Cherry Blossoms Upon a Wintry Sword

Chapter 59: The Princess’s Affair

Since he was to be bait, then naturally, he should be in a place where it was easy to lure that thing out.

That night, on Xuan Qing and Bai Tianrui’s side, they greeted each other and welcomed Lin Rufei into the palace. Fu Hua and Yu Rui didn’t know what was actually happening so they naturally were a little worried. In the end, Lin Rufei had to reassure them for a quite while before they reluctantly agreed. After riding into the palace in a carriage, Lin Rufei was finally able to witness the palace during the night. The scenery looked a little different compared to the daytime. Under the vermillion eaves, there were big red palace lamps hanging everywhere. There were also palace maids or guards walking slowly in rows along the roadside but it was not as silent as Lin Rufei had imagined.

Since there was a target of suspicion in mind and Lin Rufei was the bait, naturally, the place he was staying in, the closer it was to the target object the better. With this thought in mind, the room where Lin Rufei rested was then arranged next to the third princess. Lin Rufei, who was staying in the room, asked if Bai Jinglun knew of this matter however, Xuan Qing shook his head and denied it.

“Well, I can’t say that he doesn’t know. ” Xuan Qing explained with a smile, “After all, it was someone from the outside entering the palace. The emperor must have been aware, but I didn’t tell him in detail. I just told him that the palace may have some clues at night so we need to stay for a night to search for something.”

Lin Rufei pondered over this and agreed with his words. Bai Jinglun loved the third princess very much, if he knew that Xuan Qing suspected her and the eldest prince, his heart would definitely be very unhappy. Xuan Qing was very smart and he was able to directly avoided this critical issue.

The Summer sky took a while to darken. After the sun finally set, the sky transformed into a pale azure, and when one looked at it from a distance, one could see the brilliant fire clouds drifting in the sky.

Xuan Qing and Lin Rufei were sitting in the room with two cups of warm tea in front of them. Lin Rufei asked, “Master Xuan Qing, why don’t you go and rest first? It’s still early in the day, so I’m afraid that thing won’t come over.”

Xuan Qing responded, “Wouldn’t it be a bit boring for Lin gongzi to sit alone in the room?”

Lin Rufei pondered, “Bored?” He was a little surprised that Xuan Qing’s mind was so meticulous. He then smiled, “No, I’ve always liked peace and quiet since I was young, I’ve long been used to being alone, Master Xuan Qing needn’t worry.”

On the Kunlun Mountains, instead of the noisiness at the foot of the mountain, he had always preferred to stay alone on the snowy mountain top. Wrapped in a thick winter coat while burning a pot of charcoal and holding two or three volumes of books in his hand, unknowingly, another day would pass. Occasionally, he would feel lonely but as the days passed by, he also got used to it. Sadly, his brothers and sister couldn’t stand to see him in this way and would often pull him down from the mountain.

Xuan Qing muttered an Amitabha Buddha. After speaking a few more words with Lin Rufei, he then got up and left the room, leaving Lin Rufei alone inside.

After going out, Xuan Qing didn’t even take a few steps before he entered changed course and entered the room next to Lin Rufei. Once inside, he saw Bai Tianrui sitting lazily on a chair with a pot of wine in front of him, drinking it in a bored manner. When Bai Tianrui noticed that Xuan Qing came back, he didn’t even bother raising his head: “You’re comfortable leaving the Lin family’s youngest son alone in the room?”

Xuan Qing laughed: “What’s there to worry about?”

“If I’m not mistaken, that little gongzi doesn’t have a trace of sword Qi on his body, right?” Bai Tianrui narrowed his eyes, “If such a cute little porcelain thing is accidentally broken, will you not be heartbroken?”

Xuan Qing questioned, “Porcelain?”

Bai Tianrui raised his eyes to look at Xuan Qing, using his eyes to ask what was wrong with his statement.

“The Prince said that Lin gongzi is porcelain?” Xuan Qing smiled and said, “Blame this monk’s clumsy eyes. In all these years of living, this monk has never seen such hard porcelain.”

Bai Tianrui naturally understood the hidden meaning behind Xuan Qing’s words. He put down the wine cup in his hand and said in a deep voice, “What is the origin of this Lin gongzi?”

Xuan Qing did not answer. He said another Amitabha Buddha and sat down opposite Bai Tianrui, closing his eyes and began reciting scriptures.

This look of Xuan Qing’s made Bai Tianrui angry to the point of laughter and he tapped his fingers on the table impatiently: “Monk, you and I have been friends for so many years, why is your heart moving towards the little gongzi you’ve met for only a few days?”

