But when Tao Huiru went to find Chen Fang, he was not there — according to the servants, he had gone to the Crown Prince’s residence.

She thought for a moment, then simply used the pretext of visiting the Crown Princess to call upon the Crown Prince’s residence.

When the servants led her to the door of the study, she saw Chen Fang coming out of the Crown Prince’s study with a swollen, bruised face.

Tao Huiru was startled. Once she had entered the study and paid her respects to the Crown Prince, she asked with cautious concern: “Your Highness, has something troubling happened? You seem so angry?”

The Crown Prince lifted his head and looked at his Fourth Aunt by marriage, his face full of an indescribable gloom.

Tao Huiru could not guess why he was angry.

After all, the plan had been proceeding very smoothly — the imposter had successfully entered the palace, and Situ Sheng had been implicated by the imposter and thrown into prison.

No matter how one looked at it, Chen Fang — the trusted confidant who had helped the Crown Prince carry out the plan — ought to have been a man of merit!

Yet from what she had just seen, the Crown Prince had clearly slapped Chen Fang. That did not look like ordinary rage.

The Crown Prince then finally began to speak: “Fourth Aunt, I keep feeling that this matter… has loose ends!”

Tao Huiru was taken aback and urged him to be more specific.

It turned out that the incident of Gu Youjin causing havoc in the imperial garden had not been deliberately arranged by the Crown Prince.

According to what the Crown Prince had since learned, the “Third Imperial Prince,” who had been staying in an idle hall of the palace, had drunk a cup or two of wine and lost all sense of direction. He then grabbed a palace maid who had come to deliver food to him and tried to push her down.

The maid had been frightened out of her wits and ran out, clutching her skirt — whereupon Gu Youjin, barely clothed, staggered after her in pursuit.

The guards on duty outside had for some unknown reason been absent just at that moment, and he had stumbled all the way to the imperial garden — thus crashing into the Crown Princess and the assembled consorts who had come to visit.

By the time the Crown Prince heard the news and rushed to the palace, and saw the Crown Princess weeping and nearly in a faint, he had naturally flown into a fury and was determined to make a scene of it.

In the preceding days he had been waiting with growing impatience for his imperial father to act. For unknown reasons, nothing had come from him. Was it that having found his long-lost son at last, His Majesty was so full of parental devotion that he was unwilling to expose this displaced Third Crown Prince to the public?

So at the time, the Crown Prince had thought to himself: today’s farce was a case of accidentally planting a willow tree that had taken root on its own — a perfect opportunity to use the Third Imperial Prince’s improper conduct to start trouble and draw out the planted threads of suspicion against the imposter.

After all, though the imposter had physical evidence on his side, both the bracelet that had been replicated by a skilled craftsman and the fabric of the swaddling garments had hidden flaws built in. Once the thread was pulled, everything would unravel in sequence.

The entire business of directing Situ Sheng to find this imposter had been assigned by the Crown Prince to his trusted confidant Chen Fang.

The reason for directing Situ Sheng to the northern territories was precisely to keep him far from the capital for as long as possible, so that his own preparations could be made more thoroughly.

Though the Crown Prince had never personally seen the chosen candidate, he had repeatedly instructed Chen Fang that the imposter must bear some resemblance to his imperial father.

Only in this way — when the ruse was exposed — would it demonstrate how cunning and malicious Situ Sheng’s intentions had been. The more convincing the imposter, the more disgusted the Emperor would feel when the truth was revealed.

And so in the Crown Prince’s mind, the man Chen Fang had sent people to find should have been someone tall and dignified in appearance — just like his imperial father.

When a sobered-up Gu Youjin dropped to his knees with a thud — greasy and ungainly — before the Emperor and one of the imperial princes, the Crown Prince’s mind went completely blank.

This… this was the imposter Chen Fang had found?

Which eye of that useless dog had seen any resemblance between this lout and his imperial father?

