Su Cen strongly disapproved of such pointless and time-wasting audiences that solved nothing. The moment he received the edict, his dissatisfaction was almost palpable. However, imperial orders couldn’t be defied, and he was aware of his own position. In the end, he could only accept it with a dark expression.
The eunuch, probably encountering for the first time someone receiving a summons for an imperial audience as if facing certain death, didn’t dare to hurry him.
Su Cen took a deep breath and turned to assign tasks to the Dali Temple staff. “Two people go back to interrogate the Xu family’s Steward and Madam Xu Lin. Ask if they know Liu Kang, if there was any connection between Xu Youhuai and Liu Kang, and who the two mysterious owners of Cuiji Pavilion are. Another two investigate the origins of those two paintings. The rest stay here and question each of the Liu family servants. Find out their every move yesterday, at what time, what they did, and if there are any witnesses. Be thorough.”
He then pointed at Ning Santong, “You, go back and examine the body. I want to know if he was drugged, how it was administered, what kind of drug it was, and the time of death. I need to know everything.”
After giving these instructions, Su Cen headed towards the door. After about ten steps, he turned back, frowning at the eunuch, “Are you coming?”
The eunuch who had come to deliver the edict stood dumbfounded, still trying to understand how a case of attempted assassination before the emperor had, in just one day, turned into a matter of business owners, paintings, and poisoning. Watching Su Cen’s whirlwind of arrangements and immediate departure, as if anyone wasting his time was his mortal enemy, the eunuch hurriedly followed, “Yes, yes, let’s prepare a sedan chair for Lord Su.”
As Su Cen headed towards the imperial city with obvious reluctance, he was unaware that several storms had already swept through the palace.
The emperor’s sleeping quarters, the Zichen Pavilion, was unusually lively. Normally, few officials came to discuss affairs of state here, as the young emperor had not yet assumed personal rule. Today, however, was different, with half the hall filled with people.
The reason for this was that the young emperor had, for the first time, disobeyed Li Shi’s orders by not attending the morning court.
Although the young emperor couldn’t make decisions on important state matters, Li Shi required him to participate in every morning court session, ostensibly to observe and learn. To others, however, the young emperor seemed merely a figurehead placed there by Li Shi to avoid accusations of monopolizing power. This morning, after Li Shi and the officials had waited for half an hour in the front court without the emperor appearing, they directly moved the morning court to the young emperor’s sleeping quarters.
The young emperor had been literally dragged out of bed by Li Shi. Along with him came his former wet nurse, who was terrified and had fallen from the bed, lying on the ground disheveled and shaking like a sieve.
Even though the emperor was young, he was well past the age of needing a wet nurse, and she had long been given a title and sent out of the palace. Her presence here now was problematic.
Li Shi glanced at the wet nurse, raising an eyebrow, “Who allowed you to come here?”
The wet nurse was too frightened to speak, only repeatedly kowtowing to Li Shi, “Please spare me, Your Highness, please spare me…”
Li Shi was not a patient man and had no time for her wailing. With a wave of his hand, he ordered, “Entering the palace without permission, enticing the emperor to delay the morning court and disrupt state affairs – drag her out and beat her to death.”
The wet nurse’s eyes rolled back, and she nearly fainted on the spot.
When two guards came forward to lift her up, the wet nurse finally regained her senses. She desperately grabbed the young emperor’s trouser leg, crying, “Your Majesty, please spare my life! Zhuo’er, save your wet nurse!”
The young Emperor Li Zhuo seemed not fully awake, staring blankly with his large eyes as the person beside him was dragged away, as if trapped in an inescapable nightmare. Only when he saw his wet nurse being dragged out the door did he seem to awaken from his stupor, hastily pleading, “I asked the wet nurse to come, Uncle Prince, please spare her.”
“You asked her to come?” Prince Ning glanced at the young emperor, startling him. He continued, “When did you issue the order? Who announced it? Which gate did she enter through? Who guided her? At what time?”
The young emperor stood dumbfounded, mumbling after a while, “The Left Silver Terrace Gate… at… at the hour of Xu (7-9 pm).”
Prince Ning ordered, “Bring the guards who were on duty at the Left Silver Terrace Gate during the hour of Xu.”
“Un-Uncle Prince, I remembered wrong,” the young emperor quickly changed his words, “I’ve forgotten the exact time.”
“Then bring all the guards who were on duty at every gate of the palace last night, at every hour.”
The young emperor’s small face scrunched up in distress, pleading, “Uncle…”
Prince Ning looked down at the child before him, “You are the emperor. You must be responsible for every word you say. Do you know how many lies it takes to cover up one lie, and how many people will be implicated? Not just the guards at the palace gates, but also the eunuchs and palace maids in your palace. I can investigate each one, punish those who lie or fail to report. Then, because of one person, you will implicate countless others. Is this how you set an example as the ruler of a nation?”
His bottomless eyes left nowhere to hide. The young emperor, already afraid of those eyes, now dared not even raise his head. He could only mumble, “The wet nurse just wanted to keep me company. I’m scared at night, I can’t sleep. Only she was willing to stay with me…”
“She came to keep you company?” Prince Ning laughed coldly, “What did she tell you?”
“She said…” the young emperor bit his lip, “She said the divine fire descended because it touched the killing energy of the White Tiger of the West. If we set up an altar in the west to appease the heavens and calm the killing energy, I won’t have nightmares anymore.”
