"Alright, everyone just keep what happened today to yourselves. Don't spread it around carelessly. There are some things we still need to investigate clearly," Ning Zhiyuan began returning to normal court affairs, but before that, he specifically reminded everyone not to discuss or spread today's events.
Since Ning Zhiyuan had spoken, the people present could only watch and rarely talked about it. Of course, they would still mention it to some of their trusted confidants and close relatives, to avoid accidentally crossing Xiaoyao.
Xiaoyao's status had become very special now. Offending him would be equivalent to offending the Eldest Princess, and this was the most frightening aspect. If it were Ning Zhiyuan, it might be manageable, but the Eldest Princess was completely crazy and could do anything.
At this time, Ning Zhiyuan hadn't thought of one thing - why could Xiaoyao maintain such a long time while being chased by the Eldest Princess, and how did he appear above the great hall?
Even with the Eldest Princess there, the area above the great hall wasn't somewhere you could just go. If they couldn't stop the Eldest Princess, couldn't they stop Xiaoyao?
Later, when Ning Zhiyuan thought of this and asked about it, the answer he got was: couldn't catch up. Xiaoyao was too good at running. Not only couldn't the Eldest Princess catch up, but even the guards protecting the great hall couldn't catch up either. He disappeared in just a few moves, and they didn't even know how he climbed above the great hall.
How did Xiaoyao do it? Ning Zhiyuan had asked this question too, and got a three-word answer: Don't know!
No one knew why. If Xiaoyao were a master, they would have a reason - his strength was too powerful. But whether from post-investigation or from those who chased him at the time, everyone said Xiaoyao wasn't any kind of master at all. He was just too good at running, and his timing and positioning in escape were unbelievably perfect.
...
...
In other words, his movement technique was too ethereal, his positioning too skillful - no one could capture his movements!
In a palace within the Tang imperial palace, seemingly the Clear Moon Palace that Xiaoyao had visited before, Xiaoyao was now inside. He was looking at a portrait in the main hall - a portrait of a beautiful woman.
"This is Princess Zhuyue?" Xiaoyao asked blankly. So this was Princess Zhuyue who resembled him very much - that is, when he was in women's makeup.
If it were now, ordinary people still wouldn't be able to tell immediately. It was difficult to see at first glance that Xiaoyao resembled Zhuyue. This could only be said to show too great a difference between Xiaoyao's feminine makeup and his current appearance - that kind of miraculous transformation that no one could imagine.
Of course, Xiaoyao himself could still see some resemblance. He could see that he somewhat resembled Princess Zhuyue. Because he had once, for stage needs, applied women's makeup to sing female roles, which had caused quite a sensation. However, after Xiaoyao collected his payment, he never went back, and others couldn't find his contact information, so they could only miss this opportunity in vain.
Therefore, Xiaoyao had seen himself in women's makeup. Although the stage makeup had been somewhat heavy, he could still see some similarity.
"Yes, this is your mother!" The Eldest Princess said from the side.
"Auntie, could you please not call her my mother? Before it's confirmed, let's avoid this term." Xiaoyao said somewhat helplessly. "Auntie" was his way of addressing the Eldest Princess, calling her auntie was quite normal given her age.
Xiaoyao had asked about the Eldest Princess's age. Although she hadn't given a specific number, she said she was over fifty. This made Xiaoyao somewhat stunned. According to this answer, over fifty was the minimum, she might be even older.
But this Eldest Princess's appearance looked like someone in her thirties. The gap was a bit large.
"Imperial Aunt practices the Eternal Youth Evergreen Technique..." No wonder two personalities appeared, so it was from practicing this technique. Although this technique could bring eternal youth, the consequence was that it easily caused personality splits from deep within. The more one suppressed normally, the greater the possibility of splitting.
The Eldest Princess had always presented herself as noble, while deep in her heart she more or less hoped to be more ordinary and able to let loose and play. Thus these two completely different, even extreme personalities appeared.
Also, Xiaoyao now knew what the Eldest Princess was called. Ning Xiyue was her name, because the signature on this painting was Ning Xiyue. When Xiaoyao asked, he naturally found out.
Now Xiaoyao also understood why the Eldest Princess lived here - because Ning Zhuyue had lived here before. The Eldest Princess loved her sister very much, so much that after Ning Zhuyue "died," she had been living here ever since.
"This is the Cold Palace. Why would Princess Zhuyue live here?" Xiaoyao immediately asked after hearing this.
"Did you forget? Zhuyue defied father's wishes for Jiang Donglai, so father confined her here for several years, until she left this place!" The Eldest Princess answered.
"Oh, I understand!" Xiaoyao got it. So that's how it was - this indeed made sense.
