Huai Tree’s Repayment of Kindness – Part 5
As if to echo Su Qingtang’s words, the maid Xiaotao instinctively clutched the fragrant pouch tied at her waist. Both Yin Guhuai and Su Qingtang noticed the movement at once.
Su Qingtang bent down curiously. “What’s that design on your pouch? A duck?”
Sure enough—a faint scent of licorice drifted from it.
Flushing bright red, Xiaotao stammered, “It—it’s a mandarin duck, my lady. I embroidered it myself…”
“Oh—sorry, my mistake,” Su Qingtang said at once, quick to admit her blunder. She honestly hadn’t seen the resemblance; she’d thought it was a mountain or something.
“Enough,” Yin Guhuai said, shifting in his seat and crossing one leg over the other. “Since you claim it has nothing to do with you, let’s move on. Is the coachman here?”
Gu An understood immediately and ordered the guards to take Xiaotao aside. A man in fine brocade clothing entered—the coachman, Xiao Ma.
[Even the coachman’s wearing Fuguang brocade?] Su Qingtang thought in disbelief. I only have one piece of that fabric myself!
She stared at the richly dressed servant, stunned that even a mere horseman in the Lu household could wear such luxury. Was she biased—or was her own family too frugal?
Yin Guhuai also lifted his eyes toward the man. Oddly, he didn’t sense the same texture as Su Qingtang’s handkerchief, though it should have been the same. Thinking back, he remembered Lu Wanting intercepting him that morning. At the time, he hadn’t noticed her clothing either.
He had a sharp memory—he never forgot details like fabric or pattern. Which meant only one thing: Lu Wanting had tampered with what he saw.
Yin Guhuai rubbed his temples. Her earlier “heart voice” echoed in his mind—something about “the emperor’s dragon aura.” He was, after all, the future emperor. Like Xide Emperor, he too carried the vast power of dragon breath.
With a thought, he stirred the dragon pearl within him. A low, ethereal dragon’s roar swept through the heavens, resonating across all Yingyue City. For a fleeting instant, the entire city seemed to shift—the illusion of two worlds overlapping. In the Princess’s residence, Yin Guling opened her eyes to the same tremor, flames bursting in her hands as phoenix song joined dragon roar, purging the city with divine fire.
And just as quickly, everything returned to normal. People blinked, uncertain whether anything had changed at all.
When Yin Guhuai opened his eyes again, the coachman before him looked entirely different—his clothes now mismatched, shabby beneath the fine fabric. No matter how he tried to tidy himself, he still didn’t deserve to wear such cloth.
The man knelt immediately, trembling. Glancing nervously toward Xiaotao, then back to Yin Guhuai, he stammered, “My lord, I’ve already confessed. I saw Xiaocui going to Tianxiang Pavilion to buy things. She never had much money, so I thought she must’ve struck it rich. I just wanted to extort her a little—but who’d have thought she’d jump?”
“How long had she been here?” Yin Guhuai asked.
The man frowned, thinking. “Ten years, maybe more. She was bought young. I’ve been here all my life, same as my father and grandfather—we’re house slaves.”
Su Qingtang let out a quiet snort. “So you’ve worked under the same roof for years and never knew her temperament? No, you knew. You knew she was poor—so when she suddenly spent money at Tianxiang Pavilion, you realized she had cash. You must have known her well enough to guess that. Which means—” She narrowed her eyes. “You provoked her deliberately. You knew she’d come into money. And those clothes you’re wearing, the ones no ordinary coachman could afford—maybe Tianxiang Pavilion wasn’t her destination at all. Maybe it was yours. You arranged to meet her there, things went wrong, you tried to force yourself on her, and she jumped in panic.”
Yin Guhuai seamlessly followed her line of thought, rising to his feet and walking toward the coachman.
The man shook his head frantically. “No, that’s not true—I didn’t!”
Su Qingtang pressed harder, her tone sharp. “Xiaocui was three months pregnant. Was it you, her lover?”
Her eyes flicked toward Xiaotao, who stood silently nearby.
The man panicked. “Impossible! Xiaocui was scrawny and plain—no charm at all! If she didn’t obey the young lady so well, she’d have been thrown out long ago!”
His words betrayed him—the way his gaze darted repeatedly to Xiaotao did not escape Su Qingtang’s notice.
“Oh?” she said sweetly. “And how would you know what her figure was like, unless you’d seen it? Looks to me like you’d been eyeing her for a while. Your Highness, we should check if the victim suffered harassment before her death!”
The man’s face crumpled. “No! You’ve got it wrong! I just meant—she’s so thin, she’s not my type! That’s normal, isn’t it?”
“Then how did you know she went to Tianxiang Pavilion?” Yin Guhuai asked coldly.
“I’ve been in charge of Miss Lu’s carriage for three years,” he said. “Xiaocui was her personal maid, so of course I paid attention to her movements. When I saw her sneaking out alone, I followed.”
“So you saw an opportunity to make money,” Su Qingtang said crisply. “She refused, and you forced her—she fell in her struggle. You pushed her.”
“No, no! She tricked me! That lowly maid pretended to be Xiaotao and invited me there!” The man blurted out, then froze, realizing what he’d revealed.
