Everyone was shocked. The Duchess abruptly rose to her feet and reprimanded, "Why the panic? Speak clearly! What happened?"
The maid knelt on the ground, trembling as she knocked her forehead against the floor. "S-someone is dead… In the river… I saw it with my own eyes…"
Duchess Yin and Empress Yin Yiyi exchanged a glance, instantly reading the same ominous message in each other's eyes.
Without hesitation, the two hurried toward the garden.
Curiosity and fear intermingled among the ladies and noblewomen present. Some, emboldened by their nerves, followed suit, and Qiu Che blended into their ranks.
Li Qingwu shot a reassuring glance at Yao Tai before stepping forward as well.
Sure enough, just as the maid had said, a corpse floated in the pond within the garden.
Servants fished the body out. When they pushed aside the hair covering its face, they found a young woman, her complexion was bloated and darkened, her eyes tightly shut. She had clearly been dead for quite some time. Her clothing identified her as a palace maid.
The Empress's gaze flickered, and her attendant Lianyi couldn't help but gasp in shock.
The deceased was none other than Ying Yue, another palace maid who served the Empress.
One of the senior attendants covered her nose, leaned in to check for any breath, and shook her head, there was no saving her.
The Empress's expression darkened as she abruptly turned toward the newly arrived Li Qingwu, her voice sharp: "You said you were brought here by a message from her?"
Li Qingwu froze for a moment at the sight of the corpse, instinctively raising a hand to cover her nose, suppressing the urge to retch. "Yes…"
She had spent years as the Empress's daughter. There was no way she wouldn't recognize the chief palace maid serving by her mother's side.
The Empress's tone turned frigid. "Then tell me, why is she here now, dead?"
That was not an easy question to answer.
If Li Qingwu's previous statement was true, then she was the last person to have seen Ying Yue alive, making her the prime suspect. That also meant her testimony was now unreliable.
If she denied it, she would be guilty of lying and her credibility would be just as ruined.
There was no way to explain why she and Yao Tai had encountered this situation in the first place.
Li Qingwu was intelligent and had spent enough time in the palace to understand the weight of words. She instantly recognized the trap hidden in the question.
She did not respond immediately, and the scene fell into brief silence.
Yao Tai, wrapped in a thin outer robe, strolled over lazily and commented, "Your Majesty, since there's been a death, shouldn't we report it to the authorities first? Or does Your Majesty intend to handle this privately?"
The Empress had yet to make a decision.
A terrible premonition gripped her. Something told her this matter could not be reported to the authorities. But with a dead body appearing in front of so many noble ladies, silencing the witnesses would not be easy.
Besides, she deeply suspected Li Qingwu.
Even if she hadn't committed the murder herself, Ying Yue's death had to be connected to her.
If it wasn't, then why had an innocent gathering turned into such a scandal? The incident would tarnish the Duke's household's reputation.
No, the Empress did not want this to go public.
Displeased, she snapped, "Since when does a mere courtesan from a pleasure house have the right to speak when I am addressing the Princess?"
Yao Tai immediately fell to her knees in a smooth motion. "I spoke out of turn. Please, Your Majesty, forgive me."
The Empress turned her gaze back to Li Qingwu, about to continue her interrogation, when suddenly, the steady sound of synchronized footsteps approached from outside the courtyard.
Qiu Che's instincts screamed at her. She immediately lowered her head, stepped out of the crowd unnoticed, and quietly pressed herself against the courtyard wall. With a light push of her foot, she vaulted over it soundlessly.
No one noticed.
The next moment, a squad of imperial guards in flying fish robes poured into the courtyard, swiftly surrounding everyone.
The man leading them bore a long saber, his expression stern, Commander Cui Wenshen, the infamous "Cold-Faced Death God," a third-rank officer of the Imperial Secret Police, the Embroidered Guards.
Unlike the Imperial Guards, who answered to multiple authorities, the Embroidered Guards took orders only from the Emperor himself.
They never moved as a unit unless it was an urgent matter.
