SEHE Chapter 134

Minimization

Her tender face showed deathly pallor, her red garments blood-like. Her dark hair was pinned up with a hairpin. Aside from the white silk around her neck, her entire person was adorned with gold hairpins, precious stones, and pearl ornaments—beautiful and noble.

She was very beautiful.

Like an exquisite yet eerie cold doll, lying stiffly in Wang Lingche’s embrace.

Wang Lingche’s hair hung disheveled over his shoulders, his spotless white robes stained with dust and mud. Those clear, luminous eyes now showed only vacant stupor.

Pei Yanci called out to him, “Brother Zhaohui, is this your sister?”

Wang Lingche never stopped talking about his sister—this was the first time he’d seen this young lady.

The person on the ground didn’t move at all, showing no reaction whatsoever.

“Young Master Pei, the Young Master has been holding Third Miss’s corpse for an entire night,” a servant said quietly. “It looks terrifying. No one can persuade him otherwise.”

Pei Yanci looked him up and down, then suddenly slapped him twice across the face.

“Pei… Pei…”

The servants were shocked.

Pei Yanci rubbed his wrist. “Are you awake yet?”

When he hit Tangxi Zhui, it was flirtation. He had no such patience for others. Wang Lingche’s cheeks quickly swelled on both sides.

His eyes gradually regained focus. Seeing it was Pei Yanci, the corners of his mouth slowly curved into an arc, as if smiling. “Yanci, my sister… is dead.”

“My condolences.” Pei Yanci said flatly.

“My sister is dead, hahahahahaha…”

“Didn’t you say they would only break off the engagement?”

“Now she’s dead.” The smile on Wang Lingche’s face gradually collapsed into madness and distortion. “My father killed my sister—his own biological daughter, his biological daughter!”

He couldn’t understand it at all.

If she’d been killed by someone else, he could hate that person.

But it was his own biological father.

Even a vicious tiger won’t eat its cubs, yet his father was human.

“What happened after you returned to the mansion?”

Holding a corpse and laughing maniacally—this scene made the servants who witnessed it retreat to the doorway, avoiding it like the plague.

Pei Yanci sat on the ground opposite him and grasped his wrist.

“We broke off the engagement, finally broke it off…” After the laughter, Wang Lingche’s face showed blank numbness again.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Pei Yanci was puzzled.

From Wang Lingche’s descriptions, the Wang family lady didn’t sound like someone crazed with love.

“Yes, right after the Zheng mansion was raided, my father broke off the engagement with the Zheng family. When I returned home, I already saw her happily preparing for her coming-of-age ceremony.” He said, “She was so lovely, like a chirping little sparrow…”

“And then?” Pei Yanci asked gently.

“Then? Then yesterday someone impeached our family over the betrothal matter, wanting to drag us down together with the Zheng family affair. After that, his men broke into her courtyard.”

“I couldn’t fight them off, Yanci, I couldn’t fight them off…” Wang Lingche released the corpse and collapsed into his arms.

“They held me down on the ground. He said this was for the Wang family’s future. I don’t want to consider the future—I just want my sister.”

Pei Yanci gently patted his back in consolation.

“For the family’s future, for their own continued enjoyment of wealth and glory, why did they demand my sister’s life? Isn’t her life a life too!”

Hearing the naive indignation in his words, Pei Yanci sighed and said, “Your father must express to the Crown Prince, to His Majesty, to the important court officials his determination to have no further entanglement with the Zheng family.”

“But the engagement was already broken—isn’t that enough?”

“In your eyes and mine, it’s enough.” Pei Yanci said, “But in your father’s eyes, it’s not. With yesterday’s first impeachment, there could be a second, a third… The Zheng family was such a great century-old clan, yet it fell so quickly. Your father is already a frightened bird. Rather than risk it, better to sacrifice one daughter and be done with it once and for all.”

Wang Lingche found it laughable, wanted to laugh but couldn’t. The light refracted in his tears shattered into countless bright, piercing shards.

“These people all deserve to die.”

Most deserving of death was still his father.

Jumping at shadows, when breaking the engagement could have ended the matter. But being timid and cowardly, afraid of responsibility, without distinguishing right from wrong, he could even strike murderously at his own biological daughter.

Pei Yanci took the corpse into his arms. “If this engagement had never been arranged in the first place, none of this would have happened. We just never imagined your father would be so ruthless.”

“Yes.” Wang Lingche hated himself even more.

Pei Yanci had mentioned the possible Wang-Zheng marriage alliance. He’d made a fuss but couldn’t stop his father’s actions in the slightest, so he simply kept out of sight and out of mind, hiding at the Pei manor, pretending nothing had happened.

Pei Yanci had advised him to find a way to break off the engagement early. He’d argued forcefully too, but in the end it was his own sister who came up with the solution—changing to a substitute bride arrangement.

