Chapter 164: Farewell
The Ministry of Justice dungeon, the damp smell of mold drilling straight into one’s throat.
Li Zhao took the handkerchief handed by Guan Ya, covering his nose and mouth, his black boots crushing the half-dried blood scabs in the cracks of the bluestone.
Xiao Jing was hung on the torture rack by iron chains, his head tilted and drooping. The wound from biting his tongue to commit suicide that day was still bleeding. The wound on his right foot, worn by the chains, had formed a layer of black scab, like a viper coiled around his bone…
Yuan Cang’s brows were tightly furrowed, and he bowed his hands.
“Your Highness, he cannot speak, nor can he eat anything.”
In other words, he was not long for this world.
“Hoo… hoo…” Xiao Jing heard footsteps, and a wheezing sound like air leaking from his windpipe.
Li Zhao clasped his hands behind his back: “Minister Xiao, have you thought it through?”
Xiao Jing glared at him, his mouth wide open, but he could not utter a complete sentence.
Li Zhao snorted coldly, brightened the oil lamp on the desk, and the flame shot up, illuminating the bone-chilling coldness on his face.
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
The Crown Prince had been moody these past few days, and no one dared to speak rashly.
Li Zhao said indifferently: “Does Minister Xiao know that Consort Xiao has moved back to Rui Jin Hall? His Majesty visited yesterday and personally sent four baskets of newly arrived lychees from Lingnan?”
Xiao Jing’s body trembled, his eyes wide open, staring at him.
“Don’t believe it?” Li Zhao paced to Xiao Jing’s front, his gaze like a knife, his eyes cold.
“They were all granted amnesty, yet they did not think of rescuing you. To regain imperial favor, they even sold your children…”
“Your son has now followed the path of your exile and gone to Lingnan. Your most beloved youngest daughter was hastily betrothed to a sickly distant relative from the imperial clan…”
“Xiao Jing, you are already a discarded pawn, are you not yet awakened?”
The iron chains rattled violently, and Xiao Jing’s eyes seemed about to burst with blood.
He pressed his injured tongue against his teeth, saliva mixed with blood foam dripping onto his chest, filled with anger and helplessness…
“Hoo ah… hoo ah… ah…”
“You dedicated your life to the Xiao family, only to become a scapegoat who died unjustly, ending up with a ruined reputation and a tragic death in prison. Was it worth it?”
Xiao Jing’s body trembled, blood oozing from his lips, emitting indistinct, broken sounds, like a dull knife scraping against eardrums.
Li Zhao looked at his despairing and pained expression with satisfaction.
“Take him down. Bring paper and brush…”
The dim, yellow light of the dungeon illuminated the gems on Li Zhao’s jade belt, which shone with a deep blue.
Xiao Jing collapsed on the ground, his tattered prisoner’s clothes, mixed with blood and dirt, wriggling like a dying beast struggling for life. He weakly raised his head, looking directly at Li Zhao.
The four treasures of the study were spread on the ground.
Guan Ya placed the brush, dipped in ink, into Xiao Jing’s hand.
Li Zhao glanced over, his expression unperturbed.
“Write the list of officials involved in the private salt trade.”
“Which powerful families and noble clans are involved in the channels of private salt transactions?”
“The official reports from the River Administration state sixty thousand catties of glutinous rice paste, but the artisans’ confessions say less than five thousand were actually received—the silver money from the remaining ninety percent, did it enter the Xiao family’s money house?”
“How did you conceal your falsification of the Ministry of Revenue accounts over the years? Who were your accomplices?”
“The three thousand shi of old grain transported to Xizi last year, was it by grain transport boat, or by civilian merchant ships controlled by the Xiao family?”
“During the Luo River flood, you proposed opening the imperial granary to lend grain to the people, to be repaid with a thirty percent interest increase after autumn, but the imperial decree that year stated three years of interest-free repayment. Was the surplus grain stored in the Xiao family’s granaries?”
Xiao Jing’s hand trembled violently, ink dripping onto the white paper…
The prison cell was silent, as if dead.
After a long while, the wolf hair brush slipped from Xiao Jing’s hand…
He was seen laboriously moving his body, lowering his neck, and kowtowing to Li Zhao, speaking indistinctly.
