Chapter 95

Chapter 95

It was a small Sapphire-blue Kingfisher-feather Pearl Hairpin. Its materials could hardly be called first-rate, and the craftsmanship was nothing refined. There was nothing particularly rare about it.

It was utterly unworthy of someone as noble as Her Highness the Crown Princess.

But…

A wisp of Yin Soul was attached to the hairpin, seething with resentment that reached the heavens.

Xia Ximo lightly stroked the “thing inside the hairpin” and gave Tang Yuelang a cold glance. “You came to the garden for this?”

That one look only deepened the terror in Tang Yuelang’s heart.

She even had the faint feeling that the woman before her already knew something…

“It has nothing to do with you!”

Tang Yuelang’s body was restrained, and even her voice trembled, yet she stubbornly refused to yield.

So Xia Ximo quietly tightened her grip on the hairpin.

“Come out.”

Her thin lips parted, and she uttered those two words.

Tang Yuelang froze slightly. Beside her, Steward Wang was even more baffled.

A moment later, a cold, eerie wind began to swirl through the woods, making a withered magnolia not far away sway unsteadily.

Steward Wang’s face changed in horror, and he stumbled back several steps.

Then, from the corner of his eye, he glimpsed an extra shadow in the mist.

His heart leaped into his throat all over again. He turned his head to look, could not help crying out, and collapsed onto the ground.

“A ghost! This time it really is a ghost!”

“It’s… it’s Linglong’s ghost!”

“Miss, she’s come to claim lives again!”

Afraid Xia Ximo would not believe him, Steward Wang pointed at the shadow and shouted.

Finding him rather noisy, Xia Ximo glanced at him. “I see it.”

The garden was thick with Yin-Sha Qi, which could nourish ghostly things.

And if ordinary mortals stayed here long enough, they would be affected by it and become able to see ghosts as well.

Seeing that she remained perfectly composed and showed no fear at all, Steward Wang shut his mouth of his own accord.

Perhaps his guess had been right.

This woman truly had skill!

The ghostly figure in the mist drifted toward them without its feet touching the ground, spreading a denser chill wherever it passed.

Tang Yuelang saw it too.

But there was no fear in her eyes. Instead, tears shimmered there.

The ghostly figure drew closer and closer until it floated right before the three of them.

Only then did the cold wind stop.

Xia Ximo studied this wisp of Yin Soul. “Speak. Who killed you?”

The ghostly figure, however, looked toward Tang Yuelang.

Seeing master and servant face each other in silence, it was clear there had to be more to what happened a year ago.

In the silence, Xia Ximo looked back at Tang Yuelang and asked, “Are you still going to hide it?”

Though Steward Wang was terrified, he also hoped the Crown Princess would tell the truth.

In a trembling voice, he said, “Too much has happened over the past year. This old servant knows that His Highness the Crown Prince has wronged you.”

“But this old servant believes the affection you two shared for so many years would not have come to this point for no reason.”

“There must be something behind it, is there not?”

As he spoke, the old servant in his forties could not hold back his tears.

At last, Tang Yuelang showed the slightest flicker of emotion.

She looked at Linglong’s ghost, then at Steward Wang.

Finally, her gaze fell on Xia Ximo.

“Linglong… was indeed killed by my own hand.”

The moment those words came out, Steward Wang, who had been full of expectation, turned ashen. His lips moved, but no sound came out.

Tang Yuelang felt the force restraining her body gradually vanish. Her legs gave way, and she sank to the ground.

She lifted her mud-stained hands. Her fingertips trembled slightly as she said in a low voice, “But that was not my will. It was…”

Xia Ximo looked down at her. “Who?”

Tang Yuelang shook her head, her face full of pain. “I… don’t know.”

“I don’t know who ‘she’ is!”

Those words left Steward Wang utterly confused. Even Wuyou, who was floating nearby, could not help pricking up his ears in curiosity.
Xia Ximo continued, “If you didn’t know who the other party was, why would you do such a thing?”

