332 — Found

Tears poured down Song Caitang’s face.

Consort Ping was a woman who could really drive one up the wall when she wanted to be mean, but could also warm someone’s heart when she was nice!

“Even if you’re happy to go, I’m not! You are NOT dying here. Hang in there!”

Consort Ping sighed as she slowly reached for Song Caitang’s face to wipe her tears away, forgetting that she was crying too. “I’m sorry to have to say goodbye like this. Help me to tell Zhi’er not to be sad, because everyone eventually has to die. I’ve just…left this world a little more hurriedly, so don’t dwell on it.”

Song Caitang tried hard to stop her hand from trembling as she bit her lip to keep herself from breaking down. “I’m not some maid you can instruct to pass a message, and I’m definitely not one of those super obedient daughters-in-law with no mind of her own. If you’ve got something to say to him, tell him yourself when you see him!”

Consort Ping laughed.

“See? You console others like me… How could I not like you?”

Song Caitang glared at her. “Save your energy! We’ll have plenty of time to talk and argue in the future!”

“But I want to talk now… When one grows older, they become more stubborn…” Consort Ping tried to breathe a little slower as she looked gently at Song Caitang, “It’s fine if you don’t…tell him that. All I want is for you and him to live a smooth and blessed life… Actually, I’ve never liked the impression I’ve left on Zhi’er…it’s too ugly… Then again, maybe it’s good for him to hate me… Better still, for him to be happy I’m gone and not sad at all…”

Her voice grew softer and softer, her tone filled with pain and regret.

Song Caitang held her hand, her teary eyes shining brightly. “Why do you think he doesn’t know anything about what you’ve done for him?”

Consort Ping blinked at her.

Song Caitang put the consort’s more veiny, thinner and frail hand against her cheek, her voice like the clear, calming flowing waters of a stream as she said, “You’re right, everyone eventually has to die, and you will eventually have to leave us. But not here. You ought to live to a ripe old age, until your hair is all white and your hands and face are covered with ugly wrinkles, as you sit on a chair and watch over my children with Zhao Zhi, while they hold your hand, some playful, some whining for attention, some domineering, some throwing a tantrum… Even if you can’t fight nature, you ought to feel indignant about it. You should be trying to negotiate with time, because you can’t bear to leave your children. Not admitting defeat and resigning yourself to fate like you are now.”

“The Consort Ping that I know, the Consort Ping who’s just like me, wouldn’t go without putting up a fight!”

“Zhao Zhi and I aren’t married yet, but his father has already passed on. Can you bear to see him go through his wedding without any seniors in the family to preside over the ceremony?” Song Caitang’s voice softened as she looked away so that nobody could see her blush a little. “You know very well that I’m from a family of merchants, so I don’t know much and the only hobby I have is cutting dead bodies open and cracking murder cases. I’ve never learned how to cook or how to handle a household – are you sure you want to just leave things as they are? Are you hoping that I’ll bring the prince’s household to ruin?”

Her words were well-balanced between being gentle and being harsh, and what she said also made sense. It felt like a warm little hand gently massaging one’s heart.

The more strong-headed a woman usually was, the more persuasive she was when she spoke so pleadingly.

Consort Ping knew that Song Caitang was trying to motivate her, but it really worked. Her body was tired and her chest hurt, but a wave of energy suddenly rose from within her bones. She wanted to get through this! She could get through this!

She wanted to see the future that Song Caitang had painted with her own eyes. A room full of children, including those who were obedient, those who were adorable, those who were whiny, those who were cheeky, those who were active…

“I’ll watch over the prince’s residence, you can try to bring it down all you want!”

Consort Ping did not say these words loudly, but she definitely sounded like she was determined to fight.

Song Caitang’s eyes lit up. “Then you work on hanging in there, I will not let you die here!”

“I’ll hang on, even through gritted teeth!” Consort Ping’s elegant smile carried a renewed domineering and stubborn spirit. “Continue what you were doing! I’ve never failed in accomplishing what I’ve set out to do!”

Song Caitang clasped Consort Ping’s hand hard for a moment, then ran back into the chamber.

She had to continue searching for the antidote!

Empress Chen, the emperor, and even the head eunuch wasn’t around. The ceremony had taken almost everyone in power, so Consort Ping was currently the most highly ranked person in the palace. Regardless of what happened before, basically nobody dared to stop the consort or Song Caitang from doing what they wanted.

The palace servants didn’t dare to interfere because they feared retaliation in the future. In fact, all of them ran as far away as they could. Song Caitang couldn’t ask anyone questions even if she wanted to.

Just then, a little head peeked out from outside one of the windows. Her hair was combed into that of a junior palace maid, she wore little pearl flowers in her hair and she also had a silver belt around her waist. When Song Caitang noticed her, she leaped up and got ready to run like a frightened rabbit, but Song Caitang stopped her in time.

