Chapter 2 — The Dead Scribe’s Perfect Testimony
1308 Words
The three gates of Changchun Palace were locked one after another.
Only when the red doors closed did panic begin.
The Judicial Office separated the servants by their duties the previous night. The keepers of medicine, keys, and incense were forbidden to see one another. Noble Consort Gu was confined to her inner chamber.
Zhaoye expected Pei Yanzhou to question her. Instead, Chief Court Lady Liang led her into a small western room and shut the door.
Fresh ink waited beside a completed statement.
“Her Highness was distressed earlier,” Liang said. “Copy this draft into a clean statement. Add the times and servants’ names. We will give the Judicial Office a proper version.”
Zhaoye did not touch it. “Deputy Chief Pei already took my original.”
“That was a rough record. Do as I say, and no one will make trouble for you.”
The Ledger pressed against Zhaoye’s wrist.
[LIE.]
[THE OLD PAPER WAS PREPARED IN ADVANCE.]
[SCAPEGOAT.]
Liang knew the altered statement would shift blame onto Zhaoye. She also knew the prepared draft was meant to frame someone, though the Ledger could not reveal whom.
Zhaoye examined the page. Agarwood ash marked one corner. The Court Records Office seal had been stamped before the words were written—the final stroke of Yao Qingdai’s name crossed over the seal ink. The proper order was the reverse.
The Lie Ledger had not taught her to notice such things. Six years of copying contracts, pharmacy accounts, and discarded official papers had.
The draft contained phrases Gu Mingshu had spoken only that morning. Yet it claimed Yao Qingdai had recorded them the previous night.
“Who wrote this?” Zhaoye asked.
“Yao Qingdai.”
The Ledger showed nothing. Liang might believe it.
Zhaoye moved the page toward the lamp. The writer narrowed the same stroke in the character for palace and began medicine from the same side as the added line in Huiyun’s night roster.
One hand had written both.
“Why aren’t you copying?” Liang demanded.
“The draft has no signature. If I make a clean copy, you must identify its source in writing.”
Liang’s expression darkened.
“If the new statement differs from the one Deputy Chief Pei took, the Judicial Office will question everyone who handled it,” Zhaoye said. “Scribe Yao is dead. Only you and I remain to sign our names today.”
Fabric whispered beyond the door. Someone was listening.
“Copy it,” Liang said. “I will add the note.”
But she still refused to put her own hand on the page.
Zhaoye spread out fresh paper and copied only what she had actually heard. In the phrase sent no one out last night, she left one stroke incomplete and placed a tiny mark beside it. A flawed official copy had to be retained rather than destroyed. Its binding holes and page number could later reveal who changed it.
Before Liang took the sheet, Zhaoye pressed blotting paper over the wet ink. The reverse image preserved her deliberate flaw. She slipped the blotting sheet into her brush case and dropped a blank scrap into the wastebasket.
“Delete the question about the eastern gate,” Liang ordered. “It has nothing to do with the medicine.”
“The Judicial Office decides what is relevant.”
Liang lowered her voice. “Tomorrow, this page may claim Jiang Zhaoye forged the words eastern wall. Yao Qingdai is dead. A new scribe who knew where to find evidence is easier to blame than an old servant of the noble consort.”
Every word was true.
Alter the record, and Zhaoye could be charged with falsifying it. Refuse, and someone could frame her for murder.
The door opened. Lu Ting, Pei’s subordinate, stood outside.
“Deputy Chief Pei wishes to question Scribe Jiang.”
Liang slipped the old draft into her sleeve and moved toward the door. Lu Ting waited until she reached him.
“No paper may leave a sealed room. Chief Court Lady, surrender the draft.”
Liang froze. At last, she handed it over.
Lu Ting sealed the page as evidence, recorded where it had been found and who had touched it, then escorted Zhaoye to the eastern side hall.
Pei sat behind a bare table. Before him lay her original testimony, the night roster, mud from beside the well, and Liang’s hidden draft.
“Sit,” he said.
“My rank is too low.”
“Standing will tire you. Tired people make mistakes.”
Zhaoye sat.
“Why did you ask about the eastern gate?”
“Mortar marked Huiyun’s shoe. Only the eastern wall is under repair.”
“And the medicine?”
“Her fingers were yellow, and her sleeve smelled scorched and bitter. The agarwood seemed intended to hide it.”
“The powder could be incense. The scent could be from a physician’s case.”
“That is why I asked a question. I never wrote that she switched the medicine.”
Pei glanced at the mud. “There was no third set of footprints beside the well.”
Half the print of a square-headed boot nail was plainly visible. It did not match palace-issued boots.
The deliberate lie should have awakened the Ledger.
It remained asleep.
Pei turned the mud over, hiding the print. Zhaoye pressed her sleeve closed and said nothing.
He lifted the night roster. “What do you see?”
“The entry between nine and ten was added later. The person who wrote it also wrote the prepared statement.”
She pointed out the matching strokes and the different way the fresh ink had penetrated the paper.
Pei placed a paper-issue slip beside it. “Yao Qingdai took three testimony sheets shortly before eight last night. She was dead before ten. Changchun Palace claims she completed this draft at midnight.”
“Are the paper and seal genuine?”
“Both. Dead women do not record the wrong time themselves.”
Again, the Ledger gave her nothing. For the first time, she could not test a precise statement spoken directly to her.
Pei pushed the draft across the table. “If you arranged the evidence at the eastern wall, your questions led us exactly where you wanted. If you did not, someone left enough clues for a perceptive person to find.”
“Which do you believe?”
“Evidence.”
“Then keep believing evidence. Do not believe me.”
His gaze held hers. “I never did.”
The Ledger remained silent.
Ash clung to Pei’s index finger. He had searched the incense burner before questioning her.
“What was burned?” she asked.
“Waxed paper. Half remained, carrying the same medicinal scent.” He folded his hands. “I can arrest Huiyun now, or search the eastern wall. The first gives me a fast confession. The second may reveal only what someone wants us to see.”
“Search the wall.”
“Why?”
“Huiyun’s stained fingers and scorched sleeve show only that she handled something, not that she poisoned anyone. A confession from her could protect whoever gave the order. Even a planted clue leaves behind a sequence of actions.”
Pei’s expression did not change, but one knuckle tapped the table.
“Then you will identify the location.”
“I have no authority to search a palace.”
“The Judicial Office will provide witnesses. You have fifteen minutes. We will compare any abnormality with the repair order. No one breaks the wall until a witness supports the location or the Palace Administration grants approval.”
He paused.
“If there is nothing inside that wall, every unusual thing you noticed today becomes evidence of a different kind.”
- Writer
