The several matrons of the Shen residence who had dispersed last night were, in truth, still unreconciled. When dawn broke, under the pretext of attending to the Prince and Princess of Jing as they dressed and washed, they once again gathered close with inquisitive expressions, nosily taking the opportunity to peer into the inner chambers and scout out the situation.
However, everything inside the room remained as usual. The bed stood solidly upright in the inner recess, and the Prince and Princess of Jing were already fully and neatly dressed, scrubbing their hands with scented ointment. The scene was so harmonious that the massive rumbling sound of the previous night seemed like auditory hallucinations.
Detecting the restless commotion, the Prince of Jing tossed his wet towel into the water. Through the billowing, warm mist, his phoenix eyes slowly lifted. “Have you seen enough?”
The female servants all lowered their heads with flushed faces, not daring to utter another half-word.
The Prince of Jing’s carriage was parked right in front of the Shen residence’s gates. Before returning to the manor this morning, Lin Ruoxi—who couldn’t even be bothered to keep up appearances for a full act—claimed illness and did not come to send them off. Shen Shoushi, mindful of the bigger picture, did come, fulfilling all proper etiquette as he escorted the Prince of Jing all the way to the front gates.
Before boarding the carriage, the Prince of Jing turned and asked Shen Shoushi, “There is still an unmarried daughter in the Shen household. Why was your wife’s younger sister from your household nowhere to be seen yesterday?”
The Prince of Jing’s tone sounded like nothing more than a casual, customary greeting and expression of concern.
Yet at this single question, the heartstrings of everyone present tightened instantly. The face of Shen Lizhuang, hidden beneath her veil, abruptly drained of all color, and her eye sockets trembled in quiet panic.
As a veteran official who had served two dynasties, Shen Shoushi was hardly undeserving of his reputation. He immediately cupped his hands and fabricated a story: “Replying to Your Highness, this humble subject’s younger daughter was born with a face as plain as salt. Yesterday, she even contracted a chill, making it truly inconvenient for her to meet guests.”
Shen Lizhuang, whose face was as plain as salt, tightly gripped the pear-blossom embroidered sleeve cuffs of her robe. A wave of suffocating foul air surged upward, and her complexion shifted through several shades. Yet her lips merely twitched hastily, failing to emit even the faintest sound.
Sensing the subtle shift in the air currents, the Prince of Jing said with a knowing expression, “So that’s how it is. Many thanks to Father-in-law for clearing up the mystery. This Prince thought his own disposition was too fierce and had somehow frightened my wife’s younger sister. Since she has fallen ill, she should rest and recover properly. If there is any shortage of medicine, Father-in-law need only ask the Prince of Jing’s Manor; there is no need to stand on ceremony.”
It sounded as though the matter had been glossed over. Shen Shoushi slowly let go of the heart hanging in his throat, though he was already bathed in a cold sweat. Cupping his hands with a strained smile, he said, “Please rest assured, Your Highness, my daughter’s frail condition is nothing serious. With Your Highness’s dragon-like bearing and jade-tree-like elegance, you are certainly no fiendish demon or evil spirit—how could you possibly frighten others?”
“Is that so?” the Prince of Jing replied indifferently. “When this Prince was still in the military, it was said I had the power to stop crying babies at night.”
Shen Shoushi waved his hand sideways, refusing to hear any more of it. “You jest, Your Highness truly jests…”
Drawing back the corners of his mouth, Ji Mu bid farewell to Shen Shoushi, then wrapped his arm around his wife’s soft waist to help her up into the carriage.
Her lingering irritation not yet subsided, Shen Lizhuang steadied the Prince into the carriage before hastily climbing in herself, followed closely by Ji Mu.
The Prince of Jing’s core retainers, Long Zhou and Li Mao, rode ahead on horseback, clearing a smooth and level path for the manor’s ornate canopied carriage. Only then did the carriage proceed steadily, without swaying or jolting.
Shen Lizhuang removed her veil, cast a silent, sidelong glance, and surreptitiously observed Ji Mu.
“Tea,” he suddenly said.
Shen Lizhuang’s furtive glance fell flat. Without much pleasant mood, she complied and poured him a cup of tea.
Ji Mu maneuvered the teacup between his fingertips just as he commanded grand strategies from within a command tent. His long fingers staggered with their own composed and steady rhythm, as though he meant to curl and grasp all the winds, frosts, and turbulent waves of his past directly into the palm of his hand.
In truth, he had not been lying. Over the past few days, Shen Lizhuang had inquired about many past events concerning the Prince of Jing. She seemed to have heard that back when the Prince of Jing was in the military, he was high-spirited and formidable, slaughtering over ten thousand Hu soldiers in the Battle of Jinming. As the saying goes, killing one man makes you a criminal, but slaughtering ten thousand makes you a hero. The Prince of Jing of those years indeed possessed the reputation to stop Hu children from crying at night.
