Before Cui Xun could answer, Li Ying wiped her tears and said, “You’ll tell me it doesn’t hurt, but you’re human too. How could it not hurt?”
The wound on Cui Xun’s back had already stained his middle garment red with blood. His face, usually as radiant as sunset clouds, looked particularly pale from the significant blood loss. His brow was slightly tense from the pain. Though he tried his best to endure the pain, his chest heaved slightly, and despite his frost-cold eyes, he couldn’t help but be moved.
For six years, he had crawled out from mountains of corpses and seas of blood, walking the path of Asura, doing the deeds of evil spirits—calculating against others and himself. Old wounds had been joined by new ones, too numerous to count. But never had anyone asked him if he was in pain.
He had never asked himself either if he was in pain.
Because the evil spirits on the path of Asura do not feel pain.
But when the beautiful young woman asked him through her sobs if he was in pain, he suddenly realized that he was, in fact, human, not a ghost.
He stared at Li Ying. The chamber doors and windows were tightly closed, and the light was dim. The not-yet-extinguished candle flame illuminated Li Ying’s tear-stained face, casting a soft halo around her silhouette. Cui Xun couldn’t help but think of last night’s moonlight, crystal-clear as jade, spilling over the blue stone bricks.
In the still night before returning, there was only a river of bright moon, like jade crystal.
His throat moved dryly, and three words almost escaped his lips:
Bright, Moon, Pearl.
But those three words remained unspoken.
He suddenly let out a long sigh, then fastened his middle garment. Li Ying was now hiccupping with sobs. Cui Xun took a handkerchief from the sandalwood table and handed it to her.
She pushed his hand away. Cui Xun asked softly, “Are you angry?”
Li Ying nodded and sobbed, “I’m angry at you, angry at myself, angry at everything.”
She cried until her eyes were rimmed with red. Cui Xun looked at her and smiled slightly. He said slowly, “When leaving Danfeng Gate and returning to Xuanyang District, you’ll pass a pastry shop called Fumantang.”
Li Ying didn’t understand why he suddenly mentioned a pastry shop. She looked up in confusion through her tears, her shoulders still hitching with sobs, a crystal tear hanging from the tip of her upturned nose. Cui Xun continued, “Fumantang’s sugar frosting is the most famous in Chang’an.”
“Sugar frosting…” Li Ying murmured.
Cui Xun braced his palm against the floor and straightened up. He put on his outer robe: “I’ll buy some for you when I return.”
Li Ying was taken aback. She stared blankly at Cui Xun’s back until he left the chamber, closed the lattice door, and disappeared from her sight. Only then did she suddenly seem to remember something. She rummaged through the peony-patterned five-colored embroidered sachet hanging from her belt and finally pulled out a piece of amber-colored sugar frosting.
In Penglai Palace, the incense used to relieve headaches was no longer burning in the phoenix-headed censer. Instead, it had been replaced with white sandalwood incense to calm the mind. Behind the pearl curtain, the Empress Dowager’s complexion was much better than before. She coldly watched Cui Xun prostrating himself on the ebony floor. Her gaze swept over his blood-soaked back robe. After half an incense stick’s time, she finally spoke: “You may rise.”
Cui Xun’s forehead was already beaded with cold sweat. He endured the pain and said, “Thank you, Empress Dowager.”
After rising, his knees ached terribly, as if thousands of fine needles were pricking them. His legs staggered, and his body swayed slightly before he barely managed to stand firm.
The Empress Dowager’s eyes remained cold. She spoke indifferently: “Your lash wounds haven’t healed, yet you went to the ghost market to investigate the cat ghost case. Cui Xun, should I praise your commendable loyalty?”
Cui Xun’s face was as white as paper. The pain in his back and knees was unbearable. Cold sweat streamed down, and his usually radiant features looked haggard from the torment of pain. He bowed his head: “My life was saved by the Empress Dowager, so naturally, my loyalty to the Empress Dowager is unwavering.”
“Oh?” The Empress Dowager gave a scornful laugh. “That I truly haven’t seen.”
