Chapter 8
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The scholars would gather in the capital at the end of winter, and the following year, the spring would bring the imperial examination supervised by the Ministry of Rites. Since Chu Wei was going to participate in this examination, his father would certainly have to avoid any involvement.
These days, the morning court sessions were all discussing the examination in early March. Gu Yuanbai and the other ministers set the tone for the examination, determining the proportions of the examination in classics, policy essays, mathematics, poetry, law, and miscellaneous essays. The chief examiner for the examination would be a principal examiner and three vice examiners, all appointed by high-ranking officials of the first and second ranks. The examination would be proctored by eighteen examiners, and the Ministry of Rites had submitted a list of candidates, which was selected by Gu Yuanbai.
After the morning court session, Gu Yuanbai received the list. He needed to select the candidates as soon as possible. Three days later, these candidates would be escorted by the imperial guards and locked in the Imperial Examination Hall.
The selection of examiners was also a matter of importance. Although they were all imperial scholars, the chief examiners of the provincial and metropolitan examinations still held prestigious titles. This selection was also a matter of face. It was about the background of the Jinshi (successful candidates in the imperial examination) and the emperor’s trust. Gu Yuanbai was willing to advance someone further or keep someone’s position stable, and this was where he could make a difference.
After he had selected the candidates, the imperial kitchen also sent food. Since he had ordered a bowl of Zhajiangmian (noodles with fried sauce) last time, the imperial kitchen seemed to have discovered a hundred different uses for different sauces. Their meat sauce was delicious, and it alone made the meal extremely appetizing.
Gu Yuanbai’s appetite hadn’t been very good these days. No matter how much effort the imperial kitchen put into the food, he only ate a few bites before putting down his chopsticks. He ordered the food to be removed and prepared to take a nap after washing up.
He instructed Tian Fusheng to wake him up in an hour, and Gu Yuanbai fell into a deep sleep. But he hadn’t expected that he would be awakened by violent shaking just as he had fallen asleep.
Opening his eyes, Gu Yuanbai saw Tian Fusheng’s face covered in tears, his voice trembling as he said, “Your Majesty, Wan Taifei is seriously ill.”
***
In a village outside the capital.
Gu Yuanbai walked out of the house filled with medicinal smells and looked at the lonely withered tree in the courtyard, feeling a bit desolate.
Beside him, Tian Fusheng and the palace attendants were already crying with their faces covered. The imperial physician followed beside the emperor’s left side, whispering the diagnosis result.
Wan Taifei was a concubine of the late emperor.
She was also Gu Yuanbai’s mother’s little sister.
Gu Yuanbai’s mother passed away early, and in order to protect Gu Yuanbai, her family sent Wan Taifei into the palace. Wan Taifei, in order to treat Gu Yuanbai as her own son, personally took infertility drugs. Throughout her life, she paved the way for Gu Yuanbai.
The mysterious death of Gu Yuanbai’s mother was also gradually unraveled by Wan Taifei in the palace. She sought revenge for him, and whether it was the former young emperor or the current Gu Yuanbai, they both treated Wan Taifei as if she were their own mother.
After the late emperor’s death, Gu Yuanbai originally wanted to take care of Wan Taifei in the palace, but Wan Taifei insisted on leaving the palace. She didn’t want to die within the confines of the palace.
Gu Yuanbai moved her to this villa, but even meticulous care couldn’t stop the passage of time.
Wan Taifei was old and had lost her spirit. She wanted to die.
Gu Yuanbai looked at the gray sky, feeling as if an invisible hand was squeezing his heart. His nose was tingling, but his eyes were dry.
“Let’s go.”
The carriage bumped and swayed on the uneven road. The villa gradually faded away, and Tian Fusheng had already wiped away the tears from his face, anxiously and cautiously serving Gu Yuanbai in the carriage.
Gu Yuanbai leaned back on the soft cushion, staring blankly at the scenery outside the carriage until it entered the capital. He then called for it to stop, got off the carriage, and walked towards the palace on foot.
The capital was bustling with people, and several children ran past laughing with sugar figures in their hands. Gu Yuanbai stopped and watched these children.
Men in coarse cloth and linen clothes were working by the street, while women were busy with household chores. Men, women, young, and old were all busy making a living.
However, more importantly, there were groups of scholars everywhere. In bookstores and tea houses, there were many scholars who came to participate in the imperial examination. They were either excited or nervous, discussing the upcoming examination loudly.
