Openly…Openly what?
Jiang Suizhou was stumped by Huo Wujiu's words. He was dazed for a
long time, before registering what Huo Wujiu said.
He immediately laughed, and unwittingly said, "It's different from what
you're thinking."
Huo Wujiu was dumbfounded for a moment when he heard him, and asked,
"What?"
The tea cup Jiang Suizhou was drinking paused before his lips. Then, he
looked up at Huo Wujiu.
Not even Meng Qianshan, nor anyone else in the residence, knew about the
relationship between him and those two concubines, only three of them
knew.
Logic told Jiang Suizhou, the less people who knew about the relationship
between him and the two concubines, the better. And not to mention,
although he had spilled everything to Huo Wujiu, this matter was
unnecessary to mention; saying it would instead cause an inconvenience.
But…
Under the gaze of those clear black eyes, Jiang Suizhou felt as though he
lost all reasoning.
"Those two are merely aids kept by this Prince in the residence," he said.
Only after the words came out did Jiang Suizhou realize what he just said to
Huo Wujiu. He somewhat regretted it at once, feeling that he was being
impetuous just now.
But since the words were already out, he couldn't take them back. He could
only console himself.
At any rate, Huo Wujiu and him now were grasshoppers tied together with a
piece of string*, and Huo Wujiu had long understood the relationship
between him and the Hou Zhu, too. Letting him know one or two other
matters didn't matter much.
*grasshoppers tied together with a piece of string (idiom) – people who are
tied to each other for the better or worse
With this in mind, he continued, "This Prince pretends to be a cutsleeve just
to hoodwink the public and let the emperor relax his vigilance with this
Prince. And those two are also kept in this residence in the name of
concubines. Yesterday, this Prince summoned Gu Changyun to come and
discuss Pang Shao's matter."
After he finished, Jiang Suizhou couldn't help hooking up the corners of his
mouth, sitting upright in his seat, waiting for Huo Wujiu's response.
Huo Wujiu would surely feel moved by his sincerity, right? After all, to
him, this was a very big secret. He even told Huo Wujiu about all these
matters, so his sincerity of working together with him should be clear.
However, he waited for a good while, and Huo Wujiu still had not uttered a
word.
Jiang Suizhou couldn't resist looking up at him.
To see Huo Wujiu pick up his chopsticks, lower his head, then continue
eating.
"You…" Bewilderment washed over Jiang Suizhou's face.
Then, he saw Huo Wujiu lift his eyes to shoot him a glance, before lowering
his eyes back and giving a light sound of understanding.
"Got it," he said.
"But, this has nothing to do with me."
As expected of Huo Wujiu.
Jiang Suizhou indignantly gritted his teeth, but also picked up his
chopsticks and continued eating.
But he didn't see, the person in front with his head lowered was actually not
eating. Instead, he was trying hard to hold back the lift of the corners of his
mouth.
——
Having a clear target made it more convenient for Jiang Suizhou to handle
matters.
That student of Qi Min was called Zhao Dunting, and he served in the
Ministry of Personnel. He wasn't a high-ranking official, but his tasks were
very lucrative. His residence wasn't as heavily-guarded as Pang Shao's; Xu
Du's subordinates rather easily hid outside his residence, watching his
everyday movements clearly.
Sure enough, the time when he was working outside coincided with the
time when Pang Shao met with the mysterious courtier.
It really was him.
Jiang Suizhou only felt that this person hid too well, until all parties
involved had died in his previous life. He also didn't reveal his identity, and
no one found out he was Pang Shao's adherent.
This made it clear that although this official didn't do much work, his skills
were rather exceptional.
Jiang Suizhou asked Xu Du to remain watching his movements discreetly,
not only to check when he would meet Pang Shao, but also to see whether
he went to meet other people.
On the contrary, he had many contacts with Qi Min.
There were very few records about this person in the historical records, with
most revolving around Qi Min.
He was Qi Min's disciple. But Qi Min was an extremely upright person,
even his relatives and friends wouldn't have any sort of sheltered protection
in the court. So even though he had students everywhere, he was not as
powerful as Pang Shao, and he had no clique.
