After Becoming a Concubine, I Took Down the Princess - Chapter 12

The sun had set in the west, and the two were still empty-handed, walking dejectedly through the bustling and lively streets, clearly out of place amongst the crowds.

“Could it be that the shopkeeper that old fox Yan Qiu encountered yesterday didn’t set up a stall today?” Yan Heng spun around in place, vexed.

The two of them had searched all afternoon, and after a quick evening meal, an hour had already passed.

Liang Xiao was also extremely exhausted. She usually traveled by sedan chair. Although she had learned some superficial martial arts as a child, her physical stamina hadn’t improved much.

At this moment, her face was slightly pale, fine beads of sweat dotted her forehead, and even her lips were a little colorless, starting to peel from dryness.

Seeing her state, Yan Heng told her to wait where she was, then ran a couple of steps and returned with a bowl of water.

“The bowl has been washed. I asked the uncle selling jelly to borrow it,” she said, handing the bowl of water to Liang Xiao.

Liang Xiao had been parched for a long time, and this bowl of water immediately solved her urgent need. She didn’t care about cleanliness now; she quickly took the bowl and drank it down with “glug-glug” sounds.

Yan Heng watched her finish and then asked, “Do you want more?”

Liang Xiao nodded, feeling a little embarrassed.

Yan Heng happily ran off to borrow another bowl.

“I didn’t realize you were quite good at taking care of people,” Liang Xiao said, putting down the bowl.

“Of course! I’ve looked after many little foxes in the clan; they adore me,” Yan Heng boasted.

This scene was much more lively than the palace people who only knew how to adhere strictly to rules. It even made a curve rise at the corner of Liang Xiao’s lips, a curve she hadn’t noticed herself.

“See? You look so much prettier when you smile,” Yan Heng also chuckled.

Liang Xiao uncomfortably turned her face away and said, “If I smile too much, people will think I’m easy to bully.”

Yan Heng was puzzled, “How so? Is there such a saying in the Royal family?”

Liang Xiao’s tone was flat: “What would a wild fox like you know? Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand.”

Having said that, she lifted her foot to continue looking for the seller of the puzzle box.

Yan Heng followed behind, grumbling discontentedly, “If you don’t tell me, how would you know that I wouldn’t understand.”

As the moon reached its zenith, they arrived in front of a large establishment. The plaque above bore three large characters: “Lingji Pavilion” (Spiritual Mechanism/Ingenuity Pavilion).

Other shops either set up stalls and did business in the daytime, or could only occupy a tiny ‘fly-sized’ storefront that couldn’t accommodate many customers.

This establishment, however, was different. It was luxuriously decorated, a large storefront consisting of three connecting rooms, with many staff and customers coming and going inside, exceptionally bustling.

As soon as they entered, a waiter came to greet them: “What kind of ingenious contraption are the two ladies looking to buy?”

Yan Heng described the box, and the waiter clapped his hands, saying, “Then the two of you truly—”

“—have come to the right place!”

Yan Heng and Liang Xiao exchanged a look upon hearing this, and followed the waiter into the shop, still somewhat skeptical.

The interior decoration of the shop was even more lavish. The staff were busy: stocking shelves, attending to customers, settling accounts… and many customers moved amongst them, presenting a scene of exceptional liveliness.

Yan Heng sighed, “I’ve never ventured this deep before. I had no idea there was such a unique shop here.”

Even Liang Xiao, who was accustomed to seeing opulent splendor, was a little surprised now.

She didn’t know much about yaoguai (monsters/demons/spirits). She had originally thought they were all a bit simple-minded, like Yan Heng, or were all vendors who lived by their craft. She hadn’t expected them to be able to construct such exquisite buildings and manage a business so systematically.

So why couldn’t yaoguai defeat humans? Based on what she had seen and heard today, these yaoguai possessed both magic and craftsmanship. It should have been humans who were afraid.

Liang Xiao suppressed the confusion in her heart, intending to ask Yan Heng about it later.

The two followed the waiter to the counter, which was inlaid with gold. Yan Heng was so greedy she even wanted to pry some off.

The waiter whispered a few words to the attendant behind the counter and then left to serve others. The attendant, a cat demon, smiled and said, “The two of you want to buy a Thousand Poisons Box?”

Liang Xiao said, “We want to find a buyer of the Thousand Poisons Box from eleven years ago.”

The attendant’s face stiffened slightly: “Young lady, that’s not easy to find. Even if we could find it, we can’t just reveal a buyer’s information to others, can we?”

“No matter the condition, as long as you can help me find them, I will agree,” Liang Xiao continued.

