Wei Zhu remained silent for a long while before slowly recounting her past: “I was originally from Luozhou, surnamed Wei. My parents were quite elderly before they finally had me — their only daughter — and they cherished me like a precious jewel, so they named me Wei Zhu. My childhood was carefree and happy. My parents adored each other deeply. Though my mother had only borne one daughter, my father always said that children come by fate, so he never took a concubine. He also never subscribed to the notion that women ought to simply serve their husbands and raise children, and my mother often accompanied him in running the family business. Under their united efforts, the Wei Family’s business grew larger and larger, until they earned a reputation as the wealthiest family in Luozhou. In truth, my parents never cared about such empty titles. They always worked diligently and kept a low profile — every year during the festivals, my mother would even take me to the temple to make offerings. And yet, the proverb proved true: an ordinary man is innocent, but possessing a treasure becomes his crime. In the fourth year of Tianshou, shortly after I turned eight, my father needed to travel out of town for trade. The contract was a large one, and my mother worried that something might go wrong, so she accompanied him. They left together — and neither they nor the Wei Family’s entire merchant convoy ever returned. It was only later that I learned the so-called ‘large contract’ had been a trap from the very beginning.”
Ming Huashang’s expression showed no surprise. The massacre of the Wei Family’s merchant convoy had caused a great sensation at the time, and even the case records in Shangzhou had documented it. Tonight, Ming Huashang had searched for a long while, and the moment she found the records for the Wei Family of Luozhou, she knew that the “orphaned young mistress, unable to protect herself, forced to sell off the family estate” described in the files was none other than Bao Zhu — the resourceful and tactful senior maidservant of the Feng household.
Her real name was Wei Zhu. She had been only eight years old when disaster struck the Wei Family — what good end could a young, ignorant little girl, powerless to protect herself, possibly have met? She had ultimately fallen into the status of a bondservant, changed her name to Bao Zhu, and entered the Feng household as a serving maid.
Perhaps falling into bondservant status was true enough — but entering the Feng household had been something she had painstakingly sought out herself.
The Wei Family tragedy amounted to only a few sparse lines in the case records; those who had died were nothing more than cold numbers in an official document. But from Wei Zhu’s lips, those people were vivid and alive — they were her parents, the guard uncle who had played with her since childhood, the accounts clerk who had taught her the abacus. Ming Huashang sighed and asked, “How did you come to know it was a trap?”
“Because the holes in the story were everywhere!” Wei Zhu’s emotions flared as she spoke. “My father was always meticulous. The bodyguards who traveled with him were ones our family had trusted for years. The Wei Family had escorted goods even more valuable than that single contract, and every time they came home safely without incident. Yet that time, when they reached Huanglong Mountain, bandits suddenly appeared on what should have been a secret trade route — as if guided by divine help — and killed every single person without leaving a single survivor. Afterward, when the government returned the bodies, many of the guards had only one fatal wound on them, as though they had been cut down without putting up any resistance at all. Unless someone had drugged them, how could a group of young, able-bodied, and highly skilled escort guards possibly have been defeated by bandits who didn’t even outnumber them? Everything that followed moved far too quickly as well. The cargo owner, claiming the goods were lost, brought people to the door demanding repayment without allowing even a single day’s grace — as if he deliberately wanted the whole city to know that the Wei Family had no one at the helm and could be preyed upon by anyone. When a wall begins to crumble, everyone pushes against it. My father’s wet nurse and her family seized the opportunity, muscled out my mother’s dowry holdings, and on the pretext of being the wet nurse, took it upon themselves to act on my behalf — selling off the Wei Family’s properties one by one to others at low prices, and then, eventually, selling me to a trafficker.”
Wei Zhu narrowed her eyes at this point, her voice carrying a deep and simmering hatred: “My paternal grandmother had died young, and my father, out of gratitude for the milk he had drunk as a child, had always treated that family with the courtesy due to a wet nurse. Even when that wretched old woman’s husband and son fell into gambling debts, my father still could not bring himself to drive them out, and quietly filled in their losses on their behalf. Yet in this world, good people receive no reward for their kindness — my father treated them with benevolence and righteousness, and they conspired with outsiders to seize the Wei Family’s wealth. The Wei Family’s shops were sold off at a fraction of their value, and that family of hers took no small number of kickbacks from it all! If I had been even five years older at the time — no, even three years — I would never have let that pack of people stir up such chaos.”
