When Tian Lianxue emerged, the bird's nest soup on the table was gone, and the master who had eaten it had long since disappeared.
"You may go," she said, her smile slowly fading.
The young girl curtsied, picked up the empty bowls and saucers from the table, and walked out.
Tian Lianxue sat in the chair where Lu Wuxie had been sitting, picked up his used cup, poured herself some water, and brought it to her lips to sip.
The scent of ambergris, belonging to a man, slowly seeped into her mouth.
Tian Lianxue took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and looked entranced.
Zhong Li and Lu Wuxie's carriage stopped at a hidden spot in Mao'er Hutong.
After a short while, the carriage door was knocked on three times.
Lu Wuxie opened the door. Standing outside was the young girl who had just poured the bird's nest soup onto Tian Lianxue.
He welcomed her into the carriage.
The young girl curtsied to Zhong Li in greeting.
"Yinsu, how is it?" Lu Wuxie asked.
Yinsu shook her head and said, "As we expected, Miss Tian is clean, with no birthmark."
Lu Wuxie and Zhong Li exchanged a glance.
Zhong Li asked, "Miss Yinsu, I have something else I'd like to ask you about."
"Lord Zhong may simply call me Yinsu. You are the master's beloved, so you are Yinsu's master as well," Yinsu said with a smile at Zhong Li.
Zhong Li asked, "During the time between our departure for Linzhou and now, has there been anything unusual about Tian Lianxue?"
"Unusual..." Yinsu pondered for a moment and replied, "To answer your Lordship, Yinsu was placed in Huamanlou by the master for a short time and has only been a handyman in the backyard. I have never worked in the front hall, let alone approached Miss Tian, so I don't know much about her affairs.
However... I have heard from other maids that Miss Tian has not been conducting her business as usual these past few months."
"How so?" Zhong Li asked.
Yinsu replied, "Ever since our two masters left for Linzhou, Miss Tian has been successively kept by a man surnamed Hong for two periods. One was around the Zhongyuan Festival, and the other was some time ago... about a month ago.
I heard that this man surnamed Hong is wealthy and powerful. He gave the madam quite a sum of money to keep Miss Tian, about a hundred taels of gold."
"So much?" Zhong Li was greatly surprised. In Nan Yue Kingdom's currency exchange, silver and gold differed significantly. Based on Qiong'er's deed of sale, this amount could buy fifty or sixty Qiong'ers.
"Have you inquired about this man surnamed Hong?" she asked again.
Yinsu shook her head. "Yinsu truly doesn't know. That is the madam's business. If we servants get involved, we cannot stay in Huamanlou."
"Alright, I understand. You may go back," Lu Wuxie said after hearing Yinsu's words, looking at the moonlight outside and faintly hearing the watchman's call.
Yinsu nodded, glanced around to ensure no one was watching, got out of the carriage, and hurried back into Huamanlou.
"What does Li'er think?" Lu Wuxie asked.
"Previously, I thought Tian Lianxue was an informant planted in Huamanlou by someone. Now, hearing Yinsu say this, I suspect the madam also has some issues," Zhong Li said.
"Indeed!" Lu Wuxie agreed with her deduction. After all, so many incidents had occurred in Huamanlou. If the initial ones were coincidences, the conspiracy here had become terrifyingly strong since Gu Ling's case.
"What are Mo Cang's plans?" Zhong Li asked.
"Huamanlou cannot be disturbed for now. We just went in, and the madam must have been alerted. She will certainly create obstacles for us. If we try to take them all down without proper preparation, we will only harm ourselves greatly.
I think we should focus on the matter of Tian Lianxue," Lu Wuxie said.
Zhong Li strongly agreed with Lu Wuxie's analysis. After pondering for a moment, she said, "Mo Cang, actually, Tian Lianxue approached me once when we were in Linzhou."
"What?" Lu Wuxie frowned. He disliked women of ill repute approaching Zhong Li. It had nothing to do with his previous carefree attitude; Zhong Li was reserved, and such women's words would only add to her troubles.
Seeing his expression, Zhong Li reached out and smoothed his furrowed brow. "She didn't say anything to make me unhappy. She merely asked me if, should she disappear one day or if I found that she was no longer herself, would I look for her.
At first, I found it strange, but now I think she must have known what was about to happen to her."
Lu Wuxie pondered for a moment and asked, "Then how did Li'er discover that this Tian Lianxue was not the original Tian Lianxue?"
"Her address and habits!" Zhong Li said, recalling the two different Tian Lianxues. "Tian Lianxue was one of the first women I met after I started following you. Initially, when I had no official title and was just a young attendant by your side, she either called me Young Master Zhong or Zhong Li.
Later, when she knew I was disguised as a woman, no matter what official position I attained, she only called me Zhong Li."
"What about Shen Ying?" Lu Wuxie asked.
"Of course, when she was impersonating Tian Lianxue, she called me Lord Zhong," Zhong Li said, pausing. "I think Tian Lianxue knew that Shen Ying was pretending to be her. I remember when I accompanied Shentu Jue to Huamanlou, she first addressed me as Lord Zhong. Later, after Gu Ling died and I had finished questioning her mother, when she sent someone to lead me away, she called me Zhong Li."
Lu Wuxie listened to Zhong Li speak without saying anything. He simply wrote the names Tian Lianxue and Shen Ying on a small case. After a while, he said, "Xie Xiaoyun... their experiences are very similar to Xie Xiaoyun's."
The carriage continued to travel along Wenchang Street. Both seemed lost in their own thoughts, silent.
It wasn't until the carriage arrived at the separate courtyard where Zhong Li lived, and the coachman called out to them, that Lu Wuxie was pulled from his thoughts.
As Zhong Li was about to alight, Lu Wuxie had already draped his outer cloak over her.
"Even though we've arrived, it will still take some time to enter. Wear your clothes; your health is important."
"Mhm!" Zhong Li did not refuse this time. She wrapped herself tighter in the cloak and jumped off the carriage.
She walked to the door, took out a key from her怀, and opened the bronze lock.
As the lock fell into her palm, she pushed the door open and, as she was about to enter, turned back and saw that Lu Wuxie's carriage was still in place. He lifted the curtain and looked at her, saying gently, "I'll wait for you to go inside. I'll leave when the lights are on in the house."
"Oh!" Zhong Li mumbled an acknowledgment, pulled open the door, and after taking a few steps, said something without preamble: "Perhaps, would you like to come in for some tea?"
Lu Wuxie was stunned. Looking at the bright eyes of the woman in the moonlight, his Adam's apple bobbed slightly.
Seeing that he did not answer immediately, Zhong Li quickly changed her words, "Just pretend you didn't hear that. Let's leave it at that."
With that, she darted into the courtyard, giving no chance for anyone outside to speak, locked the door, and rushed back to her room.
Lu Wuxie watched the lit window, looking somewhat dejected with a delayed reaction.
He looked at his hands. If it weren't for the coachman staring at him, he truly would have been tempted to slap himself.
"Young Master, do you... want to go in?" the coachman asked cautiously.
Lu Wuxie shot him a glare and said with a cold snort, "Drive on."
The coachman responded, no longer daring to ask any more questions, and whipped the horses, driving on.