"Yingniang also said the guards have canceled the arrest warrants for the two of us. We passed through Xianyang town and crossed the bridge without anyone stopping us..."
"But the Supreme Court is in the imperial city! Can the inspections at outlying checkpoints compare to the gates of the imperial city? Even if the arrest warrants are canceled and they don't arrest you immediately, can you guarantee the guards won't immediately report to the imperial army?"
"If you're worried about me being recognized, isn't your big frame, Yang Da, even more noticeable than mine?"
"Xinzhi wasn't involved in that night at Great Peace Palace. Even if caught..."
The setting sun gilded the falling peach blossoms, their beauty still intoxicating. Unfortunately, the two tall men standing amidst the peach trees arguing ruined the scenery completely.
Chai Yingluo and Wei Shufen stood nearby admiring the flowers and watching the quarrel. The female Taoist appeared relaxed, while the prime minister's daughter frowned slightly with worry. She had worn this expression ever since Li Yuangui shared the details he learned from Pei Lvshi about their father-son reinvestigation of the Crown Prince's poisoned wine case after the palace coup in the WuDe Era.
Pei Lvshi mentioned the evidence obtained during the investigation should still be sealed in the Supreme Court's old archives. Li Yuangui believed reviewing those items personally might provide insights into Yi Niang's case. He always carried the Son of Heaven's imperial edict wrapped in oilpaper as emergency protection, which could also be used to retrieve the old evidence from the Supreme Court.
But as soon as he proposed this plan, the other three objected unanimously, with Yang Xinzhi volunteering to retrieve the evidence instead. After their heated argument, Wei Shufen finally couldn't take it anymore. Tugging Chai Yingluo's sleeve, she called out "Sister Ying." The Taoist nun smiled and stopped the men:
"Enough arguing! Neither of you can enter the imperial city!"
"But the evidence—"
"The evidence will be retrieved by someone else." Chai Yingluo extended her hand to Li Yuangui. "Give me the edict."
"Don't be ridiculous, Yingniang," Li Yuangui refused. "The imperial city houses all the ministries and strictly forbids women's entry. Even in men's clothing, no office would admit you. Chief Justice Sun Fujia is famously outspoken and upright. Even with the Emperor's edict and the Empress's verbal decree, Judge Sun wouldn't do you favors—he might even admonish the Emperor in court, causing bigger trouble."
"Who said I'm going to the Supreme Court myself?" Chai Yingluo rolled her eyes at Li Yuangui. "Do you think I'm as useless as you? After being a prince for over a decade, you only have yourself and Yang Da to command?"
This time, the person she commanded was... her younger brother Chai Zhewei.
As night fell, Chai Yingluo first took the three back to Purple Void Monastery to stay overnight. Early next morning, she sent someone into the city to quietly summon Chai Zhewei into the forbidden garden to assign the task. The dark, thin, stubble-faced Chai Zhewei surprisingly showed great enthusiasm:
"Fourteenth Uncle and elder sister, rest assured! While you're working so hard investigating Yi Niang's case, how could I not do my utmost..."
"Cut the nonsense! You're just going stir-crazy from mourning at home and finally have an excuse to go out," Chai Yingluo was blunt even with her brother. "Don't try sweet-talking me. Listen—you must retrieve the evidence without alerting Chief Justice Sun. Can you handle this covert operation? If not, say so now and I'll find someone else."
Chai Zhewei chuckled for a while, then scratched his head thoughtfully: "Should be doable. I know people at the Supreme Court... but we'll still need Fourteenth Uncle's edict, plus some gold to grease the doors."Following his instructions, Chai Zhewei left the monastery after gathering the required items. The round trip was quite a distance, and Li Yuangui and the other three waited at the Purple Void Monastery until the sun was nearly set before Chai Zhewei returned, carrying a bundle and declaring, "I have fulfilled my mission."