But this Zhao Dunting was particularly close to him.
Even if he had been in the palace for ten years, Qi Min didn't look after him
much. He even more didn't have anything to rely on, and was extremely
low-ranking. Yet, he still treated Qi Min like his own father. Even after Qi
Min's collusion, he presented a petition to beg Hou Zhu to let Qi Min's
corpse stay intact.
Exactly because of this, although his ranking as an official wasn't high, he
was rather wise in the palace affairs.
Since spring arrived in Jiangnan, the rain kept pouring. Every time it rained,
Qi Min's joints seemed to always ache, so Zhao Dunting had sent medicine
to Qi Min early.
Jiang Suizhou's death soldiers had inspected that medicine. It was an
ordinary medicine, no other things were mixed.
After the medicine was delivered, Zhao Dunting still visited Qi Min every
now and then. But Qi Min's whole family was already accustomed to this,
especially Qi Min's wife, who treated Zhao Dunting especially dearly.
Jiang Suizhou calmly waited.
Sure enough, it didn't take long for Xu Du to deliver him several letters of
rubbings*.
*rubbings (or stone rubbings) are inscriptions cut in stone to create a copy
of the original
They were brought back by Zhao Dunting from Pang Shao. Placed in the
study, they were copied by Jiang Suizhou's death soldiers, and then were
delivered to Jiang Suizhou.
Looking at the contents of those several letters alone, they were all sent
from Northern Liang and were written for spies. The letters very carefully
inquired about every information of Southern Jing's palace. And the last
letter that was half-written, the handwriting alone was impressively Qi
Min's.
They had forged Northern Liang's letters as well as Qi Min's replies.
The secret letters were forged so realistically, even the names of the sender
and recipient were stamped. Jiang Suizhou looked through the letters
repeatedly, then slowly put them away with a grave look.
Xu Du scrutinized his expression, and asked, "Your Highness, do you need
this subordinate to steal the original?"
Jiang Suizhou pondered for a moment, then shook his head.
"If the letters are lost, their framing this time will definitely not succeed,
but, what about next time?"
Saying this, he looked at Xu Du.
"We know Zhao Dunting is the perpetrator now, but if Zhao Dunting's
letters are gone, Pang Shao will definitely know. Never mind that Pang
Shao might trace it back to us, let's say he no longer uses Zhao Dunting,
replaces him with other people, then does it again; what should we do
then?"
Xu Du slowly nodded.
"Your Highness is right. It's easy for us to check Zhao Dunting, but if Pang
Shao is alert, then we can only prevent it this time, and it will be harder the
next time. Then, Qi-daren is still in danger."
Jiang Suizhou hummed, holding the letters as he pondered.
"But, if not stopped, in two days, Zhao Dunting will place this fabricated
evidence in Qi-daren's residence," Xu Du said. "By then, once the court
checks, Qi-daren will be beyond saving."
Jiang Suizhou nodded.
"So…this Prince is thinking, what if we can satisfy both sides," he said.
Xu Du mulled over his words, and suddenly froze.
"Your Highness means…" He hesitated.
Jiang Suizhou nodded.
"We'll have to risk it," he said.
——
That day, he and Xu Du discussed the whole morning. After the discussion
was over, he properly hid the evidence and letters before seeing Xu Du out
the door.
As soon as he was outside his place, Xu Du oddly gave out a surprise "eh?".
"What's the matter?" Jiang Suizhou asked.
Xu Du looked around.
"Why do I not see Changyun?" he said.
Jiang Suizhou was confused. "Gu Changyun is here?"
Xu Du nodded. They were now outside the door, and all around them were
maids and servants. When he opened his mouth again, his form of address
had changed.
"Your Highness, Changyun came together with this concubine this morning.
Since this concubine needed to meet with Your Highness alone, he got
angry and said he'll wait outside."
Hearing this, Jiang Suizhou was rather speechless with this drama queen Gu
Changyun.
