Chapter 60

It had been a whole day since the assassinator was transferred from the dungeon in the Prince Mu’s Mansion to the cell in the Ministry of Justice, but he hadn’t confessed yet. Besides, no progress had been made in the poisoning case of Prince Mu so far. Therefore, the minister of the justice department, Zeng Huazhou felt his head was about to explode at the moment. The Land of Bliss was the most well-known brothel in the capital city with a lot of clients coming in and out every day. Among them, there were royal members, officials, businessmen, literary men, and swordsmen who would never register their personal information at the brothels, so it was very difficult to get any clue. Prince Mu had gone there alone in an ordinary childe’s attire, so nobody knew what he had done and who he had met that day. “Seems if we want to know all this, we’ll have to wait until Prince Mu wakes up. It’s obvious that the assassinator who tried to kill the princess is a well-trained professional killer. If no one struck his acupuncture point and took the poison bag out of his mouth, he would have committed suicide. How can a man who’s not even afraid of death confess after being tortured? Alas! This case is really tough!”

Shaking his head distractedly, Zeng Huazhou shifted his gaze to the governor of the capital city, Zhang Mingqi, seeing that this expert detective was propping his chin with his hand and his brows knitted. After hesitating for a while, he asked, “Lord Zhang, what’s the progress of the case?”

Stroking his beard, Zhang Mingqi answered, “Lord Zeng, I’m working on it. I made a scene survey in the Prince Mu’s Mansion today.”

“Have you found any clues?”

“I found a number of silver needles that looked exactly like the one in the assassinator’s back. The guard in the Prince Mu’s Mansion told me that the assassinator was struck with the same needle last night!”

“Oh? What’s so special about these needles?”

“Nothing special. They’re only ordinary needles for acupuncture. But I’ve never seen such needles used as weapons!”

“Acupuncture?”

“Lord Zeng, here are the needles!” Zhang Mingqi gestured his attendant to place the evidence on the table and then explained, “The tips of the needles are bent, apparently the result of a collision with a hard object. On the other hand, there are many pits in the blade of the assassinator’s sword. If the one who attacked the assassinator shot these needles without the help of external forces, he must have robust inner force! Let’s take a look at the other ends of the needles. There are some slight scratches on them, so the needles must have been installed in some kind of instrument before they were shot. What kind of instrument can hold so many needles? The weapons used by those guards in the Prince Mu’s Mansion are either spears or blades, which can’t hold needles at all!”

However, Zeng Huazhou didn’t see what he said had anything to do with the case, so he put on a sullen look. “His Majesty commanded us to find out the one behind the scene. Lord Zhang, how come you’re focusing on those guards? Are you suspecting there’s a…”

Zeng Huazhou forced back the word ‘spy’ with his puffy eyes widened. Without any solid evidence, he didn’t dare to make a judgment.

Zhang Mingqi put away the needles calmly before he continued, “The minister of the Ministry of Household Registration already sent people to investigate the background of Physician Ling who came from Qingzhou. This physician had promised His Majesty that he would revive Prince Mu in three days, and according to the imperial physicians, Princess Liuxu’s maidservant was infected with a rare kind of poison, but Physician Ling detoxified her without difficulty. How come we have never heard of such a talented physician? So I think this person is quite suspicious. What’s more, the fan he always takes with him is perfect for hiding tiny weapons. As he’s busy curing Prince Mu, I don’t want to disturb him for the moment and I’m planning to interrogate him after His Highness waking up. Lord Zeng, what do you say?

In the evening, Luo Huali wrote a letter and made a pigeon carry it to the Valley of Fallen Blossoms. In the letter, he consoled his master and his Uncle Liu to be patient, saying that he had known Sister Zixiu’s whereabouts and was on his way to Luanzhou, and he promised he would definitely bring Lingxiao and Zixiu back.

