Lu Ying was naturally more concerned about her father’s health than Wei Caiwei was.
At the Embroidered Uniform Guard office, Lu Ying first inquired about her father’s health, “…Dr. Wei said Father absolutely cannot touch alcohol—if you drink, even immortals cannot save you.”
“I know,” Lu Bing said. “Last month at your younger brother and Miss Wu’s engagement banquet I didn’t drink alcohol, substituting with fruit juice instead. Don’t worry, I still want to live to see your brother marry, hold grandchildren, and if I could see you marry and have children I’d—”
“Stop.” Lu Ying interrupted. “How is it that no matter what I discuss with Father, it always leads to my marriage? Right now we’re talking about Father quitting alcohol.”
Lu Bing pointed at her dark circles under her eyes. “You stayed up late again last night? Not coming home at night, sleeping at a widow’s house—a single man and woman alone, how improper is that?”
Lu Ying said, “Wang Daxia was there too. We took turns on night watch.” Only they had fought in the second half of the night.
Hearing this, Lu Bing felt his stroke might recur. “Two women and one man is even more outrageous. You and Wang Daxia can put on an act if needed, but don’t let fake become real. After New Year, I’ll find several good families for you.”
Lu Ying didn’t want to discuss this with her father. She took out the document requesting five hundred taels in reward money. “Father, stamp it with the official seal.”
Lu Bing looked at it and saw it concerned Wang Daxia again. “You spoil him too much. Whatever he says goes—have you forgotten the subordinate management techniques I taught you? You must use both kindness and authority. You always satisfy all his requests, only showing kindness—where’s your superior’s dignity?”
Lu Ying said, “This is what he deserves. He drank wind and sand for a month waiting like a hunter, and even sacrificed his appearance to play a loose woman. Besides, he’s a person, not a dog—why treat a person like training a donkey, dangling an unreachable carrot in front of him? He’s human, not a donkey.”
Lu Bing studied Lu Ying closely. “You haven’t really fallen for him, have you… Actually, if you’ve truly set your heart on him, your father here… it’s not impossible.”
Like all parents worldwide facing a daughter who refuses to marry, Lu Bing lowered his standards. As long as his daughter would marry, his requirements for a son-in-law kept dropping until they reached the point where being male was sufficient.
“Father has truly become obsessed—there’s no reasoning with you.” Lu Ying simply picked up her father’s seal and stamped it firmly on the document. “Thank you, Father.”
Lu Ying took the stamped document to collect the silver from the treasury. Lu Bing called after her again, “Something happened at Prince Yu’s mansion last night…”
Lu Bing told Lu Ying about the night patrol guards seeing the black specter, and handed her a stack of talismans. “These were personally drawn by Immortal Lan—you can’t even buy them. The emperor gave them to me. Carry them with you to ward off evil spirits.”
Having seen moving mooncakes last night without fear, cutting the mooncake in half with one slash, Lu Ying wouldn’t believe in talisman superstitions. She touched her saber. “No need, I trust my blade more.”
Lu Bing insisted on giving his daughter the talismans. “Either take them or give me back the reward document.”
This was Wang Daxia’s birthday gift. Lu Ying had no choice but to pocket the talismans.
Lu Ying went to the treasury to collect five hundred taels in banknotes, then at noon met with someone—Wu Xiaoqi disguised as a house painter.
The two met at a Korean barbecue restaurant near Prince Yu’s mansion, where marinated mutton slices sizzled with oil on round iron-rod grilling plates.
Wu Xiaoqi quickly moved the mutton slices on the grill with chopsticks, saying, “…Absolutely true, this subordinate slept alertly. Hearing the guards’ screams outside, I went out and saw green light in dog form in the snowy night from afar—it truly matched the legendary appearance of black specters.”
“This subordinate doesn’t believe in evil, so I went to the neighboring work shed to check on several White Deer Temple Taoists disguised as brick carriers. Two people weren’t there. I waited about a quarter-hour before they returned, claiming they’d gone to the toilet together.”
