The moon on the fifteenth of the eighth month was exceptionally round. A full moon hung in the sky, and looking at it from afar, one could even see colored halos around its edges by the light of the moon. Empress Lu emerged from Zhou Weiyun’s quarters and stood in the corridor for a while, closing her eyes toward the moon.

Young maidens should be worshipping the moon today. She gazed at this round moon from afar, only hoping that the days ahead would be calm and peaceful, that Prince Gong would be honest and obedient from now on and live well on his fief after returning, and that Zhou Weizhao would smoothly fulfill his role as Crown Prince.

This was what she thought, but others did not think the same way. Crown Princess Lu, who had also learned of the death of Princess Consort Gong, tapped her fingers on the table, lowered her eyelids, and made a sound of acknowledgment. She asked Xiangling, “Has His Highness not returned yet?”

Truthfully speaking, she and Lady Yang had absolutely no connection whatsoever. Although she had delivered Prince Gong’s plea for leniency to Emperor Jianzhang back then, she had done it for her son. As for Lady Yang, she truly had not a shred of emotion about her—at this age, talk of love or hate was all illusory. She wouldn’t even spare Lady Yang a proper glance. If Lady Yang hadn’t rushed forward on her own to dig a pit for Zhou Weizhao before Empress Lu, even Zhou Weizhao wouldn’t have noticed such a person existed. Since she was indifferent to Lady Yang’s existence, Lady Yang’s life or death wasn’t particularly important, especially when her death had been caused by Zhou Weizhao. Her heart was full of concern only for her son. The hour when the palace gates would be locked was approaching—why was there still not a single movement even at this late hour? Crown Princess Lu was somewhat worried. “I heard something happened outside. Is Weizhao all right?”

Princess Rongcheng, who had originally been in the palace accompanying the Crown Princess to view the moon, had hurried out of the palace, saying that the Princess Consort of Zhennan had encountered some incident while going to Wanhua Tower to view the moon and had been injured in the commotion. Princess Rongcheng had a harmonious relationship with her prince consort and had always gotten along well with her mother-in-law, so naturally she had to go take a look.

In previous years at Mid-Autumn, the Ministry of Works would generally arrange for many fireworks to be set off for auspiciousness and good fortune. Never had there been any incidents, but who knew what was happening this year—truly one thing after another.

Her brows furrowed slightly. She hadn’t touched a single one of the mooncakes placed before her. She turned back to instruct Nanny Liang, “If His Highness returns, inform me immediately.”

At this moment, Zhou Weizhao was speaking with Song Chengru. Having sent Song Chuyi back, he first discussed the matters in Hubei with Song Chengru.

Experienced as Song Chengru was, hearing of the chaos in Hubei he still couldn’t help but be shocked. His usually expressionless face showed some astonishment, and he asked half-doubtfully, “Is it true?”

The matter of the entire Hubei region suffering from floods and an outbreak of epidemic was indeed true. The Cabinet had discussed for a while and drafted a plan. Originally in these few days they were to decide on the personnel to go to Hubei for disaster relief. However, the memorials sent up from Hubei all said the epidemic had been brought under control, so the court was only planning to dispatch imperial commissioners to establish post-disaster relief measures for the people.

Cui Yingshu, who had arrived shortly after, couldn’t help but be shocked upon hearing the news. “Then why have there been no impeachment memorials against Jiang Tianping submitted all this time?! Is the Two Lakes Regional Commander Chen Tao dead?”

The Provincial Administrator was a civil official, while the Regional Commander was a military general who controlled the troops of the Two Lakes region. Could he possibly be coerced by a civil official? If Hubei had truly experienced such great chaos, yet only now had Censor Wang brought the news to the capital, it was simply a disgrace to the court.

Zhou Weizhao sighed. “I heard that Chen Tao has been detained by Jiang Tianping, and Censor Wang also escaped secretly. With his trusted confidants, he practically ran his legs off. He didn’t dare go to neighboring Jiangxi either—afraid that Jiang Tianping had colluded with them. He ran all the way back, having to evade pursuers, afraid that he would be assassinated before he could submit his memorial to the palace. That’s why he came up with the Mid-Autumn Festival plan…”

After creating such a huge commotion, the Shuntian Prefecture and Five Divisions Cavalry personnel indeed all mobilized, and the situation was instantly thrown into chaos. Censor Wang took advantage of this to run into Tao Dinghu’s house.

Even Cui Yingshu couldn’t help but gasp as he looked toward Song Chengru. “Jiang Tianping’s audacity truly reaches the heavens!”

Hubei had already descended into chaos. Whether this matter was true or false, dispatching someone to Hubei was now urgent and could not be delayed. Song Chengru stroked his beard and looked toward Cui Yingshu. “You must prepare yourself well. This journey will not be smooth sailing.”

Having delivered the news, Zhou Weizhao did not linger any longer. As he was leaving, he turned back to glance at Song Yan, who had just saved many people together with Master Qingfeng and Li Er, and beckoned him over. “You still want to go to Hubei?”

Song Yan nodded without hesitation. “Teacher said from the beginning that Hubei might descend into chaos. Now it seems Hubei is even more chaotic than Teacher predicted. If that’s the case, I must accompany Teacher on this journey even more. Teacher’s few remaining relatives are all in Hubei.”

After considering for a moment, Zhou Weizhao didn’t stop him. “Then you must tell your sister yourself.”

Song Yan naturally nodded in agreement. Hearing that his grandmother in the rear courtyard was extremely worried, he hurried again toward the rear courtyard, but upon entering Ningde Courtyard, he learned that Song Chuyi hadn’t had time to return to the rear courtyard yet—she had been summoned by Song Chengru first.

Song Chengru was truly somewhat uneasy. He wanted to ask Song Chuyi how she viewed the matter of going to Hubei for disaster relief. “Jiang Tianping’s political achievements in normal times have been passable. This person’s promotions have all been stable and steady. By all logic, someone who has worked their way up to this level of experience wouldn’t do such a foolish thing. His behavior is tantamount to… seeking his own destruction.”

Song Chuyi smiled and sat down in the goose-neck chair, looking at her grandfather and uncle and nodding. “This person’s record indeed shows nothing improper, but Grandfather and Uncle are so intelligent—surely you haven’t forgotten that when the Prince of Dongping previously dispatched the Wei family to open up connections in Xiangfan, wanting to take the Chen family’s two hundred seventy thousand taels of silver, and they were imprisoned, whom did the Crown Prince have handle helping to extract the Wei family members?”

Cui Yingshu furrowed his brows and quickly understood. “Jiang Tianping?”

“The person backing him is also His Highness the Crown Prince.” Song Chuyi somewhat helplessly revealed the person behind him, then looked toward Song Chengru and Cui Yingshu. “He is far more greedy than the former Jiangxi Provincial Administrator Yang Yunyong. Yang Yunyong at least left the Crown Prince some benefits, but he is someone who could compress the benefits given to the Crown Prince to the minimum while infinitely filling his own private coffers.”

Cui Yingshu instantly understood Song Chuyi’s meaning. Seeing Song Chengru also frown, he asked, “You mean to say someone deliberately wanted to expose this matter?”

“It can’t be put quite that way.” Song Chuyi sighed and slowly took a sip of tea. “If my guess is correct, it should be that this Jiang Tianping’s embezzlement truly incurred heaven’s wrath and popular indignation. When the Crown Prince hadn’t yet met with trouble, others naturally didn’t dare do anything. But once the Crown Prince encountered trouble and the Eastern Palace was taken over by the still wet-behind-the-ears Crown Prince, those who disliked the Crown Prince would seize this opportunity.”