Chapter 30

By the time the Dali Temple guards arrived to seal off the Rouge Shop and make arrests, they found the place long deserted. All that remained were a few boxes of One-Line Tug rouge, every one laced with poison.

The shop owner and her attendants had vanished without a trace. Clearly, they had anticipated that the buyers would succumb to the poison that very night and had timed their escape perfectly.

When Nangong Yunshang heard the news, she could not help but think of the rouge the shop owner had delivered to the Princess Mansion. Had Tao Chuyi not accidentally shattered the box, she herself might have ended up among the disfigured victims.

The thought made Nangong Yunshang suddenly find the prince consort a little more endearing. She beckoned Tao Chuyi over with a wave.

Tao Chuyi was still moping at the time but went over anyway upon seeing the gesture.

“Your Highness the Princess, save… save Xichan,” Tao Chuyi pleaded.

Nangong Yunshang paused for a moment, thinking to herself that this little fool still understood loyalty between mistress and servant, after all—not entirely hopeless. She reached out and ruffled Tao Chuyi’s hair in reassurance.

“Do not worry. We will surely save Xichan.”

The imperial physicians had explained that the poison in One-Line Tug worked by sheer misfortune. The victim’s ruined features would transfer to the poisoner’s face in a legendary face-swap curse. To cure it, one simply needed to obtain blood from the one who benefited and have the victim drink it.

With everyone from the Rouge Shop gone, however, finding that beneficiary posed a serious problem. The Capital City’s gates had been placed under strict control, with all suspicious individuals detained for questioning. Yet no one connected to the shop had turned up.

Xichan’s poisoning ran deep. Her face rotted more each day. Tao Chuyi fretted endlessly, barely eating or sleeping, and had grown noticeably thinner in just a few short days.

“Xichan will get better,” Tao Chuyi muttered to herself countless times, her eyes swollen from crying. Xichan was a good person who had always treated her kindly. Tao Chuyi did not want Xichan to die.

“Young Master.”

The voice jolted the dazed figure awake. In her blurred vision, Tao Chuyi’s silhouette came into hazy focus.

“Young Master, do not worry. This servant will not… die. Young Master, be good and go rest. Eat properly and sleep well. Do not… trouble yourself over this servant.”

The more Xichan tried to comfort her, the harder it became for Tao Chuyi to hold back her tears. They welled up in her eyes and spilled over uncontrollably.

As Tao Chuyi wept, Xichan slipped back into unconsciousness. She stumbled out of the room on her own and ran into Fendie midway, promptly bursting into uncontrollable sobs.

“Xichan is going to die.”

Fendie hurriedly wiped her tears, soothing her gently. “Young Master, be good. Xichan will not die.”

“I am going to catch the villain who hurt Xichan,” Tao Chuyi choked out. “I am going to catch the bad guy!”

A flicker of reluctance crossed Fendie’s eyes. She glanced around cautiously, as if steeling herself to some decision.

“Actually, this servant has guessed who the mastermind is. This servant will take you there. But you must promise not to say that this servant brought you.”

Tao Chuyi had no head for such intricacies. As long as it meant saving Xichan, she agreed without hesitation.

She had never realized Fendie could fly. Fendie whisked her away, skimming over the rooftops from the Princess Mansion to some other estate—Tao Chuyi had no idea which one.

The two crouched atop the enclosing wall, peering stealthily into the garden below. Guards patrolled the grounds; this was no ordinary household.

Fendie timed it perfectly, grabbing Tao Chuyi’s wrist and pulling her onto the roof. She pried loose two roof tiles, allowing Tao Chuyi to peer inside.

Tao Chuyi craned her neck and saw Consort Ning seated upon a divan in opulent splendor. A woman brought her a bowl of crimson liquid that reeked of blood. She drank it down without so much as a flinch, blood staining the corners of her mouth, as if she had just devoured a child whole.

Could this be the man-eating monster her father had warned her about?

