Chapter 24: Jinling City (6)
Xu Residence.
Grand Secretary Xu had just returned from Kaishan Temple. After finishing his midday meal, a maid presented him with a plate of melons and fruits.
“Master,” the maid said, gesturing with her eyes.
Grand Secretary Xu lowered his gaze while sipping tea. With a slight motion, he pinched a small slip of paper from beneath the fruit plate and slipped it into his sleeve to read.
The moment he read it, his expression changed drastically.
The message came from Concubine Hui in the harem. It said that the Emperor, having too easily believed the Marquis Dingbei, had begun to suspect that he was the one who had used witchcraft on His Majesty!
Grand Secretary Xu’s face kept shifting with uncertainty. He immediately burned the note. “No one saw you when you delivered the message from the palace, right?”
The maid shook her head. “No one, Master. I met the concubine’s maid at the fabric shop. We exchanged the message very discreetly. No one noticed.”
Grand Secretary Xu nodded. Soon, he summoned a servant and whispered instructions in his ear.
“All of Xiao Fu’s top guards are away. Get rid of that Xie Laosan first. Xiao Fu’s martial skills are formidable—send word to Young Lord Zhao to dispatch more skilled fighters. Wait for an opportunity and have him killed.”
The Brocade Uniform Guards stood at a distance. They could faintly detect something suspicious but couldn’t hear clearly.
Inside the Imperial Palace, Emperor Wen Tai lay on his couch, dressed in a golden robe embroidered with five-clawed dragons. His expression appeared considerably relaxed.
“This Mr. Xie that Xiao Fu found for me is truly a miracle doctor. I shall keep him here in the palace as the head physician of the Imperial Physician Courtyard! That courtyard is nothing but a den of useless men—couldn’t even resolve a mere case of Gu poisoning.”
The young eunuch eagerly chimed in, “Indeed, indeed! Divine Doctor Xie’s skills are unmatched. But it’s also Your Majesty’s great fortune and heavenly blessing! You are, after all, the true Son of Heaven!”
“My empire must last for millennia. This petty Gu is nothing but a minor obstacle,” Emperor Wen Tai said, though his expression darkened. “Concubine Hui has been overly concerned with court affairs and constantly sending messages to her father, Grand Secretary Xu. I should have suspected this sooner—she was the most likely to secretly poison me without anyone noticing. The civil and military officials keep urging me to make her empress and name an heir… This Gu—it seems she hoped to hasten that process. What an enormous conspiracy!”
Ever since the eunuch mentioned Kaishan Temple, the seed of suspicion had taken root in his heart and grown wildly.
“Empress Mother said Xiao Fu was ambushed by over a hundred assassins before he arrived in the capital and suffered serious injuries. Once he recovered, he immediately set out to find this Divine Doctor Xie for me. That shows—even though my uncle is audacious—he still has Me, his emperor, in his heart. If he wanted to rebel, he’d have brought troops with him. But he returned without soldiers—this reveals a lot. The one who arranged for all those assassins to ambush him—that’s the true culprit behind the witchcraft.”
“…Of course, we cannot entirely rule out Xiao Fu’s involvement either.”
Emperor Wen Tai fell silent, lost in thought for a long time. At the third quarter of the Shen hour (around 4:45 PM), the Brocade Uniform Guards returned to the palace to report.
They knelt and said, “Your Majesty, this subject saw Grand Secretary Xu receive a letter from Concubine Hui, after which he sent a servant to a restaurant in the capital to pass along a message. I found the two of them suspicious… However, the man Grand Secretary Xu sent was very alert. He noticed our surveillance, so I had no choice but to arrest both suspects!”
Emperor Wen Tai opened his eyes. “Where are the culprits?”
“In the imperial prison. Neither has spoken a word. One of them couldn’t bear the torture and bit off his tongue—died on the spot!”
“He bit off his tongue?!” Emperor Wen Tai sat up straight. “If he had nothing to fear, why commit suicide like that? There must be some unspeakable secret. Grand Secretary Xu, of all people I shouldn’t have trusted—you were the last.”
