Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Having his hand held, Zhu Qinghou was forced to sit up and leaned lazily against Li Zhen's side, like a drowsy cat.

"Explain?" The word lingered on his lips. Zhu Qinghou smiled. "Xian Pu, what is it you want to hear?"

What did Li Zhen want him to explain? Explain why he complied with the officials' tax hikes, allowed them to run rampant—was it to let the situation escalate and thoroughly remove them, or to pave the way for the Zhu family's exiled officials?

Li Zhen lowered his brows, slowly gathering the silver chain in his hand, as if to reel Zhu Qinghou in completely. "Do you truly believe I won't act against you?"

Before the other could act, Zhu Qinghou was the first to cling to him, wrapping his arms around Li Zhen's lean waist, trying to placate him. "Those people were promoted by you, after all. They remember Prince Su's kindness, not mine, Zhu Qinghou's."

As soon as he drew near, Li Zhen abruptly let go, pushing him away slightly and sitting upright in a corner, his voice calm. "They've gained reputations as virtuous officials, while your Zhu clan's reputation only worsens."

The talk outside was all of how the emperor was helpless, the court was helpless, the officials were helpless. In this play of nationwide tax hikes, all the lofty roles were helpless; only the long-fallen Zhu family was the root of all evil.

Chancellor Zhu was dead, and his son, barely clinging to life, bore all the malice.

Zhu Qinghou didn't care in the slightest. "Whether it's a bad name or a good one, at least there's still a name."

Li Zhen turned his head to "look" at him, speaking softly. "What if I let you leave the manor?"

Once outside Prince Su's manor, without protection, Zhu Qinghou would quickly meet his end.

Sure enough, Zhu Qinghou paused, seeming to hesitate.

"...Would you really let me go?" Zhu Qinghou whispered, gazing at Li Zhen's chest, wondering if the Mother Gu resided there, hidden within Li Zhen's organs and flesh.

After all these years, Li Zhen still cared for him. This wasn't surprising. In this world, there wasn't a soul who'd laid eyes on him and forgotten him.

Li Zhen didn't answer that question. He was silent for a beat, then changed the subject, asking Zhu Qinghou, "Do you know what blindness feels like?"

Darkness, boundless, endless darkness. Everything became unfamiliar and dangerous. Things once easily accomplished became incredibly complex.

Looking at the white silk covering Li Zhen's eyes, Zhu Qinghou's heart skipped a beat. A sense of unease he couldn't easily dismiss rose in his heart. He quieted down, unsure what to say.

"Xiao Yu," Li Zhen called his childhood name in an unusually gentle tone. "From now on, your eyes will be covered." He paused, as if thinking about how to proceed. Zhu Qinghou casually interjected, "Xian Pu, if that would make you happy, I'm willing."

He wanted to approach Li Zhen but, remembering Li Zhen's earlier resistance, halted his movement. Instead, he gently picked up the white silk draped over Li Zhen's shoulder and said nothing more.

What it felt like to be blindfolded, Zhu Qinghou had already gotten a taste of when he went to see Zhu Liujun. It was too short a time for him to feel much.

This time, it was Li Zhen himself who blindfolded him, with a long, slender piece of purple silk, as if he'd come prepared. Zhu Qinghou stared at the purple silk between Li Zhen's fingers for a moment, then withdrew his gaze, slowly closed his eyes, and allowed the other to blindfold him.

Covering his eyes—what kind of punishment was this?

Zhu Qinghou thought, unconcerned. Most of the time, he was confined to the chamber anyway. At worst, he could always just sleep. If it became truly inconvenient, he could simply take it off himself when Li Zhen wasn't around.

His world went dark, with a faint hint of purple visible. Zhu Qinghou blinked curiously, peeking through the gap, he said in a dejected tone. "Xian Pu, I can't see..."

He openly felt his way closer to Li Zhen, intending to tease him. Though Li Zhen couldn't see, he evaded him as if he could see. "Come any closer, and I'll gouge out your eyes."

The Li Zhen of his youth was more fun. The current Prince Su couldn't be teased at all.

