The Emperor’s bedchamber was brightly lit with lamps, imperial guards standing in formation, sealed tight as a drum. It seemed even a moth couldn’t hope to fly in.
But when one person approached, without saying a word, the walls of copper and iron automatically parted for him, allowing him free passage.
Seeing him step into the great hall, the attending eunuchs all lowered their heads and bowed. “Grand Tutor.”
Deng Yi walked past them to the front of the bed.
The Emperor reclined with his eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
“Your Majesty,” Deng Yi knelt and sat down, saying softly, “The heir of Prince Zhongshan requests to enter the palace to guard Your Majesty.”
The Emperor, with closed eyes, let out a snort of laughter.
“So he managed to catch up after all,” he said, then laughed coldly again. “It seems tonight he poured quite a lot of oil on this fire.”
Deng Yi said, “Long ago, this subject received money from Prince Zhongshan. A great deal of money.”
The Emperor opened his eyes to look at him, his expression somewhat surprised, then he laughed again. “My brother—with one leg broken, he actually jumps higher and more energetically.”
Speaking of this, he felt somewhat melancholy.
“Imperial Grandmother shouldn’t have broken his leg back then. With a broken leg, his ambitions actually grew larger.”
“In the end, it was a woman’s compassion. She didn’t understand that to truly destroy a person, you don’t destroy their body—you must destroy their heart.”
“Unfortunately, I was still young then. If it had been a few years later, I would have had countless methods to obtain a good younger brother.”
But there was no chance now. The Emperor looked around the hall. The hall was brightly lit with lamps, but to him, everything was a dim, blurry yellow.
“What did he ask you to do?” the Emperor asked.
Deng Yi said, “He asked this subject to open the palace gates for him.”
The Emperor looked at the person before him. Although he had already entrusted this person with the重任 of the nation, to him this was a stranger—he couldn’t even remember what Deng Yi looked like.
The reason he used Deng Yi was because previously, Eunuch Qi had pushed this person before him, daring to make difficulties for the Crown Prince’s people. Clearly, he was a fellow with ambition.
In times of crisis, this kind of ambitious person was most suitable to pull out and use.
Was this Deng Yi’s ambition also arranged by someone else?
“What will you do?” The Emperor looked at Deng Yi, asking each word deliberately.
Deng Yi knelt with his spine straight, his gaze neither evasive nor hesitant in the slightest. “This subject will honor my promise and open the gates for him.”
The Emperor smiled, seemingly not finding this particularly frightening. He said, “Then open them. Since you’ve harbored such intentions all along, you’re not the only one he can use. If you don’t open them, someone else will.”
Deng Yi nodded. “This subject thinks the same. Right now, outside is already very chaotic. If Prince Zhongshan takes action again, it won’t be good for Your Majesty. Moreover, Your Majesty, you now have no other choice. The Crown Prince is dead, and as for the Third Prince—”
He looked at the Emperor.
“Can Your Majesty tolerate allowing a prince who committed fratricide to inherit the imperial throne?”
The Emperor let out a harsh laugh, but as soon as the laughter started, he suddenly coughed violently. He had no choice but to cover his mouth with his sleeve.
Was Deng Yi acting as Prince Zhongshan’s advocate?!
The eunuchs standing on both sides couldn’t believe it. Was this pressuring the Emperor?
“Your Majesty—” Two eunuchs rushed forward with tears in their eyes.
Two others wanted to fight Deng Yi to the death.
Deng Yi was neither anxious nor angry. He continued, “However, this subject has one condition for the heir of Prince Zhongshan.”
The Emperor covered his mouth with his sleeve, muffling his cough, looking at him.
Deng Yi smiled.
“This subject will give the heir of Prince Zhongshan an imperial edict,” he said. “In his own name, ordering the execution of Prince Zhongshan. Then he may step through the palace gates and remain constantly at Your Majesty’s side.”
The Emperor was stunned, then burst into loud laughter, coughing and laughing at the same time.
“Good, good!” he shouted. “What a Deng Yi! What a Grand Tutor! Truly worthy of being the person I favor!”
Whether this Deng Yi was someone he had favored first, or someone Prince Zhongshan had pushed before him, no longer mattered.
This Deng Yi belonged to no one—he belonged only to himself.
He looked at Deng Yi, his eyes full of admiration and even envy.
“You are precisely the kind of person I spoke of—capable of destroying someone by destroying their heart.”
You, Prince Zhongshan, want your son to become Emperor? Fine, you die first as tribute, and moreover, have your own son order your execution.
Your son, stepping over his own father’s life to sit upon this imperial throne—will he be happy or unhappy?
The eunuchs lowered their heads and respectfully withdrew in silence.
