In the bedroom of the Cui mansion, Cui Xun was wrapped in brocade quilts, reclining on his couch. The carved brazier in the room burned with precious charcoal presented as tribute from the Western Liang Kingdom, making the entire room as warm as spring. Yet Cui Xun still trembled with cold all over his body. He coughed incessantly; his typically pale face had turned flushed with fever, making his beautiful features appear even more striking. Cui Xun coughed weakly, having come down with a high fever ever since kneeling outside Zichen Hall until the court session ended. The Empress Dowager showed no concern whatsoever, and he was not permitted to go to the Investigation Department. Throughout Chang’an, rumors spread that he had fallen from favor. His political enemies were contemplating that this would be the perfect opportunity to bring him down. Memorial tablets flew into Daming Palace like snowflakes, each listing his crimes. If the Ministry of Justice came to arrest and sentence him tomorrow, Cui Xun wouldn’t be surprised at all.

The Empress Dowager must have been thoroughly displeased with his unauthorized arrest of Wang Liang. But if time could be turned back, he would still have done the same.

Cui Xun had another bout of violent coughing that made his chest ache painfully. He disliked being attended to, so even while seriously ill, his room was empty, looking lonely and desolate. In his feverish state, Cui Xun hazily saw Li Ying.

He thought he had seen wrong, so he ignored it, but then Li Ying’s soft sigh sounded in the room: “You seem to be very ill.”

Only then did Cui Xun realize that Li Ying had come to his mansion again. He coughed twice and said coldly: “What are you here for this time?”

Li Ying lowered her head in embarrassment: “I still want to ask you to help me uncover the truth.”

She murmured, “Among all the court officials, only you can see me. I don’t know who else I can turn to…”

Cui Xun was impatient. He coughed and said, “I told you, I have no interest in helping a princess who died thirty years ago.”

“What if I could repay you?”

Cui Xun laughed coldly: “What could a ghost possibly offer me?”

Li Ying bit her lip. She seemed to have made some kind of determination and said, “I know you’ve angered my mother, but I have a way to help you make her happy again.”

Cui Xun didn’t believe her: “What way could you possibly have?”

Li Ying said, “If I truly have a way, you must promise to help me investigate my case.”

Cui Xun thought for a moment: “Fine, I promise you.”

Only then did Li Ying sigh in relief: “In the pagoda of Ximing Temple, there’s an incense pouch being enshrined. The herbs in the pouch were blended by me and can alleviate my mother’s headaches. I sent that pouch to Ximing Temple with my maid, leaving only the maid’s name without letting others know. I had planned to give it to my mother on her birthday after it had been consecrated, to make her happy, but I never expected…”

Li Ying didn’t continue, but Cui Xun understood what happened next. Li Ying had unexpectedly drowned, and her maids were all punished. Who would remember this incense pouch? After the Taichang Blood Incident, everyone in Chang’an feared for their lives, and the abbot of Ximing Temple had changed several times. No one would notice an incense pouch offered by a maid, so it remained at Ximing Temple.

Li Ying paused, then continued: “The money I had the maid offer for the oil was quite substantial, enough to keep the incense pouch in the pagoda for thirty years. Go find the abbot and retrieve the incense pouch offered by a woman named Lan Xiang. If you give this pouch to my mother, she will likely forgive you.”

After saying this, Li Ying pressed her lips together: “This is my solution. You promised me, so you can’t go back on your word.”

Cui Xun was silent for a while. Eventually, he slowly said, “If the Empress Dowager truly calms her anger, I naturally won’t go back on my word.”

Li Ying immediately showed joy on her face, but alongside her elation was great anxiety. She had been dead for thirty years—she couldn’t be certain whether her mother would still think of her and remember her. So would her mother forgive Cui Xun, who had committed a serious error, because of this incense pouch? Li Ying didn’t know.

If she discovered that even her mother had forgotten her, then she would truly, completely become a forgotten wandering ghost.

Although Cui Xun didn’t fully believe in Li Ying’s method, he still went to Ximing Temple and indeed obtained the incense pouch left by Lan Xiang from the abbot. He had a palace eunuch deliver the incense pouch to Penglai Hall while he waited outside the hall despite his illness. After standing for a while, a eunuch came to inform him that the Empress Dowager had requested his presence.

Cui Xun prostrated himself on the cold ebony floor in the hall, just as he had done last time. But this time, the Empress Dowager behind the pearl curtain quickly asked him to rise. A eunuch brought Cui Xun a neatly folded white sable fur robe and shook it open to drape over Cui Xun’s shoulders: “The Empress Dowager says that Junior Minister Cui is frail and fears the cold, so she specially bestows upon the Junior Minister this sable fur robe presented as tribute from Goguryeo.”

