It was a rare day without snow, the sun casting a gentle warmth.
Fan Changyu stood outside the temporary palace's hall, sword in hand, gazing at the withered tree branches stretching wantonly over the courtyard wall. The warm sun slanted down, and on the distant walls and bare branches, a layer of white snow remained. As the sunlight scattered over it, it suffused the scene with a faint golden halo, yet the air was still piercingly damp and cold.
Yu Qianqian entered the inner hall carrying a tureen.
Qi Min seemed to know she was coming today. Unable to get out of bed due to his injuries, he could only lean back against the headboard, a deep purple outer robe with silver-gray accents draped over his shoulders. In the bright light from the window, the silver-gray on the robe faintly revealed a pattern of auspicious clouds and ruyi knots.
His hair seemed to have been tended to as well. Despite being bedridden with severe injuries for many days, it did not look dirty. It was still as it had always been—jet-black, glossy, and like satin.
Only, he had grown much thinner, so much so that he seemed unable to fill out his clothes.
Yu Qianqian glanced at him once before looking away, continuing forward with the tureen.
Qi Min heard her footsteps but did not turn his head. He watched two birds foraging in the snow-melted courtyard, his hand resting on the bedding, stroking the thumb ring on his finger intermittently. His finger bones were long and slender like bamboo joints, but they were so starkly white and emaciated that one worried they would snap under the slightest pressure.
No one spoke. The only sound was the soft clinking of Yu Qianqian placing the tureen on the table and ladling the soup into a fine white porcelain bowl.
"I thought you wouldn't come."
As Yu Qianqian turned from the table with the bowl of soup, she found that he had turned to look at her at some point. His gaze was as dark and somber as ever, like a vulture on a cliff, or a venomous snake emerging from hibernation to hunt.
A gentle curve lifted the corners of Yu Qianqian's mouth, but her eyes were crystal clear, meeting his gaze without a trace of fear. "I had to come see you off on your final journey."
Qi Min's gaze shifted to the bowl of soup in her hand, an unidentifiable emotion churning in his dark eyes. "It's good of you to have gone to the trouble of brewing a tureen of snow clam soup. You've been most thoughtful."
Yu Qianqian smiled. "Even a death row inmate in the great prison gets a last meal before heading to the execution ground, don't they?"
Her words were sharp, and the smile did not reach her eyes.
Qi Min watched her quietly. "I never knew you had such a clever tongue."
She was afraid of pain, of trouble, of death. She was the most obedient person he knew, seemingly a docile person with no opinions of her own. But beneath this facade, she hid a fiercely wild heart; otherwise, she wouldn't have plotted to escape time and again.
Every time she was caught and brought back, she would never become hysterical. She ate when she should eat, drank when she should drink, and slept when she should sleep, never doing anything to make herself suffer. She accepted every punishment he gave, making people think she had become obedient. But if another chance arose, she would still run without a second thought.
He had never seen her looking so radiant and brilliant.
Stirring the soup in the bowl with a spoon, Yu Qianqian said, "There's a lot you don't know."
Unwilling to waste any more words on him, she asked directly, "You hate the Sui family so much. Back then, the Crown Princess used a fire in the Eastern Palace to turn you into the Sui family's eldest young master. Why?"
Qi Min looked at her without speaking, as if finding her coldness somewhat unfamiliar.
Yu Qianqian met his gaze coolly. "This empire belongs to your Qi family. The one who died in Jinzhou back then was your father. Now that the Sui and Wei families are to be convicted, surely you don't still intend to conceal things for your enemies?"
Detecting the faint ridicule in her tone, Qi Min watched her for a moment longer before shifting his gaze away and speaking slowly. "Among the Shadow Guards my father left me, there was one named Fu Qing. He escaped from Jinzhou city back then. When reinforcements and provisions failed to arrive for a long time, my father sent him to Chongzhou to request aid. Sui Tuo refused to dispatch troops and even tried to have him killed with a volley of arrows, saying that once Jinzhou fell, the world should bear the surname Wei."
A subtle flicker of emotion crossed Yu Qianqian's face, but she remained silent. Qi Min's voice continued, devoid of any ripples, as he revealed the hidden truths of the past.
