Chapter 131

Chapter 131

The couple embraced in silence for a long while before Lü Wenrong gently broke the long-lost peace. Leaning against her husband’s shoulder, she asked, “Appointing or deposing a Crown Prince are matters of state. If you resign, will Father Emperor agree?”

Qin Hong held his wife with one arm and her hand with the other. After a moment of silence, he looked at the silk-covered cotton curtain, used only in winter, hanging at the door. “He will agree. Father Emperor already knows I am not fit to be the Crown Prince.”

Back then, Father Emperor had appointed him Crown Prince not because of his exceptional talent or virtue, but because he was the imperial family’s eldest legitimate son, the heir apparent long recognized by the entire court.

For over a decade, Qin Hong had sensed Father Emperor’s disappointment in him countless times—whether openly expressed or left unspoken. How could someone as wise as Father Emperor fail to see that he was incapable of shouldering the heavy responsibilities of the Great Qi Crown Prince?

But Father Emperor only had the three of them as princes. He had his shortcomings, and his second and third brothers each had their own issues. The three of them combined fell short of Father Emperor and the founding meritorious officials around him. It was like three short men—Father Emperor looked down on all of them but had to choose one to be Crown Prince. Before his younger sister entered court, he had probably always been the tallest of the short men in Father Emperor’s eyes, so Father Emperor was still willing to invest effort in him. But when his younger sister repeatedly demonstrated great talent in governing and stabilizing the nation, shining like the brilliant full moon that eclipses the stars in the night sky, how could Father Emperor continue to tolerate his weakness and incompetence?

Qin Hong thought that if Lin’er were not his younger sister but their fourth brother, Father Emperor would have long since replaced the Crown Prince.

However, it didn’t matter that Lin’er was a girl. With her assistance, his third brother could also become a good emperor for Great Qi in the future.

Qin Hong believed that if he continued as Crown Prince, his younger sister would assist him, her half-brother, with the same loyalty. However, that would complicate matters significantly. Not to mention the external relatives and court officials, even his eldest sister would not tolerate him relying more on his younger sister than on her. If his eldest sister came to him to cause a disturbance, it would give him a headache. If she turned to compete with his younger sister, it would both create trouble for his sister and break her heart. Therefore, having his younger sister assist his third brother was the most suitable arrangement. No one would dare bully the new emperor’s blood sister, and no one could force his third brother to wrong his sister. In this regard, his third brother was more resolute than he was.

What he could foresee, Father Emperor must have foreseen earlier and thought even further ahead.

Father Emperor’s coldness and detachment this year were hints to him. Today, Father Emperor severely punished Fang Ji without deeply investigating the crimes of him and his sister, offering him a graceful exit. If he clung to his position as Crown Prince and feigned ignorance, going against Father Emperor’s wishes, or if he were the first to disappoint Father Emperor, Father Emperor would no longer show leniency to him and his eldest sister. After all, Fang Ji was only the first official to bribe his eldest sister. If Father Emperor chose to investigate thoroughly, interrogating him or Yang Zhimin would reveal several others.

Qin Hong was unfit to be the Crown Prince because he was indecisive, hesitant, and constrained by familial ties. But his heart had always been as clear as a mirror. He saw both state and family matters clearly but lacked the resolve to act decisively. Now that he was about to give up the Crown Prince position, he could cast aside the burdens of complex state affairs, Father Emperor’s expectations, and the pressure of the empire all at once. Focusing only on resigning, Qin Hong could finally understand Father Emperor’s profound intentions.

During these past few months, when he suffered from headaches and hoped in vain for Father Emperor to visit, weeping silently alone at night, Father Emperor must have been sad too. That was why, as he became increasingly gaunt, Father Emperor also gained more wrinkles and white hair. That was why, today, when he and his eldest sister knelt in the great hall to admit their guilt and lost face completely, Father Emperor’s choked emotions and disappointment were genuine. If only he could be a competent Crown Prince, Father Emperor would not have to endure the pain of choosing between two sides of the same hand, forced to make a painful sacrifice.

