Chapter 82 — A Dead Man of the Royal House

CHAPTER 82

A Dead Man of the Royal House

Cao Wenshu's identifying jade reached the palace before his body did.

An hour after Sima Yu's private searchers slipped away from the ridge, a mountain patrol had found the ruined signal fort after noticing fresh stone scattered across the lower path. The officer recognised the official royal service jade at the corpse's waist and sent a runner down at once. By evening the jade lay on a tray outside the council chamber, still carrying the dead servant's name.

Sima Yu heard about it while choosing which robe to wear to court.

He dismissed the attendant and stared at the empty doorway. Guo Zhen could be missing on an errand. Cao Wenshu had served the royal house for forty years. His death required an answer that a household clerk couldn't bury.

The next morning, Sima Yu found the jade beside the King's hand.

The King asked why Cao Wenshu had been outside the capital.

The assembled officials lowered their eyes. They had come expecting a dispute about grain carts. Nobody reached for the grain report now.

Sima Yu bowed.

“He accepted a private commission,” Sima Yu said. “I heard he intended to inspect the mountain roads.”

The King turned the jade over. A narrow paper lay beneath it, copied from the royal service book.

The King pointed out that the eastern residence had requested Cao Wenshu's release from duty. The commission money came from Sima Yu's private account. He wanted to know what the prince had sent the servant to inspect.

Sima Yu's expression stayed respectful. Inwardly his thoughts moved quickly. The service office had copied the payment before giving him a chance to explain it. Someone had decided this was worth the King's attention.

“The hunting roads have become unsafe,” Sima Yu said. “Guo Zhen vanished there. I wanted a trustworthy man to inquire.”

The King observed that this trustworthy man had been sent alone, without notice to the patrol office. Now he was dead and the office that could have supported him knew nothing.

Sima Yu lowered his head farther.

“The omission was mine,” Sima Yu said.

He could admit carelessness. He couldn't tell the chamber that a medicine peddler had killed two men sent to murder him. He still had no witness to Cao Wenshu's last fight and no explanation that would survive those words being spoken aloud.

The King watched him for several breaths.

The King removed the eastern residence's authority over auxiliary road appointments and returned it to the patrol office. He also ordered Sima Yu's household to pay the burial grant owed to Cao Wenshu's family.

A clerk began writing.

Sima Yu felt the attention of every official who pretended to study the floor. The authority had been small compared with succession to the throne. It had still put several useful posts in his hands. Those men would answer to another office by tomorrow.

“Your son accepts the correction,” Sima Yu said.

The King ordered an inquiry into the royal servant's death. Another unexplained private errand would not be accepted as an accident.

Nobody accused Sima Yu of murder in that chamber. Nobody had proof of the order he had given. That absence didn't make the censure less public. The clerk read the removal aloud, and three officials stepped forward to acknowledge their new duties.

Sima Yu stayed in place until dismissed.

Outside, the corridor seemed much longer than usual. A junior official who normally hurried over to greet him stopped to inspect a pillar. Sima Yu passed without looking at the man. Kindness was easy when people wanted something. He remembered its absence just as clearly.

Ling Qingzhu learned the news that afternoon from Ling Zhen.

Her uncle came to Qingliu Lane without a carriage, carrying a small household packet. Ling Qingzhu tied her white veil before opening the gate. Shi Feng was at the furnace yard, finishing a short booking.

“Your name isn't in the order,” Ling Zhen said after they sat. “Neither is his. I checked.”

“Then why tell me?” Ling Qingzhu asked.

“Because Cao Wenshu died in Hengyun,” Ling Zhen said. “Because Guo Zhen is still missing. And because the prince has just lost authority he enjoyed using.”

Ling Qingzhu looked toward Shi Feng's empty stool.

She remembered the marks on his throat. He had called the mountain trip troublesome. She had tied the bandage and disliked how little he said about the wound. Now an old royal servant was dead near the road he used.

“The patrol found him?” Ling Qingzhu asked.

“At a broken signal fort,” Ling Zhen said. “That's all the report gives us.”

She asked nothing about Cao Wenshu's realm. She knew enough of the palace to understand what his presence meant. But the man she had bandaged was supposed to have ruined cultivation. Those two facts would not fit together just because she stared at them.

Ling Zhen set the household packet on the table.

“The Wei matter stays with the city office,” Ling Zhen said. “No retainer has the right to take your husband out of this courtyard. If anyone tries, send for me.”

Ling Qingzhu nodded. The condition Shi Feng had insisted on now seemed less like one more demand and more like a sensible boundary.

After Ling Zhen left, she sat beside the cooling kettle. The gate remained shut. She removed her veil, folded it carefully and found that she had no interest in the book beside her chair.

When Shi Feng came home, she looked first at his side.

“Does it still hurt?” Ling Qingzhu asked.

“A little when I turn too quickly,” Shi Feng said.

“Then stop turning quickly,” Ling Qingzhu said.

He set down his bag. She had warmed water and laid out fresh binding cloth. He saw both before she could pretend they had been left there by chance.

Shi Feng sat and let her check the bandage. Her fingers were careful where they had once been impatient. He wanted to touch her hand and didn't.

“Cao Wenshu is dead,” Ling Qingzhu said.

“I heard,” Shi Feng said.

She waited. He offered nothing more. After a moment she smoothed the new cloth and tied the end where it wouldn't press when he lay down.

Across the capital, Sima Yu received the same report for the third time. The fort was broken. Cao Wenshu was dead. A root gatherer matching Shi Feng's description had passed the lower gate that evening.

It wasn't proof. Sima Yu no longer needed proof to know where his suspicion belonged.