This maid was a familiar face.

When Empress Chen brought Li Qi’s corpse to Song Caitang and Song Caitang asked for two maids to help her during the autopsy, this maid had been one of them. Her name was Zhenzhu.

Song Caitang furrowed her brows. “You have something to say to me?”

Zhenzhu’s eyes were as wide as saucers, as though to say: how did you know!

Song Caitang didn’t have the time to explain. The maid was too young and too naïve, so she didn’t even know how to lie or pretend. “If you’ve got something to say, quickly say it. If you’re scared and you don’t want to say it anymore, then hurry up and get out of here, and find a good place to hide. Don’t run about unnecessarily. Something has gone very wrong today, so your life might be in danger!”

Zhenzhu clutched the sides of her dress and her eyes reddened slightly.

After spending so much time in the palace, even the dumbest person would learn how to behave, otherwise they’d be dead by now. Every master was different and had their own quirks, but absolutely none of them cared about the lives of servants. Only this one Miss Song sincerely treated them like human beings. She did not treat them as merely obedient dogs and tried to be kind to them whenever possible.

Most people would see her as someone vulnerable and try to scam her, but Zhenzhu…really wanted to cherish Song Caitang.

To her, Song Caitang was incredible. She wasn’t like the other women at all, who usually lived according to what others expected of them, getting stepped on and stepping on others to the point where they became a completely different person and turned into the person they hated the most when they were younger. But Song Caitang’s heart remained kind, generous, pure and joyful.

She was no less than a man. And Zhenzhu was so envious.

Zhenzhu felt that a lowly palace maid like herself might never be able to become such a woman. But idolizing another woman or imagining that she could become like that, was still something that filled her heart with hope.

Just like a beautiful dream in the middle of the night, Zhenzhu wanted to hold on to it and look at it from time to time, and she would feel happy.

She didn’t want Song Caitang to die.

Zhenzhu wasn’t a trusted servant close to the empress, so she didn’t know a lot. But after what happened the past few days, she managed to guess a thing or two…

“Her Majesty’s bedroom has a secret room!” After making sure there was nobody around, Zhenzhu shut her eyes and spoke quickly, “Very important things are hidden inside, only her and Nanny Sun know how to open it, and even His Majesty is suspicious of it! I’ve never seen it before, but I overheard a little one night when I was on patrolling duty. If I hadn’t run away fast enough, I would have been killed! I… That’s all I know, so I can’t be of any further help. But you’d better hurry! Don’t die here! It’s not worth it!”

With that, Zhenzhu ran off like the wind.

Song Caitang figured that Zhenzhu wasn’t lying, so she quickly ran into Empress Chen’s bedroom.

Her head began to hurt once she entered the room.

The empress’ bedroom was huge!

Where could this secret room be? It could be anywhere!

Song Caitang furrowed her brows and forced herself to think hard. Real hard!

Where would a secret room be hidden? Where would be a good place that could not be easily uncovered?

She scanned the room. Everywhere…was possible.

It was a pity that she hadn’t learned how to locate trapdoors and the like from Zhao Zhi!

Where could it be? Under the bed? Next to the shelf? Beneath the floor boards?

No, wait… Just when she was about to reach her breaking point, her head suddenly cleared up. It was alright even if she couldn’t find any traces and couldn’t figure out the location. Any room would require space. She just needed to picture what a room ought to look like, then see which part of this room did not seem logical.

She was bad at directions and couldn’t tell east from west, but she could stand in one place and imagine her surroundings well.

In no time, her eyes lit up. It had to be over there!

One of the walls seemed suspicious. It was way wider than the room itself.

The room had to be behind this wall.

But she had only found the wall. What about the catch to open it?

She was now stuck again.

She didn’t have much time. She could wait, but Consort Ping couldn’t afford to!

…

“Someone! Help! There are intruders in the palace!”
“Help!”
“Rebels! Rebels are upon us!”

Song Caitang’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t found the way to open the room yet and it was already chaos outside!

Someone was rebelling? And staging a coup? Who?

Shouldn’t everyone be still at the royal cemetery? If Empress Chen wanted to create trouble, it would be most effective to do it there!

Song Caitang was worried about Consort Ping, but even more worried about what was happening outside.

Where in the world was that catch! How could she open this room up?!

Song Caitang started pacing furiously, then suddenly thought of something.

Each time Song Caitang and the team found clues leading to this traitor, they wouldn’t find a lot of clues, but they would definitely find something to do with that box with secret drawers and something to do with the salt shipping routes.

She vaguely remembered that back in Luanze, before Lu Guangzong died, there were also some textual clues left behind. A secret code within the organization.

