With the ready-made ladder from when Ding Wu had climbed the wall earlier, Wei Caiwei climbed down from the wall top into the neighbor’s retreat…
Self-Rain Pavilion.
Wang Daxia, impersonating and substituting for Ding Wu, was tied to the waterwheel. By the fifth rotation, he couldn’t take it anymore.
He had thought the water torture too simple, believing that with his good swimming skills, when the waterwheel turned underwater, he would hold his breath and endure until it rotated back to the surface before breathing.
But in reality, being tied to the waterwheel like a kite, this up-and-down rotation made his body extremely uncomfortable—he simply couldn’t hold his breath that long.
From the sixth rotation, Wang Daxia’s fake coughing and choking became real coughing. The river water irritated his throat uncomfortably. Wang Daxia thought to himself: This summer I’m never swimming again!
By the tenth rotation, Wang Daxia’s head was buzzing with only one thought: Commander Lu, come save me! I don’t want to die—I haven’t married a wife yet!
Yan Shifan was playing the guqin in the Self-Rain Pavilion. The artificial raindrops carried away the summer heat. On Dragon Boat Festival, he drank realgar wine and played music for his own entertainment.
If everything went smoothly, tomorrow he would hear news of Ding Rukui’s death.
This hidden danger had to be eliminated.
That night, Ding Rukui’s appearance of being mortally ill in the death cell had initially fooled Yan Shifan into thinking he had tuberculosis and wouldn’t live through the summer.
But Yan Shifan wouldn’t be easily deceived. Ding Rukui’s death sentence had been issued for ten years without execution. Every year the Emperor reviewed death row prisoners but never marked Ding Rukui for execution, which once made Yan Shifan think the Emperor didn’t want to execute him, keeping Ding Rukui alive to balance court politics.
Emperor Jiajing had always done this. He resided in the Western Garden of the palace, cultivating immortality and making elixirs, not attending court for over thirty years. To maintain sole power, besides the assistance of his milk brother Lu Bing, a major reason was that Emperor Jiajing was a master at playing political balance. He favored Chief Minister Yan Song and his son Yan Shifan, but also elevated Cabinet Minister Xu Jie to check the Yans, preventing the Yan father and son from becoming too powerful. The court’s two factions constantly opposed each other, and the Emperor would pull one side here and lift the other there to control his ministers, ensuring no one side became dominant while also not letting any side completely perish.
For this reason, Yan Shifan had always thought the Emperor kept Ding Rukui alive to check their father and son, so Yan Shifan had approached his in-law Lu Bing, not wanting to wait for the Emperor to mark Ding Rukui for execution—so many death row prisoners ultimately died in prison, and Ding Rukui could too.
Lu Bing neither agreed nor refused, telling him Ding Rukui’s health was poor and not to be too hasty.
But Yan Shifan could become the core intellectual figure of the “Yan Party” precisely because of his cautious character. Although seeing was believing, he still wanted to confirm.
But Lu Bing’s trusted men were utterly loyal. Even Wu Mask, who managed the warehouse, would absolutely refuse to discuss confidential matters from headquarters once he left, no matter how much alcohol he was fed—he was like a clam shell with no way to pry it open.
The Imperial Guards headquarters was watertight under Lu Bing’s management, but the palace was different! Yan Shifan worked on the eunuchs, and under threats and bribes, the eunuchs revealed the secret that Lu Bing paid them silver every year to deliberately place Ding Rukui’s file last.
Yan Shifan was furious.
Good for you, my in-law! Even actors aren’t as good at performing as you! So for these ten years you’ve been the one interfering, secretly protecting Ding Rukui, yet you still act like Ding Rukui is seriously ill in front of me!
And that virtuous niece Lu Ying—you father and daughter are playing me together!
Since that’s the case, don’t blame me for turning ruthless!
Yan Shifan wanted Ding Rukui dead, but his reach currently couldn’t extend to the Imperial Guards headquarters, so he ordered close surveillance of every move by the Imperial Guards. Finally, at the gate, he discovered Ding Wu, son of Ding Rukui who should have been exiled to Tieling, being brought to Imperial Guards headquarters.
The opportunity had come!
Yan Shifan thought of the brilliant plan to use Ding Wu to threaten Ding Rukui into suicide.