Cui Xun coughed lightly twice and respectfully said: “Thank you, Empress Dowager.”

Wearing the white sable fur robe, he stood silently. After a long while, the Empress Dowager behind the pearl curtain spoke, her voice somewhat hoarse: “Wangshu, is the precious charcoal presented by the Western Liang Kingdom the other day still sufficient?”

“In reply to the Empress Dowager, it is sufficient.”

“That’s good.”

Another period of silence followed. After a long time, the Empress Dowager gently stroked the exquisitely crafted hollow gold incense pouch with grape, flower, and bird patterns in her hand, then finally asked the question she had been wanting to ask: “Wangshu, where did you get this incense pouch?”

Cui Xun answered honestly: “I retrieved it from Ximing Temple. The abbot said it was left by a woman named Lan Xiang.”

“Lan Xiang… that was Bright Moon Pearl’s maid…” the Empress Dowager murmured. “This is indeed the incense pouch made by Bright Moon Pearl herself…”

Opening this hollow gold incense pouch, one could see the herbal granules inside: “These granules used eight medicinal herbs—white angelica, turmeric, wormwood, schizonepeta, asarum, notopterygium, atractylodes, and poria—along with eight fragrances—sinking agarwood, white sandalwood, patchouli, eagle wood, wisteria, storax, jinko, and agastache. They were blended to alleviate headaches. This must have been the birthday gift Bright Moon Pearl prepared for me…”

The Empress Dowager’s voice grew increasingly soft. Cui Xun just stood with his hands at his sides, listening silently. After a long time, the Empress Dowager suddenly said, “Wangshu, how did you find this incense pouch?”

Cui Xun said softly, “This subject angered the Empress Dowager, so naturally had to rack his brains to think of ways to please the Empress Dowager.”

Hearing this, the Empress Dowager laughed derisively: “You’re quite honest.”

She carefully caressed the round, hollow gold incense pouch as if handling an immensely treasured possession: “But your method is quite good. I am very pleased.”

She brought the incense pouch to her nose, gently smelling its fragrance, seemingly thinking of events from long, long ago. In those memories were herself and that delicately beautiful little daughter. She remained silent for a long time, and Cui Xun also lowered his head without speaking. Suddenly, the Empress Dowager asked: “Wangshu, have I never mentioned Bright Moon Pearl to you before?”

Cui Xun lowered his head and replied: “The Empress Dowager has never spoken of her.”

The Empress Dowager looked into the distance, as if looking at that small figure she could never see again: “Bright Moon Pearl was always such a considerate child. When I gave birth to her brother, I suffered for three days and three nights, almost dying in childbirth. But when I gave birth to her, I only had pain for one hour before delivering smoothly. Surely, it was because Bright Moon Pearl couldn’t bear to see me suffer… I raised Bright Moon Pearl with my own hands. From a young age, she was obedient and sensible, rarely crying at night. Just like that, she gradually grew to sixteen years old. In those sixteen years, she never gave me cause to worry. Instead, she was always concerned about my headaches. For this, she sought out medical texts and studied perfumery, all to alleviate my headaches. She was so astute, kind, and reasonable… I once told the Late Emperor that Bright Moon Pearl was a priceless treasure given to me by the Compassionate Bodhisattva. But if the Bodhisattva gave me this priceless treasure, why did he take it back…”

By the end, the Empress Dowager’s voice had become somewhat choked with emotion. She stopped, unable to continue. Outside the pearl curtain, Cui Xun listened quietly, his head lowered, his expression unchanging.

The Empress Dowager was silent for a moment, then said: “Wangshu, how exactly you found this incense pouch, I don’t wish to inquire further. I just want you to know that Bright Moon Pearl was my most beloved daughter—thirty years ago, and even more so thirty years later.”

Cui Xun spoke: “This subject understands.”

The Empress Dowager smiled gently. She raised her eyes to look at Cui Xun outside the pearl curtain. The young man wrapped in the white sable fur had a tall, slender figure, as thin as jade. The Empress Dowager looked at him with a somewhat distant expression and slowly said, “Wangshu, if your illness isn’t fully recovered, let the palace physicians examine you. The affairs of the Investigation Department still rely on you.”

With this one sentence, Cui Xun knew he had weathered this crisis. He knelt and kowtowed: “Thank you, Empress Dowager.”

