Chapter 108: Who struck the first killing blow
Zhou Yuanshen saw his mother off back to Jiangyun Courtyard, then went out with his younger brother.
Their father sent someone to summon him to the study.
“I want to go too!” Zhou Yuanqi, always eager to join in, piped up.
Second Master’s face was grave.
“Father, don’t ask Third Brother. I’ll explain everything!” Zhou Yuanqi was raring to go.
Second Master sighed helplessly. “Alright, alright, you speak.”
Zhou Yuanqi cleared his throat and began chattering away.
“Grandmother wanted Grandmaster Yang to spout nonsense, insisting that Third Sister-in-Law would suffer a blood-related calamity. If Third Sister-in-Law didn’t enter the formation, then if anything happened to her inside the mansion, Grandmother would have an excuse to blame it on fate. That would put Third Sister-in-Law in serious danger.
Third Sister-in-Law realized this immediately, but my mother didn’t think that far,” Zhou Yuanqi said, sneering spitefully.
Second Master clicked his tongue. “Be careful or you’ll get a whipping.”
Zhou Yuanqi stuck out his tongue and went on.
In short, after Grandmaster Yang’s ominous words, Cheng Zhao was forced into the formation.
Everyone present didn’t understand the mysterious formation and thought it was just like a temple ritual—a way to seek comfort, nothing more.
So no one paid it much mind.
But Zhou Yuanshen, his brother, and Cheng Zhao were very alert.
When the wooden hairpins were handed out, Cheng Zhao felt something was off; Hu Zhiwei took the initiative to put one on her, replacing her original hairpin.
Grandmaster Yang gave everyone ordinary wooden hairpins, identical for all; Hu Zhiwei’s was a magical tool crafted by Grandmaster Yang himself.
Cheng Zhao later secretly took it off and switched it with Zhou Yuanqi’s; Zhou Yuanqi hadn’t worn his, so no one noticed the boy.
“Third Sister-in-Law hid the magical tool up her sleeve, always wanting to find a place to discard it. Unexpectedly, Sun Zhiya deliberately bumped into her,” Zhou Yuanqi said.
The Fifth Prince coveted Cheng Zhao’s beauty; Consort Dou insulted Cheng Zhao’s family; Sun Zhiya provoked her again. So Cheng Zhao swapped the magical tool with the plain hairpin on Sun Zhiya’s head.
“At the time, no one knew what use it had,” Zhou Yuanqi said, “She just switched it for peace of mind.”
Second Master’s expression grew even more serious.
“Third Brother immediately spotted the formation’s core—it’s an Eight-Star Formation. I saw it too, and I even told Third Brother that the ‘life gate’ was at the ‘Li’ position,” Zhou Yuanqi was eager to show off.
“...You’d better spend more time on your proper studies. How did you manage to learn Qimen Dunjia?” Second Master sighed.
“Third Brother learned it too. Why don’t you say that to him?”
“Qimen Dunjia is a military strategy technique; it must be learned. Are you planning to join the army as well?” Second Master asked.
Zhou Yuanqi snorted.
He was dissatisfied. “If you don’t want to hear it, fine, I won’t say anymore. You keep interrupting.”
Second Master: “...”
Zhou Yuanqi couldn’t hold back. How could he just stop mid-sentence?
He went on: “Third Brother found the ‘Li’ position of the Eight-Star Formation without using a compass.”
Second Master glanced at Zhou Yuanshen.
Zhou Yuanshen said, “I only know the basics—I can disrupt a formation, but I can’t set one up myself.”
Being able to set up a formation is the true mark of skill.
Grandmaster Yang is an expert in Qimen Dunjia. If he were to set up military formations in the army, he might win every battle.
Zhou Yuanshen still hoped to learn from him, but since Grandmaster Yang planned to scheme against Cheng Zhao—
Then he was doomed.
Second Master turned his gaze back to Zhou Yuanqi, signaling him to continue.
“The formations and magical instruments aren’t bad. Sun Zhiya must have been guilty as a thief—he didn’t wander around long before his mind went fuzzy,” Zhou Yuanqi said again.
The Second Master was slightly shocked. “Is it really that powerful?”