Had it not been for the sudden calamity that left him completely blind, he would still have been the late Emperor’s most beloved youngest son, the most dazzling and prominent young gentleman in the capital city of Yujing.
The current Prince of Jing was like a sea-falcon with broken wings, kept captive within a cage, never to fly again.
Judging others by herself, Shen Lizhuang could empathize—sharing a fraction of that bitterness and frustration of unfulfilled talent and thwarted grand ambitions.
However, that still did not give him any reason to naturally expect her to pour his tea every single time.
Ji Mu drank his tea unhurriedly, looking so poised and graceful—so graceful that it made one’s teeth ache with resentment. Yet, through some sudden misfortune, the carriage, which had been maintaining a steady pace, came to an abrupt, screeching halt. In less than the span of a breath, it stopped dead in its tracks. The water in Ji Mu’s cup splashed directly onto his face and collar as the carriage slammed to a standstill, nearly soaking the poised Prince of Jing through.
A clear, greenish streak of water slid down from the strands of hair on his forehead, dripping past his sharp, well-defined jawline and into his collar, illuminating his slightly altered, handsome face beneath the tea broth.
Seeing him grip his teacup and desperately strive to maintain his composure, Shen Lizhuang exerted her utmost control over her facial muscles to keep from laughing out loud, merely handing him a handkerchief.
“Long Zhou.”
The Prince of Jing called out in a deep voice, tightly gripping the handkerchief.
Within moments, Long Zhou turned his horse around and reined it to a stop.
“Your Highness, someone is blocking the path.”
“Who is it?”
Curious as well, Shen Lizhuang bent forward, her upper body tilting, and opened the carriage door with her right hand.
Through the two wide-open carriage doors, she could clearly make out four horses harnessed side by side with well-groomed coats of matching color. Further ahead stood a sturdy, fierce-looking woman brandishing a majestic kitchen cleaver in her muscular, powerful arm, blocking their way with murderous intent.
Deeply startled, Shen Lizhuang hurried to look toward the Prince of Jing. “Your Highness, someone is blocking the road with a weapon.”
“How many people?”
“Just a single person,” Long Zhou replied.
Because the person opposite was merely a woman, she did not look like a highway robber. Furthermore, Yujing was the premier realm of virtue beneath the Emperor’s feet, bound by strict laws—who would dare to commit highway robbery in broad daylight? The manor’s guards found it inappropriate to clash with civilians in the streets, so they had temporarily brought the carriage to a sudden stop to consult His Highness.
Ji Mu handed the teacup back to Shen Lizhuang. As she took it, she heard his calm, steady voice: “Bring her over.”
Judging by his tone, he seemed to have experienced being intercepted like this more than once.
Long Zhou looked somewhat troubled. “Your Highness, the other party is holding a kitchen cleaver. There is blood on her unlined robe, too. She looks rather like a butcher.”
As the echo of Long Zhou’s words faded, the butcher holding the cleaver burst out with a sharp, piercing demand: “I want to see the Prince of Jing! I want to ask: is it because one is an imperial prince and grandson that they can accept bribes and subvert black and white? Whoever dares to block my path, I will slaughter like a pig! Prince of Jing! You are also a martial general—having dared to do it, why don’t you dare to own up to it? Are you only capable of cowering inside a carriage?”
The insults grew increasingly harsh. Although the surrounding streets were initially deserted, people were gradually gathering to watch. In an instant, the spectators formed a wall, blocking all movement.
Ji Mu furrowed his brow, repeating with rising displeasure, “Bring her here.”
Left with no choice, Long Zhou went over, promising that the butcher could see His Highness on the condition that she put away her cleaver.
The female butcher refused to let go of her weapon; whoever dared approach, she pointed the razor-sharp blade straight at them.
The friction escalated rapidly, and within moments they were on the verge of coming to blows. As Shen Lizhuang watched from the sidelines, anxiety grew secretly in her heart. Just then, her hand was gently tapped by a veil. Lowering her gaze in surprise, she saw the pristine white veil being offered up to her lap.
Ji Mu’s Adam’s apple moved slightly. “Put it on.”
Seeing the crowd of onlookers growing denser on the street, Shen Lizhuang complied, taking the veil and draping it over her face to conceal herself.
The butcher woman was unrelenting: “Who dares come near! Taking bribes, colluding for personal gain—is there no justice left?”
Ji Mu’s brows furrowed deeper and deeper. Murmurs and discussions seemed to be rising among the commoners. He pressed down on Shen Lizhuang’s restless hand and said in a low voice, “Stay in the carriage and don’t come out.”
Shen Lizhuang was also quite astonished. The woman had come out shouting accusations that the Prince of Jing had taken bribes—yet whose favors had the Prince accepted, and what matter had he fixed for them? Not only she, but the commoners as well were completely baffled. Fairness dictated that the Prince of Jing had a relatively good temper; even when faced with baseless accusations and abuses, he did not fly into a rage or lose his composure, nor did he order the woman arrested and taken to the Yujing municipal office for creating a public disturbance.
