SEHE Chapter 131

A Good Show

Gu Yueqian and Qi Lan exchanged glances, forcing out faint smiles. “Let’s go.”

It wasn’t a festival or ceremony—why would the Emperor, who devoted himself to cultivation, suddenly hold a family banquet? The whole thing reeked of something sinister.

Was this a Hongmen Banquet? Or just an ordinary feast?

(TL: 鴻門宴 (Hongmen Banquet) is an idiom from Chinese history.

It refers to a banquet set up with hidden murderous or political intent, where the guest is in danger despite the polite setting.)

Neither could be certain.

Li Ren’an stood before them, two eunuchs following behind. At this moment, they represented the Emperor’s will.

Inside the carriage, Gu Yueqian and Qi Lan remained silent. A pale, slender hand and a honey-toned, rough hand clasped tightly together.

In this moment, mother and son both prayed for their own fates.

The carriage suddenly shook violently. After several shouts and the terrible neighing of horses, Yue Ting’s voice rang out.

Qi Lan rushed out first. Just as he was about to speak, Yue Ting pulled him aside and whispered, “Run quickly. If you enter the palace, you’re dead.”

“Who are you?” Qi Lan looked at him in surprise.

“I’m one of Pei Daren’s people—Pei Yanci.” Yue Ting displayed the Pei mansion’s token.

Pei Yanci?!

Qi Lan stared at him in disbelief.

“He’s under house arrest and can’t come out. He told me that Great Yu has lost half its military generals, and you’ve been recruiting retainers on a large scale. Whatever your intentions were no longer matters—His Majesty will eliminate potential threats first. Great danger.”

Before factions, bloodlines come first.

“What if this is just an ordinary banquet? If I flee, wouldn’t the Emperor think I have a guilty conscience?” Qi Lan’s expression grew grave, his pale pupils now filled only with hesitation.

He and his mother-consort were the first to receive news of many border generals being arrested. How could they not have considered this possibility?

With Great Yu’s military generals reduced, the Emperor must personally suppress the situation to stabilize the covetous vassal kings and Great Xi.

But the problem was, their forces in Great Yu hadn’t fully developed yet. If this was just an ordinary banquet and they fled, wouldn’t that be tantamount to revealing their guilt, prematurely abandoning their current advantageous position?

“Which is more important—your life or His Majesty’s opinion of you? Can you bet your life on this gamble?” Yue Ting countered. “There’s no time. There’s a horse at the end of the alley. The eastern Yanxing Gate has my people—they’ve already been informed. Just throw the token to the gate guards.”

“Stop hesitating. Pei Daren entrusted this to me. Go quickly.”

Qi Lan’s mind was in chaos. A purse full of silver and the token were pressed into his hands. His gaze fell on the person still inside the carriage.

“The Princess is His Majesty’s biological daughter—she’ll be fine. Pei Daren will protect Her Highness. Please trust him.”

Yue Ting’s words rang firm and clear, providing direction to the hesitation and disorder in his mind at this moment.

Qi Lan was pushed backward, hot moisture surging in his eyes.

He never expected that the one extending a helping hand at this time would be Pei Yanci, whom he’d always found disagreeable.

Steeling his resolve, he turned and ran into the darkness.

Several dog barks sounded in the distance.

“Someone come quickly! Help us out—the carriage has overturned, and someone’s still inside!” Yue Ting shouted loudly.

Just before the ward gates closed, on this overcast, rainy day with the sky dark and gloomy, there were pitifully few pedestrians on the street. After several shouts, a few young men finally came over with nimble hands and feet to rescue Gu Yueqian.

The three eunuchs also slowly regained consciousness. Originally, Li Ren’an had been riding a horse beside the carriage. Yue Ting’s carriage first knocked him unconscious, then with a dragon’s tail maneuver, flung the eunuchs following behind to the side as well, rendering them unconscious.

“Who are you to dare crash into Her Highness the Princess’s carriage!” Li Ren’an’s shrill voice rang out, pointing at him in exasperation.

“My sincere apologies—I didn’t realize you were palace attendants. And Princess Zhangping? I beg Your Highness’s forgiveness and ask that you spare this humble one’s life. For today’s damages, Attendant Daren and Her Highness the Princess may seek compensation at the Yue mansion.” Yue Ting cupped his hands.

“The Yue mansion? Could this be a young master from the Huainan Yue clan?” Li Ren’an’s aggressive manner immediately diminished, becoming much more cautious.

“Indeed. This humble one has brought shame to my birth father, Yue Qiping.”

Yue Qiping was precisely the current patriarch of this generation of the Yue family.

Li Ren’an saw his face was unfamiliar—someone who didn’t move in court circles. Several of Yue Qiping’s sons had entered court service. The only troublesome one happened to be his legitimate eldest son.

