Chapter 44

The couple slept for a while, then bathed and dressed, returning to the dining hall one after the other. The servants attended them in an orderly manner, and the two masters maintained serious and peaceful expressions.

Xu Yunqi ate her meal silently, while Pei Muheng occasionally glanced at his wife without saying anything extra as if they hadn’t been in a heated situation just moments ago.

After eating their fill, they both felt refreshed. Xu Yunqi recalled that she had already saved Xu Rong, and there was nothing more for her to do here, so she said to Pei Muheng, “Third Master, how about I return to the capital? Staying here only makes you take care of me.”

If she wasn’t mistaken, it must have been Xun Yunhe who had pressured Pei Muheng. Throughout the journey, Pei Muheng had been extremely attentive to her.

Pei Muheng frowned, troubled about finding an excuse to make her stay when suddenly a guard rushed in from outside, “Prince, Eunuch Xu requests your presence.”

Both the husband and wife were stunned.

Xu Rong’s request could either mean something urgent or an issue with his wound. Pei Muheng glanced at Xu Yunqi and said calmly, “Yunqi, things are more complicated than we imagined. I can’t leave you here alone. Come with me.”

Xu Yunqi quietly looked at her husband, and without hesitation, she changed clothes and followed him. Upon arriving at the yamen, it turned out that there was no major issue with Xu Rong; it was just the pressure from the capital urging Pei Muheng to return and report promptly. Additionally, Xu Rong disclosed a few secrets to Pei Muheng.

Pei Muheng understood that this was the pressure exerted by his Twelfth Uncle.

Xu Yunqi took the opportunity to feel Xu Rong’s pulse, examined his wound, and adjusted the prescription. The couple then left the yamen together. It was already late at night, and Xu Yunqi would usually be asleep at this hour. However, after sleeping for two hours in the afternoon, she was still quite energetic.

Pei Muheng discussed with her, “Time is of the essence. I must find the true culprit quickly. The real perpetrator must be among the refugees from that day. Besides Xu Rong being injured, many guards and eunuchs were also killed. I plan to visit the morgue.”

Xu Yunqi had no choice but to accompany him.

The guards drove the carriage to the prefectural yamen. It was nearly midnight, and the gatekeeper was dozing off. When he suddenly saw Pei Muheng arrive, he was terrified. By the time Pei Muheng entered the morgue, the gatekeeper finally reacted and hurriedly sent someone to notify the higher-ups.

The prefectural yamen was divided into two areas for work. The main yamen was next to the prefectural yamen, where trials and interrogations were usually held. The other area was the morgue, located in a small alley behind the prefectural yamen. The courtyard had two deep sections, with two side rooms on the left and right for work. The main hall was empty, and the bodies were kept in the innermost small courtyard.

Pei Muheng and Xu Yunqi, accompanied by seven or eight guards, passed through corridors and courtyards until they reached the innermost courtyard.

Pei Muheng, being a royal envoy, faced no obstruction. The guards checked his token and opened the door for them.

As the door opened, a foul stench assailed them. Instinctively, Pei Muheng pulled his wife into his embrace and softly said, “You wait outside.”

Xu Yunqi gently brushed off her husband’s hand, looked up at him intently, and said, “Third Master, I’ve performed autopsies before.”

Pei Muheng: “…”

Without waiting for Pei Muheng to react, she took out a cloth from the medical kit, covered her mouth and nose, and stepped over the threshold ahead of Wang Fan, the secret guard.

Pei Muheng stood outside the threshold, silently watching his composed wife and rubbing his temples. He had grown accustomed to his wife constantly surprising him; it was no problem, he could handle any shock.

Knowing Pei Muheng’s aversion to filth, Huang Wei quickly fetched a cloth and handed it to him. He also received a bottle of peppermint water from one of the guards. Pei Muheng applied some of it under his nose before covering his face with the cloth and entering the morgue.

The morgue was guarded by a coroner, who led Pei Muheng to inspect each body.

Pei Muheng’s goal was simple: to find traces of the murderer on the corpses.

There were ten victims with wounds of varying depths. Some had been struck by arrows in the heart or forehead, others had died from knife wounds, and a few had succumbed to sword injuries. The sword wounds were particularly fatal, inflicted with a swift and deadly blow. Pei Muheng paused in front of these two bodies.

That day, he had watched Xu Yunqi treat Xu Rong’s wounds and had observed the injuries. He felt that the three wounds were very similar.

“Yunqi, look, were these three people wounded by the same person?”

Xu Yunqi handed the medical kit to Wang Fan, took out a pair of tweezers, and moistened them with some alcohol before carefully examining the wounds. Pei Muheng personally held the lamp for her.

