Cui Rou was brought into the hall first, followed closely by someone Pei Qing had never seen before.
Lou Yun said, "The reason the imperial preceptor traced this to Lin Bian in Jiangling was precisely because Li An was Lin Bian's contact in the capital. Lin Bian gathered beautiful women from all over the country. For those from better families, he would engineer a supposed offense against the powerful to drive them into a corner, then transform himself into a kindly merchant and buy them. Finally, he would take them to Pleasant Breeze Courtyard to be trained, then sell them elsewhere."
"Cui Rou was one of these women. Seeing her beauty, Li An kept her for himself. There were quite a few other women suffering the same torment in his residence. Li An was extremely brutal in bed. Cui Rou and the others could not endure it, and so they began to harbor murderous intentions."
An official asked, "Then how could just these few women have accomplished it?"
"Li An kept his own people under tight control, dividing his residence into inner and outer quarters. At night, the door between them would be locked. That made it much easier for Cui Rou and the others to trap Li An's family."
"Li An was a man, after all. How could a girl like Cui Rou kill a grown man, especially when Li An was considerably taller than she was?"
Lou Yun looked at the minister who had asked the question. "Cui Rou was not the only person in Li An's room that day."
"What?"
"How could that be?"
...Lou Yun's words caused an uproar.
"There were two possible causes of Li An's death. The first was sudden death during intercourse; the other was the knife wound that pierced him from back to front. Examination established that Li An suffered an attack during intercourse first, before someone stabbed a dagger into him from behind and killed him."
Lou Yun turned to Cui Rou. "But Cui Rou should have been in front of Li An at the time. How could she have driven a dagger into his heart from behind?"
"Well..."
"Later, I went to the Court of Judicial Review to question the servants from Li An's residence, only to learn that all the women had committed suicide out of fear of punishment." As Lou Yun said this, she looked with a hint of a smile at the censor-in-chief, who kept rubbing his forehead.
"As it happens, the second person in that room was not a woman, but a man." Lou Yun pointed at the person kneeling beside Cui Rou.
"Impossible!" the censor-in-chief blurted out. When he saw everyone turn toward him, he timidly fell silent, not daring to say more.
Lou Yun swept a glance over the censor-in-chief, who was now trembling all over with fear, and gave a cold snort before finishing. "Li An not only liked women, but also favored men. This man was one of the exclusive bedmates kept in his residence. Presumably, Li An summoned both of them inside that day."
"You mean these two joined forces to kill Li An?"
"Correct. There was a secret passage in Li An's residence that led outside the city. After Cui Rou and this man killed Li An, the man fled his room and set the fire. Nor were all the water vats filled entirely with oil; oil had merely been poured on top. Once the household guards drew oil instead of water, they would stop drawing any more, and the pair's objective would be achieved. After Cui Rou escaped through the passage in Li An's room, she sought out the imperial preceptor under the pretext of turning herself in. In truth, she also wanted to use us to uncover the trafficking network behind the sale of people and trained courtesans."
Lou Yun suddenly bowed to Lou Qing and saluted. "Imperial Father, Li An's case has been solved. The censor-in-chief failed in his custodial duties and deliberately harmed witnesses. I ask Imperial Father to pass judgment."
The censor-in-chief abruptly dropped to his knees, wailing, "I have been wronged!"
"Wronged?" Lou Yun walked toward the censor-in-chief with a mocking smile. He felt as though an evil spirit from hell was approaching him and crawled backward, trembling.
Lou Yun bent down with a smile and spoke into his ear in a voice only the two of them could hear. "My lord, I told you long ago that you would not keep that official's hat."
Then she straightened and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Whether you have been wronged will be clear once the household guards at my residence are questioned."
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I know my mistake, I know my mistake! Save me! My lord..." The censor-in-chief suddenly crawled toward Xu Lin, stumbling as he went.
Xu Lin inwardly cursed the fool. Seizing the initiative, he raised a hand and knocked off the censor-in-chief's official hat, then said in anguish, "Old Wan! We were classmates, after all. We have known each other for so many years, yet I never knew you were this sort of man. Not only did you wallow in the mire with Li An, you even harmed witnesses to erase the evidence of your crimes. Truly! Truly unworthy of serving the throne! Can you face your wife and children at home?"
The censor-in-chief suddenly froze. Looking into Xu Lin's eyes, tears spilled from his own clouded eyes, and he slammed his forehead against the floor.
"I confess my guilt."
Old fox, using a trick like that to seal his mouth.
Lou Yun looked at Xu Lin disdainfully. Anyone with eyes could tell that his last remark had been a threat.
Tsk. Lou Yun clicked her tongue inwardly. If the time had not yet come, she truly wanted to drag that old bastard down and see whether he could still keep that hypocritical skin stretched across his face.
With that, Li An's case was finally closed. Cui Rou had, after all, killed an official of the court. There was no possibility of her escaping wholly unscathed.
Pei Qing and Lou Yun secured an exemption from the death penalty for her. As for when she might leave prison, that would depend on whether she was lucky enough to encounter a general amnesty.
When Cui Rou was led away, she looked back at the two of them, then knelt and bowed to them from afar.
Two figures, one tall and one short, stood on the steps, their shadows stretched long by the sunlight. One shadow suddenly shortened by half as its owner returned Cui Rou's bow.
