Fan Changyu had witnessed Xie Zheng's stubborn nature, but she didn't know much about Wei Yan. Everything she knew about the powerful chancellor was hearsay, and their only meeting had been on the night of the coup.
She had no way of judging whether the uncle and nephew were alike.
Her first impression of Wei Yan, however, perfectly matched the rumors about him: cold, ruthless, and willing to do anything to achieve his goals.
Unlike Grand Tutor Li, who at first glance possessed the cool, noble character of a Confucian scholar, like a pine tree standing against a clear sky, Wei Yan was a man as cold and hard as a blade's edge or a solid rock, seemingly without a single weakness.
Fan Changyu sat upright on the bamboo mat, hesitating before she spoke. "May I ask, foster father, was there something between Wei Yan and Shu Fei back then?"
Tao Taifu lifted his eyelids and sized Fan Changyu up again. "Why do you ask?"
Fan Changyu recounted the confession of the Cold Palace maid and Qi Min's accusations.
Tao Taifu set down his teacup, his wrinkled hand stroking the rim. A hint of time-worn vicissitudes appeared in his eyes. "I was not in the capital back then, so I am not very clear on what happened in the palace. But since it was that girl from the Qi family, no matter how cruel Wei Yan's heart is, I doubt he could have done something like setting fire to Qinghe Palace."
Seeing the confusion on Fan Changyu's face, he explained, "Shu Fei was a daughter of the Qi family. She and that brat's mother were good friends when they were young ladies. At that time, the Xie family had not yet achieved its current glory. The one propping up the entire Great Yin was Old General Qi. Both Wei Yan and Linshan trained under Old General Qi's command. Later, after Old General Qi passed away, Linshan held up half the sky in the northwest, while Wei Yan gave up the military for a career in the civil service. The Qi family's girl entered the palace around that time."
Fan Changyu's brow furrowed slightly. According to Tao Taifu, Wei Yan and Shu Fei must have known each other since they were young, and their families seemed to have a good relationship.
With this connection, it made even less sense that Wei Yan, who later went on to massacre the imperial palace, would burn Shu Fei to death.
She mentally estimated Shu Fei's age. Shu Fei should be of the same generation as her own parents, and the Chengde Crown Prince was also of their generation. By that calculation, wouldn't the emperor have been old enough to be Shu Fei's father?
Although she knew that some wealthy old gentlemen would still take several young and beautiful concubines, Fan Changyu couldn't help but frown at the realization. "If Wei Yan was interested in Shu Fei, why didn't he ask for her hand in marriage before she entered the palace?"
Tao Taifu let out a long sigh. "Do you know who the Chengde Crown Prince's birth mother was?"
Fan Changyu shook her head.
Tao Taifu said, "Empress Dowager Xiaozhongsucí of the Qi clan. She was Old General Qi's younger sister and Shu Fei's paternal aunt."
Fan Changyu was stunned for a moment. This meant that Shu Fei and the Chengde Crown Prince were cousins?
Although it wasn't unheard of in past dynasties for an aunt and niece to serve the same man, given the existence of the Chengde Crown Prince and Old General Qi, she figured that Empress Qi, whose son had already been named Crown Prince, wouldn't have needed to bring her own niece into the palace to help secure the emperor's favor.
Her thoughts must have been written all over her face, as Tao Taifu continued, "The imperial court is a pool of muddy water now, but it wasn't much cleaner back then. The chronic illnesses of this dynasty have accumulated from one generation to the next. You clear out the old, but after some years, new ones attach themselves. There's never a time when it can be completely cleansed..."
Tao Taifu sighed softly again, seemingly filled with emotion. "Since you've already traced things to Jia Guifei's palace maid, you should also know how much favor Jia Guifei received back then. Half the civil and military officials in the court were practically surnamed Jia. In the early years, with Old General Qi as a pillar of the state, the Crown Prince could sit securely in the Eastern Palace no matter how favored the Sixteenth Prince was. Once Old General Qi was gone, the Empress lost her backing, and the Crown Prince's path became difficult.
