“Because he has a guilty conscience,” Mu Wan replied with certainty.
Generally, when it comes to matters involving deities and ghosts, unless someone has suffered from recent bad luck and wants to cleanse their misfortune, or is seeking a blessing, people rarely think to hire various practitioners to perform rituals outside of holidays and festivals. Unless something recent had caused Mu Zhe to feel insecure, he would not have reacted this way to the point of neglecting a consort selection process that had been in preparation for a long time.
“They have hired quite a few people, and their internal ranks are not airtight. Can you help me obtain some information regarding the rituals they are performing? Perhaps I can figure out exactly what kind of ceremony Mu Zhe is conducting.”
This was not a difficult task for Ning Bu’mo. Since he had gained this information, he had naturally made preparations in advance. However, there was one thing he needed to tell Mu Wan beforehand.
“While investigating those monks and Taoist priests, I discovered that someone else is also scouting for information on the Mu estate. You should have some memory of that person.”
“Who is it?”
“Liaowu.”
It was the monk who had given Mu Wan a talisman and a longevity lock.
“He knows your estate is not entirely safe, yet he is also investigating the Mu estate.” Mu Wan could understand if it were just one isolated incident, perhaps someone connected to the Mu or the Prince’s estate, but when connected together, Mu Wan could not make sense of it.
“Perhaps we can meet this Master Liaowu.” Mu Wan took out the talisman, his mind made up.
At the medicinal herb field of the Yunyin Temple, this was a place where it was difficult to come into contact with outside information. The monks there did not interact with pilgrims, and naturally, they rarely knew what was happening in the outside world. Fortunately, the monks in the temple were not all of the temperament to focus solely on cultivation and ignore secular affairs, especially when these affairs involved such strange occurrences.
“I heard that during the winter hunt, the Prince Jing Consort was surrounded by singing birds and gathering beasts, and they even carried orchids to place in his hands. Such an auspicious sign is truly rare. It is a pity we did not have the chance to see it.”
“Is such a strange thing true? Could it be an exaggeration?”
“How could it be exaggerated? This was recounted by a certain Duchess when she visited. Furthermore, it is said the Consort even witnessed the manifestation of the Grand Ancestor.” The last four words were spoken in a very low voice, but they were still heard by Liaowu, who was bowing his head to water the plants.
“Is this really the case? Why would he suddenly see this?”
“I do not know the details. The person who spoke of it was also very cryptic, as if it were hard to bring up, but it seems there is truly something extraordinary about the Consort.”
As the small monks walked further away, Liaowu stood up from the herb field, his expression anxious. If what they said was true, the Young Master might encounter some trouble. Today was not Liaowu’s day to go down the mountain, but he was truly worried. After a moment of thought, he reported to the guest monitor and turned to head toward the city.
Once in the city, he first went to the Qian family herbal shop to buy some medicine before wandering around the vicinity of the Prince Jing estate, hesitating on how to contact Mu Wan. As he pondered, two figures appeared before him.
“Master Liaowu, Prince Jing invites you into the estate for a chat.”
Liaowu had met Mu Wan before and never expected to hide anything from Prince Jing. However, he wondered why the Prince was seeking him out now. Connecting this to Mu Wan’s encounter at the winter hunting grounds, Liaowu became increasingly restless. Could Prince Jing be behind this? Or does he intend to use the Young Master for some purpose? Worried, Liaowu could not think too much; with a solemn expression, he followed the guards into the estate.
Before entering, he was incredibly nervous, already contemplating what he should do to rescue the Young Master if Prince Jing were truly bullying him. But when he finally stood before the two, the scene left him stunned.
“Wait a moment, don’t disturb me.” Mu Wan pushed away the cheek Ning Bu’mo was leaning in to distract him with and continued drawing the mental cultivation method. Ning Bu’mo, however, was disobedient, his eyes constantly fixed on Mu Wan, making him feel quite uncomfortable.
Mu Wan’s hand slipped because of the distraction, and he paused, intending to scold Ning Bu’mo, but when he looked up, he saw the monk watching their interaction in a daze not far away.
“Master Liaowu.” Mu Wan closed the book, nudged Ning Bu’mo to signal him to act seriously, and then had the guards bring the monk forward.
Liaowu observed Mu Wan’s state with doubt and hesitation: “Prince Jing, Young Master.”
“It is Consort,” Ning Bu’mo corrected him with dissatisfaction. The term Young Master created a distance between him and Mu Wan.
Liaowu did not comply; he simply observed Mu Wan’s appearance, seemingly unable to believe it, yet asking expectantly: “Young Master, have you truly recovered?”
“I have.” Mu Wan answered, observing the joy on Liaowu’s face before continuing: “Actually, it was I who asked Ning Bu’mo to bring you here today. I have some questions I would like to ask you for guidance.”
He took out the silk pouch Liaowu had once given him and retrieved the talisman and the longevity lock. Liaowu immediately looked at Ning Bu’mo with vigilance, but heard Mu Wan say: “Don’t worry, Ning Bu’mo is not a bad person; he is with me.”
