When Lu Lingcong returned from the study with his sword to the main hall, he found that there was no longer any need to leave—Xiao Yao had just arrived at the door.
The Four Great Camps and the Capital Governor had clearly already begun to exert their influence in secret; several bustling main streets centered around Prince Zhao’s Mansion and Wuyi Lane appeared as if they had been cleared. Long before the curfew hour, the streets were already deserted. Such an abnormality naturally could not be hidden from the eyes and ears of the Xuanshi, and a bit of scouting soon brought the news to Xiao Yao.
Xiao Yao expected that Lu Lingcong would inevitably seek her help, but given his status as Prince Zhao, it was not appropriate for him to appear at the Star-Picking Tower at this moment. After some consideration, she simply notified the Tower to close its doors to guests and came to the mansion in person.
Madam Xie and Lady Yao did not recognize Xiao Yao, but they saw Xie Jing look up and call out, “Miss Xiao.” Xiao Yao stepped forward and patted his arm, “I have already sent the Xuanshi out in separate directions to search. Do not panic.”
Xie Jing had just swallowed a cup of cold tea to steady his nerves and said, “Qing’er disappeared along with Yin Chou. She has no martial arts skills to protect herself, for a weak woman and a child to be abducted so silently, is it for wealth or something else?”
Xiao Yao thought for a moment. “I wasn’t well-acquainted with Yin Chou back when she was still at the Star-Picking Tower, but she has a candid personality and a clean background; it’s unlikely she would intentionally take Shizi away. The enemy is in the dark while we are in the light; the most urgent thing now is to discover the opponent’s identity, then finding them will be much faster.”
Lu Lingcong sat down absently. Xiao Yao coughed and called “Your Highness” several times before he finally snapped back to his senses. His gaze shifted away from Xie Jing’s face with a trace of complexity as he said, “If this were an ordinary kidnapping for ransom, they would have demanded some sort of reward by now. Since they’re staying silent and hiding, there must be another move planned.”
Madam Xie said, “Since it isn’t for profit, then who could possibly hold a grudge against the Prince’s Mansion? Or could they be targeting Wuyi Lane? But the Xie family has never had any long-standing feuds…”
“Currently, there are three possible groups,” Lu Lingcong said quickly, as if he had already calculated it. “First, there are those who normally have no dealings with Prince Zhao’s Mansion but have come to coerce us into action; in that case, all we can do is wait for them to make their move. Second, it could be Linhai Hall or the Prime Minister’s Mansion trying to silence a witness, but honestly, they lack both courage and the ability to destroy the evidence right under the emperor’s eyes. Once the matter is exposed and my Emperor Father issues a death warrant, not one of them would escape. It’s not worth taking such a risk.”
His unnervingly calm analysis sent chills down Xie Jing’s spine, yet he had to admit that solving the problem demanded precisely this kind of detached, impersonal reasoning.
“Thirdly, it could be the same group from the Mount Tang assassination attempt. We previously discovered that their ‘master’ comes from within the Palace, or at the very least possesses significant influence there—someone capable of deploying government troops and colluding with high-ranking local officials like Xu Yi, yet we’ve already ruled out Emperor Father and Empress Mother. At the time, I couldn’t fathom who else in the Palace harbored such a deep grudge against Prince Zhao’s Mansion, and today I am equally clueless. However, one thing is very clear, this person’s objective is to see us dead. If they truly fall into their hands, they might not… leave any survivors.”
Xie Jing shuddered at those final words, but he still gritted his teeth and forced himself to stay calm to re-examine the situation. Two years had passed between the previous incident and this one. During those two years, this group had vanished completely without a single suspicious move; yet on these two solitary occasions, their timing had been extremely abrupt.
However… if one were to insist on distilling the similarities between these two points in time, they weren’t entirely absent—both occurred when changes were happening at Prince Zhao’s Mansion, and specifically, changes for the better.