“Oh my,” Li Ren’an immediately became obsequious. “No harm done, no harm done. The sky is dark and the road slippery—Young Master Yue’s carriage should be more careful.”

Yue Ting exchanged a few more courtesies. Gu Yueqian, rubbing her waist, looked around. “Where’s Lan’er?”

“This is bad—Qi Lan has disappeared!” Li Ren’an said in panic. “Find Qi Lan quickly!”

While helping her up, Yue Ting squeezed her hand.

Gu Yueqian looked at him in surprise, receiving his meaningful glance.

Li Ren’an shouted, “Qi Lan has fled!”

“This princess’s son may have returned to the mansion to fetch people. How does it become ‘fleeing’ in Attendant Li’s mouth?”

Li Ren’an was intimidated by the sharp light in her eyes, stammering as he tried to explain.

Gu Yueqian straightened the heavy, luxurious robes on her body. “Isn’t there still a palace banquet? If this princess arrives later than Father Emperor, can you bear that responsibility?”

Li Ren’an was at his wit’s end, spinning around in anxiety not knowing what to do. Gu Yueqian had already boarded Yue Ting’s carriage, heading toward the palace.

****

When Gu Yueqian arrived, Gu Jiuqing, Gu Wanchong, and all the civil and military officials in court had already assembled. As soon as they arrived, countless gazes turned toward them in unison.

“This family banquet is quite grand.” Gu Yueqian gave a cold laugh, raised her chin, her eyes full of indifference, and walked in first.

Just as she took her seat, the Emperor’s procession arrived.

Song and dance performances quickly began, yet the banquet atmosphere remained oppressive.

Looking around, compared to usual, these people had decreased by more than a third.

No one knew if they would be next.

The Emperor’s wrath was unpredictable. Until now, he still hadn’t stated the reason why these people were arrested and their homes raided.

“Zhangping,” finally, seeing that the meal was nearly finished, the Emperor began to speak.

Gu Yueqian immediately lowered her brows and bowed her head, hands folded before her. All traces of her former proud bearing and coquettish charm had completely disappeared—she was now proper and silent.

“Where’s your son?”

Gu Yueqian recounted what happened on the road, saying, “Perhaps he returned home to change clothes and was delayed.”

“Fled back to Great Xi?”

Gu Yueqian glanced to the side. Sure enough, Huo Cun stood in the shadows beneath a palace pillar. Sensing her gaze, he hooked his two-inch-long pinky nail and revealed an eerie smile.

“What’s this—got intelligence from Great Yu and want to return to Great Xi to continue stirring up trouble, preparing to attack us from the south?”

Before taking action, the Emperor had already issued edicts for others to take over the positions, while also ordering the Elu Bureau to block the news. The border stretched for tens of thousands of li, and changing five or six regional commanders made it very easy for Great Xi to discover an exploitable opportunity.

Moreover, most of the newly appointed ones had less experience than their predecessors.

These words made cold sweat pour down Gu Yueqian’s forehead. Her full head of golden hairpins and swaying ornaments trembled as she changed from sitting to kneeling, her forehead touching the ground. “Father Emperor, your grandson absolutely doesn’t have such audacity. He too is a subject of Great Yu—it’s impossible for him to be so vicious toward his own compatriots. This subject-daughter and Lan’er no longer have a place to settle in Great Xi. Great Yu is this subject-daughter’s and Lan’er’s home.”

The Emperor turned a blind eye to her humble respect, instead looking toward Gu Jiuqing. “Crown Prince, now that your maternal grandfather has been arrested, what are your thoughts?”

Gu Jiuqing turned and knelt, saying respectfully, “This son’s birth mother is Consort Xu. This son’s maternal family is the Xu family.”

He had started using his customary tactic again.

“The Zheng family and the Empress actually poured their heart and soul into raising you, an ungrateful wretch!” The Emperor spoke in mockery.

He said this deliberately to show the court ministers what fate awaited those who supported Gu Jiuqing.

“Father Emperor, please see clearly,” Gu Jiuqing said calmly. “Zheng Qinglai committed heinous crimes and is a criminal of Great Yu. This son only regrets being deceived by the Zheng family before, failing to recognize them clearly. This son voluntarily accepts three years of salary reduction and will hand over the authority to supervise the state to Fifth Brother.”

Ever since Tang Xizhui was imprisoned, these past months the Emperor had let Gu Jiuqing supervise the state on his behalf.

Gu Jiuqing saw clearly—power was good, but it wasn’t immutable. Just as he could decisively cut ties with Zheng Qinglai, he could naturally let go of the power in his hands.

Right now, the only important thing was his own life.