Yin Guhuai said nothing, simply turning his gaze on Xiaotao.
He and Su Qingtang shared the same suspicion. Among all the maids, only Xiaotao’s accessories had been oddly luxurious, and she seemed far too composed about a colleague’s death. She even looked healthier than the frail Su Qingtang despite the heavy workload.
And her roughened hands—too coarse for a maid supposedly favored by her mistress.
Meanwhile, Su Qingtang’s reasoning was simpler. When the coachman entered, his eyes immediately found Xiaotao. And she herself noticed something—the embroidery on his brocade was identical to the stitching on Xiaotao’s pouch. That alone spoke volumes.
Men possess the instinct to claim; women, the skill to conceal.
Time to test the truth.
If she accused someone wrongly, she could always apologize later—it wasn’t like it would cost her anything.
“Xiaotao,” she said brightly, “do you know where one might buy licorice around here?”
Her tone shifted, cold and deliberate. “Or are you still planning to hide it? You realize the Fuguang brocade you’re wearing is evidence now, don’t you? Liuguang Pavilion keeps records of every bolt they sell. Think yours will show up?”
“And that pouch,” Su added casually, “now that I recall, it’s also Fuguang brocade, isn’t it? Just the trimmings, maybe—but still the same cloth. You know, I used to love our academy uniforms, because it made me feel like I was matching His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Her train of thought veered again, but no one dared interrupt.
Yin Guhuai cleared his throat pointedly. “Enough chatter. The City Patrol will uncover the truth sooner or later. You can confess now and face lighter punishment—or wait and face the full law.”
Realizing the jig was up, Xiao Ma gritted his teeth and turned to Xiaotao. “Let’s just tell them, Tao. Do you really think Miss Lu will protect us? The butler served her mother for decades and he’s already dead.”
Xiaotao clenched her fists, trembling. Then she stepped forward and knelt beside him, eyes squeezed shut as if bracing herself. “My lord, it’s true I quarreled with Xiaocui, but not enough to kill her.”
She went on: years ago, she had been Miss Lu Wanting’s personal maid—the top servant of the courtyard—while Xiaocui was merely an outer-house cleaner. But one Lantern Festival night, when Xiaotao fell ill, Lu Wanting chose Xiaocui to accompany her instead. The maid’s quick wit and knowledge of herbs earned her favor, and she soon replaced Xiaotao.
From then on, Xiaotao’s resentment festered. She played petty tricks to embarrass Xiaocui and even stole her gifts and fabrics. Xiaocui, meek by nature, endured it in silence.
Then, recently, Xiaocui had used Xiaotao’s name to invite Xiao Ma to Tianxiang Pavilion. Thinking it was Xiaotao herself, he had gone eagerly—never suspecting he was walking into tragedy.
To prove her sincerity, Xiaotao added, “A pregnant woman needs medicine to stabilize her condition, but I never once saw Xiaocui take any. We did have a rat problem a while ago, though—she went to the pharmacy for poison. The apothecary can confirm it.”
Yin Guhuai sat back, tapping the table lightly. “Tell me,” he said to Xiao Ma, “exactly how did she arrange to meet you?”
Xiao Ma licked his lips nervously. “Yesterday, after Miss Lu came home, she went straight to rest. Xiaocui told me, while passing along the next day’s travel plans, that we’d meet at Tianxiang Pavilion.”
“And you just went without question?”
“Well, she said she’d pay me! Who’d say no to money?” His shame was obvious even as he tried to sound casual.
“Nothing seemed odd? The time, the place—was that normal?” Yin Guhuai pressed.
“Not really,” Xiao Ma admitted. “She’s usually punctual, but she was late that day. I even ordered food while waiting.”
“Late?” Yin Guhuai repeated.
Gu An spoke up. “Your Highness, the apothecary said she ran past in a hurry that morning, didn’t even collect her medicine. He thought something urgent had happened at the Lu estate.”
“Yeah,” Xiao Ma added quickly. “When I saw her, she looked pale and tired. She drank the tea I’d ordered, though.”
Tianxiang Pavilion was expensive—he’d planned to have her pay, then take the leftovers back to Xiaotao.
“Your Highness,” Gu An said after a pause, “should we investigate again? This case feels… wrong. Too tidy. It’s like someone already cleaned everything up and left it waiting for us to find.”
[Investigate again?] Su Qingtang sighed inwardly. It might be useless. If this really is a “dream of the Southern Branch”—a spell of the Spirit Locust clan—then unless we break the illusion, we’ll never find the truth.
She looked up at the sky, noticing how bright it suddenly seemed. Was the sun… higher than before?
Yin Guhuai caught her look. He knew what she was thinking—but the barrier had already been lifted.
“Search again,” he ordered. “Gu An, take Xiaotao. Gu Quan, take the coachman. Zhou Kaili, question the vendors along the road from the Lu estate to Tianxiang Pavilion.”
“Zhiyang,” he added, “dig three feet deep if you must—I want to know what’s been hidden and what’s been newly planted.”
Finally, his gaze fell on Su Qingtang. “As for us, Miss Su… let’s go pay a visit to the pretending Lady Lu. The Spirit Locust isn’t here—it’s in the chamber of the Minister and his wife.”