"The common folk all cursed the consort for bewitching the emperor and her maternal relatives for meddling in politics. After Old General Qi's death, the Empress was also bedridden with illness. Fearing that if she too passed away, the Crown Prince would be left with no support in the inner palace, she used the pretext of needing someone to attend to her illness to bring the Qi family's girl into the palace. I had met that girl. She was brilliant and clever since childhood, well-read, and possessed a beauty that could make fish sink and geese fall. She attended to the Empress's illness for a year. A year later, Empress Qi passed away. Not long after that girl returned home, she was selected to enter the palace with the other young ladies and was granted the title of Fei."
Hearing this, Fan Changyu could only remain silent.
The reason for Shu Fei's entry into the palace was far heavier than she had imagined.
The struggles between the princes for the throne were bloody and deadly. If the Chengde Crown Prince were to fail, the fate of this branch of the Qi family was unknown.
With the lives of her entire family resting on her shoulders, what choice did Shu Fei have?
A thought flashed through her mind, and Fan Changyu suddenly looked up. "Foster father, Wei Yan and General Xie both received Old General Qi's patronage in the army, and they both later supported the Chengde Crown Prince. In the palace, Shu Fei was also helping the Chengde Crown Prince contend with Jia Guifei and her son. Looking at it this way, Shu Fei's death, and the crime of having an affair with her that was pinned on Wei Yan, are both very suspicious!"
Tao Taifu nodded. "If all this was indeed the Jia family's doing, then when Wei Yan seized absolute power, his slaughter of all the court officials surnamed Jia was not just to purge the court."
He sighed softly. "When that brat insisted that Wei Yan was the mastermind behind the Jinzhou Massacre, I thought there might be some hidden story, which is why I personally came to the capital to find Wei Yan. That man has a heart of stone now, but back then, he and Linshan were brothers who entrusted their lives to each other on the battlefield. Otherwise, he would not have betrothed his own sister, whom he doted on like the apple of his eye, to Linshan."
Hearing this, Fan Changyu recalled what Xie Zheng had said when she went to find him at the Xie family's burial grounds—that Wei Yan used to take him to pay respects alone every year, not allowing any servants to follow. For a moment, her heart was a tangle of complex emotions.
She asked, "Did you hear any rumors later about what happened in the palace?"
A trace of bitterness tinged Tao Taifu's gentle and placid smile. "My girl, do you know how long this land of Great Yin was in turmoil after Jinzhou fell and the Northern Turks marched south? The heir apparent died, the generals perished, and the emperor collapsed. Those barbarians intended to use the opportunity to strike directly at the capital! Green hills buried bones, rivers drank blood, and nine out of ten households in the land were empty...
"The front lines resisting the Northern Turks' advance were so tragic. With the very survival of our country at stake, the deaths of a few consorts in the palace were but a few specks of dust washed into the bloody waters of this chaotic world. My own son and daughter also died in the chaos of war. It was only thanks to Jingyuan collecting their bodies that they had a simple coffin and a grave."
A bitter taste filled Fan Changyu's throat, and she lowered her head in shame. "I'm sorry, foster father, I..."
Tao Taifu waved his hand, only saying, "It's all in the past. After the fall of Jinzhou, Great Yin and the Northern Turks fought on and off for another three years. The national treasury was empty, the people were displaced by the flames of war, farmlands were abandoned, and we couldn't even levy military rations from the populace... If the fighting had continued, Great Yin would have collapsed into a heap of loose sand on its own before the foreign tribes even reached the capital. It was at this moment that Wei Yan stood up and single-handedly pushed for the treaty to cede the twelve commanderies of Liaodong in exchange for twenty years of peace for Great Yin.
"At that time, I told him that in the history books of the future, he would surely be cursed and have his spine pointed at for this act. He replied that a chancellor of a fallen kingdom would also be spat on by later generations. Since he would be cursed either way, he might as well take advantage of the fact that the barbarians beyond the pass had also exhausted their resources after years of fighting, and gamble on the future with these twenty years bought by ceding the land."
Fan Changyu was a general herself and had spent a long time roughing it in military camps. With Tao Taifu's explanation, she could understand the situation at the time.
After Jinzhou fell, Great Yin, like a centipede that dies but never falls, had managed to hold out against the Northern Turks for another three years. During those three years, countless loyal souls like General Xie and Tao Taifu must have stood at the very front to hold on for so long.
