping, but when she heard that Du Xiaoli had been called away and they weren't allowed to go with her, she hurriedly got up and went to find Han Mingze.
However, when Han Mingze went to the Empress's palace, the Empress said that she hadn't called Du Xiaoli, and her entire palace also said that no one had seen Du Xiaoli. So Han Mingze used the claim that an assassin had escaped to search every palace residence in the palace.
But even after all this time, there was still no news of Du Xiaoli.
"I also believe that Xiaoli will be okay." Han Mingxiang took two deep breaths and said to the palace maid, "You guys go out and ask around for news again."
“Yes.” After speaking, the two palace maids went out.
“Xiaoli will definitely be fine, definitely!” Han Mingxiang clenched her hands, a clear sign of her internal trepidation.
Du Xiaoli had been in the darkness for a long time, and gradually adapted to the lack of light. The good thing was that although she couldn’t use her inner strength, it didn’t affect her vision.
The wound on her arm was still bleeding, the pain continuing to stimulate her nerves. She lifted her head and saw that she wasn’t far from a wall, so she reached out and slowly held onto the wall to stand up.
Perhaps the medicine she had just eaten had been a little bit effective– Du Xiaoli felt that her body was moderately stronger than just now. After standing up by the wall, she looked up and heard a bit of buzz from outside. It seemed that Han Mingze hadn't left yet.
If she made some noise now, maybe Han Mingze could hear it, and save her. But she looked around and didn't see anything to knock on to make noise. And she didn't even have the strength to speak at this point, let alone cry out for help.References 1. — t​​o keep trying everything and hold onto a glimmer of hope in a desperate, hopeless situation; to resort to desperate measures, often as a last attempt MoonWhisperer, skyrise's Thoughts

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