"Fu Qing was originally from the greenwood, known for his lightness skill. He was lucky to escape the Changxin Prince Manor's attempt to kill him, but he was severely injured. While dragging his wounded body to seek aid and deliver the news elsewhere, Jinzhou had already fallen. Both my father and Xie Linshan died in battle. Knowing the situation was lost, he rushed back to the capital to report. By then, the capital was already under Wei Yan's control. My mother in the Eastern Palace had heard about him colluding with Shu Fei to carry out a bloodbath in the imperial palace. With Fu Qing's testimony, her panic intensified."
"Afterward, the fall of Jinzhou was blamed entirely on General Meng Shuyuan. Old Members of the Meng Family came to the Eastern Palace to plead for justice. They had just stepped through the Eastern Palace gates when they became corpses in a pool of blood. The Meng family, from the daughter and son-in-law to their old retainers, were all killed."
As he spoke, the corners of Qi Min's lips curled with ridicule and coldness. "The Eastern Palace knew Wei Yan's secret. He would not have let the Eastern Palace go. Before Wei Yan could make his move, my mother used a great fire to hide me away in the Changxin Prince Manor."
This was the past that had weighed on him, making it hard to breathe for more than a decade.
He gave Yu Qianqian a faint smile. "You see, only by being ruthless enough can a person get everything they want. My mother said that Wei Yan had always been a wolf with wild ambitions. In the past, when the Late Emperor favored the Sixteenth Prince and suppressed my father at every turn, all the officials of the Eastern Palace were plotting how to help my father regain favor and secure his position as crown prince. Only Wei Yan declared, why not make the Late Emperor 'abdicate'?"
He paused, a momentary daze in his expression. "If Wei Yan had been eliminated back then, perhaps none of this would have happened. My father was just too indecisive, which is why he met such an end. What use is a virtuous reputation? I will not become a person like him."
Yu Qianqian said coldly, "What utter nonsense. You've committed all sorts of beastly acts, and you still want to find a high-sounding reason for yourself!"
Qi Min did not get angry. He only stared at her and said, "You look much better when you're cursing than when you were obedient."
Yu Qianqian frowned deeply, feeling that nauseating chill of a cold, venomous snake coiling against her skin once more. She made no effort to hide her disgust. "Madman!"
Her seemingly frightened appearance seemed to please Qi Min, making him chuckle softly.
Annoyed, Yu Qianqian stood up to leave. He stopped laughing and called out to her in a faint voice, "The soup is already made. Feed it to me. Don't let your efforts go to waste."
He was gravely injured and could not get out of bed, requiring assistance for his daily needs. To prevent any mishaps, Xie Zheng had even ordered him to be given bone-weakening powder. There would be no danger for Yu Qianqian to see him alone.
Yu Qianqian looked back at him. He was leaning against a soft pillow, his expression very calm, as if he didn't know the soup contained a fatal poison. His slender eyes, with sunlight fragmented within them, set against his pale skin that seemed as if it could melt under the sun, gave off a fleeting sense of gentleness and fragility.
Seeing that Yu Qianqian didn't answer, he smiled at her again, deliberately. "Can't bear to do it?"
Yu Qianqian sat back down. She scooped a spoonful of the now-cool snow clam soup from the bowl and brought it to his lips.
Her expression was so calm it was cold. His face betrayed no emotion either. As he took it, he even commented, "It was brewed for the right amount of time. A pity it's gone a bit cold."
Yu Qianqian didn't speak, simply scooping another spoonful and feeding it to him.
He watched her and continued to open his mouth and drink.
The tranquility of this moment was not like one person about to kill another, but rather like a loving couple.
When the bowl was empty, Qi Min smiled and asked, "Is there more?"
Yu Qianqian said, "There's still half a bowl in the tureen."
"Feed it all to me," Qi Min said.
A smile still hung on his lips, no longer sinister, but with a hint of nonchalance. "I won't be able to drink it in the future."
Of course he wouldn't. What future did he have?
Yu Qianqian's hand, stirring the spoon, paused slightly. She only said, "Wait."
When the remaining half bowl of soup from the tureen was also finished, Qi Min leaned against the pillow, his head slightly tilted as he looked at Yu Qianqian. He suddenly said, "I investigated you."
Yu Qianqian raised her eyes to meet his.
He said, "Your name isn't Qianqian. Your family was poor. You have an older brother, and three younger siblings. Your parents didn't give you a name, always calling you Er'ya. You never worked in a restaurant either. To afford a wife for your brother, your family sold you to a human trafficker. You were bought by the Zhao Family and sent to me."