Xu Yunqi sprinkled a layer of medicinal liquid, slowly restoring the blurred and scabbed wounds, and described their shape and depth to Pei Muheng in detail. As a martial artist, Pei Muheng’s mind pieced together the assassination scene.

Xu Rong’s wound was in the left kidney, and the sword must have been used with the left hand, likely obstructed by someone, resulting in a shallow wound that deviated slightly to the outside of the wrist. The first corpse in front of him had a sword wound penetrating the lungs, with the wound straightly stabbing towards the right front, and the same for the other corpse.

The three wounds were similar in shape and direction, indicating that the killer was left-handed.

This crucial information invigorated Pei Muheng. He sent the secret guard Wang Fan to investigate the left-handed individuals in Yangzhou city and interrogated the group of refugees overnight.

No one expected Pei Muheng to conduct interrogations in the middle of the night. Everyone hurriedly got up from their chairs and scrambled to respond.

Half an hour later, Lord He, the official in charge of the Yamen, rushed in and saw Pei Muheng, covered in blood, emerging from the interrogation room. The tall and elegant young man nonchalantly wiped the blood from his hands and greeted Lord He with a casual smile.

“Lord He, you’re here?”

Lord He, sensing something was wrong, quickly paid his respects and asked, “Your Highness, if you wish to conduct an investigation, why didn’t you inform this official? I could have accompanied you.”

Pei Muheng threw the bloodstained cloth onto Lord He and sat at the main seat to drink tea. “I have already completed the investigation, and the truth is clear.”

Lord He almost stumbled, “What? So quickly? What did you find out?”

Pei Muheng slowly rotated the teacup with his fingers and said, “So, it turns out these refugees were causing trouble on their own. Here are their confessions.” Pei Muheng gestured towards the desk in front of him with his chin.

Lord He swallowed, and his face turned pale. He quickly stepped forward to examine the confessions. The contents of the dozen or so confessions were almost identical, all admitting to their misdeeds without anyone else’s involvement.

Lord He nearly choked with anger. “Your Highness, it’s strange that all the confessions say the same thing. How can you believe them so easily? Someone, reexamine them…”

Before Lord He could finish his sentence, he saw the guard at the door wearing a bitter expression. “What is it?” he asked.

The guard knelt and said, “My Lord, the prince… the prince has already interrogated all fifteen refugees to death.”

There were over a hundred refugees that day, mostly beggars and ruffians. These fifteen were the soldiers who had disguised themselves and infiltrated the salt field’s inner court. They were the key evidence to convict the Navy Commander’s office.

They had been waiting for Pei Muheng to question these fifteen people to frame Qu Weizhen.

Lord He’s eyes widened in shock. He slowly turned around, staring at Pei Muheng in disbelief. Seeing that he remained calm and collected, Lord He’s anger flared up. Ignoring Pei Muheng’s royal status, he exclaimed furiously, “Your Highness, how could you have openly interrogated these refugees to death? How will you explain this to the court? How will you explain this to the Three Departments?”

Pei Muheng sat upright, his expression cold, “They were guilty of numerous crimes, including attempting to assassinate the imperial envoy and inciting unrest. Should they not be put to death? Why are you defending them so fervently? Could it be that there is more to their story?”

Lord He shivered and quickly reined in his anger. Taking a deep breath, he replied, “No, Your Highness, but… but why did you interrogate them to death? This… this… how can this be explained?”

Pei Muheng, his expression unchanged, said, “Letters from the court have repeatedly urged me to solve the case quickly. I’m sure Eunuch Xu has informed you. In response, I conducted an urgent overnight interrogation, but these people couldn’t withstand it. Since I was the one who interrogated them to death, I will take responsibility and seek the emperor’s pardon. No need for you to worry, Lord He.”

Lord He would be a fool not to understand by now.

Pei Muheng intended to cover up for Qu Weizhen, ensuring no living witnesses existed.

Lord He was almost driven mad with anger.

With the witnesses dead and the physical evidence and confessions in Pei Muheng’s hands, the case’s outcome would be entirely up to him.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Lord He hurriedly went to find the prefect while Pei Muheng arranged for his people to clean up and took the evidence and confessions back to the palace.

Upon hearing the news, the prefect was so enraged that he smashed a teacup on the spot. “This Pei Muheng, he has no goodwill with Prince Qin; why is he interfering?”

In his impression, Pei Muheng had a deep friendship with Pei Xun and should not disrupt his plans. Now that the situation had gone awry, he did not know how to explain it to the Twelfth Prince. He sent his confidants to write a letter to the capital and devised a plan to delay Pei Muheng’s return to the capital.

The next day, the prefect invited Pei Muheng to the prefectural yamen. When Pei Muheng arrived, he saw that the area outside the yamen was crowded with merchants and citizens.

