Chapter 114 (None)

The main gate of the palace was half open. The tall sycamore trees, with their lush foliage, blocked the scorching midday sun. The cicadas chirped weakly, creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere.

Aruo and Zishan had been imprisoned here before. Upon returning, she instinctively shivered and looked around nervously, "Where is everyone?"

"Your Highness, please wait a moment. I'll go and take a look." A'Ruo, worried, stood in front of Jiang Ling.

“There’s someone there.” Jiang Ling pointed to the half-open door on the east side. When A’Ruo Qing Tan was about to step forward, she stopped her, “Please wait a moment.”

The Palace Administration Office consists of three courtyards. The last two courtyards were used for detaining and interrogating prisoners, while the front courtyard was used as the duty room for carrying out official duties.

Song Gongzheng did not reside in the main room. Of the two rooms on the east side, one was used for official business, and the other contained a small wooden couch. Gongzheng was busy, and she mostly rested here.

Jiang Ling stepped forward and saw through the crack in the door that Song Gong was sitting with his back against the wall, with neatly arranged documents and writing implements on the table to his left.

Hearing the noise, Song Gongzheng's eyes flickered, and she slowly turned her neck to look at Jiang Ling. Immediately afterward, she turned back with a calm expression, sat as before, and tilted her head slightly back, seemingly lost in thought, or perhaps resting.

Jiang Ling's heart sank slightly as she observed Song Gongzheng's reaction; she was a little late.

Pushing open the door, Jiang Ling moved a round stool and placed it directly opposite Song Gong, sitting down opposite her.

Song Gongzheng wore a nearly new, gray-green female official's robe, perfectly starched and neatly combed. Her hair was styled in a neat bun. Her hands rested on her knees, and she remained as stern and unsmiling as ever. When expressionless, the frown lines between her brows were faintly visible. Now, backlit, the frown lines revealed a sorrowful expression, as if she were weeping.

"You knew everything?" Jiang Ling asked quietly.

Song Gongzheng quietly replied, "Yes, I know." After saying that, she added, "I really don't have the strength to keep bowing and scraping to everyone I meet. Your Majesty, please bear with me."

"It's alright," Jiang Ling said, then asked, "Gouqi has been with you for many years and has been loyal to you. How could you be so heartless as to kill her?"

Song Gongzheng countered, "I am utterly loyal to the Emperor; would the Emperor possibly spare my life?"

Jiang Ling laughed and said, "That's sophistry. If you hadn't secretly sent Gouqi Shuilian out to deliver a message to Vice Minister Zhao, and then tried to cover up your crime by killing them and hiding their bodies in Kunning Palace, you wouldn't be in this situation. What I don't understand is, now that Gouqi Shuilian is gone, do you think you can cover it up by having no one to testify?"

Song Gongzheng remained calm and said, "Palace maids and eunuchs are all slaves. Even if they become fifth-rank female officials, their lives are as worthless as grass in front of their masters. Master doesn't need evidence. Just arrest me and beat me to death. Destroying the body is the only trick I can use. I have no other way."

"You see things very clearly," Jiang Ling praised, then couldn't help but sigh, "What a pity."

Wen Juan and Qin Shanggong were all considered intelligent, but they were far from being comparable to Song Gongzheng.

The law clearly states that a slave who kills his master is punished more severely, while a master who kills his slave is punished more leniently.

The laws were all made for ordinary people, and were practically meaningless for the gentry, let alone the royal family.

In the rigidly hierarchical feudal system of the Great Yin Dynasty, it was utterly absurd for servants to engage in scheming and intrigue with their masters.

Song Gongzheng's eyes darted around, and then he looked at her seriously. "Your Majesty knew it was me, so why didn't you just kill me back then?"

"As you said, your life is worthless in front of your master. I, your master, killed you without any evidence. Now there is only a long night in this world."

Jiang Ling raised her finger and gestured, "I can't do much, just enough to create a tiny crack so that I can barely glimpse a sliver of light."

