Sure enough, the next moment that effeminate schemer started stabbing him in the back.
“So what, Second Brother never mentioned it to Father? If he hadn’t been waiting at the palace gates this morning and invited me to watch the opera with him, I wouldn’t even have known about such wonderful news! Unfortunately, I had duties at the Court of the Imperial Treasury and couldn’t go. Second Brother, don’t just stand there. Tell us, was Master Qin’s singing authentic enough?”
The Second Prince panicked. He wished he could hook that little brat’s mouth shut with a fishhook. All he could do was stammer in protest.
“The Crown Prince must be joking! I spent today inspecting the city and visiting the soldiers who had returned from disaster-relief efforts in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. How would I have had time to watch any opera?”
Unfortunately, the Emperor’s gaze carried a deeper meaning. It was obvious he had seen through the Second Prince’s little trick. Knowing full well about the Crown Prince’s chronic condition, he had still tried to drag him off to watch a performance on his very first day back on duty. Such conduct from an elder brother revealed ill intentions.
Cold sweat beaded on the Second Prince’s forehead. Just as he was about to explain himself, the Emperor spoke in a low voice. “Enough chatter. Focus on fishing.”
Since his father had chosen to spare him further embarrassment, the Second Prince could only fall silent. Even so, the smiling-mask facade he wore was starting to crack. After shooting Yan Xiaoying a vicious glare, he swallowed his frustration and picked up his fishing rod.
Damn it. This was downright bizarre. What exactly had this sissy learned during those four years of confinement?
The pathetic weakling who used to get his trousers pulled down by his imperial brothers and shoved into mud pits for amusement had somehow become as slippery as an eel, quietly devious and impossible to handle.
The fishing trip itself did not go smoothly. Just as the Emperor reeled in a fish, a report arrived: the river embankments in Jiangsu and Zhejiang had suffered another breach, and prefectures and counties across the region were urgently calling for aid.
Annoyed, the Emperor immediately lost interest in fishing. Leaving the younger men to continue, he summoned Ge Danian and returned to the Imperial Study.
Once Emperor Chunde and the Grand Tutor had departed, the remaining princes no longer had any desire to maintain the appearance of brotherly harmony.
Having suffered a setback, the Second Prince tossed aside his fishing rod and hurried off to consult Noble Consort Shang about countermeasures.
The other princes also dispersed in small groups. Only the Third Prince, Feng Qiwu, remained behind, seething with anger. Suddenly, he kicked the wooden bucket before him into the lake.
“Those corrupt officials lining their own pockets are no better than traitors like Meng Zhun! I almost killed that bastard Meng myself. What a pity! I was only this close!”
A few days earlier, he had already captured the mastermind behind the unrest in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Unfortunately, turmoil at Yicheng Prison had allowed the villain Meng to escape.
He was still cursing furiously when he turned and noticed the Crown Prince standing behind him, hands clasped behind his back. Though he looked like a slender youth, supple as a willow branch, his sharp eyes were fixed on the Third Prince with a cold intensity.
There was something about him… Something strangely oppressive that defied description.
For a moment, even the bull-headed Third Prince was stunned by that gaze. But he quickly recovered, rose to his feet, and shouldered the obstructive “sissy” aside before storming off in a huff.
Jinzhong stepped up behind the Crown Prince and asked quietly, “Your Highness, perhaps you should return early and have your meal?”
Yan Xiaoying watched the Third Prince’s departing figure with a meaningful look, then turned her gaze toward the lakeshore.
Just moments ago, Ge Danian had been staring absentmindedly in that direction, and it had stirred a spark of curiosity in her. After observing for a while, she pointed toward the northwestern corner of the palace lake.
“I’ve always thought this lake looked a little strange. Why does it seem as though part of it has been cut off by that palace wall over there?”
Standing on tiptoe to get a better look, Jinzhong immediately grinned. “My late master once told me the story behind it. Back in the late Emperor’s reign, after restoring the Great Feng dynasty’s ancestral foundation, His Majesty entered the palace and began reforming its extravagant customs. He promoted frugality and even walled off a section of the enormous palace grounds. The plan was to convert it into a residence and reward it to meritorious officials. Unfortunately, senior court ministers strongly opposed the idea. They argued that the capital was not some rural county town and that there had never been a precedent for ministers living side by side with their sovereign. The matter was eventually abandoned. The area beyond the wall was simply left deserted. In any case, having fewer palace buildings meant less maintenance and saved a considerable amount of silver.”
Yan Xiaoying nodded in sudden understanding, finally resolving a question that had puzzled her for many days. Several times she had followed the paths she remembered and inevitably arrived at the towering palace wall where she had first encountered Uncle Hai. Though she had searched the area repeatedly and even discovered a concealed door, it was secured with an anti-tampering military lock. Without a key, it was impossible to open. Moreover, the wall itself was as imposing as a city rampart, making it impossible to climb over. Following the wall’s perimeter had eventually led her to this section that divided the palace lake.
