Tang Fan had been denounced because someone had seen him come in and out of Wang Zhi’s capital residence, and that very night, Wang Zhi had gone to the East Palace to visit the Crown Prince. A Cabinet member and a eunuch being too close was a great taboo.
Regardless of whether there actually was a direct connection between the two, the coincidence in timing was enough for someone with an ulterior motive to connect the dots. Therefore, the censor’s points in denouncing Tang Fan were very clear: he was spying upon the palace’s internals for some unfathomable motive.
According to due process, Tang Fan had to reflect upon himself at home, no longer able to go to the Cabinet for work, and then send a memorial defending himself. However, it was unknown what had gone wrong in the middle of this, but his memorial didn’t reach the Emperor at all, the matter getting dragged out without limit. Unable to get the Emperor’s answer, Tang Fan had to keep staying at home, his return date uncertain.
Who knew how to react to this? Liu Jian and Xu Pu had sought out Head Vizier Wan An and requested that he help Tang Fan speak, and the latter had agreed on the surface, but who knew whether he had actually visited the Emperor? In any case, every day that the Emperor said nothing was a day he couldn’t return to the Cabinet.
Liu Jian and Xu Pu, clearly seeing Wan An’s indifference, went to see the Emperor themselves, wanting to ask him about it to his face, yet were told that he was in poor health and wasn’t seeing anyone.
With things coming to this, Tang Fan was unsure of who on his own side was watching his every move in secret. As a last resort for avoiding suspicion, the line of contact between Wang Zhi and he was forced to break.
Wang Zhi had been hoping that Tang Fan would help his resolve his suspicion, yet hadn’t expected that the Wan party would strike first, directly cutting him off from his outside help. Tang Fan was not going to be able to contact him for the time being. It wouldn’t be impossible for them to have contact, of course, but that would doubtlessly give others an easy handle to grab, sweeping Tang Fan completely into dangerous territory.
Wang zhi was no saint that paid good unto evil, but he wouldn’t do anything that would implicate a friend.
Now, he could only rely upon himself.
Life in the Supervisory of Glyphs was far more leisurely than serving by the Emperor’s side, but Wang Zhi also couldn’t frequently run off to the East Palace to check on the Crown Prince. As of right now, his responsibilities clearly had nothing to do with the East Palace, and if he always went in and out of it, that would likely fall into the eyes of someone with motive, causing him headache. He needed to find a loophole elsewhere.
He really hoped that the information Tang Fan had passed on was wrong, and that there was nothing wrong with the Crown Prince.
If there wasn’t, however, the Wan part’s actions would clearly be bizarre. It had been Consort Wan’s idea to have the Crown Prince go pray on behalf of the Empero; now that censors were being directed to denounce Tang Fan, the shadow of the Wan part was faintly visible behind.
Were there no conspiracy going on, why would the Wan party have gone to so much trouble doing all of this?
However, in terms of conspiracy, was the Crown Prince’s illness due to a downpour something the party could have calculated for ahead of time? If they were gutsy enough to replace the Crown Prince, where could the opportunity have been?
He still remembered that in order to prevent the Crown Prince from meeting with mishaps on his personal journey to prayer, he, Tang Fan, and others had preemptively speculated on what might happen during. Their ultimate discovery had been that the most dangerous possibility was the incense stick’s worth of time he was in the Longevity Palace, because he would have to be alone in the repose room. Had someone been lurking inside ahed of time and took that chance to assassinate him, no one would be able to prevent it.
In light of that, right before the Crown Prince’s trip, Sui Zhou had brought people to search the repose room inside and out, then confirmed that there were no hidden people, as well as no sort of hidden compartments whatsoever. On top of that, the Prince had been accompanied by attendants all throughout the process, and there was no way he could have been swapped out while everyone was watching.
Upon thinking of this, Wang zhi recalled a phrase Tang Fan said almost daily: Perfect people or things have never existed in the world, and alleged perfection is likely just use not having paid attention to some flaw.
Wang Zhi attempted to imitate Tang Fan’s method of thinking, reconstructing everything that had happened that day.
Then, he thought of a crucial detail, something likely everyone had overlooked.
The carriage.
Yes, the carriage.
While everyone’s focus had been gathered on the most probable dangers and loopholes, another possible danger had been neglected.
After the Crown Prince left the palace, in addition to the repose room, an opportunity where he was isolated was inside the carriage, which was even longer than the period he had been inside the monastery. The convoy had been a force, the sound of its travel loud — had something happened in the carriage and the sound could be muffled, it would have very likely gone unnoticed.
More importantly, the carriage had been further adjusted to imitate the Emperor’s own carriage just before the Crown Prince had left, specially expedited in its creation. Before that, there had been no specialized carriage shape for him to leave the palace in.
With that thought, Wang Zhi couldn’t sit still. He sought out his confidante — the other was a minor lead of the Supervisory of Hall Oversight, who did all the minor work he assigned randomly.
“Go to the Supervisory of Miscellany, try to find the carriage the Crown Prince used to leave the palace, and check to see if there’s anything wrong,” he said to him.