A gentle touch suddenly brushed his face. Qin Hong snapped out of his thoughts and met his wife’s sympathetic eyes.

He smiled, took the handkerchief from her hand, and wiped away the tears that had unknowingly fallen again.

Lü Wenrong did not think her husband was weak. She would rather he cried than suppressed his emotions.

Putting down the handkerchief, Qin Hong let out a long sigh and pressed his forehead against his wife’s. “Leave the matter of resigning to me. It’s just that you’ll have to endure some hardship in the coming time.”

Among the ministers, he had long lost the dignity of a Crown Prince—whether it was when he repeatedly asked Yang Zhimin to defer to his eldest sister, or when, during his regency, he asked Yan Xizheng to instruct the Minister of War to provide warhorses for his uncle, and was repeatedly afflicted with headaches due to state affairs. So, he was prepared to face the gossip that would inevitably follow his deposition. But Wenrong was different. She was a noblewoman from the House of Cheng Duke. Before and after marrying him, she had never given anyone reason to criticize her. She was only implicated because of him.

Lü Wenrong wrapped her arms around her husband’s waist and spoke earnestly: “There’s no such thing as hardship. If not for Father Emperor’s promotion, our Lü family would not have the wealth and status we enjoy today. Without you, I would just be an ordinary girl who sounds noble but was actually born in the countryside. To be born at the beginning of Father Emperor’s reign and to have such fortune—I am content and seek nothing beyond.”

Qin Hong kissed her forehead. “As long as you don’t find it bitter, that’s good. After we leave the palace, if possible, I’ll accompany you to see the scenic landscapes far and wide.”

His third brother’s carefree life was something he envied and longed for.

Lü Wenrong liked such imaginings, but she still had to remind her husband of one thing: “The life you and I want may not be what Zheng Ge’er wants.”

What her husband was giving up was not just his position as Crown Prince but also the throne and empire that Zheng Ge’er had once within grasp—just as her husband had once been the undisputed Crown Prince in the hearts of the monarch and ministers.

The lightness Qin Hong had felt moments ago was immediately clouded by a faint sadness. He had not forgotten the resentful look Zheng Ge’er had given his younger sister when her renown for virtue spread throughout the city because of the “Southern Tour Travelogue.”

To prevent his wife from feeling sorry for Zheng Ge’er, Qin Hong spoke plainly: “What he wants is not something I can leave to him even if I wanted to.”

By voluntarily cooperating with Father Emperor to resign, he could still rely on their father-son bond and his brotherly relationship with his third brother to live as a wealthy idle prince, leaving Zheng Ge’er with a princely title.

If he stubbornly held on to his position, and Father Emperor found him and his sister guilty of severely disrupting the court, what awaited both their families might be house arrest or demotion to commoner status.

“Let’s keep my intention to resign from him for now. After Father Emperor approves it, I’ll explain it clearly to him.”

If they told Zheng Ge’er now, he was afraid Zheng Ge’er would go to Father Emperor to cry and make a scene, causing trouble for Father Emperor and bringing suffering upon himself.

.

While the Crown Prince and his wife were sharing their feelings, Emperor Xingwu, after court adjourned, summoned Yang Zhimin to the Imperial Study. No one knew what the monarch and his subject discussed. The officials of the Ministry of Personnel only knew that their Minister of Personnel—who, though dismissed from his post, still held the authority of the minister—returned in tears. The sleeves on both sides of his robe were soaked from wiping his tears, and he cried for a long time after entering his office. The cold wind of the winter month made the Minister of Personnel’s weeping seem even more sorrowful.

But no officials were worried for their Minister of Personnel. As the Emperor himself had said, the Minister of Personnel was like another brother to the Emperor. The matter with Fang Ji was something Princess Yongkang and the Crown Prince had “asked” the Minister of Personnel to help with. At most, the Minister of Personnel had momentarily lost his clarity of mind. It was impossible for him to truly lose the Emperor’s favor. Both grand councilors were getting old, and the fifty-three-year-old Minister of Personnel was in his prime with a bright future ahead!