Now that Jinzhong had explained its history, everything made sense. No wonder the palace maps always felt as though something was missing from the northwest corner. The entire palace complex seemed oddly asymmetrical from east to west.
Over the past few days, Uncle Hai had searched every hidden corner of the palace. He had found no trace of medicinal scents and no sign whatsoever of Feng Qiyuan’s hiding place. Could it be that her brother was not within the palace walls at all, but rather on the other side of that isolated northwestern section? After all, the area was still close to the imperial palace. If anything unexpected occurred, Empress Tang could use that hidden door to move Feng Qiyuan into the palace quickly.
With that thought in mind, Yan Xiaoying lengthened her stride and headed straight back to the Chuwen Hall.
By the time she arrived, Nanny Song was already waiting there like a grim reaper coming to collect a soul, her long face as dour as a donkey’s.
Before the old woman could begin her lecture, Yan Xiaoying struck first.
“The flooding in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has worsened again. I overheard His Majesty chatting with the Grand Tutor. He already knows all about the Court of the Imperial Treasury’s cooked books and is simply waiting for certain people to grow restless and take the bait. If Mother insists on having me bring those account ledgers back right now, won’t we be walking straight into the trap set by the mother-and-son pair from the Western Palace? As for me, I don’t particularly care. But can Mother withstand the fallout? If you ask me, there are people watching the Ministry very closely. You’d be better off waiting. Don’t get dragged into muddy waters by accident.”
Nanny Song had not expected the girl to pinpoint the heart of the matter so accurately. What Yan Xiaoying said made sense, yet it was hard to believe such a young girl could analyze the situation so clearly and systematically.
Yan Xiaoying grinned. “I may not have studied much, but I’m not stupid! Back when I worked as a shop assistant, I learned all sorts of tricks hidden in account books. Just remember this: stay far away from rotten accounts. That’s timeless wisdom. Consider it a gift for Her Majesty.”
Nanny Song shot her a glare before turning around to relay the message.
After that, the Empress stopped bothering her. Evidently, Yan Xiaoying’s remark about the Emperor “fishing for suspects” had struck a chord with Empress Tang’s scheming mind. She suddenly seemed to grasp something and hurriedly summoned members of the Tang family to discuss countermeasures.
Meanwhile, Yan Xiaoying was busy with matters of her own.
Jinzhong managed to obtain the Imperial Household Department’s register of flowers and plants. Skimming through it at lightning speed, Yan Xiaoying soon found the whereabouts of the unusual orchid.
The rare orchid had originally been presented as tribute from Dian during earlier years and possessed an elegant name: Snow-Soaked Orchid (Jinxue). It seemed to have been in the palace for quite some time. The palace where it was cultivated bore an unfamiliar name, one that did not appear on the palace map Nanny Song had previously drawn for her.
So, appearing casual, Yan Xiaoying asked Jinzhong where Tianlu Palace, the place that housed the orchid, was located.
Jinzhong examined the records but had no idea. He therefore went to consult an elderly eunuch who had once trained him. When he returned, his expression was noticeably more tense. “Your Highness, in this servant’s opinion, there’s really nothing particularly special about that orchid. Perhaps… you could choose a different one?”
Yan Xiaoying put on a stern face. “My appreciation of beauty is exceptionally refined. Whether people or flowers, my favorites cannot be ordinary. It’s this orchid or nothing.”
Seeing the Crown Prince apparently becoming obsessed with the matter, Jinzhong hastily warned him: “Your Highness, Tianlu Palace was separated from the inner palace grounds back in the late Emperor’s reign and now lies beyond the palace walls. And I believe that person currently lives there…”
Pretending not to understand, Yan Xiaoying asked, “Who?”
Jinzhong sighed helplessly. “The First Prince.”
“Oh? The First Prince who was removed from the inner palace because of his hidden illness?”
Curiosity immediately stirred within Yan Xiaoying. “You once attended my eldest brother, didn’t you? Do you know why he went mad?”
Jinzhong tried to restrain himself, but ultimately could not resist the urge to show off his knowledge. Before beginning, however, he cautiously added that everything he was about to say was merely palace gossip he had heard over the years, and he could not guarantee that any of it was true. He only asked that the Crown Prince refrain from repeating it to anyone else.
When Yan Xiaoying agreed with a smile, Jinzhong finally began recounting one of the palace’s long-buried scandals.
