Yu Bao’er was very understanding. When Fan Changyu told him they would perform a play to trick the Sui family’s old steward into confessing, he immediately nodded in agreement to cooperate.
The dungeon was gloomy and dark. Fan Changyu didn’t let Chang Ning come along, instructing Xie Qi to take her to play in the mansion for a while.
To intimidate the old steward, Xie Zheng ordered people to change Bao’er into tattered clothes stained with blood. They also applied makeup to make his face pale and sickly, even drawing some convincingly fake wounds.
When he brought Bao’er back to the dungeon, the old steward indeed became extremely agitated. He gripped the prison bars tightly, his wrinkled face showing extreme anguish: “Young Master… What have you done to the Young Master?”
Yu Bao’er stood outside the cell covered in “injuries,” his gaze empty and bewildered, as if he had suffered much abuse.
Xie Zheng stood behind him with his hands clasped behind his back. The light from the wall niche cast his shadow over Yu Bao’er completely. In the dim dungeon, the dark gold embroidery on his collar gleamed faintly in the candlelight. His delicate features were exceptionally cold: “Flaying your grandson’s flesh doesn’t concern you. I wonder if your mouth will remain as tight when we flay this child before your eyes.”
Upon hearing this, Yu Bao’er immediately cooperated by starting to tremble, fear filling his large, dark, and hollow eyes.
The old steward wept as he slid down the prison bars to his knees, choking out: “Don’t hurt the Young Master, don’t hurt him. This old servant will confess to whatever you want to know…”
Fan Changyu and Xie Zheng exchanged a glance before asking the old steward: “Seventeen years ago, Wei Qilin, the Huaihua Commander under General Changshan, brought the tiger tally to Chongzhou to request troops. Why didn’t Chongzhou send any troops?”
The old steward, who had been weeping uncontrollably, suddenly paused upon hearing this. He raised his aged eyes to examine Fan Changyu.
Fan Changyu’s eyes immediately turned fierce: “Answer!”
Xie Shiyi also lashed out with a whip at the right moment: “How dare you! Who gave you the audacity to look directly at the General?”
The whip was held back in strength, enough to cause pain to the old steward but not seriously injure him. As the whip landed on his back, it felt like a knife cutting and burning. The old steward’s body shook uncontrollably, and he lowered his head, not daring to look up again. He muttered almost instinctively: “I don’t know… What tiger tally, what troop request, how would this old servant know…”
Fan Changyu frowned deeply, about to speak, when Xie Zheng said: “Shiyi.”
Xie Shiyi picked up Yu Bao’er and went to the torture chamber outside the cell. From the old steward’s perspective, he could see several wolf dogs confined in iron cages dripping with dark red, almost black blood. After Yu Bao’er let out a shrill scream, a bloody piece of meat was thrown into the iron cage, and the wolf dogs immediately rushed forward to fight over it.
The old steward couldn’t help but retch just from watching. He cried out hoarsely: “Stop cutting! Stop cutting! I’ll confess, I’ll confess everything!”
Xie Zheng coldly watched the old man crawling on the ground like an insect, crying and retching. He said slowly: “Old fool, the fact that I can ask you these things should tell you that I’ve already uncovered quite a bit. What I’m asking may not necessarily be what I haven’t discovered yet. If you dare to deceive me even once, not only will I flay alive the remnants of the Sui family, but I’ll also feed your grandson to the dogs!”
The old steward’s face turned as white as paper. He kowtowed while crying: “This old servant wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare.”
Only then did Xie Zheng slowly ask: “Now tell me, why didn’t Chongzhou send troops seventeen years ago?”
The old steward’s dry, bloodless lips trembled as he spoke: “Huaihua Commander Wei Qilin did indeed come to Chongzhou with the tiger tally and Wei Yan’s letter. But the Prince said the tiger tally was fake. The Prince tried to join the two pieces of the tiger tally in front of all the Chongzhou officers, but they couldn’t fit together at all. The Prince suspected Wei Yan had ulterior motives and wanted to arrest Wei Qilin to question Wei Yan.”
Both Fan Changyu and Xie Zheng’s expressions changed.
It seemed that Wei Yan had indeed harbored ill intentions back then, even daring to forge the tiger tally.
