Chapter 59: Chopped Chili Fish Head (Part 10)
Leng Yue nearly dropped her jaw along with the sword in her hand.
Wang Tuo didn’t seem to find his words inappropriate at all. He remained kneeling upright, gazing at her earnestly and pitifully, making her feel utterly flustered inside and out.
Just how many coppers did he pay that Chinese teacher of his...
“This matter...” Leng Yue composed herself, readjusted her grip on the sword, and then spoke slowly and deliberately, “Allow me to consult the Buddha first.”
Wang Tuo’s eyes dimmed, disappointment spreading across his gaunt face. In the end, he still nodded.
“Thank you, Bodhisattva...”
Leng Yue reached out to help him up, casually picking up the exam papers lying on the ground. Noticing that some of the papers had their corners carefully folded, her heart tightened slightly. She asked Wang Tuo, who was standing obediently beside her, without showing any emotion, “Last night, you asked me to bless you in finding the person who killed the Porcelain King today. I blessed you. Did you find them?”
Wang Tuo pursed his lips and hung his head. “No.”
Leng Yue secretly breathed a half-sigh of relief. “Then, are these folded corners the people you suspect?”
Wang Tuo shook his head. “Their handwriting is beautiful.”
“...”
“I want to ask them to copy scriptures...” Wang Tuo cautiously watched as Leng Yue’s face darkened. “But if the Bodhisattva can give the Porcelain King spiritual energy, then it won’t be necessary.”
Leng Yue’s lips twitched slightly. Who said his memory was bad? He remembered this quite clearly...
Leng Yue felt that the matter of spiritual energy really couldn’t be allowed to linger in his mind any longer.
“No, it’s still necessary.” Leng Yue flipped through the exam papers absentmindedly. “After I returned yesterday, I asked the Buddha. The Buddha said that the Porcelain King has been dead for over three days. No amount of spiritual energy will help now. The Buddha told me to advise you not to dwell on such nonsense anymore. Just hold a proper memorial service for him here.”
After speaking, Leng Yue sighed silently to herself.
Spending too much time with Jing Yi had made her capable of spouting such baseless nonsense without a second thought.
Leng Yue didn’t look at Wang Tuo’s face, but from his slightly shortened breaths, she could tell his eyes were undoubtedly red. She felt somewhat uneasy and subtly changed the subject. “You just said your memory is unreliable, so you have to write down important matters. Have you told anyone in the temple about this habit of yours?”
Wang Tuo pursed his lips and nodded.
“Shenxiu?”
Wang Tuo nodded again.
As expected.
Leng Yue frowned thoughtfully and handed the stack of exam papers back to Wang Tuo. “Remember this—I’ll say it again. You must not mention meeting me to anyone, not even after you return to Goryeo... Remember, don’t write it down.”
Seeing Wang Tuo hang his head in silence, Leng Yue added, “If you make this mistake again, don’t blame me for not blessing you when your Goryeo descendants have to survive on nothing but cabbage for generations.”
“Yes...”
With that, Leng Yue slipped away.
The situation had changed—it had escalated beyond her authority to handle alone. She needed to return to Prince An’s residence and seek Prince An’s decision. But before that, she still had one more task to complete—retrieve the letter from Shenxiu’s possession.
She wasn’t sure whether Shenxiu’s letter was important, but the one currently in his hands was evidence from last night’s unresolved case. If this letter were lost, last night’s events might never be substantiated, ultimately becoming nothing more than an unverifiable story.Leng Yue recited Amitabha Buddha's name several times in a row, praying that the person who entrusted her to deliver this letter was telling the truth—she only hoped it would be delivered, even if Shenxiu might not be willing to read it.
Whether last night's incident was meant to help Wang Tuo or harm him, Shenxiu was undoubtedly the person in the temple most likely to accomplish this task. For the letter to fall back into his hands was no different than returning the murder weapon to the suspect.
If he didn't read it, she would still have a chance to secretly retrieve the letter.
