Chapter 21: Interrogating the Traitor

The guards threw the man, bound hand and foot with his eyes covered, harshly to the ground. The pain made him want to cry out, but his mouth was stuffed with a rag, so only muffled whimpers of fear escaped him.

When Bai Huan saw who it was, a rush of blood went straight to her head.

The traitor was none other than Gou Sheng, the orphan whom her father had rescued from a filthy gutter five years ago!

Out of pity, her father had brought him into the Bai household. After his recovery, Gou Sheng proved clever and obedient, so her father gave him a proper name: Bai Chun.

Bai Chun looked around in confusion, unable to see but with a keen sense of smell. “Young Miss, is that you? Young Miss, please save Bai Chun! What have I done to deserve being arrested?”

Suddenly, Bai Huan’s anger dissipated. To rage at a faithless, ungrateful wretch was hardly worth it.

She signaled for the guards to withdraw, leaving only Steward Lu in the room.

Bai Huan took a dark green incense pellet, placed it in the censer, and lit it. She then brought the censer close to Bai Chun, holding it beneath his nose.

When one is blindfolded, the sense of smell grows exceedingly sharp. In darkness, the scent of something strange can breed terror. That fear, carried on each breath, becomes a nest of vipers slithering into the body, cold and chilling, spreading through every limb and muddling the mind, driving one to panic and madness.

Moreover, Gou Sheng had studied incense-making under her father for over four years; his nose was sensitive, and the unusual fragrance made him even more afraid.

As expected, he began to struggle in terror, trying to escape the scent.

Steward Lu held him down without mercy, gripping the back of his neck and forcing his head up. The blue-grey smoke wreathed his nostrils; his mouth opened and closed like a dying fish, gasping but unable to flee.

“Bai Chun, the name you bear was given by my father, as was your life. On the day you became a member of the Bai family, you knelt in our ancestral hall and swore: ‘If I break the family rules, I will accept whatever punishment the clan and the trade demand.’”

“Third rule of the Bai family workshop: Anyone who secretly records, leaks, or steals secrets, or conspires with rivals to inflict grave harm on the Bai Incense Workshop, will have all ten fingers cut off, be paraded through the streets as a warning, and expelled!”

Bai Huan’s voice was slow and cold as a serpent’s hiss, winding its poison into Bai Chun’s weakening will along with that eerie fragrance.

“If your fingers are cut off and you’re driven out of the Bai Workshop, not only will no incense house hire you, but you’ll struggle to find even the meanest work to survive.”

Bai Chun trembled like a leaf. “Y-young Miss, I’m innocent, I swear. I have always been loyal…”

Bai Huan cut him off: “We could choose not to follow the family rules, of course. Do you smell that incense? This is the very pellet that caused the Imperial Consort to fall unconscious—the one you stole from the Bai family, the one the Xue family laced with poison. The Consort herself gave it to me when I entered the palace.”

“When you faint, I’ll deliver you to the Ministry of Justice and say this incense was found under your bed. My father was framed by you. The crime of plotting against the Imperial Consort will be yours to bear!”

Bai Chun’s face turned ashen. He fell to his knees, kowtowing in her direction. “Young Miss, I beg you, I never betrayed the master! My only crime is greed. It was the son-in-law, he…”

Bai Huan snatched up a teacup and smashed it hard against his head.

With a crash, the cup struck Bai Chun’s forehead, then shattered on the floor.

She shouted, “What son-in-law? That man seeks to harm our family, to frame my father, and covets the heads of every member of the Bai clan! He’s a beast, a thief—just like you!”

Blood welled on Bai Chun’s brow. Terrified, he curled up and dared not move.

Even Steward Lu was startled; he had never seen the young mistress act this way before.

Soon Bai Chun’s head began to spin. In terror, he kowtowed desperately. “Young Miss, I confess everything! Please, spare my life! My mother is gravely ill, and my young sister depends on me…”

Bai Huan exchanged a glance with Steward Lu, each seeing fear in the other’s eyes.

Who could have guessed someone had infiltrated their household with such a ruse five years ago?

Fortunately, the core secrets of the Bai family’s incense craft were fiercely guarded. Otherwise, their house would have been riddled with holes by now.

Bai Chun confessed everything from start to finish and obediently wrote a statement, signing and sealing it.

His real name was Gou Sheng, a street urchin from the West Market, dealing in messages and gossip for hire. Five years ago, after the Bai family claimed the title from the Xue clan, the Xue family found him and paid him a hundred taels of silver—he was twelve at the time. They promised to treat his mother and support his sister, told him to feign injury and play the part of a beggar thrown into a gutter, so he could be “rescued” by Bai Chongyi, and act the pitiful orphan.

Kind-hearted Bai Chongyi not only took him in but gave him the Bai surname and made him a personal attendant.

He infiltrated the Bai household to steal their greatest treasures—Bailong Musk and “Twelve Grades of Heavenly Incense.”

Every year at this time, Bai Chongyi would bring out Bailong Musk to make incense for the annual competition, but the security was tight. For four years, Gou Sheng had no opportunity; he never even set eyes on Bailong Musk or the “Twelve Grades of Heavenly Incense.”

All he managed was to steal incense pellets for the Xue family; the formulas themselves were out of reach.

The Xue family tried to copy the pellets but could never grasp the essence, for in the Bai family, each person had their own formula, adjusted for the twelve solar terms and the source of the ingredients.

The Bai family also excelled at developing new varieties, always staying ahead of the Xue clan.

Frustrated, the Xue family tried every trick to hinder the Bai Workshop, but to little effect.

When the Imperial notice seeking a cure for the Consort’s insomnia was issued, the Xue family ordered him to steal “Goose Pear Chamber Incense,” which the lady of the house burned daily—a fact no secret in the Bai household. He easily took some and sent it out.

Two days ago, the Xue family instructed him to slip a letter into the study and, amid the ensuing chaos, to find and steal whatever he could.

He never expected the one leading the ransacking would be the son-in-law, who walked into the study and took a box right before his eyes. Gou Sheng dared not interfere.

The Xue family! It was the Xue family after all!

Bai Huan was incensed. When skill and craft failed, did they resort to murder and theft?

“Did Gu Yuanzhou ask anything of you? Did you tell him about the letter you placed in the study?”

Gou Sheng panicked. “No, never! I had just finished when the search began. I was driven to the front courtyard and had no chance to speak with him.”

Bai Huan, seething, pushed open the door and strode out.

“Lock him up!”

The Xue family must have received word from the palace and, afraid their scheme would be uncovered, dared not present a forged incense pellet for the Imperial Consort. Now, desperate for information about the Bai household, they would soon discover their informant had been caught.

She had to find a way to apprehend the Xue family’s contact quickly and seal the chain of evidence—only then could the Xue family be brought to justice.

Yet a nagging doubt crept into her mind: if Gu Yuanzhou had no contact with Gou Sheng, how could he have been so confident when he led the search of their estate?

Were Gu Yuanzhou and the Xue family working together, or did each serve different masters?

Steward Lu hurried after her.

After a moment’s thought, Bai Huan said, “Uncle Lu, Gou Sheng is supposed to pass a message to the Xue family at midnight tonight. Take him to the usual spot, just as before. I’ll find a way to catch their contact outside. Also, have someone quietly investigate Gou Sheng’s family.”

“Yes, Young Mistress. But you must take care—these mad dogs are capable of anything.”

“Don’t worry, Uncle Lu. I won’t let our people take the risk, and I certainly won’t act myself.”

No doubt, many eyes were watching the Bai estate. If their own people caught anyone, it would only alert the enemy.

The question was—

How could she quietly ensnare the Xue family’s contact?