SEHE Chapter 118.1

Imprisoned (part 1)

Early in the morning, Pei Yanci yawned as the carriage swayed. This new coachman’s driving skills weren’t very good. He hadn’t eaten breakfast, and he felt dizzy and light-headed from hunger, his hands and feet numb, his heart pounding.

Who knew how long the morning court session would last? He’d better get something in his stomach first.

He rummaged through the carriage looking for any leftover snacks or pastries from before. Before he could find anything, a commotion erupted in the street.

Dawn had just broken, everything around was gray and hazy. The early street vendors had just lit their stoves, and pedestrians were sparse on the streets.

The carriage was forced to stop at the roadside. Pei Yanci lifted the curtain, and a single sentence drifted to his ears.

“That eunuch from the Elu Bureau has finally been arrested—what a relief!”

Tangxi Zhui?!

How could this be?

Hadn’t he been confident that this matter with the Zheng faction wouldn’t implicate him?

Pei Yanci climbed out of the carriage and stood on the shaft, his gaze piercing through the ranks of soldiers to look into the distance.

Peng Chulang led a horse at the front, with blades and swords gleaming coldly on both sides and behind him, emanating a bone-chilling coldness.

In the midst of the heavy encirclement, a crude and simple prison cart appeared abruptly in his field of vision.

Tangxi Zhui sat in the prison cart, like a fox spirit that bewitched hearts, and like a seductive ghost sealed by a Daoist—as soon as he appeared, a captivating brilliance instantly lit up the entire gray and dim street.

He wore a white gauze morning robe that looked rather thin, fluttering back and forth in the late autumn cold wind. His haggard face bore none of the alluring patterns from before, nor did he wear a mask. Fortunately, he seemed relatively calm. His five fingers were spread as he slowly smoothed back his disheveled hair, gathering it behind his head. Unfortunately, he had no hair crown, so when his hand loosened, it scattered again, draping over his shoulders.

Clearly, he hadn’t had time to wash up before these Northern Barracks Imperial Army soldiers had rushed into his residence and arrested him.

Tangxi Zhui seemed to be in good spirits, patiently gathering his hair again with leisurely contentment, as if he weren’t in a prison cart but about to attend a grand ceremony.

“Great demon, hurry up and die!”

The common people also seemed to be attending a celebration, cheering joyfully. The sparse crowd produced the effect of ten times their number.

“With that inhuman, ghostly appearance, who knows how much human blood he’s consumed—reeking of a fishy stench. Now even heaven can’t stand it anymore and is finally taking away this scourge.”

“Behead him quickly! Kill all those eunuchs from the Elu Bureau—stop them from harming us!”

“Not a single eunuch is any good—best if they all die out completely.”

One sentence after another of satisfying curses and cheers formed an unending stream of sound that spread from the main street into the small alleys.

“Tear this dog eunuch apart by five horses!”

“Even that would be too good for him! Better to dismember him into ten thousand pieces, execute him by slow slicing, and throw his remains to the outskirts to feed the wild dogs.”

Someone spat in the direction of the prison cart, the saliva sticking to the wheel.

Those large, elongated eyes lifted faintly, looking toward the few cursing commoners. There was not a trace of light or emotion in them.

Empty—empty to the point of being terrifying.

His eyes seemed to be looking at weathered tombstones, and his eyes were like two cold, deathly black caves.

Those few commoners were clearly frightened and scurried behind the small stalls in a panic.

Just like that, unexpectedly, he saw a figure he didn’t want to face.

Tangxi Zhui’s expression froze.

In that instant, ripples appeared in his eyes, bursting with a brilliant gleam. Then, panicking, he blinked, lowered his head, shifted his body, and turned his back to the person. His fingers helplessly tugged at his hair, using it to shield the side of his face.

Pei Yanci’s gaze followed the prison cart as it drew closer and closer. He stared straight at him, his expression calm, though the fingers hidden beneath his sleeves couldn’t help but curl.