At that moment, all he thought of was that the Zheng family had offended the Emperor’s wrath. He must let the Emperor see his determination to sever ties with the Zheng family, sacrificing part of his power in exchange for his own peace.

This time, many from the Zheng faction fell, including quite a few of his own people. But it didn’t matter—during these months of supervising the state, he had accumulated enough. So what if he handed this power to Gu Wanchong? This person was simple-minded with well-developed limbs. Before, there was still Tang Xizhui whom he feared, but now, as long as he remained Crown Prince, he was the legitimate heir—everyone had to go through him.

“You’ve indeed supervised the state poorly. Under your very nose, such filthy corruption occurred. Do you want to leave a stinking name for eternity?” The Emperor said. This chaos occurred during Gu Jiuqing’s regency and had nothing to do with him.

“This son’s fault.” Gu Jiuqing’s voice was tense, far from as calm as his face appeared.

“Since you’ve managed the state poorly, for the time being, let Wanchong assist you.”

He was fairly satisfied with Gu Jiuqing’s sensibility, though he believed that since the Zheng family was the mastermind behind the border generals’ illegal salt trafficking, the Crown Prince couldn’t possibly be unaware of this matter.

He would never imagine that Gu Jiuqing was the actual mastermind.

When Pei Yanci shifted the blame to the Zheng family this time, he hadn’t planned to use this matter against him.

Tang Xizhui was quite puzzled. The two of them hid in a second-floor private room of Mingyou Theater, watching the opera performance on the central stage of the main hall below. He raised this question in dissatisfaction.

“You’re not still harboring some master-servant sentiment toward him, are you?”

“Am I that debased?” Pei Yanci said with a laugh, then slowly collected his thoughts. “If the Zheng family doesn’t fall, after killing one Gu Jiuqing, there will be Gu Shiqing, Gu Shiyiqing waiting for us to deal with. This isn’t the result I want to see, nor what the Emperor wants to see. When striking, the Emperor will definitely hesitate. In that case, the Zheng family won’t be destroyed, Gu Jiuqing won’t die, and everything will be futile. With such a perfect charge, how can we gain nothing from it?”

(TL: 顧九傾 — Gu Jiuqing (九 (jiǔ): Nine

顧十傾 — Gu Shiqing (十 (shí): Ten

顧十一傾 — Gu Shiyiqing (十一 (shíyī): Eleven)

Tang Xizhui’s expression finally improved. “I was afraid you’d developed feelings for Gu Jiuqing during your time at the mansion.”

Seeing he was still this heartless, he felt reassured.

“The Crown Prince position must have someone sitting in it. The current one I know inside and out—I’m at ease.” Pei Yanci smiled. “Stop talking. The next act is about to begin.”

A puppet dressed in clean, bright clothes appeared on stage, looking like someone from a well-off family—an honest, dutiful salt merchant. He had good relations with neighboring households, his male voice cheerfully singing about Great Yu’s peace and prosperity, how he had no worries about food and drink.

Gradually, as salt prices rose higher and higher, malicious merchants appeared in the city who drove up salt prices. The protagonist’s salt shop business began to run at a loss. Day by day, life became more difficult—step by step he sold off ancestral property and estate, dismissed servants and concubines. The singing grew more panicked and shrill.

Oppressive, dark, chaotic, desperate, miserable.

One day, thugs seized his wife and daughter. When seeking revenge, he learned that the thugs driving up salt prices were a group specializing in illegal salt and iron trafficking. Behind them stood high officials, one after another. Kill one and dozens more remained.

Finally, an ordinary farmer driven to desperation by high salt prices entered his shop, stole the last bag of salt, and killed him. The farmer, having killed someone, also collapsed and committed suicide.

A salt merchant and a farmer—the mechanisms on the two puppets opened and closed, immediately spraying thick, bloody chicken blood.

The people in the main hall immediately cried out in alarm.

The laughter of the thugs trafficking in salt and iron still echoed around the stage.

A child wailed, adding an even more tragic atmosphere to this sorrowful play.

The scenes in the play infected those outside it. After a long while, the chaotic noise gradually subsided as people began to emerge from the puppet show performance.

Their hearts remained profoundly shaken.

Tonight, not a single person who watched the puppet show in the main hall or second floor could leave the theater with a smile.

In contrast were those dozen or so people and the distinguished guests in the garden, who maintained the etiquette of Anjing’s elite, emerging with pleasant conversation and laughter, each one like celestial guests untouched by worldly troubles.

Pei Yanci’s original purpose in establishing the theater began to reveal itself.

For those above, it was his channel for understanding the rumors and movements of court officials and the elite.

For those below, he could firmly grasp the common people’s thoughts, the common people’s voices.

Tonight’s performance was simultaneously staged in Great Yu’s fifteen most prosperous cities.