The tide finally drank water.

  She is so insignificant, yet someone wants to kill her, even if she doesn't drink water, it's possible that she will be plotted against in other ways.

  Even if Chen Fei was so cautious, day and night, trembling with fear, others would still be able to outsmart her - and it would happen right in front of the Emperor.

  The emperor was so furious, it wasn't just for Chen Fei, probably also because he had been slapped in the face by someone.

  It was neither early nor late when he went to the Smoke and Mist Palace that something happened to Consort Chen.

  The tide was born with water and ate coarse cakes. With some cake crumbs on her hands, she rubbed her hands and took out a handkerchief from her bosom.

  This isn't her own handkerchief, it's the one she picked up.

  Chao Sheng was taken aback for a moment.

  Earlier... she was still holding a handkerchief and staring blankly, later when the end of the year called her, she directly put this in her arms.

  Chao Sheng still didn't use this hand sanitizer.

  What about others? At the end of the year, Qingjing... and Chen Fei, where are they now?

  Later, no one came to ask her again. Cao Sheng anxiously waited for another day and night. During that long period of time, she only ate a pancake, but surprisingly didn't feel hungry at all.

  On the third day, someone finally came and opened the door.

  Chao Sheng leaned against the wall and slowly stood up - she had a feeling that things should have an outcome by now.

  It's just that I don't know whether it's good or bad.

  "It's out."

  She leaned against the wall and slowly walked out of the door, taking a deep breath to calm herself down.

  The man standing outside the door was the middle-aged eunuch who had once asked her questions, with a face like a goat.

  He glanced at her and said in a tone peculiar to eunuchs, "Forty strokes of the rod, and exile to the Washing Clothes Alley."

  Chao Sheng stared at him blankly.

  Someone beside him said: "Lord Cao, this little girl is only eleven or twelve years old. Forty lashes will kill her."

  The man with the surname Cao rolled his eyes: "This is a message from the Duke's emissary, if you have anything to say, go and report it to the Duke."

  That man hastily forced a smile: "Don't say that." Turning his face around, he immediately changed to a fierce expression: "Didn't you hear? Take him away!"

  The tide was born and didn't know where the courage came from, took a step forward: "Dare to ask the old man... how is Chen Fei?"

  She didn't hold out much hope, but the man with the surname Cao turned around and was about to leave, looked at her for a moment, stopped in his tracks, and nodded slightly towards someone else. That person understood, cupped his hands together, and said with a fake smile: "Now there's no more Concubine Chen, the Emperor has taken pity on you, and already promoted you to Consort An."

  Is it? Chao Sheng only felt a sense of confusion in his heart.

  Cao Gong's men had just left when a strong eunuch named Kong Wu lifted her up and pressed her onto a wooden bench. Two rods, each as thick as a teacup, were raised high in the air, their dark red color glistening ominously. One person counted out loud while two others wielded the rods, striking down one blow at a time.

  When the first blow landed on her body, Chao Sheng also heard a loud "bang", and her internal organs were shaken by this loud noise. Only then did she feel pain, like being burned by fire, so painful that she couldn't breathe in. Before this wave of pain had passed, the second blow came down again.

  Chao Sheng gritted her teeth and endured the pain, listening to the man count "seventeen, eighteen" when she was already disoriented. She didn't know when the remaining dozens of lashes were finished. Nor did she know how she ended up in Huanyi Alley.

  When she came to again, she was already lying on the grassy slope of the Washing Brook.

  This room is as narrow as the one that once locked her up, sunlight passes through the broken window paper holes, forming many beams of light, and many tiny dust particles float in those light beams.

  The tide stirred slightly, and I felt that there was no place on my body that didn't hurt, as if I had been heavily crushed and then pieced together again.

  My body aches, my head hurts, and my throat also hurts. It hurts as if there are countless knife tips stabbing and piercing.

  She let out a moan, and cold sweat and tears streamed down her face together.

  There were footsteps outside and the door was pushed open.