Ming Huashang listened and sighed. With Wei Zhu’s capabilities, had she been even five years older at the time, she would certainly have been able to stabilize the situation, prevent the Wei Family’s assets from continuing to hemorrhage, and after recovering their footing, a resurgence for the Wei Family would not have been out of the question. But what the world is most stingy with is the word “if.”
Ming Huashang did not ask about the fate of the wet nurse’s family. The Feng household was nearly wiped out entirely — how much more so the wet nurse’s family, who had personally pushed Wei Zhu into the abyss? Ming Huashang asked, “So how did you come to seek out the Feng household?”
Wei Zhu said: “After I was bought by the trafficker, I was passed through many places. The companions around me came and went — some had been sold off by their elder brothers and sisters-in-law after their parents died, others had been driven out from wealthy households. From them I learned a great deal about the ways of the world, and gradually began to realize that what had happened to the Wei Family was not right. Later, when I returned to Luozhou, the wet nurse’s family had fallen back into poverty because of their gambling debts. With a small trick, I got the truth out of them.
“It turned out that the so-called important client who had commissioned the Wei Family for that urgent order had been the old Feng patriarch coveting the Wei Family’s wealth from the very start. He first placed the order under a false identity, then used money to bribe the wet nurse’s family, urging my father to accept the contract. After the merchant convoy set off, the old Feng patriarch colluded with mountain bandits and leaked the Wei Family’s trade route and schedule in advance, while his spy, planted within the convoy, would drug the water with a sleeping draught. Once everyone had lost the ability to move, the bandits would burst from their ambush and slaughter everyone in the Wei Family — the entire consignment of goods served as their payment. Once news of the Wei Family’s calamity reached Luozhou, he sent people to the door to harass and cause a scene, and privately promised the wet nurse’s family a generous reward for selling off the Wei Family’s properties at rock-bottom prices, which he then resold for a far higher profit. The money obtained was channeled into the Feng household, which is what gave them the wealth and prominence they enjoy today. This very mansion of the Feng household, as well as the Jiangnan garden they built, was paid for entirely with the Wei Family’s money. Oh, and he had also acquired the Marquis Pearl at a low price — he was unwilling to sell it and simply kept it for himself, aspiring to make it the Feng Family’s heirloom treasure passed down through the generations.”
“And then you came to Shangzhou, deliberately had the trafficker sell you into the Feng household, became their maidservant, and waited for the right moment to take your revenge?”
Wei Zhu did not deny it, and Ming Huashang took her silence as confirmation. Ming Huashang sighed: “From what you describe, that trafficker treated you quite well. With your talents, running a small business on the outside and living a modestly comfortable life would not have been difficult. You originally had your whole youth ahead of you, and limitless choices before you. Yet once you entered the Feng household, you were reduced to serving tea and water while swallowing every insult, and enduring the advances of Feng’s eldest son on top of it — with no chance of ever extricating yourself. You succeeded in exacting revenge on the Feng household, but you also gave up your own life in exchange. Wei Zhu — was it worth it?”
This time Wei Zhu was silent for a long while. She spoke through gritted teeth: “It was worth it. The old Feng patriarch murdered my entire family. On what grounds should they have been allowed to live comfortably? As long as the Feng household lived, I would never know a moment’s peace.”
“So killing the old Feng patriarch still wasn’t enough to vent your hatred — you killed the eldest Feng son, the second Feng son, and the steward as well. Had we not arrived, would the Feng family’s elder daughter-in-law, the second daughter-in-law, and even the Feng children have all fallen at your hand?”
Wei Zhu said nothing. Her silence was not evasion — it was because she herself did not know.
