Chapter 19: The Prince Consort

Ming Huashang heard the door outside opening and closing. She breathed a sigh of relief, pulled off the overly heavy shawl around her neck, tidied herself up and prepared to go to sleep.

If the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up. What does the national affairs have to do with a commoner like her? She might as well go to sleep.

Jiang Ling was sleeping soundly when he was suddenly pulled out of his dream. He saw two tall, straight black shadows in front of the bed and instinctively wrapped himself in the quilt: "What are you doing in the middle of the night?"

Ming Huazhang bowed to Jiang Ling and said, "I apologize for disturbing you so late at night, but we have an important matter and would like to ask for your help."

Jiang Ling asked blankly: "What's the matter?"

"We have an urgent matter and would like to see Princess Taiping. Please help us pass on the message, Prince Jiang."

Ming Huazhang and Xie Jichuan had little contact with Princess Taiping's mansion, and they were no better than ordinary guests. But Jiang Ling was different. His father was Princess Taiping's confidant. Even if Jiang Ling himself was uneducated, he had many familiar faces in Princess Taiping's mansion. It was impossible for ordinary officials to pass on a message to the princess late at night, no matter how powerful they were, but Jiang Ling could definitely do it.

Jiang Ling subconsciously glanced at the sky outside and asked, "Now?"

"That's right." Ming Huazhang bowed again, "Thank you for your help."

Feihong Palace.

Princess Taiping leaned on the armrests, pressing her temples with a headache. Yao Huang came in quietly. Seeing that Princess Taiping was in a bad mood, she asked, "Your Highness, it's already midnight, why aren't you asleep yet?"

Princess Taiping sighed: "People are dying one after another in the villa. I don't know who the ghost will target tonight. How can I sleep?"

Yao Huang lit the candle, moved gently to Princess Taiping, and said, "Your Highness, you are the daughter of the emperor, you are blessed with great fortune and are protected by heaven. What ghost dares to approach you?"

Princess Taiping let out a breath. She had thought so on the first day when someone died. It was not until Wei Zi had her eyes gouged out and died tragically in the villa that Princess Taiping became afraid.

The death of a stranger and the death of an acquaintance you see every day have completely different impacts.

Princess Taiping said, "If it's really a ghost, there's nothing to be afraid of. We can just ask a monk to perform a ritual. What I'm afraid of is the thing behind the ghost."

After Wei Zi got into trouble, although the third person to die was a young maid named Lian Xin, Princess Taiping somehow felt that the murderous intent was directed at her.

This was the intuition she had developed in the turbulent court life, and it had saved her life countless times over the past decade. Now, her intuition told her that she was being targeted again.

Yao Huang did not dare to say much, and silently held the lamp for Princess Taiping. Princess Taiping complained a few words, but soon suppressed her emotions and asked, "Where is the prince consort?"

"The prince consort has rested in the East Palace."

Princess Taiping nodded indifferently. Apart from the maids who served her closely, few outsiders knew that Princess Taiping and her husband, who were known for their loving relationship, actually slept in separate rooms.

This was probably a rare tacit understanding between her and Wu Youji. Both of them were in their prime, young and beautiful, and they were both greedy for each other's beauty. They had four children since their marriage. Princess Taiping liked poetry and music, and Prince Ding was also talented in music. The two of them knew how to play and loved to play, and they had hardly ever quarreled over the years.

However, just as Princess Taiping could no longer find the shyness and excitement she had when she first got married, Prince Ding never refused to have sex, but he rarely slept with Princess Taiping. Perhaps, he was also worried about her in his heart.

Princess Taiping's first husband was her childhood sweetheart and cousin, and also her ideal lover. Their wedding is still a legend in Chang'an. However, Xue Shao was the son of Princess Chengyang and a member of the Li family. Her mother felt that she had married the wrong man and insisted that she remarry into the Wu family.

Princess Taiping certainly resisted, but even when she knelt at her mother's feet holding her newborn child, her mother still killed Xue Shao.

And it is the most cruel way to die, starvation.

After that, Princess Taiping understood two truths. First, the arm cannot twist the thigh, so never do anything to humiliate yourself. Second, love is just a toy, and power is the best lover.

Princess Taiping stopped making trouble. She followed her mother's wishes and picked a man she liked from among the nephews of the Wu family. That man was Wu Youji.

Xue Shao died of starvation in prison because she favored him; Wu Youji became the second lucky man to win her favor, so he had to kill his first wife to make room for the princess.

Yes, Wu Youji once had a wife. No one knew whether he liked that woman or not, because it didn't matter at all. Even if he didn't do it, his parents and brothers would help him do it.

They got married amid singing and dancing and with thousands of people congratulating them. Afterwards, Wu Youji was conferred the title of Prince Ding and became the envied consort of Princess Taiping.

Princess Taiping could no longer remember what Wu Youji's expression was on their wedding night. In the blink of an eye, so much time had passed since they became a remarried couple, and their first daughter was even married.

Princess Taiping couldn't tell whether she inquired about Prince Ding's daily life out of fear or concern. Wei Zi was dead and someone wanted to kill her. When Princess Taiping realized this, the first person who came to her mind was Prince Ding.

Princess Taiping did not make any statement, and then asked: "What about the King of Wei?"

"The King of Wei has called people to sing in his palace, and the party lasts until very late every day."

