Chapter 22

Seeing this, Tao Chuyi stopped crying—there wasn’t a single tear on her face anyway. She slowly climbed to her feet, brushed the dust from her clothes, and scurried over to the princess’s side, where she cautiously tugged at her sleeve.

Her big, watery eyes turned toward Nangong Yunshang, filled with a mix of fear and dependence.

By pure instinct, she could tell that Fairy Sister was in a good mood right now.

“She called me stupid, so I called her stupid. She’s the big dummy, and I’m the big brain.”

Ever since their wedding, Nangong Yunshang had been rubbing her temples with increasing frequency.

“Very well, the Prince Consort is the big brain, not stupid at all. How do you want to punish Min Qing?”

Min Qing’s eyes went wide. “Your Highness…”

Her plea died on her lips as Nangong Yunshang fixed her with an icy stare, silencing everything that followed.

Tao Chuyi pondered the matter seriously for a moment. Amid the puzzled gazes of everyone present, she walked out of the study. It wasn’t long before she returned, a large rock clutched in her hands.

Everyone gaped in astonishment. The stone was bigger than a copper basin, yet the frail little Prince Consort had lifted it with such ease.

Without any apparent effort, Tao Chuyi hoisted the rock high and swung it straight toward Min Qing’s head.

Nangong Yunshang hadn’t given any orders, but she watched the stone’s trajectory intently.

The rock hovered right above Min Qing’s head, drawing a sharp scream from her. But it never actually struck. After a tense moment, Min Qing opened her eyes, still shaken.

Tao Chuyi set the stone down and carried her birdcage back with her.

“I’m not wasting time on a big dummy.”

Nangong Yunshang said gravely, “This isn’t some other place. If you can’t rein in that hotheaded temper of yours, there will be no place for you here. Starting today, you’re assigned to clean the outer courtyard. You’re not to set foot in the inner one again. Go to Yinghong and take twenty strokes of the paddle. Dismissed.”

The shadow network she had carefully cultivated had its trusted operatives, and both Yinghong and Min Qing were among them. Min Qing and the others had remained in the shadows for years now. Perhaps she had been too lenient with her on a daily basis, allowing this arrogance to fester.

At those words, Min Qing wanted to beg for mercy, but the plea stuck in her throat. In the end, she could only kowtow and accept the punishment. As she withdrew, she shot a venomous glare in the shadows toward Tao Chuyi, as if the Prince Consort had stolen her most prized possession.

Nangong Yunshang waved the others away and sat down at her desk to read. She didn’t so much as glance up, but she kept a close eye on Tao Chuyi’s movements.

“Prince Consort, if anyone bullies you in the future, just smash them with a rock.”

Tao Chuyi blinked and rushed over to the desk. “Anyone at all?”

“Provided they’re bullying you with malicious intent. Everyone except this princess.”

Nangong Yunshang looked up, meeting her gaze.

Tao Chuyi lost herself in the beauty before her eyes and couldn’t help inching closer. Closer still.

With a clatter, the inkstone tipped over, spilling ink across the floor.

The door opened and shut, and Tao Chuyi was ushered out. She lingered at the entrance for a moment before running off into the courtyard as if nothing had happened, seeking playmates.

She gathered Xichan and the others for a game of hide-and-seek. Tao Chuyi was “it,” her eyes blindfolded with a red silk ribbon. She would grope around blindly, and if she caught all three, she won.

Liuzi counted at the side while the maids darted about, hiding in the garden.

“Three, two, one! Here I come!”

Blindfolded, Tao Chuyi couldn’t see a thing, but her feet moved nimbly, never once stumbling over stones. Before long, she had caught Xichan and Fendie. One more to go.

She headed left, and the maids all bolted right. Though she couldn’t see, her hearing was sharp. Suddenly, she spun around and dashed in the opposite direction, sending the maids shrieking in surprise.

Nangong Yunshang emerged from the study to find the whole group running wild.

She sighed and walked over. “Don’t any of you have anything better to do?”

Tao Chuyi perked up at the sound of her voice and lunged forward, wrapping her in a tight embrace.

“Gotcha! I win. Now it’s my turn to hide.”