As it turned out, the Buddha was merciful—Shenxiu truly didn't read it.
But Leng Yue no longer had the opportunity to retrieve the letter.
Without even glancing at it, Shenxiu had reduced the letter to a handful of fine ashes.
"You burned it?!"
Leng Yue widened her phoenix eyes, staring at the still-warm paper ashes in the incense burner before the shrine in Shenxiu's room, feeling nearly driven mad.
Shenxiu gazed steadily at Leng Yue for a moment. Seeing only shock without any trace of joy on her face, he pointed without hesitation at Jing Yi beside him and said with detached calm, "He burned it."
Jing Yi burned it...
Leng Yue froze in disbelief, sharply turning her pale, beautiful face toward Jing Yi just as she met his somewhat distracted gaze. Her voice involuntarily rose a pitch, "You burned it?!"
Jing Yi had been pondering why Leng Yue had suddenly come to ask Shenxiu about the letter when he suddenly found her glaring at him with fiery eyes, looking as if she wanted to burn him alive on the spot. Startled back to awareness, he quickly pointed back at the composed Shenxiu, "No, no... I just lit the candle! He was the one who brought the envelope over!"
Shenxiu bowed his head and chanted a Buddhist invocation, then looked up at Jing Yi with unmistakable innocence, "If my junior brother hadn't lit the candle, what use would there have been in my approaching it?"
Jing Yi felt like crying, but Leng Yue wanted to cry even more.
She never should have liked him so much from the beginning. If she hadn't liked him so much, she wouldn't have gritted her teeth and married him. If she hadn't married him, all these troublesome matters probably wouldn't be happening now...
Unfortunately, how much one likes another person is never something that can be controlled at will. No matter how profound one's inner strength or how strong one's discipline, when it comes to matters of affection, one can only helplessly accept fate.
Just like how she currently wanted to punch both these damned baldheads, but in her heart, the punch meant for Jing Yi would always carry a bit more force than the one for Shenxiu.
The deeper the love, the harder the hit—her father had always said this when disciplining her as a child.
However, although she had come under Prince An's orders, she had actually sneaked in secretly and shouldn't make too much commotion. Just thinking about Jing Yi's earth-shattering howls when in pain made her realize she would have to postpone the punching for now.
Leng Yue restrained herself with effort, trying to maintain composure as she looked at Shenxiu and asked, "If you weren't going to read it... why did you burn it?"
He could have torn it up or crumpled it—why did it have to be reduced to ashes...
Jing Yi slightly started, a strange glimmer flashing in his eyes as he turned to look at Shenxiu.
Shenxiu gently furrowed his brow, turning to meet Jing Yi's gaze.
Just as Leng Yue was beginning to suspect these two must have done something unspeakable while she was away, Shenxiu lowered his eyelashes, pressed his thin lips together, and raised his hand to point at Jing Yi again.
"He persuaded me to burn it."
"..."From Jing Yi's expression of wanting to cry but having no tears, Leng Yue could confirm with absolute certainty that Shenxiu's words were true.
Leng Yue channeled all her strength into glaring, but her voice came out somewhat feeble, "Why?"
"Well..." Jing Yi looked toward Shenxiu, who remained composed with eyes fixed downward, showing no intention of intervening. After struggling internally for a long time, Jing Yi finally forced out four words with difficulty, "It's a long story."
Seeing Leng Yue's face darken, Shenxiu smiled gently, bowed slightly, and raised a hand in a placating gesture, "I believe the person who wrote the letter must have told you when entrusting it to you, Benefactor Leng, that your task was merely to deliver the letter—whether I read it or not was uncertain... So why are you so concerned about that letter?"
Leng Yue wanted to say that she wasn't concerned about the letter that person wrote to Shenxiu at all, but the words hesitated on her lips and eventually dissolved into a sigh, "It's also a long story for me..."
This matter wasn't suitable to be spoken openly just yet.
Though it seemed like the wood had already been carved into a boat and the paper had turned to ashes—an irreversible situation—she had no solution herself, but perhaps Prince An might.