"Aunt Xiyue, why don't you, such a noble person, have someone come clean this place? The outside is already overgrown with weeds - can you tolerate this?" Xiaoyao asked another question. Not to mention the mess inside, just the weeds outside were a serious problem.
"Why are you calling me Aunt Xiyue again? Either call me Imperial Aunt directly, or call me Auntie! Actually, I have no choice about this. The other me likes mess and chaos. Destroying is much easier than organizing. Anyway, I usually just cultivate in my room - as long as the room is tidy, it's fine." The Eldest Princess was somewhat helpless. Who told her she had another personality that was exactly opposite to her?
"No wonder this is the only clean place in the entire palace, inconsistent with the outside!" Xiaoyao finally understood. "But wait, don't you have servants? If this were maintained daily, even if the other Aunt Xiyue..."
"Call me Auntie!"
"Fine, even if the other Auntie appeared and destroyed things daily, as long as someone cleaned up, wouldn't it be the same?" Xiaoyao asked. This situation could be completely avoided in the imperial palace.
"That's because I don't want anyone to enter Clear Moon Palace!" The Eldest Princess said somewhat sadly.
"Oh, I understand. Then I shouldn't stay here either. Let's end it here today - we'll see each other tomorrow." Xiaoyao understood the Eldest Princess's sadness, and at the same time, he wanted to use this opportunity to escape.
"Stop right there! You're staying here with me during this time, so you can learn more about your mother's situation." The Eldest Princess grabbed Xiaoyao with one hand. How could she possibly let Xiaoyao leave?
"Fine, I'll stay. I'll just consider myself serving you for a few days!" Xiaoyao compromised. He treated the Eldest Princess as a willful master, and he would endure as a servant, serving her for a few days.
Just consider himself the Eldest Princess's temporary little servant.
"I don't need you to serve me. On the contrary, I want to take care of you. From now on, you don't need to serve anyone. You're one of our royal family - if anyone should be served, it's others serving you!" The Eldest Princess stroked Xiaoyao's head and said somewhat lovingly.
To be honest, although the Eldest Princess's feelings for Xiaoyao came inexplicably and suddenly, her heart genuinely wanted what was best for Xiaoyao - it was real emotion.
Perhaps Xiaoyao was just her spiritual anchor, but in fact, she really was very good to Xiaoyao.
"Thank you, but I hope you won't interfere with my life. I like being a servant - it's my interest!" At this time, Xiaoyao also began opening his heart to the Eldest Princess. Perhaps he sensed that genuine feeling from her.
If he didn't acknowledge the Eldest Princess, even if she were the Empress of the Great Tang Empire, he wouldn't say much more to her, because he felt it was completely unnecessary!
"Interest?" The Eldest Princess looked at Xiaoyao, somewhat puzzled.
"Yes, just interest. I'm temporarily not interested in other things right now - it's not that I can't do them! Moreover, I'm currently only one person's servant, and she doesn't make me do anything either, hehe..." Xiaoyao smiled and slowly talked with the Eldest Princess.
Xiaoyao suddenly realized that he seemed to be a rather incompetent servant - he wasn't with his boss for more than a few days all year.
"Who is she?" The Eldest Princess looked at Xiaoyao and smiled. She could feel that when Xiaoyao mentioned his boss, the feeling was very different. This definitely wasn't feelings toward a man - this boss must be a woman, and a beautiful girl at that. This was her feminine intuition.
"Guxing!"
"Guxing? Oh, I remember now. Someone told me that Guxing is a very talented girl who has probably broken through now and reached Emperor Level." The Eldest Princess said.
"Yes, she's already at Emperor Level. In a few more years, I believe she can become a peerless expert, not much weaker than you." Xiaoyao said with a gentle smile.
"Why does she call herself Guxing? I heard her original name isn't this." The Eldest Princess didn't mind Guxing's progress. She felt that as long as a person worked hard, anything was possible.
She seemed more interested in Guxing's name. At the same time, her understanding of Guxing should be considerable - otherwise she wouldn't know that Guxing's original name wasn't her current one. This might have been something she happened to hear about, or something she deliberately investigated.
Xiaoyao felt the former probability was ninety-nine percent. With the Eldest Princess's personality, she shouldn't do such things.
However, Xiaoyao overlooked one point - the Eldest Princess had two personalities, and one of them happened to be a gambler. She had placed bets during the Dragon Gate Tournament, so she had collected information about Guxing.
At the same time, recently the battles between Le Youran and Guxing seemed to have become betting subjects, and the gambler Eldest Princess had also participated. This information happened to be seen by the current Eldest Princess.
(End of Chapter)