Tang Yuelang seemed unable to bear the memory. She suddenly clapped both hands over her ears.

At that moment, Linglong’s ghost, drifting off to the side, spoke in a faint, mournful voice.

“Miss does not wish to remember. I should be the one to tell this story…”

At her words, everyone’s gazes turned once more to that shadowy ghost.

Linglong had been Tang Yuelang’s dowry maid. The two had grown up together since childhood. Though they were mistress and servant, their bond was as close as sisters.

After more than ten years of spending every day together, Linglong had called her “Miss” countless times, and she could never quite bring herself to change it.

So when Tang Yuelang first married into the Eastern Palace, Linglong still often addressed her as “Miss.” When the female officials of Chenghua Hall heard it, they reprimanded her several times for overstepping and being disrespectful.

After Tang Yuelang found out, not only did she not punish Linglong, she even granted her special permission to keep using that form of address.

The palace was nothing like the Commandery Duke’s Mansion. Rules existed everywhere. Yet under Tang Yuelang’s protection, Linglong lived with a rare degree of freedom.

She had thought that since His Highness the Crown Prince loved her mistress so deeply, the days ahead would surely be harmonious and happy.

Until the Crown Prince suddenly fell ill, and the entire Eastern Palace was thrown into chaos.

That was the first time Linglong had ever seen her mistress so haggard.

Worried for the Crown Prince’s safety, Tang Yuelang stayed by his side day and night to care for him. Even when she dozed off for a moment, she would immediately jolt awake.

Fortunately, after many days of exhaustion and grief, the Crown Prince finally woke.

Linglong had thought it was nothing more than a false alarm. With the Crown Prince recovered, everything would return to normal.

But the Crown Prince had changed.

And the change came without warning.

In the past, whenever he returned from the palace each day, he would always make a trip to Chenghua Hall and have dinner with the Crown Princess.

After the meal, the two of them would stroll through the gardens hand in hand to aid digestion.

But after recovering from his illness, the Crown Prince seemed as though he had lost his memory.

Linglong would always remember that evening. Tang Yuelang had ordered the small kitchen to prepare a table full of the Crown Prince’s favorite dishes and had brought out wine she had brewed herself.

She had even worn the peach-pink brocade spring robe he loved most, keeping an eye on the hour as she stood at the entrance of Chenghua Hall to await him.

But even after dusk had fallen on all sides, there was still no sign of the Crown Prince.

Only then did Tang Yuelang realize something was wrong. Worried about the Crown Prince’s safety, she hurried to Weiyang Hall, only to learn that he had not returned.

Uneasy and without the slightest appetite, Tang Yuelang waited inside Weiyang Hall until late into the night.

Then she heard a woman’s coquettish voice drifting in from the outer hall.

In that instant, she nearly thought she had heard wrong. Supported by Linglong, she walked out of the inner hall-and froze as if struck by lightning.

Behind the screen, two figures were tangled together, inseparable.

Tang Yuelang trembled all over as she walked over, only to meet a pair of wicked, wanton eyes.

Terrified, she collapsed to the floor.

Hearing the noise, the Crown Prince did not stop. He merely glanced at her indifferently and said, “So the Crown Princess is here too.”

He still held the enchanting woman in his arms, not thinking for a moment that his actions wronged his wife.

On the contrary, he was enjoying it.

Tang Yuelang’s heart churned like a storm-tossed sea. At last, unable to withstand the sudden blow, she ran out.

Linglong was stunned as well. She stumbled after her mistress and followed her back to Chenghua Hall.

After that night, the skies over the Eastern Palace changed.

The Crown Prince, who had always favored the Crown Princess alone, began bringing different women back to the inner court one after another. Under the title of the Crown Prince’s concubines, he kept them in the Eastern Palace.

He no longer came to Chenghua Hall, and he seemed to have forgotten all the vows and tenderness they had once shared.

In his eyes and in his heart, there was no longer any place for her, his lawful wife, whom he had loved for so many years.