Zhu Qinghou wisely retreated, falling back onto the low couch, ready to sleep.

Languid, at ease.

As if nothing could make him feel anxious or afraid.

Li Zhen lowered his head, gazed into the darkness toward his own heart. There, hidden within the sound of his heartbeat, was a tiny Mother Gu.

On the low couch by the window lay a lean figure in purple. The young man was blindfolded with purple silk, one end of the ribbon loose, falling onto his raven-black hair.

A lazy bone, an indolent demeanor, a peerless grace in a turbid world.

When Zhu Xueting entered, he instinctively held his breath, not daring to disturb the person on the couch.

"Xian Pu?" Zhu Qinghou slightly lifted the blindfold, secretly looking at the newcomer. Seeing it was Zhu Xueting, he couldn't help but sigh in relief. He casually removed the blindfold and tossed it aside. "Xueting, let's continue with the poetry."

Zhu Xueting nodded gently, sitting down in his original spot. Holding the silk scroll, he poised his brush, head lowered, but the scene from moments ago surfaced in his mind.

The silk scroll remained blank; he hadn't written a single character.

The memorial was filled with dense, tiny handwriting, listing item after item accusing the Yongzhou officials of extortionate taxation.

Emperor Jinshun raised his hand and threw the memorial to the ground. "The court only increased taxes by twenty percent. Why did Yongzhou raise them by thirty percent? Deceiving superiors, concealing truths, embezzlement, accepting bribes—isn't this just perpetuating the Zhu clan's evil legacy?"

The emperor's personal eunuch, Bai He, carefully picked up the memorial and retreated to stand beside Emperor Jinshun.

The Crown Prince, Li Jue, standing nearby, said gently, "Father, please calm your anger. Perhaps Fourth Brother is unaware; maybe those officials deceived him."

Bai He respectfully took it and handed it to Li Jue. Li Jue accepted it, his expression unchanged. "Fourth Brother is perceptive; he wasn't deceived by those overbearing ministers."

The words were clear and logical, listing the bribes given by the officials, their names, positions, times, and places—nothing was omitted.

The Minister of State, who had been silently watching the conversation between the ruler, his minister, and his son, finally spoke. "In my humble opinion, we should eradicate this evil trend of deceiving the sovereign. Execute one to warn a hundred, to rectify the royal governance."

"Minister Lin speaks wisely," Emperor Jinshun glanced at Lin Hanyi. "Prince Su has submitted three memorials in a row, saying the people are suffering and wishing to lighten taxes and reduce burdens to relieve the populace. What do my esteemed ministers think?"

Upon hearing this, the hall erupted in an uproar. After several rounds of debate, Emperor Jinshun watched quietly as the court officials in their red and purple robes argued fiercely. Some said the treasury was empty, and reducing taxes would only widen the deficit. Others agreed with Prince Su, believing the people were already struggling and taxes should not be increased further.

Emperor Jinshun slightly lifted his eyelids, glancing sideways at Bai He. Bai He cautiously spoke, "If Your Majesty orders a reduction in taxes and corvée labor now, the people will naturally be grateful."

Emperor Jinshun gave him a few faint appraising looks, then withdrew his gaze, addressing the officials of the Six Ministries. "Very well, I leave it to you to handle."

With that, he slowly closed his eyes, no longer looking at the assembled court officials before him.

Zhu Qinghou opened his eyes, looking toward the sky still dark on all sides. Through the screen, he looked toward Li Zhen, who had spent the night in the outer hall. It was empty; Li Zhen had already woken up.

Li Zhen always woke very early, seemingly rising before dawn every day, while Zhu Qinghou often slept until mid-morning.

Zhu Qinghou yawned, casually picked up the purple silk, and lazily tied it over his face. Since Li Zhen couldn't see, a sloppy job didn't matter.

After breakfast, he walked barefoot to the desk, took paper and brush, intending to practice calligraphy.

For the past six months, not to mention paper and brush, even a blade of grass or a suitable patch of ground to write on was a luxury for him.