But it was also probably because Gu Changyun feigned this harem fight
scenario too seriously. The residence's higher and lower positions all knew
he was haughty from the master's indulgence, and especially that he was a rambunctious little devil, no one ever doubted the concubine status of the
two people.
Much less doubting Jiang Suizhou being a cutsleeve.
Jiang Suizhou looked around. Not seeing the person's figure, he said, "He
might have gone back first. Leave him alone, just go."
But at this moment, Meng Qianshan hastily rushed over.
"Your Highness!" He spoke in urgency. "What if you check Madam Huo's
room?"
Jiang Suizhou furrowed his brows.
"What's happened?" he asked.
And saw Meng Qianshan's face enveloping with worry.
"This…earlier, Madam Gu was insistent on visiting Madam Huo's room.
This humble slave couldn't stop him, so…"
He stumbled over his words.
"So, Madam Gu has been sitting in Madam Huo's room for a long time."
——
Wei Kai's face was ashen as he stood upright next to the medicine stove like
a flagpole, staring fixedly at the small stove above the fire, wishing he
could stare a hole right at that small mud stove.
Behind him, the beautiful childe clad in red was reclining on the divan, a
small cup of tea in his hands.
It was Gu Changyun.
Today's sun was truly bright, it shone scorchingly in the early morning. Gu
Changyun was waiting for Xu Du in the courtyard, but he didn't see him come out after waiting for a while, then realized he must have a matter to
discuss with the master.
There would be no end in waiting, then. Since Gu Changyun didn't want to
suffer under the sun in the courtyard, and the chair Meng Qianshan brought
out was also not comfortable. Thinking that going back at this time
wouldn't suit his status, he simply went to hide in Huo Wujiu's room.
The room was extremely lively. Besides those ever-silent servants, there
were four people in total including him.
However, Huo Wujiu never paid any heed to him, currently lying on the bed
without uttering a word. The other two were doctors that had received entry
to the residence. Last time, to make it more convenient for him to observe
the skills of those doctors coming from different regions, and to scare off
the fish in troubled waters*, he specially put forth a cunning look. So when
these two came into the residence, they suffered a lot.
*fish in troubled waters (idiom) – to reap benefit from confusion
Hence, as soon as he came in a while ago, these two meekly saluted him,
and as though he wasn't there, they went about their own business.
However, Gu Changyun also wasn't interested in them. Doctors merely
used medicine to check on the ill, so he wasn't interested in Huo Wujiu's
legs, nor was he inclined to know how they treated Huo Wujiu and what the
result would be.
Gu Changyun merely felt extremely bored.
He held the tea and looked around, before finally landing his gaze on Huo
Wujiu.
He recalled that when Huo Wujiu looked at him last time, there was
murderous intent concealed beneath those serene black eyes.
Gu Changyun never feared death, and was instead interested in the meaning
behind this.
If Huo Wujiu was fed up with him, he shouldn't have such vehemence, but
if he was jealous, then this person's jealousy was too fierce, wasn't it?
Last time, Jiang Suizhou was a part of the scene, so Gu Changyun didn't
have time to look carefully and only felt regrettable, but leaving it until now
gave him a good opportunity to kill time.
With this in mind, Gu Changyun put down the cup of tea and smiled
charmingly.
"This room is truly bright, it's a bit more spacious than my main house."
Saying this, he looked at Huo Wujiu, smiling.
"Madam Huo has only been in the prince's residence for a while, and
receives such a special favor from His Highness, it really makes gege
envious."
Huo Wujiu indifferently raised his eyes. After giving him a glance, the tides
in his eyes were calm, as light as still water.
Instead, it was Wei Kai in the corner whose eye rims turned bright red from
anger. His hands even started trembling.
That's pushing too far! Their General, how could this concubine treat him
like this? This was simply a great humiliation!
But at this moment, he heard the General's gentle voice.
"It's just new people replacing the old."
Gentle and calm. For a moment, it didn't dawn that he was joking.
Wei Kai's eyes went wide open.