The young man lay half-reclining in bed. Reassured by the answer, he dipped his head in a nod and went back to sleep.
Chapter 7
The sun rose in the east. Morning dew slid over the leaves and dripped from their tips as the young woman's longsword sliced through the air. A droplet struck its tip before vanishing, and kneeling beneath that very tip was a black-clad shadow guard.
"Master, the imperial preceptor has been waiting outside the residence for quite some time."
Lou Yun sheathed her sword and took the cloth a maid offered her, asking in puzzlement, "Pei Qing? What is he doing at the crown prince's residence so early?"
Even as she asked, she hurried outside without pausing a step.
Ying Yi dared neither answer nor leave without permission, so he could only follow silently with his head lowered. They had not gone far when Lou Yun, still moving at full tilt ahead of him, added, "Was there no one in the residence to announce him?"
There was a trace of anger in those words. Ying Yi was so frightened he wanted to kneel, but feared falling behind his master. Grimacing beneath his mask, he explained, "They were going to announce him, but the imperial preceptor stopped them. He said to let you finish practicing first."
After entering the crown prince's residence, Lou Yun had replaced the personal attendants with her own people. The residence's original staff knew their master had a fierce temper now and ordinarily dared not enter the inner courtyard to disturb her. Besides, Pei Qing was the imperial preceptor and had had some dealings with the crown prince's residence in the past. Once he had spoken, they naturally dared not say more.
As for the shadow guards concealed nearby, who did not know that Lou Yun must not be disturbed during sword practice? Had Pei Qing not been waiting so long, Ying Yi would not have dared remind her now either. Wonderful-whether he spoke or kept quiet, he was at fault.
The shadow guards on duty in hiding first sighed in relief at the sight of Ying Yi being reprimanded, thankful it was not them, then exchanged hand signals: matters concerning the imperial preceptor would have to take priority from now on.
Noticing the movement in the shadows, Lou Yun paused, her gaze darkening. Her pace slowed, and with a turn of her toe, she sent a pebble flying. A heavy thud came from the garden nearby.
Seeing Ying Wu sprawled in the garden, baring his teeth in pain yet not daring to move, the others knew their master was angry and dared not make any more little gestures.
Following behind and quietly observing, Ying Yi had formed a few suspicions about his master's unusual behavior, but had yet to confirm them. As they neared the outer courtyard, his figure flickered away, and he went back on duty.
Thinking of the shadow guards' secret exchange, Lou Yun grew still more displeased. When she saw Pei Qing sitting obediently in the hall, she could not help taking some of it out on him. "What brings the imperial preceptor here so early today?"
Pei Qing was still somewhat embarrassed about having been looked after yesterday by someone younger than himself-and a woman at that. Now, clearly sensing the difference in her tone, a trace of bewilderment flickered through his eyes. His lips parted to explain, but he feared she was merely deliberately acting distant for the benefit of others because she did not know how Lou Ze'an had interacted with him before.
Only after biting his lip again and again did he say, "My subordinates said that woman would only speak after seeing me
"and I thought that, as Your Highness is also one of the presiding interrogators, I should invite you to accompany me."
Lou Yun thought to herself, He could simply finish questioning her and send over a written copy. Why come specifically to fetch me?
That was what she thought, yet the young man's having come specifically to seek her out inexplicably improved her mood considerably. She sat in the chair beside Pei Qing, pretended to straighten her robes, and deliberately avoided looking at him. Her tongue turned, and she asked something that had nothing whatsoever to do with her thoughts. "How many li is the imperial preceptor's residence from the crown prince's?"
"Hmm? About fourteen li." Unable to guess what the questioner was thinking, the young man visibly hesitated before answering, his fingertips rubbing uneasily along the rim of his cup.
Lou Yun took in every bit of the imperial preceptor's unease. Narrowing her eyes, she smiled. "Oh? Fourteen li? Even riding at full gallop, that would take you an incense stick's time. Even with the streets empty in the early morning, someone of your temperament would never ride recklessly through them. And you have been waiting here for quite some time. By that reckoning, did you not leave your residence over a double-hour ago?"
Not expecting Lou Yun to calculate it in such detail, Pei Qing answered blankly, "Yes."
"So you rose this early simply to invite me to hear her testimony?"
Seeing that her questions had bewildered Great Yan's imperial preceptor, reputed to be the teacher of all under heaven, Lou Yun showed no intention of stopping. She pressed him further. "If that was all, why did you not send someone over instead of wasting such precious time for sleep?"
Pei Qing's mind went blank for a moment. That was right. There were clearly many ways to handle this matter. He could finish the questioning and write to inform Lou Yun, or send someone to invite her while he waited at his residence.
Yet the instant he heard his subordinate's report, all he could think of was coming to the crown prince's residence early today to invite Lou Yun in person.
Even the imperial preceptor, with all his learning and extensive reading, could not understand that there was a kind of feeling in this world that could magnify the desire to see someone without one even noticing, until one lost all judgment of common sense.
To put it bluntly, it was called having one's wits clouded by beauty.
Realizing that she had started teasing Pei Qing again, Lou Yun's expression suddenly turned exceedingly ugly. She silently warned herself, Finish investigating sooner and make a clean break sooner. Those in power must not wear their feelings on their faces.
"Let's go," she said coldly.
Noticing the sudden plunge in the mood of the person beside him, the young man was even more at a loss. He turned their conversation over thousands of times in his mind without finding anything that might have angered her.
