Chapter 33
Chapter 33
The moment Xia Ximo stepped into Dongsheng Hall, her ears twitched.
Someone was here.
And not just one person.
Her eyes narrowed slightly as her gaze swept over the furnishings in the hall, then slowly shifted toward the rows of bookshelves.
So this palace hall was actually deeper than it looked.
Aside from the audience chamber where the Emperor received his ministers, there was a small room in the back that seemed to be used for storing books and miscellaneous items.
The faint noises were coming from the deepest part of the hall.
Wuyou drifted over in the direction of her gaze, only to slink back a moment later in dejection.
“…You’d better not look!”
“There are people inside… doing indecent things!”
“But I’ve already invited them into the lamp to have their fun.”
Xia Ximo did not respond, nor did she show much of a reaction.
She only asked, “Did you see Meng Zhiyuan’s soul?”
Wuyou pointed to the side. “It’s over there.”
Before the imperial desk, there was no one in sight. Yet a wisp of a soul knelt there with its back hunched, holding a scroll in its hands.
Xia Ximo slowly approached it and called out, “Meng Zhiyuan.”
The wisp of a soul looked up in shock, its eyes seemingly filled with terror. “You… can see me?”
“I came to find you.”
At that, Meng Zhiyuan staggered and collapsed to the floor, then scrambled back several steps. “You… are you a ghost envoy? Have you come to take me away?”
“No, I won’t go. I still haven’t handed this map to the Emperor…”
It was agitated, clearly terrified.
“I’m not a ghost envoy.”
Xia Ximo asked, “I only want to know why you set yourself on fire in the study. And why your soul scattered afterward.”
The moment it heard the words “set yourself on fire,” pain flashed across Meng Zhiyuan’s face, and black ash began to fall continuously from its body.
“I did not set myself on fire. The flames that night… started on their own.”
“I don’t know why it happened either!”
It struggled to recall that night, but a trace of confusion gradually appeared in its eyes.
That night, Meng Zhiyuan had still been in his study, revising a map for the transport of canal grain.
Though he had gone over every detail countless times, he still was not satisfied.
He kept feeling there had to be a faster, better route…
It was already very late. His wife had come to the study several times and brought him a bowl of ginseng soup.
She was always quiet, saying little, her eyes full of concern and tenderness.
She said, “My lord, it is nearly midnight. You still have morning court tomorrow. Remember to retire early.”
He gave a low murmur of acknowledgment.
His wife trimmed the wick of the candle for him. A soft sigh slipped from her lips before she silently left the study.
Meng Zhiyuan did not know how long he had been sitting there when weariness began to settle over him.
All of a sudden, he heard a soft sound in the study.
“Madam?”
Thinking his wife had come again to urge him to rest, he called out, closed the scroll in his hands, and rose from behind the desk.
But his wife was nowhere to be seen in the room.
Just as Meng Zhiyuan was puzzling over it, a swift gust seemed to pass behind him. He whipped around, only to see a dark shadow shoot straight through his body.
The next second, the candle on the desk toppled with a sound, and the scroll on the desk caught fire.
He hurriedly tried to rush forward, only to discover an even more bizarre sight.
At that moment, he had already turned incorporeal…
And not far away, his own body lay on the floor.
He had become a wisp of a soul, utterly powerless, able only to watch as the tongues of flame swallowed the entire study.
After listening to Meng Zhiyuan’s account, Xia Ximo’s brows drew tightly together.
No wonder Meng Zhiyuan’s ghost was so deeply fixated. It turned out his death had been this suspicious…
If what he said was true, then it was very likely not the work of human hands.
However, just as Xia Ximo was about to continue questioning him, a burst of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded outside the hall.
Meng Zhiyuan’s ghost scattered at that very moment.
Immediately after, a figure appeared behind Xia Ximo and reached out with a long, fair hand to cover her mouth.
“Shh.”
The newcomer made a silencing gesture.
Then he pulled her behind a nearby folding screen.
Xia Ximo stared wide-eyed at him, only to realize the person before her was Ren Fengjue.
That explained it.
Wherever he was, ghosts would automatically retreat.
But why was he here?
She shook off his hand and was just about to question him when a large group of people stormed into the hall in a fury.
A dignified female voice snapped, “Drag out those two adulterers for me!”
A flicker of unease crossed Ren Fengjue’s face.
Even though he knew she was not referring to him.
Xia Ximo, however, looked as though she had no idea and glanced at him, her eyes seeming to ask: Does she mean us?
Ren Fengjue shook his head at once and whispered by her ear, “She doesn’t mean us.”
His warm breath brushed over her earlobe, bringing with it an unfamiliar sensation.
Something strange stirred in her heart as well.
Xia Ximo did not understand it, nor did she want to. All she wanted was to get out of there as quickly as possible.
But judging by the situation, leaving would not be so easy for the time being.
Outside the screen, things were lively.
Because the pair of “adulterers” had already been dragged out.
Both of them were disheveled, yet they were forced to kneel before Empress Zhang, the Mistress of the Six Palaces.
The man kept begging for mercy. “I beg Her Majesty the Empress to spare my life! It was all the Crown Princess-she… she seduced me first!”
By contrast, Crown Princess Tang beside him was utterly calm, showing no panic despite having been caught in the act.
She did not admit guilt. In fact, her gaze was contemptuous, without the slightest trace of remorse.
Empress Zhang was so enraged that she slapped her on the spot, then ordered, “Drag this bastard away and beat him to death with rods.”
“Your Majesty, have mercy! Your Majesty, have mercy! I beg Your Majesty-”
The man screamed in terror again and again, but soon someone covered his mouth and dragged him away.
Inside the hall, Empress Zhang’s anger had not yet subsided. In the end, however, she still valued the imperial family’s reputation and first ordered, “Someone, help the Crown Princess change her clothes.”
The palace maids found the garments the two had shed during their earlier intimacy and dressed Lady Tang piece by piece.
Her fair back was covered densely with whip marks. It was obvious that old wounds had not yet healed before new ones had been layered over them.
The palace maids found the sight horrifying, but none of them dared make a sound.
Empress Zhang looked at the woman slumped on the floor. Though her rage gradually cooled, her expression still shifted between livid and flushed.
A moment later, however, she let out a deep sigh and said, “I will pretend today’s incident never happened. Tang Yuelang, you had best take care of yourself!”
The woman on the floor did not answer.
Another voice came from outside the door. “Princess, slow down! Don’t run so fast.”
Empress Zhang’s expression froze slightly.
Then Princess Ding’an appeared outside the hall doors in a pink dress, her face full of surprise.
“Her Majesty the Empress?”
How could the innocent and carefree princess know what had happened here? Smiling, she stepped forward and curtsied. “Ruozhen greets Her Majesty the Empress. May Your Majesty be well.”
At the same time, she also curtsied to the Crown Princess at the side.
Empress Zhang forced out a faint smile. “Shouldn’t Ruozhen be in the Imperial Garden at this hour? Why have you come here?”
Princess Ding’an answered, “I just saw Brother Feng come this way, but in the blink of an eye, he was gone.”
Then she asked, “Your Majesty, have you seen him?”
At those words, Empress Zhang’s face changed abruptly. She instinctively swept her gaze toward the depths of the palace hall, then asked hesitantly, “You mean the Young Marquis was here just now as well?”