Chapter 98 Revision
Before dawn, the area outside the city gates was already bustling with activity. People waiting to enter the city would anxiously look up to the east every now and then, hoping that it would get light soon.
Finally, as dawn broke, the sound of bells echoed through the city. The city gates slowly opened from the inside, and in the blink of an eye, the flow of people entering and leaving the city spread out on the roads like a tide. Carriages and horses came and went in an endless stream, and dust filled the air.
Tong Jin yawned, glanced at the city gate in the distance, reined in his horse, turned around, came to the carriage, and whispered, "My lord, the city gate is open."
Inside the carriage, Wei Mingsu woke up, opened his eyes, turned his head, blew out the candle in the lantern, bent down to pick up a stack of yellow paper that had fallen next to his boots, rolled it up, and stuffed it into his book.
Last night, we set off for Luoyang in the middle of the night. When we arrived at the city gate, it was still dark, so the group had to stop by the roadside and wait for dawn. He asked his companions to light lanterns and took out his own documents, intending to check them one last time before entering the city for any problems. Unexpectedly, he fell asleep after only a short while.
Tong Jin asked from outside the carriage, "Young master, shall we return to Shangshanfang first?"
Wei Mingsu lifted the carriage curtain, looked in the direction of the city gate, and hummed in agreement, his expression thoughtful.
As the procession entered the city gate with the flow of people, the attendants around the carriage all breathed a sigh of relief.
From Xizhou to Luoyang, they had survived several assassination attempts, and now they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The capital city was heavily guarded, and even death-defying assassins who intended to perish together would not dare to assassinate court officials in the imperial city.
The carriage exited the city gate and headed towards Shangshanfang.
In front of a flatbread shop in front of the city gate, a few rascals watched the carriage drive away and then ran off.
...
Inside the imperial city, a soldier hurried through a deserted, narrow alleyway and arrived at a city gate to report the news to the guards.
The guard led him inside.
Inside the alley stood a tall and majestic city wall, heavily guarded by imperial guards dressed in black. Each door required a password to be given, and with the scraping sound of heavy doors turning, the soldiers were led into a courtyard.
The guard went in to report, and the soldiers stood waiting on the steps.
A short while later, a group of guards escorted a middle-aged man with a gloomy face as he walked out.
The soldier knew that the middle-aged man in front of him was Censor Wan, the cruelest official among the ruthless ones, and he was a little nervous. He stepped forward and bowed respectfully.
Suddenly, a scream came from the courtyard on the left at the end of the corridor, and a disheveled prisoner covered in blood ran out.
The guards quickly stepped in front of Imperial Censor Wan.
The prisoner seemed afraid of Imperial Censor Wan. Upon seeing him, he turned around, rushed to the railing, climbed over it, fell to the ground, got up, and continued running.
The soldier snapped out of his daze and was startled to see a strange, inhuman-looking monster running towards him. He quickly took a few steps back to avoid it.
The prisoner scrambled and stumbled toward the open gate.
"Want to get out of here alive? Then sign a confession and plead guilty!"
"As long as you sign and confess, the censor will release you!"
Several guards in black chased after him as they shouted. The first group saw Imperial Censor Wan and hurriedly ran over to apologize.
Imperial Censor Wan frowned, watching the prisoner's retreating figure, and made a hand gesture.
The captain led the guards in pursuit. Hearing the shouts, the guards outside strode over and struck the prisoner to the ground with their batons.
The guard sneered and slowly walked forward, kicking and punching the criminal.
The prisoner screamed incessantly.
Imperial Censor Wan stood before the railing, his gaze dark, and said, "Take him back."
The team leader, dragging the prisoner back, left bloodstains everywhere in the courtyard.
The soldier stood in the corner, glancing nervously at the prisoner being dragged away, his eyes filled with fear.
Although the prisoner's clothes were tattered, the expensive material still indicated that he was of high status, perhaps a high-ranking official, or even a member of the imperial family. Regardless of his identity, once he entered prison and fell into the hands of cruel officials, he had no chance of survival, nor could he die quickly. Once inside this gate, he could only endure the torture inflicted by these cruel officials.
Imperial Censor Wan swept his gaze across the room with a stern face.
A glance at the courtyard
.
