Chapter 65: Die Together!
“Finally, they found this opportunity!” Du Yu clenched his fist and smashed it against the back of the chair.
“What exactly happened?” The Du Family’s second son asked in a trembling voice, “Isn’t the He Family fighting internally? Wasn’t Zhang Shaode assassinated out of hatred by He Hui? How could it involve something from three years ago?
“They started rising to prominence three years ago, wasn’t it because they were promoted and given official positions?”
The second son and the Marquis’s Mansion had already divided the family long ago, but their interests were still intertwined, and he felt very afraid.
However, they were completely unaware of these matters.
Du Minghuan was at his wits’ end: “You go back first!”
The second son refused to leave, and Du Yu half-pulled and half-dragged him out.
After the person walked far away, he turned back, closed the door, and his face began to twitch.
“To anger the Shen Family at this time, and have the Shen Family step in too, we are already defenseless!”
Yesterday at Guang’an Temple, they were caught by the Shen Family with leverage, and the causes and effects haven’t been investigated yet, and now Yan Bei has immediately reported it to the Imperial Court.
He never imagined that after suddenly becoming a key minister in the court, the Du Family would encounter such a moment of being besieged on all sides!
“Father, does the Prince really not give any opportunity?!” He quickly walked around the table and came to Du Minghuan.
After all, from the moment the incident first happened, they had considered the possibility of being exposed and made the worst plans.
But they also figured that even if it came to that point, Yan Bei would not be willing to abandon the Du Family as such a useful henchman, and would definitely help.
At most, they would suffer a bit under Yan Bei, in order to better control the Du Family in the future, and their safety would not be an issue.
But this time, not only did Yan Bei not help, but he took the lead in exposing the matter, which meant the Du Family had no retreat left!
The Prince’s Mansion that held military power was his greatest backer, now without him, what would he do? What would the Du Family do?
“Go immediately to the Old Madam, have her personally write a letter and send it to the Imperial Concubine Dowager in Mobei, ask the Imperial Concubine Dowager to help plead!” Du Minghuan waved his hand forcefully, “Right now, there’s no other way, we can only think of something from the Imperial Concubine Dowager’s side!”
“But it’s over a thousand li to Mobei, will it be in time in a short while?!” Du Yu’s face was full of disapproval, “Moreover, Father, do you really think with the Prince’s temperament, the Imperial Concubine Dowager stepping in can change his mind?”
“Then what other way do you have?!”
Du Minghuan slammed the table, “Our Du Family has been living off the family fortune for two generations upward! No family business, no connections, just the relationships we built in these three years, which one of them can compare to Prince Jingyang? Moreover, they are not fools, today the Emperor issued a decree, and the Shen Family has also gotten involved, who dares to take this on? Who dares to oppose them?”
Du Yu’s cheeks were clenched tight, but he could not refute anymore.
A moment later, he raised his head again: “If there’s no other way, then we have no choice but to beg that person to step in.”
Du Minghuan paused: “What do you mean?”
Du Yu said: “We are also working for someone, although we got silver and official positions, but didn’t they get any benefits? Why at this time should we be the ones blocking in front, while they hide in the back safe and sound? Murdering Princess Yongjia, this is a capital crime involving collective punishment, now with pressure from the Prince’s Mansion and the Shen Family, it’s not just about killing one or two people!”
Du Minghuan’s facial muscles trembled, he turned his back, gazing at the peony painting on the wall.
“No, they won’t. The silver and official positions back then were used to buy our lives.”
“At least we shouldn’t just sit and wait for death, right?” Du Yu walked around to his front, “What’s the harm in trying to find them? Although it was to buy our lives, there must still be places where they need us, right? Otherwise, why would they have me go find the Imperial Clan Court turtle talisman in Hu Wei’s hands?”
Du Yu took a deep breath and continued: “They spent a large sum of silver to assassinate the Princess back then, and three years later suddenly let you get the turtle talisman to enter the Imperial Clan Court, there must be some other plot behind it, right?
“Even if they didn’t give Father any reason at the time, now that things have come to this, can’t Father see that the death of Princess Yongjia and the death of Prince Duan are greatly related to imperial power?”
Du Minghuan averted his gaze and sat down.
Did these things even need Du Yu to say them?
The person who gave the task, as soon as they met, laid out banknotes worth over a hundred thousand taels, deeds, house deeds.
Such a huge sum, and that goldfish bag on the waist, fully indicated his great background.
As for the official position, the other party said there would naturally be benefits for him, and Du Minghuan didn’t even see his face, so naturally he didn’t take it seriously.
