Chapter 64: Chopped Chili Fish Head (Part 15)
Leng Yue thought that regardless, Jing Yi had made a valid point earlier in the room. Since the Wise Prince had taken Hua Mei as his concubine because she resembled his mother, it was only human nature that he couldn't bring himself to lay a hand on a face so similar to his own mother's.
Moreover, no matter how beautiful Hua Mei's appearance might be, she was ultimately just a country girl with no one to rely on, whose purity had been tarnished when she was abducted and sold. Even if she entered the Wise Prince Manor because of that face, her status within the manor was easy to imagine. How could the Princess, with her noble background and even more precious temper, tolerate sharing the prince's affections with such a woman?
Just casually listing them out, there were enough reasons to fill a pot explaining why the Wise Prince didn't touch Hua Mei yet made her fear him to death.
But Jing Yi shook his head. Supporting the incense burner on his head with one hand, he freed his other hand and raised a pale index finger. "Not many, just this one."
Leng Yue looked at that finger that might have handled needlework but definitely never wielded a sword, mustering the last shred of her patience to calmly say, "Tell me everything in one go... Why just this one?"
Jing Yi lightly pursed his lips, losing some of his earlier confidence as he spoke with somewhat less assurance, "I'll tell you, but you can't get angry."
She had already endured it when he was spouting nonsense to the Top Courtesan of the capital's top brothel earlier in the room - what couldn't she endure now?
Leng Yue patiently nodded. "Okay."
She answered so readily that Jing Yi felt somewhat uneasy, prompting him to add, "And you can't hit me."
"I won't... But if you don't speak soon, that might change."
This sentence worked better than ten others. Jing Yi immediately answered without hesitation, "Because Madam Cheng once told me some things about Hua Mei."
Jing Yi spoke so softly and quickly that it took Leng Yue a moment to process it. "Madam Cheng... You mean Feng Si'er?"
Jing Yi bravely nodded.
Leng Yue narrowed her eyes slightly and raised the corners of her mouth in a warm smile, but it sent a chill straight through Jing Yi's heart.
"Put the incense burner down."
Leng Yue's words were spoken with complete amiability, without any hint of wanting to kill him. Jing Yi vaguely felt that this happiness had come somewhat suddenly - so suddenly that it felt a bit off...
Before Jing Yi could figure out what was wrong, Leng Yue was already looking at him with gentle kindness, adding in the same amiable tone, "You go up."
"......"
Jing Yi sighed deeply in understanding, comprehending her meaning. He steadily placed the incense burner he had been balancing on his head safely on the ground, then turned around, bent over to support himself with his hands, and smoothly lifted his long legs upward, silently pressing into a handstand against the courtyard wall.
Looking at Jing Yi's upside-down handsome face, Leng Yue's smile grew even more affectionate.
"I'm not angry, am I?"
"No..."
"I'm not hitting you, am I?"
"No..."
Leng Yue nodded with satisfaction. "Then continue. What did Feng Si'er tell you?""She said..." Jing Yi looked at that face which appeared to be smiling without genuine warmth, took a slow breath to compose himself, and carefully replied, "She once witnessed the Wise Prince secretly visiting Hua Mei at the Sparrow Nest Brothel. In Hua Mei's room, he kicked her until she rolled on the floor, while she kept pleading repeatedly that she would obey from then on and never dare again... Feng Si'er initially thought it was because Hua Mei held a grudge against the Wise Prince for her fall from the Wise Prince Manor to the brothel, and thus didn't serve him properly, angering him. So Feng Si'er privately advised her to speak with the madam, suggesting the madam shield her in the future and simply refuse the Wise Prince's business. But Hua Mei knelt and begged her not to reveal it, saying that if others found out, her younger brother wouldn't survive."
Leng Yue was taken aback. "Hua Mei has a younger brother?"
She clearly remembered questioning each of the women rescued from the deep mountains about their hometowns and remaining family members. Among them, Hua Mei was the only one who lived alone in the countryside with no kin.
Where did this younger brother come from?
"I'm not sure either..." Jing Yi shifted his hands awkwardly, his pale cheeks now flushed with two patches of red. His voice sounded somewhat weak due to the uncomfortable position. "Feng Si'er only told me this much. Such incidents of former employers tracking people down at new workplaces are common in the brothel district. I didn't pay much attention to it before, but when you asked about Hua Mei's relationship with the Wise Prince just now, it came back to me... If he had been involved with Hua Mei, there might be other possibilities. But since he never touched her, aside from forcing her to do shady deeds for him, what else could make him threaten her with her brother's life?"
Leng Yue pondered for a moment, then nodded thoughtfully, lowering her gaze to Jing Yi's flushed face with a deepening smile.
Jing Yi suddenly realized that viewing such a smile without genuine warmth upside down felt even chillier than seeing it right-side up.
Maintaining this particularly cool smile, Leng Yue asked calmly, "Why did Feng Si'er explain the matters of the Sparrow Nest Brothel to you in such detail?"
From this angle, Jing Yi's woebegone expression oddly resembled delight.
He had known that once he revealed this, he would inevitably face this question.
However, he had wanted to tell her the answer ever since he learned of Feng Si'er's death. It was just that she never mentioned the name, and he didn't wish to bring it up abruptly and upset her.
He would rather she got angry enough to flatten him and hang him on the wall than see her again fret over his dealings with other women.