First, he had to kidnap Ding Wu, which was somewhat difficult because Lu Ying had been secretly assigning people to tail Ding Wu, even setting up a tea stall in Sweet Water Alley as a secret post, and warning Ding Wu to stay quiet and not even go to bathhouses. Yan Shifan’s people couldn’t find a good opportunity to strike.
When Ding Wu went to the bathhouse to inquire about Wang Daxia’s background, Lu Ying’s agents followed him all the way to the bathhouse, where Yan Shifan’s assassins were also present. It was there the assassin discovered the small gold seal on Ding Wu’s neck—he wouldn’t remove it even while bathing, showing how important it was to him.
This small detail was reported to Yan Shifan, who, being deeply scheming and calculating, conceived the method to force Ding Rukui to commit suicide by swallowing gold.
Since Lu Bing was after all Emperor Jiajing’s milk brother, if forced to choose, the Emperor would definitely trust Lu Bing over Yan Shifan. Yan Shifan wanted to kill Ding Rukui but didn’t want to completely break with Lu Bing.
This would be a lose-lose result. If he did this, his political investment in becoming in-laws with Lu Bing would be wasted.
Yan Shifan felt it was so difficult—being deceived by Lu Bing yet having to pretend ignorance. Wanting to kill Ding Rukui while creating the illusion that Ding Rukui sought death himself, having nothing to do with him, to avoid awkward meetings with his in-law.
Being a treacherous minister was difficult—you had to get things done while not ruining relationships.
Until Wang Daxia invited Ding Wu and Wei Caiwei to watch him row dragon boats at the moat, Yan Shifan felt the opportunity had finally come.
Over the years, Yan Shifan had raised many assassins. He ordered a skilled assassin at disguise to impersonate the disfigured Wu Mask and infiltrate Imperial Guards headquarters. The real Wu Mask had already been drugged and drowned.
Another group disguised themselves as ice bowl vendors and bystanders. They first drugged the ice bowls to knock out the Imperial Guards agents monitoring Ding Wu with telescopes from under trees, then the vendor with the cart intercepted Ding Wu who wanted to buy ice bowls midway. Other assassins disguised as passersby surrounded him, forming a human barrier, then struck his neck with a club, knocking him unconscious and stuffing him into the ice barrel.
They tore off the small gold seal hanging from his neck. The seal was sent to the fake Wu Mask at Imperial Guards headquarters, while Ding Wu himself was immediately taken to the Duke of Yansheng’s retreat at Goldfish Pond—a place even Lu Bing wouldn’t dare bring troops to search.
The fake Wu Mask stuffed the gold seal and note into rice dumplings, using the cricket as a distraction to switch them and deliver them to Ding Rukui.
Mission accomplished. The fake Wu Mask couldn’t go home because while outsiders couldn’t tell the difference, family would still notice flaws. So the fake Wu Mask deliberately bought a jar of realgar wine, removed his mask to drink, letting all the swimmers see Wu Mask drinking and playing in water, setting up the drowning illusion.
This way, there would be no evidence. Even if Lu Bing suspected the reason for Ding Rukui’s suicide, he would at most suspect Wu Mask, with no evidence pointing to Yan Shifan.
Yan Shifan’s goal was Ding Rukui’s death, not breaking with Lu Bing. After all, in the larger political picture, having one more ally was better than one more enemy.
The fake Wu Mask jumped into water, his disguise washed away, mission completed, identity switched, returning to Yan Shifan to report.
All plans were perfect. Now it remained to see how much Ding Rukui loved his son and whether he was willing to die for him.
Actually, Yan Shifan didn’t have absolute certainty of killing Ding Rukui. If Ding Rukui feared death and put his own life before his son’s, then Yan Shifan’s plan would fail.
Ironically, the great villain Yan Shifan was actually placing his hopes on human goodness and deep father-son affection. He was inclined to believe Ding Rukui would choose self-sacrifice.
But Yan Shifan couldn’t be 100% certain. His heart was anxious and restless. Being a genius, he creatively thought of tying Ding Wu to the waterwheel for water torture.
This way, while Yan Shifan’s heart suffered the torture of anxious waiting, Ding Wu suffered physical torture. Seeing Ding Wu choking on water in misery, life worse than death, Yan Shifan felt slightly better.
