Chapter 7 Reencounter with Her: She's Called a Bastard Raised by a Madman

When the news reached the Eastern Palace, Xie Wenjun was sitting at Crown Prince Xie Yu's desk, engrossed in reading the "Spring and Autumn Annals." After the eunuch finished reporting, she put down the book and asked with great interest, "Brother, why are you unwilling to marry her?"

Xie Yu was speechless for a moment: "Is it that obvious?"

Even you noticed?

Jiang Ning shifted to a more languid posture, leaning back in his chair, and nodded. "Could it be that Your Majesty dislikes her military background? But the day I saw her, her demeanor was not that of a vulgar or lowly person."

Xie Yu said, "You're still young, you don't understand."

"Is it because of your sister-in-law?"

Xie Yu stopped writing, took a deep breath, and remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.

Perhaps recalling unbearable past events, tears welled up in the Crown Prince's eyes, his vision blurred, and everything in his field of vision became indistinct. "Jiang Ning, hold that pen in your hand tightly. I will impart everything to you. When you grow up, use this half-foot of brush to change your destiny."

That March, amidst the pear blossom rain, a young girl clasped her hands together and made a wish under the Bodhi tree. The fifteen-year-old prince, still not quite mature, broke his usual adherence to gentlemanly etiquette and presented her with an umbrella, saying, "I thank you for your kindness, the kindness that will last until death."

Finally, the girl, once as white as pear blossoms in spring, became withered and heartbroken. Her last words before passing away were, "In the next life, I will not believe in Bodhi, nor will I enter the royal family."

Unwavering until death?

It was all just a pipe dream!

"You are the daughter of the royal family, the most noble princess. If even you are not free, what about the other women in the world?"

Xie Wenjun's gaze lingered on a page of the "Spring and Autumn Annals," and he said, "Your Majesty, there is something I don't understand in Jiangning, and I would like to ask you about it."

"What is it?"

Xie Wenjun said, "It is common knowledge that men and women love each other, so why can't we tolerate men and women loving each other?"

Xie Yu frowned, realizing something was amiss. He turned to examine the contents of the scroll in front of Xie Wenjun, but after a long while, he couldn't find anything wrong.

He didn't believe in superstitions, so he simply stood up, walked over to Xie Wenjun, took the book, shook it to make sure she hadn't hidden anything in it, and then returned the book to her with some skepticism, while also answering her question: "The union of men and women is for the purpose of procreation, so that the state can continue and order can be maintained. If this is changed, the world will be in chaos."

Xie Wenjun's eyes darted around, and she blurted out, "So, you mean it's only natural for women to develop feelings for each other, right?"

Xie Yu looked at her in surprise, "What kind of weird books have you been reading lately? Why are you asking such a question?"

Xie Wenjun stretched out her small hand and chuckled, "That's not true, please enlighten me, Your Majesty."

Xie Yu cleared his throat, put on a stern face to appear more authoritative, and lectured: "Love is inherently beautiful, regardless of whether one is male or female, and sincere feelings deserve respect. But what you're talking about, I do not endorse, nor will any dynasty ever endorse it."

Xie Wenjun pressed, "Why?"

Her anxious demeanor made Xie Yu even more suspicious, but he still patiently reasoned with her, "Most people are born healthy, but some are not blessed by heaven. Some are blind, some cannot speak, some cannot hear, and some have missing limbs. We cannot deny them life just because they have defects. Similarly, most people are married, but homosexuality and homosexuality, though rare, always exist. They are different from ordinary people, but that is not their fault. However, if there are too many such people, they will be unable to reproduce, which will affect the population and agriculture, and will inevitably disrupt the stability of the country."

"So you consider them as outcasts?" Xie Wenjun replied softly, "Jiang Ning understands."

The crown prince scoffed at her obsequious manner, neatly arranged the papers and booklets, and placed them on the table.

Xie Wenjun leaned closer and glanced at the document: "Boat and Ship Administration, Yanzhi Mountain".

