CH 150

It was the tenth day of the first month of the twenty-third year of Chenghua.

This was a very average day, but something major had happened yesterday: Consort Wan had passed.

Many officials had only received the news after arriving at their bureaus in the morning.

Unlike the numerous unknown concubines in the harem, this news was obviously extremely important due to her position in the eyes of the Emperor. Lady Wan had ruled over the harem for decades, and had really done nothing laudable, instead having created waves out of level ground, as well as ruined lots of things, the Emperor’s deposition of the first Empress, the storm of the Crown Prince’s own deposition, and so on included. All of those things had invariably been her hard work.

No one could really feign sadness. Liu Jian, Xu Pu, and the others said nothing, but even they believed that this was good news, as they felt that with her death, many things would be solved. The Emperor’s previous insistence upon changing the Crown Prince had ultimately been because of his affection for Lady Wan, and now that she was gone, no one would be able to pillowtalk him, the influence of the Wan party also being greatly reduced. The Crown Prince’s crisis was resolved at last.

However, before they could breathe a sigh of relief, there was another unexpected occurrence: the Emperor wanted to posthumously title Lady Wan as Empress.

During the Cabinet meeting, when Wan An brought up the idea on behalf of the Emperor, the Cabinet immediately exploded.

This was not the first time the Emperor had gained interest in this idea. Back when Lady Wan still lived… or, it should be said that this needed to be traced back to when the Emperor had just ascended, itching to make his favorite woman the Empress, only to have immediately encountered opposition from all sides. The strongest objection amongst them had been none other than his mother, Dowager Zhou. The reasons therein had been complication, and listing them off now would be meaningless — the only thing to know was that the Emperor of then was quite young, and even more indecisive. He had not been able to hold up, forced to have a different Empress.

Soon after that, however, due to arising conflict between Empress Wu and Lady Wan, the Emperor had finally found an opportunity, and took it to depose Lady Wu. He had wanted to make Lady Wan Empress again, but the second time, the fierce opposition he had encountered was the same, and he folded again, compromising.

The third time was after Lady Wan had birthed the Eldest Prince, where he had promised that once his son was granted the title of Crown Prince, the Emperor would depose the current Second Empress Wang, then make Lady Wan Empress. However, the Heavens did not follow the will of humans, as his eldest son had passed early on, causing the two’s wish to go ungranted yet again.

Many years had now passed. Older officials still remembered how much of a fuss the Emperor had made over Lady Wan; they hadn’t expected that now that she was dead, his fussing energy would resurge, and he wanted to posthumously make her Empress. This did not follow the rules at all.

The Ming Dynasty had a system. Most of the harem was made up of honest girls from commoner families, with not too much attention paid to their family status. Lady Wan’s origins were very much an issue of status, though — she was descended from a criminal, and it was because of that criminality that she had been allowed to enter the palace as a maid. Due to fate, she had come to serve the then-Crown Prince, thereby becoming a fish that leapt over the dragon’s gate. Her origins were no sort of honestly. On top of that, she had not only made no great achievements, but had never birthed a Crown Prince, meaning that she had no qualifications to be Empress at all.

On that basis, Liu Jian immediately opposed this, listed the above justifications, and ended it with, “Don’t forget, Yuanweng, that the Crown Prince’s mother is still only a Virtuous Consort!”

Despite Lady Ji’s son being the Crown Prince, she had not been made Empress after her death, the Emperor having only given her the posthumous title of Virtuous Consort of Dignity, Merriment, and Respect. Liu Jian’s implication was that if even the Crown Prince’s mother couldn’t be titled as Empress, why would Lady Wan be?

“Are we not talking it over? What are you anxious about?” Wan An said calmly. “The Cabinet heads all officials, and every affair of the government must be decided upon by us before being passed down. With how old you are, Liu Xixian, why are you still so impulsive? Don’t you understand those regulations?”

Liu Jian choked, eyes rolling into the back of his head. Unable to say anything for a long time, he sat down in a huff.

After he was reprimanded, the atmosphere in the Cabinet stagnated a bit. No one was willing to readily express their stances, especially not Liu Ji.

