Chapter 81: Chapter 081 Chongshan
The matter of having a child ultimately wasn’t successful.
The news even reached the ears of the Empress Dowager.
She twiddled with her Buddha Beads, heaved a heavy sigh, and said to Puzhu, “The Emperor acts recklessly and willfully, Ai’s family has already given them a chance. Go let Jiang Chongyu take action.”
Puzhu bowed his head and responded, “Yes.”
*
Jiang Chongyu was a Hanlin Academy Scholar.
...
He was a prodigy, passing the scholar examinations at sixteen, joined the Hanlin Academy, and over the years, accumulated a high reputation, and was a role model for the students of the Imperial College.
Therefore, it was a simple matter for him to lead three thousand students to petition at the ridian Gate.
“Beauty brings disaster to the state! Execute her!”
“Beauty brings disaster to the state! Execute her!”
The crowd was stirred.
The slogan’s sound resounded through the skies.
So officials were also kneeling and shouting, “Your Majesty, the Sang Family’s daughter, a harbinger of husband, family, and brother’s death, she is of a sinister destiny! The locust plague in Wuzhou, the Thunder Strike in the Imperial Palace, are all divine warnings!”
He blad everything that had happened recently on Sang Yan.
Qu Zhi sat in the carriage, watching this scene, and said to his confidant Cai Yuan, “At this ti, to get rid of the Sang Family’s daughter, we’re just missing a spark.”
Cai Yuan imdiately offered a strategy, “My lord, don’t worry. Wan Zhang from the Observatory is precisely that spark.”
Qu Zhi’s eyes lit up, “Quick, tell in detail—”
Cai Yuan then whispered, “Does my lord recall why Wan Zhang was punished to guard the Imperial Mausoleum? He must have read the Sang Family’s daughter’s face, even determined her fate, if he suddenly dies—”
He didn’t finish his sentence, but Qu Zhi understood.
“Excellent idea.”
After praising Qu Zhi, he continued with his own sche: “Sang Kun, for the sake of his daughter’s fate, once deliberately concealed the locust disaster in Wuzhou. Now, it’s even more likely he will kill Wan Zhang to silence him!”
Cai Yuan had the sa intention, smiling sycophantically, “My lord’s na will shine. As long as Wan Zhang is dead, how the Sang Family’s daughter’s destiny is viewed will depend on what we say, and that Sang Kun won’t think about rising higher.”
“Yes, yes, I want to make Sang Kun regret not dying in Wuzhou.”
Qu Zhi seed to see the scene of the Sang Family falling out of favor, grinning from ear to ear.
Just then, a guard’s voice ca from outside, “Master, there is a letter from the palace.”
Upon hearing this, Qu Zhi’s eyes sharpened, his smile faded, and he reached out to receive the letter.
The letter was not from a spy in the palace, but from his daughter Qu Xueli.
[…Sang Yan is kind and amiable, fair and impartial, commanding a good reputation in the palace. She has saved my daughter twice. I am greatly indebted and hope that my father will not involve himself in this matter. If possible, please diate…]
His daughter was actually pleading for the enemy.
Furious, Qu Zhi cursed, “Fool! Womanly kindness!”
Cai Yuan, unaware of the details, asked anxiously, “My lord, what has happened?”
Qu Zhi replied angrily, “My foolish daughter is asking to plead for Sang Yan. Totally useless. She’s been scared witless in the palace.”
After hearing this, Cai Yuan had nothing to say and shut his mouth.
Qu Zhi cursed a couple more tis but quickly regained his composure, “I can’t count on my daughter. To secure our future, we must take a risk.”
Cai Yuan agreed and clasped his hands, “I await my lord’s orders.”
Qu Zhi crumpled the letter into a ball, his eyes fierce, “Let’s start with Wan Zhang.”
*
Lately, Wan Zhang had always been climbing to the highest level of the Observatory, overlooking the entire Imperial City.
In fact, having seen it for so long, there was nothing much to see in the Imperial City.
But precisely because there was nothing to see, there was a lancholy feeling of everything changing, of friends dying and parting ways.
“Wan Zhang—”
He saw the late Emperor.
At that ti, the late Emperor was a sixteen-year-old lad, in the pri of youth, with a brilliance once shimring in his eyes.
“Wan Zhang, would you read my fortune? Why do you read fortunes for others but refuse to read mine?”
“Wan Zhang, I’m sixteen now, about to rule on my own. Quickly see my face, will I be a good Emperor?”
“Wan Zhang, the Imperial Censor praised today, saying I have the talent of an Emperor.”
“Wan Zhang, you must assist well. Once I’m firmly seated on the throne, I will make you an Aliased King.”
“Wan Zhang—”
He laughingly called his na, youthful and high-spirited, as if all the hardships could be trampled underfoot.
How could he tell him: No! You don’t have the face of an Emperor! You don’t even have the face of longevity!
No!
He must have mistaken!
He definitely mistook it!
He locked himself in his room, poring over the works of his predecessors day and night, seeking a way to break the curse.
“Bang!”
He threw a peach at the window.
He pushed open the window and saw him climbing the peach tree, smiling at him, “Wan Zhang, co out and play. The Imperial Palace is so boring. If you ignore , I will suffocate.”
Occasionally, his heart softened, and he would go out and play with him.
But more often, he hardened his heart, closed the window, and continued to read.
He was the Emperor, yet he did not mind his rudeness, let him be, and left in disappointnt.
However, gradually, he stopped coming and began to indulge in a life of hedonism.
He learned of his outrageous behavior and went to advise him, “Emperor, you are degenerating. You can’t keep going like this.”
He was drinking wine, in a hot spring pool, draped with several naked beauties.
He was breathing lightly, as if enjoying himself yet seemingly distracted, “Wan Zhang, you’re eighteen now, right? Have you chosen a literary na?”
He shook his head and replied, “No.”
“Then I’ll choose one for you.”
“What na?”
“Chongshan.”
“Why?”
“Because what I love lies beyond the Chongshan.”
He laughed loudly and said, “Wan Zhongshan, don’t co again in the future.”
“You are willfully corrupt!”
“You are lewd and dissolute!”
“You have disappointed too much!”
He left angrily and did not see him again for many days.
He had gone too far.
Was it a curse?
He must have been cursed!
Barely enduring for half a month.
He went to see him again, and he had changed a lot, showing a haggard look from overindulgence.
He thought about his ominous deanor and softly advised, “Emperor, your health is not good; you must stay away from won and cultivate your temperant.”
To prevent him from continuing his reckless behavior, he moved into his sleeping quarters and drove all the flirtatious concubines out.
He saw him, lying on the bed laughing, “Wan Zhongshan, the night is long. Now that you’ve sent them away, will you keep company?”
Before he could reply, he started coughing non-stop and fainted.
He took advantage of his sleep to touch his thin and haggard face, unable to help himself from saying, “Okay. I’ll keep you company.”
Did he hear it?
He must have heard it.
But when he woke up, everything changed.
“Did I not make myself clear when I said you don’t need to co? Do you take for a joke?”
“Wan Zhongshan, you are nothing but a plaything to !”
“How pitiful you are!”
Every sentence of his pierced his heart.
He felt himself falling.
Endlessly falling.
“Wan Jianzheng!”
Soone was calling.
He crashed to the ground with a heavy thud, the pain so intense that he could not tell whether it was a dream or reality.
“Cough cough cough—”
He coughed up a few mouthfuls of blood, and his vision went dark.
Before he lost consciousness, he heard soone cry out, “Quick, call the Imperial Physician! Wan Jianzheng has fallen from the building!”
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