655 Sneaking into the Palace

"Xiao Yun."

"Yes, Miss."

"No one is allowed to come in."

Xiao Yun froze when she heard that order. She knew that it meant Nan Hua was actually planning on leaving by sneaking out. The one inside would be Ku.

"Yes, Miss."

Ku was always staying not far from Nan Shu Cheng's Residence. After a long time of preparation, her task was simply to replace Nan Hua. Compared to the original line of work she was supposed to do, being a body double was much easier.

Now that Nan Hua wanted to leave again, Ku naturally replaced Nan Hua and sat inside the ancestral home. She looked at the gloomy atmosphere and wondered whether the people here actually took care of this place or not. It looked so dusty and dirty.

Swish!

Nan Hua sneaked out of Nan Shu Cheng's Residence without any hindrance. Even though there were more people who were paying close attention to Nan Shu Cheng's Residence, they were filled with loopholes. Nan Hua could still easily get out of the residence without alerting any of them.

It was the palace that was harder to sneak into because the supervision was extremely strict. Not to mention, they also recorded the people who came in and came out. This was the reason why those people didn't dare to launch the assassination attack hastily.

Once they did it, they would lose many months or even years of preparation.

But of course, Nan Hua would not do the same thing as those people and lose her long term preparation. Back when she first sneaked into the palace, she was making use of the ruined secret pathway that had been abandoned. It was because it was long forgotten that she could use it.

This time, she couldn't do that.

She had to use another method.

Nan Hua stopped not far from the group of servant girls who were coming out of the palace. A copper coin that was partially chipped was thrown in front of one of the palace maidservant.

She stopped.

It was already evening, which meant that they would have to return to the palace soon after they had finished their duty. She kept the copper coin and then turned around in a corner. With a swift movement, she took off her outer robe and put inside the basket.

After that, she left into the alley.

Nan Hua appeared and took the clothes, putting them on top of her previous clothes. She looked at the list of items that the maidservants had to buy before walking out and followed the other girls while checking the basket. Her action looked natural as if she had been doing this for a long time.

Even though Nan Hua was considered rather short, it was still within the normal range of the girl's average height. Thus, all Nan Hua had to do was to wear some makeup to change her countenance and made her look ordinary.

If someone as beautiful as her walked around, that would be the same as inviting trouble.

"Have you finished buying everything? The gate will be closed soon."

"I have finished."

"Ah, I lack one more. Please wait a moment."

"Hurry."

The girls chatted as they walked nearer the palace. Nan Hua didn't talk at all, looking at her basket as if she was counting the content. It looked as if she was nervous about whether she managed to buy everything or not.

Before long, they reached the gate and showed their identification token. All of them also wore a pendant at their hips, which was used to identify their identity as part of the palace's servants. The token they held was to make sure the guards could record their names.

They were all low ranked servants, so the guards didn't really remember them all and only kept the record of their names for safety purpose.

"Bai Wei, are you alright?" a girl looked at Nan Hua and asked curiously.

"Ah, I'm worried that I didn't manage to buy everything." Nan Hua looked at the basket in her hand and smiled wryly.

"Don't worry, even if there's a bit lacking… they shouldn't punish us too much this time." The girl had a grim expression. It was clear that they had been punished several times in the past because they didn't read the instruction properly. Not all servant girls could read and their ability was a bit lower because of that.

Nan Hua shook her head and simply walked to the kitchen. This girl who was called Bai Wei was one of the kitchen staff. However, her task was not to cook but to prepare the ingredients and other menial stuffs.

Since it was about the time for dinner, they were asked to buy some of the lacking ingredients.

After Nan Hua put the ingredients in each place, she left the kitchen and headed to the staff's area. Her eyes swept around the area, scrutinizing everything. She didn't have the complete map and had never been to this area in the palace before.

The special mission was very sudden.

It was issued for this very night, making those who lacked preparation unable to accept it right away.

In fact, this special mission could be said to be an emergency mission.

Nan Hua didn't care that much, though.

She walked around the area that this identity of hers allowed her to. It didn't take long for her to familiarize herself in this new environment. Bai Wei didn't have many friends since most of the palace servants were busy to fend for themselves. Not to mention, she was basically at the lowest of the chain, which meant that she had a lot of menial duties and quite easily forgotten by others.

As the moon hung high in the sky, more and more people stayed within their quarter. They didn't have any business to stay outside, so they naturally would not do so.

Nan Hua silently sit within Bai Wei's Quarter as she had changed her clothes once more. Now draped in black clothes, she silently sneaked out and sat on the tree. This place was close to the gate, so if those assassins came from outside, this was one of the routes they could use.