As a great treacherous minister, happiness was built on others’ pain.
Yan Shifan casually played a tune called “Wine Madness.” Through the artificial rain curtain, he watched “Ding Wu” on the waterwheel like a dead dog, his heart becoming cheerful.
Yan Shifan picked up a wine pot and walked out of the Self-Rain Pavilion, someone holding an umbrella over his head.
The waterwheel slowly rotated, and “Ding Wu” emerged from underwater, coughing and choking loudly, almost coughing up his lungs.
Yan Shifan approached, appreciating “Ding Wu’s” suffering. He couldn’t help it—he was almost a creature that fed on pain, his fat body having absorbed the pain and tears of countless people, including the He family. Only the He family was too insignificant—they couldn’t even get in line for revenge.
Yan Shifan treated the painful coughing as drinking accompaniment, took a sip of wine, and said: “You want relief, don’t you?”
“I want it too. Only when your father dies can you be relieved. I’ll give you a quick death, and I can also put down a worry and cure a heart disease.”
Yan Shifan patted his fat chest: “This heart disease has lasted ten years. Your father just won’t die. I have no choice but to take it out on you. You have to understand me.”
Wang Daxia thought: I understand nothing! You wait! Originally we had no grudges, but today we’ve made big enemies! Don’t look down on a poor youth—someday I’ll return all the torture I suffered today!
But Wang Daxia could only think this for satisfaction. Soon the waterwheel turned underwater again, and he tried his best to hold his breath, not letting the cold water choke him.
At this time, Lu Ying had already dived over again. She cut the ropes underwater and dragged Wang Daxia away.
The two swam to the lotus cluster in the goldfish pond to catch their breath. The waterwheel rotated, and Yan Shifan held up a torch, waiting for “Ding Wu” to emerge, wanting to play a game of ice and fire with “Ding Wu” as entertainment during his anxious waiting.
Yan Shifan wanted to ask Ding Wu: Does fire burn more or does water choke more?
But Yan Shifan didn’t see Ding Wu and quickly ordered his men: “The rope must have broken! Quickly surround the goldfish pond! Fish him out!”
The banks of the goldfish pond were immediately lined with guards holding lanterns. Guards also jumped into the water to fish for people, and over ten orchid boats rowed across the pond surface with soldiers holding lanterns to illuminate the pond, searching for Ding Wu.
Under this comb-like screening, Wang Daxia and Lu Ying hiding in the lotus cluster were both found.
Suddenly there were two extra living people, but Ding Wu was nowhere to be found. The guards were furious and ashamed, wanting to whip Lu Ying. Wang Daxia blocked in front, laughing: “This is really the flood washing away the Dragon King Temple—family not recognizing family. Open your dog eyes and see clearly—this is Minister Yan’s relative, the biological younger brother of Madam Yan the Second.”
The guards didn’t believe it. Wang Daxia shouted loudly toward Yan Shifan at the Self-Rain Pavilion: “Minister Yan! Your virtuous nephew Lu Ying is here! Madam Yan the Second is still carrying your eldest grandson. If you beat her brother and Madam Yan the Second finds out, it would be bad if it hurt the pregnancy!”
When Yan Shifan heard this, he quickly ordered the two intruders brought over.
“It’s you?” Yan Shifan looked at the pale, soaked Lu Ying in disbelief. “Did your father send you?”
Lu Ying was straightforward and about to answer when Wang Daxia spoke first: “Of course! Who else in the Imperial Guards could order our Commander Lu? Quickly release us—Commander Lu is coming.”
Not expecting to be caught by a junior, Yan Shifan questioned Wang Daxia: “Where is Ding Wu?”
Wang Daxia said: “Naturally drowned in the goldfish pond feeding the fish. You’d better send more people to fish him out.”
Yan Shifan was furious. He couldn’t act against Lu Ying, so he vented all his anger on Wang Daxia. He picked up the torch and aimed it at Wang Daxia’s mouth: “I’ll give you one chance. Where is Ding Wu? If you don’t say, this mouth is useless—might as well taste what a torch feels like!”
Author’s Note: Caiwei needs to quickly save your dead ghost husband! Such a handsome face—don’t let it become a second Wu Mask!