One hour before dawn, Wen Yu rested briefly on the bed in her clothes. Tongque then brought in court attire to help her change for the morning court session.
Though the royal court had now restored order, the chaos that had arisen in various places during the siege of the royal court still needed to be quelled one by one, and the accumulated government affairs also needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible.
In addition, while the envoys from the surrounding tribes were all present, they needed to sign alliance treaties with them to ensure they wouldn’t turn to Xiling and betray Chen Kingdom during wartime.
At the court assembly, in addition to these complex trivial matters, an urgent report was sent back from the Western Frontier.
Xiling’s offensive was extremely fierce. They had suddenly dispatched an additional thirty thousand troops to the front lines. Several oases that originally belonged to Chen Kingdom had already been lost. Mu Youliang and his son, who were guarding the Western Pass, could now only lead their troops to retreat and defend Gele City.
Gele City was the gateway to Chen Kingdom’s west. In earlier years, to resist the various tribes in the great desert, Chen Kingdom had used yellow earth to build a Great Wall with Gele City as the boundary to block cavalry invasions.
This urgent report and the previous letter sent back investigating Xiling troops disguising themselves as Chen troops to raid the tribes were written only two days apart.
It seemed that when writing this letter, Mu Youliang still didn’t know the royal court was under siege, which was why he requested aid in the letter, begging Wen Yu that if Liang territory reinforcements couldn’t be deployed in time, he hoped she could first transfer some border troops from other parts of Chen Kingdom to support Gele City.
With the front lines in crisis, the court naturally became busy as a pot of boiling porridge.
The border troops who had previously come to aid the royal court were still stationed outside the city. Of the twenty thousand Liang troops brought by Gu Xiyun, the advance cavalry units had already reached the royal court, while the infantry units carrying supplies would also be able to reach the royal court in three to five days.
Thus, after Gu Xiyun entered the royal court, she was immediately summoned to the Imperial Study to discuss with Chen Kingdom’s ministers the route to aid Gele City.
The battlefield situation changed rapidly. The urgent military reports sent back to the court were also delayed by the journey. They didn’t know what the current situation at Gele City was, but one always needed to prepare for both possibilities.
Fortunately, when Wen Yu had previously arranged for Gu Xiyun to bring a large army to the royal court to deal with those aristocratic family ministers, apart from a few ministers she trusted like Qi Simai, the other ministers still didn’t know about this matter.
Now that Gu Xiyun had arrived at the royal court, the Yan family father and son and the aristocratic family ministers were all imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison, and the Pei clan hawks and hounds who knew Gu Xiyun had come to the royal court had all been captured. Pei Song and those on Xiling’s side should still not know that Liang territory’s reinforcements had arrived.
So Wen Yu and the ministers hastily discussed a plan, deciding to do as Mu Youliang had requested in his letter—first dispatch Chen Kingdom’s border garrison troops from other places to aid Gele City. Gu Xiyun would temporarily remain at the royal court, and after the Liang territory infantry troops carrying supplies also arrived, they would take a detour to launch a surprise attack, catching Xiling off guard.
However, how to make the detour and how to attack Xiling’s weak points still required continued consultation with the Ministry of War.
Wen Yu hadn’t slept at all last night. This morning she had only rested for about half an hour. Enduring her fatigue to handle government affairs until now, her head was already throbbing with pain.
After telling Gu Xiyun to continue discussions with the Ministry of War for the next few days, she dismissed the small court meeting in the Imperial Study. Following Tongque’s urging, she hastily consumed half a cup of cordyceps and snow clam soup, then returned to her sleeping quarters and slept for three hours, finally waking to the sound of A’Li’s crying.
“What’s wrong with A’Li?”
Having just awakened, Wen Yu’s head still ached dully, but fortunately her body no longer felt so fatigued.
The palace attendant caring for A’Li quickly knelt down: “This servant deserves death. The young county princess has been crying incessantly tonight for some unknown reason. Thinking of the young county princess’s usual habits, this servant brought her to see you, thinking the young county princess would stop crying. Who would have thought that even after bringing the young county princess to your palace, she still cried fiercely, disturbing the Princess’s rest.”
Wen Yu’s long hair hung loose, with not a single ornament in it. Because she hadn’t rested well, her expression carried a hint of weariness, making the aura around her entire body seem even more cold and indifferent. She rubbed her temple: “Give A’Li to me.”
After the palace attendant handed A’Li to her, Wen Yu held and soothed her for a while. Only then did A’Li’s crying gradually diminish. Looking at her, the child’s expression seemed especially aggrieved, hiccupping and babbling continuously.
Wen Yu wiped away the teardrops at her daughter’s eyes, asking softly: “Is it because Mother was too busy today and forgot to make time to accompany A’Li?”
A’Li continued her aggrieved babbling. Wen Yu gently patted her back and soothed her for a while longer before A’Li finally nestled in her arms and drowsily closed her eyes.
After A’Li had completely fallen asleep, Wen Yu stood and gently placed the child in the cradle.
The palace attendant caring for A’Li lowered her head in guilt: “This servant failed in her duty and couldn’t take good care of the young county princess.”
Wen Yu said: “It’s not your fault. I was busy with political discussions today and couldn’t spare time to accompany her.”
After being placed back in the cradle, A’Li still slept somewhat restlessly. Wen Yu kept her hand on the child’s back, continuing to pat gently. She also rocked the cradle lightly for a while before A’Li finally fell into deep sleep.
With this interruption, all the sleepiness in Wen Yu’s body had completely faded. Thinking of the mountain of memorials piled up during the day that still needed processing, she instructed the palace attendants to light the candle stands in the outer hall. She was just about to go outside to review documents by candlelight when Tongque hurriedly rushed in from outside.