Gu Yuanbai didn’t know what he was thinking. His guards and palace attendants behind him didn’t know either.
They just silently followed this young emperor, keeping an eye on everything around them.
There were many high-ranking officials and nobles in the capital, but Gu Yuanbai’s group didn’t attract much attention. Gu Yuanbai regained his composure, continued walking forward, but just as he took a few steps, snowflakes suddenly fell before his eyes.
“Ah! It’s snowing, Daddy!”
“It’s snowing!”
The surrounding children’s joyful voices rang out one after another. Gu Yuanbai chuckled and shook his head. Tian Fusheng quickly draped a fox fur over him. “My lord, should we get back on the carriage?”
“Let’s walk a little longer,” Gu Yuanbai said. “I haven’t seen the snow in the capital for a long time.”
The February snowflakes in the capital danced like goose feathers. The chief guard held up an umbrella for the emperor, and the white snowflakes slid off the edge of the umbrella, some even landing on the emperor’s hair and clothes.
They passed by taverns and tea houses, and on the second floor of the Zhuangyuan Building, Xue Yuan leaned against the window, shaking a alcohol bottle. When he lowered his head, he saw this group of people.
The emperor’s face was covered under the umbrella, but Tian Fusheng and the chief guard’s faces were familiar. Xue Yuan shook the alcohol and reached out of the window. When the group passed by his window, he loosened his fingers one by one.
“Kacha—”
The alcohol bottle shattered not far behind Gu Yuanbai. The guards immediately tensed their bodies and looked up fiercely at the building.
Gu Yuanbai pushed away the umbrella, and with his view unobstructed, he looked up. At the second-floor window, a hand was casually resting there. Without much thought, Gu Yuanbai knew that the owner of this hand was the one who threw the bottle of alcohol that almost hit him.
With a smile on his lips, Gu Yuanbai’s voice was as cold as the snowflakes, “Bring him down.”
A moment later, the drunk Xue Yuan was brought down from the Zhuangyuan Building by the guards. The snow was falling heavily, and the umbrella was of little use. Gu Yuanbai had already instructed the chief guard to put away the useless umbrella. Standing alone in the cold wind for a while, he had accumulated quite a bit of snow on his body.
Xue Yuan was brought to Gu Yuanbai’s side, and when Gu Yuanbai saw him, he continued to smile. “So, it’s General Xue’s young master.”
Tian Fusheng said, “My lord, should we send Young Master Xue back to General Xue’s mansion?”
As they spoke, Xue Yuan hiccupped and leaned in to look at Gu Yuanbai for a moment before saying, “Your Majesty?!”
Gu Yuanbai silently looked at him. Snowflakes adorned his hair, fox fur, and even his eyelashes, but these snowflakes on him didn’t immediately melt away. In contrast, Xue Yuan was clean, and the snowflakes on him had already turned into water vapor by the heat emitted from his body before they even touched the ground.
Seeing this, Gu Yuanbai’s mood worsened.
No emperor would be in a good mood in front of someone who would potentially seize his power in the future and who was a hundred times healthier than him.
Xue Yuan was like a biting dog. He didn’t bark normally, but he was vicious and fierce, with extremely low morals, only desire and power in his eyes. He was a good military commander, but such a courtier was like a blade without a handle. If someone wanted to use him, they had to be prepared to lose a hand.
Chu Wei, Gu Yuanbai dared to fool around with, but not Xue Yuan.
Gu Yuanbai looked at the shattered alcohol bottle on the ground. “What’s going on?”
Xue Yuan grinned, reeking of alcohol. He looked at the broken pieces on the ground and pretended to be confused. “How did my alcohol get here?”
Tian Fusheng covered his nose and throat. “My lord, Young Master Xue seems to be drunk.”
Gu Yuanbai suddenly laughed. He walked to the shards on the ground and stood still. The guards escorting Xue Yuan also brought him over. Xue Yuan looked relaxed, walking slowly, and it didn’t look like the guards were pressuring him, but rather serving him.
Snowflakes fell on the tip of his nose, causing a sudden itch. Gu Yuanbai coughed softly and hoarsely said, “Kneel down.”
The guards pressing down on Xue Yuan exerted force, firmly pressing his knees onto the sharp shards of porcelain scattered on the ground.
