Chapter 28 - A Murderous Intent

The distance from this town to the capital would take two, but at most three days to cover. Imperial Censor Wang always advocated frugality. Thus, contrary to one’s expectation, he eschewed the comfortable sedan chair that Qian Wan Li had arranged for, and ordered instead two horse carriages .

Sedan Chair vs Horse Carriage:

Jiang Ruan’s chests of miscellaneous items had already been sold and the value converted to banknotes[1], so only a chest of books remained to be moved into the carriage. Thus a lot of space was saved.

[1] Yin Piao ( 银票 ) – Used in olden times, banknotes with a value in silver

(Source: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/銀票)

Apart from being accompanied by Bai Zhi and Lian Qiao, Lu Zhu would also join them in their journey. Bai Zhi and Lian Qiao were not only witty and intelligent servant girls, but also bold, which was quite a rare trait. Before the departure, Lu Zhu had voluntarily offered to serve Jiang Ruan. And as it turned out, Jiang Ruan had also planned to bring Xiao Yuan along with them. However, Xiao Yuan had been born a servant in that residence, and was reluctant to leave her father and mother. So, she tactfully and politely declined Jiang Ruan’s kind intention. Thus, Jiang Ruan did not force the matter, and had left her a sum of money in repayment for the favour Xiao Yuan had done for her.

On the other hand, Lu Zhu was a servant girl who had been bought from outside. After both parents’ deaths, her relatives had sold her to the slave traders. And since she had travelled extensively and had met a great number of people, she was extremely bright. In the short time of their interaction, Bai Zhi and Lian Qiao had already grown close to her.

Because of Jiang Ruan and the other womenfolk, Qian Wan Li had tried to curry favour with Imperial Censor Wang by arranging for Li Mi and another officer to escort them to the capital. And so, the entire journey was travelled in harmony. During their journey, Lu Zhu was very lively, recounting the time she had spent travelling with the slave traders and the strange things they had encountered. Or, perhaps she was naturally optimistic; every word she spoke was full of charm and interest, with nary a hint of low spirits. If she were harbouring any sadness or fear, only she herself knew of it. Bai Zhi and Lian Qiao could naturally sense that she was a gentle and outgoing person, and the three of them chattered away enthusiastically, while Jiang Ruan sat in the horse carriage with a book in her hand, seemingly enjoying the taste of freedom.

They soon reached the half-way mark of their two-day journey. After a night’s rest, they would probably be able to reach the capital by the afternoon of the next day.

Li Mi and the other officer sat astride their ponies, accompanying Imperial Censor Wang in the other horse carriage. The sky gradually darkened. Li Mi had made enquiries and discovered there was a temple ahead of them. As they were in the middle of the wilderness, he considered the difficulty of finding an inn to stay in overnight. Thus, after asking Jiang Ruan’s opinion, he decided that they should stay at the temple.

The temple was quite large, yet not much incense had been lit. Perhaps, due to its remote location in the deep mountain wilderness, very few people travelled here to light incense. Even the monks going to and fro were few in number.

Bai Zhi and Lian Qiao had not stepped over the threshold of a temple for a long time. Earlier, when Zhao Mei had still been around, she had often taken Jiang Ruan to the temple in Putuo to pray for blessings. After her death, when Jiang Ruan had been sent to the countryside residence, life became harsher by the day, and there was neither time nor money to visit the temple. Money required to buy the fragrant oil used in worship was still money. Asking for Buddha’s blessing and protection came with a cost.

Lu Zhu was no stranger to temples. At Jiang Ruan’s command, while Bai Zhi and Lian Qiao were tidying up, she had already made one round of the temple and even returned bearing several dishes of vegetarian food. As she urged Jiang Ruan to eat while the food was hot, she described the temple’s layout to her in detail.

Night had fallen by the time they settled in the temple. All the men, including Imperial Censor Wang, Li Mi and the other officer, had arranged to sleep on the other side of the temple. Even though Li Mi had some misgivings regarding this, he concluded that the reputation of the ladies was of prime importance. Moreover, although the temple was quite large in surface area, if anything truly did happen, he would still be able to react in time.

Lian Qiao trimmed the long wick in the oil lamp to make the lamp glow more brightly. Jiang Ruan put down the book she was holding and rubbed her temples.

“Miss, it is quite late, shouldn’t you sleep?” Bai Zhi asked. Jiang Ruan had rested enough in the past few days, and was now full of spirits, with no inclination to sleep.

“There is no rush, there is still time for an entertaining play tonight,” Jiang Ruan said with a small smile.

“There’s no rush, there is still time for an entertaining play tonight,” Jiang Ruan said with a small smile. She thought about the question she had asked Li Mi whilst in the carriage: “Daren, do people on the way to the capital have to pass this temple?”

