"I am not Xi Niang—the wet nurse of Princess Linfen, but her governess. However, I have been by her side serving and caring for her since she was three years old after losing her birth mother. All these years, I have never left her..."
HeBa the governess's eyes were red and swollen like peaches, her face exhausted and puffy, her voice hoarse and desperate, but at least she was willing to speak. Chai Yingluo first asked, "Why did you swallow that jade ring?" She insisted, "It was something planted by others to tarnish the princess's pure reputation. Let it take my worthless life instead."
An angry snort came from behind the screen—Li Yuangui. HeBa had swallowed the evidence right in front of him, and the proud young prince, unable to stop her, must have felt utterly frustrated. But it was clear that the governess truly didn’t care about her own life to dare such an act, leaving him with no recourse. Could they really kill her and cut open her body to retrieve the evidence?
"Yi Niang’s purity and reputation do not depend on some ring, but on whether you answer my questions truthfully," Chai Yingluo said coldly. "This case has shaken the court and reached the Emperor’s ears. Do you think swallowing the evidence will make it disappear?"
HeBa, kneeling on the ground, straightened slightly. "High Truth Master, please ask. Yi Niang and I have nothing to hide—there is nothing we cannot speak of openly!"
Wei Shufen had always found this governess’s demeanor somewhat striking. Even now, though disheveled, she lacked the cowering ignorance of the maidservant A Luo from earlier. Chai Yingluo questioned her about what she had been doing the previous night, the last time she saw Yi Niang, and whether Yi Niang had shown any recent abnormalities. She answered each question in detail, her speech still quite refined.
Last night, after the Empress left, she ordered the two consorts to don their pheasant robes for the bridal escort. Lady Zheng’s ceremonial headdress and robes hadn’t been used in years, and few servants knew how to arrange them properly. So HeBa had to leave Xi Niang to attend to Lady Zheng’s attire first. After helping Lady Zheng dress, she noticed the eastern wing was still dark and quiet. Lady Zheng then instructed her to check if Yi Niang’s makeup was ready. When she reached the eastern wing’s door, she encountered Lady Yang and her maidservant...
At this point, HeBa broke down again, collapsing to the ground in tears, unable to continue. Wei Shufen, watching from the side, felt a pang of sorrow, reminded of the sad yet loving look her own mother had given her the night before.
The accounts of yesterday afternoon and evening were largely consistent among those present. The Empress had visited Yi Niang, the two had spoken privately behind closed doors in the eastern wing, and Yi Niang had escorted the Empress out—the last time anyone saw her alive. Later, when the bridal procession arrived at the courtyard gate clamoring for the bride, HeBa, along with Consort Yang and her maidservant, discovered Yi Niang hanged in her bedroom.
When asked about any recent unusual behavior in Yi Niang, HeBa provided crucial information:
"She suddenly asked me one day, 'What is the Zoroastrian temple?'"
"The Zoroastrian temple?" Everyone was taken aback. Wei Shufen found the term familiar but had to think hard before recalling—wasn’t that the temple in the Western Market where foreign merchants gathered to worship fire, hold festivals, and revel?
Chang’an had always been home to many foreign merchants from the Western Regions. She knew most of them followed the Zoroastrian faith, and she had glimpsed related figures and buildings while riding through the city streets. But she had never personally interacted with them. As for Li Yi Niang—a solitary princess orphan—whether in the Crown Prince’s Palace as a child or in the secluded temple after turning nine, where had she heard of the Zoroastrian temple? And why would she take an interest in such a thing?"Has she ever seen any foreigners or foreign girls in these years?" Chai Yingluo also asked curiously. Heba shook her head: "Never. The High Truth Master knows, this Temple of Common Vocation... outsiders can't enter. The most recent outsiders were craftsmen who came to repair houses and tidy up the courtyard after Yi Niang's wedding date was set. But at that time, the two ladies strictly restrained the young girls, confining them to their own rooms in the side courtyard without allowing them to go out."
As for how Heba answered Yi Niang's questions about the "Zoroastrian temple," Wei Shufen found that the servant woman's knowledge was not much different from her own, limited to just a few words like "Western Region merchants" and "fire worship rituals." The man behind the screen pressed a few more questions on this matter but gained no substantial information and temporarily set it aside.
Other recent peculiar behaviors of Yi Niang were harder to define. She had secretly asked her nurse about the appearance and temperament of her cousin's husband, but this was quite normal... She had also inquired about various wedding customs—how the groom would fetch the bride, how they would tease the groom, the rituals of urging the bride to dress and the wild goose offering, how they would block the carriage and tease the bride, how married couples lived outside, the division of labor between men and women, and so on. After asking, she would sometimes feel hopeful and sometimes sorrowful, often sitting alone for long hours without speaking. But for an eighteen-year-old girl raised in a secluded temple, none of this was particularly unusual...
"Has she ever had thoughts of suicide?" Chai Yingluo asked bluntly.
Heba remained silent for a long while before answering weakly:
"She never said it outright, but I always felt... she did say she was tired of this kind of life, and also things like, 'After marriage, how much better can it be? I'll always be the daughter of a rebel'... And her birth mother, well... if the daughter takes after her mother..."
