Chapter 66#
A secret order from the Embroidered Uniform Guard arrived, and the siege on the Ministry of Works within the court continued. A falcon flew in from outside the restaurant and landed on Qi Hanzhou’s arm. Ying Fusheng’s gaze followed, taking in the falcon’s appearance before he looked away.
The mastermind, the Crown Prince, the Xu family…
The threads of his past and present lives wove together in Ying Fusheng’s mind, the tangled web growing increasingly clear. Ying Fusheng lowered his eyes to the chaotic chess pieces on the table. If he peeled back the Xu family’s skin, what lay beneath?
Lost in thought, a crisp sound rang out.
A chess piece had fallen, snapping both of them back to attention.
Ying Fusheng picked up a nearby piece. When he looked up and met Qi Hanzhou’s gaze, he composed his expression and managed a smile in response.
“It’s not the first time. You’re very familiar with falcons,” Qi Hanzhou said.
How did this wolfhound have such sharp eyes?
Ying Fusheng replied, “My grandmother kept one. It was fatter than yours, General.”
The falcon flew to a higher perch. Qi Hanzhou stared directly at Ying Fusheng. Just as Ying Fusheng was wondering what the man was thinking now, Qi Hanzhou suddenly reached out and clamped down on his wrist. With his long fingers, he easily pinned Ying Fusheng’s hand and turned his wrist over, examining it closely.
“What is the General doing?” Ying Fusheng asked.
Qi Hanzhou saw no obvious bruising or traces of acupuncture stimulation on the inside of his wrist. “Your hand is unsteady.”
That piece hadn’t slipped; it had fallen from his grasp.
Ying Fusheng hadn’t been holding it firmly.
Qi Hanzhou’s gaze was unrelenting. Ying Fusheng’s expression remained impassive—neither Zhou Bingjun nor Xu Yong had elicited much reaction from him.
But just now, when he saw the falcon, his expression had flickered for an instant. Even when his wrist was seized, he offered no resistance.
This was more than once. The same had happened when Qi Hanzhou cleaned the wound on his wrist. There was an inexplicable familiarity between them.
Just as Ying Fusheng was pondering what the man was thinking, Qi Hanzhou suddenly asked, “What do you want to do?”
“Find the mastermind. What else could it be?”
Ying Fusheng looked at Qi Hanzhou. “My goal is the same as the General’s.”
“Have Your Highness and I met before?” Qi Hanzhou asked.
When the question was posed, the private room seemed to fall silent for a moment.
Met before, but that would be many years later.
Ying Fusheng pulled his thoughts together and withdrew his hand. “How could we have met? When the Young General was in Youzhou City, I was in Weiyang Palace. No chance to meet. How would I know you?”
Qi Hanzhou pressed further. “Is that all?”
His gaze was as piercing as a falcon’s, as if he could effortlessly see into one’s soul. The familiar look jolted Ying Fusheng back to reality. For an instant, he thought he was looking at the Qi Hanzhou of the past, who had once asked him the same blunt question.
What did he want?
Silence stretched on until a knock came at the door.
Ying Fusheng snapped out of it. Seeing Ye Xuanjiu enter, he gathered his sleeves, a smile playing on his lips as if Qi Hanzhou’s question meant nothing to him. He rose to take his leave and return to the palace.
Qi Hanzhou watched him leave, his gaze lingering on his features.
The boy was now thirteen or fourteen. Compared to his younger, less defined face, his features had grown more refined. Perhaps due to his frail health, his frame was smaller than his peers. He wore thick clothes year-round, making his face seem unusually delicate. As he aged, the coldness inherent in his bone structure became more apparent, especially when his eyes slightly narrowed, giving him an air of detachment from the world.
He looked nothing like the Ning family. His bone structure resembled the Emperor in his youth, but his eyes and brows…
In the past, Qi Hanzhou would have simply thought his face resembled the Emperor’s. But ever since Doctor Chen’s words before leaving for Jiangnan, the seed of suspicion had been planted.
“How is the investigation into Kunning Palace going?” Qi Hanzhou asked.
“At the time, the Empress had a difficult labor. The imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital and even the midwife brought in by the Xu family were all present. The Xu family was very cautious in this matter. The people around the Empress at the time were all trusted confidants,” Ye Xuanjiu said.
Qi Hanzhou’s gaze sharpened. “Including Shuangyue?”
Ye Xuanjiu was startled. “Yes!”
Qi Hanzhou waved his hand, dismissing him.
Qi Hanzzhou suppressed his thoughts. Chen Xiqiu’s words seemed to echo in his ears, pointing toward an absurd truth. He stared at Ying Fusheng’s retreating figure, trying to discern something from him.