The guard who had just gone in to deliver the message gestured for the soldiers to come forward.
The soldier felt a chill run down his spine, quickly stepped forward, and knelt on the ground.
Imperial Censor Wan asked, "Has Wei Mingsu returned?"
The soldier nodded and replied, "Reporting to the Imperial Censor, I personally witnessed Governor Wei entering the city this morning at the city gate."
Imperial Censor Wan frowned: "He only had personal guards with him, no women? You looked carefully? No women disguised themselves and sneaked into the city with him?"
The soldier said, "Reporting to the Imperial Censor, Governor Wei did not bring any female relatives back to the capital. As instructed, I carefully checked all their lodgings and documents, and compared them one by one. They were all men, not women. Governor Wei was injured and could not ride a horse. I even carefully checked the carriage; there was no way anyone could be hiding inside."
Imperial Censor Wan's eyebrows furrowed even more tightly.
After answering, the soldier withdrew.
Imperial Censor Wan frowned and pondered for a moment, then instructed his subordinate: "Go out and find out if the news is true."
Your subordinates will obey.
Half an hour later, the subordinate returned from outside and reported: "Imperial Censor, Wei Mingsu has indeed returned to the capital, and he has no woman with him."
Imperial Censor Wan's expression changed slightly. After a moment of silence, he suddenly sneered and asked his subordinates, "That's strange. I heard that Wei Mingsu ruined my plans for a confidante. Where is his confidante?"
After thinking for a moment, one of the subordinates said, "Perhaps Wei Mingsu is in a hurry to return to the capital and left his female relatives behind."
Another person said, "Perhaps Wei Mingsu is feeling guilty. He caused so much trouble in Xizhou, and now that he's back in the capital, so many eyes in the court are watching him. Wei Mingsu is worried that someone might use that lowly woman to impeach him, so he's hiding her somewhere else."
Imperial Censor Wan asked, "He has no female confidantes, nor any other companions? Does he have any dealings with the Chai family?"
The subordinate who went out to inquire shook his head.
Imperial Censor Wan raised his head and looked in the direction of Shangyang Palace.
"If Wei Mingsu deliberately hid the women, it means he was already on guard."
One must be even more cautious when dealing with someone who is already on guard.
"If he wasn't doing it on purpose, then it's either because he didn't try to curry favor with those aristocratic families, or he did, but they just didn't want to pay him any attention."
The more Imperial Censor Wan thought about it, the more gloomy his face became: "Regardless of Wei Mingsu's intentions, it at least shows one thing: things in Xizhou are not as we thought."
The subordinates remained silent.
Xizhou was too far away, and everyone could only rely on the intelligence sent back by their informants to find out what was happening there. Before today, all their judgments were based on that intelligence, and they never had any doubts.
The Imperial Censor Wan's hint made them uneasy.
If they missed some important intelligence... if the intelligence was wrong... then their judgment based on that intelligence might be too arbitrary.
Thinking deeper, could someone be using intelligence to mislead them and kill them with a borrowed knife?
They were afraid of offending people, so they dared not speak.
Imperial Censor Wan said with anger in his eyes, "Wei Mingsu has made great contributions. His Majesty has summoned him back to the capital. He will surely reward him. Even if we find something wrong with him, His Majesty will not be pleased if we make things difficult for him now. The matter in Xizhou has not yet been investigated. Let's not bother with him for now."
The subordinates looked at each other in bewilderment.
Several censors wanted to use the death of the prince to carry out a massacre of the imperial clan, but Wei Mingsu thwarted their plans. Furious, they agreed to impeach Wei Mingsu together. Censor Wan had already instructed his subordinates to write the impeachment memorial. Now that Wei Mingsu had returned to Luoyang, Censor Wan began to doubt the authenticity of the intelligence simply because he had returned to Luoyang alone, and he was having second thoughts.
One of the judges promoted by Imperial Censor Wan pondered for a moment and said, "I also think it's inappropriate to impeach Wei Mingsu. How could Wei Mingsu secretly cooperate with the Chai family? Given the matter of the late Crown Prince, even if Wei Mingsu really wanted to curry favor with the imperial family, would the Chai family trust him?"