No wonder his father had been in no hurry to publicly announce the discovery of the Third Imperial Prince. This oil-drenched countryside lout calling out “Father” with every other breath was an absolute assault on the eyes!

But His Majesty had a very impressive air of the doting father about him. His newly acknowledged Third Son had caused such an enormous scandal — molested another of his daughters-in-law — and yet His Majesty still very gently invited Gu Youjin to explain himself slowly, while introducing him to the Crown Prince and saying this was his third brother, long lost and now found. If his younger brother had shown any lapses or disrespect, he, as the eldest brother, should be more tolerant.

Even if it was fake, the Crown Prince was still incensed by his father’s obvious favoritism.

Was it the case that merely wearing the label of Third, any stray cat or dog could ride roughshod over him?

The affair had been so carefully arranged — there was no reason the Crown Princess should also have to suffer this kind of filthy humiliation.

When His Majesty finished his explanation and said this was the third brother he had long been separated from, the Crown Prince at once raised the objection that he wished to see proof of this Third Brother’s identity tokens.

When the dragon bracelet was brought out, the aged eunuch at the Crown Prince’s side — exactly as arranged in advance — tremblingly came forward with his account, saying that he had previously served the late Empress, and clearly remembered that this bracelet had originally been given by the late Empress to the Third Imperial Prince in her role as his official mother, as a blessing. After bestowing the bracelet to pray for the child’s safety, the Empress had commissioned a craftsman to add a tiny “fortune” motif at the eye of the dragon.

The question was simply whether this particular bracelet, said to be the original, had this small detail.

At the time, Empress Tao had been framed and accused, and had not been able to defend herself in time — naturally she had also not had time to reveal the hidden detail of the bracelet the child wore.

So this detail was not recorded in the case files. Only old members of the original Crown Prince’s household — someone like this aged eunuch — would know it.

Of course, Tao Huiru, who had at one time been close to her elder sister the Empress, also knew this detail. She had specifically had the Crown Prince include this flaw on the otherwise convincingly forged bracelet — a flaw that would go undetected until the right moment.

The Emperor heard this, and had someone bring the bracelet for examination. The dragon’s eye was smooth — no pattern of any kind.

But when His Majesty commanded someone to retrieve the old bracelets that the late Empress had once bestowed on other imperial princes, and these were examined carefully — on the dragon eyes of the others, each no larger than a soybean, there was indeed a tiny fortune motif!

Exactly as the Crown Prince had originally intended: His Majesty had indeed grown suspicious because of this forged bracelet, and immediately ordered someone to investigate Gu Youjin’s other supporting evidence in close detail.

The files had been handled by Situ Sheng. If someone had deliberately falsified them, Situ Sheng naturally could not escape involvement.

When skilled elderly palace women from the Imperial Weaving Bureau came to examine the swaddling fabric, they identified that the pattern of the weave was not the kind supplied to the inner palace during the late Empress’s time — the patterns of the imperial weave supply had undergone enormous changes over the past several decades.

What had originally been ironclad proof, the personal effects of the child, had all become fabrications.

His Majesty fell silent for a long moment, then asked Situ Sheng why the matter had ended up in this state.

Situ Sheng admitted fault readily, immediately acknowledging that he had been careless — that after handling the case all this time, he had turned out to know less than a random eunuch attendant at the Crown Prince’s side. He requested permission to punish himself for the crime of negligence.

His Majesty complied with ready good grace, saying that since Lord Situ was so eager to accept punishment, he might as well go to prison for a while and reflect upon things — and could be tried again later once the truth was fully established.

He immediately issued the order to arrest Situ Sheng for dereliction of duty and send him to prison, to be held pending investigation and tried afterward.

When the Crown Prince watched the guards bind Gu Youjin, stuff his mouth, and haul him away — and then watched Situ Sheng be escorted off to prison — he could hardly believe that things had proceeded so smoothly.

