This was the second time in Xie Yizhi's life that he had entered the imperial prison. The first time was in late autumn of this year, when he came here to see Miao Zongping for the last time.
Miao Zongping was his biological uncle. Even if his execution in the autumn was a foregone conclusion, at least he was protected by the empress dowager. The jailers and officers did not dare to mistreat him and continued to serve him well. Except for not allowing him to go out, they gave him almost anything he asked for.
But when Xie Yizhi came to visit him that day, he found that he looked much older than before, with a hunched back, a sallow complexion, and gray hair.
After returning from the imperial prison, the little emperor dreamed of Miao Zongping for several days and nights. His uncle kept calling his name and asked him to avenge him.
He refused to answer, so his uncle grabbed the hem of his robe, tears and blood oozing from his eyes, and a sharp and piercing voice echoed in his ears: "What use are you?"
"Xie Yao, what use are you!"
"You are the Son of Heaven," Miao Zongping suddenly shouted, "You are the supreme ruler, but you can't protect your cousin, your maternal uncle, or the Miao family! Xie Ling is still eyeing your throne, how can you sleep peacefully? How can you sleep peacefully?"
"How pitiful! The glory of my Miao family has been destroyed in your hands..."
Xie Yizhi was stunned, and he couldn't explain what he felt in his heart. How could his uncle covet his throne? Besides, if he wanted it, the throne would be given to him. He had no ambitions, and the burden of the world fell on his shoulders, which often kept him awake at night.
His biggest wish is that the emperor's uncle can live in harmony with his mother's family and eliminate all hatred, so that he won't always be caught in the middle. After all, they are all flesh and blood, and he can't give up either side.
If he could get his wish, he wouldn't even have to give up the throne.
Although there was a jailer holding a lantern to lead the way, Xie Yizi was still afraid. He was afraid of the cold and dampness of the place. It seemed as if there were pairs of eyes in the darkness, spying on him.
"Light up the candles!" he ordered. "Why keep it so dark?"
So the jailers hurried to light the lights, and saw the wall lamps on the side of the road gradually light up, and the dim corridor was dyed with a layer of orange by the candlelight. But even though it was bright, the little emperor still felt that this place was cold and cramped.
When he saw Man Changshan in prison, Xie Yizi just stood there.
The former imperial tutor... the one who taught him to write his own name stroke by stroke, the teacher who taught him to recite "Confucius said" and taught him to analyze policy essays with great patience, how could he... become like this now?
There was almost no healthy skin or flesh left on Man Changshan's body. His eyes were hollow with only two bloody holes. His hair and prisoner clothes were stuck with mostly dried blood.
Xie Yizi couldn't control himself and bent over and started to dry heave.
"Your Majesty?" A hoarse voice suddenly came from behind, "Is that your Majesty?"
Xie Yizi didn't dare to look back at him. He didn't know whether he should be glad that they didn't pull out his tongue, or wonder how the tutor had recognized him.
At this moment, his mind was blank and his eyes were filled with scarlet color that looked like an illusion.
"I, I..." He sobbed, "I'm here to bring a meal to the teacher."
"How could they, how could they treat you like this?" During this period of time, he had been under house arrest in Funing Palace by A'niang's people. A'niang said that the political situation was turbulent now, and protecting him like this was for his own good.
He didn't understand the current situation and government affairs. He only heard that Prince Yan left the capital without permission and went to the south for some reason. Later, he heard A'niang sigh and say that imprisoning Taifu Man was a helpless move.
The emperor's uncle was away and the tutor was in prison. He didn't know who to ask, so he had to stay in the bedroom in a panic, hoping that Xie Shiguan would return to the capital as soon as possible.
"Hurry up and remove the shackles from the Grand Tutor," Xie Yizhi hurriedly ordered the jailers, "The prison door is open. Who gave you the courage to do this? Did I allow you to torture the Grand Tutor? I..."
Having said this, as if he had thought of something, he suddenly got stuck and couldn't go on.
The chief jailer bowed his head and said, "Your Majesty, we are also following the orders of the Queen Mother..."
Before he could finish, Xie Yizhi waved his hand and said, "That's enough!"
As soon as he finished speaking, two firemen opened the prison door and placed all the wine and food he brought in front of Man Changshan.
The food was cold, the wine was cold too, and Master Man's hands and feet were broken, so he couldn't lift his hands. If he wanted to eat, he could only lie on the ground and lick the food like a cat or dog.
Xie Yizi couldn't bear it anymore, so he endured the intense feeling of nausea and stepped into the cell. Then he half-knelt down and fed him some food with trembling hands.
In just a few days, Man Changshan had become so thin that he looked unrecognizable. But when the food was placed next to him, he was not in a hurry to eat it. He just said quietly, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for the reward."
Xie Yizi's heart was filled with sadness and he hardly dared to look at the face that was so close to him.
After eating the food, Xie Yizhi heard him say, "Your Majesty, please give me another sip of wine."
Xie Yizhi then picked up the wine glass again and pointed it at his lips.
"Yizhi," he heard the dying Taifu say in a hoarse voice, "remember, from now on you must listen to Shiguan and follow his wishes. For the sake of the uncle-nephew relationship in your youth, he will not...will not take your throne."
"He is a sky eagle, a wilderness wolf. He looks down on the throne you sit on, but he is more reliable than your mother's family!"
