Chapter 7 — Kneeling before the Queen and Duke

After listening to the Royal Medical Court's explanation about the phoenix wing-shaped cinnabar birthmark and the red mole under his heel, Viet Khoi did not dare to be careless and decided to follow the clues himself to confirm clearly before considering any next steps. He understood that, once Khinh Vu's true identity was confirmed, this would no longer be a private matter between the two of them, but would be directly related to the fate of the entire Dai Ninh royal family, to the forces that had been hidden for the past twenty years, just waiting for an opportunity to arise or continue to hide old crimes.

The first thing he did was to quietly go to the Royal Library in the royal palace, where all the books, medals and important records of the court over many generations of kings were stored. With the status of Duc Vuong, the grandson of the reigning Saint, Viet Khoi had enough authority to enter and exit this place without suspicion, but he still carefully chose a late night without people, using the excuse to look up documents on court etiquette to avoid the eyes and ears of those who might be paying attention to his movements.

Searching through a pile of old records covered with the dust of time, Viet Khoi finally found a set of yellowed chapters, recording the entire events of the fire at Vinh Tho palace twenty years ago. According to what was recorded, on the full moon night of July that year, a fire broke out suddenly in the middle of the night, burning down almost the entire palace where Lady Vinh Tan lived. The princess's body was found in the ashes, but the body of the little princess, who was born less than a hundred days ago, was never found, causing the court to conclude that the child had been completely burned, leaving no trace.

What caught Viet Khoi's attention the most was a small note at the end of the chapter, seemingly added later by an official in charge of the investigation, stating that a person living near the imperial citadel once reported seeing a nanny carrying a newborn child fleeing from the back gate of the palace on the night of the fire, but that testimony was not investigated further, the case file was closed in a strange haste, as if someone deliberately wanted to quell all suspicions. inquire as soon as possible.

Viet Khoi frowned, many doubts arose in his heart. Such a serious case, involving the life of a favored concubine and a young princess of the royal family, should have been investigated to the bottom, but it was closed unusually quickly. He turned a few more pages and found a list of people in charge of investigating the incident that year, including a name that made him stop and think for a long time: Tuong Ba Khiem, at that time still held a not too high position in the court, but now has climbed to the position of Grand Master, holding most of the military power and having power covering almost the entire court.

What made Viet Khoi shudder even more was that, once the case was ordered closed by Tuong Ba Khiem himself, he could completely alone hold all the clues about the nanny carrying the child and running away without anyone else in the court having the right to interrogate further. The case was closed on paper, but there was no guarantee that his own underground hunt would stop as well. Viet Khoi suddenly remembered a detail he had heard merchants passing through Sam Dinh Ngan mention as a beautiful anecdote: many years ago, when he was young, he was saved by Vinh Tan's family during a major flood in the coastal region. That kindness was known to the whole region. A person like Tuong Ba Khiem who had built a spy network throughout the capital, just needed to follow the exact old debts of gratitude recorded in the merchant guild's books, and it was not difficult to guess where a desperate nanny would go to deposit a drop of royal blood. Perhaps it was because he discovered that clue when the child had settled into the role of a merchant's lady, carefully disguising her identity in broad daylight, that he did not dare to act immediately. Killing a child for no reason in the middle of a merchant family that was respected by the whole region was like exposing yourself; Installing a pair of eyes to silently monitor for many years, waiting until the day his true identity was revealed before taking action to destroy her, was a much more discreet move for someone who was used to long-term planning.

He recalled that Tuong Ba Khiem came from a faction that had supported another prince in the struggle for the throne many years ago, a prince who eventually lost to Viet Khoi's father. If the little princess of Vinh Tan's wife, who was favored by the Emperor, grew up and became an important political pawn, it would likely be detrimental to Tuong Ba Khiem's faction in their future calculations. That inference made Viet Khoi shudder, because if that were true, then the little princess's disappearance in the fire twenty years ago was most likely not a random accident, but a carefully planned plot.