Hearing this, Cui Xun pursed his lips, then prostrated himself again, his head bowed low: “Investigating people close to the Empress Dowager without permission was my fault. I have no defense and submit to the Empress Dowager’s punishment.”
“I have already punished you,” the Empress Dowager said, looking at the blood-soaked figure kneeling beyond the pearl curtain. “Today I just want to hear what you were thinking.”
Cui Xun gritted his teeth and kept his head lowered. The arms supporting his body began to tremble slightly. After a moment, he said, “Six years ago, the Tianwei Army was destroyed at Luoyan Ridge. General Guo, to preserve his honor, committed suicide. The rest of the Tianwei soldiers all died fighting bravely.”
As he spoke, his voice began to tremble slightly. The Empress Dowager remained silent. Cui Xun kowtowed: “I regarded General Guo as my father and the Tianwei soldiers as my brothers. I want to clear their names!”
His eyes grew hot, and his throat choked slightly. He said no more, only kowtowing heavily once more. The Empress Dowager remained silent for a long while before saying, “Cui Xun, when I rescued you from the Dali Temple prison, I told you that the evidence against the Tianwei Army was irrefutable. Moreover, the six prefectures of the Guannei Circuit remain under the iron hooves of the Tujue—a great humiliation that has aroused tremendous public anger. The people need an outlet, and whoever tries to overturn the Tianwei Army case will face universal condemnation. So this case cannot be overturned. Why are you so persistent?”
Cui Xun’s clothes stuck to the bloody wounds on his back. The slightest movement pulled at the wounds, causing excruciating pain. His eyes looked lost as he murmured, “I just feel that they shouldn’t have ended like this.”
The Empress Dowager behind the pearl curtain looked at his emaciated figure. She remained silent for a long time. Only when the sandalwood incense had burned out did she finally speak: “So, you intended to use the Bright Moon Pearl matter to coerce me into overturning the Tianwei Army case?”
Cui Xun’s clothes were almost soaked through with cold sweat. Each breath he took was accompanied by a slight gasping sound, as if he was trying his best to control his pain: “I disturbed the Princess’s rest after death and deserve ten thousand deaths. But in my nightmares, I constantly revisit the battle at Luoyan Ridge. That’s why I was momentarily audacious. I request the Empress Dowager’s punishment.”
The Empress Dowager’s palm still held the grape flower-and-bird patterned openwork gold fragrance sachet made by Li Ying. Looking at Cui Xun’s trembling figure, a trace of pity finally crossed her eyes. She gripped the sachet tightly and said, enunciating each word: “Cui Xun, you are forbidden from touching the Bright Moon Pearl again.”
Cui Xun knelt on the ground, cold sweat dripping one by one onto the ebony floor. The Empress Dowager continued, “There must not be a second time.”
With these words, Cui Xun knew he had safely passed the ordeal. He touched his forehead to the ground: “Thank you, Empress Dowager.”
“You will take full charge of the cat ghost case. Princes and nobles alike may be arrested first and questioned afterward. There is no need to report to me.”
“Yes.”
“Imperial robes in the palace would not be stolen casually.” A hint of deep, unresolvable sorrow appeared in the Empress Dowager’s eyes. “Go and investigate thoroughly who wants to harm me. I hope it isn’t him…”
Cui Xun pursed his lips and kowtowed: “I will.”
After Cui Xun entered the palace, it took Li Ying quite a while to gradually stop sobbing. She put the sugar frosting from her palm into her mouth. The sweetness temporarily diminished the bitterness in her heart, but seeing the bloodstained dagger on the sandalwood table, she still couldn’t help feeling aggrieved. He cared so little for his own body; she wouldn’t care about him anymore either.
He said he would buy her sugar frosting. She didn’t want his sugar frosting. She didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore.
The sugar frosting in her mouth gradually dissolved completely. Li Ying wiped her tears and rose to return to the study. When she had been searching for Wang Ranxi after she was injured, she had stayed in Cui Xun’s study. When Cui Xun was injured, she stayed in the study again to better care for him. After she moved into the study, Cui Xun had moved almost everything to his bedchamber, including the ebony bookshelf full of secrets. So this study had become like her own little world.
