Legend has it that within the City of Wind and Snow on the northern Geleite Plateau, there once stood a tower of world-renowned wonder called the Jingyin Tower.
This tower drew master craftsmen from across the lands, and many masterpieces that would be passed down through generations were born of their hands. Every three years, the Master of the Tower would hold a lavish banquet, spending gold like water. During the feast, a champion would emerge, earning the right to enter the depths of the tower and behold the Master’s mountain-like collection of jade and ingenious curiosities. The Jingyin Tower was aptly named; it was filled with hidden mechanisms, and only the Master knew the secret of its winding paths. Thus, despite the countless treasures within, no one could ever catch so much as a glimpse of them.
A jade-obsessed scholar who once had the fortune of entering the tower wrote of its wonders:
*Four-sided platforms, six pavilions, twenty-four corridors, and seventy-two doors; situated toward the north, south, east, west, heaven, and earth; winding and interconnected, yet never meeting.*
As the name suggested, every part of the tower appeared independent, yet they were linked through secret passages.
The Jingbo Tower was much the same.
Xiao Nanhui had returned to the secret passage, but she was not taking the path she had come by. She followed behind Su Wei, twisting and turning through the darkness for some time before realizing she had somehow reached the northern side of the tower.
The side facing the lake had offered a vast, unobstructed view that stretched for hundreds of paces. This side, however, faced a high wall.
There was only a gap of about ten feet between the wall and the tower’s balustrade. The Jingbo Tower was at least a hundred feet tall, yet that wall rose even higher. Upon closer inspection, the wall was covered in the marks of old and new repairs to its rammed earth. The massive stone bricks looked ancient and weathered, covered in a thick layer of moss accumulated over years—alternating between grey-white and verdant green, a century of life and death entwined.
"That is the palace wall. If you keep poking your head out like that, be careful not to get an arrow through it."
Her thoughts exposed, Xiao Nanhui felt a flush of embarrassment. She gave a light cough and pulled her head back.
So this was the palace wall. Back when she had stood at the foot of the Tian family’s wall in Sudong, she had thought the palace walls were nothing special. Now she saw how narrow her perspective had been.
The atmosphere grew awkward, and she tried to change the subject.
"This tower is separated from the palace wall by only a hair’s breadth. Does Your Majesty not fear someone using this place to sneak into the palace?"
"Then do you know why the entrance to Jingbo Tower is set within the Black Feather Camp? Besides, the logic that it is easy to enter but difficult to leave should not be hard to grasp."
He answered with a touch of nonchalance, as if highlighting the "stupidity" of her question.
Setting aside how an outsider would even learn of this place, the Black Feather Camp alone was enough to give any ordinary thief a bitter time.
Unwilling to concede, she added with feigned profundity, "Your Majesty should also know that a thief within the house is the hardest to guard against."
The figure walking ahead paused and suddenly turned to give her a meaningful look.
"Indeed."
What did that mean? Why was he looking at her? She wasn't a thief!
Xiao Nanhui felt a spark of anger, but beneath it was a strange, inexplicable guilt. Was he looking at her because, having entered Jingbo Tower, she was now considered one of his own...?
Just then, the sound of a carriage and horses came from below.
She instinctively looked down and saw a carriage emerging from the narrow alley between the palace wall and the tower, coming to a slow halt at the end of the lane.
A man jumped down from the carriage; it was Ding Weixiang.
But Xiao Nanhui’s gaze remained fixed on the carriage.
The carriage looked unremarkable, like the kind an ordinary wealthy family in Quecheng would use for travel, yet she found it strangely familiar.
The man noticed her questioning, searching gaze.
"You have indeed sat in that carriage before."
Xiao Nanhui dazed for a moment before it clicked. That was the carriage they had taken on the return journey from Huozhou.
At the time, she had been schemed against and lost the Imperial Seal. When she turned back to settle the score, the person and the carriage had vanished into thin air.
Looking at it now, it was only natural she couldn't find it in a place she had never been before.
However, when did the palace carriages become so unrefined?
"Is this... a palace carriage?"
"No." Su Wei paused, the image of the old Prime Minister’s fuming face seemingly flickering before his eyes. He then gave a careless wave of his sleeve. "It belongs to an old friend. I borrowed it and forgot to return it."
That made sense. Palace carriages were too conspicuous; they probably wouldn't even make it out of the street before the whole city was buzzing with rumors.