The box with secret drawers could only be opened if one had the original pattern on hand. As for shipping, there were many ways to ship something, so why choose to ship via marine routes? Empress Chen’s subconscious choices might have exposed some of her own preferences. A secret textual code seemed very intellectual. Those who were well read would like something like this.

A pattern…water…text code…

Song Caitang looked around the room and her gaze finally landed on the bookshelf on the opposite wall.

The books themselves contained words, but none of them had anything to do with water. But there was a small jade ornament of two fish on the shelf.

As for the box’s pattern…

She had studied it herself and Zhao Zhi had also taught her, so she knew how the secret drawer was opened. There was only one way to open it and it was very simple – it was a catch hidden in plain sight.

Song Caitang ran to the shelf, picked up the double fish ornament and stared at it carefully.

The two fish faced each other and looked like they were leaping out of the water. Their stomachs faced each other, their fins were symmetrical, but their tails were turned outward, while their heads faced up. It looked…like a very pretty ornament, but there wasn’t anything special about it.

But if she placed it against one corner of the bookshelf, then that was a different thing altogether.

The place where the fins touched each other fit the side piece of wood on the shelf exactly.

Song Caitang quickly placed the ornament in that spot…

A clicking sound resounded and a door appeared in the wall!

…

Qi Yan had brought his men and charged in from the palace entrance as he held up the gold badge in his hand. “His Majesty has given instructions, I’m here on official business! Everyone, move aside!”

Today was an important ceremony for the royal family, so the emperor, empress and everyone of sufficient status were all out of the palace. After hearing that there was chaos outside, most of the people left in the palace did not dare to stop Qi Yan or think his badge was fake.

But Qi Yan was in a hurry and he had brought a lot of men with him. Even if someone stood in his way, he was going to barge in anyway.

This created a slightly awkward situation.

Initially, Qi Yan got a little violent to scare the people inside, but the fight quickly became real. Many people were just fighting to stay alive.

There were also those who were on Empress Chen’s side, or rather, those who were hoping to get into her good books because they knew she was up to something, but had not become close enough to her yet. They hoped to defeat her opposers so that they could gain a high position once she took over, so they really went all out.

These people yelled at the top of their lungs and fought with all their might, as though they weren’t going to stop until Qi Yan was dead.

The reason why nobody stopped Song Caitang and Consort Ping earlier was because firstly, that was the royal harem where Empress Chen was in charge, so few people really knew what was going on in there. Secondly, Consort Ping had always been viewed as one of Empress Chen’s loyal and trusted subordinates. Nobody knew what Consort Ping was doing, but nobody would dare to block her way, in case she was actually carrying out Empress Chen’s orders.

After all, nobody really knew for sure what was going through the empress’ mind.

The palace was a mess.

Qi Yan could only bring so many people along, so this was a real crisis. If he wasn’t well trained in martial arts, he would have been badly injured by now!

He knew that things would go through smoothly and this would be a dangerous mission where he might even lose his life, but he wasn’t scared.

“I’m going to show you what I’m capable of! I’m not always the most reliable, but I can be when necessary!”

Qi Yan wielded his long sword expertly, the blade reflected in his eyes brilliantly. “As long as I’m here, the sky’s not coming down!”

“I don’t have to envy you, Brother Zhi! I can handle this huge wave of people myself too!”
“Song Caitang! SONG! CAI! TANG!!!”
“Where are you? I’m here to save you! Respond to me!!”

He yelled as he charged into the palace.

Of course, Song Caitang was way too far away to respond to him. But he was clever, so after asking a couple of people, he knew where to head toward.

Finally, he made it to the empress’ chamber and found Consort Ping lying in pain near the entrance.

As well as the blood on her chest and sleeves.

“What’s happened to you!” Qi Yan leaped over.

Consort Ping was as elegant and calm as ever. She looked at him expressionlessly and said, “Don’t worry, I’m still breathing. I’m not going to die just yet.”

“I found it!”

Just then, Song Caitang came running out of the bedroom. She was panting and there was perspiration running down her face.

“I found it! It’s in this bottle!”

She showed Consort Ping the bottle and opened it. Brown pills that were the size of half a fingertip was inside. The pills smelled like herbs and didn’t smell toxic at all.

Song Caitang was a little hesitant. “I don’t think it’s something that’s bad for the body.”

The reason she was hesitant was because a piece of paper was pasted on the bottle and the words on it read: antidote.

If there was no label, Song Caitang might have been more certain. But the label made her afraid that this might be a trap.

Then again, why would anyone lay a trap inside a place that was so well hidden? It was inside a secret room that had to be opened in such a creative manner…

Consort Ping was a lot more decisive than her. She poured one pill out and swallowed it immediately.

Qi Yan finally got it. “You…you were poisoned?”