  "Huh? I'm awake."

  The man walked over, and Cao Sheng's head couldn't be lifted up, so he could only slightly turn his head to see that the man was wearing a coarse linen skirt that had been washed until it lost its color.

  "Drink some water first, I'll go get you the medicine." The woman said in a rough tone: "You really have good luck, burning with such a high fever, everyone thought you wouldn't make it. Who knew you'd recover again? In my opinion, this person is useless, no suffering is unbearable for him, even Yama doesn't want his cheap life."

  Chao Sheng didn't know who she was, but the person fed her half a bowl of water. She spoke coarsely, but her movements were still careful, and after finishing feeding her the half bowl of water, not a single drop spilled out.

  When giving her the medicine, the woman said again: "My surname is Wu, and everyone here calls me Mother Wu. The medicine cost four taels and eight mace of silver, and the ointment for your wound costs one tael and two mace. This money will be deducted from your future salary to pay me back."

  Six or seven taels of silver may not have been considered a lot in the past... but now Chao Sheng doesn't even have a single copper coin.

  It's obvious she was assigned here, how could they possibly let her bring her own luggage?

  She had saved up her loose change, a silver earring, a silver hairpin, and also the golden hairpin that Princess Chen had given her...

  "Wu's mother glanced at her and chuckled: 'What are you crying about? Crying won't cure your illness. Hurry up and get better so you can work. You can't die that easily, or who will I ask for my medical expenses?'"

  Chao Sheng lay there, thinking that even wiping away his tears was too much effort.

  She could only nod her head slightly towards Wu's mother.

  Later, someone came to replace her dressing, a small palace maid who was not much older than her, with disheveled hair, rough and coarse hands, with scabs and red swollen cracks.

  Chao Sheng asked her name, she said her name was Man Er. She seemed not to be very good at talking, Chao Sheng asked what, she just hummed and responded with "yes". However, when changing the dressing, she softly asked: "Does it hurt a lot?"

  "Yes, it hurts a lot."

  "Well, I'll be gentler then." Her movements were indeed lighter than before.

  "Wu's mother put you in this room for your own good... You can't sleep on the bed now." As she was about to leave, she turned back and said: "This straw is dry and soft, I heard Wu's mother and Song's mother say that it's good for your injury."

  As soon as he could move his limbs, he immediately got up.

  The alley where she lives can't afford to raise idle people, let alone others having the obligation to support and serve her for free.

  Chao Sheng wasn't someone who had never washed clothes before, but it was only when doing laundry became her professional job that she could understand why the Laundry Alley was usually a place where criminals were punished.

  From morning to night, there's nothing else to do but washing. Now she knows where the red and swollen blisters on her hands come from. It's not even cold yet, what about when winter comes and the water freezes? Cao Sheng doesn't dare think about it. Big items like quilts, curtains, pillowcases, and wool blankets; small items like clothes, skirts, and pants - every day, there are mountains of dirty laundry waiting to be washed.

  Eating was no longer like in the Smoke and Clouds Palace, where it was cold one meal and hot the next, hungry one meal and full the next. The little flesh that Chao Sheng had just managed to put on his body was all gone again.

  This is like another world.

  Far from her past life, far from the Smoke and Rain Palace, far from those luxurious and wealthy days. She could only get a little news sporadically, Chen Fei had a miscarriage, but she got compensation and became An Fei. What about others? Chao Sheng didn't know how others were doing. From her own experience, others in the Smoke and Rain Palace must not be living well either, did they also get beaten? Did they also get punished? But where are those people now? From the incident to now, she neither saw anyone nor got any news from them.

  Wu's mother was in charge of these ten or so people, she had a quick temper and it was common for her to grab their hair and push them around when she got angry. However, Chao Sheng also felt that she was very lucky. The woman in charge next door often beat the people in her courtyard until they were covered in bruises, and didn't even allow them to cry out loud.

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  Didn't update today, will update tomorrow.