Chapter 116

Chapter 116

When he mentioned the medicine was done, Qi Hanzhou did glance at the bowl. Beside the bowl, there was also a hand warmer, which gave off a medicinal smell, probably herbal blends for health. Song An set up some of these, the others were likely asked for by Wu Lao and Chen Xuqiu.

No matter how tight Prince Yan’s residence security was, as Ying Fusheng gradually dismantled the hidden hand’s schemes, he became public enemy number one—a thorn in everyone’s side. Even if he had arranged everything meticulously, when it came to the grand scheme, his life was just one piece on his chessboard.

And Ying Fusheng had no clue.

“Your Highness, your health comes first,” Qi Hanzhou said.

Ying Fusheng watched Qi Hanzhou’s face, saw his brows ease, and pretended not to care as he grabbed the hand warmer—but really he was checking Qi Hanzhou for injuries before looking away. He smoothly changed the subject, pulling his fox fur cloak tighter. “Tea?”

The table was a mess: chessboard, hand warmer, medicine bowl, and a bunch of scrolls. No space for tea.

It had been over two months since they’d come back to the capital. Ying Fusheng had grown, all the childishness from a few years ago gone. As he got older, the sharp, majestic features of the Ying royal family grew more pronounced. He wore deep, sober colors, and with the fox fur cloak draped over him, revealing the dark inner robe underneath, his pale complexion stood out even more. He sat casually on the couch, nothing like the dignified front he put on for others. Qi Hanzhou had seen this many times—like a rare treasure.

Qi Hanzhou looked away.

Song An had set the tea set far over. Ying Fusheng liked quiet when alone, and Qi Hanzhou moved so silently that Song An never came in to serve.

Ying Fusheng was about to get off the couch when he realized his shoes were gone.

He looked down for his shoes, but saw Qi Hanzhou had already gone to grab the teapot. He pulled his feet back. “Guess the Junior General has to serve himself.”

Qi Hanzhou felt the teapot—the tea was cold. He poured a cup and downed it. He turned his head and met Ying Fusheng’s eyes. Ying Fusheng was still groggy from being sick. If not for the daylight, he wouldn’t know what hour it was.

The moment Ying Fusheng moved, his whole body ached. Seeing Qi Hanzhou nearby, a wave of familiarity washed over him. He realized he’d already spent so many moments like this with Qi Hanzhou. He watched him quietly, feeling like every time they met, Qi Hanzhou seemed changed. But looking closer, he looked exactly the same.

How strange. He’d known Qi Hanzhou for two lifetimes. Why did he always feel something different when he saw him? And yet, he couldn’t put that feeling into words. He’d had so many questions a moment ago, but now that he’d calmed down, he suddenly forgot what he wanted to say.

“Use the hidden guards I left here however you want. The Qi family has eyes all over the capital—nobody’s going to make trouble over it,” Qi Hanzhou said, setting down the teapot. His voice was calm. “Some of the Light Garment Guard know their way around medicine. The assassins from the previous dynasty were good with poisons. Don’t let your guard down.”

When he finished, he noticed the silence behind him.

Ying Fusheng was just staring at him.

“Your Highness?” Qi Hanzhou said.

Ying Fusheng snapped back, looking tired. “What did you say?”

Qi Hanzhou frowned. Then Ying Fusheng remembered. “Bring me that scroll.”

On the table with the teapot, there was another scroll. Qi Hanzhou picked it up and handed it to Ying Fusheng. As he handed it over, he unrolled it and found it was a topographic map of Western Shu.

Ying Fusheng’s body was weak and sore. He adjusted his posture slightly, trying to stay as alert as possible.

“Wang Guanzhi had someone deliver it to the capital. Prince Jin arranged for its escort. He and Prince of Qin have been fighting in the southern border for a while now. I think this will be useful to you,” Ying Fusheng said as he mobilized the hidden agents in the court. Qi Hanzhou had discovered the bandit soldiers in Western Shu. Once these two matters were settled, the court would have reason to send troops to Western Shu. “Where are these bandit soldiers stationed?”

Western Shu was vast, and it was a serious matter that Prince of Qin had been raising bandit soldiers there. Qi Hanzhou had spent six months probing and gathering various clues to deduce one of the hidden military camps. The concealment was so meticulous that it showed Prince of Qin’s long-term planning.

After finding the camp, Qi Hanzhou didn’t waste words. “The camp is very hidden, almost entirely in the deep mountains. Nearby, there’s a secret mine and a self-established weapons workshop. Ordinary activities are only mistaken for bandits or vagrant martial artists. According to local residents, it’s a bandit stronghold of about a hundred people.”

But in reality, it was different. The area was surrounded by mountains on all sides, and only a limited part of the stronghold was visible.

Upon closer investigation, there might be caves or other dwellings nestled between the mountains and rivers.

