Fu Ying and Shang Jue sat together at the table enjoying lunch.
Today’s meal was especially lavish. With Shang Jue visiting the residence, the kitchen had specially prepared sugared crab, fresh shrimp, and roasted mutton, extravagant dishes rarely seen on ordinary days, along with cherry biluo pastries for dessert, showing great care and attention to detail.
Faced with this feast, Fu Ying’s mind was entirely on the man in the main room upstairs, and she could not focus on eating.
He was unwell, and if he did not eat soon, his strength would decline rapidly, leaving him even weaker.
But given the current situation, sending food up to the second floor would risk exposing his presence……
Noticing her distracted look, Shang Jue set down his chopsticks and asked: “A Ying, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s nothing.” Fu Ying hurriedly came back to herself, answering hastily.
Seeing her still somewhat absent-minded, Shang Jue smiled gently: “You should focus on eating. Here, this cherry biluo is your favorite, have some more.”
“All right.”
Worrying would do no good and might only arouse Shang Jue’s suspicion. Fu Ying steadied her mind, picked up a biluo pastry with her chopsticks, and began eating it in small bites.
The translucent pink pastry skin wrapped around plump, glistening cherry flesh, smooth and delicate to the taste, sweet and sour intertwined, truly delicious.
Tasting such a delightful sweet, Fu Ying felt her anxiety ease considerably.
She wondered whether Wen Zhuo had ever tasted this cherry biluo before, if Shang Jue had not been sitting right there, she would have loved to bring some up for him to try.
Just then, Wei Changxi, Shang Jue’s personal eunuch attendant, holding a horsetail whisk, came to his side and whispered a few words to him in an extremely low voice.
Shang Jue’s expression remained calm as still water, and he replied briefly to Wei Changxi.
Wei Changxi then turned and bowed deeply to Fu Ying with a beaming smile: “This servant apologizes for disturbing Your Highness’s meal. Please forgive me.”
Fu Ying shook her head and asked Shang Jue: “Does brother have important matters to discuss? A Ying will step aside for now.”
Shang Jue answered: “It’s nothing important. Let’s eat first,” and dismissed Wei Changxi.
In the afternoon, heavy snow began falling outside in large flakes, quickly blanketing the wilderness entirely in a vast expanse of white.
Traveling by carriage in the snow was inconvenient, so Shang Jue stayed a while longer, sitting at the table drinking tea and admiring paintings and calligraphy, waiting for the snow to ease before leaving.
Fu Ying left the room to change her clothes, and happened to run into Bi Luo, who was keeping watch under the corridor.
“Young lady,” Bi Luo greeted Fu Ying, then, somewhat puzzled, looked behind her. “Isn’t Fu Sang with you?”
Fu Ying felt a flicker of curiosity, not sure why Bi Luo would ask this. “When brother arrived, I had Fu Sang stay upstairs to watch over the young master.”
“Huh?”
Bi Luo’s eyes widened in surprise: “But I saw Fu Sang leave the main room earlier, she said you needed her for something… oh, and when she went downstairs, a guard was following her too.”
A bad premonition immediately took hold in Fu Ying’s heart. “When was this?”
“About a quarter hour ago.”
Wei Changxi entering first to report, then apologizing, followed by Shang Jue’s deliberately hushed, fragmentary replies during their meal……
This was bad!
Fu Ying suddenly gripped Bi Luo’s arm, her voice unable to stop trembling: “Quick, go get Jiang Yue, now!”
Inside the underground hidden chamber.
Fu Sang lay on the ground, barely breathing, having fainted from the pain, cold sweat soaking through the hair at her forehead, her rosy little face as pale as a corpse’s.
A pair of slender hands had just been put through the finger press, swollen red, crisscrossed with marks of blood. The pain from her knuckles spread through her whole body along the meridians, causing her to briefly lose consciousness.
Chen Shi sat sprawled brazenly in a chair, one hand lifting the lid of a teacup and holding it to his nose to sniff, as though he had not even noticed the miserable scene before him.
A guard beside him ventured to ask: “My lord, what do you make of this…?”
“Douse her awake.”
Chen Shi did not even look up, taking a sip of tea.