She pulled off the blindfold and blinked. No wonder it smelled so nice—it was Fairy Sister.

“Your Highness…”

The maids bowed in unison and scattered. Liuzi took the chance to slip away as well.

Nangong Yunshang gave her a look. “Let go of me this instant.”

Tao Chuyi grinned sheepishly and released her, then stood obediently to the side.

“Your Highness the Princess, Liuzi said the third person I catch has to be my wife.”

Nangong Yunshang let out a soft huff. “I’ll deal with him later. As for you—go copy out the Three Character Classic.”

“Oh.”

Tao Chuyi wilted like an eggplant hit by frost. She trudged toward the study, looking back every few steps. Just as she reached the door, she overheard a Dali Temple guard reporting urgent news.

She had assumed it was an update on the assassin, but it turned out to be a different case. According to the guard, someone had beaten the drum of grievance, claiming their daughter had been summoned to the Sun Residence for a house call and never returned. They insisted that Councilor Sun’s household had killed her.

Nangong Yunshang frowned in confusion. “Do I need to be informed about this case?”

The guard cupped his hands. “The Sun family isn’t an ordinary one. Councilor Sun is the brother of Prince Ning’s concubine.”

At the mention, surprise flickered across Nangong Yunshang’s face. Prince Ning again.

Councilor Sun had a dim-witted son who was already twenty but still unmarried. Every six months or so, he would summon a healer to the residence for a consultation—and curiously, it was always a female healer. Tao Siqing had already ordered a search of the Sun Residence, but they had found nothing.

Tao Chuyi overheard the case and hurried over. “Let’s go investigate!”

That meant no copying the Three Character Classic for her.

Nangong Yunshang pushed away her oversized head with one hand. “Is the missing healer the only one?”

The guard replied gravely, “Our investigation shows that starting from last year, they’ve summoned four in total, and all have gone missing. It was only after someone from Fu’an Medical Hall reported it this year that we began looking into the matter.”

Half an hour later, Nangong Yunshang took Tao Chuyi to Dali Temple. She still needed to question the elder healer from Fu’an Medical Hall personally.

The old healer was surnamed An—known far and wide in the western part of the city as Healer An, a renowned philanthropist. He had a daughter who also practiced medicine. When he was out on calls, she managed the hall.

On the day of the incident, Healer An had been away on a house call, leaving Miss An in charge while the apprentices handled dispensing medicine.

“My daughter is only eighteen. She’s loved medicine since she was little. Too kind-hearted for her own good. The apprentice said the Sun Residence servants claimed their young master was suffering a sudden flare-up of his old ailment, that he might not last until I returned. So she went with them to treat him.”

Healer An’s hair was half white, though he wasn’t even forty yet. Now his face was haggard, dark circles under his eyes—he looked utterly worn down.

The healer had left for the call and vanished without a trace. The search of the residence had turned up nothing.

Tao Siqing frowned. “They might have killed her and dumped the body elsewhere.”

“Do we need to examine the body? I’ll go too.”

Tao Chuyi volunteered eagerly. She wanted to learn from Sister Xu.

Nangong Yunshang pressed her back down. “We need a body first before we can examine it.”

“Oh.”

Bored, Tao Chuyi slipped out the door, leaving them to their discussion. She wandered out of Dali Temple, with Xichan trailing behind to keep her from getting lost again.

Xichan chased after her, panting. “Young Master, slow down!”

Tao Chuyi ignored her and raced to the riverbank, where she skipped stones across the water. She was a pro at this—each toss farther than the last.

The river ran clear, with the occasional leaf drifting by, but leaves held no interest for her. Then she spotted pink petals floating over. She quickly fished them out with a stick.

She hooked four or five petals and cradled them in her hands, counting them.

Xichan slumped to the ground in exhaustion, her gaze falling on the petals. “Those are peony petals. They can be used in medicine.”

Tao Chuyi examined the petals closely. She held one up to block the sun and noticed writing on it.

“Save?”

She checked four petals, each bearing the character for “save.”

Xichan leaned in and picked up the last one. The character was different.

“Me?”

Tao Chuyi took the two odd petals and put them together.

“Save me.”