Wei Baoheng stared at the tightly sealed gates of Zhijin Garden, a complex expression of shock and grief flashing across his face. He shook his head and said, “The Princess had this courtyard sealed off, claiming it was haunted by wandering spirits, saying it would take ten years for the lingering evil to clear…”
“But now the Princess is dead, isn’t she?” Huang Zixia asked, looking at Princess Tongchang’s seal on the door strips.
“However… it’s just an abandoned garden that’s been empty for days, and there are rumors…” Wei Baoheng looked toward Li Shubai, but Li Shubai said, “The banana leaves extend over the walls, and there’s the sound of flowing water. It must be a captivating sight. I’d like to see it.”
Wei Baoheng said nothing more and had someone fetch the keys. Soon, the garden gate was opened.
Indeed, it was a garden perfect for summer days. As soon as the door opened, they felt a cool breeze against their faces. Inside were plantations of banana trees, with meandering streams flowing around the garden pavilion, and water lilies and irises growing in the shallow water. Now, after being closed for so long, wild grass flourished on the banks, and duckweed covered the water’s surface – a scene of static green in complete silence.
“Such a lovely garden, it’s a shame to leave it empty,” Li Shubai said as he walked in first. Wei Baoheng hesitated for a moment before finally following him inside.
Li Shubai walked to the pool’s edge and turned to ask Wei Baoheng, “Why did Tongchang have this garden sealed?”
“Because… last month, someone drowned here in the garden.”
“A palace maid?”
“Yes…” he stared blankly at the water’s surface.
“From the palace?” Li Shubai asked again.
Seeing that he kept inquiring about this topic, Wei Baoheng knew he couldn’t avoid it and said, “No, she was a maid I brought from home, who had served by my side since childhood. Her name was… Doukou.”
“I’ve heard others say that your Doukou was especially skilled at painting.”
“Yes, Doukou grew up with me. To me, she was… like a mother and sister.”
Li Shubai watched as the wind parted the duckweed on the pool’s surface, revealing the shallow water beneath. He pondered before asking, “If she always served by your side, how did she suddenly drown here?”
Wei Baoheng bit his lower lip, and after a long while, said, “The household staff said she was lured here by garden spirits…”
“You know that’s not true,” Li Shubai shook his head and said, “The Princess is now deceased, and I understand your wish to be tactful about the dead. But given the circumstances, and with the Emperor having Yang Chonggu thoroughly investigate this matter, there’s a question we must ask, and I hope the Prince Consort won’t take offense.”
Wei Baoheng’s face immediately changed as he said, “But… I still don’t know why Doukou died.”
“But you know who the killer is, don’t you?” Huang Zixia asked.
Wei Baoheng, having the secret in his heart suddenly exposed, stepped back in shock, staring at her speechlessly.
“Prince Consort Wei, to avenge Doukou, you orchestrated this entire play, directing everyone’s attention to the Princess’s residence. So far, it seems you’ve succeeded,” Huang Zixia looked at his shocked expression and sighed softly, saying, “Originally, I couldn’t have imagined it would be like this, but coincidentally, three people have died now, and these three cases seem like ‘divine punishment,’ unfolding based on one of the late Emperor’s paintings. Three graffiti, three victims, as if it was all predetermined ten years ago.”
“Divine punishment…” Wei Baoheng muttered.
“Yes, in all three cases, no one can find the method of killing. The best explanation is to use the late Emperor’s legacy painting to call it divine punishment or a curse. And in that painting, your horse-falling incident doesn’t exist. So, although it was your case that made Princess Tongchang nervous and afraid, causing the Emperor to order us to investigate matters related to the Princess’s residence, after my research and comparison, I believe your case should be separate from the others, with no connection at all.”
Wei Baoheng silently looked at her, neither denying nor admitting.
