After a slight pause, Guanzhi immediately understood his master’s meaning and responded with an indignant “Yes” before quickly going to fetch the items.
Feng Yue turned around, looking at him in confusion: “What? Planning to go to the palace to report the Crown Prince?”
Adjusting his collar, Yin Gezhi glanced at her and said: “No need for such trouble.”
Filing complaints wasn’t his style, and if he were to report anything, he should have brought the corpses to the palace last night. After a night had passed, the smell of blood had faded, and the “cauliflower” had gone cold – what would be the point?
Seeing his gentle expression, Feng Yue instinctively shuddered, suddenly feeling somewhat sympathetic toward the brainless Crown Prince.
Even after returning to the palace, Yin Chengyue couldn’t sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, scenes of flying limbs and blood appeared in his mind. He trembled under his blanket, terrified.
Seeing his state, the palace servant hurriedly reported to the Empress, who rushed over immediately and dismissed all the attendants. She anxiously asked: “What happened?”
After recounting what happened at the Prince’s mansion, Yin Chengyue looked at his mother tremblingly: “Can I stop competing with him?”
Empress Shi furrowed her brows: “You are the Crown Prince! Do you know how much effort your mother spent to secure this position for you? Although the Prince is supposed to be exiled, there are still people in court pleading for him. If this continues and the Emperor rescinds his order, he’ll become the biggest threat to your position as Crown Prince! If you don’t fight now while the Emperor is wary of him, when do you plan to fight?”
“But… but,” just thinking of Yin Chenbi’s face made Yin Chengyue tremble: “If he truly wants to compete with me, there’s no way I can win against him!”
Gritting her teeth hard, Empress Shi looked exasperated: “His mother died early, leaving him without support in the inner palace. He has no solid relationships in court, only relying on some past prestige to maintain his position. How could you not beat him? Besides, the Emperor favors you now – what does he have?”
Yin Gezhi, who had been a hostage for a year and devoted himself to Wei for nearly ten years, now had nothing!
Seeing Yin Chengyue’s bewildered face, Empress Shi pondered briefly before saying: “Didn’t he just massacre people at his mansion? Those were all city guards! We can use this to accuse him, saying the city guards were on night patrol near his mansion when conflict arose, and the Prince was killed indiscriminately. Find some witnesses, and he surely won’t be able to defend himself!”
Finding this plan feasible, the Empress went to the door herself and summoned a palace maid for some whispered instructions.
Yin Chengyue watched silently, his eyes showing some disgust, but he couldn’t speak up and just hung his head waiting.
As dawn broke and the palace gates opened wide, court officials walked orderly toward the court hall. Inspector Wu Ze was yawning when he suddenly felt someone squeeze in behind him.
The queue for entering the palace was predetermined – who would break protocol by pushing in like this? He frowned and turned around, intending to say something, but saw Yin Gezhi’s expressionless face, like the morning’s cool breeze, instantly sobering him up.
“Prince Xiao?!”
This exclamation stopped both lines of officials who were walking. Stone Hongwei at the front turned back with a slight start and frown, seeing the Prince not wearing court robes or even formal attire, but only light, elegant white clothing, his eyes calm and undisturbed.
What was happening? None of the officials could make sense of it. Those closer to Yin Gezhi gathered around him, asking in low voices: “What does Your Highness intend?”
Yin Gezhi said: “I have something to tell His Majesty in court.”
“His Majesty,” not “Royal Father.”
Drawing in a sharp breath, Wu Ze pulled his sleeve and advised: “The Emperor has been in a bad mood lately. You might provoke his anger like this.”
“If he doesn’t get angry, I’ll have come for nothing.” Calmly brushing away his hand, Yin Gezhi said: “Gentlemen, please continue forward. It’s unseemly to block the way like this.”
Wu Ze was Yin Gezhi’s old friend, promoted to Inspector largely thanks to him, so hearing this, he said nothing more and simply had people form ranks to continue forward.
Shi Hongwei watched with furrowed brows, pondering briefly before continuing toward the court hall without speaking.
Thus, the Wei Emperor’s relatively good mood today was ruined the moment he sat on the dragon throne and looked down.
“Chenbi?” With an unpleasant expression, the Wei Emperor said: “Why are you here?”
Stepping forward and kneeling, Yin Gezhi said: “Son has failed Father Emperor’s expectations and comes to request punishment.”
“Oh?” The Wei Emperor showed some interest: “What happened?”
Yin Gezhi raised his head and calmly said: “Being a Prince has become tiresome. Your son wishes to resign his title and become a commoner, to travel mountains and waters. I have failed Father Emperor’s great grace and expectations, please forgive me.”
What nonsense?
The entire court was shocked by these words! Throughout history, there have been countless princes, but never one who declared in court that being a prince was boring and wanted to become a commoner to travel! Wasn’t this like publicly slapping the Emperor’s face? And quite hard at that – the Wei Emperor was stunned for quite a while.
But when he came to his senses, the Wei Emperor was furious, throwing down the memorial in his hand. He raged: “Absurd! This is the court! In front of so many people, how dare you speak such outrageous words?! Did the Yin Imperial family raise you just to see you act so rebelliously today?!”
