Sounding Out

In the garden of Prince Ping’s residence.

After Zhao Zhi’s emotional state had been destroyed and rebuilt several times, this time round, he was able to face her calmly.

“I can remember everything that happened back then already. You don’t have to bother with hiding it from me.”

The sun’s rays fell on the side of his face. He stared at Consort Ping expressionlessly.

“And so what?”

The consort was even calmer than he was. She held the tiny scissors in her slim fingers as she checked the position of the flowers and leaves in the vase. “Did you march in so fiercely and demand an answer from me like that because you want to kill me? Then again, I’m still just Consort Ping and not Grand Consort Ping, so I’m not officially your mother and you can kill me if you like. Nothing terrible would happen.”

The veins on Zhao Zhi’s forehead looked like they were about to pop. “Don’t you know why I’m still not wearing a prince’s robes and why you’re still not officially made Grand Consort? You were the one who said that my fortune was poor this year and things will not go well for me.”

Being crowned a prince was not something one could simply pick a date, throw a party and call it a day. This was an important day for a member of the royal family, so it was important that all rules were strictly followed, including the order of rites, the things each person must do and the places they had to go. Zhao Zhi was already confirmed by a royal edict that he was to become prince and everyone also started addressing him as such, but the actual coronation ceremony had not been done and so he was not officially a prince yet.

One had to be careful about choosing a date too. Since it was made known that Zhao Zhi’s luck was poor this year and things would not go well for him, then it was important to make sure the ceremony wasn’t held during this time. Either the ceremony had to wait for the next year, otherwise, something bigger or really special had to happen.

In any case, he was definitely going to be a prince and the emperor wasn’t going to walk back his decision, so there was no hurry to get the ceremony done.

Zhao Zhi wasn’t in a hurry and neither was anyone in this household. But he was annoyed that someone had used this matter to delay everything else he had planned.

Consort Ping stole a quick glance at Zhao Zhi’s rather displeased expression and her eyes twitched very slightly…her lips seemed to move upward as well, as though she was about to smile. But this only lasted a moment and her expression went back to what it was before, as though any movement earlier had merely been a figment of one’s imagination.

Zhao Zhi scoffed. “You can laugh if you want. I know you love it when I’ve been pushed into a corner.”

She did not deny it. “It’s true. You’re so domineering, so decisive, and you dare to do absolutely anything out there. But at home, no matter how angry you are, the most you do is to overturn a few tables and kick some chairs, or maybe throw a few sticks,” faint smile lines appeared on her face as her lips curled upward, “and I find that especially amusing.”

He glared at her. “I don’t think you’d find it amusing anymore if I accidentally end up killing you.”

“What’s the point of living?” her tone remained indifferent. “You’re still too young, I suppose. I, on the other hand, think that the moment one dies is a very interesting thing. I’m very curious to find out how I eventually die. And if you kill me with your own hands, I think that would be even more interesting.”

Zhao Zhi massaged his temples. “Can’t you talk nicely to me for once?”

She glanced at him, then looked down again as she continued trimming the flower stems in her hands. Her tone was less prickly now, “Sometimes, being too clever can be a person’s downfall. You’ve seen how a lot of people have been a victim of their own cleverness. Stop thinking that you’re brave, wise and invincible, or that now that you’re older and you’ve become a prince, you can think anything you want, you can make any sorts of guesses and you can say whatever you like.”

She said these words very slowly and sounded like she was secretly mocking him, which made her words sound rather unpleasant.

But Zhao Zhi was no longer his rash, youthful self. He was now able to hold himself back. He was rational and could think before acting.

Actually, he had also realized this for himself. In the past, he was young and ignorant, so he just bulldozed through life with sheer determination and courage. He was filled with a great sense of achievement because he always thought that he had earned everything he had through pure hard work. But after reaching this age, he looked back and while he had definitely put in a lot of hard work, his success wasn’t a result of the hard work that he had put in alone. Many other people had helped him along too.

But back then, he couldn’t see it.

Consort Ping seemed to be reminding him of this fact, but also seemed to be trying to agitate him.

So, Zhao Zhi continued the conversation, “I don’t want to waste time on vagueness – you fed me Millet’s Dream back then in order to protect me, yes or no?”