Li Zhao looked down from above, his toe touching Xiao Jing’s finger, “Want a quick death?”
He smiled gently, “If you write, I will give you a swift end.”
Xiao Jing slowly raised his hand, his eyes reddened, and he closed them powerlessly.
“Minister Xiao is spirited. I must respect you three parts…”
Li Zhao signaled to Guan Ya.
The confession, already prepared, was brought over and pressed onto Xiao Jing’s trembling finger, stained with a striking crimson blood.
The candlelight flickered erratically in the biting wind, and Li Zhao’s stern face was colder than the torture instruments of the great prison.
He glanced at the confession, handed it to Yuan Cang, slowly turned his back, and raised his hand, “Let him go peacefully.”
Yuan Cang responded, “Yes.”
Xiao Jing looked at Li Zhao’s retreating back, a hint of relief and release appearing on his face. The faint light flickering in his eyes seemed to hold a trace of gratitude…
Until death, he did not betray the Xiao family, nor did he lose the honor of his ancestors, upholding the integrity of a scion of the Xiao clan. It was just that his life’s toil for the family’s rise and fall ultimately wronged his children, leaving him with a heart full of regret and unfulfilled wishes…
—
The night after Xue Sui returned to Prince Duan’s Mansion, a pure white pigeon flew to Ling Yu’s dovecote.
Its snow-white feathers were fluffy and smooth, and it cooed affectionately when it approached Ling Yu.
That night, the lamps in Tan Qiu Courtyard burned until the third watch.
Xue Sui leaned by the window, her fingertips caressing the letter brought by the carrier pigeon.
The letter contained Li Zhao’s sharp handwriting: “The Empress Dowager’s birthday, by imperial decree, a general amnesty. Ping Le is released from restriction, Consort Xiao has regained favor, the Xiao family is cutting off a limb to survive and seeking self-preservation.”
The ink bled through the paper, not mentioning the humiliation of being bound that night.
She brought the letter closer to the candlelight, watching the flame lick at the characters “Xiao family,” when she suddenly heard Cui’s lowered voice from the corridor.
“The Princess Consort cannot sleep and wishes to invite Madam to Mu Yue Residence for a chat…”
Xiao Zhao responded: “Our Madam is already asleep…”
“Xiao Zhao.” Xue Sui interrupted her, poking the burnt letter with a incense shovel, and said to Cui through the window, “Please tell the Princess Consort that I will change my clothes immediately.”
Half a cup of tea later, Xue Sui, simply dressed and wearing a light green silk skirt, went to Mu Yue Residence.
The lamplight in Mu Yue Residence cast a soft glow. Xue Yuechen, with her long hair unbound, sat before the dressing table. The bronze mirror reflected her deep melancholy and a face full of weariness.
Xue Sui lifted the curtain and entered. She performed a proper curtsy.
“Greetings, Princess Consort…”
“Sixth Sister, please don’t be so formal.” Xue Yuechen helped her sit on the carved couch and said with a worried expression, “I called you here in the middle of the night because the situation is truly difficult and I am anxious and uneasy…”
Xue Sui smiled slightly, “Sister, you don’t need to be formal. Please speak freely…”
Xue Yuechen’s expression finally eased slightly.
After a moment of hesitation, she spoke softly.
“Rui He is coming to the mansion again to visit, saying she personally copied the 《Diamond Sutra》 to offer blessings to His Highness the Prince…”
She pouted, “You say she, a newly widowed woman, has finally returned to the capital. Instead of serving the Empress Dowager in the palace, she runs to Prince Duan’s Mansion every day. What is she trying to do?”
Xue Sui nodded thoughtfully, “She is alone and has nowhere else to go. She probably hopes His Highness will remember their past affection and find a reliance for herself…”
“That’s where the problem lies.” Xue Yuechen’s brows were tightly furrowed, her expression slightly agitated, “His Highness leaves before dawn these past two days. I said that the County Princess is frail and seems to have a chronic illness, and I am very anxious to see him. But he gave me a cold shoulder and turned away as if I had done something wrong…”
She wrung her silk handkerchief, her eyes suddenly sharp.
“Tell me, could he and Rui He have…”
