Cui Xun acted quickly. From reporting to the execution of Wang Ranxi, it took only three days.

Cui Xun had asked Li Ying if she needed to witness Wang Ranxi’s execution. Li Ying thought for a moment and shook her head: “I hope that when I am reincarnated, my heart will be at peace, not still carrying hatred.”

The truth of her case had been revealed. She no longer needed to keep herself constantly trapped in that night at the Lotus Pond.

Cui Xun nodded: “Wang Ranxi is, after all, the wife of a third-rank official, the Madam of Jincheng Commandery personally conferred by His Majesty. Moreover, there is no evidence that her husband, Pei Guanyue, knew about this matter. Therefore, to save Pei Guanyue some face, the Empress Dowager and His Majesty will not publicly execute Wang Ranxi but will have her secretly put to death in the Investigation Bureau.”

“She killed me. I don’t need her to be publicly executed. She only needs to atone to me alone.” Li Ying sat on the ground, her feet dangling over the corridor. She wanted to feel the warm sun of the human world one last time as Li Ying. The setting sun shone on her; though she was merely a ghost, she seemed to emit a soft golden glow: “I don’t want the common people to ignite hatred for Wang Ranxi in their hearts out of sympathy for me. A person’s heart is small. This heart can hold some love for the world and family, and friends. As for hatred, the less the better.”

The sun set in the west, its glow illuminating the sky. The vast blue dome was painted by clouds into a ribbon of orange and red. The distant mountains were layered upon layers, and the last rays of the setting sun filtered through the tender green willow branches onto the ground. Everything was bathed in golden light; the world was dyed in gentle colors.

The sunset is infinitely beautiful, but dusk is approaching.

Cui Xun gazed at the picturesque scene and suddenly said: “As the Princess said, the Princess should not have died.”

Li Ying smiled gently: “Inspector Cui, you don’t need to think I’m remarkable just because I said these words. Though I am a princess of the Great Zhou, I never had grand ambitions. I don’t have Princess Qingyang’s ability to help her father raise an army, nor Princess Pingyuan’s aspiration to participate in court politics. All I wished for in life was for my father and mother to be with me for a long time, and for our family to be safe and sound.”

Cui Xun stood beside Li Ying as a gentle breeze caressed their faces like a light feather: “The Princess is quite fine just as she is.”

One sitting, one standing, they watched the golden crow descend in the west, the red wheel gradually disappearing. The setting sun was like blood, and returning birds chirped. Cui Xun suddenly asked: “Does the Princess have any unfulfilled wishes?”

“Wishes?” Li Ying murmured, lowering her head: “Indeed, there is one unfulfilled wish.”

“What wish is that?”

“I want to see… my mother once more.”

Cui Xun recalled that day when Li Ying risked her soul’s destruction to materialize and force a confession from Wang Ranxi. He had gone searching for the injured Li Ying with a lantern and finally found her at the gate of Daming Palace.

At that time, she was lying on the ground, her face pale, barely breathing, but her hand was stretched toward the palace gate, as if trying to touch that figure she could no longer reach.

That was her birth mother, her beloved mother.

Cui Xun was silent for a moment, then asked: “Does the Princess… miss the Empress Dowager very much?”

“Yes.” Li Ying nodded: “It’s been thirty years. Father is gone, and Mother is getting old. I can’t see Father anymore, or rather, when I see Father again, he will have already been reborn. After rebirth, he won’t be my father anymore, and I won’t be his Ming Yuezhu. So I want to see her one more time while she is still my mother.”

She lowered her head, her feet in court shoes tapping the stone wall beneath the corridor: “After seeing Mother, I will have no more attachments.”

Cui Xun said: “The Empress Dowager lives in seclusion, residing permanently in Penglai Palace. The doors of Penglai Palace all have door gods attached. The Princess cannot enter.”

Li Ying sighed: “I know I can’t go in. Before my rebirth, I’m afraid I won’t see Mother.”

Cui Xun said: “You will see her.” He paused: “As long as the Empress Dowager leaves Penglai Palace, the Princess will see her.”

Li Ying was confused. Her mother’s health wasn’t good these days; she hadn’t left Penglai Palace even for the New Year’s Court Assembly or the Lantern Festival, two major events. What could make her come out? She asked: “How will Mother leave Penglai Palace?”