Consort Ping’s movement stopped for a moment, but it was just a moment. She did not respond to him and she continued what she was doing as though he hadn’t said anything.

But he wasn’t going to let her get away with that and continued asking in a loud voice, “What have you done all these years? What have you gotten yourself involved in out there? What’s going on with this salt business? Who is Zhao Zhong really? And who was he really loyal to?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know – there’s nothing in this household that you don’t know about!”

Consort Ping was never stressed out by Zhao Zhi’s tone or behavior. After he finished roaring at her, she looked at him and smiled. “You suddenly want to know so much about me? What have you been doing all these years? You should have done that earlier, it’s too late now.”

They continued staring at each other in silence. Zhao Zhi was fierce and seemed like he could slit her throat any minute, but there wasn’t actually much aggression in his eyes. Consort Ping didn’t back down and smiled coldly in return, as though she was trying to mock him or provoke him. The air in the room was tense.

After a while, Consort Ping figured it out. Today’s conversation…wasn’t going to be like the conversations they had in the past. Today’s wasn’t going the way she wanted.

She couldn’t seem to anger or agitate him. What was she going to do if he didn’t just kick a table or chair and storm out of the house?

She began to trim the flower stems more and more slowly as she focused her gaze on her work, as though she couldn’t see or hear anything else. And because she couldn’t see or hear, she wasn’t going to react.

In short, she was just going to pretend she hadn’t heard a single thing he said. She wasn’t going to cooperate unless he tortured her or something.

That was…one way of handling the situation.

Zhao Zhi didn’t budge either. This was merely a battle of patience. At most, he’d just spend the entire day here!

But after she slowly finished trimming all the stems, she washed her hands and sat down, then shut her eyes as though his words were as monotonous and sleep-inducing as a monk chanting scripture. She seemed to have fallen asleep.

Zhao Zhi’s voice was loud and intense, so he definitely didn’t sound like some monk chanting. Either she seriously just fell asleep despite the noise he was making, or she was just pretending. But regardless of which one it was, she definitely looked tired…

At this rate, she was going to fall even more ill.

Zhao Zhi had no choice but to put a stop to this visit.

He was angry, but he did not kick the furniture. He stood up slowly, his tall and broad figure blocking the sunlight. “I just hope you know what you’re doing. If you choose to work with tigers to get what you want, you might not only not get what you wanted, but worse, you might lose your life in the process.”

Consort Ping only opened her eyes again after she was sure that she could no longer hear his footsteps after he walked out of the room.

Time was a cruel thing. There were crows feet around her eyes and if one stared at her too long, they’d find that she did really look very old. But when the sun shone on her, her eyes glowed as brightly as they used to, reminding everyone that she was once a very beautiful woman when she was younger.

She sat on the chair and stared out of the window motionlessly as she watched Zhao Zhi walk out of the house. After a long, long time, she finally let out a deep sigh.
…

While Zhao Zhi was trying his best to get information out of Consort Ping, Wen Yuansi and Qi Yan were working hard too. They were headed for the residence of the ex-Grand Chancellor.

Chen Pingkang, Empress Chen’s father, was very ill and bedridden. Rumor had it that he wasn’t going to live much longer.

The life of an official was such. Regardless of how much one had done, how much one had achieved, once they were no longer in power, people stopped caring about them. All of Bianliang knew that the old man was bedridden. Zhao Zhi was now in a very public and powerful position, so it was not appropriate for him to pay the man a visit. He probably wouldn’t get much out of it and a lot of speculation would definitely follow after his visit.

But it was very appropriate for Wen Yuansi to do so.

Old Madam Li hailed from a prominent family within Bianliang and she had grown up here too, so she had a huge network within the city. Wen Yuansi was young, did not know that many people and had been an official outside the capital for a few years. So, comparatively speaking, he was a lot more low profile and that made it easier for him to make this trip.

And it looked perfectly normal for him to be accompanied by an aristocratic young man who was acquainted with the old man.

But he had only one aim in making this visit. He was here to sound the old man out.

Exactly how ill was Chen Pingkang? Was he really about to die? Was there more to his illness?

