Chapter 14
Luo Sanrong was so anxious that he exclaimed in surprise: "How could it be? I clearly gave the letter..." Luo Sanrong realized that something was wrong and quickly stopped talking.
Concubine Shu placed the blank letter on the table with a look of disappointment. She looked at Luo Sanrong and said, "It seems that I have indeed caused trouble to His Majesty for so long. His Majesty seems to have clearly conveyed through you that he hopes I will not do this again."
Luo Sanrong murmured, "Your Majesty...Is this humble person frightened?"
Concubine Shu sighed, "This is not your fault, please leave."
Luo Sanrong stepped back and wanted to leave, but before she left, Concubine Shu called her back, "I have one more favor to ask of you."
"Your Majesty, please give your orders."
Concubine Shu opened the box beside her, took out the things inside, stroked them gently with her hand, and said in a reluctant and resolute tone: "These are all the letters that Your Majesty has ever conveyed to me. In the past, I was reluctant to let go of them because of the love in my heart. Now, no matter how difficult it is to let go, I have to give them up. Please help me burn all the letters!" After that, she handed a thick stack of letters to Luo Sanrong.
Luo Sanrong wanted to persuade her again, but seeing that Concubine Shu was unwilling to say more, he said, "I'll take my leave," and left with all the letters.
Luo Sanrong found a secluded corner and planned to burn all the letters at night when no one was paying attention. But now it was daytime, and Luo Sanrong wanted to see if the pile of letters were all blank, so she opened each letter. She put the letter that she had handled personally in her arms to distinguish them.
She was sitting in a corner opening a letter and didn't even notice Li Yin approaching. Li Yin looked at the white paper on the ground, bent down curiously to examine it, picked up a piece of white paper, and asked Luo Sanyin, "What is this?"
Luo Sanying was shocked when she heard Li Yin's words, but she felt relieved when she saw that it was Li Yin and Weidao. If other people saw that she, a small eunuch, secretly read the letters of Concubine Shu, she might not have a good ending. After all, Concubine Shu only asked her to burn them, and did not let her peek.
"It was the letter that Consort Shu asked me to burn."
Li Yin looked at the white papers scattered on the floor and asked, "Are you the one who is responsible for delivering the letter to Jingren Palace?"
Luo Sanrong didn't answer the question directly, but just complained: "How could Your Majesty be so excessive? He always writes back to the Concubine Shu on blank paper. This is the Concubine Shu's intention after all."
Li Yin recalled the eunuch in the imperial study who was responsible for intercepting letters and said in a cold voice, "This is not your Majesty's reply. The letter from Concubine Shu will never reach your Majesty."
"This time is different. I handed the letter to His Majesty personally, but His Majesty still replied with a blank piece of paper. If that's the case, why did he ask the eunuch to summon me in person?" Luo Sanrong didn't understand.
Li Yin and Wei Dao heard that it was a letter personally delivered to His Majesty, and asked curiously, "How did you deliver it?"
"That is...that is...the letter was secretly stuffed into the memorial." Luo Sanrong felt a little insecure, fearing that the two would tell on him.
"So, even if I personally delivered the letter to His Majesty, His Majesty still only replied with a blank piece of paper?" Li Yin's voice was emotionless, but inexplicably filled with a sense of oppression.
Luo Sanrong took out the letter from his arms and read it over and over again. If his gaze had substance, it might have burned a hole in the letter.
Li Yin had already gotten the answer from Luo Sanrong's acquiescence, and murmured, "So, you won't leave her any hope at all? Just like how you treated my mother back then."
Luo Sanrong did not hear Li Yin's mumbling. She was just immersed in the confusion of "why should I write a reply to a blank piece of paper" and did not even know when Li Yin and Weidao left.
*
Late at night, the candlelight flickered in the imperial study, and the tassels of the gilded palace lanterns dropped, cutting the shadows of the bamboo outside the window into pieces on the golden brick floor.
His Majesty and the Crown Prince sat opposite each other. The atmosphere was not as warm as that of an ordinary father and son. Upon closer inspection, it was actually quite tense.
