Chapter 7

21

For the past three years, the Fourth Prince and Ta Chi Tu hadn’t simply been hiding like turtles.

They had secretly uncovered countless crimes committed by Chancellor Li’s faction: embezzlement and bribery, favoritism and lawbreaking, and even deep collusion with grain merchants during the disaster.

The charges had piled up beyond counting. The day after Ta Chi Tu and I left the capital, the evidence was delivered to the residences of every court official.

The next day, a succession of memorials in court forced the damned Emperor to deal with Chancellor Li.

The Chancellor’s entire faction was thrown into prison.

By candlelight, I sat beside the inkstone and watched Ta Chi Tu write a letter to my father.

He explained everything in detail and, at the end, asked my father for his help.

I raised an eyebrow.

So this was what he’d been waiting for.

Ta Chi Tu looked up and smiled at me.

“Ningning, I’m going to pressure the Grand Tutor a little. You won’t blame me, will you?”

“It’s fine.”

I took the brush from his hand and neatly added a line in small regular script in the corner of the letter—

【Father, save me!!!】

A soft laugh sounded beside my ear. The next moment, I was sitting in Ta Chi Tu’s lap.

He buried his face against my neck, unable to hide the smile in his voice.

“Ningning, I really… really like you…”

His excessive closeness made me a little uncomfortable.

Ta Chi Tu was very lovable, of course, but before, I’d liked him mostly because he was a cute, silly fool.

What was this feeling now?

Had my maternal affection gone bad?

I tugged on his sleeve and asked, “Have you really decided to support the Fourth Prince as the new Emperor?”

He tilted his head. “What about you, Ningning? Do you want to be Empress?”

“I don’t.”

I shook my head.

“My father has been bound by duty his whole life. I want to live more freely. Besides, the Fourth Prince was born to a palace maid. He understands how people’s fortunes rise and fall. These past three years have made him understand the hardships ordinary people face even better. He’s suited to be Emperor.”

Ta Chi Tu rested his chin on my shoulder.

“I think so, too.”

22

Snow fell over Great Zheng for seven straight days, as if it meant to wash away every crime.

At last, relief provisions from the capital arrived. Zhiyang and Han, the two cities that had been scraping by, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The refugees who had stayed in Zhiyang were properly settled. The Fourth Prince returned to the capital with evidence of the Emperor’s crimes and the late Emperor’s edict.

That edict… well, it was fake.

But whether it was real or not no longer mattered. The new Emperor would certainly be Ta Chi Shen.

Ta Chi Tu and I waited until the damned Emperor had lost power before leisurely returning to the capital.

After attending the new Emperor’s enthronement ceremony, Ta Chi Tu accompanied me to the Nguyen residence to apologize to my father.

Father didn’t actually dare make Ta Chi Tu kneel, but he was still so furious his mustache bristled.

“I truly never imagined the Ninth Prince had such ability. You had this old man running around in circles!”

“You didn’t even discuss it with me. First you coaxed my daughter into it, then you tricked me into helping the new Emperor!”

“None of you Ta family men can be trusted!!!”

Ta Chi Tu presented him with tea, perfectly proper.

“My father-in-law’s advice is entirely correct.”

That one word—“father-in-law”—seemed to calm Father’s anger considerably.

Father must have guessed something about Ta Chi Tu’s pretending to be a fool. Otherwise, how could he have willingly cooperated to help the Fourth Prince ascend the throne?

He was probably just being given a face-saving way to let the matter go.

I smiled and tugged at Father’s sleeve.

“Father, I want some roast duck from the residence…”

“Me too!”

Father glared at me.

“You wrote that plea for help so neatly and calmly. Do you think your father is easy to fool?”

I wisely shut my mouth.

At last Father’s anger subsided, and he called over the steward.

“Tell the kitchen to make the young lady’s favorite roast duck.”

“Yes, sir.”

I beamed. “Thank you, Father!”

Ta Chi Tu smiled along with me.

“Thank you, Father-in-law!”

The next time we saw Ta Chi Run and the Chancellor’s people was the day before their execution.

