After Shang Qinglan woke up, she ordered people to paste Lan Daoxing’s donated talismans on all doors and windows of Yude Palace. Seeing that Wei Caiwei’s eyes were red from staying up all night to treat her, she quickly told her to go rest. “I’m not feverish anymore, and it’s daytime now. Black specters only appear at night, so you can sleep peacefully.”
Wei Caiwei was determined to expose Lan Daoxing’s true face, and just like in her previous life, she had to quickly find the dog’s corpse. She didn’t sleep and asked Shang Qinglan about her encounter with the black specter.
After a month of sandstorms that kept her trapped indoors like a caged bird, Shang Qinglan was thoroughly stifled. Emperor Jiajing had various entertainment troupes – acrobats, puppet shows, and other diversions – take turns entering the palace to perform for his new favorite’s amusement.
Shang Qinglan found these fresh for only a few days before losing interest. Emperor Jiajing then sent her fireworks to play with daily. Every evening, she would sit by the glass windows indoors, watching the fireworks bloom one by one.
But fireworks were only fun when you set them off yourself. Every night Shang Qinglan would put on her face veil and outer robe to go outside and light a few for fun.
Last night, she went out as usual to set off fireworks. She had just lit a butterfly firework when she heard someone scream, “There’s a monster!”
She turned to look and indeed saw a green-glowing canine monster with golden eyes.
Nanny Song immediately shouted “Protect Her Ladyship!” Everyone rushed to escort Shang Qinglan back inside, but the black specter was lightning-fast and quickly attacked. Everyone was terrified by the monster. Eunuch Chen Ju waved a torch to stop the black specter, but a cloud of black vapor followed, enveloping everyone. Some collapsed, others went mad, and Shang Qinglan was also affected, fainting on the spot.
The Embroidered Uniform Guards patrolling outside heard the commotion and rushed into the palace to rescue them. When they arrived, the black specter was gone – they only saw a courtyard full of palace servants, some collapsed, others crazed.
“Wait, why was Chen Jingji here?” Wei Caiwei quickly asked. She still used the outside habit of calling Chen Ju “Chen Jingji.”
Shang Qinglan said: “After you introduced him to me last time, I found him quite clever. His handwriting is beautiful, he writes poetry, and he’s good at drinking games. When the emperor and I play drinking games and I can’t keep up, I have him secretly write notes to help me cheat. Since he has no evening classes at the Inner Academy anyway, I call him to Yude Palace to watch fireworks and write poems for atmosphere. I didn’t expect this to happen.”
Wei Caiwei hurriedly asked: “How is he now?”
Nanny Song brought over a cup of ginseng tea and said: “He was standing in front, closest to the black vapor, and fainted immediately. We carried him to a side hall – he just woke up.”
Nanny Song was old and couldn’t handle the sandstorms, so she’d been staying indoors the whole time, luckily avoiding disaster.
Shang Qinglan helplessly spread her hands: “After that I also fainted and don’t know what happened.”
Nanny Song said: “Afterward, Your Ladyship was carried inside with a high fever and delirium. His Majesty rushed over when he heard the news. Immortal Lan braved the wind and snow to perform rituals outside Yude Palace’s main gate, capturing the black specter monster. Then Dr. Wei arrived.”
Wei Caiwei drank the ginseng tea to revive her spirits, then put on a gray squirrel fur cloak, wore serrated-bottom wooden clogs over her embroidered shoes for waterproofing and slip-resistance, and carried a hand warmer to the courtyard.
Today she didn’t need to wear face veils or outer robes. Last night’s sleet had fallen all night, pressing the dust in the air down with snow water, cleansing the atmosphere. Wei Caiwei smelled the earthy scent after rain – she hadn’t breathed so freely in many days.
Since it wasn’t yet winter, the sleet had turned to light rain by dawn, making the air even cleaner and clearer. The rain stopped after daybreak. Because the emperor was still in Yude Palace accompanying Noble Consort Shang, there were Imperial Stables guards and layers of Embroidered Uniform Guard protection.