Xiao Nanhui didn't look too closely into who this "old friend" of the Emperor was, nor did she think about who could possibly make the Emperor use the word "borrow."
In just a few moments, Ding Weixiang appeared on the tower. She hadn't even seen which secret passage he had emerged from.
This Jingbo Tower was separated from the Imperial Palace by only a single wall. She suddenly wondered how many pitch-black, endless secret passages were hidden within this tower, and if one of them led directly into the depths of the palace...
"Greetings, Your Majesty. Greetings, Miss Xiao."
Eh? When did this sycophant become so polite to her?
Xiao Nanhui looked at Ding Weixiang with a hint of suspicion, but he clearly had no interest in a battle of glares. He pulled out two thick veils and handed them over, putting one on himself.
Su Wei took them and handed one to Xiao Nanhui.
"This has been pre-scented with styrax. You had best wear it."
Scented? Why did it need to be scented? Was there some strange smell on her?
She took it, feeling puzzled. "Are we going to see someone?"
"In a manner of speaking."
Half a cup of tea’s time later, she understood why she had to wear the veil.
Ahead was total darkness. She seemed to have walked into a windowless, empty room with stone walls on all sides.
The stench of something rotting rushed at her from the darkness. Even with the thick veil, she couldn't stop the smell from invading her nose.
Xiao Nanhui nearly stumbled from the fumes. In the next instant, her back hit the man’s chest.
Warmth seeped through several layers of fabric, and a heartbeat vibrated faintly against her back. She suddenly remembered the night in the side hall of the traveling palace when he had applied medicine to her. She hurriedly tried to pull away, but a cool hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back to his side.
"Stay close to me. It will be better for you."
That faint, cold scent surrounded her, dispelling the nauseating, dizzying smell of the surroundings.
Xiao Nanhui didn't move, allowing that hand to gently lead her forward.
She didn't understand why his hand was cold, yet it made her entire body feel warm.
"We are here."
Ding Weixiang took out a fire-starter and lit the torches on the wall. Finally, there was some light.
In the center of the square secret room stood a single, narrow, long table. It was covered with a white cloth, and beneath the cloth was the unmistakable shape of a human body.
Xiao Nanhui knew where the smell was coming from now.
Ding Weixiang walked to the table and pulled back the white cloth.
Beneath the cloth was a corpse still dressed in the robes of a palace attendant. The face was swollen beyond recognition, the exposed skin had turned a greyish-purple, and the pupils had turned white. The tongue was swollen and protruding halfway from the mouth. Resting on an empty sleeve was a severed arm.
She finally understood why the Emperor had said it was better to have an empty stomach.
Given the current situation, if there were anything in her stomach, she would likely have vomited it all out instantly.
"Come closer. Look carefully—have you seen this person before?"
She steadied herself, then held her breath and leaned in a few steps, trying to identify the face that was already unrecognizable.
Strangely enough, though a corpse rotted to this degree should have been difficult to identify, she recognized at a glance that this face belonged to the palace attendant who had attacked her that night at the traveling palace.
She would never forget that eerie, smiling face under the moonlight.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, this person should be the one who fought me at the traveling palace that night."
Su Wei nodded slightly, then asked, "Had you seen him before that night?"
Xiao Nanhui shook her head with absolute certainty. "Never."
Su Wei turned his gaze to Ding Weixiang. "Did he sneak in from outside the palace?"
"I previously made that assumption and thus searched in the wrong direction. I later discovered that was not the case." As Ding Weixiang spoke, he stepped forward and handed a bamboo slip containing the palace personnel records to Su Wei. "This man is named Xu Rui. He was a bedchamber official in the inner palace. He had been in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for six years and usually conducted himself properly. He was assigned to accompany the entourage during the Jiaosong ceremony."
"A man from the inner palace—why would he appear in the outer courtyard?"
"On the day of the incident, because there were not enough hands for the ceremony, he was reassigned to duty in the outer courtyard for one night."
Thinking back to the night of the punishment, Xiao Nanhui’s shoulder began to throb again.
When the punishment ended, she had been in a daze from the pain, but she still vaguely remembered some details.
"I remember he was waiting at the execution grounds. The official in charge of the punishment appointed someone to lead me to the palace gate, and he stepped forward, saying he would take me. But the path he took was wrong."
"Before he attacked you, did he say anything?"
"He said..." Xiao Nanhui narrowed her eyes, trying hard to recall that night in the datura flower garden. "He seemed to say we had met before, but I have no memory of it."
