Chapter 28: Partridge Sky (Part 3)
Ni Su’s words, “I’ll learn myself,” were laced with unspoken frustration.
True to her word, the next morning, she was in the kitchen, attempting to cook breakfast. She had never done any cooking at home and struggled with the stove, unsure of the correct proportions of rice and water.
Smoke filled the kitchen, making her cough and her eyes water. She felt a hand gently tug at her sleeve, and she followed him out of the kitchen.
“Why did you come out?” Ni Su asked, still coughing. “If your form fades any further, it’ll start snowing again.”
“I thought there was a fire,” Xu He Xue said, releasing her sleeve.
Ni Su had lit many candles in his room and forbidden him from leaving since last night.
Embarrassed, she rubbed her red, irritated eyes and sat down on the steps of the porch, hugging her knees. After a while, she said, “Why is cooking so difficult?”
Her dejection was evident in her downcast eyes.
“You’ve always known it was difficult,” Xu He Xue said, standing behind her.
He wasn’t referring to cooking. He understood the true meaning behind her words. Ni Su turned and looked up at him. “Before she died, my mother said this path would be arduous and asked if I was afraid. I told her I wasn’t.”
She turned back, her neck aching from looking up. “But in truth, I was scared.”
Yun Jing wasn’t Que County, and the world was much larger than her small hometown. At home, although her father hadn’t allowed her to study medicine, he had been kind to her. After his death, she had been protected by her mother and brother. But now, alone in Yun Jing, she realized that her defiance and arguments with her father had been childish acts of rebellion, tolerated by her loving family.
Now, with her family gone, the harsh realities of Yun Jing were far more daunting than she had imagined.
“You’re doing well. But as long as you’re in Yun Jing, your brother’s killer will be restless,” Xu He Xue said, sitting down beside her, smoothing the wrinkles on his sleeves.
“Is it really my brother’s killer who’s framing me?” Ni Su asked, having skipped breakfast in her frustration. She took a bite of a radish from a nearby basket. “I feel like the person who switched my brother’s paper and the person framing me now are different.”
Chuan Wu, usually used to induce miscarriage, had been mixed with a pregnancy tonic. This couldn’t be explained as a simple mistake. A-Zhou’s accusation was flawed from the start.
That’s why Tian Qi Zhong hadn’t reached a conclusion.
This clumsy method was a stark contrast to the meticulous planning of the winter examination scheme.
“Perhaps they’re not the same person, but they’re both involved,” Xu He Xue said, coughing slightly. “The person framing you could have easily poisoned A-Zhou’s food, but they didn’t. They’re watching you, and they know you’re under the Yin Ye Si’s protection. If you died of poisoning, the winter examination case would escalate. Minister Meng and Chief Censor Jiang have already linked the case to the obstruction of the new policies. The Emperor, having decreed the implementation of the new policies, wouldn’t let it go.”
“They used legal means to have you imprisoned at the Guangning Prefecture Yamen and planted Chuan Wu as evidence. I suspect their next step is to use your previous ‘absurd claims’ and ‘disrespect for the court’ to discredit you, portraying you as unreliable and mentally unstable. They might even find scapegoats to testify that you hired someone to kill your brother. Once you’re convicted and executed, the truth about your brother’s death will be buried with you.”
Even though Ni Su hadn’t been in Yun Jing when Ni Qinglan died, they could still frame her.
“If the constables had found Chuan Wu in my house yesterday,” Ni Su said, taking another bite of the radish, “the Yin Ye Si wouldn’t have taken me.”
Although the Guangning Prefecture Yamen was willing to hand over cases to the Yin Ye Si, they wouldn’t relinquish every case. They needed to demonstrate their own competence to the Emperor.
They only handed over complex or sensitive cases, not straightforward ones.
The raw radish was surprisingly sweet. Ni Su looked up, meeting Xu He Xue’s gaze. “Do you want some?”
