The Deposed Crown Prince had Three Lifelong Regrets - Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The lanterns in front of each house were the only light on the street, but the light was shrouded in fog, making it faintly perceptible and almost negligible.

The man stumbled two steps forward. He was unstable, swaying back and forth. His sallow face was suddenly exposed in the scarce light, and then immediately concealed in the darkness again.

Since she had been carelessly stabbed just now, Li Qinghuai guessed his qinggong (lightness skill) must be excellent. She retreated further on all fours, lamenting that she was now definitely trapped.

Then, the man lunged at her.

The brother and sister, who had been frozen in terror earlier, rushed forward together, attacking the man with their fists and feet.

Li Qinghuai’s heart skipped a few beats, but then she saw the man, after being assaulted by the shovel and dustpan, collapse stiffly beside her.

She stared for a few seconds, then nimbly crawled to the man’s side, discovering that it was just a paper effigy.

It was one of those low-level things controlled by a ghost cultivator after dripping their vital blood on it.

“Are you alright! Are you alright!”

“What should we do?!”

The two helpers shrieked continuously, their voices piercing through the alley, traveling far and bouncing back off the mountain.

The spacious, distant echo caught Lu Fengmian’s attention. Her brows involuntarily furrowed with a bad feeling, and she immediately retracted the partially set String Kill Array.

The transparent string net quickly recoiled, covering the human-faced spider like a dense curtain. In just half a minute, the creature was sliced into six large pieces of mutilated remains.

When she stepped over the eaves, walking over the roof tiles like waves, and found the others, both parties were shocked by the other’s dishevelled appearance.

The person who rushed over was stained with large areas of a ghostly green liquid.

With just one glance, she felt like throwing up the dinner she’d had three days ago. Not only that, but her entire body was faintly emitting a foul odor. Meanwhile, Li Qinghuai’s blood had already stained the ground. The siblings repeatedly tried to reach out to her but couldn’t find a place to touch.

Her being stabbed this time was not an intentional display of weakness.

During the years she studied at Maoshan, due to her royal bloodline, no one dared to be impolite, and naturally, no one strictly demanded that she practice martial arts.

Now, she had been back in the palace for over five years. Under a life of leisure, apart from her heightened senses, climbing a roof was the extent of her physical ability.

Lu Fengmian’s eyes flickered.

“Fengmian, quick, quick, ask them how Su Wushuang’s sister died.” Li Qinghuai actively ended her time lying stiffly, cutting short the sad atmosphere among the crowd. “The woman who treated my injuries, her sister died here.”

As soon as she spoke, the faces of the old man and the young couple turned greenish.

The old man grabbed the younger one, ready to retreat indoors.

Li Qinghuai knew she was being ungrateful, but not everyone possessed a sense of guilt.

Seeing that Lu Fengmian was temporarily confused and hesitant to act, she felt irritated. If she hadn’t been injured, it wouldn’t have been this person’s turn. She immediately added another powerful statement, “How do you think that fugu (stomach ghost) in the mountain came to be? Someone here is practicing the art of refining xiaogui (small ghosts)!”

“Swish—”

Two throwing darts grazed the arms of the old man turning back into the house and embedded themselves in the door panel.

Lu Fengmian finally believed her. The darts she had retrieved last time hadn’t been returned to the Mo family yet, so she was quick to act. “Everyone, please don’t leave. Let’s talk.”

According to the ancient text Ten Thousand Methods Return to the Origin, human nature, if uneducated, is fundamentally evil. If a woman has an abortion, the natural-born fetal spirits, often resentful of their relatives, possess heavy yuan (grievance) and are unable to reincarnate for a long time.

The King of the Underworld, taking pity on them, carved the River of Oblivion on earth, which is the Mother-Child River, giving these abandoned infants a chance at rebirth. However, some who are unwilling to repent turn into fugu, creating karmic obstacles.

And the Puan Secret Method records a secret technique to refine xiaogui.

Those who worship xiaogui get their wishes fulfilled and enjoy temporary prosperity. However, fetal spirits are often jealous. If inadvertently offended, the worshipper will either die violently or suffer severe disability.

Xiaogui are refined from children who died prematurely before the age of three, with those who died in utero being the most ferocious.

Some demon Daoists, for profit, target pregnant women to refine xiaogui and sell them to wealthy families to protect their wealth and prosperity.

After shouting that statement, Li Qinghuai fell into a prolonged silence.

She felt that if she spoke another word, she would be the next one to die on the street from exhaustion.

Although her vision was still darkening and her bones were trembling, it didn’t stop her from being curious about how the other person had so many different kinds of weapons.

Lu Fengmian couldn’t suppress the sharp pain in her chest, and her breathing felt fiery. She thought with dread that she had likely been poisoned by the spider.

She glanced at Li Qinghuai, who was almost bled dry, and then pinched open the jaws of the father and son, forcing a small black pill into their mouths. She decided not to reveal her own condition, only ordering them to find some medical supplies.

The father and son hesitated but obeyed.

The old man was trembling with fury but didn’t dare to utter a single complaint.

The two younger ones, though looking terrified, seemed to reveal a hint of disappointment.

They came out with good intentions to help but were betrayed instead. This likely left significant trauma on their young minds.

Li Qinghuai was not surprised throughout this ordeal. She never thought Lu Fengmian was easily manipulated. Faced with the bodyguards’ aggressive demands, even if she hadn’t intervened, Lu Fengmian would have eventually found a way.

After all, a high-society lady from the capital could not survive without some methods of controlling people.