Li Ying knelt in front of the zither table in the study. On the table was a vase of arranged begonia flowers. Sunlight streamed through the open lattice window, falling upon the begonias. Watching the pale pink flowers in the warm sunlight, Li Ying’s mood seemed to improve considerably.
Her fingers lightly touched the begonia’s stamen, but her eyes unconsciously glanced outside. Cui Xun had been in the palace for almost an hour. When would he return?
Just as she thought this, she paused again. Hadn’t she said she didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore? Why should she care when he would return?
She shook her head in annoyance. She wouldn’t pay attention to him or care for him anymore. If he wanted to abuse his body, let him do so. After all, she wasn’t the one feeling the pain.
Despite thinking this, when she heard footsteps at the threshold, she involuntarily rose and walked outside.
But it wasn’t Cui Xun who had arrived, but a Chang’an flower vendor.
The mute servant was with the flower vendor, who carried a basket full of freshly picked pale yellow winter jasmine. He kept apologizing to the mute servant: “I’m sorry, I’ve been busy at home these past few days, so I couldn’t deliver the flowers.”
The mute servant wasn’t upset. He took the basket, pointed to the begonia tree in the courtyard, and made some gestures. The flower vendor smiled and said, “You’ve cut some begonia branches, I see. Begonias look nice in the room, too.”
The mute servant nodded with a smile. The flower vendor said, “But begonias only bloom in spring. If you want flowers in the room all year round, you should buy some other flower branches too.”
The mute servant handed a few copper coins to the flower vendor, who took them and asked curiously, “But how did Deputy Commissioner Cui suddenly take an interest in flower arrangement? I’ve never heard of him asking any flower vendor to deliver flowers before.”
The mute servant shook his head. The flower vendor asked, “Deputy Commissioner Cui doesn’t like flowers?”
The mute servant nodded. The flower vendor was confused: “He buys flowers even though he doesn’t like them?”
But the mute servant didn’t explain further. He politely saw the vendor off, then carried the flower basket into the courtyard.
In the courtyard, Li Ying watched the muttering flower vendor walk away. The vendor didn’t understand, but she did.
When she was injured and staying in the study, there were fresh flowers in the study every day—sometimes winter jasmine, sometimes azalea, sometimes white magnolia. But Cui Xun’s courtyard only had begonias planted, and those few begonia trees weren’t blooming at the time.
He didn’t like flowers and had never placed fresh flowers in his chamber. For whom these fresh flowers were bought was self-evident.
A winter jasmine flower fell from the mute servant’s basket. The mute servant didn’t notice and continued walking forward without looking back. Behind him, Li Ying crouched down and picked up the pale yellow winter jasmine.
The winter jasmine flower was exquisite and vibrant. Li Ying brought it to her nose and sniffed lightly. The fragrance was aromatic and elegant. Holding the winter jasmine, her gaze unconsciously turned toward the door.
It wasn’t until dusk that Cui Xun returned to Xuanyang District from Daming Palace. He sat upright in the carriage, the wound on his back torn open, with congealed blood stuck to his clothes. The slightest movement caused piercing pain. He closed his eyes, his expression calm, though his pale face still betrayed his unbearable pain.
When the carriage was almost at the Cui mansion, he alighted and let the driver return to the Investigation Bureau. He walked on the road himself. The gently cooling breeze seemed to clear his mind, which had been muddled by pain. He carefully considered the cat ghost case. The Empress Dowager was right—imperial robes would not be casually stolen from the palace. So someone must have stolen them.
And this person must be of no low status. Otherwise, how could they steal the Empress Dowager’s old clothes from the heavily guarded palace?
Then how did this person find Jiang Liang?
As Cui Xun pondered these questions, he unwittingly arrived at the entrance of the Cui mansion. The entrance was empty, as usual. It had always been a deserted place that people avoided if they could. Cui Xun was long accustomed to this.
But his footsteps suddenly halted.
Because on the steps at the entrance sat a graceful young lady.
The young lady saw him, raised her face, and smiled radiantly: “Cui Xun, you’re back?”
She paused, then said, “I was waiting for you… for your sugar frosting.”