Chapter 98: The Beast’s Downfall
That antique dealer was indeed from the Old Mausoleum Swamp.
They were the ones commonly known as “lowlifes” in the marketplace and residential areas.
A notorious swindler from the Old Mausoleum Swamp.
The Old Mausoleum Swamp had no shortage of swindlers, tricksters who engaged in deception and fraud, and their tricks were always evolving.
The old man ran an antique shop, but in reality, it was just a cover.
He usually worked as an intermediary, similar to a broker, helping people negotiate deals. He would swindle anyone he could, constantly innovating his methods.
However, he hadn’t lied to Li Huan.
There were no new Imperial Envoys in the Old Mausoleum Swamp at the moment.
Senior Disciple Brother had taken on her task, not the Imperial Envoy’s commission.
“What is Sixth Miss smiling about?”
Xue Sui glanced at him, placed her chopsticks on the edge of her bowl, and chuckled softly.
“I’ve heard of that merchant from the Old Mausoleum Swamp before. He has his ways, and Your Highness hasn’t found the wrong person. Since he said so, it should be true. Once the new Imperial Envoy is selected, perhaps he can truly introduce Your Highness…”
Li Huan’s gaze held a hint of suspicion, “You know this person?”
Xue Sui replied, “He has an antique shop in the market of the Old Mausoleum Swamp. People who gather information and grease the wheels go to him for help. He does everything; he’s ruthless when it comes to money, always asking for an exorbitant price. But what can you do when he’s capable? He can accomplish things others can’t.”
Li Huan asked, “In your opinion, can he contact an Imperial Envoy?”
Xue Sui smiled faintly, “I can’t say for sure. I’ve never dealt with this person, only heard about him. But I believe he wouldn’t dare to offend the Old Mausoleum Swamp. It all depends on Your Highness’s intentions in seeking an Imperial Envoy, and… whether Your Highness can gain his trust.”
Li Huan’s brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
The man had claimed to be in the salt and iron business.
Trafficking in smuggled salt and iron violated the imperial decree.
To gain his trust, would he really have to engage in smuggling salt and iron?
Li Huan dismissed the thought and continued to probe Xue Sui.
He praised the dishes for their unique creativity and their perfect blend of color, aroma, and taste, gradually steering the conversation towards the case in Shangjing.
“The dismembered body found in the moat that day has been confirmed by the Jingzhao Prefecture to be You Zhimu. All his bones were crushed, and the body parts were scattered everywhere, with hair clinging to fragments of flesh and clothing… ‘Dismembered into ten thousand pieces’ would be an understatement. The murderer’s methods were extremely brutal. When Old Duke You came to identify the body, he fainted on the spot upon seeing the piles of minced flesh and bone fragments…”
Xue Sui looked shocked.
The hand holding her chopsticks trembled violently, and the slice of meat she had picked up suddenly slipped.
With a plop, it landed on the tabletop.
Her almond-shaped eyes widened, and she quickly wiped her mouth. Her body tensed, and she lowered her head as if about to gag, then suppressed it, her delicate brows furrowed.
“Truly insane. Such a good person, to die like this…”
He deserved it so much.
She didn’t finish the last half of her sentence, merely feigning fear.
Thinking of You Zhimu’s fate, and then recalling You Zhimu wearing glossy black deerskin boots, stepping on the uneven bluestone, and mercilessly crushing her fingers, stepping on her face and chest with his foot, the arrogant and disdainful smile that appeared on his face, she felt Li Zhao had done a splendid job.
At that time, she had been tormented like a dog.
Her pleas for mercy were met with not the slightest pity from those people.
Such inhumane beasts deserved to have their bodies utterly destroyed and to be cast into the deepest purgatory.
Li Huan noticed that she no longer touched the meat.
The fear and horror on her face were utterly genuine.
He then said, “You Zhimu was gruesomely dismembered, his death was tragic. Yao Wei fell into a cesspool and almost lost his life, and Gu Jie is now imprisoned and in a sorry state…”
Xue Sui put down her chopsticks, her brows furrowed slightly.
More rotten flesh and body parts, and now a cesspool and prison.
She said, “Your Highness, I have finished eating. Please enjoy your meal.”
Li Huan scrutinized her reaction, trying to find a hint of deception in her expression.
However, there was none.
Her expression showed no trace of falseness; her entire face conveyed a look of disgust that made her unable to eat.
Li Huan smiled faintly.
“I have also finished. Call for water.”
Calling for water meant preparing for a bath.
After bathing, it was usually time to rest.
Xue Sui said nothing more, smiling as she called for someone to clean up.
