SEHE Chapter 32

Illness and Blame 

Several stewards in the adjacent side hall had drunk five or six pots of tea, sitting from midday until evening. Whether to leave or stay, they still hadn’t received a definitive word from Gu Jiuqing.

The men began to murmur among themselves and walked to the study door, only to find it empty inside. Not daring to leave on their own, they had no choice but to return.

****

Pei Yanci was still in the front main hall with the slave traders.

Selling several hundred people at once, from morning until now, there were still twenty or so people whose prices hadn’t been settled.

“Your Highness.” The sound of a servant paying respects came from outside the door, and he quickly stood up to bow.

Gu Jiuqing wore a blue long robe embroidered with circular patterns of the same-colored male deer in subtle designs. A white jade belt hung down with jade pendants and sachets. His black hair was entirely bound within a blue jade qilin crown. Cold, distant, yet imposingly noble—when the slave traders saw him, they hurriedly knelt on the ground, pressing their foreheads to the floor.

His gaze swept around in a circle before finally settling on Pei Yanci. “Where is Yunsheng?”

“This morning, learning that the household register was missing, he said he was going to check at the Capital Magistrate’s Office.”

“You come here.” Gu Jiuqing headed toward the side hall first.

Pei Yanci set down his brush and ledger, following him with a puzzled expression.

“You took the household register from Hu Shang?”

“Yes.” Pei Yanci nodded.

“Where is the household register now?”

“It’s gone missing.”

“Hmm? How did it go missing?”

Pei Yanci lowered his head, his face full of guilt and sorrow. “I kept it under my pillow all along. A few days ago, this humble one wanted to take the register back to the Capital Magistrate’s Office, but it had vanished without a trace.”

“Did your roommate take it?”

“He would have no use for such a thing.”

That was true.

Under normal circumstances, this item would be of no particular use.

But now that the mansion was selling people, these servants had to be removed from the Crown Prince’s Mansion records, which required the household register.

In the Great Yu dynasty, identical household registers were actually made in three copies—one kept at the county office, one at the prefectural government, and one at the Ministry of Personnel. Royal household registers weren’t kept at county offices. Now that the one at the Capital Magistrate’s Office was missing, they could only request one from the Ministry of Personnel.

This would alarm quite a few people.

For a household register to go missing for no good reason would easily lead people to connect it to previous events—whether this Crown Prince was deliberately concealing something.

A flash of irritation crossed Gu Jiuqing’s brow.

“It’s all this humble one’s fault. This humble one only wanted to help Your Highness.” Pei Yanci’s usually upturned eye corners now drooped, and his eyes appeared pitifully touching due to sadness. “Who knew it would cause such trouble.”

The hand beneath his blue sleeve held back for a moment but couldn’t restrain itself, reaching up to rest on his shoulder.

“This matter isn’t your fault.” He wanted to comfort him but didn’t know how to do so properly. The hand resting on the shoulder remained stiff, unsure what to do.

This shoulder was indeed rather thin and frail.

The corners of Pei Yanci’s mouth turned down sadly, and amid his guilt arose some gratitude. “Really? This will cause Your Highness considerable trouble, won’t it?”

“If the household register is lost, it’s the result of poor management by the Personnel office—what does it have to do with anyone else?” Gu Jiuqing’s eyes grew cold and condensed, but when looking at him, they burned with hidden intensity. “Set your mind at ease and finish today’s business first.”

He removed his hand from the shoulder, catching sight of Pei Yanci’s fingers twisted together in front of him.

His usual mature competence always made him forget that this person was only sixteen, still just a child who hadn’t shed his youthful innocence.

He liked to be praised, liked his attention, and would feel deeply guilty for botching things.

He couldn’t help but squeeze his hand gently. “This prince doesn’t blame you at all.”

Pei Yanci thought he was about to leave and was already pulling his hand back when it was suddenly squeezed, causing him to look at him with surprise.

But he saw that Gu Jiuqing immediately withdrew his touch. His clear dark brown eyes blinked uneasily, and the tips of both ears were suspiciously covered with a thin layer of pink, so crystalline they seemed ready to drip juice.

This made Pei Yanci hungry.

He had only eaten a few pastries at noon and drunk several cups of barely swallowable tea.

Being a lowly person was completely unbearable.

He wanted to eat shrimp dumplings.

While Pei Yanci’s mind was spinning with thoughts of food, Gu Jiuqing, due to this improper gesture, left with steps much faster than when he had arrived.

****

When Gu Jiuqing returned to the main courtyard, Yunsheng had already come back.

He casually ordered a meal and went to wash up. While drying his hands, he saw Yunsheng bringing in the morning’s several stewards.

“Your Highness, the chief stewards are asking if they may return home today.” Yunsheng bowed as he spoke.

“Why such urgency to leave?”

