Speaking of biological sons… Xu Da reined in his wandering thoughts and suddenly asked Academician Chen, “Did you buy the incense, candles, paper money, and paper sedan chairs I asked you to get?”

Academician Chen quickly nodded. “My wife has already prepared everything. It’s all handmade by Old Man Xu from the north of the city—lifelike and vivid.” At the same time, he stared at Xu Da and tentatively asked, “Is it… for the heir?”

Although Han Zhengqing didn’t value Han Zhi as much as the Prince of Dongping, he had still instructed them to tend his grave and clear the weeds and such. Xu Da nodded and was just about to speak when Academician Chen’s steward came rushing in from outside, gasping for breath as he looked at the two of them. After panting for a while, he clutched his throat and said, “Just now… just now the Imperial Guard went to the Han family ancestral graves in the suburbs and destroyed the heir’s tomb and the others!”

The cup in Academician Chen’s hand fell onto the table with a thud. For a moment he couldn’t react, his gaze rigid as he looked at the cup he’d dropped on the floor, staring at his steward in astonishment, as if he didn’t understand.

After a long pause, he glanced at Xu Da, came to his senses, closed his jaw that had dropped open with shock, and asked him, “What happened? Why would they destroy the heir’s tomb?”

When they had first learned that Han Zhengqing killed Marquis Dingyuan and let the Tartars through the pass, quite a few civil officials had memorialized Emperor Jianzhang requesting that he execute the Han clan members and dig up the Han family ancestral graves to vent their anger. However, Emperor Jianzhang said that the Han family ancestors were loyal ministers of merit who shouldn’t suffer this connection, and that destroying graves ultimately lacked benevolence, so he refused and didn’t listen. But unexpectedly, now the Han family ancestral graves really had been destroyed.

But Emperor Jianzhang was still lying unconscious, and the Imperial Guard was like a headless fly. How could they suddenly move against the Han family?

The steward had finally caught his breath and said with terror on his face, repeatedly gasping, “It was by order of Empress Dowager. Empress Dowager told Grand Secretary Chang and the others that the rumors in the streets and alleys are all schemes and plots by General Han and Prince Gong to frame the Grand Prince. She said that the Han family’s feng shui wasn’t done properly, which is why they produced scum like General Han. In her anger, she had the Bureau of Astronomy calculate it, and of course the Bureau of Astronomy people followed Empress Dowager’s words. Empress Dowager became even more furious and simply had Grand Secretary Chang order the Han family ancestral graves dug up.”

This was being driven to a corner and lashing out in humiliated fury. Xu Da snapped out of his shock and rage, pacing anxiously in place several times. Everything was going fine, and then this happened…

Empress Dowager Lu has truly gone mad! He clenched his fists tightly. Thinking about it, he was terrified that Han Zhengqing might bury him alive over this matter later. But at this point, he couldn’t very well run over to stop it—his position wasn’t nearly enough weight.

He furiously swept everything on the table onto the floor in one motion and cursed viciously.

But after cursing, he became happy again, sitting by the window refreshed and letting out a laugh.

Both Academician Chen and the steward thought he’d gone mad. They stared at him blankly, quite at a loss. Finally the steward widened his eyes and summoned his courage to call out, “My lord, then now, should we still… want this incense, candles and paper money…”

Xu Da glanced at him and laughed coldly. “Want it? Why wouldn’t we want it? Not only do we want it, but it will have great use!” As he spoke, he whispered a few instructions to Academician Chen.

At the same time, Song Chengru also received the news. He didn’t get the news because of any privileged position—he had already been impeached for being the Grand Princess Consort’s grandfather. Those censors in the court weren’t afraid of whether he was an Elder or not. Each and every one of them made a fierce fuss, and there were even some unafraid of death who chased after him to the Earl of Changning’s residence to curse and fight. He had taken the opportunity to request resignation. But since Emperor Jianzhang was ill, naturally no one came to approve his memorial. He simply stopped attending court and stayed home.

He received the news because of Old Madam Song. Old Madam Song personally came to the front courtyard study, first talking about Xiang Mingzi’s matter. After finishing, she told him, “Our residence gate is quite lively now. I heard there are countless people who come specifically to spit at our house. Mingzi’s carriage had to detour to the west corner gate to enter…”

She laughed once, seeming somewhat weary. She paused for a while before recovering her spirits and continued, “Empress Dowager has added another log to the fire, afraid it wasn’t burning fiercely enough.”

Song Chengru wore casual home clothes. He stepped down from the bed platform to help Old Madam Song and sat with her before smiling. “Indeed. Empress Dowager has done us a great favor. Now throughout the capital, I’m afraid people wish they could eat our hearts. And the more the common people hate us, the happier they probably are. The happier they are, the less guarded they’ll be, and the less suspicious.”

“That’s good.” Old Master Song winked at Old Madam Song and poured her a cup of tea. “By the way, last time you had something else you wanted to tell me. It seemed to be about Xiao Yi?”

Old Madam Song had originally wanted to tell Old Master Song about Lu Chonghua, but Song Chuyi had later specifically instructed Luo Gui to relay back that it wasn’t necessary, so she just shook her head. “It’s not really a major matter. It’s just that she’s been married for nearly half a year with no news, so I’m somewhat anxious. But now is hardly the time to bring this up, is it?”

Old Master Song couldn’t help but laugh. “Indeed, now is not the time to bring this up.”

Just as he finished speaking, Song Ren and Song Jue hurried in, both with rather unpleasant expressions on their faces.

Song Ren spoke first. After paying respects to Old Master Song and Old Madam Song, he said, “Father, Mother, just now Lord Liang rammed into a pillar in Taiji Hall!”

Old Master Song’s eyes widened, clearly quite shocked. He stood up in alarm. “What?!”

Song Jue’s tone was much calmer compared to Song Ren’s. He lowered his voice and said, “It was over the matter of destroying Han Zhengqing’s ancestral graves. Liang Tong said that Empress Dowager’s actions in this clearly showed bias and were deliberately protecting His Highness the Grand Prince. If the Taibai Immortal has now diagnosed that His Majesty was truly poisoned, then His Highness the Grand Prince cannot escape suspicion. He also said that Empress Dowager might… might be His Highness the Grand Prince’s accomplice.”

Song Ren followed with a sigh. By this point he had also calmed down, his face somewhat wooden. Too many things had happened recently—he could no longer feel shocked or indignant. Just now seeing the large crowd of people surrounding the main gate, he simply took the approach of out of sight, out of mind, and had people take a detour to enter through the side gate. At this moment he picked up where Song Jue left off. “Because of this, Lord Liang became angrier the more he spoke. He began crying for the Late Emperor, crying for His Majesty, saying that both Prince Gong and the Crown Prince were Empress Dowager’s biological children. If Empress Dowager raised her sons this way and didn’t maintain propriety herself, then lacking propriety, she might very well have raised His Highness the Grand Prince crooked too. The more he spoke, the angrier he became. Hearing no response from inside and that they refused to rescind the order, he simply rammed into the pillar.”