Outside the square walls, loud shouting and noisy voices drifted in.
It was the Ninth Prince, arriving with a large group of people from the Internal Affairs Bureau. A dozen small eunuchs entered the side hall and immediately began seizing his expensive furniture and decorations, carrying them away.
Mu Jue did not even look up. He patted his mother’s hand to comfort her and continued reading the Classic of Poetry.
When they finished emptying his room, the eunuchs entered this one.
Surrounded by the crowd, the Ninth Prince tilted his chin and stared at him.
“So, Sixth Brother is here. I forgot to mention it just now: you are leaving for Northern Di to be a hostage very soon. You won’t be able to see or use these nice things anyway, so I brought people to collect them first to save you the trouble later.”
The young man had his back to them. His spine was very straight, looking as elegant as a bamboo shoot after the rain.
The Ninth Prince received no response and did not see the reaction he hoped for. His expression darkened, and after a moment, he sneered.
“Sixth Brother probably doesn’t know yet, but to prevent you from being foolish and running away, Father has already sent the Imperial Guard here. In the few days before you leave for Northern Di, you cannot leave this place even for a step. The Imperial Guard will be watching outside. On the carriage to Northern Di, your hands and feet will also be tied. You can’t possibly escape.”
The Ninth Prince took almost everything in the hall.
He didn’t even leave a single thick mattress.
Mu Jue gave most of his hidden clothes to his mother to keep her warm. He wrapped the rest around himself and lay on his side on the bed with his legs curled up.
The Imperial Guard indeed surrounded the place completely, and iron shackles were placed on his hands and feet.
The cold shackles, smelling faintly of rust, pressed against the skin of his wrists and ankles, as if they were sucking away his already meager body heat.
The young man trembled. In the howling northern wind of the night, he couldn’t find even a hint of sleepiness.
Outside the courtyard, someone was talking to the Imperial Guard. After the voices stopped, footsteps approached.
His door was knocked on.
“Sixth Prince! Master! Is the Prince asleep?”
It was Xia Ming’s voice.
Mu Jue sat up and lit the candle by the bed. “I told Lu Shiting to take you away. Why are you—”
“I begged Chief Lu to let me come back and stay with you. I have no other family. If you don’t take me to Northern Di, where else could I go?”
“What kind of place do you think Northern Di is?” Mu Jue pulled his hands in and blew a breath of warm air into his palms. “Besides, my mother is still here. It’s likely I won’t come back from Northern Di. You need to stay here and take good care of her for me.”
“But what will happen to you if there is no one by your side, Master?”
“I am still young. Besides, after Da Ning signs the treaty with Northern Di, would they really kill a hostage like me? I might even live better in Northern Di than I do here.”
He lied to Xia Ming; it was enough for him to go to Northern Di alone, there was no need to drag someone else down.
Xia Ming had a sad face and nodded through his tears.
“I will definitely take good care of Consort Li but for these next few days, at least let me stay here and serve you for a little longer, Master?”
Mu Jue did not try to send him away again.
Xia Ming searched all over the hall but couldn’t find any thick, warm bedding. When he saw the red marks on his master’s wrists from the shackles, the crying he had just stopped started up again even louder.
“…It’s alright, it’s alright.” Mu Jue comforted him softly. “When it was even colder before, we didn’t have blankets either, and we survived just the same.”
Xia Ming went into the yard to pick up some dry branches to start a fire for warmth.
The weak flame was blown out by the north wind as soon as it started. After several attempts, it wouldn’t light again.
Mu Jue’s hands and feet were icy. A cold that seemed to freeze his blood spread from his skin to his heart. He leaned against the bed and shivered.
After living a life of luxury for a while, his body seemed even weaker than before.
In the past, no matter how cold it was, even if his hands were covered in chilblains and the skin on his palms and soles cracked with bloody gashes, he could still fall asleep at night.
But now, he felt nothing but the cold. After enduring for several hours, his temples throbbed with pain and his eyelids felt heavy, but he couldn’t fall asleep.
“Master,” Xia Ming said with a nasally voice. “If Chief Lu hadn’t helped us at the start, would we never offended the Eastern Depot, so why—”
“Without Lu Shiting, do you think the hostage sent to Northern Di wouldn’t be me?”
Too many people hated him. A prince with no power or status was always going to be pushed out as a sacrifice.
As for Lu Shiting, he didn’t know what the man was really planning, but the man certainly had no intention of letting him go.
Escape on the way to Northern Di?
If he really listened to that temptation and tried to run, the Imperial Guards escorting him would probably cut off his hands and feet rather than let him escape. Perhaps he would be caught, have his bones broken, or even be drugged to destroy his mind.
He was alone, had never learned martial arts, and was wearing shackles. How could he fight the Imperial Guard for his life?
“Do you know who Lu Shiting was before he entered the palace?”
“This… how could I know that? But I heard from palace servants that Chief Lu was an orphan; his family died very early. He entered the palace at eight and soon took the powerful Head Eunuch as his godfather. Eleven years later, he killed his godfather with his own hands and took control of the Eastern Depot.”
Xia Ming sighed. “Tch, a godfather of over ten years, killed just like that.”
Mu Jue scolded himself in his heart.
Why don’t I have the ability to kill the Emperor?
“Where is Lu Shiting’s hometown?”
“Some small place in the north, I don’t remember. I only recall he was from a farming family.”
“Did his family’s death have anything to do with the royal family?”
Xia Ming shook his head blankly. “Probably not. Ten years ago, our Da Ning was peaceful and the granaries were full. Back then, Northern Di didn’t dare invade, and there were no famines.”
“If Chief Lu’s family died of a plague, how could the royal family be blamed? If the family committed a serious crime and was executed, how could a farming family do that? Besides, if there were serious criminals in the family, he couldn’t have entered the palace to be a eunuch; he wouldn’t have been able to get travel papers.”
Mu Jue frowned, feeling deep down that Lu Shiting didn’t come from that farming family.
But he was too cold, and his head hurt so badly that he didn’t have the energy to think further.
After a groggy night, he woke up the next day with a dry, stinging throat.
Xia Ming poured him a glass of water. When he handed it over, he jumped in fright.
“Master! Your—your hand is so hot!”
Mu Jue’s thin wrists were bound by heavy shackles. There was a startling ring of red on his pale skin, looking as if his wrists might break at any moment.
He didn’t even seem to have the strength to hold the porcelain cup; his fingertips were shaking.
Mu Jue put down the cup and lowered his head, touching his forehead with the back of his hand.
He was freezing to death, but his body was radiating a scorching heat, like a piece of charcoal that was about to burn out.
Mu Jue let out a soft breath.
“I probably have a fever.”