Used to clutching a stalk of grass, picking up a brush again after so long felt somewhat unfamiliar. He tentatively wrote one character, and a thread-like pain shot through his fingers, as if the tendons hidden beneath his skin had become fine threads, hurting intensely with the slightest movement.

He pretended not to notice, enduring the pain, and continued practicing calligraphy.

Zhu Xueting was now a servant in Prince Su's manor, staying by Zhu Qinghou's side, granted one hour daily in the inner chambers.

When Zhu Xueting entered, he saw from afar the tall, slender figure bent over the desk practicing calligraphy. Beneath the hem of his light purple robe, a pair of hands trembled violently.

His heart was filled with mixed emotions, but in the end, he just silently sat down and watched quietly.

Seeing him arrive, Zhu Qinghou casually tossed the brush aside and asked with a smile, "Guess, how many of the Zhu family's exiled officials will get promoted?"

Zhu Xueting didn't understand government matters. After a moment of thought, he held up two or three fingers.

"One," Zhu Qinghou chuckled, slowly folding the ink-stained paper to hide the crooked, shaky characters. "And even that isn't certain."

The only one with a chance of promotion was the minor official who had raised a short blade to uphold justice in the bustling streets. As for the rest—without power or reputation—their path would be an uphill battle.

He had plenty of patience. There was no need to rush.

Zhu Qinghou casually placed the paper under a candleholder and watched it burn to ashes, his expression blank.

Edicts from Yejing arrived like snowflakes. After deliberation by the Three Departments and Six Ministries, the seasonal tax increase was set at only ten percent. As for local governance in Yongzhou, some officials were demoted, others promoted.

Regarding Prince Su's entrapment tactics, Emperor Jinshun merely said, "With a fief spanning a thousand li, what harm is there in ten li of grit?"

In other words, if a territory spanned a thousand li, what did it matter if ten li were tainted by corruption?

Hearing this, Zhu Qinghou couldn't help but laugh. "Those ten li of grit were all his doing—his eyes, ears, and arms. Of course he can tolerate it."

The newly transferred officials still came from Yejing, appointed by the court. Yet after this reshuffle, the power dynamics in Yongzhou were no longer the same as before.

When Li Zhen first came to Yongzhou to take up his fiefdom, he was just twenty, afflicted with an eye disease. He should have been stuck in Yongzhou, yet somehow, in just a few years, he managed to balance external threats and local officials, hanging over Yongzhou like a sharp sword, firmly intimidating those unruly ministers.

Zhu Qinghou thought to himself idly. In the past, he would never have considered another's perspective or pondered their circumstances. But now he found himself wondering: How had Li Zhen gotten by all these years?

This question lingered in his mind, surfacing several times, only to be brushed aside.

Zhu Qinghou glanced at Li Zhen, hesitated for a moment, but finally asked.

Li Zhen was checking the roster of officials. At the question, his movements paused. He replied flatly, "Surviving. That's all."

The answer was unexpected. For a moment, Zhu Qinghou didn't know what to say. He simply moved past the topic and asked, "Among those officials, who was promoted?"

Li Zhen lowered his gaze, his fingertips brushing over the seal imprint, his expression unchanged. "One."

Among the many exiled officials, only one had been promoted.

Zhu Qinghou tilted his head and asked casually, "Lou Changqing?"

That day, on the long street, the minor official who had raised a short blade to stop the soldiers—Lou Changqing—stood alone in the small pavilion where he was staying, looking up at the appointment letter hanging on the wall.

Appointed by the court: County Magistrate, sixth rank.

A minor official, but far better than his previous position, which had been as insignificant as a bean.

Having received Prince Su's favor, he ought to visit the Prince Su's residence before assuming his post.

Lou Changqing counted what little he had brought from Yejing and bought a small calf at the market, sending it ahead to Prince Su's residence.

The market vendor was puzzled—who would send a calf to Prince Su's residence? But since the buyer had paid, he didn't question it.

The calf was delivered to the side gate of Prince Su's residence. The gatekeeper opened the door and saw a calf grazing there, almost thinking he was dreaming.