Emperor Xuanyuan ordered the Ministry of Works to oversee the construction of the Yanzhi Mountain Palace for his retirement. The necessary timber and stone were transported from the eastern Baiyue region to Yongdu. However, the river channel along the Hezhou route became silted up, and a sudden flash flood at the end of summer sank two ships carrying Phoebe zhennan wood to Yanzhi Mountain. The Crown Prince sent people to investigate, and the efforts of the government offices in seven surrounding counties were exhaustive, but not even a single piece of wood was found. Further investigation revealed that not only was the Phoebe zhennan wood nowhere to be found, but even the two ships reported sunk by the Ministry of Revenue and the Naval Affairs Bureau were not registered.

These people have become so audacious that they openly falsify accounts to embezzle public funds and line their own pockets.

Further investigation revealed that Zhou Yonglu, the boatman who reported the shipwreck, was originally just a cloth merchant in Hezhou. Dazhou had a law that prohibited merchants from holding political office. However, there was one way out: "buying an official position."

The Dahe and Beiyong fought for more than a decade, and agricultural taxes could not cover such a large expenditure. Therefore, the court allowed merchants to donate money and goods to the court in exchange for an official position and to improve their social status. However, where there is a policy, there are loopholes. If the donated funds went into the national treasury, it was called "buying an official position." If the money ended up in the hands of other people, it was called "selling official positions to amass wealth."

This Zhou Yonglu was appointed as the Minister of Naval Affairs by paying a large sum of money to the imperial court. However, this money did not go into the national treasury. Tracing the whereabouts of this money, it points directly to Prince Qi, Xie Xuan.

Xie Wenjun pondered for a moment, "Brother Qi values ​​his reputation most and considers it more important than anything else. He should not do anything like selling official positions for personal gain."

The crown prince, wanting to test her, said, "Then tell me, who would do this?"

Xie Wenjun paced back and forth a couple of steps and said, "Then it must be Consort De and Yao Chongshan."

Consort Yao Jiyue was the birth mother of Prince Qi, Xie Xuan. Her father was Yao Chongshan, the Minister of Works who oversaw the construction of the Yanzhishan Palace. Her brothers, Yao Jifeng and Yao Jiyun, served in the Imperial Academy and the Ministry of Works, respectively.

"Clear Moon and Gentle Breeze"—a fine name, yet ironically so.

"Consort De's ambitions are obvious. She plots to become Empress, and she wants Prince Qi to take over the Eastern Palace. The money needed to win people's hearts is enormous." Xie Wenjun pointed to the accounts in the Crown Prince's hand. "Even though Prince Qi is not involved, he may still be aware of it."

The prince thought to himself that his painstaking teaching had paid off, and he was so moved that tears streamed down his face. "Go on," he said.

"Consort De is in the inner palace. She needs intermediaries to get things done. She also needs to find a legitimate reason to use the money she earns. Doesn't Minister of Works Yao Chongshan's family own two money shops?"

Xie Wenjun took up his brush, laid out a sheet of Xuan paper, and drew a few strokes. "If Consort De wanted to communicate with others, and then the Yao family arranged for her to be placed in the government office, and the money she obtained had to be laundered in a bank, I would not believe that Prince Qi would not know about such complicated activities."

The Crown Prince nodded approvingly. He had been investigating the harem for a long time for accepting bribes and disrupting the court, and now was the time to make his move.

Xie Wenjun added, "The Yanzhi Mountain Palace, which Yao Chongshan was overseeing the construction of, is not yet completed. Perhaps now is not a good time to take action against the Yao family."

"Why build a temporary palace? We haven't even filled the deficit from the early years. Five or six tenths of the grain and fodder that Marquis Xuanping uses for his battles comes from the land reclaimed by the military farms. Let's postpone the construction of the temporary palace."

The Crown Prince flattened the Xuan paper with the paperweight and added a few more numbers: "The people's livelihood is in need of revitalization. The money for the relief and compensation of the Northern Army will be settled and distributed soon. The national treasury can no longer allocate this money! The Yao family abused the power of the court to plunder so much money. Now that the court needs it, they have to obediently spit it out."

