CH 42

“Don’t say any more…” Xiao Chengjun said. His whole body was tense. “You and I are brothers. There’s no need to be so formal.”

Xiao Chengjin looked at his gege and smiled gently. “Gege, I know you’ve been blaming yourself all these years. Actually, I knew that those snacks were poisoned back then. That’s why I only took a small bite,” he said. 

“What did you just say?” Xiao Chengjun said, his eyes widening in shock. Blood rushed to his head and he felt a little unsteady. Xiao Chengjin had just been a tiny child then. If he had known that the snacks were poisoned, why did he eat it? Why didn’t he tell him about this all these years?

“Cough cough…” Xiao Chengjin held his older brother’s hand tightly, as if worried that Xiao Chengjun would be angry with him. “This body of mine has never been healthy, and it’s been this way since I was a newborn. I didn’t say anything all these years because I wanted gege to dote on me a little more. Gege, please forgive me…”

Xiao Chengjun closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t blame you at all,” he said. His didi had been extraordinarily intelligent since he was a young boy, and it was entirely possible that he had guessed that the snacks were poisoned if the palace maid bringing it over had behaved suspiciously. At the end of the day, all Xiao Chengjin had done was to try and protect his older brother. There was nothing to forgive.

The Second Prince had been in poor health since he was born, and had to start taking medicine even before he had stopped drinking milk. Xiao Chengjun knew this. However, even though Xiao Chengjin had only taken one bite, his body was so weak that even that one bite damaged his health greatly. His brother was really only saying this to lessen the guilt he knew Xiao Chengjun felt over this incident. 

Xiao Chengjun felt very muddleheaded as he came out of Changchun Manor.

Lou Jing dismissed all the servants and led Xiao Chengjun to walk up the mountain. He found a quiet spot and sat down on a rock, pulling Xiao Chengjun into his arms. He patted his husband’s back gently. “Grandfather suffered severe injuries on the battlefield. I stayed by his bedside for three days and three nights, but he couldn’t be saved. At that time, I thought how great it would be if only I could die in my grandfather’s place,” Lou Jing said quietly, gazing at the mountain range in the distance.

Xiao Chengjun buried his face in Lou Jing’s chest and gripped the back of his robes tightly, listening silently as Lou Jing continued speaking.

“In the end, everyone succumbs to their own fate. I wasn’t able to save him even after making great efforts, so I could only seek revenge on the people who took his life. Blood for blood,” Lou Jing said. His voice became colder, and his gaze turned icy as he said this. “When Grandfather breathed his last, I didn’t keep vigil at his wake. I brought thirty thousand men and horses with me and travelled for three days and three nights to reach the Tartar encampment. I cut down their General’s head, and brought it back to offer to my Grandfather as a sacrifice.”

Xiao Chengjun froze. The year the old Anguo Gong passed away, everyone had said that he been shot with an arrow after killing the Tartar General. Now, Xiao Chengjun knew the truth; that Tartar General had been killed by Lou Jing. “Why didn’t you tell the Imperial Court about this achievement?” he asked.

“You ask why?” Lou Jing said, looking down at his husband, who was much calmer now. He laughed softly. “Because when I was in the Tartar camp, I killed my Grandfather’s second-in-command as well.” A Tartar General that even Lou Jing could kill would not have posed any threat to Lou Jing’s grandfather, unless he had been betrayed. These people who took away the person he was closest to on this earth – they would all pay, regardless of whether they were directly involved or not.

Xiao Chengjun looked up at him in shock. The Imperial Court only knew that the old Anguo Gong had died in service to the country. No one knew that there were skeletons in the closet. Who wanted to harm the old Anguo Gong?

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Xiao Chengjun nodded slightly. The year Xiao Chengjin had been poisoned, the investigation results had pointed to a low-ranked concubine, and the matter had been closed after she was punished. However, anyone with eyes could see that this case was definitely connected to the concubines with Imperial children. Chen Guifei wasn’t found guilty in the end because the Chunde Emperor protected her.

Lou Jing took out the small notebook from Xiao Chengjun’s clothes and flipped to the first page. He pointed to a person’s name. “This person might be useful,” he said.

Xiao Chengjun’s gaze followed the direction Lou Jing was pointing in. Sun Liang, Minister of Defence. He couldn’t help frowning. Sun Liang was the Minister of the Right’s disciple, and was a man of outstanding talent and ability. Chen Shichang had always held him in high regard. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have allowed Sun Liang to be appointed to the highest office within the Zhongshu – the Minister of Defence.