Consort Ping responded, “I won’t be anymore.”

Song Caitang was clearly very anxious and worried. “How is it?”

“It’s not going to happen so quickly,” Consort Ping was much steadier than her. “Both of you, go outside and take a look at what’s happening and settle it.” After giving it a thought, she fished out an iron badge with the word “Ping” cared on it and passed it to Song Caitang. “I’ll pass this to you, it might be useful.”

This was the official badge of the Prince Ping residence. Zhao Zhi’s father had been credited with winning all those wars because he had been identified as Prince Ping from this badge. Many people had seen this badge before and many respected the people who held it too.

Song Caitang and Qi Yan ran out with that badge, managed to quell the chaos outside with some persuasion, then promised to leave right away.

When they returned, Consort Ping was still pale, but she had some energy now. Her breathing was more stable and she stopped vomiting blood.

Clearly, that brown pill was indeed the antidote.

“She knows a lot, but she doesn’t know anything about medicine, so I suppose she did that because she was worried she might mix it up with something else,” said Consort Ping with a scoff as she allowed Song Caitang to help her to her feet. “Come, let’s get out of here!”

Without anyone in a position of higher authority around and a powerful badge in hand, leaving the palace was not difficult.

“I know both of you have to attend to important matters, so I can return to the house myself,” Consort Ping bid farewell to Song Caitang once they reached the main road. “Go and look for Zhao Zhi, then come back with him alive.”

Song Caitang frowned. “But your state of health…”

“Since I didn’t die, I would know how to take care of myself. I don’t need a young woman who doesn’t know anything about running a household like you to worry about me. If you’re really worried, then come back as soon as you can.”

Consort Ping’s voice was weak, but her gaze was intense. She looked at Qi Yan and instructed him solemnly, “You too. Take care of Song Caitang, and take care of yourself.”

Qi Yan grinned from ear to ear. “Don’t worry about that!”

Song Caitang didn’t say anything, but her tightly pursed lips and her look of disapproval showed how worried she was.

“Now, now, you’re a big girl, so don’t make me worry anymore.” Consort Ping turned and called for Blackie. “Take her away!”

Blackie was Zhao Zhi’s horse, but it did not go with Zhao Zhi to the ceremony and followed Qi Yan to the palace instead. It had tried to cozy up to Song Caitang by grunting and swishing its tail, but Song Caitang had not paid it any attention at all, which made it a little antsy.

So when Consort Ping called for it, it immediately got excited. It bit Song Caitang’s sleeve and dragged her along.

Qi Yan helped by holding onto her shoulders and lifting her onto the horse.

Blackie immediately neighed and galloped away.

“Be careful on your way home!!” Song Caitang could only yell these words at Consort Ping.

“Don’t worry, if anything happens, I’ll look for you.” After a short pause, Consort Ping added, “I’ll look out for your family too!”

Meanwhile, Qi Yan did not let Song Caitang even catch her breath. He immediately passed her a stack of papers to read. “Here’s all the notes that Brother Zhi and Wen Yuansi collated, they said these are the things that you must know. There’s also the information from your Eldest Sis Guan Qing, and your Eldest Brother-in-law Cao Zhang!”

Song Caitang fell silent for a moment.

Zhao Zhi, Wen Yuansi and Guan Qing were all addressed correctly. But what was this about Brother-in-law Cao Zhang?

Did they confirm their engagement while she was in captivity or something?

Qi Yan was still yelling other things, “I know where you want to go to the most, but don’t worry, I’m coming with you!”

Song Caitang had been separated from the outside world for several days, so she was a little overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information she was receiving now. “Blackie, slow down! Don’t gallop so wildly!”

It hadn’t been easy for Blackie to finally see its favorite lady again, so it obediently followed everything she said.

Song Caitang held the reins in one hand and the papers in the other as she read through everything.

“What…what’s happened to Eldest Sis?” Her expression was conflicted after reading the first section.

Qi Yan explained, “After you went missing, Empress Chen did something to force Brother Zhi to stop his investigation. But your Eldest Sis is a true hero alright – she pulled off a major stunt to take attention away from the empress and cleared the path for Brother Zhi to be able to carefully resume his investigation, gather more clues, and even sneak into the palace to look for you…”

“He tried to look for me?” Song Caitang had a tiny twinkle in her eyes.

“But he only found where you were first kept. You had been moved elsewhere by then.” Qi Yan was so upset just thinking about it. “We totally fell for it – we thought you must have been moved elsewhere, but you turned out to be still within the palace!”

“It’s alright…” Song Caitang’s lips curled into a smile as she looked ahead, her eyes shining more brightly than ever. “You guys still managed to guess it right in the end.”

Zhao Zhi, wait for me! I’m almost there!