Seeing that Wen Yu was awake, she quickly said: “Princess, something has happened at the Heavenly Prison.”
Wen Yu looked up in confusion. Tongque pursed her lips and said: “Since being captured, he has refused all food and drink, only saying he wants to see the Princess. This evening the jailer delivered food, and when collecting the bowls discovered he still hadn’t touched a bite. No matter how they called to him, he didn’t respond. The jailer worried something might happen to him, so entered the water prison to check and found he had developed a high fever…”
Wen Yu frowned: “Water prison?”
Tongque knelt on one knee: “This servant failed in her duty. When escorting him back to the palace this morning, I forgot to give the subordinates proper instructions.”
Wen Yu then understood. It must have been because she had appeared too angry at the time, and with Xiao Li having besieged the royal court beforehand and then repeatedly showing disrespect to her, the Azure Cloud Guards below had treated him as some great villain and confined him in the water prison.
Her brows remained knitted as she stood: “Come with me to see, and secretly summon Imperial Physician Fang to the palace.”
—
As Wen Yu walked through the Heavenly Prison corridor, her long brocade train trailing behind her, the guarding jailers had all been cleared away by Tongque.
The water prison of Prince Chen’s palace was no ordinary water prison. When the palace was initially built, they had broken through to an underground river. Thus the water prison at the bottom of the Heavenly Prison used the living water from that dark river. That water was extremely cold and yin in nature, flowing continuously through the underground river. Prisoners with weaker constitutions could be frozen to death alive after being kept inside for just a few days.
Wen Yu’s footsteps were hurried. As she walked past a corner and continued down the stone steps toward the water prison below, she felt it was extremely cold, damp, and chilly. Her brows furrowed even tighter.
When she reached the prison gate, despite the scorching summer heat, one could still feel a chill seeping from the underground depths.
This water prison had ten cells total. The inner walls were all carved along the stone walls. The bottom was dug three feet down to hold water, separated in the middle by black iron bars to allow the dark river water to flow through. The outer perimeter was similarly enclosed with black iron bars.
However, for the convenience of delivering food to the prisoners inside, the black iron bars were built out one foot, leaving a one-foot-wide stone platform on the inner side of the cell for placing bowls for the prisoners during meals.
Prisoners confined in the water prison would have their hands hung and locked by chains so they couldn’t bring them together. At mealtime, the jailers would lengthen the chains to allow prisoners to walk to the edge of the cell to eat on their own. After finishing their meal, the chain length would be adjusted back.
Now Xiao Li was confined in the innermost water prison cell. Half his body was soaked in the ice-cold dark river water. His hands were hung by thick black iron chains. His head half-lowered, disheveled hair covering his face.
The light from the torches in the wall niches was limited. Wen Yu couldn’t make out his current condition clearly. Knitting her brows, she called toward the person inside: “Xiao Li?”
The other person remained with head half-lowered, showing no reaction, as if he had completely fallen into delirium from high fever.
Wen Yu’s heart felt like it was being viciously squeezed by something. She took out the key that Tongque had obtained from the jailer before entering the Heavenly Prison. While unlocking the lock on the iron gate, she said to Tongque: “Tongque, go find a warm felt blanket.”
Tongque acknowledged and quickly left.
The chains fell to the ground. Wen Yu pushed open the black iron prison gate and stepped down into the water, wading toward Xiao Li. Her water-soaked clothes instantly clung tightly to her body. The chill of the living dark river water penetrated through her pores, drilling straight into her bones. Wen Yu was frozen until even her teeth chattered.
Not knowing whether it was the sound of chains falling to the ground or the heavy creaking sound when the iron gate opened that awakened Xiao Li, the person who had been unconscious with eyes closed slowly lifted his eyelids. However, the gaze looking at her, besides ruthless determination and brutality, faintly carried a hint of bloodthirsty madness that would stop at nothing.
Wen Yu’s eyes met his. Her footsteps only paused for an instant before she walked toward him again. Her breath unstable from the cold, she said: “It was my oversight—I didn’t know the subordinates had confined you here. If you have grievances in your heart, then hate me.”
The taut iron chains transmitted the dull friction sound of forceful pulling and the clanging sound of shaking.
Xiao Li had begun to desperately yank the iron chains fastened to the iron beam above.
His jaw clenched tight, his eyes fixed on Wen Yu with savage intent.
Drawing closer, Wen Yu saw that his wrists, already rubbed raw, had been worn into even deeper bloody marks from using brute force to struggle against the shackles. Yet he seemed completely oblivious to the pain, still pulling hard. It was simply a posture of not caring even if he broke his hands off alive, making one wonder whether he was even conscious at this moment.
Wen Yu shouted in alarm: “You’ve gone mad!”
She completely disregarded the oppressive and threatening feeling his appearance gave her. Searching through the string of keys in her hand, she waded through the water close to him, about to unlock the shackles on his hands. But before the key could be inserted into the lock, she heard a sharp “crack,” and then the broken chain dropped into the water, splashing up small droplets.
He had actually broken that thumb-thick iron chain by sheer force!
Before Wen Yu could say a single word, she was embraced around the waist by those hands whose wrists were a bloody mess. After being pulled forcefully, she was pressed against the stone platform of the water prison.
All she could smell in her nostrils was the scent of blood.
The other person used his scalding body to pin her down, then used his free blood-stained hand to cup half her face, as if caressing her face, yet also as if gripping her throat.
His face was flushed, his eyes were red. His coldly handsome face looked cold and fierce. Because of the high fever, his breath was burning hot as if on fire.
His thumb stroked Wen Yu’s smooth, delicate cheek. His expression carried mockery and madness as he said with resentment: “You’ve finally deigned to come see me?”