Chapter 999

Suffering Another Round of Beatings

The citizens could not understand why the eighth prince, who was guilty of the most heinous crimes, would suddenly be pardoned by the Emperor. He had already been brought out to the execution site, and the blade was already resting on his neck. The people still did not know about the situation inside the Imperial Palace, and they only knew that the Sheng Palace had become lively once more. The things that had been carried out of the palace were brought back. There were also quite a few additional rewards that had been granted. They stayed at the Sheng Palace’s entrance and listened to the eunuch announce the contents of the gifts. Looking only at the things awarded by the Emperor, it sounded like there was even more stuff than what the Sheng Palace initially had, and this stuff was even better.

The citizens could not understand why this was. All of them voiced their discontent, but they did not dare to voice their complaints directly in the streets. They could only voice their complaints while in their own homes. Those living in the East, West, and South were a little better off. After all, they were just spectators. They were a little off from being directly affected. But those poor folk living in the northern part of the city became quite vexed. They lived in houses made by the Yu Palace, and they made use of the products provided by Princess Yu to survive. Morning, noon and at night, they would curse the eighth prince. At the same time, there would also be a few complaints and curses directed at the Emperor.

At present, the citizens in the northern part of the city had an unwritten rule. Whenever they met, they would first curse the emperor, the eighth prince and the court before moving onto other things. As for the contents of these curses, nobody was allowed to report them. If things were exposed, the citizens in the northern part of the city would want to rip the traitor to shreds, even if they ran the risk of being executed for that crime.

But so what if they just cursed? The imperial decree had come from the Emperor. In the past, they dared to throw heads of lettuce at the Sheng Palace’s gates; however, they never dared to throw things at the Imperial Palace’s gates. Everyone understood that it would be seen as betraying the country, and they would be executed on the spot.

As for the eighth prince, Xuan Tianmo, he was leisurely sitting in his palace and recovering from his illness. He had suffered a bit from sitting in the condemned cell, especially his legs. They had ended up with some ailments. The Emperor was very distressed by this. He was extremely troubled, as he called all of the imperial physicians to check up on his “most beloved son” one by one. In the end, it was decided that Sun Qi would be the one to handle treating him. Also, the Emperor left Sun Qi in the Sheng Palace to have him take care of the eighth prince throughout the day, and he must not be careless for even a moment.

Sun Qi’s medical abilities were good. At the very least, he was someone who could catch Song Kang’s eye. That meant that he was not an average doctor. With him taking care of Xuan Tianmo’s treatment, Xuan Tianmo’s leg recovered quite a bit. All of the medicines prescribed by Sun Qi were medicines unique to Hundred Herb Hall, and this meant that the Sheng Palace’s people would need to go into the capital to venture to Hundred Herb Hall to buy medicine. In regards to this, Hundred Herb Hall already disliked them, but the eighth prince’s side had an imperial order. This left Hundred Herb Hall with no other choice.

Yao Xuan personally sought out Feng Yuheng to discuss this matter, asking Feng Yuheng how it should be handled. After Feng Yuheng heard this, she said: “Give him the medicine. Give them however much they ask for, but you must demand payment. However much it should cost, increase it tenfold. They can buy it if they want.”

In truth, not to mention tenfold, but even if it was twentyfold, Xuan Tianmo would still need to buy it. After all, Hundred Herb Hall’s good medicine was hard to find in the world. This was something that everyone understood.

Roughly ten days later, Xuan Tianmo’s legs had already recovered greatly. There was just some inflammation remaining, but it did not affect his ability to walk. It was about to be the new year, and the first thing that Xuan Tianmo did after being able to get out of bed was to have the servants prepare some money. He would be making reparations to the citizens in the northern part of the city while also giving out things sold during the new year.

When it came to this situation, there were none who had any objections. The Sheng Palace’s actions were very smoothly accomplished. In just a single day, the money and gifts were prepared, but the aides of the palace had a different opinion. They said to Xuan Tianmo: “Last time, it was because something went wrong with handing out food that it would be best if Your Highness did not give any of the gifts this time, right? It would be better to give those gifts as money. Those lowly people will be happiest with seeing money.”

Xuan Tianmo thought about it, and it was indeed something like that. Thus he listened to the advice and gave up on the gifts, replacing them with money. This time, he personally brought his guards and attendants to the northern part of the city to hand out money. It was only when he saw the newly-built residences for the poor that Xuan Tianmo began to feel the hatred well up from the bottom of his heart. He never thought that his plan of bringing Zhu Kongshan to the capital to repair his reputation would end up helping Xuan Tianming and Feng Yuheng. His side had worked hard for half a winter, while the other side merely worked for a few days and spent a bit of money, yet they were able to obtain such a good reputation. They even left behind so many houses that would remain for a long time.

Right now, he found these houses to be extremely annoying to look at, and he hated that he could not just tear them down immediately. Since it was the northern part of the city, it should look like the northern part of the city. These lowly people should live in dilapidated temples, and they should wear shoddy clothes. It would even be normal if a few froze to death every day during winter. But now, what was this considered? The lowly people were all living in nice houses. How could they still be considered lowly people?

But these thoughts only circulated internally. On the surface, Xuan Tianmo continued to play the part of a good person. After all, he had come to this place for the sake of repairing his damaged reputation to the utmost of his abilities. Although the Emperor was already providing him with excellent protection on the other side, he still needed to do the things that had to be done. Just having one emperor to help was not enough. Only by getting the hearts of the people could he obtain the world. He understood this logic.

