The Candle Burns Red - Chapter 3

We landed in Zhao De’s courtyard. Two Western Depot guards stood outside his door.

“As you ordered, my lord, we’ve stayed with Zhao De all evening. He hasn’t left for a moment.”

Pei Xiuwen strode into the courtyard and shoved the door open. Zhao De shrieked and fell off his chair. “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!”

These useless officials spent their days squeezing money out of the people. No wonder a man with so much on his conscience feared ghosts.

Miss Zhao stood nervously and helped her father up, her eyes fixed on Pei Xiuwen. A guard had stayed at Zhao De’s side. Pei Xiuwen glanced at him; the man gave a small shake of his head. Zhao De really had not left the room. Then who was the figure in white?

I clasped my hands and put on a mysterious air. “I’ve divined a calamity in your fate. Only a blood relative can shield you from it. Do you have a twin brother?”

“No, no. I was my mother’s only son. My daughter is my blood relative. Can she shield me?”

Zhao De pushed Miss Zhao straight toward me. She burst into frightened tears and looked at Pei Xiuwen. “My lord, could you please ask the Divine Maiden to find another way? I would owe you my life.”

Pei Xiuwen looked at me, amusement glinting in his eyes. I walked over and deliberately rammed into him. “There is another way,” I told Zhao De. “Take me to your ancestral hall. I must perform a rite.”

He believed me completely and obeyed without protest. The hall glowed with candlelight. I solemnly set up an altar and instructed everyone to stay out until dawn.

Once the doors closed, Pei Xiuwen emerged from the shadows and came to stand over me. “What are you up to now?”

I ignored him and searched the hall. Strange. Where was it?

“Looking for this?” He held a register in one hand and leaned lazily against a wall, raising an eyebrow at me. I reached for it and caught only air. He lifted his arm higher and watched with wicked pleasure while I jumped for the book.

“I thought you were only a little fraud playing at spirits and gods,” he said. “It seems you do have a brain. You knew to look for the family genealogy here.”

“I could never match your boundless compassion, my lord. What a great benefactor you are.”

“Is that why you’re angry?” He looked surprised, as though I were the unreasonable one.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Our eyes met. His expression softened, and when he spoke again, he was earnest. “There are things I shouldn’t say yet, but His Majesty arranged this marriage against my wishes. I began my service as a palace eunuch. I don’t want to hold you back.

“Once this matter is settled, I’ll explain to His Majesty and ask him to withdraw his decree.”

I pretended not to hear him. He obligingly bent down toward me, and I snatched the register. Hugging it to my chest, I sprang out of reach and smiled triumphantly.

“The killer dared strike at the Pei residence. I might be next. Let’s solve the case first.”

By the dim candles I leafed through the Zhao family genealogy until my eyes ached. I never found the person I wanted. Pei Xiuwen had already read it. He stood nearby with folded arms and poured cold water on my hopes.

“Zhao De is the only one of his generation in this branch. No twin brother. I’m afraid you’re disappointed.”

“Perhaps this person committed some offense and was left out of the genealogy.”

He glanced sideways at me. “In a great family, the elders enter every boy in the genealogy at birth. Could an infant have committed an offense?”

The register offered little about Zhao De. Though the Zhao clan was large, his line had become a declining side branch. His father and grandfather had been minor runners at a county office. Zhao De had begun his studies at eight, passed the provincial examination at twenty-one, and risen all the way to prefect of the capital. He had certainly brought honor to his family.

“Then we have to visit his hometown.” I looked up at Pei Xiuwen with a smile. “Might I borrow some men?”

“You ask awfully easily.”

“If the killer murders me, there’ll be one fewer person in the world to entertain you. Keep me alive for your amusement, my lord.”

“I have no need of that.”

He strode out of the ancestral hall. I meant to follow, but heard a lock turn outside. Through the door I heard him instruct the guards: “The Divine Maiden is conducting a rite. No one is to disturb her.”

What a wicked man.