Eunuch Zhong’s death was very strange, yet also very simple. He passed by the Cold Palace gate and was about to continue forward when he suddenly took out a dagger, aimed it at his own neck, and stabbed down. At the time, apart from Zan Jin and Ding Gou who were secretly following him, not even a ghost’s shadow had floated by.
Xiao Wei speculated that Eunuch Zhong had become afraid in retrospect—even if he went to report, it would be a dead end, so he might as well end his own life.
This speculation gained Zan Jin and Ding Gou’s agreement.
As for Mo Zi’s bold hypothetical assumptions and her doubts about the suicide theory, Xiao Wei turned a deaf ear, Ding Gou laughed it off, and Zan Jin remained silent. Rarely in agreement, they all thought she was overthinking things.
Mo Zi herself knew she had no evidence, so she didn’t insist. After viewing the crime scene, she returned to her residence.
Summoning Geng Wo, Mo Zi gave him two banknotes. “General Geng, I trouble you—deliver one to General Xu’s family, and give the other to the families of the guards who died or were injured. How to divide it is up to you.”
Seeing the denominations, Geng Wo gasped inwardly. “So much silver! Lord Mo Zi, actually it’s not necessary. The Ministry of Personnel will issue condolence payments.”
“No amount of silver can buy back a life, let alone this bit of money isn’t much. Moreover, though this battle wiped out all the Daqiu cavalry, the Crown Prince is dead. I’m afraid the court officials will be dissatisfied with our performance. I estimate that not being dismissed from office or held accountable would already be fortunate—even if there are condolence payments, they won’t be much.” The Empress had wanted to investigate whoever was spreading rumors about the Crown Prince’s death. Now that he’s truly dead, whether she’ll direct her anger at those who protected the Emperor is hard to say. Though Xiao Wei said the Empress was also benevolent, everyone has selfish motives.
“This… surely not? The Crown Prince’s death was truly unexpected—who would have thought that archer still wasn’t dead?” That’s what Geng Wo thought.
“General Geng, how long have you been a Qianniu Guard?” Seeing him like this, Mo Zi wanted to enlighten him a bit.
“Ten years.” Geng Wo answered.
“In those ten years, how many times has General Geng encountered combat as intense as today’s?” Mo Zi asked again.
“Today’s situation was the most intense. Brother Xu and I mostly guard within the palace. Every year or two we might accompany His Majesty on inspection tours, at most encountering some petty thieves who are easily dealt with.” Geng Wo was honest.
“Your days are usually quite peaceful, aren’t they?” Just like herself when she first arrived—soldiers in peacetime, so psychologically lacking crisis awareness. On this point, Xu Yang was stronger than Geng Wo.
Geng Wo wasn’t slow either. “What does Lord Mo Zi want to say?”
“I want to tell you that the weather has changed. A great thunderstorm is coming—you need to be more alert, more mentally agile. In the past, court struggles might have had nothing to do with you, but now you might be the first they test their blades on. General Geng, I see that you have good martial skills and are an upright person. I hope you can continue living peaceful days. So please, don’t be too naive.” For those who followed her and risked their lives for her, she wanted to speak some truth and fulfill some duty.
Geng Wo drew in a breath and knelt on one knee. “Thank you for the guidance, my lord. This general understands.”
After Geng Wo left, Mo Zi entered her private courtyard workshop. Outside, chaos fell like rain, as if swords filled the sky. Her heart couldn’t be calm either. Only two days had passed, yet it felt like years. She needed to do something with her hands to organize her thoughts.
Having been away for months, rushing in and out last night, she now discovered the entire room truly shone—with dust. She put on a work coat, donned large sleeves, casually wiped the table, pushed all the paper scraps and wood shavings to the side, then felt around on the underside of the table board for a brocade pouch. She gently tipped out two pearl earrings. These were exactly the ones Dou Lu had left with Jin Yin, which Ding Gou had hurried back to the capital early to retrieve. Jin Yin Bank was probably the only one in Great Zhou still open for business. Though she didn’t know how much longer it could hold on, Mo Zi wasn’t worried. When Jin Yin’s identity was exposed, he had already begun rapidly withdrawing the bank’s funds. Whether it was seized or closed, he was pulling out after making a full profit.
Her mind was troubled, but the delicate file in her hand was held very steady, falling light as a feather, neither rushed nor slow. The candle flame flickered, illuminating the milky white pearl. As she expected, on Dou Lu’s side was also a water-pure pearl. This way, she knew the whereabouts of all ten pearls. Four were with the Min family, three in her hands, one with Jin Yin, one with Yuan Cheng, and one had originally been in Wu Chengwan’s house but was now collected into the palace treasury.
“What secret could it be?” Mo Zi muttered to herself. She was about to open the second earring when she heard someone knocking at the courtyard gate.
She picked up the glass lamp and came to the gate. “Who is it?”
“It’s me.” Yuan Cheng’s voice.
Mo Zi opened the gate, smiling radiantly. “You’re finally back.”
The worry Yuan Cheng had been carrying was thus relieved. Her words “you’re back” allowed his warmth to enter his eyes, flow into his chest, and emanate an unprecedented warmth.
His feelings couldn’t be expressed in words. Borrowing the excuse of reporting business, his expression remained normal. “There’s new evidence in Prince Li’s case—that insider among Xiao Wei’s subordinates has already admitted to acting on Prince Li’s orders.”
Seeing her frown, knowing what she was anxious about, he added, “It’s not Zhong An.”
Mo Zi breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. Though he’s on Xiao Wei’s side, he’s always been quite decent to me. I really didn’t want him to be the big villain.”
