When Ding Yun was in the inner hall, pondering how to first resolve her confinement and return to the Princess's mansion from the palace.
The eunuchs who had returned to their respective posts.
Began to take advantage of the fact that no one was around.
To mutter and discuss what they had just witnessed.
"You saw the white light that erupted from the Eldest Princess, right? It shouldn't have been a hallucination!"
"It wasn't a hallucination, I saw it too."
"Could the Eldest Princess be an immortal descending to the mortal realm?"
"But if the Eldest Princess were truly an immortal descending to the mortal realm, why was there no anomaly for so many years? Shouldn't auspicious signs have appeared?"
"Perhaps the immortal just descended!"
"Could it be some kind of sorcery or trickery?"
"To tell you the truth, you just weren't observing carefully enough.
Did you not notice any difference in the Eldest Princess compared to yesterday? I remember very clearly, yesterday the Eldest Princess had a sallow complexion, looking weak and even sickly. Her health clearly wasn't good.
But what you saw just now, the Eldest Princess could be described as having a radiant and glowing complexion. We are fully aware of whether anything was sent in during these past few days.
Moreover, even if food was sent in.
What kind of food could make someone recover from a gaunt appearance to a radiant complexion in just one day? An elixir?"
"Oh my, it really does seem so!"
"Exactly. I remember when I saw the Eldest Princess yesterday, I was worried that if it continued, something might happen, and His Majesty might blame us.
Today, the Eldest Princess truly looks very healthy."
"It seems that even if the Eldest Princess is not an immortal, she has definitely received immortal blessings, which allowed her to recover so quickly."
...
"Enough, what are you discussing here?
Hurry up and return to your positions. What does the Eldest Princess's matter have to do with you? Who gave you the audacity to privately discuss imperial family members? All of you, return to your posts."
However, they didn't discuss for long before being discovered by the head of the guards and quickly reprimanded.
Then, the several guards who had gathered together due to discussing this matter, quickly scattered like birds and beasts, returning to their respective posts to continue guarding.
But the related discussions had already deeply ingrained themselves in people's minds.
It was estimated that they wouldn't keep it a secret when they returned home.
Instead, they would treat it as a topic of conversation to share with family and friends.
Meanwhile, Ding Yun was considering whether to soften her stance a little, to at least get her confinement lifted first. After all, if she were to remain confined here.
Let alone finding ways to become emperor or anything like that.
Whether she could even survive was a question!
But to make her back down like this, knock on the door and tell the eunuchs outside that she knew she was wrong, and ask them to find her father, Ding Yun felt unwilling. She even felt that the original owner might not be satisfied with her yielding so easily.
So after a period of hesitation and deliberation, Ding Yun decided to take a different approach and find a way to escape. The method she thought of was to tiptoe, take down the tallow candle from the bronze lamp nearby, and then begin to arrange flammable items in the inner hall, lighting them one by one.
The overall structure of this hall was basically made of wood.
With the addition of silk and cotton fur.
Although it wouldn't immediately erupt into a conflagration, it was absolutely possible to set it alight. Ding Yun then didn't rush. She made herself a simple mask.
And waited nearby.
Only after the flames had completely ignited.
Did she unhurriedly leave the inner hall.
And the eunuchs outside were not blind. When the flames were initially burning inside the inner hall, they might not have seen it, but once the flames had completely ignited.
And the flames rose outside the house.
How could they not see it?
Following this, naturally, some people quickly called out to others nearby to put out the fire, while others immediately rushed into the main hall to see if the Eldest Princess was in any danger.
If she was unharmed, they had to quickly rescue the Eldest Princess.
What followed was undoubtedly a flurry of activity.
But alas, even when palace maids and eunuchs from other nearby palaces came to help, the weakness of lacking a nearby water source still prevented them from completely extinguishing the fire. The entire hall, front and back, left and right, and connected side halls were all consumed by the flames.
It was only because the fire burned relatively slowly.
That there were no casualties.
It was just that everyone was covered in soot from fighting the fire.
At the same time, someone also reported the situation. At this point, Dugu Xiao remembered that his daughter was still confined there. He then inquired if she was alright and was relieved upon learning she was unharmed.
And with a frown, he issued an imperial edict.
The gist of it was to have the princess return to the Princess's mansion for self-reflection.
And he likely did this not out of concern for his daughter, but out of fear that if the Eldest Princess were truly harmed, people might assume that he was trying to annihilate all members of the former royal family, not even sparing the daughter of a former Empress and Empress Dowager.
This would clearly be detrimental to social stability, and people would certainly deem him too cruel. Even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs.
Furthermore, there were not many vacant palaces in the imperial palace besides those that housed concubines. With that palace destroyed, the only remaining palace that could accommodate his daughter was the area around the Eastern Palace.
But this was clearly not appropriate.
Therefore, it was a logical step for her to leave the palace and return.
In fact, Ding Yun had not expected to escape by just burning down one palace. She only wanted to leave that palace first and then observe Dugu Xiao's reaction before taking the next step. However, she did not expect that what she thought would require a step-by-step process would be resolved in one go, a leap to success.
It was directly settled.
Of course, Ding Yun would not object to such good fortune. So, she quickly accepted the imperial edict and hurried back. She was eager to leave the imperial palace and regain her freedom, and also somewhat worried about her county princess daughter, who had not seen her for several days.
She wondered how she was doing?
The Princess's mansion that Dugu Xiao bestowed upon the original owner was actually the residence of the Emperor Ling's legitimate eldest daughter. However, that former Eldest Princess had already been executed by Dugu Xiao, so the vacant residence was directly given to the original owner by him. This saved him time and effort, and the nameplate didn't even need to be changed.
Because it was already the Eldest Princess's mansion.
She truly moved in unpacked.
But because of this, the mansion was not very far from the imperial palace. After leaving the palace, Ding Yun took only five minutes to return to the Eldest Princess's mansion and was warmly welcomed by a group of maids. Someone brought her daughter out to see her, and someone prepared a brazier, pomelo leaves, and other items to ward off bad luck and cleanse her.
These maids were all brought from the imperial palace by the original owner. They had not only been interacting with the original owner for four or five years, but they were also almost in a relationship of shared prosperity and adversity. Therefore, their loyalty was quite good.
Ding Yun accepted this treatment with composure.
First, she stepped over the brazier, then sprinkled some water soaked with pomelo leaves on her entire body, and finally washed her hands before picking up her daughter, looking at her, and exchanging a few words.
Afterward, she bathed and changed, preparing to rest.
After all the commotion, she was also tired.
Now she just wanted to have a good night's sleep, recuperate, and gather her strength. She would deal with any matters tomorrow.