The old Feng patriarch had masterminded the conspiracy against the Wei Family — his crime deserved ten thousand deaths. The bandits had personally slaughtered her parents and kin — they deserved to die. The steward had followed the old Feng patriarch and carried out the scheme of buying low and selling high — he deserved to die as well. The eldest and second Feng sons had enjoyed wealth stained with the Wei Family’s blood — they too deserved to die. But what of their wives and children?
The oldest of those children was no older than Wei Zhu had been at the time. After their parents’ deaths, it was not hard to imagine that they would fall into the same predicament Wei Zhu herself had faced. But would they be as fortunate as she had been, meeting a trafficker who took pity on her circumstances and treated her like a daughter of his own?
Wei Zhu felt lost.
Ever since she had learned the truth of her parents’ deaths, it had been as though her heart was being fried in a pan of hot oil — she could neither sleep soundly nor eat in peace. She had entrusted the trafficker with arranging for her to be sent to Shangzhou, changed her name to Bao Zhu, and entered the Feng household as a servant girl. The trafficker had tried to dissuade her several times, but Wei Zhu’s heart was as firm as iron and she did not waver. She had endured many untold hardships and unjust treatment in the Feng household, and it was not as though she had never considered retreating. But every time she laid eyes on the old Feng patriarch’s imperious, commanding old face, a bone-deep hatred would erupt from the depths of her heart, sustaining her — urging her to endure, to hold on.
Finally, she had made it to a position close to the old Feng patriarch himself, becoming the senior maidservant he relied on most heavily. To achieve this, she had gone out of her way to ingratiate herself with him — enduring the stench that clung to his body, emptying his chamber pot on behalf of the man she despised, and tolerating the physical and verbal harassment of two young gentlemen; the humiliation the two mistresses of the household heaped upon her face-to-face; and the pointed insinuations and barbs of the servants. Wei Zhu had endured it all.
She had entered the Feng household at thirteen, lying dormant for five years, ever searching for an opportunity to exact her revenge. Tending personally to the old Feng patriarch, she had in truth many chances to strike — but what she wanted was not merely the death of the old Feng patriarch. She wanted every last executioner from that day to reap what they had sown. And so, even as hatred burned her heart with desperate urgency, she stayed silent and still, quietly waiting for the perfect moment.
In the sixth month of that year, a new Prefect arrived in Shangzhou — reportedly the son of Crown Prince Zhanghuai, whose reputation for virtue had spread throughout the realm. He had been exceptionally granted the title of Prince of Yong by Emperor Zetian, making him a more legitimate heir to the throne than the current Emperor himself. Once the old Feng patriarch had money, he began to dream of elevating the Feng household from a merchant family into an aristocratic official family. The Feng household eagerly rushed forward to curry favor with Prince of Yong and was, unsurprisingly, rebuffed.
The older a person grows, the deeper their obsessions become. The old Feng patriarch could not resign himself to being a wealthy but powerless village gentry, having long forgotten that without the Wei Family, they would not even enjoy the comfortable life they had now. Consumed by an almost maddened fixation on leaping up the social ladder by backing a future emperor, and since Prince of Yong refused to be this particular “dragon,” the old Feng patriarch turned his gaze elsewhere.
As autumn turned to winter, the old Feng patriarch made frequent external contacts, and at the end of the eleventh month, while Wei Zhu was attending to things in the courtyard, she overheard the old Feng patriarch chatting with the second Feng son, saying that he wished to invite Prince of Yong to visit the Feng household.
But Prince of Yong never mingled too closely with the local gentry and merchants. Over the months, countless invitations had been sent to him and his wife — to watch opera, admire flowers, attend banquets — and the couple had politely declined every single one. Why should the Feng household have any more face than all these others?
No matter how highly the old Feng patriarch thought of himself, he knew that the Feng household alone could not entice Prince of Yong. So he devised a plan — filing a report with the authorities.
If the Feng household had something stolen, and the investigation was requested under the pretext of solving the case, then Prince of Yong would have no grounds to refuse. And indeed, barely into the twelfth month, a letter from the legendary thief known as the Saint of Thieves was discovered at the old Feng patriarch’s bedside, declaring that he would come to the Feng household in three days’ time to claim the Marquis Pearl.