The attendant pondered for a moment, then raised a single finger.

Yan Heng naturally understood the meaning. She asked, “One liang of silver?”

The attendant’s eyebrows shot up: “My guest, what can one liang do?”

“Ten liang?” Yan Heng tentatively raised the price.

“One hundred liang! Final price. To investigate a seller from eleven years ago, do the two of you know how much trouble that involves?”

Yan Heng inhaled sharply, then comforted herself: “It’s alright, the Princess has plenty of money.”

Liang Xiao, of course, didn’t care about the money. She was about to take out her purse when her movement suddenly froze.

Liang Xiao stiffly turned her head to look at Yan Heng: “I forgot my money pouch in the palace.”

Yan Heng: …My life savings.

Tearfully, she took out her small purse and pulled out a jade bracelet.

It was the one she had won from Consort Zhang. It was said that her mother had spent one hundred liang to buy it from Hezhou. It was just enough to cover the silver now.

The attendant took the jade bracelet, examined it carefully under the light, and then said with a smile, “Please wait upstairs, the two of you. We will go look for it right away.”

“Can they really find something from eleven years ago?” Yan Heng was quite doubtful.

“I don’t know,” Liang Xiao shook her head. Suddenly, she remembered something and asked Yan Heng, “After being out all day, won’t your maidservant be suspicious?”

Yan Heng said proudly, “I left a fake one in the palace using illusion magic.”

She could do that? Liang Xiao was truly astonished; the fox’s magic was this powerful.

Yan Heng took a sip of tea and said, “It’s difficult for ordinary people to see through an illusion. Hua Zi enters the room and can see me, and I can even talk and eat.”

Yan Heng was full of pride as she spoke: “To be a fox, you have to be smart. I wouldn’t dare run around without full preparation.”

Liang Xiao looked at her expression and couldn’t help but smile internally, but her expression remained calm, showing no sign of emotion.

She casually ran a hand through her hair and said, “I didn’t expect you to be quite capable.”

Having been praised by her, Yan Heng’s fox tail was practically wagging up to the heavens.

The attendant’s search took an entire night; he was slow to return.

The time was now chou shi (1-3 AM) of the second day. The shop had been bustling all night, showing no sign of closing.

Yan Heng had already slept once, and while she looked awake now, she was still drowsy.

She rested her chin on one hand, her head bobbing. Just as she was about to hit the table, Liang Xiao quickly reached out and caught her.

Yan Heng’s cheek was slightly warm, her skin delicate and smooth. Half her face resting on Liang Xiao’s hand, for some reason, made a strange sensation tingle in Liang Xiao’s heart.

Liang Xiao kept her wrist steady, then gently and quietly moved Yan Heng’s arm onto the table, bent it, and then lowered her head, allowing her to rest on her own arm and sleep.

Although Liang Xiao was also tired, she maintained her alertness, managing to stay awake, afraid that a moment of inattention would allow someone with ill intentions to commit a wicked act.

She drank a lot of tea to keep herself awake, while Yan Heng was sleeping soundly.

The little fox’s ears lightly rose and fell with her breathing, occasionally twitching suddenly, showing she was dreaming of something.

A sentence suddenly flashed through Liang Xiao’s mind: Yan Heng had once said that she always dreamed of her?

Liang Xiao looked at her sleeping face at this moment, her mood suddenly becoming complicated.

She wondered what she looked like in Yan Heng’s dream. This feeling of definitively knowing that one was appearing in someone else’s dream was truly a bit peculiar.

She still needed to find a way to remove the “Love Thread Knot” (Qíngsī Kòu) as quickly as possible. That way, she would have peace of mind, and Yan Heng… might also get a good night’s sleep.

After another moment (the time it takes to brew a cup of tea), the attendant finally brought up a thick ledger.

“I apologize for the wait, ladies. These are the guests who bought the Thousand Poisons Box from our shop eleven years ago,” the attendant said, spreading the ledger out in front of Liang Xiao.

Yan Heng was awakened by the noise, groggily opening her eyes, which were full of confusion.

She was quite adorable when she woke up, Liang Xiao pursed her lips and secretly glanced at her.

“Could you look up the customers from the winter?” Liang Xiao asked.

Her mother consort had passed away in the winter, so the murderer must have bought the box in the winter as well.

The attendant replied, “Unfortunately, our master injured his hand that year and only made a few boxes all year. None of them were bought in the winter.”

Liang Xiao frowned, asking, “No one bought one?”

“Could it be that they bought it in advance and waited until winter to carry out the deed?” Yan Heng added.

Liang Xiao suppressed the doubt in her heart: “What about before that year?”

