DCPRT Chapter 70

Cui Yan had been driven out of the room. Only Huo Xiling and You Yusui remained. The candles that had been lit earlier were blown out again by Huo Xiling, and unable to sleep, Huo Xiling gazed at You Yusui’s sleeping face by the moonlight filtering through the window.

His Crown Prince was hugging the rabbit-fur pillow he had given him, his brow carrying a faint air of pampered coquettishness. Unlike the Crown Prince in his dreams, whose brows were shadowed by an inescapable melancholy and whose sorrow was restrained and silent, and even…

When Huo Xiling’s fingers traced over You Yusui’s brow, he noticed that the Crown Prince in his dreams seemed to have grown somewhat more mature than the one before him now. The current Crown Prince had only just left his boyhood behind, yet every time Huo Xiling had seen the Crown Prince in those dreams, he had already been a young man.

This discovery made Huo Xiling sit up involuntarily to study You Yusui’s features carefully, until his fingers, still tracing You Yusui’s brow, stirred the person awake.

“It’s the middle of the night and you’re not sleeping — what are you doing?” You Yusui grabbed Huo Xiling’s finger and said, “Don’t tell me the bed is biting you again?”

Huo Xiling said, “The bed isn’t biting me.”

Huo Xiling did not dare tell You Yusui about what happened in the dreams, and could only keep a stiff face as he answered.

“How can you be so foolish?” You Yusui looked at Huo Xiling beside him and said, “Go to sleep. We still have to travel tomorrow.”

With that, You Yusui turned his back to Huo Xiling and lay down, so that Huo Xiling could no longer see his face.

Huo Xiling looked at You Yusui’s back, then reached out and drew him into his arms. He could only count himself fortunate, again and again, that after waking from those dreams, he was still able to see the Crown Prince, alive and vivid before him.

…

Early the next morning, Cui Yan was already sitting downstairs at the post station, eating breakfast. Poor soul that he was, last night he had made do with a few guards for company.

As for sleeping in the Crown Prince’s room — Cui Yan had only been able to choose between the crime of gross disrespect and being the Crown Prince’s male favorite.

“Your Highness is awake. The restorative medicine has just been prepared — please drink it.” Cui Yan pointed to the bowl of dark, inky medicinal broth sitting on the table.

This bowl of medicine was a health-strengthening tonic. For someone without illness, it nourished yin and replenished yang; for someone ailing, it aided recovery — a remedy of no great virtue but no harm either. At the very least, it would not over-supplement His Highness the Crown Prince to excess, sparing him from having to concoct another lie to cover things up afterward.

Moreover, every ingredient in this bowl had been brewed from the finest flower fertilizer provided by Lord Xie. He promised that by the time they returned, he would repay Lord Xie with a lush and gorgeous peony blossom.

One look at the bowl and You Yusui knew that Cui Yan was taking revenge on him for having crowded him out of his room the night before.

“Your Highness, please drink.” Everyone was watching.

With those words spoken, You Yusui had no choice but to drink it whether he wanted to or not.

Only after watching You Yusui finish it did Cui Yan produce a bowl of rock-sugar bird’s nest and hand it to You Yusui, saying, “Your Highness, please eat.”

Bird’s nest was nourishing — Lord Xie had specially entrusted it to Cui Yan, instructing him to make sure You Yusui drank a bowl every morning. While it could not compare to Consort Xian’s golden silk snow swallow bird’s nest, it was still an exceptionally fine variety.

Right after that, the vegetables and fruits sent by the Xie household arrived as well — fresh beyond words, with a portion for everyone.

After breakfast was finished, You Yusui was carried into the carriage by Huo Xiling. The officials at the post station had barely caught a glimpse of You Yusui himself, but what they had witnessed was the Crown Prince’s lavish manner of travel — especially when they saw that someone had actually sent over fresh produce and fruits. This led them to believe what they had overheard the night before from idle talk among the Crown Prince’s entourage: that there existed within the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace two great corrupt officials, and that every aspect of the Crown Prince’s food, clothing, shelter, and travel was handled entirely by these two individuals.

Furthermore, since the Crown Prince’s health was poor, these two men could be said to have wielded absolute power within the Eastern Palace — having embezzled considerable sums and also managed to get things done for many people.

“Is this true?” a minor official at the post station asked. “How come we’ve never heard of this before?”

“The Crown Prince only fell ill so recently — it’s perfectly normal that the news hasn’t reached us yet.”

The Crown Prince falling ill had been a matter of early spring, and it was only summer now. News that was surely common knowledge throughout Chang’an had likely not yet reached them, these officials stationed around the city’s outskirts.

“Whether it’s true or not, you’d have to test it to find out,” one official said.

As for how to test it — that meant passing the news along, so that the officials of every commandery and county the Crown Prince passed through could try their luck.

And so, after You Yusui departed from that small post station, the two great corrupt officials at his left and right received no shortage of flattery and gifts. Huo Xiling and Cui Yan, for their part, turned no one away and collected money until their hands cramped.

More importantly, every matter those people requested of them was duly resolved. Since those who had sent gifts earlier had seen results, those who came later naturally poured in all the more effort to give.

And so the gifts You Yusui received piled up across several carriages.

Some had also asked Cui Yan and Huo Xiling how they managed to get the Crown Prince to listen to them. Cui Yan offered only a faint smile and said, “I am the imperial physician who serves the Crown Prince — I was the one who pulled him back from the brink of grave illness. Whatever I say, the Crown Prince naturally believes.”

Then, pointing to Huo Xiling standing nearby, Cui Yan added, “As for that one — the Crown Prince dotes on him most of all. You had all best be careful to serve him well.”

