Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Once they passed through the palace doors, another eunuch led them away.
The carriage they had arrived in stood alone before the gates.
Xing Shuwei hurried several steps onward. When she glanced back, three mangled corpses were being thrown into the carriage.
She faintly heard a eunuch say, “Go and invite Princess Jin’an here.”
The Empress Dowager intended to have Princess Jin’an witness their “deaths.”
With Princess Jin’an as a witness, no one would suspect that substitutes had been used and the three of them secretly smuggled away.
After all, Xing Shuwei had once drawn every eye at Princess Jin’an’s residence by demonstrating her left-handed calligraphy.
If Zhang Mingan could notice the resemblance between her handwriting and the Empress Dowager’s, others might as well.
This way, not only would Xing Shuwei and her brother survive, but the Empress Dowager might even earn a reputation for putting justice above family.
Some of Xing Shuwei’s unease subsided, and she quickened her pace out of the palace.
The eunuch leading them chose deserted palace paths, and the gate through which they exited was not Xuande Gate, where they had entered.
A carriage waited beyond the gate. Only after the eunuch watched them board and ride into the distance did he turn back to report to the Empress Dowager.
The carriage raced toward the outskirts of the capital.
Their journey passed without incident. By the time they reached the city outskirts and Xing Shuwei caught sight of Zhang Mingan waiting there, she felt as though an entire lifetime had passed.
“Give me Noble Consort Zhang’s token,” she said to Qiutong.
Qiutong opened the garment into which she had sewn the token, took out the gleaming gold plaque, and handed it to her.
Xing Shuwei stepped down from the carriage. Zhang Mingan reached her in two strides.
“I will personally escort all of you to Qizhou,” he said.
Holding the token out with both hands, Xing Shuwei offered it to him. “Thank you for your assistance, noble heir. I doubt I will have any use for this token in the future, so Weiwei returns it to you.”
Zhang Mingan did not take it. Instead, he removed his dark cloak and fastened it around her shoulders. “It was a gift. Keep it.
“Before long, that token may no longer carry any authority.
“When the time comes, I will melt it down for you and have it made into a gold hairpin. We can call it a pledge of love between us.”
After speaking, Zhang Mingan turned to Xing Shuyan. “You ride with me. This will be a good opportunity to see whether you are qualified to serve as my deputy general.”
Xing Shuwei stared blankly at Zhang Mingan. “Noble heir, I do not quite understand what you mean.”
It was not that she did not understand. She simply did not want to admit that she now owed Zhang Mingan an enormous debt of gratitude.
He held a post in the Ministry of War under Pei Xianjing.
In principle, without Pei Xianjing’s approval, Zhang Mingan could not be directly transferred to Qizhou.
Yet everything implied by his words now suggested that he was going to take up a post in Qizhou. He must not only have traded something with the Empress Dowager, but also with the Emperor.
Only the Eleventh Prince could sway the Empress Dowager, while only his aunt Noble Consort Zhang could persuade the Emperor to relent.
Xing Shuwei stood motionless, staring at Zhang Mingan.
Xing Shuyan had been watching her expression all along. Without her nod of consent, he would not exchange a single word with Zhang Mingan.
“If you do not leave now, you will lose your chance. Then everything I sacrificed will have been for nothing,” Zhang Mingan said gently.
She wanted to live freely. She wanted to settle all debts between them.
But how could that ever be possible?
The Empress Dowager cared about preserving the Xu clan’s bloodline, but that alone was not enough to make her risk offending Pei Xianjing.
It was Zhang Mingan who had maneuvered between the Eleventh Prince and his aunt, Noble Consort Zhang, to secure the Xing siblings’ lives and his own chance to take up a post in Qizhou.
Even if he said none of this, Xing Shuwei would understand one day.
She was the Empress Dowager’s niece, and he was now a blade in the Empress Dowager’s hand.
No two people under heaven could be better suited to each other.
Xing Shuwei’s brows drew tightly together. It had taken so much for her to escape the prison built from Pei Xianjing’s favors.
She did not mind being entangled with Zhang Mingan in the future, but she did not want a bond in which everything was staked on a single gamble.
He had not only staked everything he possessed. He expected her to wager everything on him as well.
How could she possibly do that?
Zhang Mingan suddenly smiled. “Do not overthink it. Do you truly believe I did all this for you? What I want is military authority over Qizhou.”
As he spoke, he patted Xing Shuyan’s shoulder. “What I said just now was merely a joke. Could I bind him up and force him into the army?
“Someone will soon report this to Pei Xianjing. Do not say I failed to warn you-the Five Armies Command has men loyal to him.
“If you delay any longer, one command from him will send a thousand cavalrymen after us. I fear I really may have to throw my life away for you at his hands.”
Deep down, Xing Shuwei did not believe him.
But Zhang Mingan said, “Everyone calls me a madman, but the maddest man in all of Great Yue is Pei Xianjing.
“How do you think I secured my transfer to Qizhou so smoothly? It is entirely because he defied the Emperor. A rift has begun to open between sovereign and subject.”
His words left Xing Shuwei’s heart swaying at the edge of a precipice.
She told herself it was merely fear that her escape would fail. Hesitating no longer, she turned and climbed into the carriage.
* * *
The imperial palace.
The midday sun blazed over the long palace road.
Standing in the courtyard of the Empress Dowager’s palace, Princess Jin’an ordered, “Burn these three corpses and the carriage. I want nothing left of them, not even their bones. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” Menglian replied. “This servant will have the eunuchs begin at once.”
A delighted smile spread across Princess Jin’an’s face. “Once they are burned, scatter the ashes in the moat.
“Send someone to Eldest Young Master Pei with a message. Tell him that bitch died beneath a thousand cuts. The Empress Dowager summons him back to collect the remains.”
“Yes,” Menglian answered.
* * *
Yucheng, one hundred and twenty li from the capital.
The Qi clan residence.
Pei Xianjing sat in a chair, examining a ledger.
“Pei Xianjing, I am the Emperor’s father-in-law. You have neither an imperial edict nor a warrant for my arrest.
“Yet you openly led troops into my residence. What do you intend to do? Are you planning a rebellion?”
Pei Xianjing did not even raise his eyes. “Did you not do the same thing thirty years ago?
“Ah, there is one difference. You framed your victims, whereas my evidence is conclusive.”
“Pei Xianjing, how dare you slander me!
“I… I demand to see the Emperor. I demand to see the Empress.
“I have already retired from the Grand Secretariat. Even the Emperor allowed me to spend my remaining years in peace, yet you still pursued me here to exterminate my entire family!”
Pei Xianjing laughed as though he had heard the greatest joke in the world. “Had you not stepped down as Chief Grand Secretary, it truly would have been difficult for me to act.
“Your crime warrants the extermination of your clan. Only the Emperor’s command compels me to spare your life.
“However, you will have to spend your remaining years in the Ministry of Justice prison.”
“My lord.” The moment he finished speaking, a subordinate hurried forward and knelt before him, his expression grave.
A sudden sense of foreboding seized Pei Xianjing. His gaze sharpened. “What happened?”
The subordinate lowered his head, not daring to look at him. “Someone came from Princess Jin’an’s residence with word that… that your younger cousins are dead.
“They ask you to return to the capital at once to mourn and collect their remains.”