Yu Qianqian remained silent.
The poison was likely taking effect. A faint, dark purple had appeared on Qi Min's lips, but his eyes were still stubbornly fixed on Yu Qianqian. With some difficulty, he said, "I want to know who you are."
Yu Qianqian still did not answer.
He continued on his own, "A lonely ghost? Or... a spirit who has attained the Dao?"
As his raven-black lashes drooped, a ripple finally appeared in his stagnant eyes. "Let me... die with some clarity."
Yu Qianqian replied with perfect calm, "The poison is affecting you, and your memory is failing. I am Yu Er'ya. Before my family sold me to the trafficker, I worked in a restaurant. Qianqian is a name I gave myself."
She rose from the stool and even helped him tuck in the corner of his quilt. "You're tired. Sleep. This poison is gentle; it won't be too painful. You'll fall asleep, and then you won't know anything at all."
As she was about to leave, that starkly white, thin hand suddenly grabbed her wrist. Caught off guard, Yu Qianqian stumbled and fell onto him.
Just as Yu Qianqian was about to cry for help, he clamped his hand tightly around her neck. It was unknown where a man at death's door found such strength, but he instantly choked her so she couldn't make a sound. She tried to pry his arm away but couldn't move it. Her fingertips dug deep into the back of his hand, but he seemed to feel no pain. A blood-red glint suddenly appeared in his eyes. His expression was savage, his eyes filled with hatred and unwillingness. "I prided myself on my ruthlessness, but I'm not even a fraction of you! You never liked me at all! Did you?"
Yu Qianqian was still struggling, but her face had already flushed red from lack of oxygen. Unable to break his grip, she began to claw at the arrow wound on his chest.
Warm blood enveloped Yu Qianqian's fingers. Qi Min let out a muffled groan and loosened his grip on her.
Yu Qianqian fell to the floor, clutching her neck and gasping for air. At that moment, the door was kicked open. Fan Changyu, who had heard the commotion outside, rushed in with a single stride. "Qianqian!"
She helped Yu Qianqian up, her gaze as sharp as a blade, stabbing straight at Qi Min.
Yu Qianqian quickly grabbed Fan Changyu's hand and said, "I'm fine."
Qi Min clutched his chest, leaning against the soft pillow. His gaunt face had taken on a grayish-blue hue from the poison. He clenched his teeth tightly, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Yu Qianqian, a hint of grievance showing through his daze. "You... what right do you have to treat me like this!"
Blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, soon gushing out in large amounts, staining a large patch of his lapels and bedding red.
Yu Qianqian sat down by the bed and watched Qi Min quietly. Her hair had come undone during the struggle, and the faint blush from suffocation had not yet faded from her face. She looked quite disheveled, but her expression was extremely cold. "Why can't I treat you like this?"
"Does a person like you deserve to be liked by others?"
"You are selfish, cruel, sinister, and moody. Everyone has to serve you with utmost care, for the slightest misstep could mean death. And if you deign to bestow the smallest favor, you expect people to give you their hearts and souls, to be eternally grateful. Where in the world is there such a good deal?"
Qi Min's mouth was full of blood. His eyes were still locked on Yu Qianqian, but he could no longer speak.
Yu Qianqian said calmly, "Have so few people died for you? Besides being suspicious, what have you ever done for them? You were just born into a good life, that's all."
Qi Min continued to stare at her without blinking, his gaze stubborn and mournful.
But Yu Qianqian no longer looked at him. She straightened up and said to Fan Changyu, "Let's go."
Fan Changyu left the hall with Yu Qianqian. Just as she was about to speak to her, Yu Qianqian's legs suddenly gave way. Fortunately, Fan Changyu caught her in time. "Qianqian, what's wrong?"
Yu Qianqian's face was pale, devoid of the calm composure she had shown in front of Qi Min. "It's nothing. I just need a moment."
The hand she used to grip Fan Changyu's was ice-cold. "Poisoning a person, after all, is different from killing a chicken or a fish."
Fan Changyu helped her sit down on the steps and comforted her, "The first time I killed someone, I was so scared I couldn't sleep all night. I'll bring Ning Niang over to stay with you tonight. I have a lot of blood on my hands, so my baleful aura is strong. Even if he's a royal grandson, he won't dare come near me as a lonely ghost."