Even though Wan An had called this a ‘discussion’, who didn’t know that with Lady Wan’s death, the Emperor had to be filled with grief? Whoever opposed him right now would be torn apart by a furious Emperor. Liu Cottonflower was set on not getting mixed up into this.

Taking in the current Cabinet, Liu Jian would be fighting with Wan An. Xu Pu was inarticulate in speechl even if he wanted to help, he likely wouldn’t know how to say it.

“A person’s death is akin to a light going out,” Peng Hua said. “As I see it, the Noble Consort is already dead. His Majesty doing such a thing is human nature, and there’s no harm in it, for the sake of consoling him.”

Liu Jian sneered. “What about the Virtuous Consort? She needs to be posthumously granted the title, doesn’t she? Where will that put the Crown Prince, otherwise?”

“You speak incorrectly. Whether she’s Empress or not, the Crown Prince will remain so, and no one can change that,” Yin Zhi said, acting mysteriously. “His Majesty has held a deep affection. When the Noble Consort was alive, he had wanted to make her Empress, but failed. Now, if it’s for the sake of consoling His Majesty, why not do it? He is distressed beyond belief, yet you insist upon blocking this. Do you hope to anger him to death, so that your wish will be fulfilled and the Crown Prince will ascend sooner, hm?”

Liu Jian’s nose scrunched out of anger. “You’re being deliberately provocative with your nonsense!”

During his anger, Tang Fan’s value was realized once more. Were this the before times, the Wan party would have long been berated into submission by Tang Fan, where a punk like Yin Zhi would never have his turn to speak heresy.

Without Tang Fan’s help, Xu Pu and he would never be able to match up to the Wan party in a verbal battle.

Seeing how Liu Jian was hopping mad, Yin Zhi smirked, inwardly smug.

Truthfully, from the very beginning, Lady Wan’s posthumous title was just a cover, but Liu Jian and Xu Pu had clearly already had their attentions attracted by it. There was no need to merely believe that the news of the Empresshood would soon spread quickly, and all of society would no longer be at peace.

Of those who opposed, those who agreed, those who were neutral, those who wanted to curry favor, those who wanted to express themselves, and all the quarreling parties that itched for others to accept their opinions — who would even pay attention to what was happening with the Crown Prince.

Watching them start to bicker, Liu Ji then said, “Does the Dowager consent to this?”

He pointed out the main idea in one sentence. When Lady Wan had lived, the Dowager had staunchly opposed making her the Empress. Now that the other was dead, there was no way she would agree.

At his reminder, Liu Jian immediately said, “Right! She would never agree to this.”

“Mothers and sons are of one heart,” Wan An said, carrying heavy meaning. “She will not bear to see His Majesty be sorrowful for too long.”

The Cabinet was not unified, so no result could be reached, the morning getting wasted by nonstop wrangling. When noon approached, Wan An then announced the meeting’s end, and everyone left, preparing to go eat lunch.

“Premier!” Liu Jian called out to Wan An.

Xu Pu pulled at his sleeve, hinting for him not to be impulsive, but the other acted like he didn’t notice, merely staring at Wan An as he clearly enunciated, “As an official, you have to think about the legacy you leave behind, as your descendants are innocent! Don’t do anything you’ll later regret just for a moment of feeling proud of yourself!”

On any typical day, Wan An would have ignored a provocation like that, but today, he stopped in his tracks. Waving in a signal for Peng Hua and Yin Zhi to go on ahead, he then sneered as he asked, “What regrets? Are you even qualified to explain how to be an official to me? Eyes that do not regard the ruler, overlooking his will — is that what you call official conductt?!”

“The way to be an official is not to fawn, it’s to advise!” Liu Jian raged. “If the monarch is inappropriate in his words and actions, he must be advised by his subjects, as only then will be worthy of the world’s conscience, be worthy of the citizenry! We are Viziers! We assist the sovereign and support him with ruling the country, not those treachers that only suck up to him! Wan Xunji, look inside yourself! Are you worthy of the title of Vizier?!”

“Impudent!”

