Dong!
Dong!
Dong!
The Dengwen Drum beside the imperial court resounded with heavy, thundering beats. The person striking it was dressed in a crimson official robe and wore a jade crown. As he swung his arms to beat the drum, his wide sleeves slid down repeatedly, and the embroidered water ripples along his hem billowed like surging tides.
The drum mallet was exceptionally heavy. With every strike he delivered, his jade-fair face paled a degree further, and even the cinnabar mole between his brows seemed to fade. The webbing between his thumbs and forefingers tore open from gripping the mallets with such desperate force.
Yet those clear, light-filled eyes remained stubborn and unyielding, as though so long as the person inside did not appear, he would go on beating it forever.
Whenever anyone struck the Dengwen Drum, none dared obstruct them. Yet several messengers had gone inside to announce him, and not a single response had returned.
He Zhile parted his parched lips. His upper and lower lips were stuck together, and peeling them apart drew beads of fresh blood.
“Young Master He, according to the rules, you must endure the court caning and the finger-press first.”
A brocade-robed eunuch holding a horsetail whisk emerged from inside. Reverting to He Zhile’s former title, he looked upon him with a gaze full of helplessness and pity; no one could have imagined this young master would go to such lengths.
Had it been anyone else hearing such punishments, they would have paled in horror and fainted on the spot. Yet He Zhile was overcome with sheer joy. He knelt toward the imperial hall, kowtowed, and quickly rose to lie face-down upon the prepared bench.
Before one could beat the Dengwen Drum to present an imperial petition, one had to endure the corporal punishments. Only then would His Majesty hear the plea.
The moment he lay down, two guards holding thick wooden staves struck his lower back violently. Blow after blow fell upon him; the agony forced him to bite through his lower lip until it bled, yet he did not utter a single whimper.
Bloody welts quickly broke across his lower back. As soon as the caning concluded, the torturers immediately applied the finger-press around all ten of his fingers. Ten fingers connect to the heart; the piercing pain wrenched a muffled sob from his throat as he watched helplessly while his fingers swelled under the vise.
“Enough, we must still leave him hands to write,” Eunuch Peng halted them with a barely perceptible furrow of his brow.
He Zhile’s vision was unfocused. Tears spilled from the corners of his eyes, and blood welled from between his teeth. But none of that mattered. He would soon see His Majesty; he would soon be able to plead the Pei family’s case.
Supported by two imperial guards, he was carried inside and set down gently upon the hall floor.
He Zhile braced himself on his elbows in an attempt to kneel, but after struggling for a long while without success, he could only collapse flat again and again. Tears overflowed his eyes. He could not be so useless; he could not offend His Majesty any further.
“Enough, let it be,” the Emperor said in a deep voice. Seeming to remember that he could not speak, the sovereign gestured for Eunuch Peng to help him kneel upright.
He Zhile endured the pain to remain kneeling, lifting his gaze to look directly at the Emperor. His clear eyes held a fervent yearning, praying that the sovereign would read the petition he had submitted at once.
His husband’s family had never rebelled. His husband’s elder sister had never murdered the legitimate eldest prince. His husband had never laid a hand on an imperial prince. Every single charge was a frame-up.
The ruler said nothing. He tapped lightly on the petition before him and said in a grave voice, “We have read what you submitted. It was only out of consideration for your father’s loyal service to the state, and out of pity for your physical disability, that We showed you leniency and granted you a divorce. Yet you remain so ungrateful; would that not make Our gracious intentions entirely in vain?”
Hearing this, He Zhile kowtowed repeatedly with heavy thuds. Disregarding his swollen, throbbing, blood-engorged fingers, he snatched up the nearby brush and ink, driven only by the desperate need to explain.
【This subject does not intend to offend Your Majesty. The accusations against the Pei family are truly a malicious slander. Your Majesty is a wise ruler; I beg Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly.】
His handwriting was frantic, but Emperor An could still read it clearly.
Yet even if he saw it plain as day, the imperial decree had already been issued, and the Pei family had already been taken into custody to await execution and asset confiscation.
How could an imperial edict be issued in the morning and revoked by evening?
Would that not make the whole realm laugh at him for breaking his word?
Besides, the Pei family’s rebellion and treason were already set in stone, beyond all doubt.
The letters, deployment orders, and waist tokens regarding the Pei family’s treason, as well as the physical evidence and eyewitnesses attesting to Consort Pei Yueting’s murder of the legitimate prince, were all fully accounted for. They carried far more weight than a mere paper petition.
