Too Late

Inside the palace.

As the evening skies darkened, a maid swiftly and quietly made her way down the familiar corridors, avoiding people wherever possible. She made sure there was no one around before gently knocking on one of the doors, three long knocks and two short ones. After a short pause, the door opened, the one inside glanced at her, then let her in.

The maid obediently waited in a small room by the side, then waited until the emperor had left and the entire place had quietened down before she was allowed to go to the main room. She bowed deeply and said, “Your Majesty, it’s done.”

Empress Chen had just finished washing her hands and another maid was wiping her fingers with a perfumed cloth. The empress calmly glanced at the maid who had entered. “Did she say anything?”

“No, she did not.”

The maid shuddered at the thought of Nanny Sun’s death.

Just like Nanny Liang and Nanny Zhou before her, Nanny Sun had served the empress even before she became empress. Compared to the two before her, she had less experience and was not particularly outstanding initially. But after the two older women passed on, she managed to climb her way up.

All these years, Nanny Sun had been a loyal servant who prioritized the empress above all else and did her best to serve the empress. Perhaps she had been very confident of her performance and never thought that the empress would suspect her. The poor woman didn’t know why she was sentenced to death or even how she died!

Not only did Nanny Sun have no idea, but the palace maid who carried out her execution was even more bewildered.

The palace maid did not dare to look up at the empress. She knelt with her forehead against the back of her palms at all times. She answered every question the empress had succinctly, not daring to add a single unnecessary word.

All these years, nobody had ever dared to say that they knew how the empress’ mind worked. If she was willing to sentence a long serving and loyal person like Nanny Sun to death, the rest were in even greater danger.

It was getting harder and harder to predict what the empress was thinking about. All of them had to be extremely careful around her.

Empress Chen smiled very faintly when she saw how terrified the maid was. “Are you scared?”

The maid felt cold sweat drip down her face. “Your Majesty, I didn’t do anything wrong, so I am not afraid! I will do anything you instruct me to!”

There was a short pause before she heard a response from Empress Chen, “Remember what you just said. In this place, the only thing that’s needed is loyalty. As long as you’re loyal, it’s fine if you’re a bit stupid or careless. But if you’re not loyal, then it doesn’t matter how outstanding you are, I don’t want such subjects. Nobody is indispensable. Anything and anyone can be thrown out and gotten rid of. Do you understand?”

The maid bowed as low as she could. “Your Majesty, thank you for these enlightening words, I understand and I will remember them every single day!”

“Very good. You’re dismissed.”

After the maid left, the hall fell silent again. The window was half open, so the flames of all the candles in the hall flickered and bothered the empress. She frowned and said, “All of you are dismissed.”

All the maids and servants left in the hall bowed before they quickly made their exit. Their every step was tense and they made sure they walked as silently as they could.

Empress Chen sat on her reclining chair and quietly watched the flickering flames for a long time.

She would never tolerate any form of betrayal.

The plan had already begun and there were some who were hoping to use this situation to their advantage. So, why not make the first move?

After all, things had already come to this…

Empress Chen’s lips curled up slightly as she exhaled deeply.

She could finally have a good night’s sleep…

But the weather did not want to let her sleep well. It had been such a quiet night, but a thunderstorm suddenly began in the middle of the night, with lightning bolts tearing through the sky and the sound of thunder roaring in the distance, as though it was ready to bring the heavens down.

Empress Chen woke up in shock from her dreams. Her back was drenched in sweat.

No! Something was not right!

Her sharp gaze instantly turned toward where Song Caitang was being held captive.

Anyone who dared to lie to her had to die!

She immediately summoned her subordinates.

…

Zhao Zhi and his team had worked tirelessly day and night, almost turning the entire capital city upside down, yet they failed to locate Song Caitang. Their anxiety was driving them crazy.

The idea about Song Caitang’s box of tools was something that they had not thought of initially, but they got there eventually. According to their analysis, Empress Chen must have kidnapped Song Caitang not just to scare them, but also because Song Caitang was useful to her. And Song Caitang’s greatest ability was to examine corpses.

Regardless of what sort of case Empress Chen was investigating, as long as she needed Song Caitang to dissect a body, then she would also need Song Caitang’s tools.