Clay figurines could still have some anger, to say nothing of how Wan An wasn’t one. He knew that many people cursed him out in private, but that was one thing, because he couldn’t here all that. This was the first time someone had scolded him while pointing at his face.

“Do you even know what being a Vizier is?! It’s not your place to criticize how this Lord behaves! Do you believe that you’re able to protect the Crown Prince?! If you do, then go advise His Majesty to death! You squashbairn prawn! As I see it, even a Daxing watermelon would be smarter than you!”

Wan An was an authentic Meizhou native. Riverfolk would curse others on repeat, but after entering the Cabinet, it had been many years since he had done so. Today, it seemed that he had been so enraged by Liu Jian, his native dialect had leaked out.

Liu Jian had no idea what ‘squashbairn prawn’ meant, but he knew that it was nothing good. His face immediately went pale from anger. Rolling up his sleeves in preparation to use Henan dialect at him in turn, he was firmly stopped by Xu Pu, “Calm down! Calm down!”

It was unknown where he had gotten so much strength all of a sudden, but Xu Pu hauled Liu Jian straight out, barely avoiding the insult war about to be waged between Solons.

“What are you pulling me for?! I need to berate him to death right now!” Liu Jian wrathfully said, finally able to shake off Xu Pu’s hand after leaving the Cabinet.

Xu Pu smiled, pained. “If you won, what would it do? Not only would it do no good, but when word got out, people would laugh. The Head Vizier fighting with a Solon — would your reputation be great, then?”

“Didn’t you hear what he said?! He hugs thighs so shamelessly! Whatever the Emperor wants, Wan An will indulge him! What a crummy Head Vizier he is! What they say outside is true; he’s a follower, and completely loses the dignity of our Cabinet!”

Xu Pu sighed. “Leave it be. If even the Dowager can’t object to this, what use would be our desperate opposition? I can tell that His Majesty has set his mind on this, and will hold onto it to the end. I don’t know what sort of gu Lady Wan placed on His Majesty, for him to have this much affection for her, even when she’s dead!”

Liu Jian curled his lip. “What deep affection? If there really was any of that, he would have thrown caution to the wind and made her Empress years ago! The fact that she’s still making trouble when dead is really aggravating!”

Xu Pu’s pallor changed a bit. “That mouth of yours is truly unforgiving… saying that to me is find, but don’t say such things to outsiders!”

The other had no patience. “I know! When did I say any of this to any outsider?! If it wasn’t for you holding me back, I would have insulted that bastard to death!”

Xu Pu was exasperated. “You’re still on about that?”

Liu Jian rolled his eyes. “Why wouldn’t I be? What does ‘squashbairn prawn’ mean? Or Daxing watermelon… that really pisses me off! How about I go back and insult him for a round?!”

With that, he turned to go back in.

Xu Pu quickly grabbed his arm. “Hey, hey, I said it’s fine! You scolded him harshly enough already!”

“But I haven’t insulted him in Henan dialect yet!”

“…”

He had an expression of helplessness. Seeing Liu Jian suddenly stop in his track, he believed that he had listen to his urging, and quickly said, “Come, let’s go! We need to be on-duty in the afternoon, so let’s eat first. Don’t be angry, it’s not worth it!”

However, Liu Jian asked, “Do you remember what he said, when he was berating me?”

“I do. Why?”

“Repeat it once through so I can hear it.”

Xu Pu thought he was mad, taken aback. “No, they’re nothing good! Are you still hung up on them?”

Liu Jian shook his head. “No, I’m not.”

Unsure of what he wanted, Xu Pu could only imitate Wan An’s tone of voice. “Squashbairn prawn?”

“…Not that one. The one before it.”

Xu Pu blankly thought back for a bit. “The one before? He said that his actions were not for you to judge, and also that you believe that you have the ability to defend the Crown Prince… those things?”

Liu Jian knit his brow. “This morning, we were arguing over Lady Wan’s posthumous title. Why did he suddenly bring the Crown Prince into this?”

The other was unsure. “Maybe it was a slip of the tongue?”

“Hm,” Liu Jian said skeptically. “He couldn’t have been hinting at something?”

