Preparations for the Qixi Festival in the palace kept the Six Bureaus busy, and Wenyuan, as a senior attendant in the Bureau of Palace Attire, was no exception. Tasked with procuring materials outside the palace, Wenyuan took a first-rank palace maid out to purchase the finest local fabrics for the imperial concubines' exquisite gowns for the Qixi banquet.
Because there were no ongoing military campaigns recently, the Monarch had assigned Ye Qingti a new duty. Ye Qingti was instructed to find skilled craftsmen among the common people to renovate the imperial mausoleum's mechanisms, adding numerous hidden weapons and traps to protect the Lingbi Stone within the underground palace.
After much comparison, Wenyuan and the maid finally paid a deposit at a draper's shop, awaiting delivery of the fabrics to the palace. As dusk began to fall, the two hurried back toward the palace, only to find their path blocked by three local ruffians.
Chapter 57