To make sure he was not merely pretending to be unconscious, Zhu Xingxu walked over and called out to him.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?”
The masked man gave no response.
She nudged him with her foot. Still nothing.
After a moment’s thought, she shook the remaining powder from beneath her fingernails into his nostrils. His breathing grew even heavier.
Satisfied, Zhu Xingxu began to search for him.
After feeling around for quite some time, she found only a dagger and several letters.
The letters contained exchanges between the masked man and his employer. Judging from the handwriting, his employer was likely a refined scholar, the characters bold and vigorous, neat enough to serve as calligraphy copybooks.
How unprofessional. Wouldn’t any normal person burn such letters after reading them? Why was he still carrying them?
Unless the man’s status was so noble that the masked man had intended to use them as leverage.
Could it be the Emperor?
Was the Emperor trying to kill the Crown Princess?
The thought had barely formed when Zhu Xingxu laughed at herself. That was far too absurd.
Even if it was not the Emperor, it must be some other noble.
Perhaps Pei Xie would need these.
She tucked the letters into her pocket and searched him again. Apart from the dagger and the letters, there was nothing else.
Annoyed, Zhu Xingxu flung the dagger to the ground.
She knew he would not be so kind.
Still fuming, she blew her bone whistle.
As before, Pei Xie arrived swiftly.
Zhu Xingxu sat on a stool, propping her chin in her hand as she watched him. When Pei Xie stepped into the small side chamber and saw the masked man lying on the floor, his expression turned complicated.
The Imperial Guards filed in, preparing to take the man away.
“Wait!”
Zhu Xingxu rose, picked up the dagger she had thrown earlier, and stabbed it into the masked man’s calf. Perhaps he had truly inhaled too much of the drug, for he did not wake even then.
Pei Xie reached out to check his breathing, then withdrew his hand.
“Do you want this?”
Zhu Xingxu took out the letters. “I found them on him.”
Pei Xie accepted them and gave them a cursory glance. His face remained impassive, as though he had long anticipated their contents.
“Thank you.” He put them away.
With the assassin captured, Zhenguo Temple was unsealed.
The masked man was taken down the mountain to the prison. Unlike the Ministry of Justice’s jail, this prison held only high-profile criminals.
Inside, interrogation methods were plentiful. Torture instruments covered nearly an entire wall, each cell facing those cold, gleaming tools. Dried bloodstains clung to them, and the warders merely wiped them hastily at the end of each day, regardless of whether anything remained.
The intent was intimidation.
Many prisoners lost control at the mere sight.
This time, Pei Xie volunteered to conduct the interrogation.
The masked man was bound to a thick wooden post in the center of the room, still unconscious.
Pei Xie knew he had been drugged by the very powder Zhu Xingxu had used. Realizing she had not truly discarded the drug, the chill in his demeanor eased considerably.
A warder brought a basin of cold water and poured it over the man’s head. At last, he stirred awake.
Pei Xie reached forward and tore off his mask. Beneath it was an utterly ordinary middle-aged man.
Upon waking and finding himself in prison, the man was both furious and afraid.
“That little wench set me up again!”
Without hesitation, Pei Xie struck his face with the back of a knife. The blade was sharp, and even the blunt edge left a cut across his cheek.
Pei Xie looked at him coldly.
Realizing there was no hope of survival after being brought here, the man began to beg.
“Your Highness, spare me. I’ll tell you every secret I know!”
Pei Xie gave a cold laugh. “What will you tell me? That your master is the Crown Prince? Or that your attempt to assassinate the Crown Princess was meant to frame us?”
The man stiffened in shock, never expecting that everything had already been uncovered.
Pei Xie walked to a nearby stool and sat down, unconcerned when the hem of his robe brushed against filth on the floor.
“Speak! State your crimes.”
Since his bargaining chips were gone, the man fell silent. If he confessed, he would truly die.
Pei Xie was not angered. He ordered the clerk to hand the man a brush.
“Will you write, or not?”
Panic churned within him, though he feigned indifference. “I can’t even read. What do you expect me to write?”
He wanted only to delay. A moment longer alive was still a moment.
Pei Xie said nothing. He took out the stack of letters.
The man’s eyes locked onto them.
“Haha… what I meant to use to threaten the Crown Prince has become my death warrant. If I’d known, I would have listened to him and burned them!”
Pei Xie listened to his regret without expression.
“Speak.”
The man turned his head away.
Pei Xie cast a glance to the side. The warder understood and handed him an iron rod that had been heating in a brazier until red-hot.
Pei Xie took it and lifted the man’s trouser leg, revealing the wound Zhu Xingxu had inflicted earlier. It was not deep and had already begun to close.
He drove the iron rod straight into the wound.
The man let out a scream like a slaughtered pig. The air filled with the scent of scorched flesh.
Pei Xie frowned. He still preferred the fragrance of citrus.
Grapes were acceptable as well.
In a voice as gentle as if coaxing a child, he said, “Speak.”
Through clenched teeth, the man spat out two words.
“I won’t.”
Pei Xie’s expression barely shifted. With a slight exertion of his hand, the iron rod pierced through the other side of the calf. The man screamed even louder.
Pei Xie withdrew the rod and accepted a bowl of salt from the warder.
Still reeling from the previous torture, the man saw the white granules in his hand and trembled. “What are you going to do?”
