Since all the officials deferred to the Empress Dowager and His Majesty’s judgment, the Empress Dowager naturally made her conclusion: “Minister Cui, do not be disheartened. His Majesty and I will certainly see justice done for you.”
To say she would see justice done for him implied that Cui Xun was innocent and had been wrongfully accused by others.
Seeing the situation reversed, Cui Xun did not stop while ahead but instead kowtowed again, saying, “My old bow was confiscated by the Dali Temple and should have been strictly guarded, yet it was used to frame me. Moreover, even the coroner at the Dali Temple was bribed to falsely identify a woman’s skull as a man’s. Your Highness and Your Majesty have witnessed all these things with your own eyes. If this case remains with the Dali Temple, how can justice be done for me? I humbly request that this case be transferred to the Investigation Office. I will handle it impartially and fairly.”
Jin Ni, Pei Guanyue, and Lu Yumin simultaneously blurted out, “No!”
Everyone looked at the three of them with puzzled expressions. Lu Yumin’s face stiffened as he tried to cover himself, saying, “What if Junior Minister Cui seeks personal revenge?”
Cui Xun smiled lightly. “All the court officials can supervise. If I show even the slightest personal bias in this case, they may submit a memorial, and I will accept death without complaint.”
With these words, Cui Xun had staked his life on the matter. Cui Songqing lowered his eyes and said, “Your Highness, Your Majesty, the escort convoy was the responsibility of the Dali Temple, the steel-core bow was guarded by the Dali Temple, and the coroner belonged to the Dali Temple. All three important duties went wrong, which shows that the Dali Temple can no longer be trusted. It would be better to transfer the case to the Investigation Office.”
The Empress Dowager looked at Lu Huai, who appeared utterly dejected. This Junior Minister of the Dali Temple, who had been in office for only a few months, had now lost all face and reputation. The Empress Dowager slowly asked, “Minister Lu, do you have any objections?”
Lu Huai glanced at Lu Yumin, his face filled with grief and shame. He said, “I am guilty of dereliction of duty and dare not object.”
The Empress Dowager nodded and then asked the Longxing Emperor, “Your Majesty, since Cui Xun has guaranteed he will not seek personal revenge, shall we entrust both this case and Jin Ni to him?”
The Longxing Emperor was naturally extremely reluctant. Aside from his hatred for Cui Xun, there was also Consort Hui’s identity, which he feared Jin Ni might reveal under questioning. But with the Dali Temple having made such a grave error, he couldn’t find a reason to oppose the Empress Dowager. So he reluctantly agreed, “Your Highness speaks wisely. Let Minister Cui handle it.”
Outside the Cui residence, all the guards had been withdrawn, and the mute servants had returned.
Seeing this, Li Ying knew that Cui Xun had safely passed this crisis. She immediately felt relieved. However, Cui Xun didn’t return to his residence; instead, Yu Fuwei came looking for her.
After climbing over the wall to call her out, Yu Fuwei told her what had happened at the Dali Temple’s court: “Lu Huai has lost his spirit. Such great humiliation—he fell ill as soon as he left the Dali Temple.”
Li Ying thought for a moment and said, “He’s not a bad person at heart, and he’s straightforward. It must be hard for him to accept that the Dali Temple under his jurisdiction had essentially become Pei Guanyue’s private prison.”
“The Investigation Office has already sent people to arrest Ouyang Yan, Feng Hu, and Han Lin. Once they’re in custody, Pei Guanyue won’t be able to escape either.”
Li Ying said, “Pei Guanyue went too far. If he hadn’t tried to harm Cui Xun, Cui Xun wouldn’t have had this opportunity to turn the tables.”
“I heard that the Empress Dowager and His Majesty summoned Cui Xun to Daming Palace and rewarded him with a considerable amount of money and silk to compensate for the month of unjust treatment. Besides that, they also gave him full authority over the case of his false accusation, and Jin Ni has been transferred to the Investigation Office for detention.”
Li Ying nodded. “That’s as it should be.”
