Chapter 42
Chapter 42
## The True and False Heiresses 12
The Deposed Heir and Lady Tan had knelt outside before the stone steps for half the day. Their knees ached and their joints had gone numb. Only when a servant came to summon them did they help each other to their feet. After briefly stretching their limbs, they composed their faces and entered the study.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the couple dropped to their knees again. After paying their respects, the Deposed Heir began confessing his faults at length. “Your son has made far too many mistakes of late and caused Father far too much pain. If Mr. Cai had not shaken me awake, I might never have come to my senses. Today, I have brought my wife to plead guilty before Father…”
Zhu Yuanzhang listened quietly until he had finished. His face showed neither pleasure nor anger. He merely nodded and said, “I hear you sent both children to a convent.”
“Yes.” Shame covered the Deposed Heir’s face. He bowed again. “Baozhu spoke insolently, offended Father, and behaved with disobedience and disrespect. How could she remain here? She ought to reflect and repent at the convent, burning incense and worshiping the Buddha.”
Zhu Yuanzhang gave a noncommittal smile, then asked Lady Tan, “Baozhu is still quite young. Can you truly bear to part with her?”
Lady Tan kowtowed. “It is precisely because Baozhu is young that her faults must be corrected all the more firmly. My husband has always been occupied with official business and had no time to manage the household. I raised and taught all our children, yet our eldest son lacks virtue, our second son was reckless, and our youngest daughter has grown so arrogant and ill-mannered. Your daughter-in-law is guilty. I am too ashamed to face the elders of this family again. From now on, I will set up a separate shrine in the residence and, like Baozhu, burn incense and worship the Buddha in repentance for my faults.”
Well, there was something uncanny in the wind today. Even that impossible drama queen Lady Tan had started talking like a reasonable person!
Zhu Yuanzhang listened in surprise, then turned to look at his eldest son and felt a trace of relief. The man still could not bring himself to dispose of Lady Tan, the source of all this trouble, but hardening his heart enough to go this far was genuine progress.
He told his old companions in the System’s space, “He is not entirely beyond saving.”
Emperor Gaozu sneered. “Do you think he truly means what he says, or is he only trying to regain his place in your favor?”
“Does the reason matter? What matters is the result.”
Liu Che said, “At last he is handling matters with the judgment and political discipline expected of an heir. Is that not the most important thing?”
Ying Zheng scoffed. “How can the reason not matter? He has sent his eldest son and youngest daughter to a convent to atone for their sins and ordered Lady Tan to eat vegetarian meals and recite sutras at home. But in his heart, does he truly believe those three deserve punishment, or does he think circumstances have forced him to wrong his wife and children for the moment?”
Liu Che had no answer. He lapsed into thoughtful silence.
Ying Zheng declared flatly, “He is doing this today because he means to let his wife and children suffer temporarily for the sake of their future. Once his father dies and he inherits the supreme position, he will remember what happened today and compensate them a hundred or a thousand times over!”
“You all know perfectly well what Lady Tan is like, what the Tan Family brothers are like, and what sort of children she has raised. Once that pack of petty villains holds supreme power with no one above them to impose restraint, how could they possibly refrain from turning the world upside down?”
Liu Che frowned. “What would you have him do, then?”
“Nothing. He is beyond saving!”
Every emperor cared about his reputation after death. The mere thought of such a future sent their blood pressure soaring.
Ruin my reputation to fulfill your precious love story? Not a chance!
Thoroughly exasperated, Liu Che said, “He might as well kill Lady Tan and be done with it.”
“Then you would be even more finished,” Li Shimin said, lounging in his chair. “For the sake of power, he would certainly kill her if he had to. But would he not resent you in his heart? Would he not feel guilty toward the Tan Family? Just wait until you breathe your last and see how he takes revenge.”
He said mockingly, “If my younger brother had not hounded us at every turn, my beloved wife would never have died. I must find a way to kill him! What if he gives you some miserable posthumous title? What if he refuses to bury you beside your late wife? The dead could be disgusted back to life! And what if he persecutes the trusted ministers who served you during your reign? Those old fellows followed you through wind and rain all their lives, only to meet terrible ends after your death. You would rise from your tomb in fury!”
“Enough!” Liu Che clutched his chest and said through gritted teeth, “This is far too vivid. I am already sharpening my blade!”
“We are not done yet,” Emperor Gaozu continued cheerfully. “Of course he will avenge the beloved wife you killed. But should he also reward her family? Making one of them a marquis would hardly be excessive, would it? And the children she left behind would naturally be his most precious treasures. Surely it would not be too much to dote on them with his very life?”
“Wait,” Li Shimin said suddenly. “Zhi’er, how can you be so confused about this? Wasn’t that famous devotion to an old sword about your own great-grandson? Liu Bingyi went so far as to say, ‘The one who brings chaos to my house will surely be the Crown Prince,’ yet he still refused to depose the future Emperor Yuan, all for the sake of his beloved wife Xu Pingjun. You know what Emperor Yuan did afterward. The Western Han declined from prosperity under his rule, did it not?”