The old Feng patriarch was willing to expose his possession of the Marquis Pearl in order to summon Prince of Yong — if anyone said he harbored no ulterior purpose, Wei Zhu would not have believed it for a single moment. Wei Zhu could sense keenly that her opportunity seemed to have arrived.
The old Feng patriarch and the second Feng son had something to hide, while the eldest Feng son was not of one mind with his father and brother — this was her opening.
On the third day of the twelfth month, the day stated in the Saint of Thieves’ letter for the theft, Wei Zhu watched with cold eyes as the old Feng patriarch raged with righteous indignation against thieves, insisting on sleeping on the third floor and personally guarding the Marquis Pearl. An idea suddenly struck her. She knew there was no Saint of Thieves whatsoever — but tonight, the Marquis Pearl would certainly be stolen. This was a rare occasion when the old Feng patriarch would be alone. Whatever happened to him would have nothing to do with the maidservants and household staff.
Wei Zhu made up her mind to kill the old Feng patriarch that night, but to escape unscathed she needed to plan even more carefully. While she was helping move the old patriarch’s things for the evening, the eldest Feng son came over again and spoke improper words to her. Wei Zhu looked into his greedy, lecherous eyes and a plan took shape in her mind.
She feigned vulnerability, saying that her footing beside the old Feng patriarch was precarious, and that she too yearned to wash her hands of service and become a concubine, living the comfortable life of minding a husband and raising children — but since she managed the old patriarch’s valuables, the old patriarch would certainly not allow her to marry the eldest son. Wei Zhu broke into tears, and the eldest Feng son took the bait exactly as expected, swearing fervently that he would speak on her behalf before the old patriarch and would never let anyone make things difficult for her.
Wei Zhu laughed coldly in her heart while outwardly playing the part of a devoted confidante. She told him she was willing to remain by the old patriarch’s side and keep an eye on the family’s assets on the eldest son’s behalf, so that when the family divided the estate, the eldest branch would not be at a disadvantage — and if the eldest son did not believe her, she could tell him of a financial opportunity in advance, so that once he obtained the money, he would know her heart was with his branch of the family.
Delighted beyond measure, the eldest Feng son eagerly asked where this opportunity lay. Wei Zhu half-pushed and half-yielded before telling him: the so-called visit from the Saint of Thieves was merely a performance staged by the old patriarch for Prince of Yong’s benefit; in reality, the Marquis Pearl had long been moved by the old patriarch and was not in the treasure chest at all. Tonight, the only person in the Stargazing Tower was the old patriarch. All that was needed was to slip some sleeping medicine into the old man’s drink, go upstairs through the hidden passage while no one was around, and quietly feel around on the old man’s body for the Marquis Pearl — and as long as he steadfastly denied all knowledge of it afterward, who could ever prove the Marquis Pearl was in the eldest son’s hands?
In truth, Wei Zhu had long since observed that when the old Feng patriarch closed up the treasure chest, he had quietly concealed the Marquis Pearl in a hidden compartment in the head of his walking stick. But she didn’t tell the eldest Feng son this — she simply told him to go upstairs and search for it himself after he got up there. With his kind of mind, he was certain to come up empty-handed anyway.
The eldest Feng son was overjoyed to hear this and kept telling Wei Zhu she had a face that would bring fortune to any husband. Wei Zhu suppressed her revulsion and reminded him to be careful — if people learned he had drugged the old patriarch, the eldest branch’s position would become even more precarious. To ensure everything went without a hitch, she could provide the eldest son with a sleeping draught. She said it had been formulated by an heir to the Moist School of craftsmen, guaranteed to be odorless, colorless, and tasteless, leaving behind not a single trace of evidence.
The eldest Feng son was not entirely foolish — hearing that Wei Zhu had even prepared the drug for him in advance, he was dubious, and demanded that Wei Zhu act alongside him. Wei Zhu outwardly agreed, and after she had sent the eldest son away, she went back to the main courtyard to retrieve the sleeping draught and the poison needle. Every maidservant in the courtyard was occupied with their duties, and no one noticed her step over to the annex room and unobtrusively open the parrot’s cage.