"Then do you know why he wanted to kill you?"
Xiao Nanhui shook her head. She recalled the methods this man had used to interrogate An Lü in Lingxi and found something didn't add up.
"Since the person was caught, was nothing interrogated out of him?"
Ding Weixiang caught the implication in her words. He glanced at her before speaking. "I held back at the time. I only severed his arm and had no intention of taking his life, but he lost his breath on the spot."
"Has the cause of death been determined?"
"The coroner said there was blood stasis in the heart vessels. It seems he died of a heart condition."
A heart attack causing instant death seemed plausible.
After all, even the most heinous person might find their legs turning to jelly after witnessing Ding Weixiang’s single-stroke severing.
Xiao Nanhui glanced at this ordinary-looking guard, feeling very fortunate that she was not his enemy.
Ding Weixiang didn't notice Xiao Nanhui’s gaze; his expression had turned somewhat strange for some reason.
"There is one more matter I have not reported to Your Majesty. I do not know if I should speak of it."
"Either say nothing at all, or if you have brought it up, speak clearly."
Ding Weixiang was choked by the words. He paused for a moment before speaking.
"When this corpse was transported back to Quecheng, exactly seven days had passed since the day of death. But because the weather has not yet turned warm, the degree of decomposition should, by logic, be slight. However, during the autopsy, the coroner was absolutely certain: this man has been dead for at least half a month."
"What?" Xiao Nanhui’s disbelief was plain on her face. Her gaze fell back onto the rotting corpse. "But he clearly..."
She couldn't go on.
Would an ordinary corpse kept in this temperature for seven days really rot to this extent?
But if he hadn't died seven days ago, then what was that thing she saw that day—the thing that could walk, stop, speak, and commit murder?
Su Wei’s face remained largely expressionless, though a hint of contemplation flickered in his eyes.
"Have his movements from half a month ago been verified?"
"I have verified them all. According to the Chief Eunuch on duty those days, Xu Rui was on duty in the palace as usual half a month ago, and there were no discrepancies with the duty logs."
"Did he leave during that time?"
"He never left the palace, except for half a day on the twenty-third of the first lunar month, when he requested leave, saying he felt slightly unwell."
"Did anyone else handle the body during transport?"
"I was responsible for the entire transport. No one else knew, nor did anyone have the chance to handle it."
The air fell into a brief stagnation, as if no one could break the mystery lurking in the darkness.
Xiao Nanhui’s thoughts, however, drifted far away in that instant.
If—she meant *if*.
What if Xu Rui really was already dead that night?
She suddenly recalled some details from that night.
As she followed behind that flickering palace lantern, there seemed to be a faint, lingering smell of rot in her nose. At the time, she thought it was her imagination—after all, how could there be anything rotting in the Emperor’s traveling palace? But thinking of it now, an incredible answer emerged.
That day, she hadn't been following a living person at all, but a corpse that had been dead for several days.
At this thought, a shudder and a wave of nausea surged through her. The doubt deep in her heart spread like ink dropped into water. She felt a certain perception of the world being shattered once again.
Just then, Su Wei’s voice rang out again.
"Aside from the marks left by you severing his arm, are there any other external injuries on this corpse?"
"There is one, though I do not know if it counts. Your Majesty will need to come closer to see it clearly."
Ding Weixiang held the candlestick close to the corpse’s other arm.
Under the candlelight, on the tip of a swollen finger, there was an inconspicuous black dot. It looked like a thorn that had accidentally pricked the finger.
"What is this?"
"I do not know, and the coroner could not explain it either. Perhaps it is a mark left by some poison or insect venom. I have invited those in the palace who are proficient in such matters to examine it, but no one could say for sure, and no medical records could be found in the archives."
"Wait." Xiao Nanhui suddenly spoke up, then looked at Ding Weixiang beside her. "I remember during the ceremony at Changmi Terrace, there was a man standing in the crowd ringing a bell. Do you still have the portrait of that man?"
Ding Weixiang stood still, not moving for a moment.
"There is still one."
"Have you shown it to His Majesty?"
"The matter of the assassination has not yet reached a conclusion, and that portrait was merely drawn by a fortune teller on the roadside..."
"Bring it out," Xiao Nanhui interrupted urgently, momentarily ignoring Ding Weixiang’s reaction. "Bring it out and let him see."
