Chapter 128 Were You Bribed, Lord Bai?…

Chapter 128: Have You Been Bribed, Lord Bai?

By the time Bai Xiuming arrived at Changping Lane, the snow had already ceased.

The snow in front of the incense shop had been partially cleared, leaving only a thin layer. Faint, scattered footprints and wheel tracks were visible on the ground.

His gaze swept over these marks before he pushed open the shop door and stepped inside.

The moment he entered, Bai Xiuming felt a gentle warmth. He turned to see A Chan dozing in a chair, a brazier radiating heat beside her. She clutched a hand warmer to her chest, from which a subtle plum fragrance wafted.

Bai Xiuming’s entrance did not stir her.

He chose not to wake A Chan, instead taking the chair beside her. He poured himself a cup of water, then picked up the hazelnuts from a nearby plate and began to shell them one by one.

A Chan was roused by a series of cracking sounds. She tightened her grip on the hand warmer, turned her head, and was startled awake by the sight of someone sitting next to her—all sleepiness instantly vanished.

When her eyes finally focused, she realized it was Bai Xiuming.

“What brings you here?” Her heartbeat gradually returned to normal as she yawned, her voice languid with lingering sleep.

“Why shouldn’t I be here?”

“Isn’t today the Emperor’s Birthday Banquet…” Her words trailed off as she met his faintly amused gaze.

Bai Xiuming placed the shelled hazelnuts back on the plate and pushed it towards her. “So you know today is the Emperor’s Birthday Banquet.”

A Chan blinked. “That’s no secret—everyone on this street knows.”

Bai Xiuming spoke unhurriedly. “But out of everyone on this street, surely only you would know what happened at the banquet, right?”

*Of course not—Hui Niang knows too*, A Chan thought to herself, then feigned surprise. “Oh? Did something happen at the banquet?”

Bai Xiuming offered no reply, simply gazing at her.

His dark eyes were deep, showing no urgent desire for the truth, yet they held an intense, almost burning quality.

A Chan’s fingers fidgeted nervously over the hand warmer, her heart inexplicably quickening.

“At the banquet, the Princess of Xinan’s face suddenly came off,” Bai Xiuming stated.

His gaze remained fixed on her. For the first time, A Chan felt uneasy under someone’s scrutiny. She should have reacted with shock, but her response was delayed.

She subtly shifted her gaze away, no longer looking at him, and feigned nonchalance. “How could a living person’s face just fall off?”

“Perhaps because someone used a very… remarkable incense powder to make it happen?”

“What kind of powder is that powerful?”

“I’d like to know too, which is why I came to seek your wisdom.”

A Chan immediately turned back to him, looking utterly wronged. “Don’t accuse me baselessly. I’ve always been law-abiding and never do anything bad.”

Then she saw Bai Xiuming smile.

It wasn’t a forced smile; he seemed genuinely amused by her words.

“Really not going to teach me?” His tone held none of his usual probing; it was direct, awaiting her response.

A hint of hesitation flickered in A Chan’s eyes. She never doubted Bai Xiuming’s keen perception—he surely knew what she had done, he just never had concrete proof.

Or rather, that wasn’t entirely accurate. It was more that he hadn’t chosen to pursue it.

The only thing Bai Xiuming had ever truly investigated about her was whether her body had been possessed.

And his suspicion had been correct. Unfortunately, all the methods he’d used only served to confirm her identity. That was his true bottom line.

For everything else, his boundaries were far more lenient. Not only that—he was also easy to appease.

A Chan knew this well, which was why she dared to dance along the edges of his tolerance.

Before, they had merely been familiar with each other’s true natures. Now, their relationship had to be more than just acquaintances, right? A Chan wondered if she could afford to trust him—just a little.

Seeing her expression shift between hesitation and solemnity, Bai Xiuming found it amusing. “So conflicted?”

“I did save your life,” she suddenly said.

Bai Xiuming paused, then nodded. “Of course.”

“By all logic, even if I demanded you repay me with your hand in marriage, you couldn’t refuse.” Her expression grew increasingly grave.

Bai Xiuming arched a brow but offered no denial.

“If you dare suddenly turn on me…”

After such a lengthy preamble, she finally reached the point. Bai Xiuming couldn’t help but chuckle. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Really?” Her almond-shaped eyes brimmed with skepticism.

“What guarantee do you want?” Bai Xiuming asked. “Or should I offer myself in marriage first, then you’ll talk?”

“Dream on!”

A Chan rolled her eyes at him, then crooked a finger, beckoning him closer.

Bai Xiuming leaned in slightly. He heard her whisper, “Crush black firestone, roast it, then soak it in mermaid oil. Add a bit of sandalwood tree sap, and it can be used to dry out corpses.”

When he turned to look at her, A Chan wore a smug expression. “Of course, it can also dry out faces—works especially well.”

Now that she’d already spilled the secret, she grew even more brazen. “Last time you came, I did say I’d teach you. Who told you not to learn?”

Bai Xiuming thought back—she had indeed offered to teach him before.

In front of A Chan, his attitude toward admitting mistakes had always been exemplary. “That was indeed my mistake.”

“Glad you realize it.”

“Why did you interfere in this matter? Did that Fake County Princess offend you?” That was the most plausible reason Bai Xiuming could think of.

“Not at all. I was just correcting an injustice—standing up for others.”

“Really?” He wasn’t convinced.

“Of course.” A Chan looked offended. “How could you doubt me?”

