Chapter 6

Chapter 6

By the time Wen Xiuzhu’s injuries were treated, the sky was just beginning to brighten.

When I returned to the manor, the carriage from Prince Jing’s Mansion was parked in front of the Gu Family gates. Zhou Xuzhang was actually waiting at the entrance himself. The moment he saw me, he rushed forward, his eyes filled with worry. “I heard you were frightened last night, so I came over immediately to see you.”

He spoke with such deep affection. If I hadn’t seen the way he strangled me to death, I might have been fooled by him once more.

I deliberately let a trace of exhaustion show, whispering, “Someone died in the palace last night. I was indeed a bit shaken.”

Zhou Xuzhang took the opportunity to grasp my hand, his tone tender. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”

His hand overlapped with the memory of the hand that had pushed me toward the well, and I nearly pulled away on the spot. But I restrained myself and even managed a smile. “If Your Highness truly cares for me, why not promise me one thing?”

“Name it.”

“Before the wedding, I want to go to Daxiangguo Temple to light an Ever-Burning Lamp for my mother. I also want to ask for some calming incense; I’ve been having nightmares lately.” I lowered my eyelashes, looking exactly like the Gu Lanyin who used to trust him.

A flicker of hesitation crossed Zhou Xuzhang’s eyes before he softened. “Very well, I shall accompany you.”

That was exactly the sentence I was waiting for.

The Daxiangguo Temple incense fair was crowded and chaotic, making it the most convenient place in the capital to buy and sell secret incenses. In my previous life, I had smelled an extremely faint, cold fragrance in Zhou Xuzhang’s study-like pine needles after a snowfall. It could mask the stench of a corpse and prevent a body from rotting for a short time. Later, that substitute corpse in the paupers’ morgue had carried the exact same scent.

I suspected that was the key to their “substitute corpse” scheme.

The temple’s incense market was teeming with people. Using the excuse of offering prayers, I separated from Zhou Xuzhang and had Ning Jianwei accompany me through the side alleys.

Ning Jianwei was a female physician from the Imperial Hospital. In my past life, she had secretly collected the Gu Family’s remains after my death. After my rebirth, I had saved her early on the day of the palace banquet, and she had become my most reliable move on the board.

“Are you really going to take such a risk?” she whispered.

“If I don’t take risks, I’ll never catch him,” I said.

No sooner had the words left my mouth than a man in gray robes hurried across the alley entrance, a corner of a blue-patterned sachet peeking from his sleeve. I caught a whiff of that familiar, cold fragrance.

I immediately gave chase.

The man in gray seemed to sense something was wrong and turned to run. A commotion broke out in the crowd, but by the time I reached the back alley, the man had already been kicked to the ground.

The person who had intervened was Wen Xiuzhu.

I didn’t know when he had arrived at the temple. His robes fluttered in the wind, and his gaze was as sharp and cold as an unsheathed blade.

Seeing no escape, the man in gray opened his mouth to bite his tongue. Wen Xiuzhu was quick, dislocating the man’s jaw in an instant. Ning Jianwei stepped forward and pried a poison pill from between his teeth, her expression shifting. “This is a dead-soldier.”

I knelt down and pulled a bronze case from the man’s robes. Inside were only three thin sticks of incense. The incense was greenish in color, with a tiny character branded on the end: “Gui.”

Soul-Returning Incense.

Wen Xiuzhu looked at me. “You recognize this?”

“The substitute corpse in the paupers’ morgue had this scent,” I said. “It masks the smell of death, and perhaps it does something else.”

Wen Xiuzhu frowned slightly, clearly committing the item to memory. But at that moment, Zhou Xuzhang’s men found us. I didn’t have time to say more and had to secretly hide one of the incense sticks in my sleeve.

On the way back, Zhou Xuzhang suddenly mentioned, “The Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet is in seven days. You will accompany me to the palace.”

My heart sank.

In my previous life, shortly after the birthday banquet, my father began going out frequently at night as if he were hiding something from me. Not long after that, disaster struck the Gu Family.

I knew the real game was about to begin.

That night, I lit an inch of the Soul-Returning Incense.

As soon as the cold fragrance rose, the Bone Lamp actually lit itself.

In the eerie blue light, the Life-Exchange Register on the table slowly flipped open, stopping at the final page. That page had originally been blank, but now, two lines of text began to seep out bit by bit, as if an invisible hand were writing on the paper:

“The true bones are beneath the Gu Family ancestral hall. On Heaven-Worship Night, the Life Exchange shall be complete.”

I stared at those words, a chill slowly creeping up my spine.

I suddenly understood that the day Zhou Xuzhang truly intended to strike was not our wedding day.

It was Heaven-Worship Night.