“They still have many affairs to manage. Your Highness, you haven’t given them any other instructions, so sitting idle like this…” Yunsheng said with difficulty.

Gu Jiuqing slammed the hand towel into the wash basin with a “snap.”

“This prince can’t even keep a few servants?” Gu Jiuqing’s sinister gaze swept toward him.

Yunsheng and the others didn’t know which part of this statement had offended him. The four men quickly knelt to confess their errors. “Your Highness, please forgive us.”

“Forgive? Do you know what exactly you should be forgiven for?”

At this moment, Gu Jiuqing’s cold, sharp intensity crushed everyone present.

The entire main courtyard was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

“Your… Your… Your Highness, this servant knows his error. Tomorrow I’ll present all the silver I’ve embezzled over these years to the mansion.” The procurement chief steward said tremblingly.

“Right, right, tomorrow morning this servant will bring all his possessions.” The accounting steward immediately chimed in. “Anyone under me who has embezzled or stolen, I’ll make them cough it all up and hand them over for Your Highness’s disposal.”

The chief steward of estate and shop business hesitated for a moment, then also said, “this servant will do the same.”

They spoke so quickly that he had no room to add anything.

“Didn’t you all swear during the day that you’d never embezzled a single coin from this prince?” Sure enough, all eunuchs had base bones.

Gu Jiuqing snorted coldly and looked at the last person kneeling with the others. “Yunsheng.”

“Your Highness, this servant… this servant…” Yunsheng was terrified.

“Go call Zhang Huairu over.”

Yunsheng was wondering how to smooth over this undeserved disaster when he heard Gu Jiuqing’s emotionless command. In his panic, he said something foolish.

“Chief Steward Zhang’s injuries are still severe—he can’t get out of bed.”

“So this prince should personally pay him a visit?”

Yunsheng momentarily didn’t see what was wrong with this, but hearing the questioning tone, he couldn’t possibly say yes.

“This servant one will go fetch Chief Steward Zhang right away.”

He scrambled out the door, leaving the remaining men who heard not a sound from above, even slowing their breathing.

Gu Jiuqing had always treated eunuchs more generously than other servants, so even now, they didn’t think it was such a serious matter.

Zhang Huairu thought the same way.

He changed into fresh clothes and sat in a soft sedan chair carried by two men. On the way, listening to Yunsheng explain the cause and effect, he assumed those stewards had been discovered embezzling, and that Gu Jiuqing was calling him to save face—having him play the mediating role.

Master and servant could play good cop and bad cop: confiscate the stolen money, establish authority, deliver the warning, punish the stewards with a year or two of salary reduction, and the matter would pass.

After all, Gu Jiuqing still needed them to keep the Crown Prince’s mansion running—he couldn’t do without them.

Zhang Huairu got out of the sedan chair and walked step by step tremblingly from the entrance to the main courtyard’s front hall. During this time, except for Yunsheng, no one came to support him—everyone was kneeling.

Anyone could sense something was wrong with the atmosphere.

Zhang Huairu had to be more careful with his words.

“Your Highness.” He performed a bow, but with his internal and external injuries unhealed, he couldn’t bend his waist properly and managed only a perfunctory gesture.

In Gu Jiuqing’s eyes, this too became a display of disrespect.

“Zhang Huairu, you’ve managed the great and small affairs of this prince’s mansion far too chaotically.”

Not only were the stewards embezzling, but from top to bottom, even ordinary servants could extract considerable benefits from the mansion. When Pei Yanci made his suggestion, without even explicit hints, they skillfully used money behind the scenes. This culture had clearly been going on for a long time and was thoroughly rotten.

“Your Highness, it’s all due to this old servant’s poor supervision. This old servant will forfeit three years of monthly salary and strengthen discipline in the future, frequently checking accounts and never allowing them to falsely report expenses or embezzle funds.”

Zhang Huairu’s illness had whitened half his black hair, making him look much more weathered. He hunched his back, his eyes full of worry and remorse toward Gu Jiuqing.

But this could no longer stir any compassion in the Crown Prince’s heart.

“You’re old.” he said.

Those with cold hearts reserve their meager compassion and sympathy only for those useful to them.

“Your Highness?” Zhang Huairu heard something different from the past in his words and was about to kneel.

But he heard Gu Jiuqing seated above say, “Regarding the matter of the advisors, you refused to reveal a single word to the Elu Bureau, suffering injuries to this extent. Your meritorious service through hardship cannot be overlooked under any circumstances. This prince still has various nourishing medicinal soups in the storehouse, as well as all manner of things needed by the injured and ill. Yunsheng, tomorrow you’ll find Yue Ting to fetch them—however much there is.”

Yunsheng’s face lit up as he crisply replied “Yes.”

“You’re severely injured. Tomorrow pack your things and go to the hot spring villa outside the city to recuperate.”

At these words, everyone present changed their expressions in unison.