Lady Zhu still just smiled without speaking.
Tie Ci threw down the ceramic jar and continued: “That question is pointless. Why? The wine would be delivered to Mr. He by me, then poison Mr. He to death. I would be the murderer who killed Mr. He—killing two birds with one stone. How wonderful.”
The Mountain Dean naturally could guess this, but didn’t dare believe it.
A loving couple, a gentle and kind bedside companion—suddenly wiping away the facade to reveal a vicious and hideous face, making him feel dazed and confused, almost as if he had stepped into a nightmare.
In the nightmare, people and things were so clear. He could hear his wife’s light laughter, with mockery he had never heard before.
Tie Ci said to He Zi: “Sir, if we’re really talking about the murderer, it’s probably this person before us. She may have accomplices, but we can’t confront them for now. Let’s first clarify the matter at hand.”
He Zi nodded.
“Last night the Mountain Dean enlightened me. Tonight it’s my turn to enlighten the Mountain Dean.” Tie Ci said, “Last night the Mountain Dean said that it was because they discovered Lady He was a spy for the Eastern Liao, and under interrogation, Lady He killed herself in shame. To protect sir, everyone chose to conceal the truth, using decisive methods to ensure sir would never approach his wife’s corpse for life. This reasoning sounds reasonable, but some details haven’t been answered. Never mind those for now—let me ask the Mountain Dean: who suggested that you use such decisive reasoning to forge the suicide note?”
The Mountain Dean was startled and instinctively looked toward his wife.
Tie Ci nodded unsurprisingly: “I thought so. Such a delicate, sensitive, and malicious suicide note doesn’t seem like something a rough man could think up—it’s more like a woman’s handiwork. At that time, you were afraid sir would examine the corpse because you feared he would discover the inexplicable red spots on the body. So what was Lady Zhu afraid of being discovered? Was she afraid of being found out that the lady was already pregnant when she died, thus arousing sir’s suspicion about the cause of his wife’s death?”
The Mountain Dean was shocked: “What…”
He Zi remained motionless. The initial grief had been buried deep in his heart. He even laughed once and said: “Yi’er, when I took you as my disciple years ago, I said that having such a disciple meant I wouldn’t mind being childless for life. Who knew it would become a prophecy!”
“Master!” The Mountain Dean dropped to his knees with a thud.
“Only women can detect when a woman is pregnant. I’ve inquired—back then, Old Lady Rong, because of her martial family background, always kept a midwife with her. Very likely, even before Lady He herself realized she was pregnant, she already knew Lady He was with child. After killing Lady He, she was afraid sir would notice this pregnancy, so she conspired with Lady Zhu to come up with that suicide note idea.”
But Lady Zhu sneered: “These are all your speculations. We’re just women from inner chambers—even if our relationship with her wasn’t good, why would we kill her?”
Tie Ci ignored her and took out a cosmetic box from the small bundle on her back. He Zi saw it and his eyes moved, recognizing this as his wife’s original cosmetic box.
“A while ago, I obtained this cosmetic box from the Director’s wife.” She glanced at the Director, who showed shock and shame.
One after another, their taste in wives was impeccable.
“At that time, holding this already-empty cosmetic box, I really couldn’t see what was going on, until last night when the Mountain Dean told old stories, mentioning that day when they discovered Lady He was a spy and interrogated her—she didn’t say a word.”
“Whether she was a spy or not, not saying a word is very strange. Lady He wasn’t the type to be speechless when faced with problems.” Tie Ci said, “Unless… she simply couldn’t speak anymore.”
Everyone jumped in shock. The Mountain Dean showed a look of recollection and gradually changed color.
“Then I remembered hearing the Director’s wife mention that Lady He went to the library very early that morning, and when she left, the Director’s wife saw someone beside her, but couldn’t see clearly who it was.”
“That day I asked the Director’s wife if it could have been the Mountain Dean’s wife. After all, early morning at the library with no one around, only a woman could accompany Lady He. The Director’s wife said it was impossible—the Mountain Dean and his wife raised their eyebrows in harmony, and Lady Zhu would get up early every morning to prepare breakfast for her husband, then go back to catch up on sleep.”
“This sleep—missing it once in a while wouldn’t matter, right?”