“After my reconnaissance, I estimate that the camp can hide at most ten thousand elite soldiers,” Qi Hanzhou circled an area on the Western Shu map, a place that wasn’t even clearly marked. “But given the amount the Fei family embezzled, ten thousand is too few.”

Ying Fusheng looked up. The hidden camp might not be just one.

Although local princes and marquises held military power, in the current Dayuan dynasty, the northern border was under the Qi family, the southern border under Old General Chen, and the capital region under the Lu family. These three military forces combined could easily suppress princes like Prince of Qin. To incite local princes to rebel while the hidden hand aimed to reap the benefits, a mere ten thousand soldiers would not be enough.

“So, in the court session, you did it on purpose.” Ying Fusheng raised an eyebrow slightly.

Qi Hanzhou nodded. “And His Majesty also had the same thought.”

It was no longer a few years ago when the Emperor could easily depose the Crown Prince and eliminate the Xu family. Back then, the interests in the court were intertwined, and things wouldn’t collapse too quickly.

But now, dealing with two princes was no small matter. Behind them were powerful families and factions. Killing both princes and eliminating those associated with them would actually play into the hidden hand’s plan. With an unstable court and internal strife, two fronts would be left vulnerable. That would mean more than just suppressing rebellion...

So before returning to the capital, Qi Hanzhou had sent a message to Ji Wuming to coordinate internally and externally. They had to expose the matter in the court session. On one hand, it would unveil part of the secret faction in the court; on the other, it would force Prince of Qin’s faction to act first. By using this to bluff, they could first find other collaborators in the court, and second, deduce other hidden camps through Prince of Qin’s movements.

The Imperial Guard and the Light Garment Guard were now monitoring various parts of Western Shu. The hidden hand was too good at escaping. If they couldn’t catch them all at once, any move would only alert the snake.

Ying Fusheng pondered this. “Now that the court has suppressed the secret faction, how much can the Imperial Guard achieve?”

“His Majesty has ordered that everyone present in the Court of Judicial Review that day be placed under surveillance. Besides the Imperial Guard, there are also the censors from the Censorate watching,” Qi Hanzhou said. He understood better than anyone the current Emperor’s goal—to purge the court and eliminate the traitors. “But the difficulty now probably lies in the Ministry of Revenue.”

Behind the Ministry of Revenue were the Yun family and Prince Yongjia. With the Eldest Prince’s faction dismantled, they would try to elevate the Seventh Prince.

But in this incident in the capital, the Second Prince’s target wasn’t the Eldest Prince but the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry of Personnel had been purged of over a dozen officials, and it was only thanks to Meng Jinyuan that there wasn’t major chaos. But if the Emperor moved against the Eldest Prince’s faction now, it would inevitably lead to disaster.

“The Ministry of Revenue probably knows now that behind the Eldest Prince’s incident, there’s the hidden hand at work. But they’ve also been schemed against by the hidden hand. The Yun family will realize that besides Song Yu, there might be other moles.” Ying Fusheng knew they could only wait for Ji Wuming to capture Song Yu and decide the next steps. But it was almost certain that they had already seized the initiative.

Still, Ying Fusheng felt uneasy. The hidden hand’s plan was too vast.

Just as Ying Fusheng was changing his tactics, the hidden hand was also adapting.

A headache began to throb in Ying Fusheng’s forehead. He couldn’t help but massage his temples.

“Before His Majesty decides to send troops to Western Shu, the hidden dangers in the court are one problem. There’s another urgent issue,” Qi Hanzhou noticed his movement and paused before continuing. “Is the true mastermind behind this secret faction Prince of Qin?”

Ying Fusheng looked at him, his voice slightly hoarser than usual. “I don’t think so.”

Qi Hanzhou said, “Then the number of soldiers might not be certain.”

He pointed to a region on the map and indicated all the places he believed could harbor bandit soldiers, cautioning, “No matter how complex the terrain of Western Shu is, it’s impossible to hide soldiers completely from the sky. The emperor is far away, and the court can’t deal with bandits in time. But over the years, there have been no reports of bandits in Western Shu reaching the capital. Is the Western Shu government inactive, or are they complicit in covering it up? If so, is the hidden hand colluding with Prince of Qin to raise bandit soldiers? Is it the hidden hand raising them, or Prince of Qin?”

Ying Fusheng thought along with Qi Hanzhou’s words.

Who the hidden hand was determined how many soldiers were behind this chess game and whether there were unforeseen backup plans. A single misstep could lead to internal rebellion, affecting the people. Ying Fusheng knew that from now on, he couldn’t afford a single wrong move.