“Commander Lu, this doesn’t make sense. In this deep winter, squatting that long would freeze your buttocks off. This subordinate thinks those stinking Taoists are playing tricks to frighten Prince Yu.”
After saying these few sentences, the mutton slices on the grill were cooked. Wu Xiaoqi had been doing heavy labor recently and couldn’t afford politeness before his superior, eating the meat in large bites.
Lu Ying thought about last month when Shang Zhaoyi encountered black specters, palace servants inhaled black demonic energy, resulting in four injuries and one death.
Black specters weren’t frightening—black demonic energy was. Light cases caused fainting and madness; severe cases were fatal.
What was the connection between the black specters in the Forbidden City and Prince Yu’s mansion?
Lan Daoxing never participated in succession struggles—what relationship did he have with the stinking Taoists of White Deer Temple?
Lu Ying asked, “Is Prince Yu at the mansion today?”
Wu Xiaoqi said, “He left early morning for Guanghua Temple to perform rituals—today is the death anniversary of the mansion’s eldest miss.”
Originally, a prince’s daughter should be enfeoffed as a princess, but Prince Yu’s poor relationship with the emperor meant the Imperial Clan Court and Ministry of Rites delayed approving the eldest princess’s enfeoffment. After the eldest daughter died young, Prince Yu requested posthumous enfeoffment as princess to bury his beloved daughter with princess rites, but Emperor Jiajing refused. In the end, she was buried with only half the ceremonial standards of a princess, so the eldest daughter remained only “eldest miss” even in death, never becoming “eldest princess.” The father-son relationship became even more strained.
Lu Ying thought: Guanghua Temple is right at Shichahai, very close to our family’s separate residence. Should I arrange a chance encounter with Prince Yu? Hint to him that someone is playing supernatural tricks?
Lu Ying paid the bill and bought an extra ten catties of barbecued meat. “Take this back to share with the brothers at Prince Yu’s mansion for extra dishes. Keep a close watch tonight.”
Princess Yu was stingy. The craftsmen could eat their fill, but there was little oil or fat—they’d be hungry by midnight.
Lu Ying continued, “If those stinking Taoists are really behind this, that black specter must be man-made. The mansion is full of old, broken-down buildings with too many hiding places. Take our hounds, smear them with mud to make them dirty, and lead them into the mansion as stray dogs. If the black specter appears tonight, take the hounds to chase it. People fear monsters, but dogs don’t.”
Wu Xiaoqi acknowledged all instructions.
After finishing her deployment, Lu Ying hurried toward Shichahai.
Meanwhile, at Shichahai’s Guanghua Temple.
As mentioned before, because Emperor Jiajing promoted Taoism while suppressing Buddhism, the former imperial temple had long fallen into decay, forced to rent out parts of its temple property to create income and barely maintain incense offerings.
The rear courtyard by Shichahai had been converted into a large restaurant where cups clinked daily in wine and meat indulgence, transforming the pure Buddhist ground into worldly red dust.
Wang Daxia was celebrating his birthday. This restless fellow couldn’t sit still at home, so he brought Wei Caiwei to Shichahai for ice sports. With his injured thigh preventing skating, he rented a sheep cart—the two sat in a sled pulled by five sheep, gliding across Shichahai’s ice surface.
After playing enough, they went to Guanghua Temple’s restaurant for lunch.
Wang Daxia got off the sheep cart, supporting himself with a crutch—the same crutch he’d personally made as a gift for Wei Caiwei, which Ding Wu had also used, and now he was using himself. It was being put to full use.
Wang Daxia hobbled into the restaurant with his crutch. “This place has the best Korean barbecue—I can eat five plates at most.”
Wei Caiwei jingled her bulging money pouch. “Birthday boy, eat freely—I’m treating. I’ve made it big now, no longer a traveling doctor going door to door. You can’t eat me poor—I can afford to keep you.”
