“We had to quickly find the person who belonged to Qiu Jing in Fengxing Pavilion.” Meng Qi said with a calm face.
To deal with Qiu Si, simply cutting off the source would not work. Qiu Si’s successor might have been Cheng Jingchuan, and Cheng Jingchuan did not seem like a madman. He currently had no evil deeds or wrongdoing. If they killed him just to destroy Qiu Si’s plan, how would it differ from a villain who randomly killed with martial force?
The most crucial point was that Cheng Jingchuan might have just been a decoy, and the real successor might have been someone else.
“Dang——”
The long, continuous sound of the bell echoed within the palace walls.
The silence of the night was suddenly broken. Lights lit up in all directions, accompanied by the sounds of chaotic voices.
The entire royal palace, no, the entire Ningtai City was awakened by the bell.
“He really ordered someone to kill King Ning.” Mo Li said, feeling a headache.
The death knell would only be rung when an emperor died.
Although King Ning had not proclaimed himself emperor, everything in Ningtai City was modeled after Taijing.
After the death knell ended, many Buddhist temples in the city began to ring their bells one after another. Even those who slept like the dead were awakened from their dreams.
The common people fell into panic. The dignitaries who stayed overnight in the arms of songstresses crawled up in a panic to tidy their attire. Some wept in grief, some rejoiced, and there were even those who rushed toward the heirs of King Ning whom they had set their eyes on. King Ning had too many sons. It did not matter whether they were capable or not; their maternal and marital clans would naturally push them forward.
Meng Qi stood on the eaves and looked out. Several streams of people holding torches surged toward the palace.
Although it was too far to see clearly, their impatient manner allowed one to imagine their infinitely greedy faces.
The palace had not even had time to hang white banners before it would be stained with blood.
Meng Qi recalled the several commanding officers of the Imperial Guard he had seen today. They were not Qiu Si’s men and even had conflicts among themselves. They had probably already chosen their sides long ago.
Coupled with their actions today of rushing into the populace to catch doctors, there must have been some “clever people” who thought they understood everything. In truth, the one truly critically ill had been King Ning. The moment the death knell rang, they hurriedly rushed toward the palace and the residences of King Ning’s heirs, preparing to support their chosen candidate for the throne.
It could not even be called a coup or palace upheaval, merely the period of chaos after the old king’s death.
Yet King Ning had been killed by Mr. Qiu’s people. They had not even sealed off the news, allowing those noble clans to “move” about freely. They even feared that someone might not have gotten the news, so they rang the death knell in the middle of the night.
Mo Li did not know the normal procedures after an emperor’s death, but Meng Qi did.
A country without a sovereign would surely fall into chaos.
The emperor was human, not a son of heaven. Chaos ensued because that seat could not be left empty, and too many people harbored crooked thoughts. Compared to desperadoes, most people with status and position would think thrice before acting.
After an emperor died, the close attendants, along with the empress or empress dowager, would immediately summon the cabinet ministers, or the ministers who supported their side, to discuss the emperor’s posthumous matters. Without any surprises, they would immediately confirm the crown prince or eldest son, the legitimate heir, to succeed the throne. They would mobilize the Imperial Guard, reclaim the barracks around the outskirts of the capital, and only after everything was arranged would they announce the news and ring the death knell.
At that time, the Buddhist temples and Taoist monasteries inside and outside the city would have been prepared well in advance, timing their resonance perfectly. There would not have been such frantic ringing now, with not a trace of solemnity.
“Something is off…”
Just as Meng Qi finished speaking, he saw that some of the torches outside had gone out.
It was as if one of the sets of porcelain plates filled with pastries suddenly went missing, making it stand out strikingly.
After that, as if by agreement, those aggressive squads disappeared one after another.
——Of course, they had not truly vanished, merely extinguished their torches, stopped making noise, and blended into the darkness.
There was no strong smell of blood in the wind, nor were there cries of slaughter.
Meng Qi frowned, because if it had been him, he could at most have achieved this.
For what they needed now was not a state of chaos, but to take control of Ningtai City from darkness into light.
Qiu Si was not a high-ranking minister of King Ning. According to what Bao Guanyong said, Qiu Si was only a sixth-rank minor official on the surface, doing miscellaneous tasks when reporting for duty at the Ministry of Personnel. King Ning did not even know this person. Since he was not a minister with great power, he could not rely on his own prestige to suppress the situation. If he wanted to secretly control everything, he naturally targeted military power.
Among the military officers under King Ning who had the authority to mobilize troops, even if they were not Qiu Si’s people, their deputies certainly were.