The only detestable thing was that Gu Youjin had been such an abomination, humiliating the Crown Princess like that and bringing shame upon the Crown Prince along with her.

But if this was the price for tripping up Situ Sheng and eliminating the future risk of another Third Imperial Prince coming to claim his position, losing a bit of face was worth it!

In the days that followed, things proceeded exactly as the Crown Prince had arranged beforehand — methodically and in order — and would absolutely be sufficient to firmly establish the evidence of Situ Sheng’s fraud.

Yet as charge after charge of tampering with the imperial bloodline was submitted, the Crown Prince felt a strange unease — as though something were suspended in midair, not yet settled.

Everything was moving along clearly and smoothly, yet he was inexplicably irritable, feeling as though he himself might somehow have been caught up in it all.

Sure enough, the unexpected development came just as the Crown Prince had sensed it would.

Gu Youjin was escorted to the judicial office. Before any instruments of torture were even brought out, he eagerly confessed of his own accord.

He had originally gotten into a dispute while selling meat and had beaten a local elderly man senseless — he was supposed to face charges for it. But someone had sought him out and said they could help him find wealthy relatives. If someone came to recognize him as family, he only needed to go along cooperatively, and he would enjoy a life of prosperity and luxury.

The birthmark on his leg had also been tattooed on after the fact by a skilled tattooist that person had found, using a special type of pigment.

That person had also told him that if anyone ever asked who had given him this “lucky birthmark,” he must insist to the death that it was someone named Situ Sheng who had arranged it.

When Gu Youjin’s written confession was placed before His Majesty, His Majesty specially summoned Situ Sheng for questioning, asking what he made of the confession.

The young, upright Privy Council Chief looked at the confession, gave a cold laugh, and said lightly: “It is clumsy to the extreme. I do not deign to defend myself. The clear will cleanse itself — I trust in Your Majesty’s wisdom.”

The Crown Prince, who had been supervising this case throughout, was now sitting as if on a bed of needles — in complete and utter panic.

Because this Gu Youjin had not been arranged by him at all!

Nor would he have gilded the lily — having someone forge a fake birthmark and specifically instruct the imposter to bite down on Situ Sheng’s name!

Was that not as obvious as posting a sign saying “No silver buried here”?

The trap he had originally set to frame Situ Sheng was a thousand times more sophisticated than this!

Yet the scheme now being uncovered by His Majesty was so clumsy and transparent it was embarrassing to look at!

What Situ Sheng said next was even more cutting, as he further addressed the Emperor: “Your Highness the Crown Prince happens to have at his side an eunuch who is well-versed in the details of the Third Imperial Prince’s bracelet and ornaments — yet why was this not offered up for His Majesty’s use earlier? If the Crown Prince had been willing to part with this knowledge sooner, this official would surely have been able to distinguish the truth far earlier, and would not have been deceived by an uncouth countryside peasant and made such a laughingstock.”

The Emperor said nothing in reply — but from beneath his wrinkled eyelids, sharp, piercing eyes fell upon the Crown Prince, who had gone somewhat flustered, as he said: “The world is full of too many coincidences. For instance, just as the Crown Princess entered the palace, that peasant happened to get drunk. Everyone else ran away — yet the Crown Princess happened to be unsteady on her feet and was knocked down by the drunk man. Had the Crown Prince not, in concern for his consort’s suffering, rushed into the palace and brought along an eunuch who happened to know the old story by chance… would that not also have been a coincidence, Crown Prince?”

It was plain that His Majesty, following the thread of Situ Sheng’s words, had also connected the incident of Gu Youjin causing havoc in the imperial garden, and was now tapping away at the Crown Prince with remark after pointed remark!

And so the Crown Prince, who had originally set out to frame someone else, now found himself the one desperately trying to defend himself.

He never could have imagined that after laying his threads so carefully and patiently for so long, he would end up being forced to prove that he had nothing to do with this imposter.

