Female Consort Chapter 58: The Saintess

"In the dense forests of the South, there are many divine herbs. One of them is called Tengshou Grass."

"It is called grass, yet its form is like a tree. The flower beads are the seeds, capable of reviving the dead, returning flesh to bones. It blooms only once every few decades."

", Only those with fate can witness it."

Under the massive peach tree, a group of children sat quietly around the elder, listening intently. One of them raised a bright voice and asked, "What if someone isn't fated?"

The elder stroked his beard and laughed heartily, "Those who are not fated may die early from the poisonous gas and swamps when entering the South's dense forests. Or they may fall into a dream beneath the canopy of the Tengshou Grass."

"Turning back to life, living in dreams, never waking."

"Has anyone ever come out alive?"

"No one has ever come out alive."

The children all gasped in awe.

Just then, a slender figure in black, holding a wooden sword, passed by not far off.

In this Taoyuan paradise, the contrast of black stood out remarkably.

One sharp-eyed child spotted her immediately, leapt up, waved, and shouted, "Sister Aning!"

The figure paused, turned back, revealing a face both cold and elegant. Her long hair was tied up, and she wore only a single wooden hairpin atop her head, but there was an undeniable aura of nobility about her, as though she had long been accustomed to a high position.

She paused briefly, and before she could say anything, the children swarmed around her, chattering and calling her "Sister Aning": "Has Sister Qingqing woken up yet?"

Qiu Che shook her head, her lips curving into a faint smile, though a hint of worry flickered in her eyes. "It's already noon, aren't you all going home for lunch?"

The children sighed in unison and scattered, heading back to their homes.

Behind them, the old man, bent and slow, leaned on his cane and made his way toward Qiu Che. "Girl, have you been to the forest's edge again today?"

Qiu Che glanced at the empty surroundings, her gaze sweeping over the peach tree. She lowered her voice, "Mm, I had no choice."

The elder sighed, then ambled toward the other side of the village. Qiu Che followed beside him, deep in thought.

Without looking back, the elder seemed to sense her thoughts and casually remarked, "This place is isolated from the world. Just focus on growing your Tengshou Grass, there's no need to worry. But, while others can't enter, you won't easily get news from the outside either."

"If you want to learn something, wait for that Qingqing girl to wake up, then you two can make plans."

Qiu Che snapped out of her thoughts and smiled. "You're right, Uncle Jiang."

"But, if the Taoyuan River water is used to irrigate the Tengshou Grass every day, will it really make it bloom as if it's newly opened?"

Uncle Jiang glanced at her sideways and snorted, "I've lived in this Taoyuan Land for decades. Do you think I would be wrong?"

Qiu Che chuckled in response, realizing she had been overthinking.

This place, named Taoyuan Land, was a secluded village exactly as its name suggested. It lay on the border between the South and Great Xia, surrounded by the dense forests of the South, uninhabited and remote.

Although isolated from the world, the village was far from empty. It housed many children, with only a few middle-aged adults who managed the farming and cared for the children’s daily needs.

These children, including the few middle-aged adults, were all saved by this elder, Jiang, over the course of decades.

Some came from the North, others from the South, and some even from other lands.

But all, without exception, were people who, for various reasons, had to leave their homes and beg on the streets to survive.

Qiu Che and Li Qingwu were no exception, both having been rescued by him.

The difference was that they were "found" deep in the South's dense forests by Uncle Jiang.

Not long after Qiu Che fainted that day, she woke up again at dusk, only to find herself alone. The only traces left were deep and shallow footprints leading into the jungle.

In an instant, Qiu Che realized where Li Qingwu had gone, 

The Tengshou Grass.

She had grown up under her mother’s influence, and although she wasn’t adept at making medicine, she was quite skilled with the South’s sleeping herbs.

Qiu Che was caught off guard when Li Qingwu had drugged her with the powder in her fragrance pouch.

Li Qingwu, who had once said she didn't care whether it could cure her, was the first to enter the forest alone in search of the herb.

As the evening grew darker and Li Qingwu still hadn’t returned, Qiu Che couldn’t wait any longer. She covered her mouth and nose with cloth and followed the trail of footprints into the forest.

