Paternity Test

Paternity test through a bone sample.

These words seemed to shake the banquet hall, as though a soundless wave had just reverberated through the room, making everyone’s hair stand on end.

Princess Changning’s eyes widened. “A paternity test using a bone sample?”

“That’s right.” Zhao Zhi explained, “Her Majesty’s body is healthy and that’s a blessing to the people, so we should not put her through such an ordeal for no reason. Since Prince Ling’s suspicion is that Maid Mei is not his biological mother, we just need to prove that Maid Mei is indeed his biological mother and we can put an end to this matter. This method is quick and convenient, so we can do it now. There’s no need for us to prepare much. We just need to pick out a bone from Maid Mei’s grave, prick Prince Ling’s finger and allow his blood to fall on the bone. If it is absorbed into the bone, then both of them are blood relatives. If it is not absorbed, then Prince Ling’s mother is someone else.”

“And even so, doing this is still dishonoring Her Majesty. Please punish me accordingly.”

The authority of the emperor and the empress was greater than anything else. Without any concrete evidence, just suspecting the empress of something was a crime.

The palace was a place filled with too many people and too many secrets. It was possible for almost any sort of manipulation to happen and too difficult to explain so many things. Even if there was evidence presented, one could still argue their way out. Regardless of how many witnesses you could gather, you could still claim that the official records were wrong. The best way to settle this matter was to conduct this test and use that to tell the truth.

Zhao Zhi spoke righteously and so respectfully, it was impossible to find anything wrong with it. The crown prince was very satisfied with Zhao Zhi’s plan, but he also felt that Zhao Zhi was like this wily fox with a huge, bushy tail.

He really wondered how Song Caitang could put up with him.

Prince Ling paled in horror. This was confirmation! The crown prince and Zhao Zhi were going to do him in this very day!

“NO!” He waved his arms about violently to express his disagreement. “I do not agree to this! How could you even conduct this test? There’s no coroner here!”

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow as he smiled. “There is.”

Prince Ling’s heart sank. How could he have forgotten? Zhao Zhi was still an investigating censor in charge of cracking cases with a trusted small team at his disposal. Of course that team included a coroner.

Had Zhao Zhi prepared all of this beforehand?

And as he had feared, Zhao Zhi went on, “Maid Mei had no position when she died and also died from a severe illness back then, so she is not buried in the imperial tomb but at the foot of the west mountains. It won’t take long to dig her coffin out, and I have a coroner here too…”

“No! I will not agree to this!” Prince Ling was pale faced and getting more and more certain that he didn’t want to go along with Zhao Zhi. “That Song Caitang is known for being able to speak to the dead and she sides with you all the time! Who knows whether she’d interfere with the test and guarantee the results you want!”

Zhao Zhi raised his eyebrows and pretended that he was terribly surprised. He responded in a slightly cheeky and smug tone, “Oh, did I say that the coroner I’ve called upon was Miss Song?”

Prince Ling froze and almost bit on his own tongue. Who else could Zhao Zhi have called upon!

The crown prince ignored their little squabble and looked a little worriedly at the empress, “Your Majesty…what do you think?”

Empress Chen looked at him with motherly love and sighed. “It looks like we have to settle this matter today.”

She turned toward the emperor. “Your Majesty?”

The emperor nodded and waved a hand at the crown prince.

The crown prince got up and bowed. “I will see to this matter then.”

Prince Ling was still making one last attempt to put a stop to this. He stood in the crown prince’s way, “NO!”

“What are you afraid of?” Zhao Zhi pulled Prince Ling aside. “Aren’t you very sure that the empress is your biological mother? Why would you be afraid of a test? Or is it because…you actually made all of this up and now you’re afraid that the truth is about to come to light?”

“Of course not!” Prince Ling yelled before he figured things out.

He stared at the very insistent Zhao Zhi, then at the expressionless empress who neither encouraged nor discouraged this whole thing…and a thought came to his mind. That’s right, this was his chance! Once this relationship was proven, the fact that he was the empress’ son would no longer be a secret and he would be able go contest the crown prince outright!

From now on, he could walk with his head high and do whatever he wanted without having to hide all the time!

“Fine, you can do it. But the coroner must not be Song Caitang.”

…

Actually, Prince Ling was overthinking it. But he wasn’t alone. There was also Qi Yan.

He had been held up by something else and arrived at the teahouse late. He immediately apologized to Wen Yuansi when he ran in, and was shocked to see Song Caitang sitting right next to him!