Xuan Qing didn’t even bother, completely treating him as air. 

Bai Tianrui deliberately sighed and placed his head in front of Xuan Qing. The tip of his nose almost touched the table as he said: “Monk, you’re still going to ignore me?” 

Xuan Qing opened his eyes halfway. He calmly said only one sentence and this reckless and wanton Prince with a level eight cultivation immediately shut his mouth: “To be honest, this monk and Lin gongzi’s origin has to be said from a hundred years ago.”

These words were something that Bai Tianrui should not have believed, but the monk could not lie, so every word he said was naturally true.

Lin gongzi looked only around his twenties, how could he and the monk have a hundred years old relationship? Bai Tianrui couldn’t understand but his interest in Lin Rufei grew even stronger.

Lin Rufei sat alone in the room waiting for night to come. The tea in front of him was almost finished so he called the palace attendant outside the room to change to a new pot of tea and also asked what time it was.

The palace staff replied submissively, saying that the 21st hour had just passed.

“Oh, it’s already the 21st hour.” Lin Rufei was a little curious, “Will the guards outside stand guard all night?”

“Yes.” The palace attendant replied in a low voice, “But around the 23rd hour of the night, there will be a rotation of guards on night duty, does gongzi need anything else?”

“No, you can leave.” Lin Rufei waved his hand.

After nightfall, the sky finally darkened and finally, it wasn’t as hot as before but it also wasn’t too cool either. After all, the sun had baked the Earth all day, and the remaining heat rose up making people feel a bit stuffy. Lin Rufei simply washed up and headed off to bed. He squinted his eyes and took a nap. The fire on the candelabra placed by the window was flickering with the wind until a strong gust suddenly started and blew the fire out.

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This was also convenient for Lin Rufei since he no longer needed to get out of bed to turn out the light. Lin Rufei opened his eyes and stared at the room plunged into darkness before him. Along with the darkness, there was silence, but this silence was not absolute and the sound of the windows being gently shaken by the wind could be heard. It was unknown if it was Lin Rufei’s imagination, but he vaguely seemed to catch a subtle magical rattling, as if someone had gently torn something from something else. This rattling was not crisp and it carried some sticky and unpleasant feeling. But if he was to listen to it carefully, he would find that this was actually just his own imagination. In his ears, he could only hear the whistling wind and the swinging wooden windows.

Lin Rufei always felt that this feeling was somewhat familiar. After carefully thinking over it for a moment, he finally remembered when he had such a feeling—on the day when he saw the paintings by the Third Princess Moumou when she was young. It was then that he once had such a strange sense of incongruity.

If he had to describe this feeling, it would be like a wet, cool, icy object that was attached to the position near the chest and that object was making strange sounds, making people’s hair stand up involuntarily.

The moment Lin Rufei had this feeling, he rolled over and sat up from the bed. He carefully observed the window and the room, trying to find the source of the sound. But it was very difficult to find the source of the intermittent and subtle rattling. Lin Rufei thought for a moment, got up, and walked to the window. He closed the window with a creak, completely isolating the wind outside.

The room was now completely quiet and that strange sound became much more obvious. However, when Lin Rufei realized where the sound was coming from, his movements froze.

It seemed that Xuan Qing was right. To that thing, he was indeed special. It had only been one night in the palace and that thing already came looking for him.

Lin Rufei took a deep breath and slowly lifted his head to look at the beam above his head. And at this time, the room was currently dim so he couldn’t see anything clearly. The same went for the beam. However, Lin Rufei quickly perceived the peculiarness above the beam……it was too dark. Unlike the ordinary darkness, on the top of the beam, it was as if two black holes were suddenly opened, absorbing all the surrounding light. The two holes consisted of one large and one small and it vaguely presented the appearance of a human figure. It was just lying on top, silently gazing at Lin Rufei who was under the beam.

When Lin Rufei looked towards them, it was a horrible feeling that he was staring right at that thing. When Lin Rufei realized this scene, he wanted to call out to Xuan Qing next door, but as soon as his words spilled out of his throat, the thing turned into a huge net and covered Lin Rufei’s body with a fierce momentum. Lin Rufei’s sight was deprived in an instant. He wanted to shout but something harshly blocked his mouth. His whole person staggered a few steps back as he directly fell onto the soft bed next to him.