Fear gripped her. Father had said the old monster would come for her. But to save Xichan, even if it meant being caught, she had to take the old monster’s blood.

Before Fendie could say a word, Tao Chuyi smashed through a large section of the roof tiles and leaped inside.

“Who goes there?”

In the instant the woman turned, Tao Chuyi sealed her acupoint. The same fate befell Consort Ning.

Fendie glanced back. “Young Master, be quick about it.”

Tao Chuyi fumbled for ages before drawing a dagger. Amid Consort Ning’s terrified gaze, she sliced open her arm, letting the blood pour into a bowl.

She filled an entire bowl and spun about in circles before realizing she had no idea how to carry it away.

Fendie snatched the water flask from the woman’s waist, dumped out the water, and handed it to Tao Chuyi to hold the blood.

They came and went without anyone noticing. At Fendie’s prompting, Tao Chuyi mixed the blood into a bowl of medicinal soup and fed it to Xichan.

Less than an hour later, the rot on Xichan’s face began to recede. She gradually regained consciousness.

Tao Chuyi beamed. “That’s great! Xichan! Xichan!”

Xichan, freshly awakened, took a moment to react. Then realization dawned—she was still alive. She touched the thick scars on her cheek and gasped in wonder as they shrank from the size of her palm to no larger than her thumb, still diminishing by the second.

“Young Master, this servant is cured!”

Fendie chimed in from the side. “It was Young Master who saved you by sheer luck.”

Xichan was overcome with emotion. She scrambled up and kowtowed to Tao Chuyi several times, her forehead striking the floor with resounding thuds.

The news soon reached Nangong Yunshang’s ears. Tao Chuyi haltingly recounted the method of the cure but omitted Fendie’s role in leading her there.

Once Nangong Yunshang heard the details, however, she immediately realized which estate Tao Chuyi had visited. She notified the Dali Temple at once and requested an imperial decree to make an arrest.

From Tao Chuyi’s description, the place she had stumbled into was none other than Prince Ning’s Mansion. Consort Ning rarely appeared in public because of a chronic illness that left rotten scars on her face. Somehow, she had obtained the face-swapping method and orchestrated this vile scheme.

Consort Ning protested her innocence to no avail. The wound on her arm and the Rouge Shop owner hiding in her mansion served as ironclad proof.

Her actions had incensed everyone. Even Prince Ning could not protect her once the Emperor issued the decree.

With the case solved, the poisoned citizens were cured as well. Nangong Yunshang breathed a sigh of relief, though she knew the grudge with Prince Ning had deepened yet again.

Once Xichan recovered, Tao Chuyi reverted to her carefree self as prince consort. She soaked in the bath pool and refused to come out, no matter who urged her. Xichan stood guard at the door, anxious beyond measure.

Suddenly, she looked up to see Nangong Yunshang approaching the pool. Panic seized her; she was scared out of her wits.

“Greetings, Your Highness the Princess!”

Nangong Yunshang nodded and exchanged a few casual words of concern before heading inside. Xichan dropped to her knees at the doorway, blocking the entrance.

“Is my own prince consort someone even I cannot see?”

Nangong Yunshang arched a brow meaningfully. “Or is the prince consort hiding some secret from me?”

She still had many questions about how Tao Chuyi had pinpointed Consort Ning, and she intended to get answers. That business of stumbling upon it by accident was far too convenient.

In the end, Xichan could not stop her. Nangong Yunshang dismissed the others and entered the clear spring alone.

Amid the swirling mist, a figure swam lazily in the pool. Tao Chuyi splashed water over herself happily, humming a little tune as her feet kicked back and forth. Steamed by the vapors, her skin glowed fair and rosy, fresh and vibrant.

Hearing the disturbance, Tao Chuyi turned. Seeing who it was, she lit up with delight and stood straight up from the pool.

“Your Highness the Princess!”

Water cascaded everywhere as the figure emerged like a lotus from the water, utterly unadorned before her eyes.

Nangong Yunshang’s gaze swept up and down, freezing her in place.