His eyes nearly fell out of their sockets as he pointed his folding fan at Song Caitang. “Why are you still here?”

Song Caitang nearly splashed tea on him in shock from how loudly he spoke. “We agreed to meet here, didn’t we? So of course I’m here. Where else do you expect me to be?”

“At the palace, obviously!” Qi Yan was so frantic, his face was scrunched up and he clutched his hair. “Isn’t a paternity test about to be conducted in the palace? If you slack off here, this matter will be delayed! What are we going to do when that happens? How are we going to proceed with the show we planned? If you just leave the crown prince and Brother Zhi to their own devices, then Prince Ling will win this fight without even trying! How would the emperor and the empress look at the crown prince and Brother Zhi in the future?!”

He said everything so quickly, nobody could interrupt him.

Song Caitang blinked, then burst out laughing.

Qi Yan got angrier. “How could you laugh!”

Wen Yuansi chuckled even as he sighed and tried to hint to Qi Yan, “Do you know what time it is?”

Qi Yan peeked at the hourglass outside. “It’s almost noontime. Why?”

“When did you get the news about this test?”

Qi Yan blinked at him. He still didn’t get it. “About two hours ago.”

Wen Yuansi sighed again. “Can news about a family banquet held within the palace be leaked just like that? Sure, we’ve got a friend inside and we’re not doing anything that might cause a big stir or get us into trouble, but surely it would have taken quite some time for this news to get out of the palace and reach your ears. If things hadn’t gone well, do you think you would still be able to run all the way here and question Miss Song? I’m sure Prince Ping left the palace a long time ago.”

“Oh, you’re right…” Qi Yan unfolded his fan and took a seat.

He finally figured out what was going on, but he still asked Song Caitang quizzically, “So, the coroner summoned to the palace isn’t you?”

“That’s what you get for not paying attention the other day,” Song Caitang smiled and shook her head. “Of course it’s not me.”

She was too close to Zhao Zhi. If even Prince Ling could think of her immediately, of course the crown prince and Zhao Zhi would rule her out.

It was only right for Zhao Zhi to find a neutral party.

Besides, this test was very simple to conduct. Dissection was not needed, so anybody could do it.

Qi Yan still had questions, “But that’s a special paternity test that uses bones! You mean you taught someone else your ultimate skill?”

Song Caitang couldn’t understand why he was so uptight either. “Isn’t knowledge meant to be passed on? Besides, it’s not my ultimate skill. It’s a very simple thing to do.”

Qi Yan didn’t know how to respond to that.

It was true that he knew very little about how a coroner examined bodies, but when he thought a little harder, he realized that it was true that Song Caitang never selfishly hoarded any knowledge. As long as you were bold enough or curious enough, she was willing to let anybody watch the dissection process and answered any questions, and even put in the effort to make sure you understood her answer well…

She was sincere in trying to teach others, but many times, these other people were too stupid to get it.

Qi Yan suddenly felt like she was much more noble and magnanimous, while he was tiny and petty. He wasn’t even as broadminded as a young woman…

But Song Caitang wasn’t bothered by what he thought. She was still thinking about the plan they had devised for the day.

Using bones as a paternity test was not confirmed by modern science and the results were not necessarily accurate, but there were many successful cases in the many years of historical records, so while it wasn’t 100% accurate, it was accurate to a large extent.

But the results per se were not their main aim today.

They were not trying to test if Prince Ling was indeed Maid Mei’s son or not, but to test everyone’s reaction to this matter. Would the emperor be surprised? What was Empress Chen’s attitude toward this whole thing? And would she have picked up on mention of a different father?

They were trying to sound people out today.

If the test proved that Prince Ling was the son of Maid Mei, they had a follow up plan for that. And if he wasn’t, they had a plan for that too. Besides…if he wasn’t, that would be great. They would be able to use that situation to make even more observations.

So, she didn’t need to be present today. She just needed to know the results.

…

After Prince Ling insisted that Song Caitang must not be the coroner, Zhao Zhi scoffed and glared at Prince Ling through narrowed eyes, “And who said Miss Song was coming?”

Prince Ling was stunned. “You mean…it’s not?”

“Who do you think you are?” muttered Zhao Zhi before returning to his seat.

Prince Ling was furious and nearly yelled back that he was a prince, so he could call on any civilian he wanted!