The Mountain Dean’s face grew paler and paler. Suddenly he said: “That morning, I had gone home once. Right around the time you mentioned… she wasn’t home. At the time I didn’t think much of it…”
“At that time, although there were quite a few instructors’ wives, the ones living closest to Lady He were the Mountain Dean’s wife and the Director’s wife. The Director’s wife was on bad terms with Lady He, while the Mountain Dean’s wife was gentle and likeable. Lady He wouldn’t strike a smiling face—if she really had an appointment to go to the library with someone, it could only be the Mountain Dean’s wife.”
“Lady Zhu accompanied Lady He to the library, knew what the last book she looked at was, then after she left, secretly placed intelligence maps in the book she had read. After that, whether Lady Zhu had already poisoned her during their morning together, or whether Lady Rong did it, in any case, by the time everyone discovered the map in the travel journal and came to accuse her, Lady He could no longer explain for herself.”
“Because of the poisoning, reactions appeared on the corpse later—but that’s another matter. Lady He was wrongly accused at the time and couldn’t defend herself. In that situation, when she requested to enter the inner room, I don’t think she went to kill herself—she must have been trying to save herself. The most likely scenario is that she pretended to change clothes but actually wanted to quickly pack her belongings and escape.”
“While she was packing, Lady Zhu and Lady Rong followed her in. When a woman packs belongings, she chooses her cosmetic box first, and this large cosmetic box had many things in it, including her most cherished hairpin—she would definitely take this one first. But when she took the cosmetic box, Lady Zhu and Lady Rong silently followed in, then a white silk cord was looped around her neck.”
Silence all around. Wind rustled through leaves with a mournful sound, and a cold crescent moon cast pale light.
Following Tie Ci’s haunting tone, everyone couldn’t help but have that day’s terrifying scene flash through their minds, sending chills through their bodies.
He Zi’s face was ashen. He had barely managed to maintain calm before, but now he couldn’t control his whole body’s slight trembling.
“Naturally she would struggle, smashing with whatever she held in her hands, using all her strength. An ebony box inlaid with mother-of-pearl is quite heavy. She hit someone, causing the mother-of-pearl to loosen and lift, staining it with the other person’s blood.”
Tie Ci took out a small knife and pried open a slightly loose piece of mother-of-pearl on the box. Everyone looked carefully and could see some dark traces in the gaps of the mother-of-pearl.
“This is blood. If you don’t believe it, dissolving it in water will tell. Fortunately it’s mother-of-pearl, hidden in the crevices, not easy to discover. After all this time, this bit still remains.”
Lady Zhu sneered: “This might be from when Lady He injured her own hand sometime—how can you pin this on me?”
“Lifted mother-of-pearl can easily cut hands. If it had been there before, Lady He wouldn’t have failed to do such a simple repair. It could only be fresh damage from that time. However, although she hit someone, she didn’t succeed. The other party was two people after all, and Lady He gradually lost breath. Lady Zhu and Lady Rong then hung her from the beam. To create the illusion of suicide, they casually selected that hairpin from the cosmetic box to put on her.”
A slight soft sound—Tie Ci turned her head to see He Zi could no longer stand and slowly sat down against a tree.
The Mountain Dean had at some point buried his head on the ground, motionless.
Everyone’s faces were deathly pale.
“Initially, the Director’s wife told me that during the funeral chaos, she took advantage of the confusion to steal the cosmetic box from the dressing table. I thought, a woman’s cosmetic box is usually placed deep on the dressing table, especially since that box and the jewelry inside were Lady He’s treasures—how could she casually place it? Either she had moved the cosmetic box herself and then couldn’t reorganize it, or someone had casually placed it there. At that time, the only ones who could enter the inner room and casually place a cosmetic box were Lady Zhu and Lady Rong. These two weren’t shallow-minded people like the Director’s wife—why would they touch someone else’s cosmetic box? So there’s only one possibility: after the murder, in their panic, the cosmetic box was casually thrown aside, which conveniently allowed the Director’s wife to sneak in later and take the cosmetic box. Perhaps this is Lady He’s spirit in heaven—mysteriously, she left me clues.”
“No matter how eloquently you speak, I still have the same question.” Lady Zhu said coldly and harshly, “Without grievances or hatred, why would we kill her?”
