The news that ghosts haunted Duke Shen’s Residence, that Duke Shen had murdered his first wife, and that a vengeful ghost had come to claim his life reached the Metropolitan Magistrate that very night. The Jinwu Guards surrounded the entire estate.
The other powerful families living along the same lane also sent servants out to ask what had happened. The commotion had been simply too great.
When Shen Jue’s corpse was carried out, quite a few people were so horrified they vomited.
“I heard the vengeful ghost was the birth mother of Second Young Lady Shen. She was a cruel one, too—she actually used a peachwood spike to make her own mother’s soul scatter.”
“She got what she deserved. Her face was ruined, and she went mad…”
The gossip went on without end.
The Jinwu Guards’ commander came out of Duke Shen’s Residence with a frown and demanded of his subordinate, “The Duchess’s body has been taken away? Who was so ignorant of the rules?”
The subordinate glanced at the carriage not far away and discreetly pointed toward it.
The commander looked over and paused.
The carriage curtain had been lifted at one corner. A man looked down at him, then gave Weiwei a slight nod.
The commander immediately bowed, inwardly cursing his subordinate: Why hadn’t he said sooner that the Prince of You had come in person to retrieve his mother-in-law’s body?
After the carriage from the Prince of You’s Residence had gone some distance, the commander sighed. “I only heard today that the Princess Regent had recovered from her foolishness. And now this happens tonight.”
“Talk about karmic retribution. Duke Shen did such a thing to his own wife and daughter—spit! He deserved what he got!”
…
“Achoo!”
Chu Zhao rubbed her nose. Which bastard was gossiping about her behind her back?
Chu Nanxing sat with his legs pressed together, huddled miserably in a corner. He looked at Chu Zhao with three parts curiosity, four parts admiration, and a few parts fear.
By the rules, as a man who was not part of the household, he shouldn’t have been allowed to ride in the same carriage as the Princess Regent—even if he was her younger cousin. But Madam Chu’s body was also in the carriage.
Chu Nanxing had worried that his cousin, ‘Shen Zhaozhao,’ would be so overcome with grief…
All right, he’d worried for nothing.
His cousin didn’t look the least bit sad. But, then again, she’d been foolish for more than a decade. By then, Concubine Liu had already possessed Madam Chu’s body, so there hadn’t been any affection between mother and daughter to begin with.
Chu Nanxing stole a glance at her, then another.
With her eyes closed, Chu Zhao said lazily, “Keep sneaking looks at me and I’ll pluck your eyeballs out.”
Chu Nanxing shrank his neck and smiled ingratiatingly. “Older Cousin, um… who taught you all these skills?”
Chu Zhao raised her eyes and gave him an amused look. “Who do you think?”
Chu Nanxing shifted uneasily. “I-Is it really an ancestor manifesting? An ancestor of the Shen family, or one of ours?”
“What kind of powerful ancestor could come from a den of beasts like the Shen family?” Chu Zhao asked in return.
Chu Nanxing’s breath caught, and he looked hopeful. “Then it was an Old Ancestor of the Chu family? Which one? Where is he? Is he… is he in the carriage?”
He looked all around and kept making obeisance with his hands. If the space hadn’t been so cramped, he probably would have kowtowed on the spot.
Chu Zhao nearly laughed. She reached up and lifted the carriage curtain, glancing ahead. Yan Qi was seated in the carriage in front.
She wasn’t surprised in the least that that bastard had come.
He had always suspected she wasn’t really Shen Zhaozhao. All his various tactics had been tests.
Chu Zhao didn’t mind playing along. After all, Yan Fuwei’s descendant really was useful. At the very least, his blood was useful until her soul had healed.
Now that Madam Chu’s death had been avenged and the truth revealed, Chu Zhao could feel that Xiaokugua’s lingering obsession had completely faded. She had also taken full control of this body.
There was no way she would live as meekly and miserably as Xiaokugua had!
An ancestor manifesting to open her mind with a touch to the crown of her head was a convenient excuse.
Besides, that ancestor was herself, so she had nothing to lose by saying it.
Chu Zhao drew back from the window and met Chu Nanxing’s eager, puppy-dog eyes. “Older Cousin, is the ancestor floating around outside? Isn’t he cold?”
Chu Zhao: “…” This little cook.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. “The ancestor isn’t cold. But she said that every last one of you unfilial descendants had better wash your necks clean!”
Chu Nanxing was horrified. “W-Why? Has someone in the Chu family offended our ancestor? That can’t be right. The family has never neglected the annual ancestral rites!”
Never neglected them?
