Chapter 341: Smoke after the fire, undercurrents surge
The flames in the west courtyard lit up half the sky. The crackling sounds of the burning, mixed with the servants' cries of surprise, were particularly piercing in the silent night. Little Swallow stood by the Moon Gate, watching the firefighters rushing back and forth with buckets of water, their clothes rustling in the night wind.
"Princess, the wind is strong. You should go back to your room." Little Dengzi caught up with her, holding a cloak. Seeing her staring intently at the closed corner door in the west courtyard, he added, "The guards are guarding it. Not even a mouse can escape."
Xiaoyanzi didn't take the cloak, but instead took two steps forward. The air was filled with a burnt smell, mixed with the faint scent of powder—the scent of the rose water Zhihua often used. She suddenly stopped in front of a bunch of roses, curled up from the burns, squatted down, and picked up a piece of rag with sparks on it. Her fingertips shrank from the heat.
"This is..." She frowned slightly. The weave of this cloth looked familiar. It seemed like the material Zhihua had given to her personal maid last month. But the rose bush was quite far from the study. How could the cloth be burned here?
"Sister, what are you looking at?" Zhihua's voice suddenly came from behind her, with a tearful tone, "Do you suspect I set the fire on purpose?"
Xiaoyanzi turned around and saw Zhihua had changed into a moon-white plain dress, her hair neatly combed. However, her eyes were red and swollen, and she was clutching a wet handkerchief. Nanny Li, who was following behind her, had a flickering look in her eyes, occasionally glancing towards the study.
"Concubine, you're joking." Xiaoyanzi stood up and brushed the ashes off her hands. "I just think this fire is strange. Think about it, the study is full of books. Even if there was a fire, it should have burned slowly. How could it be like this..." She paused, her eyes sweeping over the rose bush. "Even the flowers and plants in the corner of the yard are burning so badly?"
Zhihua's face turned pale, and she clutched her handkerchief tighter: "Maybe it's because the night wind is too strong..."
"The night wind blows southeast." Yongqi came over at some point, holding a half-burned reed in his hand. "But the fire started in the northwest corner of the wall. Isn't that strange?"
Zhihua's lips trembled, and she subconsciously took a half step back, bumping into Li Ma. Li Ma quickly supported her and said sternly, "What do you mean by this, Your Highness? Do you suspect that our concubine started the fire?"
"Whether it's true or not, we'll know when the Shuntian prefect arrives." Yongqi's voice was as cold as ice. "I've sent someone to get the key to the study. If it's true, as Concubine Consort said, that they just burned some books, then that would be great."
These words seemed to strike a chord with Zhihua, and she suddenly raised her voice: "Your Highness! How could you doubt me so much? I've been a law-abiding person in the palace, not even willing to step on an ant. How could you do such a vicious thing?"
Xiaoyanzi looked at her tearful expression and suddenly smiled. "Don't worry, Concubine. I just remembered something. This afternoon, when I passed by Huaiyin Courtyard, I saw your maid burning something over there. I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but now that I think about it..." She deliberately dragged out her tone, "I think there were also these reeds in that fire."
Zhihua's crying stopped abruptly, and her face turned pale as paper. Li Ma's eyes became panicked, and she reached out to pull Zhihua, but Xiaoyanzi glared back: "What do you want to say, Li Ma?"
"No, nothing..." Nanny Li lowered her head, her voice trembling.
Just then, Little Bug came running over, holding a blackened wooden box, his face stained with soot. "Prince! Princess! We found this in the ruins of the study!"
The wooden box was made of rosewood, with copper buckles at the corners. Now, only the frame remained. Yongqi took it and flipped through it. From it fell out a few pieces of partially burned paper. On them, you could vaguely see Mian Yi's homework.
"It seems something important was burned." Yongqi's eyes fell on Zhihua's face. "But, Concubine, this wooden box is specially used by you to store Mianyi's homework, right? If it is so precious, why would it be placed casually on the back shelf of the study?"
Zhihua opened her mouth, but no words came out. She had clearly hidden the wooden box under the bed, so how could it have ended up in the study?
Xiaoyanzi saw her panic and understood what was going on. Zhihua must have set the fire herself, but she didn't know what she was trying to burn, even moving the things hidden under the bed to the study.
The night wind blew the scent of cigarette smoke toward her, and she suddenly caught a glimpse of a dark figure flashing past the top of the west courtyard wall, moving extremely quickly. Her pupils shrank slightly, and just as she was about to warn Yongqi, she saw that the dark figure had disappeared into the night.
"What's wrong?" Yongqi noticed that something was wrong with her.
"Nothing." Xiaoyanzi shook her head, her fingertips quietly grasping the soft sword at her waist, "Maybe I saw it wrongly."
But she knew it wasn't an illusion. Zhihua wasn't the only one causing trouble in the palace.
By the time the Shuntian prefect and his runners arrived, the fire had already been brought under control. Looking at the pile of ashes dug out from the ruins, Zhihua's tears fell again, but this time, no one could tell whether they were real or fake.
Little Swallow stood on the porch, gazing towards the Huaiyin Courtyard. It was pitch black there, save for the shadow of the old locust tree, which bared its fangs and claws in the moonlight, like a monster hiding countless secrets. Suddenly, she had a premonition: this fire was only the beginning.
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