The Empress's heart sank. "Lord Cui… what is the meaning of this?"
"A report has been made that a South Yi spy has infiltrated the Duke's residence," Cui Wenshen announced.
"By His Majesty's order—" Cui Wenshen produced the imperial gold edict, his voice steady and unwavering. "Everyone in the Duke's estate, regardless of status, is to be taken to the Imperial Prison for questioning."
Before the imperial decree, no one, not even the third-rank commander of the Imperial Guards, Yuan Fu, could defy the order.
However, given the Empress's noble status, it was unlikely she was truly involved. The Emperor granted her a degree of face, taking only the other attendees, including Yao Tai and Fu Ling.
Li Qingwu, the Empress, and the Duchess were separated and placed under house arrest.
For the Empress, once the nation's honored mother to be publicly detained by her own husband's orders was beyond humiliating.
Still, perhaps to preserve the last shred of dignity, she refrained from causing a scene. Maintaining a forced, composed smile, she followed the Embroidered Guards.
Regardless of how the noble ladies protested, the Embroidered Guards remained unyielding and took everyone away.
Cui Wenshen cast a glance at the lifeless body on the ground before signaling his men to take it with them.
All this, Qiu Che later learned from Wu Yiqi.
As luck would have it, Wu Yiqi was now working as a seventh-rank officer in the Embroidered Guards. He had been part of Cui Wenshen's team that carried out the arrests.
He hadn't dared to tell her in person and had instead sent word through a messenger, relaying the general situation.
Li Qingwu never returned that day.
The events that had unfolded at the Duke's residence, first the exposure of an illicit affair, then a servant's mysterious death, followed by accusations of espionage, and finally the Empress's house arrest had sent shockwaves through the court.
The Duke, whose wife, daughter, and even "granddaughter" had all been placed under house arrest, turned completely gray-haired overnight.
By the next day, reports regarding the incident had piled up on the Emperor's desk.
Some accused the Emperor of acting recklessly by detaining the Empress. Others demanded to know the source of the accusation, was it reliable? Some took the opportunity to stir the waters further… The memorials covered a wide range of reactions.
As an imperial attendant, Qiu Che had full access to these documents, openly placed before her.
She remained impassive, quietly grinding ink for the Emperor and organizing his scrolls.
Li Shi, on the other hand, looked utterly exasperated. Suddenly, he spoke. "Minister Qiu, I placed Lehe under house arrest just like that… Do you have any thoughts?"
Qiu Che replied calmly, "Your Majesty acts with reason."
Bullshit.
She wasn't as calm as she appeared on the surface.
What had happened this time shattered the advantage she had relied on using her "foresight" to avoid risks.
In her past life, there had indeed been a flower-viewing banquet, but in her hazy memories, no such incident had ever occurred.
Some things had completely changed with her rebirth—
And never had Qiu Che been more acutely aware of this than she was now.
Rebirth had only granted her the opportunity to start over with ten years of foreknowledge; it did not guarantee a smooth, effortless path.
Nothing was ever truly within her control, she knew that.
The political landscape was treacherous, shifting unpredictably. One misstep, and she would plunge into an abyss.
She warned herself of this, suppressing the frustration welling inside her, and quietly continued organizing her thoughts.
She was waiting, waiting for the Emperor to speak first.
After receiving the news last night, Qiu Che had pondered the matter over and over, unable to sleep until the latter half of the night. The more she thought about it, the more inconsistencies she noticed.
Not to mention how, in just one day, so much had suddenly happened within the Duke's manor.
Even if it were merely a palace maid's sudden death, an Imperial Guard's illicit affair, or even the discovery of spies from the Southern Yi… none of these alone would be enough to warrant placing the Empress under immediate house arrest.
The Embroidered Guards had arrested people, yet there had been no further action, no interrogations, no releases. This could only mean one of two things.
Either the case was too complex to unravel quickly,
Or the Emperor had other plans.