Jing Yi lowered his voice to a near whisper and replied softly, "Because she was the Crown Prince's agent."
Leng Yue froze in shock, the smile stiffening on her face without her realizing it. Seeing it upside down, Jing Yi found her expression uniquely endearing.
Ever since deducing that Feng Si'er was killed by Cheng Xun's steward, Leng Yue had been speculating about Feng Si'er's possible identities. Among the dozens of possibilities she had considered, none had connected her to the Crown Prince.
What connection could there be between a high-class courtesan who had married a tea merchant's son and the Crown Prince, who doted on his Crown Princess all day long, still feeling he couldn't cherish her enough?Jing Yi would never fabricate such matters without basis. If he said it, there must be solid reasoning behind it. However, since this concerned the Crown Prince of the nation, whether she was qualified to know the reasoning behind it was another matter altogether.
Seeing Leng Yue standing there in stunned silence, Jing Yi naturally understood what was on her mind. Without waiting for her to ask, he proactively explained, "There are some court matters I cannot elaborate on... At that time, the Crown Prince needed someone to gather information in such a chaotic place. Feng Si'er was originally a dancer in the palace with some martial arts training. Coincidentally, she had made a mistake in the palace and was expelled. Being an orphan with nowhere to go, the Crown Prince entrusted me to ask if she would be willing to take on this task for him, and she agreed. My patronage of her at the Sparrow Nest Brothel was the Crown Prince's intention. Among the young nobles who joined in the commotion and splurged money that day were also the Crown Prince's men. That's how she became an overnight sensation..."
Jing Yi shifted his slender waist and back, adjusting his posture slightly, and took a steadying breath before continuing, "The information she collected was passed through me to the Crown Prince. To avoid raising suspicion, I often visited other brothels when I had free time..." Noticing Leng Yue's eyebrows twitch, Jing Yi hurriedly added, "I swear by the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha that I never let those women lay a finger on me!"
Even viewing her upside down, with a curling incense burner between them, Jing Yi could clearly see the jealousy spreading across her beautiful face.
Sure enough, Leng Yue pursed her lips and uttered words dripping with sourness, "So, was bringing her to your home also the Crown Prince's intention?"
"That was my own idea..." Before he finished speaking, Jing Yi suddenly registered the intensified chill in Leng Yue's gaze and nearly tumbled off the wall in panic. "No, no... I just felt sorry for a young woman struggling in such a place and occasionally showed her some concern. Who knew she misunderstood my intentions? She kept threatening to kill herself unless I married her. I told her I was already engaged, but she didn't believe me... I had no choice but to bring her home once and show her the paintings I made for you. After that, she never brought it up again. Later, I informed the Crown Prince about the situation, and he assigned someone else to receive her messages. I never went back to the Sparrow Nest Brothel after that, and I had no idea when she married Cheng Xun... I beg my lady to see the truth!"
After finishing this explanation, Jing Yi took several deep breaths.
Having heard all this, Leng Yue found it hard to maintain her jealousy.
If Feng Si'er had such a connection with the Crown Prince...
"Come down here."
Jing Yi felt like a prisoner hearing the chief judge slam the gavel and declare him innocent. His heart lightened, and he nimbly flipped down, briskly straightening his monk's robes before raising a harmless, rosy-cheeked smiling face.
"Jing Yi..." Leng Yue moved closer to him, her leaf-shaped eyebrows slightly furrowed and her voice lowering, instantly adopting a businesslike demeanor. "You heard what Hua Mei said earlier—Feng Si'er was killed by Cheng Xun's steward."
Jing Yi gave a slight start and nodded gently.
"Until her death, she was clutching one of your paintings so tightly that I nearly broke her fingers during the autopsy to retrieve it. Does that painting have anything to do with the Crown Prince?"Jing Yi froze solid for a moment, shaking his head blankly. "I've never given her any painting... Can you recognize which one is my work?"
His tone carried three parts suspicion and seven parts pleasant surprise, making Leng Yue twitch her lips involuntarily.
"I'd recognize it even if it were burned to ashes... A painting of narcissus with some sappy poem written beside it. The general meaning was about pining for someone day and night, wishing you could devour them whole. And it was signed with the pen name you use when writing storybooks, stamped with several seals carved in such flowery patterns that nobody could tell what they said. If it wasn't yours, whose could it be?"
As Jing Yi listened, sudden realization dawned on him. "I know which one you mean! That wasn't narcissus - it was a painting of daylilies I made for Jiang's Restaurant. Their vinegar-braised daylilies are absolutely devastatingly delicious... But that painting went missing right after I finished it. I had to repaint another for Boss Jiang. So she must have taken it when she visited."
"......"
Leng Yue struggled with the concept of vinegar-braised daylilies for a long moment before catching her breath. Watching Jing Yi still immersed in delicious memories with a nostalgic expression, she sighed weakly. "Let me ask you... do you really consider me your wife?"
Jing Yi froze, immediately casting all thoughts of vinegar-braised daylilies to the wind. After staring blankly for a while, he swept a regretful glance over Leng Yue's impressive bust. "I'd actually rather be your husband, but that seems rather unlikely in this lifetime..."
"......"
Suppressing the urge to kick him through the wall, Leng Yue put on a stern face and lowered her voice. "Then tell me the truth - does the Jing family have some generations-old feud with Feng Si'er's husband's family?"
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