Chen Liangyu squatted in the corner with a blade of grass in his mouth.

When the Ministry of Justice sent people, she was wondering if she might happen to be neighbors with Qiu Shiyan in the Ministry of Justice prison. Coincidentally, the people ordered to arrest her were the same two officials from the Ministry of Justice who had taken Qiu Shiyan and Zhou Pei away today. However, when they arrested her, the two of them looked even more miserable.

They took three people with them in one go, dragging in the Marquis of Xuanping's residence, the Ministry of Personnel, and a prefectural judge. If either the Marquis of Xuanping's residence or the Ministry of Personnel ever thinks of them again and tries to settle scores, they'll be skinned alive, if not killed.

The imperial city had many remote palaces that had fallen into disrepair due to years of neglect. The two officials then abandoned her in a palace wall not far from the Six Ministries.

The next day, when Chen Liangyu was brought into Chongzheng Hall, a large group of people were kneeling on the floor: the Crown Prince, Prince Shen Xie Yuan, Right Chancellor Zhang Diancheng, her father and elder brother, and even Princess Jiangning was there, standing beside the Crown Prince, not very conspicuous.

Beneath the throne, Chen Yuanqing and Zhang Diancheng faced off in a stalemate.

Zhang Diancheng seemed to have reached his limit. He hunched over, clutching his robe tightly to his chest, two streams of tears sliding down his deeply lined face as he pleaded with the emperor: "My wife and I are old when we finally had this son. He was born prematurely and was weak from birth. Our family cherished him so much that they were afraid of dropping him. He left home perfectly fine this morning, how could he be gone?"

Zhang Diancheng's temples were already streaked with white. Unlike those officials with bloated minds, he was lean and sturdy, and it was clear at a glance that he had worked hard for the Lin Dynasty. His reputation for virtue was well-deserved. Now, having lost his son in his old age, he had aged considerably.

As fate would have it, Chen Liangyu never expected that the old man who was weeping in the hall had spoken up for her just a few days earlier when everyone was criticizing her, saying: "If someone is talented, why should they be restricted by gender?"

I never imagined things would turn out this way.

Although Chen Yuanqing was renowned, he was, after all, a young nobleman carefully raised by a powerful family in his youth, and possessed not a trace of rudeness. "Your Majesty," he said, "my daughter had a conflict with the young master of the Zhang family because he injured someone while riding his horse recklessly in the marketplace. My daughter was fulfilling her duty to punish him with ten strokes of the cane according to the law, but he refused to comply. The imperial physician also said that the child died from a surge of anger that caused his blood to rush to his head, which led to his death from vomiting blood. If my daughter were to pay for this with her life, wouldn't that be unfair to her?"

So he angered himself to death; he certainly had a temper.

Emperor Xuanyuan was in a terrible predicament. On one hand, Zhang Diancheng and Chen Yuanqing were at odds over their children's holiday, and on the other hand, Crown Prince Xie Yu chose this time to report that the Yanzhishan Palace project had embezzled a huge sum of money.

Already irritable, seeing Xie Wenjun behind the Crown Prince only fueled his anger.

After the death of the former crown princess, the crown prince harbored resentment towards him. Although he tried to conceal his true feelings and make concessions, he insisted on sending a princess to discuss state affairs, and repeated reprimands were to no avail.

As the Crown Prince's power grows stronger day by day, it becomes increasingly difficult for his father, the Emperor, to suppress him with force.

Emperor Xuanyuan spoke sternly to Xie Yu: "Crown Prince?"

The Crown Prince stepped forward, exchanged greetings, and presented a stack of accounts, saying, "Your Majesty, I have some accounts here for your perusal."