After this, she returned to the Stargazing Tower to continue with her work. Along the way she encountered Prince of Yong and his wife, the second son, guards, and many others — all of them witnesses for her. By the hour of Hai, she had finally finished her duties. Knowing the old patriarch had a habit of drinking tea before bed, she took the initiative to go and brew tea for him. But as she headed downstairs, she predictably ran into a junior maidservant from the main courtyard, who told her that the old patriarch’s parrot had flown away and she should hurry back to catch it.
The eldest Feng son, with his eye on the Marquis Pearl, had volunteered to take over the task of delivering the tea. Wei Zhu smoothly handed the teapot to him. To anyone watching, this matter had been entirely the eldest son’s own initiative — it had nothing to do with her whatsoever. On her way to the tea room, Wei Zhu passed the sleeping draught to the eldest Feng son, saying regretfully that an accident had arisen and she could not act together with him. She told him to go up first, and she would come to assist him once she had caught the parrot.
The eldest Feng son believed every word of it. He fetched the tea from the tea room, secretly added the drug, and personally carried it up to the Stargazing Tower. Wei Zhu took her time catching the parrot, waiting until the timing was right before heading to the Stargazing Tower, where she dropped repeated hints in front of Prince of Yong, his wife, and the second son that she had not touched the tea at any point.
Everything that followed was exactly as Wei Zhu had anticipated. As the hour of Hai drew close to its midpoint, the old Feng patriarch rose and drank his tea, and Prince of Yong and his wife retired to their room. After a brief wait, the second Feng son left on some pretext, and the eldest Feng son slipped away shortly after. Bao Zhu waited at ease in the flower garden, calculating the time it would take to traverse the hidden passage — she knew that at that very moment, the eldest Feng son must be upstairs searching for the Marquis Pearl, and the second Feng son was probably inside the hidden passage as well, engaged in some scheme best left unknown.
A long while passed before the eldest Feng son came storming back. With others present in the flower garden, he could not come directly to her, so he held back. The second Feng son then returned as well. Afraid that the foolish eldest son might blurt out something careless and ruin her entire plan, Wei Zhu invented an excuse about fetching some pastries and slipped out on her own.
Calculating that it was nearly the hour of Zi, she made her unhurried return — and by chance, as she came around the back corridor, Wei Zhu ran into someone setting off fireworks, with the second Feng son’s trusted aide leading the group.
The second Feng son truly was a worthy son of the old Feng patriarch — carrying out his father’s orders with such meticulous dedication. Wei Zhu watched coldly as they lit the fuse and fled. She then seamlessly blended in among the servants brought along by the second Feng son. Prince of Yong and his wife came rushing over as well, and Wei Zhu, knowing that if she did not appear now she would draw suspicion, showed herself as well, acting as though she had just come running.
The whole party trooped back to the Stargazing Tower in great numbers. As the second Feng son spoke with Prince of Yong, he kept glancing upward with an unsettled, uncertain expression. Wei Zhu knew what the second Feng son was puzzled about. According to the plan, the old Feng patriarch should by now have been standing at the window shouting for thieves to be caught. So why was the old patriarch still lying in his chair, motionless? He had no way of knowing that the old Feng patriarch had drunk the tea delivered by the eldest son and had been knocked out cold by the sleeping draught — he would not wake for four solid hours.
Wei Zhu knew the moment had come. She cried out with feigned alarm that the old Feng patriarch wasn’t moving — was something wrong? Her words, as expected, threw the crowd into an uproar, and even the second Feng son’s expression turned suspicious. Wei Zhu acted worried and bolted up the stairs in one stride. Using the motion of shaking the old Feng patriarch as cover, she drove the poison needle into the back of his skull without a moment’s hesitation.
The old Feng patriarch’s eyes flew wide open, and he struggled instinctively beneath her hands. Wei Zhu held him down firmly. When the second Feng son came rushing up, the old Feng patriarch had not yet drawn his last breath. But Wei Zhu feigned anguished sobs and declared that the old patriarch was dead. The second Feng son was shocked into a stupor and did not step forward to check — and at that moment, the old Feng patriarch lost the strength to struggle any further and died.