With careful scheming against those who were unprepared, plus the “last decree” of King Ning, the soldiers were not interested in whom they served. As long as their familiar superior officers promised them food and silver, that was enough.
As for the private soldiers raised by those noble clans, it was very unlikely they would survive this night…
Even if Meng Qi had grown three heads and six arms, he could not have charged out of the royal palace to stop the multitude of sudden changes happening simultaneously in Ningtai City tonight. Besides, he did not feel assured leaving Mo Li here alone.
Meng Qi leapt down from the rooftop and helped Mo Li into a quieter room.
The waterside pavilion had two sides open to the wind. When Meng Qi flicked his sleeve, the rising curtain swept away the dust on the tables, chairs, and bed.
When he took Mo Li away, Meng Qi did not forget the rattan box. He placed the box on the low table and then closed the carved partition door.
“Should I go to the Imperial Medical Office to find some herbs for the doctor?” Meng Qi tried asking.
Mo Li shook his head. He had basically recovered, and now he only suffered from the aftereffects of the mountain eggplant flower’s medicinal properties.
He just needed to lie down for a while.
Mo Li listened to the faint sobbing in the distance, which came from the palace servants.
“It’s all right, no one will break in from outside.” Meng Qi recounted the disappearance of the torches beyond the palace walls and his own deductions.
Mo Li asked thoughtfully, “Was this also planned by Qiu Si?”
“Nine out of ten chances, he wanted to toss aside all those he found troublesome or useless, then let the ‘enlightened ruler’ succeed the throne, pretending to work hard and govern diligently. It would follow as a matter of course that he would raise the banner of restoring Chu. This way, he could not behave like Lu Zhang and carry out a massacre. He needed someone from the Li family’s bloodline of the Chu Dynasty as a puppet, and he could not kill off all of King Ning’s sons. The noble clans were interlinked by marriages so intricately that anyone could become relatives after three turns. Each of King Ning’s offspring stood supported by noble clans. If he rapidly purged Ningtai City and wiped out their entire families, the turmoil would last three to five years. Without the authority of a sovereign in his prime, no one could suppress it. Moreover, with troops about to be raised, if Ningtai was not at peace, it would only delay major events…”
Meng Qi suppressed his doubts and dared not speak too definitively.
——Under normal circumstances, this was the way, but a madman’s thinking was unpredictable.
Who knew what shocking moves Qiu Si planned to make.
After all, in Qiu Si’s plan, at this moment “Mr. Qiu” was already dead.
***
The fragrance of wine filled the air and penetrated the lungs.
Qiu Si replaced the tea cup with a wine cup and sighed softly, “As expected of the peach blossom brew that took Taijing by storm.”
The pavilion stood at a high vantage point, allowing one to see the chaos in the nearby palace gardens.
Weeping, shadows of people running about in panic reflected on the walls, together with the distant firelight and shouts, as if they had fallen into a nightmare.
The inner attendants around King Ning, some loyal to King Ning, some who had taken money from various noble families, and many more who had pocketed money from all sides, never expected that when they hurriedly ordered young attendants to spread the news outside in hopes of a bright future tomorrow, the palace would suddenly fall into chaos.
It happened so fast that they had no time to react.
It happened so fast that, even though they had gathered their valuables, they had no time to find a safe place to hide before the ferocious Imperial Guards arrived.
All the palace chambers were surrounded, and those who moved without permission were taken down on the spot.
Those well-known junior eunuchs and chief eunuchs who scolded with darkened faces were slapped hard until they searched the ground for their teeth. The people who were used to flaunting their authority tried to shout angrily, but realized that the Imperial Guards who had come were all unfamiliar faces. Perhaps some were seen before, but none of those old commanding officers were anywhere in sight.
King Ning’s concubines cowered in their respective palace residences, trembling as they listened to the commotion outside.
They had no support in this upheaval and could only weep, begging for a way out, even if it meant being sent to a nunnery to recite sutras.
King Ning’s offspring were pale and as their ambitions were gradually worn down by the predicament before them.
News continuously flowed in from outside the palace, and everyone caught a word or two. Something about the Wang family’s private soldiers breaking into the Zhao family’s home, the Qian family’s men being beheaded outside the palace gates…every piece of news was murderous, rivers of blood, and enough to make one faint on the spot.
It seemed as if the next moment, troops would storm into the palace, wantonly slaughtering all in their path.
The old affair of Emperor Lu Zhang of Qi massacring Taijing was occasionally brought up in the Chu royal palace. When everyone recalled it now, they were frightened out of their wits.
“Heh heh, the butcher’s name was indeed useful.” Qiu Si sat in the pavilion, looking at the chaos near and far, stroking his beard with great satisfaction.
