According to their prior agreement, Liu Yuanze should have summoned Liu Yuanxun after court adjourned and granted him the Imperial Sword of Authority.
Instead, he merely instructed Hong Fu to send a young eunuch to the Hall of Guarding Simplicity with a message. The eunuch was to tell Liu Yuanxun to leave the palace ahead of schedule and that, in a few days, the decree along with the sword would be delivered to Prince Rui’s Mansion.
Liu Yuanxun found it a little odd, but he reasoned that Liu Yuanze must have a mountain of affairs demanding his attention. It was only natural that he lacked the time for a personal summons. With that in mind, Liu Yuanxun gave it no further thought and returned to the mansion alongside Gu Lianzhao.
At the very moment they arrived back at the residence, Liu Yuanze was receiving Physician Wang in the Imperial Study.
Physician Wang had treated Liu Yuanxun for many years and knew his temperament well. He understood that the prince had a gentle disposition, so he never hesitated to inquire about intimate matters. Yet in the emperor’s presence, the physician grew stiff and hesitant, his words tumbling awkwardly. “His Highness’s body shows no serious problems. It’s just… just…”
“Just what?” Liu Yuanze turned a page in his book with casual indifference, his expression utterly composed. “One visit to the Hall of Guarding Simplicity, and you’ve suddenly developed a stutter?”
The emperor’s demeanor was perfectly serene, his tone even somewhat warm, but Physician Wang felt an inexplicable tension grip him. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he swallowed hard. “This subject detected a deep and fine pulse in His Highness. Moreover, Lord Gu’s virginity mark has vanished. Therefore, His Highness… must have consummated his marriage with Lord Gu last night. This subject had assumed His Highness’s weakness made such matters inadvisable, yet his complexion proved surprisingly healthy. In this subject’s view…”
The book slipped from Liu Yuanze’s hand and thudded to the floor, but he remained oblivious. He sat frozen on the dragon throne, murmuring in disbelief, “A deep and fine pulse… the virginity mark gone… Are you saying he consummated with Gu Jiu?”
“Precisely.” Unaware of the hidden intricacies, Physician Wang simply reported his honest observations. “This subject had attributed the prince’s pulse to chronic illness, but His Highness himself admitted to the act last night. That provides the explanation. This subject believes…”
Liu Yuanze cut him off before he could continue. “You may withdraw.”
Startled and uncomprehending, Physician Wang had no choice but to obey the imperial command. He offered a salute and retreated from the Imperial Study.
Once Physician Wang had departed, Hong Fu stooped to retrieve the fallen book and placed it gently atop the imperial desk.
Liu Yuanze remained seated in a daze, so Hong Fu stood by in silence.
Only after a long stretch of time did Liu Yuanze murmur to himself, “Hong Fu, do you suppose Yuanxun has truly… truly…”
If even the emperor did not know, how could Hong Fu? Keeping his head bowed, he replied with utmost respect, “This slave has no knowledge of it.”
“If Physician Wang is correct, will Mother Empress… blame Zhen?” For a moment, this sovereign of an empire betrayed an uncharacteristic vulnerability, as though seeking counsel from Hong Fu or unburdening his soul to the departed Late Empress. His voice was faint and hushed.
Hong Fu lacked the standing to respond freely, yet respond he must.
The emperor, as the Son of Heaven, seldom required his service, so Hong Fu seized every chance to prove indispensable, clawing his way forward.
He knelt smoothly and prostrated himself in a gesture of contrition, head lowered. “Since Heaven itself has shown the path, it signifies that Prince Rui was never meant to inherit the sins of those before him. This slave presumes to speculate that Heaven’s decree holds each wrongdoer accountable for their own debts. Noble Consort Ling’s days of comfort are drawing to a close.”
Liu Yuanze gazed down at him. “Zhen promised Yuanxun that no harm would come to his consort mother.”
