Chapter 93
Chapter 93
It was clearly broad daylight, yet after entering the garden, everything within sight seemed noticeably darker.
A cold, eerie wind blew against them. Forget humans-even ghosts would be shivering.
It was hard to imagine that a place as important as the Eastern Palace would contain such a sinister, unclean spot.
Xia Ximo looked around and was just about to continue forward when someone suddenly shouted from behind her, “Stop!”
She glanced back and saw the Chief Steward of the Eastern Palace, who had led the way earlier, hurrying toward her.
“Why are you here instead of waiting for the Young Marquis outside the study?”
He snapped another reprimand at her.
But Xia Ximo ignored him completely and kept walking.
Steward Wang froze for a moment. He looked up at the large characters above the garden gate, then steeled himself and chased after her.
“You, a mere pageboy, are far too bold!”
It was only out of consideration for Ren Fengjue that he had not called the guards over to seize her.
Who would have thought the other party would give him no face at all?
Steward Wang caught up and stepped in front of her, blocking her path, a trace of anger rising in him.
Yet in the next instant, he met a pair of deep, icy eyes.
In that moment, he seemed to understand something all at once.
He guessed inwardly that the person before him was likely not as simple as some personal attendant.
Could it be…
“Has anyone died in the Eastern Palace recently?”
While he was still pondering, the other party suddenly spoke.
At the sound of that cool, clear voice, Steward Wang froze again.
She was a woman?
And what was she asking?
“You…”
Steward Wang came back to his senses, a chill crawling up his back. “Who exactly are you?”
Xia Ximo answered him with only three words: “It doesn’t matter.”
The secret hidden in this garden mattered more.
Under the stare of those cold, abyss-like eyes, Steward Wang grew increasingly uneasy.
He had known it. The renowned Living Yama would not come knocking in person for no reason, and anyone at his side could not possibly be ordinary.
But the Ministry of Justice had no female officials…
Could she be from the Shadow Bureau?
“The Eastern Palace has its own rules. Even if a life has been lost, the Eastern Palace handles it on its own. I am afraid this is not something the Three Judicial Offices may interfere in.”
His meaning was clear: he was warning her not to meddle.
Yet the woman before him was utterly unmoved.
“You cannot handle it.”
“…”
What arrogance.
For some reason, Steward Wang even felt a hint of admiration for her. She was so young, yet she possessed a presence that seemed to stand above everything.
“Even if we cannot handle it…”
Before he could finish, she cut him off. “Then you simply leave it be, is that it?”
Steward Wang was choked into silence once more.
With no way to refute her, he could only say, “It is not that we refuse to let you interfere. To tell you the truth, it is because this garden… is haunted!”
The moment the word “haunted” left his mouth, the sinister wind circling above the garden seemed to grow ears. It swept past the two of them with a strange, unnerving force.
Xia Ximo, however, remained perfectly calm. “You didn’t need to tell me that.”
Seeing that she showed no fear at all, Steward Wang was even more astonished. “You… are you not afraid of ghosts?”
Xia Ximo let out a soft scoff instead. “If you’re afraid, then hurry up and leave.”
“…”
After being thrown off by her like this, Steward Wang nearly forgot why he had come.
Unfortunately, this woman was astonishingly bold. Even after sensing that something was wrong with this place, she still insisted on heading deeper into the garden.
Thinking that she was one of Ren Fengjue’s people, Steward Wang had no choice. No matter how frightened he was, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to follow.
“Miss, this matter of the garden being haunted truly is no joke…”
“If you insist on going in, could you at least allow me to explain the whole story first?”
Only then did Xia Ximo stop.
Steward Wang felt slightly more at ease, but he still let out a long sigh.
“The haunting in this garden… began a year ago.”
Qianqiu Garden had originally been the rear garden of the Eastern Palace, and had always been known as a “little Imperial Garden.”
Steward Wang remembered that when the Crown Prince and Crown Princess were newly wed, they would often stroll through the garden hand in hand at dusk.
It had been spring then. The flowers and trees in the garden were lush and green, bright with red blossoms.
Over Yanbo Lake, too, the breeze had been warm and gentle, the setting sun spilling gold across the water.
Seeing such a perfect couple, Steward Wang, who had personally served the Crown Prince for more than ten years, had been happy from the bottom of his heart.
Yet before long, without the slightest warning, the Crown Prince suddenly fell ill.
Steward Wang remembered that day had begun like any other.
After the Crown Prince had been invested with his title, he would spend his days at the Grand Secretariat assisting several senior ministers with government affairs. At night, he would review the memorials His Majesty had once annotated, often working until very late.
Usually, around nine at night, Steward Wang would enter Yongqing Study to remind the Crown Prince to retire.
But that day, the Crown Prince was utterly absorbed.
Even after that hour had passed, he continued reading for nearly another hour.
Worried that the Crown Prince was overtaxing himself, Steward Wang was just about to go remind him again when a gust of wind blew through, and the lamp inside Yongqing Study went out.
He and the attending eunuchs at the door hurried in to see what had happened, only to find the Crown Prince slumped over the desk, already unconscious.
At that point, Steward Wang still did not realize how serious the situation was. He summoned the Household Physician and the Crown Princess, but after an entire night of effort, nothing helped.
With no other choice, they reported the matter to the palace and requested help from the Imperial Medical Office.
Yet the Crown Prince’s illness was not only sudden, but strange. He remained unconscious for four full days and nights, and then, just when everyone was at their wits’ end, he abruptly woke again.
None of them knew that the nightmare of the Eastern Palace had also quietly descended at that moment.
After waking, the Crown Prince appeared the same as ever, but in truth, his temperament had changed drastically.
He no longer walked the garden with the Crown Princess, and he rarely went to Chenghua Hall anymore.
Their relationship was no longer what it had been.
As someone who had served in Prince Duan’s Mansion for many years, Steward Wang could naturally see that the Crown Prince was growing colder and more indifferent toward the Crown Princess by the day.
But he had no idea what had happened between them…
Until one night, when a scream rang out from Weiyang Hall.
When Steward Wang rushed over, all he saw was blood everywhere.
A palace maid lay on the floor with her clothes in disarray. It was as if a hole had been torn open in her chest, and blood was still gushing out nonstop.
The Crown Princess sat to the side in a daze, a bloodstained dagger in her hand, utterly beside herself.
The dead palace maid was actually her personal maid. Her name was Linglong.
“Linglong was killed by the Crown Princess?”
Hearing this, Xia Ximo could not help asking.
Steward Wang neither shook his head nor nodded. He only said, “Seeing a scene like that, even if no one said anything, anyone would have assumed the Crown Princess did it.”
The murder weapon and the motive were both plain as day.
Everyone would only think that this palace maid named Linglong had dared to climb into the Crown Prince’s bed at night, and that in a fit of anger, the Crown Princess had killed her by accident…
Xia Ximo frowned. “Did the Crown Prince and Crown Princess not say anything?”
Steward Wang sighed again. “The Crown Princess was so frightened at the time that she couldn’t get a word out.”
“As for the Crown Prince…”
Faced with such a horrifying and brutal scene, the Crown Prince at the time had not even furrowed his brow.
In front of everyone, he looked at the Crown Princess and gave a casual order: “Have two people bury the body in Qianqiu Garden. No one is to spread a word of this.”
Hearing this, Xia Ximo looked around and asked, “So after that palace maid died, none of you asked what had happened? You just buried her?”
Shame appeared on Steward Wang’s face. “I know it was against the rules. But the Crown Prince had given the order, and the matter involved the Crown Princess’s reputation. We could only suppress it for the time being in that way.”