Chapter 84: You’re Crazy
Zheng Yun’s voice even carried a hint of grievance:
“People in Chang’an always say Yandi is full of barbarians. Let them come and see for themselves, in Yandi’s Sixteen Prefectures, who is more barbaric than King Li!”
Li Heng listened quietly as he cursed, until he asked, “Are all people from Chang’an so ill-mannered?”
Li Heng quickly replied, “Of course not! It’s only this King Li, perhaps he suffered a great blow and his temperament changed drastically. He wasn’t like this before!”
Zheng Yun snorted coldly, “I will definitely file an Imperial Petition! Lord Li, you must testify for the Zheng family then, and tell His Majesty everything King Li has done.”
Li Heng nodded repeatedly, “This matter is indeed King Li’s excessive behavior. Head of the Zheng Family, just write the petition, I am willing to submit it to you.”
As the two were cursing King Li in unison and discussing filing an Imperial Petition, a clerk suddenly reported:
“Sir, there is an urgent letter.”
Li Heng took it and looked, first startled, then happily said to Zheng Yun:
“Heaven helps us! Head of the Zheng Family, you don’t need to write a petition, His Majesty’s Imperial Commissioner has arrived!”
He directly unfolded the urgent letter in his hand for Zheng Yun to see. In just two sentences, it stated that His Majesty had sent an Imperial Commissioner to Yanzhou, and Prefect Li should prepare to receive them.
The two speculated about the purpose of the Imperial Commissioner’s arrival, recalling how Huo Zi’an had led people to assassinate King Li, but all his companions were killed by King Li in return, who even extorted Li Heng with their corpses.
And Huo Zi’an was still in King Li’s hands, his fate unknown.
Li Heng guessed that this Imperial Commissioner must be Prince Yu, sent to investigate the true situation of King Li.
The assassins sent had not responded for a long time, and the deeds King Li had committed since arriving in Yandi were all reported back to Chang’an.
Prince Yu must be worried about King Li becoming too powerful in Yandi, so he quickly sent someone to investigate. If King Li’s power grew, he would definitely find a way to clip his wings.
Even, to eliminate him secretly!
Li Heng thought it more and more likely, and quickly discussed with Zheng Yun to hold back for now, but to spread the word that King Li had extorted one hundred thousand taels of silver from the Zheng family and had detained a thousand Zheng family members as slaves.
At the very least, they wanted King Li’s people to know that the Zheng family had a deep enmity with King Li. This way, when the Imperial Commissioner arrived, as long as the Zheng family expressed their willingness to cooperate with the Imperial Commissioner’s actions.
They could eliminate their rival, King Li, and also befriend Prince Yu, killing two birds with one stone!
Zheng Yun was persuaded. He also felt that a prince who had experienced court turmoil and was exiled to the borderlands by the Emperor, yet was still not honest and committed evil deeds at the border, naturally violated the Emperor’s taboos.
Even if this Imperial Commissioner did not take his life, he would surely be severely punished!
At that time, the Zheng family would use the Imperial Commissioner to teach him a harsh lesson, letting him know that a dragon from afar cannot suppress a local snake, and that Yandi was their territory!
Because the Imperial Commissioner’s trip had to be kept secret, Zheng Yun was scolded by his family members after returning to the Zheng family. They had lost money and couldn’t get their people back; the Zheng family suffered heavy losses this time.
Zheng Yun, the acting head of the family, silently endured all this, gritting his teeth and saying to himself:
“Just wait! When the Imperial Commissioner arrives, you will all see how I will restore the prestige of the Zheng family!”
…
“Young Master Gu, what exactly is the Imperial Commissioner going to Yanzhou for? Haven’t you found out yet?” Grandpa Ling asked anxiously.
Originally, he thought that entering Yandi and going to Yanzhou would be very convenient, taking less than ten days by fast horse.
He didn’t expect that since entering Yandi, it was still difficult to move. The checkpoints in each prefecture were extremely strict, and the people of Yandi were very xenophobic.