“Your Majesty,” Hong Fu replied, “Noble Consort Ling endures torment in her present state. Far better for her to follow the Late Emperor—it might even count as a merciful bond.”
“Should Noble Consort Ling die, Yuanxun will know it was Zhen’s handiwork.”
“Not at all,” Hong Fu said with a faint smile. He elaborated, “Were she of sound mind, it would indeed prove difficult. But she is ‘mad’ now. For a madwoman, any outrageous act seems perfectly ordinary.”
“Oh?” Liu Yuanze’s features remained impassive. “What exactly are you suggesting?”
“Your Highness once declared that Noble Consort Ling’s death would compel him to follow suit. His words sprang from sincerity, yet their aim was to safeguard her life against covert assassination. But suppose Noble Consort Ling ended her own life in His Highness’s presence, in a manner both logical and justified. No matter Prince Rui’s acumen, he would never suspect this slave’s machinations.”
His phrasing was masterfully deft. What stemmed from the emperor’s own desires, he framed as his sole responsibility.
Liu Yuanze let out a soft sigh. “Forcing him to witness his own consort mother take her life would be excessively cruel.”
In voicing this, the emperor signaled his tacit consent.
Hong Fu pressed the point. “A fleeting agony spares prolonged suffering. Moreover, this debt is hers to repay. Did not the Zen Master say, ‘Every grievance has its head, every debt its debtor’?”
Liu Yuanze nodded. “You speak wisely.”
A servant could never outshine his master in righteousness.
Servants served as the master’s shadow voice, uttering what he could not and performing what he would not. This was their true purpose—and the reason Hong Fu had eclipsed Feng Huai’an to attend the emperor in the hall.
“Very well,” Liu Yuanze said. “We shall wait until next year’s rites for the Late Emperor. At the least, grant the mother and son a bit more time together.”
He chose the Late Emperor’s sacrificial rites not from benevolence toward Noble Consort Ling, but as a pointed hint: she stirred only for the Late Emperor. Staging her suicide then would appear natural and beyond reproach, leaving Liu Yuanxun no cause for suspicion.
Hong Fu nodded in assent.
With that, the matter was settled.
Liu Yuanze would neither question nor revisit it.
From start to finish, he would neither intervene personally nor learn the particulars. All the rights and wrongs would rest squarely on Hong Fu’s shoulders.
…
That night, Liu Yuanze dreamed.
The visions blurred between reality and phantasm: now Liu Yuanxun knelt in the Crown Prince Hall, pleading desperately for Noble Consort Ling’s life; now the Late Empress lay dying, eyes unclosed, her voice relentlessly demanding vengeance.
These dual voices ensnared him, weaving hatred and heartache into a torturous knot.
He loathed the duplicitous and venomous Noble Consort Ling. Yet the source of his deepest pain was her flesh-and-blood son, Liu Yuanxun.
The year the Late Empress perished, Liu Yuanze was but seven. Dragging her final breaths, she had revealed every secret to him. Too young to act, he watched as the palace-favored Noble Consort Ling eradicated all evidence. No skill of his, however vast, could secure her conviction on mere hearsay.
He endured in silence, feigning loyalty, gulping down a hatred that burned like molten rock. He called the enemy “mother,” knelt at her feet, and played the dutiful son.
That endurance spanned twenty-one grueling years.
Now enthroned at last, with Noble Consort Ling bereft of allies, a single edict could erase her from the palace without a trace.
Into this vendetta, however, intruded the guileless Liu Yuanxun—obedient, perceptive, innocently joyful, cherishing him as a brother. He revered and adored Liu Yuanze, even staking his life to shield him.
Six years prior marked the fiercest phase of the imperial struggle.
Of seven princes, one had died in infancy, another lingered in frailty. The surviving five harbored treachery, their hearts sheathed daggers poised to strike any brother at the slightest opening. The court roiled with intrigue and menace; great ministers backed rival claimants, their factions locked in mortal combat.
