Chapter 104

Lord Liu really wanted to roar at the Rongdi envoy, but his reason held him back from going completely mad.

After shouting "Nine Plus One," his brain, which had been numb from the shock of his own outburst, finally began to clear a little. Looking at the paper filled with notes in his hand, he slowly regained his composure and muttered to himself, "What should I do next..."

After taking statements from the complainant and eyewitnesses and confirming that the evidence collection was complete, the next step was to locate the suspect for questioning. Based on the evidence, it was determined that the person who assaulted the Rongdi people was the young master of Jiu Tianyi, who was the seventh prince. Therefore, his next step was to go to the palace to find the seventh prince and question him.

Lord Liu: "..." Just thinking about it gives me a sense of beautiful suicide.

Lord Liu's brain, which had just restarted, tried to decompress the compressed file named "Seventh Prince" again. However, because the compressed file contained too much data, it directly overwhelmed the memory, causing his entire brain to crash once again. He could only hear his own helpless and collapsing roar, which stunned his entire brain once more.

He wandered back to the Ministry of Rites like a ghost, sat down at his desk, and stared blankly and intently at the record for a long time. His eyes were filled with countless conflicting emotions. In the end, he chose to push the matter onto someone else, whether to go to the Seventh Prince to die or to ignore Rong Di's complaint and pretend that he knew nothing.

"This is no longer something I can handle; it should be handed over to someone who can." Lord Liu muttered to himself, trying to convince himself. To make it more effective, he even finished all the work on the table and then inserted the record into the middle of all the papers.

Before he knew it, it was past his shift's end time. He stood up, carrying a small stack of papers, and resolutely walked into the office of his direct superior, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites.

Inside the room, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites was working without looking up. There were three stacks of papers in front of him. When he heard someone enter, he only instinctively opened his mouth and said, "Put the urgent ones that need to be approved immediately on the left, put the ones that have completed the process and need to be reviewed for the last time on the right, and put the rest in the middle."

He spoke very fluently, and it was obvious that he hadn't thought through his words at all; it was just an unconscious act. Just like how he hadn't heard the water clock chime when he was on duty, the other person's mind was probably still on their work and they didn't realize that someone had actually come to the room.

This is not surprising. The Ministry of Rites has been very busy lately. They have to receive envoys from various countries, organize the Emperor's birthday celebration, and prepare for the upcoming imperial examination in March. Organizing just one of these large-scale events would be enough to keep the Ministry of Rites extremely busy. Now, three events have come in succession, with the tenth prince's full moon banquet in between.

Fortunately, the Tenth Prince's birth mother was a low-ranking concubine who was not very favored and seemed to have offended a high-ranking concubine. Therefore, they did not need to prepare much for the prince's full moon celebration. They only needed to assign someone to stay there and write the Tenth Prince's name into the jade register.

In short, the Ministry of Rites has been really busy lately. His colleagues, who were coming and going, were all focused on their own tasks, and no one noticed that he had been daydreaming for so long.

After tidying up the papers in his hand as instructed by the Right Vice Minister, Lord Liu jumped several steps in a row, looking excited as if he had finally gotten rid of something dirty, and quickly ran out of the room.

"Hmm? What's going on? Has anyone been here?" The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites rubbed his eyes, looking at the empty room with some confusion. Without thinking too much about it, he quickly lowered his head and buried himself back into his work.

Lord Liu both hoped that the other party would discover the transcript immediately, and also wished that the transcript would remain silent and never see the light of day again.

No matter how complex and difficult to discern Lord Liu's emotions were, the record was finally seen by the exhausted Vice Minister of Rites in the middle of the night.

When he first read the first page, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites thought he was too tired and his eyes were blurry. He rubbed his eyes, picked up the candle and looked closely, and found that it was indeed just a minor conflict between the Rong and Di envoys and the people.

"How could such a basic and simple matter be handled poorly? Did someone accidentally sneak in..." The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites stopped abruptly as he turned the page and saw the Seventh Prince's name.

The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites: "..." The case is solved. They had deliberately sneaked in.

After reading the entire contents, the Right Vice Minister did not hesitate at all. He naturally organized all the papers and put them into the pile of documents that had already been processed at his feet, preparing to submit them.

Well, he didn't have the authority to handle the Seventh Prince's affairs, so he left it to the higher-ups to deal with. Thus, the record eventually ended up in the hands of the Minister of Rites.

Minister of Rites Yang Cong: "..."

He really wanted to submit this document directly to the cabinet and let Grand Secretary Jiang Wen and the Emperor handle it. After all, the Seventh Prince was a hot potato, not only because of the various things he had done, but also because of the Emperor's extreme and irrational favoritism towards the Seventh Prince, which left the officials at a loss as to what to do.

However, out of consideration for his beloved grandson, Yang Cong ultimately did not do so—Yang Cong was Consort Shu's father and the sixth prince's maternal grandfather.

Amidst the prevailing attitude of officials turning pale at the mention of the Seventh Prince and aristocratic families regarding him as an enemy, the Sixth Prince surprisingly had a good impression of him. He was a kind and innocent child, and perhaps due to his stutter since childhood, he was exceptionally sensitive to the emotions of others. He seemed easy to bully and had a good relationship with all his brothers. He was widely recognized as a kind-hearted person who was easily deceived.