The moment Ta Chi Run saw us, he grew agitated. His chains clinked loudly.

“Ta Chi Tu! You really were pretending! I should never have spared your life back then!”

Ta Chi Tu looked down at him.

“Sixth Brother, you brought this on yourself!”

Ta Chi Run threw his head back and laughed.

“It’s only the victor who becomes king and the loser who becomes a bandit! If I could do it all over again, I might not lose to you!”

Ta Chi Tu’s expression turned cold, but I knew he was hurting inside.

I took his hand and looked at Ta Chi Run.

“If you’d been a good Emperor, things wouldn’t have come to this. You knew what the Chancellor’s household was doing, but you chose to protect them, because everything you have today was handed to you by their family.”

“Why do you think the Chancellor’s household chose to support you? Was it really because you were the most outstanding of the four princes?”

Ta Chi Run’s movements stopped.

I sneered.

“Because you were the easiest to control, the most suitable puppet Emperor.”

At that, he raised his head and glared at me, eyes bloodshot.

“What do you know?!”

“Is that so?”

I tossed down the incense I’d found in his bedchamber.

“Dragon Void Incense. It makes a man unable to father an heir. After you die, Great Zheng would become the realm of the Li family.”

Ta Chi Run’s body shook violently. He turned to look at Li Chun, the former Empress.

Li Chun trembled and backed into the corner, her voice guilty.

“I don’t know. I don’t know…”

The next moment, Ta Chi Run lunged at her.

A woman’s shrill scream rang through the prison.

The Chancellor’s family members in the next cell had all gone pale, like ashes.

I also saw Li Yao—the woman who had fiercely opposed me just over a month earlier. Now she was curled up in a corner, covered in wounds, with no light left in her eyes.

She hadn’t committed any heinous crimes herself, but she had benefited from the Chancellor’s household. She would have to bear the consequences, too.

The prison was cold.

I took Ta Chi Tu’s hand and turned to leave, speaking softly.

“Let’s go watch the snow from the city wall.”

23. Extra

Spring had arrived.

I realized that Ta Chi Tu and the new Emperor were always arguing.

The new Emperor tried every way he could to make Ta Chi Tu take a powerful official position, while Ta Chi Tu wanted to wander the world.

They went back and forth, arguing endlessly.

“Should we choose a few more consorts for the Emperor and fill out the imperial harem?”

I leaned against the couch, set down my book, and looked up at Ta Chi Tu, who was seated at the writing desk.

He was carving a hairpin. The knife in his hand stopped.

“Why are you worrying about him?”

“The new Emperor’s position isn’t secure yet. He has to take a few ministers’ daughters as consorts to stabilize the court.”

Ta Chi Tu gave a faint, sardonic laugh.

“If a man needs women to hold his place in court, he’s pretty useless.”

That made sense.

Then I thought of something and frowned.

“Why did you arrange our marriage in the first place, then?”

Ta Chi Tu coughed lightly. His ears turned red.

I raised an eyebrow, feeling I understood something, and didn’t ask any more.

I rolled onto my side and felt something poking my waist. I reached over to touch it. It turned out to be a wedding peanut from the day of our marriage.

For the past few days since we’d returned, Ta Chi Tu had been the one sleeping in this bed. Men really were rough; how had he not noticed something poking him like this?

I was about to toss it off the bed when a hand with long, distinct knuckles covered the back of mine.

Ta Chi Tu hugged me from behind, cracked open the peanut shell with one hand, and popped the nut into his mouth.

Then he rubbed against my neck again.

“Maybe it was because, on the day of your coming-of-age ceremony, one glance at you was so dazzling that I couldn’t forget it…”

His nuzzling tickled, so I tried to dodge.

He hugged me again, his voice full of grievance.

“Ningning, it’s been so long…”

“Hmm?”

I tilted my head to look at him.

He seemed a little embarrassed under my gaze, but leaned close again.

“This prince has lived such a dull, austere life for so long…”

I pulled the bed curtains closed.

“Then let’s try something a little spicier.”

(The End)

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