And Song Caitang’s tools were extremely unique, because she was the only person who would use such things and nobody even knew what each item was actually for, so it would be very difficult to recreate them. But when they searched the Guans’ house, they found that Song Caitang’s box of tools were still there and perfectly intact.

Did they conclude wrongly?

After suspecting their initial conjecture, they discussed again and were sure that they were on the right track. Song Caitang’s box in the house had not been taken away not because there was no need for it, but because the other party already had a set ready for Song Caitang’s use!

They immediately thought of checking the metalsmiths.

Only Song Caitang knew how to use these tools and only Song Caitang had the designs for each tool. They knew which shops she usually worked with to create her tools.

Metalsmiths were well regulated by the government, so as long you sold metal objects, then regardless of size, where you sourced the metal from and who your customers were, the shop had to keep records of all these details. If they checked out her usual shops, they would eventually find something!

Their suspicions surrounding the palace only grew stronger.

Wen Yuansi frowned slightly and his expression was solemn. “If she has hidden Miss Song within the palace…”

Then it would be almost impossible for them to find Song Caitang.

“The palace is huge, but it’s heavily regulated too. I don’t think it’ll be that easy to hide someone, right?”

Qi Yan’s first instinct was to reject such a frightening possibility and find a reason for it to be impossible.

After all, if Empress Chen really did that, they could forget about locating Song Caitang.

The inner grounds of the palace was not a place they could enter as and when they liked.

Zhao Zhi looked like he could kill someone now. “I’ll think of a way.”

The other two couldn’t get in, but he could. He was close to some of the palace guards too, so he might be able to ask them for a favor too.

But while he could go in, he couldn’t bring anyone else and he couldn’t get any help either. He had to do this alone.

Trying to search the enormous palace for a person was not only dangerous, but very time consuming.

Just then, one of Zhao Zhi’s secret guards came with a message from the crown prince: Nanny Sun’s dead. Seems like she was sentenced to death.

That was usually what happened to servants who did something wrong. Their masters would sentence them to death within the household.

So…Empress Chen sentenced Nanny Sun to death?

But why? What did Nanny Sun do wrong?

Unless she did something terribly wrong, a long-serving trusted and loved servant like her would not be easily put to death.

The team had just found out about her dealings with Lu Yuxue and hadn’t had time to dig further into Nanny Sun’s background and movements, and now she was dead? Wasn’t that a little too much of a coincidence? And of all times, now?

Zhao Zhi narrowed his eyes. “Do you think it’s because of Song Caitang?”

Of all times, she died when Song Caitang had just gone missing and they were getting clues about where she might be getting her autopsy tools from? There was definitely more to this!

But Qi Yan immediately shook his head vigorously. “That’s impossible! When Tangtang was kidnapped, she didn’t have any of the information we have now, so she wouldn’t have known about Lu Yuxue and Nanny Sun. How could she have gotten Nanny Sun killed and cleared the path for us? Even if she knew, it’s still impossible. How could she kill someone, given her current situation?”
“Don’t forget, Miss Song is very intelligent,” Wen Yuansi, on the other hand, agreed with Zhao Zhi. “She might not have known what we’ve seen or heard, but similarly, we don’t know what she’s seen or heard. Perhaps she’s gathered other clues and come to certain conclusions, just that she didn’t realize that her actions have strangely coincided with our plans.”

Qi Yan gasped and sounded a little uncertain now, “So, you’re saying that… Tangtang is working with us? Warning us? She can do that even without knowing what’s been going on for the past few days?”

Zhao Zhi glared at him. “Do you have any doubts about her capabilities?”

Of course his girl could do something like that!

“No, no, no,” Qi Yan was sincerely impressed. “Tangtang is so amazing, she’s almost not human!”

Zhao Zhi raised an eyebrow. “What did you just say?”

Qi Yan immediately put on a solemn expression. “I’m saying that she’s like a deity! She can foresee everything!”

Zhao Zhi couldn’t be bothered to carry on this nonsensical conversation. He looked at Wen Yuansi and said, “I’ll head for the palace, I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Wen Yuansi nodded, his eyes gleamed brightly. “Don’t worry.”

