Huo Qi Lang had seen this pouch before. It contained strange soil of unknown origin that gave off a medicinal scent. To find the medicinal components within, Li Yuanying had Imperial Physician Lü Qingguang repeatedly test it, managing to identify the taste of four hemostatic herbs including agrimony, but there had been no follow-up since then. Now that it was brought out again, it seemed to hold deeper meaning.
Li Yuanying untied the pouch’s drawstring and sniffed inside. “The scent of the medicinal dregs has become extremely faint. Just like the events of those years—everything that should have been dealt with was handled, and those who knew about it have mostly disappeared.”
“Seven years ago, mother was with child again. I had just turned seventeen, and the palace was selecting eligible noble ladies, preparing for me to marry and leave the palace after the wedding. Bao Zhu was completely unwilling—she wanted to continue living with mother and me forever. The Imperial Observatory had already chosen an auspicious date, the册书 and imperial seal were ready, waiting only for mother to complete her postpartum confinement before holding the empress investiture ceremony.
Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly, then rumors that Prince Shao was born prematurely entered the palace. Mother was furious about this and requested to leave the palace. Though the emperor tried every means to comfort her and ordered a thorough investigation into the source, she still experienced fetal distress. However, she had always been in good health—even at four or five months pregnant, she continued practicing dance as usual. After resting for several days, her complexion appeared to have recovered.
The day of delivery arrived as expected. Bao Zhu and I anxiously awaited the arrival of the new life, but an entire day passed without any joyful news from the birthing room. The wet nurses beside us whispered among themselves, saying that an experienced mother shouldn’t take so much time.
Later, a eunuch with a grave expression asked us to see mother. We didn’t know it would be our final meeting. It was May, the weather was hot, but upon entering the eastern wing of Penglai Palace, charcoal braziers were still burning inside. The stuffy humidity and thick smell of blood hit us in the face.
I heard many people softly sobbing inside, with occasional infant cries mixed in among the adults’ weeping. That man sat beside the birthing bed, crying so hard that tears and snot soaked his beard and robes. Then I saw mother lying in a pool of blood. Her long hair and limbs were all soaked in her own blood, only her face had no trace of color. She was breathing rapidly, opening her mouth as if wanting to say something to me, but her spirit was confused, too weak to make a sound.
I never knew that a person’s body contained so much blood. The blood had soaked through the bedding and overflowed from the edge of the bed, staining the floor tiles red.”
At this point, though Li Yuanying’s voice remained calm, his face was equally devoid of color, as if all the blood in his body had also flowed away with the memory. Huo Qi Lang thought for a moment, then grasped his cold, stiff hand.
“Bao Zhu was so frightened she wailed, and I held her, covering her eyes, though I myself was also scared stiff. After a moment, palace servants half-dragged, half-led us away. That final meeting ended so hastily.
The days after mother’s death felt like a dream. I heard that man cried until he fainted several times, and others said that even among common people, men don’t accompany their wives into the birthing room, but the emperor not only went in, he stayed to wipe away sweat and tears, bring water and medicine.
After mother died from the difficult birth, Penglai Palace where she had lived was sealed off. On the night of her seventh day memorial, thinking that after leaving the palace it would be inconvenient to return, I wanted to take something she had used daily as a memento. I also fantasized that perhaps I could witness her spirit returning on the seventh day, making up for the regret of our final meeting. So I changed into plain clothes and secretly went to Penglai Palace under cover of night.
The main hall where her coffin lay had people watching day and night, but near the side halls there was a small gate in the palace wall for servants to use when changing shifts—few people knew about it. When I was small and took Bao Zhu out exploring without wanting to bring too many people, we would use that gate.
Waiting for the patrolling Imperial Guards to leave, I used thick paper to lift the door latch and slipped back to our former residence. Most of the furniture and furnishings had been moved from the room where she gave birth—it was empty inside, even the birthing bed was gone, leaving only a patch of dried blood on the floor that had seeped deep into the brick cracks and couldn’t be cleaned.
To the east was a large standing cabinet against the wall, fixed to the wall surface. Perhaps because it was inconvenient to move, it hadn’t been taken away. I opened the cabinet and pulled out a pomegranate skirt from the depths, taking it as a memento. When leaving the courtyard, I saw two pots of peonies among the discarded items in a corner by the palace wall.
These were precious flowers cultivated in the inner gardens that required careful daily tending. They had originally been placed beside mother’s bed as decorative arrangements, but now they were abandoned here without watering, the flowers already withered. But strangely, though the two identical potted plants looked the same, one was completely dead while the other’s leaves still retained the last trace of green, barely clinging to life. I went over to examine them and found the soil moisture in the two glazed pots was different.
Huo Qi Lang exclaimed “Ah!” and looked at the pouch in his hands, asking quietly, “This soil is from the flower pot?”
Li Yuanying nodded. “If someone had watered the flowers after her death, they shouldn’t have watered only one pot. Out of curiosity, I compared them carefully and found that the soil in the peony pot that still had a breath of life had a strong smell of medicinal decoction. I casually grabbed a handful of soil from it and put it in the pouch I carried with me.
