Crossing the Palace Fighting Fox Harem

Chapter 312 The Man-Eating Demon

The three women worked together, and in the blink of an eye, the radiant and beautifully dressed Prince Ming appeared before them.

Exhausted, Concubine An breathed a sigh of relief, took Prince Ming's hand and said, "Prince, it's getting late, let's set off quickly."

Even at this time, Prince Ming's eyes were still a little dazed, as if he had not woken up yet, and he was led away by Concubine An in a daze.

Ji Anni was restricted by the house arrest order and could not leave Taoyuan, so the task of seeing off Prince Ming had to be handed over to Concubine An. After Prince Ming was led away by Concubine An, he kept turning his head behind him and looking at Ji Anni.

Ji Anni stood by the door and waved to him with a smile.

Soon, Prince Ming disappeared. Feeling guilty, Ji Anni leaned against the door weakly, feeling exhausted. It was all her fault. How could she have forgotten that Prince Ming still had to go to school? Alas...

She walked slowly back to the room and took a quick glance, just in time to see a book of courtyard rules on the desk.

This set of rules was given to her and Shui Furong by Grand Secretary Chang Sun Nan when they first entered Wenhua Academy, asking them to read and remember the code of conduct. But after receiving this set of rules, Ji Anni was too lazy to even flip through it, and just threw it on the desk and left it alone.

Today was a special day. Ji Anni, who was worried that Prince Ming would be punished for being late, could not help but hold the courtyard rules in her hands and read them carefully. The courtyard rules were divided into four major chapters: clothing, food, housing, and transportation. Each major chapter was further divided into several small chapters. While Ji Anni was browsing the catalog, she thought to herself: clothing, food, housing... have nothing to do with being late.

So I quickly turned the page to the last chapter "Lines", and in this chapter, there was indeed an item listed as "late".

The rules of the hospital clearly state that anyone who is late will be punished by being asked to "get up early". If a person is late by a quarter, he/she will have to get up half an hour earlier the next day; if a person is late by half an hour, he/she will have to get up one hour earlier the next day; if a person is late by more than one hour, he/she will be expelled from the hospital.

"Wow, it's really strict..." Ji Annie wiped her eyes and confirmed the four words "expelled from the hospital" again.

It was just a half-day absence from class, but he was expelled from the hospital...

However, since Prince Ming is a prince, Wenhua Academy was established to educate him. If he is expelled from the academy, wouldn't Wenhua Academy be useless? So Ji Anni optimistically guessed that even if Prince Ming was late for an hour, he would not be expelled from the academy, but... Zhuang Xiaomeng and Changsun Mingri were not sure.

Ji Anni continued to study the school rules while thinking. As she was reading, she suddenly heard a voice coming from outside the gate.

"Your servant pays his respects to the Imperial Concubine." The two guards at the door shouted in unison.

After hearing their shouts, Ji Anni thought, since they were imperial concubines, could it be that Imperial Concubine An had returned after seeing Prince Ming off? Didn't they just leave? It couldn't be that fast...

Just as Ji Anni was wondering, she heard footsteps coming towards her room.

Upon hearing the familiar footsteps, Ji Anni immediately realized that the person coming was not Concubine An, but Shui Furong. Shui Furong had been named Concubine the evening before. The "Concubine" that the guard had called just now was referring to Shui Furong.

For a moment, Ji Anni found it difficult to adapt to this huge change, and she was stunned holding the hospital rules.

With a "pop" sound, Shui Furong pushed the door open and rushed in.

Ji Anni was so frightened by him that she almost vomited her heart, and the thick book of school rules in her hand almost fell to the ground.

"Oh, you are actually reading the academy rules!" Shui Furong was sharp-eyed and immediately recognized that the academy rules were in Ji Anni's hand.

"What's so strange about this? I occasionally...occasionally read some books..." Ji Annie said weakly.

"Then you don't need to read the academy rules. I'll bring you some poetry and songs someday to cultivate your sentiments."

"Thank you for your kindness, but... let's not do it." Ji Anni felt dizzy when she read poetry, but it was okay when she read novels.

"Empress, Empress..." A panting voice came from behind Shui Furong.

Ji Anni thought the voice sounded familiar, so she couldn't help but stand up and look behind Shui Furong. Unexpectedly, she saw a familiar face. It was a sweet-looking little palace maid. Although she was a palace maid, she wore earrings and other small accessories more delicately than other palace maids. It can be seen that she was a girl who paid great attention to her appearance and loved beauty.

"Nuanhong..." The name came out of her mouth, and Ji Anni's eyes widened a little more. She looked at the little palace maid a few more times. The more she looked, the more certain she was that this palace maid was Nuanhong who had served her in the past.

Ji Anni had been a concubine for a few days and lived in the right courtyard for a few days. Nuanhong was the maid who served her in the right courtyard. Although the maid was reckless, she was very cute, so Ji Anni was deeply impressed by her and recognized her at a glance.