“How so?” Xiao Chengjun asked, staring at that name. He trawled his memory for news of Sun Liang, but couldn’t think why he might be useful for their purposes. 

“Sun Liang rarely makes friends, but he had one very good friend in the past,” Lou Jing said, smiling mysteriously. He leaned forward and put his lips at Xiao Chengjun’s ear and whispered a name. “Wang Jian.”

Xiao Chengjun’s eyes widened in surprise. Wang Jian? That was the Jinzhou Prefectural Governor they had spoken about when the Imperial Censor died. Wang Jian was an honest, upright official, but had been put to death on suspicion of misusing Imperial funds when a part of the Great Wall he was in charge of building fell down in a storm.

Wang Jian was one of the Minister of the Left’s disciples. He was a man of integrity who loved the people of the empire like his own children. The truth behind Wang Jian’s death was that he was collateral damage in the Ministers of the Left and Right’s neverending political battles. Wang Jian and Sun Liang were not cut from the same cloth at all, and they didn’t even come from the same province. How did these two people become friends?

“How did you know this?” Xiao Chengjun said. He was truly astonished. These two people who were outwardly in different factions would have kept their interactions a total secret, especially if what they had between them was a real friendship. How did Lou Jing find out about this? 

Actually, it had all been pure coincidence. At that time, Lou Jing was in Jinzhou with the old Anguo Gong, and the latter had received a magnificent Ferghana horse. Lou Jing coveted it greatly, and so his grandfather said that if he was able to find out one of the Jinzhou Prefectural Governor’s big secrets, he would give this horse to him.

Lou Jing sent people to conduct surveillance on the Prefectural Governor’s residence for three months, and his men found out that Wang Jian received a letter from the Capital every single month. However, Wang Jian didn’t have any relatives in the Capital. It was very strange that he received letters from there so frequently. As such, Lou Jing himself went to the Prefectural Governor’s residence on a dark, moonless night and lay in wait for the messenger from the Capital. He knocked the hapless fellow out, took the letter he was carrying, and found out that it was from Sun Liang.

Xiao Chengjun looked at him rather helplessly. He kind of knew now why Lou Jing had this slippery personality of his. It was entirely the result of how the old Anguo Gong had brought his grandson up. “Didn’t Wang Jian find out?” he asked.

“Of course not!” Lou Jing said proudly. “After I read the letter, I resealed it properly and stuffed it back into the messenger’s clothes. I even made it look like a robbery, and took all the messenger’s valuables with me.” 

Xiao Chengjun couldn’t help laughing and the heavy feeling in his heart lightened considerably. “I’ll test the waters with Sun Liang one of these days,” he said.

When Lou Jing saw that Xiao Chengjun was able to smile again, he could finally set his heart at ease. He put his face on Xiao Chengjun’s and nuzzled it affectionately.

When they returned to the Capital that night, Lou Jing didn’t follow Min Wang back to his residence, but headed straight back to Zhuque Hall. He got Cheng Xiuru to prepare an expensive gift, then headed to Shen Lian’s residence with this gift in hand.

“To what do I owe the honour of Shizi ye’s visit?” Shen Lian’s devious, cunning eyes looked Lou Jing up and down, and when he saw the priceless gift that Lou Jing had brought along with him, the smile on his face deepened. 

“I have yet to visit Gong gong after leaving the palace,” Lou Jing said, smiling as he sat down. He put the gift down on the table between the two of them, then pushed it toward Shen Lian. “I hope Gong gong doesn’t take offence.”

“You’re much too polite,” Shen Lian said, smiling as he received the gift. He passed it to the young eunuch behind him. “If there’s anything you need, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

Shen Lian was a very straightforward person. If you wanted him to do something, he’d do it if two conditions were met. First, the task had to be doable, and second, the gift you gave him had to be commensurate with the task. Of course, if the task wasn’t doable, he wasn’t going to return the gift to you. That was the risk you took.

“I heard Gong gong wants to oversee the Qinghe canal repairs. This is a very big undertaking, and I would suppose that Gong gong needs a business partner,” Lou Jing said, accepting a cup of tea from the young eunuch and smiling breezily. “The betrothal gifts that the Imperial family let me have are sitting pretty with nothing to do right now.” 

