Crossing the Palace Fighting Fox Harem

Chapter 317: Empty Snake Cage

Thinking of this, Ji Anni made up her mind and stuffed the half-washed bloody clothes and quilt under the bed. After cleaning the room, she immediately ordered the guards to prepare hot water for her bath.

It took more than half an hour from boiling water to fetching water. Before the wooden barrel was filled, Concubine An and Ningshuang came back.

"Sister, why do you take a bath so early in the morning?" Concubine An asked puzzledly.

Ji Anni was standing by the door, directing the guards to help her add hot water into the wooden barrel. She was too busy to pay attention to Concubine An, but since Concubine An asked, she had to answer casually: "Oh, this...this, this is because it was very hot last night, and I slept in sweat, so I got up in the morning to wash." As she said this, she laughed foolishly, hoping to get away with it.

"Oh?" Concubine An raised her eyebrows slightly and stared at Ji Anni in a mysterious way for a long time. She always felt that Ji Anni's behavior this morning was very strange, but she couldn't guess what it was. She could only look at Ji Anni in silence for a while and went back to the room without saying a word.

After returning to the room and taking a short rest, Concubine An was about to speak when she heard Ningshuang suddenly scream "Ah".

"What's wrong?" Concubine An was so frightened that her heart almost skipped a beat.

"Empress, Empress..." Ningshuang's face turned pale. She pointed somewhere in the corner, and her whole body began to tremble slightly.

Concubine An looked in the direction of her finger and saw a rectangular bamboo woven fabric. This woven fabric was originally the cover of a bamboo cage, but now the bamboo cage was hidden under the wooden cabinet, and the cover of the bamboo cage was lying on the ground inexplicably.

"This, this is..." Concubine An was so frightened that her face turned pale. She stood up trembling all over and subconsciously hid towards the door.

"Your Majesty, this is... this is the lid of the snake cage." Ningshuang also followed Concubine An and hid towards the door, trying her best to keep the farthest distance from the lid.

The lid should have been placed on the snake cage and hidden well under the cabinet, but now the lid and the cage were separated, which meant that the poisonous snake in the cage... had already slipped out.

Concubine An and Ningshuang were both well aware of the venom of the snake. The thought of such a horrible poisonous creature slipping out of the cage and most likely in this room made them so frightened that their limbs became stiff and they could not move. They hid by the door and trembled.

"My queen, how...what should I do..." Ningshuang couldn't speak clearly, and her tongue seemed to be paralyzed.

"How did the lid get open? How did you do it?" Concubine An was so angry that she almost slapped him.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me... I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it..." Ningshuang was anxious and scared, and she was about to cry.

"Okay, shut up and don't say anything. Go check if there's anything else in the cage."

"I...I'm going to die?" Ningshuang trembled even more violently.

"Only you and I know about this matter. If you don't go, do you want me to go?" Concubine An's eyebrows stood up.

The two of them secretly raised poisonous snakes and hid them in the peach garden, planning to murder Ji Anni in the same way they had murdered Guibao Consort. However, because Prince Ming lived with Ji Anni, they delayed their action.

Unexpectedly, the venomous snake escaped and might be hiding in a corner of the room...

"What are you still standing there for? Go and take a look." Concubine An pushed Ningshuang away.

Ningshuang was pushed to the point of nearly falling. She took two steps forward timidly and looked back at Concubine An. Concubine An glared at her fiercely, scaring her so much that she dared not retreat and walked forward with gritted teeth.

He came to the wooden cabinet, took a deep breath, then lay down and looked under the cabinet carefully.

It was pitch black under the cabinet and I couldn't see anything.

"Hurry up and take out the cage." Concubine An gave orders from a distance.

Ningshuang had no choice but to reach in, grab the cage and pull it out with the determination to die.

"Ah!" Before she could see clearly whether there was anything in the cage, Concubine An screamed in fright.

As soon as she screamed, Ningshuang also screamed, and the screams of the two almost overturned the house.

Ningshuang cried and looked down at the cage, only to find that it was empty.

"Shh, your Majesty, stop screaming. There's nothing." Ningshuang turned her head and signaled to Concubine An to stop screaming.

"Nothing?" The screaming stopped and Concubine An exclaimed.

"There's really nothing." Ningshuang even picked up the cage and showed it to Concubine An.

Concubine An leaned forward, took a closer look, and found that the cage was indeed empty. She breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, the guards outside the house who were helping Ji Anni to fetch hot water also heard the screams of Concubine An and Ningshuang, and hurried over to check the situation. Ji Anni also ran over. They knocked on the door together, almost deafening Concubine An.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, what's wrong? What happened?" The guard shouted loudly, one after another.

