crime scene
The room was elegant and quiet, and he was alone. He pushed open the window, and the evening breeze blew in, dispelling the faint scent of wood that had been stagnant in the house for so long. The autumn wind rustled, but its touch on his face swept away all fatigue. The cold moon was like a hook, hazy and subtle. The air was filled with the aroma of fried rice cakes from the night market vendors outside the hotel. In the distance, a corner of the imperial palace was shrouded in the night, but it was clearly visible, and buried memories emerged like a tide...
When he was seven years old, he was about to travel to Qi State with his father. Before leaving, the man said to him: "Xingzhi, don't forget to bring me something when you go to Qi State!"
"I heard the rice cakes there are sweet and sticky. How about I bring this for you?"
"How can you only think about eating? The rice cake will be gone after it's eaten. I want something that can be preserved for a long time!"
Later, he ate delicious rice cakes in Qiguo and found something to take back home. It was a transparent object, its surface clear and transparent, and inside it was a porcelain-made boy. The boy's face was smooth and lifelike, with a haughty expression, remarkably like the boy's since childhood. The sight of it filled him with joy. The stall owner explained that the object was made of glass and porcelain, and in Qiguo it was considered a fine item to collect and give as a gift. Overjoyed, he begged his father to buy it and take it back to give to the boy. This time, he wouldn't be dissatisfied with a gift he brought back if it wasn't to his liking.
He returned to Qing with his father and entered Xiandu. The city was filled with mourning banners and mourning curtains hung in the streets. The people stayed indoors and the merchants stopped their business. The streets were dead silent. The carriage drove up to the palace gate. The guards were all dressed in white mourning clothes and mourning scarves. When they saw that it was the carriage of Marquis Dingyuan, they hurriedly opened the palace gate to let it pass. However, Marquis Dingyuan got out of the carriage and grabbed the guard and asked, "What happened in the palace?"
The guard sighed, his lips twitching, and after a while he said, "The emperor... has passed away!" He wailed and cried.
He opened the curtain in the car and saw his father standing there in a daze, his eyes dull, and he had lost his soul in an instant.
Death? What does that mean? He had been traveling around the world with his father since he was a child. He thought it was just a trip, but his father said that they traveled to various countries not just to enjoy the scenery, but that the emperor had sent him to collect local customs and cultures, and to study the laws and policies of each country. His father would then bring the information back to Qingguo and report it to the emperor. He would analyze it comprehensively, discard the rough parts, and retain the essence, to be used by Qingguo. In this way, Qingguo would become increasingly powerful and stand at the top of the Central Plains.
He thought, this is exactly what the teacher taught me about the way of a king. The current emperor is worthy of being a sage king. No wonder that man is always proud of his father. But now, the father that man respected and admired the most has passed away...
He scratched his head and was thinking when he saw his father quickly got on the carriage and ordered the coachman to drive quickly to the palace.
Later events finally made Zishu Xingzhi understand the meaning of death, of passing away... It was a departure, never to be seen again, just like that person was to him. They were distant brothers, descended from the same bloodline, yet closer than their own half-brothers. He and his father had returned to Xiancheng several days after the emperor's passing, and the situation in the palace had been drastically altered. Everyone said the young prince had disappeared amidst the political turmoil, but in reality, he had vanished, his body missing, a tragic loss of life. It was his first experience of separation, his first acquaintance with death.
His father beat his chest and stamped his feet in remorse, weeping at home, saying that if he had returned sooner, or if he hadn't made the trip to Qi, he might have saved the prince's life. He stared blankly at the porcelain and glass object in his hands. The young man within still stood defiantly with his hands on his hips, while his distant cousin, the prince of Emperor Huan, was no longer alive. His father ultimately failed to hand over the records of his travels in Qi to Emperor Huan, and he ultimately failed to give his cousin the gift. Little did he know then, but he would soon face the loss of a loved one.
Soon after, Emperor Feng ascended the throne, leaving him a fatherless child. For years afterward, he brooded, thinking that, in his current state, he might as well die like his cousin, rather than remain in the mortal world, suffering as a half-dead, half-ghost… After reaching adulthood, Emperor Feng passed his father's title to him. Hereditary titles for members of the royal family were not uncommon, but how could a man like him, who reveled in the beauty of nature and the pleasures of life, truly deserve the title of his father, a founding hero? He knew, needless to say, that he had simply earned the reputation of a dissolute playboy. Moreover, he was not alone in his dissolute behavior throughout history. So, unfazed, he continued his carefree existence, completely ignoring state affairs. Since you wish this of me, I will do as you wish. The affairs of this world, the people of this world, are like the moon in the water, the flowers in the mist—unclear to see, impossible to discern. The bustling world is but a fleeting dream, so why take it so seriously? There is only one thing... Thinking of this, his usually bright eyebrows dimmed, covered with a layer of frost, and his left hand couldn't help but clench his right arm.
The waning moon was hidden behind dark clouds, dim and unclear. The biting autumn chill poured in through the window cracks, creating gusts of cool air in the ancestral hall. The white candles flickered, and Zhong Yujing sat quietly on the cushion in the center.