Her words sounded like she was coaxing a child. The gloom in Yu Qianqian's heart dissipated a little, and she let out a "pfft" of laughter. "That's right. Changyu, you're a general now."
Fan Changyu scratched her head and smiled sheepishly.
The sun felt warm on their bodies, and Yu Qianqian's cold hands and feet gradually warmed up. She turned her head to look at the heroic and valiant female general beside her. Perhaps Qi Min's final question had stirred up other emotions in her heart after all. She said suddenly, "Changyu, I have a secret."
"Hm?" Fan Changyu turned her head. The sunlight bathed her, her features glowing with a brilliant radiance that inexplicably inspired trust and warmth.
Yu Qianqian said, "I'll only tell you."
Fan Changyu paused for a moment, then said very seriously, "I'll keep it for you."
Yu Qianqian looked at the swallows flying high and low under the setting sun. Her gaze grew distant, tinged with a faint sorrow. "I came here from a very, very distant place, and I can never go back."
"How far?"
"If you started walking now, it would take thousands of years to get back there."
Fan Changyu was astonished. "Then how did you come to the Great Yin Dynasty?"
Yu Qianqian said, "It took about as long as a nap. I opened my eyes, and I was here."
Fan Changyu's expression turned a little strange. She stared at Yu Qianqian for a long while before suddenly saying, "Qianqian, are you a goddess?"
Yu Qianqian laughed again. "Could there be such a useless goddess in this world?"
She looked at Fan Changyu and said, "You look more like a goddess than I do."
Suddenly praised, Fan Changyu felt a little shy and didn't know how to respond for a moment.
Yu Qianqian said, "Where I come from, there was also a very formidable female general in history named Liangyu."
She turned her head to look at Fan Changyu. "Nothing here is good, but with you and Bao'er, it's also okay."
Her eyes curved into a smile. "Hundreds and thousands of years from now, Changyu will surely be a female general whose name is recorded in history."
In the winter of the seventeenth year of the Yongping era, Grand Tutor Li Xing and Chancellor Wei Yan attempted a rebellion. Li Xing was defeated and died in a hail of arrows, while Wei Yan was captured alive.
A month later, Emperor Qi Sheng passed away from illness due to the shock of the palace coup. The descendant of Chengde Crown Prince, who had been living among the common people, was found. Although the enthronement ceremony had not yet been held, he had already moved into the imperial palace with his birth mother, Lady Yu.
The Imperial Prison.
The dim candlelight cast two towering shadows on the wall. The fire in the brazier in the prison corridor was blazing, the firewood crackling as it burned.
Grand Tutor Tao let out a soft sigh as he placed a game piece. "That brat's father died in Jinzhou. No matter what, he needed an answer about what happened back then."
His aged yet sharp eyes quietly studied the person across from him, who was a full cycle younger than himself. In the manner of an elder, he sighed and asked, "Yigui, to bear a lifetime of infamy, what are you after?"
Qi Min was dead. A few of his Shadow Guards remained, Fu Qing among them.
After Xie Zheng's interrogation, the answer he got was consistent with what Yu Qianqian had asked.
Thus, the three Tiger Tallies found in the Sui residence seemed to make sense.
—The Tiger Tallies were real, and the order to move troops was also real. The Sui family had followed Wei Yan's command and did not dispatch troops or transport grain to reinforce Jinzhou.
But a new question now lay before them: if the Sui family was in cahoots with Wei Yan, why was it that when the Sui family later rebelled, they only spread some rumors about Wei Yan's connection to the fall of Jinzhou, instead of directly exposing him?
No matter what others thought, Grand Tutor Tao did not believe Wei Yan had personally orchestrated the Jinzhou incident. However, ever since his defeat in the forced abdication attempt, Wei Yan seemed to have become indifferent to life and death. He confessed to all crimes but refused to say another word about the events of the past.
"I bear responsibility for the deaths of the Crown Prince and Linshan. I am not shouldering this infamy for anyone else."
The oil lamp in the wall niche flickered with a dim yellow light, and the shadow cast by the man before him split the chessboard into light and dark halves.
Wei Yan's strong index and middle fingers held a black piece and placed it on an intersection of the board. His aged voice, made deeper by its hoarseness, betrayed no fluctuation of emotion.
