“So the Grand Empress Dowager was never the late emperor’s birth mother.”
“Correct. His birth mother once enjoyed great favor, but she suddenly died of illness. The late emperor was still young, so he was entrusted to the Grand Empress Dowager’s care.”
“Did the Grand Empress Dowager have something to do with his birth mother’s death?”
“Those are Your Majesty’s words, not mine!”
“Fine. Then tell me about Chancellor Yin and the Grand Empress Dowager. Did those two ever have an affair?”
“Ahem. That is something Your Majesty should understand without having it spoken aloud.”
“…”
Song Liang smiled knowingly, then suddenly turned to Eunuch Zhou.
“I heard you went to Shoukang Palace yesterday?”
Eunuch Zhou’s heart jolted. Not daring to ask how the young emperor knew, he hurriedly replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. The Grand Empress Dowager summoned me to Shoukang Palace and asked how you were doing in the ancestral temple.”
“Oh? And what did you tell her?”
“I said Your Majesty rises early to pray for blessings every day and copies scriptures before bed, showing great devotion. I also said you had already suffered one minor illness.”
“How has the regent been lately?”
The regent? Recalling the young emperor’s bitter relationship with him, Eunuch Zhou answered ingratiatingly, “Your Majesty, someone submitted a memorial impeaching the regent this morning.”
Song Liang frowned instead. “The regent is so handsome. Why would anyone impeach him? Is someone jealous?”
Eunuch Zhou: “…”
“Probably not.” Eunuch Zhou gave an awkward laugh. “It was Minister of Personnel Fan Yuan. Lord Fan is fifty-eight this year. He is unlikely to be jealous of His Highness’s… good looks.”
“What was the accusation?”
“Forming a faction for personal gain. When the regent escorted Your Majesty back to the capital, a vice censor-in-chief from the Censorate led numerous officials to welcome him at the city gate. Many people witnessed it.”
Song Liang had been there too. He had assumed the officials had come especially to welcome Xie Yun because he enjoyed such a fine reputation. So Xie Yun had actually been set up.
“And how did the regent respond?”
“He didn’t.”
Song Liang laughed. That was certainly very Xie Yun. He rested his chin on his hand and smiled for a while, then, growing bored, suddenly asked, “Has the choice of empress been announced?”
Eunuch Zhou looked slightly surprised. “I have heard nothing of it.”
Song Liang’s brows drew together. He had already been here for three days, yet Xie Yun had made no move?
In the original novel, the balance among the three factions abruptly collapsed in the year the young emperor was about to assume personal rule. Xie Yun, Chancellor Yin, and the Grand Empress Dowager all coveted the position of empress to advance their own power.
Chancellor Yin wanted his niece made empress to bring the young emperor into his camp. If she gave birth to an imperial heir, it would secure another century of glory for the Yin clan. The Grand Empress Dowager favored her own Qin family—for instance, the daughter of the Commander of the Left Army under the Chief Military Commission. She, too, had her eye on the young emperor’s future offspring, preferably before he could build a faction of his own.
Compared with those two, the regent, Xie Yun, was the only one who had no interest in the next generation of imperial heirs. He was also the only one who did not want the young emperor to marry a daughter of a powerful family.
His trusted subordinate on the distant frontier commanded three hundred thousand troops. Closer to home, members of the Xie clan were entrenched throughout the court and government, all taking their lead from him. The only thing he wanted was Great Yao’s throne.
At the city gate, 3085 had asked Song Liang whom he would choose. He had said he would decide after entering the palace. Having looked into it, he now realized he could choose none of them. Choosing Chancellor Yin meant opposing the Grand Empress Dowager. Choosing her meant opposing Chancellor Yin. Choosing Xie Yun meant being killed sooner or later.