Seeing that Fu Sang was young, he had even shown her some mercy, removing one wooden rod from the finger press and pinching only her index, middle, and ring fingers.
His men had not even used half their strength before she had already fainted from the pain, truly useless.
A basin of cold water was thrown straight onto Fu Sang’s face, the bone-chilling cold forcing her consciousness back.
Water droplets clung to Fu Sang’s lashes as she trembled and forced her eyes open, unable to bear the searing pain in her fingers, tears falling without pause.
Savoring the rich, mellow aroma of the Tieguanyin tea, Chen Shi said: “I didn’t want it to come to this, but your mouth simply wouldn’t open, and it’s put me in quite a difficult position too.”
Hearing his sanctimonious words, Fu Sang clenched her teeth, shivering from the cold, forcing out words through the pain: “You… torturing me without authorization… aren’t you afraid… the young lady will punish you for it?”
“Heh heh—”
Chen Shi looked as though he had just heard the greatest joke in the world.
“It’s only thanks to the Crown Prince’s mercy that she’s been kept safe until now. Otherwise, your young lady, a mere woman with no power of her own, would have been devoured alive the moment the former Khan died, how else could she be hiding out here in the countryside, enjoying such a peaceful, comfortable life for so long?”
Fu Sang shook her head blankly, unable to believe what she was hearing from Chen Shi’s mouth.
Why……
She had always believed that Shang Jue’s care and protection of Fu Ying came from the sworn brotherhood between the two Khans, and from the bond of affection between the two of them, having grown up together since childhood.
Why, in Chen Shi’s mouth, had it become such a shameful act of charity?
“Anyone else would already be kowtowing in tearful gratitude, yet you people harbor treacherous intentions, plotting against the Khan and His Highness, how utterly brazen!”
Hearing Chen Shi slander the young lady she admired and loved so much, Fu Sang’s nose stung, and she broke into sobs.
“I’ll ask you one last time, why did Jiang Yue go into the city to buy men’s robes a few days ago? Why has the princess’s appetite increased so much these past few days? And what, exactly, is your connection to Great Yong?”
Chen Shi dropped all pretense entirely, slamming his teacup down onto the table and roaring furiously at Fu Sang, sprawled on the floor, his booming voice echoing through the chamber and striking fear into anyone who heard it.
“If you don’t tell the truth this time, I’ll strip you bare and throw you out in the snow!”
An overwhelming fear of death crashed down over her, and Fu Sang let out a faint, despairing sob.
“I’ll tell you……”
Fu Sang wiped clumsily at the tears and snot on her face, trembling as she raised her head.
It was no longer possible to say nothing at all, but to betray Fu Ying, that she could not do.
Chen Shi gave a cold snort, walked closer and crouched down, bringing his ear near her, listening to her voice, thin as a thread.
“Three nights ago, an assassin broke into the main room at night, trying to kill the young lady, but was killed by Jiang Yue… his blood splattered all over him, that’s why he went to buy new clothes to change into……”
Jiang Yue was a shadow guard who did not live in the residence itself, but moved about the outskirts of the city, with no fixed place to stay.
Saying he had gone to Yunzhou to buy replacement clothes raised no particular doubt.
Chen Shi believed this part of her story for now, and pressed her without pause: “Why has the princess’s food intake increased so much? Tell me quickly!”
“Ngh—”
Enduring the pain, Fu Sang thought quickly and answered: “Ever since the old Khan passed, the young lady has taken up devotion to Guanyin… with an assassin having died in this residence, the young lady has been unable to rest easy, so she’s been using one person’s portion of food… to make offerings to the statue of Guanyin every single day without fail… as for any connection to Great Yong, that’s utterly baseless, it’s nothing but slander from that assassin, who, having failed in his attempt, dragged us down with him out of spite… you foolish brute, don’t go pinning filth on people at random!”
“You—”
Chen Shi’s eyes went wide with fury, and he grabbed the front of Fu Sang’s clothing with one hand, hauling her half-upright off the ground, choking her into a fit of coughing.
“My lord, shall we report what she’s said to His Highness?”
Chen Shi looked at her with disgust, her state soaked and messy, barely breathing, and with a flick of his hand let her frail little body fall carelessly back to the ground.