Even as the prison cart gradually moved away, he never saw that person look back at him even once.

Pei Yanci’s eyes dimmed. “Let’s go.”

After the Northern Barracks Imperial Army left, the commoners returned to the main street. There were quite a few more people now—they must have heard about this and hurried over to watch the excitement.

Pei Yanci felt stifled and uncomfortable inside, and had no appetite to eat anything.

What exactly had happened? At the last court session, the Emperor’s attitude toward dealing with Tangxi Zhui hadn’t been clear. Tangxi Zhui had also been confident he wouldn’t be arrested. How could things turn out this way?

Something must have happened that he didn’t know about.

When he got down from the carriage, his legs felt weak and he nearly fell.

Someone grabbed his arm and steadied him firmly.

He looked up to see it was Gu Jiuqing.

“Didn’t eat anything beforehand?” he said coldly, as if annoyed that this person didn’t know how to take care of himself properly.

“Mm.” He brushed the man’s hand away. “Thank you, Your Highness.”

Gu Jiuqing thought he was being cold because he was hungry. He grabbed the refusing hand and frowned. “Why are your hands so cold?”

As he spoke, he called for Yunsheng to take out a food box from the carriage.

“No need.” Pei Yanci refused. He struggled but couldn’t free his hand. “Let go.”

He was somewhat impatient.

What had this person hidden from him again?

He couldn’t help but feel anger and resentment rising in his heart.

If he hadn’t kept things from him, how would Tangxi Zhui have been arrested?

But he also knew clearly that this complaint in his heart was baseless.

Between political enemies, attacks and fights to the death were commonplace.

Gu Jiuqing held him with one hand and took the food box with the other. “Eat.”

Pei Yanci pushed away the hand holding the food box with one motion. From the corner of his eye, he spotted an acquaintance.

“Chen Daren.”

Chen Sihong turned his head curiously. Seeing the two of them, he smiled. “Your Highness, Pei Daren, you haven’t had breakfast yet. You’d better hurry.”

With that, he left again.

Before Pei Yanci could take the opportunity to leave by conversing with him, the grip on his hand tightened a bit more.

“Be good and eat.”

“Your Highness, you and I are now sovereign and subject—you can’t possibly not know this. This is the palace gates. What exactly do you want to do? Don’t you care about your reputation?”

He warned in a low voice, using his internal energy to break free. He used too much force and staggered back two steps, unexpectedly bumping into someone. That person instinctively steadied his arm.

Pei Yanci turned to look. The person he’d bumped into who then steadied him was Gu Wanchong.

“Your Highness, my apologies.” He straightened up, bowed to him, and hurriedly left, not wanting to stay even a moment longer.

Gu Wanchong brushed off his clothing as if something filthy had touched him.

****

As soon as he entered the Jiuxiao Hall, he clearly felt that today’s atmosphere was unusual.

The Zheng faction people were almost all excited, and even the military generals were in good spirits. But what puzzled him was that Cui Ya showed none of the expected anxiety and panic, but instead appeared calm and composed.

If you said his surface composure was just an act, Pei Yanci could usually detect his thoughts from time to time. But if you said it wasn’t good, right now he really couldn’t tell what this person was thinking.

Could it be that Minister Cui could only unleash his abilities at the most critical, urgent moments?

Pei Yanci couldn’t help but think more highly of him.

Before long, the court session began.

This time at the grand court, the Emperor did not attend.

Presiding over the court was an unfamiliar face named Li Ren’an. Pei Yanci had seen him the last time he entered the palace. He looked to be about twenty-two or twenty-three, with a face different from Tangxi Zhui’s but bearing the same ambition and arrogance.

Li Ren’an looked greedily at the position behind the golden curtain below the dragon throne, but he didn’t have the courage or ability to sit there directly. He merely stood to the side and front of the imperial seat, his gaze overlooking the entire Golden Luan Hall, taking in all the ministers who held important power.