The funds embezzled by the Fei family of Jiangnan, the layout formed by the Xu family and the deposed Crown Prince in the court—if no one had noticed the hidden hand’s movements in nearly twenty years, then the elite soldiers he had raised in Western Shu would be enough to rebel. But he hadn’t rebelled. Instead, he had initially tried to use the deposed Crown Prince to change the dynasty. That meant the hidden hand was still wary of Dayuan’s military power.

If he feared military power, it meant he didn’t have enough soldiers.

If Prince of Qin was truly the hidden hand, with his position in Western Shu and twenty years of amassing wealth and troops, he would have enough soldiers to rebel.

But since the hidden hand’s actions leaned toward inciting internal strife, it could only mean one thing: he feared military power, which meant he lacked sufficient troops.

So the result could only be that when the hidden hand realized the snow disaster in Jiangnan and Prince Jin’s loss of control, he decided to use the Fei family to draw Prince of Qin into the game. One, to use the Jiangnan officialdom to suppress Prince Jin; two, to use Prince of Qin to gain convenience in Western Shu. Because he needed to raise troops in Western Shu, which was Prince of Qin’s territory. If bandits increased, Prince of Qin would inevitably suppress them. But if Prince of Qin was also raising bandits, then the bandits could exist legitimately.

Thinking of this, Ying Fusheng’s gaze involuntarily fell on the map.

In an instant, his memories became chaotic. What exactly happened in the later stages of his past life? The results deduced step by step now were in line with expectations. In his past life, the Qi family rebelled. His initial speculation was that the only prince in the court whom he could support was the Second Prince... Now, upon closer thought, he had missed one step in this chess move: the local princes and marquises.

If the mastermind truly ensured the Second Prince's ascension, then they still needed to suppress Prince Jin and Prince of Qin, who held military power. The true picture of his past life might have been that after his death, the Deposed Crown Prince would ascend, Prince Jin would be deposed by the Fei family in Jiangnan, inciting Prince of Qin to rebel... The Qi family would then suppress the rebellion in the south, allowing the Second Prince to ascend smoothly.

That was the mastermind's complete plan for dynastic change.

By resolving the threat of local princes and marquises to centralize power, the Fei family would stabilize the gentry, the Qi family would remain loyal to the Imperial Power, and the Second Prince would sit firmly on the throne without any worries.

"I miscalculated. Prince of Qin could only be one move, and that move likely occurred before the Jiangnan snow disaster." Ying Fusheng realized belatedly that if this were true, the situation in Western Shu might be even more complicated than he had anticipated.

What else from his past life had he overlooked?

Ying Fusheng could not stop thinking further, trying to peel back the layers of fog to find the clues and details he had missed. If this were true, the mastermind might have another move. Where could it be? The identity of the Second Prince, whom the mastermind had painstakingly supported, must be unusual. Was the Second Prince a true prince? Or was he a changeling? What was the background of Concubine Xian, who was born in Jiangnan?

No, this needed to be sorted out.

Ying Fusheng's head throbbed with pain. In an instant, countless images flashed before his eyes: the howling wind in a desolate cold palace, a falcon soaring with its wings spread, Song An's admonitions in his ear, and Qi Hanzhou from his past life leaning over him, whispering softly when he was unconscious... These scenes turned into a nauseating surge of the smell of blood, and the memories of the past became terrifying fangs, ultimately transforming into the mad chaos of the past.

He could neither remember nor recall.

How did he go mad?

When it fell silent around them, Qi Hanzhou sensed something was wrong. He looked up and saw Ying Fusheng across the table, who had somehow fallen silent. He was lightly gathering his fox fur robe with one hand, staring straight at the map. His eyes seemed to churn with black waves. His face was pale, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead.

"Your Highness?"

Ying Fusheng did not respond.

A flicker of change passed through Qi Hanzhou's eyes. He immediately grasped Ying Fusheng's wrist, but the other man seemed trapped in a nightmare, unable to come back to his senses.

"Your Highness?" He called several times but got no response.

The pulse under his fingers was racing, but his breathing was shallow and erratic, as if an invisible hand were strangling his throat.

Qi Hanzhou leaned forward, clasping the back of Ying Fusheng's neck, his palm warm, pulling his gaze away from the map.

The container of chess pieces fell to the floor with a clatter, immediately alerting the chief Light Garment Guard at the door.

"Ying Fusheng, look at me!" Qi Hanzhou said in a low voice.

Ying Fusheng shuddered violently. His pupils contracted sharply as he suddenly snapped back to reality. The scenes before him blurred—Qi Hanzhou's face so close now merged with the man who had whispered softly in the dark of his past life. Instinctively, he gripped Qi Hanzhou's sleeve, his knuckles white, his voice hoarse: "...What were you going to tell me back then?"

Qi Hanzhou was stunned. "What?"

Ying Fusheng looked down blankly, unconsciously clutching the other man tightly.

"...What were you going to tell me back then?"