“Heavenly Ruler.” It was the same as that night and it had the exact same voice as Gu Xuandu. The fierce thing murmured lowly, as if it was casting a curse on him. One after another, it made chills appear on Lin Rufei’s body, “Heavenly Ruler……Heavenly Ruler……”

Lin Rufei pushed back in pain. Just as he was about to suffocate, the thing pried open his mouth hard and stuck something into his mouth.

“Heavenly Ruler……” The fierce thing seemed to only know these words as it kept repeating it over and over again, but with different emotions.

Lin Rufei finally realized what this thing wanted to do. He actually wanted to follow along his mouth and desperately squeeze into his body. His mouth was stretched to the maximum, not to mention crying for help, even a whimpering sound could not be issued. He could only muffle a few grunts. If this thing really came in, it was estimated that his fate would be similar to the unconscious third princess next door to him. At such a dangerous moment, Lin Rufei forced himself to calm down. He took a deep breath, no longer trying to break free from the control of the fierce creature, and touched the dimensional ring on his thumb. With difficulty, he took out the long-prepared things from the dimensional ring. 

It was a paper crane and when Lin Rufei released it from the ring, it let out a sharp cry. The black shadow pressed against Lin Rufei shook violently as if it was frightened. Lin Rufei was happy to see this, thinking that it was afraid, but who knew that the black shadow would call out “Heavenly Ruler” again, but this one had some resentment and anger in it as if it did not understand why Lin Rufei would do such a thing.

Lin Rufei stared with wide eyes. Unbelievably, the tone of the murderous creature sounded aggrieved. This thing was aggrieved? I am almost choked to death by it…… The black shadow had started to enter Lin Rufei’s throat. He stared helplessly as it was about to continue sliding downwards when suddenly, Xuan Qing, who had no movement next door, finally came in late. And together with him, was a sleepy-eyed Bai Tianrui. 

When the two entered the room and saw the scene in front of them, they both sucked in a breath of cold air. They could see Lin Rufei lying limply and helplessly on the bed with a black unidentified object attached to the top of his body. It suppressed Lin Rufei’s struggle and was trying to shove something desperately into his mouth.

Bai Tianrui reacted quickly. He pulled out the sword blade on the side of his waist and swung at the object. When the snow-white sword Qi made contact with the black shadow, it was as if a stone had sank into the sea, there was not the slightest reaction. Seeing Lin Rufei’s breath getting weaker and weaker, Xuan Qing took a few steps towards the table. He picked up the fire torch on the table and blew out a big breath. The bright firelight soon illuminated the whole room. 

Once the black shadow was illuminated by the firelight, its body flickered a few times, and then it fled from the window. When Bai Tianrui saw this situation, he directly went after it. Xuan Qing, however, did not rush. Instead, he went to the bedside and checked on Lin Rufei’s status first.

Lin Rufei slowly recovered from the suffocation. He was leaning against the edge of the bed and hacking violently. Because of the black shadow’s action just now, the corner of his lips was cracked from the stretch and several strands of bright red blood drops were slowly dripping down his chin. Xuan Qing took out a silk handkerchief and gently helped Lin Rufei wipe away the bloodstains on his lips and asked worriedly, “Lin gongzi, are you okay?”

Lin Rufei shook his head: “Nothing serious. Is Master Xuan Qing not going to follow? That thing doesn’t seem to be too afraid of sword Qi.”

“No need.” Xuan Qing said slowly, “I know what that thing is.”

Lin Rufei was curious, “What is it?”

But Xuan Qing did not answer. He just silently looked at Lin Rufei with compassionate eyes containing a pity that Lin Rufei could not understand.

Lin Rufei didn’t understand. He frowned and asked, “What does Master Xuan Qing mean by this?”

“Nothing, I just think that Lin gongzi has suffered.” Xuan Qing responded.

Lin Rufei pressed his finger onto the wound at the corner of his mouth. He hissed and waved his hand indifferently, “It’s just a small wound, it’s not a problem.”

“There’s always someone who will be distressed when they look at it.” Xuan Qing got up, “Can Lin gongzi stand up? On Bai Tianrui’s side, there should be results as well.”

Lin Rufei naturally had no problem. Apart from a small injury on the corner of his mouth, that thing did not make any other moves to hurt him. Instead, he was more frightened and shocked. However, he wasn’t too timid. After recuperating for a while, he followed Xuan Qing out of the room. But he didn’t expect Bai Tianrui, who should have been chasing the shadow, to be standing at their door. His expression was livid and ugly. 

“Why is the Prince here?” Lin Rufei wondered, “Did you lose it?”

Bai Tianrui shook his head and looked at Xuan Qing, “Did you already know about it?”

