Lord Su ultimately did not die.
Not only did he not die, he even tenaciously got out of bed before noon, soaking in a medicinal bath meant to promote blood circulation and dispel bruising, all while grumbling and cursing.
The two men being scolded were driven out of the bath chamber. In the main hall’s sitting room, each occupied half the space with their presence, both wearing cold, creditor-like expressions, yet still exchanging words and discussing serious matters.
Jinghong Zhui asked, “What did you find in Su Xiaojing’s room last night?”
“Nothing unusual,” Shen Qi replied. “And you? Any discoveries from your night visit to that residence?”
Jinghong Zhui said, “The household there belongs to the Liu family. The old man himself is nothing special, but there’s a Momo who seems quite suspicious, she appears to be the one actually in charge. It was she who arranged Su Xiaojing’s private meeting with Mister He.”
Shen Qi still had doubts: “Su Xiaojing is just a mere servant. Even if he’s by Qinghe’s side, he’s insignificant in the grand scheme of things. What exactly does Mister He see in him?”
Jinghong Zhui said, “Whatever it is, since the other party is using him to set up a scheme, we can’t take it lightly. When my lord comes out later, I’ll inform him of this so he can be on guard.”
Shen Qi recalled the intelligence delivered overnight by the Embroidered Uniform Guard: Cui Jinping had gone to visit Vice Minister Xie Shiyan late at night to thank him for his recommendation.
Ordinarily, it would be a perfectly reasonable matter. But at this particular moment, and given the friction between Su and Xie, it carried the implication of shifting allegiance. For Qinghe, it might not count as outright betrayal, but it was clearly a sign of friends drifting apart.
Qinghe would learn of this sooner or later. And now, with the added blow of Su Xiaojing’s betrayal, could he endure such a double strike?
Shen Qi hesitated briefly and said, “As for Su Xiaojing… let’s wait until everything is fully resolved before telling Qinghe at an appropriate time.”
Jinghong Zhui: “This has already been confirmed, and you still want to handle it while keeping my lord in the dark?”
Shen Qi very much wanted to say: I don’t want Qinghe to taste the bitterness of misplaced sincerity. Even less do I want him, for the sake of the greater picture and to cooperate with the baiting plan, to endure heartache while pretending nothing is wrong in front of Su Xiaojing.
But he didn’t say any of this aloud. His face merely remained cold, harsh, and devoid of warmth.
Yet Jinghong Zhui seemed to see through something and said coldly, “I advise you not to repeat my mistakes. Back then, I dispersed my cultivation and left, thinking that hiding the truth from him was for his own good. You’ve seen how that turned out.”
Shen Qi said nothing.
Jinghong Zhui continued, “Do you know why I’ve never liked you? Because you’re too calculating, your methods too dirty, and your feelings toward my lord too obsessive. You may have ‘emotion,’ but you lack ‘sincerity.’ A person without sincerity, the deeper the obsession, the more likely they are to harm both others and themselves.”
Shen Qi’s expression became extremely ugly. His fingers dug into the edge of the table, crushing the hard wood into cracks.
“We both want to protect my lord completely. But my lord is not someone who can only be protected and cannot withstand storms, he’s stronger than either of us imagined. From now on, I won’t hide anything from him anymore. As for you, take care of yourself!”
After saying this, Jinghong Zhui turned and walked into the inner room.
Shen Qi stood where he was, unmoving. After a moment, he heard the sudden splash of water from inside, the sound of something hard hitting the ground, and indistinct voices. Given his skill, he could have heard clearly, but the shock, sorrow, heartache, and disappointment contained in those voices made him unwilling to listen closely.
He only clearly heard the final sentence: “…I know people each have their own ambitions, and I know those who walk together will inevitably part ways. But at least for those I’ve treated sincerely, I hope that when they leave me, they can do so without resentment, parting on good terms. Was I wrong, Ah Zhui?”
***
“My lord is going out? I’ll go prepare the carriage right away.” Su Xiaojing set the watering pot on the ground, wiped his hands on the cloth at his waist, and headed toward the stables.
“…Xiaojing!” Su Yan called out.
Su Xiaojing turned back. Seeing the dappled light filtering through the bamboo tips shimmering across his lord’s face like rippling water, he couldn’t clearly make out his expression. Su Xiaojing blinked in a daze, for some reason recalling the day he had been chosen and taken in by Lord Su, he had been wearing a bamboo-leaf green outfit then, like a celestial being.
“My lord… is there anything else you command?”
Su Yan suddenly smiled. “Last time, didn’t you ask me about the imperial examinations? If you truly wish to study, how about I send you to an academy to learn alongside the sons of officials and nobles? Later, I’ll remove your slave status and tell outsiders you are my cousin, raised by me after my uncle passed away early. Once you’ve achieved success in your studies and earned a place on the honors list, you can enter officialdom and establish your own household.”