He knew Zhao Zhi was going to search the palace for Song Caitang.

…

Zhao Zhi was indeed going to search the palace.

That was actually a very inappropriate thing to do.

He did have a pass to enter the palace anytime he liked, so he didn’t need to go through any process. But the palace was the emperor’s home and the emperor’s authority trumped everything else, so this wasn’t a place where anyone could come anytime they liked or walked anywhere they liked without good reason. Doing so was a crime.

Zhao Zhi could have asked the emperor for permission and say that it was for the sake of the case, and the emperor might have acceded to his request, but the emperor was not feeling well of late and Empress Chen was constantly by his side. If she smelled a rat… That would be bad.

He had no choice but to find some excuse to saunter into the palace, then secretly hide in the shadows to wait for nightfall before continuing his search.

If Empress Chen was really hiding someone in the palace, where would she hide them?

Zhao Zhi tried to put himself in the empress’ shoes.

It had to be somewhere that was secluded enough, quiet enough and rare for anyone to pass through. That way, it would not be discovered easily.

And since Song Caitang was so clever, this place had better be a fairly small place that was surrounded by pretty much nothing, so that she wouldn’t be able to hear or see anything that could give her clues about her whereabouts, and she wouldn’t dare to attempt an escape.

Zhao Zhi immediately started his search once he had narrowed down the possibilities.

But even so, he had only eliminated like half the palace grounds. The palace was simply too large and he still had a lot of work to do.

He forced himself to calm down, to search carefully, to leave no stone unturned…

Indeed, heaven helps those who help themselves. When it was almost 1am, he noticed a residence.

It was a residence that was deserted. It used to house concubines who had fallen out of favor and was considered a place with ill fortune. The current emperor didn’t take in many concubines, so this place had been left empty for many years and nobody would want to be found here.

Yet, there were footprints around the residence.

And these were not normal footprints. These were footprints that were originally left in the mud, but washed away somewhat by heavy rains.

There was only one explanation for this. Someone had hurriedly come here during a storm, then hurriedly left.

The most recent heavy rain was the one from the night before. It happened toward the later half of the night and hadn’t lasted long. It was heavy, but anyone with experience would have known that it wasn’t dangerous and they could just wait for it to pass. Ordinary people would have just quickly kept their clothes or anything left out in the open, but the palace wouldn’t have been bothered by such rains at all.

Yet someone had come out in that heavy rain, and come all the way here.

Why?

His heart skipped a beat as he immediately flew from his spot and into the yard of the residence.

He kept close to the wall and waited for a while in silence.

But he did not hear any noise at all. No sound of breathing, turning, footsteps. Nothing.

He wasn’t sure if he should feel relieved or disappointed, but he sighed and quickly made his way to the door.

It looked like it had been locked recently.

He tensed up and gently pushed the door open.

The night was too dark for him to see anything in this room, so he lit a small torch and the room could be seen in plain sight.

A low table, a stool. A small window too high to reach even if one stood on the table. Another low and small bed area… He could see the whole room from the door.

There was nobody here.

But the smell…

He tilted his head, shut his eyes and took a deep breath.

His five senses were excellent, including his sense of smell, so he was often able to notice smells that others didn’t. But of course, he was just more sensitive than other humans. He couldn’t compare his sense of smell to animals.

But he knew Song Caitang better than anyone else.

Song Caitang didn’t like burning incense sticks because she found the smell too overpowering. But she still liked good smells, like the smell of flowers and fruit. After discovering that, Guan Qing customized a fragrance for her cousin so that she could use it on her face and hair. The smell wasn’t too strong and Song Caitang could enjoy it while she put it on, but could not smell it after a while, so she was happy to use it since she thought it wouldn’t bother anyone else. What she didn’t know was, while the smell of this fragrance was not strong, it lasted a long time and it made Zhao Zhi’s heart flutter every time he smelled it…

His girl had been locked in here before!

But now she was gone…

She had either been silenced, or moved elsewhere.

Had she…been killed?

His heart trembled, as though a knife had been stabbed into it and rotated a few times. His legs almost gave way under him.

He was too late!