Last time, before the assassination attempt at Mount Tang, the Emperor had just issued an imperial decree granting marriage between him and Lu Lingcong. Prince Zhao’s Mansion had essentially gained a respectable and illustrious in-law family that was by no means inferior to the Wang clan. This time, it was not long-ago during Lu Shuqing’s hundred-day celebration when the emperor formally proclaimed him the Heir Apparent to the world. Bestowing a golden seal directly upon an infant not yet a year old was also unprecedented.
But if one were to say this group of people simply could not stand to see Prince Zhao’s Mansion prospering, it would be too far-fetched. Even the Wang clan, who held the greatest stake in the matter, had already been ruled out; who else would resent Prince Zhao’s Mansion’s path to success for being too smooth?
Madam Xie was unaware that Lu Lingcong and Xie Jing had encountered assassins at Mount Tang. Now was not the time for detailed questioning but hearing the gravity in Lu Lingcong’s tone, she knew that if Lu Shuqing truly ran into this group, his life would be in dire peril. For a moment, her anxiety deepened with tears falling silently while Lady Yao held her hand firmly and murmured soothing words.
Presently, Uncle Zhou came in to report. The servants had meticulously inspected the silver silk, and the carriage Lu Shuqing had ridden in; there were no traces of intentional damage inside or out. After Lu Shuqing was sent to Wuyi Lane, the carriage had been parked in front of the Xie’s Mansion gates to wait, and it wasn’t under constant surveillance. It was not impossible that the villains had seized that moment to hide inside.
Shortly after, Zhong Zhao sent words again, saying that everything was normal in the palace and all was peaceful. The lights at Shenlong Hall and Linhai Hall had been extinguished early. He had privately inquired within the Yulin Guard, and no carriages or horses had entered or exited the palace gates. The possibility of Lu Shuqing being inside the palace could basically be ruled out entirely. For now, it seemed they could only wait, to wait for the culprits to come forward on their own or wait to see if there was any progress on Xie Yan’s end. Even if Lu Lingcong went out to search again, it would be of little use; it was better to remain at the Prince’s Mansion, which would make it easier to coordinate the next move.
Xie Jing slouched in the chair with his bare feet resting on the edge of his robe, and his loose hair swept entirely over one shoulder. Now that the moment had truly arrived, the panic and fear had become elusive; all that remained was a vast, sea-like powerlessness. He knew clearly that he could do nothing. He lacked the far-reaching capabilities of the Xuanshi, nor did he possess the intricate network of connections within the Four Grand Camps or the Capital Prefecture. He could not turn this city of Jinling upside down to bring his son back safely.
At least Lu Lingcong could take up a sword, mount a horse, and go out to search, he had the ability to protect himself and the agency to act. But what about himself? He was merely a useless mother, capable only of contributing a hysterical fit that would leave the entire household unsettled, and nothing more.
Everyone in the hall was exhausted from waiting yet found it difficult to sleep. Aside from Madam Xie, who had been persuaded to close her eyes for a scant half-hour, the rest kept watch through the night with eyes wide open. Lu Lingcong and Xie Jing sat adjacent to one another while staring down at the floor tiles, Lu Lingcong appeared several times on the verge of speaking, only to stop himself each time.
If their fate with Lu Shuqing truly ended here, if the worst-case scenario came true, there were some things he might never have the chance to verify. Xie Jing’s expression was solemn; he hadn’t noticed at all that a familiar item was missing from his neck; his mind clearly occupied elsewhere.
Burning under the intensity of Lu Lingcong’s gaze, he looked up as if sensing something, his eyes rising in a daze. In that moment, Lu Lingcong knew with absolute certainty: if anything happened to Lu Shuqing, the two of them were truly finished.
Xie Jing’s near-pathological emotional investment meant he would surely find it impossible to endure a catastrophe as agonizing as the loss of his son; as for Lu Lingcong, from the moment he learned of Lu Shuqing’s existence, he had yearned to see him, even secretly reflecting a thousand times on how to avoid becoming a father like the Emperor.
