83 Queen of the Nigh

Fa Sui, seeing Hu Zi's figure as she turned her back and walked out of the office, contemplated.

Before he moved his bedroom to the office, he once lived in the same courtyard as the rest of the higher tier servants, like Falcon and the head chef. The courtyard was like a twin courtyard separated by a small gate, the left wing for males and the right wing for females. He lived there with his uncle up until he went to the academy.

After he found out that the first volume of Hu Zi's medical record was missing, he went back to that courtyard and searched all over for it but he found nothing. He didn't give up though, continuing his investigation in the morning by asking around the household.

He found out that not that many servants knew the details about Hu Zi's birth, even a senior servant like the head chef didn't know. She suggested asking Zhi Yu about it since he was the closest to the Hu family.

"Chief, did you happen to be there when the Third Young Miss was born?" Fa Sui probed. He didn't want to bother Zhi Yu when he was very sick and weak, but his curiosity was getting the better of him.

Zhi Yu looked up to him and tilted his head. He gently answered. "Sui, did you forget that we went on a long mission that year?"

Fa Sui's eyes widened. "Ay?" He didn't recall anything.

Zhi Yu sighed. "Well, it is not strange for you to not remember much. You were small then, after all, and that incident we encountered in our mission must have fogged your memory."

Fa Sui sighed at the mention of his childhood memory. He only remembered that they thought the mission would be a short, harmless one. Who knew that it would turn to a very unpredictable and long journey because of the incident?

"You want to know whether her eyes were really purple since birth?" Zhi Yu asked after Fa Sui explained what he wanted to know. "When we were away on the mission, the household did send me a letter stating that Zi'er was born, but it didn't tell me details like her eye color."

Fa Sui's suspicion grew even more. "Do you happen to know who was there when she was born?"

"I do. Besides Lady Hua, there was the Great General, your uncle, Bai, and Cheng'er." Zhi Yu recalled.

Fa Sui's heart sunk right after. There was no way he could ask any of those people. "So is there really no way to know what happened that time?"

"Ah…" Suddenly, Zhi Yu's eyes widened. "I think I heard your uncle talk about it once."

Fa Sui looked to Zhi Yu's pale face with curiosity.

"There is one more person who might have known."

-----

In the dark night, the blue-clothed boy looked up at the starry sky, his obsidian eyes shining as the moon emerged from behind the clouds.

The boy kept looking up, seemingly searching for something. He wandered around the spot until he finally spotted something flying his way. "There you are." The corner of his lips curved up, forming an arch.

The white feathered being flapped its wings and quietly landed on his arm, seizing it within its claws and encircling it, careful not let the sharp tip hurt him. It was a quiet creature, the silent predator that owned the night sky. Although the color of the feathers on its body was pure dark, only the soft feathers around its obsidian eyes were bright yellow. The color of its feathers blended perfectly with the nightly surrounding. The being was not small but not too big either, as it was still in its growing period.

"Yiwu." He called the bird's name, then caressed it gently. He seemed to like this particular bird he found laying hurt on the snowy ground not long ago. This bird was smart and a very quiet flyer, making an excellent messenger of the night.

He took something out of his sleeve and tied it at its dark grey foot. He then took another thing, a golden flower. He made the bird smell it. "Take this to her," he said before letting it fly away silently in the middle of the night.

-----

The autumn sun shone upon the inner palace as a black carriage strode down the grew colored road and arrived in front of the big red gate.

She came out of the carriage wearing beautiful dark purple clothes. The autumn breeze gently fell upon her face and made her long, luscious black hair ripple. Some of it fanned to her cheek and created a contrast with her snow white skin.

Her small slim figure made it her look easy to embrace. As she took the steps into the garden, everyone's eyes were undeniably on her.

But those eyes that followed her weren't meant to seek her beauty. They were eyes full of malice.

She felt suffocated. She could sense element practitioners around her, eyeing her every step. She lowered her gaze, trying not to make a suspicious move and raise an excuse for them to abruptly attack her.

For people who were untrained and didn't know any better, it only looked like there were two guards assigned to her left and right, but the truth was, there was thirty. A total count of ten martial artists and twenty element practitioners.

The palace took safety seriously, their walls embedded with power that prevented the wind radar.

While they came in a pack, she accompanied by Fa Sui at first, she now approached alone, as they had stopped him before telling allowing her to go forward to meet the empress alone.

Hu Zi clenched her fist, trying not look like she wanted to make a storm and blow the whole palace flat to the ground.

She sighed and relaxed her features, keeping a good posture. Keeping her eyes trained forward, she tried not to get distracted by the element users around her, but she bit her lip when she saw Qing Li pass by a building not far from her, a smirk on her face.

The inner palace was not as big as she thought it would be, given the fact that she was prepared to see countless girls walking around.

She finally arrived at the empress' courtyard. The courtyard was very beautiful and was decorated with flowers all around, typically only one kind of flower, a flower that could bloom all year round, even in winter.

Hu Zi felt like she had felt the shape of that flower before, but not in the palace.

Suddenly, Hu Zi halted her step. She stared up at the woman who was sitting on a pavilion near her.

Cherry red lips and rosy cheeks, clear obsidian eyes that kept looking straight at her approaching figure, dainty hands and a nice figure. But the most notable feature that she had was… her sweet scent.

She smelled like a flower named the queen of the night, a flower that turned white at midnight. Hu Zi could already feel the fresh and enhancing fragrance.

Hu Zi finally stood right in front of her. Their eyes were trained on each other before the empress told her to sit down.