Cui Xun didn’t answer directly, only saying: “I will fulfill the Princess’s wish.”

Cui Xun seemed very confident, but Li Ying was quite anxious. She watched Cui Xun enter Daming Palace while she waited outside alone. She had no idea how Cui Xun would persuade her mother. She racked her brains but couldn’t think of any reason that would make her mother willing to leave Penglai Palace despite her illness.

Though she couldn’t figure it out, she still waited outside the palace gate. She inexplicably trusted Cui Xun. If he said he would fulfill her wish, then he certainly could.

After several hours, that gaunt figure in dark crimson finally emerged from the palace gate. Li Ying joyfully went to meet him, but the words caught in her throat, and she didn’t dare ask.

She didn’t ask, but Cui Xun voluntarily said: “Tomorrow, the Empress Dowager will go to Famen Temple.”

“What is Mother going to do at Famen Temple?”

Cui Xun reminded her: “The Princess has been to Famen Temple before, right?”

Li Ying thought for a moment and said, “When I was five years old.”

That year, when she was five, her father took the Empress and consorts to Famen Temple to worship Buddha. Her father and Empress Zheng entered the pagoda to pay respects to the Buddha’s relics. As the body and hair are received from one’s parents, paying respects to the relics was equivalent to the Emperor and Empress offering themselves to Buddha. Her mother, not being her father’s principal wife, didn’t have the privilege to enter the pagoda, so she waited outside with her.

Her father and Empress Zheng stayed in the pagoda for a long time. She became a bit anxious, and as children are naturally playful, her mother took her to plant a bodhi tree beside the pagoda.

At that time, the bodhi tree was just a small sapling, shorter than she was. Cui Xun said, “I told the Empress Dowager that the bodhi tree planted by Princess Yong’an has now grown tall and spread like a canopy. Wouldn’t the Empress Dowager want to see it?”

He continued slowly: “After hearing this, the Empress Dowager was too choked with emotion to speak. Later, she decided to go to Famen Temple early tomorrow.”

Li Ying’s eyes also reddened quietly. She murmured: “Mother…”

So Mother truly had never forgotten her.

She lowered her head, quickly wiping away her tears: “This is the last time.”

“Hmm?”

“I hope this is the last time Mother thinks of me,” she said softly. “From now on, I hope she forgets me. I don’t want her to dwell in the past.”

But Cui Xun said, “I think the Empress Dowager will never forget the Princess.”

Li Ying looked at him, hoping he would elaborate, but Cui Xun didn’t. He only said to Li Ying, “Let’s go back. Tomorrow, the Princess will see the Empress Dowager.”

Li Ying nodded. She walked silently alongside Cui Xun, their figures gradually leaving Daming Palace.

The next morning, a palanquin quietly left through Danfeng Gate.

The Empress Dowager didn’t want to make this trip too high-profile, so she brought few attendants. Cui Xun rode on horseback beside the palanquin. The small entourage arrived at Famen Temple. Today, the sky was clear, the sun bright, and the breeze gentle. The abbot of Famen Temple and others respectfully welcomed them at the temple gate. The Empress Dowager alighted from the palanquin and went directly to the pagoda.

Just as Cui Xun had said, the bodhi tree planted by Li Ying had indeed grown tall and spread like a canopy.

The Empress Dowager stroked the sturdy, solid trunk. The bark of the bodhi tree had already grown wrinkled, showing the traces of years: “This tree has been planted for forty-one years.”

Cui Xun, accompanying the Empress Dowager, said: “The Empress Dowager has an excellent memory. It has indeed been forty-one years.”

“It’s not that my memory is good, but that a mother always remembers every little detail about her children.”

She looked up at the lush bodhi tree, which had grown to a height of seven to eight zhang. Recalling when Li Ying planted it, the tree was not even as high as Li Ying’s knees. “When planting the tree, I never thought Ming Yuezhu would leave me so early.”

Upon hearing this, Cui Xun couldn’t help but look toward Li Ying, who had already arrived. Li Ying stood behind the Imperial Guards. Dozens of fully armed Imperial Guards surrounded the Empress Dowager, also isolating her daughter outside. The Imperial Guards were sturdy and robust; her daughter couldn’t even see their faces.