An indescribable intuition connected the fragments in her mind, faintly outlining the silhouette of the truth behind it all. She wanted to see more clearly but had no way to start, so she could only follow her feelings to verify a few points.
Ding Weixiang’s gaze met hers, seemingly weighing the reason for the urgency in her voice. Beside them, Su Wei spoke.
"It is fine. It is just a portrait; bring it for me to see."
Since his master had spoken, he had no choice but to pull out the crumpled wanted poster and hand it over.
"I once used this portrait to conduct a search within a hundred miles of Jiaosong County, but in the end, I found nothing. Therefore, I thought the portrait might differ from the culprit and did not present it to Your Majesty immediately."
Su Wei did not speak. He silently took the paper.
The thin sheet of paper was held in his hand. The light reflected from the candlelight danced upon it, making the sketched figure appear to twist like a ghostly shadow.
Xiao Nanhui watched the reaction on his face nervously, but this man always maintained an unmoved appearance, and she truly couldn't tell anything.
Ding Weixiang was already getting a bit impatient, but Xiao Nanhui held him back. When Su Wei looked up again, he had put the portrait down.
"The drawing is indeed a bit crude, but it captures the spirit."
She hurriedly followed up, "Then... has Your Majesty seen this person?"
Su Wei paused for a moment, then uttered a name.
"Zou Sifang."
Three light words, yet they felt like a giant’s hand snapping a massive stone in her heart back into place.
One person might be wrong, two people might be wrong, but surely a third person wouldn't be wrong as well.
Her deduction was correct. The shadow lurking in the crowd below Changmi Terrace that day was indeed Zou Sifang.
Ding Weixiang couldn't help but remind them.
"But in the marshes of Baiyao Pass that day, Zou Sifang already died."
"But Xu Rui died too." Her voice grew more certain as she summoned the courage to speak her deduction aloud. "What if Zou Sifang, like this Xu Rui, has returned from the dead?"
This bold and terrifying deduction plunged the secret room into a brief silence once more.
Life and death are fated; who exactly wanted to change that fate against the heavens?
Or was it the work of the gods mentioned by Pu Huna, manipulating ghosts and spirits to overturn human souls?
"The dead cannot return to life; even ghosts and gods have no way." Su Wei’s voice rang heavily in her ear. "However, this matter is indeed strange. I remember back in Huozhou, it was that Qu family boy who treated Zou Sifang."
Ding Weixiang nodded. "Indeed."
"Send my secret order. Hasten to the Qu family in Wancheng and bring Qu Mo here. Say that..." He paused, then gave a reason the other party could not refuse. "Say that something has gone wrong with the Secret Seal and he is needed to examine it."
"Yes."
Ding Weixiang bowed to receive the order. The Emperor’s voice then gave one last instruction.
"This must be done in secret. Do not disturb anyone else."
The scent of styrax mixed with the stench of rot, forming a bizarre odor in her nose, as if some terrifying truth was about to burst forth, unable to be hidden any longer.
A gust of cold wind blew through, and the torches on the wall flickered and twisted. Xiao Nanhui followed with a shiver.
In the dim light, she almost had an illusion:
That blackened finger hanging outside the white cloth seemed to twitch.
And the memory of being in Muerhe during late spring, because of this single finger, transformed into a scene she had not witnessed with her own eyes.
Perhaps after they had walked out of that wilderness that day, in some corner behind them, in that damp and cold marshland, something had broken the deathly silence.
From the mud that had turned flat again after swallowing a living being, a pale hand suddenly reached out. A body that should have rotted broke through the earth, crawling back into the world of the living in a grotesque posture...
***
Glossary:
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
径荫楼 | Jingyin Tower | A legendary tower known for its complex, hidden paths.
静波楼 | Jingbo Tower | The tower where the Emperor leads Xiao Nanhui; similar in design to Jingyin Tower.
格勒特高原 | Geleite Plateau | A plateau in the far north.
风雪之城 | City of Wind and Snow | A city on the Geleite Plateau.
苏合香 | Styrax | A fragrant resin used as incense, often to mask bad smells.
许睿 | Xu Rui | A palace attendant who attacked Xiao Nanhui; the corpse in the secret room.
邹思防 | Zou Sifang | A character previously thought dead who appeared at the ceremony.
瞿墨 | Qu Mo | A member of the Qu family known for medical skills.
晚城 | Wancheng | The city where the Qu family resides.
秘玺 | Secret Seal | Refers to the Imperial Seal.
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