The reason Emperor Wen Tai had once trusted and promoted Grand Secretary Xu was because Prime Minister Xue had been the Imperial Tutor of the Crown Prince—Emperor Wen Tai’s late elder brother. He himself had been the youngest son of the Retired Emperor. In terms of talent and succession order, the throne never should have gone to him.
At the time, Prime Minister Xue had fully supported the Crown Prince. So when Emperor Wen Tai ascended the throne, the very first thing he did was strip Prime Minister Xue of his power and reinstate the Cabinet to counterbalance the absolute authority once held by the Prime Minister.
In the past seven years, Prime Minister Xue had become a mere figurehead. Recent reports from the Brocade Uniform Guard said Prime Minister Xue was even considering retirement and returning to his hometown.
Meanwhile, at the residence of Assistant Minister Luo of the Ministry of Justice, chaos had erupted.
Lord Luo had just returned from court and sat down for a meal when—horrifyingly—seven severed heads, still dripping with blood, were tossed onto his dining table. Some martial expert with remarkable agility must’ve flung them in, because they rolled across the table and one of them landed directly in Lord Luo’s lap!
Lady Luo fainted on the spot. Servants screamed and fled. Lord Luo, though used to bloodshed as a Ministry of Justice official, was still more shocked than terrified. He slammed the table and bellowed, “Who dares commit such wickedness! Playing with ghosts and shadows! I am an official of the imperial court!”
The steward stumbled in, fell to his knees, and cried, “Master! Those heads… They belonged to the people I sent to Chunshu Alley to kidnap that Lin Zikui! Just now—just now someone showed up at the door holding one of the heads. I told him to leave… and then…”
He had tossed one of the heads straight into their dining table.
Lord Luo: “…”
Lord Luo: “What did he look like? Did you see him clearly?”
The steward’s face twisted in fear. “He handed over a card… said he was from the Marquis Dingbei’s residence.”
Lord Luo was utterly horrified. “Who the hell is pulling such stunts? Isn’t Marquis Dingbei supposed to be leading troops inside the Pass?”
“And who delivers a severed head with a calling card?! He’s insane—completely mad!”
He didn’t even bother putting on his hat. Still in his official robes, he hurriedly ordered a carriage: “Quick! Take me to Grand Secretary Xu’s residence—now!”
Lord Luo was Grand Secretary Xu’s adopted son. He had been promoted to Assistant Minister of Justice entirely through Grand Secretary Xu’s patronage. Just yesterday, Grand Secretary Xu’s son, Xu Zhuojun, had casually asked him to arrest a few people and throw them in the Ministry of Justice prison—and even requested that he have Grand Academician Tang castrated. Completely absurd!
On top of that, he’d casually mentioned one tiny matter, one he hadn’t even taken seriously.
“That Lin Zikui has been going against me. If he wants to lodge a complaint with the Emperor, then he must not be allowed to open his mouth.”
When Lord Luo returned home, he hadn’t given it a second thought. Lin Zikui was just another examination candidate with no power or backing, so he simply told the steward, “The order is to torture him to death. Don’t let him die too quickly—make it slow.”
And now…
It seemed they had messed with someone they shouldn’t have.
Duke Chang’s Residence.
After Lin Zikui went to bed, the scout Xiao Fu had sent returned with information: “Miss Xiao and Deputy of the Imperial College Wen have been having an affair. Lord Xiao sent for Young Master Lin to return to the capital so they could discuss annulling the engagement. Young Master Lin arrived in Jinling rather late last night, so he stayed at the residence of Grand Academician Tang.”
Xiao Fu’s pine-blue cloak fluttered in the night breeze, his face icy cold.
He said nothing. His half-closed eyes seemed to be contemplating how best to kill Tang Mengyang.
“There’s something else, my lord. After court this morning, Grand Academician Tang was ambushed—someone threw a sack over him, dragged him into an alley, and had him castrated… He’s still bedridden. It was Lord Luo who sent men to do it.”
The scout continued, “And after tossing the severed head onto Lord Luo’s dining table today, he didn’t say a single word—just headed straight to Grand Secretary Xu’s residence.”