All the victims in the previous cases had been linked back to him, and his connection to the one who was committing treason and shipping gold secretly was both important and difficult to grasp.

After they had notified the Chens of their visit, they were greeted at the door and led toward the main residence where the head of the household lived.

The estate’s design and furnishing style was generally stiff and serious, and resembled the estates of many court officials. The house did not have many plants and was mostly made from expensive wood and stone. It was early summer, but there were barely any trees in sight, so the whole place looked…sort of dead.

“The scenery is pretty befitting of the situation…” Qi Yan leaned over and whispered to Wen Yuansi, “Wouldn’t the sick feel even more depressed when the place looks like this?”

Wen Yuansi replied, “Different people like different things.”

For example, some old people couldn’t stand the sight of young children around because they were jealous, but some loved having them around because the children made them feel nostalgic.

The style of the house alone did not tell Wen Yuansi anything.

After they waited in a small room for a while, a well-dressed head maid approached them and bowed. “Sirs, please follow me.”

This time, they were finally headed for Chen Pingkang’s room.

As the head of the household, Chen Pingkang had a very large room. Besides the bed hidden behind a screen and pearl curtain, the rest of the room was spacious. Wen Yuansi immediately spotted a wheelchair.

It was made from Chinese rosewood with a smooth and shiny finish. The seat was wide and the wheels were high and stable, so it looked like it must have cost a lot to make. The sheen on the seat showed that it was often in use.

When the head maid noticed Wen Yuansi looking at the wheelchair, she quietly explained, “The doctor said that Old Master is very ill and cannot move on his own, but it is good for him to go out too, so the servants will take him out for a walk from time to time.”

“That’s good to hear.” Wen Yuansi frowned slightly and sounded a little sad, “Everyone wishes Old Mr. Chen will live a long and healthy life. I wonder how serious his condition is now…”

As he looked around, he quickly took note of what he saw. Most of the things in the room were for the patient. Besides the wheelchair, there was a box of medicine and other daily essentials placed in convenient locations.

Most importantly, there was a musty smell in the room that came from poor ventilation… It was a smell that only the room with a sick person would have, because it was not just musty, but also mixed with the smell of herbs and other medicines. This was not a smell that occurred overnight, so it was difficult to put up a pretense. One had to be ill for quite a long time.

“I had to attend to many matters in the house, so I’ve been slow in attending to guests,” an immaculately dressed old woman in green emerged from inside. “Mr. Wen and Mr. Qi, am I right? I’m very sorry about this, I hope both of you don’t mind.”

It was obvious who this was. This woman was Chen Pingkang’s wife, Madam Liu.

“Don’t say that, Mrs. Chen! We’re so glad that you don’t mind that we younger ones are interrupting you, so don’t say such things!” Qi Yan spoke sincerely as he smiled brightly at her. He was exactly the type that many old people found endearing, since he was clean cut, energetic and very good with words.

Madam Liu couldn’t help but smile back.

Wen Yuansi added, “It’s true that we’re the ones who are being rude. You have to take care of someone who’s sick, so both of us shouldn’t have disturbed you. But I had the privilege of listening to Old Mr. Chen teach in the past and it really enlightened me. I still remember his words till today. I used to live very faraway, but now that I’ve been transferred to Bianliang, I thought I should at least pay Old Mr. Chen a visit and say hello, or I’d feel really bad.”

“Don’t worry, our Old Mr. Chen loves having younger ones around and loves to teach others. He’s unable to get out of bed by himself and isn’t as busy as he used to be, but I’m sure he’d be happy to know both of you are here,” said Madam Liu before letting out a quiet sigh. “It’s just that he’s very ill now and he’s become muddle headed as well. So…I don’t think he’s as eloquent and charismatic as he used to be, I hope you don’t mind.”

Wen Yuansi responded, “Of course not.”

As they spoke, Madam Liu led them further into the room, past the pearl curtain and around the screen to arrive at the bed.

“My dear, you have some young guests who’ve come to visit you.”

Wen Yuansi and Qi Yan stood at the bed stiffly as they waited for the person lying on the bed to slowly turn and look at them.