While speaking, he cast a deeply suggestive glance toward her.
Shen Xihe remained unmoved, quietly waiting for him to continue.
"Poor me, I still have to endure another year..." Xiao Huayong sighed mournfully, "The nights are long, sleeping alone is difficult, the quilt cold and the dew heavy..."
He was starting again, with his dramatic sighs and lamentations, acting like a deeply resentful woman confined to the inner chambers.
"Your Highness, are you trying to negotiate terms with me?" Shen Xihe suddenly spoke calmly, "If I don't give you any benefits, will you make the wedding date not go as I wish?"
"How could that be? I wouldn't dare threaten Youyou." Xiao Huayong smiled faintly, "I merely want Youyou to understand how eagerly I wish to marry you. Of course... if Youyou, knowing the torment of my heart's longing, could show me some tenderness, I would be overjoyed. If Youyou is unwilling, I will still accept it gladly. Next year it is then."
His retreat-as-advance strategy made Shen Xihe feel she was being somewhat unreasonable. Not wanting him to push his advantage further, she pretended not to understand.
"Youyou must frequently come to the palace to see me, to ease my lovesickness," Xiao Huayong said, blinking his smiling eyes at Shen Xihe.
"Your Highness, you are not originally such a frivolous person. Why do you insist on presenting yourself as so unreliable?" Shen Xihe was puzzled.
Xiao Huayong chuckled softly: "Youyou, you're mistaken. The refined and upright me that you imagine is the version everyone sees. But the me before you now is the real me. Every word I speak to you comes from the bottom of my heart, spoken with genuine sincerity."
Shen Xihe watched him quietly for a long moment before nodding: "Zhaoning understands."
He wanted her to learn to accept his true nature with equanimity.
Xiao Huayong pressed his lips together with a slight smile. He knew what Shen Xihe was thinking. He stood up and said: "I've heard Youyou is skilled at painting. The apricot blossoms are blooming now, the green willows sprouting - such wonderful spring scenery. Would Youyou care to paint with me?"
"Zhaoning is not particularly skilled at painting," Shen Xihe corrected, though she didn't refuse, "This would be a good opportunity to learn from Your Highness."
It was better than staying here listening to his deliberately provocative remarks.
The Eastern Palace was a place of exotic flowers and rare plants, abundant with flora and trees. Setting aside other considerations, she quite liked the layout and intricacy of the Eastern Palace. Eunuchs had already set up the painting tools.
Seeing this, Shen Xihe couldn't help but feel that Xiao Huayong had been so confident she would agree that he might have deliberately said those things to annoy her: "Your Highness seems quite certain His Majesty wouldn't visit today?"
If the Youning Emperor found out he was painting, his pretense of blindness would be hard to maintain.
"His Majesty is busy today," Xiao Huayong smiled mysteriously.
Indeed, the Youning Emperor was occupied today. After finishing reviewing memorials and preparing to visit the Eastern Palace to check on Xiao Huayong, he received news that Wang Erlang had smashed his head against the prison wall and committed suicide.
"Suicide? How is the Court of Judicial Review guarding prisoners!" the Youning Emperor roared angrily.
Xue Cheng, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, knelt on the ground, not daring to speak. He had indeed ordered strict surveillance, even assigning special guards, with the prisoner securely bound and gagged with cloth, precisely because he worried the man might die under unclear circumstances.
"Did he confess anything?" the Youning Emperor asked.
"Your Majesty, we applied all permissible torture methods, but he insisted he knew nothing," Xue Cheng replied. Having dealt with countless prisoners, Xue Cheng knew that someone like Wang Erlang was either deeply cunning and exceptionally capable of enduring hardship, or genuinely wronged.
Wang Erlang hadn't received special training. As the eldest grandson of the Wang family, he was accustomed to luxury and comfort - how could he have endured such torment? Xue Cheng leaned toward the possibility that Wang Erlang had been falsely accused.Now that the man was dead, covered in torture marks, returning the body to the Wang family would be difficult to explain. It clearly appeared he had taken his own life to escape further brutal interrogation.