The guard at Penglai Palace was even tighter than when mother was alive. After only delaying for a while, more patrolling guards passed by. Actually, as an imperial prince, it wouldn’t have mattered if they discovered me, but for some reason that night I felt extremely panicked. I took the skirt and flower soil and hurriedly fled.
Afterwards, not knowing what significance this medicinally-scented soil held, I questioned the female officials and maids who had attended mother’s difficult birth about the details. At that time, those qualified to be by her side were all her most trusted confidants. Strangely, less than ten days after the incident, they changed their story, claiming that the emperor only entered the birthing room after hearing that the noble consort was hemorrhaging, arriving only moments before Bao Zhu and me.
I thought that the only person who would take medicine in the birthing room would be mother, so I went to the Palace Administration to check—detailed records of imperial family medication were kept there. But I found nothing; the most recent record was of fetal-stabilizing medicine from two months prior. The eunuchs and imperial physicians at the Palace Administration told me that no one had prescribed medicine for the noble consort before or after delivery, and there were no records of preparing medicinal decoctions.
I was deeply puzzled and questioned those who had been present again, only to discover they had been transferred from their original positions and disappeared one by one. Those who remained spoke even less, absolutely refusing to mention the widely circulated story of the emperor’s attendance at the birth, carefully reminding me that I had remembered incorrectly due to excessive grief.
Very unfortunately, since the age of six, I remember every word I’ve spoken. It’s impossible to lose memory in such a short time. In just over ten days, a public memory known to everyone had been rewritten. After another month or two, a terrifying rumor about a ‘Blood-Smeared Ghost’ quietly spread through the palace. The legend spoke of a vengeful spirit covered in blood and filled with resentment wandering through the deep palace. Everyone spoke vaguely, everyone trembled with fear.”
A look of unbearable sympathy appeared on Huo Qi Lang’s face as she whispered, “No way… could it be…”
Li Yuanying said softly, “Most of the lower-level maids and eunuchs in the palace were illiterate. To avoid punishment, their way of passing secret messages was to make up ghost stories, using supernatural explanations. Noble Consort Xue’s surname happened to sound extremely similar to ‘Blood-Smeared Ghost.’ The Blood-Smeared Ghost was like a mirror, reflecting the truth of mother’s death. Why would she have grievances? And why would she have hatred?
In this eerie and terrifying atmosphere, Madam Yu decisively suggested that I immediately leave the palace and move to the princes’ residence. For safety, I could only bid farewell to Bao Zhu and move to live at the Ten Princes’ Mansion. She was only ten then, and after mother’s death she continued to enjoy undiminished favor, with a newborn baby beside her, so I never told her about these strange events.”
Li Yuanying clutched the old pouch in his hand and fell into long silence.
Huo Qi Lang said quietly, “What was poured into the flower pot was hemostatic decoction—there happened to be someone hemorrhaging heavily in the room at the time.”
Li Yuanying lowered his head and fiddled with the soil in the pouch. “Someone poured away the life-saving medicine she desperately needed, allowing that bedside peony to survive a few more days. To eliminate traces, the flower pots and furniture were all discarded and disposed of together, those involved kept silent, and those who knew disappeared one by one. I was too young then, my methods clumsy. Eager to find the truth, I didn’t hide my intentions well. The more I investigated, the more people disappeared. This was more terrifying than ghostly apparitions in the deep palace.”
The swaying ox cart stopped, and knocking came from the cart wall in a pattern of one long and two short—they seemed to have reached their destination.
Li Yuanying tucked the soil-filled pouch back into his robes and said to Huo Qi Lang, “If I meet with misfortune in the future, immediately set out to intercept Bao Zhu and don’t let her come to Youzhou. As for the truth… she’s now old enough to understand, but with limited power, it would be very difficult for her to survive alone. I don’t want her to seek revenge—I just want her to know what I’ve been busy with these years and why I’ve grown distant from her. When she cried to me about ghosts in the palace, I didn’t comfort her properly, only encouraged her to continue practicing riding and archery to build her courage.”
He exhaled and composed himself, ending this long and gloomy topic, reaching out to open the carriage door.
Huo Qi Lang embraced him from behind, turning his shoulders to face her, her lips moving toward his face.
“No, there’s still business here, no time for more…” Li Yuanying was about to resist when her kiss only gently landed on his forehead.
Huo Qi Lang licked off the flower ornament from between his brows, showed it to him on the tip of her tongue, then reached up to remove it and casually stuck it on her own forehead.
“Since we’re discussing business, Your Highness certainly can’t get out of the cart wearing this thing—you’d be kidnapped for a political marriage,” she joked.
Li Yuanying stood stunned for a moment, then laughed lightly, half-mocking, half-sincere: “Any matter, you can brush it lightly across your heart. This truly is an extremely profound skill.”
Huo Qi Lang smiled proudly: “That’s right. Though Lao Qi’s martial arts rank at the bottom of our sect, this skill of putting minds at ease is stronger than anyone’s—even our master can’t compare to me.”
She squeezed past him first, grabbed her skirts and jumped down from the cart, then extended her hand to help him down. “So it’s my turn to be Madam Jing this time?”
Li Yuanying glanced at the scar on her face, lowered his eyelids and said, “…I suppose so.”