But the Northern Turks could no longer sustain the war, and they didn't know how much longer Great Yin could hold on, which was why they agreed to Wei Yan's proposal to cede the twelve commanderies of Liaodong and cease hostilities for twenty years to recuperate.
Perhaps the Northern Turks never imagined that in less than twenty years, Jinzhou would be reclaimed by the descendant of the Xie who had died in battle there, and the twelve commanderies of Liaodong would also be taken back.
Connecting this to Wei Yan's harshness towards Xie Zheng and his request for Tao Taifu to be Xie Zheng's teacher, Fan Changyu felt that she understood Wei Yan less and less. She couldn't tell if his actions were to save Great Yin or simply to protect his own power.
But he had indeed pinned an eternally infamous crime on her maternal grandfather and killed her own parents.
Fan Changyu couldn't help but press her lips together tightly. "Foster father, Wei Yan... is he ultimately a good person, or a wicked one?"
Tao Taifu's complex and magnanimous gaze, which seemed capable of holding a hundred rivers, rested quietly on Fan Changyu. He only said, "People of a certain time can only do what the situation demands. Let their merits and demerits be left for later generations to judge."
Fan Changyu gave a soft sound of assent, her gaze falling to the chessboard before her. She clutched a game piece in her hand and remained silent for a long time.
After leaving Tao Taifu, Fan Changyu took both Changning and Bao'er to Aunt Zhao and her husband. She figured that since Qi Min had been captured along with Grand Tutor Li, finding Yu Qianqian shouldn't be too difficult.
Xie Wu had been injured while protecting Aunt Zhao and her husband, so she summoned Xie Qi and had him arrange for men to search for Yu Qianqian's whereabouts. Xie Qi said that Gongsun Yin had already sent people and found Yu Qianqian. For some reason, however, Qi Min hadn't brought her to the capital, but had instead locked her up in a private villa in a provincial capital. The men sent to retrieve her would need another day or two to return.
Regardless, Fan Changyu felt a sense of relief knowing that Yu Qianqian was safe.
She had always remembered the kindness Yu Qianqian had shown her when she was at her lowest. Even later, when war broke out in Qingping County, Yu Qianqian had thought to bring her and Changning along while fleeing south with Yu Bao'er. How could Fan Changyu not be grateful for her kindness?
She asked Xie Qi about the current situation and learned that Grand Tutor Li was dead for good. Qi Min had been hit by that arrow but was still breathing. Gongsun Yin wasn't sure how Xie Zheng would deal with this descendant of the Chengde Crown Prince, so he had the imperial physicians keep him half-alive for now.
The young emperor had also been found at Wei Yan's residence, but he was acting insane, and it was unclear whether he was truly mad or just feigning it.
The statement that the imperial astronomers had been made to release before Qi Min and Grand Tutor Li's coup—about the "dragon's vein being in disarray and the throne being illegitimately obtained"—was now conveniently paving the way for Bao'er.
The court officials now all followed Xie Zheng's lead. All that was needed was the right moment to push Yu Bao'er onto the throne.
Thinking of the still-murky truth of the Jinzhou incident, Fan Changyu's chest felt tight and stuffy. She decided to go back and practice a set of saber forms to calm down.
In a moment of distraction, she bumped into Xie Zhong, who was limping along, carrying a stack of things toward Xie Zheng's study.
The box in Xie Zhong's hands fell to the ground, and its contents scattered everywhere.
"My apologies, old sir." Fan Changyu felt extremely guilty. Xie Zhong's leg was injured, so she quickly squatted down to help him pick things up.
Xie Zhong's expression had been somewhat cold, but upon seeing it was Fan Changyu, he let down his guard and said in a gentle voice, "It was this old servant who saw the General was lost in thought and didn't dare to interrupt. My legs are not agile, so I failed to get out of the way in time and bumped into the General..."
Fan Changyu was about to offer a word or two of comfort to the old man when her expression changed abruptly. She had seen that among the letters that had fallen out of the box, there were also three Tiger Tallies.
All three Tiger Tallies bore the small seal script characters for Chongzhou, clearly identifying them as Chongzhou's Tiger Tallies.
But why were there three?