He suddenly said these words to himself, as if he was entrusting his son to his care. Xie Yizi had never been so scared before. He couldn't even respond, and his whole body was shivering.
"The Queen Mother is your biological mother. Since ancient times, there has never been a reason for an emperor to abandon his biological mother. You can only confine her to the Ciming Palace or send her to the National Temple for meditation. It's up to you to decide, but..."
"We can't tolerate this anymore."
Before Man Changshan could finish his words, he seemed to be choked by a breath and suddenly started coughing violently, with black blood pouring out of his mouth and nose.
Xie Yizi screamed in surprise, his eyes confused. In that trance, he seemed to suddenly understand.
But before he had time to think about it, another person suddenly broke into the imperial prison. The little emperor recognized his footsteps, and even more so the agarwood scent on his robe.
He was extremely scared at the moment. When he heard the familiar noise, he stood up without thinking and threw himself into King Yan's arms as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw.
"Uncle..." He almost burst into tears, "Why did you come just now?
"I'm so scared. I'm all alone in this palace. I..."
But Xie Shiguan just glared at him coldly.
Xie Yizhi looked up and caught a glimpse of the coldness in his eyes. His heart ached, and he shook his head and said in defense: "I don't know, I don't know that, I thought..."
He couldn't say why.
King Yan pried open the young emperor's hand with a cold look: "What do you think? Who asked you to deliver the meal?"
Xie Yizi didn't dare to answer, still hesitating: "I just want to come and see the teacher, I..."
"Who asked you to deliver the meal?"
The sound was almost like a slap in the face, hitting him hard in the face and leaving him speechless for a while.
He was the one who brought the wine and food, and without thinking, he fed the poisoned wine into Man Changshan's mouth. He was the one who harmed his teacher, but, but... he didn't know it would turn out like this.
"Your humble servant," the man lying on the cold and damp stone bricks suddenly spoke again, even though there was a pool of blood in front of him, "It's not unjust."
"Thunder and rain, could it be the grace of the Lord?" [Note]
His voice was intermittent and hoarse: "Shi Guan, don't blame him, it's me, I didn't teach him well..."
"I only ask you, for the sake of our past friendship, to keep an eye on him for me, for me..."
His arm was broken, but his five fingers could still move. At the moment when his life was about to end, his knuckles kept reaching forward, and finally at the last moment, he touched the tip of Xie Shiguan's shoe, and then his whole body froze there, no longer moving.
Two quarters past midnight, Lansheng Courtyard.
Xie Shiguan, holding a palace lantern, stepped on the snow and pushed open the gate quietly. At this moment, all the lights inside and outside the palace were off, and the small courtyard was even quieter. Not even a candlelight could be seen through the small window on the side of the house.
Why didn’t the mute even leave a light for him?
His Highness was angry, but when he went forward and touched the door, he found that even the door was locked. Didn't this mute ever think that he would come back?
He had just returned to Beijing and was in a hurry to deal with those trivial matters. How could he carry the long thread to unlock the door with him? Therefore, he walked to the side of the house, propped open the half-open window, and then climbed in lightly.
As expected, there was not even a single light on in the house.
The closer Xie Shiguan got to the couch, the angrier he became. He was almost dying of exhaustion outside, but this dumb man and the brat were sleeping soundly.
So he leaned over and deliberately put his cold hands into the quilt, but as soon as he touched the mute's back, the person sleeping in the quilt suddenly woke up. He struggled hard to get up, and the prince also hugged him with all his strength.
"It's me." Xie Shiguan thought he was confused because of sleep, so he resisted like this. "Turn around and take a look. It's me."
The mute seemed to be deaf and was still struggling desperately. He refused to let go, so the mute simply bit his wrist.
The bite was so strong that the sharp teeth dug into the flesh and blood was immediately drawn. His Highness felt the pain and tried to pull his hand back.
Xie Shiguan had no time to take care of his wrist. He had used quite a bit of force just now, and the mute was like a madman, refusing to let go. His Highness subconsciously wanted to go forward and pry open his mouth to see if his teeth were injured.
"What are you crazy about?" The pain in his wrist was not worth mentioning, but Shen Que's inexplicable resistance angered him, "Open your eyes and see who I am, Shen Que!"
But the mute didn't appreciate it at all. As soon as his hand loosened, he hugged the kid and quickly shrank into the corner.
For a moment, Shen could hardly hear anything and could not think of anything.
The hand that reached into his underwear once again dragged him into the purgatory that he didn't want to recall.
The familiar cottage, the familiar night, that person, those hands, and those countless nightmares that seemed to be branded in his memory.
No matter how reluctant he was, how scared he was, or how much pain he felt, that person would not take his pleas for mercy to heart. Instead, he would just treat him like a toy and molested him, forcing him to sink and float in the endless fire of karma.
In that moment of trance, Shen could no longer tell whether the person in front of him was His Highness... or Lin Xie.
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Note: This is what Yang Lian, one of the Six Gentlemen of Donglin in the late Ming Dynasty, wrote when he was dying in prison. The context is: "My family is ruined and my road is long. My friends are gone and my road is poor. I am not made of iron or stone. I just have a fate. Thunder and rain are the grace of heaven. I have lived a life of kindness and righteousness, but died in the imperial prison. It is hard to say that I have no place to die. Why should I regret it? Why should I blame others?"
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