Madam Ren looked like a woman in her seventies. Her hair was sparse and gray, and the wrinkles on her face were so deep they seemed capable of trapping flies.
Her voice was choked with emotion, but knowing she was standing before the Emperor, she forced herself to remain composed.
“Your Majesty, ever since I married into the Ren family, I have served my parents-in-law dutifully and raised my husband’s younger relatives. I never had a single day of rest. But he– he only took me with him to social visits and banquets to build a reputation for himself as a good official!”
Thinking of it, tears streamed down Madam Ren’s face.
The others also began to think things over.
Indeed, their previous impression of Ren Zhong had been that he remained devoted to his wife despite her age and appearance, never taking even a concubine. Surely such a man had to be good.
As it turned out, he was simply good at pretending.
Madam Ren collapsed to the floor and wailed: “On the surface, he took me everywhere to visit officials and their wives, making everyone think I was blessed beyond measure. But once we returned home, he treated me with utter contempt and wouldn’t even speak a single word to me…”
Censor Tie coughed.
The topic was drifting further and further away.
Who wanted to listen to their family disputes all day?
He gestured for Madam Ren to get to the point.
Realizing this, she hurriedly wiped her tears and continued: “One day, Ren Zhong came home and began smashing things in a rage. He was usually the most filial of sons, but that day, for the first time ever, he lost his temper with his mother and locked himself in his study.”
“That night, someone came to visit him.”
“When I went in to serve tea, I heard with my own ears that person say to Ren Zhong: ‘Have you thought this through? If you die now, you can still earn yourself a good reputation and at least become known as a loyal minister. But if the investigation reaches you, you’ll be cursed for ten thousand years!’”
Grand Secretary Li wanted to speak several times, but with Emperor Yongchang sitting silently above them, he could only endure it.
Madam Ren pressed her lips together.
“When I went in later to clear away the cups, he suddenly told me to take care of the family in the future because he was going to die.”
By then, Madam Ren already hated Ren Zhong to the core and had no desire to speak with him.
Ren Zhong seemed to know that.
Sighing deeply, he had said: “I know I’ve done many wrong things in my life, but there’s no way to undo them now. In the end, in the end, I’ve finally received my punishment. Now I’m going to take the blame for someone else.”
Madam Ren wiped away her tears.
“After that, Ren Zhong killed himself that very night. He left behind some memorial, but that memorial wasn’t written by Ren Zhong at all. It was written by his elder brother, Ren Ming!”
Ren Ming!
The case was becoming increasingly complicated.
But one thing was certain: The matter involved a vast network of people.
Emperor Yongchang tapped his finger against the table and said coldly: “Guards!”
Eunuch Xia immediately answered.
The Emperor ordered: “Send word to the Ministry of Justice. Arrest Ren Ming and bring him in. I intend to find out exactly who wrote that memorial and who the mastermind is behind all of this.”
Eunuch Xia hurried to comply.
***
The palace was in turmoil.
None of the Grand Secretaries dared leave.
The matter was simply too significant.
Whoever had arranged such an elaborate scheme, convinced Ren Zhong to commit suicide, and had Ren Ming ghostwrite the memorial was clearly targeting the Lu family directly.
One careless step and any of them could become implicated.
Thus, the Grand Secretaries all made the same decision and remained in the duty rooms at the Western Garden, waiting for news.
The palace was frantic.
Outside the palace, however, Qi Yuan felt utterly relaxed.
She even had the leisure to buy a box of pastries and a box of orange candies for each of Baizhi, Lianqiao, and the others.
Old Marquis Qi looked at her and increasingly felt like a child standing before his granddaughter.
As for Qi Zhen, there was no need to mention him.
He felt their roles should be reversed.
He ought to be Qi Yuan’s son instead.
Complaints aside, Qi Zhen’s curiosity got the better of him.
“Yuan Jie’er, what exactly is going on? I’m completely confused. Explain it to me.”
Qi Yuan did not make him guess.
She answered directly: “The moment I learned that Ren Zhong had smashed his head to death, I sent Shunzi to find Chunlin and ask Lord Lai Chenglong about Ren Zhong’s life story.”
So she had consulted Lai Chenglong.
For a moment Qi Zhen had honestly thought Qi Yuan could predict the future.
Still bewildered, he asked: “And then?”
“And then? Once you know enough stories about a person, you can make the matter as big as possible. The bigger, the better.”
Qi Yuan let out a cold laugh.
“How many true sages have existed throughout history? You can count them on one hand. Ren Zhong being praised for a day or two is one thing, but after several days, who would genuinely accept it?”
And when that happened, naturally it would be time for him to fall.
She had instructed Xie Ying to go with the flow and encourage the students to stir up trouble.
The students had been remarkably cooperative.
They had gone straight to the Confucian Temple and tried to seize Confucius’s statue.
That had blown the entire matter to an unprecedented scale.
Once things reached this point, there was no way to contain them.
Unless Emperor Yongchang personally intervened.
And once he intervened, he would discover that Ren Zhong’s life was nowhere near as glorious as it appeared.
He would also discover that Ren Zhong was not some martyr who died remonstrating with the throne.
More importantly, he would uncover that the people actively spreading Ren Zhong’s reputation were either members of the Ren family like Ren Shuquan or Ren Zhong’s own associates.
And what would Emperor Yongchang see that as?
Deceiving the Emperor.
Dangerous ambition.
An attempt to become a sage.
The Emperor himself did not even have a living shrine.
Who did Ren Zhong think he was?
How dare he establish a living shrine and enjoy the incense offerings of the common people?!
Dream on!
What did he take the Emperor for?!
Qi Yuan turned and smiled at Qi Zhen. “Father, do you understand now?”
Qi Zhen swallowed hard, his throat almost hurting. “Yes, yes, I understand.”
In other words, everything was still proceeding exactly as Qi Yuan had anticipated.
No.
It would be more accurate to say that Qi Yuan had engineered it all herself.
She was the one who had arranged for Xie Ying to write the Record of Great Ministers Through the Ages.
She was the one who had spent money hiring storytellers to spread the tale in teahouses and restaurants.
That was what caused the matter to ferment and grow until it reached its current scale.
At the same time, she had carefully informed Censor Tie of every single misdeed Ren Zhong had ever committed.
When a fake Li Kui meets the real Li Kui, isn’t that just asking for death?
Censor Tie could make sure that even after Ren Zhong died, people would continue cursing him for decades.
Brilliant.
Qi Zhen took a deep breath, suddenly filled with energy.
“Yuan Jie’er, then what do we do next?”
The opposition among the civil officials had already been swept away.
Ren Zhong had died for nothing.
So what came next?
Qi Yuan lowered her eyes. Killing intent surged within them.
“Now?”
“Now it’s time to kill people.”
“Huh?!”
Killing again?
Kill who?
Ren Zhong was already dead!
Who else could there be to kill?!
Qi Zhen hurried after her.
“Yuan Jie’er, let’s go home and talk about this!”
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