"Her birth mother?" Chai Yingluo pressed, "Did she commit suicide back then?"
A sound of a cup and table overturning came from behind the screen.
"This servant isn't entirely sure about what happened back then," Heba said slowly, "but from the gossip I've heard over the years while serving Yi Niang, it's said that—when the former Crown Prince had just taken residence in the Crown Prince's Palace, the Prince Qin's consort was the first to give birth to the imperial eldest grandson. The Supreme Emperor was overjoyed and bestowed the name 'Chengqian.' The Crown Prince's Palace grew anxious. At that time, both Zheng Niangzi and Yi Niang's birth mother were pregnant, and their favor was about equal. The former Crown Prince hoped for a legitimate eldest son and promised to make whichever one gave birth to a son first the principal consort. Yi Niang was born first, but she was a girl. Zheng Niangzi gave birth to a son in one go and thus secured her position as the principal consort. Yi Niang's birth mother became excessively jealous and resentful, growing somewhat deranged, and naturally fell out of favor. After another two or three years, she died quietly without even receiving a posthumous title."
"I see," Chai Yingluo mused. "You think Yi Niang takes after her mother and is prone to despair?"
"She's still young—quiet, naive, timid, and doesn't talk much. She keeps everything to herself. Yesterday afternoon, after the Empress spoke to her—I don't know what was said—when seeing the Empress off, I noticed her eyes were terribly red, and her makeup was ruined by tears..."
"This has nothing to do with what the Empress said," Chai Yingluo interrupted firmly. "If Yi Niang has resolved to die, that decision was made long ago. Did you know Yi Niang wrote a suicide note?"
"A suicide note?" The surprise in her voice made it clear Heba didn't know. "This servant didn't know... What did she write?"The suicide note was not long, and Chai Yingluo recited it fluently from memory. Wei Shufen was a bit worried—she had read the note many times and found it easy to understand, but... HeBa was a lowly servant who, by all accounts, had never been educated or learned to read. Could she comprehend it?
A glance upward told Wei Shufen she had underestimated this county princess’s nurse. The woman needed no explanation. Upon hearing the phrase "the pain of abandoning the nurturing love of a kind mother," tears began to fall again, and by the time "the prosperous peace and joy of the world" was mentioned, she was sobbing uncontrollably. Wei Shufen silently wondered if, when Yi Niang wrote "the nurturing love of a kind mother," she was not thinking of her legal mother, Consort Zheng, but rather this nurse, HeBa.
Of course, this was assuming... the suicide note was truly written by Yi Niang herself.
"HeBa," Wei Zheng suddenly spoke up from behind the screen, "are you from the HeBa family of Shenwu Jianshan?"
The nurse was taken aback and lowered her gaze before replying, "This lowly one has fallen into servitude, disgracing my ancestors. It is better not to mention my clan."
"There is no need for that," Wei Zheng said. "Times of chaos bring upheaval, and the rise and fall of families are beyond the control of women. In recent dynasties, it has been customary for the wives of high-ranking officials and ministers implicated in rebellion to be confiscated into the palace. The inner court often selects such women from fallen noble families to serve as nurses for princes and princesses, teaching them literature and etiquette—may I ask, Lady HeBa, what was your husband’s surname?"
The nurse remained silent for a long time before answering, "Gu."
Both Chai Yingluo and Wei Zheng let out an "Ah," but Wei Shufen was still in the dark. Unable to help herself, she leaned out from behind the screen, looking to Chai Yingluo for an explanation. The female Taoist pondered for a moment before speaking slowly:
"Gu Yi, a man from Tianzhu, was a staunch and upright minister during the Sui Dynasty, appointed as the deputy governor of Jingzhao Commandery during the Daye era. When the Supreme Emperor raised his righteous banner and led troops to besiege Chang'an, Gu Yi, along with Wei Xuan and Yin Shishi, resisted the Celestial troops with one heart. To demonstrate their resolve, they desecrated the ancestral tombs of our imperial family in Guanzhong and killed many of the Supreme Emperor’s sons and grandsons. After the city fell, the men of these three families were executed by the former Crown Prince Jiancheng on Zhuque Street, while the women and children were confiscated into the palace."
Wei Shufen suddenly understood. This was what her father had just referred to—HeBa, once a noblewoman, well-educated and refined, had been selected as the nurse for the Crown Prince’s daughter after being confiscated into the palace. Yet... yet she bore a blood feud against Yi Niang’s father, who had ordered the execution of her entire family...
This servant woman, clad in coarse hemp, her eyes lined with wrinkles and her hands—bound behind her back—rough and calloused, clearly had endured years of hardship. Eighteen years ago, however, she had likely lived a life of privilege, much like Chai Yingluo and Wei Shufen’s own mothers, waited upon by servants.
In a single night, her world had turned upside down. The men of her husband’s family—father-in-law, husband, and sons—had all lost their heads, while she was reduced to a lowly servant, trampled upon by others. Was such hatred enough for her to bide her time, waiting until the eve of her enemy’s eldest daughter’s wedding, when the girl was brimming with hope, to strangle her with a silk scarf—adding another layer of bloodshed to this Tang Dynasty?
