Chapter 40 The Palace Gate Collapsed: A Discussion
Shen Hegui's carriage was very well soundproofed, and Lu Wensheng's whispers were not leaked out at all.
In the past few days, Shen Hegui followed the clues 'provided' by Zhang Minzhi, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and Zhang Chongke, the Right Censor of the Censorate, and dismissed and demoted many officials. Of course, he also confiscated the property and beheaded many others, gaining a great deal. The price was that he had no free time during the day.
When Lu Wensheng arrived, Shen Hegui was in the Wenhua Hall discussing with his ministers the filling of vacant positions, subsequent political adjustments, and the questions for this year's special imperial examination.
The sound of conversation could be faintly heard through the curtain. Lu Wensheng glanced at Feng Gou, who was urging him to go in, and whispered, "They're discussing important matters inside! Would it be appropriate for me to just walk in like this?"
Although she also really wanted to finish the task quickly, so as not to have it weighing heavily on her mind like a stone, constantly on her mind.
Feng Gou, with a mournful expression, gently pushed Lu Wensheng: "There's nothing wrong with it, Lord Lu, believe me! His Highness will be happy to see you."
He had witnessed His Highness's struggles these past few days. Now, His Highness had not only lost weight, but his temper had also grown considerably. He was also particularly good at staying up late, but he wasn't doing anything productive. He was either meeting with couples of homosexuals or reading romance novels that glorified male homosexuality.
Not only did he read it, but he also used the imperial brush to annotate the storybook, and then asked some tricky questions that were hard for him to answer.
By this time, he had stayed up with His Highness for three consecutive nights, and his old bones were finally giving out. He had no choice but to suggest that His Highness meet Lord Lu, since imagination and reality were different. Rather than struggling alone in the dead of night, it would be better to explore together with Lord Lu.
At the palace gate, Lu Wensheng and Feng Gou were locked in a stalemate when Shen Hegui suddenly roared from inside: "What I need are capable and practical people, not rough stones that have been worn down in a rotten vegetable vat! Anyone who dares to bring up seniority again can go to the imperial prison to wake up!"
Lu Wensheng hurriedly grabbed the door frame, pushed Feng Gou away with his other hand, and whispered in a panic, "Master, don't hurt me!"
She remembered that Shen Hegui was extremely good at maintaining his composure and never showed his emotions, but now he seemed to have been hit by a firecracker.
Anyway, she couldn't afford to offend an angry Shen Hegui, so she absolutely couldn't walk into that trap.
Unable to refuse Feng Gou, Lu Wensheng simply gripped the door frame tightly with both hands and said, "I'll go for a walk and come back later!"
Feng Gou remained unmoved by either soft or hard tactics, and whispered with a smile, "Perfect, I can take Your Highness for a stroll together!"
Lu Wensheng: "..." She didn't want to, she refused, she resolutely refused!
Lu Wensheng glanced at the huge gap under Feng Gou's armpit and asked Xiao Yuan discreetly, "Are side quests also limited to two days?"
Xiao Yuan also heard the angry roar from its natural enemy. It curled itself into a tortoise-like shape and mumbled, "[Side quest has no time limit.]"
Great job! She's off first! We'll talk about the mission later!
Lu Wensheng seized the opportunity and prepared to exert his strength!
"Squeak—crack!" The tooth-grinding sound of a door hinge breaking rang out first!
She looked blankly at the source of the sound.
Feng Gou immediately thought of the door hinges that Shen Hegui had unintentionally damaged and had not yet been repaired. His heart nearly jumped out of his chest, and cold sweat broke out on his back. He quickly had someone pull Lu Wensheng away.
"Quickly help pull Lord Lu open! This palace door looks like it's about to collapse!" Feng Gou exclaimed.
The moment Lu Wensheng was pulled away, the heavy, towering palace doors brushed past her nose as they fell.
Wood chips flew, red paint shattered, and as it collapsed with a crash, a cloud of dust rose, and the crackling sound echoed for a long time in this small space.
Feng Gou gently tapped Lu Wensheng's cheekbone with trembling hands, then gasped, "Oh no! Your face has been injured by wood chips! It's bleeding!" If this leaves a scar, how will you compete for favor in the future!
Feng Gou was extremely anxious and hurriedly sent a eunuch to fetch the imperial physician.
Lu Wensheng stared blankly down at the almost imperceptible faint red bloodstain on Feng Gou's fingertip, then lowered his head, his eyes vacant as he looked at the shattered palace gate.
After three days of rest, she's become strong enough to tear down a nearly four-meter-high palace gate?!
Lu Wensheng raised his hands in disbelief and slowly clenched his fists.
The discussion inside the Wenhua Hall had already ceased the moment Feng Gou exclaimed in surprise.