Ever since Ji Anni was demoted back to a concubine, the palace maids in the right courtyard were assigned to other courtyards.

Coincidentally, Nuanhong became Shui Furong's personal maid. Wherever Shui Furong went, she followed. Today Shui Furong was going to visit Ji Anni in Wenhua Courtyard, and she followed closely behind. Shui Furong walked very fast, and soon she left Nuanhong behind. Nuanhong had to jog to barely keep up with Shui Furong.

After finally reaching the destination, Nuanhong was already panting and sweating profusely. She put one hand on her chest, gasping for breath, and said breathlessly: "Your servant, your servant... Your servant pays respects to Concubine Zhao."

"Forget it, forget it." Shui Furong answered for Ji Anni and waved her hand at Nuan Hong, as if she was chasing away a fly, trying to drive Nuan Hong out. "Okay, you don't have to come in, just stay outside."

"Your servant...your servant obeys your command...obeys your command..." Nuanhong was still panting, and she took three breaths just to finish one sentence.

Ji Anni felt that Nuanhong was a bit pitiful and was about to invite her into the room to sit for a while, but Shui Furong didn't give Ji Anni a chance to speak. She hooked Ji Anni's arm, pulled Ji Anni into the room, and kicked the door shut with her foot.

With a "bang", the door slammed shut, blocking Nuanhong out.

Judging from Shui Furong's attitude, he seemed not very satisfied with Nuanhong, the maid, and did not want her to follow him. However, Nuanhong had to follow him because of her duty. That was why Shui Furong bullied her in various ways to make her suffer so that she would not dare to follow him so closely in the future.

"Furong, please don't bully her too much..." Ji Anni couldn't bear it and pleaded for Nuanhong.

Ji Anni had seen a lot of Shui Furong's little tricks, such as the tricks he used to snatch rooms and palace maids when he bullied Yizhen. Although it wouldn't cause any big trouble, it was enough to make people feel upset and upset.

When Shui Furong heard Ji Anni say that she bullied the maid, she refused to agree and quickly retorted: "Who bullied her? I really have a secret I want to tell you, and it can't be heard by others." After that, she mysteriously pulled Ji Anni to sit beside the bed.

"What's wrong?" Ji Anni saw that he looked serious and thought that he must have something he wanted to tell her.

Shui Furong said, "I finally entered the Calendar Palace yesterday, and found several written records from the time of Taizu..."

Hearing this, Ji Anni immediately pricked up her ears, waiting for him to get to the point.

Who would have thought that after waiting for such a long time, what I got was a question from Shui Furong: "Guess what I saw?"

Ji Anni was anxious and slapped him hard, saying, "How should I know what you saw? Just tell me directly."

"I saw... I saw some records about the Fox Demon Queen." The more Shui Furong spoke, the more gloomy her expression became, the same expression she has when she tells a scary ghost story, which scared Ji Anni so much that her heart started pounding.

"What does it say?" Ji Anni asked nervously.

Shui Furong said, "Don't be impatient, listen to me from the beginning. Isn't it said in the palace that Taizu fell in love with a fox demon when he was young? Since Taizu could fall in love with a fox demon, it means that he has a certain tolerance for demons and ghosts, and he would not order the killing of a demon just because it is a demon. But the fox demon queen was burned to death by Taizu's order. Isn't this very strange?"

Ji Anni nodded subconsciously. She knew the story about Taizu and the fox demon in more details than Shui Furong, because when Ji Anni was taken out of the palace by Yan Niang, Yan Niang had told her that distant and sad story in person.

Ji Anni not only knew that Taizu had loved a fox demon, but also knew that the fox demon Taizu loved was the one he finally ordered to be burned to death.

In the cave that day, when Yanniang talked about the Emperor Taizu's order to burn the fox demon queen to death, Ji Anni asked Yanniang why she didn't save Xuelan. At that time, Yanniang said painfully that it was not that she didn't save her, but that Xuelan chose death for herself.

Ji Anni then asked why Xue Lan chose to die, and Yan Niang replied that Xue Lan wanted to atone for her sins with death and use her life to pay for all the sins she had committed. At that time, Ji Anni was puzzled. What kind of sin did Xue Lan commit that required her to pay with her life?

But Yan Niang refused to elaborate and just said that it was not Xue Lan's fault and that Xue Lan had no choice.

The questions that Yan Niang failed to answer for Ji Anni at the beginning will now be answered by Shui Furong.

As if to increase the tension, Shui Furong suddenly squeezed Ji Anni's hand and said solemnly, "Xiao Zhao, the reason why Taizu ordered the Fox Demon Queen to be burned to death is not just because she is a monster, but because... because she eats people. She is a monster who 'eats people for a living'."

"Cannibal?" Ji Anni's mind suddenly went blank, and only the words "Cannibal...Cannibal..." kept echoing in her ears. Although she knew that there were evil monsters that fed on humans, she never expected that Xue Lan was also such a monster.