"Empress Shufei is in very poor health. Please go to Jingren Palace!" The prince's tone was pleading.
"The imperial physician will come."
"This son can do it too."
"What's the point of me going there?"
"The Concubine Shu wants to see you. Just seeing you will give her the motivation to live. Only you, my father, can accomplish this."
"The queen is pregnant recently and is in a very sensitive mood. I will consider it after a while." This was a silent rejection.
"What are you afraid of? What are you dreading that makes you unable to do anything? No, do nothing at all." Li Yin's tone was filled with disappointment.
His Majesty did not say anything in response to Li Yin's questioning, and Li Yin did not notice the embarrassment and hesitation in His Majesty's eyes.
"At that time, you treated my queen mother in the same way... You could do nothing, you did nothing, and just let me wait here. Even if I stood up, nothing would change. If I did, even if nothing would change, I would not resent you so much. You are the master of this country!" Li Yin questioned loudly, even to the point of speaking without thinking.
The scene of the riot ten years ago reappeared in His Majesty's mind. His head was splitting with pain, but he still forced himself not to fall down.
Li Yin looked at his father, the master of this country, with disappointment, expecting him to respond and explain, but after a long silence, nothing came. Li Yin stood up and waved his sleeves to leave the imperial study, without seeing the forbearing look in His Majesty's eyes.
His Majesty cannot say anything. Ten years ago, a riot broke into the palace. In fact, he knew that it was the prime minister who infiltrated and killed all the people close to him in order to better control the court and become a puppet of the throne. The prince was young and did not remember anything. He was not with him at that time, so he escaped by luck. For so many years, he could not avoid it day and night. The imperial physician could not diagnose anything. He had already guessed that it was a sign of poisoning. How could the imperial physician not diagnose anything, unless the entire palace was controlled by them? Now the queen is pregnant and the prince is in danger. He can only hold on, perhaps until the day when the prince truly takes power. Before that, the prince must live in ignorance. As for the reply to the concubine, that's all.
His Majesty looked at his trembling hands on the table, unable to tell whether it was poison or the panic that the Crown Prince had spoken of. "Do nothing, nothing can be done."
Luo Sanrong chose the remote palace where he and Wei Dao had first met to burn the letters. Wei Dao wiped his sword on the beam. Luo Sanrong looked at the blank letters with melancholy, muttering to himself, "Why did your Majesty do this?"
The tail knife was on the beam, saying nonchalantly: "Those who give the most in love are often the first to become prisoners of love."
Luo Sanrong looked up at Weidao in surprise and said jokingly, "Do you understand love too? Who on earth made our Lord Weidao fall in love?"
Weidao did not stop wiping the knife and did not speak.
“It smells nice, but I feel sad.”
When Tailblade heard this, he was stunned for a moment and put the knife back into the sheath. "Is it scented paper?"
"Yes, it has a refreshing and charming fragrance. The Concubine Shu said it was the scent of hibiscus flowers."
Weidao was thoughtful.
Luo Sanrong brought the letter close to the candle and wanted to burn it, but Weidao reacted in time and extinguished the candle with a dart. Luo Sanrong screamed in fright.
"Oh, I'm so scared. Please, can you tell me in advance when you do such dangerous things in the future? It's so scary." Luo Sanrong complained. She was already in a bad mood, and this "mute" was still doing this kind of thing. Would she die if he told her in advance?
Dumb is the nickname Luo Sanrong gave to Weidao in private, because Weidao really rarely speaks.
Weidao jumped down from the beam, snatched the scented letter paper from Luo Sanrong's hand, and approached the re-lit candle. Then something strange happened.
There was actually handwriting on the letter paper.
"What is this?" Luo Sanrong asked curiously as he approached the candlelight.
"It's a potion unique to the royal secret guards. When the letter paper is left to dry completely, it becomes a blank sheet of paper. Only at extremely high temperatures can the writing appear."
"Wow, how did you know that?"
Wei Dao looked at him quietly without answering.
.....
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