Chapter 41

Tao Chuyi struggled in her grip. “A big sister from the academy.”

Seeing that she was still stubbornly refusing to learn, Nangong Yunshang reached out and pinched her cheek. “Sister?”

Tao Chuyi immediately changed her tune. “Miss Yang!”

Nangong Yunshang let out a soft hum and finally showed mercy by releasing her.

“From now on, if you call anyone else ‘sister,’ you won’t get to sit at the table for meals.”

“Oh.”

Tao Chuyi pitifully clutched her ears and cheeks.

As the saying goes, you need to mix a carrot with the stick. Discipline couldn’t be too harsh, nor could it be too lenient.

Nangong Yunshang gently stroked her head and rubbed her ears for her, her touch as soft as water—as if she hadn’t been the one ruthlessly crushing a delicate flower just moments before.

“Be good. You only have one sister, and that’s me.”

Tao Chuyi nodded vigorously. Her sister was fiercer than before, but it felt like a different kind of fierce.

After disciplining her own prince consort, Nangong Yunshang finally listened patiently to Tao Chuyi’s account of what had happened. Though it came out in a garbled mess, she could still make sense of it.

It seemed someone at the Elegant Poetry Academy was throwing their weight around and bullying others.

Soon after, the Dali Temple stepped in to investigate the matter of Squire Yang’s daughter being bullied at the academy. Unfortunately, there were no witnesses, and Squire Yang himself wanted to let the matter drop, so they could only issue a verbal warning to the suspects.

The ringleader bullying Miss Yang was Censor Qiao’s daughter, Second Miss Qiao. Relying on her father’s high rank, she bossed around those beneath her. Anyone who didn’t obey would be isolated. That included students with better grades than hers or those prettier than her—they would all be the next targets.

With the investigation going nowhere, the Elegant Poetry Academy returned to its usual routine, and Miss Yang’s life went on as before.

Tao Chuyi listened as the seven brothers chimed in with one rumor after another. She’d heard that people had died at the academy before—all children from low-ranking families. They were either loners who didn’t fit in or cowards who were easy to pick on.

“Three or five of them, but no one’s found the heads.”

Young Master Qi described it all in vivid detail. After all, he wasn’t a target, so he didn’t feel afraid.

The headless corpses hung from the rafters overhead.

Young Master Qi shook his folded fan. “Who knows who the killer is. No trace of them at all.”

Tao Chuyi didn’t feel afraid upon hearing this. She just had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, the next morning at breakfast with the princess, a guard came to report that the Elegant Poetry Academy had been sealed off. Classes were canceled.

“Someone died?”

Nangong Yunshang frowned. “Who?”

The guard nodded. “Squire Yang’s daughter.”

Tao Chuyi dropped her bun, her eyes widening. “Miss Yang?”

“Yes, the young lady from the Yang family.”

According to the guard, the body had been discovered at around seven in the morning by the teacher and the early-arriving students. The corpse hung from the beam, fresh blood dripping down in taps. It was headless—utterly terrifying.

Nangong Yunshang asked further, “How did they confirm it was Miss Yang?”

The guard replied, “Someone from the Yang family identified the body. The clothes and birthmarks matched. And when they took roll call at the academy, she was the only one missing.”

The incident at the Elegant Poetry Academy spread like wildfire, casting a very poor light on things. An academy right under the emperor’s nose should have been a model institution, but this sort of thing made the imperial authority lose face among the common folk.

Temple Minister Tao Siqing was once again ordered to thoroughly investigate. The most suspicious were the group that often bullied Miss Yang, but without evidence, they could only be brought in for questioning.

Tao Chuyi stayed cooped up in the Princess Mansion, moping unhappily. No one could cheer her up. Fine food and toys had all lost their appeal. The mansion was full of people, yet everyone was at a loss.

“Prince Consort, shall Liuzi weave you a grasshopper?”

Liuzi tried every trick in the book, but he couldn’t coax a smile out of Tao Chuyi.

No one downstairs knew what to do—except Nangong Yunshang.

“Chuyi, get up. We’re heading out.”

Tao Chuyi looked up, lacking enthusiasm. “Where to?”

Nangong Yunshang extended her hand. “The Elegant Poetry Academy. To catch the killer.”

“Good!”

Tao Chuyi jumped to her feet at once, took her hand, and boarded the carriage.

Miss Yang’s body was under strict guard by the Dali Temple guards. Aside from the temple minister and the coroner, no one else was allowed inside.

But Tao Chuyi threw a tantrum demanding to see it, and Temple Minister Tao Siqing couldn’t refuse her. He let her through.

The last time they’d met, she had been a lively girl with a pretty face. Now, only a cold corpse remained—and not even a complete one.

Tao Chuyi felt like crying when she saw it, but she held back.

After the examination, it turned out Miss Yang’s head had been severed with a single sharp blade. The fatal wounds were seventeen stab marks on her body.

Temple Minister Tao Siqing pulled the old case files. It was the exact same method—even the number of stab wounds matched. Was there some significance to that?

“Could it be revenge? Or perhaps sorcery?”

Nangong Yunshang speculated. She’d witnessed the sinister nature of Southern Frontier witchcraft firsthand.

Temple Minister Tao Siqing nodded. “Revenge seems unlikely. There’s no connection between the victims. As for sorcery, this official doesn’t know yet.”

Tao Chuyi stared at the corpse. Others would take one glance and vomit, but she stared for a long time, remaining perfectly calm.

A perfectly fine girl—her head just gone like that.

The more Tao Chuyi thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt for Miss Yang. Girls should be pretty and radiant. Why chop off her head?

