When the blue-green spirit saw the layers of palace roofs and the lush green trees, and felt no pain but only a strange lightness, she knew that she was probably dead and had become a wandering ghost.
Everything she had said about the love poison and sharing the same fate had only been a lie to deceive Lu Huating.
Fortunately, she had already left her answer for Yang Fu in the jade pillow and in her final letter.
As long as the princess kept her promise in her heart, she could at least live as long as the Prince of Yan.
She had done everything she could to make a plan that would protect Yang Fu, but in the end, she had still failed to confirm whether the princess was safe.
Perhaps because her last wish had not been fulfilled, Qunqing’s spirit quickly swept across the palace and went straight to Liangyi Hall, where Yang Fu was imprisoned.
An iron mask lay on the windowsill, its frightening face turned upward.
The blue-eyed ghost paused for a moment, then carefully walked around it.
There were no guards or personal attendants inside the hall.
Yang Fu was sitting against the wall. Anyone seeing her for the first time would be stunned by her beauty. Even with her hair disheveled and her eyes red and swollen from crying, she still looked like a beautiful spring flower.
“What did you do to her?”
Li Huan’s expression was cold, and his voice was stern.
“She was a spy from Southern Chu who had assassinated more than five people. It was already my mercy to leave her body intact.”
Yang Fu tried to move closer, but she suddenly became agitated and pulled a gold hairpin from her hair.
Li Huan grabbed her wrist. Then, using her hand, he pushed the hairpin into his own abdomen.
“Then kill me and avenge her.”
It was said that when the Prince of Yan was born, his ugly appearance had frightened his mother so badly that she cried. He had therefore been forced to wear an iron mask to hide his face.
But today, the face beneath the mask was far from ugly.
Instead, it was handsome and full of a fierce, heroic spirit.
When he moved closer, the powerful, almost bandit-like presence of a man who had spent years fighting on the battlefield immediately filled the room.
With one hand, he completely restrained Yang Fu’s hands, leaving her unable to struggle.
The sharp hairpin had pierced deeply into his flesh, yet he did not even blink.
Yang Fu screamed and quickly pulled her hand away. The gold hairpin fell to the ground.
Li Huan cornered her and gently held her arm.
When he saw her trembling, he awkwardly released his hand.
“Do you really not care about me? You’re not even willing to look at me properly.”
He continued, “I killed your maid not because I wanted to hurt you, but because I wanted to free you from Southern Chu’s control. As long as she was alive, she would keep you trapped between the hatred of your country and your personal feelings.”
Yang Fu immediately burst into tears.
“You don’t understand…”
Li Huan said, “You’re the one who doesn’t understand! Everything has already been decided. Crown Prince Zhao is nothing but a clown. Southern Chu will belong to me sooner or later. Since ancient times, new dynasties have replaced old ones. This is the natural order of heaven and humanity. It is not something you young ladies can change!”
Qunqing should have felt relieved to see that Yang Fu was unharmed.
But the way the two of them interacted was completely different from what she had expected.
Yang Fu had clearly told her before that whenever the Prince of Yan summoned her to Liangyi Hall to copy scriptures, he would humiliate her terribly. Every time she returned, her eyes would be red and swollen from crying.
That was why Qunqing had hated the Prince of Yan so deeply.
But now…
It didn’t look like they hated each other at all.
The candlelight flickered, like the anxious and uncertain heart of the woman in blue.
Yang Fu’s sobs slowly became weaker, but her despair only grew deeper.
Li Huan said, “From today onward, if you trust me and marry me, you will become my wife. I will give you a proper title and protect you for the rest of your life.
“But if you insist on becoming Li Xuan’s Crown Princess…” He sighed and turned his head away. A cruel look flashed across his eyes. “Then, as Lu Huating said, you will go to prison together with the Crown Prince.”
Yang Fu swayed and nearly fell.
Li Huan could not bear to watch her collapse and immediately caught her.
Perhaps it was the flickering candlelight in the hall.
Perhaps it was the unsettling gaze of the statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.
Or perhaps it was Yang Fu’s constant shock and despair, like a tired bird that could find no branch to rest on.
Slowly, she raised her elegant sleeve and threw herself into his warm and strong embrace.
She burst into tears.
“Qingqing is dead. What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do… I beg Your Majesty, please don’t betray me…”
Li Huan froze.
Then his face filled with overwhelming joy.
He tightened his arms around her waist and lifted her onto the table in one swift movement.
Qunqing stared at their two tightly intertwined shadows.
It felt like she was trapped in a ridiculous nightmare.
Yet she could neither make a sound nor wake herself up.
She could no longer remember when the lies had begun.