The door of Penglai Hall opened with a creak, and Cui Xun, wrapped in the white sable fur robe, slowly stepped out. Sharp-eyed palace servants immediately recognized that this white sable fur robe was a treasure presented as tribute from Goguryeo during the recent Grand Court Assembly. It was well known that black sable was easy to obtain, but white sable was rarely seen. Moreover, this white sable fur robe was completely pure white without a single spot of a different color, making it an even rarer treasure. The Great Zhou was governed by the principle of filial piety, so His Majesty dared not keep this white sable fur robe for himself but offered it to the Empress Dowager. Unexpectedly, the Empress Dowager had immediately bestowed it upon Cui Xun.

The appearance of the white sable fur robe indicated that Cui Xun had regained the Empress Dowager’s favor.

Academic Lu and others could not understand how, in just a few days, Cui Xun had managed to reverse his situation. Academic Lu made inquiries and discovered that Cui Xun had found an incense pouch that Princess Yong’an had enshrined at Ximing Temple thirty years ago. As soon as the Empress Dowager received the incense pouch, she wept bitterly from missing Princess Yong’an. After her emotions stabilized, she summoned Cui Xun and restored his position.

Academic Lu and the others sighed in frustration, never expecting that although Princess Yong’an had been dead for thirty years, she still held such an important place in the Empress Dowager’s heart. A single incense pouch could restore Cui Xun to his original position—Wang Liang seemed to have died in vain.

Everyone was indignant, while Cui Xun calmly returned to his mansion to recover. The palace physicians were indeed skilled; after several doses of medicine, his cough improved significantly, and his high fever subsided. However, this illness had made him even thinner, and his body grew increasingly frail.

Despite this, Cui Xun still would not allow anyone to attend to him closely. In the empty room, he wrapped himself in brocade quilts, burned precious charcoal, and reclined on his couch, coughing gently, as if waiting for someone.

And that person soon arrived.

Li Ying’s face no longer showed the anxiety of that day but displayed more composure. She gently knocked on Cui Xun’s partially closed door, then pushed it open and slowly walked up to him.

Cui Xun didn’t even lift his eyelids. Li Ying said, “Junior Minister Cui, now that you have regained my mother’s trust, it’s time for you to fulfill your promise.”

Cui Xun replied: “I certainly won’t go back on my word.”

He covered his mouth with a brocade handkerchief and coughed lightly: “To investigate your case, the first step is to review the case files.”

But the files were at the Ministry of Justice.

Cui Xun, who headed the Investigation Department, was a sworn enemy of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry would never agree to let Cui Xun review the files, and Cui Xun couldn’t seek the Empress Dowager’s assistance because helping Li Ying investigate her case was something the Empress Dowager couldn’t know about.

Moreover, Li Ying couldn’t enter the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry handled criminal cases, and with many who had died in its prisons, it was filled with various talismans to ward off evil spirits to prevent malevolent ghosts from causing trouble. Li Ying, as a lone spirit, could not enter at all.

Li Ying asked Cui Xun: “Junior Minister Cui, is there any other way?”

Cui Xun replied: “Yes.”

“What way is that?”

“Money can make even ghosts turn the millstone,” Cui Xun said leisurely. “Although the Ministry of Justice and I are not on good terms, with enough silver, we can still bribe a minor official of the Ministry to steal the files.”

“Silver…” Li Ying looked toward Cui Xun, who averted his gaze and said indifferently: “I don’t have any.”

Li Ying was taken aback: “I wasn’t going to ask you for it.”

She continued: “I have a lot of gold and silver that my mother burned for me. Can this underworld currency be exchanged for money in the living world?”

Cui Xun, though playing the villain, felt no shame. He thought briefly, then said: “I know someone who might be able to help you.”

Li Ying’s eyes brightened. After hearing the name and address of this person from Cui Xun, she bowed: “Thank you, Junior Minister Cui, for your guidance. I will go find him right away.”

Having said this, Li Ying prepared to leave gracefully. Cui Xun raised his eyes to look at her delicate figure and suddenly said, “Princess, please wait.”

Li Ying stopped in her tracks. She turned back and looked at Cui Xun with confusion. Cui Xun was silent for a moment, then said: “Princess, the Empress Dowager thinks of you often. In these thirty years, she has not forgotten you.”

Li Ying was stunned. She slowly turned around. Cui Xun just quietly watched her back; he couldn’t see her facial expression, only heard what sounded like her sniffling. Then she quickened her pace and disappeared from his sight.