Liu Che: “…”
Liu Che said, “Do not call me Zhi’er.”
Li Shimin replied, “Of course, Zhi’er.”
Liu Che: “…”
Liu Che withdrew into himself.
Listening to his old companions in the System’s space offer their various opinions, Zhu Yuanzhang could not help smiling.
The Deposed Heir and Lady Tan remained kneeling on the floor. His long silence left them deeply uneasy. After hesitating for a few moments, the Deposed Heir continued, “Your son committed many wrongs in the past. I failed to discipline my wife and allowed my brothers-in-law to do evil. I should never have done so. Father’s advice that I father more children was also sound, but I was bound by an old promise and dared not agree. I caused Father great pain.”
“Oh,” Zhu Yuanzhang said. “You no longer intend to marry Lady Xu and Lady Liu?”
The Deposed Heir knew the old man saw through everything. He dared not parade his paltry schemes before him. Kowtowing heavily, he said, “Your son deserves ten thousand deaths. When I saw Father favoring Second Brother, my thoughts fell into disarray. I became determined to take a general’s daughter as a secondary consort to make up for my lack of support in the army. Looking back now, I could die of shame. Later today, I will visit both families and cancel the marriage arrangements. As for fathering more children, I need only choose several maids from the residence…”
At this, Zhu Yuanzhang truly viewed him in a new light. After turning the matter over several times, he finally said, “Sending Baozhu away is one thing, but why did you send Hualiang as well? He is your eldest son and the Ma Family’s eldest legitimate grandson. How can he spend his days in a convent eating vegetarian meals and chanting sutras? A fine young man will have every trace of mettle constrained out of him.”
The Deposed Heir had long since resolved to be the perfect, forthright son before his father. He immediately pleaded guilty. “Hualiang is young and impetuous, as well as reckless. Yesterday, when he saw his mother unconscious and his sister bedridden, his anger drove him to speak disrespectfully of Father. How could I, as a son myself, indulge such behavior? He ought to be sent to the convent to cultivate his character alongside Baozhu. Whether he can kill enemies on the battlefield is a minor matter. Speaking insolently to his elders and revealing a flaw in his character is a grave one!”
Now that was almost reasonable.
Clearly, people needed to endure a few reversals in life. Look at the eldest Ma son. After such a short spell of cold treatment, his boiling brain had cooled and his intelligence had reclaimed the high ground.
Zhu Yuanzhang weighed his eldest son in his mind, then considered the second. After balancing the two, he reached a decision.
The road to becoming heir should never be perfectly smooth. An easy path could not produce a good emperor. No matter whom he ultimately chose, giving that man a rival to serve as his whetstone before he reached the summit could only be beneficial.
Besides, a shadow of suspicion still lingered in his heart.
This world resembled his own life far too closely.
The former King of Wu also bore a considerable resemblance to him.
The second Ma son carried shades of his own fourth son, while the Deposed Heir and the other children each resembled his later descendants to some degree.
He had already asked Li Yuanda, who had felt something similar in the previous world.
Zhu Yuanzhang had also spoken with Lady Bai. Hearing her memories of the late Princess Consort of Wu and comparing them one after another, he felt the woman might truly have been Old Ma.
Old Ma, the Princess Consort of Wu in another world.
Unfortunately, Heaven had shown no mercy. By the time he came here, she was already gone.
At the thought, Zhu Yuanzhang could not stop his tears from falling.
At that very moment, the Deposed Heir was also kneeling on the floor, weeping for his mother. “When Mother passed away, her greatest concern was our family. She told her sons to honor Father and the three brothers to love one another. In a moment of confusion, I cast Mother’s earnest final wishes to the furthest reaches of the sky. She was so loving and generous. Even when her illness was at its worst, she still urged Father to accept that life and death are ordained by fate and not to blame the physicians. Your son has been unfilial…”
Zhu Yuanzhang knew there was an element of performance in his son’s grief, and the Deposed Heir knew that his father knew. But some things could never be explained with perfect clarity.
Matters had come this far. The Deposed Heir had done everything within his power. What happened next would depend on his elderly father’s decision.
Zhu Yuanzhang remained silent for a long time. The Deposed Heir knelt on the floor, sobbing, unable to suppress his unease. He wiped his tears with his sleeve and used the motion to conceal a glance upward. His father sat wordlessly in the chair, silent tears running down his face.
The Deposed Heir’s heart trembled. Pain and shock seemed to intensify all at once. A teardrop struck the floor with a soft patter, and he called helplessly, “Father.”
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and waved at him wearily. “Enough. You may go.”
The Deposed Heir knew he had passed this trial, yet for some reason, he felt little joy. He left the study with Lady Tan, then glanced back to see his father sitting alone in the chair, eyes closed, showing neither happiness nor sorrow.
His authority placed him high above all others. Yet that same supreme authority seemed to prevent him from becoming part of the world around him, leaving a silent divide between him and every person and thing.
He was the King of Wu, absolute ruler of all lands south of the Yangtze and the man all beneath Heaven agreed was most likely to ascend the imperial throne!
Perhaps this was the price of power.
At the summit, the cold was beyond endurance.