Just as dawn was breaking the next day, Chai Yingluo got up, changed into plain clothes, and took her younger brother Chai Zhewei to the palace to report the death to the Emperor, Empress, and relevant authorities.
Wei Shubin followed her around during all this bustle, but she was actually quite flustered, not knowing what she should do. Seeing this, Chai Yingluo smiled and instructed her to “have some breakfast and then go check on First Lady’s chamber.”
After the two women left the guest room where they had stayed overnight, Wei Shubin parted ways with Chai Yingluo and walked to the First Lady’s chamber door, only to find both door panels secured with a bronze lock and the windows tightly shut. As she stood there unsure what to do, footsteps approached from behind – Li Yuanxu and Yang Xinzhi had arrived together.
When the three met face to face, they all felt somewhat awkward and uncomfortable.
After a night’s sleep, Wei Shubin’s emotions had settled and her mind was clearer. She now realized that these two young men had been trying to help her last night. Especially Prince Li Yuanxu of Wu, who, despite his acidic and inappropriate remarks, and even leading her to admit to being the murderer, had helped – without those words, how would her father Wei Zheng have stormed off, temporarily sparing her life?
So she still had to curtsey and thank them properly, trying her best to act like a proper minister’s daughter. She had just begun saying:
“This Wei thanks Your Highness Prince of Wu…”
When she saw the purple robe hem and black leather boots swish and turn – Li Yuanxu couldn’t even be bothered to acknowledge her, turning to climb the steps to the east wing’s entrance.
Wei Shubin remained half-crouched, speechless, and awkward. Once again, it was the tall youth Yang Xinzhi who came to smooth things over. With a friendly smile on his moon-like round face, he greeted “Lady Wei” and they exchanged proper courtesies and their reasons for being there. They too had come to reinspect the crime scene in the daylight.
Since Yang Xinzhi had also spent considerable effort persuading Wei Zheng and his wife last night, Wei Shubin thanked him as well. His response was much more normal, returning her bow with a long one and exchanging pleasantries. Standing not far apart, when the fair-skinned, imposing man bent down, he momentarily blocked out the sky, giving Wei Shubin a vivid sense of what “jade mountain about to collapse” meant.
“Young lady need not be so formal. Last night with your father… ah, I shouldn’t say too much. Most parents in the world are like this, young ladies should try to see past it,” Yang Xinzhi added another word of comfort.
A jingling sound came from the steps, and they both turned to look. Li Yuanxu had taken a key from his belt chain, unlocked the door, and strode in to investigate. Throughout all this, he seemed completely indifferent to Wei Shubin’s presence.
“…Fourteenth Brother sympathizes with you too. He’s just naturally reserved, and being young, doesn’t know how to exchange pleasantries with noble young ladies. Please don’t take offense…”
Yang Xinzhi was still dutifully explaining to Li Yuanxu, but his words only made things worse – Wei Shubin felt even more embarrassed and wanted to just turn and leave. But she had been entrusted by Chai Yingluo to investigate, and this case was so closely related to her – how could she just walk away?
Yang Xinzhi excused himself and followed Li Yuanxu inside. Wei Shubin bit her lip and followed them in, lifting her skirts. At worst, she could just pretend that the arrogant, hateful Prince of Wu didn’t exist – after all, she was the daughter of Wei Zheng, the Tang Dynasty’s foremost remonstrating official. If it came to competing in looks of disdain, who was she afraid of?
The body of County Lady Li Wanxi still lay on her bed. Wei Shubin didn’t dare to lift the covers and look at the terrible face of the deceased again. Instead, she took advantage of the now-bright daylight to re-examine the new bride’s chamber.
Although lamps had been lit last night, the room had still been quite dark. Only in daylight, with sunlight streaming through the paper windows, could the layout of this warm chamber be seen. The bed was set against the south wall, under the west window was a desk and dressing table, and along the east wall were cabinets, clothes racks, tall tables, and braziers among other furniture. The furniture was still piled high with various items, just as they had been on the bride’s wedding night.
The suicide note the First Lady had placed under her pillow, and the complex hanging apparatus used to strangle her had already been taken to the palace by Chai Yingluo and her brother. The room still contained clothes, shoes, incense burners, writing implements on the desk, and a mirror and cosmetics box on the dressing table. The mirror cloth was still pulled back, reflecting bright figures in the bronze mirror. Last night Li Yuanxu had said “First Lady was strangled from behind while doing her makeup in the mirror” – it certainly looked that way.
