Chapter 653 Pay Respects in the Buddhist Temple

“Yeah, you’re right. But I always feel less secure here than in our yard.”

Hongyu had a keen sense, and perhaps no one could surpass her in terms of getting along with others.

“Yes, be careful these days. Hongyu, please take care of Yinghua.”

The Empress would never have asked her to bring Yinghua here for no reason.

Moreover, it was said that in the first three days in the Huguo Temple, the royal ladies led by the Empress would bathe and fast in their own meditation rooms before they would pray for the country with the noble madams and young ladies.

Perhaps Yinghua would be taken away then.

Only Hongyu could adapt to the situation here, so Lin Mengya planned to ask her not to leave Yinghua by a foot for the next few days.

“Don’t worry, Master. I understand.”

Hongyu was clear that it was an important task, so she solemnly agreed to Lin Mengya’s request.

“With you around, I can rest assured. Also, if anything happens, just do as we have planned—send someone to take Yinghua’s shoes inlaid with the Dragon Pearls.”

Hongyu kept all of Lin Mengya’s instructions in mind.

After all, it was a matter of Yinghua’s life.

There were many children in the palace, and they would die before they reached adulthood. Sometimes, it was an act of God, but most of the time it was murder.

“Well, I’ve got it all. But, Master, there’re many noble ladies here. You should be careful. Baiji is careful, Baishao is tough, and Baizhi is clever. If something happens, you must protect yourself.”

In their yard, Hongyu was like the eldest sister.

She was so experienced in the ways of the world that she was able to handle everything.

No one in the mansion could find a fault with her. Even Lin Mengya would sometimes listen to her advice carefully.

Hongyu really regarded Prince Yu’s Mansion as her home and the people in Liuxin Courtyard as her relatives.

This time to the Huguo Temple, Hongyu had smelled something unusual.

But they had no idea what was wrong.

The first night was disconcertingly calm. Lin Mengya had already been used to the lively life in the Liuxin Courtyard that began at dawn. Suddenly coming to the meditation room in the backyard of the temple, she was not used to the quietness.

As soon as she opened her eyes, Hongyu and the other girls, as well as Yinghua, were gone.

She couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. But in a flash, she remembered that Hongyu seemed to have taken Yinghua out to wash up before she woke up.

Immediately, she felt a little relieved.

“Your Highness, Her Majesty sent me to bring you the incense which will be burnt when you bathe.”

Outside the door, there was a strange voice. But at this time, Baiji, who was guarding outside the yard, had taken the tray from the palace maid.

After sending the palace maid back, she carefully took the things in the tray into the meditation room.

“You’re awake? Baizhi, bring in some warm water.”

Looking at Baiji, Lin Mengya gave a nod.

Except for herself, the four girls were the only ones who took care of her.

In particular, Baiji and Baizhi would never ask someone else to do it when it came to her.

They had to do everything by themselves so that they could rest assured.

Lin Mengya rolled up her sleeves, and gently picked up the warm water in the copper basin. After washing her face and hands, she sat down in front of the dressing mirror and let Baiji and Baizhi comb her black hair.

“What are those things that have been delivered?”

Through the mirror, Lin Mengya cast a look at the tray on the table.

There were only two round bronze boxes with many patterns of scriptures carved on them.

However, they looked like Sanskrit words, and Lin Mengya could not understand them and just felt that the pattern was quite rare.

“They’re incense sent by the Empress. She ordered that we should keep burning the incense inside and outside the room for the next three days. The other people have also received the incense. I’ve checked it, and there’s no problem.”

No one could be more attentive than Baiji, so Lin Mengya was relieved.

Moreover, if there was really something wrong with the incense, it would be very easy to investigate the matter after it was found.

The Empress was not a fool like Gu Xing and she would not make such a careless mistake.

Although it seemed peaceful now, they had to stay here for about 10 days. No one knew what the Empress would do later.

“Please keep your eyes on Yinghua in the next three days. Do you understand?”

Qinghu and Long Tianyu were both stopped outside, so she could only rely on the four girls.

In fact, with the poison her teacher gave her, it was more than enough for her to protect herself. But she was afraid that the four girls would not be able to take good care of Yinghua.

Having no choice, Lin Mengya secretly prepared poison for each of the four girls so that they could protect themselves.

The poison was stored in the things they carried with them. That way, it would not be easy to discover and kept the girls from feeling helpless.

Even so, Lin Mengya was still worried. Before they came here, she gave confidential instructions in person as to how to use it.