Grand Tutor Tao, however, detected a sharp edge in his words. His wrinkled eyelids lifted. "Because of the matter between you and that Qi girl?"
Wei Yan looked at Grand Tutor Tao.
Grand Tutor Tao then knew that this was likely a reason. He sighed, "Those two children have already asked An Taifei about it. When you retired from the battlefield back then and stayed in the capital, did you really think this old man couldn't see anything?"
Wei Yan was silent for two breaths, only saying, "She was implicated because of me."
Grand Tutor Tao had been to the imperial prison many times, and each time he could get nothing out of Wei Yan. Since he was willing to speak more today, he immediately asked, "What do you mean by that?"
The charcoal in the clay stove burned vigorously. The water in the teapot was bubbling, and white steam billowed from the spout, blurring Wei Yan's features.
In a daze, the powerful chancellor sitting opposite Grand Tutor Tao once again became the cold and untamed youth who had become famous in Jinyang with just a single poem.
He closed his eyes. "I was young and reckless then, and left behind a disaster of words."
Grand Tutor Tao's gaze was stern but kind, yet his heart had already begun to sink.
He had previously told Fan Changyu that Xie Zheng and the young Wei Yan had similar temperaments, but that wasn't entirely true. Because Xie Zheng had lost his parents at a young age and was strictly disciplined by Wei Yan, his disposition was actually more stable.
In his youth, Wei Yan was not just spirited; he could almost be described as arrogant and untamable.
The Wei family of Jinyang was a clan of great prestige for a hundred years. The sons of the family naturally had an extra measure of pride, and as the most outstanding of his generation, the arrogance he carried was even greater.
He placed third in the imperial examination at seventeen but was unwilling to enter the court as an official so soon. Instead, he traveled to famous mountains and great rivers, saying he wanted to continue his studies and also cultivate transcendental knowledge. This angered the old master of the Wei family so much that, to temper his character, he had him tied up and sent to the Qi family's military camp, asking Old General Qi to discipline him on his behalf. It was only then that he became sworn friends with Xie Linshan in the army.
Grand Tutor Tao temporarily suppressed the complex feelings in his heart, stroked his beard, and slowly asked, "What disaster?"
"In the fifteenth year of the Qishun era, there were floods in Jiangnan. The Crown Prince went to provide disaster relief, but the Jia family obstructed him at every turn, delaying the allocation of grain and funds, which resulted in the deaths of more than half of the disaster victims. The Late Emperor was furious, but instead of pursuing the faults of the Sixteenth Prince and the Jia family, he blamed the Crown Prince for ineffective disaster relief and ordered him to reflect behind closed doors for three months. All the officials under him were punished. The Emperor's favoritism grew more pronounced by the day, and rumors began to circulate in court that the Late Emperor intended to replace the Crown Prince with the Sixteenth Prince. The Crown Prince's honored guests were plotting for him, and I was the one who said to make the Late Emperor 'abdicate'."
Even after so many years, hearing these words still made Grand Tutor Tao's expression change. He pointed a finger at Wei Yan, wanting to say something, but in the end, he only sighed. "You... you were foolish!"
If those words had reached the Late Emperor's ears, it would have been a catastrophe for both the Crown Prince and the entire Wei clan.
But Wei Yan said, "It was not I who was foolish, but the Crown Prince who was indecisive."
His gaze was as stern as a steel blade. The aura of someone long in a high position emerged, imposing without being angry. He said coldly, "If he had the courage to fight for it back then, with the combined power of the Qi, Xie, and Wei families, how could we not have pushed him onto that dragon throne?"
Grand Tutor Tao shook his head. "You have to think from the Crown Prince's position. No matter how much the Late Emperor doted on the Sixteenth Prince, as long as he was the Crown Prince for a day, that position would eventually be his. Forcing the Late Emperor to 'abdicate'—if it failed, it would have meant losing everything."
Wei Yan asked, "And what did he get in the end by waiting?"
After speaking, he suddenly let out a cold laugh. "It was as he wished, though. A virtuous name to his credit, his fragrance to be passed down for a hundred generations!"
Grand Tutor Tao heard the resentment and ridicule in Wei Yan's words, but he sighed helplessly in his heart. When the Late Emperor was still a prince, he was weak. He married Empress Qi and relied on Old General Qi to ascend the throne.