Wang Daxia laughed, “Then I’d become a kept man.”
In the previous life you were indeed a kept man. Two lifetimes of being kept—Eunuch Wang and Wang Daxia gradually merged. Wei Caiwei also smiled, “I’m happy to keep you.”
Entering the main hall, a strong cilantro smell hit them—Korean barbecue marinade all contained cilantro, nearly knocking over Wang Daxia who most hated cilantro. He quickly told the server, “I want a private room with windows, fresh-marinated meat without cilantro—I can’t stand that smell.”
The server said, “We have warm pavilions in the rear courtyard—one table per pavilion, absolutely no mixed flavors.”
So the two followed the server to a warm pavilion. Next door, Buddhist chanting from Guanghua Temple reached their ears, as if performing last rites for the barbecued meat.
The first plate of meat slices was grilled. Wang Daxia buried his head eating meat while several people passed by the warm pavilion. Wei Caiwei glanced casually: incredible! Isn’t that the emperor—no, Prince Yu?
Prince Yu had also come to eat at another warm pavilion. He wore ordinary clothes like a regular young master, accompanied by Eunuch Li Fang and three guards.
The grand Ming prince had no pageantry, no ceremonial procession, not even a proper guard unit.
Because Prince Yu simply couldn’t afford a guard unit. Though called Prince Yu, he had nothing to do with prosperity—he was an impoverished prince who was utterly broke.
Prince Yu’s mansion originally had a thousand-man guard unit, but the Ministry of Revenue had delayed salaries for two years. Unable to pay the guard unit’s wages, Prince Yu simply sold the guard positions to wealthy people. Rich people paid Prince Yu’s mansion varying amounts of official fees—from over ten taels to several dozen taels annually—to receive blank appointment certificates (Note 1), obtaining low-ranking military officer titles like Prince Yu’s mansion captains. This exempted them from a year of corvée labor, raised their social status, allowed them to avoid kneeling before officials, and brought glory to their ancestors.
The mansion’s appointment certificates expired annually—paying one year’s official fee extended the official status for one year.
This was legal, open sale of offices. Thus Prince Yu not only avoided paying wages for a thousand-man guard but could use the official fees wealthy people paid annually to earn pocket money, supporting the mansion’s few remaining clerks and guards so they wouldn’t truly go without food.
Therefore, Prince Yu’s security was virtually nonexistent. Coming to Guanghua Temple to perform rituals for his eldest daughter, he was accompanied by only three guards and one eunuch, very casually—you couldn’t tell he was a Ming prince.
Wei Caiwei whispered, “Daxia, stop eating. Prince Yu has arrived—he’s in the warm pavilion to our left.”
Daxia glanced from the corner of his eye. “Let him come. The impoverished prince hasn’t revealed his identity, so we don’t need to pay respects. Everyone eat their own food. Act like we don’t know.”
Having secretly monitored Prince Yu’s mansion for a month, they privately nicknamed Prince Yu the “impoverished prince.”
Just as he spoke, a server led Lu Ying over, pointing at Wang Daxia: “The handsome customer with a crutch, accompanied by a beauty who doesn’t eat cilantro that you’re looking for—is that him?”
The server spoke loudly. Prince Yu, Li Fang and others about to enter the warm pavilion all heard, glancing over. Li Fang whispered, “Your Highness, the young man beside the server is the Lu family’s Fourth Miss.”
Author’s Note: Actually, Daxia and I share two things in common: fear of ghosts and not eating cilantro.
Note 1: Blank appointment certificates appear in “Jin Ping Mei” Chapter 32: Grand Tutor Cai said: “Since you have no official position, yesterday the court granted me several blank appointment certificates. I’ll appoint your master to Shandong Criminal Justice Office as Deputy Captain of Criminal Affairs—how’s that?” Lai Bao’er hastily kowtowed. Grand Tutor Cai wrote Ximen Qing’s name on the appointment certificate.