The man understood nothing. “What do you want to check for, Milord? The Crown Prince only used it once after such a long time, and no one knew when he would leave the palace next. As this follower sees it, the carriage was likely dismantled long ago.”
Wang Zhi hadn’t expected that upset, caught off guard. “Can the pieces still be found, then?”
The other smiled apologetically. “It’s possible, but the wheels and cabin and such must have been put into the Supervisory of Miscellany’s storehouse. What do you want to investigate? Please explain, so that this follower may not wonder so much.”
“Go and see if there’s a spot or hidden compartment where someone could be hidden.”
The other was dumbstruck. “Huh?”
“This is extremely serious. Speak nothing of this, or else you and I won’t be having good ends. Understand?”
“The other nodded repeatedly, leaving with his orders.
Today was the ninth of the first month. It was a very ordinary day.
The Yellow Calendar wrote: Everything is going to go wrong.
This was the fourth day of Tang Fan’s denouncement. He was idling about at home, and — with how Wang Zhi understood him — probably happy to take the opportunity to be lazy.
The Crown Prince’s condition was still off-and-on, lingering. It could not be said to be horrible, but it was also not completely gone. The imperial physicians’ wording remained vague, which was their typical style.
On account of the Great Ming’s official vacation system differing from the previous Dynasty’s, their time off did not go straight from the Spring Festival to after the Lantern Festival. They had to resume duty in the middle of it, so today was a day for bureau work.
Since the Emperor had been ill for many days, all matters were being decided upon by the Cabinet. At this time, its members ought to be busy with evaluating letters sent from all over the country, in their respective workspaces.
Of course, they might still be having meetings, but Liu Jian was always having disputes over disagreements with Peng Hua and Yin Zhi. Without Tang Fan’s presence, Liu Jian and Xu Pu fell increasingly downwind, with Liu Cottonflower swaying between the two sides, as was normal.
This appeared to no sort of different than other days. Perhaps because the feeling of the new year had not yet dissipated, the joy on the palace-goers faces had not yet gone, with even their clothes appearing to be a lot brighter than usual, the strings used to tie up their hair also brand-new. A springtime aura permeated all over the place.
The confidante that was helping him inquire around the Supervisory of Miscellany had yet to return, but for some reason, Wang Zhi felt a general sense of vague unease, an intuition that had come from being immersed within the palace for many years.
It was like something was about to happen.
Would it be a good something, or bad?
He raised his head to look at the sky.
It was azure and without limitless, clouds rolling and unfurling. Winter’s cold had gradually passed. Even flocks of geese were beginning to show up, crossing overhead, leaving drawn-out honks behind that lingered in the ear.
Even though he was only twenty-ish and hadn’t been back at the palace for too many years, he felt like his days of criss-crossing the desert were from a previous life. He had grown up in the palace, yet he wasn’t accustomed to it — despite it being towering and majestic, in his eyes, it wasn’t as charming as the views outside.
If he could have chosen, he never would have wanted to return.
He was walking down a long palace road, followed by two young eunuchs. He was going in the direction of the Palace of Benevolence and Life, about to meet with the Dowager so that he could get someone to check on the Crown Prince, using her as an excuse.
Due to the minute unease in his heart, he quickened his pace. The two eunuchs behind him nearly couldn’t keep up, both dripping with sweat from the effort.
All of a sudden, a few rushing figures turned from a corner up ahead of them, all palace servants. They hurried towards Wang Zhi with pale faces, steps quick, and were seen to bypass Wang Zhi, not seeing him at all.
He recognized them; they were all maids and eunuchs from the Palace of Manifest Virtue, responsible for serving Consort Wan. For them to be in such a panic, there was no question that something big had happened.
Wang Zhi grabbed a maid that was running by him, asking, “What’s going on?”
The maid appeared to only now notice him. She appeared to be about to cry. “Eu… Eunuch Wang…”
“What happened, really? Why are you this flustered?” He was getting more impatient than her.
Her companions had long hurried forth, not even noticing that one of them had lagged behind. She gasped for air. “The Noble Consort… something happened to her…”
“What?” Wang Zhi was great shocked on the inside, yet he didn’t bat an eye on the surface.
“His… His Majesty had an affair with a maid of the Palace of Manifest Virtue,” she stammered out. “After the Consort found out, she was furious, and summoned the maid to reprimand her. The maid spoke out against her, the Consort grew angry, and she beat her herself, but… but then she fainted all of a sudden…”
That was definitely something she would do. Wang Zhi had been by her side for many years — no one understood what kind of person she was better than he did. Half of her overbearing personality was inborn, and the other half had come about from the Emperor’s pampering.
Even though she no longer forbid harem women from bearing heirs, if she discovered it, the other part would inevitably suffer a round of verbal abuse. Furthermore, that maid had back-talked to her face; with how her personality was, how could Consort Wan have not been intensely angry? Had she fainted due to anger attacking her heart, that would not be difficult to understand.
Prior to this, her health had not really been that great. On occasion, she would suffer chronic heart problems, or dizziness at other times, but she typically didn’t need to be bedridden like the Emperor, which made her seem a little better.