Ning Bu’mo sat up straight at the right moment, his face full of pride at being acknowledged. Liaowu shifted his gaze between the two for a long time before finally trusting Mu Wan’s choice. However, when it came to the talisman and the longevity lock, he remained silent, seemingly having some unspeakable difficulty.
Mu Wan examined the talisman without saying much, then held the longevity lock and said: “Master Liaowu, are you curious why I was able to recover?”
Liaowu’s brow twitched. Mu Wan invited him to sit down and put on a contemplative expression: “It started on the day I returned to the Mu estate.”
“At the time, Ning Bu’mo and I went to the Mu estate. Mu Yan kept finding fault with me, and feeling annoyed, I wandered around the estate and arrived at a room. It was located on the west side of the main house. Nobody had ever taken me there, nor did anyone say what that place was. But after I opened the door, I saw the figure of a woman inside.”
Mu Wan embellished the story slightly, depicting everything he had seen concerning Chu Xueqing at the Mu estate. When he spoke of the woman playing with a child, and the look of resentment she wore before leaving, Liaowu could no longer suppress his emotions, his expression filled with sorrow.
“My Lady,” he cried out, unable to say another word.
Mu Wan and Ning Bu’mo exchanged a look of surprise. The term My Lady carried too much information. Did this mean Liaowu had once been a member of the Chu household?
“Then what is this longevity lock?”
“When the Master heard you were born, he specifically had it crafted. He intended to send it over after returning to the capital, but he never expected to encounter a flood and never returned.”
Perhaps because the dam of his emotions had finally burst, Liaowu could no longer suppress the truth hidden in his heart for so long and spoke in a low voice: “You have likely guessed that I am named Gong Yuan. I was the steward for Master Chu Guangyuan. When the Master was sent out as a regional governor, I accompanied him. But we never expected an accident.”
“No, it was not an accident, but a deliberate murder!” Liaowu’s expression suddenly became ferocious, filled with deep resentment.
This exceeded Mu Wan’s expectations. If Chu Guangyuan had truly been murdered, there should have been some traces, and why hadn’t Liaowu sought justice for him at the time? He voiced his doubts.
“Because the Master did not die from an ordinary murder, but from a curse.” Liaowu sighed and began to recall: “It started during the flood. We were participating in disaster relief as usual, but on that day, a Taoist priest visited the Master.”
“He said that the Master was poisoned by a curse. This curse would not take his life immediately, but it would strip away his luck and slowly wear down his spirit.”
“The only solution was to rest well; once the curse disappeared, he would be able to escape the calamity.”
“But at that time, the disaster was severe, and we had no time to rest. Moreover, the theory of a poisonous curse sounded so absurd that we didn’t take it to heart.”
“That Taoist priest seemed to see this, sighed, and gave us a talisman.”
Mu Wan’s gaze landed on the talisman before him.
“It is not this one, but the effect is similar; it can block the influence of yin and evil objects.” Speaking to this point, Liaowu was already in great pain: “But the effect of this talisman could not withstand the vicious heart of the person behind it. Two days before the Master passed away, the talisman suddenly spontaneously combusted, and his complexion looked extremely poor.”
At that time, Liaowu and the others guessed that perhaps what the Taoist had said was the truth. However, he could not bring himself to stop the work Chu Guangyuan was doing.
“How could I delay the lives of thousands of people for my own sake? Old Gong, take this.” Chu Guangyuan had handed the longevity lock to him. “I don’t know what Xueqing and Wan-wan are like now; when we return, I still have to see my little grandson.”
But both knew that Chu Guangyuan handing over the longevity lock was equivalent to abandoning his own life.
“Later, the Master worked day and night until he passed away from exhaustion. Everyone praised the Master for being loyal to the Emperor and loving the people, giving his all until the end, but only I knew there was another reason.”
With resentment building in his heart, Liaowu thought of Chu Xueqing. He felt he should tell her the truth and see if he could investigate the matter with Mu Zhe’s help.
“But the moment the letter in my hands was delivered to My Lady, I was hunted down.” Liaowu did not specify what happened in between. “Later, I changed my appearance, shaved my head, and became a monk, living a low-profile life in this Yunyin Temple. I didn’t expect that before long, news of My Lady’s passing would arrive.”
“Since that is the case, why didn’t you come to see Mu Wan? Didn’t you think that he might be having a hard time in the Mu estate?”
“I wanted to, of course, but I didn’t dare.” Liaowu’s eyes turned red with guilt: “It was only later that I learned My Lady’s body had been weak since childbirth. Coupled with the Master’s death and that letter, I believed it was I who had harmed My Lady, and I had no face to see the Young Master.”
“Mu Zhe maintained the appearance of a loving husband for the first two years and took good care of the Young Master. Even the Master’s old friends praised him, so I assumed he was good to the Young Master.”
As for Mu Zhe’s later remarriage, because it was a proper marriage to a successor, there was nothing others could say. It was only with this recent arranged marriage that he revealed his true colors.
“It is my ignorance and cowardice; I did not dare to face the possibility that I had harmed My Lady, nor did I dare to visit the Young Master to learn of his situation, which led to the current outcome.”