If they heard you had an accent from outside, it didn’t matter if you were a Taoist or a monk, they wouldn’t let you pass.
Every time they passed through a prefecture city, it was thanks to Gu Changxiao’s secret guards who made arrangements, either bribing the guards to pass through at night, or impersonating merchants and bribing them with a large sum of money.
Grandpa Ling secretly estimated that it would cost at least several hundred taels of silver to reach Yanzhou. He was also unfamiliar with Yandi and didn’t know how to take the mountain paths.
There were many bears and wolves here, and sometimes they would encounter them even during the day. There were even more outlaws, and the bandits and mountain bandits were extremely fierce.
Now he didn’t dare to take Jin’an and run away. With just the two of them, one old and one young, and still very poor.
Thinking of finding Jin Sui in Yanzhou, he could only cling to Gu Changxiao.
Uh, to use the phrase “cling to someone’s thigh” was really demeaning.
But there was no other way! Before, Grandpa Ling dared to say that he was Gu Changxiao’s savior. And Gu Changxiao did indeed treat him and Jin’an as benefactors.
But along the way, hearing about all the things Jin Sui had done, one piece of news after another, their kindness diminished.
Until the reputation of “King Li is impotent” spread throughout Yandi, Grandpa Ling felt that Gu Changxiao was a good person with good temper for not beating them to death in anger.
As a result, Gu Changxiao endured the anger, even in teahouses and eateries, listening to storytellers and common folk discuss this matter as a joke.
They even vividly recounted news from Chang’an, saying that King Li had not taken a single concubine when he was Crown Prince, and only men served him.
It’s no wonder he was ruined back then! But you say such a useless person, why did he still try to usurp the throne and rebel?
If he had no descendants, what would be the point of seizing the throne?
Some people said even more disgustingly: “You say he doesn’t like women, no, it’s that he can’t touch women because his ‘thing’ is gone, so could he be a male prostitute?”
Jin’an asked softly from the side, “Grandpa, what is a male prostitute?”
Grandpa Ling was so angry he puffed out his beard and glared, wanting to go up and question those gossips. When King Li was Crown Prince, he was dedicated to the people.
After falling on hard times, you slander him like this? Moreover, privately discussing the royal family is a serious crime!
But Gu Changxiao stopped him, and said with gratitude in his voice, “No need to pay attention! This is Yandi, and the common people have always had little respect for the royal family in private.”
“And…”
Grandpa Ling and Jin’an looked at him in unison, only to see Gu Changxiao smile. With that smile, both of them felt he had gone mad from anger.
But then they heard him say, “And, it’s quite interesting.
Before, I always thought Daoist Ji was a bit crazy, but now I think, it would be quite good to go crazy like him without any restraint.”
Grandpa Ling quickly took out three copper coins to divine: “She’s not crazy, you are!”
Fortunately, the divination was auspicious, otherwise Grandpa Ling would have really taken him to a Taoist temple for a ritual to see if he was possessed by something evil.
Weren’t you always cursing Jin Sui before? Why do you now agree with Jin Sui’s increasingly outrageous actions?
Especially when the news spread that King Li had detained a thousand tenant farmers from the Zheng family to reclaim land and build roads.
The common people didn’t care why the Zheng family members were in King Li’s territory!
The rumors became even more exaggerated, saying that even mules passing by the border city would be stopped and forced to work for three days.
Then it was heard that King Li not only detained the Zheng family’s people but also demanded food expenses from the Zheng family, a full one hundred thousand taels of silver. When the Zheng family refused, he took his men to cause trouble at the Zheng family’s ancestral tomb.
Look, is this something a human would do? He has disgraced the royal family completely!
This is not something a prince would do. Even the most rogue and scoundrel in the underworld wouldn’t dig up someone’s ancestral tomb!
If the things King Li had done were spread before, the common people would think he had gone mad, or even that he was sent by the Imperial Court to disgust the gentry of Yandi.
But now, there were more people sympathizing with King Li.
“He’s impotent, why bother arguing with him so much?”