As they spoke, they had reached the outside of Zhuque Gate. They saw a four-horse carriage slowly emerging from the palace gates. The carriage was luxurious, made of rosewood with precious jade inlays. Even the wheels were decorated with intricate patterns. Li Ying and Yu Fuwei stood with the commoners by the stone road to watch. Li Ying heard people whispering: “That’s the carriage bestowed upon Cui Xun by the Empress Dowager and His Majesty. Originally, as a fourth-rank official, he could only use a three-horse carriage, but this time the Empress Dowager and His Majesty have shown special favor by allowing him to use a four-horse carriage.”
Others remarked with sighs, “His arrogance will likely grow even more now.”
Inside the spacious carriage, Cui Xun heard the gossip but ignored it all. He was carefully weaving a green grasshopper out of palm leaves, his fingers flying. Soon, a grasshopper was finished. He quietly looked at the grasshopper in his palm, then clenched it, flicked his fingers, and lifted the carriage curtain.
The commoners who had been discussing Cui Xun saw the curtain slowly rise, revealing a young nobleman half-hidden behind it. His eyebrows were like ink paintings, his skin like cold jade, and his almond eyes were strikingly beautiful as he gazed steadily at the crowd. Everyone fell silent in awe. Some young women, seeing this flattering official’s radiant face for the first time, felt their hearts racing and blushed. When they looked again shyly, they saw the crimson-robed nobleman suddenly smile slightly in a certain direction. This smile was more enchanting than all the spring flowers, causing several young women’s hearts to skip a beat. But the nobleman only smiled in one direction, then extended his wrist out the side window, opened his palm, and let the wind carry away the green object in his hand.
The green object was blown into the air by the south wind, floating gently for quite a while before finally falling when the wind stopped.
Yu Fuwei happened to be standing below and instinctively caught the green object for Li Ying. When he opened his palm, he found it was a grasshopper woven from palm leaves.
Cui Xun’s carriage had already gone far, and the crowd had mostly dispersed. Yu Fuwei looked at Li Ying in confusion. “A grasshopper?”
Li Ying looked at the lifelike grass grasshopper and smiled. She gazed in the direction the carriage had gone. “He probably won’t be coming back for the next few days.”
“Hmm?”
“He needs to handle Pei Guanyue and Jin Ni’s case. This matter can’t go wrong, so he’ll stay directly at the Investigation Office. Therefore, he won’t be coming back for a while.”
Yu Fuwei felt indignant on Li Ying’s behalf. “Princess has helped him so much. Shouldn’t he come to thank the Princess?”
“Who says he hasn’t thanked me?” Li Ying took the grasshopper from Yu Fuwei’s palm and smiled. “This is his way of saying thank you.”
Cui Xun went directly from Daming Palace to the Investigation Office. He had already arranged for spies in Suzhou to capture Ouyang Yan, Feng Hu, and Han Lin. He said to Liu Jiu, “Pei Guanyue is cornered and will certainly send people to kill those three to silence them. Go to Suzhou yourself and make sure they are safely escorted back.”
“Yes, sir.”
After Liu Jiu bowed and hurriedly left, Cui Xun addressed the other guards: “Keep a close watch on coroner Lin San’s family. Don’t let Pei Guanyue have a chance to use his family to threaten him.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Make sure all the jailers guarding Jin Ni have been thoroughly investigated. We can’t have another incident like Wang Ranxi’s. Otherwise, I’ll hold you accountable.”
“Yes, sir.”
Cui Xun meticulously arranged all matters, big and small. Finally, a guard asked, “Junior Minister, Jin Ni has been imprisoned. Will you go to interrogate him?”
Cui Xun said, “There’s no hurry.”
“Then will you interrogate Jin Ni when you have time?”
“There’s no need to wait until I have time.” Cui Xun said lazily, “The Investigation Office has eighty-one types of torture. Feel free to use them all on him, just keep him alive.”
The guard was stunned. He tentatively asked, “Junior Minister, what should we question him about during torture?”
Cui Xun shook his head. The guard didn’t quite understand—torture Jin Ni without questioning him? Cui Xun seemed to perceive the guard’s confusion. His lips curved into a mocking smile, though his eyes were cold as frost and snow. After a long while, he finally said slowly, “We need to collect some interest, don’t we?”
The first to confess was the Dali Temple coroner, Lin San.
Lin San admitted that Pei Guanyue had given him one hundred gold pieces and instructed him to insist that whatever he found was Guo Qinwei’s head, severed by the bowstring of Cui Xun’s steel-core bow.
