The Empress Dowager Zhuang patiently explained to Gu Jiao, like an elder eagle meticulously teaching a young eaglet to hunt: "His master has ordered him to stay put. If I force him to act, he will immediately suspect I’m testing him. But if I echo his master’s words, he won’t be sure if I’m truly testing him or if his master has really sent another person."
Gu Jiao nodded in sudden realization: "Moreover, the fact that you, Auntie, also speak the language of Zhan Country acts as a secret code between you."
"You could say that," the Empress Dowager Zhuang replied indifferently, "Next, he will certainly proceed cautiously to verify my true identity."
"Will he believe you?" Gu Jiao asked.
The Empress Dowager Zhuang said, "He can’t fully believe nor completely doubt. He is a very cautious person, but precisely because he is overly cautious, he will definitely try to verify my identity to eliminate the possibility that he has already been exposed."
Everything unfolded as Auntie predicted. Little Lizi, after holding back an entire day, finally could not resist any longer.
In a minute, he looked out of Qilin Palace three times.
This indicated his eagerness to get out.
Gu Jiao was more than happy to make it convenient for him.
She called over two eunuchs: "I’m running low on medicinal herbs. Little Lizi, Little Dengzi, you two go to the pharmacy and buy me some herbs. I feel uneasy always using the ones from the National Master Hall."
The two took the prescription she handed over, boarded the carriage, and left the National Master Hall.
Little Lizi was trained specially; an ordinary expert’s tracking wouldn’t evade his eyes.
But he would never have imagined that the one tracking him wasn’t an expert he usually faced, but the sky dominator, Xiaojiu.
Who would pay attention to a bird soaring in the night sky?
One simply couldn’t see it, could they?
Little Lizi added some drugs to Little Dengzi’s tea, and while Little Dengzi was constantly running to the toilet with a stomach ache, he went to a gambling house.
He met someone in the backyard of the gambling house, and from the other person, he took a homing pigeon that was already prepared, dipped a brush in ink, and drew three strokes on the pigeon’s right leg.
Then he released the homing pigeon.
The pigeon flew all the way to the Imperial Palace, into the Bedchamber of Noble Consort Han. Just as it was about to land on her window sill, Xiaojiu swooped down and grabbed it in its beak!
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