The Marquis of Jing’an’s Manor, Study
On the heavy red sandalwood table, a gilded, color-painted large soup bowl was steaming with heat. Inside the bowl, large chunks of meat cooked until tender and falling apart tumbled within dark red broth, and the rich meat aroma mixed with the scent of various spices permeated the study, which was warmed by a brazier.
Assisted by an attendant, Li Jingchen walked in with a limp, his footsteps unsteady to the point that he nearly tumbled over several times. The instant he caught sight of the dog meat, his eyes widened abruptly.
That fur… was precisely the glossiest patch from his beloved hunting dog, “Zhuifeng”!
Li Zecheng sat squarely in the main seat, picking up his silver chopsticks to pluck a piece of tenderly cooked dog meat and leisurely delivering it into his mouth. “The Imperial Household Department’s craftsmanship is truly not bad.”
“Father!” Disregarding the pain radiating from his knees, Li Jingchen broke away from the attendant and said through bared teeth, “That is ‘Zhuifeng’! My personal pet that I raised since childhood…”
“Smack!” Li Zecheng slammed his silver chopsticks heavily onto the table, producing a sharp sound that cut off Li Jingchen’s words. “‘Zhuifeng’ was a beast; once dead, it’s just dead! But what about you? Is your head stuffed with straw? Who gave you the gall to unleash dogs inside the imperial palace?!”
Cowering under the sudden eruption of his father’s coercion, Li Jingchen shrank back as his overflowing grievance and resentment were forcefully suppressed, leaving behind only guilty panic and fear.
Lowering his head, he stammered, “Son, son did not intentionally unleash a dog to startle the imperial carriage. It… it was because Aunt said a few days ago that she wanted to see ‘Zhuifeng’ and said it looked majestic… Son thought the weather was decent today, so he brought it into the palace, thinking to let it run around inside the grounds to loosen up a bit before going to the Changle Palace to pay respects to Aunt. Who could have known it would collide with the sacred carriage!”
“Who could have known what?”
Lifting his head, Li Jingchen said anxiously, “How was I supposed to know Shen Chaoqing was afraid of dogs?! ‘Zhuifeng’ only barked at him a few times and hadn’t even lunged forward yet when he was so frightened his face turned pale! Just a dog, what was there to be afraid of?”
“What did you say?” Li Zecheng’s eyes bulged wide, filled with incredulous shock and a trace of abruptly ignited brilliance. “The Emperor is afraid of dogs?”
“Absolutely true!” Seeing his father react this way, Li Jingchen froze for two seconds before nodding forcefully, as if to prove how significant his discovery was. “Son saw it with his own eyes! He was so frightened his entire body stiffened and cold sweat poured down; he had to grab that Liao slave’s shoulders just to avoid falling over! That appearance was definitely not put on!”
The study plunged into a dead silence, broken only by the occasional crackle popping from the charcoal basin. Li Zecheng’s chest heaved violently as he paced back and forth slowly, his gaze shifting uncertainly.
“Xiao Huaiyan…” Li Zecheng murmured that name. “He was the one who kicked the dog away?”
“It was him!” Li Jingchen gritted his teeth. “His movements were exceptionally fast! If he hadn’t meddled, Shen Chaoqing would definitely have lost all face today! That Liao slave has extraordinary martial arts and enjoys the deep trust of that tyrant; he is simply a thorn in our Li family’s side!”
Li Zecheng halted his steps, turning his back to his son as he gazed with a deep expression into the night sky outside the window, where snow was still falling.
“Good, very good.” He turned around. “Chen’er, today’s humiliation—Father has noted it down. The suffering you endured, the Marquis’s Manor will recover a hundredfold! Send this bowl of ‘bestowed’ dog meat to the Changle Palace. Tell your aunt that His Majesty was ‘benevolent’ and rewarded our manor with a fine dish.”
Li Jingchen was momentarily stunned before understanding his father’s intention. “Yes, son understands! Son will go right away!”
Deep within the Zichen Hall, candles blazed brightly.
Shen Chaoqing poured bowl after bowl of calming herbal medicine down his throat. The fishy wind and sharp fangs of that ferocious hound seemed still to be right before his eyes. Propping up imperial majesty on the surface, his back was actually long since soaked through with cold sweat, and his fingertips remained icy cold to this moment.
Fu An stood anxiously to the side, holding a warm handkerchief and wanting to wipe away the cold sweat from his temples. “Your Majesty, your complexion is poor; you might as well rest for a moment…”
Shen Chaoqing waved his hand, signaling that he didn’t need to say more. Reaching for a sheet of letter paper, he picked up his brush and dipped it in ink, though his wrist trembled slightly in an almost imperceptible manner. Closing his eyes to steady himself, he set brush to paper and wrote swiftly.