Someone said, “This wet nurse has a distant relative working in the Court of Imperial Sacrifices. She’s probably trying to use this as an excuse to make some money.”
Prince Ning looked down at the young emperor, “You heard that.”
The young emperor lowered his head and remained silent for a long time. It wouldn’t be appropriate to cry in front of all the court officials, so he held back the tears welling in his eyes, biting his lip hard. Finally, he said softly, “I understand.”
“I know the wet nurse came for a reason, but at least she could use this excuse to come see me, willing to talk to me. These past few days, I haven’t been able to sleep. Uncle Prince is busy with state affairs, Mother Empress is not here, only she was willing to stay with me. If… if Father Emperor were still here, I wouldn’t be afraid.”
The Zichen Pavilion fell silent. Everyone knew about the discord between the late emperor and Prince Ning. When the late emperor first ascended the throne, he insisted on fighting the Turks, aiming to keep Prince Ning tied up at the border. If it weren’t for the urgent need to entrust the young emperor to someone’s care, with no other choice available, he probably would have wanted to keep Prince Ning at the border for life. The young emperor mentioning the late emperor at this moment inevitably carried a hint of reproach, which was unlikely to have any effect and might only anger Prince Ning needlessly.
Sure enough, Prince Ning’s obsidian-like eyes narrowed slightly, causing the young emperor to shiver inexplicably and take a small step back.
At that moment, an announcer rushed in from outside to report that the Empress Dowager had arrived.
As soon as the words were spoken, Empress Dowager Chu strode in, her phoenix eyes sweeping over everyone. “What a grand spectacle. Is this an attempt to force the emperor’s abdication so early in the morning?”
Forcing abdication was a serious crime of treason. For a moment, no one dared to speak. Finally, Liu Peng, bearing the pressure, replied, “His Majesty did not attend the morning court today. We were only concerned about his health and came to check on him.”
“He’s just a child. What’s wrong with sleeping in occasionally?” Empress Dowager Chu raised her hand to stop the wet nurse from being dragged away. “Since when does checking on someone result in a death sentence?”
Many disapproved of the wet nurse’s interference in politics. An official spoke up, “Empress Dowager, you may not know, but this woman has been bewitching His Majesty and interfering with state affairs. Her crime is unforgivable. Prince Ning is only trying to clear the court of evil influences…”
Empress Dowager Chu interrupted, “Are you saying that women are without virtue and incapable of interfering in state affairs?”
The official immediately knelt down, “I wouldn’t dare! Empress Dowager, please understand, I absolutely did not mean that!”
“Then what did you mean?”
Prince Ning emerged from the warm chamber, “If you can’t understand, go back and rest. Why come out and make a fool of yourself?”
Empress Dowager Chu glared at him, “You!”
Everyone could see that Prince Ning was in a foul mood today, his patience wearing thin. Even Liu Peng had the sense not to contradict him. The Empress Dowager’s arrival seemed to have hit a raw nerve.
They were already adversaries, and now the situation was explosive, thick with tension.
Empress Dowager Chu laughed coldly, “I’ve heard that this calamity descended because someone’s perverse actions angered the heavens. If you’re so capable of showing off here, why don’t you go and appease this heavenly disaster?”
“If it were truly a heavenly disaster, it should have gone two steps further,” Before anyone could understand what he meant, Prince Ning continued languidly, “Burning the phoenix throne would have fulfilled heaven’s will.”
“You… you want me dead…” Empress Dowager Chu pointed at Prince Ning with her bright red nails, her fingertips trembling violently, “You want to kill me so you can seize power for yourself!”
“I said if it were a heavenly disaster,” Prince Ning stood casually with his hands behind his back, “Unfortunately, it’s man-made.”
There was a hint of genuine regret in that “unfortunately,” sending an involuntary shiver through everyone present.
As the situation in the Zichen Pavilion grew tense, no one paid attention to a small eunuch peeking in from outside. Seeing the heated argument, Liu Peng discreetly walked to the door and asked, “What’s the matter?”
The small eunuch came forward and whispered something in his ear. Liu Peng’s expression changed upon hearing it. He dismissed the eunuch and returned to the hall, clearing his throat before speaking gravely, “Another person has died, burned to death in his own house in the middle of the night.”
The Zichen Pavilion fell silent once more, each person harboring their own thoughts. Prince Ning laughed coldly, “This heavenly disaster is quite interesting, one person each day. It seems the one up there has plenty of time on their hands.”
Empress Dowager Chu’s face alternated between pale and flushed. Firstly, she was still shaken by the memory of that day’s events. Secondly, she was embarrassed at how quickly her words had been proven wrong. Just moments ago, she had insisted that this was a heavenly disaster aimed at Prince Ning, but now it seemed that the heavens had turned their wrath on someone else entirely.
A soft sobbing sound came from the warm chamber. At first, it was suppressed and restrained, but it gradually grew louder, eventually turning into wailing, as if a long-held dam of emotions had finally burst.
Everyone turned towards the sound to see the young emperor, dressed in his sleeping robe, crying with tears streaming down his face. He collapsed to the ground, wailing, “I don’t want to be emperor anymore!”
The entire court was stunned, and they all knelt down in unison, bowing deeply and not daring to rise.
Then, they heard Prince Ning standing in the hall, chuckling softly, “That might be for the best.”
![Flying Dust [Fei Chen]](https://www.freenovels.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/9k.png "Flying Dust [Fei Chen]")