A crack finally appeared on Song Gongzheng's usually composed face. She stared blankly at Jiang Ling, tears slowly welling up in her eyes. She hastily raised her hand to cover her face, tears slipping through her fingers.

Jiang Ling remained silent, picked up a scroll from the table, and casually flipped through it. Song Gongzheng's handwriting was neat and elegant. When palace maids and eunuchs entered the palace, very few were literate; at most, they only knew a few characters. Song Gongzheng's ability to learn to write like this, besides intelligence, must have required considerable hard work.

After silently weeping, Song Gongzheng took out a handkerchief to wipe her face clean and said in a hoarse voice, "These are all cases handled by the Palace Administration Department. The palace maids made mistakes while performing their duties and offended their masters, so they were sent to the Palace Administration Department for processing. Over the years, I have taken countless lives. I only remember two people who were able to walk out of the Palace Administration Department unscathed. They were A'ruo Zishan, who served in front of the Empress. The Empress personally braved the heavy rain to come and take them back."

“Aruo Zishan was sent by me to visit Consort Gao. They should not be punished because of me.”

Jiang Ling pointed outside and said with a smile, "A'Ruo is outside. She's still shaken after coming to the Palace Administration Office."

“When I used to torture people, I received a lot of curses. Some people cursed me, saying that I would eventually suffer the same fate. I think she was right. I have committed too many sins and I will definitely not have a good end.”

Song Gongzheng looked up at Jiang Ling, his expression both puzzled and sorrowful. "I fought tooth and nail to get this position and do my job according to my master's orders. If I don't do a good job, I'll end up like them."

Jiang Ling put down the file, remained silent for a moment, and said, "I can't answer that question for you right now."

The palace had numerous eunuchs and maids, totaling nearly two thousand, and they needed to be governed by rules. Too lenient rules would cause chaos, while too strict rules would result in countless deaths and injuries.

Song Gongzheng pulled out a file and handed it to Jiang Ling, saying, "This is an old case. Back in the time of Emperor Gaozong, a palace maid surnamed Wang was ordered by Consort Xu to leave the palace and go to the capital's government office to deliver a message, requesting that the market rent of several craftsmen be waived. The prefect of the government office, Yang Tongpan, refused and complained to Emperor Gaozong, who ordered that the palace maid be severely punished. The palace maid was beaten to death."

Jiang Ling took the file, glanced through it quickly, closed it, and said, "She didn't obey Consort Xu's orders, so she certainly didn't fare well. She obeyed orders and lost her life. Judge Yang is shameless; he didn't dare impeach Consort Xu, but instead used a weak palace maid to gain his reputation for being upright and incorruptible. Consort Xu dared to issue imperial edicts privately, interfering in politics within the inner palace. She should have been very favored by Emperor Gaozong, at most receiving a few reprimands and continuing to enjoy wealth and honor. But is that really the case?"

She used to see loyal servants who lived and died for their masters, their loyalty reaching the heavens. When their masters enjoyed wealth and luxury, they too could rise to prominence. However, most of these loyal servants seemed to meet a bad end, never surviving to see their masters enjoy such a privileged life.

If she hadn't arrived at the Palace Administration Office in time and forcibly taken A'Ruo Zishan away, even if they hadn't been tortured, spending a night in the eerie Palace Administration Office would likely have left them terrified. Neither their mental nor physical condition could be cured by the medical skills of the Great Yin Dynasty; they had essentially walked through the gates of death.

"Yes." Song Gongzheng's eyes brightened, and she smiled, "Your Majesty is wise, able to see the whole leopard from a single spot." Her smile was extremely faint, almost fleeting.