Lu Shuqing would forever be like a thorn wedged between them. Both would have to soberly, bloodily pull themselves away from that thorn; for the rest of their lives, they would not even need to see each other again, lest the old wound reopen.
At such a point, whatever meaning lay behind the scented locket pendant that Lu Lingcong had picked up and tucked into his robe would no longer matter.
Ultimately, Lu Lingcong averted his gaze and rose to leave the main hall. He returned a moment later carrying the pair of shoes Xie Jing had left in the bedroom, walked up to him, held them out, and simply said, “Put these on.”
At the second watch, the hurried sound of hoofbeats and voices finally came from outside the Prince’s Mansion’s gates. A crowd of soldiers escorted someone inside, and Xie Yan heard, “Yin Chou has been found!”
Xie Jing straightened up and leaped down from his chair. Seeing Yin Chou with dust on her clothes and her hair in disarray, he asked in rapid succession, “Where is Qing’er? Where did he go? Is he hurt?”
Fortunately, although Yin Chou looked somewhat haggard, she did not appear to be injured. She was helped into a seat in the main hall as a maid brought washing water to help tidy her appearance, but Yin Chou waved her away. She signaled for the servants and soldiers to be sent out first before saying to Xie Jing, “That person sent me back to deliver a message: Tell the Princess Consort to go alone to the old Ding Mansion at Baixia Bank before dawn to… collect Shizi’s body.”
Before anyone could pale in shock, she immediately followed up, “But for the time being, Shizi’s life should be out of danger. However, the longer it is delayed, the more things could go wrong.”
She briefly recounted what had happened to her and Lu Shuqing: those who took them appeared to be a man and a woman. The woman was the one making the decisions, while the man seemed to be merely an accomplice. The woman’s voice sounded young, and she was not tall, but her strength and technique were those of an expert. Just as they had guessed, the two had concealed themselves inside the carriage in advance; once Yin Chou boarded Lu Shuqing, they took her entirely by surprise, swiftly gagging her and tying her hands.
The man had originally intended to move in for a direct kill against Lu Shuqing, but the woman stopped him, saying in a low voice, “It must be done in front of his face.”
Immediately after, the woman crouched down and whispered coldly into Yin Chou’s ear, “Deliver a message to your master. Go to the old Ding Mansion at Baixia Bank before dawn to collect Lu Shuqing’s body. Remember, he must come alone. If the authorities are alerted, I swear I won’t leave him so much as a shard of bone.”
Yin Chou tried her best to see the woman’s face to no avail and was subsequently knocked unconscious by a blow to the back of the neck. When she regained consciousness, soldiers under Xie Yan’s command were pulling her out of a remote alleyway. As for how that man and woman managed to take her and Lu Shuqing out of the carriage, she had no idea at all.
After hearing this, Xie Jing bit his lip, remained silent for a long while, and said, “Wanting me to go alone… means they have something to say to me.”
Lu Lingcong frowned and said, “I originally thought they would be coming for me.”
Actually, everyone had tacitly assumed that the other party intended to use Lu Shuqing as a hostage to blackmail Lu Lingcong into doing something; now, upon hearing the bizarre demand that the woman intended to injure Lu Shuqing right in front of Xie Jing, everyone was left stunned and alarmed.
Xiao Yao pondered for a moment and said, “The Ding Mansion… is the old residence of Ding Yuan, the former Middle Commander of the Northern Army. Like Xu Yi and He Gao, Ding Yuan was an old subordinate from when the current Majesty was in the Eastern Palace. After the great case of the Xiao family’s fall and the Wang family’s rise in the late Jianning years, he was also swept away by the tide and demoted to Jizhou, which was thousands of miles away. However, his luck was poor; he died of illness on the way to his post, and his family dispersed to parts unknown.”