Two birds collided in the vast sky and fell with a thump into the hollow Ying Wu had just made. Ying Yi muttered in the direction where they had fallen, "Where did those two stupid birds come from? With so many paths through the sky, how did they manage to crash into each other?"
And so Lou Yun and Pei Qing arrived at the imperial preceptor's residence without exchanging a word.
A Zi leaned against the doorway with his arms folded. Seeing the two approaching on horseback from afar, he waved and was about to welcome them, but his movements stalled when he caught Pei Qing's expression. He silently retreated behind the door, acting as though the person who had just come out in delight to greet them no longer existed.
Darting into the rear courtyard, he instinctively started to call for the old goat. Then, looking at the empty courtyard, he opened his fan halfway, vexation in his eyes.
Right, the old goat had gone back.
Mo Chi, carrying a winnowing tray full of medicinal herbs, craned his head as he ambled over to the red-robed young man and asked curiously, "Sect Master A Zi, what are you looking at here?"
The red-robed youth stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the locust tree in the courtyard with a show of profundity.
Mo Chi waited earnestly for a moment before mercilessly exposing him. "If you can't make anything up, just forget it."
The young man shook his head, making his ornaments jingle, and tapped the boy's forehead with his half-folded fan. "See through it, but don't say it."
With his hands full, Mo Chi could not dodge in time. He muttered aggrievedly, "Putting on cultured airs."
A Zi pretended he was about to hit him again and watched Mo Chi run around him and flee with the herbs.
He sat down beside the stone table, looked at the unfinished game of go, and sighed softly. "The young know nothing of sorrow."
Meanwhile, Lou Yun and Pei Qing sat in the hall, and all the attendants had been dismissed. The woman was initially taken aback to see Lou Yun accompanying him. After a moment's hesitation, she suddenly dropped to her knees and wept. "This commoner... this commoner wishes to confess."
Neither had expected this turn of events, and they instinctively looked toward each other.
Lou Yun had only turned her head halfway when she seemed to realize something and silently turned back, deliberately ignoring the young man's somewhat disappointed expression.
Until she understood exactly what sort of concern she felt for Pei Qing, it was better to keep her distance.
Pei Qing lowered his eyes dejectedly. His long lashes cast shadows over his face, making him look particularly pitiful at a glance.
Having waited without receiving any response from either of them, Rouniang cautiously raised her eyes, only to find that neither was looking at her.
...Had her words really made so little impact?
"This commoner..."
Lou Yun interrupted Rouniang before she could repeat herself. "What happened?"
"Hmm?... Oh."
Rouniang lowered her head, her hair neatly combed back, and stared fixedly at her hands, examining them over and over as though admiring the traces of blood left on them at the time.
"It didn't rain that night. The wind was strong, and the fire spread very quickly. I nearly didn't escape."
Rouniang's voice was lilting, so like that of a wife resting on her husband's arm as she gently shared amusing stories from inside and outside the home. The more she sounded that way, the more uncanny the scene became.
"Fortunately, I got out. After killing Li An."
The woman kneeling on the floor no longer showed the fear she had displayed upon seeing Lou Yun the day before yesterday. Instead, her every movement brimmed with contempt and hatred for the world. She cast a provocative glance at Lou Yun, as though waiting for her to question her further.
Irritation filled Lou Yun's expression. She had no interest in watching a madwoman revel in the pleasure of having killed someone. "Get to the point," she said coldly.
Seeing Lou Yun's impatience, Rouniang restrained herself a little and continued, "I was a bed slave Li An kept. Madam Li was timid, and she had her parents and clan behind her. She couldn't endure Li An's tastes in bed, so she took the initiative to find him concubines. Li An cared about appearances and insisted on pretending they lived in marital harmony before outsiders. So we were brought into the Li residence as maids."
"I was only one of them. Li An was exceptionally brutal in bed. Who knows how many people died on that bed? I was lucky. I'd read a few books, so Li An liked me better than the others, to the point that for the past two years, he basically only summoned me to serve him in bed. There used to be others to share the burden, but now I was the only one left. How could I not hate him?"
Rouniang glanced sidelong at Lou Yun seated above her and sneered. "You people in power are all alike. You all treat human lives like grass. I'm no good person, but I couldn't stand to see a beast like Li An remain in this world to hurt others."
"So..." Rouniang raised her hands high and extended them before the two. "I bribed the guards at the Li residence to buy medicines from different shops and mixed them into a drug that would kill him during sex. Every time he came to me, I put a little in his tea, hoping and waiting every day."
"At last!" Rouniang suddenly began to laugh softly, maidenly shyness on her face. On closer inspection, her eyes held nothing but an almost deranged delight. "My wait was over! That night, my wait was over!"
Rouniang stood up and whirled around the hall, laughing wildly without stopping, her swaying skirts like a blood lotus in bloom.
The woman tilted her head and smiled, her eyes full of allure. Her hands were just about to settle on Pei Qing when she saw his cool, clear eyes, devoid of disgust or disdain, holding only a compassion like that of a deity looking down upon the mortal world. She hastily straightened.
She hurried to straighten her skirts, inwardly vexed. How could she do something so offensive to the person before her?
Lou Yun watched Rouniang sing and dance with a dark expression. Had Rouniang not withdrawn her hands herself, Lou Yun could have thrown her back to the floor the instant she touched Pei Qing.