Were Tang Fan around, he definitely would have been worried about the fate of the maid that had angered the Noble Consort, but Wang Zhi had seen this sort of thing so much, he placed no importance upon it at all after hearing about it. He was more concerned about something else: was there actually something seriously wrong with the Noble Consort?
Thinking of this, he released the maid, allowing her to tearfully catch up with her companions. She wasn’t worried about Consort Wan, of course, but concerned about her own fate.
Wang Zhi stopped in his tracks, not continuing to go forward. He told a eunuch beside him to go straight to the Palace of Manifest Virtue and ask around, then turned into a palace room piled with junk, as if familiar with it.
“Aren’t you curious as to why I brought you here?” he asked the other eunuch that was following him.
The other’s name was Wen Sheng. He had been in the palace for many years, was a few years younger than Wang Zhi, and reticent. He had once been in charge of miscellaneous tasks in the Supervisory of Hall Oversight, later getting transferred to Wang Zhi’s side.
Wen Sheng was silent for a moment. “You always have a reason for doing things, Eunuch Wang.”
His reticence was actually just out of being ineloquent, nothing beyond life in the palace making him most afraid of speaking too much. What Wang Zhi liked about it was his quietness and his loyalty, as it were.
Rolling his eyes, Wang Zhi was about to teach him a lesson, but the other eunuch he had sent out, Wen Yuan, had already returned. After his trip, his expression had turned rather unsightly, nearly matching those palace servants from just recently.
Seeing his expression, Wang Zhi’s heart sank, and he immediately threw his lesson plan up to the clouds. “What is it?”
“The Noble Consort… she…” The other’s tongue was a bit tied, and it took a lot time for it to smooth out. “She’s dead!”
Wen Sheng’s face twisted up. He couldn’t help but glance at Wang Zhi.
And when he did, he immediately admired him more, because the other’s expression remained unchanged, and even his voice was calm. “Are you sure?”
Truthfully, after hearing the prior news, Wang Zhi had already made mental anticipations and preparations, so he wasn’t overly surprised.
“There should be no mistake!” Wen Yuan quickly answered. “Everyone is wailing in the Palace of Manifest Virtue. This lowly one was too afraid to get in close out of fear of attracting attention, so I only secretly found a few people to ask. They all said she isn’t breathing.”
“Have the imperial physicians come over?”
“Not yet, but it’s been such a long time…”
He didn’t continue, but his implication was obvious. If too long passed, even if the physicians rushed over, they probably wouldn’t be able to resuscitate her.
Listening to the end, Wang Zhi’s face was as cold as water, and he was silent.
Wen Yuan and Wen Sheng exchanged a look, not going to disturb his thoughts.
In Wang Zhi’s view, it had been by Consort Wan’s grace that he had been promoted. The news of her sudden death had beyond shocked him — were he to say that he wasn’t a tiny bit sorrowful, that would be a lie.
However, that sorrow passed quickly.He had to face an issue that was much more grim.
In the harem, concubines dying was commonplace. If one wasn’t an Empress, no waves would be raised.
Consort Wan was no Empress, but her status exceeded that of one. While she had never directly meddled in politics, the Wan party’s influence was everywhere.
Despite having the power to overturn society, the Wan party did not have abilities or prerequisites to rebel. Ever since Ming’s founding, no major officials had ever rebelled. Their bossiness came from the Emperor’s indulgence — and the reason he indulged them was, ultimately, because he loved the crow that came with the house, and he was giving regard to Consort Wan’s reputation.
Even though he indulged them now, ultimately, they relied on nothing further than Consort Wan as a source.
Without her, their capital arrogance no longer existed. Like a hall constructed out of snow, it would melt with the sunrise.
As could be imagined, in the wake of her death, many who had previously been harassed by the Wan party, yet too afraid to speak up due to backlash, would use this chance to step up and get revenge. When the tree fell, its monkeys would scatter — according to trend, the Wan party would quickly fall to pieces.
Still, its members weren’t idiots. Who would ever be willing to hand over power that they were already holding? Who would be willing to sit and wait for their demise?
They would inevitably counterattack, or even strike first.
Once the news of Consort Wan’s death spread outwards, it would surely cause unrest inside and out, all troops beginning to get restless.
On this day, things would change.
With this information, Wang Zhi didn’t stay still for one moment, immediately going in the opposite direction of the Palace of Manifest Virtue.
“Eunuch Wang, where are we going now?” Wen Yuan asked.
“The East Palace!” Wang Zhi didn’t turn his head.
Following Tang Fan’s denouncement, Wang Zhi had felt that going to the East Palace again would alert the enemy, but he had changed his mind, now. With Consort Wan’s death, the Wan party would inevitably be harried — if anything was off with the Crown Prince, now was the time to unveil the truth!
The East Palace had not yet learned of Consort Wan’s death, as the Crown Prince was sick without rise. He hadn’t even invited his teachers over for lectures in days. On account of their Master’s illness, the lower servants were too afraid to even speak too loudly, afraid to disturbing the bedridden Prince.
Wang Zhi’s bustling arrival caught all of them unprepared.
Cui Yong, hearing the news, quickly came up to welcome him. “Are you well, Eunuch Wang? You are here for…?”
Wang Zhi didn’t have time to exchange pleasantries with him, immediately asking, “Where is His Highness?”