Just before the palace gate collapsed, Shen Hegui had already determined that although the collapsing gate was terrifying, it would not harm Lu Wensheng in the slightest. He stopped and blocked the civil and military officials behind him, and waited for the loud noise to subside before quickly walking up to Lu Wensheng and carefully examining him.
"Long live Your Highness!"
Seeing the eunuchs kneeling on the ground, Lu Wensheng realized that she should bow to Shen Hegui instead of staring at her suddenly powerful hands.
"Your subject pays his respects..."
“There’s no need for formalities between us.” Shen Heguixu grabbed Lu Wensheng’s arm to stop him, then gently instructed, “Move the palace door away and clean up the debris.”
Apart from Feng Gou, no one present knew that it was Shen Hegui who first destroyed the palace gate. They all thought that Lu Wensheng had done something miraculous by destroying half of the Wenhua Palace gate.
In a feudal society where imperial power was supreme, damaging palace gates was considered a grave offense, an act that violated the dignity and security of the royal family, and according to the criminal law of the time, it was punishable by hanging.
As Chen Xin's father-in-law, Zhou Fuguan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, was just looking for a pillow to fall asleep in. He immediately stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, the Criminal Law states: Anyone who sets fire to their own house shall be punished with forty strokes of the cane; anyone who spreads the fire to the houses of officials and commoners shall be punished with fifty strokes of the cane; anyone who spreads the fire to ancestral temples and palaces shall be hanged. Wenhua Hall is a palace. Although it was not burned down, it still counts as intentional damage. This Lord Lu should be sentenced to hang!"
Lu Wensheng was still immersed in his own world, but he instantly snapped out of it when he heard the words "hanging".
Her heart skipped a beat, and she knew something was wrong.
Forgot that this is Shen Hegui's house door. It is naturally precious. Shen Hegui just finished venting his anger and should still be furious. Although he won't kill her, in order to avoid gossip, he will probably spank her again!
Her period just ended, and she's going to suffer again?!
Lu Wensheng, trying to discreetly raise his eyes, wanted to steal a glance at the expression on Shen Hegui's face.
Unexpectedly, his eyes met Shen Hegui's smiling gaze.
Lu Wensheng: "?"
Why would Shen Hegui look at her with such gentle eyes? She glanced at his face, which was like adding fuel to the fire. Shouldn't he be even angrier?
Never mind, protecting my ass is the most important thing right now!
Lu Wensheng stepped out of Shen Hegui's shadow and retorted, "The first month of the lunar calendar has only just passed, and Lord Zhou is already calling for war. Isn't that a bit inappropriate? Besides, which eye of yours saw that I deliberately damaged the palace gate?"
She's a master at being shameless! Feng Gou is an accomplice, so he'll definitely help her.
Following Zhou Fuguan's gaze, Lu Wensheng took two steps forward and fixed his eyes on Feng Gou, who was directing the eunuchs to clean up the scene. He said, "Master Feng, you were outside the whole time. You must have seen with your own eyes how the palace gate collapsed, right? We all heard your exclamation from inside the palace!"
Feng Gou was a seasoned veteran in the palace. His eyes darted around and he came up with an excuse in no time. He bowed and said, "Your Excellency is too kind to me. I just returned and saw that Lord Lu was almost hit by the falling object. Lord Zhou, you might as well ask someone else."
Feng Gou wore a friendly smile, but inwardly he was thinking: If you want to die, don't drag him down with you! Lord Lu will be His Highness's man in the future. Even if he sets fire to Wenhua Hall, His Highness probably won't pursue the matter.
There were only eunuchs around, and all the eunuchs in the palace were under Feng Gou's command. As soon as he made his statement, all the eunuchs immediately fell silent, looking at Zhou Fuguan with awe and saying one after another, "I didn't see it" or "I didn't notice it."
For a moment, the scene was extremely awkward, as if Zhou Fu was bullying others because of his high rank and was trying to frame someone.
Seeing the situation, Lu Wensheng quickly put aside his few remaining feelings of guilt, cleared his throat, and said loudly, "Lord Zhou, please don't force these helpless little eunuchs. I know you hold a grudge against me for beating your son-in-law some time ago and don't like me."
Zhou Fuguan never expected that, before this matter had even passed, Lu Wensheng would dare to bring up the matter of her assaulting an official of the imperial court.
Zhou Fuguan angrily said, "How dare you bring this up!"
Lu Wensheng arrogantly said, "What's there to be afraid of! Chen Xin isn't a good person! So what if I hit him?" Moreover, she had also told Shen Hegui that the dare mission included "picking someone you don't like and beating them up."
Chen Xin had a terrible reputation in the officialdom of Yanjing, but unfortunately he had never made any major mistakes and had his father-in-law, a vice minister, protecting him.
So in the blink of an eye, the officials present all perked up their ears and began to watch the drama unfold.
