The entire court of civil and military officials knelt covering the ground. Zhou Weizhao, who had been abnormally quiet all this while, finally raised his eyes and slowly swept his gaze across everyone before saying softly, “Approved.”
After Elder Chen’s case, Vice Minister of Justice Meng Jiming, Supreme Court Minister Feng Yinglong, and Left Censor-in-Chief Tao Dinghu of the Censorate finally got another opportunity to jointly investigate a case. However, none of the three could feel happy about it. They exchanged glances, unable to even muster bitter smiles.
How… how were they supposed to investigate this?!
Of course they had to start with the heir of Marquis Guangping. After all, wasn’t Guangping Marquis’s heir Fei Zhan arrested and died on charges of colluding with Prince Gong to murder Imperial Guards? They had to start from there.
The three gathered to discuss for a while and did come up with some leads, but none of them knew exactly how to proceed with the investigation.
Meng Jiming had always been extremely slippery. Seeing that Tao Dinghu and Feng Yinglong were both acting like fools, rambling about this and that while deliberately avoiding mentioning whether to investigate the case or not, he flicked his sleeves and stood up, saying that it was getting late today and they should discuss it again tomorrow.
No one was a fool. At this critical moment when the war was at its peak, the court was hastily starting internal strife instead. He felt it was utterly pointless—he might not know other black or white matters, but Emperor Jianzhang had made it crystal clear that Prince Gong was a rebellious son, and he wouldn’t mishear that. As for being framed or not, he sneered inwardly—that was nothing but deceitful nonsense. Those who brought up this matter had no good intentions at all. As for Censor Shi and Liang Tong, these two hotheads were famously stubborn. Though their loyalty was genuine and their sense of justice real, they were truly foolish—obviously being used by others as pawns to stick their necks out.
He didn’t want to do such stupid things anymore. Now that this matter had blown up, who knew what bigger storms were waiting ahead.
Feng Yinglong felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He immediately stood up with relief, stroking his beard with a smile, “That’s good too. We’ll discuss it again tomorrow, tomorrow. There are countless threads and no way to start investigating for now!”
Ever since Tao Dinghu had received that one sentence from Grand Secretary Chang, he had been somewhat bewildered. He already knew that Grand Secretary Chang’s implied meaning was that something major would definitely happen. Now it really had happened, and it was earth-shattering. With such turmoil…
He sighed. Hearing these two speak this way, he naturally also felt that it was better to avoid trouble. The court situation was already chaotic enough. Expecting the three judicial departments to investigate—investigate what case? Could they really arrest His Highness the Grand Prince? That would be absurd. There wasn’t a single capable imperial clan member to take charge of the overall situation. Prince Su and Prince Lu wanted to interfere, but who were they? They were neither senior nor legitimate. Moreover, Empress Dowager Lu was still above them. Even Empress Dowager Lu hadn’t spoken up, and she was Zhou Weizhao’s own grandmother. This relationship was such a mess…
The three made up their minds to drag it out as long as possible. They slowly packed their things and headed outside. Who knew that just as they left the government office, they would run into Liang Tong with red-rimmed eyes along with several censors and several remonstrating officials from the Ministry of War and Ministry of Revenue. They couldn’t help but stop in their tracks.
“What have the three lords discovered?” Liang Tong stepped forward in front of everyone and stood before the three, looking around suspiciously. “How is it that after all this time, there hasn’t been the slightest movement?” Then he looked at the sky. “It’s not yet time to leave the office, is it? Are you lords perhaps heading home?”
Tao Dinghu’s eyebrows twitched involuntarily, and then he heard Meng Jiming laugh it off, “With countless threads to deal with, we really can’t sort out any leads for the moment. We still need to investigate further.”
Liang Tong sneered, “Is that so? I wonder how Lord Meng plans to investigate?”
These hotheads! A surge of annoyance rose in Meng Jiming’s heart. Looking at them, he finally couldn’t hold back anymore and asked in a rather harsh tone, “Do we need you to ask how we investigate? Does Lord Liang have nothing better to do?!”
Liang Tong wasn’t afraid of him. He stepped straight forward, swept up his robe, and sat down on the ground, completely disregarding decorum. “As you see, Lord, in the current court besides this matter, what other business can be done? If this matter isn’t investigated and clarified for one day, the nation remains without a master for one day.” He sneered and looked up at the three men with their varying expressions. “I remind you lords not to employ delaying tactics. The common people have their eyes wide open watching! All the civil and military officials have their eyes wide open watching!”
When Meng Jiming and the other two were besieged and in an awkward position, Song Chengru had finally managed to return to the Earl’s residence. His entire outfit had been torn into disarray. After changing clothes and coming out, Old Madam Song was looking at him with furrowed brows, extremely worried. “Now the public sentiment is agitated. I heard today that even the offices of the Five Chief Military Commissions were stormed by the common people… I don’t know how things will turn out.”
Song Chengru sat down beside her and drank a sip of tea, his spirits still excellent. “Don’t worry. When I came back earlier, I heard that Liang Tong and the others went to make trouble for Meng Jiming and the other two, probably demanding that they release people.”
Old Madam Song was slightly stunned for a moment and asked in surprise, “Who? Release whom?”
“Academician Chen and the others.” Old Master Song was brief and to the point. “I know Zheng Sansi. His younger brother, like the Prince of Zhennan, is among the missing with unknown fate. How could he truly side with Prince Gong and the Tartars? He genuinely believes the national treasury is depleted and cannot continue the war. He thinks that if a marriage alliance could bring peace, that would naturally be best. But as for Academician Chen and the others…” Old Master Song showed a meaningful expression. “Their character has never been that good to begin with. I heard that back when the heir of Marquis Guangping fell from his horse, they were also among those who went to the Imperial Guard and the Ministry of Justice to inquire about news and send gifts.”
Hearing him say this, Old Madam Song knew the situation was still under their control. She nodded thoughtfully and then asked Old Master Song, “Today Yan’er went out. Do you think he might encounter any troublemakers on the road?”
Although they had already made thorough preparations, she still couldn’t help worrying about Song Yan. Old Madam Song increasingly felt that her body couldn’t hold up anymore. She had been muddled and dazed all day today.
Seeing that she was clearly exhausted to the extreme, Old Master Song stopped discussing these troubling matters with her. He smiled at her with certainty, “A’Yan has Teacher Chang and the others accompanying him, plus Changgui and others following at his side. This time is different from before—he also has my personal letter. The officials along the way will all take good care of him. You don’t need to worry so much.”
After saying this, he urged Old Madam Song to rest well. “Taking good care of your own health is most important. We’ll worry about other matters. Speaking of which,” at this point his face finally showed some smile, “didn’t you hear what Mingzi said? She said she wants us to help her take care of her child. You mustn’t wear yourself out. We need to hold on—after helping Mingzi with her great-grandchild, there’s still Xiao Yi’s child. Although we can’t raise them ourselves, we still need to look after them for Xiao Yi.”