Chapter 5
“Your Majesty, please see the truth! Ah Yue and I are truly no more than brother and sister!”
Luo Chengxu’s stubborn silence was gone. He hurried to explain, frantic now. “The princess misunderstood. Ah Yue and I are innocent. I merely remember our childhood friendship, and she once helped me. That was why I…”
“How is being alone together in a room innocent?”
Yongning’s maid was so furious that her eyes had reddened. “Sir, the princess and I saw it with our own eyes! You put flowers in Song Yueru’s hair, pinned it up for her, draped clothes over her, and fed her medicine with your own hands. Even when she pulled the princess into the lake with her, you saved only her and cared only about her. You paid the princess no attention at all!”
“Is that innocent? Is that how a brother and sister behave? Even real siblings keep a proper distance once they are grown. Why do you childhood friends do things more intimate than a husband and wife, then hide behind the excuse of being siblings?”
“Your Majesty! Look! The dangling hairpin that wretch is wearing was your gift to the princess at her coming-of-age ceremony!”
I looked closely. Sure enough, the hairpin in the green-clad woman’s hair was exquisitely made, unmistakably something precious.
The woman was so flustered that she tried to hide it with her sleeve. I could only laugh.
Luo Chengxu was drenched in sweat. “Your Majesty, I can explain. I can explain…”
“It no longer matters.”
“I do not care whether you and your childhood friend are innocent or have long been lovers. I care that my daughter, a princess of this realm, has been tormented into this state by an ungrateful wretch like you.”
I looked at him as if he were already dead. “Luo Chengxu, you deserve to die.”
The last glimmer of light vanished from his eyes. His body went limp, and he closed his eyes as though accepting his fate.
“Everything is my fault. Ah Yue is innocent. I beg Your Majesty to spare her life.”
The woman in green wept, deeply moved. “Brother Xu…”
I did not allow this absurd spectacle to last. Luo Chengxu was taken away to be punished. First he looked bewildered, then terrified.
A huge iron cage containing five wild dogs was moved into the courtyard of the princess’s residence. Luo Chengxu began to shake.
“I will not let you die so easily.”
The dogs’ eyes were red. They bared their teeth and growled at the crowd, foul-smelling saliva dripping from their jaws.
My mood was remarkably peaceful. “How could I bear to let you die just yet?”
“For as long as you tormented my daughter, I will torment you.”
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty—”
Luo Chengxu was dragged into the iron cage. He struggled desperately, to no avail.
His little childhood sweetheart fainted with terror. I had water thrown over her to wake her, then forced her to watch the entire punishment.
By the time it was over, Luo Chengxu was a pitiable wreck.
Endless regret welled in his blank, lifeless eyes, only to be displaced by his desire to survive.
“Your Majesty, I was wrong. I truly was wrong!”
Weakly, he struggled to stretch a hand out of the cage and beg for mercy.
I could hardly bear to look at him. “Take him away.”
It took a full day and night to remove Yongning’s gu parasite.
When she regained her senses, she knelt before me and wept so hard she could barely speak, saying over and over that she had been a poor judge of character.
My head ached. “I’m glad you know it. After a lesson this painful, when you next find someone you like, make sure your mother and I take a look at him.”
Sobbing, she obediently nodded. “I understand.”
After a moment’s thought, I added, “And don’t fix your eyes on one man alone. Go out and look around. There are plenty of good men in the world.”
“You have already been married, after all. You needn’t have another husband. You can simply enjoy yourself.”
The girl’s eyes widened in shock. Even Consort Yang was startled. “Your Majesty!”
What had I said that was wrong?
I was the ruler of this land, with the wealth of the world at my disposal. I could keep three thousand beauties in my harem. Of course my children could do the same!
The crown prince, naturally, must devote all his energies to governing for the good of the people.
Fortunately, Yongning never mentioned Luo Chengxu again.
If she had spoken a single word of him—even without pleading for mercy, merely showing a little reluctance—I would have abandoned all thought of making this up to her.
Thankfully, the child had her head screwed on straight.
After these two incidents, I felt that no absurd person or event could ever knock me off balance again.
So when Jiarui, a princess of the imperial clan, came weeping to me because the Marquis of Xuanyang’s heir looked down on her, I was still in a good enough mood to offer a few words of comfort.
“What did the marquis’s heir say?”
“He said I was fit only for a concubine, never a wife!”
That was an extremely grave insult.
Princess Jiarui’s mother was my predecessor’s elder sister, born of the same parents. Her father was the current head of the Wang clan of Taiyuan, as well as the governor of a province.
With a lineage so distinguished, she would have made a suitable match even for the crown prince who had yet to be born.
This Marquis of Xuanyang…
Who was he again?
The girl wept prettily. “Uncle Emperor, you must seek justice for Jiarui!”
“Of course.”
I searched my predecessor’s memories for a while before at last finding some trace of the Marquis of Xuanyang.
His was a declining household. Its fortunes had begun to fade in my predecessor’s grandfather’s day. Three generations of mediocrities had left the marquisate an empty shell.
The heir, however, was reputedly rather clever.
Some pride was only natural in a clever man. But failing to understand circumstances and rank made him a fool.
On a whim, I ordered an investigation into the Marquis of Xuanyang.
It uncovered a private army and plans for rebellion.
I immediately ordered the confiscation of their property and the execution of the entire household.
Princess Jiarui held a grudge. On hearing the news, she scampered to the imperial prison and looked the wretched heir up and down.
“You presumptuous creature. What gives you the right to judge me?”
“A wretch unworthy even to polish my maid’s shoes, yet you dared dream of rebellion?”
The girl’s tongue was sharp. She mocked every last thing about the heir until his face reddened and he was panting with anger. Only then did she stop.
I had a vague feeling that many more absurd events might lie ahead.
But that was no matter.
I believed nothing could ever shock and bewilder me more than the crown princess’s affair with the imperial tutor.
Heaven must have had a purpose in sending me here.
I need only apply myself to governing and be an upright, wise emperor.
And put each of these monsters to the sword, one by one.