Perhaps he was too intense, as Cui Yong was too afraid to hide it from him. “He’s resting inside. I’ll go in and—“
Before he could finish, Wang Zhi pushed him aside and barged in.
Cui Yong was scared pale, watching as Wang Zhi strode right up to the Crown Prince’s bed, lunged at the Prince as he was reclined and reading a book, and said, “Excuse my rudeness, Your Highness!”
Then, while the Crown Prince was surprised, he grabbed the other’s left wrist, bowed his head, and took a look. By means of the bright light coming in from outside the hall, Wang Zhi was able to clearly see the skin texture of the Prince’s hand, including the very faint, barely-noticeable scar on his pinky.
It was in place!
Wang Zhi couldn’t say for sure whether he ought to sigh in relief, or be mad at Tang Fan’s unreliability.
Right then, Cui Yong rushed up, attempting to push Wang Zhi out of the way to take on a protective pose in front of the Prince, firmly guarding him. “Wang Zhi, how dare you!”
Wang Zhi didn’t allow him to push him, of course, dodging on his own initiative once Cui Yong had started moving. “Please forgive me for my rudeness, Your Highness,” he said, cupping his hands. Before the Crown Prince could ask questions, he explained what Tang Fan had requested that he investigate.
The Prince was not mad at this, merely amused. “Solon Tang suspected that someone replaced me?”
Cui Yong’s expression relaxed, as well. “That’s too much of a joke, Eunuch Wang. I follow His Highness all day long — would I not be able to detect whether he was real or not?”
Wang Zhi shook his head, expression serious. “I would prefer it if I was joking, but Tang Fan has always been someone that can be entrusted with major events. If he said that, he must have some evidence for it. If such a thing actually happened, the consequences will be unimaginable, which is why I braved an irredeemable crime to come seek the truth.”
After that, his gaze remained fixed on the other, as if not relinquishing the idea to check for flaws.
The Prince was collected, not showing the slightest bit of panic due to his words, and instead suggesting, “As that’s so, how about you test me, Eunuch Wang? You and I have known each other for years, and there are some things we each know that the other would only know. If I was a fake, there would be no way for me to know each of them.”
That made sense to Wang Zhi. “When Huai recommended this subject to you, he said a series of words. Do you remember them?”
The Prince thought for a bit, then said. “Not individually, but he said something like your martial arts are strong, and because you’re on Consort Wan’s side, if I accidentally offended her, I could ask you to mediate on my behalf.
Wang Zhi betrayed nothing, asking, “Huai En also evaluated Tang Fan’s personality in one sentence. Can you remember that one?”
This time, the Crown Prince didn’t need to think, answering with, “Even though he is a civil official, he is loyal to the core, carries righteousness about his shoulders, and plans benevolently in worldly governance.”
Now, Wang Zhi had no more doubts.
When Huai En had said that, only the Crown Prince had been on scene with him. Even if someone was pretending to be him and was imitating him perfectly, there was no way they would have been able to memorize every one of those words.
Wang Zhi sighed in relief. “Thank you for dispelling my doubts. This subject has been reckless; please forgive my offense, Your Highness.”
“You and Solon Tang are only racking your brains on my behalf. How could I blame you, when I haven’t yet expressed my appreciation enough? However, I’ve been loitering about in bed, and just heard Cui Yong say that Solon Tang was chased back home. Did such a thing happen? What can I help him with? Plead for him with Father Emperor, maybe?”
“I’m afraid that His Majesty has no time to meet with you right now.”
The Crown Prince was startled. “Why so?”
“Consort Wan just passed,” Wang Zhi replied, carefully.
The Prince and Cui Yong both gasped, struck mute. Before they could respond, someone came to report the news of Consort Wan’s demise.
This had come much too suddenly. The Crown Prince aside, even the Wan part likely wasn’t mentally prepared at all. In everyone’s thoughts, were someone to be said to be dying prematurely due to illness, that someone would have to be the ever-ailed Emperor, not the much-healthier-looking Consort Wan.
The reason why she had tried her hardest to depose the Crown Prince was that, after the Emperor’s lifespan was up, she could rise to be Empress Dowager. In wanting wind, one must get wind; in wanting rain, one must get rain.
And yet, the Emperor was still perfectly alive, and so was the Crown Prince, while the one who had always been wanting to grab everything up in her hands had taken the first step out.
Of all the fickle, absurd events in the world, nothing could beat this.
At this moment, the palace would inevitably be in a lot of turmoil. Wang Zhi didn’t have the spare time to care about the Crown Prince’s response; after confirming that the Prince was not a fake, he quickly left the East Palace, returning to the Supervisory of Glyphs.
The eunuch he had ordered to go ask around the Supervisory of Miscellany also returned. He gave Wang Zhi one very important message: The carriage that had brought the Crown Prince to the Longevity Palace had indeed had an issue.
Beneath the carriage, an extra four square-chi groove had been constructed, big enough to hold someone curled up inside.
Wang Zhi, who had been under the impression that Tang Fan had been making something out of nothing, had not had any time to get the boulder off of his heart before it was suspended by this bit of information.