Given the Du Family’s situation at the time, where they had to proactively bow and greet even a fifth-rank official with real power, just this amount of silver was enough for him to abandon all principles.
Although he had never seen Princess Yongjia, from the information that person provided, he knew she was just a sixteen-year-old girl, and had just given birth not long ago.
Although he had long heard how favored this imperial pearl was, and knew she had famous teachers guiding her from childhood, so what?
The imperial family’s women were still women.
She was not a prince after all.
Once killed, it was done, as long as preparations were made in advance, who would investigate afterward?
Even Prince Duan—he wasn’t old, would he worry about not having offspring? He might not really be desperate over this daughter, right?
Moreover, that person said on the spot that he would handle the aftermath for Prince Duan’s side.
So he handed the portrait provided by that person to He Jianzhong.
The portrait was actually very blurry, with only simple outlines of the facial features.
But a royal princess was still easy to identify among a group of people.
Especially when the other party was completely unprepared.
But Du Minghuan still made the most thorough preparations, requiring He Jianzhong to fully scout Princess Yongjia’s whereabouts.
Coincidentally, on the first day of the seventh month, that person provided a clue, saying Princess Yongjia was probably about to return soon.
He leaked this to He Jianzhong, and He Jianzhong obtained the exact route of Yongjia’s return journey through Liu Shi.
When Du Minghuan arranged all this, he was single-minded, determined to do it perfectly, just to prevent leaving any loose ends afterward.
So even the reward money given to the He Family and Zhang Family, he gave the maximum amount.
But on the night when Yongjia was killed, Prince Duan also died at the same time—the moment the bad news came, he was already dumbfounded!
Yongjia being a princess who died was not important, but Prince Duan held a pivotal position in the current court, and he actually died too!
Could this still be a trivial matter?
So what that person meant by handling the aftermath for Prince Duan’s side was actually killing Prince Duan too?!
Even to this day, Du Minghuan still remembered the bone-chilling fear at that time.
With the person behind making him kill Yongjia, could it really be just for some minor matter?
Absolutely not!
This was a great crime he didn’t even qualify to touch!
The small Du Family, and the empty-shell Marquis’s Mansion, how could they afford to be involved?
So the next night, he almost dragged his two legs to see that person.
That person’s mood was quite good, saying the matter was handled well, and even proactively said that with Prince Duan dead, he would let the Du Family take charge of the Imperial City Department from now on.
As long as he obeyed orders and acted, there would naturally be more benefits for him later.
Seeing him hesitate, he even reassured him, saying the aftermath on the Imperial Court side didn’t need him to worry.
At this point, how could Du Minghuan not guess there was something fishy behind it?
He had unwittingly become a knife thrust toward imperial power!
But not a few days later, sure enough, the court’s appointment decree came down: Prince Duan’s death was sudden, the Imperial City Department had no one to take over, and someone needed to be promoted from the Imperial City Department yamen to succeed. The court believed that since the Du Family ancestors were meritorious ministers, and he was the deputy envoy personally supported by Prince Duan, he was the most suitable to succeed.
This power transfer happened so smoothly, did the skill of the person behind it even need to be said?
Although Du Minghuan had a trace of fear and panic in his heart, it was completely suppressed by the surging fear and dread!
He couldn’t afford the charge of murdering the princess, but he even less could afford to offend this person!
After all, the princess was already dead, but the person who controlled the Du Family’s fate was still alive!
“Father?”
Du Yu’s voice pulled Du Minghuan back from his daze.
He looked up: “Impossible. They absolutely won’t help.”
“Who exactly is it?” Du Yu moved closer, his voice carrying suppressed excitement, “He had us seize the Shen Family’s evidence of crimes, so he shouldn’t be the Shen Family, then is he from the Mu Family, or the Chu Family?”
Du Minghuan met his gaze, then quickly looked away.
Then, he took one of Du Yu’s hands and wrote a character in his palm.
Du Yu recoiled his hand as if scalded: “……Are you sure?”
“They never showed their face, but I won’t guess wrong.” Du Minghuan looked at him deeply, “I once picked up one of their beaded bracelets. That beaded bracelet, I had seen at a palace banquet.”
Du Yu held his breath looking at him, a moment later stood straight: “It seems this matter is even more complicated than I imagined. In that case, I think we must go see him! Prince Jingyang is already very suspicious, if the only possibility of collusion with the culprit is him, then surely this person wouldn’t dare not step in?
“Is he really not afraid we’ll defect?”
“What good is defecting?” Du Minghuan said, “Do you think that way we can live? Don’t be naive! They’ve already calculated everything!”