In the blink of an eye, Ying Fusheng disappeared from Qi Hanzhou’s sight.
As the carriage left the restaurant, a servant appeared before Ying Fusheng’s vehicle. Dressed plainly, he handed a secret letter to Song’an.
Ying Fusheng came back to himself. The letter was passed inside. He scanned it quickly, finally his eyes landing on the seal at the bottom.
The seal was identical to the jade token the Xiao family had sent him. It was from Xiao Yan.
“Tell your master to follow his heart,” Ying Fusheng said.
Whose heart? The Emperor’s, of course.
After the Xiao family servant left, Ying Fusheng gazed into the distance toward the government offices. His goal in cooperating with the Embroidered Uniform Guard had been achieved. Now the next step was to press the advantage. He suppressed his thoughts. On the restaurant balcony above, the falcon soared away, its wingbeats reaching his ears.
He watched the departing falcon. The gaze of the man in the private room seemed to reappear before him. “Knowing he’s being used by me…”
Qi Hanzhou had asked what he wanted to do. Naturally, he wanted to send this false Crown Prince to his ruin.
So, press the advantage.
“Tell Shen Changcun to act as the situation dictates,” Ying Fusheng said softly. “The Embroidered Uniform Guard has created such a good opportunity. We can’t waste it.”
…
Night fell over the capital, and the storm had already begun.
The Embroidered Uniform Guard moved swiftly. Military funds had not been embezzled—anyone who dared to tamper with military funds risked being charged with treason at the slightest misstep.
In court, the military funds case implicated the Minister of Works. The Xu family had no choice but to abandon Zhou Bingjun and cut their losses.
Officials who had dealings with Zhou Bingjun were fraught with anxiety, fearing the Emperor’s blade would fall on them. But within two days, the missing official Xu Yong’s body was found in the moat, sending shockwaves through the capital. Just as the Xu family was about to sacrifice the Ministry of Works to save themselves, the Censorate suddenly submitted a memorial—impeaching the Eastern Palace!
This move stunned everyone. Since its reorganization, the Censorate had practically been the Emperor’s blade.
To impeach the Eastern Palace meant it had the Emperor’s tacit approval! The Xu family had suffered a series of setbacks since the Crown Prince’s assassination attempt. The two major cases at the Ministry of Works had all but destroyed the Xu family’s entire network there. After the Ministry of Works case, the Emperor had already placed many of his own officials there. Now, with the Minister of Works gone, the Emperor’s swift and decisive actions clearly indicated he intended to move against the Xu family for good.
The timing was impeccable. The Xu family had great prestige, but the Ministry of Works case had shattered its reputation for incorruptibility.
The River Slope case had already damaged the Crown Prince’s standing among the people. Now, with the military funds case, the Ministry of Works was wholly discredited. The Xu family was crippled. The Emperor was furious, and the remaining members of the Crown Prince’s faction could only fall silent.
News from the court filtered intermittently into the Eastern Palace.
The Crown Prince’s face turned ashen with fear.
When Xu Yong went missing, he knew something had gone wrong. He understood only part of it. Since Shuangyue’s death, many matters had no longer passed through his hands. He knew Shuangyue had been doing things behind his back, things inseparable from the military funds, but he hadn’t expected that person to be so bold as to use the Ministry of Works to funnel military funds, leading to this exposure.
Zhou Bingjun was his backer, and Xu Yong was that person’s agent.
Now the military funds case had fallen on the Ministry of Works. Zhou Bingjun was dismissed, and Xu Yong’s faction was destroyed… Wasn’t the Ministry of Works completely finished?
“What about the Xu family? What about that person? How is the military funds case being handled!?” The Crown Prince panicked and sought help from his shadow guards. But the shadow guard, who always had a solution, was uncharacteristically silent. This only deepened the Crown Prince’s terror.
Soon, a palace attendant rushed in to report that the Dali Temple (Supreme Court) was getting close to tracing the Eastern Palace’s accounts through the military funds case!
The Ministry of Works had colluded with the Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud to divert military funds under the guise of construction projects. Following this lead, Censor Xiao Yan of the Censorate proposed a re-examination of the accounts related to the artisan cases. This keen-eyed Censor, tasked with overseeing all officials, discovered signs that the Ministry of Works’ accounts might have been falsified twice. He demanded a thorough audit of all projects managed by the Ministry of Works since the Emperor’s campaigns.
This was no longer just a simple case of embezzlement. The Xu family had already lost Zhou Bingjun, and now their entire network within the Ministry of Works was annihilated. If the investigation moved beyond the Ministry of Works, it would inevitably uncover the Xu family and the Crown Prince they supported.
Xiao Yan was digging in this direction, clearly intending to destroy the Xu family!