The Late Emperor, aged and addled, clutched imperial power like a lifeline, gripped by suspicion toward his sons. Only the frail and innocuous Liu Yuanxun could pierce his hardened heart.
As crown prince, Liu Yuanze was the bane of his four brothers’ existence and the object of their father’s vigilant scrutiny. A single misstep meant utter ruin.
Despite utmost caution, the Second Prince—known as the Wise Prince—seized upon his vulnerability. That indolent pleasure-seeker, who barked little yet bit deep, branded him with charges of secretly allying with ministers to usurp the throne, cornering him utterly.
In the deadly game of imperial succession, peril lurked everywhere. All sought their salvation, none wholly innocent—the crux lay in whose sins surfaced.
Confined by the Late Emperor to the Crown Prince Hall, Liu Yuanze found no minister bold enough to intercede. Advocacy would only solidify the accusations of illicit alliances.
His direst need was to tie off loose ends and contain the fallout.
Yet the Forbidden Army sealed the hall tight; not even a fly escaped. Bereft of messengers, he lost his grip on events. The longer the impasse, the vaster the web his rivals could weave.
In the throes of despair, the doors creaked open.
Liu Yuanxun had braved the deluge, kneeling ceaselessly for three days at peril to himself, until he swayed the Late Emperor to grant Liu Yuanze a chance to clear his name.
In the aftermath, Liu Yuanze vindicated himself. Liu Yuanxun, however, lost his pulse time and again, confined to bed for half a year and teetering on the brink of his seventeenth birthday.
Noble Consort Ling had slain the Late Empress, yet Liu Yuanxun bartered his own vitality for Liu Yuanze’s survival.
Through those long years of coiled restraint, Liu Yuanxun infused his world with a flawless sincerity.
Liu Yuanze sought to dispatch Noble Consort Ling covertly precisely to preserve his brotherhood with Liu Yuanxun.
A life for a life: her repayment would dissolve the enmity between them, allowing their bond as brothers to endure through life and death.
Upon his ascension, as the Late Emperor faded and she fussed at his bedside, Liu Yuanze’s inaugural decree ordered her secret execution. Out of regard for Liu Yuanxun, he even pledged her an intact corpse and posthumous honors.
No sooner had the eunuch departed on that errand than a wild-haired Liu Yuanxun stumbled into the Crown Prince Hall. Barefoot and pallid in his nightclothes, he had staggered all the way from the Late Emperor’s chambers. Clutching Liu Yuanze’s robes, he dropped to his knees with a thud.
Liu Yuanxun’s pleas fell on deaf ears; nor did his bloodied kowtows sway him. Only when Liu Yuanxun pressed a blade to his own throat, vowing death unless she was spared, did Liu Yuanze relent.
Even unto death, Liu Yuanxun spared a thought for him.
He could die, he insisted—but not then.
Of the seven princes, three lay dead, two confined. Only they two remained. Liu Yuanxun’s demise at that juncture would etch Liu Yuanze into the annals as a kinslaying despot.
Yet Liu Yuanxun dared not prolong the standoff. Fearing Liu Yuanze might reconsider or strike at her behind his back, he swallowed the incurable gu poison.
Liu Yuanze even wept tears of blood as he issued a grim vow: if anything happened to Noble Consort Ling, no matter who the culprit might be, he would take his own life on the spot and join his mother in death.
Liu Yuanxun had only said those words to force him into honoring their deal—to keep his hands off Noble Consort Ling from then on.
Once a Gu Worm entered the body, no antidote existed. It would grow endlessly within him, draining every drop of his vital essence and blood until he withered away in the most natural fashion, succumbing slowly to illness.
After swallowing the Gu Worm, he kowtowed miserably to Liu Yuanze. Then he staggered out of the grand hall.
Two days later, the previous emperor passed away, and Noble Consort Ling descended into madness.
From that moment, the brotherhood between him and Liu Yuanxun reached its bitter end.