But Old General Qi's prestige in the army was simply too high. Once he was secure on the dragon throne, the Late Emperor grew wary of the Qi family. However, the Qi family had been loyal for generations, and their sons were not profligate dandies. As an emperor, he could find no reason to move against the Qi family, which was why he exclusively doted on the noble consort and allowed the Jia family to suppress the Qi family.
But how could those involved in the situation back then have foreseen what was to come?
A hint of worldly weariness appeared in Grand Tutor Tao's eyes. "Now that things have come to this, don't play riddles with me anymore. What exactly happened back then?"
A cold wind blew past, and the flame on the wall niche flickered. The shadow Wei Yan cast on the prison wall was towering and straight, exuding an indescribable desolation amidst its cold hardness, like a steadfast rock on a cliff.
He was silent for a long time before he spoke. "It was I who failed to recognize my master for who he was, rashly uttering words that would bring disaster. I was also short-sighted and too trusting, failing to take every precaution. Consequently, those words were passed on to the Late Emperor and the Jia family by the Crown Prince's honored guest, and I remained completely unaware."
Hearing this, Tao Taifu's heart skipped a beat. Behind Wei Yan was the entire Wei clan of Jinyang. Even if the Late Emperor had known what Wei Yan said, he would not have acted on it immediately. He would only have grown more wary and plotted in secret.
Sure enough, in the next moment, Wei Yan retorted with a cold smile, "The Wei clan of Jinyang stands behind me. How could he possibly sentence me to a crime worthy of exterminating my nine relations?"
Tao Taifu was stunned into silence.
Wei Yan enunciated each word, seemingly wrapped in immense hatred, "Naturally, by accusing me of defiling the imperial harem."
The beard on Tao Taifu's chin trembled slightly. It was unclear whether it was from suppressed anger or from finding the matter absurd, but his eyes held a mix of sorrow and complexity.
If the plan was to frame him for the grave crime of defiling the imperial harem, then at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet in the sixteenth year of Qishun, what the emperor led the court officials to stumble upon should not have been him with an ordinary palace maid...
He feared the original design was to frame him with Shu Fei!
Tao Taifu's lips trembled, and in the end, he could only rasp, "Absurd! How absurd!"
He finally understood the source of Wei Yan's resentment toward the Crown Prince. Wei Yan had indeed misspoken, but since the temperate Crown Prince did not adopt his plan, he should have kept a firm hold on everyone who had heard those words that day. For the words to have spread from the mouth of an honored guest of the Eastern Palace was a failure of the Crown Prince's governance.
Tao Taifu had already faintly guessed the truth of what had happened back then. He asked in a hoarse voice, "Later, the fall of Jinzhou.".. was it the Late Emperor?"
Wei Yan closed his eyes and nodded. "At the time, I thought the disaster at the Mid-Autumn Palace banquet was merely because the Late Emperor held a grudge over my past with Rong Yin. I didn't yet know it was brought on by those words about 'abdication'."
"The Late Emperor suppressed the Crown Prince at every turn. The Crown Prince dared not contend with his father, so he sought to build a reputation for virtue and benevolence among the common people, widely recruiting talented men. Little did he know that this move made the Late Emperor even more wary. Seeing the Crown Prince's reputation among the people grow day by day, the Jia family devised a plan, inciting the common folk to build a living shrine for the Crown Prince."
Tao Taifu was aware of this matter. Back then, the Late Emperor had flown into a rage in the imperial court, even publicly throwing a pile of memorials at the Crown Prince, furiously demanding to know if the Crown Prince already had designs on replacing him.
This scheme by the Sixteenth Prince and Jia Guifei was truly venomous. After this incident, the Crown Prince was stripped of his authority to oversee state affairs.
The dim yellow light of the oil lamp on the prison wall shone on his sparse hair, held by a wooden pin, making it look gray and white at a glance. He sighed heavily. "With the 'abdication' remark preceding it, and the Crown Prince then gathering a virtuous reputation and recruiting talented men, even if the matter of the living shrine was instigated by the Sixteenth Prince's faction, the Late Emperor probably could no longer tolerate the Crown Prince at all. No wonder that year, the Late Emperor used this incident to heavily punish all of the Crown Prince's supporters, forcing the Crown Prince, in his search for a way out, to volunteer to go to Jinzhou, hoping to use that military achievement to regain imperial favor."