Xuan Qing folded his hands and said Amitabha Buddha.

“Stinky monk.” Bai Tianrui spat toward the ground. He pointed at Xuan Qing and cursed, “You really f**king knew about it a long time ago.” As he said this, he pointed at Lin Rufei, “Aren’t you afraid that thing will really make a move on Lin Rufei?”

Xuan Qing replied flatly, “This monk knows his own sense of propriety.”

“Okay, propriety.” Bai Tianrui said, “You have said all the good words and bad words, I would like to see how you explain to my brother later.” After finishing these words, he let out a cold snort. 

Xuan Qing made a gesture of please.

Bai Tianrui turned around and headed straight into the room next to where the third princess was. Lin Rufei did not understand what the problem he and Xuan Qing were having and it wasn’t until he went in and sat down to wait for Bai Jinglun that he learned from Bai Tianrui exactly what had just happened.

Bai Tianrui didn’t lose the shadow. He had chased after it from the window and followed the black shadow around the palace. Who knew that in the end, it would lead him to the place where the third princess was residing. Bai Tianrui originally thought that the black shadow was going to harm the princess so he rushed into the room. But who knew that once he was inside, he saw the black shadow slowly attach itself to the body of the princess and fuse with the princess. Furthermore, the princess still had a rosy complexion as if she did not hear. So far, even if Bai Tianrui was stupid, he should have also understood by now.

And looking at Xuan Qing’s not-the-slightest-bit-surprised expression, it seemed that he had expected everything. The reason Bai Tianrui was so angry was obviously because he thought that Xuan Qing had set him up.

Lin Rufei smiled. He looked at the third princess, who was still unconscious on the bed, and sighed: “So what the Prince means is that this was all the Third Princess’s doing?”

Bai Tianrui said, “Even if she didn’t do it, she must have had something to do with it.” He continued in a cold voice, “The girl has grown up and has her own ideas, and I, as an uncle, can’t control it.” The implication was that he no longer intended to help the third princess cover up, but even if he wanted to cover up, he probably could not help her cover up… 

Lin Rufei looked at Xuan Qing again and saw that he still looked the same, seemingly indifferent to Prince Bai Tianrui’s angry accusations. He was about to ask Xuan Qing something else but footsteps soon sounded outside the door. He saw Bai Jinglun, who had hurriedly arrived, pushing the door open and saying, “What happened?” He was still wearing his pajamas only with a jacket layered on top. It could be seen that he was very concerned about this matter and came in a hurry.

Bai Tianrui ignored Bai Jinglun’s questioning gaze and refused to speak with a grimace. Finally, Xuan Qing sighed lightly and took a step forward. He spoke softly and retold what had happened tonight.  The more Bai Jinglun listened, the more ugly his expression became. However, he still did not say anything. But with this look on his face, it was clear that he was already furious to the extreme.

“So you mean, that thing was made by Moumou?” Bai Jinglun said coldly.

“Yes.” Xuan Qing responded.

“Then why doesn’t she wake up?!” Bai Jinglun said angrily, “And you actually didn’t find out anything different from her in the beginning!”

“Your Holiness, don’t be angry.” Xuan Qing said, “The reason we couldn’t find out was because this thing was a bit special.”

Bai Jinglun questioned, “How is it special?”

Xuan Qing walked to Bai Jinglun’s side and came up to his ear to whisper a few words. Bai Jinglun narrowed his eyes slightly, turned his head, and ordered his subordinates to bring some nannies[1] from the palace over.

Bai Tianrui laughed eerily next to him, “Yo, Master Xuan Qing finally came up with a method?”

Xuan Qing did not seemed to mind and smiled lightly at Bai Tianrui.

A few moments later, a few nannies came in from outside. Bai Jinglun pointed his finger and said, “You go and pull the princess up from the bed.”

Several nannies looked at each other, not knowing what the emperor meant by suddenly ordering this. However, they still obeyed the order and went to the princess’ soft bed. They carefully pulled the princess, who had been sleeping, up from the bed. The princess leaned softly in the nannies’ arms, unable to stand at all without the support. But at the emperor’s command, several nannies still grabbed the princess’ body from different directions and forced her body to stand up.

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The room was brightly lit by fire and the princess hung her head. She was lifted by several people like a powerless puppet.

At first, Lin Rufei did not understand why Xuan Qing wanted to do this and only after he carefully observed for a moment, did he suddenly notice the incongruity. It was this little sense of incongruity that made people’s hairs stand up involuntarily.