In the moonlight, he galloped along on the horse, heartbroken. He felt even worse now than when he had left the Prince Mu’s Mansion and he really wished he were dead! He had seen the obvious fingermarks on Zixiu’s face… but only because of a bowl of soup, he concluded that Zixiu had married Nangong Du of ‘her’ own free will and ‘she’ loved that asshole with all ‘her’ heart! He even thought that he had left Zixiu alone in the Nangong Du’s mansion for ‘her’ happiness…

“Ah—” Looking up at the sky, he let out a cry with tears rolling down his skinny face.

Chrysanthemum withered, scattering on the ground

You smile had faded, nowhere to be found

Seeing the fallen petals all over, I indulged myself with a broken heart

Listening to the north wind whistle outside

I can’t help thinking of you throughout the endless night

Alone by the lake, I was overwhelmed by sorrow…

It was said that people were most sleepy at the darkest hour before the dawn. Zixiu woke up with a start. It seemed he had just had a dream, but he couldn’t remember what had happened in it. Stroking his silky robe, he felt it was soaked with sweat, so he got out of the bed, pulled out a suit of clothes randomly from the wardrobe, and then sneaked into the bathroom. After fastening the bolt, he pressed his ear against the door for a while but heard nothing. He then walked to the bathing pool behind the screen, filled the pool with water, and then got into the pool. Thankfully, as there were two inlet pipes that were connected to the hot spring and cold water, he didn’t have to go outside to fetch water with a barrel.

With nobody watching him over, Zixiu was in a good mood and he didn’t get out of the pool until the water had cooled. After putting on the clean clothes, he unlocked the door and went back to his bed without draining the pool.

The next morning when Tinglan saw the water in the bathing pool and the clothes Zixiu had taken off, she immediately went down on her knees. “Your Highness, my apologies! I should be blamed for not having been here when you took a bath last night…”

“No worries!” Though Zixiu had done this on purpose, he still felt sorry for the girl. “It was too late when I was about to take a bath last night, so I didn’t ask you in. It’s not your fault. You may rise!”

“Your Highness, thank you for your mercy! Thank you!” Tinglan banged her head onto the floor a few times before she rose to her feet with her hands trembling slightly.

“Alas! They’re all maidservants, but how come Tinglan’s attitude toward people is totally different from Xingyi’s?” Zixiu couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. At the same time, he felt sorry for Tinglan’s being so humble. “How come a maidservant belittled herself like this? She did nothing wrong, but she kept on apologizing to me! She must have been exploited, oppressed, abused, and enslaved by the privileged to the utmost, or she wouldn’t have had to apologize without making a mistake!” Thinking of this resentfully, Zixiu suddenly blurt out, “Tinglan, don’t kneel down and kowtow to others so easily!”

“Huh?” Tinglan had half-dried a handkerchief and was about to hand it to the ‘princess’ when she heard what the latter said. With her hand shivering, the handkerchief fell to the floor. “Your Highness, it’s my fault! It’s all my fault!” she immediately knelt down again in a panic.

“You should kneel only to show respect for heaven, earth, and your parents!” Zixiu changed his mind before he spat the words out. Unlike Xingyi, Tinglan was a mild girl. What’s more, even if it were Xingyi, she had to go down on her knees and bang her forehead in front of Nangong Du. Zixiu didn’t understand what made those princes, princesses, the empress dowager, and even the emperor nobler than ordinary people. Even though they were of noble birth, they shouldn’t have had people kneel and kowtow to them!

A new day started from the unpleasant morning!

After breakfast, Zixiu went to see Nangong Du as usual. However, before he could approach the gate, he saw billows of white smoke rising from the yard. A guard stopped him, saying that Physician Liang said as the treatment had reached a critical stage, nobody was allowed to enter.

Zixiu recalled what Lingxiao said to him after breaking into his room the night before. Though his words sounded ridiculous, Zixiu could tell that Lingxiao did know him and… liked him!

“I mustn’t miss the chance again. I’ll definitely get out of here!”