Chapter 55

Shen Qing, of course, did not notice Li Daoxuan’s mental turmoil. Seeing him lower his gaze and remain motionless, she called, “Your Highness?”
Li Daoxuan suppressed his temper, signaling for her to continue.
Feeling she had said all she needed, Shen Qing paused, then spoke her final sentence: “I wish to borrow Your Highness’s strength to eliminate those two great demons and expose the person behind the schemes against me.”
“I do not ask Your Highness to do anything more; I only hope that if one day the Shen family falls into peril, you will lend a hand, that is sufficient.”
“That’s no difficulty at all,” Li Daoxuan replied.
A sudden brightness flared in Shen Qing’s eyes.
“However, there is one more thing,” he interrupted.
“Until now, I have never understood why you agreed to this marriage between us,” he said, echoing his earlier tone: “If you had demands, it would have been simple enough to appeal to me directly with your ‘Glass Heart.’”
Li Daoxuan had never intended to marry, nor did he wish to. If not for the old emperor using his mother’s remains to threaten him, he would have caused upheaval rather than agree to this marriage.
This was the source of his long-standing sleeplessness; he detested being coerced.
Shen Qing thought about the legend of the short-lived twin-pair formation; the method to survive was too bizarre to explain. She fell momentarily silent, then her eyes lit up with a plan.
Mysteriously, she said, “The Buddha says some things are unspeakable, but if Your Highness wants to know, it’s possible… though you must wait a little.” She shook the booklet in her hand. “Perhaps I know how to lure the other great demon out.”
Li Daoxuan raised his eyes to glare at her.
“Of course, only when she appears in person.”
Until someone nearby called him, Li Daoxuan was deep in thought, his mind replaying the words Shen Qing had spoken before leaving.
The clouds parted, and golden sunlight streamed through the window lattice. The young girl walked through patches of mottled light, her black hair and features touched with a soft golden glow, adding a warmth to her presence.
At the doorway, she suddenly turned and said, “Since we’ve known each other for so long, that makes us at least half-friends. It feels awkward to call me Shen Qing, so you may call me by my childhood name, You’an.”
Before Li Daoxuan could reply, she lowered her head in thought for a moment, then continued, “No, only you can call me by my childhood name. Thankfully, I’ll call you by yours too, how about it?”
“Li A-man,” she said sweetly.
At that moment, Li Daoxuan’s heart stirred as if brushed by a feather, quivering softly.
Finally, Shen Qing said, “As for why I agreed to this marriage, it’s the same answer.” She clasped her hands behind her back, tilting her head: “Because I am fond of you.”
With that, she hopped away, leaving Li Daoxuan behind, his thoughts in disarray.
What exactly was she planning?
“The old woman deliberately placed the laundry by the water before acting, creating an alibi. She excused herself under the pretense of using the restroom, but in reality, she used the moment when the kitchen staff were occupied to steal his knife,” the small magistrate who accompanied Shi Qinglan explained.
Normally, the Fourth Prince personally overseeing the Yuanchun Pavilion case would require the chief and deputy of the Dali Temple to attend for propriety. But it seemed Liu, the chief, had been delayed, so Shi Qinglan had to handle the case.
Shi Qinglan, busy with the aftermath, could only have someone else report the facts. However, Li, the deputy, knowing the Fourth Prince’s arrogant nature, refused to step forward, legs trembling. Eventually, they pushed him out to report.
The small magistrate was nervous.
“The cook was preparing pork to make meatballs. The old woman was in a rush, overlooking the remaining meat residue on the knife.”
“In the victim’s room, three cups of tea were poisoned. Two had traces of lipstick on the rim; one was untouched.”
Li Daoxuan, hearing this, muttered, “She’s cautious,” realizing she understood not to touch things indiscriminately.
At that moment, Shen Qing, unaware that her cleanliness had spared her, was staring blankly at the lotus seeds the old woman had given her.
The small magistrate, flustered and confused, hesitated. Li Daoxuan did not look up. “Continue.”
“…Yes. That one cup’s poison is peculiar, it’s… ‘pleasure incense.’”
This incense was commonly possessed by the courtesans of the Spring Tower. It could be used for guests with special tastes and had aphrodisiac effects.
Its ingredients included mandrake flowers. If used in large amounts at once, it could temporarily numb and disorient a person. Hence, there were no obvious struggle marks in the room.
It seemed the old woman had planned well in advance, secretly stealing the incense, waiting for the right moment to act.
The junior magistrate couldn’t help but sweat for Shen Qing. If that young master hadn’t left at the right time and happened to drink that cup of tea, who knew if he would have ended up the same as the other two?
“Master Qinglan has already filed this case. I respectfully request Your Highness to review it. If there are no issues, I will return the case documents to the Dali Court for archiving.”
Li Daoxuan asked lightly, “Archiving?”
Though his tone carried no emotion, the junior magistrate felt as if a thousand-pound weight had been pressed onto his back. Cold sweat broke out, and his legs went weak. Swallowing nervously, he answered, “Y-yes…”
“….”
He felt as if the days were passing like years, until finally he heard the living ancestor utter those words: “Then archive it.”
“Yes!” He finally exhaled, “I take my leave, Your Highness!”
“When did I say you could leave?”
The junior magistrate immediately dropped to the ground with a thud, knocking his head hard against the floor. “I admit my guilt, Your Highness!”
“…Rise. I still have orders for you.”