Li Yuanxu’s thin tall figure also moved to the dressing table, and after a glance, he suddenly made a soft exclamation and reached into the cosmetics box to pick something up.
Wei Shubin and Yang Xinzhi both came closer to look. First Lady’s cosmetics box was a plain boxwood case, not even lacquered, divided into several compartments with cosmetics and jewelry scattered in piles – quite a few items, but nothing particularly valuable – except for what Li Yuanxu now held in his hand.
It was a pale green jade ring, thick and large, with rich, lustrous jade of uniform color throughout. Only on the outside was there a faintly visible trail of blood-red streaks winding around it, carved into a taotie beast pattern in an ancient style. Li Yuanxu turned it over in his hands several times, then frowned and passed it to Yang Xinzhi:
“You have many sisters at home, have you seen this kind of ornament before?”
Yang Xinzhi took it and looked, shaking his head: “Never seen it, and I don’t pay attention to such things. Fourteenth Brother knows I rarely enter the inner quarters at home… ah, Lady Wei, please take a look – is this the kind of ornament young ladies wear nowadays?”
Wei Shubin took the ring from Yang Xinzhi’s hand; the jade felt warm to the touch. She tried to put it on her finger, but it was far too large and loose, even sliding around on her thumb.
She also noticed this jade ring wasn’t a normal thin circular band – the walls were high and deep, with a slope rising on one side with notches carved below it, and two small holes pierced in the other side where silk cords could be attached to hang it from a belt. Rather than a ring, it seemed more like a belt ornament.
“I’ve never seen anyone wear this kind of ornament, and young ladies couldn’t even fit it on their hands. The First Lady was even more slender than me. If it’s meant to be worn on a belt… there’s no silk cord attached.”
Wei Shubin tried positioning the jade ring a few more times without success, then returned it to Yang Xinzhi. Seeing his fan-sized palms and drumstick-like fingers, something occurred to her:
“Master Yang, this ring is too large for a woman. Would you try it on?”
Yang Xinzhi was startled, looked at her, and seemed reluctant. Li Yuanxu said from beside them: “Just try it, plenty of men wear rings, what are you afraid of?”
Grimacing, Yang Xinzhi did as suggested and tried the jade ring on several fingers. While it had been loose even on Wei Shubin’s thumb, it fit well on his index, middle, and ring fingers. However, the walls were so high and long that once worn, he couldn’t bend his finger joints.
“This thing isn’t meant for daily wear,” Yang Xinzhi shook his head. “It’s too cumbersome, makes a whole hand useless.”
But just considering the size, it was more of a man’s ring. Li Yuanxu took it from Yang Xinzhi’s hand and tried it on his left hand. His fingers were long and much more slender than Yang Xinzhi’s – it was loose on all four fingers but fit perfectly on his thumb.
“Wishing to show her delicate hands, she asks her love for a ring…”
“How to show tenderness? A pair of silver rings to bind…”
Li Yuanxu and Wei Shubin spoke at the same time, reciting different poems but both described the current custom of lovers exchanging rings as tokens of affection – they had thought of the same thing.
Neither finished their poems and when their eyes met, they both looked embarrassed. Wei Shubin’s face turned particularly red – for a noble young lady like her, reciting such romantic poetry could be considered improper.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem…” Yang Xinzhi couldn’t hold back his laughter, trying to cover it with coughing, producing a strange choking sound from behind his mustache. Li Yuanxu glared at him hatefully: “What are you laughing at!”
“Nothing… Fourteenth Brother knows ‘Ding Niang’s Ten Requests’ quite well,” Yang Xinzhi said with a smile. “I haven’t been in the prince’s mansion long, and didn’t know Fourteenth Brother was such an experienced playboy – truly can’t judge a book by its cover.”
Wei Shubin’s recitation of “How to show tenderness? A pair of silver rings to bind” came from a love poem she had read in “New Songs from the Jade Terrace” – though inappropriate, it was at least an ancient work. She hadn’t heard Li Yuanxu’s “Wishing to show her delicate hands, she asks her love for a ring” before, and hearing Yang Xinzhi mention “playboy,” could it be a song sung by courtesans in pleasure quarters?