While the Dali Temple investigated openly, the Princess Mansion probed from the shadows. They pored over numerous texts on Southern Frontier lore and finally found a ritual that required human heads.

Legend had it that in the Southern Frontier, there existed headless monsters. They were created by decapitating living people, then nourishing the bodies with other heads. Neither living nor dead, they obeyed only the caster’s commands. The heads used for nourishment had to be carefully selected—gathering sorrow, weakness, and resentment in one.

Nangong Yunshang closed the book. “The Southern Frontier truly has no shortage of oddities.”

Tao Chuyi poked her head over, nearly getting clipped by the book.

“Headless monsters! Heads, stone caves!”

Nangong Yunshang immediately ordered a search of nearby stone caves. The ritual required a dark place without sunlight, along with natural running water—stone caves were ideal.

The guards fanned out in all directions and located four caves in the outskirts. Nangong Yunshang took charge of two in the western suburbs, while the Dali Temple headed south.

Nangong Yunshang waited personally outside the cave, sending guards inside. She sat on a nearby rock, wanting to call her prince consort over. But when she turned, Chuyi was nowhere to be seen.

“Chuyi? Tao Chuyi!”

The search cries echoed deafeningly, but Tao Chuyi couldn’t hear them. She followed the scent full-heartedly to a cave on the other side.

The smell of blood, rot, and decay.

Tao Chuyi reached the cave mouth and peered inside. It was pitch black—she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face—so she backed out.

At that moment, footsteps approached from behind. Tao Chuyi turned and saw a shadowy figure. Suddenly, a hand shoved her hard from behind. She tumbled and rolled into the cave. In her last glimpse, she saw the person’s face but couldn’t cry out in time.

The cave walls were sheer cliffs. Falling in made it nearly impossible to climb out—unless one knew martial arts.

Tao Chuyi rubbed her arms and legs. It hurt terribly; she felt like she was falling apart.

Groping blindly deeper inside, she had no idea which way was which. Suddenly, she touched something round. Feeling it over, it seemed to have facial features.

Probably… a head.

She kept crawling. Then she heard breathing nearby, as if something was approaching. Next, she spotted a pair of glowing red eyes.

Tao Chuyi froze. The red eyes froze too. Neither moved.

She fumbled on the ground for a while and found something sharp and angular. She hurled it at the red eyes. They took the hit, let out a hiss, and fled in another direction.

Tao Chuyi crawled onward and finally saw a glow. It wasn’t light from outside, though—just torches on the stone walls.

There was a circle on the ground, surrounded by dark red stains. Inside lay three skulls and one uncorrupted head—Miss Yang’s.

Tao Chuyi rushed over and scooped up Miss Yang’s head.

Then she heard movement again and hurriedly hid behind the stone wall. A headless monster shambled in, red eyes glowing from its neck stump.

Accompanying the monster was Second Miss Qiao from the Qiao family. She led it by the hand, a sinister, eerie smile on her face.

“Hungry, are you? You’ll feast soon enough.”

She glanced at the circle and flew into a rage.

“Where’s the head? Who stole it!”

With her furious shout, the monster unleashed an earth-shaking roar.

Tao Chuyi slipped up. Miss Yang’s head rolled away with a gurgle, instantly giving away her position.

Second Miss Qiao glared in fury. “You again! A’feng, tear it apart!”

The monster charged at Tao Chuyi, its red eyes losing all pupils.

Tao Chuyi panicked and flailed about, knocked flat by the monster. Just as its claws reached for her vital organs, her gaze sharpened. Astonishingly, she flung the monster aside, sprang lightly onto the wall, and snatched a torch.

The monster clearly feared fire and didn’t dare approach. Tao Chuyi brandished the torch and charged it instead.

The flames caught, and the creature erupted in fire from head to toe, burning to ashes.

“A’feng!”

Second Miss Qiao shrieked. She drew a dagger and lunged at Tao Chuyi. “You killed A’feng—I’ll have your life!”

In that instant, a shadow flashed by, seizing Second Miss Qiao by the throat. It wrenched the dagger away and plunged it into her abdomen.

The rescuer tossed aside the dagger and the lifeless Second Miss Qiao, catching the collapsing Tao Chuyi.

By the time the Princess Mansion’s people tracked down the cave, only Tao Chuyi—the sole living soul—remained.

When they carried out Tao Chuyi, Nangong Yunshang rushed over and pulled her into an embrace.

“Chuyi! Chuyi!”

Tao Chuyi came to slowly. Seeing Nangong Yunshang’s face, she burst into tears.

“Sister, Sister, why’d you take so long? Chuyi was scared!”

Nangong Yunshang held her close, soothing her. “Sister was wrong. I came too late. Will you forgive me?”

Tao Chuyi nodded, her eyes brimming with tears. “Then I’ll forgive you.”

“Chuyi is such a good girl.”

Nangong Yunshang patted her head and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. Tao Chuyi stopped crying right away.

The guards had found Miss Qiao’s corpse and Miss Yang’s severed head inside the stone grotto, along with some strange ash.

Though Tao Chuyi was covered in mud and bloodstains, she hadn’t been injured after all—a stroke of great fortune.

Nangong Yunshang personally fed her some water. When she saw how eagerly Tao Chuyi was gulping it down, she patted her back and urged her to slow down.

“How did you end up running all the way down into that cave? Why didn’t you call for the guards?”

Tao Chuyi sneaked a glance at the person standing behind her—only one, with their head bowed low.

“Her—it’s her!”

Tao Chuyi jabbed an accusing finger at the figure, her face flushed with fury. “She’s the one who pushed me down!”