PCA Chapter 179

Several days later, when Su Cen entered the Zhang residence again, he noticed that compared to his previous visit, the corridors and lintels throughout the residence were covered with talismans written in vermilion ink. They were even more extensive than the festive decorations put up on New Year’s Eve, but these talismans didn’t convey joy and peace—at first glance, they looked rather eerie.

 

“Is the Daoist from Xuanqing Temple ineffective?” Su Cen asked the servant leading the way. “With so many talismans posted, the rat spirit still can’t be subdued?”

 

“The Daoist master is indeed divine. Since these talismans were put up, that rat spirit hasn’t dared to cause trouble, but…” The servant hesitated, carefully looking around before whispering: “There’s not just one rat spirit in this residence. There might be other evil entities…”

 

“Other evil entities?” Su Cen raised an eyebrow. Had Zhang He disturbed a nest of spirits and monsters?

 

Just as he was about to ask further, he noticed the servant falling silent suddenly. Looking up, he saw Zhang He standing outside the room, coldly examining him with eyes like those of a dead fish.

 

Su Cen greeted him composedly, calling out “Lord Zhang.” Zhang He was clearly still wary of him and responded perfunctorily before returning to the room. Su Cen shook his head with a smile and followed, thinking to himself that this Lord Zhang held quite a grudge.

 

Inside the room, Zhang He had already taken the main seat but showed no intention of offering Su Cen a place to sit. Though his old eyes were cloudy, his mind was clear as a mirror. This Su Cen might be Li Shi’s man, but Zhang He had already retired and was no longer in officialdom, so he didn’t fear Li Shi causing him trouble. Moreover, when the former emperor was alive, he had stood on the emperor’s side and had always disapproved of Li Shi’s reprehensible conduct in court. Although he couldn’t directly confront Li Shi, it felt good to bully one of his people in private.

 

Despite not being offered a seat, Su Cen showed no embarrassment. He looked at a scroll painting hanging on the central wall of the room and said: “Could this painting be the work of Old Master Hu? ‘Pine and Crane for Longevity’—I thought Old Master Hu excelled in landscape painting, but I see his bird and flower paintings are also quite accomplished.”

 

Zhang He raised his chin with a proud expression. “Hu Qing’an is indeed a landscape painter, but this ‘Pine and Crane for Longevity’ was specially painted for me, on my sixtieth birthday.”

 

Su Cen immediately flattered him: “Lord Zhang is truly respected and honored, even Old Master Hu was willing to make an exception for you.”

 

Zhang He, pleased by the compliment, grinned, revealing his bare gums, and finally nodded: “Please sit.”

 

Su Cen smiled and took a seat.

 

He certainly knew who had arranged for Zhang He to appear at Xingqing Palace last time, and he knew whose influence had allowed him to enter Zhang He’s home again. Li Shi had already helped him so much; he couldn’t let him down.

 

Zhang He asked: “Can you really cure my nighttime insomnia?”

 

“To treat an illness, one must prescribe the right medicine,” Su Cen said to him. “May I ask, Lord Zhang, are you unable to sleep, or are you afraid to sleep?”

 

Zhang He’s expression changed, but Su Cen didn’t press him for an answer immediately. Instead, he continued: “If it’s just insomnia, that’s simple. I have a medicine here that helps calm the mind and aids sleep, guaranteed to cure your ailment. But if it’s a matter of the heart… I’m afraid we’ll need to treat the root cause.”

 

Zhang He was still somewhat wary of Su Cen. He narrowed his eyes and thought for a moment before saying: “I just can’t sleep.”

 

Su Cen didn’t call him out on this but smiled gently and said: “Then it’s easy to handle. Please take me to your bedroom, Lord Zhang, so I can administer the medicine.”

 

Compared to the simple and dignified atmosphere of Li Shi’s bedchamber, Zhang He’s was somewhat difficult to look at directly. Su Cen even spotted a woman’s undergarment under his pillow, along with a small vial of medicine with unknown purpose.

 

It seemed this Lord Zhang refused to admit his age, and his reason for taking a concubine was the hope that one day he could still “stand tall” and recapture his vigor.

 

By coincidence, Little Butterfly, the girl who had sold herself out of filial piety to bury her father, came to deliver medicine again. Su Cen took the opportunity to take the medicine from her, smiled and said: “I’ll handle it from here.”

 

Little Butterfly looked at Zhang He with confusion. Only after seeing him nod did she hand the tray to Su Cen, curtseying slightly: “Then I’ll trouble you, young master.”

 

As she was leaving, taking advantage of Zhang He not looking, she secretly caressed Su Cen’s hand (as Su Cen was holding the tray and couldn’t refuse), giving him a coquettish smile before swaying her willow-like waist as she walked away.

 

Su Cen turned and poured the medicine into a Buddhist pine by the window. Then he took out two ounces of aged tea roots from his sleeve and brewed tea for Zhang He. After coaxing him to drink it, he closed the doors and windows, lit the calming incense, and withdrew to wait for the medicine to take effect.

 

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, snoring gradually rose from the room. Su Cen smiled with satisfaction, thinking that Zhang He was fortunate to enjoy the treatment usually reserved for Prince Ning, which could be considered a blessing in disguise.

 

Knowing that Zhang He wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, Su Cen took the liberty of casually strolling through the courtyards of the Zhang residence. Unwittingly, he came to the place where the Daoist had performed rituals earlier. Before he could show himself, he first heard the sound of whispers.

 

The voices were too soft to make out clearly, just that they belonged to a man and a woman. Just as Su Cen was about to move closer to listen more carefully, the conversation abruptly stopped.