Seeing Li Yuanxu’s face flush red as he shouted “What nonsense are you talking about!” and firmly denied it, though it seemed more like a case of protesting too much, she felt somewhat irritated and changed the subject:
“First Lady’s ornament is truly strange. All the other items in the box combined aren’t half as valuable as this ring.”
Her gaze swept over the cosmetics box on the dressing table – several silver and copper hairpins with small pearls and jade, lacquered wooden hairpins, hair ribbons, gilt hair combs with simple worn patterns, wooden powder boxes, eyebrow stones – all modest to the point of being shabby, and First Lady’s daily items. Chai Yingluo must have sent some valuable ornaments with her dowry, but they weren’t known in which box and the First Lady hadn’t put them in her cosmetics box.
Li Yuanxu also looked thoughtfully at the jade ring in his hand:
“Such fine jade is rarely seen these days. Even in the Great Peace Palace, I haven’t seen many jade ornaments this pure, and with such an ancient style of carving…”
Where did the First Lady get it from? Wei Shubin felt that this was what Li Yuanxu wanted to ask, and she was wondering the same thing. The ring seemed too much like a man’s possession, and women in the palace wouldn’t likely exchange such ornaments and risk suspicion.
If Li Wanxi had indeed received a token from a man… Wei Shubin thought of the eighteen-year-old young bride’s listless, pale face and nervously twisted fingers, and suddenly felt a warmth in her chest, hoping this speculation was true.
If Li Wanxi had once received someone’s wholehearted love and care, then her years in this world wouldn’t been lived in vain. If she had carried in her heart a clear image of someone, had felt joy and sorrow for him, had shed tears and felt heartbreak for him, then she had known where her heart truly lay and had been complete as a person. If she had loved, or even just been loved, then she was no longer just a fleeting pale spirit that vanished in an instant, no longer just a symbol of her tragic father’s bloodline in the mortal world. Even dying mysteriously as she did, she was far luckier than most women who remained in this world, married, bore children, and managed households in confusion…
Yang Xinzhi’s words shattered Wei Shubin’s romantic musings:
“Perhaps this was left to the First Lady by her late father.”
“Ah…” Wei Shubin couldn’t refute this. Li Yuanxu nodded: “That makes sense.”
After all, the First Lady was the eldest daughter of the former Crown Prince and had lived in the Eastern Palace for eight or nine years, surrounded by servants and loved by her parents. Even after being moved here, it wouldn’t be strange if she still had one or two precious royal jewels in her possession.
As the three discussed this further, footsteps approached from the doorway, and several maidservants entered.
Leading them was Nun Jingxuan, and they all carried various items, seemingly coming to tidy the room. Seeing Li Yuanxu and the others inside, the servants bowed apologetically and started to withdraw, but Li Yuanxu called Jingxuan to stop:
“Sister Jing, you’ve been helping Young Lady Ying at this temple for some time now. Have you ever seen the First Lady wear this ornament?”
He handed over the jade ring, and Jingxuan took it, looked at it, and shook her head: “This servant hasn’t seen it. Was this First Lady’s? Heba—have you seen this before?”
She passed the ring to a middle-aged maidservant beside her whose eyelids were red and swollen, explaining to Li Yuanxu and the others that “Heba has been First Lady’s nurse since childhood.” Even without the introduction, one could guess as much just by looking at the servant’s puffy face and dark eye bags, suggesting she had been crying all night.
When Heba spoke, her voice was vaguely familiar – likely the same woman who had been wailing outside the room when the First Lady’s hanging was discovered last night:
“This is not Young Lady—County Lady Linfen’s ornament.”
“It’s not?” All three—Wei, Li, and Yang—perked up their ears.
“No.” Though the middle-aged nurse was tired and grief-stricken, she spoke with a strange certainty. “I’m familiar with every one of Young Lady’s ornaments. I’ve also carefully examined the dowry items that Supreme Master sent, and this was not among them.”
“You’re certain?” Li Yuanxu asked. “This jade ring was just now in the First Lady’s cosmetics box, mixed with her other ornaments. If it wasn’t First Lady’s, then whose could it be?”