Not only was the outside completely blocked but the inner hall was also packed with people. Officials of all ranks from Yangzhou city had gathered there.

Xu Yunqi saw a familiar face among the crowd, the father of Jiang Yuhe, the Yangzhou garrison commander Jiang Junzheng. Unfortunately, Jiang Junzheng, with a worried expression, did not notice her.

Although Pei Muheng was a royal descendant, the prefect dared not show his anger and simply explained that the unrest caused by the refugees stemmed from the salt administration reform, which was originally Pei Muheng’s proposal and was well-known throughout the land. The prefect had gathered all the city’s salt merchants and officials, throwing this mess onto Pei Muheng.

Pei Muheng, who was troubled by his inability to find an excuse to intervene in the matter, received this opportunity with ease.

In Yangzhou, Pei Muheng was essentially fighting a lone battle. This was the territory of the Twelfth Prince, Pei Xun, who was the only legitimate son and the undisputed heir to the throne. Pei Xun did not even take Prince Qin seriously, let alone Prince Xi.

Nobody took Pei Muheng seriously.

On the first day, Pei Muheng, following the Ministry of Revenue’s documents, assigned quotas, but no officials paid attention to him. The merchants complained loudly and refused to cooperate. They were willing to pay money but unwilling to buy grain and send it to the border.

After three days, there was no progress.

What to do?

Pei Muheng quickly devised a plan: to capture the ringleader and defeat them one by one.

Earlier, during his strolls around Yangzhou with Xu Yunxi, he had not come back empty-handed; he had learned about the details and factions of the salt merchants in Yangzhou.

One faction was led by Jia Hualian, the richest man, who was associated with the prefect. Another faction was led by Su Shang, who was close to Qu Weizhen.

First, he met with Su Shang and handed him the bloodstained arrow. Su Shang immediately went to Jinling City overnight. Qu Weizhen quickly understood that Pei Muheng was trying to save him and sent Su Shang back, instructing him to follow Pei Muheng’s orders in everything.

Pei Muheng then came up with an idea for Su Shang. “I have reviewed the documents from the Ministry of Revenue. Yangzhou is connected to the Yulin military warehouse. I suggest that Master Su send trusted people to plant grain around Yulin. Once the grain is harvested, it can be sent directly to the military warehouse, eliminating the need for long-distance transportation and reducing trading costs. They can directly exchange the grain for salt permits and then return to the Yangzhou salt field.”

In recent years, wars on the border and population relocation had left the fourteen border states sparsely populated. This method could also strengthen the border.

Su Shang did the calculations and agreed wholeheartedly, saying, “Your Highness, what a brilliant plan!” He immediately gathered the salt merchants in his faction and arranged for people to head north.

With half the problem solved, only the powerful Jia Hualian remained.

What to do?

Jia Hualian had received praise from the emperor, making it difficult to use ordinary methods against him. Pei Muheng employed a strategy to lure the tiger away from the mountain, writing to the emperor, stating that Jia Hualian had been devoted to the emperor’s grace. Since his last audience with the emperor, he had established several charitable halls and built a longevity shrine for the emperor, bowing to the north every day, wishing to see the emperor.

Pei Muheng did not lie; these were all things Jia Hualian had done for years.

The emperor summoned Jia Hualian to the capital.

Jia Hualian, distressed, hurriedly arranged for a large Taihu stone inscribed with the character “longevity” to be transported to the capital. With his departure, the merchants of Yangzhou were leaderless. Pei Muheng tackled them one by one, offering favors and concessions to some merchants. Gradually, the once-united Yangzhou was split open, and the grain-for-salt exchange was successfully implemented.

During this time, he finally identified the real culprit and hurried back to the capital with the evidence of the crime.

A month later, on the twentieth of July, Pei Muheng and his wife arrived in the capital as scheduled. Pei Muheng went to the palace to meet the emperor overnight.

Xu Yunqi was escorted back to the palace by the guards.

Because the couple had accomplished great deeds on this journey, both Prince Xi and Princess Consort Xi waited for them in the main hall.

Pei Mushan waited early in the hallway. As soon as Xu Yunqi got off the carriage, she ran over and hugged her. “Sister-in-law, you’re back! I thought you wouldn’t make it to my betrothal banquet!”

Xu Yunqi’s face was full of surprise. “You’re getting betrothed? When is it?”

Pei Mushan scratched her head, trying to remember the date. Yin Xing beside her chimed in, “Fifth Miss, you have a terrible memory. It’s the day after tomorrow.”

Then she hugged Xu Yunqi’s arm and cried. “Miss, please don’t leave me behind next time. I was so lonely at the palace all by myself…”

Pei Mushan glared at her and interrupted, “Sister-in-law, don’t believe her. She’s just pretending to be pitiful in front of you. These past few days, I’ve been taking her out to eat, drink, and have fun every day. She’s been quite comfortable.”