Looking at it now, the Crown Prince's move to go to Jinzhou was like adding fuel to the fire!
After all, in the Late Emperor's eyes, this was the Crown Prince officially trying to get his hands on military power. His reputation among the people had already nearly surpassed his, the emperor's. If he were to gain prestige in the army as well... the words about "abdication" would be about to come true.
A faint mockery appeared in Wei Yan's eyes. "The Jia family was wildly ambitious. How could the Late Emperor not have known? They were merely a dog he had personally raised to balance the power of the Qi family. With the Crown Prince dead in Jinzhou, the Sixteenth Prince naturally couldn't be allowed to live either."
Tao Taifu's pupils shrank, startled by these words.
Did that mean... the Sixteenth Prince being trapped in Luocheng was also arranged by the Late Emperor?
Wei Yan looked at Tao Taifu and said, "The Late Emperor only wanted an obedient son."
Tao Taifu had already sighed countless times in the imperial prison today. It was unclear whether it was from suppressed anger or from finding the matter absurd, but his eyes held a mix of sorrow and complexity.
Since ancient times, the imperial family has always been the most heartless!
In fact, Chengde Crown Prince probably understood the emperor's intentions too well back then, which was why he had always been an obedient son.
But once the emperor's suspicion was aroused, and since he was by no means an incompetent man, it no longer mattered how obedient he was...
Tao Taifu's heart was heavy, distressingly so.
It seemed to be snowing again outside, with a few flakes drifting in from the skylight.
Wei Yan placed another piece on the Go board. "From the moment the Crown Prince went to Jinzhou and the Sixteenth Prince heeded slanderous advice and went to Luocheng, it was already a dead end."
"The Late Emperor used Rong Yin as a bargaining chip to force me back to the capital midway. The blame for the final defeat at Jinzhou could then be placed entirely on my head. With Old General Qi deceased, and Xie Linshan, who had taken over the Qi family's military power, dead, the Wei clan of Jinyang would become traitorous subjects who framed the heir apparent and defiled the imperial harem. Wouldn't they be condemned by all?"
"All that would be left is the Jia family, who had acted tyrannically for years only through his indulgence. What was there to fear? Of all the crimes the Censorate had impeached the Jia family for over the years, he could pick any one of them for severe punishment, and the Jia family's good days would be over."
Tao Taifu's face was filled with a weather-beaten look, and he could not say another word.
A snowflake was carried far by the wind, slowly drifting into the cup by Wei Yan's hand, melting in an instant.
The ripples in the water reflected his pair of cold, silent phoenix eyes. "Rong Yin's pregnancy pulse was fake. It was just a trap to lure me in and make me bear the crime of defiling the imperial harem. She set fire to Qingyuan Palace to help me escape, saying that as long as the Crown Prince was still alive and the Qi clan had not fallen, the Late Emperor would not do anything to her."
The corners of his mouth, etched with the marks of time, held a hint of bitterness. "But I didn't know at the time that the Late Emperor had already made foolproof plans for the Crown Prince to die in Jinzhou. Forcing me to return by threatening to execute her for the capital crime of adultery was the final step of the plan."
"You know what happened after that, Grand Tutor."
"I was the one who washed the imperial palace in blood. I was also the one who pinned the false reputation on Meng Shuyuan. The Late Emperor's plan was truly meticulous. After the Jinzhou incident, all the evidence pointed to me. The first to demand my death were Linshan's old subordinates."
A bitter taste filled Tao Taifu's mouth. He finally understood why Wei Yan never spoke of what happened back then. It was... indefensible.
Chengde Crown Prince and Xie Linshan died in Jinzhou. He had gone to mobilize troops but returned to the capital midway, then immediately washed the palace in blood. No one who heard this would believe Wei Yan was innocent.
Moreover... given his temperament, he would never make the reason for his return to the capital public.
In the end, it was a guilty conscience that made him walk right into the trap when the Late Emperor used Shu Fei to plot against him.
Tao Taifu's figure seemed to slump. He gazed at the snowflakes drifting slowly down from the skylight and let out a long, pained sigh. "A national tragedy..."
A single remark about "abdication" planted the seeds of disaster. The Crown Prince, being kind and gentle, did not adopt the plan, but due to his lax governance, the words reached the Late Emperor's ears, and thus the calamity began.
Looking back at the situation now, who was to blame?