Outside the palace’s main gate, Lan Daoxing’s monster-catching altar remained, with an eternal flame burning.
Wei Caiwei walked a circuit around Yude Palace. Every intersection and corner had guards standing watch and patrolling – it was guarded like an iron bucket.
With such tight security and so many eyes watching inside and outside the gates, Wei Caiwei suspected the dead dog disguised as a black specter was still in the palace.
Inside Yude Palace, fire walls, floor heating, and charcoal braziers were all burning, making it warm as spring. So the dead dog couldn’t be inside the halls – the stench would have exposed its location. The dead dog should be buried in the courtyard outside the halls.
Just like in her previous life, Lan Daoxing had dug a deep hole beforehand. After his supernatural demon-banishing performance, he poisoned the small dog, threw it in the deep hole, and backfilled it to deceive observers.
However, Yude Palace wasn’t like Rabbit Hill with soil everywhere. Since the Ming Dynasty moved its capital from Nanjing to Beijing, the newly built imperial palace suffered a fire in its first year and nearly burned down completely. Therefore, to prevent fires, the Eastern and Western Six Palaces where concubines lived forbade planting trees – everything was paved with stone slabs or gravel paths with no loose soil visible.
The greenery in the rear palace consisted of potted flowers or trees moved from greenhouses, changed according to seasonal rotation.
In early winter when everything withered and chrysanthemums were removed, the only green in the courtyard was pot after pot of evergreen pines and cypresses, each pot as large as a water vat.
Wei Caiwei thought: If it were me, I’d dig a hole in a flower pot beforehand, bury the dead dog inside, and wait for things to calm down when there aren’t so many guards patrolling. Then I’d dig up the dead dog and take it away.
Since it was already winter, the dead dog would freeze inside without rotting or stinking.
But Wei Caiwei counted thirty water-vat-sized flower pots around Yude Palace. Which pot would hide the dead dog?
Moreover, Wei Caiwei wasn’t certain the flower pots were the burial site. Digging them up one by one would make the palace servants think she’d gone mad.
What to do?
When Wei Caiwei made her second circuit outside, she saw a eunuch standing in the main courtyard. This eunuch also wore luxurious fur clothing – it was Chen Jingji.
Chen Jingji was currently just a small student at the Inner Academy with no official position. His wealthy attire must have been gifts from Shang Qinglan.
Truly, when one person attains enlightenment, even chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.
Last night when Shang Qinglan was in danger, amid the chaos, only Chen Jingji had raised a torch to fight the black specter. Though it was useless, his courage was commendable. Emperor Jiajing had remembered this small eunuch still studying at the Inner Academy. He would definitely become a favored eunuch beside Shang Qinglan in the future – in the previous life, that had been Eunuch Wang Daxia.
Through fate’s mysterious workings, Chen Jingji was retracing the path Wang Daxia had walked.
The two nodded in greeting. Chen Jingji pointed at his feet: “I smelled a very strange fragrance last night and collapsed right here. When I woke up it was already now, so I came to look.”
Wei Caiwei asked: “What did the black specter look like in your eyes?”
Chen Jingji closed his eyes to think: “Don’t laugh at me, Dr. Wei, but I think it looked like a dog. I was holding a torch then, so I could see more clearly than others. But the black specter glowed with ghostly green light all over its body – dogs don’t have that color. Also, I was waving my torch, and dogs are normally afraid of fire, but that black specter wasn’t afraid and charged straight at us.”
Wei Caiwei said: “With training, dogs can also not fear fire. You see street performers with dogs jumping through fire hoops.”
Chen Jingji said: “Does Dr. Wei suspect it was a dog?”
Wei Caiwei whispered: “Just suspecting. Don’t spread this around. Do you remember everyone who was at the scene?”
Chen Jingji had previously worked in intermediary business, so naturally he had skills for remembering people and events. He wrote a list for Wei Caiwei.
Wei Caiwei took the list to verify with Nanny Song – who had fainted immediately and who had gone mad, falling into hallucinations and running around wildly.