“The accounts! Have the accounts been dealt with!?” the Crown Prince demanded.
The attendant replied, “Your Highness, the Grand Secretary is doing his best to wrap things up, but some of the Ministry of Works’ accounts have already fallen into the hands of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.”
With Zhou Bingjun’s downfall, there was no way to quietly dispose of the Ministry of Works’ accounts.
Would his maternal grandfather still protect him?!
“Mother!” Seeing Empress Xu arrive, the Crown Prince rushed to her side in panic. “I heard about the Ministry of Works. How is Grandfather?”
Empress Xu looked at her flustered son. She placed several account books before him and asked in a low voice, “Did you know about these?”
The Crown Prince vehemently denied any knowledge. “Mother, I didn’t know. I never expected Xu Yong to be such a person…”
After the artisan cases, Empress Xu had reorganized the Eastern Palace’s accounts and discovered hidden transactions between the Eastern Palace, the Xu family, and the Ministry of Works. These were matters she had been unaware of all these years. The Crown Prince had not consulted her but had been dealing with the Ministry of Works for some time.
Shoddy construction, falsified vehicle and horse records… these projects, vital to the people’s livelihood, showed signs of tampered accounts. It meant the Ministry of Works had been doing this for a long time. Among them, the most recent project was the southern embankment the Crown Prince had personally overseen.
Other accounts could be blamed on the Ministry of Works, but this project was impossible—it was directly supervised by the Eastern Palace.
Yet the Crown Prince offered no explanation, simply shifting blame and insisting he knew nothing.
When had her child become like this?
“Mother, save me,” the Crown Prince cried.
Seeing his panicked, helpless state, Empress Xu’s heart softened. This was her child. She had to protect him no matter what.
“Transfer the Eastern Palace accounts to the Embroidered Uniform Guard,” Empress Xu said.
At this, the Crown Prince’s face twisted in horror. “Mother!! No! You can’t!”
Empress Xu said, “This is the only chance you’ll have to redeem yourself in the future.”
…
At the end of the nineteenth year of Taiyuan, the Emperor ordered the Crown Prince deposed. The deposed prince was relocated to a separate palace, stripped of all privileges.
The entire court was stunned.
When the news reached the court, the Emperor’s decree announcing the Crown Prince’s loss of virtue spread through the assembly. No one had expected this outcome. Since the Crown Prince’s establishment, the Emperor had maintained a balance between civil officials by both installing the Crown Prince and supporting the literati. This move dealt a heavy blow to the Crown Prince’s faction.
The whereabouts of the Ministry of Works’ military funds remained unknown, and the Eastern Palace had formed secret cliques. These charges were made public.
The First Prince’s faction was overjoyed. Other factions saw an opportunity and began to stir. Officials declared their positions one after another, encircling the remnants of the Xu faction. The situation was turbulent.
When the news reached Wanchun Hall, Ying Fusheng was drinking his medicine. The Crown Prince’s deposition and the calls for the Xu family’s punishment throughout the court reached his ears in fragments. Even Chen Xiuqiu, who had just finished administering acupuncture, couldn’t help but glance at Ying Fusheng.
A bowl of medicine had cooled to lukewarm. Ying Fusheng’s nails dug slightly into his palm as he listened to Song’an recount the events at court.
The discord in the court and the misery of the Eastern Palace—the Xu family had cut off their own limb to save themselves. When the military funds case surfaced, he had never intended to let the Crown Prince off. The Xu family had been trying to divine the Emperor’s intentions for so long, and the Crown Prince was the heir apparent. Missing military funds would never sit well with the Emperor.
The Emperor was in his prime. If the Crown Prince had secretly amassed military funds, with a little prompting, it could be construed as treason.
The same method. In his past life, he had been confined to the cold palace for a long time, eventually becoming something neither human nor ghost.
He slowly relaxed. The bowl reflected his face. Relocated to another palace, charged with treason.
Such familiar charges. He wondered if this pampered former new emperor would understand how it felt.
“Such a pity,” Ying Fusheng suddenly smiled. “I really wish I could see it for myself.”
Ying Fusheng drank his medicine slowly. “Share the good news. Let Wutong Hall know as well.”
Chen Xiuqiu was startled. Song’an immediately relayed the order to the palace attendants.
Ying Fusheng slightly raised his eyes to look at Chen Xiuqiu. His gaze was serene, yet it sent chills down one’s spine. He finished his medicine carefully, handed the bowl to Chen Xiuqiu, and picked up the pastries Song’an had bought from outside the palace, preparing to head to Cining Palace.