Tang Fan had been denounced because someone had seen him come in and out of Wang Zhi’s capital residence, and that very night, Wang Zhi had gone to the East Palace to visit the Crown Prince. A Cabinet member and a eunuch being too close was a great taboo.
Regardless of whether there actually was a direct connection between the two, the coincidence in timing was enough for someone with an ulterior motive to connect the dots. Therefore, the censor’s points in denouncing Tang Fan were very clear: he was spying upon the palace’s internals for some unfathomable motive.
According to due process, Tang Fan had to reflect upon himself at home, no longer able to go to the Cabinet for work, and then send a memorial defending himself. However, it was unknown what had gone wrong in the middle of this, but his memorial didn’t reach the Emperor at all, the matter getting dragged out without limit. Unable to get the Emperor’s answer, Tang Fan had to keep staying at home, his return date uncertain.
Who knew how to react to this? Liu Jian and Xu Pu had sought out Head Vizier Wan An and requested that he help Tang Fan speak, and the latter had agreed on the surface, but who knew whether he had actually visited the Emperor? In any case, every day that the Emperor said nothing was a day he couldn’t return to the Cabinet.
Liu Jian and Xu Pu, clearly seeing Wan An’s indifference, went to see the Emperor themselves, wanting to ask him about it to his face, yet were told that he was in poor health and wasn’t seeing anyone.
With things coming to this, Tang Fan was unsure of who on his own side was watching his every move in secret. As a last resort for avoiding suspicion, the line of contact between Wang Zhi and he was forced to break.
Wang Zhi had been hoping that Tang Fan would help his resolve his suspicion, yet hadn’t expected that the Wan party would strike first, directly cutting him off from his outside help. Tang Fan was not going to be able to contact him for the time being. It wouldn’t be impossible for them to have contact, of course, but that would doubtlessly give others an easy handle to grab, sweeping Tang Fan completely into dangerous territory.
Wang zhi was no saint that paid good unto evil, but he wouldn’t do anything that would implicate a friend.
Now, he could only rely upon himself.
Life in the Supervisory of Glyphs was far more leisurely than serving by the Emperor’s side, but Wang Zhi also couldn’t frequently run off to the East Palace to check on the Crown Prince. As of right now, his responsibilities clearly had nothing to do with the East Palace, and if he always went in and out of it, that would likely fall into the eyes of someone with motive, causing him headache. He needed to find a loophole elsewhere.
He really hoped that the information Tang Fan had passed on was wrong, and that there was nothing wrong with the Crown Prince.
If there wasn’t, however, the Wan part’s actions would clearly be bizarre. It had been Consort Wan’s idea to have the Crown Prince go pray on behalf of the Empero; now that censors were being directed to denounce Tang Fan, the shadow of the Wan part was faintly visible behind.
Were there no conspiracy going on, why would the Wan party have gone to so much trouble doing all of this?
However, in terms of conspiracy, was the Crown Prince’s illness due to a downpour something the party could have calculated for ahead of time? If they were gutsy enough to replace the Crown Prince, where could the opportunity have been?
He still remembered that in order to prevent the Crown Prince from meeting with mishaps on his personal journey to prayer, he, Tang Fan, and others had preemptively speculated on what might happen during. Their ultimate discovery had been that the most dangerous possibility was the incense stick’s worth of time he was in the Longevity Palace, because he would have to be alone in the repose room. Had someone been lurking inside ahed of time and took that chance to assassinate him, no one would be able to prevent it.
In light of that, right before the Crown Prince’s trip, Sui Zhou had brought people to search the repose room inside and out, then confirmed that there were no hidden people, as well as no sort of hidden compartments whatsoever. On top of that, the Prince had been accompanied by attendants all throughout the process, and there was no way he could have been swapped out while everyone was watching.
Upon thinking of this, Wang zhi recalled a phrase Tang Fan said almost daily: Perfect people or things have never existed in the world, and alleged perfection is likely just use not having paid attention to some flaw.
Wang Zhi attempted to imitate Tang Fan’s method of thinking, reconstructing everything that had happened that day.
Then, he thought of a crucial detail, something likely everyone had overlooked.
The carriage.
Yes, the carriage.
While everyone’s focus had been gathered on the most probable dangers and loopholes, another possible danger had been neglected.
After the Crown Prince left the palace, in addition to the repose room, an opportunity where he was isolated was inside the carriage, which was even longer than the period he had been inside the monastery. The convoy had been a force, the sound of its travel loud — had something happened in the carriage and the sound could be muffled, it would have very likely gone unnoticed.
More importantly, the carriage had been further adjusted to imitate the Emperor’s own carriage just before the Crown Prince had left, specially expedited in its creation. Before that, there had been no specialized carriage shape for him to leave the palace in.
With that thought, Wang Zhi couldn’t sit still. He sought out his confidante — the other was a minor lead of the Supervisory of Hall Oversight, who did all the minor work he assigned randomly.
“Go to the Supervisory of Miscellany, try to find the carriage the Crown Prince used to leave the palace, and check to see if there’s anything wrong,” he said to him.
