“Something’s happened?”
The Empress rose abruptly, looking at the eunuch kneeling beside her couch. Her expression was grave in the lamplight.
“The imperial doctors have all been summoned,” the eunuch whispered.
“Is it the Crown Prince or the Empress Dowager?” the empress asked.
The eunuch shook his head.
“The Empress Dowager’s quarters have already been placed under strict guard, and we are now forbidden to enter or leave,” he said in a hushed voice, tinged with fear.
The Empress stood up and gazed into the dark night outside. The night wind howled and swirled through the deep palace.
Inside the Empress Dowager’s quarters, the lights were ablaze.
Dozens of candles made the Crown Prince’s chamber as bright as day, but the light did not dispel the chill of the autumn night. Instead, it cast an even ghastlier pallor on everyone’s faces.
“What have the doctors found? Tell me!”
The Empress Dowager, her hair still unkempt, urgently demanded.
Inside the inner chamber, seven or eight imperial doctors were crowded together. One of them raised his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his forehead.
“Your Majesty, I fear our skills are insufficient to treat the Crown Prince’s illness…” he said through gritted teeth.
These words struck like a thunderbolt, leaving the Empress Dowager dizzy, her ears ringing. She staggered, collapsing into the arms of her attending ladies-in-waiting.
“What do you mean, insufficient?” she roared. “You examined the Crown Prince three times a day, always assuring us he was well. How can you suddenly be powerless now?”
The doctors fell to their knees, kowtowing as one, yet none could utter a coherent explanation.
“You should ask what these people gave His Highness the Crown Prince,” one doctor suddenly blurted out, clenching his teeth.
As soon as these words left his mouth, the eunuchs in the room turned ashen with terror.
“Your Majesty, how would we dare to give the Crown Prince anything without authorization? Everything he eats, drinks, and uses has been inspected and approved by the physicians,” the eunuchs cried out in unison.
Nothing but excuses and shifting blame – these people were utterly unreliable. The Empress Dowager pressed a hand to her head, pushed aside her maid, and stumbled forward until she stood before the Crown Prince’s bed.
On the bed, the Crown Prince gasped for breath, his face deathly pale. The blood from his nose and mouth had been wiped away, but the pillow and bedding remained stained and in disarray.
With each exhalation, the prince’s obese body convulsed violently, as if his next breath might be his last.
It’s over. It’s over. It’s all over.
A leaden weight sank in the Empress Dowager’s heart, and her legs felt weak beneath her.
She was an elder, and with one glance, she understood the truth.
She slumped to her knees beside the bed.
What can be done? What can possibly be done?
Tears welled up in the Empress Dowager’s eyes. She raised a hand to cover her face, ready to weep.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty… perhaps we should quickly summon Master Gao for consultation,” one eunuch suggested, his voice trembling.
“But if we summon Master Gao, the matter of the Crown Prince will be impossible to conceal,” another eunuch protested, equally shaken.
The imperial city’s gates, locked for the night, opening in the middle of the night to admit an outside official – the implications could not be clearer.
“What else can be done?” the Empress Dowager snapped. “How could this possibly be kept hidden? It’s merely a matter of who finds out sooner or later. I would rather Master Gao learn of it first than let others get wind of it.”
All the court officials looked down on her, a lonely old woman. Now, she could rely only on her own maternal family.
“Hurry, summon him at once.”
The imperial city gates swung open in the dead of night. Several eunuchs on horseback galloped out, the sharp clatter of hooves piercing the silence, awakening countless watchful eyes hidden in the darkness.
In the Emperor’s bedchamber, the Empress received the news of the palace gates opening at the earliest moment. She sat solemnly in the main hall, her expression grave.
“They are heading to Master Gao’s residence,” a eunuch reported, bowing low, his voice trembling. “The Empress Dowager has issued a decree: without her handwritten order, no one is to enter or leave the palace gates. The same applies to the Empress Dowager’s own quarters. Anyone who disobeys will be executed on the spot.”
“Is the Crown Prince alive or dead?” the Empress asked.
The eunuch shook his head.
Just then, someone stumbled frantically into the hall from outside.
“Consort An,”
the eunuchs and palace maids murmured softly. The Empress shook her head, signaling them not to stop her.
Consort An rushed in, her clothes in disarray, clutching two bundles in her arms, her face pale with panic.
“Your Majesty, I heard something terrible has happened. I’ve come to protect you,” she said.
The Empress paid her no mind.
“Attendants,” she commanded. “Fetch my ceremonial robes and the imperial seal.”
The eunuchs and ladies-in-waiting responded with trembling voices.
At the same time, Gao Lingjun’s face turned pale as he looked at the eunuch standing in the courtyard.
“My Lord, please hurry into the palace,” the eunuch urged, his voice trembling.
Gao Lingjun raised his head and gazed at the night sky. Roused abruptly from sleep, his hair was disheveled, strands fluttering in the night breeze.
Heaven, oh Heaven, how unjust you are!
