Chapter 90: Only When the Tide Recedes Can the True Stone Be Seen, Part Two

The Dowager Lady Xie Miaodan had been born into a distinguished family. All her life, she had valued nothing more than the honor of her house and the preservation of its face. In the past, she had even quarrelled with husband and son over it, and she was still very much the same now. Although Yun Qi of the second branch had already been implicated, family shame must not be paraded before outsiders. Until the matter was conclusively settled, she did not wish the servants to see the branches make fools of one another.

At that thought, the Dowager Lady said to Wen Xian, “Send the third son to make the journey. Have him take a few trusted men and search the second son’s residence, then bring the person over. Remember, do not make a stir.”

Wen Xian obeyed at once, and immediately had someone invite Yun Xian to the hall of justice. When Yun Xian learned what had happened from start to finish, he was overcome with fury. Without another word, he led several trusted guards straight to Golden Dew Hall, where Yun Qi lived.

Because the Dowager Lady had given orders, the matter of Chu Xiu’s miscarriage was still being kept from the entire household. The hall of justice was itself a most secluded place for interrogation, and so even now everyone in the Yun household remained ignorant of what had occurred; no one dared go and inform Yun Qi.

Yun Xian could almost picture it: at this hour, with the sun at midday, Yun Qi must either have been taking lunch or, perhaps, dozing in an afternoon embrace with one of his favored maids.

As he walked and thought, Yun Xian and his seven or eight trusted attendants reached the gates of Golden Dew Hall. Just then, they saw a woman emerging from within. She was clutching the collar of her robe, her hair somewhat disheveled, her head bowed as she hurried out in apparent panic.

The woman’s unusually fair skin caught Yun Xian’s eye like a flash of light, making him blink against the brightness. He stood still before the hanging-flower archway. Only when the improperly dressed woman drew near did he step forward and greet her solemnly: “Fourth Concubine.”

At the title, Luan Qing stopped in her tracks and looked up at Yun Xian. Her pale eyes gleamed with a faint golden sheen beneath the sunlight, eerie and enchanting. Yun Xian had thought she had been hurrying out in flustered disarray, yet now that she raised her head, her expression was still as cold as ever, no different from usual.

Yun Xian opened his mouth, wanting to ask why Luan Qing was here, and why she was dressed so untidily, but after a moment’s hesitation, the rebuke lodged in his throat, unable to come out.

Just then, Luan Qing, still holding her collar closed, glanced over Yun Xian’s shoulder. The seven or eight trusted guards promptly lowered their heads and dared not look again. Only then did she compose herself and say coolly to Yun Xian, “Third Master, be careful that your tongue does not bring you disaster.”

The words sounded half like a reminder, half like a warning. Yun Xian frowned after hearing them. Yet Luan Qing said no more. Her expression unchanged, she brushed past him in a hurry. The peculiar cold fragrance unique to her bloodline drifted immediately into his nose, and for some reason it made his thoughts turn restless.

It was not the indignation and shock he had felt at hearing that Yun Qi’s character was wanting. It was restlessness.

Suddenly Yun Xian remembered how, at first, he had suspected Luan Qing of secret impropriety with his eldest brother Yun Ci. Later, one night outside the Quiet Heart Studio, he had seen her with reddened eyes leaving one after another behind Shen Yu, and had then speculated that she and Shen Yu were involved. But it had turned out to be... his second brother Yun Qi.

And yet, at this very moment, he would rather Luan Qing’s affections belonged to his eldest brother, or even to Shen Yu.

Unable to tell whether it was disappointment or something else, Yun Xian stood before Golden Dew Hall for a moment, then suddenly ordered his attendants behind him, “You saw nothing just now.”

The attendants answered in unison, and only then followed Yun Xian into Glory Brocade Hall.

As Yun Xian had expected, his second brother Yun Qi was indeed sitting there with a beauty on either side, lunch spread before him. One of the maids was even seated on Yun Qi’s lap, openly feeding him in an embrace.

At the sight, Yun Xian suddenly thought of Luan Qing again. The moment he imagined that the icy foreign woman might just now have been sitting on Yun Qi’s lap, held and fondled in such a manner, rage surged up violently within him.

At first he had intended to be civil with Yun Qi before taking action, but now all the words he had prepared were reduced to five: “Second Brother, forgive my offense.”

As soon as he spoke, he swept out an arm and ordered his trusted guards to seize Yun Qi.

“Third Brother, what are you doing!” Yun Qi roared in fury as he struggled, while the maids nearby were already frightened into fleeing to the side.

“By Mother’s order, I have come to escort Second Brother to the hall of justice,” Yun Xian said coldly, glaring at the guards of Golden Dew Hall who were moving to protect their master. “The Dowager Lady’s command—who dares disobey? Anyone who resists is guilty of disloyalty!”

Seeing the guards hesitate, Yun Xian issued another command: “Search the residence!”

He looked at Yun Qi’s terrified face with frosty indifference, clasped his hands behind his back, and lowered his expression without another word.

Half an hour later, Yun Qi was taken to the hall of justice. Along with him, they also searched out all manner of strange elixirs from his residence, each one clearly out of the ordinary.

When the Dowager Lady saw the bottles and jars Yun Xian had brought back, she showed little surprise. Rather, as if she had anticipated something, her face was calm and rigid, even... ruthless.

Such an expression was rare on a woman’s face. In all these years of decisive and merciless rule over the Yun clan, even Dowager Lady Xie had seldom shown such ruthlessness. But today...

“Go and ask Divine Physician Qu and the Fourth Madam to come identify these pills,” the Dowager Lady said gravely to the steward of the hall of justice.

