“I was wrong.” Wei Shubin bowed with clasped hands to Chai Yingluo on the bamboo bed. “Sister Ying, forgive me for my unfounded suspicions.”

Chai Yingluo gave a bitter smile, reaching out to pat her small face: “No need for such formality. It’s not your fault, in your place, I would have thought the same… Ah, I’ve said it, I bear responsibility for this matter, for not keeping this thing properly secured. This wasn’t something to be carried around and shown to people… If only he had told me its history earlier.”

“When did you learn about the jade ring’s history?” Wei Shubin asked.

“After the incident, I privately had people make inquiries, and First Aunt’s attendants told me some things. Later you told me more, and then… today when the Crown Prince burst into my room, he also said much. After he left, when I could think quietly, I finally pieced together this object’s past and future.” Chai Yingluo’s expression darkened as she opened her palm again, gazing intently at the jade ring. “Such a precious thing, he shouldn’t have given it to me. I had long felt that the streak of blood in the jade was ominously tragic…”

Ominously tragic, yet you still carried it with you. In your heart, you still valued this relationship, at least more than you were willing to admit…

“After the incident, when the Empress thought the Crown Prince was involved and showed him the jade ring, he wanted to confront you in person, to clarify what had happened,” Wei Shubin recalled. “You kept avoiding him, didn’t you? Why? Did you not want to admit that it was just your carelessness that caused him such trouble?”

The female Daoist shook her head and sighed again:

“He sent people to relay messages to me, suggesting he suspected I was working with Prince Yue to set him up, framing him for murder to ruin his reputation. In recent years, their brotherly relationship has soured, with His Majesty openly favoring Prince Yue, and his paranoia has grown worse. I initially wanted to explain, but then thought, let him believe that… I was already worried about how to end this ill-fated relationship that seemed endless. The Empress’s health was also deteriorating, making her less kind and tolerant than in previous years. If he became angry with me and gave up thoughts of reconciliation, perhaps that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Just get through this period first, and future matters could wait. Yi Niang’s case would have its truth revealed someday, and then I wouldn’t need to explain – he would understand naturally.”

“But you couldn’t get through it,” Wei Shubin sighed. “I think perhaps the news of Princess Hailing giving His Majesty a son provoked him. With his father setting such an example, what more did he have to hesitate about? Today he… came rushing here in such a rage to tear down the paper windows.”

“You’ve guessed right about that.” Chai Yingluo smiled bitterly. “When he burst in to find me, at first he just wanted me to go to Lizheng Hall to explain to the Empress what happened with this jade ring, to stop him from bearing the stigma of incest and murder. I agreed, and asked him to agree to make a clean break with me, that we would henceforth be only ruler and subject, relatives and nothing more. He agreed… but as soon as the words left his mouth, he changed his mind… First, he raged and shouted, then cried and made a scene, and finally became stubborn and refused… I had no choice but to let him do as he wished, leave it to fate… At worst, I’ll just die…”

The female Daoist drew up her knees on the bamboo bed, burying her face in her arms, exhausted and weary. Wei Shubin reached out to embrace her shoulders and comfort her, able only to sigh alongside her.

The night was cool as water, neither woman felt like sleeping, just sitting silently together on the bamboo bed below the steps. Ah Tun, having nuzzled its owner enough, came to rub against Wei Shubin’s legs affectionately, making purring sounds in its throat when suddenly it straightened its body and turned to look toward the courtyard gate.

Wei Shubin followed the leopard’s gaze, and for a moment thought she saw a ghost floating into the courtyard.

It was Su Lingyu. Still wearing the white mourning clothes of an eldest grandson’s wife for the Emperor Emeritus, her face, and hands pale as death, she walked silently forward with floating steps. Reaching the bamboo bed, her voice seemed equally lifeless:

“A verbal edict from Eastern Palace attendants commands the True Master to return to her family home immediately after the palace gates open tomorrow, to be strictly supervised by her father, and henceforth not to enter the forbidden palace without imperial edict.”

At least… they were just “sending her back to her family.” The two women knelt to receive the edict, and Wei Shubin glanced at the silently contemplating Purple Void Temple master before asking:

“Just this disposition? No other edicts?”

“This is just His Majesty’s verbal edict,” Su Lingyu gave her a wan smile.

“What about the Empress? Did the Empress say nothing?”

The Crown Prince’s consort shook her head without answering, instead taking Chai Yingluo’s arm: “True Master should have people pack her personal belongings. There are no other prohibitions, you can take whatever you wish, pack thoroughly.”

Once gone, coming back for forgotten items would be difficult – Wei Shubin felt Su Lingyu had these words too, just unspoken. Her manner and tone were completely calm as if the people and matters she was handling had nothing to do with her.

Chai Yingluo smiled at her, saying “Thank you,” and added: “The Empress’s blood and energy are too weak, she cannot withstand emotional agitation harming her liver and spleen. After I leave the palace, I hope Lady Su will take careful care, not administering strong medicines recklessly, but focusing on gentle nourishment and yin replenishment.”

“The True Master need not worry.” Su Lingyu nodded. “They say the Empress today was merely tired from talking too long. Earlier she had a long private discussion with Former Sui Dynasty’s Empress Xiao, and it was already dark when she summoned the Crown Prince to Lizheng Hall’s main chamber. After speaking briefly, His Majesty called the Crown Prince to the Imperial Study for a private audience – so perhaps tomorrow when the day breaks and the Empress is better, there might be another imperial edict. True Master should keep heart.”

Perhaps the punishment would be lightened, or perhaps Chai Yingluo’s disposition would be more severe – everything depended on Empress Zhangsung.

The two women closely connected to the Crown Prince faced each other wordlessly. After a moment’s silence, Chai Yingluo raised her right hand, gently placing an object from her palm into Su Lingyu’s hand:

“This should rightfully belong to the Crown Prince’s consort.”

Su Lingyu looked down, her thin shoulders visibly trembling, and without thinking tried to push it back to the female Daoist. But her arm strength was far inferior to Chai Yingluo’s, and being gripped by both hands, she could not move.

“If the Crown Prince’s consort finds this object inauspicious, then please return it to the Crown Prince for me, or find a virtuous high monk to exorcise and seal it – dispose of it however you wish.” The female Daoist sighed, not allowing her to refuse, then turned to Wei Shubin: “Ah Bin, I also have one request of you.”

“Sister Ying, please instruct me.” Tears had already welled up in Wei Shubin’s eyes.

Chai Yingluo looked around her courtyard residence as if awakening from a great dream:

“I have spent six or seven years helping my master, the True Person Sun, collect medical prescriptions, compile case studies, and cultivate medicinal herbs. There are too many materials to move home all at once, and the plants in the medicinal gardens behind the mountain cannot be relocated. Writing medical books is an infinitely meritorious good deed that cannot be abandoned halfway. If you can spare the time, Ah Bin, I leave everything here to you, at least to complete these volumes of ‘Women’s Prescriptions.’ True Person Sun said he would return to find me this autumn. I… regardless of what happens to me, I want to complete what I promised him before I can die without regret.”

The insects chirped, moonlight filtered through the leaves, and the Milky Way gradually descended, yet the long night was far from over.