This outcome differed so far from what he had originally envisioned that they might as well have been a thousand miles apart!

Yet by this point, there was nothing he could do.

Who could have told the imposter to be so utterly impossible — and for his imperial father to have never once believed it, from start to finish? His imperial father believed even less that Situ Sheng would deliberately fabricate such a laughable imposter.

In this manner, the Crown Prince — who had leaped out so eagerly and so quickly to expose the imposture — ended up looking exactly as though he were frantically insisting “No silver buried here.”

The Crown Prince had always harbored the intent to frame Situ Sheng, and faced with his imperial father’s questions, ought to have been wracked with guilt.

Yet this time, the Emperor’s questioning somehow wrung from the Crown Prince an overwhelming sense of pure, aggrieved injustice — he was nearly moved to tears by the indignity.

He did not know how to explain to his imperial father: “Your child did plan to do something wicked — but I swear this particular wicked thing was not done by me!”

The Emperor plainly had no intention of hearing his explanation. This farce was simply too unsightly — beyond exposing the Crown Prince as a man with a pettiness of spirit unworthy of a nation’s future sovereign, there was not a single detail fit to be spoken of before outside officials.

His Majesty did not even bother to rebuke the Crown Prince. He simply said in a mild tone: “We shall have someone explain to the consorts who were present that the Crown Princess was accidentally jostled in the palace by an inebriated guardsman. She has suffered an injustice — as her husband, you should go home and spend more time keeping her company… As for the matter of the false Third Imperial Prince, it will be slowly investigated. The truth will come out in the end.”

The Crown Prince turned ashen at these words. He would rather have been harshly upbraided by his father than hear such apparently gentle and accommodating words as these.

For his imperial father had always used this same cold, indifferent tone toward those children in whom he had ceased to place any hope at all — even watching them commit great errors, he would not bother to move his lips.

And now this case of framing Situ Sheng had clearly blown up completely in his hands.

If this was truly investigated, how would all the things his people had done hold up to scrutiny?

There was every chance this could become his imperial father’s excuse for deposing him as Crown Prince!

Chen Fang, equally in a panic, finally received word from his subordinates: the person originally selected had apparently been a refined scholar raised in a scholar-official household — nothing at all like some crude butcher.

Yet for some unknown reason, the several trusted men who had been involved in the original selection had all been delayed and could not be contacted.

Things being what they were, the Crown Prince understood that he had unwittingly sewn a fine wedding garment for someone else — that an unknown party had intercepted his operation and switched the pieces.

He could only explode in fury, thoroughly berate the incompetent Chen Fang, and deliver several hard slaps across his face.

Tao Huiru heard all of this and instantly felt a creeping panic. She said with a desperate, hopeful air: “But… His Majesty may not necessarily have concluded it was you, Your Highness! And Situ Sheng is still in prison, is he not? Your Highness might as well take this all the way — go ahead and clear away this obstacle first. After all, people dying in prison happens all the time!”

The Crown Prince had already spent his rage a moment ago and was now able to calm his emotions.

He looked at Tao Huiru’s frantic eagerness to use his hands to eliminate someone, and felt a sudden flash of regret: what had possessed him to collaborate with a woman who had the power to bring entire families to ruin?

She truly had treated him as a foolish nephew she could use to the fullest!

Things being as they were, it was time to stop and clean up the wreckage.

So he did not pick up Tao Huiru’s suggestion at all, and only asked: “The things we discussed between us — have you spoken of them to anyone else?”

Tao Huiru said hurriedly: “Such a confidential matter — I would of course not tell anyone else. If word has leaked out, it absolutely did not come from my side!”

The Crown Prince’s eyes narrowed slightly, as though he did not entirely believe her, and then he instructed: “Aunt has been coming to my residence rather too frequently of late. If someone with sharp eyes takes notice, needless stories may be born from it. I ask that Aunt keep away for the next few days — no need to come here any further.”

