By the time Huang Zixia escorted the dazed Chen Niangniang out of the Prince’s mansion, it was almost noon. As she turned back to walk inside while pondering the case, she was so lost in thought that she missed a step on the stairs and nearly fell, barely managing to steady herself by grabbing a tree.
The gatekeepers hurriedly patted a bench for her to sit down and poured her a bowl of tea. Several idle eunuchs were chatting nearby, and feeling genuinely thirsty, she sat down beside them, gulping down one bowl of tea before pouring another.
Lu Yunzhong, the young eunuch responsible for cleaning Yanxi Hall who was only in his twenties and particularly fond of gossip, saw her sit down and quickly nudged her with his elbow, asking with animated expressions: “Hey, Chonggu, since you’re around the Wang family the most, don’t you think Miss Wang’s death is their biggest loss in recent years?”
Huang Zixia was stunned, not understanding what he meant: “Huh?”
“Isn’t it so? After the Hou Jing Rebellion, the talents of the Langya Wang clan have withered. Especially in these recent generations, there haven’t been any outstanding figures, and they have little voice in court. The family has relied on two empresses, one after another, to maintain their prestige — but they say there aren’t any outstanding young ladies in the clan now. Finally, they had someone exceptional who was to become Prince Kui’s consort, yet she died just like that — well, now even the connection to Prince Kui’s mansion is useless. In the future, they’ll only have Wang Lin, the Minister of Justice, to uphold their dignity.”
Someone else chimed in: “But that’s still the Wang family — having one empress and one minister at court, yet people say they’re declining.”
“Indeed, since the founding of this dynasty, the Boling Cui clan has produced over thirty prime ministers. Look at the once-glorious Langya Wang clan from the previous dynasty — even if you add the Taiyuan Wang clan, they still don’t match up to the Cui family now, do they?”
While silently drinking tea, Huang Zixia thought to herself that Cui Chunzhan’s uncle, Cui Yanzhao, was also renowned in court, carrying himself as a leader among officials. Most likely, barring any unexpected circumstances, the Cui family would soon produce another prime minister.
“That’s still not bad — look at the Chen commandery Xie family. After the Hou Jing Rebellion, they were almost completely wiped out,” someone commented.
Others disagreed: “That’s not entirely true. If the Wang family were that declining, how could His Highness possibly marry into their family? Remember, the Wang clan still has Wang Yun, the eldest grandson of the main branch. He truly has literary talent and grace. Though his looks and bearing can’t match our Prince Kui, he’s still an outstanding figure. Moreover, His Highness has a good relationship with him — they often ride out together, like the sun and moon shining together, causing all the young ladies of Chang’an to rush out to catch a glimpse of these perfect potential husbands.”
“That’s true. They say Wang Yun has the bearing of a great family, and more remarkably, he’s talented in both civil and military affairs. Just two months ago, didn’t he lead the Capital Defense Command’s troops to pursue bandits in the outskirts? He achieved a complete victory, returning with all their heads!”
“Ah, I know about this too!” Lu Yunzhong said, gesturing for everyone to come closer, deliberately lowering his voice to create an air of mystery. “They say these bandits were connected to Pang Xun! They were a group of his die-hard followers who gathered to try to assassinate Prince Kui in the capital!”
This news indeed shocked everyone: “Oh my… but why did we only hear about bandits?”
“Of course the court deliberately concealed it! The resurgence of Pang Xun’s old followers who were executed three years ago — if this news leaked out, wouldn’t it shake people’s confidence? So when the Right Commander of the Capital Defense Command, the great Lord Wang Yun, heard about this, he immediately led his men to ambush them in the outskirts. They wiped them out instantly in the night. The Ministry of War buried the bodies on the spot and just said they’d killed a group of bandits!”
“Oh? Then how do you know about it?”
“Hehe, I have connections in the Ministry of War~,” Lu Yunzhong said proudly. “Don’t forget that my fourth aunt’s brother-in-law’s neighbor Qian Da works in the Ministry of War — they say he was responsible for burying the bodies!”
“Who knows if that’s true!” everyone laughed at him in unison.
“Speaking of which, if Wang Yun is really that impressive, why did that Huang family daughter who was betrothed to him since childhood refuse to marry him?”
“Uh… well…”
“Yeah, I heard that to avoid marrying Wang Yun, the Huang daughter even poisoned her whole family! How terrifying must it be to marry Wang Yun?”
“Well… maybe the Huang daughter was insane!”
“Whether the Huang daughter was insane or not, I know Wang Yun will have trouble finding a wife in the future.”
“What’s there to fear? At worst, he’ll just marry someone from a lesser family! But you, with your tall and imposing figure, have you found a wife yet?”
Amidst the group’s laughter, Huang Zixia forced herself to laugh along. After everyone finished laughing and moved on to the next piece of gossip, she held her tea bowl, staring at its black glazed pattern, not moving for a long while.
The matters that had been suppressed in her heart were stirred up again by others’ casual jokes, like stagnant water disturbed by a rushing current, raising murky clouds.
Her parents had been dead for over half a year now. The longer the case dragged on, the more difficult it became to solve, and the more remote the hope of overturning it became.
And now all she could do was try to solve the mystery before her to earn Li Shubai’s help, to get a chance to clear her name and her family’s, to wash away the false accusations.
Seeing her silence, Lu Yunzhong came closer to chat: “Chonggu, you were there when the Wang family young lady disappeared, weren’t you?”
Huang Zixia nodded.
He quickly asked again: “I heard that the Wang family’s young lady who was supposed to be Prince Kui’s consort suddenly turned into blue smoke and vanished into ash before the eyes of eighteen hundred soldiers watching her?”
Huang Zixia broke into a sweat — this rumor was a bit too fantastical, wasn’t it?