Eunuch Sun took the document with small steps and presented it to the Emperor's desk. Emperor Xuanyuan looked through it, and the Crown Prince continued to report: "The two ships were carrying Phoebe zhennan wood and 200,000 taels of silver. The report of loss only stated 'buried in the sand and nowhere to be found.' Zhou Yonglu, the boatman who colluded with the Ministry of Works to deceive the Emperor, is from a merchant family. Over the years, he has presented a lot of silver to the palace."

As they were talking, a eunuch was brought before the palace, bound hand and foot.

The eunuch's lips were deathly pale, and his upper and lower lips trembled as he stammered, completely forgetting how to speak.

The Crown Prince looked at the eunuch and said in a clear voice, "Repeat what you just said to His Majesty, word for word."

The eunuch slammed his head against the ground repeatedly, his forehead becoming a bloody mess: "It was Consort De who forced this servant to do it! This servant was forced by Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please have mercy! I beg Your Majesty to spare my life..."

The Emperor sat solemnly on his dragon throne, his face grim. He knew that corruption was rampant in the court, but he never imagined that they would even embezzle the Emperor's money, right under his nose.

The crown prince turned to the eunuch and shouted, "Continue!"

The eunuch kowtowed again, tears streaming down his face: "Your Highness Consort De has large expenses in the palace. When people outside the palace seek connections, Your Highness asks me to act as a go-between, so that the second son of Minister Yao can arrange a job for those seeking official positions. In the end, there is always a small bribe."

"Consort De, very good." The Emperor's words were calm and expressionless, making it impossible to guess his current mood, but he must be extremely angry. "Is this matter related to Prince Qi?"

The eunuch shook his head vehemently: "No, no, Your Highness forbids it. Her Majesty specifically instructed this servant to keep it a secret from Your Highness."

"Bring that slut here!"

In a short while, a plump woman adorned with pearls and jade hurriedly knelt down at Emperor Xuanyuan's feet and began to cry out her grievances without saying a word.

"Then tell me, what wronged you?" Emperor Xuanyuan stared at her, and Consort De felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave. She couldn't utter a single word of the sophistry she had prepared on the way, and could only keep crying out that she was wronged.

"I am innocent...I am innocent..."

The Crown Prince pointed to Zhou Yonglu, who was terrified out of his wits, and asked, "Your Majesty, do you recognize this person?"

Upon hearing the sound, Consort De looked at the Crown Prince. Xie Wenjun, hiding in the shadows behind the Crown Prince's robes, gave Consort De a smile the instant she looked over.

She almost cleverly avoided the sight of everyone except Consort De. Only from Chen Liangyu's perspective could one see half of Consort De's smiling face. Her little trick of trying to add fuel to the fire and provoke Consort De was undoubtedly seen by Chen Liangyu.

As expected, Consort De saw it.

A thunderous boom echoed in her ears, and Consort De awoke as if from a dream: "You bastard child raised by a madman! It was her! She resented me for exposing her and her daughter's turmoil in the palace, and she harbored a grudge against me, plotting revenge!" Pointing at Zhou Yonglu, she exclaimed, "I don't know this person, I don't know him!"

In the blink of an eye, Xie Wenjun's expression returned to normal. She lowered her eyebrows and stood quietly to the side, looking like someone who could be bullied and manipulated. She did not respond to Consort De's accusations, nor did she defend herself.

The Crown Prince said, "It's normal not to recognize him. Such a nobody is naturally not worthy of Consort De's attention. It's good that Your Highness recognizes silver. You must still remember the 100,000 taels of silver that entered Your Highness's palace at the end of summer, right?"

A cup of tea, lid and all, was smashed on Consort De's lap, shattering into pieces. Emperor Xuanyuan's voice echoed throughout the empty hall: "At a time like this, you are still thinking of accusing others."

Consort De trembled with fear and kowtowed desperately, her forehead immediately bleeding from the shattered porcelain shards.

Now that things have come to this, she no longer has time to care about such trivial matters as her appearance. She only hopes that the emperor will take pity on her because of their years of marriage and spare her life.

A note from the author:

Jiang Ning: "Brother, if you won't marry me, I will!"