"This lowly one was indeed the daughter-in-law of Gu Yi," HeBa admitted. "Among the men of the Gu family executed by the former Crown Prince at the founding of the Tang Dynasty was my own son. But such is fate. I never sought revenge, much less thought to take it out on poor little Yi Niang—"
"Truly?" Chai Yingluo asked coldly."In the thirteenth year of the Great Cause era of the former Sui Dynasty, it was this servant's grandfather who struck first, slaughtering so many of the Li family's children and women on the city walls and casting their bodies below," the maidservant said fearlessly, meeting the female Daoist's gaze. "When Chang'an fell and the Sui ministers were exterminated, the former Crown Prince retaliated by wiping out the male line of our family. Such is the way of the world—what use is there for mere women to dwell on it? The High Truth Master just mentioned my grandfather's colleague Yin Shishi, whose entire family was also executed. Yet didn't Yin's daughter find favor with the Son of Heaven, bearing him a prince and now standing honored among the Four Consorts? If we speak of revenge, why should we not fear Consort Yin's retaliation?"
Her question left no one able to refute her, not even Wei Shufen, who had heard of the current Son of Heaven's penchant for "collecting noblewomen in distress to save ill-fated beauties." The group could only listen as HeBa murmured to herself:
"When Xi Niang was two or three years old, I came to her side, teaching her how to dress and conduct herself, to read and write, to sew and embroider. After the ninth year of the WuDe Era, there were hardly any servants left in this prison-like courtyard, and I took care of all her daily needs. We relied on each other for survival. This servant only wished to raise the young lady as my own daughter, to see her marry gloriously, bear children, and live a happy life—to end this cycle of vengeance and hatred..."
But fate denied even this modest hope.
Chai Yingluo's expression remained calm, her gaze sharp and clear:
"HeBa, there's no need to profess your intentions further—it's useless. I only ask you this: last night, when you left the Buddha Hall to fetch the pheasant robe and ceremonial crown for Zheng Niangzi in the western courtyard and then returned, did anyone accompany you on that trip?"
Wei Shufen understood the implication of this question—it was to determine whether HeBa had the opportunity to slip away to the eastern wing and murder Yi Niang in secret. But HeBa shook her head:
"The courtyard was already short-handed. Why would two people be needed for such a simple task as fetching clothes? This servant went alone and returned alone. If I encountered anyone along the way, it was too dark to see who it was..."
In other words, she had the opportunity to commit murder.
Wei Shufen silently calculated: Yi Niang had died after nightfall but before the groom entered the courtyard. If it was murder, the killer must have been someone familiar to Yi Niang, someone she would not have guarded against—likely a woman who lived in or frequented the Temple of Common Vocation.
From the perspective of motive, both Zheng Guanyin and this HeBa had reasons to eliminate Yi Niang. But Zheng Guanyin had been in the Buddha Hall the entire time, seemingly without the opportunity to act. HeBa, however, had both motive and opportunity, making her highly suspicious.
Another person with the chance to kill was Consort Yang, Princess of Hailing, who had gone to the eastern wing to don her ceremonial attire. But she seemed to have no reason to harm Yi Niang? Moreover, she had been accompanied the entire time by her maidservant A Luo. If she had acted, it would have required both of them to collaborate and lie—though for a master and servant who relied on each other, this wouldn't be unusual.
If motive were disregarded, many others had the opportunity. After all, the wedding was crowded with people moving about freely in the darkness, where faces were indistinguishable at a distance. Every attendee could be considered a suspect—even herself and Chai Yingluo... or Li Yuangui and Yang Xinzhi. Who knew if they had met Yi Niang before and seized the chance to kill her? Even her own father, Wei Zheng, had been present at the wedding...For the rest of the day, Chai Yingluo, Wei Zheng, and Li Yuangui's attendants questioned the maids and servants who had entered and exited Princess Linfen's bedroom the previous night, as well as her older sisters, but no new discoveries were made. Wei Shufen, hiding behind the portable screen to eavesdrop and peek, gradually grew sore in the back and numb in the legs from standing. Even leaning against the wall, she could barely hold on. Just as she was considering whether to sit on the floor regardless of decorum, she suddenly heard a servant woman enter the hall to report:
"High Truth Master, the secret vessel prepared by the consort's family has arrived outside the gate. Yi Niang is to be moved to the bier. Zheng Niangzi ordered me to inform the High Truth Master."
This meant the coffin prepared for Yi Niang had arrived, and her body was to be moved inside for encoffinement—a major and troublesome affair requiring someone to oversee it. Hearing this, Chai Yingluo stood up, excused herself to Wei Zheng behind the screen, and then turned to gesture toward the portable screen.
Wei Shufen froze for a moment before realizing she was being signaled to sneak out together. This was indeed an opportunity. Lifting the screen cloth, she quietly slipped out. Taking advantage of the large screen blocking her father's view, she held up her skirt, tiptoed, and scurried out of the hall with Chai Yingluo like a pair of mice.
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