The county official who had come bearing gifts glanced at Huo Xiling standing to the side and could not help but inwardly marvel at what a fine set of features he possessed — eyes like cold stars, brows like kingfisher feathers, bearing upright and commanding, altogether handsome and dashing. No wonder he had won the Crown Prince’s favor.

“Greetings, General Huo. Might I ask what General Huo is fond of?” The county official immediately began to curry favor. “I have some fine Nu’erhong, also calligraphy and paintings by a master of the previous dynasty, and even a treasured sword forged by a great craftsman.”

(TL: Nü’erhong (女儿红) is a type of traditional Chinese aged rice wine.)

Huo Xiling, who neither drank, nor cared for calligraphy and paintings, and only used his own weapons: …..

He had no idea what to say. Never mind — as long as it was money, he would accept it without question.

Under the utterly unscrupulous conduct of these two, their reputations soared all the way back to Chang’an, until even You Fengyun had come to hear of it.

“The Twin Corrupt Officials of the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace?” You Fengyun was so furious he slammed the memorial down. “Of all the things to come up with.”

One of them was the brother-in-law whom Liu Ye had raised with his own hands — what fine things and rewards had he not seen? As Marquis of ten thousand households, could Liu Ye possibly have short-changed him? As for Cui Yan — a legitimate young master of the Qinghe Cui clan, a great family of several hundred years standing, with wealth accumulated over generations. Could he actually covet the petty gifts those people were offering?

You Fengyun had come to believe that the Crown Prince had devised yet another new scheme for squeezing money out of people — this time, instead of bleeding his rear palace dry, he had turned his attention to local officials.

And when the Crown Prince was receiving bribes, he was remarkably measured about it: minor matters were resolved at once, while major ones were strung along indefinitely. He had those fools completely in his grip.

By the time You Fengyun learned of all this, he was so thoroughly vexed he had run out of words, and could only drag Lord Xie — who had been at home busying himself with researching how to fish better and faster — over for a conversation.

In the courtyard before Xuande Hall, You Fengyun had tea and refreshments laid out to receive Xie Yi.

“Tell me — why hasn’t the Crown Prince put all that cleverness of his to proper use?” You Fengyun sighed.

Lord Xie said nothing. If he did put it to proper use, you would likely be the first one to have him killed.

Then You Fengyun told Xie Yi what You Yusui had been doing along the road these past few days.

Xie Yi listened with a smile spreading across his face, drinking tea and praising the Crown Prince — what a fine young man, how clever he was, and what was wrong with being a little lavish? His health had never been good to begin with — did they expect him to completely ruin his body just to investigate a case?

You Fengyun fell silent as he watched Xie Yi sing praise after praise. This was not at all the outcome he had been hoping for.

After being forced to sit through a torrent of Xie Yi’s flattery of You Yusui, You Fengyun saw his guest out and said, “Zhen is tired.”

He should not have invited Lord Xie today. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t be feeling so thoroughly worn out.

“Quickly — write a letter. Urge the Crown Prince on Zhen’s behalf. Tell him to stop dawdling along the road like this — even an ant could have crawled there by now.” You Fengyun said irritably.

Meanwhile, in Dayang County of Hedong Commandery, the local powerful clans were meeting with the county magistrate to discuss how to handle the Crown Prince’s impending arrival.

“Two imperial princes came before to investigate the case and then vanished in Hedong Commandery. There’s a good chance the court already has its full suspicions on us — why else would they send the Crown Prince?” one of the powerful men said.

“The disappearance of the Prince of Yan and the Prince of Wu can simply be pinned on those rioting vagrants who caused all that trouble. What does that have to do with us?” another sneered dismissively.

“But those were imperial princes, after all. I’m afraid…”

“What is there to panic about? Calm yourself.”

“That is the Crown Prince! The court sending the Crown Prince to investigate makes it plain that they intend to get to the bottom of this. How am I supposed to remain calm?”

They had falsified disaster reports, embezzled relief funds, seized farmland, and enslaved common people — every one of these offenses, if exposed, was cause for execution and the extermination of one’s entire clan. How could they not be afraid?

And the Crown Prince had a retinue of over a thousand men protecting him, so even if they wanted to take action, there was no way to do so.

“Don’t be hasty.” A man dressed in official robes spoke up. “From what I understand, the Crown Prince has always been in poor health — he has fallen unconscious several times. And from the reports that have come in, the Crown Prince hasn’t shown his face before a single official even once. He travels by being carried by someone. Whether it is truly him who has come to investigate the case is still uncertain.”

“You mean the Crown Prince is merely a figurehead, and the real investigator is someone else?”

“Exactly.” The county magistrate spoke. “And furthermore, the Crown Prince has two great corrupt officials at his side. As long as we bribe them, and shift all the blame onto the vagrants, then work from the inside to do away with the real investigator — not only will we come out unscathed, we will continue to enjoy our wealth and privilege.” The county magistrate said.

“Can this really work?” one of the powerful men asked.

“Did you intend to show your hand from the very start?” the county magistrate retorted.

“Fair point, fair point — let me think about what I should send.”

“That red coral tree of yours, as tall as a man, would not be bad.”

“I think your white jade Guanyin statue would do nicely.”

“Oh, help me think — what else do I have at home!”

“Take your time, there’s no rush. At the Crown Prince’s pace, he won’t reach us for another two days.” The county magistrate said with confidence.

On the other side, You Yusui had also received You Fengyun’s letter urging him to hurry, and so he said to Cui Yan, “Have the men pick up the pace.”

By now, the people in Dayang County must certainly be calculating when this prince will arrive. Let this prince give them a little surprise.

With those words, the Crown Prince’s retinue finally returned to their normal speed, and by early the next morning, they had arrived at the gates of Dayang County.

The county magistrate and powerful clans of Dayang County, who had been certain the Crown Prince would not arrive for another two days: …..