His face was alight with excitement as he recounted the difficulties and dangers of his journey, eager to stay and examine the evidence with them. However, Chai Yingluo stopped him, saying, "The night curfew is about to start. You must hurry back into the city and go home, or Father will grow suspicious." Chai Zhewei was visibly disappointed, but accustomed to obeying his elder sister, he reluctantly bid farewell and left for home.
Chai Yingluo led the three into a more secluded inner chamber, instructing the serving girl to light the lamps before dismissing her. Only then did she place the bundle on the desk and unwrap it. Before the four of them appeared an old wooden box, heavily marked with dust and the passage of time.
This was the evidence box sealed and stored in the Dali Temple ten years ago, after Pei Ji had concluded his investigation into the Eastern Palace Poison Wine Case. The seam between the lid and the body of the box was sealed with paper, stamped with the official seal of the Dali Temple and the personal seal of Pei Ji.
Chai Yingluo drew a small knife from the belt at her waist, hesitated, then handed it to Li Yuangui with a smile. "Perhaps the imperial investigator should be the one to open the evidence box," she said.
Li Yuangui accepted the knife and first carefully confirmed that the seal was intact and undisturbed. Then, using the blade, he cut through the paper strip, lifted the latch, and opened the box. A cloud of dust immediately billowed out, causing him to cough and his eyes to water uncontrollably.
Chai Yingluo burst into laughter, Yang Xinzhi couldn't help but chuckle, and even Wei Shufen covered her mouth with her sleeve, her smile fleeting.
Waving away the decade-old dust, Li Yuangui peered into the box. Inside, dozens of cloth-wrapped bundles of documents were neatly arranged, each labeled with a serial number and descriptions like "Testimony of the Eastern Palace Kitchen Staff." There were also two differently shaped cloth packages.
These were undoubtedly the two key pieces of evidence that Pei Ji had relied on ten years ago to conclude that the Eastern Palace had poisoned Prince Qin's wine.
Feeling his heartbeat quicken, Li Yuangui took a deep breath and reached into the box, picking up the larger package. It felt hard and angular to the touch. He untied the knot, revealing a crude wooden food box.
The food box now consisted only of a base with a handle; the upper layers and lid were missing. Remembering Pei Lvshi's words, Li Yuangui carefully used the cloth to grip the handle and turned the box upside down. Sure enough, on the bottom were eight crudely written, barely legible characters:
"Eastern Palace poisoned, threw into the well."
The wood was rough, its grain uneven, and the characters were hastily scrawled, making them difficult to decipher. After ten years of storage, the writing had faded even further. Li Yuangui examined it from different angles but couldn't make much sense of it. He passed it to the two daughters of the Chai and Wei families and Yang Xinzhi for their inspection while he turned to the smaller package.
As he unfolded a corner of this package, a glint of gold appeared. Carefully, Li Yuangui laid the coarse cloth flat, revealing a long-spouted, slender-necked, and bulbous gilded wine ewer resting in his palm.The Golden Pot had intricate and smooth patterns, with exquisite craftsmanship. The mouth, neck, and part of the handle still gleamed with a golden luster, but most of the body was covered in a layer of black grime that crumbled at the slightest touch. Li Yuangui recalled Pei Lvshi's words: "When the Golden Pot was retrieved from the bottom of the well, its surface was already coated with a thin layer of silt, and algae had even grown on it... proving it had indeed lain underwater for a long time... Later, my father deliberately preserved the mud and algae on the pot without cleaning it, presenting it publicly when reporting the case..."
To convince the Emperor, the imperial princes, high-ranking ministers, the chancellor, and the former officials of the Crown Prince's Palace, Pei Ji had intentionally left the layer of algae and silt on the pot, evidently not cleaning it before sealing it in the chest. After a decade of drying, the algae was no longer visible, leaving only a layer of hardened ash-like residue.
Just as Li Yuangui was about to examine it more closely, he suddenly heard a soft exclamation from Chai Yingluo sitting across from him, as if she had discovered something. He quickly looked up at her.
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