“Then shouldn’t we think of a way to drag this person out to face it together?” Du Yu’s eyes reddened, “Anyway, it’s impossible to get any opportunity from the Prince’s side, so if we die, we die together, if we live, we live together!”
Hearing this, Du Minghuan could no longer sit still.
He stood up and paced two rounds, stopped under the curtain, then turned back to look at him, walked under the wall to take down the peony painting, pulled out the stopper at one end of the scroll, and took out an oval bronze token.
He gritted his teeth and clutched it in his hand: “Go prepare! After dark, follow me out the back door.”
……
No wonder at the age of a teenager, how could he be selected by Yan Bei to serve by his side?
Everything Xu He said and did these past few days, and the words spoken by the people he met, Yu Ting recorded them all and told Yue Tang in detail.
And Yue Tang wrote down everything he described with pen and paper.
The Du Family went to such great lengths, even tearing faces, insisting on binding Xu He as a righteous son, most likely for long-term use.
But that day when Shen Li came to the door, Du Yu didn’t rush back to the Marquis’s Mansion to deal with it, but hurriedly went to the Xu Family to have Xu He search for the Imperial Clan Court turtle talisman on the official, which was very suspicious.
The Du Family had no relation to the Imperial Clan Court.
So it could only be acting on orders.
What was the person behind suddenly having them take the turtle talisman for?
While pondering under the lamp, Yu Ting returned.
“Reporting to Madam, just now Brother Wei had the guards brothers ambushed outside the Du Family by the Prince send word, saying that after dark, Du Minghuan had someone prepare a horse carriage and brought it to the back door. They suspect they will go out at night, please Madam decide.”
Yue Tang upon hearing, quickly put down the paper and brush and stood up: “How long ago?”
Yu Ting thought: “Calculating the travel time, at most two quarters of an hour ago.”
Yue Tang looked at the sky, nodded: “Excellent. Go tell Qin Niang, I’m going out!”
With that, she picked up her sword, didn’t go through the door, and leaped directly out the window.
Yu Ting didn’t expect to see such skills from her, was stunned for a moment, then closed the door and went out.
……
After leaving the Xu Family’s compound wall, Yue Tang took off her outer garment, revealing the night clothes underneath, covered her face with a mask, and headed straight for the Du Family’s back door.
Eating the herbal medicine prepared by Hua Lin every day, her stamina had recovered much more than when she killed Zhang Shaode.
In no time, she arrived under the Du Family’s compound wall, blew a whistle, and Wei Zhang came out!
“Master! The Du Family father and son have indeed gone out!
“The two went separately, Du Yu drove a horse out the front door first, then Du Minghuan took a horse carriage out the back door. Fortunately, the Prince added manpower for us, there are people following behind father and son respectively, just now they reported that after leaving the street corner, the two headed in the same direction!”
“How far have they gone?!”
“They’ve already left this street!”
“Chase!”
The two entered the street one after the other.
Halfway, Prince’s Mansion guards were waiting to pass messages: “Follow the road ahead, hurry on foot and you can catch up!”
After speaking, they led the way ahead.
Yue Tang nodded. She said nothing, but in her heart admired the quality of the Prince’s Mansion guards, such meticulousness saved a lot of trouble.
But after walking not far, they saw a horse carriage stopped by the roadside.
The three suddenly stopped.
The guard from before went forward to check, then immediately said: “It’s the Du Family’s horse carriage! But the people have abandoned the carriage and are gone!”
Yue Tang looked at the densely packed residences around: “Quite cunning!”
Thinking, she climbed onto the wall top, looked at the scattered lights around. Then pointed to a dark alley without lights: “Go from there!”
Wei Zhang and the other looked, both nodded, and leaped down with her.
Since they abandoned the carriage and went on foot, with the carriage stopped here, the nearby area certainly wasn’t their destination.
Lit places were inconvenient for hiding, so could also be excluded first.
And the pitch-black alley not only allowed hiding their figures, but could also lead to other places, naturally the first choice!
The alley was winding and twisting, without a bit of light, but completely unobstructed.
The three ran quickly, soon reaching the end.
The end was a T-intersection, one side back to where they came, the fork road left and right.
Yue Tang stopped in the middle of the road, looked left and right, finally walked toward a courtyard gate on the right side covered with vine-covered walls.
Standing under the door, she looked down at two fallen leaves in front of her feet, bent to pick them up, looked, then immediately waved to Wei Zhang: “Split and sneak in from left and right!”
And instructed the guard: “You contact the other brothers, hurry over! Then enter from the middle road!”
Dou Yi has changed name to Dou Yun!
