The Candle Burns Red - Chapter 2

I cast a divination. The copper coins scattered toward the southwest. Pointing to a tall pavilion in that direction, I asked, “What place is that?”

Zhao De went pale. “My residence. That pavilion is my daughter’s private quarters!”

Miss Zhao was to be the next victim. I told him to take her out of the pavilion, gave him several talismans, and warned him to let no one near it that night. After sending everyone away, I went inside alone.

Miss Zhao’s rooms were splendid enough to rival the imperial palace. At midnight, an agile figure climbed through the window. A red thread fine as a hair tugged my spirit bell. Its chime woke me at once.

“Don’t shout. It’s me.” A warm palm covered my lips.

Pei Xiuwen?

I took hold of his hand, rested my cheek in his palm, and smiled up at him. “Did you miss me, my lord?”

He pulled his hand back sharply, his expression grave. “When you cast those coins, you deliberately threw them southwest. Zhao De is too much of a fool to notice. Do you take me for one as well?”

I pouted. Dealing with clever people was so tiresome. They took all the fun out of teasing someone. “Then why are you here in the middle of the night? Have you come to haul me off to the imperial prison?”

He turned his face away. “Be quiet.” After surveying the room, he sprang lightly up to a ceiling beam and vanished into the darkness.

I lay back on the bed, arms folded behind my head, and looked up at him. “If a vicious ghost comes, I may not have time to protect you.”

“We don’t yet know whether the killer is a person or a ghost,” he said with a snort.

He seemed cold and solitary, but underneath he was proud and easily baited. A few words from me were enough to draw him in. Still, he was right. The killer might not be a ghost.

The capital’s prefect had visited his hometown recently. No murders had occurred while he was away, and they had resumed after his return. Whoever was responsible was targeting him. That was why I had deliberately sent the coins toward his house.

Outside, everything was deathly quiet. Then came the crack of several branches falling in the courtyard.

Here it was.

“Where is my head? Give me back my head…”

A dark shape drifted past the window. At a glance, it really did look like a ghost. “Who’s there?” I cried, pretending to be frightened.

A violent wind rose outside. Countless white blossoms blew into the room and whirled everywhere. I watched a figure in white float slowly inside. Silver flashed beneath its robe.

“Give me back my head!” The shrill voice was impossible to place as male or female. The figure lunged at me. I screamed behind my hand, jumped off the bed, and dodged around a pillar. A sharp sickle swept toward my head. I barely avoided it; the blade cut a deep groove in the wood.

“My lord, aren’t you going to save me?” I shouted, clutching my head.

At the last possible moment, Pei Xiuwen dropped from above and charged the white figure. As it passed me, I caught a glimpse of a bloodless, familiar face. He exchanged several blows with it inside the room. Then it hurled a cloth bundle. Thick smoke filled the room, followed by the sound of a window breaking.

I collapsed onto the floor, still shaking, a hand pressed to my chest as I gasped for breath. I glared at him plaintively. “If you’d waited any longer, your future wife would have lost her head.”

Pei Xiuwen strode over and pulled me to my feet. He had been testing my fighting skills. That was why he had waited until the killer was about to take my life before intervening.

Moonlight poured through the window. Standing beside it, he had lost some of his daylight ferocity. There was a natural elegance about him. How had a man like this come to serve as a palace eunuch?

“Did you see the killer’s face?” he asked.

I thought for a moment and nodded. I had seen it clearly. It was Zhao De’s face.

Pei Xiuwen’s brows drew together. As though something had occurred to him, he hurried toward the window.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

He stopped, a trace of disdain in his eyes. “What a nuisance.”

He held out an arm, and I ran to him. Before I could come to a halt, he swept me against him. The next instant we were airborne, skimming across rows of rooftops. I hooked my arms around his neck and shamelessly took the chance to feel him up.

“Your lightness skill is excellent, my lord. Have you trained since childhood?”

Pei Xiuwen ignored me.