Tao Huiru caught the Crown Prince’s meaning that he wished to distance himself from her, and with quick-witted propriety rose, made her farewells, and withdrew.

But once outside the Crown Prince’s residence, Tao Huiru’s complexion had grown dark and murky, with a faint undercurrent of unease.

When she returned home, she lay awake all night sorting through the sequence of events.

Though she was certain the leaked information had come from the Crown Prince’s side, she nonetheless sent her most trusted senior nanny to the imperial temple, wanting to find out whether anyone had recently been probing Great Master Lingxi for information.

After all, Lingxi had been directed by her to give the Third Imperial Prince a fortune reading — he had once made remarks to the effect that the Third Imperial Prince was somewhere in the northern territories.

But the nanny came rushing back very quickly, in frightened agitation.

She said that when she arrived, she had found the temple in an uproar: Great Master Lingxi, while taking his morning walk in the rear hills, had accidentally fallen into a mountain ravine and died — his skull shattered against the rocks, the scene one of extreme horror.

Tao Huiru heard these words and went pale as iron. She understood at once that the Crown Prince had already begun ordering people to erase the evidence and distance himself from the business of the fabricated Third Imperial Prince!

Thinking of the cold and menacing expression on the Crown Prince’s face when he had questioned her the previous day, Tao Huiru shuddered slightly.

Though she was his aunt by marriage, if this affair truly came to light and implicated the Crown Prince, he would not hesitate for a single moment to have her killed and silence her permanently.

Just a few days ago, she had been the one warning Chu Linlang about the treacherous currents of the capital.

But she could never have imagined that those very words would so quickly turn and devour her instead…

Tao Huiru did not know whether the Crown Prince would move against her.

But from the day she heard of Lingxi’s terrible death, her anxiety erupted, and she shut herself away in the duke’s residence, rarely venturing out. She allowed no one near her except her most trusted personal nanny.

In her paranoia she drove away two maids in a screaming rage, her behavior growing somewhat hysterical and alarming.

Now every item of food had to be freshly prepared in her own courtyard. The water she drank had to be tested with a silver needle first.

Even Tao Zan was struggling to bear it, saying again and again that his mother seemed to have been possessed.

As for the old Emperor — when Situ Sheng had returned from the northern territories, he had told him plainly that the found prince was not right, that someone appeared to have tampered with things, though he did not yet know who had done it or to what end.

His Majesty had originally placed great hope in this northern expedition, based on Great Master Lingxi’s words. It was only upon seeing Gu Youjin that he at last understood what Situ Sheng had meant.

So Consort Fang and her son were truly a thorn in the eye and a splinter in the flesh of certain people — schemed against and exploited in life and after death alike!

This was his most sensitive point, and yet someone dared to repeatedly trample upon it.

If he did not devise some countermeasure, even if the real Third Imperial Prince returned, there would be no peace for him.

The Emperor therefore adopted Situ Sheng’s advice and, without any outward sign, kept the imposter in the palace, waiting to see who had set this trap.

After just a few days, the impatient Crown Prince leaped up and eagerly set his men to attacking Situ Sheng.

And thus Emperor Jin Ren understood everything in an instant — a Crown Prince of such petty, scheming character, so consumed with calculating against his own officials, could never shoulder the vast mountains and rivers of Great Jin.

Yet looking across the inner palace — was there anyone else fit to be entrusted with the vast mountains and rivers?

Thinking this, His Majesty showed his age, a weariness settling over him. He lifted his eyes tiredly and asked Situ Sheng: “On this northern journey — did you truly find not a single trace of any lead regarding Third?”