Once Pei Qing straightened, Lou Yun said, "It's all over."
"Mm." The young man nodded slowly, then asked, "Your Highness still owes me a Dongpo pork hock."
...Lou Yun, who had thought the young man might be dispirited for a while over this, had underestimated Pei Qing after all. He was Great Yan's imperial preceptor, and he had seen plenty of such things. So long as someone continued to walk the path of justice, the young man would not lose heart over it.
"I'll take you to eat now."
The arrival of scholars in the capital also meant New Year's Eve was approaching. Lou Yun brought the young man to their familiar seats in Rain Ripple Pavilion. Looking at the bustling street, she recalled how, the last time they sat here, the young man's eyes had reddened from the spice, yet he had maintained his composure and refused to spit out the food in his mouth.
For a moment, she felt a little dazed. It had clearly happened only recently, yet it felt as though a very, very long time had passed.
Watching the young man across from her intently gnawing his pork hock, Lou Yun thought self-mockingly, True enough. Back then, when all I thought about was treating my brother's husband well, how could I have imagined our relationship would become what it is now?
Speaking of which... "Pei Qing." Lou Yun decided to get to the bottom of this.
"Hmm?" Pei Qing was busy battling his pork hock. Caught off guard by the call, he peered out from behind it in confusion, revealing half his face.
Somewhat amused, Lou Yun pulled the pork hock away from the young man's mouth, revealing the lower half of his face. "What is your relationship with my imperial brother?"
"Huh?" Pei Qing froze for a moment, then answered in puzzlement, "That of the imperial preceptor and the crown prince, of course."
Seeing how seriously Lou Yun was asking, he thought for a moment and added, "Perhaps friends as well."
Having received a definite answer from the man himself, Lou Yun finally breathed a sigh of relief and voiced the question that had weighed on her mind for so long. "Then why did you kiss before?"
The question startled the young man so badly that the pork hock in his hand fell into his bowl. He stammered, "K-kissed? Me and...!"
Seeing how frightened Pei Qing was, Lou Yun knew something must have gone wrong back then. Perhaps she had seen it incorrectly.
She waved a hand and soothed him. "It's nothing. Perhaps I saw it wrong. It was about four years ago, when you and my imperial brother were at the training grounds. It was evening, and neither of you had brought attendants."
Lou Yun described the scene from memory. Following her description, Pei Qing carefully thought back, then suddenly stiffened and sat upright.
If it had been at the training grounds, without attendants, there had only been that one occasion.
Four years ago, he had just turned eighteen. Lou Ze'an, only sixteen, had experienced his first nocturnal emission. Noble Consort Su had insisted on having a maid teach him, and when Lou Ze'an refused, mother and son had a fierce argument.
After storming out in a fit of pique, Lou Ze'an dragged Pei Qing off to find
somewhere deserted, and they happened to reach the training grounds. As the youth spoke of it, his face still bore the embarrassment of facing such a thing for the first time.
He haltingly told Pei Qing that he actually already had someone he liked. Perhaps because he felt he had shared his secret with his good friend, he then pestered Pei Qing relentlessly to name someone he fancied too.
Pei Qing was thoroughly annoyed at the time. He wanted to push away Lou Ze'an, who kept darting in front of him like a monkey and insisting that he tell him, but then he looked past the youth's shoulder and saw the person he had loved for so long yet dared not approach.
"You're so annoy..." Not annoying.
His shoving abruptly stopped. Lou Ze'an had no idea what had happened and kept leaning toward Pei Qing with a grin.
"What do you mean, annoying? Just tell me! I told you, didn't I?" Lou Ze'an suddenly started tugging at him. Pei Qing lost his balance and fell forward just like that. Their noses collided, knocking tears from both their eyes.
Pei Qing had no time to tend to his reddened nose. He urgently searched for that familiar figure, but there was no one left where that person had appeared.
The young man lowered his head, filled with a sense of loss. Beside him, Lou Ze'an noticed his dejection and looked around, but saw nothing. Puzzled, he asked, "What's wrong? Imperial Preceptor... Ow!"
Pei Qing landed a punch on His Highness the noble crown prince's face, sending Lou Ze'an howling in pain. Having been punched for no apparent reason, the youth could not swallow his anger and struck back.
The two began exchanging blows, and the outcome was obvious. Never mind that Pei Qing was Lou Ze'an's teacher; Pei Qing's own talent was astonishing beyond reason. How could Lou Ze'an possibly be his match? Naturally, he attended court the next day sporting a pair of panda eyes.
I could clearly have looked a little longer...
The thought from his younger days resurfaced in his mind. Only when a "Hmm?" came from across the table did Pei Qing realize he had unknowingly spoken aloud.
Looking at the culprit responsible for Lou Ze'an attending court with black eyes, Pei Qing suddenly felt a surge of aching bitterness. She knew nothing. It was clearly all her fault, yet she turned around and pointed the finger at him, mistakenly believing that he and Lou Ze'an shared a taste for men!
Had His Highness the crown prince's panda eyes agreed to that?!
The young man haughtily shifted away. Falling secretly in love after a single meeting was far too presumptuous, and at their first meeting, he had even... even behaved so much like a lecher.