As she spoke, Leng Yue cast a meaningful glance at Jing Yi, "I have matters to attend to and must return first. You stay here obediently with your senior brother, benefiting from the Korean prince's presence, and perform the memorial rites for your old flame."
Jing Yi winced at the sharp sarcasm in Leng Yue's words.
There was indeed heavy sarcasm in Leng Yue's tone, but it served to mask another layer of meaning in her words—to keep a close watch on both Shenxiu and Wang Tuo.
Her mind was in utter chaos at the moment; she needed to consult her remarkably capable master first.
Leng Yue rushed anxiously all the way to Prince An's residence. The moment she stepped through the main gate, the gatekeeper's words nearly made her stumble in shock.
The gatekeeper informed her that Prince Hui had arrived.
This Prince Hui was the very one for whom Hua Mei had once lowered herself to become a concubine—the fifth son of the current emperor, Xiao Zhao Ye.
Xiao Zhao Ye was born half a year after the Crown Prince. His birth mother, Consort Hui, enjoyed immense favor before passing away from illness three years ago. Xiao Zhao Ye was so grief-stricken that he fell ill multiple times and struggled to recover.
It was said that Xiao Zhao Ye insisted on taking Hua Mei, who was over a decade older than him, as a concubine precisely because Hua Mei bore some resemblance to Consort Hui in both appearance and figure.
Because of this, Xiao Zhao Ye became renowned in the court as a filial son, yet this filial son had never once visited his own seventh uncle, Xiao Jin Yu.
Logically, familial bonds among royalty were inherently thin, and visiting only when necessary was common. However, anyone who suddenly came to Prince An's residence—whether noble or commoner—was definitely not bringing good news.
If she hadn't been holding onto an urgent and troublesome matter herself, Leng Yue would never have chosen this moment to disturb them.
Xiao Jin Yu received Xiao Zhao Ye in the Hall of Dual Perfection. When Leng Yue entered, Xiao Zhao Ye was sitting respectfully and properly in the seat below Xiao Jin Yu, dressed in elegant blue robes that accentuated his noble and dignified features.
From head to toe, he showed not a trace of worry over any troublesome matter.
Leng Yue strode briskly forward, bowing with a clasped fist to both. Before Xiao Jin Yu could speak, Xiao Zhao Ye rose from his chair, nodding slightly to Leng Yue in return, then turned to Xiao Jin Yu and said, "Seventh Uncle must be busy with official duties. Zhao Ye will visit another day."
Xiao Jin Yu exchanged a few more polite, formal words with him. Only after Xiao Zhao Ye had disappeared from sight did Xiao Jin Yu relax his rigidly straight posture, heaving a slow sigh as he raised a hand to rub his weary forehead.Leng Yue hurried forward to offer tea, only then noticing a brocade box placed on the tea table beside Xiao Jin Yu. The lid was open, revealing a slightly aged porcelain bottle resting on expensive crimson velvet inside.
"Your Highness..." Though Leng Yue knew nothing about such refined objects, it was clear Xiao Zhao Ye had brought this gift. The fact that the usually cautious Xiao Jin Yu had accepted it made her burn with curiosity. She glanced at it a few more times, then raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Did Prince Hui get into legal trouble and come to you to clean up his mess?"
Xiao Jin Yu had just taken a sip of tea when Leng Yue's crude "clean up his mess" made him choke. He struggled for a moment, torn between swallowing or spitting it out. Ultimately, for the sake of dignity, he forced himself to gulp it down.
After swallowing the tea, Xiao Jin Yu set down his cup and shot a bemused glare at his beloved subordinate, who stubbornly refused to behave like a proper lady. Instead of answering her question, he retorted coldly, "Since you've rushed back so quickly, are you also here to have me clean up your mess?"
Without hesitation, Leng Yue took two steps back, bowed deeply with cupped hands, and admitted recklessly, "Yes. This humble officer has done something foolish and begs Your Highness to handle the aftermath."
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