“… The Princess said if I didn’t take her, she would swim across herself. So I had no choice but to bring her aboard. Of course, I could have simply knocked her unconscious, but seeing how genuinely worried she was about you, I couldn’t bring myself to do it… I have failed in my duty and am willing to accept punishment.”
Back at the magistrate’s residence, Yun Yi gave a full account of the night’s events.
“Couldn’t bring yourself to?” Jiang Xu glanced at her coldly.
Kneeling on the ground, Yun Yi kept her back straight. “As a member of the Jingyun Guard, I shouldn’t have hesitated. But having accompanied the Princess for so long, this was the first time I’d seen her so anxious and distraught. She didn’t know what you were doing, my lord. She was simply afraid for your safety and wanted to save you. Please don’t blame her.”
“Are you criticizing me?”
“I wouldn’t dare.” Yun Yi lowered her head.
Lost in thought, Jiang Xu remained silent for a long while before suddenly saying, “You found the person I was looking for. I’ll let it pass this time. But if you ever allow the Princess to risk herself again, you need not appear before me. You may go.”
“Yes, my lord.”
After Yun Yi left, Jiang Xu stood silently in the outer chamber for a while. Outside, the night was deep, with occasional bird calls and cicada chirps. He suddenly stepped towards the inner chamber.
The room was quiet, filled with the opulence she usually found distasteful. Fortunately, the bedding and calming incense were her own, perhaps explaining why she was sleeping so peacefully now.
Jiang Xu sat by the bed, glancing at the slight burns on her hands. He picked up a damp cloth from beside the basin and gently wiped the remaining dirt from her face.
He had agreed to the magistrate’s invitation to Xianquan Ward tonight because of evidence left by Zhou Bao Ping. There was a lead.
Days earlier, he had sent his secret guards to Lingzhou to investigate Zhou Bao Ping’s sudden death, and they had results.
Undoubtedly, Zhou Bao Ping was silenced because he had obtained evidence of the Maritime Trade Office’s manipulation of trade and tax evasion. He was then framed with the unsavory cause of death related to debauchery.
However, Zhou Bao Ping, trusted by the Emperor, was shrewd and intelligent. Knowing his life was in danger, he had hidden the evidence in advance.
During his time as an inspector at the Maritime Trade Office, he kept to himself, rarely socializing. In Shu family territory, few dared to associate with him anyway.
After days of investigation, the secret guards discovered his only hobby was visiting the One Hundred and Eighty Boats to enjoy music. He frequented many, but most often the Mu Chun Ward, which rivaled Xian Quan Ward in fame.
The courtesans he often requested there became the fabricated evidence for his alleged debauchery and violent death.
According to the investigation, the Maritime Trade Office likely detained Zhou Bao Ping as soon as they discovered he had evidence. Despite whatever he endured, he never revealed anything. Unable to extract information, they decided to eliminate him and then tracked down the courtesans from Mu Chun Ward based on his usual associations.
The courtesans knew nothing about the evidence, claiming Zhou only visited to listen to music and never spoke of personal matters.
But as those who had relatively more contact with Zhou, the Maritime Trade Office wouldn’t let them go easily. After torture yielded nothing, they killed the women and staged the scene with Zhou to create the illusion of death by debauchery.
With no more leads on Zhou’s hidden evidence, the secret guards’ search proved fruitless, and the Shu family made no progress either.
It wasn’t until Jiang Xu’s party entered Lingzhou that someone secretly contacted the guards, claiming Zhou had entrusted them with the evidence. But following Zhou’s instructions, they could only hand it over personally to someone sent by the Emperor.
This secret contact was an inconspicuous maid from Mu Chun Ward named Qiu Yue.
During a famine year, Zhou had kindly saved her life, and she had been loyally serving him ever since.
Three months before Zhou was transferred to the Lingzhou Maritime Trade Office, she had come to Lingzhou alone and found work as a fire-tender at Mu Chun Ward.
Qiu Yue had an unremarkable, easily forgettable face. She focused on her work silently, barely noticeable.
When Zhou visited Mu Chun Ward to request singers, she had served tea in the room several times. But she was so unnoticeable that both the Shu family and the secret guards overlooked her in their investigations.
However, after Zhou’s incident and the loss of several top courtesans, coupled with frequent inspections by the Maritime Trade Office, Mu Chun Ward’s business declined sharply. They had to dismiss a group of maids, including Qiu Yue.
Remembering her master’s instructions to wait for the Emperor’s envoy before handing over the evidence, and to avoid suspicion, Qiu Yue didn’t act rashly. Like most other dismissed maids, she found work nearby at Xian Quan Ward.
Jiang Xu’s visit to Xian Quan Ward tonight was to meet Qiu Yue in person.
However, it seemed Qiu Yue’s contact with the secret guards had aroused suspicion. Before Jiang Xu could meet her, the Shu family, sensing something amiss, sent people to abduct her.
With many secret guards on the boat, the abductors couldn’t easily take Qiu Yue away. In desperation, they threw her into the ship’s hold, spread oil, and set fires in several places.
The dry season made it easy for fires to spread, and the river wind would quickly fan the flames, forcing Jiang Xu’s party to temporarily leave the boat.