“Then on which road did you witness this ‘wrong’? The one we took from Jiaozhou back to the capital?”

This man was too sharp. A Chan refused to tell him outright, instead countering with keen interest, “What have you found out?”

“The Ghost Opera Troupe,” Bai Xiuming answered openly. “I heard there’s a Master Yu in the troupe who doesn’t wear masks when performing—instead, she uses a family heirloom ‘ghost face,’ which adheres to her face as if it were real. Quite remarkable. As it happens, I recall you attended a ghost opera in Jiaozhou and seemed to enjoy it greatly.”

“You’re being too hasty with your investigation. Show me the proof! Just because I might have had contact with them, you suspect them?”

“The Bright Mirror Bureau doesn’t necessarily need proof to handle a case.”

“What a crooked official!”

“So, I hit the mark?” Bai Xiuming wasn’t buying her act.

A Chan didn’t deny it: “You really suspected her based on just that?”

“That’s reason enough. If there are doubts about her, she’s worth investigating.”

A Chan pouted. Thankfully, she had foresight.

She casually grabbed a few hazelnuts from the dish beside her, tossed them into her mouth, and chewed—delicious.

“What else have you suspected?” she asked.

Bai Xiuming swiped a hazelnut from her hand and said, “I also suspect that Feng Yang might not be able to meet her in the Ghost Opera Troupe. Sound about right?”

“How should I know? I don’t control her movements.”

Though A Chan had told Bai Xiuming the truth, she absolutely wouldn’t reveal Master Yu’s whereabouts.

Bai Xiuming poured her a cup of water and said calmly, “It’s snowing heavily today, but Chen Hui isn’t at the shop. She left in a carriage—did she go outside the city?”

“It’s almost the end of the year. The manor’s doing the seasonal slaughter. Hui Niang went to fetch the meat.”

Bai Xiuming showed no reaction and continued, “Today is the Emperor’s birthday. With this kind of scandal at the Emperor’s Birthday Banquet, the Bright Mirror Bureau will definitely intervene. If she doesn’t want to implicate others, leaving the capital as quickly as possible is a good idea.”

A Chan kept her face blank, listening as he went on.

“You helped her get revenge. She must owe you greatly. Before taking off, she should at least say goodbye to you. And coincidentally, there was a carriage heading out of the city. Or perhaps it was because she was leaving that the carriage planned to go?” He looked at A Chan. “Am I right?”

A Chan dodged the question and instead said, “Why must you know her whereabouts? Maybe she just doesn’t want to be found. Speaking of which, she’s the victim—shouldn’t you be investigating those who harmed her?”

“If she’s alive, I need to see the person; if she’s dead, I need to see the body. The Emperor needs an explanation. Since I’ve found out she’s alive, I can’t deceive His Majesty.”

A Chan placed the hand warmer on the table and nimbly slipped behind Bai Xiuming. Catching a whiff of plum blossoms, Bai Xiuming lowered his eyes slightly as a pair of slender fingers pressed onto his shoulders and gave an experimental squeeze.

It took him a moment to realize she was giving him a shoulder massage—though the strength was pathetically light, the thought counted.

“Lord Bai,” A Chan spoke by his ear, “why can’t you just drop it? The Emperor doesn’t even know she’s alive.”

“If she’s dead, then who should be responsible for what happened to the Fake County Princess at the Emperor’s Birthday Banquet?”

A Chan scrambled for excuses to help him: “Couldn’t it just be that the mask was old and fell off on its own?”

“That answer would make His Majesty think I’m incompetent.”

A Chan immediately got annoyed: “Why is the Emperor giving you such a hard time?”

“Probably because someone made trouble for him at his own birthday banquet first. After giving His Majesty such a spectacular ‘present,’ keeping our heads is already an act of mercy.”

A Chan pouted and shut up, gave two more forceful squeezes, then muttered quietly, “Don’t they say that the Emperor loves his people like his own children? He’d surely understand our difficulties.”

“Your ‘difficulty’ is causing heaven’s wrath first, then trying to bribe the investigating official?”

“So, have you been bribed, Lord Bai?” A Chan whispered by his ear, her warm breath tickling his ear.

“Not feeling much. Press harder.”

A Chan obediently squeezed harder: “How about now?”

Bai Xiuming shot back: “Your skills are mediocre.”

Though her skills were lacking, her temper wasn’t. When the bribe failed, A Chan immediately flipped out and stopped massaging.

As the pressure on his shoulders vanished, Bai Xiuming asked, “Why stop?”

“My hands hurt.” A Chan thrust her hands forward for him to see. Her arms wrapped around his neck from behind, making it look as if she were embracing him.

Bai Xiuming studied the slender fingers reaching from behind, took hold of them, and gently rubbed them.

“Why didn’t she choose to report it to the authorities back then?” he asked.

A Chan sighed. “She lost her memory years ago. By the time she remembered and went to report it, the blood test came back wrong.”

Bai Xiuming frowned. “She was drugged?”

Clearly, he also knew about the medicine that could alter bloodlines.

“Mm. She was out of options. She finally made it to the capital with the Ghost Opera Troupe, praying the prince and princess would notice something, only to see a happy family instead.”

Bai Xiuming held her hand, turned to look at her, and asked, “You feel outraged for her?”

“Shouldn’t I?” A Chan said earnestly. “Only when all hell breaks loose will everyone who wronged her face the punishment they deserve.”