Deng Yi sat upright, wooden and impassive, but in the next moment his expression changed slightly, because the Emperor removed his sleeve, and on it were spots of blood.
“Your Majesty!” Deng Yi stood up.
But the Emperor didn’t care. He spread open his sleeve and leaned back against the dragon bed, letting the blood from the corner of his mouth drip onto his body.
“I will answer you. I can tolerate a son who commits fratricide, but I cannot tolerate a son who would commit patricide,” he said. “That bitch Noble Consort actually poisoned me.”
Those delicious pastries—no wonder they tasted different from what the imperial kitchen made. Accumulating over the long years, little by little.
Deng Yi stepped forward. “Your Majesty, quickly summon the imperial physicians—”
The Emperor laughed, wiping the corner of his mouth with his hand, removing the blood traces. “It’s useless. I’m going to die, but—”
His expression held despair and sorrow, but even more, it held crazed excitement.
“With Grand Tutor Deng here, my good nephew will surely be a good Emperor.”
“Even if I die, the one sitting on the imperial throne will never have peace for his entire life.”
“I can die with such peace of mind.”
Having said this, he laughed loudly, laughing and coughing at the same time, with more blood spattering out.
The eunuchs all around knelt down, weeping.
Deng Yi’s body and face were also splattered with blood. He didn’t try to support the Emperor again, but knelt down once more. “This subject will definitely not fail Your Majesty’s high expectations.”
……
……
Throwing the imperial edict on the ground wasn’t enough to vent his anger. Xiao Xun lifted his foot to kick it, then wanted to pick it up and throw it into the fire.
He had never lost his composure like this in his entire life. Even Tie Ying was frightened, not knowing what to do. Ning Kun lunged forward and snatched the edict into his arms.
“Your Highness!” Ning Kun shouted. “Calm down!”
Xiao Xun stopped his movements and looked coldly at Ning Kun. “Calm down? Why should I calm down? So I can deliver this thing to Father?”
The deep affection between the heir and the Prince—Ning Kun, who had watched the heir grow up, naturally knew.
This was also the first time he’d seen Xiao Xun like this. The young heir no longer had his usual detachment. His entire face was filled with rage, like a maddened beast.
“Young lord,” he said in a trembling voice, then fell to his knees with a thud. “Right now, it shouldn’t be what I think, and it shouldn’t be what you think—it should be what the Prince thinks.”
Xiao Xun’s eyes turned red. He lifted his foot and kicked viciously at Ning Kun, cursing harshly, “How dare you say such things! How dare you think such thoughts! You cannot even think it!”
Tie Ying stood to the side, deeply shaken, not knowing whether he should join the heir in kicking Ning Kun.
This Ning Kun—was he actually urging the heir to send his own father to death?!
Ning Kun neither dodged nor avoided, letting Xiao Xun kick him. Struggling, he grabbed onto Xiao Xun’s leg and shouted, “Young lord, think about it! Having you become Crown Prince and ascend to the imperial throne—that is the Prince’s greatest hope!”
Xiao Xun pointed outside. “What is there to think about? He has no choice. The Crown Prince is dead, the Third Prince is a madman, the imperial grandson is also doomed. He only has me—he must choose me!”
“But the Third Prince isn’t dead yet!” Ning Kun shouted. “His Majesty is also a madman! He was mad enough to indulge his two sons fighting for his amusement. Naturally, he could also be mad enough to let the Third Prince continue as Crown Prince. Moreover, His Majesty is still alive. This time, the Prince’s schemes have all been exposed. We have no choice—it’s either seek life or seek death!”
Xiao Xun kicked Ning Kun away. “Father is no longer the weak child he once was. If he wants to kill us now, it won’t be so easy.”
Ning Kun fell to the ground. He didn’t come to grab Xiao Xun again, but said anxiously, “The Prince has schemed for so many years—it’s not to bear the reputation of a treasonous rebel! Young lord—”
He knelt down and held up the imperial edict in his hands.
“Ning Kun is not asking the young lord to commit patricide. I’m only asking the young lord not to make decisions for his father.”
“For such a momentous matter, the Prince must know.”
“For such a momentous matter, young lord, you cannot make decisions on your own!”
However he put it, wasn’t he still asking him to deliver this damned edict, to deliver it to Father?
Xiao Xun’s face was dark with anger, his body trembling.
What would Father think upon receiving this edict? What would he do?
He didn’t dare think, couldn’t think, wouldn’t think.
What he should do now was take this edict and throw it into the fire to burn it, make it disappear from this world.
But—
He stood in place, looking at the edict Ning Kun held up. In his entire life, every step he’d taken, every action he’d made, he truly had never made decisions on his own—everything had been arranged by Father.
This time, should he make his own decision?
What if Father had a better solution?