Chapter 96

This steward Lin is also a bold and skilled individual.

Back in the day, when he heard Feng Liwu studying diligently on his own behind the cold palace walls, he was convinced that Feng Liwu was destined for greatness.

Despite the risk of being reported or ostracized, he still went out of his way to help Feng Liwu.

As for what else he did to assist the Crown Prince later on, that remains unknown.

In any case, this man played a high-stakes game and eventually secured his prestigious position in the Crown Prince’s residence.

When steward Lin heard Jiang Xiurun’s suggestion, he knew it was the best way to buy time for the Crown Prince.

Gritting his teeth, he said, “I’ll arrange it right away… But even if we come up with an excuse for when the pregnancy becomes noticeable, it’s still not real. The Emperor won’t be fooled!”

Jiang Xiurun rubbed her temples and whispered, “After all, this is the Crown Prince’s family matter. What happens next will be up to him. There’s only so much you and I can do. We mustn’t overstep. Our goal is simply to protect the Empress’s reputation.”

Steward Lin thought this made sense.

After Cao Xi received the wax-sealed message, she never heard from the Empress again.

Eventually, she wasn’t even allowed to enter the palace.

Even if she wanted to send the Empress some abortifacient, it would be too late.

The priority now was to find an excuse to prevent the scandal of the Empress’s infidelity from spreading throughout the court.

So steward Lin left without waiting for the Crown Prince.

However, this meant Jiang Xiurun couldn’t return to the capital.

She had to stay and wait for Feng Liwu to return so she could personally explain the situation to him.

If Feng Liwu didn’t agree with her approach, it would be easy enough to handle—he could simply send a message via carrier pigeon to his trusted agents in the capital to stop the plan.

Nine days later, the collapsed earthen bridges were finally repaired, and Feng Liwu, who had been trapped in the mountain valley, was able to leave.

Most of the bandits had been killed, and the rest had fled, no longer a threat.

Feng Liwu immediately interrogated the bandit leader and learned that the bandits were actually from three different mountain strongholds.

They had been hired with a large sum of money to dig up the riverbanks and cause trouble according to someone else’s plan.

In fact, they knew nothing.

Even the location where they were to dig up the riverbank had been sent to them in a secret message at the last moment.

Hearing this, Feng Liwu’s heart sank.

Since the surrounding counties were unharmed and he had already deployed troops to guard against the bandits’ return, he could rest assured and return to the capital.

However, he couldn’t figure out who had set up this elaborate ruse to keep him occupied here.

When he returned to the city, he was surprised to find that Jiang Xiurun hadn’t left yet.

She was waiting for him at the city gate.

Jiang Xiurun had been on edge these past few days, constantly worried that something might happen to Feng Liwu.

Now, seeing the Crown Prince on the carriage—though he looked a bit disheveled, with mud staining his shoes and the hem of his robe—he seemed spirited and unharmed.

Her anxiety eased somewhat, but another worry remained: how would Feng Liwu react when he heard about the scandal involving his mother?

After getting off the carriage, Feng Liwu walked over to her.

Since she was dressed as a man, he couldn’t wrap his arm around her waist, so he settled for patting her head.

“Weren’t you in a hurry to go back? Why haven’t you left after all these days?”

Thinking she might have stayed because she couldn’t bear to leave him, Feng Liwu felt a sweet warmth in his heart.

Jiang Xiurun forced a smile and whispered, “Please come inside with me, Your Highness. We need to talk.”

Once they were inside the temporary residence arranged by the local government, Jiang Xiurun told him about steward Lin’s visit and the letter he had delivered.

She also showed Feng Liwu the letter from concubine Cao.

To spare the Crown Prince any embarrassment, Jiang Xiurun excused herself to the outer room while he read the letter, rummaging through the chest for clothes he could change into after washing up.

Before long, the sound of a table being overturned and dishes shattering came from the inner room.

Qian’er, hearing the commotion outside, poked her head in, worried that her mistress might be in trouble.

But she saw Jiang Xiurun standing in the outer room, waving her hand to signal Qian’er not to come in.

The sounds of things being smashed continued in the inner room, while Jiang Xiurun lingered in the outer room, slowly going through the chest and adding rosewater to the washbasin drop by drop.

When the noise finally subsided, Feng Liwu’s cold voice called out, “Come in!” Jiang Xiurun picked up the washbasin and walked into the inner room.

The scene inside was one of utter chaos, as if a storm had swept through.

The floor was littered with debris, leaving no space to step.

Feng Liwu’s expression, however, showed no trace of the violence that had just destroyed the room.

He looked as calm and stoic as ever.

He pointed to the letter and asked, “Do you think this is true?”

Jiang Xiurun handed him a damp towel to wipe his face, then cleared a spot on the floor to kneel and sit.

“The affairs of the Emperor and Empress are beyond my knowledge. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t matter. What matters is preventing the Emperor from using this to his advantage.”

She then explained the plan she had discussed with steward Lin.

Feng Liwu said nothing.

Instead, he pulled Jiang Xiurun into an embrace, burying his head in her chest like a child.

After a moment of silence, he said in a hoarse voice, “Sometimes, I wish I had been born from a rock, with no parents, no attachments…”

Jiang Xiurun felt a dampness on her lap, and her heart ached with an indescribable sorrow.

She had felt this way before.

In her past life, when she and her brother were sent to Luo’an by their father and left to fend for themselves, and when her brother jumped from the city walls, she had also resented heaven for giving them such a father.

This kind of helplessness was something she couldn’t share with others, yet it weighed heavily on her heart.

