My Wife Turns Out to be an Empress of the Dynasty

Chapter 211 Vanishing Mark

The palace maid eventually halted, mere inches away from Gu Lan, a hint of jasmine fragrance wafting through the air. Gu Lan peered down at her.

"Greetings, Your Highness," she said with a respectful bow, her demeanor betraying no hint of surprise.

Gu Lan's eyes flickered at her composure.

"Do you... know me as well?"

Gu Lan inquired, intrigued by her familiarity.

The maid smiled faintly, her countenance cool despite the smile.@@@@

"Your Highness is renowned throughout the palace. Who wouldn't recognize you here?"

"It's not surprising that they recognize me, they are the old residents of the palace..." Gu Lan nodded slightly, smiling.

"But I don't know you."

The maid's smile faded, but her tone remained composed.

"Your Highness jests. I am but a common palace maid. How could Your Highness know me?"

Gu Lan shook his head.

"I don't know you, yet you seem oddly familiar. Can you enlighten me?"

The maid met Gu Lan's gaze but remained silent, prompting murmurs among the nearby guards...

Goodness, Prince Jingyang's flirtation with palace maids is rather old-fashioned, isn't it?

However, constrained by their position, they could only suppress any dissent and refrain from interfering...

Otherwise, they would surely intervene to rescue the damsel in distress.

"The maid is not a newcomer... Perhaps Your Highness encountered her somewhere before. After all, chance meetings are common in the palace, and how could Your Highness remember everyone?" She replied calmly.

Gu Lan nodded, seemingly accepting her explanation.

He continued, "What is your name? And from which palace do you hail?"

"I am called Yuyang, a maid serving by the side of Empress Dowager in the Cining Palace."

"Empress Dowager..." Gu Lan's expression shifted, and then he smiled. "Very well, you may leave."

As if it were just casual inquiry, the maid nodded at him with a smile and gracefully departed.

Gu Lan's mind stirred, leaving an obscure mark of consciousness on the maid Yuyang.

With his current imperial cultivation, if Yuyang were merely a common palace maid, she wouldn't have detected his mark.

With this mark, every move Yuyang made would be within his grasp.

Gu Lan was cautious about this maid.

Despite her reasonable explanations, he couldn't shake the feeling that she wasn't as simple as she appeared.

Her demeanor was too composed, and her aura transcended that of a mere maid.

If one looked closely, one would notice not only shock but also a hint of concealed fear in the Dowager Empress's eyes!

Yuyang looked back with a mysterious smile as if she had anticipated this moment.

The Dowager Empress snapped out of her daze, stunned.

After a moment's hesitation, she hastily ordered the doors to be closed, leaving only her and Yuyang inside, unsure of what to discuss...

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On the other side, Gu Lan's steps faltered slightly!

His expression froze.

At some point, he realized that the mark of consciousness he planted had disappeared!

This was the first time it had been wiped out, making him instantly alert!

"Interesting... I feel increasingly familiar with this maid..."

His lips still held a calm smile, and despite his surprise, he felt more intrigued than anything.

Recalling the interruption of the consciousness mark earlier, it seemed to coincide with Yuyang's entrance into the Cining Palace.

Was there a connection to the Dowager Empress?

Thinking along these lines, Gu Lan's unparalleled consciousness surged like a tide, enveloping the entire palace.

Especially in the Cining Palace, he concentrated most of his consciousness on probing the area.

"Nothing?"

"She left so soon?"

His surprise deepened.

He had never taken such action of covering the palace with his consciousness before, but once he did, the effect was extraordinary.

Every move in the palace was within his scrutiny, although it consumed a considerable amount of consciousness.

However, even with such extensive searching, he still couldn't find the maid.

Suppressing his astonishment, Gu Lan pondered.

There were only two explanations now.

Either the maid had left the palace, requiring him to expand the search area, or the maid had some means to shield his consciousness detection... which could explain why his consciousness mark disappeared.

Comparatively, Gu Lan leaned towards the second possibility.

Sensing the disappearance of his consciousness mark in the Cining Palace and conducting a thorough search, the time interval was too short for the maid to leave the palace.

Thinking of this, Gu Lan headed toward the Cining Palace, but he stopped after a few steps.

Under his consciousness, only the Dowager Empress sat alone in the Cining Palace, eyes closed in meditation, with no trace of any palace maids around.

The maid had truly vanished!