He stepped down from the carriage, took the walking stick handed to him by Long Zhou, and walked a few paces toward the front of the horses.
His dark, lightless phoenix eyes resembled obsidian stones that had rested in tranquil, stagnant waters for a thousand years, his gaze failing to land on any actual object.
Upon seeing clearly that the Prince of Jing was indeed blind, the expression on the butcher’s face shifted in surprise.
“Who are you?” Ji Mu did not know her identity; the women he had known in his life were few, and the ones he had offended were even fewer.
The kitchen cleaver held high by the butcher sluggishly sank a fraction lower, her murderous intent easing considerably. “My name is Li Zhao. I am from Yangzhou, and a candidate participating in this year’s metropolitan examinations for the women’s academy.”
Ji Mu countered, “Do you have solid proof for your claim that this Prince took bribes?”
Li Zhao’s blade dipped a bit lower still, and she stared blankly at Ji Mu. “I… I heard that you are the chief examiner. The examination papers all have to pass through your eyes. Xu Tangdi, the candidate who stayed in the room next to mine during the women’s academy exams, is both my fellow townsman and deskmate. I have read her essays—her sentences are incoherent, her choice of words is riddled with errors, and she hasn’t even fully studied the Book of Rites. According to the rules, she shouldn’t even have been eligible in the first place.”
“During the examinations, did the two of you frequently stay together?”
According to the rules of the women’s academy examinations, the exams lasted three days in total: two rounds of closed-book tests and one round of circulating essays, consisting solely of short answers. During the three days, examinees were required to lodge within the tribute examination hall.
However, female candidates differed from male ones; with a smaller number of examinees, they enjoyed comparatively better accommodation conditions. Some candidates would review their notes at night, and during times when they bathed and changed clothes, they could even exchange a few whispers.
Li Zhao’s cleaver lowered a bit more. This time, it trembled almost completely until it rested beside her blood-stained skirt. Her gaze went blank for a moment, before burning, fierce flames quickly reignited within them. “No. But I swear on my head, Xu Tangdi could never pass! If I am slandering her, I am willing to suffer execution by torture! The Xu family are imperial merchants with substantial wealth in Yangzhou. When I entered the tribute hall, I saw with my own eyes that she brought a piece of jade the size of a fist, and when she left, that piece of jade was gone.”
Ji Mu said, “If you want to file a lawsuit, you’ve come to the wrong person.”
Startled, Li Zhao raised her butcher’s cleaver high once again, frightening the surrounding citizens into turning pale with terror and scrambling backward.
Filled with lingering hatred, Li Zhao raised her voice and declared, “All examination papers must pass through the chief examiner’s eyes—her top-tier ranking was stamped by your own hand!”
“The results have not yet been posted; how could you possibly know what grade Xu’s exam paper received?”
“The Xu family is already celebrating behind closed doors—do you even need to ask?”
In Li Zhao’s eyes, the Prince of Jing was simply feigning ignorance after accepting benefits from the imperial merchant Xu family.
Yet Ji Mu’s expression grew even darker.
If what Li Zhao said was true, there might indeed be some unspeakable, shadowy conspiracies hidden beneath the surface.
Standing upright with his cane, Ji Mu spoke. “This Prince is already aware of this matter. Since this Prince is the chief examiner, I cannot ignore a report made by a student. If there is a formal complaint, present it.”
Unaware that she needed to write a formal complaint for such matters, Li Zhao froze for a moment. Her kitchen cleaver finally dropped completely against the hem of her blood-stained skirt, her arm feeling too weak to lift it. Her lips twitched as she muttered, “I don’t have one.”
“Go back and write one. Also,” Ji Mu stated, “the examination papers have never passed through this Prince’s eyes.”
Li Zhao was stunned, all her breath stuck in her chest.
The Prince of Jing, blind and unable to see, could not grade papers. If tricks and collusion were being played behind his back, he was likely entirely unaware of them as well.
“Fine, I’ll go back and write it.”
“Deliver it to the Prince of Jing’s Manor tonight. Li Mao, escort her back.”
Having arranged Li Zhao’s destination, Ji Mu knitted his brows deeply. With a displeased and impatient expression, he turned back toward the carriage, discarded his blind cane, and deftly vaulted into the carriage door.
A gust of swirling wind sent a chill through Shen Lizhuang’s kneecaps. Staring blankly at Ji Mu, she momentarily lost her power of speech, while the clamor inside her heart surged like the deafening buzzing of bees and cicadas, sweeping over her and causing her to forget even her formal honorifics: “You are the chief examiner of the women’s academy?”
Author’s Note:
Good grief, this is a real-life cosplay of the chief examiner and the examinee!