“That’s complete nonsense,” was all she could say.
“Exactly, I said it couldn’t be possible,” another person chimed in. “I heard they found the body, it was emanating black qi, and anyone who smelled it within three zhang would die! How could she have vanished into ash?”
Huang Zixia was even more speechless. She could only say: “The Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review are investigating thoroughly. Before the authorities conclude the case, all speculations are incorrect. Please don’t believe or spread rumors.”
The group didn’t take it seriously, just continued asking her with laughs: “Is it true that after the Wang young lady’s death, Imperial Consort Zhao wants to match Princess Qile with Prince Kui?”
Huang Zixia couldn’t bear it anymore and had to bow to the group: “I apologize everyone, but this case is still under investigation. Everything must wait until the truth comes to light before it can be made public.” Then she brought up the Ministry of Justice and Prince’s mansion rules, saying that before matters were clear, unauthorized personnel should not make wild speculations to avoid rumors disturbing innocent people. Moreover, people of the Prince’s mansion should be especially self-disciplined and mindful of gossip, as this matter concerned both the Wang family and His Highness, so they should be careful with their words and actions.
Though most of them had arrived before her and even held higher positions, since she was favored by the Prince and assigned to investigate this case, they all responded submissively, not daring to refuse her face.
Huang Zixia also poured tea for everyone in thanks, praised the tea for being fragrant and thirst-quenching, then quickly made an excuse about having matters to attend to and ran off.
Walking out of the Prince’s mansion, she stood at the entrance looking up at the sky, thinking about the complex and troublesome case before her. While deep in thought, she suddenly heard the light jingling of golden bells, and a carriage slowly approached from across the street, stopping before her.
She turned to look as the person descended from the carriage and greeted her: “Eunuch Yang.”
Looking over, it was truly a case of enemies inevitably meeting — while she was lost in thought at the Prince’s mansion entrance, the visitor arriving was none other than Wang Yun.
Due to his clan sister’s recent death, his attire today was simple — a pure white silk robe that perfectly suited the weather, with only sky-blue fangsheng patterns adorning the sleeves and collar, simple yet elegant. His white jade pendant was tied with a blue-green silk cord, and in his hand was a folding fan with a green jade handle, its face painted with an ethereally graceful ink bamboo, further emphasizing the refined nobility cultivated by centuries of his great clan’s heritage.
Huang Zixia, whose eyes were often pained by Zhou Ziqin’s bright and dazzling red clothing, looked at Wang Yun’s coordinated outfit and couldn’t help but lament in her heart — why could there be such a huge difference between young masters of similar status?
Wang Yun noticed the slight sweat on her nose and casually offered her his fan, saying: “I was just coming to inform His Highness about my sister’s funeral arrangements. Since I’ve met Eunuch Yang, please trouble you to take me to see Prince Kui.”
Seeing his fan still held before her, and feeling indeed quite hot, Huang Zixia accepted it and began fanning herself while nodding: “Please come in.”
As they entered through the gate, the group of gatekeepers were no longer discussing recent capital gossip, but seeing the very subject of their gossip suddenly appear before them, they all felt somewhat guilty and hurriedly stood up to bow to him.
Wang Yun, unaware of the context, merely glanced at them with a smile before following Huang Zixia toward Jingyu Hall.
Jingyu and Jingyou were waiting in the front hall, casually chatting over tea. Seeing Wang Yun arrive, Jingyou quickly invited him to sit, while Jingyu crossed the small courtyard to announce Wang Yun’s request for an audience to Prince Kui.
Soon after, Li Shubai came out personally to welcome him inside.
As Huang Zixia was wondering whether she should follow them in, she saw Li Shubai walk to the courtyard center and glance back at her sideways, so she had to hurry to catch up.
The two men sat down by the west window, while Jingyou set up a small stove in the courtyard to brew tea. Huang Zixia instinctively helped set up clean teacups, then retreated to the courtyard to help Jingyou add pine twigs to the fire.
Their voices carried from beneath the window as Wang Yun said: “The weather has begun to turn hot these days, and as Your Highness knows, my sister’s body is not in particularly good condition. So yesterday our clan discussed and decided that three days from now, on the seventh day after her death, we will seal the coffin and transport it to our hometown for early burial. Though it’s rushed, we have no choice but to handle it this way.”
Li Shubai pondered briefly before asking: “Has a burial site been found?”
Wang Yun sighed: “She was so young, how could she have had a burial site? Currently, we’re planning to use an existing tomb chamber that her aunt had prepared years ago in the clan cemetery. As for the tombstone, we’ve already sent people back home to have it carved quickly.”
Li Shubai said: “Your sister did receive the betrothal gifts from the Prince Kui mansion, so I will personally attend to pay respects in three days.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Wang Yun said gratefully.
With the Wang family rushing to prepare for the funeral, Wang Yun had many complicated matters to attend to, so he only stayed for one cup of tea before taking his leave.
Seeing Wang Yun in his white robes, appearing pure and transcendent as he passed through the courtyard’s jade hairpin flowers, Huang Zixia quickly grabbed the fan beside her and ran after him: “Young Master Wang, your fan.”
He turned back with a smile and asked: “You didn’t use it to fan the stove, did you?”
“No, no,” she quickly opened it to show him. “See, fearing it might get stove ash on it, I kept it in my robes the whole time.”
“Brewing tea at this time, no wonder you’re covered in sweat.” He didn’t reach out to take the fan, just looked down at her intently and said, “Keep using it to fan yourself.”
“…” She still held the fan out to him, but he had already turned away, just waving his hand slightly, saying: “You use it for now, just return it to me next time.”
Huang Zixia stood among the courtyard full of jade hairpin flowers, unconsciously fanning herself with the open fan in her hand, yet somehow feeling even more flustered.