He took a deep breath, and his previously dazed eyes instantly sharpened with intensity.
“Go and inform Chancellor Chen,” he said.
The eunuchs were taken aback.
“Chancellor Chen?”
Summon Chancellor Chen at such a time?
“But Her Majesty did not say–” a eunuch began, uneasy.
“Her Majesty is distraught and flustered in her panic. How can you, as her close attendants, lose your composure as well?” Gao Lingjun said solemnly. “In such extraordinary circumstances, how can the key ministers not be summoned? What will everyone think of Her Majesty hereafter?”
The eunuch shuddered in realization.
“But when we see Chancellor Chen, what should we say?” one eunuch whispered, his expression evasive.
Without the truth, a man like Chancellor Chen would never enter the palace in the middle of the night.
“Then speak the truth. What is there to hide?” Gao Lingjun said slowly, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth. “Besides, Chancellor Chen is not an outsider.”
…
In the study of the Qin residence, lamplight flickered to life. Qin An, wearing only his undergarments, faced his son, who was similarly dressed.
“The latest news says Gao Lingjun has entered the palace,” he said in a low voice. “Also, a eunuch went to Chen Shao’s residence.”
“Is it concerning the Empress Dowager or the Crown Prince?” Qin Hu asked.
“The Crown Prince,” Qin An replied.
Qin Hu immediately stood up and turned to leave.
“Shi’san, the palace gates are already under strict guard. No one can enter without the Empress Dowager’s handwritten order,” Qin An said. “We cannot act rashly at this moment.”
Qin Hu looked back at his father.
“Father, whether we can enter the palace now is no longer the point,” he said. “What we must do now lies outside the palace walls.”
Qin An’s heart skipped a beat.
“Are the people already here?” he asked.
Qin Hu nodded.
“Fortunately, they arrived outside the capital yesterday,” he said.
Qin An slowly let out a breath.
“Go then,” he said, rising to his feet as well. “Leave matters here to me.”
Qin Hu acknowledged with a firm “yes,” turned, and strode away, disappearing into the pitch-black night.
…
In the courtyard of the Chen residence, the eunuch had been standing for quite some time. Ever since he uttered the words “the Crown Prince is critically ill,” there had been complete silence inside the room.
Could they have been overwhelmed by the shocking news and fainted?
“Master Chen, please hurry,” the eunuch couldn’t help but urge anxiously.
Hearing the eunuch’s urging, Chen Shao’s heart sank even further.
“How long have you been out here?” he suddenly asked.
“Nearly an hour,” the eunuch replied without thinking.
Chen Shao’s eyes darkened.
“An hour… it seems you didn’t rush here,” he said slowly.
The eunuch was taken aback, then his expression turned fearful.
This is bad, he’s seen through it.
Chen Shao now understood – it wasn’t the Empress Dowager summoning him to the palace. It was Gao Lingjun trying to drag him into a trap.
What should he do?
Just as he hesitated, Chen Shao suddenly took a step forward.
“Let’s go,” he said.
The eunuch was stunned again, wondering if he had misheard.
Even knowing it was a trap, he still intended to go?
“My lord.”
A voice came from the courtyard – it was Madam Chen.
Chen Shao halted his steps. He hadn’t heard the address “my lord” in quite some time, especially not spoken with such worry and concern.
He turned to see Madam Chen hurrying toward him.
“You cannot go,” she said, clutching his arm, her voice choked with tears. “Do not forget what happened to our ancestors.”
During the succession of imperial power within the palace, scenes of swords and shadows were not uncommon, and countless court officials who became entangled in such affairs met untimely ends.
“Today’s matter is partly my responsibility,” Chen Shao said, reaching out to pat Madam Chen’s hand with a faint smile. “Since I am a man of integrity, why should I fear danger?”
With those words, he turned and walked away.
“My lord!” Madam Chen called out, tugging at his sleeve.
Chen Shao looked back.
“In this lifetime, I have let you and Dan-niang down,” he said, bowing his head in a formal salute. After finishing the gesture, he turned and strode off without looking back.
Madam Chen watched his receding figure, covering her face as tears streamed down.
…
The clatter of hooves shattered the quiet of the night road, startling nocturnal birds from the trees lining the path.
“Why must we rush back to the capital so urgently?”
Master Gu asked in a low voice.
The galloping of the horses made his words tremble.
“The capital is a den of tigers and dragons. Just this morning you said we absolutely would not go. Why are we racing there in the middle of the night? And with so few people?”
“Would it be appropriate to march into the capital in the dead of night with a large contingent of palace guards?” Eunuch Jing retorted sharply.
If they did that, they could be crushed with a charge of rebellion and executed on the spot without a second thought.
Master Gu lifted his gaze, looking ahead.
“Something must have happened in the capital,”
he said, pausing briefly, his eyes fixed on the figure of a lady leading the way through the darkness ahead.
Her horse was picking up speed, gradually pulling away from them.
“But how did she know?”