 

Su Cen naturally knew he had been discovered. He simply came out directly, only to see Little Butterfly standing alone in the courtyard, while the other person was just a retreating back figure in white Daoist robes, strangely familiar.

 

Only after the Daoist figure disappeared at the corner of the courtyard did Su Cen withdraw his gaze. He nodded slightly to Little Butterfly: “We meet again.”

 

“Indeed, what a coincidence,” Little Butterfly smiled charmingly at him. “I wonder if it’s fate that brings us together, or if you came out specifically looking for me?”

 

As she spoke, her delicate hands reached toward Su Cen’s face, but when he stepped aside to avoid her, she wasn’t offended. She smoothly withdrew her hands, folded them across her chest, and pouted at him coquettishly: “You’re no fun, young master.”

 

Su Cen smiled helplessly, “Miss Qingchen… or should I say Miss Xiaohong, why tease me?”

 

Little Butterfly was taken aback, but after a moment she laughed, “Even with this disguise, you can still recognize me?”

 

The Little Butterfly before him indeed looked nothing like Qingchen from Yangzhou. One was a gentle and charming delicate beauty, the other was a brilliantly talented courtesan from a brothel. Both their appearance and demeanor were completely different, showing the effectiveness of her transformation technique.

 

But Su Cen smiled and said: “Miss Qingchen’s extraordinary grace naturally makes you unforgettable.”

 

In reality, it was her perfume that was truly impossible to forget.

 

“I didn’t expect Minister Su to be so good at acting, and even better at flattery,” Qingchen still harbored resentment over how Su Cen had outwitted them in Yangzhou. She smiled coldly and said, “So has Minister Su come to arrest us and bring us to justice?”

 

“Not at all. I came for Zhang He,” Su Cen suddenly remembered the retreating figure from earlier and had a realization: “Was that Han Shu just now?”

 

He had once seen Han Shu in Qu Ling’er’s room when he got up in the middle of the night. No wonder the figure seemed familiar, though he couldn’t place it at first.

 

Qingchen immediately became wary again, weighing the possibility of killing him on the spot to silence him. Her eyes narrowed: “What do you want?”

 

Su Cen couldn’t help but smile bitterly: “Shouldn’t I be asking you that? People from the Secret Door appearing at a court official’s residence, playing with supernatural nonsense, and you’re asking me what I want?”

 

“This is all thanks to Minister Su,” Qingchen glared coldly at Su Cen. “If Minister Su hadn’t destroyed the Secret Door’s headquarters, we wouldn’t have been forced to operate like this, having to squeeze money out of old men like him.”

 

Su Cen: “…”

 

“So all this rat spirit business was your doing?”

 

Qingchen raised an eyebrow and smiled, “Just a trivial trick. A little mind-altering drug made him unable to distinguish between reality and dreams.”

 

“You drugged him, then had Han Shu disguise himself as a Daoist to exorcise evil spirits. No wonder everyone in this household says the Daoist master has great powers, and after his ritual, the rat spirits disappeared. This was clearly a play you staged together,” Su Cen frowned. He didn’t particularly care about that old man Zhang He losing some money, what he wanted to know was: “How many of your people are in the homes of current court officials?”

 

Qingchen: “How did you know?”

 

“Once I went to Lord Zhang Jun’s residence to borrow a book, and coincidentally, his study caught fire. At that time, I suspected it was done by a woman in his household. Also, the former Minister of Personnel, Li Qiong, was once attacked by his own concubine in his home. These were all your people, weren’t they?”

 

Qingchen was shocked. She thought to herself that this man had frighteningly sharp eyes. The Secret Door did indeed rely on placing spies in officials’ homes to gather intelligence, and compared to men, women were obviously more convenient to arrange. However, these people were usually deeply hidden and wouldn’t easily give themselves away. She hadn’t expected Su Cen to figure this out.

 

Knowing that Qingchen wouldn’t reveal such Secret Door secrets, Su Cen didn’t press further. He asked instead: “Since you’ve already achieved your goal, why stage another act? Aren’t you afraid that if things go wrong, it will bring trouble upon yourselves?”

 

“This isn’t our fault,” Qingchen thought to herself that there was finally something this person didn’t know. She smiled lightly and said: “I stopped giving him the drug a long time ago. It’s the old man himself who has a guilty conscience and is afraid to sleep. We’re just going with the flow. After all, who doesn’t want more money?”

 

Su Cen already had a rough guess in his mind and said to her: “Let’s pretend I didn’t see or know about today’s matter. However, in the near future, the court will definitely conduct detailed inspections of various officials’ residences. I hope Miss Qingchen will make early preparations.”

 

Qingchen was slightly taken aback: “You’re going to let us go?”

 

Su Cen smiled bitterly: “I can’t beat you in a fight. What other choice do I have besides letting you go?”

 

“That’s true,” Qingchen smiled. “Then consider this a favor we owe you, which we’ll repay in the future.”

 

Before Su Cen could say anything more, Qingchen had already turned to leave. As she departed, she waved at him, “Go back, that old thing should be waking up. We should also take the money and flee.”

 

Su Cen watched as she strode away without restraint, not looking back as she disappeared into the distance. Only then did he withdraw his gaze and, calculating with his fingers, realized that Zhang He should indeed be waking up soon.

 

Hurrying back to the room, he opened all the doors and windows to disperse the lingering effects of the calming incense. Zhang He was indeed slowly waking up. Seeing Su Cen, he was confused for a moment, then his eyes brightened: “It worked, it really worked! I actually fell asleep!”

 

Su Cen smiled gently: “Now can Lord Zhang tell me what you’re really afraid of?”

 

 

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