Yin Xing blushed deeply.

Xu Yunqi laughed heartily and looked around, feeling that something seemed off about the palace, though she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Just then, Madam Xie stood in the corridor and called out, “Sister-in-law, you’ve had a long journey. Come into the hall and rest. Mother and Father are waiting for you.”

Xu Yunqi didn’t think much of it and allowed Yin Xing and Pei Mushan to help her through the door.

Princess Consort Xi and Prince Xi were indeed sitting regally in the main hall. From a distance, Princess Consort Xi’s face was adorned with a rare, kind smile.

Xu Yunqi approached as usual to pay her respects. Princess Consort Xi didn’t say much, only asking where Pei Muheng was. Prince Xi explained that their son must have gone to the palace to see the emperor and then asked about Xu Yunqi’s experiences in Yangzhou city.

“You are a brave girl, just like your father!”

Upon hearing the word “father,” Yin Xing suddenly remembered something and gave Xu Yunqi a meaningful look.

The master and servant had always understood each other well, so Xu Yunqi knew that something must have happened during her absence. She calmly accompanied Prince Xi and the others for dinner and later called Yin Xing aside.

“What happened?” she asked.

Yin Xing pointed to the neighboring residence and said, “While you were away, Master Xun from next door met with our mistress. It seemed like he wanted her to return to him…”

Xu Yunqi frowned and planned to head to the side gate to find Xun Yunhe at the Xun residence. Seeing her move towards the back, Yin Xing hurriedly pulled her back.

“Hey, this way!”

“What?” Xu Yunqi was puzzled.

Just then, Prince Xi came out of the main hall, laughing heartily. “Third daughter-in-law, Master Xun from next door recently renovated his residence. He said the wall between our two houses was an eyesore, so he had it demolished and built a pavilion instead. You should go take a look…”

As Prince Xi spoke, he even covered his forehead.

Xun Yunhe was known as the most cautious and prudent man in the capital. He knew what the emperor was wary of. For years, he had never set foot in the royal residence except for New Year’s greetings. Now, for the sake of his daughter, he even got rid of the wall.

Xu Yunqi was momentarily speechless. She and Yin Xing stepped out of the royal residence and looked towards the Xun residence. Indeed, the once-dark wall between the two houses was gone. A small canal, with clear water flowing and a few green lotuses swaying in the evening breeze, had been introduced. A triangular pavilion with upturned eaves stood above the canal. There was still a passageway wide enough for carriages between the pavilion and the fence wall.

With a serious expression, Xu Yunqi and Yin Xing stepped into the front yard of the Xun residence.

As the sky darkened, two palace lanterns were hung under the corridor of the Xun residence. A gentle evening breeze blew through the open courtyard gate. Autumn had set in, and the wind carried a chill. Xu Yunqi, having just returned from the warm city of Yangzhou, felt a bit uncomfortable and stopped in front of the stone lions at the gate. It seemed as though Xun Yunhe anticipated her arrival as he slowly stepped out in a white robe.

Yin Xing waited in the pavilion, and the thoughtful housekeeper of the Xun residence brought her some fruits. She leisurely munched on melon seeds.

Xun Yunhe approached Xu Yunxi with his hands behind his back, showing a gentle smile.

“You’re back? Was the journey smooth?”

The Yangzhou reports were sent to the inner cabinet daily, so Xun Yunhe was well aware of Pei Muheng’s activities in Yangzhou, but he was particularly concerned about his daughter.

Xu Yunqi’s expression had returned to calm. She first curtsied to him and then said, “Why did you have to seek her out?”

The smile on Xun Yunhe’s face faded. “If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t have come to see your father.”

Xu Yunxi knew what this meant. She fell silent for a moment and sighed. “If you feel lonely, you can marry another wife and even have a few more children. You can slowly raise them to fill the void in your heart.”

“With your current status, you can marry a woman you truly desire. My mother was not suitable for you. You two should never have been together in the first place.”

Her grandfather had mentioned multiple times that her father had great ambitions while her mother was only suited for a peaceful life. They shouldn’t have crossed paths.

These words would not have hurt Xun Yunhe if spoken by anyone else, but coming from Xu Yunqi, they did.

If he hadn’t married Qingniang, she wouldn’t exist. Only deep disappointment in her parents could prompt her to say such things.

Xun Yunhe, enduring the pain in his heart, slowly said, “Dear daughter, I won’t… I won’t marry anyone else again or have any more children. I have set aside a portion of my estate for Nianxi, and the rest will all be left to you,”

“Even if I grow old and lonely, I will keep a house for you. No matter how far you go, whenever you look back, there will always be a light shining for you and a pair of eyes watching over you, hoping for your return.”