But Xie Zheng quickly said: “You’re lying. The tiger tally Wei Yan ordered Wei Qilin to take to Meng Shuyuan in Changzhou was real. How could the Chongzhou tiger tally be fake?”
He coldly ordered: “Shiyi.”
Soon, the sound of a blade cutting flesh came from the torture chamber again. Yu Bao’er screamed, calling for his “Mother,” and another piece of bloody meat was thrown into the iron cage for the wolf dogs to fight over.
The mother and child who were acting as stand-ins for Yu Qianqian seemed to have been brought to watch the torture as well. They also screamed hysterically. For a moment, the shrill cries of women and children echoed throughout the dungeon, piercing one’s eardrums.
The old steward desperately kowtowed on the ground, soon drawing blood. He cried out miserably: “Don’t cut anymore! Don’t cut! This old servant is telling the truth. This old servant is just a steward in the Prince’s mansion, I don’t know that much. After Wei Qilin was captured, he found an opportunity to escape not long after. Soon after, news of Jinzhou’s defeat arrived, followed by the imperial court blaming General Meng, pinning the loss of Jinzhou entirely on the failure to transport supplies…”
The old steward wept: “Only then did the Prince realize that Wei Qilin had brought the tiger tally to request troops for the urgent situation in Jinzhou. But the Prince wasn’t certain beforehand that old General Meng had gone to Luocheng. Although there was Wei Yan’s letter, there wasn’t even an imperial edict. With a fake troop-summoning tiger tally, how could the Prince dare to act rashly?
After Jinzhou fell, the Prince was full of remorse. He quickly led troops to set up defenses in the cities below Jinzhou, which finally stopped the Northern Yue army’s unstoppable momentum. The Prince wanted to request punishment from the capital after the war situation stabilized somewhat. But soon after, news came of the fire in the Eastern Palace, the death of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess, and the tragedy that befell the Princess Consort and the Eldest Young Master, whose face was severely burned…”
At this point, the old steward became even more heartbroken, almost weeping blood with each word: “The Crown Prince was dead, the Sixteenth Prince was dead, and the Eastern Palace suddenly caught fire. How could the Prince not understand that the Princess Consort and the Eldest Young Master had been caught up in the struggle for the throne among the princes?
If it was true as Wei Yan’s letter said, that the previous Emperor wanted to protect Jinzhou and save the Sixteenth Prince, and therefore resorted to this strategy of sending old General Meng to Luocheng and having the Prince transport supplies, why use a fake tiger tally to request troops? Or was the tiger tally switched by someone with ulterior motives, causing the Prince to not dare deploy troops, leading to the tragedy in Jinzhou?”
The more Fan Changyu listened, the colder her hands and feet felt, and her head began to spin. She asked: “When the imperial court made its final judgment, placing all blame for the Jinzhou defeat on General Meng, didn’t Prince Changxin think about revealing the truth?”
The old steward, with tears clouding his eyes, said: “At that time, the Prince hadn’t yet been enfeoffed for his merits in repelling the Northern Yue’s continued southward advance. Although he had been promoted to general, what did he have to fight against those who had planned all this? If Wei Qilin were still in the Prince’s hands, perhaps there would have been a witness who could identify Wei Yan. But the capital directly denied ever sending anyone to Chongzhou to request troops. Even old General Meng’s journey to Luocheng was said to be due to his ambition to attack Luocheng. There was no evidence at all. How could the Prince reveal the truth to the world?”
So…
The Chongzhou tiger tally had been switched by Wei Yan.
He had privately communicated with the imperial concubines and plotted to kill the Crown Prince of Chengde and the Sixteenth Prince, all to monopolize power.
Wei Yan wanted to hunt down her parents because they were the witnesses who could accuse him of all his crimes.
Although she had speculated about various truths before, when it was finally laid bare, Fan Changyu still felt a dull pain in her head. A cold, stifling feeling swept over her, making her want to scream out loud to release it, but she felt powerless even to do that.
Fan Changyu unconsciously took a step back. Xie Zheng grasped her wrist, and a constant stream of warmth flowed from his palm to her cold wrist, barely helping Fan Changyu regain some composure.
