Chapter 78#

Wen Xu had thought for sure his worthless life would end right there, and he had long since gone limp with terror. But when the blade was still an inch from his neck, it suddenly slipped from its owner’s grip and clattered to the ground with a clang.

He snapped back to reality. The ecstasy of surviving a brush with death flooded his entire body. His lips split into a grin, and he burst into uncontrollable, wild laughter, like a loach thrashing its head and tail: “Haha… hahaha! You actually didn’t know?!”

He laughed until spittle flew, his handsome features twisting hideously in triumph. “When His Majesty made his southern tour incognito back in the day, he happened to pass through Liangping County, and our Wen family hosted him! He learned that Mother was the mother of a court official, and in a moment of delight, he specially conferred upon her an edict of honor. He even asked if she had any brothers, saying he would grant them official posts too!”

Wen Zhuo’s eyes trembled slightly.

Wen Xu caught that flicker of a change and instantly perked up like a mad dog spotting a meat bun. In his loss of control, he grew even more arrogantly shrill: “It’s because of you that Mother received that edict document, and it’s because of that document that she could save my life today! When you get right down to it, I owe it all to you. You can’t kill me anymore—you can’t kill me!”

Heartened, Wen Xu turned to the surrounding neighbors and bystanders and started bellowing like a wild dog: “Listen up, all of you! My mother is an edict-conferred lady personally appointed by His Majesty! Who dares lay a finger on me? Who dares?!”

“Stop it! Wen Xu! For heaven’s sake, stop!” Lin Yingniang wept so hard her eyes were swollen. She struggled to her feet and lunged forward to cover his mouth.

But Wen Xu was like a panicked beast, shrieking hysterically: “Why should I stop?! Mother, didn’t you see that look on his face just now? He wanted to kill me! He really wanted to kill me!”

Lin Yingniang’s heart turned to ice. She knew Wen Xu was terrified out of his wits, which was why he was so hideously out of control.

Unable to rein in the frenzied Wen Xu, she turned around and gazed at Wen Zhuo with sorrowful eyes. In anguish she said, “Zhuo’er, don’t listen to his nonsense. I just couldn’t bear to see him die. I never… I never once thought of using that edict to pressure you…”

She tilted her head back, looking into Wen Zhuo’s eyes. It was as if something inside them had suddenly been extinguished.

A mere edict-conferred lady was not enough to make a first-rank court official show such a look of lifeless desolation. What disappointed him was never the edict itself—it was her other identity.

He clearly held power in his hands, capable of deciding life and death with a flick of his finger. Yet for a moment, she seemed to see again the figure walking away alone that night—solitary, calm, accepting his own fate, separating himself from hers.

She remembered that night, she had run out after him and called his name.

He hadn’t turned back.

A full ten years had passed since then.

A mother-and-child bond is a rope held by two people—she held one end, Wen Zhuo the other.

For ten years, that rope had been hidden away in memory, something she dared not think about, touch, or mention. Only today did she finally muster the courage to brush off the dust and carefully tug at it. Only then did she find that when she reached the other end, all she had was a severed thread.

If just one person lets go first, the rope is broken—and it can never be tied back together.

“Zhuo’er, Zhuo’er! Aren’t you short of silver for disaster relief?” Lin Yingniang, trembling, clutched Wen Zhuo’s hand through the cold fabric of his official robe. “Your mother will take you to get it right now, so you can… use it to relieve the people’s suffering, alright?”

She was desperate to make it up to Wen Zhuo. This seemed to be the only thing she could do.

But Wen Zhuo slowly and firmly withdrew his sleeve from her grasp.

Even now, no matter how much bitterness ate at his heart, no matter how much hatred burned in his bones, he had always suppressed it, restrained himself. Countless times he had teetered on the edge of losing control, aching to grind these people into dust. But his position and responsibilities were layers of shackles—he could not afford a single misstep.

Shen Zhi’s gaze grew heavier and heavier. Finally, he raised his hand and said in a low voice, “Jiang Mannü, give me the knife!”

Jiang Mannü was taken aback, but she instantly understood what Shen Zhi intended to do. Though she was straightforward and honest, she also held deep reverence for the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty.

Lin Yingniang had revealed her identity as an edict-conferred lady. By law, this case had to be submitted to the Supreme Court for review; even if the final verdict after review was still death, it could not be carried out first and reported afterward.

But when she saw Wen Zhuo’s trembling back, her eyes reddened, and she gritted her teeth. “Your Highness, I’ll get it!”