Su Xiaojing stood there blankly for a moment, then also smiled: “My lord, please don’t make fun of me. I’m not cut out for studying. I just said that casually last time, yet it made my lord trouble himself. Is my lord going to the government office or somewhere else? Who would you like to drive the carriage?”
Su Yan sighed silently and said, “I have been summoned to enter the palace. If you are free now, then drive me there.”
***
Inside the Fengxian Hall, three oil paintings hung side by side on the wall. Zhu Helin and Su Yan stood before the portraits, examining them carefully.
Ai Huaduo, standing to the side in an official robe of a waiting attendant, wore a tense expression as he waited for the result. Only when both the emperor and the vice minister nodded in satisfaction did he finally let out a breath of relief.
“Not bad. Follow this template and reproduce forty-five copies. All must be completed before the end of the month. The finished ones can be sent immediately to the most remote prefectural cities to ensure the nationwide public memorial at the end of next month is held on time,” Zhu Helin instructed.
With tight time and heavy tasks, Ai Huaduo didn’t dare waste even a second. He immediately took his leave and returned to the painting academy to rush the work.
Zhu Helin had summoned Su Yan into the palace under the pretext of inspecting the oil paintings. Now that the paintings had been viewed, he said he wanted to inspect the male cat previously mentioned for pairing with Lihua.
Su Yan had originally planned to return to the government office, but now had no choice but to send someone back to the residence to fetch the cat, while he stayed in the palace to wait. Yet after the cat was brought over and approved, Zhu Helin still wouldn’t let him leave, saying he wanted to observe whether the two cats got along, and incidentally have him stay for lunch.
After lunch, the two cats had become familiar with each other. The Persian cat Haitang had a gentle temperament and barely resisted even when Lihua scratched and pawed at it; naturally, it takes two to tango, so they got along fine. Seeing this, Zhu Helin smiled and said, “This truly is Hualis pressing down on the haitang, done.”
Taking the opportunity, Su Yan proposed to take his leave. Zhu Helin’s eyes shifted slightly, and he let out a heavy sigh with a worried expression.
Su Yan asked what was troubling him, was it the rebel forces causing chaos, or the situation in the Northern Steppe?
Zhu Helin shook his head without answering, sighing again as if burdened with unspoken difficulties.
Unable to get an answer, Su Yan couldn’t help but worry. Then, hearing Zhu Helin gloomily remark while looking at the cats, “No cure… not even as good as a cat,” only deepened his doubts.
Zhu Helin told him to do as he pleased and returned to the sleeping chambers for a nap.
Su Yan knew that this young man was full of energy and never had the habit of napping, which made it seem even more suspicious. As he was leaving the palace, he encountered a young eunuch carrying a medicine pot and bowl. The eunuch bowed to him and hurried into the hall.
After thinking it over, Su Yan felt that Zhu Helin was hiding something from him. Could it be illness? But what was there to hide from him?
So before exiting the palace, he detoured to the Imperial Medical Bureau and asked a duty physician surnamed Zeng whether the emperor’s health was well, and what medicine was being sent from the imperial pharmacy.
A trace of difficulty and embarrassment flashed across Physician Zeng’s expression as he smiled and said, “There is nothing seriously wrong with His Majesty’s body. Please rest assured, Grand Secretary. The imperial pharmacy has only sent some tonics to regulate yin and yang.”
Su Yan was not so easily dismissed and pressed further: “What do you mean by ‘nothing serious’? So there is a minor ailment? If everything were fine, why regulate yin and yang?”
Unable to withstand the questioning, Physician Zeng stammered, “As for this yang energy in His Majesty’s body… it’s not that it’s insufficient… it’s just too abundant. If it cannot be properly released for a long time, it can easily block the meridians… once blocked, it doesn’t flow; if it doesn’t flow, one becomes listless, and when listless, then…”
Su Yan lost patience listening to him ramble and suddenly slapped the table: “What exactly is the problem? Explain it clearly in five words or less!”
Physician Zeng was startled and blurted out: “His Majesty is impotent!”
Exactly four words.
Su Yan stood stunned like a wooden chicken, blinked, blinked again, then suddenly exploded: “Nonsense! His Majesty is young and strong, impo… impotent my *ss! Either you’re a quack who misdiagnosed him, or you’re using the pretense of tonics to trick the emperor into taking elixirs! I’m telling you, cinnabar pills cannot be eaten, they’re poison that kills!”
Physician Zeng turned pale with fright and knelt on the ground: “Grand Secretary, please see clearly, this subordinate absolutely has not presented elixirs to His Majesty. The prescription truly is just a warming and tonifying formula!”
Su Yan stared at him for a moment and said, “Describe the symptoms in detail. And give me the prescription.”