“Ru Yi, prepare water for Your Highness.”
Ru Yi responded from outside, but her heart was filled with unease. She clutched Xiao Zhao’s arm tightly, trembling, “What do we do? What do we do?”
Xiao Zhao crossed her arms and leaned against the wall.
“What are you afraid of?”
The one serving the master isn’t anxious, but the maid is?
Cold sweat beaded on Ru Yi’s forehead.
“Aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you worried for Miss?”
Xiao Zhao shook her head, “I’m not afraid, I’m not anxious. As long as Miss doesn’t agree, anyone who dares to offend her, I’ll kill them. I don’t care about any Prince.”
While the two maids were whispering.
On the dougong eaves of a vacant side room next to Tan Qiu Courtyard, two anxious scouts were hidden in the dense darkness.
They were even more anxious than the two maids.
“I’m afraid I won’t survive this time.”
“Brother, have you finished writing your will?”
“I haven’t lived enough yet, why would I write a will… What a shame, I hid dozens of taels of silver under the phoenix tree in the courtyard, and I didn’t get to tell my mother…”
“It’s too late to write a will, but is it too late to act?”
One scout said, spitting.
The other scout stared at him nervously.
“What are you going to do? Your Highness only ordered us to monitor secretly, gather information, and protect Sixth Miss Xue. He didn’t say we should act, alert the enemy, and disturb Prince Duan…”
“Heh heh.” The scout chuckled slyly, “We won’t touch Prince Duan, but we can touch his residence.”
The two looked at each other, their eyes darting around, and they understood each other’s thoughts.
“Brother, where would be a suitable place to set fire?”
“Far from Tan Qiu Courtyard, so as not to burn Sixth Miss Xue…”
“Good idea!”
“Let’s do it!”
“Who’s going to light the fire?”
“Rock, paper, scissors!”
…
The water for bathing was quickly brought into the preparation room of Tan Qiu Courtyard.
The room was filled with misty light.
Li Huan slowly raised his hand towards Xue Sui, signaling her to come and help him undress.
Xue Sui walked over calmly, wondering why Xue Yuechen hadn’t sent someone to summon Li Huan…
If she didn’t come, how would she best handle the situation.
She lowered her gaze, looking at Li Huan’s neat collar, her expression cold and clear.
Li Huan also looked her up and down, her face clearly showing she didn’t want to serve him.
In the air, there seemed to be a subtle contest.
It was a matter of who would break first and call it off.
Just then, a sharp scream came from outside.
“Something’s wrong.”
“Shu Yu Pavilion is on fire.”
“It’s on fire, it’s on fire… Someone come quickly!”
Shu Yu Pavilion was Consort Yuan’s residence.
Li Huan’s expression sharpened.
He glanced down at Xue Sui and quickly put on his outer robe.
“You rest first, I’ll go and see.”
–
This fire was suspicious.
Ru Yi was also arranged by Jinshu to go and see the commotion.
It was said that Consort Yuan, holding her young daughter, was trembling with fear. When she saw Li Huan, tears streamed down her face, and her daughter also hugged Li Huan and called him father, weeping silently…
Li Huan could only stay there to accompany Consort Yuan and her daughter. He sent someone to Tan Qiu Courtyard to inform them that he would not be coming tonight and that Ru Ren Xue should rest well.
Consort Yuan had suffered a great fright, and her eyes were swollen from crying.
However, with Prince Duan by her side, she was unharmed and quickly calmed down, beginning to complain.
“Your Highness, the candlelight in my chambers is always carefully watched. How could it have caught fire innocently?”
“Your Highness, could it be that someone wanted to burn me and Nannan to death?”
Li Huan’s expression was grave, his brows slightly furrowed, lost in thought.
Perhaps it was the meal on the table at Tan Qiu Courtyard, or those fair and soft hands, and the faint scar that was subtly revealed when she raised her wide sleeves…
“Don’t overthink it. There are many people and hands in the Prince’s Mansion, and the servants are bound to be negligent.”
–
Just as Yuan Qingzhu suspected Xue Yuechen, Xue Yuechen was also suspecting Consort Yuan.
She led a few maids towards Shu Yu Pavilion, her mind a whirlwind of thoughts.
“Sixth Miss has treated me well. If His Highness favors her and she has an heir, it would be excellent. What a pity…”
Fei Cui knew she was being insincere and, being frequently entangled in such matters, could not say much. She could only resentfully blame the person in Shu Yu Pavilion.