The man understood nothing. “What do you want to check for, Milord? The Crown Prince only used it once after such a long time, and no one knew when he would leave the palace next. As this follower sees it, the carriage was likely dismantled long ago.”
Wang Zhi hadn’t expected that upset, caught off guard. “Can the pieces still be found, then?”
The other smiled apologetically. “It’s possible, but the wheels and cabin and such must have been put into the Supervisory of Miscellany’s storehouse. What do you want to investigate? Please explain, so that this follower may not wonder so much.”
“Go and see if there’s a spot or hidden compartment where someone could be hidden.”
The other was dumbstruck. “Huh?”
“This is extremely serious. Speak nothing of this, or else you and I won’t be having good ends. Understand?”
“The other nodded repeatedly, leaving with his orders.
Today was the ninth of the first month. It was a very ordinary day.
The Yellow Calendar wrote: Everything is going to go wrong.
This was the fourth day of Tang Fan’s denouncement. He was idling about at home, and — with how Wang Zhi understood him — probably happy to take the opportunity to be lazy.
The Crown Prince’s condition was still off-and-on, lingering. It could not be said to be horrible, but it was also not completely gone. The imperial physicians’ wording remained vague, which was their typical style.
On account of the Great Ming’s official vacation system differing from the previous Dynasty’s, their time off did not go straight from the Spring Festival to after the Lantern Festival. They had to resume duty in the middle of it, so today was a day for bureau work.
Since the Emperor had been ill for many days, all matters were being decided upon by the Cabinet. At this time, its members ought to be busy with evaluating letters sent from all over the country, in their respective workspaces.
Of course, they might still be having meetings, but Liu Jian was always having disputes over disagreements with Peng Hua and Yin Zhi. Without Tang Fan’s presence, Liu Jian and Xu Pu fell increasingly downwind, with Liu Cottonflower swaying between the two sides, as was normal.
This appeared to no sort of different than other days. Perhaps because the feeling of the new year had not yet dissipated, the joy on the palace-goers faces had not yet gone, with even their clothes appearing to be a lot brighter than usual, the strings used to tie up their hair also brand-new. A springtime aura permeated all over the place.
The confidante that was helping him inquire around the Supervisory of Miscellany had yet to return, but for some reason, Wang Zhi felt a general sense of vague unease, an intuition that had come from being immersed within the palace for many years.
It was like something was about to happen.
Would it be a good something, or bad?
He raised his head to look at the sky.
It was azure and without limitless, clouds rolling and unfurling. Winter’s cold had gradually passed. Even flocks of geese were beginning to show up, crossing overhead, leaving drawn-out honks behind that lingered in the ear.
Even though he was only twenty-ish and hadn’t been back at the palace for too many years, he felt like his days of criss-crossing the desert were from a previous life. He had grown up in the palace, yet he wasn’t accustomed to it — despite it being towering and majestic, in his eyes, it wasn’t as charming as the views outside.
If he could have chosen, he never would have wanted to return.
He was walking down a long palace road, followed by two young eunuchs. He was going in the direction of the Palace of Benevolence and Life, about to meet with the Dowager so that he could get someone to check on the Crown Prince, using her as an excuse.
Due to the minute unease in his heart, he quickened his pace. The two eunuchs behind him nearly couldn’t keep up, both dripping with sweat from the effort.
All of a sudden, a few rushing figures turned from a corner up ahead of them, all palace servants. They hurried towards Wang Zhi with pale faces, steps quick, and were seen to bypass Wang Zhi, not seeing him at all.
He recognized them; they were all maids and eunuchs from the Palace of Manifest Virtue, responsible for serving Consort Wan. For them to be in such a panic, there was no question that something big had happened.
Wang Zhi grabbed a maid that was running by him, asking, “What’s going on?”
The maid appeared to only now notice him. She appeared to be about to cry. “Eu… Eunuch Wang…”
“What happened, really? Why are you this flustered?” He was getting more impatient than her.
Her companions had long hurried forth, not even noticing that one of them had lagged behind. She gasped for air. “The Noble Consort… something happened to her…”
“What?” Wang Zhi was great shocked on the inside, yet he didn’t bat an eye on the surface.
“His… His Majesty had an affair with a maid of the Palace of Manifest Virtue,” she stammered out. “After the Consort found out, she was furious, and summoned the maid to reprimand her. The maid spoke out against her, the Consort grew angry, and she beat her herself, but… but then she fainted all of a sudden…”
That was definitely something she would do. Wang Zhi had been by her side for many years — no one understood what kind of person she was better than he did. Half of her overbearing personality was inborn, and the other half had come about from the Emperor’s pampering.
Even though she no longer forbid harem women from bearing heirs, if she discovered it, the other part would inevitably suffer a round of verbal abuse. Furthermore, that maid had back-talked to her face; with how her personality was, how could Consort Wan have not been intensely angry? Had she fainted due to anger attacking her heart, that would not be difficult to understand.
Prior to this, her health had not really been that great. On occasion, she would suffer chronic heart problems, or dizziness at other times, but she typically didn’t need to be bedridden like the Emperor, which made her seem a little better.
