The two people whispered to each other as they carefully groped their way inside.
When they first entered, it was eerily quiet inside. After walking for a few dozen meters, they gradually heard suppressed sobbing and some voices speaking in despair.
"What should we do? Once dawn breaks, we'll be sent to the Imperial Mausoleum. I don't want to die, I'm still young!"
Being sent to the Imperial Mausoleum means being buried alive, starving to death inside. Just thinking about it is terrifying.
"Who wants to die! It's not like we had a choice when the Emperor selected us. It's fate, we have to accept it."
"If Heaven would give me another chance, I would never enter the palace again, never become a damned palace maid. I thought it would improve my family's status, but now I've got nothing, not even my life."
"Every year there's a selection of palace women. No one expected that we'd be so unlucky to encounter the Empress Dowager's death anniversary."
