Among the several Taoist soldiers Zhou Weizhao had brought down from the mountain, Qingbai really couldn’t be said to stand out at all. Song Chuyi had barely remembered him at all. He seemed to have never been particularly notable—Qing Zhuo was clever with words, Han Feng was cautious and steady, Cuiting and Mingtai took the bigger picture into account, but only Yuanjin and Qingbai were ones she’d always had less contact with. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that Qingbai had managed to hide for so long. A person without distinctive characteristics was not easily given special attention. Those who were too conspicuous also exposed flaws too easily.
“How could you let him die?” Before Song Chuyi could speak, Princess Rongcheng was so angry her eyes hurt: “He shouldn’t have been allowed to die.” This person had been by Zhou Weizhao’s side for more than ten years. Such a person—Princess Rongcheng could hardly dare imagine just how many people he was connected to behind the scenes. With such a death, what clues were left?
Everyone present obviously thought the same way. The atmosphere became excessively quiet for a moment.
It was Zhou Weizhao who finally set down his tea cup and broke the silence: “It’s fine. He’s dead, but we still have people we can find.”
Both Song Chuyi and Song Jue looked toward him. After pondering for a moment, Ye Jingkuan asked him: “Does Your Highness mean to question his parents?”
Song Chuyi had previously reminded Zhou Weizhao that there was a traitor by his side, but for some reason, Zhou Weizhao had always let things take their course. Apart from having Old Kong and a few others keep watch, there had been no other action.
Song Chuyi had always thought Zhou Weizhao valued these life-and-death partners who had walked alongside him too much, but only now did she realize it wasn’t like that at all. Before she had made her move, Zhou Weizhao had already set his sights on Qingbai. Clearly he had known for some time now. She couldn’t help feeling somewhat stifled: “Before, you didn’t say you’d already started investigating.”
It had made her and Song Jue worry all along that they’d violated his taboos, wondering how they should explain it to him when the time came.
Ye Jingkuan couldn’t help but laugh. He looked at Song Chuyi, then at Zhou Weizhao, stepping forward to play peacemaker first: “Your Ladyship wrongs His Highness. His Highness told me about it. Weren’t you constantly investigating Prince Gong’s affairs? His Highness simply didn’t want to trouble you with the matter of the spy by his side. You also said at the time that you wouldn’t ask about it.”
At the time, in order to confuse the people around Zhou Weizhao, Song Chuyi had indeed mentioned it once. She needed to find time to look for Qing Luo and Han Yan, and also needed time to consider whether there were any overlooked messages from Vice Minister Wang, so she’d let Zhou Weizhao handle it himself. She widened her eyes looking at Ye Jingkuan, then looked at Zhou Weizhao with his innocent expression, feeling somewhat exasperated.
The reserved eight-year-old little girl from before, who had never been willing to easily reveal her emotions, had faded until not even a shadow remained. Her eyes constantly overflowed with radiance like brilliant gemstones, and in front of Zhou Weizhao she always uninhibitedly expressed her joy and anger. This was sufficient proof of how much Zhou Weizhao usually let her relax, to have indulged her into being like this.
Song Jue couldn’t help but feel happy for her, feeling that those terrible nightmares had finally gradually grown distant from her. Yet he couldn’t help feeling somewhat melancholic. After thinking it over, he still felt the indignation of having his precious cabbage stolen by a pig—in the past, only in front of him, her older brother, would Little Yi show some traces of being a young maiden.
As he was lost in thought, Ye Jingkuan suddenly pushed him. Only then did he come back to his senses. Ye Jingkuan had already asked him: “Should one of us make another trip to Longhu Mountain?”
Song Jue immediately understood. The Celestial Master’s Palace was also divided into factions. The Celestial Master’s junior martial brother had probably never accepted the Celestial Master. The Celestial Master had elevated a Crown Prince and had a father-son relationship with him, so the junior brother had to find another path and seek higher branches to cling to.
Qingbai was a mole, but catching this mole wasn’t the end of it. The Celestial Master’s junior martial brother had once nearly competed for the position of sect leader, and was also a prominent figure in the Celestial Master’s Palace. Besides Qingbai, who knew if there were others?
Even if there weren’t, there was still no clue when exactly Qingbai had gotten entangled with Han Zhengqing, or what Han Zhengqing planned to have him do. All of this had to be investigated—not just investigated, but thoroughly investigated. Not the slightest carelessness could be tolerated.
After thinking it over, Song Jue shook his head: “I can’t. The Yulin Guards have been very busy lately.”
He was speaking the truth. After Prince Gong had directly escaped from the Imperial Mausoleum, all Twelve Imperial Guard Units had already raised all their defenses. Moreover, it was a critical time now, and he was a Centurion of the Yulin Guards—there really couldn’t be any slip-ups. If Emperor Jianzhang wasn’t going to perform the Heaven Worship Ceremony and instead had Zhou Weizhao represent him, but Zhou Weizhao encountered some mishap on the way to the ceremony, then there would be no need for any spies to come out and cause trouble.
After Ye Jingkuan finished speaking, he thought of this point. Hearing Song Jue say this, he nodded: “You’re right. Now isn’t the time. You can’t get away.” As he spoke, he turned to look at the silent Song Chuyi and Zhou Weizhao: “How about having Ma Wangkun and Ma San go?”
But that wouldn’t work either. The Celestial Master’s Palace had always been officially appointed by imperial decree from the court. Without the court’s edict, no one could easily touch the people of the Celestial Master’s Palace. Even local officials gave the people of the Celestial Master’s Palace a wide berth.
“No need to go.” Zhou Weizhao took a sip of tea, as if only now fully waking up. His right hand under the table tightly grasped Song Chuyi’s hand as he said very calmly: “They’ll come on their own.”
What did he mean? Would they deliver themselves to their deaths?
Ye Jingkuan didn’t quite understand: “If there are other informants, once the news gets out, I’m afraid they’ll take advantage of the Celestial Master’s absence to rebel, won’t they?”
And the Celestial Master had just come to the capital now. If that junior martial uncle seized the opportunity—
Song Chuyi somewhat understood: “Something happened to Qingbai, so they need to come deal with the aftermath for him—the Celestial Master has been Celestial Master for so many years. He’s not someone they can deal with in just a move or two. They probably wouldn’t even dare think about rebellion, otherwise they wouldn’t be so aggrieved as to cooperate with Han Zhengqing. But if nothing had happened to Qingbai…”
Song Jue also immediately understood: “If nothing had happened to Qingbai, write a letter asking them to come help…”
In any case, Xibei had now become a complete mess with communications cut off. Even if Qingbai’s father wanted to send a letter to Han Zhengqing to verify, he probably couldn’t. Moreover, those like Qing Zhuo who had grown up with Qingbai could long ago produce perfect forgeries of his handwriting. There was no fear that Qingbai’s parents wouldn’t believe it.
Having them come on their own was always better than traveling thousands of miles to find them.
This was exactly what Zhou Weizhao meant. He had stayed at Longhu Mountain for so many years, yet had never known that this junior martial uncle of his had hidden so well, able to correspond with Han Zhengqing for so many years without being discovered.
Author’s Note: Here are four chapters first, and around four more will be posted tonight. Today will be about 16,000 characters total. Tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that—not necessarily consecutive—there will be three more days of 16,000 characters each. Other times will still have four chapters as the baseline. Adding it up, that’s four days of 16,000 characters each. Please consider this my mass release~~~covers face* I couldn’t hold on and actually slept four hours. Simply unforgivable.*