Her father, the Minister of Personnel, was genuinely protective, but he also deeply understood the malice of the human heart and was determined to cultivate his children’s ability to stand on their own. She acted cleanly and efficiently, and even with a kind heart, she could project a superficial toughness to intimidate.

Half an hour later, Li Qinghuai was bandaged with white gauze from her lower back to her chest, lying rigidly on the bed.

This time, however, Lu Fengmian didn’t leave immediately after tending to her. Instead, she took a hot towel and meticulously wiped the bloodstains off her body.

Her wrist was lifted, and the warm, soft touch of the hot towel made her very uncomfortable.

This rare tenderness was not what she desired. As long as the other person was not unconscious like a blood-stained lone crane in her dream, tragically dying in the wilderness, it was a blessing.

Li Qinghuai inadvertently glanced at Lu Fengmian. She had a dazzling peony-like face, and her whole person was dignified and graceful. Her distant, dark brows and eyes, however, subtly hinted at affection. Her nose bridge was like a small green mountain nestled in winding spring water, possessing a unique charm.

This person was unlike her uncle, who was reserved and smooth, and unlike her aunt, who was fierce and unyielding. She possessed her own integrity and ability to compromise.

To facilitate taking the family by surprise with an information advantage later, only the two of them were in the room at the moment.

Providing a plausible explanation without revealing her identity was a piece of cake for Li Qinghuai.

It was simply a matter of using Maoshan as a shield and using the mission as a narrative thread to convey the information she knew to Lu Fengmian, albeit in a roundabout way.

“My purpose in coming here was for this village. A concubine named Song Zhe from the county died here.”

“I was driven out when I tried to visit the family at the time, but I did find out that she had a half-sister named Su Wushuang, who is among the bodyguards we brought back. However, a married daughter is like spilled water. Song Zhe had little contact with her family, and her sister was out earning money and could not be found.”

She lied about irrelevant details.

Lu Fengmian had never heard of this matter. Her gaze was calm as water, and she remained silent.

“Later, Song Zhe returned to her mother’s home while pregnant with her second child, but neither she nor her body ever made it back,” Li Qinghuai sighed and continued. “And this is her mother’s family.”

“After Song Zhe’s death, several close relatives in her family also consecutively moved away, including her elderly mother.”

“I had been staking out the manor for many days. As time passed, I lost hope. But on one chance occasion, I saw Song Zhe’s eldest son…”

At this point, she suddenly stopped speaking and looked out the window.

A pleasant spring rain was falling gently, she knew not when.

The mist in the mountains was heavy, and consequently, the mist in the town was heavy too. It was too dark outside to even tell how wet the ground was.

Through the misty haze, Li Qinghuai saw the layers of mountains and water of Luoliang Ridge. Her brown pupils reflected the scene: the arrival of rain at dusk, the tapping of spring rain.

Bringing her gaze back, the nearby houses were densely packed and as simple as ever.

She remembered how she had persuaded her father to let her come.

Song Zhe’s second son had secretly sided with the Emperor’s uncle, Prince Zhao. His feigned return to Jiangnan was actually to secretly survey the terrain of the mountains. This was the place where the former Emperor and his beloved had formed their bond, but due to entanglement in love and hatred, it had never been heavily guarded.

Prince Zhao’s actions were intended to push Song Er to the edge of a cliff. If she could follow the clues and find the mastermind, she could surely impeach Prince Zhao.

However, since Song Xuan Ye was following Prince Zhao’s orders, he wouldn’t implicate him. Moreover, without evidence, Song Xuan Ye’s crime couldn’t even be established, let alone that of the uninvolved Prince Zhao.

Her father sent her with the Imperial Guard simply because he trusted her later dreams.

If it couldn’t be handled openly, then it must be dealt with secretly.

If Song Xuan Ye, by some chance, entered Tuo Liang Mountain, he would likely not make it out of the ghost-ridden outer town. If he didn’t enter, then he could come to collect the bodies of the affected family members.

This was reason one.

The people in the outskirts of the capital were often harassed by demons, making their lives miserable. This trip could accumulate public support.

This was reason two.

But the dream that initially haunted her could not be mentioned at all.

As the heir to the throne, she could go to eliminate political rivals or win public support. But she absolutely could not go for the sake of supposed friendship.

After years of “training,” Li Qinghuai agreed with this reasoning. Only after she had slowly accumulated political advantage did she hesitantly request permission to go to Luoliang Mountain to capture the future criminal, Song Xuan Ye.

Lu Fengmian’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Pan’er, are you feeling better?”

The name, adopted from a folk opera, strangely brought a sense of amusing absurdity. Li Qinghuai could no longer feel sad, and the rain-laden gloom in her eyes finally faded.

“Later… later, realizing that Song Zhe’s eldest son had a dark complexion between his brows, I risked sneaking into the manor and discovered that chronic poison had been mixed into his food,” Li Qinghuai said weakly, her lips completely drained of color.

Poison, a staple in palace power struggles.

She frowned with considerable impatience and continued, “Anyway, I eventually found many cursed objects near him.”

“You know I’m not some righteous Daoist practitioner. I immediately recognized that the array could probably kill a person with dark energy. I went with the worst-case scenario: besides the benefits of gratitude and money, what use would killing a pregnant woman be to a demon Daoist?”

“The most sinister is killing two lives at once to refine a Chitongzi (Red Fetal Spirit).”

Of course, the person cooperating with the demon Daoist could be the eldest wife, or perhaps another concubine, or maybe the legitimate wife only dared to administer the poison after the child’s mother had met with misfortune.

After saying all this, Li Qinghuai closed her eyes, letting her mind wander and relax. She tried to alleviate the dryness in her mouth and the pain in her body.