Housekeeper of the Hundred Blossom Palace

Yui Mei tried to deduce the matter behind the incident, but she couldn’t do anything on her own at the moment.

A lot of time had already passed because of the affairs at the penitentiary, so the working horse was about to end by the time she returned. She didn’t get lost thanks to Libin. 

‘I didn’t finish my cleaning duty again today…’

Even if an incident occurred, it was still a problem that she didn’t finished her assignment for that day.

‘I’ll definitely clean tomorrow!’

Yui Mei enthusiastically declared to herself, and she returned to the lodging house. Somebody was waiting for her.

A table was set-up in a well-lit spot, and Du, the emperor’s doppelganger, was sitting there sipping tea.

Yang was beside him.

“Oh, Yui Mei, so you’ve returned.”

Du cheerfully waved at Yui Mei when he noticed her.

‘What good timing, he always comes at the right time, huh?’

Perhaps he already knew everything, so he was like that.

Yui Mei thought it was probable, so she approached him.

“It’s been a while, Lord Du. May I know what brings you here?”

Yui Mei politely greeted him, and she immediately inquired about his purpose.

People must talk carefully with a lot of twists and turns in their words, always beating around the bush when facing bigwigs.

However, Yui Mei was starving and it was already time for dinner, so she wanted to get over it as soon as possible.

Du didn’t appear offended by Yui Mei’s blunt questioning, and he even responded.

“Yeah. I heard about it, you got involved with the mess and even got dragged to the penitentiary.”

He also went straight to the point bluntly.

“Lord Du, you’re quite quick to hear about things.”

It was an event that had just happened a short time ago, but he managed to grasp that information and was even waiting for her. What an impressive information network he had.

“The people from the Ministry of Justice wanted to know the details, so I cooperated with them. I never thought I’d be able to see the Imperial Palace, it’s truly such a fortunate thing for me.”

Yui Mei felt bad for the personnel of the Ministry of Justice if people think that she had been dragged, so she expressed that she had done it on her own volition, and willingly at that.

“Hohoh, I see. That penitentiary is actually a place that only the related personnel and criminals could enter, so that’s quite something to be proud of, you know?”

Du apparently found Yui Mei’s words amusing, so he said those words with a broad smile.

“Just where on earth can you find someone who envies another for entering the prison…” 

Yang muttered beside Du.

As for Yui Mei, she didn’t care whether somebody would envy her or not, it’s fine as long as satisfy herself.

“As for the result, they apparently caught the criminal satisfactorily, so it’s all good. The personnel from the Ministry of Justice also collected all the sources of the stench, so people will no longer dislike working at the Jiaofang, right?”

Yui Mei turned to Yang and explained.

“That’s good, then.”

Yang looked relieved.

The shortage of manpower caused by the flu last winter had yet to be resolved, so they must’ve worried about this situation of being short-handed.

“Still, it’s a wonder that nobody tried to report the stench until now, isn’t it?”

Yui Mei suddenly thought of this, so she tried to ask about it.

Even though it wasn’t sure whether they’d be able to pursue the matter about the poppy juice, they could’ve at least removed the source of the stench if somebody complained that “it’s too stinky that I can’t work”.

“That’s because they were probably cajoled, saying it’s a ‘luxury fragrance’.”

Du was the one who answered her query.

“There are incense and perfumes with offensively stinky bases. They might be ridiculed as clueless country bumpkins if they complained about the stench, so that might be the reason why the other people didn’t say a word.”

“I see, that might be true.”

Yui Mei agreed with Du’s point.

What persuasive power, as expected of a casanova dating tons of women.

“So, how was Xu Zi? I’m a bit worried that she’s depressed and ruminating on strange thoughts.”

Du changed the topic by asking that.

This seemed to be the real reason why he had been waiting for her.

Yui Mei hesitated for a moment, wondering what she should say.

Maybe the emperor wasn’t supposed to hear any bad news, so it was blocked.

However, he probably wanted to know the truth, because he went out of his way to come here with the appearance of Du.

That was Yui Mei’s guess, so she decided to recount the current situation in all honesty.

“Indeed, she had some strange thoughts going on. She even implored the personnel of the Ministry of Justice, saying ‘everything’s my fault so punish me’.”

“Goodness…”

Du seemed like he partly guessed it would happen based on his expression. He heaved a deep sigh.

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