The Princess Wei Yang

as her whole body trembled: “I had a nightmare, it’s very frightening Lao Ye!” It was only a nightmare, Li Xiao Ran laid back down and obviously didn’t care about what she said. Da Furen felt angry inside but she suppressed it and said: “I suddenly dreamt of many wooden people, and in their hands were wooden pegs, they used them to beat Lao Ye —“ Hearing this, Li Xiao Ran’s expression immediately worsened, he solemnly said: “What kind of dream is this!”

 Da Furen showed a troubled expression, after a while, she probingly said: “Could this dream have some sort of omen ……” Li Xiao Ran didn’t speak yet he had an uneasy feeling in his heart. He suddenly thought of twenty years ago, the Emperor had just ascended the throne.
That year in the summer, a drought broke out.
Alchemists and necromancers in the capital used their evil ways to bewitch commoners; some even caused chaos in the harem, teaching concubines how to use voodoo.
The concubines in the harem envied, berated, and exposed one another, accusing one another for cursing the Emperor.
The Emperor furiously ordered the whole city to be searched and in many concubine’s halls and commoner’s homes, countless of voodoo things were found.
Under harsh torturing, imperial maids and concubines admitted that they were bewitched by superstitions and used voodoo to curse the Emperor and other maids and concubines.
This incident implicated many innocent officials and had caused the deaths of many.
As a result, the Emperor ordered that anyone found to have done voodoo, regardless of gender and age, must be executed or exiled.
Now that Da Furen had this dream, did it foreshadow something? 

Thinking of this, Li Xiao Ran thought of the recent outbreak of epidemic and naturally couldn’t sleep.
Da Furen dreamt of a wooden person and it aimed at him, was it an omen of misfortune? This guess made him displeased and nervous. In the middle of the night, a sound was heard at the window, which roused Li Wei Yang from sleep. Bai Zhi immediately took a look and busily said: “Xiaojie, it was just the wind, it’s nothing, Nubi has closed it.” Li Wei Yang didn’t know why sweat appeared on her forehead.
She lightly wiped it and then laid that back down again.
She didn’t know why she felt that a calamity was coming — an ominous premonition …… This night, a storm was brewing3.