The two ghosts floated around the palace after the morning meeting. They were bored, so they agreed to go outside. They visited the teahouse and listened to stories and gossip, and Mei discovered she enjoyed listening to others gossip, which was completely different from what she used to enjoy, and she wondered why she deprived herself of such a good hobby when she was alive.
They left the tea house and moved around the capital and when the sun was about to set, it was finally time for them to return to the palace.
As they made their way to the palace, they met some young masters, and Ling'er left Mei behind to follow the men. Mei was speechless at the same time, amused by Ling'er's behaviour,r, but since Ling'er was a teenager, Mei didn't bother her and left her to have fun.
Meanwhile, since she was left alone, she floated around the capital instead of directly going to the palace
It was evening, and the sun was setting, casting a golden hue across the sky as Mei absentmindedly floated around and found herself at the gates of her maiden home.
The last time she was at their estate was when she visited her family three days after her wedding with her husband for the ritual of the bride returning to her family's home.
She remembered that she saw her father only once then, and he immediately left the hall, and that was the last time she ever saw her father.
He left her with her stepmother, who they were not close with, although Mei was used to her father's distance, and his avid avoidance of her still hurt her.
Being left with her stepmother was very uncomfortable as Mei moved in her chair, unsettled.
She did not know how to communicate with her, so they just made a few polite conversations here and there to save face, and that was it.
The time moved uncomfortably slowly for Mei as she wished for time to reach her stepmother her were sitting in the hall with the stiff silence between them and when her husband returned from his walks with her father, he was alone and Mei felt a gut punch as she was expecting for her father to at least come and bid her farewell but that was just her wishes.
She looked at the gate, contemplating whether to go in or not. Although she had been in the capital as a ghost for three months, her maiden home was somewhere she avoided very much, especially after the conversation she had with her husband and his concubine immediately She passed away.
Finally, deciding, she floated right in and looked around, and everything was as it was. Nothing changed; she had so many wonderful memories here well, at least for the first fourteen years of her life when her grandmother was alive.
She looked at the road where she used to have evening walks with her grandmother, and the corridors she ran along as a child brought a bitter feeling to her heart.
She decided to first start with the memorial hall, as she at least needed to pay respect to her mother and grandmother, and although she wasn't a mortal, she still wanted to do that.
After paying her respect, she left and floated to her stepmother's chambers, finding her room. Lounging on a chair, eating lychees, with two maidservants fanning her on each side.
Mei was left with a bitter test in her mouth of how unfair the universe was. While she was only twenty-four years old, she was now a ghost floating aimlessly in the capital. The people who conspired to kill and ultimately ended up killing her were alive, still enjoying life to the fullest.
Unable to look at the sight before her due to rage she left and finally, the only place that was left for her to visit was the only place she was avoiding seeing her fathers study as much as she didn't want to see him she had to know or curiosity will just gnaw on her till she saw him and that made it easier for her decide so she floated to the study room.
She floated in, and there was her father sitting on the chair, looking down at a scroll. Mei looked at his posture to see his shoulders slumped, and she had more grey hairs than she remembered.
She sat there in silence for a while. The only sound heard throughout the room was just papers, rustling, which finally slowed down and what she saw stumped her, jaws almost hitting the floor.
The man sitting in front of her looked nothing like the father she had seen some years back. He looked very frail, and his eyes had a crazed look on them, which made her wonder what had happened with her father and how he turned like how he was now.
Although she didn't think she could ever forgive him, her heart still broke for him.
Growing up, she had always craved her father's attention, which he never gave her. Compared to her other sisters, the number of times she came to the study could be counted with her fingers while her sisters, on the other hand, were always at the study.
Mei remembered when she was young, she even questioned whether she was her or they were related as he withheld any sort of feelings of affection and attention.
She saw him looking at a paper with a sad expression. She had never seen her father with that type of expression in her whole life. She didn't even think he was capable of making such a face, and that got her very curious, so she moved closer to check it out.
Before she could see, she felt a strong pull, the same pull she felt the previous night, which left her disoriented as everything around her went completely dark for a moment. She found herself in Consort Bai's chambers, and the whole ordeal left her pretty shaken and speechless.