Lian Shilan stepped back a few paces but couldn’t break free from Cui Xingdi’s grip. His hand was so strong that she nearly cried from the pain.
She cried out in despair, “You made me distance myself from my mother and recently even prevented me from visiting my family. You planned to use my mother all along, didn’t you? Cui Xingdi, she’s your mother-in-law! When has she ever wronged you? How can you treat her like this? Is this fair to me?”
Although she had known early on that Cui Xingdi was secretly treating his legs, she never knew when exactly he had become able to stand… or perhaps he had recovered long ago and was just pretending to be lame?
When he had come to propose and persuade her, he had promised to make her a princess consort.
Soon after, Lian Shilan began to regret her decision. As she came to understand the man she had married better, her regret grew stronger. She felt she had been drawn into a bottomless whirlpool, even implicating her mother.
After threatening Lian Shilan, Cui Xingdi slowly reverted to his usual refined manner. Watching Lian Shilan’s hysteria, he smiled and said, “Your mother always felt that I, a prince’s bastard son, wasn’t worthy of the daughter she had carefully nurtured. If that’s the case, it’s only natural for her to contribute to making me worthy of the Lian family… Given the circumstances, I must ask my wife to endure a little longer. Otherwise, if Cui Xingzhou and his wife discover that I’m behind all this, do you think they would spare you, their worthless cousin?”
Lian Shilan’s shoulders trembled at these words, and she wilted like frost-bitten eggplant. The man before her not only resembled Cui Xingzhou in appearance but also shared his ruthless disregard for family ties.
She couldn’t control such a man; she was merely a tool, a pawn in his hands.
Having said this, Cui Xingdi clapped his hands and called for his subordinates outside the door: “The madam is unwell. She shouldn’t leave the house or see anyone for some time… Prepare the boat. I’ll depart for the capital tonight, ahead of Cui Xingzhou.”
The situation in Zhenzhou was now hopeless. Since Cui Xingzhou didn’t need to observe mourning, his ninth brother would likely soon set out for the capital.
Today, he had sent Lian Shilan to the mansion for two reasons: first, as a concubine’s daughter-in-law, she naturally had to pay respects to the matriarch; second, to see if Cui Xingzhou was still at the mansion.
From Liu Miantang’s words, it seemed Cui Xingzhou had been attending to his mother for days and was now resting in his chambers, exhausted. He would probably rest for a few days before heading to the capital.
He needed to make good use of this time difference and reach the capital earlier.
When he arrived at the dock, his fast boat was already prepared and waiting.
The boat was specially designed with two decks. The large sail on the mast was painted with a golden dragon – this symbol allowed passage throughout Great Yan without inspection, as it was the emblem of the Hidden Dragon Guard.
The founding emperor of Great Yan, being naturally suspicious, had established the Hidden Dragon Guard in addition to the regular secret investigation department to handle covert matters for the royal family.
All guards in the Hidden Dragon Guard were boys selected and trained from various regions. Unlike the imperial guards who were chosen from legitimate sons of noble families, the Hidden Dragon Guard consisted of unremarkable sons from various households, even poor families. They had no choice but to climb up from the mud step by step.
The Huaiyang Prince’s Mansion, being a non-imperial royal house always viewed with suspicion by successive emperors, naturally had to provide suitable candidates for the Hidden Dragon Guard.
Back then, after losing favor with his father due to his lame leg, he endured humiliation and remained hidden in the prince’s mansion. During this time, the Hidden Dragon Guard consistently sent people to instruct him. When the time was right, he would become a sharp weapon inserted into the Huaiyang Prince’s Mansion.
He, in turn, used the Hidden Dragon Guard to secretly cultivate his power and occasionally trip up his ninth brother, the prince.
When the crown prince was harmed by the favored concubine, the fact that the royal grandson Liu Yu managed to escape was not only due to loyal old retainers of the Eastern Palace but also related to the Hidden Dragon Guard.