The second to confess was the clerk who had guarded the steel-core bow. He also admitted that, under pressure from Pei Guanyue’s authority, he had smuggled the bow from the Dali Temple to Pei Guanyue’s residence and then returned it afterward. However, he claimed he didn’t know what Pei Guanyue intended to do with it.
But it didn’t matter—his testimony alone was sufficient.
During Cui Xun’s investigation, he was repeatedly cautioned about “discretion.” First, the Empress Dowager warned him to investigate only Jin Ni’s false accusation without involving other matters, reminding him to exercise discretion. Cui Xun, adept at discerning the Empress Dowager’s thoughts, knew she meant he shouldn’t bring up the destruction of the Tianwei Army. That incident had occurred six years ago, and the people had long considered the Tianwei Army the main culprit for the loss of cities and territories. The Empress Dowager was unwilling to risk public outrage by reinvestigating this case with an uncertain outcome.
Besides the Empress Dowager, his uncle Cui Songqing also advised him to exercise discretion. Cui Songqing spoke plainly: “Jin Ni was the Captain of the Hundred Riders in the Late Emperor’s reign and holds many officials’ secrets. But some secrets should rot in Jin Ni’s stomach rather than cause new waves.”
Cui Xun smiled ambiguously. “Uncle, your words make me suspect that Jin Ni might hold some of your secrets as well.”
Cui Songqing was momentarily stunned, then became furious, saying sternly, “Cui Xun, Great Zhou governs the world through filial piety. Is this how you treat your closest relative?”
Cui Xun carefully observed his expression. Cui Songqing’s demeanor seemed to suggest embarrassed anger.
After a moment, Cui Xun lowered his eyes and said blandly, “I wouldn’t dare. I will exercise discretion.”
However, although he had promised both the Empress Dowager and Cui Songqing that he would be discreet, he had no intention of heeding either of them.
If he were to abandon the truth he had long sought because of power and filial piety, he would no longer be Cui Xun.
He could be ruthless if needed, he could be sinister and cunning if needed, and he could also pretend to comply while secretly defying if needed.
Ten days later, Cui Xun finally went to the prison to interrogate Jin Ni.
He watched dispassionately as the guards subjected Jin Ni to the combing torture. After the punishment, Jin Ni, on the torture rack, was covered in blood. Jin Ni moaned in agony, now filled with regret—first for preventing Ashina Wuduo from killing Cui Xun in Turkic territory, second for agreeing to Pei Guanyue’s scheme, and third for not committing suicide earlier, which had led to his current state of being unable to live or die.
Terrified, he looked at Cui Xun, who sat in the center wrapped in a black crane-patterned cloak, and begged, “Please, kill me… just kill me…”
“You can’t take it anymore?” Cui Xun’s frame under the crane cloak was thin to the point of being gaunt. He played with the flower-patterned teacup in his hand, his jade-white wrists bearing deep, bone-deep scars. He smiled lightly. “Jin Ni, you sent out Night Owls to capture me five times. The torture I endured was a hundred, a thousand times what you’re experiencing now. Do you think I would let you die easily?”
Jin Ni trembled with fear. He had captured Cui Xun five times, so Cui Xun deliberately tortured him for ten days, returning double. The man’s cruelty was evident. Moreover, Jin Ni had damaged his reputation and collaborated with Pei Guanyue to accuse him of treason. How could Cui Xun let the matter rest?
Jin Ni was so frightened that tears streamed down his face. “I was possessed by madness. I have wronged Junior Minister Cui. I only ask for a quick death…”
Cui Xun took a sip of clear tea from the flower-patterned cup, then set it down and said leisurely, “You want to die? It won’t be that easy.”
Jin Ni was utterly desperate. Ten consecutive days of torture had completely broken his psychological defenses. During these ten days, he had almost wished for Cui Xun to come interrogate him, as that would at least give him something to hope for. But now it seemed Cui Xun didn’t intend to get anything from him and simply wanted revenge. Being subjected to cruel torture, unable to die, forced to suffer day after day—how could he not break down?
He wept profusely. “No, I know many things. I’ll tell everything, confess everything. I only beg Junior Minister Cui to show mercy and spare me… spare me…”