“Your Majesty, my name is Chongniang. I entered the palace at the age of ten. I have an older brother and an older sister. My mother gave birth to six children in total, but we were too poor to raise them all. Two of them drowned, and my second brother died when he was two years old. My sister married into a neighboring village in exchange for my brother's marriage, and I was selected to enter the palace. My parents died young. Five years ago, our hometown was first hit by an insect plague, followed by a drought. My brother, sister, and their entire family fled to escape the famine, and we have not heard from them since. They should no longer be alive.”

Song Gongzheng spoke in a calm tone, as if he were chatting casually, recounting his difficult life story.

"My impoverished background is nothing out of the ordinary, as was that of my former master, Huang Gongzheng. She had no family left and stayed in the palace as a lady-in-waiting until she was fifty and her eyesight was failing. She was then sent to a nunnery in the Western Hills to live out her days. Life in the nunnery was a struggle; she was lucky if she could get the first two stipends from the palace. With me by her side, her life was a little better, and she lived to be fifty-five. As for the other old palace maids... they were destitute and useless. People wished they were dead so they could save some food. The nunnery where people ate vegetarian food and chanted Buddhist prayers was more terrifying than the torture chambers of the Palace Attendant's Office."

Jiang Ling planned to listen to the opinions of Huang Liang and Wen Juan to find a suitable way to care for the palace maids and eunuchs after they grew old and left the palace.

People shouldn't be driven to desperation. If they have hope and can enjoy their old age in peace, they will think twice before doing bad things for their masters. There will be far fewer infighting and sordid affairs in the palace.

Jiang Ling hesitated for a moment, but still spoke frankly: "With you around, your master is better off. Did you kill Gouqi without considering your future leaving the palace, or did someone promise you something?"

He said he was tired of the intrigue and backstabbing in the palace and wanted to leave the palace with me and live next door.

Song Gongzheng leaned back, his head against the wall, his eyes gazing at a certain point in the sky, a dreamlike smile on his face.

"He was so handsome, holding my hand and speaking to me softly. No one had ever treated me like that. Even if he was deceiving me, I was willing to accept it and didn't resent him."

Jiang Ling stared at her pale face, trying her best to suppress her pain, her heart heavy and choked with sorrow.

Yuan Changsheng gave her a dream, and she was willing to give her life for it. Jiang Ling didn't dare to look down on her and accuse her of being foolish; the warmth she had never experienced was more precious to her than life itself.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Ling asked, "Do you want to go see him?"

Song Gongzheng curled up slightly, her hand pressing against her lower abdomen. After catching her breath, she shook her head and said, "It's not nice for a person to die. I won't go to see him. Your Majesty, I'm sorry, I can't let him be sad. I'll go and testify for you, identifying Consort Liu."

“I didn’t intend for you to testify,” Jiang Ling said.

Her struggle with Consort Liu, her path to the top, even if it leaves a trail of corpses, should not be filled with these ants.

Song Gongzheng stared intently at Jiang Ling, his eyes welling up with tears again, and said, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for sparing my body."

Jiang Ling indeed had no intention of delving into the matter, and she didn't mention a word about Yuan Changsheng's cause of death to Emperor Yuanming. Because if he found out, Yuan Changsheng's body would be left to rot in the wilderness.

Whether it was Yuan Changsheng or Song Gongzheng, they had no other choice but to act against their will. Their hands were stained with blood.

A life for a life, death absolves all debts.

Her stomach churned, and immense pain spread throughout her body. Song Gongzheng knew that the goji syrup she had drunk was taking effect. Large beads of cold sweat rolled down her back. She clenched her teeth, desperately trying to keep quiet.

Jiang Ling's eyes stung. She looked away, steadied herself, and asked, "Do you want to be buried with him?"

"No, thank you."

As Song Gongzheng waited for the piercing pain to subside, he spoke urgently and refused without hesitation: "He has never really cared about me. He doesn't care about me, and his affections aren't directed at me."

She tried to sit up straight, smoothing out the wrinkles in her clothes and tidying the strands of hair at her temples. As always, she was dignified and composed. She forced a smile and said, "On the road to the Yellow Springs, we will part ways from now on."