The oil in the wall niche lamp seemed to be almost exhausted, the bright spot at the wick had shrunk to the size of a bean, making the entire dungeon even darker.
The dim light cut out Xie Zheng’s handsome profile. He held Fan Changyu’s wrist with one hand, his long lashes half-lowered, his face showing no trace of emotion. He was so calm that it made one’s heart inexplicably anxious: “According to what you say, Prince Changxin lay low in Chongzhou for many years before finally rebelling, just to overthrow Wei Yan?”
The old steward nodded: “Half of the Prince’s wish was indeed for this purpose.”
Xie Zheng continued to ask: “Were those rumors spread back then about Wei Yan being involved in the Jinzhou tragedy also released by Prince Changxin?”
The old steward choked out another “Yes” before continuing to beg: “Marquis, I have truthfully confessed everything you asked. Please spare that last drop of blood of the Young Master…”
Xie Zheng slowly raised his eyes, his gaze cool: “I’ll take what you’ve said as true for now, but what General Yun told you earlier is also not false at all. The Eldest Young Master who your Sui family has been nurturing in secret for seventeen years is not Sui Tuo’s eldest son, but the Crown Prince’s son who escaped by switching identities.”
The old steward was stunned, his weathered face showing nothing but bewilderment and shock.
Xie Zheng spoke unhurriedly: “If the Sui family was truly as loyal and innocent as you say, there were so many high-ranking officials and nobles attending the palace banquet that day. Why did the Crown Princess choose the Sui family to shelter the Crown Prince’s son? The Crown Prince’s son seems to have killed Princess Consort Changxin and Sui Yuanqing without batting an eye, showing no gratitude for the Sui family’s kindness?”
His gaze fell on the old steward, neither warm nor cold. There was no killing intent, yet it made the old steward tremble like a sieve, weeping profusely: “I truly don’t know about these things you speak of…”
Xie Zheng withdrew his gaze and said lightly: “Think carefully again about what you might have forgotten from those years. After all, that Eldest Young Master you swore to serve faithfully has finished setting up Wei Yan using the Sui family as a stepping stone, and is about to rely on the Li family to compete for the dragon throne. With Wei Yan gone, everyone will be happy, but the entire Sui Tuo family has been schemed to death by him. You claim to be loyal to the Sui family, don’t you want revenge?”
The old steward was completely bewildered by this news. He truly believed that what Fan Changyu had said earlier was a trick conceived by Zhao Xun to deceive him.
Now that he had confessed everything he knew, hearing Xie Zheng’s words, his aged face showed nothing but desolation and utter despair, with no other emotions.
Xie Zheng didn’t miss the slightest change in the old man’s expression. Seeing that he seemed to truly know nothing more, he finally left the dungeon holding Fan Changyu’s wrist. The old steward seemed to come to his senses only then, kneeling in the cell, weeping bitterly.
Fan Changyu’s face was also extremely heavy.
Outside the cell was the torture chamber. Yu Bao’er and Xie Shiyi stood in the blind spots on either side of the cell. On the table, a tray still held several bloody pieces of freshly butchered pork.
The meat pieces thrown earlier into the wolf-dog cage opposite had been cut from this tray.
Yu Bao’er had only cooperated by screaming miserably. The mother and child pair were imprisoned in the adjacent cell. Like the old steward, from their cell’s perspective, they could only see the cage holding the wolf dogs. Hearing Yu Bao’er’s agonized screams and seeing the wolf dogs gnawing on those bloody meat chunks, they thought Yu Bao’er was being flayed alive, which scared them into screaming.
Yu Bao’er saw Fan Changyu and wanted to go to her, but seeing her extremely poor complexion, he stopped in his tracks and only called out: “Aunt Changyu.”
Fan Changyu nodded with difficulty and said: “Thank you for your hard work, Bao’er. You can go out and play with Chang Ning now.”
Yu Bao’er looked at Fan Changyu worriedly, then glanced at Xie Zheng beside her, before finally leaving the dungeon with Xie Shiyi.
After so long, Fan Changyu still felt a tightness in her chest. There was a tea table and armchairs in the torture chamber. Fan Changyu poured herself a cup of cold tea and drank it down, which stabilized her emotions somewhat. As she raised her hand to pour a second cup, Xie Zheng pressed down on her hand holding the teapot.
