The wine was flowing freely, ears were warm with intoxication, and the singing and dancing began anew.
Around Yin Xing, Qi Shen, and Liu Wu, two beautiful maidens each sat attending to them.
Inevitably, their manners grew somewhat unruly, and their speech started wandering into a haze of muddled thoughts.
Yin Xing loosened his outer robe, revealing a pale purple silk undergarment.
He crossed his legs and leaned back into the embrace of a lovely maiden, laughing loudly as he chatted about the latest gossip circulating within Haojing City and the imperial palace.
“Tell you what, this New Year’s has been anything but peaceful.”
“Tsk tsk, thanks to my stepmother, the Empress Dowager, who’s cunning, all news inside the palace has been tightly sealed off. Otherwise, none of us would have a moment’s rest!”
Yin Xing raised his cup with a boastful glance first at Qi Shen, then at Liu Wu.
Qi Shen and Liu Wu eagerly chimed in, “Oh? Something big happened? We really haven’t heard a whisper!”
“Prince, don’t keep us in suspense! Everyone in Haojing knows you're well connected — you’re definitely the best source for news.”
Yin Xing gave an arrogant laugh, lowering his voice mysteriously.
“Ah, when you hear it, it’ll send shivers down your spine — spine-tingling and bone-chilling, you won’t be able to calm down!”
He rattled off a string of dramatic words, his expression growing more secretive and sly.
Liu Wu shivered inexplicably, his face twisting in horror and dread.
Yet he quickly composed himself, stretching his neck to fix Yin Xing with a stiff gaze, looking like a man all ears.
Qi Shen also widened his eyes in eager anticipation.
As a hostage prince sent by the Eastern Qi Marquis to Haojing, while serving as a political pawn, he was also tasked with gathering information — especially palace news.
Though he wasn’t a professional spy, why would he ignore freely delivered intelligence?
“Young lord, you attended the palace banquet on New Year’s Eve, yes?”
Yin Xing pointed at Qi Shen.
Qi Shen hurriedly nodded. “Of course! That scene, that grandeur — truly befitting the great Yinwu Dynasty. The country’s power is booming, blooming like flowers and ablaze like fire. If we humble ministers from a backwater didn’t…”
Yin Xing cut him off impatiently. “The Empress Dowager and the Emperor weren’t even there. Why’re you flattering them?”
“That banquet — it was indeed magnificent and joyous.”
“But you’d never guess, while we were celebrating happily outside, deep inside the cold palace — tsk tsk…”
Yin Xing’s body suddenly trembled.
He blinked rapidly, then tightened his loosened robe with force.
“What’s wrong?” Qi Shen and Liu Wu tensed simultaneously.
“Lucky the Empress Dowager sealed the news tightly, or else — it would’ve been terrifying.”
Yin Xing lowered his voice, his face turning strangely sinister.
“The Retired Emperor — my restless older brother — his Imperial Noble Consort Qi, on New Year’s Eve, along with sixteen personal maids, hanged themselves.”
Qi Shen and Liu Wu both gasped sharply, exchanging quick glances.
Yin Xing muttered, “Consort Qi… I still remember when she first entered the palace. I was in the rear garden with the Retired Emperor, shooting yellow sparrows with a slingshot. She came to bring him snacks — back then, she was barely a young girl, just thirteen, vibrant and tender.”
“Oh, it stirred my heart, palpably tingling — such an unparalleled beauty, exquisitely stunning. No wonder the Retired Emperor favored her so. In three years, she was promoted several ranks, elevated directly to Imperial Noble Consort, with all her needs and expenses equal to the Empress Dowager’s now.”
“Ah, if the Retired Emperor were still alive, maybe Consort Qi would have been my real stepmother.”
“But unfortunately, he’s gone… tsk.”
“The current Empress Dowager’s a jealous, scheming woman. With the Retired Emperor gone and her brother holding military power, poor Consort Qi and all the other favored consorts were cast into the cold palace.”
“This year is the nineteenth year of Jiayou.”
“Nineteen whole years in the cold palace, no sunlight.”
“Ah, how can someone so delicate, like a blooming flower, survive such a fate?”
Yin Xing shook his head forcefully.
“Chances are utterly hopeless. That’s why, this New Year’s Eve, Consort Qi and those sixteen handmaidens in the cold palace… all of them…”
Yin Xing made a noose motion around his neck: “Gone.”
Liu Wu cautiously said, “Dying on New Year’s Eve… that seems somewhat…”
Qi Shen was bolder.
Being the son of a prince, he couldn’t care less about the current Empress Dowager’s power.
He said bluntly, “That’s really unlucky, ominous, right, Prince?”
Yin Xing blinked, then slapped his thigh hard. “Ominous isn’t even the word!”
“I have some connections inside the palace. I heard that Consort Qi and the sixteen maids all wore red headscarves, red wedding gowns, and red embroidered shoes while hanging themselves.”
“Tell me, isn’t that terrifying? Terrifying or not?”
“Seventeen women, all dripping red, hanging neatly in a row on the cold palace’s beams.”