Nurse Heba frowned, looking down again at the large jade ring in her hand, showing clear distaste:
“Since moving to Ganye Temple, County Lady Linfen hasn’t stepped outside the temple gates once in these nine years, and hasn’t seen a single outsider. How could she have such a thing? When the two young ladies from the east courtyard, born to the Yang ladies, fell ill and went to the nearby Purple Void Temple for treatment, the Young Lady wouldn’t even do that—she was truly a virtuous maiden who never left her quarters. These things like rings and silk handkerchiefs have absolutely nothing to do with Young Lady!”
It seemed she too had concluded this was a man’s ring, and if she admitted it was the First Lady’s, it would suggest the First Lady had a secret romance. Nurse Heba emphasized more strongly:
“First Lady did not have this item while alive. Yesterday afternoon, before the Empress arrived, the Supreme Master ordered us to burn incense in this room, and I searched through the cosmetics box for any old incense balls or loose grains. This thing wasn’t in the box then, Supreme Master can testify to that.”
Since she said so, it must be true. But… perhaps at that time or before, the First Lady hadn’t kept this precious ornament in her cosmetics box but secretly carried it with her. If it was related to a man, she would have been especially careful not to let others see it.
“It wasn’t there in the afternoon, but after all the chaos in the evening and the First Lady’s misfortune, it appeared in her cosmetics box,” Li Yuanxu contemplated the jade ring in Nurse Heba’s palm. “Are you suggesting someone took advantage of the confusion to plant this item in the First Lady’s cosmetics box to frame her?”
Heba seemed to want to speak but held back. Wei Shubin thought about who had been in the room for extended periods last night: the Chai siblings, Li Yuanxu and Yang Xinzhi, her parents, and herself… all were noble persons of status. As a mere nurse and servant, Heba probably wouldn’t dare accuse any of them randomly.
“Perhaps after the young lords left last night, someone snuck into the room and placed this thing in the box,” the nurse answered reluctantly.
That was possible. Li Yuanxu frowned: “When we left last night, I locked the door, and the key has been with me the whole time. When we opened the door this morning, the doors and windows were intact, with no signs of intrusion. However…”
He looked up at the high beams of the room, beckoned Yang Xinzhi over, pulled a tall table aside, sprang up, first stepping on the table then onto Yang Xinzhi’s shoulders, grabbed the beam with both hands, and twisted his head to look around.
Being thin had its advantages – this series of movements was quite agile and nimble, perfect for a thief sneaking in over rooftops—Wei Shubin thought maliciously.
“Give me a lamp.” Li Yuanxu’s slightly muffled voice came down from the beam.
Wei Shubin looked around—all the other servants had their hands full, only she was free, so she stepped forward to take the short bronze oil lamp from the First Lady’s desk, first handing it to Yang Xinzhi, who then raised it to Li Yuanxu.
Li Yuanxu didn’t look down, lowered his hand to take the bronze lamp, raised it to the beam, looked, then lowered it back down, glaring at Wei Shubin irritably: “Light it first before giving it to me.”
His twitching lips seemed to have forcibly swallowed back the word “stupid.” He naturally wanted the lamp because the beams were too dark and needed illumination to see clearly—Wei Shubin only now realized this, blushed, took the lamp to find a flint to light it, while passing it back up, silently cursing his continued arrogance and rudeness.
The dancing flame was raised to the beams, illuminating the whole room. Li Yuanxu stood on Yang Xinzhi’s shoulders, one hand steadying himself on the beam, holding up the lamp and turning to inspect all around, then shook his head and jumped back down the way he came.
“The dust on the beams is very thick, aside from the marks from throwing the noose last night, there are no signs of anyone entering from the roof.”
So this blood-streaked jade ring wasn’t placed there by someone entering during the night. It must have already been in the First Lady’s cosmetics box when they left the crime scene last night.
Wei Shubin recalled her only meeting with Li Wanxi, that naive and shy young bride, her frightened and timid eyes, her simple behavior and speech that bordered on foolishness… Confined in this restricted temple for nine years, how could she have secretly fallen in love with any man? Did she have such charm and courage?
Or perhaps, as the former Crown Prince’s eldest daughter, she had inherited the blood courage and talent of the Longxi Li clan, deliberately acting that way to fool everyone?