Princess Bao’an had always hated Li Huan, hadn’t she?
When they were children, the Li family would come from the north to the palace to pay their respects.
Whenever Yang Fu saw Li Huan kneeling beneath the Jade Flower Terrace, she would hide behind Qunqing. She would grab Qunqing’s hand with her sweaty palms and hurry away as if she had suffered some terrible fright.
“Look at his mask! It’s so scary! He’s always staring at me. How shameless!”
Every time, Qunqing was the one who stood up straight and blocked the young Prince Yan’s bold gaze.
Later, when the Prince of Yan attacked Chang’an, he humiliated Princess Bao’an at Qingjing Temple. This made her fear and hate him even more.
No matter how Li Huan tried to please her, the princess continued to see him as a demon.
On the day she decided to poison Li Huan, Princess Bao’an had said painfully,
“I am a princess of a country, after all. If I have to suffer this kind of humiliation, how can I face my father, my elder sister, and my country?”
Until that day, everyone believed that the princess hated the Prince of Yan.
Everyone believed that he was their common enemy.
So when did the Prince of Yan become less hateful in the princess’s eyes?
Was it when he began caring about her?
When he gave her gifts?
Or when he continued pursuing her without giving up?
Why had Princess Bao’an never told Qunqing about this betrayal?
Not even a single word.
Qunqing suddenly looked at Yang Fu’s hand.
Princess Bao’an was loosely holding onto Li Huan’s neck.
A tiny piece of shiny gold foil was stuck to the tip of her long, decorative armor. Hanging from it was a poisonous bead that Qunqing herself had carefully attached.
The bead was still intact.
Its outer coating had not been broken.
A thunderous roar suddenly exploded in Qunqing’s ears.
So that was why Lu Huating had looked at her like that.
That was why the imperial physician had examined her and said that the Prince of Yan was “not seriously ill.”
If she had not been poisoned, how could she have become sick?
Inside Liangyi Hall, Princess Bao’an had failed to accomplish what she intended.
She had only touched the poisonous bead briefly before quickly pulling her hand away.
She couldn’t bring herself to poison Li Huan.
How complicated must Yang Fu’s feelings for the Prince of Yan have been for her to change her mind at the last moment?
She knew that Qunqing was secretly helping her, even risking her own life, yet she still could not bring herself to kill the man she loved.
There was no longer any need to ask who was more important in Yang Fu’s heart.
It turned out that today, Princess Bao’an was not the one who had fallen into the trap.
Qunqing was.
She had taken the bait herself and walked straight into the trap.
Gradually, Qunqing heard the sound of chanting.
The scripture recitations echoed through the palace, mixed with the clear sound of bronze instruments. The voices were gentle and peaceful, like a warm hand touching the top of her head, slowly calming her anger and urging her to rest.
But it was useless.
Her heart still hurt.
Many faces flashed through Qunqing’s mind.
After the chaos in Chang’an, her loved ones had been separated. Her mother was nowhere to be found. There was also Physician Li, who had once saved her, and his young apprentice Fangxie.
Along the way, many people had shown her kindness, and there were also many people she felt guilty toward.
She had put everything aside and resolutely entered the palace.
She knew that she would probably die sooner or later on the road to restoring her kingdom. After being injured in an assassination attempt, she had suffered from illness and had imagined many different ways she might die.
But she had never imagined that she would die for nothing.
A person could die.
But she could not accept dying in such a pathetic way!
Qunqing forced her eyes open.
Her vision gradually became clear again.
She saw where the chanting was coming from.
A funeral procession was moving along the palace road. Seven or eight Taoist priests carried white banners while chanting scriptures. Two eunuchs dressed in mourning clothes carried a coffin.
The black coffin was decorated with beautifully painted lotus flowers.
“Prime Minister Lu’s funeral procession! Make way! Make way!”
Qunqing was confused when she heard the eunuch’s words.
The current prime minister was Meng Guangshen.
So who was Prime Minister Lu?
She overheard a young eunuch carrying the coffin whispering, “Godfather, this coffin is so heavy. It feels like there’s more than one person inside. My arms are so sore…”
His godfather immediately scolded him.
The funeral procession passed directly through Qunqing’s spirit.
The loud chanting echoed through the sky, while the white paper banners fluttered in the wind and passed straight through her body.
At that moment, Qunqing finally became certain that she had become a ghost.
Her spirit immediately scattered into the world.
But before she could disappear completely, a tremendous force suddenly gathered her spirit back together and dragged her toward an extremely distant place.
When she opened her eyes again, she felt as if she had been tossed around inside a box seventy or eighty times before being thrown out.
The whole world was spinning.