Xuan Tianmo climbed out of his imperial carriage immediately after arriving in the northern part of the city. Bringing the guards who carried the money, he went around and knocked on the doors. When the people opened their doors and found that it was the eighth prince, whom they had been cursing hundreds of times each day, they did not know how they should face him. After all, he was a prince. It was fine to curse him in private, but it would not be good to curse him to his face. But to have them accept the eighth prince’s money just like this, they felt a little awkward. This person was impartial in who he harmed. What was this money considered? Money to buy their silence? If they accepted it, would they need to go against their conscience and say that the eighth prince was good? Or would they need to suppress all of their discontent?

The people felt that suppressing it would result in internal injuries, thus nobody accepted the money. They all came out of their houses and stood on the streets of the northern part of the city to watch this scene. They all speculated as to what this harmful prince was playing at.

More and more people began to stand outside. Once everyone inside had come out, a large crowd had gathered. Xuan Tianmo saw that these people would not accept the money and knew that these lowly people still had some reservations about him. He did his best to put on a kind look and very helplessly said to the citizens: “This prince knows what you are all thinking and know that you must have cursed out this prince thousands of times. But what this prince wants to say is related to the case of the large number of people who died in the northern part of the city. His Majesty already made a clear judgment. Everything was done by Zhu Kongshan and the Zhu family. They swapped out the winter clothes made by Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu, and she added a large amount of poison to the food that was handed out. That was the case of the horrific scene. Now, the entire Zhu family has been executed, and that can be considered as having repaid with their lives. This prince came today in hopes of improving your lives a little. That’s I prepared some money for every household and hope that everyone can accept this prince’s intentions.”

He pushed all responsibility onto Zhu Kongshan. This was something that was reasonable, as it was indeed done by Zhu Kongshan. What he had said was the truth, yet it was this sort of truth that nobody in the northern part of the city would believe. In fact, when they heard him push the blame for these past deeds onto Zhu Kongshan and that the entire Zhu family had been executed, the citizens of the northern part of the city grew furious. Their hesitation to openly curse the eighth prince had also been thrown out. Either way, it was not as though they had not beaten this person in the streets because of the incident with Hundred Herb Hall.

Gifting money, which had initially been a good thing, ended up seeing the eighth prince beaten by the citizens from the northern part of the city.

Xuan Tianmo was quite frightened. He never thought that the people would be so emotional. He had thought that money could resolve everything; however, who knew that it really would be no good for this matter. While being surrounded, the guards moved to protect him and dropped the money that they carried. That money fell to the ground and incited an even greater commotion. Unfortunately, these people were not snatching the money to spend it. Instead, they grabbed it to throw at him. Large pieces of silver were thrown at Xuan Tianmo’s head. In just a few moments, two large bumps had formed.

The guards did all that they could to protect him in retreat. Some even pulled out their swords, which scared some of the less-brave citizens back. This managed to open up a path. Xuan Tianmo returned to the imperial carriage in a very poor state. The driver hastily set the carriage in motion and only let out a sigh of relief after traveling for a while.

Xuan Tianmo was truly extremely dejected. He just could not understand it. These people had left the money and refused to accept it. What exactly where they thinking?

But the guards at his side reminded him: “Your Highness, they also kept the money.”

Xuan Tianmo froze then recalled what had just been used to hit his head. When he remembered this, the bumps on his head hurt even more. He angrily kicked the guard and shouted: “You can’t even keep an eye on some money. What is this prince keeping you around for?”

The imperial carriage hurried along the entire way. Xuan Tianmo was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief after leaving the northern part of the city and arriving on a bustling street. Here, he could be considered safe. Those lowly people from the northern part of the city would not chase him here. Damn, his legs had only just recovered, but who knew that he would hurt his head.

On this bustling street, the imperial carriage moved very slowly. After traveling for a little longer, they simply stopped. Xuan Tianmo was dissatisfied and asked: “Why have we stopped?”

The driver outside said: “Replying to Your Highness, we have run into the Yuan Palace’s carriage. Should we let them pass first?”

Prince Yuan was the second prince. Normally speaking, Xuan Tianmo should give way, as he was the younger brother. If this was in the past, the driver would have given way without even asking. But things were different now compared to in the past. Their master was currently prospering, and he was someone favored by the Emperor. The second prince had never been competitive. He did not even make many appearances in court. This made the Sheng Palace’s driver believe that the current eighth prince no longer needed to pay attention to the courtesies between brothers.

After the driver asked this question and before Xuan Tianmo could reply, a young voice came from the outside, “It’s the Sheng Palace’s carriage? Is eighth uncle inside?”

Xuan Tianmo could recognize this voice. It was his oldest nephew, Xuan Feiyu. After thinking a bit, it was the end of the year. Xuan Feiyu spent his time studying in Xiao Zhou, but it was now time to come back. Regardless of what was said, he quite doted on this nephew. Just as he was thinking of lifting the curtain to say a few words, he noticed how shabby his appearance was, thus he felt that he truly did not have the face to appear in front of this young child. He simply waved to the guard, gesturing to say that he was not there and send Xuan Feiyu away.

It was after hearing the Yuan Palace’s carriage pass by that Xuan Tianmo suddenly felt an idea come to him…