The Ding Mansion had been abandoned for years and had likely been burglarized countless times, making it difficult to determine if the assassins were definitely members of the Ding family based on this alone. However, they now possessed a bit more information: this man and woman belonged to the same group from Mount Tang, they could make use of Xu Yi and the Ding family, and there was a deep connection between them—they had stood in the same camp during that old case of political shuffling in the late Jianning years and met similar fates.
“Since she named me, I will go. If he is alive, I must see him,” Xie Jing paused, “if he is dead, I must see his body.”
Xie Yan immediately intervened, “If you truly listen and go alone, how can you save Qing’er? Even if we fear alerting the enemy and don’t lead troops to openly surround the Ding Mansion, at the very least…”
At this point, he looked at Lu Lingcong. Xie Jing also gave Lu Lingcong a faint glance but said, “His Highness will accompany me, right, Your Highness?”
Lu Lingcong was taken aback. Xie Jing had indeed hit upon exactly what he was thinking; he certainly would not allow Xie Jing to truly venture into danger alone. But one cannot catch the tiger’s cub without entering the tiger’s den, the chance to confront this woman face-to-face was rare, and perhaps some matters could be resolved by following this lead.
Xiao Yao rose and said, “We do not know exactly how many people are on the other side or how they are armed. But the Princess Consort need only walk through the main gate calmly; His Highness and I will both be providing support from the shadows. Since we have located His Highness Shizi’s whereabouts, we will surely return him to Princess Consort’s arms in one piece. When I gave Flying Light to His Highness and made this deal, I said that within the city of Jinling and outside the Taichu Palace, there is nothing the Xuanshi cannot handle.”
The gate of the Ding Mansion could hardly even be called a gate; its lacquer was peeling and mottled, and even though people still lived there, it likely hadn’t been very impressive either. Furthermore, the property did not cover much ground; although Ding Yuan had reached the rank of Middle Commander, it was evident that his salary had been quite a strain to support a large family.
Moreover, officials like him, who came from commoner backgrounds and entered the Eastern Palace through imperial examinations, had meager family assets and could not save enough funds to purchase grand estates in the capital. Most of their living conditions were similar; even Grand Tutor Zhang, the most successful in his career among this group, still lived in an unremarkable, ordinary residence on the outskirts of the city.
Xie Jing walked all the way into the deepest part of the courtyard without seeing a single soul, nor could he sense whether Lu Lingcong and the Xuanshi were following behind him. He stepped into the main hall and saw a single candle flickering dimly, while a lone swaddle lay on the table, it was indeed Lu Shuqing’s brocade quilt.
The room was silent. Xie Jing was somewhat far away, making it difficult to even discern if Lu Shuqing was still breathing. Bracing himself, he stepped forward and swiftly pulled back the covers to check; Lu Shuqing’s warm, damp breath brushed against the back of his hand. Xie Jing exhaled a heavy sigh of relief and raised his arms to pick him up, but suddenly his throat constricted as an arm clamped around his neck before dragging him backward several steps.
Xie Jing did not struggle, merely using his hands to press against the arm to carve out a little space to breathe. Then, a blur flashed before his eyes as a slender figure, slightly shorter than him, stepped out from the darkness before revealing her face fully to Xie Jing.
She was very young, plain, and quiet; the kind of person you wouldn’t look at twice if you encountered her in a crowd.
“Does Princess Consort remember me? I served you at the Wu family manor.”
It was the young girl who had used a sparrow to deliver a message at Mount Tang, a maid from the Wu family manor.
Xie Jing recognized her identity immediately. Amidst his shock, he let out a few muffled sounds, and the arm restraining him loosened its grip slightly. He said, “It’s you?”
“I have no enmity with Princess Consort. Today, I am merely entrusted by another to fulfill a duty, which is to kill your son.”