With a prescription tucked into his robes, Su Yan had no mind to go to the government office. He boarded a carriage and went straight to a medical clinic, even changing into plain clothes along the way.
He found a somewhat well-known internal medicine doctor in the marketplace and showed him the prescription. After examining it carefully, the doctor said, “It is indeed a good formula for tonifying the middle and raising yang, but I’m afraid it won’t be very effective. Based on the symptoms you described, this is a typical case of long-term suppression leading to the life-fire being unable to function. Even if one can barely perform, it would be a case of solitary yang with premature release. Therefore, to assist the life yang, one must first remove what is obstructing it.”
Su Yan listened in a daze and asked, “How do you remove it?”
“The heart meridian fire is constrained, obstructing the true yang. First calm the heart fire and eliminate the heart ailment, then take one jin of tribulus, stir-fry until fragrant, remove the thorns, grind into powder and take it. That will guarantee a cure.”
Meaning… one had to first dissipate the pent-up heart fire, once the mood was at ease and one’s desires fulfilled, the medicine would be effective? As Su Yan pondered it over and over, he couldn’t help but suspect that Zhu Helin’s condition had been caused by him.
Last year, when they soaked in the hot springs at the Nanjing palace, everything had been fine, right? At the beginning of the year, when he accidentally ate deer blood cake and rubbed against him excitedly, there had been no sign of weakness at all. And just a couple of days ago in Fengxian Hall, he had another strange episode, insisting on touching his belly, then suddenly fled in panic halfway through… He had found it odd at the time, but thinking back now, could it be that Little Zhu ran away because he discovered this problem?
Could it be that after being rejected too many times, he suffered such a severe blow both psychologically and physically that it led to impotence and premature release… The moment this thought surfaced, Su Yan felt completely unwell.
A ruler of a nation, a fine seventeen-year-old youth, unable to perform even before marriage, let alone continue the imperial line, this was the most serious internal crisis of the Great Ming! Compared to this, what were rebel armies, what were heretical sects! Su Yan left the clinic pale-faced, feeling more and more that his sins were grave, he had practically ruined Xiao Zhu.
He spent the entire afternoon at the Ministry of Personnel in a daze, even writing all the characters in simplified script on official documents. It was only when a flattering official praised him for “cutting complexity and introducing innovation” that he realized, and hurriedly destroyed them.
After returning home from work, Su Yan was still somewhat absent-minded. He had no appetite for dinner and hid alone in the study, lost in wild thoughts.
Shen Qi had been coming over every day recently, usually arriving at dusk straight from the Beizhen Fusi. Seeing Su Yan in such a state of mind, he shifted his anger onto Jinghong Zhui for telling him about Su Xiaojing. Jinghong Zhui also felt very guilty.
The two slipped into the study, just thinking about how to console him, when they heard Su Yan muttering in distress: “What a sin… how about I just let him touch a bit more usually, it’s not like a piece of flesh will fall off anyway.”
Shen Qi’s face darkened, and he grabbed his blade, ready to go kill Su Xiaojing.
Jinghong Zhui’s expression also changed: “My lord, why say such a thing! It is he who has wronged you, not you who have wronged him!”
Su Yan turned to look at them: “Actually, all these years, he has truly had nothing to reproach, completely sincere, treating me with utmost loyalty. On the contrary, it’s me who always treated him as a child, never placing him on an equal footing in my heart. That’s indeed unfair to him. Now that he’s become like this, if I don’t make some compensation, how can I feel at ease?”
Shen Qi clenched his teeth hard: “How do you plan to compensate?”
Su Yan said, “I… at the very least, I must help him cure that problem.”
Shen Qi said, “Problem? If betraying one’s master and siding with the enemy is a problem, then there is only one cure, ‘death.’”
Su Yan froze: “You’re talking about Su Xiaojing?”
Shen Qi and Jinghong Zhui countered: “Aren’t you talking about Su Xiaojing?”
Only then did Su Yan realize that what he had learned today had already diluted the pain of being betrayed. Ever since learning of Zhu Helin’s hidden illness, he hadn’t thought of Su Xiaojing even once. The one who loved him deeply had yet to be repaid, why bother dwelling on someone who had wronged him?
Su Yan gave a bitter smile: “Of course not. Since Xiaojing chose betrayal, he must bear the consequences of that choice. No matter how heartbroken or regretful I am, I must let it go. What troubles me now is another matter.”
“What matter?” Jinghong Zhui said. “This subordinate is willing to share my lord’s burdens.”
Su Yan shook his head: “The one who tied the bell must untie it.”
Shen Qi frowned, saying nothing, but secretly making plans.
Jinghong Zhui said, “In any case, my lord should not grieve or exhaust his spirit. I saw that my lord ate little at dinner, perhaps have some snacks. As for other matters, we can plan slowly.”
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