Cui Yunchu still couldn’t accept it. When Nanny Zhang had left, she had been cheerful and full of energy. How could she have suddenly died after only a few hours?
“Where is she? Where is she?” Cui Yunchu demanded.
“Your father has already had her carried back. You need only know what happened. The rest is none of your concern.”
“Have her brought back to Chuyuan.” Cui Yunchu’s tone was resolute. “Now. Have her carried back immediately.”
Her eyes were reddened, and her breathing came fast.
“You are not in a position to involve yourself in this matter.”
“The person who died was mine.” Cui Yunchu raised her voice. “Why shouldn’t I involve myself?”
Nanny Zhang had been by her side for nearly twenty years, ever since Cui Yunchu could remember. Losing her was no different from losing her own mother.
#
In the courtyard of Chuyuan, several older servants were pressing down hard on the white cloth, seemingly afraid that the wind might blow it away—or perhaps because they were frightened themselves. Their arms trembled uncontrollably.
Cui Yunchu stopped in front of the white cloth and stared down at it.
Xing’er had long since been frightened senseless.
Everything had been perfectly fine. Nanny Zhang had merely gone out to the street. How could she have suddenly died?
“Everyone, leave,” Cui Yunchu ordered.
The servants immediately released the cloth and fled in panic.
The wind instantly lifted the white covering from Nanny Zhang’s body. Xing’er let out a terrified cry and collapsed onto the ground.
Cui Yunchu clenched her hands and advanced step by step, her gaze fixed on the knife protruding from Nanny Zhang’s chest.
The blade had been driven in so deeply that only the hilt remained visible. Whoever had struck her must have used tremendous force.
Nanny Zhang’s body was soaked in blood. Her eyes were wide open, and one hand still gripped the fabric she had bought on the street.
In her other hand, she held a beautifully packaged box of rouge. Only a few days earlier, she had been chattering in Cui Yunchu’s ear about the New Year approaching and how all the shops had brought out new goods. She wanted to buy them all so she could dress Cui Yunchu up.
Her young mistress was the most beautiful girl in the capital. She was certain Cui Yunchu would outshine all the other women during the New Year celebrations and make Lord Shen fall completely and hopelessly in love with her.
She had said that her girl was blessed to have found a powerful and wealthy minister like Lord Shen. From then on, in the Cui residence, no one would dare bully her.
Cui Yunchu had teased her. “Didn’t you used to dream of me becoming the Crown Princess or a princess consort?”
Nanny Zhang had smiled. “No title matters as much as whether my girl is happy. If the girl likes him, that is what matters most.”
“I should have sent you back to your hometown long ago.” Cui Yunchu’s voice was so soft that it was quieter than the wind.
She raised a hand and covered Nanny Zhang’s eyes, gently closing them.
The sun sank in the west. Daylight faded completely, and darkness settled over the sky. Then, without warning, snow began to fall.
Cui Yunchu sat beside Nanny Zhang’s body. The wind had already turned her face blue and purple, but she seemed unable to feel the cold.
Her head hung low. She gripped the loose end of her sash tightly with both index fingers, her lips pressed together and her nose twitching faintly. Tears slipped down her face without a sound.
“My lord.”
The greeting from the people at the courtyard entrance failed to draw any response from Cui Yunchu.
She turned her head and gazed at Nanny Zhang’s closed eyes. Tears slid along the bridge of her nose, crossed the corner of her lips with a salty bitterness, and finally fell from her chin to the ground.
“It’s snowing,” Cui Qingyuan said as he stopped behind her. “Come back inside.”
Cui Yunchu said nothing. She continued to sit there in silence, her grief and desolation enough to make anyone’s heart ache.
Cui Yunchu turned her head and looked at Cui Qingyuan.
In her memory, he had always been imposing and dignified. As the prime minister, he held immense power and enjoyed great renown. Yet none of that glory and splendor had ever brought his daughter any benefit.
“Who killed her?” Cui Yunchu asked.
“We’re still investigating,” Cui Qingyuan replied.
Cui Yunchu sprang to her feet. “You are the prime minister. A murder has taken place in the capital, and there are only a handful of people bold enough to do something like this. Are you truly still investigating, or do you already know the answer but consider it unimportant because Nanny Zhang was only a servant?”