Weren't there always only two halves of a Tiger Tally, a left and a right? The left half was given to the commanding general, while the right half remained in the emperor's hands.
Fan Changyu's breathing instantly quickened. As she tried to fit the three tallies together, her hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
The left and right halves of one tally fit together easily, the two halves of the seal script on the seam matching perfectly.
The extra one was a left half!
And the one her father had been tasked with delivering back then was the right half given by the emperor!
The Sui residence's steward had said that Changxin Wang had tried to match the Tiger Tally her father delivered in front of his subordinate generals, and the tally hadn't fit!
So it wasn't that her father had delivered a fake Tiger Tally, but that the one the Sui family had produced was fake!
This realization made the blood in Fan Changyu's entire body feel as if it were rushing in reverse. She shot her head up and asked Xie Zhong, "Where did these things come from?"
Seeing her terribly pale face and her hand gripping the Tiger Tallies so tightly that her knuckles turned white, Xie Zhong quickly replied, "The advisor from the Court of Revision who previously accused Wei Yan later recanted his testimony and implicated the Li family. He also revealed the location where the Sui family hid their correspondence with the Li family. The Marquis had already ordered men to search for this evidence, and it was just sent back from Chongzhou by express courier today."
Upon hearing this, Fan Changyu, without bothering to explain further, began to rummage through the letters. "Old sir, I'm looking for something. I'll explain in detail to Xie Zheng later."
Xie Zhong's attitude was surprisingly calm. "The General may look for whatever you wish. The Marquis gave instructions long ago that the General may freely take and use anything in the residence."
The urgency of uncovering the truth of the seventeen-year-old Jinzhou Massacre overshadowed the faint, strange feeling that rose in Fan Changyu's heart upon hearing those words.
Unfortunately, there was no correspondence between the Wei and Sui families among the letters.
Fan Changyu stared at the three Tiger Tallies in her hand for two breaths, then stood up. "Old sir, I'll borrow these tallies for a moment."
Xie Zhong only said, "The General may take them as you please."
Holding the three Tiger Tallies, Fan Changyu went straight to find Tao Taifu.
When the door was kicked open, Tao Taifu had just poured himself a cup of tea. The loud "thud" made his hand tremble, and the full cup of tea spilled, soaking his robe. He couldn't help but chide, "You girl, didn't you just leave a moment ago? What's the matter, coming back in such a rush..."
Fan Changyu held out the three Tiger Tallies. "Foster father, take a look. Are these Tiger Tallies real or fake!"
Tao Taifu's drooping eyelids shot up. His chiding stopped abruptly, and his expression immediately turned grave. "Let me see."
Fan Changyu handed the tallies over. Tao Taifu held them up to his eyes, examining them carefully in the light from the window before saying, "They are Chongzhou's Tiger Tallies. There's no mistake."
Fan Changyu's hands, hanging at her sides, clenched into tight fists. With her head slightly bowed, her calm voice struggled to suppress something. "The Tiger Tally my father delivered back then was real. It was the Sui family that had ulterior motives!"
Tao Taifu's wrinkled brow furrowed. "This Sui family is truly strange. When he was asked to send troops to turn the tide, he refused. But after Jinzhou fell, he promptly stepped up to fill the breach. If the Sui family was entirely to blame for the loss of Jinzhou, why would that old fellow Wei Yan cover for them?"
Fan Changyu turned and walked out. "The Eldest Imperial Grandson... the Eldest Imperial Grandson is still alive! He hates the Sui family to the bone. Perhaps he knows something!"
Tao Taifu watched Fan Changyu's rapidly departing figure, then turned his gaze to the unfinished game on the chessboard and sighed softly. "Old fellow, oh, old fellow, you truly have been stubborn your whole life. What secret could you possibly have that you must take to your grave?"
In the dim prison, only a single beam of light shone down from the skylight. Fine particles of snow drifted in, coating the ground below in a thin layer.
The clanking of iron chains echoed from the end of the cell block. A pair of brocade boots walked slowly along the green brick path, stopping in front of a cell near the back. The man looked coldly at the upright old man sitting cross-legged inside, saying nothing.
The imperial prison was heavy with cold air. The snowflakes dusting his cloak showed no sign of melting.
