The Candle Burns Red - Chapter 5

The woman’s stage name was Lingxiao. Years ago Li Dai had found her injured in the wilderness. Her body was covered in wounds, including a gash on her back that went to the bone. Since Manyin Theater sheltered women who had suffered enough, Li Dai had not asked for a story that might reopen her pain.

I saw Lingxiao in the imperial prison. With the paint washed off, her face was indeed identical to Zhao De’s. The Western Depot’s methods of torture were cruel. However strong-willed she was, she eventually confessed.

Lingxiao was Zhao De’s elder twin sister. Her family had never given her a proper name; they called her Big Girl. Zhao De had started school at eight, but he was lazy, playful, and a poor student. Lingxiao, who only listened to him recite at home now and then, had a brilliant mind. Zhao De often begged her to dress as a boy and attend school in his place while he went off with his worthless friends. In boys’ clothing, the twins were nearly indistinguishable.

When the civil examinations approached, Zhao De knew nothing, so he begged Lingxiao to take them for him as well. Her results were extraordinary: she passed three successive examinations, and the emperor personally selected “Zhao De” as the third-ranked candidate in the final examination.

Zhao De joyfully took up his appointment. He sent Lingxiao home, promising to bring the whole family to the capital to live in comfort. On the road back, assassins he had hired attacked her. She barely survived. Li Dai rescued her, and Lingxiao spent the following years hiding her strength, waiting to avenge herself.

“Why murder innocent people?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it have been faster to take Zhao De’s head?”

“He tried to kill me for the sake of his office. So many people have died in the capital, and he can’t solve the case. Sooner or later he’ll lose his post. Then I’ll kill him.”

The case caused an uproar. His Majesty ordered a full investigation, which confirmed that someone else had taken the examinations for Zhao De. Enraged by the deception, the emperor sentenced him to be executed after autumn. The Zhao estate was confiscated, and officers found an enormous hoard of wealth he had embezzled.

His Majesty praised me for “driving out evil” and asked what reward I wanted. What a miserly old emperor. Every time he rewarded me, he made me name the gift myself.

I explained that my sect kept apart from worldly life and could not send me off as a bride. I asked Her Majesty the empress to provide a dowry so that I could marry Pei Xiuwen like any other woman. The emperor was surprised but readily agreed.

Not long after my visit, Lingxiao died mysteriously in the imperial prison. Zhao De was soon beheaded. Brother and sister were rolled in straw mats and dumped in a mass grave.

One day a gatekeeper brought word that a Miss Zhao wanted to meet me at Wangjiang Tower. She wished me to conduct rites for the dead. Miss Zhao? Could it be Zhao De’s daughter, Zhao Xiangyu? After the family’s downfall, she had been reduced to a government slave and sent to the imperial entertainment bureau. Feeling sorry for her, I went.

Wangjiang Tower was the capital’s grandest restaurant. I had passed its doors several times but never gone in, chiefly because I had no money. Climbing the stairs to the private room, I eagerly imagined the feast: duck with three delicacies, crystal-glazed pork knuckle, crisp quail, bamboo shoots with ham…

But the table held only a jug of wine and a plate of peanuts.

Zhao Xiangyu came slowly from behind crimson gauze curtains. She looked thin and pitiful, her father’s memorial tablet in her arms. Her knees buckled and she knelt before me, pleading in a sweet voice for me to perform a rite for him.

“Get up first.” I reached for her, then caught an unusual fragrance. Before I could cover my nose, the world spun and all strength left my limbs.

She casually dropped the tablet and kicked me to the floor with a vicious smile. “It should be entertaining to watch the exalted Divine Maiden fall from her pedestal.”

Several ragged old men approached with leering smiles. They reeked of urine and filth: elderly eunuchs released from the palace. Zhao Xiangyu’s lovely face wore a smile that chilled me.

“Don’t play too roughly,” she told them. “Keep her alive until Lord Pei gets here.”

She meant not only to violate and humiliate me, but to make Pei Xiuwen witness it. I struggled backward, but the men seized my ankles and dragged me toward the inner room.

I glared at Zhao Xiangyu and forced the words through my teeth. “One last chance. Let me go.”

“What sort of joke is that?”

Then she could not blame me for showing no mercy. I pulled the whistle from beneath my collar and blew hard. Its shrill note sounded like a bird’s cry.

“What’s that noise?” Zhao Xiangyu faltered.

Several red-clad figures burst through the window, each armed with a long whip. They formed a shield before me. The man in front helped me carefully to my feet. Behind his fanged, blue-faced mask, his dark eyes were full of concern.

“This subordinate came too late, Pavilion Master. I let you be frightened.”

Zhao Xiangyu froze. “Who are you?”

I pressed several acupoints on my body, temporarily suppressing the drug, then walked up and gripped her chin. “I am Qingluan, master of the Embroidered Guard Pavilion.”

At the name, Zhao Xiangyu collapsed like a deflated fish, trembling uncontrollably.