No one would question Qu the Divine Physician or Luan Qing’s authority in this matter. One was skilled in medicine, the other in poison; their words naturally carried the greatest weight. Yet when Yun Xian heard that the Dowager Lady intended to summon Luan Qing, his heart suddenly gave a jolt. The scene of meeting her outside Golden Dew Hall just now sprang once more into his mind.

If Luan Qing came to identify the pills, would she help Yun Qi give false testimony?

If she truly acted without fairness and sided with her second brother, should he expose the affair between the two of them?

A concubine and a illegitimate son—this was no ordinary scandal of secret lust, but a violation of moral order itself. If he truly said it out loud, could a lonely Jiang woman like Luan Qing still have any face to remain in the Yun household?

For a time, the hall of justice fell into silence, broken only by Yun Qi’s trembling and Zhuo Yan’s sobbing pleas for mercy. Meanwhile, Yun Xian was plunged deep into whether he should expose or shield Luan Qing...

Soon, Qu Fang and Luan Qing entered the hall of justice one after the other and, after hearing the Dowager Lady’s order, began carefully examining the pills.

From the moment Luan Qing entered, Yun Xian’s gaze remained fixed on her. She had already changed clothes and redone her hair, once again the frosty Fourth Madam of the Yun household. Yet every time he recalled what he had seen outside Golden Dew Hall just now, he felt as though he had swallowed a fly.

He watched her expressionless face as she removed the stoppers from bottle after bottle, smelling, tasting, and inspecting them, apparently most intent. How much time passed in this manner, he did not know, when he suddenly saw a ripple pass through Luan Qing’s pale catlike pupils, before they returned to stillness.

Luan Qing handed several bottles to Qu Fang. The two of them spoke softly into each other’s ears, exchanged a look, and then Qu Fang said, “Dowager Lady, among these pills are three kinds of potent aphrodisiacs, two kinds of virility tonics, four kinds of restorative medicines, and one medicine to prevent a woman from conceiving. As for the rest, they are all poisons. Fourth Madam understands these better than I do, so let her explain.”

At these words, everyone turned together to look at the Fourth Branch’s Luan Qing, all shocked by the words “poisons” from Qu Fang’s mouth. Luan Qing held a few porcelain-white bottles in her hand and said, with no rise or fall in her tone, “Among these poisons are the source for a love poison, as well as the insect of the Heart-Slaying Gu. But because they were either improperly nourished or left unfed for too long, all the gu worms are dead.”

As soon as she said this, those who did not know the truth behind Yun Ci’s death were still in the dark; at most they only heard a lurid tale. But the Dowager Lady, Shen Yu, and the others were all shocked.

The Dowager Lady rose abruptly from her seat. Her face showed hatred, anger, and astonishment all at once, and she barely restrained the surge of emotion with a trembling effort. If she had not already hurled away the teacup and prayer beads at her side, Shen Yu guessed she would have smashed Yun Qi’s head open.

In the hall of justice, the Dowager Lady, Shen Yu, and Qing Yun had all lost control of their emotions. No one had expected that what had merely been meant to expose Zhuo Yan’s lie about carrying Yun Ci’s child would now drag out such a heaven-shaking case! Meanwhile, the second branch’s mother and daughter only wept, and the third branch’s mother and son looked bewildered.

As for Yun Qi, he too was filled with terror. His lips trembled as though he wanted to say something, but after a long while he could only stammer out, “No... it wasn’t me. I hadn’t yet had time to act. Eldest Brother had already...”

Before he could finish, Shen Yu lunged forward, seized Yun Qi by the collar, punched him hard in the face, then clamped a hand around his throat and glared bloodily at him. “It was you! You killed Wan Zhi! I’ll kill you!” he cried, looking no more than a step away from madness.

Seeing this, Qu Fang and Yun Xian cried out in unison to stop him: “Young Marquis!” Both hurried forward at once, trying to pry Shen Yu’s hand away.

“If you don’t let go now, Second Brother will be strangled to death by you! If you have something to say, say it properly!” Yun Xian gripped Shen Yu’s wrist and exerted urgent force to stop him from tightening his hand further.

Shen Yu had never before lost his composure like this in front of others. Veins stood out on his forehead as though he had been possessed, and bloodshot threads had already appeared in his red eyes. Whether swayed by Yun Xian’s words or for some other reason, when Shen Yu saw Yun Qi’s face turning purple from lack of air, he finally loosened his grip slowly and shoved him to the floor. “To kill you would soil my hands. Strangling you would be far too merciful!”

From beginning to end, the Dowager Lady stood only on the stone dais, watching coldly without once trying to stop him, nor showing the slightest intention of reproaching Shen Yu.

“By now, there are some things I can no longer hide. Since the physical evidence is all here today, let Luan Qing tell everyone about the cause of death of the old marquis and of the marquis himself,” the Dowager Lady said, her voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor, while she forced herself onward.

At this moment, she no longer had the strength to recall the deaths of her husband and son. They were the most bloodstained pain in her heart; each time they were uncovered, it felt like half her life was being taken from her.

Luan Qing did not refuse, and briefly explained the deaths of Yun Li and his son Yun Ci. Only then did Yun Xiangrong and the people of the third branch finally understand, overcome by sighs and lamentations. So the two generations of Marquis of Departure had died in exactly the same way. So there was still this hidden truth...

“The old marquis was poisoned twenty years ago; it could absolutely not have been the second son who did it,” the Dowager Lady said after a long, steadying pause, her sharp gaze fixing directly on the second branch’s Lady Hua. “Wu Ying, at this point, do you still have anything to say?”