Wei Yan opened his stern phoenix eyes and looked at the young man standing outside the cell, the one who was about to become the backbone of Great Yin. He spoke calmly, "To the victor go the spoils. Since you have defeated me, you didn't come here today just to see how I am faring, did you?"
Xie Zheng just watched him quietly, his expression cold and nonchalant. "The Chancellor guessed correctly. This Marquis came today precisely to see what a man who has spent his entire life playing with power looks like after losing it."
Wei Yan sneered. "It seems I have disappointed you."
Xie Zheng tilted his head slightly. His long hair was immaculately bound by a golden coronet. The light from the distant skylight struck his profile, making the contours of his features appear even deeper. His eyes held a bone-deep chill, yet something else seemed to lie in their depths, something one couldn't quite make out. "I wouldn't call it a disappointment. The Chancellor has the heart of a viper and the nature of a wolf. I'm afraid you no longer remember what it is to be human. Why should this Marquis concern himself with something that can't even be considered a person?"
A flash of cold severity instantly appeared in Wei Yan's eyes—not just simple anger, but also a hint of an elder's sternness toward a junior.
Xie Zheng looked down at him with his half-lidded phoenix eyes and said coldly, "Angry? What right do you have to be angry? Or perhaps, the Chancellor wishes to tell this Marquis that you had your reasons for killing your own sister and brother-in-law?"
Wei Yan's facial muscles tensed. He simply closed his eyes and stopped responding.
Xie Zheng continued nonchalantly, "That wife you brought into your residence over twenty years ago came to beg me to spare your life. Only then did I learn that you were indifferent to Wei Xuan's death because he was not your flesh and blood. Were you just as indifferent when you killed my parents?"
He slowly raised his eyes, a mocking smile on his lips, but his voice was filled with cold ridicule. "Or was it that my mother wasn't your real sister either, and that she deserved to be eliminated once she stood in your way?"
His words were exceedingly sharp, and within his cold, mocking phoenix eyes, there was a faint trace of crimson.
"Silence!" Wei Yan suddenly barked, a flash of deep pain flickering through the phoenix eyes so similar to Xie Zheng's.
Xie Zheng lunged forward, grabbing Wei Yan's collar and slamming him, shackles and all, against the cell door. The hatred suppressed beneath his calm demeanor broke through the string of reason in his mind. His expression turned somewhat savage as he roared at Wei Yan, "Then tell me! Why did you kill my parents? You had me call you 'uncle' for over twenty years. Are you worthy?!"
Wei Yan's hands were in iron shackles. Pulled with such force by Xie Zheng, both his temples slammed hard against the wooden posts of the cell, quickly drawing blood. But his eyes only turned abruptly fierce as he said, "It is as you said. They stood in my way, so they deserved to die."
The last two words were spoken with extreme gravity.
Xie Zheng's jaw was clenched tight, his eyes red. The veins on the back of the hand gripping Wei Yan's collar bulged. He forcefully threw Wei Yan aside and scrambled to his feet, looking somewhat disheveled, and spat out three words through gritted teeth: "You're lying!"
Wei Yan fell back onto the straw pile, panting slowly. Hearing this, he offered no further reply.
Xie Zheng slammed his palm heavily on the sturdy wooden post of the cell, his eyes filled with hatred as he stared at Wei Yan. "You disown your own family, single-mindedly obsessed with power. Now that you have no power left, who are you still hiding the truth for?"
Wei Yan still did not answer.
Finally, Xie Zheng stormed away in a fit of anger. When the cell door at the end of the corridor was pulled open and then slammed shut, it made a loud "bang." The chains on it rattled, showing the immense fury of the person who had closed it.
The jailer dared not say or ask much. He fumbled with the chains on the door and reattached the lock.
The heavy snow had not stopped, fluttering down from the skylight that cut a line of white light into the prison.
Wei Yan lay on the pile of dry straw, watching the snowflakes weave through the dim light of the cell, so clean they seemed out of place in the imperial prison.
He closed his eyes.
His path of retreat had been sealed seventeen years ago.
Even if he had to bear eternal infamy, even if he deserved to be sliced by a thousand cuts, it was enough for him to bear it alone.
That person, who was like the spring snow, deserved to depart spotlessly, without a single disgraceful mark left in the annals of history.
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