Soon, beneath the canopy of a massive tree, where green leaves obscured the light, she found Li Qingwu, unconscious.

In her hand was a delicate, blooming flower bud.

Qiu Che had never seen this flower before. Its petals resembled those of a peony, while its center looked like a rhododendron.

She didn’t have time to think much; she carefully helped Li Qingwu up, checked for breath, and confirmed that she was still alive before looking again at the flower tightly gripped in her hand.

The moment her hand touched it, everything before her blurred.

Then, like a strange dream, she experienced everything from Li Qingwu's past life through her eyes.

When she woke up again, she found herself lying peacefully with Li Qingwu in a wooden cabin.

The owner of the cabin was none other than Uncle Jiang.

In the Taoyuan Land, there were many such unoccupied wooden houses, all left behind by those who had come before.

Uncle Jiang claimed to have lived here for decades, always residing within this Taoyuan Land.

And this so-called Taoyuan Land was located deep within the South's dense forests, a place from which no one could enter or leave.

For Uncle Jiang to live in such a place showed that he was no simple person. Yet, he had been taken in by a group of innocent children, and given life-saving help in the dense forest, Qiu Che couldn’t help but feel that he was someone she should trust.

If it weren’t for him, they might have either died or been completely corroded by the poisonous gas without hope of recovery.

Even the flower, which was said to be the Tengshou Grass, was something Uncle Jiang had told her about.

When asked why, Uncle Jiang simply replied, "If you're asking why I saved you, then that is a secret that cannot be revealed."

"And if you're asking why I told you this is the Tengshou Grass and how to use it, well, it's simply because you two are the fated ones."

"Ordinary people cannot see the Tengshou Grass," Uncle Jiang said, his tone heavy with meaning. "Not only did you see it, but you also picked it."

Qiu Che felt that his words were mysterious and cryptic, leaving her with more questions than answers.

She never believed in the idea of fate or destined connections, but she didn’t directly refute it. Instead, she idly fiddled with the petals in her pocket, which, despite having been there for several days, remained as fresh as ever, lost in thought.

The situation had grown somewhat complicated. Logically, after their rescue, they should have returned to the capital at once to avoid causing any trouble with their prolonged absence.

However, Li Qingwu, for some unknown reason, had been unconscious for over ten days and still had not awoken.

Qiu Che initially intended to seek a doctor but was stopped by Uncle Jiang, who, shaking his beard, said, "Do you think there’s no doctor in the village? That’s because I am the doctor."

Suspicious, Qiu Che sat back down.

Uncle Jiang took her pulse for a moment and said that Li Qingwu’s body was fine, but her heart illness was difficult to treat. She was lost in a deep slumber, unwilling to wake up.

This only made Qiu Che more anxious.

She had already reviewed Li Qingwu’s past life in her dreams. While she couldn’t truly feel what Li Qingwu had experienced, she could at least see that Li Qingwu did have some affection for her.

…No, it wouldn’t be fair to say “some.” It was definitely a lot.

But Li Qingwu still hadn’t woken up, and Qiu Che’s heart, filled with hope, had fallen into despair.

She couldn’t help but wonder: Did Li Qingwu perhaps see the memories of her past life too?

Was it because her previous life had been so tragic that she was unwilling to wake up?

Or perhaps Uncle Jiang didn’t know any medical skills and was just teasing her?

Could it be that this paradise-like Taoyuan Spring was, in fact, just a dream? And maybe she hadn’t woken up at all?

The thought of that was terrifying.

But Qiu Che quickly dismissed it.

She didn’t believe she lacked the ability to tell the difference between reality and dreams.

The Tengshou Grass needed to be brewed into a medicinal potion or applied fresh to be effective. While waiting for Li Qingwu to wake up, Qiu Che quietly searched for a way to contact the outside world, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, as Uncle Jiang had instructed, every day when practicing martial arts, she would go to the village’s edge to fetch water from the Taoyuan River and use it to irrigate the Tengshou Grass, keeping it fresh.

Days passed, and nearly half a month had gone by. Qiu Che’s anxiety grew.

Her greatest worry was Li Qingwu, who still hadn’t awoken.

But today, she unexpectedly received a reply from a pigeon she had secretly sent a few days ago using a homemade mechanism.