"It seems someone wants to get revenge on Wei Mingsu, deliberately exaggerating the situation in an attempt to use me to get rid of Wei Mingsu."
Imperial Censor Wan sneered.
"I cannot work for someone else's benefit!"
The matter of impeaching Wei Mingsu, Imperial Censor Wan
He wasn't particularly enthusiastic to begin with. Wei Mingsu came from a humble background; what benefit would he gain from eliminating someone with the surname Wei? His targets were the living members of the Li clan and those who secretly supported him.
A powerful and prestigious family of the imperial clan.
Imperial Censor Wan then changed the subject: "But Wei Mingsu is indeed too arrogant and has ruined my grand plan. I will write a memorial to impeach him, but I will not submit it for now. I will wait until others have taken action."
The subordinates said in unison, "The Censor is wise."
Imperial Censor Wan instructed his subordinates to continue keeping an eye on Wei Mingsu, and the squad leader came in from outside with several sheets of yellow paper to report.
"Imperial Censor, Prefect Bai just signed the document."
Imperial Censor Wan took the yellow paper, and a look of joy appeared on his face.
The captain asked, "Imperial Censor, what should be done with Prefect Bai?"
Imperial Censor Wan put down the yellow paper: "With his confession, there's no need to leave him alive."
The team should have gone back to the prison and strangled the wounded prisoner.
...
Before Wei Mingsu even arrived at Shangshanfang, news of his return to Luoyang had already spread like wildfire.
The carriage entered the gate of the neighborhood and stopped outside the Wei residence.
"Wei Lang is finally back."
A young woman dressed in men's clothing with delicate features walked out from inside.
She was a close female official in Shangyang Palace, bringing with her the Empress's decree. The Empress knew that Wei Mingsu had been assassinated and sent the palace physician to examine his injuries.
Wei Mingsu got out of the car to express his gratitude.
The imperial physician, through observation, listening, questioning, and palpation, examined Wei Mingsu's wounds and wrote down a prescription.
The female official took the prescription and copied it; she wanted to go to the palace herself to fetch the medicine for Wei Mingsu.
Before leaving, the lady-in-waiting instructed the imperial physician to visit Wei Mingsu's residence every day and to record Wei Mingsu's injuries in detail.
Several guards whispered among themselves: "His Majesty values the young master so much that he sent the imperial physician as soon as the young master returned. The young master is bound to be promoted."
Tong Jin thought so too, but when he went into the room to change Wei Mingsu's dressing, he saw Wei Mingsu looking south with a solemn expression.
"Is my lord worried about Third Sister?"
They went together to ask questions.
Wei Mingsu lowered his eyes and said, "Now that we're in the capital, don't mention her again. This isn't Xizhou."
Tong Jin nodded: "Yes."
Footsteps sounded outside the courtyard gate, and two guards returned to report: "My lord, we waited outside the city as you instructed, and entered the city after you entered. We found five or six spies following you, and they went to different neighborhoods."
Tong Jin asked, "My lord, should we find out where those informants went?"
Wei Mingsu shook his head: "No need."
He expected to have spies following him, so he sent his personal guards to follow him, just to confirm it.
...
Southwest of the Imperial City lies the Divine Capital Garden.
The lady-in-waiting walked into the long corridor along the riverbank, which was more than a mile long. When the palace maids saw her, they quickly waved to the garden.
A burst of laughter came from the garden, and a woman wearing a peony in her hair walked quickly away amidst the laughter of her companions, coming from the other end of the long corridor.
"Has Wei Lang really returned?"
The woman stopped the female attendant and asked in a low voice.
The lady-in-waiting stopped: "Isn't that more than just what the princess wants to ask?"
The woman smiled and asked, "I want to ask you, did he bring anyone back to the Wei residence this time?"
The lady-in-waiting smiled and shook her head.
The woman smiled with satisfaction and then asked, "How serious are his injuries?"
The lady-in-waiting smiled and said, "This servant is not a royal physician and cannot say. Why don't you go to the Wei residence tomorrow and see for yourself?"
The woman scolded, "I'm talking to you nicely, and you're acting all serious! Alright, I know you still have to go to the palace to give a report, so go ahead."
The female attendant smiled without saying a word, parted ways with the woman, and walked toward the main hall.
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