“That assassin is dead with no one to testify against her, what else is there to report?”
He took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped his hands, then left without a backward glance.
Chen Shi came to the door of the west side room, removed his blade, and entered.
Shang Jue sat at the table, reading closely through a volume of the Zuo Zhuan.
“Your Highness,” Chen Shi bowed to Shang Jue, most respectfully. “This official has interrogated that lowly maid. No matter how she was questioned, she firmly denied any collusion between Her Highness the Princess and the forces of Great Yong, saying that the assassination attempt on Her Highness a few days ago was the cause of all these strange occurrences.”
Shang Jue raised his eyes. “I recall, last night an assassin also came, and killed himself after his attempt failed.”
“That’s correct. Although the assassin was subdued by Jiang Yue, he died from arsenic poisoning, and a vial containing arsenic was found on his body.”
Shang Jue’s tense expression eased somewhat, the grip of his hand on the scroll loosening a little.
Seen this way, it appeared someone wanted Fu Ying dead, rather than her sheltering an enemy.
Thank heavens for that.
If Fu Ying really had been in contact with Great Yong, he would not have known how to handle the matter while still protecting her fully.
He glanced at Chen Shi and said calmly: “Very good. You have relieved a great worry from my mind.”
Praised by Shang Jue, Chen Shi beamed with pride, quite pleased with himself. “Your Highness, that Fu Sang is still young and has no guile at all, this official only applied a little pressure, and she confessed everything at once.”
Shang Jue’s eyes widened slightly, hardly believing his own ears, the ease and composure on his handsome face vanishing in an instant.
“You bastard.”
His face darkened, and in a sudden fury he hurled the volume of the Zuo Zhuan he held straight at Chen Shi.
Chen Shi, terrified in that instant, did not dare dodge, and watched as the scroll struck him squarely in the face.
“I only told you to question her thoroughly. You crude fool, you dared torture A Ying’s own personal maid to extract testimony? Where does that leave my dignity?”
“This official is guilty, Your Highness, please calm your anger!” Chen Shi hurriedly knelt to beg forgiveness. “It’s only that the maid was so stubbornly tight-lipped, this official had no choice but to resort to it……”
Shang Jue had no patience to listen to this feeble excuse, glaring at him with contempt, cutting him off sharply: “Is she still alive?”
Chen Shi, knowing his own guilt, lowered his head. “She… she is still breathing……”
Shang Jue said in a stern voice: “Right Guard Commander Chen Shi, for reckless and rash conduct and poor handling of his duties, is fined three months’ salary.”
Chen Shi fell silent, knowing that avoiding demotion was already an act of mercy from Shang Jue, and could only bow his head to accept the order: “This official obeys……”
Suddenly, a guard rushed in to report, not even waiting for Wei Changxi at Shang Jue’s side to announce him.
“Your Highness, something’s wrong!”
Already in a foul mood, Shang Jue pressed two slender fingers to his furrowed brow and asked impatiently: “What is it?”
“A trail of men’s footprints has been found behind the main room, as though someone climbed the wall and fled the courtyard!”
Shang Jue’s expression turned grave, a cold light flashing instantly in his eyes.
So the matter had indeed not been as simple as he’d thought.
Whoever had left those footprints must be a remnant of Great Yong’s forces who had survived that massacre outside Yunzhou not long ago.
“Pursue him. He must be taken alive and brought to the traveling palace, my father and I will question him ourselves.”
His father, Shang Zhi, and Fu Ying’s father had been sworn brothers, and because of this bond, Fu Ying and he had grown up together since childhood, innocent and carefree, and he had always thought of her as his own younger sister.
But as he grew older, Shang Jue had developed a different kind of feeling for her.
Now that he was Crown Prince of the Northern Di, his status was exalted enough that he could finally confess these years of feeling to her, yet with Fu Ying now in mourning, he had no way to bring it up.
Learning that she seemed to be secretly harboring a man in her room, Shang Jue’s heart filled with jealousy, his anger burning.
If Fu Ying had merely been seeing to some physical need, that would have been understandable enough, but this person was suspected to be one of Great Yong’s forces.
He would not allow any factor to threaten his and his father’s position. That man had to be captured, and once thoroughly interrogated, torn to pieces.