The Minister of Personnel’s tears were surely tears of gratitude because the Emperor had not severely punished him, and he was crying out of guilt.

Yang Zhimin did feel guilty—guilty for not having scolded the Crown Prince awake back then out of a moment of soft-heartedness, guilty for watching the Crown Prince become more and more incompetent day by day over the years without being able to think of any way to help him improve. But what pained him more was the Emperor. It pained him that the Emperor, wise and illustrious throughout his life, had to exhaust himself mentally and physically over the deposition and appointment of the Crown Prince in his old age. It pained him that the ambitious, fearless Emperor he remembered had become the aged and desolate figure he was now.

He wept for the powerlessness against aging, sickness, and death. He wept for the happy years that the monarch and his subjects could never return to.

On the morning of the fourth day of the month, Yang Zhimin came to the Ministry of Personnel dressed in plain clothes, his expression normal, and continued with his duties as usual.

But news spread from the Qianyuan Palace that the Emperor had taken ill.

Several important ministers hurried to the Qianyuan Palace to see the Emperor, only to find the Crown Prince there as well, his eyes red—clearly, he had been crying again.

Emperor Xingwu reclined on his couch, holding a bowl of medicine he was drinking. He glanced at the important ministers lined up in two rows and smiled unconcernedly. “I’m old. Every winter, I inevitably fall ill a couple of times. I just need to rest and recover. There’s no need for you to worry. Hurry back to your duties. And you too, Crown Prince. Don’t disturb my rest.”

Emperor Xingwu rested for six or seven days. The morning courts on the sixth and ninth days of the winter month were presided over by the Crown Prince.

Since the Crown Prince could continue to preside over the court assembly and his complexion had noticeably improved, even though the news of the Crown Prince, Princess Yongkang, and Yang Zhimin being punished one after another during the court assembly on the third day was spreading among the people through the households of the officials and gaining momentum, most civil and military officials qualified to attend the court felt that the Crown Prince still enjoyed the Emperor’s favor and his position remained secure.

After a day of rest on the tenth, Emperor Xingwu resumed governance on the eleventh day of the winter month, having recovered from his illness. This was followed by the morning court on the thirteenth day of the winter month.

The early morning at the fifth hour was dark and cold. The ministers waiting outside the great hall were almost all hunching their shoulders. Qin Ren was shivering the most. Seeing his elder brother standing motionless beside him, Qin Ren secretly reached out and slipped a small object into his brother’s hand.

The thing was round, hard, and warm. Qin Hong didn’t look down to check it but instead glanced questioningly at his third brother.

Qin Ren whispered, “I had craftsmen specially make a small hand warmer for times like this.”

Qin Hong’s mind conjured an image of his third brother sitting on the dragon throne, hands resting at his sides as if sitting upright and proper, but actually holding one of these hand warmers in each hand...

Qin Hong froze.

Before entering the hall, Qin Ren quickly snatched the hand warmer back from his elder brother’s hand, afraid that his clumsy brother might drop it. If Father Emperor saw it, he would surely skin him alive.

Thanks to his mischief, Qin Hong’s taut nerves relaxed for a moment. But soon, he became aware of the gazes from the ministers behind him.

Everyone remembered that the Crown Prince still had a letter of self-accusation that he had not yet read aloud.

During the previous two court assemblies, Father Emperor had not been present, so Qin Hong had not read it. Yan Xizheng and others had not reminded him to read it either, as if, as long as he played dumb and Father Emperor did not pursue the matter, it could be glossed over.

But Qin Hong had never intended to gloss over it.

When today’s morning court was about to end and the ministers had finished discussing matters, Qin Hong stepped forward. He took out a memorial from his robe, knelt on the ground, and addressed his father on the dragon throne: “Father Emperor, I have finished writing my letter of self-accusation. Please review it.”

A buzz of discussion instantly filled the great hall. Qin Ren nearly dropped the small hand warmer in his hand.

Emperor Xingwu swept his gaze around the hall and finally looked at the Crown Prince. “Rise and read it directly.”