Without another word, Shen Zhi pulled the cold blade from her bundle, held it in his hand, and walked forward.

After this sudden turn of events, even the previously confident officials grew uneasy, and their grip on the prisoners loosened.

All at once, Wen Yingjing, Wen Ze, and the entire Wen clan raised their heads, as if they saw the embers of hope reigniting.

Among them, Wen Xu was the most gleeful. He stuck out his neck and arrogantly ordered the official beside him, “Hurry up and unlock these cuffs for me! Did you hear me? If you so much as hesitate, I’ll go straight to the emperor and make sure every last one of you pays!”

The officials looked to Wen Zhuo for a signal, but his expression was blank, offering no indication. No one knew what to do.

Lin Yingniang was frantic. Every word Wen Xu said was adding fuel to the fire!

She was terrified that Wen Zhuo would be provoked into losing control—which would either kill Wen Xu or ruin Wen Zhuo’s own official career.

“Zhuo’er, I know he’s a scoundrel, an animal! Even if you beat him until he can’t get out of bed for six months, I wouldn’t say a word to stop you. But—”

But Wen Zhuo wanted Wen Xu dead. No mother could watch her own flesh and blood die.

Before she could finish, Shen Zhi was already close. His eyes were pitch-black, boiling with murderous intent. Without a word, he flipped the blade and swung it toward Wen Xu’s throat!

“I don’t want to hurt you. Can you understand that? Can you…”

“Can you…”

Lin Yingniang’s voice suddenly froze in midair.

Even Wen Zhuo stood rooted in place.

A two-inch-long gash had opened on Wen Xu’s neck. Blood gushed out like a hot spring, burbling and spurting, instantly staining the wooden cangue red.

First, his brain was flooded with excitement, his face turning purple and red. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Then his entire body convulsed uncontrollably. After a few twitches, he crashed to the ground with a thud. That mouth, which had been spewing insults just moments ago, could no longer make a sound.

When the officials saw who held the knife, they hurriedly dropped to one knee and kowtowed in unison: “Greetings, Your Highness!”

Shen Zhi flung the knife away with a flick of his wrist. A trail of blood drops splattered on the ground. He didn’t even glance at Wen Xu’s corpse. Instead, he turned to face Lin Yingniang, who was frozen in shock.

“You are an edict-conferred lady, personally appointed by His Majesty the Emperor. You are bathed in glory, yet your heart is filled only with your son’s life and death! Do you know that Wen Xu beat an old man to death in broad daylight just because the man was looking for his daughter? And then he threatened the onlookers using the name of President Wen, making everyone cower in silence and no one dare to seek justice! So tell me—is your son’s life precious, while the lives of displaced commoners are meant to be innocently sacrificed?”

Lin Yingniang shook all over. She hung her head in fear, unable to speak. Her once docile eyes were filled with painful tremors.

Shen Zhi’s voice was low and cold: “Do you think he was merely a scoundrel, an animal? He used the Wen family’s power to run rampant through the countryside, yet he never faced any punishment. As a result, the rule of law in this region collapsed. The common people lost all faith in the court, in fairness and justice. Do you realize this is why President Wen faced such tremendous difficulties in his relief efforts? He had to swear oaths time and again just to persuade the desperate refugees to return to their homes and wait for aid!”

“You, as a titled lady, show no sympathy for his hardships in disaster relief or for the difficulty of pacifying the people. Instead, for your own selfish reasons, you want to protect this villain, causing him to lose the trust of the people of Mianzhou. If rumors spread that he shielded his own brother and treated him differently from others, creating panic everywhere and sparking unrest amid the disaster—can you bear that responsibility?”

“Do you know that His Majesty entrusted all matters in Mianzhou to President Wen? If he fails in his duties, what severe punishment will he face when he returns to court?”

“This scum you’ve been shielding has done countless evils and deserves to die ten thousand times over. Even if the Censorate and the Supreme Court review his case ten thousand times, he has no chance at survival! If he does not die, how can the people’s anger be appeased? How can justice be served? How can the souls of those innocent dead be comforted?”

In an instant, the surrounding crowd fell so silent that you could hear a pin drop. But a moment later, the people erupted like a boiling cauldron. Unable to contain themselves any longer, they cheered with excitement—

“Well said, Your Highness!”

“Wen Xu deserved to die—he was arrogant and violent! He should be killed!”

“He used President Wen’s reputation to do evil, and now he tries to use an edict to stay alive? How is that fair?!”

