QYT - 36

Qingwei stared blankly at the small porcelain bottle on the ground, then looked up, staring blankly at Jiang Cizhou.

She suddenly stood up and, in a fluster, rushed to the cabinet and opened her cosmetics box.

Her face in the bronze mirror was unusually clean. Not to mention the markings, there was not a single blemish other than the two small moles near the corner of her right eye.

Qingwei turned back to look at the pouch on the ground.

The pouch was still a bit damp. The only water she had been in all night was Fudong’s bathtub!

Qingwei instantly understood what had happened. Without a word, she walked up to Jiang Cizhou and reached out to lift the half-mask from his face.

Jiang Cizhou found her reaction sudden and amusing. He caught her hand. “What are you doing?”

“Did you make me hide in the bathtub with you just so you could secretly take my little bottle?”

Jiang Cizhou said, “No, I didn’t know about your little bottle before. Under the water, you were too close to me, and the bottle was poking me uncomfortably. I took it off, intending to give it back to you after we got out of the tub, but the drawstring of the pouch was tied to your waist knot, and when the pouch was undone, the drawstring came loose.”

His explanation was reasonable, and although Qingwei believed it, she was not satisfied.

“I don’t care,” Qingwei said. “After we got out of the tub, you saw what I looked like. You should have known about the strangeness of that little bottle, but you didn’t say a word to me.” She was a little anxious. Over the years, she had been cautious. She had stumbled before, but never like this—she had married him under a false face and a false identity. This marriage, to her, was not real, but a month hadn’t even passed, and he had already seen her true face. Qingwei didn’t know why, but she felt a sense of panic. “Fudong was about to tell me, but you stopped her. You did it on purpose!”

She broke free from his hand and stood on her tiptoes, determined to take off his mask. “You said ‘one for one.’ You saw me, so I can’t be at a disadvantage!”

“‘One for one’ was about you getting Fudong’s clues in exchange for my clues about Fuxia.” The room was messy enough as it was. They had just fought last night, and it was too early to start another one this morning. Jiang Cizhou blocked her while laughing. “Didn’t I tell you? My face was burned by a fire when I was a child. It’s not pretty...”

“Do you think I believe that?”

Qingwei was relentless. Jiang Cizhou couldn’t avoid her. For a moment, he thought she looked like a frantic rabbit, or a bristling little wolf showing its teeth and claws. He had no choice but to wrestle with her.

Just as the battle in the room was in full swing, the door was pushed open, and Derong stepped over the threshold. “Young Master, you’re back? Chaotian is—”

He stopped mid-sentence as he took in the scene inside the room.

The room was in a complete mess. The young madam, with her back to him, was hanging on the young master. The young madam seemed to be in a hurry, but the young master didn’t seem angry at all and was smiling very gently, holding her with one hand to keep her from falling. Not only that, but after the night they had, they had both changed their clothes.

Derong immediately fell silent and carefully lowered his head, backed out of the room, and closed the door. Remembering Chaotian’s miserable state, Derong stood silently outside for a moment, then couldn’t help but add, “Young Master, Chaotian didn’t know you were back and is still copying The Analects in the study. He’s been copying all night and really can’t take it anymore. Since you... don’t know when you’ll be finished with the young madam, maybe you could let Chaotian stop copying and rest for a while.”

Jiang Cizhou was stunned when he heard this and remembered that Chaotian was still impersonating him in the study.

Qingwei heard the ambiguity in Derong’s words about “not knowing when you’ll be finished” and realized how unseemly she looked. She got off Jiang Cizhou and sat on the edge of the bed without a word.

The die had been cast. Now that she had had her little outburst, her emotions had calmed down. She had rarely shown her true face over the years. Now that Jiang Cizhou had seen it, her insistence on taking off his mask was really just a fit of pique. In the end, what did it matter what he looked like? She didn’t... really care who he was. Compared to what was under his mask, the clues about Fuxia were far more important.

Seeing Qingwei’s silence, Jiang Cizhou said softly, “If you truly want to see, when I have taken care of some things, I will... do my best to take off this mask.”

Qingwei looked up at him. “A gentleman’s promise?”

“I will not go back on my word.”

Qingwei nodded. “Alright. Then tell me the clues about Fuxia.”

Jiang Cizhou said, “Let’s go to the study together and check on Chaotian first.”

Qingwei thought for a moment, took her cosmetics box, and sat down at the table. “You go first. I’ll be there in a bit.”

Chaotian hadn’t slept all night. If it had been a night of martial arts training, it would have been fine. But as a military guard who hated poetry and books more than anything, copying The Analects until the candle burned out was unbearable. He was seeing double.

He also heard that his master and the young madam had returned to the mansion together this morning and couldn’t help but say, “The young master went to that estate, and the young madam probably knew about it early on. The young master tried to use a delaying tactic to hold her back, but it was useless. It was better to just stop her and have me impersonate the young master to copy books. The cover-up didn’t work anyway.”

Jiang Cizhou sat at the desk, looking at the pages of The Analects that Chaotian had copied. Hearing this, he glanced at Chaotian. “Can I beat her or can you beat her?”

Chaotian fell silent. Jiang Cizhou put a stack of rice paper on the table. “Your handwriting is this bad. Copying for one night is getting off easy.”

Chaotian was about to protest when Qingwei came in.

She had already redrawn the markings on her left eye. Her gaze fell on the white rice paper on the desk. She knew this was the masterpiece from last night when Chaotian impersonated Jiang Cizhou to trick her. She picked it up to look.

The first few pages were barely legible. Later on, the radicals were all separated, and the strokes were at odds with each other.

Qingwei put the paper down and said bluntly, “Your handwriting is really bad.”