The letter was addressed to Duan Zufeng, who was far away in the northern frontier. Aside from reporting on border military affairs, he purposely added a line at the end of the letter: “I hear there are white wolves in the northern frontier snow mountains endowed with spiritual intelligence, regarded as auspicious signs. When Your Excellency returns to the capital, you may search for a cub and bring it back.”
That general could be considered fiercely loyal in the original work, but he hadn’t been heavily employed because he was a man of the Third Imperial Brother; he only defected to him after the Third Imperial Brother’s death, which might have harbored divided loyalties. However, until the very end, Duan Zufeng never betrayed the Jin State, even swearing to defend the city to the death at the final moment and sacrificing his life for the country.
Fu An watched from the side with a heart filled with apprehension, wanting to speak yet hesitating. His Majesty had clearly just been frightened by a hound; why on earth did he still want to raise a wolf?
Shen Chaoqing seemed to perceive his doubts, putting down his brush and tapping his fingertips lightly against the letter paper as a cold, sharp arc curved the corners of his lips: “Only when auspicious signs manifest can they bless our great Jin with peace and prosperity. At the ancestral worship grand ceremony, it will be just right to let the Marquis of Jing’an and the others… properly bathe in the auspicious aura.”
He intended to let the Li family taste the bitter fruit of their own actions. Wasn’t there a “malevolent dog descending from heaven”? Then he would welcome them with an auspicious sign.
After finishing the letter, the breath he had forced himself to sustain suddenly collapsed. Shen Chaoqing only felt a sticky chill behind him, cold sweat pouring profusely from his forehead, and his vision even grew slightly dark.
Seeing this, Fu An hastily presented the herbal medicine that had been kept warm the entire time. “Your Majesty, the medicine is growing cold. Please partake of a bit more to calm your mind.”
Shen Chaoqing’s gaze landed upon the pitch-black bowl of medicine, his brows twisting even tighter. The pungent, bitter scent sent his stomach churning.
Staring at the medicine bowl for a moment, he suddenly seemed to remember something, glancing left and right. Seeing that no one was paying attention, he actually whipped out a small brocade pouch from his sleeve with lightning speed, pinched a small pinch of white confectioner’s sugar between his fingertips, scattered it into the medicinal liquid with the speed of lightning, and even picked up a spoon to stir it as if covering up his actions.
Right at this moment, Fu An turned his head back, capturing the Emperor’s childish act in full view.
The old eunuch’s face instantly wrinkled into a bitter melon, caught between helplessness and heartache as he lowered his voice and said, “Oh my goodness, Your Majesty! Physician Su repeatedly admonished that the medicinal properties must remain in their original state to exert their full efficacy. You, this…”
Shen Chaoqing’s movements froze like a child caught stealing sugar, and he withdrew his hand with a sheepish expression. “…Understood, understood. I won’t add it then.”
Taking a deep breath, he tilted his head back and gulped down the bowl of medicine, which remained stubbornly bitter. His pretty face crumpled into a ball, and he hurriedly grabbed several candied fruits and stuffed them into his mouth, taking quite a while to catch his breath.
“Has the Changle Palace been well-behaved today? Any movements after I left?”
While tidying up the medicine bowl, Fu An reported in a low voice, “Replying to Your Majesty, Li Jingchen did indeed visit the Changle Palace earlier, and even brought along a stewed pot of meat.”
Upon hearing this, a cold, mocking arc instantly curved across Shen Chaoqing’s lips. Naturally, he knew what kind of “meat” that was.
“Hmph,” he gave a light sneer, “they move fast enough.”
Earlier, when he was exchanging pleasantries with the Empress at the Changle Palace, the Empress had yet to learn of his phobia of dogs. It was only because the Empress herself enjoyed watching dogfights yet had never personally raised one herself, nor had she ever noticed the Emperor’s weakness in this regard. Now, through that idiot Li Jingchen, this handle had finally been completely handed over to the other side.
The Empress and Li Zecheng would never let go of such a prime opportunity.
“It’s fine,” Shen Chaoqing’s gaze turned dark and chilly as his fingertips unconsciously rubbed against the slightly warm teacup. “They have their heaven-sent ‘divine hound’ to shock the carriage, but I have my northern Di ‘auspicious sign’ to greet them.”
He wanted to see how, during an occasion as solemn as the ancestral worship grand ceremony when the so-called “auspicious white wolf” made its appearance, the Li family’s meticulously orchestrated farce of “ferocious dogs colliding” could possibly continue to be acted out!
When that time arrived, who would end up humiliating themselves remained to be seen.
Thinking of this, the stuffy anger that had accumulated within Shen Chaoqing’s heart due to the fright and the bitterness of the medicine seemed to dissipate slightly.