How I found out transmigration was a thing.

Chapter 30 - When it rains it pours.

I'm cursed. I'm sure of it.  It's like I've run out of good karma points.

It started three days ago when a man on horseback rang the gate bell before the sun had even popped its head over the horizon.  Only the servants were awake stoking the fireboxes and preparing breakfast.  Rushing to open the gate they found a man dressed in commoners clothes and a large veiled gat. He spoke in whispers but the maids didn't approach him to hear him better nor did they let him pass into the courtyard.  The man insisted on speaking with Lady Chun, he had a message from the Crown Prince.

The man waited on the street, holding tightly onto the reins of his horse as it pawed the ground and tossed its head restlessly, plumes of smoke coming from its flared nostrils. There was a sense of urgency about the scene.  It appeared that they had raced from the palace at a furious pace under cover of darkness.  

Lady Chun appeared minutes later, wrapped in a cloak, minus her black wig and wearing no makeup, a rare sight.  The conversation between the two was brief.  Lady Chun had no chance to ask a single question before the rider mounted his horse and left, leaving her with a sense of dread.

....

I heard the news when Adam and Lady Chun arrived with fresh clothes and warm water for my morning ablutions.  The message had been succinct and unsettling.

"Be prepared to leave KKoch Palace in three days. Carriages will arrive at dawn. MOST IMPORTANTLY. Don't speak of these plans with anyone outside the Palace."

Lady Chun informed me in her usual pleasant voice that I could no longer avoid packing my personal belongings.  There was to be no more nonsense.

I had hoped against hope that the Crown Prince would change his mind. I'd put off the inevitable for as long as I could. I had prayed, yes even prayed, for a miracle so I could stay at Kkoch Palace where I was happy. But there was no reprieve, no miracle.  

Since then a dark cloud has hung over the palace and my godmothers have become quiet, all lost in their thoughts, like myself.  Perhaps they to hoped that in the end, by magic or luck, they wouldn't have to re-enter the palace.  They may have dreaded it even more than me.

All my godmothers were sent into the palace as young girls. Their future was set in stone, they would never leave, but they had.  Strange circumstances had made it possible for them to taste freedom again for the last 12 years while they took care of me.  I can imagine the idea of returning to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the Imperial Court wasn't a pleasant one.  It was a small comfort but at least we were staying together.  We had each other and to some degree, we were cut off from the worst of it.

I did as Lady Chun asked.  Adam and I started packing my personal belongings and I resigned myself to leaving.  

....

The next bump in the road came later in the day when a child from the village delivered a note from the Bookseller. He said that he had completed a copy of all his ointments, potions etc. , and managed to acquire a rare book of Qing poisons and their antidotes. It included the distilling of Gu.  He baited me with it and I fell for it.  In hindsight, I should have known that it all sounded too good to be true.  That no one takes kindly to being blackmailed, even scumbags like Dol.

He wanted to meet at the Sweet Flowers Pavilion. I would have thought that was the last place he'd want to ever set foot in.  It was a comical disaster from beginning to end. The fool wanted revenge and went about it so clumsily that even though I fell for it, it ended up backfiring on him.

Long story short...only Do-Yoon accompanied me to the Sweet Flowers.   Adam and Yung-So were being kept busy by Lady Chun moving the remaining furniture into storage.   In the end, it was probably for the best.  The fewer people who knew about the embarrassing farce the better.