Qiang Jin Jiu (Author : Tang Jiuqing 唐酒卿)

Chapter 13 : Little Cicada

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Without looking at Li Jianheng, Xiao Chiye righted the lid of the teacup slowly with his fingers. He said, “Don’t fret.”

Li Jianheng sat back in his chair, scared out of his wits. He heard the Empress Dowager ask, “His Majesty the Emperor is here, and the patrol is strict. How could a person drown for no reason?”

Ji Lei said, “To reply Your Majesty, this humble subject has already sent someone to take the corpse to await the coroner’s examination. We will know the details soon.”

“What do you mean?” Being chronically sick had laden Emperor Xiande’s brows with an aura of gloom. He said, “Don’t tell me there is something fishy about his death?”

Ji Lei said, “Your Majesty, he was bruised all over when we fished him out of the water. It’s clear that he had received a beating. Although Xiaofuzi was a court eunuch of the palace, he didn’t hold any important post in the twenty-four yamen; he was merely His Majesty’s personal eunuch. If he was tortured before he died, then I’m afraid the murderer might be plotting something major.”

Supporting himself on the table, Emperor Xiande stood up and said coldly, “I have only just stepped out of the palace, and already there are people who can’t wait.”

“Your Majesty.” Hai Liangyi stepped out and kneeled to say, “The Imperial Guards and the Eight Great Training Divisions are on rotation duty with one another today to conduct patrols. If the murderer was really plotting something, how would he have dared to do such a sloppy work of it? Xiaofuzi usually took on the job of leaving the palace to make purchases. It’s not impossible for him to make personal enemies out of others elsewhere.”

Secretariat Elder Hua, Hua Siqian, who had been sitting upright without moving, said, “Renshi, you can’t put it that way. A man who dares to strike before His Majesty clearly has no regard for His Majesty and all the officials present. Who among the ordinary commoners outside the palace would have this kind of guts?”

Xiao Chiye sat still as the gears turned in his mind.

At the third quarter of the hour of Wu, Chen Yang had dragged Xiaofuzi into the woods. In just an hour, the eunuchs serving the dishes at the start of the banquet and the Eight Great Training Divisions taking over the patrol would pass by. All those present today were bigwigs. No one would remember everyone who left their seats to change attire, drink tea, or make a trip to the latrine. What’s more, the accompanying soldiers and eunuchs all had the right to move around the garden too. Someone only needed to give Xiaofuzi a light kick in that timespan of an hour, and he would have drowned in the pond.

Looking at the situation now, the thorny issue was not explaining how the bruises on Xiaofuzi’s body came about. Instead, it was that Ji Lei had changed the course of investigation and turned this murder case into a suspect case for rebellion.

Xiao Chiye tapped his fingertips on the lid. 

This fire must never burn its way to Prince Chu. 

The Emperor was gravely ill now, and the Imperial Physician was at his wits’ end. No one could even predict the day of his demise. However, Emperor Xiande had no heirs. Once the unexpected happens, Li Jianheng would be the next one in line to the throne.
What happened today was all because he did not think things through. It was too brazen for Li Jianheng to leave his seat. This was something he could not simply dismiss with a perfunctory excuse.

The Xiao Clan was treading on thin ice. If they were to be suspected of being implicated in the tussle for the imperial throne again, then the one hundred and twenty thousand military forces of Libei would be the executioner blade on Xiao Jiming’s neck.