The magistrate stayed down, even holding his head against the ground.
Li Daoxuan’s patience was wearing thin. “I don’t want to repeat myself.”
“R-Your Highness… my legs are weak… I can’t get up… Any orders, Your Highness, perhaps… just give them now…”
The junior magistrate was on the verge of tears. In the past, seeing the Fourth Prince in person was not something a small magistrate could expect, so he was completely flustered.
Li Daoxuan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and gritted his teeth. “I personally came to Yuanchun Pavilion to oversee this case, yet the Dali Court Minister did not appear. Minister Liu has quite the audacity. You, deliver my words: by the end of today, I want to see Minister Liu in person, or…”
He snorted coldly.
The junior magistrate trembled even more violently.
After an unknown amount of time, when no voice came from above, he cautiously peeked from the crook of his arm, only to see the floor empty; the master of the boots had vanished without a trace.
Li Daoxuan’s arrogance was unparalleled. Over a minor skinning case, even with Master Qinglan of the Shi family handling it, it wasn’t enough, he still demanded the Dali Court Minister’s personal appearance.
Under imperial power, everyone was but an ant. Minister Liu, having just seen his daughter, trembled in his weakened state as he came to Yuanchun Pavilion to placate the ancestor inside.
“I am Liu Siyuan, Minister of the Dali Court, paying respects to Prince Cang!”
The hunched old man kowtowed to the people in the hall.
Li Daoxuan stepped on a chair, playing with his black sword, showing no intention of calling anyone to rise. Seeing the Minister lead the kneeling, the other court officials followed, performing only the kowtow appropriate to their rank.
The hall was filled with kneeling figures, yet Shen Qing still stood beside Li Daoxuan. She refused to kneel along with him, and when she tried to slip away, a sword blocked her path.
Li Daoxuan grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back, his eyes gleaming with amusement. “Shen Qing, didn’t you say your heart belongs to me and you want to marry me? Since we are to be wed in ten months, once you become Princess Cang, you will have to participate in these ceremonies alongside me. Why run?” He lowered his voice playfully.
His normally clear voice, now subdued, flowed like muted strings from a covered instrument, resonating from his throat, brushing her ear, strangely seductive.
Shen Qing immediately covered her ears and glared at him. “What are you doing now?! Don’t forget my current status! What if someone recognizes me?!”
The earlier harmonious atmosphere between them vanished, torn away, replaced by the usual tension.
Li Daoxuan saw her reaction and chuckled softly.
Shen Qing found him bizarrely possessed today.
Li Daoxuan cast a glance at the kneeling figures and finally, in a rare show of mercy, extended the sword to Shen Qing, signaling she could take it.
She immediately held the sword and slipped behind an embroidered screen into a small side room to observe.
Since their agreement, Shen Qing had confessed to him what Liu Wanxiu had experienced in her dream, and also revealed how the Baishui Sha had stolen one of Liu Wanxiu’s souls from her.
Of course, she did not mention knowing the other demon.
She only said that in Liu Wanxiu’s memory, a certain “elder sister” seemed closely connected to Baishui Sha. Since she had accidentally harmed the red-clad woman who appeared in the illusion, Baishui Sha had shown extreme anger and attacked her, as if something precious to it had been harmed.
The woman had a vermilion mole on her forehead, favored red clothing, was familiar with the red carp in the Hua spring pond, and had a connection with a black canopy boat on the shore.
Seeing that the fourth Madam also had a deep connection with that boat, and noting her confusion in mistaking Shen Qing for someone else, Shen Qing tricked her and successfully obtained a clue.
The “Ah Chou” she referred to also had a vermilion mole between her brows and liked red skirts, just like Liu Wanxiu’s “elder sister.” Therefore, Shen Qing inferred that the other great demon was likely Liu Wanxiu’s “elder sister,” namely Ah Chou.
Of course, she didn’t claim Ah Chou was definitely the demon, just that it was a conjecture.
She left the rest for Li Daoxuan to figure out. Whatever he deduced was no longer her concern.
Holding the sword, Shen Qing thought of her master, feeling an inexplicable, suffocating weight in her heart.
She lowered her eyes, feeling somewhat down.
The earlier mention of divination was not a fabrication, Shen Qing had simply concealed part of the truth.
It is said that early memories fade as one grows, leaving only vague impressions.
Yet Shen Qing still remembered clearly: when she first came to the Xuanji Pavilion, her high fever made her miserable. She cried every night, and after crying herself exhausted, she slept deeply during the day, only to resume her turmoil at night as the illness tormented her.
Even when she coughed blood and showed no signs of recovery, the people around were helpless. Just as they feared she would pass away, a middle-aged man, covered in blood, returned with herbs he had risked his life to gather, stayed by her side, and began forcibly channeling his true energy into her, unable even to change out of his blood-soaked clothes.
Seeing the bitter, black, sticky herbal medicine being fed into her mouth, he finally relaxed his furrowed brow, holding the small child gently, softly coaxing, “Good child, Master knows you’re in pain. Master knows everything.”
Perhaps sensing a long-lost security, like resting in a father’s strong arms, the small child’s swollen eyes finally closed in deep sleep.
Everyone said the spiritual energy of Xuanji Pavilion nurtured people, allowing the supposedly doomed young lady of the Shen family to survive. Few knew that her survival came at the expense of her master risking half his life to enter the frigid wilderness, battling beasts to obtain the lifesaving herbs.