At that moment, Wang Zheng seemed to have received the news and requested an audience outside. The Youning Emperor was not one to avoid confrontations, so he summoned him in and dismissed Xue Cheng. Wang Zheng entered and knelt before the Emperor: "Your Majesty, Erlang would never dare to harm the Crown Prince. I have questioned everyone present on the field that day—both our own men and the envoys—and all testified that if the hollow ball had contained medicinal powder inside, it would have been noticeable during play.
I also specifically obtained some medicinal powder. Whether the powder was placed directly inside or wrapped in oiled cloth, it made the ball distinctly different from a normal one. Therefore, I boldly conclude that there could not have been any powder inside the ball."
As he spoke, Wang Zheng had someone bring in the specially made polo ball he had rushed to prepare.
The Youning Emperor examined it briefly and said, "According to your reasoning, if the poison wasn’t hidden in the ball, how did it end up all over the Crown Prince’s face?"
Wang Zheng remained silent for a moment before replying, "It must have been tampered with by whoever handled the ball after it left Erlang’s hands."
The Emperor laughed coldly at this. "The ball left Wang Erlang’s hand and went straight toward the Crown Prince, only to be shattered by his guard. Are you implying that the Crown Prince’s guard took the opportunity of breaking the ball to scatter poison in the Crown Prince’s face?"
That was indeed what Wang Zheng meant, but he didn’t dare say it outright. He could only kneel in silence.
Irritated by his evasiveness, the Emperor scoffed, "Cao Tianyuan is the chief guard of the Eastern Palace. If he intended to harm the Crown Prince, why resort to such a method? He holds no grudge against you or the Wang family, nor against Wang Erlang. So it couldn’t have been his own idea. Even if he had been bribed by someone else, there are countless ways to assassinate the Crown Prince—this method would be the least likely.
The only remaining possibility is that he was acting under the Crown Prince’s orders. During the grand assembly that day, when envoys from both nations nearly drew swords, you hinted to me that it was the Crown Prince’s doing. At the time, I was inclined to believe you. But now you want me to think the Crown Prince sees you as a thorn in his side, to the extent that he would sacrifice his own eyesight? Wang Zheng, aren’t you overestimating your importance?"
This was the very point Wang Zheng couldn’t reconcile. The Crown Prince’s intent to eliminate him was evident—from the deliberate collision with his horse, to the conflict among envoys at the assembly, and even the Lantern Festival plot he had set to expose the Crown Prince, which the Crown Prince might have already uncovered.
Yet even if the Crown Prince wanted him dead, why resort to such extreme measures? Now, everyone knew the Crown Prince might be permanently blinded. The Fourth Prince and Prince Zhao, who were far away at the imperial mausoleum, had already begun to stir.
"Your Majesty, I dare not overestimate myself. But my loyalty to Your Majesty has inevitably made me a target in some people’s eyes," Wang Zheng said carefully. "Consider this: both the Turkic prince and I suspected the Crown Prince of hiding his true capabilities, and now neither of us has come to a good end…"
"Are you suggesting that the death of Yangling Princess was the Crown Prince’s doing, intended to frame Munuha?" the Emperor retorted with a cold laugh. "This incident coincided with the trouble in your family. Are you telling me the Crown Prince has such extensive power and influence that he still needs to covertly eliminate you?"
Wang Zheng was momentarily speechless. Although he wanted to pin everything on the Crown Prince, the matter of Yangling Princess was unlikely to be his doing. He could only say, "Your Majesty, since the Crown Prince’s return to the capital, we’ve seen incidents involving the Xuanping Marquis Estate, the Kang Prince Manor, Xun Wang, and the Minister of Revenue Dong Biquan…"All these are Your Majesty's people. These individuals who once enjoyed such prominence all met their deaths within less than a year of Xiao Huayong's return. Is this not worth pondering deeply?
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