From the moment Mu Xueshi entered, the Third Prince’s gaze never left him. Being stared at so steadily made Mu Xueshi’s skin crawl.
“What did Wu Cai want with you just now?”
Mu Xueshi froze and immediately began worrying. There was nothing especially serious about the truth, but instinct told him the Third Prince would be angry if he heard it. Mu Xueshi glanced at him several times without speaking. Under the prince’s increasingly insistent gaze, he finally invented an excuse to brush the matter aside.
“Actually, he only came to thank me for saving his life yesterday… Anyway, let’s keep talking about the case. You said Ning Yue is dead. I think his death must be connected to this somehow. Maybe he knew who the killer was and was silenced. My father has been dead too long; finding clues from his body is far too difficult. Why don’t we start with Ning Yue and investigate from there?”
The Third Prince knew Mu Xueshi’s solemn expression was an act. Mu Xueshi only clenched his hands into fists when he was nervous. The prince gave a cold little laugh but did not expose him. In his view, whether Mu Xueshi’s antics were large or small, the final result would be the same. If Mu Xueshi caused serious trouble by being too mischievous, the prince would simply have a better reason to punish him.
“Yes. We should indeed begin with Ning Yue,” the Third Prince said with a nod.
Thinking he had escaped disaster, Mu Xueshi secretly grinned. When he noticed the Third Prince still watching, he hurriedly wiped the smile away and asked, “When did Ning Yue die?”
“Two weeks ago,” the Third Prince replied.
Something suddenly occurred to Mu Xueshi, and his expression changed. Steward Wang and the Third Prince both thought he had discovered an important clue and turned their attention toward him.
Instead, Mu Xueshi wailed miserably, grabbed the Third Prince’s arm, and cried, “Didn’t you beat Ning Yue two weeks ago? I remember that servant was called Ning Yue! Did he die from the injuries you gave him?”
The Third Prince had not expected Mu Xueshi’s memory to be so good. Back then, to test him, the prince had indeed ordered a servant who was pretending to be Ning Yue to receive a considerable beating.
Before the Third Prince could answer, Mu Xueshi panicked on his own and paced frantically around the room. “I regret it so much! If that’s what happened, then I got such an important witness killed!”
With that, Mu Xueshi struck himself on the head several times with his small fists, regretting it so badly he could hardly stand it.
Watching Mu Xueshi lose his mind like this, the Third Prince did not know whether to laugh or sigh. He had not planned to interfere, but Mu Xueshi looked as though he might throw himself into a wall at any moment, so the prince crossed the room in a few long strides and caught hold of him.
“Stop fooling around…”
The moment Mu Xueshi heard the reprimand, he quieted. His large eyes blinked at the Third Prince, looking thoroughly dejected.
“I’m really useless!”
“The person beaten that day was not Ning Yue.”
“What?!” Mu Xueshi swallowed and stared at him. “So you were just playing a trick on me back then?”
The Third Prince gave no answer. Mu Xueshi’s eyes widened as he lifted his head, preparing to shout and demand revenge. But before he could get a word out, the Third Prince vanished. Mu Xueshi looked around and discovered that he was already gone from the room.
“Hmph… I hit my head that many times for nothing? Even if I was the one who hit myself, I still have to get it back somehow…”
Muttering to himself, Mu Xueshi charged out of the room like a young colt, leaving a cloud of dust behind.
Steward Wang stared blankly at the empty room for a long time before recovering. The Third Prince was completely different when speaking to him and when speaking to the young master. A moment ago he had been so cold that Steward Wang shivered. The instant Mu Xueshi entered, however, the prince’s expression changed again and again. Steward Wang had never known his young master possessed such remarkable influence.
“Come out! Come out here!” Mu Xueshi circled the Grand Tutor’s manor several times without finding the Third Prince. Furious, he shouted into every corner and questioned the servants, but no one had seen him.
All the servants in the manor turned their attention toward Mu Xueshi. In the past, he rarely left his room and many servants had barely heard him speak. Seeing him behave like this now, they could only stare in shock and assume his long imprisonment and punishment had driven him mad.
Observant as ever, Mu Xueshi ran to the stables and discovered that the Third Prince’s horse was gone. His face immediately changed. The Third Prince had teased him and then left without so much as a word. Wasn’t that simply adding another offense? Normally Mu Xueshi was the one who made mistakes and got punished. This time, the Third Prince had wronged him, so by rights he deserved to be scolded too.
With that thought, Mu Xueshi sprinted out of the Grand Tutor’s manor and followed the road they had taken earlier from memory. Even if he had to run all the way back, he intended to see this through. It was not only about revenge. Today was the fifteenth day of the lunar month. If he did not return to watch for the Yinglan flower to bloom, the Third Prince might have to keep enduring the pain.
Mu Xueshi ran while muttering to himself and soon became breathless. Worse still, sharp pain kept radiating from below. Walking slowly had been manageable, but with this kind of strenuous movement, Mu Xueshi felt as though his body might split in half.
At last he could not endure it and stopped in a place resembling a small garden. Because of the discomfort, he could not even sit and could only stand there foolishly looking around. The sun was about to disappear beneath the horizon, sweat rolled down his forehead, and despite the pleasant scenery around him, an inexplicable unease rose in his chest.
*Where is this? Did I get lost?* Mu Xueshi wondered. He wandered around the garden for quite a while. Wildflowers half as tall as a person grew thickly around him, with colorful butterflies fluttering among them. It should have been a peaceful, comforting scene, yet Mu Xueshi felt increasingly uneasy.
Clenching his fists, Mu Xueshi shouted into the flowers, “Xi, I curse your horse to throw you to the ground on the way back!”
“Is that so?”
A familiar voice suddenly answered. Mu Xueshi turned and saw the Third Prince’s faintly amused face. Instantly furious and delighted at the same time, he grabbed the prince and shook him hard. “Did you do this on purpose? You made me run all this way for nothing, and you were following me the whole time!”
The Third Prince snorted, showing no intention of apologizing, and said mockingly, “This is merely the rear garden of the Grand Tutor’s manor. It is built separately on the mountain meadow, but it is no more than a hundred paces from the manor.”
“Uh…” Mu Xueshi immediately looked embarrassed. He craned his neck to glance back along the path, then pouted and complained, “Stop talking nonsense and doubting my abilities.”