Shen Lian narrowed his eyes, then smiled. “As far as I know, no decision has been made on this yet, and I’m not too certain myself. Shizi, you may wish to ask the Lord Minister of the Right. It’s more likely that he’ll have an answer,” he said.

Actually, that morning, Chen Shichang had already made some concessions after having private discussions with Shen Lian at the Imperial Court. As long as Shen Lian agreed to conscript labourers from the Qinghe refugees and suppress further investigations into the Qinghe incident, he was willing to work together. It was mutually beneficial this way. It was thus already agreed that Shen Lian would be the one overseeing the Qinghe canal repairs. The Qinghe canal repairs was an enterprise that was 100% profitable. Shen Lian was a greedy person, and he didn’t want to share the profits of this canal repair business with anyone else.

“The Minister of the Right wants to conscript labourers,” Lou Jing said, shaking his head. “I think I’d make more money if I worked with you.”

“Oh? Why do you say that?” Shen Lian said, surprised. He wasn’t against the idea of conscripting labourers at all. Forced labourers didn’t need to be paid wages, so he could save on quite a bit of money. 

“I’m sure Gong gong doesn’t need someone like me to explain how this business will be profitable,” Lou Jing said. He dipped a finger into his tea and drew a circle on the table. “If you use conscripted labour, the Imperial Court will know that your operating expenses are low, and will also only disburse so much silver to you. But if you hired labourers instead, the Ministry of Revenue would have to give at least twenty thousand taels of silver more.” As he said this, he drew a larger circle around the first one.

Shen Lian’s eyes lit up. He wasn’t very highly educated, but how to make more money was something he could easily understand.

“Moreover, conscripting labour has never been recorded kindly in the history books. The Lou family has had a good reputation for decades. I wouldn’t risk damaging that,” Lou Jing said with a sigh. “I’ll be frank with you. My father and I are at odds, and I can’t let him get any dirt on me. Otherwise, he’d probably use that as an excuse to strike me off the family tree.”

Shen Lian smiled coldly to himself. So that’s why that devious Chen Shichang had kindly agreed to give him this position of overseer all of a sudden. It was so that he would be the one cursed in the history books! “I thank Shizi for his regard. As long as this business is successful, you will certainly have a share,” Shen Lian said. 

The Ministry of Internal Affairs had many eyes and ears about, and Shen Lian knew it was true that the Lou father and son had an acrimonious relationship. Lou Jing had revealed this and allowed Shen Lian to get a handle on him so that he could show his sincerity. To begin with, Shen Lian didn’t have any ill-feeling toward Lou Jing, and if they weren’t going to use conscripted labour for the canal repairs, the amount of money invested would be double what was originally estimated. He couldn’t foot the whole sum alone.

Lou Jing bid farewell to Shen Lian and left. Shen Lian immediately sent a young eunuch to find out where the Emperor was, and when he heard that the Emperor was still in the Imperial study reviewing submissions, he immediately put on his formal robes and entered the palace.

Shen Lian was a palace eunuch, and he often waited on the Emperor in the Imperial study, grinding ink and washing his brushes. For this reason, he could enter and exit the Imperial Palace at will. Now that he knew that Chen Shichang was out to get him, he certainly wasn’t going to wait around for that old coot like a sitting duck.

“Ah, it’s just nice that you’re here. The Minister of the Right has sent in a submission to suggest that you be the overseer of the conscripted labourers for the canal repairs. I intend to approve it,” the Chunde Emperor said, holding out the submission to Shen Lian. Ever since he deposed Xiao Chengjun as the Crown Prince, he had to review all these submissions himself, and he found this very tiresome. He wanted to settle this matter as quickly as possible. 

“Your Majesty,” Shen Lian cried. He didn’t accept the offered submission, and fell to his knees before the Emperor. “The labourers absolutely must not be conscripted!”

The Chunde Emperor looked strangely at Shen Lian. This sort of scholarly protest coming from Shen Lian was very out of place.

“Some corrupt officials want to embezzle a bit of silver from this project, and so instigated your Majesty to use forced labour for this project,” Shen Lian said. Tears now ran dramatically from his eyes. “Your Majesty, I may be ignorant and uneducated, but I know the dangers of conscripting forced labour. If the people’s hearts turn against you, you will be the one who is cursed by the people! Your Majesty, you are the Emperor who enjoys heaven’s divine protection. If you damage your good name because of something trivial like this, I would not be able to make it up to you even if I died a thousand times over!”