“Killed him well! Thank you, Your Highness, for bringing justice to the people!”

Wen Yingjing and Wen Ze collapsed to the ground, their faces ashen. They finally understood what it meant when a wall crumbles and everyone pushes it. They also saw clearly Wen Zhuo’s determination to destroy the Wen family this time.

The ties of blood, the perceived fears and concerns—these had been nothing more than their own wishful thinking. In the face of natural disaster and popular sentiment, such things were as insignificant as dust.

The Wen family was finished. Completely.

Lin Yingniang had been utterly refuted by Shen Zhi’s words. She covered her face and wailed bitterly, too ashamed even to lift her head and look at Wen Zhuo.

She was inexperienced and seldom stepped outside her door. She had never imagined that her momentary impulse to protect her son would cause Wen Zhuo so many problems.

She had only wanted to make amends, to protect her own child, to do for Wen Zhuo what she had failed to do all those years ago.

But she didn’t explain any further. She knew Wen Zhuo probably didn’t want to hear it anymore.

Shen Zhi looked at her devastated state and softened his tone slightly: “By law, you may file a complaint with the Office of Transmission, accusing me of ignoring procedure and executing a man before the review was completed. Whatever consequences arise from this, I will bear them alone.”

As soon as he said this, he reached back, took Wen Zhuo’s wrist, and pulled him behind himself.

He had seen early on that Wen Zhuo hated the Wen family to the bone. But toward his birth mother, he still harbored a trace of expectation—one he himself was unwilling to admit.

So Shen Zhi made sure that all of Lin Yingniang’s resentment, hatred, and pain would be channeled onto him.

Wen Xu deserved to die, but it could be done in a way that had nothing to do with Wen Zhuo.

“Your Highness…”

Wen Zhuo murmured. His dim eyes seemed to finally catch a glimmer of light in the darkness. Shielded behind that strong, capable arm, the scorching, real warmth of the hand on his wrist dispelled the chronic illness that had festered in his heart for years.

He had dreamed countless times of a divine soldier descending from heaven to save him from the despair the Wen family had brought.

But year after year, that person never came.

He had grown used to hopes being dashed, used to having nothing to look forward to, pretending he was unscathed.

Just then, a brilliant sun broke through the thin clouds, casting its glow over the two figures. He saw the weeping, helpless child of the past finally laid to rest in a patch of warm, golden light.

Shen Zhi gently stroked his wrist in response, then continued issuing orders: “After investigation, Wen Yingjing and Wen Ze were found to have refined Bone-Penetrating Fragrance using purchased children as medicinal ingredients. Their methods were brutal, their crimes heinous! Immediately arrest the two and take them back to the Mianzhou prefectural office to await strict interrogation. As for the Wen family’s assets—whether gold, silver, land deeds, or grain in storage—all will be confiscated for the public treasury. The Wen clan members are to be temporarily held at the Liangping County office and interrogated one by one. Any found guilty of corruption, murder, or harboring criminals will be punished according to the law without leniency! Also, those wicked servants of the Wen family who acted as bullies for their masters—not a single one is to be let off. Arrest them all and thoroughly investigate their crimes!”

So many children had died in Wangtiangou, their bodies never to be found. He had to give the people of Mianzhou an answer. Now that the Wen family’s hidden silver had all been unearthed, there was no need to keep these two parasites alive any longer.

“Yes!”

“As you command!”

The officials, fired up by righteous indignation, moved out upon hearing the orders.

The common people stared first in shock, then a tidal wave of fury surged in their hearts.

“Using children as medicinal ingredients? So that’s how Bone-Penetrating Fragrance was made!”

“Does that mean when Wen Yingjing said he was ‘raising the children for everyone so they wouldn’t starve,’ it was all lies?! He was turning those kids into incense!”

“Wen Yingjing, you demon! What an evil heart!”

“You beast without a shred of conscience! May you die a miserable death!”

Angry shouts rang out without end. The brutal truth inflamed the people’s eyes until they were bloodshot. One after another, they stooped to pick up stones and sand from the ground and hurled them at Wen Yingjing and Wen Ze.

“Kill him! Kill these two beasts!”

In no time, Wen Yingjing and Wen Ze were battered and bleeding. Blood mixed with mud, caking their bodies and faces.

Wen Yingjing ducked his head to dodge the barrage. The wound on his forehead burned with pain. All his usual composure was gone. When the officials roughly hauled him to his feet, they found his legs had gone as limp as noodles, barely able to support him.