Chu Zhao sneered. Then why hadn’t she received any devotional incense in the past three hundred years?
Well, it wasn’t that she had never received any. Someone had made offerings to her a few years ago, but it hadn’t been anyone from the Chu family.
“Older Cousin, I swear to heaven! If I’m lying, may Heaven—no! May the greatest ancestor of our family, the King of Xuanzhao, strike me dead!”
Chu Zhao’s eyes shifted slightly. According to Xiaohuofu, the Chu clan hadn’t forgotten her, the King of Xuanzhao, and had continued to worship her. Then why had she never received any devotional incense?
Interesting.
Could some lonely ghost really have dared to steal her offerings?
Chu Zhao had been a hero among the living and a great spirit among the dead. She had cultivated into a Ghost King over three hundred years. If not for the cracks in her soul that refused to mend, why wouldn’t she have been able to gather a physical body?
“Um… Older Cousin, you still haven’t said which ancestor manifested,” Chu Nanxing said, edging closer again. “Where is the old ancestor now?”
Chu Zhao shoved his foolish face away with one hand.
“In a dream.”
Chu Nanxing understood—and was envious!
An ancestor had appeared in her dream, touched her crown to open her mind, and taught her skills, right?
Ahhh! Why wouldn’t an ancestor come into his dreams? He, Chu Nanxing, was one of the brightest of this generation of the Chu family!
After they returned to the Prince of You’s Residence, Chu Nanxing made an excuse to leave.
Chu Zhao watched him go and gave a cold laugh. He really couldn’t wait to go report back, could he? Unfilial descendant.
At a mere thought from the Old Ancestor, Chu Nanxing, who had just crossed the threshold, went sprawling face-first. He nearly knocked out his front teeth.
Chu Nanxing scrambled up in a panic, glanced around guiltily, then pressed his palms together and kept bowing all the way to Yan Qi’s study.
Qi Yun was speechless at the sight of him acting so superstitiously. But then he remembered the excitement at Duke Shen’s Residence that night…
All right. Qi Yun shivered. Maybe it was best to pay his respects.
“What happened?” Yan Qi asked bluntly.
Chu Nanxing hurriedly recounted everything that had happened that night. When he finished, he scratched his head. “Um, was I just wasting my breath? You went there tonight, Your Highness, so I imagine you already know what happened.”
Yan Qi’s expression was unreadable. “How much did you find out about the Princess Regent?”
Chu Nanxing remembered something and said guiltily, “Please forgive me, Your Highness. I haven’t had time to find out whether the Princess Regent has the Black-Iron Phoenix Hairpin.”
Yan Qi closed his eyes briefly.
The temperature in the study seemed to drop to freezing. Chu Nanxing and Qi Yun both fell silent.
A moment later, the man’s voice drifted through the room. “The Princess Regent was blessed by an ancestor of the Chu family, regained her wits, and avenged her mother. I’m very curious: which ancestor of the Chu family is so compassionate?”
Chu Nanxing rubbed his nose and answered quietly, “The Princess Regent didn’t say which ancestor it was, but…but she said the ancestor visits her in dreams every night and passes on their true teachings…”
Chu Nanxing hadn’t even finished speaking when a gust of wind seemed to sweep past him. By the time he looked up, Yan Qi was gone.
He and Qi Yun stared at each other.
Chu Nanxing hesitated. “Brother Yun, am I imagining things, or is Your Highness more curious about the ancestor who blessed my cousin than about my Xuanzhao Ancestress’s relic?”
Qi Yun’s voice trembled a little as if he’d thought of something. “Could it be…the King of Xuanzhao manifesting?”
“How would I know? Older Cousin didn’t say.”
Qi Yun swallowed, silently muttering: Amitabha, Heaven, please protect us. Let it not be the King of Xuanzhao manifesting! Otherwise, she definitely wouldn’t spare their own prince first!
…
Wutong Courtyard.
Chu Zhao had expected that bastard Yan Qi would come calling.
But wasn’t he a little too quick about it? Couldn’t he wait even one night?
Before opening the door, she had already decided how she would help Yan Fuwei’s nemesis discipline his grandson.
The door opened.
She found herself facing a pair of kind, benevolent eyes.
Hm…?
Kind, benevolent eyes?
The man’s features were already so finely drawn they seemed painted with delicate brushstrokes. When he lowered his gaze, his eyes were as lovely as peach blossoms. The murderous aura around him had vanished into the heavens, and he looked like a kindly elder gazing at a mischievous child who hadn’t yet begun his lessons.
“When do you go to bed?”
Chu Zhao: “…” Had this bastard come down with some kind of illness?