In truth, Wei Zhu had originally planned to pull out the needle during the dressing of the old patriarch’s body in burial clothes, thereby fully destroying the evidence and leaving no seam for anyone to find. But that seemingly amiable couple proved extremely forceful when matters arose. Prince of Yong would not allow anyone to approach the old Feng patriarch’s body — not even the Feng family members themselves. Wei Zhu tried several times and failed, so she had no choice but to give up, secretly praying that no one would discover the fine needle lodged in the old patriarch’s skull.
Aside from failing to remove the needle, everything unfolded exactly as Wei Zhu had anticipated. Prince of Yong, widely celebrated by name and reputation, appeared, like all previous Prefects, not to be quite as omnipotent as his legend suggested. Wei Zhu continued to advance her plan, deliberately spreading rumors about the Marquis Pearl’s curse, laying the groundwork for the deaths of the remaining Feng household members.
That evening, Hu Po returned from the second branch of the household and casually mentioned that the second son had quarreled with his wife. The speaker was careless, but the listener took note — Wei Zhu pocketed the sleeping draught and, on the pretext of going to walk the bird, went to the lakeside pavilion to find the second Feng son. He was initially unwilling to open the door for her, but when Wei Zhu said she had seen the people beside him setting off fireworks the previous night, he let her in, rattled and flustered.
Wei Zhu pressed the second Feng son on why he had done such a thing. He hedged and evaded, talking around the subject. In truth, Wei Zhu had never intended to hear the answer — her real purpose was to divert his attention while she slipped the drug into his wine cup. She pressed on: the guards outside had also been acting strangely — just what were they doing? The second Feng son seemed to flare up in humiliated fury and snapped at her to mind her own business.
Everyone outside praised the second Feng son as a talented young man, but Wei Zhu understood him best of all — he was nothing more than a weak and spineless boy who did whatever his father arranged. Now that the old Feng patriarch was dead, he was like a child who had been separated from his parent — without a single idea of his own. Already anxious to begin with that day, and further rattled by Wei Zhu’s questioning, his agitation mounted until he drained his wine in one gulp.
This was exactly what Wei Zhu had hoped for. The drug took effect swiftly, and once the second Feng son lost consciousness, Wei Zhu shoved him into the lake. He choked on the icy water and groggily came to, only for Wei Zhu to press him back down without mercy. This was repeated several times over, until the second Feng son drowned — his expression one of utter disbelief.
Wei Zhu coolly cleaned up the scene, erasing any trace of her presence. She was nearly done tidying up when someone actually arrived. Fortunately, Wei Zhu had been cautious enough to bar the door bolt in advance — but that was not sufficient. Mah Nao knocked for a long time with no response and was gradually growing suspicious. If someone had come in at that moment, everything Wei Zhu had done would have come to nothing. She still had enemies yet to kill — she was not about to resign herself to being caught like this. In the urgency of the moment, Wei Zhu noticed the parrot in the corner and a plan struck her in a flash.
She had raised this parrot herself and it could imitate many different voices. Using hand signals, she directed it to mimic the second Feng son’s voice and send Mah Nao away. Though Mah Nao thought the second son’s tone sounded slightly off, she did not dwell on it and turned to leave.
After finishing her final tasks, Wei Zhu used a thread to pull the door bolt from the inside, latched it shut, and slipped away unnoticed while no one was looking. Once back in the main courtyard, she immediately called for a room inspection, deliberately creating an alibi for her own absence.
She had believed the second Feng son’s death was handled with great care — no one would be suspicious, and it would quickly be ruled an accidental death. She had not anticipated that the Prince of Yong and Princess of Yong she had dismissed would be far more perceptive than she had imagined — not the pampered, privileged offspring she had assumed them to be. Instinctively sensing danger, and heedless of possibly exposing herself, she accelerated her plan for revenge.
With the old Feng patriarch and the second son dead one after another, the eldest Feng son was probably the only one who was genuinely overjoyed. Everyone else who knew anything was beginning to smell misfortune. The steward did not know how the old patriarch and the second son had died, but he knew what the old Feng patriarch had been scheming in recent months, and he was afraid. Abandoning all the Feng household connections he had spent his whole life cultivating, he grabbed his entire personal fortune and fled.