Zhan Xingxiu originally worked in the Ministry of Personnel and had long disliked Zhou Fuguan's behavior. Thinking of the friendship she had shared with Lu Wensheng at Yuhua Terrace, she stepped forward to help him out: "Judging from Lord Lu's kind face, and the fact that he dares to bring this up now, he must have suffered a great injustice!"
Seeing someone helping her, Lu Wensheng's eyes lit up, and an idea instantly came to her mind.
“My lord understands me!” Lu Wensheng stepped forward and hooked his arm around Zhan Xingxiu’s neck like a friend, taking the opportunity to start complaining: “That bastard Chen Xin actually used my assessment comments to blackmail me into drafting documents for him, and the signature wasn’t even mine. It was already late afternoon, but he still demanded that I hand them in at 7 p.m.!”
She lowered her head and looked down: "The worst part is that he also asked me to copy old files overnight, saying that they were infested with termites. Even if I didn't eat or drink for a month, I still couldn't finish copying all those old files by myself!"
Lu Wensheng raised his sleeve and wiped away non-existent tears, then hugged Zhan Xingxiu and began to brew real tears.
Zhan Xingxiu has two sons who don't like to be close to him and are both big and strong. They like to play with guns and sticks. So when she suddenly learned that the well-behaved and ambitious Lu Wensheng had suffered such a great injustice, she felt a pang of pity in her heart.
Zhan Xingxiu thought to herself: She had read the essays written by this editor Lu when he passed the imperial examinations; he was definitely a top scholar! If her good-for-nothing sons had even half of his talent, she could die in peace. Alas! Now she could only hope for a grandson.
Lu Wensheng hugged the short and slender Zhan Xingxiu tightly, raised her voice to add fuel to the fire, and wailed, "I have no one to rely on in Yanjing, and I'm suffering so much! That Chen Xin is inferior to me in every way, and out of jealousy, he makes things difficult for me every day! The pressure is too great, and I'm not gaining any weight at all!"
Zhan Xingxiu patted Lu Wensheng on the back like she was comforting a grandson, and said in a low voice, "It's alright, His Highness will definitely stand up for you. A man doesn't easily shed tears."
Lu Wensheng said in a moment, "I just turned eighteen, I haven't been crowned yet, so I can cry!"
It would have been better if she hadn't mentioned her age, but once she did, Zhan Xingxiu thought of her son at home, and her anger flared up instantly. Other people's sons were already in the Hanlin Academy for four years by the time they were eighteen, while her son, let alone a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the imperial examinations), hadn't even learned all the characters. Whenever he encountered an unfamiliar character, all he could do was yell for his mother!
Just as he was feeling frustrated, he suddenly had another thought—now that he had gained the prince's favor and entered the cabinet, why not find a way to get his two sons into a good school, try teaching them again, and then choose an auspicious day to let them befriend Lu Wensheng, so that they could be influenced by him every day, and even if they didn't get first or second place, they could at least get at the bottom of the list!
Zhan Xingxiu secretly began to make a plan.
The eunuchs worked quickly and efficiently, cleaning the area in front of the Wenhua Hall spotless in just a short time.
Amidst the whispers of the officials behind him, Shen Hegui stood still, his eyes lowered, his heart churning with emotion.
Feng Gou's words proved true; reality was indeed different from imagination. He had planned to give Lu Wensheng a gentle smile when she looked over, but when he caught her secretly observing him, a gentle smile involuntarily crept up his face.
Over the past three nights, he had read many erotic novels and had been unable to accept intimacy between men. But now that he had met Lu Wensheng, it seemed that apart from the final step, everything else was acceptable.
He didn't announce Prince Su's whereabouts partly out of personal motives—he wanted to torment him for a few more days—and partly for Lu Wensheng's sake. He knew his life wouldn't be as good as before, but he never expected to be bullied to such an extent.
Copying books was marginalized, and the most important right of writers—the right to authorship—was usurped. Behind his back, how much mistreatment did Lu Wensheng suffer? No wonder he was so thin.
Shen Hegui felt a pang of pity and self-reproach. The position of editor was far too low; he should be promoted.
"Nonsense!" Thinking of Chen Xin's injury and his beloved daughter who was crying her eyes out, Zhou Fuguan was so angry that he trembled. He raised his hand to bow, wanting to ask Shen Hegui to stand up for him.
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Author's Note: My outline is even more concise than a stick figure. From now on, I can only aim for 3 out of 10, striving for 6. I must finalize the detailed outline before starting my next book. Writing later will allow me to write more; otherwise, once I finish 3,000 words, I'll just start petting the cat, the dog, and playing on my phone. In the next chapter, Little Deer gets promoted! Then it'll be working 24/7 in front of Shen Hegui. [Dog head holding a rose], there should be more today.
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