QYT - 29

The palace lamps of the Zhaoyun Palace lit up one by one, and before long, Princess Ronghua arrived.

The autumn night was a little chilly, but a charcoal stove had already been lit. Acen went ahead to hold the curtain for the princess, who then hurried to the bed. “Yu’er, how are you?”

Jiang Cizhou sat up, leaning on a pillow. His face was still very pale. Instead of answering, he asked, “Why has Mother returned to the palace?”

Princess Ronghua went to the Great Ci’en Temple for ascetic practices every summer and would only return in winter.

“With all the chaos in the court and Shu’er’s difficult position, and you being caught up in it, how could I not return?”

Zhao Shu was the name of the current Emperor Jianing. The emperor’s mother had died young, and he had been raised by the princess since childhood.

“Why did you decide to go to the Xuan Ying Division?” Princess Ronghua asked again.

“...The emperor reactivated the Xuan Ying Division, hoping to use the opportunity to investigate the Ningzhou Plague case from five years ago. He is a lone pillar, so I agreed to become the Deputy Commander,” Jiang Cizhou paused and said. “This was also my uncle’s only last request before he passed away.”

The princess was worried. “You have been Jiang Cizhou for five years. Now that you have accepted this post at the Xuan Ying Division, how can those people in the court not be suspicious of you? Not only are you not avoiding the spotlight, but Zhang Lanruo had you stay behind to demolish the wine shop, which was clearly a test. Why did you still...”

Before she could finish, Jiang Cizhou’s eyes shifted slightly. He looked away, toward the silver mask placed on the side.

The princess knew she was speaking out of concern and had touched on his personal troubles. She pursed her lips and quickly stopped talking.

She sat silently by Jiang Cizhou’s bed for a while, then turned to Acen beside her. “Is the medicine ready?”

“Yes, the physician has been keeping it warm on the small stove.”

Acen quickly returned with the medicine and added, “This servant has taken care of everything. Besides the emperor and those from the Zhaoyun Palace, no one knows that His Highness has returned.”

Acen was an old servant of the palace, and the princess had always trusted her to handle things.

The princess handed the bowl of medicine to Jiang Cizhou and said, “Yu’er, drink your medicine first.”

The herbal medicine had a strong, pungent smell. Jiang Cizhou took the bowl but didn’t drink it immediately. After a long while, he just said, “I want to try it.”

The sentence seemed to come out of nowhere, but when he finished speaking, the entire inner chamber fell silent.

Besides the princess, Acen, Chaotian, Derong, and the physician were also standing there.

They looked at Jiang Cizhou, and no one could say a word.

— “I want to try it.”

Five years ago, when the Xijintai collapsed, he was sent back from Lingchuan barely alive. The princess wept, and Derong and Acen stayed by his bed, caring for him without a moment’s rest. Jiang Cizhou would be sometimes conscious and sometimes in a daze, but when he was awake, he would just lie there silently with his eyes open, not listening to a word anyone said.

Half a month later, an official from the Court of Judicial Review came to investigate the case. It was the first time he spoke. “How many people died?”

The official seemed hesitant. He said, “Your Highness’s injuries have not yet healed. It’s not good to think too much about other matters. You should...”

“I asked, how many people died exactly?”

Only later did the princess hear a few fragments of information from others.

On the day the Xijintai was completed, Wen Qian was mysteriously absent. One of the wooden piles supporting the platform was supposed to be removed once the platform was finished. The artisans all wanted to remove it, so someone asked Young Prince Zhao for a decision.

The rain was too heavy and hazy. It was Young Prince Zhao who stood under Baiyang Mountain and said, “Demolish it.”

...

The official from the Court of Judicial Review didn’t dare to disobey the order and had to say, “Many have died. Around a hundred are registered. Zhang Zhengqing and Yu Songming from the Hanlin Academy, as well as the young master of the Jiang family who went with Your Highness, did not survive. There are still some trapped in the mountain who cannot be dug out... To prevent a plague, we had to set it on fire...”

Jiang Cizhou closed his eyes.

He recuperated in the Zhaoyun Palace, and his injuries kept recurring until he finally got slightly better a year later.

During that year, he tried to step out of the Zhaoyun Palace several times, wanting to ask what was happening to his uncle, to the court, and to the deceased. Several times, he was forced back by the blinding sunlight outside the hall.

It was as if he had lost half of his soul in the dark, sunless ruins of the Xijintai, and could no longer bear to look at the light.

Then one day, he saw the mask on the cabinet.

This mask was given to him by the real Young Master Jiang. At the time, he had said jokingly, “Your Highness and I are around the same age and have similar builds. With this mask, Your Highness can become me.”