Those who fainted were immediately carried inside by the Embroidered Uniform Guards. So the inside accomplice who hid the dog’s corpse must have pretended to be crazed and run off to bury the dead dog.
There were five crazed palace servants in total. The inside accomplice was among these five.
Having investigated this far, it was already noon. After staying up nearly all night, Wei Caiwei was exhausted. She rubbed her throbbing temples, deeply feeling her current isolation and difficulty in every step.
If this were her previous life with Wang Daxia present, her task would already be finished. She’d handle the thinking, and confidently leave the rest to Wang Daxia so she could rest.
Eunuch Wang would have taken these five people to the Eastern Depot for interrogation while his subordinates would swarm to quickly search the thirty flower pots. With this two-pronged approach, they’d find evidence and bring down Lan Daoxing.
But now Eunuch Wang was gone. Wang Daxia was with the Embroidered Uniform Guard, walking his own path. He was no longer that soft-living Eunuch Wang.
Wei Caiwei found Nanny Song and pointed to the five names on the list: “Noble Consort Shang is fine. Since I’m free anyway, these five people went mad after seeing the black specter – I’ll examine them to see what caused their madness and hopefully cure them.”
Nanny Song said: “Afraid they’d hurt people in their madness, we tied them to beds. They struggled like fish, sometimes talking about ghosts, sometimes shouting about monsters. They made a fuss for most of the day until dawn when they finally exhausted themselves and fell into unconscious sleep. They haven’t woken yet.”
Wei Caiwei took out a set of gleaming needles: “No problem – I’ll wake them up. If you hear any alarming sounds, don’t come in – I’m treating them.”
Nanny Song led Wei Caiwei to the side room confining the five crazed palace servants: “Of course we won’t disturb Dr. Wei’s treatment. Dr. Wei’s medical skills are excellent and her heart kind – working tirelessly to treat ordinary palace servants is their good fortune.”
Wei Caiwei replied modestly: “You’re too kind, Nanny.”
Wei Caiwei closed the door. Before her lay five small beds with five people tied up. Who to start with?
Having gone too long without rest, Wei Caiwei’s mind was sluggish, inflexible like rusted metal. She simply used her finger to point at the five sleeping suspects while singing a childhood rhyme: “Counting soldiers, selecting generals – whoever I point to becomes my little soldier, my little general.”
At the final word, Wei Caiwei’s finger landed on the middle person’s head. Fate it is – I’ll start with you.
Meanwhile, at White Deer Temple on Fucheng Gate Street.
While Wei Caiwei spent a sleepless night in the palace, Wang Daxia and Lu Ying also stayed up all night.
They had infiltrated White Deer Temple with Wu Xiaoqi providing inside support. The three lurked in White Deer Hall, listening to most of the night’s three-court trial as the Taoists debated how to deal with Master Zhiping.
Some wanted to protect him, others wanted him executed. When the argument grew heated, the two factions started fighting.
“Stop! What kind of behavior is this!” The temple head stamped his foot in anger. “Have you all forgotten we still have proper business to attend to? Is this how you repay Prince Jing’s kindness?”
The temple head pointed at the bruised Master Zhiping prostrating on a prayer mat, nearly asleep while begging forgiveness: “First punish him by guarding the alchemy furnace. He cannot step outside the furnace room until we finish the task His Highness assigned us. Then we’ll discuss his punishment.”
The alchemical furnace fire couldn’t be extinguished day or night, meaning Master Zhiping couldn’t get proper sleep during this period – indeed a fine mental torment.
After finishing furnace duty, Master Zhiping would probably only want to sleep, not sleep with women.
Author’s Note: This chapter includes 100 red envelopes as thanks for everyone’s comfort. My courage is as small as Wang Daxia’s – I’m afraid of ghosts and easily imagine scary things. I don’t dare watch horror films or TV shows without full-screen comments for courage. So yesterday, being alone at home and experiencing my first earthquake – even just magnitude 3 – left me quite frightened.