This elusive prince, rarely seen and seldom heard from, was the son the Emperor had with his first wife, who died young, when he was still a lesser noble of a collateral branch in Lingnan. His wife, Ye Zhanxue, was a remarkable woman skilled in martial arts. Her elder brother, Ye Zhong, had sworn brotherhood with Emperor Chunde. Now a Great General stationed on the frontier, he remained one of the Emperor’s most trusted commanders.
Before her marriage, Ye Zhanxue had been a wandering heroine of the jianghu. She was the last disciple personally accepted by Sword Saint Xiao Jiumu, Young Master Mu’s maternal grandfather, and was as close as a sister to the current Princess Anqing.
Although Lady Ye came from humble origins, she and the Emperor once shared a harmonious, loving marriage. Unfortunately, during the campaign to suppress a rebellion, she fell into an enemy ambush and was captured. The Emperor fought desperately to rescue her and bring her home. Two months later, Lady Ye was discovered to be pregnant with the First Prince.
The Emperor, distressed by his wife’s frail condition, believed that carrying a child at that time would place too great a burden on her body and initially had no intention of keeping the pregnancy.
The physicians, however, advised against terminating it. They warned that Lady Ye’s health was already poor, and an abortion might very well cost her life.
In the end, Lady Ye’s brother, Ye Zhong, knelt before his brother-in-law and pleaded bitterly on his sister’s behalf. Only then was the child spared.
After giving birth to the First Prince, the female general’s health continued to deteriorate. Within a few years, she succumbed to illness brought on by years of overwork, leaving behind only her three-year-old son.
People said that Lady Ye’s behavior had already become somewhat erratic before her death, and many speculated that the First Prince had inherited his affliction from his mother while still in the womb.
Jinzhong told the story in a roundabout, evasive way, but Yan Xiaoying needed only a moment’s thought to see through the inconsistencies.
Lady Ye had been found pregnant merely two months after returning from captivity. Most likely, Emperor Chunde had suspected that she had suffered some unspeakable ordeal at the hands of her enemies and that the child she carried might not have been of his blood.
That, Yan Xiaoying realized, was why he had insisted on ending the pregnancy despite her weakened state after her rescue. Only later, with his powerful brother-in-law intervening to save his sister’s life, and with loyalty, gratitude, and public obligation weighing heavily on him, had Chunde relented. He had gritted his teeth, swallowed the humiliation, and allowed his wife to bear a child whose lineage he privately doubted. He had even permitted the boy to retain the status of the legitimate eldest son. After all, at the time he had merely been an obscure princely heir, far removed from the center of power. He could hardly have imagined that one day he would ascend to the Dragon Throne as Son of Heaven.
Under those circumstances, choosing compromise made sense. It strengthened his followers’ loyalty and reinforced his reputation as a man who valued loyalty and sentiment.
Emperor Chunde may have preserved both duty and appearances, but a crack had already formed in the marriage. Some wounds could never truly heal.
As for Lady Ye, she had probably carried that burden in silence, nursing her sorrow alone until it consumed her and led her to an early grave.
After recounting that heavily veiled chapter of history, Jinzhong became much more talkative. “After that, His Majesty married into the powerful Tang clan. From then on, he launched campaign after campaign and rose swiftly through the ranks until he reached the height of power. As for the First Prince, he was left behind in the countryside and lacked proper discipline. By the time he followed the late Emperor and his father into the palace, his temperament had become twisted and unruly, and he was notorious for his cruelty. When he was twelve, he nearly drowned the Crown Prince. After that, his condition worsened, and he was never seen in public again.”
These stories about the First Prince were known only to a handful of old-timers in the palace. Jinzhong had once heard them from an elderly eunuch who had served in the abandoned palace where the First Prince had been confined. The old man had spilled the tale while drunk, and now, eager to please his new master, Jinzhong related everything he knew.
The more Yan Xiaoying listened, the more convinced she became that although Jinzhong possessed boundless ambition, he lacked the prudence and subtlety needed to survive palace intrigue.
Matters like these, secret family scandals from before the Emperor’s rise to power, were things many people in the palace might know, yet none would dare discuss openly. And yet Jinzhong casually repeated them to the Emperor’s own son. No wonder he had once dared to slap the Empress’s niece merely to attract attention and advance himself.
As for the rest of the story, Yan Xiaoying could already piece it together.
By imperial decree, the First Prince had been moved to Tianlu Palace, the abandoned complex outside the inner palace walls. There, he was to “recover in peace,” and from that day forward, he disappeared from public view.
The palace where the First Prince was confined lay within the walled-off section beside the lake that Yan Xiaoying had noticed during today’s fishing trip. It was also where the rare orchid was being cultivated.
A troubling thought suddenly crossed her mind. Could her Elder Brother have been hidden there? Locked away in that secluded palace, living alongside a madman?