Although the four of them felt that their master had made a big fuss, they all knew that it was for their safety. So they took it seriously, which made Lin Mengya put away her worries for the time being.

After breakfast, a palace maid came to invite Lin Mengya.

She said that everyone had to fast in their meditation rooms for the next few days, and thus could not go out at will.

Therefore, they had to go to the Empress’s room before they started to fast.

After thinking for a while, Lin Mengya decided to only take Baiji with her. The rest of the people would watch Yinghua in the yard. Before she came back, they could just ignore anyone’s summons.

After some arrangements, Lin Mengya brought Baiji along with the palace maid to the Empress’s meditation room.

Compared with the ordinary meditation rooms they lived in, the Empress lived in a small courtyard the Huguo Temple specially prepared for the emperor’s relatives.

It was in a quiet Buddhist temple but was as good as a common temporary imperial residence.

It was a fine courtyard with three rows of rooms. But the luxury inside the temporary imperial residence had been replaced by black bricks and white tiles, and the ornate paintings had become scenes from Buddhist sutras.

Other than that, there was no shortage of pomp.

After briefly looking around, Lin Mengya stood in the crowd.

There were five or six prince’s wives here, as well as imperial concubines, so it was best to keep a low profile.

Gradually, all the noble ladies in the Buddhist temple had arrived.

Standing in the crowd, Lin Mengya quietly listened to the greetings of others.

Some people took the initiative to greet her, but she just responded with a faint smile. She was neither overly enthusiastic nor indifferent.

Her lukewarm manner made it impossible to find any fault and kept her from attracting any attention.

And some people who wanted to provoke her also could not find any fault with her because of her temperate and polite manner.

Besides, this was the Empress’s yard, and no one dared to act wildly.

“Greetings, Your Highnesses, madams and ladies, Her Majesty wants to see you.”

Soon, a middle-aged woman in plain clothes came out from the inside of the main room.

Others might not know her, but Lin Mengya, who had lived in the palace for a long time, knew that the person in front of them was the chief palace maid of the Empress’s palace, addressed as Aunt Yan.

The fact that she had also come here showed that the Empress really attached great importance to this religious ceremony.

However, when everyone was about to enter the room, a little palace maid came to Aunt Yan in a panic. After whispering to her for a while, she stood behind Aunt Yan with a frightened look on her face.

Aunt Yan looked around.

With a slight frown, she asked softly, “Greetings, ladies. I would like to ask you something. May I know if any of you have seen an imperial concubine?”

Her question was a little abrupt.

However, Lin Mengya immediately realized what she meant. Many concubines had come this time, and it seemed that all the childless women had come.

On the one hand, it showed how serious the royal family was about the matter; on the other hand, many people hoped to get the Buddha’s blessing here and have children in the future.

Therefore, except all the high-ranking women who lived in this big yard with the Empress, the other low-ranking imperial concubines actually lived in the same yard with the prince’s wives and those women with a title.

However, Lin Mengya had no idea who the missing person was.

“Which concubine do you mean?”

Finally, a respected and elderly madam who had an official title asked in a low voice.

Aunt Yan was very respectful when she saw the woman.

“It’s Beauty Cheng from the palace,” she answered. “She’s 19 years old and lives in a courtyard in the south. I wonder how her servants served her. They found that Beauty Cheng was not in the room early in the morning. This is a Buddhist temple. I’m afraid that if we look around, we will disturb Bodhisattva’s peace.”

Aunt Yan’s voice was not loud, and only the prince’s wives and titled women, who stood before her, could hear her clearly.

However, Lin Mengya had excellent hearing, so she quietly heard the general content of their conversation.

Beauty Cheng? A delicate, pretty figure appeared in Lin Mengya’s mind.

Actually, she had met this person once.

When she was treating the emperor in the palace, she had met her once on the long street.

But she didn’t say much with the woman, and to her, the woman was only an acquaintance.

This woman was missing in the Huguo Temple. Lin Mengya felt that it was a little weird. However, no matter how weird it was, it would be fine as long as it did not happen to her.

It was just a small episode before these women paid their respects to the Empress.

Besides, the whole Huguo Temple was so tightly sealed that even a fly could not fly out of the high wall of the temple, not to mention a living person.

Perhaps because Beauty Cheng had just arrived here and was not familiar with the route, she was trapped somewhere.

Aunt Yan led a few servants to the meditation rooms to look for Beauty Cheng under the instruction of a few highly respected, titled madams.