After briefly explaining why neither the Emperor nor Tangxi Zhui could attend, he had the officials report on recent affairs.

“Eunuch Li, the Imperial Guards arrested the Chief Overseer of the Elu Bureau without reason this morning. Shouldn’t there be an explanation for this?” Cui Ya’s gaze pressed sharply toward Li Ren’an.

“Besides His Majesty, who else has the authority to do such a thing?” Li Ren’an sneered. “I advise Minister Cui and certain other darens—if you don’t want others to know, don’t do it. People may act, but heaven watches. Do too many evil deeds and there will eventually be retribution.”

Minister of Personnel Xu Jiao visibly panicked, constantly swallowing and wiping away sweat.

Like him, several ministers who didn’t live in Pingkang Ward had apparently only just learned this news from the exchange between Cui Ya and Li Ren’an. They glanced at each other in secret, all seeing the panic in each other’s eyes.

They had always relied on Tangxi Zhui to rise through the ranks. They could barely count a few good deeds, but bad deeds—they couldn’t recount them all in a day.

“Your eunuch faction’s retribution is coming soon.” The Minister of Revenue was extremely pleased at this moment. “Minister Cui, if you’re sensible, you should know who’s the best choice to support.”

“You’re all in cahoots together, falsely accusing good people!”

“Tangxi Daren served the country and the people, working himself to exhaustion. This is how you persecute a loyal minister and good general!”

“No need to say more. His Majesty has already ordered the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate to jointly try the case. Not only that eunuch from the Elu Bureau—over a dozen people from the Secretariat have also been arrested. Who knows which of you will be next.” Chen Sihong also appeared spirited and rosy-faced today.

“You’re all framing him!”

Both sides began arguing endlessly again.

Pei Yanci stood behind Gu Jiuqing. At this time and place, there was no need for him to charge ahead.

The Zheng faction had won this victory.

Or rather, the Crown Prince had won this victory.

Taking advantage of Zheng Qinglai being in mourning at home and unable to directly control court affairs, taking advantage of the spectacular feat of bringing down Tangxi Zhui, he had directly won over a large wave of support.

Gu Jiuqing sat upright in the hall below the steps, just a few paces from the dragon throne. His index finger leisurely tapped the qilin beast head on the armrest as he watched both sides continue to argue. His calm, waveless eyes were full of mockery and derision.

He had already won over most of the Zheng faction. With this fatal blow against Tangxi Zhui, if those in the eunuch faction were sensible, they would know whom to support.

Otherwise, their fate would be the same as Tangxi Zhui’s.

“The trial results aren’t out yet. Life, death, and victory are still unknown. Aren’t the people beside His Highness the Crown Prince celebrating too early?” Cui Ya sneered.

Pei Yanci had been observing him for some time and truly didn’t sense any panic from him. Although he spoke with grief and indignation, shouting and expressing outrage like the others, there were no other negative emotions beyond that.

The Ministry of Personnel, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Justice, the Censorate… He looked over those in the eunuch faction one by one, noting all their reactions, and couldn’t help but be secretly alarmed.

This time, it seemed not only the Zheng faction was involved—there must also be people within the eunuch faction adding fuel to the fire.

Finally, Li Ren’an read out the eighty-three charges Tangxi Zhui was accused of.

Controlling the Elu Bureau, blocking the Emperor’s eyes and ears; monopolizing power, cutting off the Emperor’s voice; accepting heavy bribes, selling offices and titles, corrupting the Emperor’s claws and fangs; forming factions with court officials, expanding his network of confidants; attacking opponents, befriending censors, manipulating the imperial examinations, deceiving His Majesty; honeyed words hiding a dagger’s intent, concealing information and failing to report, delaying military affairs, allowing rebel forces to grow, resulting in casualties of tens of thousands among the people of ten cities…