TGCFNM -Chapter 557 Finding the Ancestral Tablet

Chu Ling hid inside the Empress Dowager’s palace, led deeper in by Cui Xi.

Bai Su stood guard outside the door, ready to signal Chu Ling to act the moment anyone approached.

Outside, Commander Ban gritted his teeth in frustration. Chu Ling seemed to have grown eyes that could see clearly in the dark. Any of his men who dared step closer to the hall would be met with silver needles—each one deadly.

“How many silver needles can a mere doctor have anyway?” Chu Yue calculated quietly. She had her men hold up shields and rush in. At the right moment, they would slash with their swords and set things ablaze…

Right!

Why hadn’t she just started a fire from the beginning?

“Someone, pour oil outside this room!” Chu Yue turned and gave the order.

Nangong Jing’s face changed. “You dare burn the Empress Dowager’s bedchamber?”

“After it burns, the vast palace still belongs to the Empress Dowager. Why can’t this small section be burned? Commander Ban, go fetch some oil,” Chu Yue ordered sternly.

Nangong Jing hurriedly blocked her. “No, you can’t burn it!”

Chu Yue frowned, irritated. “Why not?”

“Absolutely not! If you dare, the Empress Dowager will take your life!” Nangong Jing’s face was pale; even her threat sounded weak.

“Really?” Chu Yue sneered, retorting mockingly, yet still ordered Commander Ban to fetch the oil.

The commander immediately sent someone to carry the oil.

Cui Xi rushed in anxiously. “Miss, Miss! They want to burn this place. That Commander Ban went to get the oil, but Miss Bai Hu stopped her. Chu Yue insist on burning it, and now they’re arguing.”

Chu Ling had worried for a moment when she heard about the oil, but when she heard Nangong Jing blocking Chu Yue, she stood up and began surveying the palace carefully.

“Aunt Su, keep watch for me. I’ll thoroughly search this place,” Chu Ling said, patting Wangcai before starting to inspect the room meticulously.

“Cui Xi, the best place to hide something is by the bed, right?” Chu Ling asked casually.

Cui Xi nodded. “After all, you sleep there every night. It’s like personally guarding it.”

Chu Ling hummed and crouched down to move the bed… but the Empress Dowager’s phoenix bed seemed fused to the floor—it couldn’t be moved. Even if she threw off all the bedding, the bed wouldn’t budge.

Chu Ling exhaled, lying back on the bed. She couldn’t help but think longingly of Xiao Hua—if she were here, this would be much easier…

“What’s that above?” Chu Ling exclaimed, sitting up. In the faint light of the folding lamp, she looked up.

“Master, see if you can get onto the beams and check from there,” Ghost Scholar suggested.

Chu Ling nodded, leapt onto the beam, and slowly moved along it, peering down from above.

Only at this moment did she realize that the top of the Empress Dowager’s phoenix bed and the mattress below seemed to be one piece. The intricate patterns above gradually became clear before her eyes.

“What is this… a camellia?”

The Empress Dowager liked camellias this much? Even above her head while sleeping?

Ghost Scholar floated beside Chu Ling, scrutinizing the relationship between the top and the lower bed, murmuring, “This… is a tomb?”

“Ah?” Chu Ling nearly fell in shock. “Master, are you saying the top and bottom of the Empress Dowager’s bed are connected like a tomb? She sleeps in a tomb? What kind of obsession is this?”

“The vengeful spirit beside the Empress Dowager!” Ghost Scholar suddenly realized. He floated down, eyes fixed firmly on the solid wooden bed. “The bones of that spirit are right beneath this bed!”

Chu Ling was shocked: The Empress Dowager sleeps on top of the corpse every night?!

“Master, they wouldn’t dare burn it. If they did, they’d be dead for sure,” the Ghost Scholar said with absolute certainty.

Chu Ling leapt down, standing on the bed.

“This bed is solid wood—kicking it won’t move it, lifting it won’t either. We’ll need more people here to have a chance… Well, then, let them set it on fire.” Chu Ling calmly sat cross-legged, planning to quietly wait it out.

At that moment, Wangcai suddenly barked twice.

Curious, Chu Ling followed Wangcai to a certain spot: the incense burner the Empress Dowager used. It was beautifully crafted, smelled good, and wasn’t poisoned.

But Wangcai was scratching at the bottom.

Carefully, Chu Ling lifted the hollowed-out cover and set it aside, then swept aside the ashes inside the burner. Her hand found a small indentation; pressing it, she slowly lifted it—and underneath was hollow.

Chu Ling grabbed a nearby fire stick to illuminate the space and carefully felt around, eventually touching a piece of wood.

“No way…” Chu Ling murmured softly. She pulled the wood out, only to discover it was a spirit tablet.

The tablet bore the name Yang Jingyuan, with his wife Xuanyuan Wan standing beside it.

Still murmuring “no way,” Chu Ling brought the tablet back to the bed and began tapping it against the bedframe—thump, thump, thump.

Outside, no one paid her any attention. Instead, buckets of flaming oil were being poured, filling the air with a pungent smell even inside the room.

At that moment, the tablet broke open, and a marriage contract fell out.

Holding it up to the firelight, Chu Ling examined it carefully…

“So before entering the palace, the Empress Dowager was already betrothed to Yang Jingyuan, and they were supposed to marry on April 20…”

The Ghost Scholar sighed. “But later, she entered the palace, and by that time, the late emperor was already very old… The Xuanyuan family probably pressured her to enter the palace to maintain the family’s honor.”

“No wonder the Xuanyuan family wasn’t cared for when they died,” Chu Ling said, recalling Yang Jingyuan. “It’s likely he died because the Empress Dowager entered the palace, while his sister survived and married into the Nangong family. That’s why the Empress Dowager favored the Nangong family… and the emperor even trusted them, letting them gain immense power without relying on anyone else.”

“The Empress Dowager’s careful plotting all these years… was it to eliminate all the royal clans? To avenge a past grievance?” The Ghost Scholar gripped his folding fan, shaken.

The Empress Dowager was nearly successful.

Chu Ling slipped the marriage contract into her sleeve. Outside, the Empress Dowager finally arrived.

But the instant she appeared, Chu Yue ordered the flames to be set.

“How dare you!” The Empress Dowager roared, raising her hand to strike.

Slap! A crisp slap echoed. Everyone was startled and hurriedly fell to their knees.

Chu Yue’s face was turned aside, the red handprint of five fingers clearly visible.

Nangong Jing, pale, bowed: “Your Majesty, I couldn’t persuade Miss Shi. It is my failure.”

The Empress Dowager glanced at Nangong Jing, had her supported, then coldly turned her gaze to Chu Yue: “How dare you set fire to my place!”

Chu Yue clenched her fists, her lowered eyes full of hatred: “Chu Ling ran inside. I only wanted to force her out.”

“Someone, put out the fire for me!” The Empress Dowager’s icy glare fell on Chu Yue as she ordered water to be brought.

But there was too much oil; the flames spread rapidly, climbing up to the roof and forming a wall of fire.