“There’s no way.”

Liu Jian shook his head, realizing that he couldn’t understand this. “Nevermind. We should let Tang Runqing fret over things like this.”

Xu Pu smiled bitterly. “No matter how talented Runqing is he won’t be able to stop His Majesty from sealing Lady Wan as Empress. As I see it, it would be more reliable to keep the Dowager well-informed.”

“You’re right. Let’s go to the Palace of Benevolence and Longevity!”

“Oh? Are we not eating?”

“Eat what?! We’ll eat after we get back!”

“Okay, okay, okay! Don’t drag me, slow down, slow down! My bones are old, they can’t take the stress!”

***

Word of the fight between Wan An and Liu Jian quickly spread. This was a rare event — Cabinet discord had always been around, but today’s sort, where hostilities came out, was infrequent.

However, compared to the Emperor wanting to posthumously promote Lady Wan, it really seemed like nothing.

A lot of discussion bubble up everyone. No lack of censors were readying themselves, already prepared to send memorials of admonishment.

Tang Fan heard of this as well, but didn’t place importance on it. That was, until Liu Jian came to the Tang home in the evening to tell him what had happened that morning.

“I didn’t take it to heart, really. Wan Xunji’s lack of propriety is not something that popped up overnight.” Liu Jian would never say that he had nearly been angered half to death earlier. However, after I went home, I thought hard about it. It was a little more reassuring for me to come over and talk to you, but I think I might be reading too much into it…”

“Daxing watermelon?” Tang Fan chewed those words over, a bit confused. “Why would Wan An mention Daxing for no reason?”

Liu Jian looked embarrassed. “Was it not just a figure of speech to insult me with?”

Tang Fan pondered for a bit, but couldn’t think of a reason, shaking his head. “It ought to just be a run-of-the-mill insult. I can’t hear anything strange out of it.”

Liu Jian sighed in relief. “It’s good if it was nothing. Wan Xunji is a scheming, cunning, and treacherous bloke. I feared that he was implying something, but it seems I overthought it.”

As it was getting later, Liu Jian took his leave quickly. Tang Fan personally saw him to the door, but did not return to his home, instead going for the neighboring Sui home.

Sui Zhou knew that Liu Jian had visiting, so he hadn’t gone to seek Tang Fan out. Seeing him come over now, he asked, “He left?”

Tang Fan nodded. “Yeah.”

He was a bit distracted, mulling over what had just been said. Noticing his odd look, Sui Zhou asked again, “What is it?”

“What’s so special about Daxing watermelons?”

Sui Zhou was mystified. “Where would watermelons come from this time of year?”

Tang Fan felt that line of thinking to be kind of off, and changed the way he asked. “Does Daxing grow watermelons?”

“I think so.”

“Does every single household grow them?”

“I don’t know for sure, but Xue Ling is from Daxing. I can find him and ask tomorrow.”

“We should do that now.”

His antsy attitude was somewhat uncommon. When it came to many things, though, Tang Fan’s caution had always proved to be unusual and necessary after the fact.

That much, Sui Zhou had profoundly experienced himself, having gone through life and death with him.

The current affinity between them had reached a point where they didn’t need to say much to understand each other. Therefore, upon hearing that, Sui Zhou immediately left to find someone without any discussion.

Xue Ling was speedily located; he was in the middle of a drinking contest with his colleagues in a put he frequented, his alcoholic stink not yet dispersed. Suddenly getting called out to his boss’s home was inevitably a bit embarrassing for him, but neither Tang Fan nor Sui Zhou were thinking about those details.

“Daxing?” Xue Ling was a bit surprised. He hadn’t expected that Sui Zhou would call for him in the middle of the night to just talk about this. “An abundance of fruits are grown there, yes. Most of the watermelons and grapes given as tribute to the palace are from Daxing. The neighbor of this subordinate’s ancestral home is one of those melon farmers, but I heard them say that the profit margin is small, because the price the government pays isn’t high, and they can’t sell them to merchants.”

He had no idea what Tang Fan wanted to ask, so he could only say what he knew. There was nothing off with what he said, of course.