As the Son of Heaven, he naturally had to hold firm the reins of the imperial court and purge all traitors. Otherwise, would his grand imperial capital not be overturned by such villains!
“Enough. We granted you an audience today solely out of pity. But if you remain obstinate, We shall hold your maternal family accountable!” Emperor An said coldly. Perhaps recalling something, he turned to Eunuch Peng beside him and added, “Why have you not taken Young Master He away to tend to his wounds?”
Hearing this, Eunuch Peng raised his hand to signal the young eunuchs waiting outside. Just as they approached He Zhile, however, he shook his head and endured the excruciating pain to write swiftly upon the paper once more.
【May Your Majesty be merciful. Could you permit me to visit the prison once? We were husband and wife, after all. I beg Your Majesty to grant this.】
Eunuch Peng hurried to present the paper before Emperor An. Emperor An looked at He Zhile, fell silent for a moment, and said, “Knowing your deep devotion, you may go and see them.”
Delight surfaced on He Zhile’s face, and he immediately kowtowed again and again to express his gratitude.
The two young eunuchs hastily led him out, terrified that if he remained a breath longer, his blood would stain His Majesty’s imperial study.
His personal attendant, Chun Jian, was shocked to see him carried out with all his limbs intact. Yet catching sight of his battered and bloodied state, Chun Jian broke into tears and rushed forward to support him.
“Young Master, let us go home.”
He Zhile shook his head. The young eunuch beside him immediately said, “By His Majesty’s boundless grace, Young Master He is permitted to visit the Imperial Prison. Safe journey, Young Master He.”
He Zhile nodded, then turned to look at Chun Jian. He pointed at the clothes on his body, and Chun Jian understood at once. “This servant will fetch you clean clothes right away.”
Departing the palace gates without tending to his injuries, they drove the carriage straight toward the Imperial Prison. Spotting several shops along the way, He Zhile went out of his way to purchase many provisions to bring along.
A place like the Imperial Prison was reserved exclusively for incarcerating disgraced officials. The main branch of the Pei family was temporarily detained here, while the household servants had already been executed and dumped into mass graves as soon as the imperial decree was handed down.
Arriving in frantic haste at the Imperial Prison, He Zhile was completely drained of color. Sustained solely by a single breath, the resolve that he must see Pei Ji even if it cost him his life, he forced himself into the depths of the prison.
“Pei family, someone is here to see you.”
Along with the jailer’s indifferent call, the members of the Pei family in the cell lifted their eyes together, only to see that it was He Zhile.
They knew perfectly well who he had come for.
The once-glorious Pei family had been reduced to prisoners overnight. No matter how lofty Pei Ji’s pride had once been, it had now crumbled to nothing.
He lifted his heavy eyelids to look at his former lawful husband. Perhaps worn down by the outside rumors and gossip over this period, He Zhile had clearly not been faring well either. His face was pale and his frame much thinner, devoid of his former lovely brightness.
“What did you come here for? A divorce has already been granted to you; are you still going to pester me?” Pei Ji rasped with harsh words, seeming unwilling to spare him even a second glance.
He Zhile shook his head frantically. Desperate to explain, he made swift hand gestures toward him, hoping to make him understand that he had not come to mock him, nor was he someone who abandoned his partner when calamity struck.
Yet Pei Ji had never cared for him in the past; how could he possibly decipher what those frantic, tangled gestures meant?
It looked to him like nothing more than a mute making an absurd spectacle of himself.
As though deeply vexed, Pei Ji leaned his tall frame against the wall, looked at him coldly, and said with irritation, “Stop waving your hands. What do you expect me to see?”
He Zhile froze in place as if struck by a heavy blow.
Aching for his master and heedless of past warnings, Chun Jian flared with fury on the spot: “Young General Pei, you must have a conscience! Just now, in order to clear the Pei family of false charges, our young master went to strike the Dengwen Drum! You cannot treat him like this!”
The moment these words fell, every member of the Pei family in the cell looked at He Zhile in sheer shock.
No one was ignorant of what the Dengwen Drum entailed, nor did anyone fail to know that to see His Majesty through the drum, one had to endure horrific corporal punishments, especially the finger-press, which tore through the nerves of the heart with agony that pierced to the marrow!
Throughout the centuries of Tianqi’s history, those who had beaten the Dengwen Drum were vanishingly few, and without exception, every single one had perished from the torture afterward.
