The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 88

“Oh my. What reckless fool has fallen outside my door?”

Prince Rui looked up from the ground, aching from the fall.

A young woman in bean-green clothes stood in the courtyard.

Her features were not exceptionally beautiful, but her snowy skin looked as tender as the milk curds served in the palace.

When Prince Rui stared up at her from the ground, embarrassment and anger crossed her face.

“What a rude and shameless young gentleman.”

Prince Rui looked at her, then turned toward the open doorway.

There was no one outside.

His final guards had disappeared.

The woman’s gentle scolding sounded unbearably ordinary, yet his mind remained filled with the horrors he had just witnessed.

The contradiction battered his thoughts.

Then the woman went to the entrance and tried to peer out.

“Don’t!” Prince Rui hurriedly warned her.

Unexpectedly, the street outside remained silent, and the woman came to no harm.

She turned back in confusion. “Don’t what?”

Prince Rui sat collapsed on the ground, as though his mind had been broken.

For an imperial prince, everything that had happened exceeded what he could endure.

Now that all his guards were gone, he finally realized how weak and incapable he truly was.

Dizziness overwhelmed him, and he nearly fainted.

A delicate, cool hand touched his forehead.

“Young Master seems feverish. Has the heat confused your head and made you speak nonsense?”

The sleeve hanging from her hand still carried the smell of cooking smoke and grease.

Clearly, she had been working at the stove.

Prince Rui was as affected as Zhao Yaoguang. He burned incense over his clothes every day and covered his nose with a scented sachet whenever he encountered a bad smell.

Today, however, the cooking odor on this woman’s sleeve seemed more intimate and pleasant than any fragrance in the world.

He seized her sleeve.

“Madam, please save me.”

“If you help me, I will reward you generously.”

The woman had been about to pull away, but his words made her pause.

After hesitating, she said, “Very well. I don’t need any great reward. Just send me a few more pigs later.”

She muttered, “There are fewer and fewer pigs nearby. I can go without, but my husband and children still need to eat.”

“The children must eat their fill and eat well if they’re going to grow.”

As she spoke, she helped Prince Rui to his feet.

“Young Master seems feverish. Come inside and sit.”

When they drew close, the woman stopped and swallowed.

“Young Master, you smell delicious.”

The corners of her mouth stretched sideways, then immediately returned to normal.

Prince Rui stiffened.

Was the woman flirting with him?

His thoughts raced, and he produced what he believed to be his most attractive smile.

“It is perilla incense. Shall I have some sent to Madam later?”

The woman brightened. “Thank you, Young Master. This perilla incense smells wonderful. It makes me hungry.”

That was a strange way to describe it.

Prince Rui revealed nothing and maintained his gentle smile.

He might not be especially intelligent, but growing up in the palace had sharpened his instincts.

In such an abnormal place, a person who appeared this normal either possessed terrifying power or was a terrible anomaly herself.

Either possibility gave him every reason to treat her with warm courtesy.

Night was approaching.

No matter what, he needed a temporary refuge in the darkness while he waited for those Jingning Guard hounds to rescue him.

Supported by the woman, he sat at the square table in the main room.

After thanking her, he discreetly examined his surroundings.

The modest house was tidy and clean, plainly swept every day.

A pot of common orchids stood in one corner, carefully tended.

Prince Rui was about to question her when she seemed to remember something and hurried outside.

“My husband will be home soon. I have to stew the pork, or he and the children will go hungry.”

With that, she simply left a strange man alone in her main room.

Prince Rui called after her, but she acted as though he did not exist and departed without looking back.

He sat anxiously for a while, catching his breath, then went to the courtyard gate.

Both hands closed around the wooden handles.

After a long hesitation, he lowered them.

He did not dare test whether what had happened outside was real.

Illusion or truth, he could not face it.

He could only hide inside this small patch of apparent safety.

After standing there a long time, he returned indoors.

His mouth was dry, but he still did not dare touch the water on the table.

Time passed quickly, and darkness fell.

An extraordinarily rich smell of meat drifted from the rear courtyard.

A faint scent of blood threaded through it.

The sky continued to darken.

Soon, the main room was completely black.

Prince Rui had no choice but to rise, trembling, and search for a flint to light the oil lamp.

In the silent darkness, he listened to his own heavy breathing and felt his way toward a corner cabinet beside the room.

By custom, households kept their flint, steel, and tinder wrapped in red paper beneath the portrait of the Kitchen God in the main room, praying for protection from fire.

After fumbling about, Prince Rui found a flint, some tinder, and a roll of yellow paper.

He groped his way back to the table and gently struck the flint.

The stones clicked together and threw several sparks.

Click.

Click.

The sound was exceptionally sharp at night.

With each strike, Prince Rui’s heart jolted.

At last, one spark caught the tinder, and a small flame rose.

He hurriedly cupped it, blew twice with care, and lit the oil lamp.

The dim yellow flame swayed like salvation within the darkness.

Light drove the shadows away.

Prince Rui sighed in relief and raised his head.

A wax-white face filled his vision.

Black hair framed the woman’s cheeks, and dark, empty eyes stared directly at him.

“Ah!”

Prince Rui let out a dreadful scream, stumbled several steps backward, and fell.

Warm wetness spread between his legs.

The woman seemed not to hear his scream.

She blinked. “Why hasn’t Husband returned with the children?”

Humiliation and anger consumed Prince Rui where he sat.

He pulled the front of his robe across his legs and instinctively wanted to rebuke her.

But beneath the yellow light, her waxy face and fixed eyes immediately weakened his courage.

He said gently, “Do not worry, Madam. Your husband has probably been delayed. He will return soon.”

Perhaps his reassurance worked.

The woman tilted her head, seeming to awaken, and pointed toward a room on the right.

“That is the bedroom prepared for the children. Young Master may rest there.”

Then she rose onto the tips of her toes and drifted outside, skirt swaying.

Only then did Prince Rui breathe out.

He climbed from the floor and picked up the oil lamp.

Several times, he raised a foot toward the courtyard gate.

The evil human skins outside or the strange woman here?

The impossible choice drenched him in sweat.

In the end, he did not dare face the certainly fatal skins outside.

Holding up the lamp, he entered the bedroom on the right as the woman had instructed.