Tang Fan frowned. “Is that all? Did you ever hear any rumors there that were related to Wan An?”

Xue Ling thought, then shoot his head. “No.”

Tang Fan was a little disappointed. He couldn’t think of anything else to ask, saying to himself that perhaps Liu Jian and he really had overthought this, and Wan An’s remarks might have purely been insults born of anger.

“Oh, right!” Xue Ling suddenly said. “I head that not all of the melon farmers were losing money. There’s one family that somehow has a relationship claim with Wan Tong, because they live right next to his separate residence. For that reason, when the government purchases melons from that family, the always give a higher price than other families.”

Tang Fan’s heart felt cold. “You’re saying that Wan Tong had a separate residence in Daxing?”

Xue Ling nodded. “Yes, but he rarely stays there. I heard that it’s where he puts concubines that fell out of favor, and he only occasionally comes over to have a look at them.”

Hearing this, Tang Fan’s brows tightly knit.

If Wan An’s remarks genuinely were referring to something else, was it this?

But why would Wan An hint at Liu Jian? Had he known that the latter was bound to inform him of this?

But… wasn’t Wan An on the same boat as Wan Tong? Why would he do such a thing?

Even if there is an actual problem with Wan Tong’s second residence, what did it have to do with the Crown Prince?

Many questions quickly rushed up to his mind. In spite of his intelligence, it was too hard for him to solve these tangled mysteries for right now.

“Do you believe that Wan An was giving us a clue?” he asked Sui Zhou.

The other thought a bit, then suddenly brought up a different, irrelevant matter. “Back when you dealt with Chen Luan in Suzhou, then implicated Shang Ming in it, Huai En and Wang Zhi used that chance to strip him of his post as Eastern Depot Director. The Emperor agreed. Wan An saw the way things were going, and sent a memorial endorsing it. That made Wan Tong really mad, and he loudly berated Wan An for being an opportunity, but the two quickly made up. You weren’t in the capital, so you didn’t know.”

Tang Fan’s eyes shone. “You mean to say that Wan An doesn’t stand firm with the Wan party, but has his own agenda?”

“His agenda is nothing other than to curry favor with the Emperor and preserve his own wealth. Since the Emperor was set on Consort Wan and obeyed her commands, he went along with it. If there comes a day where the Emperor spurns Wan Tong, he would definitely not stand on the latter’s side.”

Saying so, his mouth curved up into a sneering arc, but he didn’t laugh. “People like him can only share in wealth, not in share in adversity.”

If Head Vizier Wan couldn’t share any adversity, that was a problem Wan Tong needed to worry about, not what they needed to.

However, Tang Fan heard a note within Sui Zhou’s words: What Wan An had insulted Liu Jian with were quite possible not things blurted out on a whim.

There was just one last question…

“Even if we’ve guessed that Wan Tong might be hiding some nasty secret in his other residence, we would never be able to go search it with haste. And, if nothing is found, we’ll lose that up on him.”

“That’s no problem. Leave it to me,” Sui Zhou said, turning to Xue Ling. “Go gather our brothers up now.”

Xue Ling not only didn’t look hesitant and fearful, but instead showed an eager excitement. “We’re going to go turn that son of a bitch’s house upside-down?”

Sui Zhou lightly nodded. “Go wild, just keep your identities hidden.”

Xue Ling laughed, rubbing his palms. “Rest assured, Brother! Having you lead us means that our spoils are going to be massive! We brothers have long been wanting to make things difficult for that bastard, since he always tries to push down on our heads!”

Hearing his tone of voice, he didn’t resemble a Brocade Guard, but a bandit about to rob someone’s house.

***

Daxing was located in the outskirts of the capital, and belonged to Shuntian Prefecture’s jurisdiction. However, no matter how close it was to the capital, it ultimately wasn’t the capital; its evenings grew quieter, and it became silent after nightfall.

On this night of no wind, it looked like even the plants were frozen in ice, standing upright and noiseless, not moving at all. During summer nights, there would typically be sounds of birds and insects, while in this season, they had all gone without a trace.