“Wretched were the little eunuchs delivering their meals on New Year’s Eve. When they entered the cold palace hall, they thought the beams were lined with red lanterns.”
“When they finally realized what hung there, several fainted on the spot, some even went mad.”
Yin Xing shuddered twice.
Qi Shen’s mouth twitched nervously, his body hair standing on end.
Liu Wu’s face turned iron blue, cold sweat dripping in beads from his forehead.
His hands trembled violently as he struggled to pick up a piece of fresh fish, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t lift it.
Yin Xing gently exhaled, immersed in a strange mood.
Unaware of Liu Wu’s alarmed expression, he muttered to himself, “The freaky thing is, palace rules say the cold palace must have no color at all. Consort Qi usually wore white clothes and white shoes. Where on earth did all this red wedding clothing come from?”
“I’ve read extensively — all the ghost and fairy tales, all the weird stories on the market I studied since childhood. I know my demons from my goblins.”
“A woman dressed in red dying — a terrible omen.”
“Hanging herself at night — extremely unlucky.”
“Especially dying on New Year’s Eve, when the four seasons turn, the yearly cycle shifts, and the heavenly mechanisms obscure their secrets — the cosmic energies are at their weakest, barely held back — to die then is the worst bad luck of all!”
Yin Xing gently stroked his wine cup and whispered, “I think my stepmother, the Empress Dowager, is about to have some serious bad luck.”
“Tsk, Consort Qi suffered bitterly in the cold palace all these years. The food and provisions she got couldn’t even compare to poor girls outside. Her resentment had to come out somewhere, right?”
“Who’s her greatest enemy?”
“My stepmother, the Empress Dowager, isn’t she?”
“Hey, young lord, and Magistrate Liu, you both really ought to be careful.”
Qi Shen and Liu Wu shivered simultaneously, hurriedly smiling, “Please, Prince, do tell.”
Yin Xing puffed out his chest, undoing his outer robe to reveal a thumb-sized yellow jade pendant hanging from his chest.
The fine yellow jade was carved with clouds and thunder patterns, and in the middle lay a disorderly row of red runes seemingly filled in with cinnabar.
Proudly, Yin Xing pointed at the pendant. “This is a protective talisman I specially commissioned from the ‘Wuyou Pavilion’ outside Haojing City, made by the Daoist Master Wuyou to ward off evil spirits.”
He loosened his belt and lifted his robe, revealing a neat row of six exquisite peach wood charms strapped to his waist.
“And these, I had made at the ‘Six Paths Temple’ in Qingluo Lane — warrior plaques made by the Six Paths Generals — specially crafted to slay demons and evil, to keep all malevolence far away.”
After fastening his belt, Yin Xing searched inside his left sleeve and pulled out a white porcelain bottle about the size of a fist.
He gave it a shake; the bottle inside swished with the sound of water.
“This one’s something special. According to ancient texts, black dog’s blood mixed with child’s urine is excellent for breaking curses. This bottle contains that precise mix. It’s winter now, so I keep it close to prevent freezing!”
“Heh, if any evil dares come for me… I’ll first try to make friends. After all, the Empress Dowager is the lady of the palace…”
“But if that fails, heh, I’ll just splash this black dog’s blood and urine all over her face!”
Qi Shen wiped the cold sweat trickling down his forehead.
“Prince, surely you don’t mean it. Ha ha! Tales of ghosts and goblins abound across the land, but who’s ever actually seen one? Has anyone, really?”
Qi Shen raised his cup and drank deeply.
Encouraged by drink, he stood and laughed loudly, “Prince, palace affairs might be a bit strange, sure. But really, genuine ghosts and demons? No way.”
“Who in this whole world has ever seen a ghost? Eh? Anyone?”
Shaking his head, Qi Shen laughed, “No one. No one!”
Liu Wu’s face had drained from iron blue to deathly white.
He longed to raise his hand, to tell Yin Xing and Qi Shen that he had indeed seen one, but such things were not easily spoken of.
Then, his face paled further, nearing transparent death-white.
Thin wisps of mist began to rise in the rear courtyard of the Qifang Garden.
Over a hundred old plum trees were quickly shrouded in white fog.
Like the flood tides, the mist slowly swallowed the stone hill where the flower hall stood.
A faint, mournful, cold female voice whispered hauntingly through the fog: “Young master, shall we play a match?”
Yin Xing and Qi Shen’s bodies stiffened instantly.
Their teeth chattered uncontrollably, faces twisted, eyes bulging as they stared at the sudden apparition emerging from the mist outside the flower hall.
“Young manor lord, shall we play a match?”
A blurry female figure floated hesitantly, hovering three inches above the ground, drifting slowly and steadily into the flower hall.
The woman wore a red dress, red shoes on her feet.
She drifted languidly towards the frozen-stiff Liu Wu.
Drops of round, glistening blood fell continuously from the woman’s body, splashing against her embroidered shoes and hitting the ground with a faint “ting ting” sound.
The droplets bounced and then turned into blood-colored frost crystals, rapidly spreading outward.
(The End of This Chapter)