Ch95 - Conspiracy

“Xiao Si died prematurely?” Jing Shao was startled when he heard this, and stood up.

Duo Fu wrinkled his steamed bun face. “It has already been reported to the imperial palace.”

“No, I have to go to Rui Wang’s residence!” Jing Shao said, and was about to change his clothes.

“You’re still forbidden from going out. How can you go? I’ll go.” Mu Hanzhang held him back. The fourth prince was setting out on the campaign tomorrow. At this time, if Jing Shao ran out of the house regardless of the emperor’s orders, some ugly rumors might spread. 

Jing Shao was silent for a moment, and slowly clenched his fists. How could he have forgotten this? At that time, he was still fighting outside, and he didn’t hear anything about his brother having a fourth son in Emperor Hong Zheng’s 14th year. He thought it was his rebirth that had led to some changes; thinking about it now, it was probably the second son of his brother’s official wife who had been born in Hong Zheng’s 16th year back then. That second son didn’t even live to turn a year old. At that time, he had been in the capital to recover; he had heard the news, but didn’t go, and his relationship with his brother began to worsen further after that.

“No, I have to go.” In spite of everyone’s dissuasion, Jing Shao got up and went into the inner room.

Mu Hanzhang pressed his lips together, turned around, quickly wrote a letter, and handed it to Duo Fu. “Send it to the palace immediately.”

Duo Fu agreed and took the letter before he left. His usually clumsy short legs unexpectedly moved at lightning speed. He was a eunuch from the palace; besides his two masters, he was the only one who could enter the palace directly. If he wanted to deliver the letter to the emperor immediately, he had to go there himself.

Mu Hanzhang looked at Duo Fu’s back and shook his head. It seemed that it wasn’t that this guy couldn’t walk fast, but that he was just too lazy on normal days.

The two people changed clothes. Jing Shao, holding his Wang Fei, mounted Xiao Hei, and quickly galloped out.

Rui Wang’s residence wasn’t far from Cheng Wang’s residence. He arrived at the gate not long after.

The guard in front of the gate came forward to salute them, and the steward came to welcome them in a hurry. 

“Where’s my brother?” Jing Shao threw the reins to a servant and immediately walked in.

“Wang Ye is in the Wang Fei’s courtyard.” The steward’s face was worried. Seeing that Jing Shao was about to go into the inner residence, he stopped him and invited him to go to the main courtyard to have a rest. He said that Jing Chen would come out soon.

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The official wife of the Rui Wang was a woman, so Jing Chen had his own courtyard. The two sat in the main hall, and the maid poured tea before retreating politely. After a short time, Jing Chen came in and saw Jing Shao in the room. At first, he was stunned. The coldness on his face suddenly subsided a lot. “Why did you come?”

“When he heard that something happened, Wang Ye ran out in spite of everything,” Mu Hanzhang said helplessly.

“Making trouble!” Jing Chen glared at Jing Shao and sat down.

Jing Shao took a look at his wife telling on him to his older brother, but he didn’t dare be angry or say a thing. “Brother, why did Xiao Si suddenly pass?” 

Jing Chen sighed and rubbed his temple. “The imperial physician said that he had a congenital deficiency. He was burning up these last few days; we weren’t able to treat it, and he passed this morning.”

Mu Hanzhang remembered what his mother had said. Rui Wang Fei seemed to have blindly put all her faith in an old nun. He took a look at Jing Shao and was about to say something. Suddenly, he heard a loud noise. Rui Wang Fei, the hair on her forehead in disarray, rushed in, followed by a group of flustered servants.

Consort Xiao came in and saw Jing Shao. She immediately stopped and looked fixedly at Jing Shao for a long time.

“What else do you have to say?” Jing Chen looked at Consort Xiao coldly, turned to the servants behind him and said, “What are you doing? Hurry up and send the Wang Fei back. You are not allowed to step out of the courtyard without Benwang’s order!” 

“Wang Ye!” Consort Xiao looked at Jing Chen in shock, but her good upbringing didn’t allow her to shriek. She just trembled a little with anger, and she turned away stiffly to leave.

Jing Shao was stared at for no reason; he didn’t understand what had just happened.

Jing Chen also didn’t want to explain. He said to them, “Even if there was a reason, you better hurry back. I’ll send imperial father a letter as well.”

On the way back, Jing Shao’s knitted eyebrows never relaxed. What happened in Rui Wang’s residence was very strange. Why did Consort Xiao stare at him? What was the meaning behind his brother’s words? 

“If I’ve guessed correctly, Rui Wang Fei was definitely telling brother something regarding you.” Mu Hanzhang saw that Jing Shao was absentminded, as Xiao Hei had almost walked to a vegetable stall to chew on cabbage. He took the reins unhurriedly from Jing Shao’s hands.

“Say what about me? If I didn’t go, would she claim that I caused Xiao Si’s death?” Jing Shao’s brow furrowed even deeper when he heard this. Seeing his brother’s appearance, the latter didn’t seem to doubt him. On the contrary, his sister-in-law’s behavior was really confusing.

“She’s unlikely to go as far as that.” Mu Hanzhang gently kicked the horse’s stomach to get Xiao Hei to go faster. “Maybe something like saying his legitimate son died young, yet you didn’t even bother to show your face and so on.”

“Does she even have the heart to say that?” Jing Shao was a little surprised. Her son had just died prematurely. Looking at Consort Xiao, she also appeared very heartbroken; would she still pay attention to the etiquette other people showed at such a time? 

