Chapter 210: The Crown Prince Falsely Accused of Treason and Placed Under House Arrest…

Caomu Courtyard had once been a slightly secluded palace. A hundred years ago, it still housed concubines who had fallen out of favor. Later, someone took their own life there, and rumors spread that a wrongful death had led to vengeful hauntings. Strange noises at night left people uneasy, and over time, the place was abandoned.

When Xie Hui arrived, he saw wild grass growing thick along the path. After the frost, the yellowed blades only added to the desolation.

Guard Lu, seeing the scene, thought His Majesty was displeased and asked quietly,

“Your Majesty, shall I order someone to clean this place up?”

“No need.”

Weeds had grown thick between the cracks in the bricks. Normally, only the palace maid who delivered meals would come by. Guard Lu pushed open the door, and two personal guards entered first. Xie Hui stepped over the threshold after them. As soon as he entered, a strong musty stench hit him, and he frowned in distaste.

He didn’t go any further inside. Instead, he ordered Guard Lu to bring out the Emperor Emeritus. Standing in the courtyard, he looked at the man slumped on a broken stool, his entire being steeped in decay. Xie Hui lowered his head slightly and smiled.

“Your son greets you, Father Emperor.”

The Emperor Emeritus sat hunched over and didn’t even bother to lift his head at those words.

“I’ve been busy since ascending the throne and haven’t had the chance to visit you.”

“Father Emperor, did you know? All those favored consorts you once doted on in the Inner Palace—I’ve arranged new marriages for them. They’re now living happily with their new husbands. Even Consort Xiao, whom you disliked the most, is already a month pregnant.”

In this dynasty, women were not forbidden from remarrying. In fact, if they brought children with them, they were seen as blessed and able to bring prosperity to their new families.

There had never been a precedent for imperial concubines remarrying. When Xie Hui first proposed it, a minister tried to advise him against it, citing tradition.

Coincidentally, that minister’s wife had also been married before. Xie Hui casually suggested that the Empress Dowager¹ have a chat with her about whether remarried women were truly disgraceful. After that, the minister never brought it up again. In fact, he even started helping Xie Hui refute other officials in court.

“You!”

The thought of women who once belonged to him now married to other men made the Emperor Emeritus so furious that his breathing grew ragged. He finally lifted his head and glared viciously at Xie Hui.

“And also, Father Emperor, perhaps because you spoiled Sixth Brother too much, he was too weak. That day, Consort Xian didn’t die immediately.”

The Emperor Emeritus, who had been gasping in rage, suddenly had a flicker of light in his eyes.

“She’s still alive?”

“Since Consort Xian was meant to die, even if she didn’t die by Sixth Brother’s hand, I had the palace maids hold her down and not let her struggle. It took quite a while before she finally stopped breathing.”

As Xie Hui spoke, his lips held a calm, leisurely smile. Even dressed in a dark imperial robe, his demeanor remained as gentle and refined as ever.

“She truly lived up to being your favorite, Father Emperor. She was quite something.”

Just then, the Sixth Prince stumbled out from inside the hall, his voice hoarse as he shouted,

“What did you do to my mother?!”

“Sixth Brother, you’re mistaken. What do you mean, what did I do to Consort Xian? That knife—you were the one who picked it up.”

At that moment, snow began to fall heavily. Guard Lu opened an oil-paper umbrella. Though they stood in a slightly sunken part of the courtyard, they showed no sign of weakness.

“I was right there, watching as Consort Xian lay on the cold ground, struggling. In her final moments, her mind clouded, she was still calling for you, Father Emperor.”

Xie Hui looked at the Emperor Emeritus, who was screaming in grief, and the smile on his lips only grew gentler.

Perhaps they truly loved each other. But love built on the corpses of the innocent was nothing but revolting.

“Father Emperor, every time I recall that scene, I can’t help but drink a few extra cups in delight.”

“Your gentle and virtuous Consort Xian once said her residence was built over water to help her sleep better at night, and that in summer, listening to the rain on banana leaves was soothing. But why is it that there’s not a trace of that in Sixth Brother’s palace?”

“And… why did my younger sister die that day? Do you truly not know, Father Emperor?”

In the client’s memory, the Emperor Emeritus and Consort Xian hadn’t committed many misdeeds. But after Xie Hui took the throne, he ordered the arrest and interrogation of those who had once served closely beside them. The truth he uncovered went far beyond what the client had known.

The young princess, the Empress’s daughter who died young, was always believed to have drowned by accident while playing. But from the mouth of one of Consort Xian’s senior maids, Xie Hui learned that it was during winter when Consort Xian pushed the child into the water. They had all stood on the shore, watching a five-year-old struggle in the freezing lake.

When the Emperor found out, not only did he not punish Consort Xian, he helped cover it up and kept it from the Empress.

Xie Hui never told the Empress, but he suspected she wasn’t entirely unaware. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to sever ties with her husband so easily after so many years of marriage.

“Do you really think I took in that lowly courtesan as a legitimate concubine—enduring ridicule—just because I’m frivolous by nature, Father Emperor?”

Xie Hui’s seemingly casual questions made the Emperor Emeritus’s face grow increasingly ashen.

“And those children hidden in Sixth Brother’s residence, some not even ten years old—do you truly believe he has a pure and gentle nature, Father Emperor?”

