Chapter 80: Whose Jealousy Is It?

Outside the dovecote of the Northern Zhenfu Division, a carrier pigeon fluttered and landed on the platform, and the lieutenant in charge of delivering the message removed the wax cylinder tied to the pigeon’s claws and delivered it to the superior officer with hurried steps.

Shen Qi sat diagonally on the eunuch chair in the public hall, his long legs stretched out and set up on the edge of the table, his hand playing with a copper awl used as a torture instrument, and said absentmindedly, “The human and material evidence is all there, and you still don’t admit your guilt, is it because you want to taste the eighteen punishments of the Imperial Prison?”

The criminal officer under the hall, wearing a prisoner’s clothes and with a mouth full of blood, hissed, “His Majesty has long since decreed the abolition of torture in imperial prisons, and you dare to disobey the imperial order!”

“As you said, what was abolished was only torture.” Shen Qi’s voice was grim, “What is retained is also squeezing fingers, clamping sticks, caning and so on, for each of these, I can play eighteen tricks, do you believe it or not?”

The criminal looked at him angrily with venomous hatred and fear in his eyes.

The summoning officer walked to Shen Qi’s side, presented a wax cylinder and whispered in his ear. Shen Qi immediately threw the copper cone to the desktop, got up and left the public hall, walked to the unoccupied back room before crushing the wax cylinder, took out a small roll of paper and unfolded it to read it carefully.

“On July 11th of the year of Kesi, the horse bandits gathered hundreds of people and entered Yan’an City at night to rob the prison. Mr. Su notified the guards with arrows in time, came to the battlefield to rescue the local officials, persuaded the bandit leader to surrender, and delayed until the reinforcements arrived. The bandits fled in haste, Yan’an was unharmed, and Lord Su was unharmed.”

In a few short lines, Shen Qi read it with bated breath and finally saw the word “unhurt” before exhaling a long breath and wiping his cold sweaty palm on the hem of his coat.

Gao Shuo’s secret report was written succinctly, but he was able to get a glimpse of the perilous and dangerous situation at that time.

A weak scholar, who is not yet cured of his illness and does not know how to use the sword, but he has to take the risk of confronting hundreds of horse thieves head-on, where is his courage? After Shen Qi was worried, he was annoyed that Su Yan didn’t cherish himself, and felt that it was expected – Su Yan seems to be smooth and skillful, in fact, his heart is soft and not lack of backbone, he is an extremely opinionated person, even if he was on the spot, I am afraid that he couldn’t be persuaded to go with his own mother to go through fire and water.

“…… convinced you.” Shen Qi laughed helplessly and pulled out a brocade pouch from his bosom that he put close to his body and included the new note in it.

There were originally several notes in the pouch, which were sent by five pigeons released in one breath on the night Gao Shuo entered Yan’an City. On it was written in fly-head script:

“Kesi year June 19, out of the south gate to the five-mile stage, the assassin Wu Ming stop the car and drive, Bauhinia pleaded guilty, Su adults allowed to accompany him.

June 20, Wu Ming claimed that his real name Jing Hong chasing, and Su adults demeanor close, is the night to sleep in the same car.

On the second day of July, Jing Hong chased the negligent guards, and Lord Su was taken captive by the ringing horse bandits. The leader of the bandits was convinced by His Excellency and was willing to surrender.

On the sixth day of the seventh month, I entered the city of Yan’an, coinciding with the riot at the court. We escorted in time, Lord Su is unhurt. In the inn, Jing Hong chased Lord Su to recommend himself for the night watch.

On the seventh day of the seventh month, Mr. Su suffered from heatstroke and fever, and Jing Hong chased him instead of calling a doctor in time, and even closed the door of his room, only to come out one hour later. The subordinate forced to ask, his attitude arrogant, falsely claimed to be under orders to do. To the boy to find out, Mr. Su was not fully clothed at that time.”

Seeing the article “Sleeping in the same car”, Shen Qi was already furious and hated, regretting that he didn’t make more efforts when he was chasing Wu Ming, and if the three knives directly cut people to death, there would be no more of these bullshit things! When he saw the article “not fully clothed”, he almost wanted to vomit blood, and couldn’t wait for the shameless criminal to be chopped into pieces.

Hate their own people in the capital, the whip can not reach, to be out of prison by the secret report, has been the time has changed. Can only self-congratulate, Su Yan on Wu Ming have favor, I expect he would not dare to wantonly. Moreover, Su Yan is not at the mercy of the nature of Wu Ming, if the behavior of misbehavior, he only need to give the order, the twenty brocade guards are not vegetarian.

Only after convincing himself again and again did his heart feel a little better, but his desire to go to Shaanxi to see Su Yan became stronger and stronger.