A sneer rose on Mu Hanzhang’s lips. That definitely wasn’t what Consort Xiao really thought in her heart. Given Jing Chen’s temper, however, she didn’t dare say what she truly thought, and could only count on picking a reasonable excuse to criticize Jing Shao. “There’s something strange about this matter; we will have to investigate it.”

Jing Shao nodded. He also wanted to know why Consort Xiao would target him. It was also like this in his last life. At that time, however, he blamed everything on his brother. He thought that the Wang Fei’s attitude reflected his brother’s intentions. Now that he saw it clearly for himself, he had to get to the bottom of it.

The next day, the fourth prince went off to battle, and Emperor Hong Zheng himself went to the gates to see him off. The fourth prince, dressed in armor, left with his soldiers in high spirits, as if victory was in sight.

Emperor Hong Zheng stood at the high gates, looking profoundly at the army that was getting further and further away. 

“Emperor, evidence of the Assistant Minister of Rites embezzling and accepting bribes has been found,” an official whispered behind him.

“Cut it off first,” said Emperor Hong Zheng. His expression didn’t change, but a severe look flashed through his eyes. “Whatever you can get to the bottom of, investigate properly for Zhen.”

“Yes,” the man answered and retreated slowly.

Emperor Hong Zheng didn’t investigate the matter of Cheng Wang leaving his palace in violation of the emperor’s orders. In view of the fact that the imperial family had just lost a grandson, the courtiers didn’t dare make an issue of it, so after trying to put together a scheme, they just gave up. 

Without the fourth prince in court, everything seemed much calmer. Emperor Hong Zheng took out the regulations for maritime trade written by Mu Hanzhang and gave them to everyone to read. For a period of time, the court was full of discussion and seemed to become lively again.

The court officials of the conservative faction naturally objected to it. They thought it was meaningless to neglect the root and pursue the tip (focus on foreign trade rather than domestic). Some officials who were born in the south near the sea knew more, so quite a few people thought it would be a good thing. A few senior officials didn’t say anything, but took the regulations back to study further.

—

“Dead?” Mu Hanzhang’s eyes widened in surprise. 

Jing Shao nodded. He had listened to his Wang Fei’s words and went to investigate the old nun Mo Bei’s Jade Cloud Nunnery. Unexpectedly, by the time the people he sent arrived, the old nun had already hung herself in her room.

“This is truly revealing what they intended to hide.” Mu Hanzhang pressed his lips together. In this way, the situation in Rui Wang’s palace really had something to do with this nun, but now that the person was dead, they wouldn’t be able to get an answer for their questions.

“This is from questioning the little nun.” Jing Shao put a confession statement and a yellow paper package on the table.

Confession? Mu Hanzhang picked up the paper to read; on it were details of the number of times Mo Bei had gone in and out of Rui Wang’s palace, and what she did. The little nun didn’t know much about it. It was likely Mo Bei who had advised Rui Wang Fei to buy those wicks for altar lamps and offer this and that incense. It seemed that the little nun Jing Shao had caught had served Mo Bei closely. Whenever Mo Bei talked to Consort Xiao, however, she always drove the little nun out the door, so the nun didn’t know what was said. 

“What is this?” Mu Hanzhang took the thing wrapped in yellow paper and opened it. There was some powder inside. It looked like incense ash.

“This is the ‘panacea’ which Mo Bei gave Xiao Si.” Jing Shao sneered as he spoke; the little nun thought that the medicine which her great mistress gave an imperial grandson had to be extraordinary, so she took advantage of Mo Bei’s carelessness to steal a bag, which Jing Shao had now confiscated.

Mu Hanzhang poured half of the powder into a small porcelain bottle, and wrapped the other half back in the yellow paper. “Xiao Shao, I don’t think we should hide this from brother.”

Jing Shao frowned. He wanted to get to the bottom of this matter himself. After all, this was all just speculation, and brother had to be grieving after losing his young son. Before Jing Shao was able to fully investigate it, wouldn’t talking about it rashly just be stabbing his brother in the heart? 

Mu Hanzhang put the small porcelain bottlee away, got up, took Jing Shao’s hand, and stuffed the yellow paper package into it. “This matter isn’t that simple. No matter the purpose of the person behind it, I dare say that I’m almost certain inciting disharmony between you brothers is only half of it.”

Jing Shao suddenly raised his head. “What do you mean?”

“We can’t find someone to test whether this medicine is something that killed Xiao Si or not,” said Mu Hanzhang, holding Jing Shao’s hand. If people knew about this matter, then they wouldn’t be able to get any clear answers. “Listen to me: hand this medicine and that little nun over to brother.”

They were now at the heart of the struggle. If they didn’t cherish this brotherhood, who would be willing to wade through such muddy waters? Given Jing Chen’s wisdom, he would be able to understand his younger brother’s sincerity. As long as the two brothers were united, nothing else mattered. 

After hearing this, Jing Shao looked distracted for a moment before he gradually clenched the yellow paper package in his hand. If he let others ruin his relationship with his brother again, then his rebirth would have all been for naught.

When Jing Chen received the powder and the confession, he didn’t speak for a long time. He gave Jing Shao a deep look. “The imperial physician tested this medicine already when it was given to Xiao Si before.”

Jing Shao was stunned for a while, then scratched his head. “I just think Mo Bei dying is very suspicious; I still haven’t been able to fully investigate it.”

Jing Chen looked at him for a long time, then slowly reached out and rubbed Jing Shao’s head. 

Half a month later, the fourth prince arrived in Jiangnan.

The Jiangnan terrain was flat and had few natural defenses; it was easy to attack but hard to defend. But Jing Yu forgot that if he knew this, so did the Huainan King. Therefore, before the fourth prince’s army had even settled down in their camp, the Huainan army took the initiative to attack.