After speaking, he sensed that the Client in the System Space was feeling much more at ease. He turned his head slightly to glance at the attendant guard standing by his side and gave an order:

“Someone, cripple Sixth Brother down there. Consider it my apology to those children.”

“I also heard from the attendants serving him that he enjoys hearing children beg in their innocent voices. Cut out his tongue too.”

Xie Hui took the prayer beads wrapped around his wrist and slowly began to turn them, murmuring a Buddhist chant as the Sixth Prince screamed and wailed in agony.

“Amitabha.”

Not long after Xie Hui left, someone came to report that the Emperor Emeritus had suffered a stroke from sheer rage. He was now paralyzed in bed, unable to speak clearly. They asked whether a physician should be summoned.

“Let Sixth Brother attend to him. No need for an imperial physician.”

Since the Emperor Emeritus was so fond of the child born from his beloved consort, Xie Hui wasn’t a stingy man. Naturally, he would grant them their wish and bind them together for the rest of their lives.

The next day, a matron serving the Empress Dowager came to deliver a message, inviting him to join her for lunch.

Xie Hui brought Xie Chengqi, who had just finished his studies, along to pay respects to the Empress Dowager. After lunch, Chengqi was taken outside to play by the matron, leaving only the Empress Dowager and Xie Hui alone in the hall.

The Empress Dowager, always so dignified, now looked as if she had aged decades. She leaned on the table for support, tightly clutching a child’s garment in one hand, tears silently falling.

Xie Hui handed her a handkerchief. After wiping away her tears, her voice was hoarse.

“All these years, in the dead of night, I keep dreaming of Shu An. She’s wearing the clothes I sewed for her with my own hands, saying she’s cold and wants her mother to hold her.”

Back then, the eldest daughter of the Xie family had suffered greatly to marry into the royal family, which the noble clans had always disdained. How could there have been no feelings involved? Later, when she lost her beloved daughter, her heart gradually turned cold.

Yesterday, upon hearing that the Emperor Emeritus had suffered a stroke from rage, she didn’t feel the slightest bit of pity. Instead, her heart was filled with satisfaction. She knelt before the Buddha and copied scriptures all night, then ordered the matron to burn them this morning.

While listening to the Empress Dowager speak, Xie Hui caught a glimpse of Xie Chengqi peeking curiously through the window. The moment their eyes met, the boy quickly ducked his head back out of sight.

On the way back, Xie Chengqi looked up at his father and asked curiously:

“Father, who is Shu An?”

“She was your aunt.”

“Then why have I never seen her?”

“She was pushed into a freezing lake by Consort Xian and never had the chance to grow up.”

Hearing this, Xie Chengqi realized he had asked something he shouldn’t have.

“Father, if Consort Xian was so wicked, why did Grandfather Emperor still like her so much?”

“Probably because they were two of a kind.”

Xie Hui had originally thought that once the child became Crown Prince, he would understand the weight of his responsibilities and shed his lazy habits. But even after two or three months, he was still the same.

Especially in winter, he simply couldn’t get out of his warm bed.

When Xie Hui personally went to check on him, he had just lifted the blanket when he heard the boy mumbling his lessons with bleary eyes. That earnest look made it hard for Xie Hui to scold him.

Now that the Crown Prince had been officially appointed, the Empress Dowager no longer urged him, though court officials occasionally pressured Xie Hui to hold a selection for new consorts. He dismissed them all.

Sometimes Xie Hui couldn’t help but wonder if most emperors died young simply from exhaustion. There were so many affairs of state, and they still had to listen to ministers’ reports and deliberate over them.

In the time that remained, he would visit the Empress Dowager or check on Chengqi’s studies. He had no energy left to spare for the Inner Palace.

Children grew fast, and with Xie Chengqi’s current status, no one dared to mistreat him. He even developed a bit of baby fat. Dressed in the formal attire of a Crown Prince, he tried to maintain a serious expression, but the moment he saw Xie Hui, he would sweetly call out “Father.” The contrast was so endearing that Xie Hui couldn’t help but be fond of him.

Time flew by. After Xie Chengqi turned sixteen, the Empress Dowager brought up the matter of selecting a bride when Xie Hui visited her.

“It’s a good time to settle things now. And you too—without someone close by to care for you, choosing one or two wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

Though Xie Chengqi was outstanding, the Empress Dowager, having grown older, often thought about the blessings of having many children.

“Mother, as for Chengqi, I’ll ask him if there’s someone he loves. As for me, let’s leave it be.”

“Fine, fine, do as you wish.”

The Empress Dowager had only mentioned it in passing. Seeing that he wasn’t interested, she didn’t press the matter.

“Asking Chengqi is a good idea. As long as the girl has good character and a decent family background, even if she can’t be Crown Princess, she could still be a consort to accompany him.”

Xie Hui had long since involved Xie Chengqi in state affairs. After leaving the Empress Dowager’s quarters, he went straight to the study. Seeing the young man seated behind the desk reviewing memorials, he gestured to Guard Lu, who was about to announce him, to stay silent.

“Chengqi.”

The Crown Prince instinctively looked up at the sound of his name. When he saw that it was his father standing at the door, he quickly set his brush aside and got up to greet him.

He stood before Xie Hui and bowed respectfully.

“Your son greets Father Emperor.”

“Mm, rise. Have you finished reading the memorials? Come walk with me in the garden.”

At those words, Xie Chengqi didn’t care how many memorials were left unread. He smiled and readily agreed.

“Okay, Daddy.”

Translator’s Notes