Before leaving the royal study, Viet Khoi also read a few other scattered notes related to that period, trying to piece together the overall picture of the royal court twenty years ago. He realized that the time of the fire also coincided with the period of the fiercest dispute over the throne between the princes, when his father, who was still one of the candidates at that time, was facing many forces in the court that wanted to push another branch of the royal family to power. Although Princess Vinh Tan was not of a noble background compared to other concubines, she was extremely favored by the Emperor at that time, to the point that there were rumors that he intended to ordain a private estate for the little princess at an early age, a rare privilege that made many factions in the court wary, seeing it as a potential threat if the princess later married into a political alliance that was unfavorable to them.

The more Viet Khoi read, the more he shuddered at the cruelty and cold calculation behind the incident in the past. A tiny life less than a hundred days old almost became a sacrifice for the power calculations of adults, just because its existence could tilt the already fragile political balance. He thought to himself, if the nanny had not risked her life to save the little princess from the fire that year, perhaps the history of the Dai Ninh dynasty would have turned in a completely different direction, and the truth about the unjust death of an innocent concubine and her young child would have been forever buried under the dust of time, no one would remember.

Returning to the royal palace when it was almost dawn, Viet Khoi immediately called for the Royal Medical Court to come and quietly ask about the remaining details in his memory about the night of the fire in the past. The royal physician, after a moment of contemplation, recounted that he was the first person to run to the scene after the fire was extinguished, and he clearly remembered that in the rubble, he saw a piece of diaper cloth scattered near the back gate, on which was still attached a small piece of jade pendant, engraved with the date of the year the little princess was born, which was an item the palace often gave to concubines when giving birth to a prince or princess as a pledge.

"That piece of jade pendant," the Imperial Physician said, his voice full of regret, "at that time, the old minister picked it up and intended to hand it over to the official in charge of investigation, but the next day, the case was suddenly closed, and the superior ordered that there was no need to investigate any further. The old minister found the matter strange, so he quietly kept that piece of jade pendant, keeping it carefully in the family heirloom, hoping that one day it would be useful."

Hearing that, Viet Khoi immediately asked him to bring that piece of jade pendant. When the Royal Physician came back with a small old wooden box, opened it, inside was a small, delicate piece of jade pendant shaped like a phoenix wing, clearly engraved with the year of birth of the little princess, exactly matching the year that, according to the old people in the Sam family, Sam Dinh Ngan adopted Khinh Vu. Viet Khoi held the piece of jade in his hand, compared it with the pattern on the cinnabar birthmark on Khinh Vu's shoulder that he had seen, and felt cold all over his body, because those two phoenix wing shapes were similar down to the smallest lines, as if they were cast from the same mold.

"So it's clear," Viet Khoi sighed softly, his voice both relieved and heavy. "Sam Khinh Vu, is the lost little princess of Dai Ninh, the biological daughter of the old lady Vinh Tan."

That truth had just been confirmed, which also means opening a series of new dangers. If Tuong Ba Khiem was really involved in the fire twenty years ago, and if he knew that Khinh Vu was still alive, I am afraid that he would not hesitate to strike again to cover up all clues, eliminating the last danger that could threaten the position and power that he had worked so hard to build over the past twenty years. Viet Khoi understands that, from this moment on, he was not simply the person who saved the life of an unfortunate girl, but had become the holder of a secret that can shake the whole court, and the responsibility of protecting Khinh Vu was now heavier than ever.

Viet Khoi carefully kept the jade pendant and the notes he copied in a separate box, hidden in the royal palace's secret vault, a place only he and guard Bang knew about. He instructed the Royal Physician to be absolutely silent, not to say a word to anyone, including the most trusted people in the house, because even a small mistake could cause the entire plan to collapse, putting Khinh Vu in danger once again. That night, standing alone at the window looking out at the quiet royal courtyard, Viet Khoi suddenly realized that his hand was clenched around the jade pendant so tightly that the lines were engraved into his palm. If a person is patient enough to wait twenty years to silence a secret, he must also be patient enough to wait another night, a month, or a year, as long as there is a chance to act before the truth can reach the ears of the Saint. He closed the curtains tightly, telling himself that starting from tonight, every step in and out of the monastery where Khinh Vu was hidden had to be calculated as if there were a pair of invisible eyes watching behind him, because unbeknownst to him, the spy network that Tuong Ba Khiem had built for twenty long years, maybe even right now there was a thread silently snaking its way to the back gate of the royal palace.