Xiao Fu’s voice remained emotionless. “Then tonight, gouge out Grand Academician Tang’s eyeballs and feed them to him. Tomorrow morning, send someone to escort him to court.”
The Next Morning.
Xiao Fu brought Lin Zikui back to the newly restored Residence of Marquis Dingbei. He issued a strict order: within the estate, no servant was allowed to address him as “Marquis”—only “Master.”
“And in front of Young Master Lin, don’t mention my title at all.”
During the day, as long as Lin Zikui was awake, Xiao Fu stayed by his side, often reading the Four Books and Five Classics to him. When he saw Lin Zikui despondent, he would comfort him: “Three feet above your head, the gods are watching. Lin Lang, those who harmed you will get what they deserve!”
“Retribution…” Lin Zikui shook his head. His face, thinned from days of torment, turned toward the light streaming in through the window lattice. A sliver of sunlight cast itself upon his quiet profile. “But where are the gods? Those who speak of karma claim there’s a King of Hell, but he’s underground. The Neo-Confucians speak of sages, but they reside in the heavens. And yet here on earth, there is nothing but emptiness. So where is justice, where is the rule of law?”
“Justice and law exist within the human heart,” Xiao Fu replied. “The wicked fear other men but not the heavens; the good are bullied by men but never by the heavens. I know you’re scared—but you’re not alone. Am I not right here by your side?”
Lin Zikui clearly did not wish to continue that line of thought. Holding a nearly finished bowl of medicine in his hands, he asked, “Miss Zhaoling, could I trouble you with something?”
“Speak, Lin Lang.”
“My attendant is still waiting for me at Xingzhi Temple. I must go back, or he’ll worry. Could you, just this once, help me with this?” Lin Zikui had thought about it for a long time and still couldn’t think of anyone else he could trust in Jinling.
Even the imperial censor, with whom he had been close and respectfully called “teacher,” had been beaten with forty army canes outside the throne room after angering the emperor through a deathly remonstrance. He passed away that very night upon returning home.
Xiao Fu couldn’t find a reason to refuse him, though he was displeased by the subtle distance in Lin Zikui’s tone.
He blamed himself for not leaving anyone to watch over Lin Zikui after departing Xingzhi Temple. That place was special, guarded by experts at the former emperor’s side. As long as Lin Zikui didn’t leave, he would’ve been safe there.
Who would’ve thought Lin Zikui would suddenly come to Jinling on his own?
Yet if one asked whether he regretted pretending to be Second Young Miss Xiao—he didn’t.
Xiao Fu never regretted things. He was the kind of person who, even if he slammed into a wall and bloodied his head, would never turn back. He had been like that since childhood.
Two days later, after arranging all affairs in the capital, Xiao Fu prepared a spacious and comfortable carriage. Yuanqing, Yuanwu, and Jinzun were no longer in the city, and Xiao Fu had stationed men from Prince Yunnan’s estate along the route.
The carriage ride back to Xingzhi Temple was a bit bumpy. Lin Zikui sat quietly in a corner, while Xiao Fu sat beside him, peeling an orange. He meticulously removed the white threads clinging to each slice and brought one to Lin Zikui’s lips. “Here, eat some orange.”
Lin Zikui lifted his hand to take it instead, refusing to be fed.
“Go on, try it! I spent so long peeling off those white strands. Then tell me—sweet or not?”
Lin Zikui put the slice into his mouth. The citrus burst on his tongue.
“Is it sweet?” Xiao Fu asked.
“…Yes, sweet.” Lin Zikui was, by nature, like a tenacious weed. Though he had been struck down, he had made himself get back up again. By now, his ebbing willpower had returned somewhat.
Though his eyes were damaged, he still had his voice—he could still hear. He had earned the title of a Graduate .He could go back to Fengtai County and become a schoolteacher. That would be a life, too.
He seemed to have come to terms with it. Even his previously tense expression had relaxed.
Jinling was full of turmoil—best to stay away from it.
That heavy sense of unwillingness, Lin Zikui buried deep in his heart.
Seeing this, Xiao Fu was relieved. He purposely stuffed the orange into Lin Zikui’s palm. “Since it’s so sweet, why don’t you feed me now?”