So she offered no words of comfort, nor did she bother with platitudes about filial piety.

Instead, she gently stroked his head and said, “The boat will straighten itself when it reaches the bridge. The Emperor and Empress have been at odds for a long time. This is just a public spectacle for the officials. It’s not a big deal.”

Jiang Xiurun’s voice was soft and soothing, her words calm and measured, which helped steady Feng Liwu’s emotions.

When he finally pulled away from her embrace, aside from the slight redness in the corners of his eyes, he showed no other signs of distress.

Though he had lost control earlier when smashing things, he was now calm enough to think about how to clean up the mess his mother had made.

At this point, if his father was waiting for his mother’s pregnancy to become noticeable, he must have already taken control of her daily life, making it impossible for her to abort the child.

It was also clear who had orchestrated the bandit disturbances.

His father’s reach was far indeed.

Since he had planned to delay things, he must have intended to confront the Empress and the Wei family in court before Feng Liwu could return to the capital.

As for whether the Empress’s affair was real… Feng Liwu thought of Mao Yunsheng, the chief steward who had slept with the wives and concubines of local gentry in the countryside.

It was now clear that this man was still intact below, and the Empress had indeed enjoyed his services.

As a son and subject, Feng Liwu had noticed some clues, and though he wasn’t close to his mother, he had never wanted to think of her in such a disgraceful light—unless he caught her in the act.

But now it seemed his mother was exactly as he had feared, and worse, she had been careless enough to let things come to this.

Was she a foolish country woman? How could she let it get to the point where her pregnancy was almost showing?

As for Jiang Xiurun’s proposed solution, it was the best they could do under the circumstances.

The Emperor and Empress had been at odds for a long time.

If they claimed that the child was conceived during a rare moment of intimacy, but the Emperor, in his drunkenness, later denied it and slandered the Empress, the story would flow smoothly.

The Duke of Wei, Wei Zhong, would know how to handle the situation once he learned of his daughter’s disgrace.

He would rally the old ministers to argue her case in court.

As long as the imperial records showed that the Emperor and Empress had been alone together, it wouldn’t matter whether the Emperor had undone his belt—he couldn’t simply slander her without evidence.

The problem, however, was Mao Yunsheng, the adulterer. Everyone knew he was the Empress’s trusted confidant, and it was likely that the Emperor had already taken control of him. If Mao were to be stripped and displayed in public, the Empress would have no way to clear her name.

Feng Liwu quickly found brush and paper amidst the wreckage, wrote a message on a piece of silk, and sent it via carrier pigeon to his trusted agents in Luo’an, instructing them to investigate Mao Yunsheng’s whereabouts.

Then, without delay, he set off for the capital with Jiang Xiurun.

Because the matter was urgent, Feng Liwu abandoned the carriage halfway and switched to a fast horse, riding ahead alone.

Though Jiang Xiurun could ride, she couldn’t keep up with Feng Liwu’s relentless pace, so she followed behind in the carriage.

By the time she returned to Luo’an, Feng Liwu had already been there for five days.

However, he didn’t enter the capital immediately.

Instead, he went to the military camp outside the city.

Just before Feng Liwu returned to Luo’an, Emperor Duanqing had indeed made the first move in court.

He issued an edict of self-reproach, lamenting his failure to oversee the imperial harem and allowing the licentious Empress to bring chaos to the palace, bringing shame to his ancestors.

When the edict was read aloud, the officials were stunned, exchanging bewildered glances, unsure of how to respond.

However, Duke Wei, Wei Zhong, had been forewarned and had prepared meticulously for this day.

His daughter’s grave mistake could bring disaster to the entire Wei family if mishandled.

He regretted spoiling her too much, failing to discipline her properly, and allowing her to develop such a willful and reckless temperament.

Not only had she lost the Emperor’s favor, but she had also brought calamity upon the Wei family and the Crown Prince.

Now, he had to throw away his pride and insist that the Emperor had taken advantage of the Empress and was now slandering her reputation.

So when the edict was finished, and the Empress, with her slightly protruding belly, was brought into the court, the officials were at a loss.

But Duke Wei stepped forward, demanding to see the Emperor’s daily records to clear his daughter’s name.

Emperor Duanqing, having prepared for this moment, was unafraid.

He hadn’t visited the Empress in years, so he had nothing to fear.

When the thick volumes of daily records were brought in, Duke Wei invited several respected senior officials to verify them, carefully examining the entries from three or four months ago.

Finally, it was Grand Historian Li who spotted a crucial detail in the dense lines of small characters: “On the third day of the sixth month in summer, the Emperor drank heavily at the Marrow-Cleansing Palace. The Empress entered to bathe, came in through the front gate, stayed for three quarters of an hour, and then left, supported by palace maids, appearing languid.”

The Marrow-Cleansing Palace was the residence of the Emperor’s beloved concubine—Feng Wu’s mother, Concubine Meng.

The Emperor had gifted her this palace, which had the only natural hot spring in the palace, because he loved her smooth skin.

After Concubine Meng was executed, the palace became a bathing annex for the Empress, who would occasionally visit to soak and spite the spirit of her deceased rival.

The day recorded in the daily logs happened to be the anniversary of Concubine Meng’s death.

The Emperor had gone there to drink and mourn his lost love.

The Empress had also gone that day, not to bathe, but to provoke the Emperor.

However, the historian who recorded the events must have had a stroke of madness, because despite the fact that the Emperor and Empress had a heated argument that day, every word in the daily records oozed with ambiguity and suggestion!