In the whole affair, all his efforts seemed like worthless jokes. In the entire Wang family, no one treated him as the future heir. His words carried no weight—no one listened.

This was what he’d once dreamed of.

No longer having people manipulate and interfere in his life, no one excessively worrying about his emotions. By giving up the identity of the Wang family’s legitimate eldest son, he could become anyone, free and unrestrained.

Yet before he’d completely abandoned the Wang family heir’s identity, he couldn’t even protect his own sister.

“If… if I hadn’t insisted on becoming a monk back then, would things be different?” Wang Lingche looked at him.

“Very likely.” Pei Yanci met his desperate gaze and mercilessly pushed him toward the abyss of self-destruction.

“You would be the top scholar, surely employed by His Majesty, appreciated by the Crown Prince, becoming his trusted confidant. When the Crown Prince brought the Wang and Zheng families together to shake hands and discuss serving the same master, you would have known. When the two families proposed a marriage alliance to show sincerity, you could have stopped it immediately. Taking ten thousand steps back, even if you didn’t know these things, I reminded you. With your status and position, your words in the mansion—even your father would have had to think twice and wouldn’t dare not listen.”

Pei Yanci handed the rigidly formed corpse to a servant outside the door and stood at the threshold, his gaze slightly narrowed.

“Have you truly prepared to give up everything in the Wang family?”

Yue Ting was a hundred times more capable than him, yet still couldn’t escape the bonds of clan and family—what about him?

“Who will avenge your sister’s tragic death?”

Wang Lingche’s eyes shook.

Pei Yanci informed Lady Wang and brought him back to the Pei manor.

Wang Lingche locked himself in his room. The servants delivering meals said he kept chanting sutras, his complexion frighteningly poor. Seeing he hadn’t died, Pei Yanci stopped worrying about him.

After returning from the Wang mansion, he hadn’t seen Tangxi Zhui. Presumably he’d gone to the prison to swap back the substitute.

The Imperial Academy’s newly passed enrollment regulations from last year would begin implementation this spring. He and Fang Qingdu had been busy for several days and nearly forgot about the next day’s court assembly.

Rushing anxiously to the Imperial City, he nearly collided with Gu Wanchong’s carriage on the road.

Seeing it was him and that he hadn’t noticed, Gu Wanchong had his driver actively yield to avoid trouble with him.

He cursed inwardly at his bad luck.

It was precisely because that eunuch Tangxi Zhui kept delaying action that this bright, clear face constantly dangled before his eyes, painfully stinging them.

It seemed he needed to change operatives.

Tangxi Zhui was at least a beauty—he would use the ugliest, filthiest eunuch to humiliate him!

A commotion came from the street.

“So early—why are there so many people outside?”

Through the curtain, the driver laughed. “Your Highness doesn’t know—these are all people just returning from watching the all-night performance at Mingyou Theater.”

“Their recent plays have been too good. Everyone’s talking about them,” a servant beside Gu Wanchong said. “When will Your Highness take me to see them? I heard the Zheng family’s salt and iron smuggling case has been dramatized too. Only then did everyone realize that clan lords and landlords aren’t great benefactors at all—they’re all wolves in human skin.”

“That’s right. We used to think the clans and landlords renting us land were giving us opportunities to earn money, and we should be grateful. Who would have thought this land was originally given to us by the court to grow grain? Somehow they circled it for themselves. We farm our own land but still have to pay them—where’s the reason in that?”

“These good plays should be shown to the whole world. Have you noticed? Those young wastrels from the Wang, Xue, Cui, and Yue families have all been much quieter these days,” another servant said. “Though after watching those plays, I had nightmares for several nights. Those clan families and corrupt officials are truly wicked.”

“Yet you’re the one clamoring to watch them every day,” the driver said with a kind smile.

Anjing was already the most prosperous city in Great Yu, with brothels and pleasure houses everywhere, gambling dens and cockfighting venues scattered about. But for people of their ordinary or even lowly status, they could only visit such places a few times a year.

Yet Mingyou Theater had constantly fresh content. He’d watched the plays no fewer than ten times, could recite many of the difficult lines backwards, the prices were cheap, and you could drink a pot of free tea. They didn’t look down on his humble means, so naturally he was happy to go.

Before he knew it, the theater had become the place he visited most.

“Find someone to investigate the people behind this theater,” Gu Wanchong felt something was off. “To openly criticize clan families yet thrive so well—there must be a powerful backer.”

“They’ve all changed names, so it probably doesn’t count, right?”

“If you can make the connection to those clans, can’t others?”

“We’ve investigated, Your Highness. It’s General Jiang Yi’s enterprise, but that seems unlikely. Going deeper, it seems connected to the palace,” the servant said with difficulty.

“The palace? How could that be?”