But he as the Prince’s personal army of jinyiwei, but also in charge of the North Township Division, can not be AWOL, only need to go out to handle the case, can be allowed to leave the capital.

Shen Qi silently inventoried the recent cases he had taken over, calculating which one he could gouge and dig out some clues pointing to the field that could be used as a suitable excuse for a public outing.

In the midst of contemplation, a believer knocked on the door and entered, reporting, “The palace has sent a decree that the Imperial Master has summoned Lord Commander.”

Shen Qi stuffed the brocade bag into his arms and said faintly, “Got it.”

–

When Shen Qi entered the South Study Room, he did not see the emperor, only King Yu was sitting alone on the circle chair drinking tea, like he had been waiting for some time.

As soon as he saw King Yu, his heart’s violent murderous intent seemed to be about to come out of his eyes, and he quickly lowered his eyes, his fingertips ruthlessly pinching his palms, forcing himself to look as normal.

King Yu raised his eyes and glanced at Shen Qi, kindly said, “This king remembers you. In the East Garden, you deliberately startled a horse to crash, and threw a paper ball into my arms, bending over backwards to beg me to save Qinghe – what is your relationship with him?”

Shen Qi’s palm pinched and stung, calmly answered, “Back to His Majesty, I respect Lord Su’s benevolence and righteousness, and I can’t bear to see him being victimized by Feng’s thieves. Later, Lord Su was ordered to sort out the personnel of the Brocade Guards, and I had some official business and human contacts with him.”

“How deep of a favor does it have to be to keep Qinghe out of the house early in the morning, and it took this king a lot of trouble to find someone at your doorstep.” King Yu said meaningfully.

-Said the day before leaving the capital! Su Yan was dragged onto the carriage by him, and still did not come back at night …… He even had the face to deliberately mention it in front of me! What’s the purpose? To show off? Or is it a test?

The more Shen Qi’s heart is killing, the more indifferent his face is, “The Su Mansion was ransacked by thieves the night before last, and after reporting the case to no avail, Mr. Su came to ask my humble servant if he had any access to the military division.”

He said it lightly. King Yu blew on the floating leaves in his teacup and leisurely sipped, not knowing whether to believe it or not.

King Yu did not open his mouth, Shen Qi also did not take the initiative to speak, for a while the atmosphere in the study was stiff and cold.

“Oops, the Orphan King actually forgot that Qinghe had instructed me not to strike up a conversation with you.” King Yu suddenly said.

Shen Qi: “?”

“Said he’d be jealous.”

Shen Qi: “!”

King Yu looked at him with a wry smile, “You say, Qinghe, is he jealous of you, or me? Or is he jealous of someone else?”

Shen Qi: “……”

Emperor Jinglong walked into the study at this moment, King Yu stood up and arched his hand, and Shen Qi knelt and kowtowed, “By imperial decree, I kowtow to Your Majesty.”

The emperor waved his hand to indicate that they didn’t need to be polite, and took a seat behind the desk, casually asking, “What did you guys talk about when I didn’t arrive just now?”

Before Shen Qi could think of how to answer, King Yu laughed, “Talking about ‘jealousy’.”

The emperor was slightly stunned, helplessly thin reprimanded: ”Less put your set of wind and flower hunting sutra, to pollute my jinyiwei. Called you to come, is to talk about the matter of the construction of heavenly work courtyard. That Lingguang Temple, really must be demolished?”

Not long ago, King Yu requested the demolition of the Lingguang Temple to make room for an academy, and the Emperor had already agreed, but he didn’t expect another change–

Lingguang Temple host Jiyao, the year 30, was born with a strong body, instrumentation, is a famous master, often to and from the palace to show a variety of spells, the most skillful is to turn stone into gold. He heard the news immediately went to visit the Empress Dowager, I do not know what to say, the Empress Dowager said, said Lingguang Temple can not be torn down, shallow grass slope of the land is not suitable for building colleges, will be bad feng shui, let the emperor to think of another way.

King Yu heard, straight into the Ci Ning Palace, nonchalantly ground scolded Jiyao: “How can there be feng shui in Buddhism? What monks cultivate Taoist techniques? Your pandemonium of the temple, clay statues on the paste is what gold?”

Jiyao cheekily replied, “The poor monk is a dual practitioner of Buddhism and Taoism, and he also reads the Buddhist scriptures and gives Taoist teachings. As for what is affixed to the statue of Buddha in Lingguang Temple, it is not gold, it is the heart of millions of people who are kind and charitable.”

King Yu slapped him in the face of the Empress Dowager and slapped him with a whirling dance.

The Empress Dowager is lonely in the palace, and relies on Master Jiyao’s tricks to entertain her, and also hates Su Yan for causing Wei Jun to break his arm, and for causing her brother-in-law to be reprimanded by the Emperor day after day, making Mrs. Qin cry in front of her day after day, which makes her feel upset.