The reply was written by Yang Qiu. It began with his astonishment and congratulations that she was still alive, followed by a recount of the recent events in the capital.

It turned out that after the two of them, along with Yuan Fu, fell off the cliff, Wu Yiqi remembered her instructions and, instead of making a scene immediately, took the opportunity to contact the Empress Dowager with Yu Ming's help.

They, along with the people of Yeming City, circled around to the mountain base and searched for traces of them. They searched for a full day and night along the river, but all they found was Yuan Fu’s body, already cold. There was no sign of them whatsoever.

Even Yu Ming and Yu Yan were depressed. Although they hadn’t seen the bodies, they almost accepted that their chances of survival were slim.

As the saying goes, the truth can’t be hidden forever. On the third day after their fall, the Emperor noticed something was off.

Once the news spread, the ministers were shocked. Perhaps fearing another mishap, the Emperor abruptly called off the autumn hunting after only half the trip and ordered an early return to the capital.

In their half-month absence, it was said that the Emperor had been attending court every day with a sorrowful expression, and the new forces had been greatly suppressed.

The powerful old factions that had been suffocating due to Qiu Che's legal reforms were now breathing easily again.

The most triumphant of them was none other than Prime Minister Wu.

Without the looming threat of a potential danger, he had once again become the most influential voice in the court, with a satisfied expression from top to bottom.

The Emperor, for reasons unknown, who had previously been highly averse to any connection between the Empress Dowager and Wu Xiang, suddenly allowed the Empress Dowager to take control of court affairs again, citing his own ill health.

According to the letter Qiu Che had received, the Empress Dowager had taken advantage of this opportunity to drive a wedge between the already fragile trust between the Emperor and his ministers. She had used the gap created by the Emperor’s lack of people to rely on to establish a new, aloof, and pious image, quietly regaining a portion of political power.

The court was now divided into three factions, each fighting fiercely, with the crown prince even occasionally stirring up trouble.

Things were much livelier than when Qiu Che was there.

By the time she read this far, Qiu Che wasn’t in a rush. It was clear that Yang Qiu was trying to put her mind at ease, encouraging her not to hurry back. But most of what he wrote seemed to be true.

With this information, Qiu Che realized she didn’t need to rush back to the capital immediately.

In fact, since Li Qingwu still hadn’t woken up, she could take this opportunity to hide in the shadows, observe the situation, and search for the figure who had been manipulating everything from behind the scenes.

Uncle Jiang, however, had misjudged her thoughts.

Seeing that Qiu Che had been silent for so long, he assumed she didn’t believe him. With a huff, he said proudly, “I’m from the Southern Yi, once serving beside the Southern Yi’ Saintess… I’ve long cultivated a body immune to all poisons. If I wanted your Tengshou Grass, I would’ve found it ages ago. You needn’t worry about me lying or coveting it.”

Qiu Che paused, but her focus shifted: “…Southern Yi’ Saintess?”

Wasn’t that just a legend?

“Indeed,” Uncle Jiang sighed, “Not to mention the previous Saintesses, the last one I served was a woman with an exceptionally strong personality.”

“What a pity… She was too stubborn, too obsessed with being loved, and had a strained relationship with her brother, who was the ruler. Eventually, her brother sent her to the capital of the Great Xia Empire as a spy. There, she fell into a false love affair with the wrong person, and when her true identity was exposed, she was sent to the cold palace, and news of her vanished.”

Qiu Che’s heart skipped a beat. She felt an eerie sense of familiarity with the description. “What happened after?”

“After?”

Uncle Jiang stopped, looking at her, “After, I came here. I no longer paid attention to news from the outside world.”

“…Do you know her surname?”

“Surname? Of course, her family name was Shen, the royal family of the Southern Yi,” Uncle Jiang said meaningfully. “I remember her given name was just ‘Xiao.’ But now, in the Southern Yi, I doubt anyone even remembers that name.”

How tragic.

In her own country, no one loved her. She was sent to another nation as a spy, only to be seen as a pawn, a meaningless piece to others.

Her life was spent seeking love from others, yet she never once loved herself.

How pitiful.

But this was the fate of so many people.

It seemed that those too obsessed with love were always hurt by it.

On the other hand, those cold and ruthless often end up with everything.