“The big villain isn’t him.” Another fresh term, but easy to understand. “It’s one of Xiao Wei’s close attendants, someone who’s followed him since childhood. We’re not familiar with him, but Xiao Wei must feel terrible.”
“Yes, often the betrayal by those closest hurts the most. But from what I saw today, Xiao Wei seems to have matured quite a bit overnight. He should be able to accept this fact calmly.” Mo Zi turned to lead him into the courtyard.
The gate closed behind them, with only her and him, one in front, one behind.
This was also Yuan Cheng’s first time entering. Seeing the models of mountains and waters, he couldn’t help studying them for quite a while, praising, “Such meticulous thinking and superior craftsmanship—without leaving the gate, one can view all the great rivers and mountains.”
“Thank you for the compliment, but I still prefer climbing real mountains, traveling real waters, treading real rivers and mountains.” Mo Zi placed the glass lamp on the rocks. “Yuan Cheng, the Crown Prince is dead.”
“I know. The Court of Judicial Review was closed today, so news couldn’t get in, but as soon as I left, I learned about it.” Even he felt the unexpected chaos. “I thought you went to see Bai He at most, you’d cause an uproar at the Jiang residence. I was prepared to compensate Jiang Tao to rebuild. Who knew you had such ability—you actually fought a small battle with Daqiu people right at the city gate.”
“Your words have a hint of cold mockery and sarcasm.” Mo Zi’s eyes curved. “I was so well-behaved—it was just unfortunate coincidences, plus evil forces applying pressure, that things evolved this way.”
So she recounted in detail how the Crown Prince had tyrannically forced her out of the city, his conduct at the traveling palace, how she escaped danger, that great disturbance outside the city gate, and the matter of using a ruse to surprise attack the Eastern Palace.
Yuan Cheng gazed at the golden plum blossom handle on the glass lamp’s rod. After a long while, he carried the lamp into Mo Zi’s workshop, ignored the messy piles, cleared a space on the table himself, ground ink and spread paper, and began to write.
Mo Zi went over to look—it was key figures in the Crown Prince incident and a rough sketch of the imperial palace.
“Setting aside whether the Crown Prince’s collusion with Prince Li and Daqiu is related, the Daqiu people’s act of killing the Crown Prince puzzles me. Everyone knows the Crown Prince was mediocre. If he became Emperor, Great Zhou would inevitably decline. This would be extremely favorable to Daqiu ambitions.” The person before him wasn’t a woman who needed gentle comfort. Yuan Cheng knew she would be very willing to discuss this matter with him.
“I’m not puzzled at all. King Wu Yan of Daqiu might not want Great Zhou’s incompetent Crown Prince to die, but Consort Xiang—” Mo Zi curled her lips coldly. “Though clever, as long as she can strike at me, she doesn’t care about much else. If I were to guess her thinking, the Crown Prince’s death—first, it could drag me down; second, it could shake Great Zhou’s foundation. The Emperor only has two sons. With the Crown Prince dead, only the young Second Prince remains. Though the Crown Prince was mediocre, at least he was an adult and hard to control. Yuan Cheng, actually whether the Crown Prince lives or dies isn’t important to Daqiu, because after conquering Yuling, Daqiu’s pace toward unifying the realm won’t stop today. They have no interest in waiting for the Crown Prince to ascend and ruin the country—that’s already too far in the future.” Though women are easily swayed by emotions, Consort Xiang’s move, while seemingly not deeply considered, wasn’t entirely impulsive.
Yuan Cheng nodded. “You’re quite right.”
“Compared to the clarification of hostility from Daqiu’s side, I now more want to find out who in Great Zhou is organizing all this behind the scenes. You know what? I now truly feel that perhaps Prince Li is an unlucky scapegoat. Otherwise, with so much evidence pointing to him, how could he persist in not confessing? Moreover, the Crown Prince bringing Daqiu people into the city—this happened after Prince Li was captured. Eunuch Zhong clearly wasn’t working for Daqiu, and he also couldn’t possibly have been passing messages to Prince Li, so it must be someone else. That person sent Eunuch Zhong to monitor the Crown Prince in the Eastern Palace and, knowing Mingmei was a Daqiu spy, remained completely calm—this is a sign of collusion with Daqiu and very likely the true mastermind.” Previously, she had always considered Prince Li the mastermind, so many things didn’t make sense. If Prince Li was removed from the analysis, her intuition said the conspiracy theorist was someone else.
“Great minds think alike.” Yuan Cheng drew a question mark on the paper. “I originally didn’t understand why there were still so many activities going on after Prince Li was arrested. Hearing you say this, I now understand.”
“What?” Mo Zi didn’t understand.
“Because like the Daqiu people, the other party also can’t wait any longer. From the complete annihilation of the Yuan family until now, nearly twenty years have passed. That person has been arranging things for so long, already having influence in the court, the harem, and the martial world. And Daqiu has also made its first move with great success—finally, it’s time to cooperate. At such a time, major action is necessary. I’m afraid Prince Li was just the brick thrown out to draw the jade.” Yuan Cheng said.
“If Prince Li really is the brick, I have to say the opponent is too formidable—setting such an intricate and patient trap.” Finding a scapegoat twenty years ago.
“Of course, perhaps Prince Li isn’t that innocent either.” Yuan Cheng smiled.
“For now, regardless of whether it’s Prince Li or someone else plotting treason, first help me think—why exactly did Eunuch Zhong suddenly commit suicide while walking along the road?” It concerned her reputation.
“That’s not difficult.” Yuan Cheng already had the answer.