“Your Majesty, please calm down—” Officials on both sides knelt, touching their foreheads to the ground.
Yin Gezhi knelt with a straight back, saying calmly: “In these past twenty-some years, does Father Emperor feel that what I have repaid to the Yin Imperial family is not enough?”
After a thought, he looked up: “Perhaps, you’d rather send me back to Wu as a hostage, to die in foreign lands – would that make Father Emperor more comfortable?”
These two sentences stopped the Wei Emperor’s anger in its tracks, and all the officials’ hearts tightened.
Indeed, speaking of the grace of being raised – the contributions Prince Yin had made to the imperial family in these years exceeded those of all princes and emperors of the two dynasties combined. If one were to calculate who owed whom, it would be hard to say.
His gaze wavered slightly as the Wei Emperor felt both angry and somewhat ashamed. After all, he had wronged his imperial son in some ways, but this behavior was truly excessive – how could the dignity of an emperor allow such trampling?
In the Wei Emperor’s view, no one would willingly give up wealth and glory to become a commoner, so Yin Chenbi must be using reverse psychology, expressing dissatisfaction with the exile decree and trying to force him to rescind his order.
He had grown tired of such tricks in the inner palace and most despised such people. Do you want to be a commoner? Then go be one!
Slapping his armrest, the Wei Emperor turned and asked: “What does the Prime Minister think of this matter?”
Shi Hongwei stepped forward and respectfully cupped his hands, saying: “The old minister perhaps knows some reason for the Prince’s actions today, and was planning to report this matter to Your Majesty – last night when city guards patrolled near the Prince’s mansion, for unknown reasons, over a hundred soldiers died by the Prince’s hand, corpses piled like mountains, their wronged souls unable to rest.”
The court erupted in an uproar. The Emperor was shocked, staring at the kneeling figure below, who calmly said: “Son is bloodthirsty, therefore even more unworthy of the position of Prince.”
Wu Ze couldn’t listen anymore and stepped forward to refute: “Would city guards on patrol have over a hundred men go to the Prince’s mansion at once? Even if the Prince is bloodthirsty, he would never kill innocents indiscriminately. There must be reasons behind this that need careful investigation!”
The Minister of the Imperial Clan stepped forward and said: “The palace gate records show that His Highness the Crown Prince left the palace after midnight last night and returned two hours later, destination unknown. Could this be related to the incident at the Prince’s mansion?”
Shi Hongwei had heard the Empress’s plan and thought it was truly Yin Gezhi’s fault. He didn’t expect it would implicate the Crown Prince! He secretly cursed women for being brainless, making everything into leverage!
“If not for this matter, the old minister wouldn’t know why the Prince wants to leave.” Stopping this line of discussion, Shi Hongwei cupped his hands and said: “But Your Highness, by demeaning yourself like this without considering His Majesty’s feelings, you show filial impiety.”
If the father isn’t kind, how can the son be filial? Yin Gezhi smiled slightly without arguing. He only said: “Why does Prime Minister Shi need to say more? His Majesty asked for your opinion – you only need one word of ‘approval’ to save yourself much trouble.”
Shi Hongwei fell silent, appearing to think carefully. But in his heart, he had already concluded.
At the Prince’s mansion.
Feng Yue waited anxiously, staring outside, just wondering if Lian Heng hadn’t delivered the message when she heard a commotion from the back courtyard.
“Catch him! Quick!”
“Send reinforcements!”
“Surround them, don’t let them get through!”
They’re here! Hearing this commotion, she knew it was General Yin’s usual tactic of creating a diversion. All the patrol guards went to support the back courtyard, while the incredibly strong Shi Chong flipped over into the front, ran to her, and without a word, lifted her onto his shoulder and leaped outside!
“You finally came!” Feng Yue was almost in tears: “I waited for you all so miserably!”
“We searched for you just as miserably.” Jumping over the wall to the carriage, Shi Chong said excitedly: “You don’t know – Madam Qiu cried for several days, hitting anyone who tried to console her! General Feng also helped search every corner of Lidou and was about to go crazy when he couldn’t find you. Who would have thought you were in the Prince’s mansion? Why didn’t the Prince say anything…”
“If he had said anything, you would have taken me back – he’s not that stupid.” Rolling her eyes, Feng Yue said: “Not only is he not stupid, but he probably helped you search, showing concern by sending people daily to ask if you’d found me yet.”
Wide-eyed, Shi Chong looked at her in amazement: “How did you guess?”
Was there even a need to guess? With Yin Gezhi’s shameless style! Of course, he would do that!
Wiping her face, Feng Yue asked: “How are things on your side?”
Shi Chong said: “We were going to kill Shi Youxin, but Madam Qiu said she wanted to wait for you to do it personally, so we’re keeping him in a cage. We haven’t had much going on lately, just focused on finding you. But just now news came from the palace saying the Prince wants to demote himself to commoner status. There’s fierce debate in court, and it looks like the Wei Emperor will agree – the officials are still discussing it.”
Demote himself to commoner status? Feng Yue was stunned, but with a roll of her eyes, she understood what Yin Gezhi was planning.
That shameless scoundrel!
Though, being shameless toward the Yin Imperial family – now that would be quite a show to watch!