The attackers likely thought that if Qiu Yue wasn’t suffocated by the time the fire was extinguished, they could abduct her then. If she died, Jiang Xu’s group would struggle to find the evidence.
This plan partially succeeded, as the unexpected fire in Xian Quan Ward forced Jiang Xu and Shu Jing Ran to retreat temporarily.
The secret guards intercepted the attackers as they tried to escape in the chaos, but they were all suicide agents who took poison before they could be questioned. The only certainty was that they hadn’t managed to take Qiu Yue with them.
Seeing that Qiu Yue wasn’t found even after the boat fire was extinguished, Jiang Xu was about to leave when Ming Tan’s unexpected actions occurred—his little Princess Consort had been foolish enough to try to rescue him on the burning boat.
When the fire started, he had briefly wondered if the magistrate’s wife might have invited the Princess to watch the river performance and if she might see the fire. But it was just a fleeting thought. So what if she saw? So what if she knew? She was usually quite clever; surely she wouldn’t think he’d be trapped by this.
So when the secret guard reported that the Princess had boarded the boat to save him, he was momentarily stunned. When he regained his senses, he felt it was absurd for a moment, and then experienced an indescribable feeling the next.
…
Ming Tan felt very tired as if she had slept for a long time. When she slowly opened her eyes, she saw it was dark outside, and lamps had been lit inside.
Jiang Xu was sitting on a nearby couch, reading a book.
Hearing movement from the bed, he looked up, put down his book, and walked to the bedside.
“You’re awake.”
Ming Tan nodded, trying to sit up.
Jiang Xu helped her, propping up some pillows for her to lean on, then sat on the edge of the bed.
“How do you feel?” he asked gently.
“I’m fine. What about you, my lord? Are you hurt?”
“I’m unharmed. But you’ve slept for a day and a night. Should we call for the doctor again?”
Ming Tan paused: “A day and night?”
She thought she had only slept for a few hours.
So, the boat fire was yesterday’s news?
She quickly asked about last night’s events, remembering that Jiang Xu had come to rescue her on the boat. She cautiously asked, “By the way, my lord, did my boarding the boat cause you any trouble? Also, Yun Yi and I rescued a young woman from the bottom of the boat cabin. She was tied up, and we didn’t know what had happened. Is she still alive?”
“She’s alive. She happens to be the person I was looking for. You didn’t cause trouble, Princess. You helped me.”
Ming Tan was somewhat surprised: “Really? Why were you looking for her, my lord?”
She had asked casually and immediately felt she had spoken out of turn, trying to change the subject.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Xu brought the topic back, patiently explaining everything to her. He told her about the real purpose of his and Shu Jing Ran’s visit to Lingzhou, including many matters of court politics.
There was too much information for Ming Tan to process immediately. She was stunned for a while, taking time to absorb it all.
After suppressing her shock and slowly digesting the information, she couldn’t help but hesitantly say in a small voice, “My lord, women in our dynasty are not supposed to interfere in politics… Why are you telling me all this…”
“I’m telling you, not you actively prying,” Jiang Xu interrupted. “Besides, the prohibition on women interfering in politics has always been to restrain those without their judgment. You needn’t deliberately avoid such topics in the future. You are the Princess Consort; speaking up occasionally is not a problem. If it’s useful, I can listen. If it’s slander and I’m swayed by it, that’s my inability to discern right from wrong, not your fault.”
Ming Tan stared at him in astonishment.
What he said today went beyond the teachings she had received before, but it seemed to make sense.
“What are you thinking?”
Ming Tan shook her head: “You’re very talkative today, my lord.”
“…”
Ming Tan hurried to explain: “I don’t mind you talking a lot. It’s just that you usually speak less, and today you’ve said more than you typically do in a month combined.”
This only made things worse.
As Ming Tan was wondering how to make amends, Jiang Xu suddenly said, “There’s something I want to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Why did you board the boat?”
He had been pondering this since last night, trying to understand why she thought he couldn’t escape safely. He supposed she might have believed the Shu family, with their far-reaching power in Lingzhou, had deliberately set a trap.
But in his understanding, even if something had happened to him, the Princess Consort shouldn’t have acted so impulsively.
If the Shu family could take his life on the boat, her going there would only result in her pointless death. She was usually intelligent; surely she could understand this much. Moreover, she valued her life greatly, so why would she do this?
He had a vague answer in his heart, but for some reason, he still wanted to hear it from her directly. After asking, he just kept looking at her, his gaze calm and steady.
Ming Tan met his gaze for a while, then suddenly looked away, feeling uncomfortable.
She clutched at the corner of the quilt, her ears inexplicably beginning to burn.
Now that she had come to her senses, she also felt that she had been foolishly out of control last night. But at that moment, she had acted on the feeling that if something happened to her husband, she didn’t want to live alone. She didn’t know what had come over her—perhaps she had been bewitched. Why did he keep asking her about it?
“I… I feel a bit dizzy. I think I need to sleep a little more…”
With that, she quickly pulled up the quilt, burrowing her entire body underneath, covering even her little head tightly. She then turned over, inching towards the corner of the bed.