Before she could recover, a bucket of cold water was suddenly poured over her head.
The strange cries of ghosts echoed in her ears, sending chills down her spine.
Qunqing slowly turned around and looked at the “ghosts.”
She saw several young palace maids gritting their teeth and crying.
The palace maids of the underworld had their hair tied in simple buns and looked no different from the palace maids of the human world.
“It’s too hot. You could easily faint. We’re cooling you down. Don’t think you can escape by pretending to faint.”
Another person was violently splashed with a ladle of water, and droplets landed on Qunqing’s face.
She let the water drip from her hair and eyebrows. The cold moisture slowly ran down into her collar.
Water…
Qunqing tightened her fingers.
She grabbed the hem of her two-colored skirt until it became wrinkled.
She squeezed harder.
A sharp pain suddenly shot through her palm.
She could feel the burning heat of the ground beneath her hands, the unbearable pain in her knees, the faint sound of cicadas in the distance, and the blazing sunlight above her head.
This was the human world!
The eunuch holding the water ladle wore a dark red robe and a headscarf.
Beside him stood a plump woman dressed in palace clothes. She looked to be in her forties.
When she met Qunqing’s eyes, she quickly winked at her, signaling her not to look around.
Qunqing stared at her for a long time.
Finally, a piece of memory slowly returned through the chaos in her mind.
This was Lady Zhang, the senior palace maid who had taken care of her when she first entered the Palace of the Night Court under the name Qunqing.
But…
Wasn’t this the first year of the reign of Emperor Shenglin?
Qunqing slowly reached down and touched the place where she had been stabbed in the lower abdomen.
She touched it again and again.
The wound was gone.
Eunuch Pei had ordered the palace maids to kneel under the scorching sun as punishment.
Lady Zhang tried to persuade him.
“Supervisor, if some of the maids have done something wrong, they can be taught properly later. But today, I was ordered by His Highness the Crown Prince to take them to be selected by the two noble ladies. It would not be appropriate to keep the noble ladies waiting.”
The two noble ladies were waiting to choose their attendants.
Qunqing suddenly remembered.
After returning to the palace disguised as a palace maid, she had stayed in the Palace of the Night Court for more than a month. Later, she had used the opportunity to select palace maids to get close to Princess Bao’an.
After that, she had entered the Six Palaces and become a spy planted in the palace by Southern Chu.
It seemed that today was the day she was supposed to leave the inner palace.
But why was she being punished by kneeling?
Pei Jianzuo sneered.
“Precisely because we are selecting servants for the noble ladies, we must be careful. We absolutely cannot allow someone with questionable character to slip through.”
Lady Zhang looked surprised.
“What do you mean? These maids were all carefully selected by me!”
Pei Jianzuo said, “Someone secretly reported that the night before last, one of you met a man outside the palace. According to the laws of Great Chen, palace maids are forbidden from secretly communicating with outsiders. Anyone who violates this rule will receive thirty strokes of the cane.
“If that person is found to be a spy, she will be executed without a proper burial.
“You may accuse one another, but the noble ladies are still waiting at Luan Yi Pavilion. If you cannot find the person responsible within the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, all of you will receive thirty strokes together!”
The young palace maids were instantly terrified.
The canes used for punishment were covered with sharp thorns.
When the cane came down, the thorns would pierce through the clothing and sink into the flesh.
When it was lifted again, it would tear away pieces of flesh and blood.
After ten strokes, most people could no longer even cry out.
Thirty strokes could leave a person’s legs broken and mangled.
Even if they survived, they would probably be crippled for the rest of their lives.
Qunqing stared at the hem of her skirt, her thoughts in complete chaos.
She had never believed in resurrection.
She was not even sure whether she had truly returned to the first year of Emperor Shenglin’s reign or whether she was simply experiencing a dream before death.
If it was only a dream, then perhaps this was the “revolving lantern” that old people often spoke about—a person’s entire life flashing through their mind before death.
Just then, Pei Jianzuo struck her hard on the head with his whisk.
“You’re so calm. Not even a single tear? You speak first.”
Qunqing’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
She had no memory of this happening.
Before she could say anything, a hurried voice suddenly came from beside her.
“Eunuch, this servant reports that the person who secretly passed the information was Qunqing! I woke up in the middle of the night and heard her talking to a strange man.”
Qunqing suddenly turned to look at the palace maid kneeling beside her.
The maid did not dare to meet her eyes.
She lowered her head, and her shoulders trembled slightly.
In an instant, a familiar sense of danger spread throughout Qunqing’s body.
It reminded her of what it felt like to be alive.
And it also reminded her that she might soon die for the second time.