“Why must you do this?” An expression of unbearable remorse flickered across Pei Ji’s rugged, weathered face. He had never treated He Zhile well; back in the Pei household, he had always treated him as air. He did not deserve such devotion from this person.
【Whatever I can do, I must try my best. I do it entirely of my own free will; you need not feel guilty.】
He Zhile wrote out the words one by one on the ground with his swollen hand. He knew deep down that the Pei family would never commit treason. Thus, in doing all this, he wanted first to plead for the Pei family, and second to let Pei Ji know his true heart.
“Do you think that by acting like this, I will come to love you? I advise you to scram back home at once and never show your face before me again! The affairs of our Pei family have nothing to do with you, nor do they require your meddling. Putting on such an elaborate show, did you expect me to pledge myself to you in gratitude?”
“The words I said before, I shall say to you once more: I have never felt a shred of affection for you. If you had not made scenes of life and death insisting on marrying into our house, I would not have spared you a single glance, let alone now when you are no longer of the Pei family. I need you to do nothing for me; everything you do appears utterly hypocritical in my eyes.”
“Get back to your Marquis Manor! If you dare come again, I will smash my head against this wall and die here on the spot, so that your unrealistic delusions can be thoroughly extinguished!”
These words were spoken with brutal severity, not merely to cut off all of He Zhile’s hopes, but to make his own stance unmistakably clear.
Every word declared that there was not the slightest possibility between them.
He Zhile shook his head in panic, gazing at him with an ashen face, tears brimming in his bright, clear eyes. He tried to force a smile in response, tried to explain that he had done all this willingly with no expectations attached. Yet meeting Pei Ji’s chillingly resolute eyes, he could manage nothing at all.
“Get out!”
With Pei Ji’s roar, the jailer stationed outside entered and urged, “Young Master He, you must leave now. Staying any longer will do you no good.”
“Young Master, let us go!” Chun Jian supported his master’s weightless body, his face brimming with indignation. Young General Pei was simply not worthy of his young master exhausting his very life!
He Zhile only looked at Pei Ji with glistening eyes. He would return and beg his father once more. A crime the Pei family had never committed was not a mantle they should bear.
Pei Ji quietly watched that frail, fragile silhouette depart. Even though his heart churned with a hundred agonizing twists and turns, those inappropriate words would never have the chance to be spoken again.
“Though your words were harsh, you were right to say them,” Pei’s mother sighed softly. With their family in such a state, uttering tender, affectionate words would only drag He Zhile down to his death.
The Pei family was in an impossible situation with a guaranteed demise; anyone tainted by association with them faced certain death. The reason the Emperor had spared the He family and He Zhile was simply that he knew the Pei and He families had always been like fire and water, and because he pitied He Zhile for being a mute.
Yet the Son of Heaven was notoriously mercurial. He might pity him today, but should that pity vanish tomorrow, a single imperial decree could sentence him to death.
The fewer people entangled with the Pei family, the better.
“I was the one who failed him,” Pei Ji said, and closed his eyes.
No matter how He Zhile pleaded with his father to speak on the Pei family’s behalf, he was met with nothing but coldness and indifference; no one was willing to wade into the murky waters surrounding the Pei household.
Compounded by his severe injuries and the relentless emotional blows, he could no longer hold on, collapsing completely into unconsciousness.
By the time he woke again, the day of the Pei family’s execution had arrived.
The entire imperial capital cheered and beat drums, as though eliminating the Pei family was equivalent to saving all of Tianqi.
Over a dozen members of the main branch of the Pei family knelt on the execution ground with their backs straight; even the young children had not been spared, quietly waiting for the noon hour to arrive.
Pei Ji kept his eyes fixed on the road from which visitors would come. He was anticipating, yet he was also terrified.
“The hour of noon has arrived! Traitors of the Pei clan, execute!”
As that voice boomed out, a frail silhouette came stumbling through the crowd. He cried out in frantic, incoherent sounds, yet not a single word could form.
By the time he broke through the crowd to the front, the executioner’s broadsword was already descending toward Pei Ji’s neck.
“Ah!”
Pei Ji!
He screamed in devastation as tears streamed from his eyes. He lunged forward madly, only to be held back by the imperial guards in front.
Pei Ji!
Yet Pei Ji was no longer frowning as he had before. A faint smile seemed to grace his lips. He was the one who had failed his little mute. Had he known it would end like this, had there been a next life, he should have acted much earlier.
Blood sprayed in crimson arcs. With hot droplets of blood splattered across his face, He Zhile vomited a mouthful of fresh blood.