Cheng Jingchuan stood beside him, silently listening to Mr. Qiu’s teachings.
All the news that reached the palace was false, deliberately created for effect.
“The ancient sages advocated the method of keeping the populace ignorant. Emperors of later generations also feared that servants and slaves would know too much, even forbidding eunuchs and palace maids from becoming literate. I would say that was unnecessary. The ignorant also did not know fear. They were like livestock, and you needed to show them the blade and blood before their eyes, treating them as harshly as pigs and dogs, only then would they become obedient and docile. However, as for those who could read, knew history, had some ability yet were not very bright, you need not even bring a blade. You could make them cower in fear, how effortless.”
“Sir, what you said was also not quite right.” Cheng Jingchuan said softly, “If among the servants there was a rare genius, like gold and jade mixed in sand and gravel, revealed by this one scoop, would they not become a future variable?”
In the ears of others, what Cheng Jingchuan said was already quite outrageous. Servants were just servants, lowly by fate, lacking in virtue. Even if they turned the tables, they would still be treacherous. Where would a heaven-sent genius come from?
Qiu Si did not take it to heart. Smiling, he drank and said, “Would it not be better if a genius emerged? If they were descendants of a noble family or disciples of great scholars, even without my support, they would still rise to prominence. Such people had deep-rooted beliefs in defending their clans and maintaining the interests of the scholar-officials. How could they be used by me?”
Cheng Jingchuan did not speak.
Although he was of good birth, the Marquis Jingyuan’s household had declined for many years. When he was young, he nearly starved to death.
As for the people of Fengxing Pavilion, there was even less need to mention them. If they had proper family backgrounds, who would not have wanted to pass the imperial examinations, whether civil or martial, and become officials legitimately?
There were worthy talents in the world, left behind in rural fields.
Qiu Si had spent decades building this vast force precisely because he had no sectarian prejudices and excelled at granting favors and controlling people’s hearts. To make someone like Cheng Jingchuan bow his head and obey, Qiu Si certainly could not have been “just” a madman.
The kindness of recognition, the kindness of guidance, the kindness of life-saving…although old-fashioned, they were effective.
The Xiliang man Ayanpuka believed that the third was the most important. Qiu Si differed. He always believed the first was key.
Saving a life was merely lifting a hand, but to pull someone out of the mire because of your appreciation, treating them as a distinguished guest, was different.
Therefore, if Qiu Si were killed, it would be a truly frightening matter.
“After dawn, if Ningtai could not be stained with blood to accompany me in death, then let it be that their fate spared them.” Qiu Si looked at the distant turmoil and sighed softly.
——He actually did not intend to feign death anymore.
Not only had Meng Qi guessed wrong, but even Cheng Jingchuan felt surprised.
Qiu Si seemed able to see through Cheng Jingchuan’s thoughts and said leisurely, “Feigning death could solve many problems, but Jing’er is not stupid. If I truly died and everything went as planned, yet it was only a feigned death, then I really could not control that girl.”
Cheng Jingchuan lowered his head without a word.
“They all said Lu Zhang was a mighty hero throughout his life, yet died so shamefully. I, however, thought he surpassed King Ning by far. One son was enough, as long as he had promise.” Qiu Si poured himself another cup of wine and narrowed his eyes.
Cheng Jingchuan dared not respond to those words. Mr. Qiu had no sons, only one daughter.
Even in name, that daughter had long since died young.
At this moment, a guard hurried over to report. After listening, Cheng Jingchuan was taken aback.
“What happened?” Qiu Si seemed to have eyes on the back of his head.
Cheng Jingchuan, with a complicated expression, said in a low voice, “We found the guard who was knocked out by Master Meng. He was one of our men. When the incident occurred, Doctor Mo had already reached the pavilion.”
“Hmm?”
Qiu Si immediately realized the peculiarity in this matter.
If Meng Qi had infiltrated the palace long ago, whether disguised as a guard or a eunuch, he could have revealed himself at once. Why bother knocking out a guard to strip him of his clothes?
Could it be that the clothes Meng Qi wore before this could not be seen by others?
Or——
Was he not wearing any clothes?
“Interesting, truly interesting.” Qiu Si clapped his hands and laughed.
Cheng Jingchuan involuntarily recalled the unknown creature that had spied on him in the bushes, and hesitated to speak.
Mr. Qiu did not believe in ghosts or gods, and Cheng Jingchuan could not say that he suspected the existence of monsters.
Author’s note:
Cheng Jingchuan: I suspect that Meng Qi is a monster, just like in those storybooks (Journey to the West), where the national teachers were all monsters.