The attendant quickly scanned the ledger and said, “The box had just been launched at the time, and not many yaoguai knew about it. Hence, there were only three buyers in total that year.”

Liang Xiao took the ledger. As expected, there were only three entries.

The records of the Lingji Pavilion were quite detailed, logging the buyers’ names and the time of purchase. The first two entries were also followed by the words “Transmittable Voice.”

Before coming to the demon market, Yan Heng had already told her about the Voice Transmission Stones, which would now prove helpful.

“Transmittable Voice? Can the voice still be transmitted after eleven years?” she asked.

“Of course. If you have anything you want to ask these sellers, please follow me downstairs,” the attendant said, picking up the ledger.

Liang Xiao stood up and casually pulled Yan Heng up as well. The fox kept muttering, “So sleepy, so sleepy,” making Liang Xiao want to knock her head.

The two were led to a small room downstairs, where about a hundred large stones were placed, each about the size of the fish tank in her palace hall.

The attendant cast a spell on the ledger, and a blue light shot out from the book, heading straight for one of the stones.

After a moment, the stone also glowed, and a voice came out: “Who seeks me?”

The speaker was the first buyer, Dahuang (Big Yellow).

Yan Heng squatted beside the stone and listened as the attendant said, “My guest, eleven years ago, you bought a Thousand Poisons Box from our Lingji Pavilion. Do you remember?”

Dahuang thought for a moment and said, “I don’t remember. Why are you asking about this?”

“Our shop is preparing to improve this model of the Thousand Poisons Box, so we’ve come to ask you for suggestions and advice.” This was the pre-arranged cover story Liang Xiao had taught him, designed to prevent the buyers from becoming suspicious. She had even spent one of Yan Heng’s white jade hairpins to bribe the attendant.

“No recollection. If you have nothing else… if you have nothing else, listen to me sing a song! I am the world’s number one Oriole, and lately, I’m worried about not finding any yaoguai to listen to my tunes.” Dahuang sounded very excited on the other side of the transmission stone.

The three people here: …

Before the attendant could refuse, Dahuang had already begun to sing. The sound was… indescribable.

Yan Heng: …Is this the singing voice of an Oriole?

Dahuang’s voice was genuinely far from melodious. If there was any merit to be found, it was perhaps that it could drive a living person to death and turn a dead person into a vengeful spirit.

The attendant quickly cast a spell and shut off the transmission stone.

The three people’s faces turned blue, then white, then green, a spectrum of vivid expressions.

The next buyer was a wild boar demon, who just grunted and squealed for a long time, also saying he didn’t remember. Fortunately, he didn’t try to showcase any talent; he only said a few words before voluntarily shutting off the transmission.

The final remaining buyer had not left behind a voice transmission spell.

Yan Heng pondered, “The first two were both yaoguai, and they don’t seem like the type to harm people.”

In contrast, this mysterious third buyer—Yuanxin (Heart of Destiny)—seemed to be the most suspicious.

He had bought two boxes that autumn, and one of them—according to the records—was an empty box with no poison needles inside.

“Do you remember this buyer?” Liang Xiao asked.

The attendant regretfully shook his head, “I’ve served too many customers. I don’t remember him anymore. But if you had a portrait, perhaps I could recall something.”

The clue seemed to have ended here.

Liang Xiao sighed imperceptibly: “Very well then.”

Yan Heng, instead, reached for her money pouch and said to the attendant, “We’ll buy one Thousand Poisons Box to take back and study.”

The two took the box and stood outside the Lingji Pavilion. Yan Heng cast a spell, and when they opened their eyes again, they were back in her palace.

Liang Xiao was disheartened but showed no sign of it on her face, only saying plainly, “I will return the silver to you later.”

Yan Heng: See? As soon as she gets back, she starts referring to herself as ‘This Princess’ again, so aloof.

Liang Xiao stood at the doorway, holding the box, and only spoke after a while: “You… get some good rest.”

This made Yan Heng, who had just been complaining about her, feel somewhat awkward.

“Your Highness is finally back.” When Yuehua saw Liang Xiao push the door open and return, the heart she had held suspended slowly settled down.

“I retrieved this box from the demon market, but I couldn’t find the buyer,” Liang Xiao said, placing the box on the table. “Auntie, you must not open this easily. It is full of poison needles.”

Yuehua nodded, then said, “Your Highness was gone for a long time. Was there truly no clue at all?”

Liang Xiao hesitated: “I only know one name, Yuanxin.”

“Yuanxin…” Yuehua couldn’t make anything of it either and could only sigh.

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