Princess Taiping was not surprised, as this was what the nobles were best at. If there hadn't been a murder, the whole manor would be filled with singing and dancing. Why would Princess Taiping be unable to sleep or eat and spend her days in boredom?

Princess Taiping thought of her original intention of holding the Feihong Banquet and said angrily, "It's really unlucky. I shouldn't have named this place Feihong. I didn't see the grand event, but I saw a lot of flying red corpses."

Yao Huang smiled, but didn't dare to respond. She still shuddered when she thought of Wei Zi's death.

Taoism and Buddhism were prevalent at that time, and people believed in gods, afterlife, and ghosts. Yao Huang was really afraid that Wei Zi had encountered a ghost, was chosen as a scapegoat, and came to find her next.

After all, she and Wei Zi worked together, so it was common for them to stare at each other and quarrels were inevitable.

Princess Taiping was not sleepy, and even if Yao Huang was extremely sleepy, she would force herself to open her eyes and chat with the princess. She was racking her brains to think of a topic when she suddenly heard a maid outside the door report: "Princess, the son of Marquis Jiang'an and the second son of the Duke of Zhenguo want to see you."

This sentence was so illogical and incomprehensible that Princess Taiping frowned unhappily: "What are they doing here?"

Although Princess Taiping kept male favorites and didn't care much about reputation, wasn't it an offense for two half-grown boys to visit her late at night? The maid sensed that Princess Taiping had a bad temper and said tremblingly, "I don't know, it was the son of Marquis Jiang'an who insisted that I come here to report. That Erlang also said that he wanted to discuss philosophy with Your Highness."

Who is Princess Taiping? How could she have the patience to discuss philosophy with a group of unknown people, let alone at this time and in the middle of the night? Princess Taiping was about to reject the proposal immediately, but as the words came out of her mouth, she instinctively thought about it in a circle.

She knew that Marquis Jiang'an's son was uneducated, but even a hopeless son or grandson would know that he would be beheaded if he pestered the princess late at night, right? So why did he still do this?

Besides, she had just met Erlang of the Duke of Zhenguo Mansion not long ago, and he was definitely not the kind of person who would act without a purpose. What did he want to say? Why couldn't he even wait until dawn?

Philosophical matters... Princess Taiping suddenly had an idea in her mind. She clenched her fists, but then she forced them down and pretended to be nonchalant, "It's really annoying. Forget it. I can't sleep anyway, so let them come in."

Yao Huang was very surprised to see Princess Taiping summon someone, and even more surprised that the princess did not even keep her. As soon as the two young men entered the room, Princess Taiping asked all the servants to leave.

Yao Huang glanced at Ming Erlang's exceptionally outstanding demeanor and could not help wondering, could it be that this young man could not stand the hardship of studying and wanted to take a shortcut by sleeping with the princess?

Yao Huang looked Ming Huazhang up and down critically, and had to admit that with his looks, he did have the capital.

After everyone left, Princess Taiping stopped pretending and asked directly, "What are you doing here?"

Ming Huazhang and Jiang Ling stood in front of the hall. Ming Huazhang knew that Jiang Ling would not be allowed to talk about this matter, so he did not hesitate to speak up and said, "Your Highness Taiping, the rumor of snakes and ghosts harming people is very likely aimed at Prince Luling."

Jiang Ling took a deep breath without mentioning Princess Taiping. Ming Huazhang and Xie Jichuan stood at his bedside most of the night. They only said that they had found the murderer and asked him to help spread the word, but they didn't say that it was related to Prince Luling.

Jiang Ling was already regretting his decision, but he had no choice but to stay calm after boarding the pirate ship. He listened to Ming Huazhang's words: "The blue-clad guard beside Prince Ding today is very likely the culprit of these three murders. I don't know the situation in the Princess's mansion, so I have the courage to ask Your Highness if this person had served in the army but was squeezed out, is he fierce and aggressive, very strong, and has a wife who is a maid, and then ran away with a rich man?"

Because of his family background, Jiang Ling had frequent contacts with the princess's mansion and had heard about the people around the princess and her husband. With every word Ming Huazhang said, his eyes widened. Finally, Jiang Ling asked in astonishment, "How did you know?"

Seeing their expressions, Ming Huazhang knew that Ming Huashang was right. She had hit the mark on every point. Ming Huazhang said, "The situation was urgent. I had no time to explain the whole story. I hope Your Highness will believe that I was devoted to the Tang Dynasty. The guards around Prince Ding kept committing murders in order to prove that the snake ghost had killed people and to harm Prince Luling. They will attack again tonight. My good friend Xie Jichuan has gone to track down the murderer. The situation is extremely critical. I hope Your Highness will lend a hand to help the innocent people get justice."

Jiang Ling slowly uttered an "oh", and then he knew where Xie Jichuan had gone. He didn't quite believe that Ming Huazhang suddenly knew who the murderer was after a nap, and insisted that the other party wanted to frame the King of Luling. It was too mysterious. He neither asked a coroner to perform an autopsy nor sent an official to question him. Could it be that the Bodhisattva told him in his dream?

Even a pig wouldn't believe such an absurd thing! Jiang Ling was about to speak to ask Ming Huazhang to calm down, but he saw Princess Taiping suddenly stand up, her face pale, and asked, "Where is he?"

"Xie Jichuan left marks along the way." Ming Huazhang's voice was cold and concise, without a single useless word, "Your Highness, please bring your trusted followers and follow me."