Three or four hours had passed since the murder, and it had happened in the capital. If even Cui Qingyuan couldn’t discover who had done it, then he truly would have been unfit to serve as prime minister for all these years.
The steward beside him immediately said, “Miss, you’ve misunderstood the prime minister. The moment Nanny Zhang was brought back, he sent people to investigate. They simply haven’t reported back yet.”
Cui Qingyuan raised a hand, signaling for the steward to withdraw. “As you yourself said, she was only a servant. If not for the fact that she had accompanied you since childhood, she should have been driven out of the residence long ago for the way she raised you.”
The tip of Cui Yunchu’s nose was red. “She was still my person. Her life and death are mine to decide. No one else gets to pass judgment.”
“You’ve guessed who it was, haven’t you?” Cui Yunchu gave a cold laugh. “I’ve guessed as well.”
“She’s taking revenge on me.”
Cui Qingyuan’s brows drew tightly together. “I promise you, I will give you an explanation. From this day forward, you will remain in Chuyuan. Without my permission, you are not to set foot outside.”
“No.” Cui Yunchu was furious. “Why? Cui Qingyuan, why do you keep treating me like this?”
Cui Qingyuan turned and left Chuyuan.
At the courtyard entrance, he instructed the servants in a deep voice, “Keep a close watch on Miss. Make sure she is properly attended to.”
After Cui Qingyuan left, the steward approached cautiously. “Miss, the deceased should be entrusted to this old servant and buried as soon as possible.”
“Get out.”
Cui Yunchu’s eyes were red.
She did not weep hysterically. She merely sat there in silence as snow gathered on her shoulders, laying down a thin layer of white. The wind blew against her without restraint, its cold piercing to the bone.
The night deepened. In a daze, she seemed to return to those years long ago.
Her concubine mother had not treated her well, but when that woman died, the sky of her small world had collapsed.
There had been very few people who treated her kindly, and therefore very few people who stayed by her side. Every one of them was precious.
That was why she had always been so tolerant. Nanny Zhang was stupid and clumsy, and she had a crooked streak besides, but through all those dark years, she had been the only one who remained with Cui Yunchu.
Cui Yunchu had scolded her and beaten her, threatening to send her away. But those threats had only ever been meant to frighten her. In her previous life, Nanny Zhang had been the only person willing to throw herself into danger and die for her.
Besides, Cui Yunchu had never judged people by the standards of the outside world. How they treated everyone else did not matter. If they treated her well, then they were good people.
Her standards had always revolved around herself.
“Miss, you’ll catch cold. Please get up,” Xing’er urged, trying to approach and help her.
Cui Yunchu picked up the white cloth and covered Nanny Zhang’s body again. Xing’er trembled from head to toe, but Cui Yunchu remained completely unmoved. After all, she had been able to hold a corpse in her arms for several nights ever since she was a little girl.
“I’m no longer that tiny child I was when my mother died. Just wait. I’ll send someone down to keep you and Mother company.”
#
In the Shen residence’s study, the candlelight burned brightly.
Shen Xiabai wore a loose inner robe and reclined in his chair, both legs resting on a small footstool. He propped his forehead up with one hand, his brows tightly furrowed. His sharp, handsome features were filled with worry.
Yu Feng scratched his head as well. “Master, this subordinate truly can’t think of any good solution.”
“Keep thinking.”
“...”
Yu Feng thought that even if he racked his brain until it broke, he still wouldn’t be able to figure out how to make Fish and Flower hand themselves over.
After all, it wasn’t as though he had come up with such an immoral idea in the first place.
“Master, you can hide this sort of thing for a while, but not forever. Why don’t you…” Yu Feng glanced at Shen Xiabai’s still-red ears. Under the pressure of his master’s glare, he swallowed the rest of his sentence.
Why don’t you come clean with Madam? Otherwise, if Madam’s bragging outside gets exposed, won’t she have your ears cut off?
The study door opened. It was the servant who had pretended to be a bandit earlier that day. He held a brocade box in both hands and placed it on the desk.
It was the very item they had tricked away from Cui Yunchu earlier.
Shen Xiabai picked it up and opened it carelessly, staring at the box for several breaths.
A moment later, he flicked his wrist and threw the box to the floor. “Where is it?”