Through the gaps between the Imperial Guards’ shoulders, Cui Xun seemed to see the grief in Li Ying’s eyes. He silently withdrew his gaze and said to the Empress Dowager: “Princess Yong’an would surely wish to always be by the Empress Dowager’s side.”

The Empress Dowager murmured, “Yes, Ming Yuezhu was most attached to me. When she was little, she even said she didn’t want to marry but wanted to stay with me and her father, for our family to be together forever.”

As she spoke, her eyes gradually moistened: “Ming Yuezhu was so sensible and good. Why did such a thing happen to her? Why, why did it have to be my Ming Yuezhu?”

Cui Xun remained silent for a long time, then said: “The Empress Dowager should take care in her grief.”

“I’m tired of hearing those words of condolence.” The Empress Dowager smiled bitterly: “Enough. You never had Ming Yuezhu, so naturally, you don’t know how wonderful she was. Therefore, you can never understand how I feel about losing her.”

Cui Xun pursed his lips and lowered his head: “The Empress Dowager should take care in her grief.”

The Empress Dowager seemed to grow weary:

“Wangshu, please withdraw for now. I want to be alone for a while.”

Cui Xun nodded. As he withdrew, he glanced at Li Ying, then waved his hand, ordering the Imperial Guards to step back several zhang, making space for Li Ying.

As soon as space was made, Li Ying flew like the wind to the Empress Dowager’s side. Perhaps because the Empress Dowager was still unwell, she was exhausted and sat on the ground in front of the tree. Using her palm, she measured from the tree root to the trunk. When she measured to the height of ten palms, she smiled and said: “That’s right, this was how tall the tree was when Ming Yuezhu planted it.”

Li Ying’s eyes were already red. Though the Empress Dowager couldn’t hear her, she still lightened her footsteps. She knelt before the Empress Dowager, tears flowing down her face.

She looked up at the Empress Dowager, a lump in her throat. She wanted to say many things, to tell her how much she missed her, how she had thought of her every moment these thirty years. But in the end, she just looked at the white hair at the Empress Dowager’s temples and said with tears and a smile: “Mother, you have white hair now.”

The Empress Dowager couldn’t see or hear her. She continued measuring with her palm, murmuring: “When the tree was planted, it was only this high, not even reaching Ming Yuezhu’s knees.”

Li Ying was weeping uncontrollably. She wanted to hold her mother’s hand, just as she had when she was little, but her hand passed through the Empress Dowager’s palm. She couldn’t touch the Empress Dowager at all.

Li Ying hesitated. At this moment, she realized more deeply that she was already dead. She was a ghost. She could never accompany her mother again.

Li Ying was heartbroken to the extreme. She called out desperately: “Mother… Mother…”

“Ming Yuezhu misses you so much…”

“Mother…”

The Empress Dowager gently stroked the tree trunk, as if stroking the trunk was like stroking Li Ying’s tender palm when she was five. Perhaps it was the connection between mother and daughter; she suddenly said softly, “Ming Yuezhu, do you miss Mother very much?”

“Mother misses you, too.”

“You were so sensible and thoughtful. When Mother had headaches, you studied medicine and made sachets to relieve the pain. When Mother was at odds with the Empress, you learned the art of tea to brew tea for Mother, to bring a smile to Mother’s face. But with such a thoughtful heart, how could you bear to leave Mother behind?”

“Ming Yuezhu, Mother’s heart is breaking. You’ve torn Mother’s heart and intestines apart with pain.”

“Ming Yuezhu, my daughter, Ming Yuezhu…”

The Empress Dowager of the Great Zhou, at Famen Temple, stroked the bodhi tree trunk and wept bitterly, mourning her daughter who had died young. And her daughter’s soul, kneeling before her, also covered her face and wept.

From a distance, Cui Xun watched all of this with pursed lips. Mother and daughter, longing for each other but separated by life and death, never to meet again. At this moment, they were not the high and mighty Empress Dowager and Princess of the Great Zhou, but merely a mother who had lost her child and a daughter who missed her mother. In Cui Xun’s eyes flashed a trace of emotion that was barely perceptible, but this emotion lasted only an instant. He slowly closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his gaze had returned to its usual coolness and indifference.