“It’s unclear, and there’s no evidence, but the Elu Bureau once intervened to stop us from investigating deeper, saying it was orders from above.”

“Tangxi Zhui?”

That was possible.

“Even higher up…”

Gu Wanchong’s expression froze, a flash of deep scrutiny in his eyes.

This scrutiny continued until he entered the Golden Luan Hall and saw Tangxi Zhui with heavy shackles on his hands and feet, walking against the light, strolling leisurely past the assembled officials to the forefront below the dragon throne’s steps.

Tangxi Zhui wore white gauze robes, his deathly pale face lifting from his flowing dark hair, as indifferent as if viewing a swarm of ants.

Suddenly, those large, narrow eyes curved up, his bloodthirsty lips slowly revealing a gentle smile.

“Long time no see, everyone.”

The Grand General, Gu Jiuqing, Cui Ya, Gu Wanchong, and others in the front row all stepped back.

Cui Ya reached out to grab the arm of someone behind him, even trying to push that person forward, then realized this really violated the dignity of a dynasty’s minister and awkwardly lowered his hand.

“Nine-Thousand-Years Daren,” he called out ingratiatingly.

Who was it that suggested this demon come in person the other day?

“Minister Cui, long time no see. After I was imprisoned, why didn’t you come visit this lord? It truly breaks my heart.” Still that affected, strange tone.

“I—this official will go today.”

“You want this lord to return to prison today?”

“No—no—this official didn’t mean that.” Cui Ya stammered. After a long while, he could only force out a fawning smile.

“After being human for a few days, you’ve forgotten what it was like to be a dog.”

The shackles clinked. Tangxi Zhui covered his mouth corners, his smile not reaching his eyes, chilling everyone’s hearts.

See, I told you not to hold court so early. The sky isn’t even light yet—we’ve encountered a ghost.

Gu Wanchong felt his plan to rally the eunuch faction had been discovered. The gaze ahead was like a beam of blades, nearly slicing him to pieces.

He forcibly suppressed his fear, swallowed, and avoided eye contact.

The Emperor soon arrived. Seeing Tangxi Zhui, he paused, then patted his shoulder as he passed. “Tangxi, you’ve gone a bit too far this time.”

“This is your servant’s fault.” Tangxi Zhui’s eyes lowered slightly as he bent his waist almost imperceptibly, neither servile nor overbearing.

The Emperor’s expression remained normal, clearly long accustomed to such obvious transgressions.

With those words, everyone present couldn’t help but change expression.

Was this just “a bit too far”!

“Don’t push yourself too hard later.” Gu Jiuqing quietly instructed Pei Yanci.

Pei Yanci nodded seriously.

Just after nodding, he noticed a jealous gaze—dark, ethereal, capricious—staring at the two of them.

Pei Yanci sighed helplessly and moved aside.

“Is it really necessary? Surely this prince won’t do anything to you here?” Gu Jiuqing frowned.

“This official believes Your Highness is an upright gentleman,” Pei Yanci perfunctorily praised. “But in a melon field under plum trees, I fear some might misunderstand.”

If that one at home takes a knife to himself later, will this account be settled against you again?

Rather than not explaining, after this explanation, Gu Jiuqing’s face darkened.

With Li Ren’an’s call to order, everyone in the hall reined in their various thoughts.

“You wanted to debate Tangxi Zhui’s merits and faults—begin.”

The Emperor’s gaze swept around the circle. Not one person stepped forward.

“Last time you were all vocally criticizing him. Weren’t you very loud? Why are you playing deaf and dumb now? Wu Cong’en, start with you.”

The named person’s body trembled. He glanced at Tangxi Zhui and thought to himself that the previous interrogations hadn’t been this terrifying—how is it that before the throne, this person’s aura is even stronger?

“This official’s evidence still needs further organization. Let Jian Daren speak first.”

Jian Ji’an casually listed over ten major crimes, each backed by solid evidence. He didn’t understand why this case even needed further trial.

“Although this official sometimes overstepped, do the darens think those edicts I transmitted were good or bad for Great Yu’s development?” Tangxi Zhui asked mildly.

“Admittedly some were beneficial and achieved good results.” Before Jian Ji’an could answer, Pei Yanci jumped in. “But without rules, nothing can be accomplished. If everyone acted recklessly like you, what use would those government offices be, what use those regulations? Wouldn’t it be better to just let one person control everything?”

What good results? Has this demon ever done one good thing!

Jian Ji’an signaled him not to speak carelessly. Tangxi Zhui naturally turned away from him and, just before the Minister of Justice could speak, said first, “Pei Daren is so young yet seems like an old fogey rigidly following rules. All laws can change. Being conservative and stuck to hierarchical reporting procedures not only wastes time and effort but also misses the optimal timing. Daren is young—you still need more years of training.”