Everyone in the room looked at Nurse Heba, whose haggard face alternated between pale and flushed as she stood there speechless, her eyes growing redder. Suddenly with a “we” cry, she stepped forward and fell to her knees by the bed, and heedless of the corpse’s condition, embraced the deceased First Lady and began wailing again:
“Oh, my poor young lady… what sin did you commit… even in death your name is being sullied… first your parents were killed and now they want to ruin your reputation… heaven knows who’s trying to frame you…”
Wei Shubin Li Yuanxu and Yang exchanged helpless glances. If Nurse Heba insisted First Lady was being “framed to ruin her reputation,” since the person was already dead, it would only win her more sympathy. And crying about “killing your parents” seemed to… implicitly accuse the current Emperor or Empress Zhangsun of being responsible…
Thinking about how Empress Zhangsun had been the last person to speak with the First Lady while she was alive, Wei Shubin’s heart sank. If this valuable jade ring had been given to the First Lady by the Empress, or secretly placed in her cosmetics box when the First Lady wasn’t paying attention… ah, what a sin to even think such thoughts.
Li Yuanxu also shook his head, not pursuing it further, and stepped forward with an outstretched hand: “Give me that item.”
When he had been climbing the beams earlier, it had been inconvenient to hold things, so the jade ring had remained with Heba. This was important evidence that needed to be presented to the throne or given to the investigating officials.
The wailing nurse raised her head, turned over her left palm, her tear-streaked face gasping for breath, and suddenly lifted her left hand and stuffed the jade ring in her palm into her mouth.
Li Yuanxu and Yang Xinzhi both cried out in shock and rushed forward to pin down the middle-aged woman.
Wei Shubin and Nun Jingxuan and the other women also screamed and surged forward to see what was happening, but though the two men had controlled the nurse, pulling at her hands, pressing her shoulders, prying at her mouth and gripping her throat in a struggle, they couldn’t retrieve the jade ring. With her hair disheveled and mouth forced wide open, Heba had somehow managed to swallow the not-small jade ring.
“Damn you! This is rebellion!”
Li Yuanxu released her in great anger, his usually cold face instantly twisted with murderous intent as he drew his sword with a swish:
“Should I cut you open? The evidence is important, what’s your worthless life worth!”
Still pinned down by Yang Xinzhi in front of the bed, Heba closed her eyes, silently waiting for death. Wei Shubin’s heart pounded wildly as she raised her voice to urge: “Fourteenth Brother, don’t—”
Amidst the chaos and confusion, a woman’s voice suddenly came through the window from outside:
“Reporting to His Highness Prince of Wu, His Majesty summons the Prince and Yang Kuzhen for an audience, and the Empress summons Young Lady Wei to the palace.”
Vol 1 – Chapter 9 Notes:
1. The jade ring found in Li Wanxi’s cosmetics box is modeled after a “Yu She” (jade archer’s thumb ring, pronounced as [she]) unearthed from Fu Hao’s tomb at the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province – the same one featured on this book’s cover. Detailed information is widely available online, and interested readers can search for it themselves. High-resolution images can be viewed on the author’s Weibo.
2. Regarding “the dressing table had a mirror stand and cosmetics box, with the mirror cloth pulled back, reflecting bright figures in the bronze mirror” – The bronze mirrors often shown in contemporary historical dramas, with yellowish, pitted surfaces that can barely reflect a face, are seriously inaccurate. Ancient bronze mirrors had surfaces polished with tin alloy, bright and clear, not much different from modern mercury mirrors. However, without the protective glass layer of modern mirrors, they were particularly susceptible to oxidation and blackening, requiring constant polishing and maintenance. Thus, “mirror polishing” was a common profession in ancient urban areas. Professor Yu Genzhe once posted a photograph on Weibo showing the front of a modern replica of a Han Dynasty bronze mirror made using Han Dynasty techniques. High-resolution images can be viewed on the author’s Weibo.
3. An explanation of “Kuzhen”: When servants address Yang Xinzhi as “Yang Kuzhen,” the origin of this official title will be explained later in the text. “Kuzhen” (also written as “Kuzhi”) is believed to be from the Xianbei language. It was a common princely household official position during the Sui Dynasty and early Tang Dynasty, roughly equivalent to “personal guard, attendant, advisor, confidant.” It strongly indicated being a prince’s private retainer. Usually held by sons of noble families, though it had no fixed quota and wasn’t part of the formal minor official ranks, it was still a prestigious position worth mentioning in one’s epitaph. This official position was abolished after the middle of the Zhenguan period.