“Changyu.” His voice was very deep, his large hand completely covering hers on her back, as if to give her some support: “If you feel upset, just cry it out.”
Since hearing the truth about why her father couldn’t bring reinforcements, Fan Changyu had remained relatively calm, only her face turning a bit pale.
She looked up at Xie Zheng, her stubborn eyes tinged with red, but still not crying. She only said to him: “My grandfather, my father, they were both wronged.”
Before, she had no evidence and couldn’t say these words to him with such certainty and seriousness. Now she could.
Her voice was very tense, but Xie Zheng felt an inexplicable pain in his heart when he heard it.
He forcefully pulled her into his embrace. “I’m sorry.”
I’m sorry. You’ve carried no less of a burden than I have, yet back then, before the truth could come to light, I let you bear so much on your own.
Fan Changyu forcefully pushed back the sting in her eyes, her hands hanging at her sides clenched tightly into fists: “I will clear my grandfather’s and father’s names of this seventeen-year injustice.”
From the moment she learned of her true identity, there wasn’t a moment when she wasn’t thinking about these things. But at that time, she had no evidence at all.
In her heart, she told herself over and over again that no matter how difficult it was, she had to keep walking this path.
Now that she had solid proof, corroborating what she had insisted on all along, she had taken a big step closer to that goal. That’s why she was overwhelmed by various emotions.
Why?
For his selfish desires, Wei Yan had branded her grandfather with seventeen years of infamy!
If she couldn’t clear her grandfather’s name, he would remain a sinner for all of history!
Even thousands of years later, he would still be cursed by future generations.
That was a loyal soul who had fought for the Great Yin for most of his life!
Because Prince Changxin didn’t dare to make a big fuss about the incident back then, Wei Yan turned a blind eye and allowed her parents to escape and live in hiding for sixteen years.
When the Prince of Changxin rebelled, he revisited the old grievances of the past. Wei Yan feared that her parents would step forward as witnesses, so she was determined to kill them at any cost!
It was rare for Fan Changyu to lose control of her emotions. Yet, at this very moment, she could clearly feel the seething resentment and fury churning within her heart, like a wild horse breaking free of its reins. The anger surged through her blood, reaching every part of her body and even seeping into her bones, making the joints of her hands crack loudly under the pressure of her clenched fists.
Xie Zheng’s large hand, which rested firmly on her back, did not relax in the slightest. He stated, “This is your grudge, and it is mine as well.”
It was not a mere consolation but something far beyond it.
Taking a deep breath, Fan Changyu forcibly suppressed the intense emotions roiling inside her. She looked up and asked him, “What are you planning to do?”
Just at that moment, Xie Shiyi hurriedly entered the dungeon with Yu Bao’er and Changning in tow. His normally calm demeanor was replaced by rare panic. Upon seeing the two embracing, he didn’t have time to avert his gaze. Instead, he quickly lowered his eyes and reported anxiously, “Master, something’s wrong. The troops from the Five Armies Camp have surrounded the Xie Residence!”
When Xie Shiyi led the two children inside, Fan Changyu immediately pulled away from Xie Zheng. After hearing his report, she no longer cared about avoiding embarrassment, and instead, a deep furrow appeared between her brows.
Daring to besiege the Xie Residence so openly—if this wasn’t under imperial orders, then it must be a desperate act of rebellion, fearing that Xie Zheng would spoil their plans and thus deciding to strike first.
She turned to look at Xie Zheng, but he appeared not to be surprised at all. He simply remarked, “Grand Preceptor Li is acting like a cornered beast, far too quickly.”
Calm and composed, he issued his instructions to Xie Shiyi: “Take the two children and leave the city through the secret passage first.”
Then, he glanced at Fan Changyu.
Fan Changyu raised an eyebrow, exuding an uncontainable sense of heroism and defiance. “I am a general who fought my way to military merits on the battlefield. The people outside are my enemies. Don’t you dare suggest that I hide along with you.”
Her unrestrained confidence and spirit were more dazzling than the sun itself.
That slight lift of her eyebrow and the sharp gaze in her eyes were like hooks that latched onto Xie Zheng’s heart.
He looked deeply at Fan Changyu and simply said, “Follow me.”