“First, your case doesn’t appear in that painting, indicating that the killer never considered you from the start. Second, falling from a horse, though dangerous, is more likely to result in injury, and you only suffer minor injuries. This is completely different from the killer’s extremely precise and ruthless methods, clearly not the work of the same person. As for the third point…”
Huang Zixia gazed at him, letting out a soft sigh before saying, “You have no direct connection to Lü Dicui’s tragedy. From this perspective, you are innocent and shouldn’t have been involved.”
Wei Baoheng pressed his lips together as he looked at her, and after a long while asked, “Why do you think I orchestrated that polo accident myself?”
“On the surface, that polo accident seems unlikely to have been deliberate. After all, you randomly chose your horse, so if an accident occurred, it should have been a coincidence, or someone causing indiscriminate damage, and you were just unlucky to encounter it—however, there is one person who could ensure you would have a minor accident regardless of which horse you chose, and you could control it and prepare for it early, couldn’t you?” Huang Zixia stared at him, enunciating each word clearly, “And that person is you.”
Wei Baoheng lowered his eyes to avoid her gaze, turning to look at the scattered water lilies on the surface, asking, “What’s your evidence?”
“The evidence is that horseshoe. The steel nails on it had just been pried loose. If someone had tampered with it before the competition, the scratched areas would have rusted or gathered dust, but during that polo match, no one could have approached your horse while it was running, and during the only rest period, because of Prince Kui’s horse Diek, all the horses were huddled in one corner, even the people bringing water and feed couldn’t get close, which prevented you from taking advantage of the chaos, and instead cleared everyone else of suspicion.”
Wei Baoheng’s face became very unpleasant as he forced a smile and asked, “Are you saying you saw me do something to my horse’s hoof?”
“There was no need for deliberate action. Because at the time, you were holding your polo mallet. Everyone in the capital knows of your excellent mallet control and horsemanship, so all you needed was that moment when the horse reared up to start when everyone was cheering loudly and all eyes were on the ball. While your horse was rearing and neighing, you used the polo mallet to strike the raised right front hoof at an angle, naturally causing the horseshoe’s front to lift and its nails to loosen. Once the horseshoe was loose, it would cause a trip and fall during the run, creating the illusion that someone had sabotaged you.”
Wei Baoheng continued staring at the listless water lilies on the surface, his voice hollow and distant: “Lord Yang, tell me, why would I deliberately injure myself on the polo field?”
“Because of Doukou, isn’t it?” Huang Zixia stood behind him, her voice as calm as before: “After hearing about Doukou from the kitchen maid Changpu, I noticed something—a maid who lived in Xiwei Garden where you resided died in Zhijin Garden, quite far from Xiwei Garden, and after her death, other household members had no reaction, yet it was the Princess, who lived at the other end in Qiyun Tower, who said she heard someone crying at night and ordered Zhijin Garden to be sealed—”
Her gaze, along with Wei Baoheng’s, fell on the shallow water as she said softly: “Moreover, this garden’s pool is so shallow, too shallow even for lotus flowers, only suitable for water lilies. It would be quite difficult for someone to drown here.”
“That’s why everyone says she was dragged down by spirits,” Wei Baoheng finally spoke, his tone unable to hide his weariness and sorrow, “I know it wasn’t like that. But I had no choice, I… I’m just a worthless person who couldn’t even protect the one I cared about…”
Huang Zixia lowered her eyes, remaining silent.
“I never had great ambitions since childhood, and even as I grew up, I had no particular talents except for polo, no other strengths. Doukou was ten years older than me and often advised me, saying that my handwriting was decent enough, so I should practice that at least. So I devoted myself for three months, writing only her name, and those two characters did turn out quite well…” As he spoke, a vague smile appeared on his face, his gaze fixed on an empty point in the air as if looking at his naive younger self with both cherishment and regret, “When I was eight, my father once said he would arrange a marriage for Doukou. I rolled on the ground crying and refused food for three days until my parents finally gave in. That’s how I monopolized twenty-some years of Doukou’s life, and now thinking back, if she had married then, her life would have been… much better than staying by my side…”
Li Shubai frowned and interrupted him, saying, “Then you married Princess Tongchang, wronging another person.”