Were Tang Fan around, he definitely would have been worried about the fate of the maid that had angered the Noble Consort, but Wang Zhi had seen this sort of thing so much, he placed no importance upon it at all after hearing about it. He was more concerned about something else: was there actually something seriously wrong with the Noble Consort?
Thinking of this, he released the maid, allowing her to tearfully catch up with her companions. She wasn’t worried about Consort Wan, of course, but concerned about her own fate.
Wang Zhi stopped in his tracks, not continuing to go forward. He told a eunuch beside him to go straight to the Palace of Manifest Virtue and ask around, then turned into a palace room piled with junk, as if familiar with it.
“Aren’t you curious as to why I brought you here?” he asked the other eunuch that was following him.
The other’s name was Wen Sheng. He had been in the palace for many years, was a few years younger than Wang Zhi, and reticent. He had once been in charge of miscellaneous tasks in the Supervisory of Hall Oversight, later getting transferred to Wang Zhi’s side.
Wen Sheng was silent for a moment. “You always have a reason for doing things, Eunuch Wang.”
His reticence was actually just out of being ineloquent, nothing beyond life in the palace making him most afraid of speaking too much. What Wang Zhi liked about it was his quietness and his loyalty, as it were.
Rolling his eyes, Wang Zhi was about to teach him a lesson, but the other eunuch he had sent out, Wen Yuan, had already returned. After his trip, his expression had turned rather unsightly, nearly matching those palace servants from just recently.
Seeing his expression, Wang Zhi’s heart sank, and he immediately threw his lesson plan up to the clouds. “What is it?”
“The Noble Consort… she…” The other’s tongue was a bit tied, and it took a lot time for it to smooth out. “She’s dead!”
Wen Sheng’s face twisted up. He couldn’t help but glance at Wang Zhi.
And when he did, he immediately admired him more, because the other’s expression remained unchanged, and even his voice was calm. “Are you sure?”
Truthfully, after hearing the prior news, Wang Zhi had already made mental anticipations and preparations, so he wasn’t overly surprised.
“There should be no mistake!” Wen Yuan quickly answered. “Everyone is wailing in the Palace of Manifest Virtue. This lowly one was too afraid to get in close out of fear of attracting attention, so I only secretly found a few people to ask. They all said she isn’t breathing.”
“Have the imperial physicians come over?”
“Not yet, but it’s been such a long time…”
He didn’t continue, but his implication was obvious. If too long passed, even if the physicians rushed over, they probably wouldn’t be able to resuscitate her.
Listening to the end, Wang Zhi’s face was as cold as water, and he was silent.
Wen Yuan and Wen Sheng exchanged a look, not going to disturb his thoughts.
In Wang Zhi’s view, it had been by Consort Wan’s grace that he had been promoted. The news of her sudden death had beyond shocked him — were he to say that he wasn’t a tiny bit sorrowful, that would be a lie.
However, that sorrow passed quickly.He had to face an issue that was much more grim.
In the harem, concubines dying was commonplace. If one wasn’t an Empress, no waves would be raised.
Consort Wan was no Empress, but her status exceeded that of one. While she had never directly meddled in politics, the Wan party’s influence was everywhere.
Despite having the power to overturn society, the Wan party did not have abilities or prerequisites to rebel. Ever since Ming’s founding, no major officials had ever rebelled. Their bossiness came from the Emperor’s indulgence — and the reason he indulged them was, ultimately, because he loved the crow that came with the house, and he was giving regard to Consort Wan’s reputation.
Even though he indulged them now, ultimately, they relied on nothing further than Consort Wan as a source.
Without her, their capital arrogance no longer existed. Like a hall constructed out of snow, it would melt with the sunrise.
As could be imagined, in the wake of her death, many who had previously been harassed by the Wan party, yet too afraid to speak up due to backlash, would use this chance to step up and get revenge. When the tree fell, its monkeys would scatter — according to trend, the Wan party would quickly fall to pieces.
Still, its members weren’t idiots. Who would ever be willing to hand over power that they were already holding? Who would be willing to sit and wait for their demise?
They would inevitably counterattack, or even strike first.
Once the news of Consort Wan’s death spread outwards, it would surely cause unrest inside and out, all troops beginning to get restless.
On this day, things would change.
With this information, Wang Zhi didn’t stay still for one moment, immediately going in the opposite direction of the Palace of Manifest Virtue.
“Eunuch Wang, where are we going now?” Wen Yuan asked.
“The East Palace!” Wang Zhi didn’t turn his head.
Following Tang Fan’s denouncement, Wang Zhi had felt that going to the East Palace again would alert the enemy, but he had changed his mind, now. With Consort Wan’s death, the Wan party would inevitably be harried — if anything was off with the Crown Prince, now was the time to unveil the truth!
The East Palace had not yet learned of Consort Wan’s death, as the Crown Prince was sick without rise. He hadn’t even invited his teachers over for lectures in days. On account of their Master’s illness, the lower servants were too afraid to even speak too loudly, afraid to disturbing the bedridden Prince.
Wang Zhi’s bustling arrival caught all of them unprepared.
Cui Yong, hearing the news, quickly came up to welcome him. “Are you well, Eunuch Wang? You are here for…?”
Wang Zhi didn’t have time to exchange pleasantries with him, immediately asking, “Where is His Highness?”