Situ Sheng raised his eyes to look at His Majesty, clasped his hands respectfully, and said: “When this official was lost and bewildered, he did not truly believe in the Buddha. Only a high monk once told him that he had the fate of one who comes through extremity to prosperity — but simply needed the patience to wait. Wait until the dawn’s first light, and clarity would come. At the time, this official did not care for such words, feeling they were no more than empty sweetness offered to those lost in a hopeless wilderness. But afterward, this official came to find that the single word ‘wait’ carries boundless wisdom within it. If one does not wait for the right moment to ripen, it is like forcing a flower bud to open before its time — the bloom is shortened, and there is never that moment when the dark willows give way to a bright village beyond.”

The Emperor heard this and felt that his words contained a deeper meaning, and could not help but ask: “What does this official wish Us to wait for?”

Situ Sheng raised his head slightly and said: “To wait… until the Third Imperial Prince is willing, of his own accord, to be the Third Imperial Prince!”

His Majesty’s expression darkened: “What do you mean by this?”

Situ Sheng clasped his hands and said clearly: “While this official was tracing the Third Imperial Prince’s whereabouts, he also happened to learn a great deal about Consort Fang. Even by the standards of her own era, Consort Fang was a remarkable woman. She was not only versed in medicine and pharmacology, but was also one who held fame and fortune lightly, with no desire to compete for power and position.”

Everything Situ Sheng mentioned was of course already known to the old Emperor. His Lingwei was of course unlike anyone else — there was no one like her in all the world.

Having said this, Situ Sheng raised his head slightly and continued: “At that time, Consort Fang was already afflicted with a persistent illness, while within the Crown Prince’s residence there was the scheming and watchful Noble Consort Jing lurking nearby. This official found himself wondering: if the choice had been left to Consort Fang — in a moment when she had no mother to shelter and protect the Third Imperial Prince — where would she have chosen for him to grow up, safe and peacefully?”

…

As for the contest of true and false imperial prince within the palace — it was never made public.

Apart from those directly involved, the outside world was left bewildered and confused.

The formerly smooth-sailing Situ Sheng had suddenly been the subject of an imperial edict, rebuked by His Majesty for overstepping his authority in the Privy Council and monopolizing governmental affairs, and further charged with the crime of showing disrespect in the palace. He was stripped of his position and cast into prison.

This imperial edict dropped without any discernible cause, leaving every official in the court at a complete loss.

After all, the northern military campaign had been progressing smoothly, and Situ Sheng’s contributions were considerable — he was His Majesty’s favored intimate, his career on a steadily rising trajectory. How had a trip to the northern territories ended with him being imprisoned?

This detention was no simple matter either — a full ten days passed with no sign of movement. Rumors began to rise in the capital, some even claiming that His Majesty had secretly had Situ Sheng put to death.

Chu Linlang’s heart was as if seared over a slow flame — for days she could eat nothing. Just as she felt she could endure no longer, a letter arrived from Situ Sheng, written in prison and sent to her.

When she saw this letter, Chu Linlang initially stared with disbelieving wide eyes, reading it over and over several times — and it was only at the end that a sense of dawning clarity came over her.

Halfway through reading it, she felt a surge of indignation. How could Situ Sheng do this!

If he had known all along that Gu Youjin was a fake, why had he not told her?

It had left Tao Yashu suffering in torment like water and fire, crying who knew how many rounds of tears in secret.

But reading further, Chu Linlang’s expression grew grave, and she began to understand Situ Sheng’s approach — though it struck her as nearly beyond belief.

Could all of this truly be real? It was almost too astonishing to accept.

Situ Sheng had made clear in the letter that while outsiders believed he was still in prison, he had in fact already slipped away and was acting in secret.

But in the next day or two, a key figure connected to the Third Imperial Prince affair would be delivered to her residence.

As for how to open the knot in this person’s heart — that would depend entirely on Chu Linlang’s powers of persuasion.

With this letter to explain things, when the courtyard gate was knocked upon and Lady Liao appeared at the door, Chu Linlang could smile with ease and say to her: “I’ve already heard from someone about your journey — what a difficult road you must have had!”