Wei Zhu had served for years as the chief maidservant overseeing household affairs, and her eyes and ears were spread throughout the inner and outer quarters. When she heard that the steward had withdrawn a large sum from the treasury, she immediately realized he was planning to run. She was on familiar terms with the people in the stables and easily learned that the steward had just come by and asked them to feed a horse in preparation. Wei Zhu sent everyone else away and slipped a needle under the saddle of that horse.
That was as far as she could go. Whether the steward would fall to his death was up to Heaven.
After Wei Zhu returned, she brought the parrot once more and made her way to where the group who called themselves river folk but were in fact mountain bandits were lodging. The old Feng patriarch had once bribed those bandits to massacre the Wei Family’s merchant convoy and now intended to use the same trick again — but what they did not know was that the moment Wei Zhu laid eyes on Dong Hai, she recognized him as the murderer of her parents. She had been tracking news of the Huanglong Mountain bandits for years. Those faces on the wanted posters — she would recognize them even as ashes.
Knowing Dong Hai was behind the surrounding wall, Wei Zhu lowered her voice and pretended to be a servant of the eldest Feng son, saying that the Marquis Pearl was still in the Stargazing Tower. Now that the old patriarch and the second son were dead, why not kill the bandits, take the Marquis Pearl, and then simply claim it had been stolen by mountain bandits? That way there would be no one left to testify against anyone. She then had the parrot imitate the eldest Feng son’s voice saying “agreed” — to arrange for going to the Stargazing Tower that night to collect the Marquis Pearl, and to ensure the matter didn’t leak.
It was a crude attempt at sowing discord. But by now, everyone in the Feng household who was privy to the details of their deal with the bandits was dead. Dong Hai had already been worried that the Feng household might refuse to honor their agreement. Now that the eldest Feng son was hinting at burning the bridge after crossing it, even if Dong Hai couldn’t be certain those were truly the eldest son’s words, he was not about to take the risk.
They were bandits — their livelihood was licking blood from a blade’s edge. When in doubt, they would sooner kill wrongly than let someone go. Though they had a prior arrangement with the old Feng patriarch, the old patriarch had commissioned them to do a hanging offense of a job, and no reward was worth anything if they did not live to spend it. By comparison, they far preferred simply seizing the money and running.
So it was that Wei Zhu stirred the bandits to action. Yet not knowing where the Marquis Pearl was hidden, they had no choice but to lie in ambush in the Stargazing Tower and wait. Wei Zhu then found the eldest Feng son and casually let slip that the old patriarch had carried a mechanism in his ever-present walking stick, just large enough to conceal a single pearl.
Given the eldest Feng son’s character — arrogant and self-important yet petty and suspicious — he would never share the whereabouts of the Marquis Pearl with anyone, not even the person he slept beside. When night fell, the eldest Feng son quietly returned through the hidden passage to the Stargazing Tower to look for the walking stick. When he opened the hidden mechanism with a surge of elation, the bandits lying in ambush on the third floor were equally elated. It was a priceless jewel. Without another word, Dong Hai killed the eldest Feng son and fled with the Marquis Pearl.
In Wei Zhu’s plan, the eldest Feng son should not have been discovered until the following morning. When the authorities arrived, Wei Zhu would find an opportunity to guide them to discover the hidden passage, which would naturally reveal the identities of Dong Hai and his companions, and the entire chain of murders in the Feng household would be laid at the feet of the mountain bandits. Since Prince of Yong had just arrived to take up his post, he would certainly carry out a bandit-suppression campaign. If she could use Prince of Yong’s hand to kill Dong Hai and the others, her entire plan for revenge would be complete.
However, she had calculated every single person in the Feng household correctly — but she had not calculated for Prince of Yong and his wife. Now that Prince of Yong had indeed taken people to chase down the bandits — as long as the goal of revenge was achieved, even if she were caught, she would die without regret.