Since returning from the embassy, she'd been restless, her mind tangled with a thousand thoughts, like a tangled web of threads that she couldn't quite wrap her head around or unravel. Figuring she'd struggle to sleep in her room, she headed to the ancestral hall instead.
So much has happened recently. It seems all the twists and turns, dangers, and disputes have been resolved, yet there's a nagging feeling that something is lurking, hidden, unseen, and unapproached. What is it? And then there's the Dingyuan Marquis, this time from the Qing Kingdom. His arrival wasn't unexpected; the Qi Kingdom had always been prepared to guard against an invasion from the Qing Kingdom. The current situation in the Central Plains is inherently like this. Even without the Qing Kingdom, there were the Qiang, Rong, and Nansai. Swallowing each other is the norm in this war of power, but there's something fishy about this Dingyuan Marquis himself.
I really want to reach out and push away the fog to find out the truth hidden behind the mystery.
Time and space turned, and it was night. The full moon was bright and clear in the sky. The location was a large mansion. The temperature was very low, it must be deep winter. A servant came jogging from the east corridor, hunching his neck, and kept putting his hands to his mouth to breathe to keep warm. When he ran into this courtyard, he stopped and stamped his feet, as if waiting for someone. Soon, an elderly servant came from the west. The servant saw him and hurried forward, "The prince has drunk his soup, so he asked me to leave first." The elderly servant nodded, "Go back to your room and rest early, it's getting late." The servant then happily walked back to his room with small steps and skipping all the way.
Zhong Yujing thought this elderly servant must be the manor's steward. He glanced eastward and set off in that direction. A fine snowflake began to fall, the flakes light yet large, soon covering the ground like a thin blanket. Zhong Yujing followed the steward forward, leaving only one set of footprints on the ground. She felt like she had seen the mandarin ducks at the shores of the underworld, a mere wisp of spirit entering this scene, invisible and formless.
The butler arrived at a door that, from the outside, appeared to be the main house, located in the center of the courtyard. He knocked twice, but no one answered. Zhong Yujing noticed that the lights were off. The butler knocked again, a little harder, "Your Highness?" Still no movement. Naturally, the butler assumed the prince had drunk his soup and gone to sleep, so he stood up and left, heading in another direction, presumably to his room to rest.
After seeing the housekeeper walk away, Zhong Yujing walked forward to the door and gently pushed it. The door opened without much effort. Although she knew that no one could see her, she still felt guilty about being discovered.
Zhong Yujing walked into the room cautiously and looked around carefully in the dark room. There was no light in the room. The only light was the moonlight projected on the snow. This was a spacious study with luxurious furnishings. In the middle was an exquisitely carved desk. A person could be vaguely seen leaning on the pear blossom chair behind the desk.
Zhong Yujing walked to the back of the desk. The person on the chair didn't move at all, as if he was asleep. She came to the side of the person and saw a green porcelain bowl on the table with the lid upside down on the table. The soup in the bowl was almost gone. The soup that the servant had just brought had been drunk. Zhong Yujing leaned over to take a look at the chair and gasped. The person sleeping soundly on the pear blossom chair was none other than King Yao!
Yes, no wonder she felt that the layout of the courtyard was quite familiar. It turned out that this was Prince Yao's Mansion. It was just that she had never been here before when she came to visit the Concubine Dowager. She didn't know that this courtyard was actually Prince Yao's study. Zhong Yujing seemed to recall that the Concubine Dowager had said that after Prince Yao was assassinated, his study had never been entered again and was permanently sealed. The former housekeeper also resigned and returned to his hometown because he regretted not being able to enter the study to carefully check on Prince Yao's condition that night. Therefore, the housekeeper she met just now was someone she had never seen before in Prince Yao's Mansion.
So the time and space she entered at this moment was the night when King Yao was assassinated.
Zhong Yujing's heart couldn't help but race. Perhaps tonight, the mystery that had plagued them for so long, the truth behind King Yao's assassination, would be revealed. She reached out and placed her hand under King Yao's nose, feeling a warm breath. King Yao was only asleep, not yet dead. Zhong Yujing's heart was filled with excitement. It wasn't too late. Although she couldn't prevent the incident, being able to see the murderer clearly would give her an explanation to Shangguan Yichen, the emperor, and the Great Qi.
Zhong Yujing looked around and saw that no one had come yet, so she began to search the room, trying to compare it with the crime scene she, Shangguan Yichen, and Sun Zili had searched, to see if there were any signs that the murderer had changed the room in an attempt to hide any evidence.
On the desk, inside the bookcase, on the floor, on the window frames... almost everything was exactly as they'd searched, suggesting at least that the assassination of King Yao was very near. Just then, a series of footsteps suddenly rang out from outside the door. The approaching person's footsteps were light yet incredibly fast, likely someone who had practiced martial arts for many years. Zhong Yujing instinctively hid behind the bookcase, observing from the shadows. The study door was gently pushed open, and a pair of black shoes stepped in.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