Concubine An quickly winked at Ningshuang, indicating that Ningshuang should quickly hide the cage and the lid.

Ningshuang quickly stuffed the lids and cages back under the cabinet, then climbed up and stood with Concubine An.

Concubine An took a few deep breaths, calmed herself down a little, and then opened the door.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong? Is there an assassin?" The guard drew out the sword from his waist.

Concubine An said, "There is no assassin, but...but I just saw a green snake crawling in, it scared me to death..."

"Green snake? Where is it?" The guard was not afraid of snakes and rushed into the room to look for it.

Concubine An was so anxious that she was panicking and stammered, "I don't know, maybe...it's still...in this room. Go get some snake repellent incense and smoke the snake out. Otherwise, how can you let me live here?"

"Yes, as you command." The guards all felt that Concubine An's words made sense, and they all rushed to get the snake-repellent incense.

Ji Anni was left standing alone outside Concubine An's door, muttering to herself: "Snake...why is it a snake again? I also saw a snake last night...is there a snake nest nearby? Why are there snakes everywhere..."

"You saw it too?" Concubine An heard Ji Anni mumbling to herself and screamed in surprise.

"Yes, I saw it last night..." Ji Anni did not doubt him and told the truth. As long as she didn't reveal that the prince had eaten the poisonous snake, everything would be fine.

After hearing what Ji Anni said, Concubine An and Ningshuang exchanged glances, and both of them, the master and the servant, had a suspicion. That is, did the venomous snake in the cage open the lid and crawl out into Ji Anni's room last night?

As long as she knew that the poisonous snake was no longer in her room, Concubine An's pale face finally regained some color. She put on a smile and said to Ji Anni, "Sister, you should be careful too. When the snake repellent incense is ready, I will help you deliver some."

"Really? That's great." Ji Anni agreed without hesitation. In fact, she was also very afraid of snakes and was worried that another poisonous snake would crawl into her room. If there was snake repellent incense that could be used to repel poisonous snakes, she would feel much more at ease.

"By the way, I'm afraid the hot water in the room will get cold soon, so I'm going back to my room first."

Ji Anni hurriedly said goodbye to Concubine An, returned to her room, locked the door, closed the window, dragged out all the blood-stained clothes and quilts hidden under the bed, and then threw them all into the big wooden barrel, starting a new round of laundry campaign.

Compared with the clean water used just now, hot water has a much stronger ability to remove dirt, and with the help of soap, the bloodstains were cleaned up by Ji Anni in a short while. Although it was cleaned, there were still some bloodstains left.

However, the blood marks are not obvious and cannot be seen at all if you don’t look carefully.

"Huh..." Looking at the fruits of her labor, Ji Annie let out a long sigh of relief.

She left the washed sheets and quilts soaking in the wooden barrel, and almost fainted from exhaustion, she lay on the bed with her back to rest. Now, although the first step of washing has been completed, the next step is the more troublesome second step - drying.

Thinking of this, Ji Anni turned her head and looked around the room, but didn't see any place to hang the sheets.

Could it be that I should hang the quilt on the window as a curtain? Although this would allow for better lighting and dry faster, the disadvantage was that I could only hang one piece at a time. I was afraid that by the time Prince Ming came home from school, I would not have been able to dry everything that needed to be hung.

The best place to hang clothes is the lawn outside the window. Just spread out the sheets and bedclothes on the lawn and they will be warm and cozy in less than half a day, which is both comfortable and full of the smell of sunshine.

There weren't many people passing by Wenhua Courtyard. If she was lucky, no one would see her drying her quilt on the lawn. But now she was afraid that Concubine An lived next door. If they opened the window and looked out, and saw her drying her quilt outside, wouldn't she be exposed? After thinking about it, Ji Anni still felt that it was safest to dry her quilt inside the house.

She spread the washed sheets on her old bed. The sun was shining right there, so the sheets would be dried quickly. Then she moved the small writing table and the small piano table to the center of the room, and spread the sheets on the two tables. At noon, the sun would shine right in the center of the room, and it would help her dry the sheets.

After the sheets and bed sheets were dealt with, there was still a piece of Prince Ming's torn clothes left in the wooden barrel. This was cut by Ji Anni with scissors this morning. Although this torn clothes can be thrown away without washing, Ji Anni was worried that throwing away the bloody clothes would cause some misunderstanding, so she decided to wash the clothes before throwing them away.

The room was small to begin with, and after hanging the quilts and sheets, there was no space left to hang clothes.

Ji Anni shifted her gaze to the lawn outside the window. After thinking about it, she still felt that if she didn't hang something on the lawn, it would be a shame for her good location. Prince Ming's clothes were small and not obvious, so he shouldn't be discovered, right?