Wei Zhu spoke calmly: “The evidence is irrefutable. I have nothing more to say. I only hope that Prince of Yong and Princess of Yong will exterminate those bandits and seek justice for the souls who died wrongfully beneath their blades. If that comes to pass, this humble woman would gladly accept even death by dismemberment.”
There were still a few unanswered questions, and Ming Huashang had not yet expressed her stance. She asked: “How did the Wei Family come to possess the Marquis Pearl in the first place?”
“It was passed down from my grandfather,” Wei Zhu said. “In his youth the Wei Family was still very poor. When he was traveling through the mountains as a trader, he came across a dead man whose hands were clenched tightly shut even in death. My grandfather found it strange and pried the man’s fingers open to look, and discovered this pearl. At first he had no idea what it was — he thought it was an ordinary bead. But then my grandfather’s fortunes suddenly began to turn, and he secured several successful deals in a row. Believing the pearl had brought him good luck, he had an expert examine it, and only then discovered that what he had found was the legendary Marquis Pearl. My grandfather understood that one should never flaunt one’s wealth, and never told anyone he possessed the Marquis Pearl. Yet who could have imagined that the one to betray his secret would be someone within his own family? Perhaps that is the Marquis Pearl’s curse.”
Ming Huashang said: “Your grandfather built his fortune from nothing not because the Marquis Pearl brought him good luck, but because he was hardworking, diligent, intelligent, and cautious. Your parents were murdered not because the Marquis Pearl brought bad fortune, but because human nature can be profoundly evil. Heaven’s justice is clear for all to see — these were all wrongs committed by people. The bright pearl bears no guilt.”
Wei Zhu smiled with a cynical edge: “Perhaps. Prince of Yong and Princess of Yong are of the imperial family — people of rank and renown. Surely none would dare covet what you hold, and you can possess the Marquis Pearl in safety.”
Ming Huashang raised an eyebrow. So Wei Zhu believed Ming Huashang intended to keep the Marquis Pearl for herself. She immediately said: “No. I have said before that I have no interest in jewels — let alone one so famous as the Marquis Pearl. I don’t believe in ghosts or gods, and I don’t believe the Marquis Pearl carries a curse. But human hearts are unpredictable — as long as others know you possess the Marquis Pearl, they will always covet it. In terms of outcome, it is not wrong to say the Marquis Pearl leads to the ruin of families and households. Why subject yourself to endless suspicion and scheming for a jewel that can neither be eaten nor put to any practical use? Attending to the living and to concrete happiness will always be more useful than any radiant jewel. Take right now, for instance — compared to the whereabouts of the Marquis Pearl, what concerns me far more is Prince of Yong’s safety.”
Ming Huashang fixed her gaze on Wei Zhu and said: “All I want is to live peacefully with my husband. You, I suspect, still have much that sits uneasily with you. You served at the old Feng patriarch’s side — whatever he was plotting, it could hardly have escaped your notice. As long as you tell us everything honestly, there may still be a chance to atone for your crimes. I urge you to speak.”
Wei Zhu fell silent. It was evident she knew that if she kept silent she would die, and if she spoke she would die even faster. Ming Huashang watched her expression and, with no outward change in her manner, administered a decisive blow: “Or is it that you have no wish to go back and see how the trafficker who rescued you and raised you is faring now? If you cooperate, even if the Court of Judicial Review ultimately sentences you to death, I can show some leniency — I will have someone take you home to see the trafficker one last time.”
Wei Zhu’s expression had remained cool and unyielding throughout — until she heard the name of the trafficker. She paused almost imperceptibly, and for a brief moment the hard shell that encased her cracked to reveal the rare softness beneath. Ming Huashang could see that she had already wavered. “Speak,” she said. “Tell me — why did the old Feng patriarch lie about receiving a threatening letter from the Saint of Thieves? Why did he go to such lengths to have us lodge at the Feng household? Why did he have those mountain bandits disguise themselves as river folk to guard the Stargazing Tower?”
Wei Zhu fought a battle within herself and in the end was defeated by her own attachment. She slowly said: “Because the old Feng patriarch was acting on Prince Qiao’s orders — to kill Prince of Yong, making it appear to be an accident.”