Although the Hidden Dragon Guard wouldn’t easily involve itself in struggles for imperial power, it wouldn’t allow outsiders to harm imperial princes. So when Liu Yu took refuge in Yangshan, Cui Xingdi was aware of it.
This long-hidden member of the Hidden Dragon Guard was naturally happy to use this isolated prince to trip up his princely brother.
So he passed on the information about the provisions for Zhenzhou’s local troops to Liu Yu in the form of secret paintings.
As it turned out, he had bet on the right horse. When Liu Yu ascended to the throne, he supported him all the way, gradually gaining imperial favor and becoming the head of the Hidden Dragon Guard, secretly monitoring the movements of the Prince of Sui and the Prince of Huaiyang for Liu Yu.
When he went to the capital, although he claimed to be doing business, he was setting up a network to help Liu Yu overthrow his royal uncle, the Prince of Sui. Having been hidden for many years, his power and connections gradually increased.
However, while fulfilling his duties to the Hidden Dragon Guard and serving Liu Yu wholeheartedly, the Fifth Master gradually became dissatisfied with remaining in the shadows.
He had endured so many years of hardship just for the chance to exact his revenge. Years ago, when his mother was favored, his father the prince had personally promised to make him the legitimate son, but in the end, he became the most pitiful bastard cripple in the prince’s mansion.
Years of humiliation had tempered Cui Xingdi’s character, making his counterattacks even more vicious and merciless when he finally erupted.
So he had seized the opportunity when his ninth brother Cui Xingzhou entered Beihai, intending to use the Eagle Temple to eliminate this thorn in his side.
However, despite Cui Xingdi’s careful preparations to destroy the Beihai navy and his schemes to ensure Cui Xingzhou would die without a burial place, his plans ultimately failed.
He had calculated everything, but he hadn’t anticipated that the Eagle Temple would be lustful and desire to possess Liu Miantang, resulting in her being abducted to the island and inadvertently revealing the secret of the cannons. He also hadn’t expected that Zhao Quan, whom Cui Xingzhou had brought back, would be proficient in the rare Central Plains method of dispelling gu poison due to his long residence in Beihai.
Later, seeing that the Eagle Temple could no longer be used, he had no choice but to quickly destroy the evidence to prevent His Majesty from discovering his secret dealings with the Japanese. However, he had always been meticulous in his actions and naturally had a backup plan…
Of the mother-child gu he had prepared earlier, besides the pair he used on Dowager Princess Chu, he had sent another set to Shi Yikuan through various channels.
Now, the one who couldn’t sleep due to anxiety was naturally the Imperial Father-in-law Shi.
When Cui Xingdi had sent people to assassinate the Eagle Temple earlier, he had deliberately left alive the two imperial envoys who could implicate the Imperial Uncle Shi in colluding with foreign enemies, intending to force the Imperial Father-in-law into a corner.
Now he had simmered things to just the right degree, cooking the Imperial Father-in-law to perfection, crisp on the outside and tender on the inside.
Just days ago, Cui Xingdi had received secret intelligence that the child gu had been secretly administered to His Majesty by a eunuch arranged by the Imperial Father-in-law. It had matured sufficiently and was ready for the mother gu to be activated, allowing the child gu to break out of its cocoon.
It all depended on whether the Imperial Uncle Shi could seize the right moment to let the long-ailing Emperor of Great Yan “rest” earlier.
As long as the Imperial Father-in-law supported the young crown prince’s ascension to the throne, the first person he would deal with would be Cui Xingzhou, who was rushing to the capital!
And Cui Xingzhou would certainly be wary of Emperor Liu Yu due to the cannon diagrams, leading to a spectacular clash between the two sides.
He could then take advantage of their fight to benefit himself, allowing the Hidden Dragon Guard to become the meritorious force stabilizing Great Yan’s reign, eliminating the rebel Shi faction and Cui faction, and leaving a legacy for generations… Thinking of this, Cui Xingdi wanted to laugh out loud three times.