【I thought you would choose Xie Yun.】
【Because of his face.】
Song Liang replied, 【That’s the sort of thing you say online. In real life, who wouldn’t be desperate to kill a regent who holds the emperor hostage and uses him to command everyone else?】
【Have you noticed you’ve left someone out?】
Song Liang: 【He’s even worse than Xie Yun.】
【What’s wrong with Helan Ze? He’s the male lead favored by destiny. Don’t forget your main mission. He’s ultimately supposed to become emperor and bring peace to the realm.】
Song Liang: 【If I fail to win him over, do you think he’ll let me live once he becomes emperor?】
3085 choked. 【…Then work harder at winning him over. Stop staring at Xie Yun all the time. He isn’t Xiao Yi. No matter how much you stare, he won’t give up his claim on your throne.】
Song Liang said nothing. In the original novel, Li Huai had also faced this struggle over the position of empress after returning to the palace. The eventual winner had been Chancellor Yin. The chosen empress was his niece, the daughter of Grand Secretary Yin Jie.
Now, thanks to Song Liang’s various actions in Hanshui, the plot had changed. Xie Yun appeared poised to win, but neither of the other factions seemed likely to give up easily. They surely had more moves in reserve.
Most importantly, Song Liang did not want Xie Yun to win either. Otherwise, the next thing the man demanded would be his life.
He had obediently stayed in the ancestral temple because he intended to keep out of it and let those three fight one another bloody. Yet Xie Yun seemed unwilling to follow his expectations. The man had remained completely inactive, leaving Song Liang puzzled.
Was he really planning to keep him locked up here for months?
Song Liang decided that would not do. He had someone bring paper and a brush, intending to send Cheng Qu a letter asking him to find a way to get him out. For now, Chancellor Yin seemed less dangerous than the other two.
After dismissing Eunuch Zhou and the others, he pondered over the paper for a long time, lowered the brush to make his first stroke, then stared in bewilderment at the sheet, now stained with a blot of ink.
“Is this brush really that hard to use?”
He studied it for a while, then turned it upside down, dipped the handle in ink, and began writing. Writing with an ink-dipped piece of bamboo was rather difficult and used up a lot of ink. He wrote only one line before setting it down.
Folding the letter, he tucked it into a hidden compartment in the food carrier. Then he summoned the young eunuch who had been most eager to share palace secrets and told him to deliver it to the Empress Dowager.
The young eunuch thought nothing of it. He had secretly brought food and clothing in for the Empress Dowager before, so he assumed Song Liang merely wanted the carrier returned. Answering obediently, he left.
As soon as the young eunuch departed, Song Liang carried his chair outside to bask in the sun. He might not fear confinement, but that did not mean he wanted to stare at spirit tablets all day.
After letting Eunuch Zhou inspect the items and confirm that nothing was amiss, the young eunuch carried them out of the ancestral temple grounds. But the moment he passed through the main gate, a knife-hand strike landed on the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.
Cen Huan left the food carrier behind, took the note inside, and returned to the prince’s residence. He presented it to Xie Yun, who was playing chess.
“Your Highness, a secret letter His Majesty had someone deliver to the Empress Dowager.”
“Read it.”
“Yes.”
Cen Huan unfolded the note and looked at it. His open mouth suddenly closed. Then it opened again, only to close once more. After repeating this several times, he tried turning the letter upside down.
Xie Yun: “…Give it here.”
Cen Huan hurriedly handed it over.
Xie Yun took one look and fell silent as well. Then he said, “The letter is for Cheng Qu. He wants Cheng Qu to find a way to get him out.”
Astonished, Cen Huan stared at the bizarre line of characters on the note—
[禾呈，求文求文，块！]
“How on earth did you work that out???”
“Read pairs of characters together.” Xie Yun paused, looking at the final character, 块. “The last one is wrong. He probably meant 快, as in ‘hurry.’”
“…”
Cen Huan gaped. Pointing at the symbol at the end of the letter, which looked somewhere between a peach and an ivy leaf, he asked, “Then what is this?”
Xie Yun fell silent.
He did not know that one either.
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