In that case, the person restraining him from behind must be the man acting as the accomplice. Xie Jing rubbed his throat and said, “I won’t ask who entrusted this to you, I will only ask: what does that person seek by taking Lu Shuqing’s life? I doubt it is for wealth, so is it for power?”
Unexpectedly, the girl was not secretive about it at all. She simply said calmly, “Killing him is to save you. That person said they want to save you.”
Xie Jing frowned. “I am perfectly fine; why would I need to be saved?”
The girl merely gazed deeply into his eyes. “Does Princess Consort dare to ask your own heart, are you truly ‘perfectly fine’?”
Xie Jing was about to answer but as he opened his mouth, the various humiliations and frustrations of the past six months flashed through his mind. He was suddenly at a loss for words, his palms and soles breaking into a cold sweat.
He asked tentatively, “Then, if you killed me instead of him, you wouldn’t have to trouble yourself with saving me anymore. It would settle everything in one stroke with no problems later. What do you think?”
The girl waved her hand almost innocently and laughed. “No, no. That person pities you, feels for you, and cannot bear to watch you suffer these many torments so I must save you. If I were to kill you and let him go, would I not be failing my mission?”
Xie Jing was speechless for a moment. The girl watched his shifting expression with cold eyes and added with even more emphasis, “That person said that all these things are being done to save you. Killing ‘him’ is all for the sake of saving you.”
He mulled over this sentence a couple of times, and suddenly a chill crept up his spine as he grasped the underlying meaning: the “him” in “killing him” likely did not refer to Lu Shuqing alone.
After a long pause, Xie Jing asked with difficulty, “Two years ago at Mount Tang, when your people tried to kill Lu Zifeng, was that also to save me?”
The girl’s previous words had already answered him—it was all to save him.
Xie Jing fell silent for a long while before slowly speaking. “Why do you think that killing my husband and my son could save me? You asked me that question just now, so I assume you know how difficult my life has been lately. Since you know it so clearly, how can you not see through to the fact that the person who pushed me to this point is someone else entirely? How could it be my husband or my young son?”
The girl smiled. “It is not that we cannot see through it, but rather that we see through it too clearly. We know they come from the same root and lineage, carry the same surname, and share the same blood; their temperaments are equally cold. Besides, do you think the chief culprit will be spared? It is not a matter of if there will be retribution, but when.”
Xie Jing looked past her shoulder at the soundly sleeping Lu Shuqing and asked again, “Since you are so determined, why go to all this trouble instead of simply acting in the carriage this evening?”
Between the girl’s fingers was a sharp blade, nimbly pressed against her joints, appearing and disappearing. “Originally, it was meant to be a direct kill, and you were only asked here to collect the body. However, that person instructed me that it must be done in front of your face—because your man would certainly accompany you here, even if we cannot see him right now.”
She paused for a moment, tilted her head back, and called out in a clear, bright voice toward the rafters or the eaves: “Your Highness Prince Zhao, are you there?”
“Only by letting this child die before your eyes will your life together become impossible to endure. Only then will you be determined to leave him, and only then can you truly live.”
Xie Jing gave a wry smile, almost bewildered. “Such meticulous care… I was unaware that in the capital, besides my closest kin, there was such a kind-hearted noble racking their brains just to keep me alive?”
“Princess Consort just said you wouldn’t ask,” the girl replied with a mischievous blink. “But one day, you will be grateful to him.”
Xie Jing knew that Lu Lingcong could certainly hear their conversation. But at a moment like this, on the brink of life and death, he had no time to consider matters of affection, desire, or the strategic retreats of a marriage. His worthless pride could be set aside for now.
Xie Jing tilted his face up slightly, adopting an unprecedented seriousness and gravity. He addressed the girl word by word:
“Then let me tell you plainly, Lu Lingcong and Lu Shuqing are my most precious people. I value them more than my own life. If you kill them, I will absolutely not live on alone. I will die before I even step out of this room; I mean what I say. At that point, you will still have failed to save me, and you won’t be able to account for your mission either.”