Sunlight warmed Xu He Xue’s lap as he watched her eat the radish. It seemed to be her first time eating it raw, her expression filled with curiosity.
He shook his head and took a small porcelain jar from his sleeve, offering it to her.
The label read “Perfect Jade Ointment.” Ni Su recognized it as the scar-reducing ointment Cai Chun Xu had mentioned. She stopped eating the radish and looked at the ointment, then at him.
Sunlight gilded his profile. She took the ointment. “Did you buy this yesterday?”
He was supposed to stay by her side, but he had risked himself to remove the planted Chuan Wu and even bought the ointment.
“Ni Su, I used your money again,” Xu He Xue said, withdrawing his hand. “Remember the crooked tree I told you about? I remember where it is now.”
The breeze rustled the leaves in the courtyard. He looked at the swaying shadows on the ground. “The money I buried there when I was young… it’s yours now.”
Ni Su was speechless.
The warmth of her palm had warmed the porcelain jar. She held the half-eaten radish in her other hand, her gaze fixed on his shadow on the ground.
“That was your secret stash of money, hidden from your shrewish wife. I can’t possibly take it,” she finally said.
Hearing her mention the “shrewish wife,” Xu He Xue knew she was teasing him. He looked at her, seeing a smile replace the sadness in her eyes.
His eyelashes fluttered. “Ni Su, stop smiling.”
“Is there really no such person?” she asked, taking a bite of the radish.
No what?
Confusion flickered in Xu He Xue’s eyes, then understanding. He shook his head. “I left Yun Jing before I was old enough to marry.”
And after joining the army, he hadn’t given it any thought.
Ni Su was about to speak when she heard someone call from the front of the shop. She stood up, placed the uneaten radish back in the basket, and said to Xu He Xue, “Go back and rest. If you need more candles, call for me.”
He couldn’t stray too far from her, but the distance within the courtyard wasn’t a problem.
“Alright,” Xu He Xue said, standing up with his hand on a pillar.
He watched as she ran to the front of the shop, then slowly returned to his room. He stood before the screen for a moment, then his gaze shifted to the desk.
Several books were piled there.
He walked over and began to search through them.
Ni Su found Chao Yi Song at the front of the shop. “Master Chao, what brings you here?”
“Please, don’t call me ‘Master’,” Chao Yi Song said, rubbing his tired eyes and sitting down. “Miss Ni, Commander Zhou is busy, so he sent me to inform you that A-Zhou’s accusation has been proven false.”
“A-Zhou’s mother didn’t die from your medicine. A-Zhou asked you for a pregnancy tonic, but his mother wanted to induce a miscarriage.”
“A-Zhou’s family is poor. His father was recently injured and bedridden. His mother felt they couldn’t afford another child and discussed a miscarriage with her husband. A-Zhou didn’t know about this.”
“His mother didn’t take the tonic he prepared and didn’t tell him about the miscarriage, likely fearing he would object. She consulted a medicine woman herself.”
“So, the medicine woman gave her the wrong dosage?” Ni Su asked.
“Yes, and deliberately so,” Chao Yi Song continued. “A-Zhou’s mother took the medicine the night before last. She didn’t miscarry, but she died. A-Zhou was about to confront the medicine woman when he met someone who offered him money to accuse you of his mother’s death, enough money to hire a renowned physician for his father.”
“Did you find this person?” Ni Su asked intently.
“No,” Chao Yi Song said, his eyes bloodshot from interrogating A-Zhou and searching for the mysterious figure all night. “He was disguised, and the medicine woman is also missing.”
“He gave A-Zhou a packet of herbs and instructed him to mix it with his mother’s Chuan Wu dregs and claim it was your prescription. But in his grief, A-Zhou simply combined the Chuan Wu dregs with the dregs from your prescription.”
Chao Yi Song was puzzled. “But why didn’t the culprit plant Chuan Wu in your house or steal your medical records?”
Ni Su couldn’t tell him about Xu Zi Ling’s help.