Blame Wei Yan for his disastrous words? Blame the Crown Prince for his poor governance? Blame the Jia family for their venomous living shrine plot? Or blame the Late Emperor for his ruthlessness and cruelty?
In the end, it was all of these things strung together that ultimately led to the bloodbath in Jinzhou.
Later generations desperately sought the truth, but this truth... was truly devastating and bleak.
Compared to Tao Taifu's sorrow, Wei Yan's expression was as cold and hard as ever. "I am not the Crown Prince. If someone wants to kill me, I will eliminate them first."
"The Sui family has lived with their tails between their legs for so many years. I didn't touch them only because with Jinzhou breached, there was no one in the northern borderlands. An army was needed to resist the Northern Turks advancing south. In the fifteenth year of Yongping, I finally forced the Sui family to rebel. I had intended to send someone else to quell the rebellion, but the Sui family first let Xie Zheng hear rumors about the inside story of the Jinzhou bloodbath. If he had behaved himself and not investigated the events of the past, I would have spared his life as per Wan Mei's last wish. Since he insists on investigating, I have already killed countless members of his Xie clan who investigated the past. One more would not make a difference."
Tao Taifu was so grief-stricken he didn't know what to say.
Wei Yan's eyes grew colder and sharper. "On the day of the palace coup, if he hadn't had another move up his sleeve, his blood would have long since splattered upon the Meridian Gate. Today, I have fallen into his hands. It is a matter of the victor being king and the loser being vanquished. I am willing to accept my defeat."
After speaking, he closed his eyes. Even sitting on a patch of withered grass, his solitary figure stood as majestic as a monolith.
Grand Tutor Li sat alone in silence for a while longer. He placed the final piece on the Go board between them, then rose shakily to his feet and said, "This game of Go is finally over..."
The fine snow drifting down from the skylight landed in his hair. In a daze, it seemed his head was already full of white hair.
As he reached the corner, his trembling steps paused slightly. He spoke in a hoarse voice to the young man who had been standing on this side of the wall all along, "You heard everything?"
It was freezing cold. Icicles hung from the eaves outside the prison. In the dim, shifting light, the lone figure standing silently by the window was speechless.
The firelight from the passageway only illuminated the lower half of his pale, cold, and resolute jaw.
The past, caked in dried blood, was finally uncovered, and the truth it dragged out was just as gory.
But the young child who had been fostered in the Xie residence, often waking from bloody nightmares with startled cries, had walked all the way from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood to become the man he was today, with a heart as hard as iron. Even the most tragic past laid bare before him could not shake the indifference in his eyes in the slightest.
The fine snow drifting in from the prison skylight had accumulated in a thin layer on the cold, green bricks in the corner. A cold wind blew through the passageway. The not-so-thick brocade robe outlined the young man's solid and upright frame. No longer thin and frail, he could now hold up the heavens and the earth.
"Thank you, Teacher." His voice was cold, deep, and hoarse.
After bowing to Tao Taifu, Xie Zheng lifted his foot and walked toward the prison exit, step by step, neither rushed nor slow, but steady and firm.
Tao Taifu watched his cold and solitary back, then looked back in the direction of Wei Yan's cell, his eyes filled with desolation. He sighed again.
That old fellow, he had clearly said those last words on purpose.
For seventeen years, he had used himself as a whetstone to finally forge this sharpest blade of the Great Yin dynasty.
Time flew, heroes became history. The Jinzhou case, stained with so much blood, now seemed to be nothing more than a game of Go from the Qishun era. Generals, court officials, emperors, princes... everyone back then was a piece on this board, each scheming for their own ends, fighting until the mountains and rivers were left in ruins.
The last time Tao Taifu had felt such overwhelming sorrow was when he was supervising a battle on the front lines and his wife and children were brutally killed by the blades of a foreign tribe. Today, more than a decade later, the sorrow in his heart was even greater.
He walked slowly toward the prison exit with faltering steps. At the stone window by the corner, he saw a girl as radiant as the sun flip off her horse. With a beaming smile, she stopped and said something to the young man who was walking out of the prison, cloaked in a desolate air. The frost covering the young man's body seemed to slowly melt away. He took the reins from the girl's hand, and the two of them walked away side by side in the swirling snow.
A gentle smile finally surfaced in Tao Taifu's sorrowful eyes.
Thankfully, that blade had found its sheath.
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