But he realized that he shouldn’t respond like that. What if Zhao Zhi continued arguing with him after that?

Besides, things didn’t look good for him today. The more he said, the more mistakes he might make. It was better to say less.

When the royal family wanted to get something done, things moved at lightning speed. Moreover, there was no other urgent matter for the palace to attend to, since the day was set aside for the emperor’s family banquet. As they ate and chatted, time passed quickly.

The coroner who arrived was one who worked directly for the Department of Justice, a veteran with many years of experience – Coroner Zhou.

The bone had been fetched from the grave as well. Since the instruction had been to just pick one bone, the servants had picked the cleanest and prettiest calf bone.

The emperor seemed quite interested in this matter and was in good spirits. And since the leader of a country was in good spirits about the matter, nobody dared to say that bringing a dead person’s bone into his presence was bad luck or rude. Besides, just one bone alone wasn’t scary at all.

The test finally started.

With the bone in hand, the next step was to get Prince Ling’s blood.

Prince Ling stared at the bone and gulped before he shut his eyes and rolled his sleeve. He placed his hand in front of the eunuch and said, “Go ahead!”

But before the eunuch could do anything, Prince Ling retracted his arm and looked solemn as he did a second confirmation, “Wait! Are you very sure this bone belongs to Maid Mei?”

“Good heavens, Your Highness! I watched the men pick this bone from the grave with my own eyes and I’ve already checked at least ten times to make sure we were digging up Maid Mei’s grave, so there is definitely no mistake her! If I’m wrong about it, you can have my head!”

This eunuch was the one who served the emperor directly. He had overseen this matter himself, so he was confident that he had the right bone.

“Why would I want your head…” grumbled Prince Ling before he took a deep breath and held his hand out again. “Alright then.”

For some reason, he was very, very nervous. His heart was racing.

It was time to witness a miracle.

The eunuch worked very quickly and steadily, so the needle had already pricked the prince’s finger before he could do anything. A few drops of blood dripped out and fell straight onto the bone.

Everyone focused their attention on the bone.

They had almost forgotten to breathe.

The hall was extremely quiet.

A moment later…

“It’s been absorbed!”
“The blood has gone in!”
“The bone can really absorb blood! It’s exactly like what I’ve heard about paternity tests!”
“So she’s the real mother! Prince Ling is really Maid Mei’s son…”
“I wonder who spread those rumors in the past and made him suspect his heritage, his poor mother…”

Murmuring among the servants within the palace was usually frowned upon, but actually, that depended on the emperor’s attitude toward the matter. Any servant who could serve the emperor directly was a clever one who knew when they could speak. They had to keep their voices low, but…it was clear that the emperor was fine with a comment or two.

And since the emperor did not give any orders about keeping it a secret, the result of this paternity test was going to spread throughout the palace, then to the court officials, and possibly even to the common folk.

Everyone could see the results clearly, and so could Prince Ling, of course. His entire body stiffened up and he couldn’t move.

Coroner Zhou watched the bone absorb the blood, then fell on his knees as he spoke confidently, “Your Majesty, Prince Ling’s blood has been absorbed by Maid Mei’s bone. It has been properly proven that Prince Ling was borne by Maid Mei.”

Zhao Zhi sighed quietly. “Too bad.”

He spoke very softly and nobody took notice, but Prince Ling heard him.

Zhao Zhi meant that it was too bad that the results had turned out this way, because that meant he didn’t get any new leads and would not be able to expand the investigation. Their plan to sound out Empress Chen would have to end here. But Prince Ling was certain that Zhao Zhi was talking about him.

“No…how could this be…I don’t believe it! I don’t believe it!”

Prince Ling was pale as he slumped weakly to the floor. He was clearly in disbelief.

Empress Chen glanced at him and sighed. “I already told you before that I am not your biological mother, but you refused to believe me.”

Her behavior, her expression, her attitude and her mannerisms were especially steady and did not look out of place at all. She did not seem the least bit emotional and was as calm as she usually was.

This…basically meant that the whole plan to get something out of her had failed. The team had failed to get new information.

But at the very least, they couldn’t suspect Empress Chen of anything else now.

While Zhao Zhi understood that logic and the truth had presented itself clearly before his own eyes, he still…sensed something amiss somewhere.

But he simply couldn’t put a finger on it.

He suddenly felt his heart skip a beat, as though he had opened a frightening box. A danger that might kill him was approaching him.