“Perhaps it was Consort Yuan herself who caused trouble. She can’t stand to see the Princess Consort doing well. His Highness went to Tan Qiu Courtyard out of consideration for the Princess Consort, and this is clearly meant to humiliate the Princess Consort…”
Xue Yuechen was silent for a moment, then sighed softly.
“You’re right, Consort Yuan is bold. This fire might very well have been set by herself.”
“It all depends on what His Highness thinks…”
The fire at Shu Yu Pavilion was extinguished by the arriving guards and servants before it could spread widely.
The timing and the intensity of the fire were just right.
The two scouts who carried out the deed were very pleased.
“Brother, our contributions this time are enough to save our lives!”
“I wonder if our master can give us a few more rewards?”
“Heh heh, there definitely will be, there definitely will be. Rest your head on the roof ridge, prop it up high, and you’ll have good dreams!”
“Pah, you jinx!”
The Prince’s Mansion was in chaos due to the fire.
In Tan Qiu Courtyard, Xue Sui was as focused as ever on her calligraphy practice.
When the time came, she undressed and went to bed.
When a knock of three long and two short sounds came from the window, her heart sank slightly. She put on her clothes again and got out of bed, asking softly through the window, “Who is it?”
A cold voice from outside replied, “Gu Seeker.”
Xue Sui: …
Tan Qiu Courtyard was silent.
The small bells on the pigeon coop under the eaves swayed in the night breeze, making a few crisp sounds…
Xue Sui slowly opened the window.
Moonlight poured in like water, and dappled tree shadows fell on the ground.
Li Zhao, like an agile leopard, was draped in fragmented silver-white moonlight.
In an instant, with a light touch of his toes, he leaped gracefully into the room and stood before her.
“If Shu Yu Pavilion hadn’t caught fire, you would have intended to serve me tonight?”
His voice was deep and his tone unfriendly.
His eyes were like those of a wolf cub ready to devour, staring fixedly at her.
Xue Sui, of course, had her own ways of dealing with Li Huan.
Li Huan also didn’t particularly want to share a room with her.
However, there was no need to tell the person before her these things.
She tilted her head slightly, her expression calm, “Is Your Highness questioning me?”
Li Zhao said, “I am asking on behalf of the Love Silk Gu.”
Xue Sui smiled playfully, “Your Highness, please let it come out and speak.”
Li Zhao: “You let it come out to die.”
Xue Sui couldn’t help but chuckle, “Your Highness thinks too highly of yourself.”
Li Zhao’s expression turned cold, “As long as the Love Silk Gu exists, you can never betray me.”
Xue Sui met his gaze calmly, “I have no feelings for Your Highness, so how can there be betrayal?”
Li Zhao sneered, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.
“I cannot, why can you? Xue Ping’an, you are unfair.”
With that, he gracefully sat on the carved wooden stool by the window, his posture tall and slender, like a gust of mountain wilderness wind, completely at ease and unrestrained as if unaware of any danger.
There was no one else in the room.
The candlelight flickered, casting warm yellow light and shadows that danced upon them.
The previously simple and unadorned room suddenly seemed to possess a hint of ambiguous and romantic boudoir charm.
Xue Sui felt a dull headache coming on.
Li Zhao’s uninvited visits twice left her feeling somewhat helpless.
“Crushing human bones, dismembering them into pieces, and dumping the body in the moat, causing panic throughout Shangjing. Crown Prince, you commit such acts, yet you come to me for trouble when I face Prince Duan’s interrogation? I don’t blame you, but you come to find fault with me?”
Li Zhao casually said, “Oh.”
“Stop pretending, Xue Ping’an. You are worse than I am.”
He turned sideways, picked up a bird feeder that Xue Sui had carved for Ling Yu from the wooden desk on the windowsill, and played with it, a faint smile curving his lips.
“If You Zhimu had fallen into your hands, his fate would have been even worse.”
Li Zhao’s wide sleeves gently waved, bringing a hint of crisp wind, carrying the coolness of the night.
Xue Sui felt a tickle in her nose.
“Li Huan suspects the Old Mausoleum Swamp.”
Li Zhao looked up, his gaze deep.
“He is not wrong to suspect. The mastermind is you, Sixth Miss Xue.”
His voice was sharp and cold, possessing a chilling ferocity and power that could devour souls.
However, for a woman like Xue Sui, who had been tempered by fear a thousand times over, her heart broken and mended countless times, such intimidation could no longer stir great waves.
Especially since Li Zhao was now in her grasp.
Thus, Xue Sui retorted.
“Then what are you? My accomplice?”
Li Zhao: If possible, can I not be an accomplice, but do something else?
Xue Sui: Speak, who do you want to kill?