Young Prince Zhao pointed to the mask and said to Derong, “Give it to me.”

“I want to try it,” he had said.

Under the Xijintai five years ago, Xie Rongyu and Jiang Cizhou, only one of them survived.

But a mask worn for too long can never be taken off. Jiang Cizhou was dead, so from then on, Xie Rongyu became Jiang Cizhou.

And no matter who survived, to continue living a normal life, he could only be Jiang Cizhou.

Jiang Cizhou finished the medicine, reached out, and took the mask from the cabinet. He said again, without context, “I’ve tried it. It’s more comfortable to be Jiang Cizhou.”

Acen, who was just about to take out the prince’s black, crimson-edged, wide-sleeved court robe, heard this and put the robe back, replacing it with his usual casual clothes.

Jiang Cizhou got up to change.

In the soft lamplight, his face was flawless. His eyes were clear and calm, with a gentle sadness, yet the outer corners were sharp and striking, not lacking in brilliance.

When the late emperor was alive, Acen served by the late empress’s side. After the late empress passed away, Acen turned twenty-two and went to Princess Ronghua’s residence, and later returned to the deep palace with the princess.

Over several decades, Acen had seen almost all the refined and noble talents in and out of the palace.

But she had never seen anyone like Young Prince Zhao.

He was so handsome, yet for all these years, he had lived under a mask, walking in embroidered clothes in the dark of night. It was truly a shame.

After changing his clothes, Jiang Cizhou took his leave from Princess Ronghua, saying, “I’ve been delayed for three days. There are many urgent matters to deal with outside. There’s no time to lose. In a couple of days, Qingzhi will come back to the palace to pay his respects to Mother.”

The princess saw that he was about to leave and called out, “Yu’er.”

She sat upright in the inner chamber and asked, “Are you really married?”

Jiang Cizhou had actually sought the princess’s consent when he wrote to the Cui family to arrange the marriage.

At that time, Zhang Heshu had proposed rebuilding the Xijintai, and there was unrest in the court. The disaster of the Xijintai might affect the Cui family in Yuezhou. Young Prince Zhao, remembering his old friendship with Cui Yuanyi, wanted to use the Jiang family’s marriage to save the Cui clan’s people. If Cui Zhiyun became the Jiang family’s daughter-in-law, the court wouldn’t unjustly execute Cui Hongyi.

The princess asked this because Jiang Cizhou had promised that after marrying Cui Zhiyun, he would explain their situation as a fake couple and send her to the Great Ci’en Temple to be temporarily protected by the princess.

But after all this time, he had not sent the woman over.

Jiang Cizhou was silent for a moment, then lifted his robe and sat down again in the hall. “When the Xijintai collapsed, Wen Qian and his eight artisans were all wronged. I truly didn’t think about getting married. I wrote the letter to arrange the marriage simply to help a friend’s family. I never expected...”

“Never expected?”

“I never expected the person who came to marry was not Cui Zhiyun, but Cui Yuanyi’s daughter, Cui Qingwei.”

Jiang Cizhou considered his words. “I knew that Cui Yuanyi had a young daughter, but when the Xijintai was about to be completed, his daughter was critically ill and was said to only have a few days to live. Cui Yuanyi didn’t die under the Xijintai because he had gone back for his daughter’s funeral. By all accounts, his daughter should have been long gone. But this one now...”

The princess asked, “Who is this one now?”

“She should be,” Jiang Cizhou said solemnly, “Wen Qian’s daughter, Wen Xiaoye.”

In the nationwide arrest warrant for Wen’s relatives back then, the name of Wen’s daughter had already been circled in red. But others didn’t know she was alive, while he did.

Jiang Cizhou said, “I have also sent people to look for her over the years, but I was delayed by my recovery and lost all leads. Later, I heard that Cui Hongyi had adopted Cui Yuanyi’s young daughter, which made me suspicious, but I never investigated. First, because the evidence of Cui Qingwei’s existence was undeniable, as if someone had tampered with it, and a rash investigation might have alerted the enemy. Second, because I felt that since we weren’t acquainted, it was probably a good thing if she had a place to settle down.”

“Wen Qian’s daughter...” Princess Ronghua savored the four words. “Did she recognize you?”

“No,” Jiang Cizhou said with a smile. “I recognize her, but she doesn’t recognize me.”

“I don’t know who she is working for, but the southern city’s secret jail is heavily guarded. The fact that she was able to break in and rescue Xue Changxing is not a simple matter. I got involved too late and haven’t been able to find out yet.”

“I cannot reveal my identity rashly. I have tested her a few times, and she is very cautious and always on guard against me. Besides, if she truly knew who I was, if she knew... about those things, she might not be willing to trust me.”