In this freezing landscape, every citizen that had a home to shun the cold it was hiding away inside right now, shrinking back into bed, the wife and children on the warm kang. It was basically the best comfort in wintertime.

This second residence beside Dalong River was no exception. Even though it might look more grand and beautiful than the farms surrounding it during the daytime, it was invisible now. After the candle in a certain room of it completely went out, it, too, would sink into a deep sleep at night.

Until a woman’s shriek sounded out.

Miss Man tightly clutched her blanket, looking at all of these men of unknown origin in horror. The torches they held lit the room up, and they were dressed all in black, only their eyes exposed, fierce and cruel-looking. One glance told that they were nothing good.

She wasn’t the only one screaming in the house, but there was nothing any of them could do but scream.

“Do… do you know what this place is?! This is the second residence of the Brocade Guard’s Commanding Envoy! You dare to barge in here? Do you want to die?! Leave, now!” Her voice trembled, as she hoped that Wan Tong’s title would scare them off.

However, she was disappointed. The others not only didn’t listen to her, but they even searched all around her room.

Miss Man was one of Wan Tong’s concubines, having been sent here a few years ago after falling out of favor. Pretty much all of the women in the residence had come here for that reason. They knew well that this was their fate for the rest of their lives, but there was nothing they could do, forced to live day after day of a lonely life in the residence, waiting for Wan Tong’s occasional, whimsical visit.

However, about half a year ago, these circumstances had changed. The residence had, for some reason, suddenly been garrisoned with a large amount of highly skilled guards. For this reason, the range of activities the woman had been able to do had further reduced — confined to the rear courtyard, never to step foot into the front courtyard. Also, Wan Tong had started visiting more frequently after that, but he still rarely set foot into the rear courtyard. The women were as wilted flowers, seemingly completely forgotten.

One of Miss Man’s sisters hadn’t been able to bear the loneliness and wanted to seduce one of the guards, but Wan Tong had found out, immediately dragging her out to beat her to death. The sound of that club hitting flesh, and those tragic screams, were things she still remembered.

Ever since then, the front courtyard had become a forbidden area.

Now, however, these black-clothed men had entered a no-man’s-land, yet no one had come to stop them. Those guards might be dead, if they couldn’t even notice the commotion on this side.

The only possibility is that those guys had since been dealt with.

Miss Man’s heart jumped, seemingly seeing hope in escaping this residence. “Wh… what are you all looking for?”

When she had laid down, she was wearing only a dudou, yet these men hadn’t spared her a glance. Clearly, they hadn’t come to assault.

However, they definitely weren’t here to steal, either, because the silk fabrics in her trunk had been overturned and scattered on the ground, occasionally getting mixed with some valuables, yet they didn’t go for it.

“Shut up! If you keep blabbing, I’ll kill you!” One of the men in black said, the impatience in his tone obvious and plain to hear.

Miss Man watched as they took a dagger out to pry up the bluestone tiles, and once again drummed up her courage. “…I know what you’re looking for!”

The movements of the men in black suddenly paused. All of them looked at her.

She cowered a bit, stammering out, “A-Actually, I don’t know that well, but you all must be looking for something specific? I-I might know a clue…”

“What do you know?” said the same man.

“What will I get for saying it?” she answered, wanting to bargain.

The other’s response was to put a knife right to her neck.

“I-I was just kidding…” she immediately tried to soothe. “But if you’re looking for something, it definitely wouldn’t be here. It would be in the front courtyard!”

The translator says: Wan An is relatable though? Doesn’t want to be a horrible criminal, still isn’t the nicest person, only wants money.

(I learned as of this chapter than Wan An’s courtesy is not actually Yuanweng (元翁). To be fair to myself, it isn’t the craziest courtesy name I’ve ever seen, my Google search did not tell me that it was a real term 80 chapters ago when it first showed up, and my renewed, more in-depth search as of this writing also similarly turned up either people’s names, or one specific poem. Anyways, as the characters more or less mean Premier Gentleman, likely in reference to him being the Head Vizier, I will be changing all mentions of Yuanweng to Premier.)