At this moment, the night was deep, and the dragon pattern on the sailboat was hidden by thick fog. Under the cover of darkness, it dissolved into the night, carried by the surging river waters.
Meanwhile, in the capital, just as Fifth Master Cui Xingdi had predicted, a storm was brewing.
His Majesty had not held court for many days. Although Liu Yu was often ill and the court officials were used to this, such a long absence from public view was uncommon.
In the Emperor’s bedchamber, a strong smell of medicine permeated the air. Empress Shi personally took a bowl of thin white porridge from a palace maid and tried to feed some to the Emperor, who had been in a coma for a long time.
Caring for the Emperor who had contracted a strange illness seemed to have made Empress Shi even thinner. Her usually round chin had become pointed, and her ordinary features now appeared more delicate.
Just then, a eunuch came running in small steps to report: “Your Majesty, the Imperial Father-in-law Shi requests an audience.”
Empress Shi didn’t even raise an eyebrow as she said, “Tell him I’m exhausted and will see him another day.”
The eunuch said with difficulty, “This servant already said that, but the Imperial Father-in-law is kneeling and refusing to rise. He insists on seeing you, Your Majesty…”
Empress Shi had already fed about half of the porridge to the Emperor. She closed her eyes briefly, then looked up and said, “If that’s the case, then I’ll go see my father.”
After saying this, Empress Shi stood up and, supported by her old nurse, slowly walked out of the palace gates.
Shi Yikuan’s knees were sore from kneeling outside the bedchamber. In his heart, he cursed bitterly: Of all the daughters he had raised, this ungrateful fool had to be the one. Even though she was firmly established as the main consort, at this crucial moment, he as her father couldn’t exert any influence. Fortunately, many girls from the Shi family had entered the palace, and some clever and sensible ones had gained Liu Yu’s favor. Two of them were already pregnant. After he eliminated his disobedient son-in-law and stabilized the political situation, it was anyone’s guess which of his grandsons would sit on the dragon throne. A disobedient daughter could be discarded!
Thinking this way, Shi Yikuan felt the path ahead becoming clearer.
Originally, these past two days were when the child gu was supposed to mature. However, his daughter, Empress Shi, had inspected the Emperor’s bedchamber days ago, not only replacing all the eunuchs and palace maids serving His Majesty closely but also strictly examining all utensils and soups used. Unable to get the mother gu in, he was becoming anxious.
As long as the mother gu activated the child gu, His Majesty could naturally “suffer a stroke” and pass away. With a new emperor ascending the throne amidst countless matters to attend to, who would have time to investigate the Imperial Father-in-law? By then, even if Cui Xingzhou brought iron-clad evidence, he couldn’t do anything to him.
However, now he needed to find a way to get the mother gu in…
Just as he was thinking about this, Empress Shi walked out of the bedchamber.
She stood before her father and said in a flat tone, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Imperial Father-in-law. You still seem to be in good health.”
The Imperial Father-in-law’s face was full of worry as he said, “With His Majesty still unconscious, I can’t eat or sleep properly day and night. How is His Majesty now?”
Empress Shi sighed lightly and said, “The palace doctors are at a loss. The Ministry of Rites’ warehouse has already started stockpiling white cloth for mourning garments. I’ve heard that the Huaiyang Prince’s close friend, Marquis Zhao, is a renowned doctor specializing in various difficult illnesses. So I sent people to Zhenzhou early on to invite the Huaiyang Prince and Marquis Zhao to come together. Even if they can’t cure His Majesty’s illness completely, they can at least stabilize the situation in the capital…”
Hearing this, Shi Yikuan’s eyelid twitched, but he respectfully said, “I haven’t seen the Crown Prince for a long time and miss him dearly. I’ve prepared some playthings for him. May I ask the Empress to take a look?”