But in reality, Yang Cong knew his little grandson very well. Sometimes he was just timid and kind-hearted. Even if he knew something was wrong and that he might be being deceived, he couldn't bear to see others upset and would try his best to cooperate with them. The most typical example was probably the Eighth Prince.

His grandson always treated everyone with the utmost kindness and would speak up for others. He said he disliked all the princes, most of them the second and third princes, but only the seventh prince, whom he had only met a few times, said, "Seventh brother is not wrong."

Yang Cong was a Confucian scholar, and a rather rigid old Confucian scholar who adhered to etiquette. He was also one of those who submitted a memorial demanding that the Seventh Prince be severely punished. It was not that he disliked the Seventh Prince's behavior as a provocation and threat to the aristocratic families, but rather that he simply felt that the Seventh Prince's killing of his mother violated the established moral principles and should be criticized.

He held such outdated ideas as, "If this matter were to spread and become accepted, wouldn't the moral order of the world be thrown into chaos?"

But his youngest grandson said, "Seventh Brother is not wrong."

After learning about this, Yang Cong tried to correct the Sixth Prince's thinking, but was shut down by Consort Shu's long and leisurely discourse, which began with Confucius's saying, "Wait when given a small stick, run away when given a large one."

She began by citing Confucian teachings to argue that filial piety is about being obedient, not blindly obedient. She then explained the filial piety of the Seventh Prince and Consort Zhen, and concluded that the Seventh Prince killed Chu Wenwan to fulfill his own filial duty.

Yang was completely speechless, and could only hum in response. He then instructed the sixth prince, whose eyes were shining with admiration as he looked at Consort Shu, to write down Consort Shu's essay from memory, without allowing Consort Shu to help him.

Instantly, the Sixth Prince's face showed a shocked expression as if the sky had fallen. The starlight in his eyes turned into pitiful tears. He sniffled and looked aggrieved as he picked up his brush and began to write from memory. His memory was indeed good. Even if he could not write down Consort Shu's casual work word for word, he could still write it down in his own understanding. It was naive but full of brilliance.

"Very good." Yang Cong praised, but couldn't help but show some regret. He regretted that the Sixth Prince was born with a stutter and, despite having extraordinary talent, he was not valued at all.

"That's good." Consort Shu stroked her son's head, looking at his obedient appearance as he leaned against her lap, somewhat drowsy. She said the same thing again, "Father, I only hope he is safe."

Yang Cong had a lot to say. For example, Han Fei of the Warring States period also had a stutter and was not valued by the King of Han. He had no choice but to go to the State of Han to study under Xunzi. In the end, he still became the greatest synthesizer of Legalism and was highly valued by Qin Shi Huang.

Even if you have a stutter, as long as you work hard to improve yourself, you will eventually succeed.

After Yang Cong discovered the Sixth Prince's talent in literature, he mentioned the Sixth Prince's upbringing to Consort Shu many times. However, Consort Shu rejected all his proposals with a gentle yet firm attitude. She did not want her son to suffer the pain of being talented but not being given important responsibilities, which would only damage his mind. She only wanted him to live a happy and carefree life, even if he was mediocre.

Yang Cong had previously criticized her for being too kind-hearted, saying that she would ruin the Sixth Prince sooner or later, but now all that remained was a sigh.

He knew that his daughter would never agree unless his grandson brought it up himself.

Yang Cong always bowed his head when facing his daughter. Although he didn't say it explicitly, he was actually persuaded by Consort Shu, including the issues concerning the Sixth Prince's upbringing and whether the Seventh Prince was guilty.

Consider it an apology. Yang suppressed the matter and made a series of arrangements with great skill. He sent people to communicate with Rong Di, using the delaying tactic of "the matter is being processed and please wait patiently." The attitude had to be good and sincere, but whether it would be done or not was uncertain. When asked, the answer was always "it is being processed."

Yang Cong was a cunning old fox in officialdom, and he had his own set of shameless methods for dealing with difficult matters.

However, while Rong Di was dragging his feet, the Seventh Prince still needed to find someone to communicate with. Yang Cong was indeed busy lately and couldn't spare the time to do this matter. As for his subordinates... you can imagine how they managed to get this small matter all to him.

Finally, Yang set his sights on an old friend who frequently visited the palace: Master Cen, who taught the princes there.

After the two old foxes argued for half an hour, Minister Yang finally offered two jars of fine wine and a year's contract for drawing talismans and cinnabar at the Taoist temple, successfully pushing the matter to Master Cen.

Master Cen sighed, "Alas, it's truly a sin for me to know you."

"Don't act innocent after getting a good deal. If you keep nagging, I'll break the contract." Yang Cong said with a sour face.

"Alright, alright." Master Cen didn't want to get involved in this matter, but Old Man Yang had given too much.

Yang Cong was initially pleased to have gotten rid of a troublesome matter, but to his surprise, the matter was resolved on its own within two days. This was because the Rongdi envoys reported that they had been threatened and that some martial arts figures were plotting against them. The matter concerning the Seventh Prince was thus overshadowed by an even bigger issue.

Meanwhile, after finishing his lesson, Master Cen went to Zhaoyang Palace. When he met the Seventh Prince and unexpectedly saw the words he had written, he could only thank Old Man Yang for his generosity.

The fact that Master Cen happened to see Xue Jin'an writing was related to the Rongdi envoy reporting the case, and this matter has to start with Prince An.