“What could I do? I just played a game of polo, saw a woman watching me from the sidelines, and smiled at her while waving my mallet. Who knew that a few days later, an imperial decree would come saying the Emperor wanted to marry Princess Tongchang me—at that time I couldn’t even enter the Hanlin Academy, but in just a short year, I’m now the Vice Minister of War, Equal to a Chief Minister!” Wei Baoheng anxiously countered, as if defending himself, “Prince Kui, perhaps you were born with all this and don’t care, but for an ordinary man, marrying a wife, having a promising future, even becoming a prime minister in just a year or two—can you imagine anyone who would refuse such things?”
“But you wanted too much, Prince Consort Wei,” Li Shubai slowly shook his head and said, “You brought Doukou to the Princess’s residence—what position did that put the Princess in? And knowing the Princess would be highly unlikely to share her husband with anyone else, you still put Doukou at risk—what position did that put Doukou in?”
“Yes… my parents said the same thing. But I… I really couldn’t let her go. When the Princess discovered Doukou, I knelt and begged her desperately to tolerate Doukou, and she agreed, but soon after, Doukou died here… in such a shallow pool, even if she had slipped and fallen in, how could she have died? The only possibility is that someone held her head in the muddy bottom until she suffocated…”
At this point, he stared blankly at the wild grass by the pool, his throat choked, his breathing heavy, unable to continue speaking.
Huang Zixia felt her emotions were complex, not knowing whether to sympathize with his feelings for Doukou or despise his cowardice toward Princess Tongchang.
She heard Li Shubai’s voice, his usually calm tone now carrying a cold edge: “Prince Consort Wei, you knew the Princess had a congenital condition that had already manifested when Wei Ximin died tragically and she dreamed of Consort Pan Shu demanding the Nine Phoenix Hairpin, yet you still added frost to snow by creating an illusion of crisis around her. This prince suspects that during the times when Doukou’s spirit was said to be restless and ghostly cries were heard in Zhijin Garden at night, it was you playing tricks, trying to break down the Princess in revenge for Doukou, wasn’t it?”
“I just wanted to scare her, I didn’t want to kill her… I just wanted to scare her…” Wei Baoheng shook his head in confusion, “As long as I remained Princess Tongchang’s consort, I had a boundless future ahead of me. What benefit would the Princess’s death bring me? Tell me, what benefit would it bring?”
“What the Prince Consort did wasn’t just to scare the Princess, was it?” Huang Zixia couldn’t help but say, “You manipulated things on the polo field to make the already anxious Princess request the Emperor to send people to investigate the residence, and while we were investigating, you deliberately directed all clues and led toward Doukou’s death. You were trying to use this opportunity, weren’t you?”
Wei Baoheng listened to her merciless words, gazing at the varying shades of green in Zhijin Garden. After a long while, he finally took a deep breath and said, “The Princess… she was the Emperor’s precious pearl, heaven’s favored daughter, naturally with a fierce personality. When she first discovered my relationship with Doukou, she was very angry, but after my desperate pleading, seeing that Doukou was already old and knowing she had raised me since childhood, she reluctantly let it go. Later, after Doukou’s death, I looked through the household accounts and discovered she was having people prepare a small residence outside for Doukou, waiting only for it to be furnished before sending Doukou there.” At this point, Wei Baoheng finally began to shed tears, saying softly, “The Princess… wasn’t a bad person. Though her temperament wasn’t good, she was already preparing to send Doukou away, so why would she kill her here?”
Li Shubai and Huang Zixia exchanged silent glances, and Li Shubai asked, “So, the person who killed Doukou wasn’t the Princess?”
“I don’t think it was her… but it was someone who could make the Princess take the blame for this matter.”
He said nothing more, but Li Shubai and Huang Zixia instantly knew who he was referring to.