Lin Zikui held the orange, his hand resting on his lap. “Miss Zhaoling, you clearly know that right now I…”
“You can’t find my mouth, is that it?” Xiao Fu leaned down, resting his chin on Lin Zikui’s knee, eyes gazing up at his face. He gently tugged Lin Zikui’s wrist. “Can you find it now?”
The carriage jolted, and Xiao Fu’s face bumped forward. His hair ornament hit Lin Zikui’s stomach, and he grumbled, “Are you going to feed me or not? If you don’t, I’ll just stay here and sleep on your lap!”
Lin Zikui couldn’t see, but he could feel Xiao Fu’s breath against his leg. Suddenly, the memory of that day surfaced in his mind—when Xiao Fu reached in and gripped him.
Xiao Fu’s hands were large, calloused from martial training.
He had told Lin Zikui to pretend it had never happened—to forget everything.
But how could Lin Zikui forget? He had deceived himself, but how could he possibly pretend nothing happened—when someone like that had done such things to him?
The thought made him restless, so he silently peeled another slice of orange. Xiao Fu leaned in and took the slice with his mouth, his lips brushing Lin Zikui’s fingertips in a soft kiss. The shiver that shot from his fingertips instantly rippled through his entire body.
Xiao Fu chuckled in a low, muffled voice. Lin Zikui, flustered, said, “Miss Zhaoling, please don’t laugh.”
“I know I don’t sound like a woman—do you dislike hearing it?”
“No! Not at all!” Lin Zikui denied it immediately. In fact, he had gotten used to it and didn’t really mind. That wasn’t what bothered him.
Xiao Fu held onto his hand, eyes burning into him. “Madam Xiao broke off your engagement, but I still want to marry you, Lin Lang—desperately so. We’re already leaving the capital. Why don’t we just elope and be done with it?”
Lin Zikui didn’t know how to respond.
“Miss Zhaoling, you clearly aren’t…” He hesitated. “You clearly…”
His voice grew softer and softer.
Until it disappeared into the air.
Xiao Fu sighed. “I clearly what?”
This Lin Zikui—he actually knew Xiao Fu wasn’t Miss Xiao from the very beginning. And yet he couldn’t bear to expose him.
Lin Zikui couldn’t bring himself to say it aloud, afraid that doing so would hurt him. After a long pause, he finally asked, “Do you… have some difficult reason for all this?”
“A difficult reason?” Xiao Fu replied honestly. “Of course. That day, I was bathing behind Xingzhi Temple when out of nowhere, a scholar showed up and stripped naked right in front of me. Completely unreasonable!”
Lin Zikui: “…………”
Xiao Fu continued, “I saw everything, but I was terrified. I didn’t dare make a sound. I just hid in the water, watching that scholar’s body, his face, his manner of speech—and the more I watched, the more I liked him. That was my first time bathing with someone. I fell for Lin Lang at first sight. But then I discovered… you were already betrothed. What could I do? If you didn’t like me, I’d have no choice but to become a monk.”
Lin Zikui recalled that day when he had first arrived at Xingzhi Temple. He had suspected someone else was in the water—he just never imagined it would’ve been Miss Zhaoling!
His mouth parted slightly. “So your real name… is Xiao Zhaoling?”
“I truly am Xiao Zhaoling,” Xiao Fu said, taking his hand and carefully writing each stroke in his palm. “This is the Xiao.”
It tickled. The characters were clear in his mind as he recited softly, “Xiao Zhaoling…”
Xiao Fu nodded. “That’s right. I have an elder sister and an elder brother, so I’m the second.”
Lin Zikui lowered his head and murmured, “You are surnamed Xiao… and you are Second Young Miss.”
He had ruined Miss Xiao’s innocence. How would she ever get married after this?
Lin Zikui couldn’t bring himself to be heartless and leave.
The wheels of the carriage rumbled beneath them, just like the turmoil in Lin Zikui’s heart. He couldn’t utter words of promise, nor could he bring himself to deny him.
But what he never expected—was that this Xiao Zhaoling wasn’t just not Miss Xiao.
He wasn’t even a woman!
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