Though Jian Ji’an thoroughly detested Pei Yanci, they were at least on the same side. Just as he stepped forward to help his ally, somehow Pei Yanci moved and his elbow struck right into Jian’s nose.

The Minister of Justice clutched his nose in pain, watching them debate in bewilderment.

“Nine-Thousand-Years Daren is adaptable and flexible in handling matters—truly a vigorous old veteran,” Pei Yanci looked at Tangxi Zhui with a half-smile. “But sometimes aren’t you a bit too adaptable, not taking your master seriously, always acting first and reporting later?”

“Oh, really?” Tangxi Zhui played dumb. “I truly didn’t know that. Actually, my master needn’t be so exhausted. Sometimes I just handle things privately and it’s done. My master’s rewards are already plentiful—if he keeps rewarding me, idle people will emerge again spreading slander and defamation.”

Who rewarded you? You shamelessly forced your way into his bed.

Pei Yanci ground his teeth. With this delay, Jian Ji’an, clutching his nose, immediately cursed. “You’re overstepping your authority and committing treason!”

The resounding words barely fell before Pei Yanci said irritably, “So you think you deserve credit?”

That smug, boastful little expression looked insufferable no matter how you viewed it.

“I seek no merit, only to avoid fault. I only wish my master to sit serenely in the bright hall, enjoying eternal glorious fame.” After saying this, Tangxi Zhui turned his gaze to the highest seat, his voice clear and resonant. “Whatever is needed above, this servant is willing to charge through fire and water for it, bearing eternal infamy.”

The great hall fell silent as death.

Gu Jiuqing secretly nudged Jian Ji’an, who turned his mouth down and twisted away, unwilling to speak further.

Can’t you see whether he can even get a word in?

As noon approached, the Emperor waved for the officials to eat something first and continue later.

The Great Yu Emperor was relatively benevolent, not making officials set up small tables in the corridor outside the hall to eat on the floor, but instead opening several side chambers.

Pei Yanci naturally went with Gu Jiuqing and the others.

“Whose side are you even on?” Jian Ji’an unleashed all the anger he’d been holding back all morning. “The Secretariat and Chancellery are both under Tangxi Zhui’s control. He issues imperial edicts at will. Except for lacking the title, he’s no different from that person. If this isn’t deceiving the sovereign and committing treason, what is? If this isn’t overstepping boundaries, what is? What were you saying—that this is adapting to circumstances? That this is not being rigidly conservative? These are matters that violate all proper protocol!”

“A crime deserving execution of nine generations—how did you just minimize it to nothing? Should that dog eunuch also be praised as impartially upright, with no one from imperial nobles down to common people he wouldn’t dare arrest?” Chen Sihong chimed in from the side.

Pei Yanci listened—what a great line of reasoning! He’d use this to defend Tangxi this afternoon.

“Enough, say less,” Gu Jiuqing’s single sentence cut off all his subordinates’ indignant complaints. “Yanci is still young. Facing an opponent like Tangxi Zhui, he’s naturally rattled and temporarily can’t think clearly.”

How could he not know—if he let them speak, they’d just laugh it off and muddle through even more.

Iron-clad evidence in hand, yet he hadn’t seen any real action from them.

Weren’t they all just useless wastrels lining their own pockets?

After finishing the light meal, Gu Jiuqing consoled him. “Don’t mind them. Father Emperor clearly doesn’t intend to move against Tangxi Zhui for now. The imperial will is most important—we’ll just mention it casually and let it pass.”

Pei Yanci nodded, excused himself to relieve himself, and parted from him.

Just turning the corner, someone grabbed his hand and pulled him into a familiar embrace.

“Xiao Pei’er…”

After Tangxi Zhui kissed him twice, Pei Yanci pressed his hand over his mouth.

“Look where we are!”

“You’re allowed to embrace Gu Jiuqing in the dead corners outside the Imperial City, but I’m not allowed to be affectionate in a place with no one around?”

“Are you ever going to let this go!” Pei Yanci said fiercely.

“I will, I will.” Tangxi Zhui hugged him, rubbing his cheek against him continuously. “Xiao Pei’er was so impressive just now.”

“Mainly because His Majesty has no intention of taking your life.” Pei Yanci said. When one person’s will towers above all laws, they can become waste paper at any time. “I see Li Ren’an has lost imperial favor. His Majesty probably noticed. In the short term, there’s no one more useful than you.”

“As long as His Majesty wishes, there are thousands upon thousands of Tangxi Zhuis and Li Ren’ans in the world for him to command. The difference is whether one person does the work of two, or two people do the work of one. His thoughts don’t actually matter.”

“Don’t worry. Even if you had crimes reaching to heaven, I could make you walk out of the Golden Luan Hall safe and sound.”

Tangxi Zhui reluctantly lifted his face from Pei Yanci’s body and spoke of the real purpose for risking this meeting.

“But Xiao Pei’er, I want to die.”