He only saw that behind the princess, who was forced to stand up, a dark shadow left by the candlelight. Only, this shadow was not at all in the appearance of the princess but rather, it was like a cloud of ink stains on paper without any patterns reflected on the ground.

Although the nannies did not understand, the few people present saw it clearly. The black shadow behind the princess did not belong to her at all.

Bai Jinglun’s face was livid and he waved his hand to indicate that the idle people should leave. Only when everyone had gone out did he turn to Xuan Qing and ask, “What is going on?”

Xuan Qing replied, “The princess’s shadow was swallowed by something.”

“Swallowed?” Bai Jinglun said, “Speak more carefully.”

Xuan Qing said slowly, “The princess suddenly fell into a coma, but her three souls and seven spirits are all there. She was also not suffering from a strange poison, which made it very strange. I didn’t think of this at first, but after the attack on Lin gongzi, I suddenly remembered something.”

“What is it?” Lin Rufei asked.

Xuan Qing said, “When I was in the Nanyin Temple, I saw a book in which a strange method was described. It was a method used to control a person’s shadow so that they could control that person, just like a puppet with strings lifted. After I read the book, I thought that this method was impractical. After all, the shadow was not a soul, how could it control people? So I went to my senior disciple brother to ask, but who knew that my senior disciple brother would say this……for people, the shadow was equally important. Everyone was born with this thing and it was the same as the organs, hands, and feet. Once missing, it would be a big deal.” As he said this, he sighed, “But my senior disciple brother also said, in this world, those that could control the shadow are very few in numbers. It was almost impossible to pick one from a million so to not worry too much about it.”  

The princess suddenly had an accident and fell into a coma. And she had been lying in bed for the past few days, of course no one would notice any difference in her shadow.

“So who is controlling her shadow?” Bai Jinglun understood and it was quite noticeable that his tone was suppressed with anger. He obviously didn’t quite want to believe that the matter was voluntary for the third princess and felt that she was victimized by someone, “Moumou was well behaved since she was young, she didn’t come into contact with any messy people. You also said that there are very few people who can control the shadow, how could she be one of them?”

Xuan Qing sighed: “I hope so too, I’m just afraid……”

Bai Jinglun’s hand waved to stop the words Xuan Qing was going to say, “No need to be afraid, you just need to find the truth.”

Xuan Qing nodded his head.

Now they had finally found the source of the matter. Although they had not yet understood the exact cause, as long as they followed the clues, everything would soon be over. Bai Jinglun originally wanted Xuan Qing to investigate and handle the matter overnight, but Xuan Qing found an excuse that he could not continue tonight and that the rest of the matter would have to wait until tomorrow night.

When Bai Jinglun took Xuan Qing’s firm attitude, he could only give up.

The atmosphere in the room wasn’t too good just as several people broke up. Bai Tianrui, from the beginning to the end, did not say anything. Looking at his expression, he wasn’t going to participate and just wanted to watch the show. Xuan Qing sighed more today than he had in a month, but there was nothing he could do but coax Bai Jinglun, giving him some time to calm down.

Lin Rufei was rubbing the corner of his mouth, thinking about how to explain the strange wound to his maids.

After Bai Jinglun left, Bai Tianrui also got up and left, and Xuan Qing sent Lin Rufei back to the room. Lin Rufei said: “Can Master Xuan Qing still fall asleep?” 

Xuan Qing shook his head. After such a long night, it was almost dawn, how could he still sleep?

“Since you can’t sleep, why don’t you stay with me and chat?” Lin Rufei proposed.

Xuan Qing said, “That’s fine.” He didn’t feel comfortable leaving Lin Rufei alone in the room before this matter was finished. It wouldn’t be good if that thing came back again.

Lin Rufei said, “Since that thing has found me, the thing Master Xuan Qing promised me……”

Then it dawned upon Xuan Qing and he laughed: “So you were still waiting for me here. My origin with the Bai family, I will have to start ten years ago, when I happened to be passing through Dajing……” He had a light smile on his face as he fell into his memory.

********

The author has something to say:

Gu Xuandu: How dare someone tear the corner of my Xiao Jiu’s mouth! !

Lin Rufei expressionlessly: Who tore it? 

Gu Xuandu: …………

Lin Rufei: Acting mute?

Gu Xuandu: _(：з」∠)_

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[1] So the word here is 嬷嬷 which can refer to granny, mothers, wet nurses, elderly maids etc. None of the words really fit with the palace theme, so I stuck with nannies. But I just wanted to let you guys know that these are elderly nannies and not young ones 0.0