Arriving at Cining Palace, he found it quieter than usual. The Crown Prince had been deposed. The Empress had come, as had many concubines of the harem. Now that the Crown Prince had lost power, Consort Yun dominated the harem. Consequently, everyone sought to curry favor with the Empress Dowager. When the Empress Dowager was feeling well enough, she would manage things a bit. Consort Yun still remembered the formidable Empress Dowager Xiao of her youth and dared not act arrogantly in her presence. Not long ago, the Empress Dowager had been amusing herself with Xiaoqing. Cining Palace now housed a few more birds, a new interest of hers.
Ying Fusheng quietly approached her without disturbing her play.
After the sub-gu was extracted from the Empress Dowager’s body, Ying Fusheng often took the opportunity to have Chen Xiuqiu take her pulse to ensure her health. Chen Xiuqiu did so, and the Empress Dowager’s health was quite good for her age. Ying Fusheng had Song’an arrange for people to keep watch over Cining Palace, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard also kept an eye on it. Even though the sub-gu had been removed, Ying Fusheng remained unusually vigilant about the Empress Dowager’s health.
He had changed some things from his past life, so not everything would follow the predetermined course.
“Little Six,” the Empress Dowager said.
Ying Fusheng snapped back to attention, realizing the Empress Dowager was looking at him. Her eyes held no scrutiny, only a simple, gentle appraisal. A few more streaks of white had appeared in her hair, and the way she looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes held an indescribable warmth. “You’ve grown a bit.”
“Have I?” Ying Fusheng hadn’t noticed much.
“His Highness hasn’t been by these past few days, and Her Ladyship has been thinking of you,” Aunt Yu said.
“I’ll come earlier another day,” Ying Fusheng said.
The Empress Dowager shook her head and beckoned Ying Fusheng closer. It was hard to tell when he was right in front of her, but adolescents grew quickly. Compared to when he first arrived at Cining Palace, pale and sickly, always in heavy clothes, Ying Fusheng was now taller and looked a bit more spirited than at age ten.
She noticed the child was always like this—not hovering around her like other children.
He just quietly followed. If she spoke, he answered; if she didn’t, he walked in silence, sometimes for over half an hour.
As Ying Fusheng drew near, the Empress Dowager took his hand. Her thumb rubbed over a few bruises on his knuckles—marks left by needles. Her hands were old and wrinkled, with fine lines and calluses, yet her touch as she stroked his hand was warm and gentle, as if trying to smooth away the bruises.
“Even Xiaoqing has gained weight,” the Empress Dowager sighed. “But you just won’t put on any flesh.”
Seeing her sigh, Ying Fusheng had to say, “The imperial physician says it’s nothing serious. It’s just growing pains.”
It had been several months since the toxin was drawn out. His aversion to cold had slightly eased, and the winter months had become somewhat less unbearable.
The imperial physicians were overjoyed and sent a stream of restorative medicines to Wanchun Hall, which Chen Xiuqiu carefully filtered.
But his complexion didn’t improve as quickly.
Especially after Chen Xiuqiu rejected his pulse-taking method, his complexion had been so poor for a time that the Empress Dowager nearly held Chief Imperial Physician Chu responsible.
As evening fell, Ying Fusheng, as usual, accompanied the Empress Dowager for dinner.
Palace attendants served the dishes. Song’an handed him a soup.
As Ying Fusheng took it, he fumbled and the soup bowl clattered against the dish with a crisp sound.
The surrounding attendants quickly looked over, worried the soup might scald him.
He froze for a moment, then noticed the Empress Dowager looking his way. “My hand slipped.”
The Empress Dowager looked at him. “Is the Imperial Academy’s coursework too tiring? Your grandmother will send word to ease up for you.”
Ying Fusheng said, “It’s been better lately.”
The Empress Dowager didn’t talk much, except she couldn’t help fussing over his health.
Only after dinner did Ying Fusheng rise to leave. It was cold, and snow was expected to fall that night. The Empress Dowager ordered him to take an extra coat. He came to Cining Palace so often that they kept spare clothes for him there.
“In a while, go to Huguo Temple and light a prayer lamp for him,” the Empress Dowager said softly as she watched Ying Fusheng walk away. “Keep an eye on the imperial physicians too. There’s no one to look after this child.”
Ying Fusheng appeared frail, but the Empress Dowager could see the constant fatigue on his face.
When he spoke, it seemed he was listening, but sometimes his mind would wander. She always remembered the imperial physician’s initial diagnosis. The broken red seeds had damaged his lungs and poisoned his brain. The child seemed duller and slower than others, but when he held a brush for too long, his hands would tremble. He always hid them in his sleeve, unnoticed by others.
She had asked the imperial physician; it might be an effect of the brain poisoning.
The Crown Prince had been deposed. The political landscape was changing drastically. She hoped none of it would affect him.
Health, safety, smooth sailing—this child must be safe.