“True power belongs to sorcerers who can call the wind and summon the rain. These are just petty tricks. Father, have you ever seen miasma? The old Taoist set up the formation in the bamboo grove, where the air was already stale. Being in there makes people uncomfortable.
Add a few subtle moves, and it’s easy to make someone lose their senses,” Zhou Yuanqi said boldly.
The Second Master was speechless.
“Sun Zhiya got confused and was killed with the Fifth Prince’s dagger,” Zhou Yuanqi said.
The Second Master sighed.
“Father, what people call ‘evil energy’ is just a common phenomenon in the world. When they say it invades the brain and causes confusion, it’s like being drunk—exposing one’s true nature.
Miss Sun probably had a violent temper since childhood—spoiled and willful, often beating and scolding the servants, though outsiders didn’t know. Once she was ‘drunk,’ she went mad and tried to kill someone.
As for the Fifth Prince, why he didn’t fight back or how the dagger was taken from him, we don’t know. Who’s to say he wasn’t the one who first drew the dagger to attack Miss Sun?” Zhou Yuanshen said.
Hearing this, Zhou Yuanqi nodded in approval. “You have insight. That’s a very good analysis. Neither of them were innocent; both had secrets in their hearts, which led to one dead and one injured.”
The Second Master was speechless again.
They also mentioned the matter of the poisonous snakes appearing in the formation.
“Those snakes definitely didn’t just suddenly appear. To get poisonous snakes within half an hour, it had to be the Consort—she had over thirty people with her,” Zhou Yuanqi said.
Zhou Yuanshen: “Indeed, the snakes didn’t just wander in by chance; they were deliberately released.”
“Third Sister-in-Law has no grudge with Consort Dou, yet she tried to kill her. These royal family members don’t care about anyone else’s life,” Zhou Yuanqi said bitterly.
He had no sympathy for Helian Hong, the Fifth Prince.
Especially since Helian Hong looked at Third Sister-in-Law with such longing, completely indifferent to the others present.
If Third Sister-in-Law had to attend social events in the future and met him at a banquet, and he kept staring like that again and again, her reputation would be ruined.
Destroying the reputation of a noble lady, a titled madam, is like killing her socially.
He couldn’t control his greed and didn’t care about Third Sister-in-Law’s life or death. He deserved to die.
The Second Master sighed deeply after listening.
“...Since I can remember, there has never been a time of clarity in the court. The glory of ‘a wise ruler and virtuous ministers’ I’ve only read about in history books,” the Second Master said.
Zhou Yuanqi: “Father, every dynasty has its filth. You don’t need to be saddened by this. True purity is always just what the history books gloss over and cover up.”
The Second Master smiled good-naturedly. “You’re still so young, yet you see things more clearly than I do.”
“Because I read more, Father,” Zhou Yuanqi said. “You read less and see the world from the bottom of a well, always thinking everything is narrow and petty.”
The Second Master, in a good mood, smiled and patted Zhou Yuanqi’s head.
He praised his son for being diligent.
It was getting late, and Zhou Yuanqi had to go to the clan academy. He was speaking so passionately that he left with a hint of reluctance.
When Zhou Yuanshen was about to leave, the Second Master called after him.
“Ah Shen, you...”
“Father, like I said, if I don’t do it, someone else will. You don’t need to try to stop me,” Zhou Yuanshen said without breaking his stride.
He strode away.
Second Master sat alone, a wave of despair and hopelessness washing over him once again. He desperately wanted to help the children, but his thoughts inevitably drifted to his sister, his eldest brother, and his nephew.
He closed his eyes tightly, swallowing back the tears that threatened to spill.
In early April, Grandmaster Yang died.
He was captured by Zhou Yuanshen and his men and “committed suicide out of guilt.”
With Grandmaster Yang’s death, there was no one left to testify, and the blame for the Fifth Prince’s death was pinned squarely on him. The Chongyang Temple was sealed off, and while the Taoist priests were not implicated, they all fled for their lives.
Sun Zhiya went mad and was left disfigured, a grotesque scar marking her right cheek.
The court ministers sought to vent their anger on the Qingyuan Marquis’s household. The Fifth Prince’s maternal grandfather, the Duke of Pi, fiercely demanded that both the Qingyuan Marquis’s estate and the Zhou family be held accountable, but the emperor rebuked him in anger.