“Because of the succession struggle.” Tie Ci’s voice grew colder, “Because Lady Rong is from the Rong Family, and she connected the Rong Family with the then-Empress, now the Empress Dowager. Because you’re a distant branch of the Xiao Family.”
The Mountain Dean suddenly raised his head—he didn’t know about this either.
“You are all scholars, and scholars generally don’t understand military intelligence and strategies. When I heard the Mountain Dean explain how Lady He transmitted military intelligence, I had two doubts. First, Lady He lived on Qingyang Mountain—how could a mere woman know about the capital’s military defense maps? It’s said she obtained intelligence by spying on Mr. He, but Mr. He at that time was only being recruited. Even if Prince Tang and Prince Lu were inclined to befriend him, they wouldn’t leak complete military maps to Mr. He. If Mr. He didn’t know, how could his wife produce the complete map? Second, Lady He could barely read a few characters—how could she think of such a clever method of piecing together maps to transmit military diagrams? This requires excellent drawing and copying skills, requires extensive knowledge, and I’ve seen Lady He’s handwriting—she couldn’t draw.”
“The Director’s wife told me that Rong Luchuan was skilled at copying, so wouldn’t his wife also know how through exposure? After all, the Di clan is also a famous family, and Lady Rong was accomplished in both civil and military arts. With the capabilities of the Rong and Xiao families, obtaining the capital’s military defense maps at that time would be most reasonable.”
“They produced the defense maps and framed Lady He. They had sincere, honest disciples force their teacher’s wife to death. The disciples had to conceal the truth of their teacher’s wife’s death, and from then on were held by the handle. And Mr. He, who was still being detained in the capital at that time, would inevitably blame Prince Tang and Prince Lu, and he also owed the Xiao Family a favor because of this. Without a doubt, he would choose… Empress Xiao at that critical moment.”
So afterward, He Zi willingly used the intelligence he obtained to strategize for the Xiao Family, helping Empress Xiao ultimately win and become Empress Dowager Xiao.
Empress Dowager Xiao worried that He Zi had meritorious service in supporting the dragon and would have to be rewarded. This person was accomplished in both civil and military affairs with too high a reputation—the Xiao Family at that time still couldn’t suppress him. So she still needed him to leave the academy from then on.
Lady He’s death in this manner would inevitably make He Zi withdraw from the world. With the Mountain Dean, who had the most control over Yueli Academy, leaving the academy, the Xiao Family had an opportunity to infiltrate.
Even if the academy’s leadership was still held by He Zi’s disciples, out of gratitude to the Xiao Family, they certainly wouldn’t obstruct much. The Mountain Dean was mostly away from the academy, causing the academy’s atmosphere to be corrupted by the Xiao Family over the years. Officials from the academy mostly automatically counted as part of the Xiao Family faction, and the Xiao Family’s power in court grew increasingly large.
The Rong Family was on the same boat as the Xiao Family back then, but gradually grew apart due to power struggles. The Rong Family took this opportunity to also infiltrate the academy. Yueli Academy now divided the world in two, all legacy from those years.
This could no longer be counted as killing several birds with one stone. The various benefit entanglements and changes caused by the so-called suicide incident had far-reaching effects, extending to today.
Only the He couple were complete and utter sacrificial victims.
Everyone felt cold in their hearts, not daring to look up at He Zi’s expression.
He Zi sat leaning against the tree, staring blankly up at the crescent moon cut into fragments by the tall trees.
He didn’t move, didn’t shed tears, but suddenly someone cried out in alarm.
Everyone looked and saw that on He Zi’s face, which had always been well-maintained without wrinkles, lines suddenly appeared like knife cuts and axe chops, wantonly crisscrossing across that originally pearl-like smooth skin.
Like time suddenly accelerating at this moment.
Like ghosts and spirits in the dark taking up brushes to paint time.
Every stroke dipped in blood.
The He family had hereditary qi cultivation techniques that could preserve youthful appearance, but at this moment, the past shattered his years like random blade cuts.
He had thought he was already facing the world’s ultimate cruelty, but didn’t know that no one could resist fate’s mercilessness.
“Master!”
Everyone fell to their knees in the dust with thuds.
“Master!”
The Mountain Dean crawled on his knees all the way over but stopped three feet before He Zi. The man nearing fifty wailed in anguish and knocked his head against the gnarled tree roots.