Jiang Cizhou looked at Qingwei, seeing her “newly made-up” face and refreshed look. “Are you ready?” He turned to instruct Derong, “Go get a veiled hat for the young madam. Chaotian, get the carriage ready.”

“Are we going out?” Qingwei asked. She glanced at the sky. It wasn’t even noon yet. She immediately became alert. “Did something else happen?”

Jiang Cizhou stood up. “Are you hungry?”

Qingwei was stunned. She hadn’t felt it before, but after a night of running around without eating anything, his question made her feel genuinely hungry.

Derong quickly brought the veiled hat. Qingwei put it on and got into the carriage with Jiang Cizhou. “We can just eat something to fill our stomachs. I want to know about Fuxia.”

“We’ll talk about it at Donglaishun.” Jiang Cizhou sat down in the carriage. Derong and Chaotian quickly drove away. Jiang Cizhou said to Qingwei, “Before, we had that big argument on the street at Donglaishun. Many people could tell it was an act. An act is fine, but not following through on it will only invite gossip. Now that I’ve repented and we’ve reconciled, I should naturally take you to eat some roasted goose.”

“Let’s be clear first,” Qingwei said, sitting in the bamboo cabin of “Fengya Stream” after some careful thought. “You said you wouldn’t take advantage of me, and I won’t take advantage of you. I was entrusted by someone to investigate an old case related to the Xijintai, which is very dangerous. Now that I know the people who harmed Xu Shubai and replaced the Xijintai’s wood are the He father and son, I will do everything I can to investigate this matter.

“At Zhezhiju, He Hongyun already had a murderous intent toward me, but he was only probing you. Now that you know Fudong’s reason for coming to the capital, you don’t have to risk helping me. Similarly, after I hear the clues about Fuxia, I will not interfere with your actions.”

Jiang Cizhou asked bluntly, “Are you still unwilling to tell me who the person is who told you to ask about the Ningzhou Plague case?”

Qingwei didn’t say a word.

Jiang Cizhou didn’t press her. He asked again, “Do you want to help Fudong find Xu Shubai?”

Qingwei thought for a moment. “If I can find him and fulfill Miss Fudong’s wish, that would be for the best. But I have limited abilities and little power. I can only do my best to investigate. I can’t promise anything more.”

Jiang Cizhou smiled. “How do you know our goals aren’t the same? Maybe we’re on the same path?”

He quickly dropped his smile and said calmly, “Let’s go back to the plague case. Our conversation with Fudong was hurried last night. If you haven’t forgotten, Fudong’s last words were that even though she suspects it was the He father and son who truly profited from the inferior wood, five years ago, when the Xijintai was first being built, He Shiqing was in the capital recuperating from an illness, and He Hongyun went to Ningzhou to oversee a plague case. Neither of them was in Lingchuan.”

This was exactly what Qingwei was most concerned about.

Cao Kuede was a man who didn’t show his emotions, but if he was focused on a case, there must be something strange about it. What was the real story behind a small plague case?

Qingwei had this thought and asked it. “Is this plague case related to the Xijintai in any way?”

“Derong,” Jiang Cizhou called out.

Derong understood. He picked up the osmanthus tea and poured a cup for Qingwei. “Madam, please have some tea. Let me tell you the story slowly.”

“This plague case was called a ‘case,’ but at first, it was a very small matter...”

It was around the time the Xijintai was being built. A small town in Ningzhou was hit by a plague. Although the disease was severe, the symptoms were easy to identify, and there was an ancient remedy recorded in medical books.

With the remedy, everything was easy to handle. All they had to do was gather the patients, isolate them promptly, and administer the medicine as soon as possible. The disease would quickly subside.

“The only difficulty was that one of the medicinal ingredients in the remedy was a bit expensive. It wasn’t available in Ningzhou, and the officials hadn’t stockpiled it. It was called entangled-stem knotweed. So the Ningzhou officials reported the matter to the court, hoping the court would help them gather the medicinal herb.”

This was during the twelfth year of Emperor Zhaohua’s reign.

When the Great Zhou Dynasty was first founded, it was weak, but it gradually became prosperous and strong. The key was the prosperity of the people. Especially after Emperor Zhaohua came to the throne, he returned trade to the people. Aside from controlling salt and gold and silver mines, many goods, including tea, porcelain, timber, and medicinal herbs, were traded by private merchants. When the people were wealthy, the taxes collected were sufficient, and the national treasury was full.

So when the court received the report from Ningzhou, they found that the Imperial Medical Office didn’t have much of a reserve. They selected a Director from the Ministry of Revenue and tasked him with purchasing this entangled-stem knotweed from private medicinal merchants at a fair price and sending it to Ningzhou as soon as possible.

It was a simple task, so no one expected a problem to arise when this director was acquiring the knotweed.

“At that time, there was very little entangled-stem knotweed left on the market. The director worked hard for seven or eight days and only managed to acquire about ten catties. Ningzhou, in its urgency to treat the plague, had no choice but to offer a high price to other prefectures and medicinal merchants. Although the process was slow and the price was high, they did manage to get some. But after this delay, the plague in Ningzhou had also spread. The officials in Ningzhou were angry, thinking that as a high-ranking official from the Ministry of Revenue, working in the capital, how could the director not be able to acquire any medicinal herbs? In a fit of rage, they sent a memorial to the court to accuse him.”

“The plague was a small matter, but if it got out of hand, it would be a disaster. The court naturally ordered a thorough investigation. It was at this time that He Hongyun volunteered.”

He Hongyun had just entered the officialdom not long before, holding a ceremonial and non-essential position as a seventh-rank Master of Ceremonies in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices.

By all accounts, his position had nothing to do with treating a plague. But his father, He Shiqing, was the Minister of the Imperial Chancellery. Since he volunteered, the court was naturally willing to give him a chance.