As an outsider to this case, if she wanted to uncover the truth and protect Li Qingwu and Yao Tai, she had no choice but to take over the investigation herself.
But how could an ordinary imperial attendant be given charge of such a case?
She decided to take a gamble.
She bet that this case was far from simple. Bet that the Emperor, plagued by suspicion, trusted no one.
Bet that he would also be gambling, on her integrity and loyalty.
In the long silence, the Emperor, Li Shi, studied her for a moment before suddenly letting out a chuckle.
"Minister Qiu, you always leave me perplexed, do you truly care for Lehe? You seem utterly indifferent to her."
"Duty to the nation comes before personal affections," Qiu Che replied calmly. "I do hold deep regard for Her Highness, but I also trust that, as her father, Your Majesty would never harm her. So, even if I worry, as long as Your Majesty remains silent, I will not overstep my bounds."
To know what Li Qingwu had endured in the past, yet still utter these words of diplomatic decorum…
Even though Qiu Che was well-practiced in exchanging flattery with others, even with enemies she still found herself disgusted on Li Qingwu's behalf.
Fortunately, the Emperor didn't notice anything amiss.
He seemed quite satisfied with her answer, waving a hand to dismiss the attending eunuchs and palace maids.
Then he said, "Come play a game of chess with me."
Qiu Che paused briefly before giving a measured response, "Yes, Your Majesty."
The two sat cross-legged across from each other, the Emperor playing black first.
Throughout history, it seemed that whenever politicians needed to discuss serious matters, they often used a chess match to set the tone, cultivating an air of casual indifference, as if the rise and fall of power were mere pieces swept from the board.
But playing chess with the Emperor was different from playing with others. Different from playing with the Empress Dowager, too.
The Empress Dowager was, to some extent, an ally. The Emperor was not.
Despite ten years of political maneuvering, despite having risen to the rank of Prime Minister in her past life she had rarely sat face-to-face with the Emperor like this.
Playing chess while responding to his probing questions was an exhausting task. Tension, if not carefully concealed, could easily expose weakness.
Qiu Che wasn't afraid, but she remained on high alert.
Thin tendrils of dragon incense curled from the nearby burner, adding a quiet solemnity to the atmosphere.
The Emperor made two moves, then, as expected, broke the silence.
"You must have heard, a maid from the Duke's manor was found dead."
Qiu Che nodded. "I have heard some mention of it."
The Emperor traced a fingertip over a chess piece.
"Last night, two more bodies were unearthed from the manor's pond."
Qiu Che's hand, mid-move, paused slightly.
"The coroner examined them, a man and a woman, dead for nearly twenty years." The Emperor narrowed his eyes in recollection. "They had long been buried at the bottom of the pond, but after last night's heavy rain, the rushing water unearthed their remains."
"Minister Qiu," he mused, "can you guess who they are?"
Qiu Che slowly shook her head.
The Emperor chuckled and placed a piece on the board.
"What a coincidence," he said, his tone carrying hidden meaning. "It turns out they were none other than Minister Wu from the Ministry of Rites the very man you recently inquired about and his concubine."
Qiu Che's expression flickered with surprise. "Minister Wu's… How could their bodies end up at the Duke's manor?"
Observing her calm and unshaken demeanor, the Emperor studied her for a moment before finally looking away.
"That," he said, "is precisely what puzzles me. But the accessories found on the corpses confirm their identities beyond doubt."
He then asked, "Minister Qiu, what do you think happened?"
Since the Emperor had invited her opinion, Qiu Che answered cautiously, following his lead.
"Could it be that someone intends to use this old case as leverage against Minister Wu?"
In truth, based on the Emperor's hints and what she already knew, she had a vague theory in mind.
But without concrete evidence, there was no use in stating it outright.
Before the Emperor, she opted for a safer, more conventional response.
"What an interesting coincidence," the Emperor murmured, a smirk playing on his lips. "Just yesterday, the one who reported the presence of Southern Yi spies in the Duke's manor… was none other than Minister Wu himself."