“Yes,” Li Mi replied. “This temple is the only building within a radius of several tens of li[1].”

[1] Li ( 里 ) – ancient measure of length, approximately 500m.

Jiang Ruan broke off her train of thought in time to hear Lian Qiao ask, curiously, “What entertaining play?”

“Lu Zhu.” Jiang Ruan answered.

Lu Zhu came into the room and said, all smiles, “Everything has been arranged, Miss.”

It was late at night in the depth of winter, and surrounded by inky blackness, dead silence presided over the temple. Only the sound of the cold wind, like a whimper, could be heard.

The lamps had been completely extinguished. The only light remaining was a wisp of moonlight from the waning moon, shining on the snowy land. At that moment, huge dark clouds rolled overhead, completely blotting out the faint moonlight. Under the heavens, the earth was shrouded in a blanket of darkness.

In the silent darkness, several furtive figures suddenly appeared in the courtyard. The figures paused at a few rooms, glancing inside for confirmation, before entering one of the rooms in a single file.

Into the noiseless silence of the courtyard dropped one or two soft chimes of small bells.

The maiden in the darkness opened her eyes, pupils gleaming with a hint of chilliness. She smiled faintly and whispered, “Lian Qiao, Bai Zhi.”

Both servant girls nodded in unison, got up, opened the door, and walked out.

Jiang Ruan stood in the middle of the room. She had already laid out everything in the room next door, but had not slept there. Instead, she had hidden in this adjoining room the whole time. She had in fact set herself up as an easy target[2].

[2] Weng zhong zhuo bie ( 瓮中捉鳖 ) – 瓮中 = jar, 捉 = to catch; 鳖 = turtle; lit. to catch a turtle in a jar; fig. to go after an easy prey.

In her previous life, she had also lived in a similar temple, but her recollection of that time was extremely vague. She could only remember that the monks and the abbot had made things difficult for her, but whether this was deliberate or due to some other reason, she had not been able to figure out back then. The food she was given had been extremely meager, and the condition of the room she slept in had been extremely harsh. However, on hindsight, it must have been at the instigation of Xia Yan and her daughter. Back then, they had needed her as a pawn in their scheme to enter the palace, so they had made things difficult for her only for a short while before letting her go. Now that she had been given a new lease of life, and was returning to the Jiang fu[3] with great fanfare and the status of the highly righteous daughter of the first wife, she was afraid that Xia Yan and Jiang Su Su would not be too happy.

[3] Fu ( 府 ) – compound, estate or mansion; usually the residence of a noble or powerful family. So Jiang fu refers to main residence, i.e., Jiang mansion.

On this final day, they still wanted to block her return to the Jiang fu. However, this time, what they wanted was her life!

Due to the temple’s remote location and consequent lack of monetary offering, they had taken Xia Yan’s silver and were doing her bidding. Thus the ‘few’ kind-hearted monks who had remained had ‘considerately’ advised Jiang Ruan to place the male and female members of her party in separate rooms to preserve her reputation. So if something were to happen, she would have no one to call for help, and could only endure it all by herself!

However, today, she was an evil spirit who had returned from hell, and in this play they were putting on, she alone had the key role to demand someone’s life!

The faint chime of bells came from the neighbouring room; it was a secret code. Excellent. She had released a large quantity of poisonous smoke into the room, and Lu Zhu had taken the antidote earlier. Once the people that Xia Yan had sent entered the room, their part (in the play – continuation of the ‘entertaining play’ metaphor) was – to be trampled on. At day break, she planned to throw the bodies of these people in front of the temple’s statue of Buddha. Li Mi was an officer and would naturally have to investigate. As to how the abbot and monks would explain all this, well, they would have to concoct a plausible explanation by themselves.

Jiang Ruan tidied her skirt in preparation to open the door and go to the neighbouring room to check on the situation. She had just reached the door when it was shoved open violently, and a figure slipped in quickly from outside. Startled, Jiang Ruan hastily took a few steps back. The other party, seemingly, had not imagined that someone would be in the room either, and did not react immediately. In that split second, Jiang Ruan, having moved too quickly, stepped carelessly on her oversized skirt and toppled backwards in the prelude to a fall.

Upon seeing her fall, the other person moved swiftly and reflexively stretched out a hand to grasp her waist. For a brief moment, their bodies were pressed close to one another and Jiang Ruan’s face touched the black material of his clothes, patterned with black mythical creatures (qilin)[4]. She went blank. In a twinkling of an eye, the dark clouds receded, and moonlight flooded the room through the window. Jiang Ruan looked up into a pair of eyes as cold as a dead star.