Large pieces of broken porcelain pierced into his flesh, and blood immediately flowed out, staining his pants and the ground. Snowflakes fell on the blood, quickly melting into water, causing the blood to spread even faster on the ground.
Xue Yuan’s perfunctory expression suddenly disappeared, and he looked up at Gu Yuanbai with a gloomy and unpredictable expression.
Gu Yuanbai gave him a gentle smile and suddenly grabbed his hair. He lowered his head and whispered into Xue Yuan’s ear, word by word, “I’m not in a good mood today, Young Master Xue. Don’t give me the opportunity to make your mother heartbroken, do you understand?”
Forced to lift his chin, Xue Yuan’s jaw tightened into a curve ready to strike at any moment. His scalp tingled as the words “mother” entered his ears, and he sneered coldly, “Yuan understands.”
“Very well,” Gu Yuanbai said.
He let go of Xue Yuan’s hair, and Xue Yuan tilted his head, watching the young emperor retreat with a pale smile. The pain in his knees gradually faded, but Xue Yuan’s whole body was burning.
He looked down at the wounds on his knees, grinned darkly, and waited until the emperor’s entourage had left before struggling to stand up, limping back to the Xue Mansion.
***
The first thing Gu Yuanbai did after entering the palace was to instruct the officials of the Supervision Bureau to send more people in while the Xue Mansion was recruiting.
As he expected, after Xue Yuan returned to his mansion, he conducted a thorough cleansing of the household, selling off all the servants who might be the emperor’s spies, and then bought in some people with clean backgrounds.
Xue Yuan and Chu Wei, the main characters, were the main focuses for Gu Yuanbai. There were twelve undercover agents in the Xue Mansion, and this time, seven were cleared out, leaving five behind. Perhaps they could take root and grow into towering trees.
Gu Yuanbai was quite satisfied with this result.
Walking back to the palace in the snowy weather, Gu Yuanbai’s shoes were already wet. Tian Fusheng couldn’t help but mutter as he helped Gu Yuanbai remove his shoes and socks, “Your Majesty, take care of your health.”
Gu Yuanbai looked down at his boots and smiled, “They’re wet.”
Tian Fusheng and the eunuchs and palace maids busied themselves, finally leaving a relieved sigh when they had cleaned up the emperor without any hint of coldness.
Sitting on the bed, the eunuch took away the mugwort foot-soaking water. The sky outside the window was already dark, but the lamps in the palace shone as brightly as daylight.
“Wan Taifei’s health is deteriorating,” Gu Yuanbai sighed softly. “The imperial physician told me she may not make it through the summer.”
Tian Fusheng massaged Gu Yuanbai’s shoulders. “Your Majesty, Wan Taifei doesn’t want you to be sad.”
“I know,” Gu Yuanbai said. “She’s worried I’ll be distressed.”
“Exactly, Your Majesty. Wan Taifei will be happy if she sees you remain strong,” Tian Fusheng said.
He didn’t say anything more. After his shoulders relaxed, he let Tian Fusheng and the others withdraw. He wanted to be alone for a while.
He had just started, just gained control of the court.
There were still many things left undone, many things that needed three to five years or even decades to verify.
Wan Taifei worried about him because she was afraid he would blame himself for her condition.
But in reality, Gu Yuanbai was grateful for this unexpected life, especially since this life had allowed him to experience sights he had never seen before.
Before going to sleep, Gu Yuanbai thought of Xue Yuan and Chu Wei.
He didn’t have any specific plans for these two main characters. Without Xue Yuan, there would be Wang Yuan, Li Yuan… The only reason for chaos was the emperor himself not doing well enough.
His life was limited, but whether it was Xue Yuan or Chu Wei, as the protagonists in the story, they would definitely develop Great Heng well. Perhaps they could inherit his aspirations and continue what he wanted to do.
But Xue Yuan was too disrespectful. Gu Yuanbai needed to figure out a way to tame this wild dog.
How could he make him obedient?
“Beat him up to make him feel the pain?”
**Author’s Note:** The gong threw the bottle on purpose as a test. The specific reason will be explained later in the text, as will the reason for his arrogance. Please be patient; explaining everything all at once would be too abrupt.
Make him afraid because of the emperor’s poor health? Make him feel pain because of the emperor?
Gu Yuanbai: Very well, you have successfully aroused my desire to conquer you :)
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