She would like to take advantage of the impeachment of the officials of the wind, take the opportunity to Su Yan clean up a pass, but unfortunately the emperor’s hand fast, not a few days to send people out of the capital, a mouthful of bad gas has nowhere to disperse. So hate the house and rejected Su Yan proposed new school, several times told King Yu to resign this errand.

Unexpectedly, the two sons who have always been filial, in matters concerning Su Yan, the attitude is surprisingly consistent. One is not what he says, mouth said that the demotion, but the hand will be given out of the Shangfang sword. The other pretended to be deaf and dumb, busy all day building things, even into the palace to ask for peace also less.

Today Yu Wang came to Ci Ning Palace, the words did not say two or three sentences, hit people, the empress dowager angry liver trembling, pointing at him and scolded: “the old Lai Zi also colorful clothes to entertain the family, you are good, not only their own do not entertain the family, but also can not allow your mother to be happy! So disobedient and unfilial, stay in the capital for what? Let me see the blocked heart, might as well go to the border!”

Yu Wang bowed his head to be lectured, heard the last sentence, overjoyed: “Mother said very true! Why don’t you give me the next decree and let me leave the capital to go to the feudal government?”

The Empress Dowager’s silver teeth were about to gnash as she copied the white porcelain rouge box and smashed him, “Get out! Dare to tear down Ling Guang Temple, I’ll tear down your backbone!”

Where would King Yu be hit by a box, sidestepped and easily avoided, and busily apologized and retreated.

This matter reached the ears of the Emperor, which led to today’s summoning of the Imperial Study Room.

Right now the emperor sent word, asked him whether Lingguang Temple must be demolished, obviously also by the pressure from the empress dowager. The emperor knows that the address of the hospital is Yu Wang set, hope that under the premise of harmless, mindful of the mood of the empress dowager, each step back. Tian Gongyuan is sure to build, but can choose another suitable address, may not have to demolish the temple destroyed.

King Yu was unmoved and replied: ”My younger brother has traveled all over the capital and only that place is the most suitable. Besides, Su Yan is satisfied after seeing it. If we want to change the address, why don’t we send my younger brother on a trip to Shaanxi and explain it to him personally?”

The emperor was speechless, after a long time sighed: “Left is not a temple, demolition on demolition. Mother there, I go to talk about the item.”

Yu Wang added: “There is that Jiyao, the whole of a convergence of wealth of the magician, open mouth is to show the mystery of the set, I see it would like to smoke him. Mother put him as a contraption, he really think he is a contraption, see the day to run to the palace, in case and the palace girl to get out of what scandal …… or hurry to dispose of the good.”

The emperor also vaguely suspected that the empress dowager in addition to that handsome strong monk relieve boredom and amusement, but also a little something else, in the way of the identity is not good to say out. Yu Wang to take the courtesan as a reason, so unscrupulous mention, but the emperor can not say the suspicion to poke.

He glanced at King Yu in a warning manner and turned to Shen Qi to command: ”Have you heard all of King Yu’s words? This matter is entrusted to you to do, you have to be crowned, but also have to cover your ears, and you have to be thorough. Do a good job, I promote your official, do a bad job, you go back to the imperial prison, squat another month in jail.”

The emperor’s words seemed contradictory, but Shen Qi, who had a bright mind, had a lot of heart and could do calculations, immediately realized the meaning of the words –

The Emperor and King Yu wanted to join hands to clean up the demon monk Jiyao, but it was inconvenient for them to do it themselves. The meaning of the word “grandiose” is that we must find an irreproachable crime, break his aura of a high monk, and make him lose his reputation, so that he can be removed in a logical manner. The meaning of “cover the ears of others” is that this crime must not involve the palace. And “all sides” is the most difficult, not only to let King Yu smooth demolition of the temple school, but also let the Empress Dowager have nothing to say, not even too bad mood.

Such a difficult and odd errand, no wonder the emperor will go against the norm, before seeing the results of the first reward thrown out. Looking for him, probably also think that he is fast and accurate, Yin up to people to be patient and decisive – such as pinch Feng to go to the evil handle for ten years, wait until the most critical moment, do not hesitate to turn in the first denunciation.

Shen Qi knew that the emperor was treating him as a blade in the darkness, specifically used to remove obstacles that could not see the light. However, he did not feel aggrieved and humiliated or hard to accept.

Perhaps this was the best path for him to follow as he climbed toward the summit, the path that was his.

If this can make Su Yan’s ambition to start a new school realized, add a light wind to his political achievements …… Shen Qi bowed his head, the corner of his mouth slightly hooked, cupped his fists and said, “I comply with the decree.”