Xu Zi Ling must have rewritten her records, imitating her handwriting. He remembered the prescription she had given A-Zhou’s mother. And since then, besides Chao Yi Song’s leg injury, no one else had come to the clinic. The few entries in the records were easy for Xu Zi Ling to forge before the constables arrived.
As for the herbs the mysterious figure had given A-Zhou, Ni Su suspected they were meant to further discredit her, making it seem like she had prescribed a harmful concoction, not a proper tonic mixed with Chuan Wu.
He hadn’t anticipated A-Zhou’s disobedience.
“But don’t worry, Miss Ni,” Chao Yi Song said, not expecting an answer. “Those medicine women who accept bribes know how to hide. She’s still alive. Once we find her, we’ll find the culprit!”
“Also, Commander Zhou said some of the officials involved in the Imperial College incident are about to confess.”
“Is that true?” Ni Su had been waiting for this news.
“Only Director Han and Commander Zhou know the details. Commander Zhou told me I could tell you this much.”
The news dispelled Ni Su’s fatigue. After offering Chao Yi Song tea and seeing him off, she hurried to the back porch.
The sun was shining.
She went straight to Xu He Xue’s room, then heard a clear voice behind her. “Ni Su, I’m here.”
She turned and saw the young man in the dark blue robe, his face pale, sitting on the steps, his clear eyes watching her.
“Why are you sitting by the kitchen door?” she asked, running over, then excitedly told him, “Xu Zi Ling, they’ve cleared my name in A-Zhou’s case.”
“A-Zhou’s mother wanted a miscarriage. The culprit hired a medicine woman to give her a strong abortifacient, and…”
She spoke rapidly, her words tumbling out.
Xu He Xue listened attentively, standing up with his hand on a pillar, occasionally murmuring in response.
“It seems some of the officials detained at the Yin Ye Si are about to confess,” Ni Su said, looking up at him. “And that medicine woman… I hope Commander Zhou finds her soon…”
“We can also look for her,” Xu He Xue said.
We.
The word made Ni Su’s eyes well up.
Without Xu Zi Ling, she would be truly alone. No one else would help her like this.
“But you’re still weak,” she said, looking at him with concern. “I’ll light many candles for you every day. You must recover quickly.”
Sunlight shone in her eyes.
Xu He Xue, under her gaze, shifted his eyes and curled his fingers slightly. He turned his head. “Are you hungry?”
Ni Su looked at the empty porch chair.
“Where’s my radish?” Not just the radish, but the entire basket of vegetables was gone.
“Come inside,” Xu He Xue said, turning around.
Ni Su followed him and saw a table laden with steaming food.
Her radish had been made into soup.
“You… can cook?” she murmured.
“This is my first time,” Xu He Xue shook his head, handing her a book. “You bought this. It was on my desk. I remembered seeing a cookbook like this and decided to try it.”
Ni Su took the book. Qing Meng Shi Pian.
“This is Minister Meng’s cookbook?” she asked, seeing his name and flipping through the pages. “I asked someone to buy me some contemporary literary works. He must have included this because of Minister Meng’s fame.”
“After I finished cooking, I remembered that Minister Meng prefers his food salty,” Xu He Xue said. He wasn’t sure if his cooking was good.
“Let me try it,” Ni Su sat down at the table. Although it was just simple porridge and dishes, it looked appetizing. She tasted a dish and smiled at him. “It is a bit salty, probably because I’m used to bland food. But it’s still delicious.”
“Is it too salty for you?” she asked, taking a sip of the soup.
Sunlight streamed through the doorway, illuminating Xu He Xue’s robes. He nodded slightly. “Mmm.”
“Aren’t you eating?”
“You eat,” he said.
Ni Su knew he didn’t need to eat. She nodded and began to eat. “I didn’t know about this cookbook. If I had, I could have followed the recipes and avoided this morning’s disaster…”
“Once I learn, maybe I can even make sweet cakes for you.”
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