Pei Xie lifted his eyes. “If you refuse to speak, I will pour it into your wound.”
The man began to gasp violently. The mere thought of the pain nearly killed him.
“I… I’ll talk.”
Before the Golden Throne Hall.
Pei Yan clutched evidence of the Crown Prince’s crimes and hurried toward the entrance, only to be stopped by the chief eunuch Zhang Xin.
“Third Prince, His Majesty is speaking with the Crown Prince.”
Pei Yan’s brows knit tightly as he exchanged a glance with Pei Xie, who had arrived behind him at a slower pace.
“When did the Crown Prince enter?” Pei Yan asked.
“About an hour ago.”
An hour, and he had not yet come out?
Pei Xie was not surprised. The Crown Prince was the Emperor’s favorite son. Unless he committed a grave offense that shook the very foundation of the state, the Emperor would mete out only minor punishment.
Even bringing Li Dong down had required immense effort, manipulating public sentiment before he was finally punished by law.
While they waited, Pei Yan paced back and forth, sighing from time to time. Pei Xie stood still, his expression calm.
After some time, the Crown Prince emerged. Upon seeing Pei Yan and Pei Xie, he gave a mocking smile and snorted softly before departing.
Pei Yan’s anger flared at the sight.
After Zhang Xin announced them, Pei Yan and Pei Xie were ushered inside.
The moment they saw the Emperor, Pei Yan presented the letters and the man’s written confession with his thumbprint, then knelt alongside Pei Xie.
“Father Emperor, please look. The Crown Prince attempted to harm the Crown Princess and frame us.”
The Emperor sipped his tea unhurriedly, sparing neither Pei Yan nor the stack of papers a glance.
“Zhang Xin.”
The eunuch hurried in. “Your servant is here.”
“The Hangzhou white chrysanthemums this time are excellent. See that they are rewarded.”
Zhang Xin beamed. “They will be overjoyed. This servant thanks Your Majesty on their behalf.”
The Emperor smiled faintly and waved him away.
A trace of unease crept into Pei Yan’s heart.
Only then did the Emperor notice the documents. He flipped through them casually. “The Crown Prince has already explained. Someone framed him.”
Pei Yan was stunned. “Father Emperor, this—”
The Emperor’s sharp gaze cut him off.
Pei Yan dared not speak further and withdrew with Pei Xie.
As they walked through the palace, the atmosphere between them was heavy.
“It seems Father Emperor is determined to protect him,” Pei Xie said.
Pei Yan shook his head with a sigh. “I thought that by punishing Li Dong, Father Emperor had changed his mind…”
Pei Xie said nothing more.
In truth, Li Dong had not been easy to bring down either.
They parted at the palace gates.
Pei Xie climbed into his carriage and let it wander aimlessly through the city. Even he did not know why he did not return home at once.
He drew back all the curtains inside the carriage, concealing himself in shadow.
On the street, a figure in blue caught his attention.
It was Zhu Xingxu.
She had come out with Ji Chiying.
Zhu Xingxu linked arms with Ji Chiying, laughing brightly. Her smile was radiant, and Pei Xie watched without blinking.
If only… she could smile at him like that.
The thought startled him.
It should not be this way.
He watched in silence for a long while before murmuring to the driver, “Return to the residence.”
The wheels began to turn.
Zhu Xingxu, who had been examining trinkets, noticed Pei Xie’s carriage.
Delighted, she said to Ji Chiying, “It’s the Fifth Prince. I’ll go say hello.”
Ji Chiying, knowing he had helped Zhu Xingxu greatly at Zhenguo Temple, released her arm and waited by the roadside.
The carriage was not moving quickly. Zhu Xingxu hastened forward and climbed onto the step at the side.
“Pei Xie!”
Pei Xie had been resting with his eyes closed. At the sudden sound of her voice, he was momentarily taken aback.
Unaware of his reaction, Zhu Xingxu slipped inside. Instantly, a rich scent of grapes filled the carriage.
After returning to the Zhu residence the previous night, she had taken a thorough bath, and of course she had not neglected her grapes.
Pei Xie cleared his throat and shifted slightly aside.
Zhu Xingxu sat opposite him. “Where are you going?”
In her mind, after everything they had experienced together at the Li residence and Zhenguo Temple, they were already friends. And friends could be at ease with one another.
“I’m heading back to the residence,” Pei Xie replied.
She nodded. “Then where were you just now?”
As she spoke, the sunlight reflecting from outside the carriage illuminated her light brown eyes, scattering starlike glints that shone straight into his heart.
Pei Xie’s breath hitched. He forced himself to dismiss the strange thoughts rising within him.
“I just came from the palace.”
She nodded again, then suddenly realized the driver had not stopped the carriage.
“Oh, I only came to say hello. I’ll be going now.”
Instinctively, Pei Xie wanted to ask her to stay a while longer, yet he restrained himself and merely murmured, “Mm.”
The driver halted the carriage.
After getting down, Zhu Xingxu waved at him. “See you next time!”
Something gleamed on the floorboards.
Pei Xie bent to pick it up. It was a smoky-blue begonia-shaped earring Zhu Xingxu had dropped.
She had only just left. If he stepped down now, he could catch up to her in two strides.
Yet, as if possessed, Pei Xie closed his fist tightly around the earring. The sharp post pierced his palm, drawing a sting of pain.
And yet, within his heart, a faint, inexplicable pleasure began to bloom.