When Cui Xun returned to the Cui Residence, it was already the third watch of the night. He went straight to the study, where, through the green window gauze, he could vaguely make out a lamp burning inside. Cui Xun knocked on the door, but after knocking for quite some time, no one came to open it.
He frowned slightly. Since the lamp was lit, Li Ying should still be awake. Why was she taking so long to open the door? Had something happened to her? His gaze sharpened, and he was about to push the door open when it creaked open on its own.
Li Ying wore a fire-fox fur robe, her hair undone. Her silky tresses fell like flowing silk, her red garment like flames, her temple hair like clouds, her black hair like a waterfall, all accentuating her snow-white cheeks with an indescribable delicate beauty. Every time Cui Xun had seen Li Ying before, she had been properly dressed, not a strand out of place, always displaying the dignified elegance befitting a princess of the Great Zhou. Never had he seen her with loose hair and casual attire. Noticing Cui Xun staring at her, Li Ying felt somewhat embarrassed: “I apologize. I had already retired for the night, so my appearance is disheveled. Please don’t laugh at me, Inspector Cui…”
Only then did Cui Xun realize the situation. He shifted his gaze from her to the white Xing kiln porcelain lamp burning inside: “You left the lamp on, so I thought you were still awake.”
“I’m accustomed to keeping a lamp lit at night.”
“Why?”
Li Ying lowered her head and smiled bitterly: “Perhaps because the Lotus Pond was so dark, so after coming out, I became especially afraid of the dark.”
As she spoke her last words, her voice grew increasingly soft. She likely didn’t want Cui Xun to see the pain in her eyes, so she lowered her head completely. Cui Xun noticed her thin shoulder blades exposed through her temple hair, and his fingers unconsciously clenched within his official robe sleeve. A moment later, his fingers relaxed again, and he said to Li Ying: “I have something to tell you.”
Li Ying looked up: “What is it?”
Cui Xun looked into Li Ying’s eyes and, for some reason, couldn’t say the words he had prepared. Seeing this, Li Ying said: “It’s cold outside. Inspector Cui, please come in, have some tea, and we can talk slowly.”
Cui Xun sat formally upright at the writing desk, with Li Ying seated across from him. She placed a purple tea cake over the candle flame to roast it briefly. Once the tea fragrance was released, she placed it in a gilt-decorated tea grinder and ground it to powder. She then placed it in a tea sieve to strain it finely. Finally, she put the sifted tea powder in a silver tea kettle, which she placed on a tea stove. Meticulously, she used copper fire tongs to rekindle the extinguished lychee charcoal in the stove. The dim red glow of the charcoal illuminated her plain face, like a serene painting, gentle and beautiful.
Cui Xun quietly watched her brew tea, and suddenly his heart was filled with a tranquility he hadn’t felt for a long time. The water in the kettle began to slowly boil, spreading a fresh fragrance. Li Ying was about to pour the brewed tea into silver cups when she noticed the wooden window wasn’t completely closed. She rose and gracefully went to close it. When she returned to the desk, Cui Xun had already poured the tea himself. He took a sip and said, “Excellent tea.”
Li Ying smiled sheepishly: “Inspector Cui flatters me.”
Cui Xun also noticed a piece of borneol incense on the desk: “Borneol is the king of all medicines. Is the Princess making a sachet for the Empress Dowager?”
Li Ying was startled. She took the borneol and hid it in her palm, then lowered her head and gave a noncommittal “Mmm” in response. Cui Xun put down the silver teacup: “The Princess has a refined and virtuous character, excelling in both the art of tea and incense. No wonder the late Emperor and the Empress Dowager were so fond of you.”
Li Ying smiled faintly: “As children, there isn’t much we can do for our father and mother, except small gestures like brewing tea and burning incense.”
Her words revealed her affection and respect for Emperor Taichang and the Empress Dowager. Cui Xun suddenly remembered the Empress Dowager’s words: “Ming Yuezhu, she is my most beloved daughter, she was thirty years ago, and even more so thirty years later.”
He lowered his eyes and picked up the silver teacup again, taking another sip of the fragrant purple tea. The tea was greenish-blue in color, with a long-lasting aroma after tasting. Cui Xun set down the teacup and finally said to Li Ying: “Today, I arrested Wang Ranxi.”
Li Ying was stunned: “You arrested Wang Ranxi?”
Cui Xun nodded. The hand in his sleeve unconsciously tightened again. He pursed his lips and said calmly: “I brought her to the Investigation Bureau and found an actor who resembled Wang Tuan’er, having her pretend to be Wang Tuan’er’s ghost. Wang Ranxi has always been most afraid of vengeful spirits, and she indeed fell for it, becoming so frightened that she was willing to confess.”
He looked at Li Ying and said deliberately, “She confessed that she killed you.”
Upon hearing this long-sought answer, Li Ying was first shocked, then murmured: “So it was indeed her…”
“Do you want to ask her why?”
Li Ying bit her lip. She had waited thirty years to finally see the murderer exposed, but perhaps because she had waited a full thirty years—too long—she suddenly felt a sense of unreality. Seeing that she remained silent for a long time, Cui Xun said: “If you don’t want to go, then don’t.”
“No, I want to go,” Li Ying raised her head and said, “I shouldn’t have died. I want to know why she wanted me dead.”
This was Li Ying’s second time entering the prison cells of the Investigation Bureau. The first time, Cui Xun had deliberately shown her how he tortured Wang Liang to frighten her away. The second time, Cui Xun again brought her, but this time to interrogate her murderer.
She followed behind Cui Xun and, looking through a small iron window, saw Wang Ranxi curled up in the torture chamber. Wang Ranxi’s face was covered in blood, with hideous bloody scratches. Li Ying couldn’t help but glance at Cui Xun. He said: “It has nothing to do with me. She scratched herself.”
In the torture chamber, Wang Ranxi stretched out her long nails dyed with garden balsam, waving her arms and crying out in terror: “Ghost! Ghost! Don’t come near! Don’t come near!”
“No more ghosts are frightening her,” Cui Xun said. “She’s driven herself mad with fear.”
Looking at Wang Ranxi in this state, Li Ying couldn’t tell whether she felt pity or hatred: “Those with a clear conscience fear no ghosts knocking at their door. She thinks ghosts are cruel, but she is ten thousand times more cruel than any of us ghosts.”
Wang Ranxi clawed at the air for a while, then frantically scratched at the skin on her face and neck: “Ghosts! Ghosts! Get away! Get away!”
The skin on her face was torn and turned over, too horrible to look at. Cui Xun said to Li Ying, “What do you want to ask her?”
Li Ying fell silent. She had many questions for Wang Ranxi, but at the moment, she didn’t know which to ask first—whether to ask why she killed her, or how she killed her, or why Zheng Yun confessed to killing her. With so many thoughts jumbled together, she didn’t know where to begin.
Cui Xun probably saw her complex emotions and said, “Let me do it.”
He knocked on the iron window of the torture chamber. Hearing the sound, Wang Ranxi looked fearfully toward the iron window, where Cui Xun’s lotus-like handsome face appeared behind it.
Though he was like the King of Hell coming to claim her life, Wang Ranxi saw him as a lifeline. She crawled to the iron window, stood up, and frantically patted the wall: “Inspector Cui, save me, save me!”
Cui Xun said leisurely, “If you want me to save you, then answer everything I ask.”