Perhaps he was too intense, as Cui Yong was too afraid to hide it from him. “He’s resting inside. I’ll go in and—“
Before he could finish, Wang Zhi pushed him aside and barged in.
Cui Yong was scared pale, watching as Wang Zhi strode right up to the Crown Prince’s bed, lunged at the Prince as he was reclined and reading a book, and said, “Excuse my rudeness, Your Highness!”
Then, while the Crown Prince was surprised, he grabbed the other’s left wrist, bowed his head, and took a look. By means of the bright light coming in from outside the hall, Wang Zhi was able to clearly see the skin texture of the Prince’s hand, including the very faint, barely-noticeable scar on his pinky.
It was in place!
Wang Zhi couldn’t say for sure whether he ought to sigh in relief, or be mad at Tang Fan’s unreliability.
Right then, Cui Yong rushed up, attempting to push Wang Zhi out of the way to take on a protective pose in front of the Prince, firmly guarding him. “Wang Zhi, how dare you!”
Wang Zhi didn’t allow him to push him, of course, dodging on his own initiative once Cui Yong had started moving. “Please forgive me for my rudeness, Your Highness,” he said, cupping his hands. Before the Crown Prince could ask questions, he explained what Tang Fan had requested that he investigate.
The Prince was not mad at this, merely amused. “Solon Tang suspected that someone replaced me?”
Cui Yong’s expression relaxed, as well. “That’s too much of a joke, Eunuch Wang. I follow His Highness all day long — would I not be able to detect whether he was real or not?”
Wang Zhi shook his head, expression serious. “I would prefer it if I was joking, but Tang Fan has always been someone that can be entrusted with major events. If he said that, he must have some evidence for it. If such a thing actually happened, the consequences will be unimaginable, which is why I braved an irredeemable crime to come seek the truth.”
After that, his gaze remained fixed on the other, as if not relinquishing the idea to check for flaws.
The Prince was collected, not showing the slightest bit of panic due to his words, and instead suggesting, “As that’s so, how about you test me, Eunuch Wang? You and I have known each other for years, and there are some things we each know that the other would only know. If I was a fake, there would be no way for me to know each of them.”
That made sense to Wang Zhi. “When Huai recommended this subject to you, he said a series of words. Do you remember them?”
The Prince thought for a bit, then said. “Not individually, but he said something like your martial arts are strong, and because you’re on Consort Wan’s side, if I accidentally offended her, I could ask you to mediate on my behalf.
Wang Zhi betrayed nothing, asking, “Huai En also evaluated Tang Fan’s personality in one sentence. Can you remember that one?”
This time, the Crown Prince didn’t need to think, answering with, “Even though he is a civil official, he is loyal to the core, carries righteousness about his shoulders, and plans benevolently in worldly governance.”
Now, Wang Zhi had no more doubts.
When Huai En had said that, only the Crown Prince had been on scene with him. Even if someone was pretending to be him and was imitating him perfectly, there was no way they would have been able to memorize every one of those words.
Wang Zhi sighed in relief. “Thank you for dispelling my doubts. This subject has been reckless; please forgive my offense, Your Highness.”
“You and Solon Tang are only racking your brains on my behalf. How could I blame you, when I haven’t yet expressed my appreciation enough? However, I’ve been loitering about in bed, and just heard Cui Yong say that Solon Tang was chased back home. Did such a thing happen? What can I help him with? Plead for him with Father Emperor, maybe?”
“I’m afraid that His Majesty has no time to meet with you right now.”
The Crown Prince was startled. “Why so?”
“Consort Wan just passed,” Wang Zhi replied, carefully.
The Prince and Cui Yong both gasped, struck mute. Before they could respond, someone came to report the news of Consort Wan’s demise.
This had come much too suddenly. The Crown Prince aside, even the Wan part likely wasn’t mentally prepared at all. In everyone’s thoughts, were someone to be said to be dying prematurely due to illness, that someone would have to be the ever-ailed Emperor, not the much-healthier-looking Consort Wan.
The reason why she had tried her hardest to depose the Crown Prince was that, after the Emperor’s lifespan was up, she could rise to be Empress Dowager. In wanting wind, one must get wind; in wanting rain, one must get rain.
And yet, the Emperor was still perfectly alive, and so was the Crown Prince, while the one who had always been wanting to grab everything up in her hands had taken the first step out.
Of all the fickle, absurd events in the world, nothing could beat this.
At this moment, the palace would inevitably be in a lot of turmoil. Wang Zhi didn’t have the spare time to care about the Crown Prince’s response; after confirming that the Prince was not a fake, he quickly left the East Palace, returning to the Supervisory of Glyphs.
The eunuch he had ordered to go ask around the Supervisory of Miscellany also returned. He gave Wang Zhi one very important message: The carriage that had brought the Crown Prince to the Longevity Palace had indeed had an issue.
Beneath the carriage, an extra four square-chi groove had been constructed, big enough to hold someone curled up inside.
Wang Zhi, who had been under the impression that Tang Fan had been making something out of nothing, had not had any time to get the boulder off of his heart before it was suspended by this bit of information.
