Chapter 9: The Old Duke Says, “Go Find a Wife at the Poetry Gathering!”

Zhao Ji was dumbfounded.

Halfway out of the hall, he was hauled back by the Imperial Guard.

He trembled all over.

A wastrel he might be, but he was no fool. He understood Li Xuanzhen’s intentions perfectly.

With things having reached this point, Emperor Jingyuan did not mind spending a little longer on the matter.

He set the same subject he had given Li Xuanzhen: loyalty to one’s sovereign.

But Zhao Ji could not think of so much as half a word, let alone compose an entire poem.

An incense stick burned down.

The emperor lost patience and waved his hand.

The guards finally dragged Zhao Ji out of Zichen Hall, the crotch of his trousers soaked through.

Cui Zheng sighed and shook his head.

Someone had asked him to look after Zhao Ji at court, and he had done so.

Otherwise, he would never have drawn the vice ministers of the other five ministries into taking sides here.

His purpose had been to lend Zhao Ji a hand at the crucial moment.

Of course, he had not thought through the deeper implications. Nor had he expected the Duke of Liang and the other dukes to come to the palace.

That was why, in the end, he had not dared offer a single word on Zhao Ji’s behalf.

Neither the emperor nor that other person was someone a mere Vice Minister of Justice could afford to offend.

Now, saying nothing meant he had done nothing wrong.

Zhao Ji could accomplish nothing and ruin everything. He had spoiled that person’s carefully laid plans.

Looking at the dukes and high officials in the hall, Emperor Jingyuan felt a dreadful ache in his head.

A perfectly good arrangement had been thrown into chaos by someone else.

Still, so be it.

In exchange, he had obtained Li Xuanzhen’s pledge of allegiance.

Given how much Li Zhenbei doted on his grandson, the boy’s words carried enough weight to speak for half the ducal household.

The emperor had no desire to waste more words. He rose.

“The facts have been established. You may all withdraw. We are tired.”

The dukes and officials bowed and saluted toward the dais.

After one more look at Li Xuanzhen, Emperor Jingyuan turned and entered the inner hall.

The affair was over.

Li Xuanzhen let out a long breath.

Honestly, without his grandfather’s support, today’s events might have ended very badly.

The Academy place his uncle had bought him had been a hidden mine. Now it had been defused. No one should be able to use it against him again.

Besides, with the emperor ordering the Ministry of Justice to investigate the Academy, the other powerful families had fires of their own to put out. Who would have time to frame the Duke of Liang’s household?

As for whoever had been stirring things up behind the scenes, Li Xuanzhen gave a cold laugh. He could investigate.

Having failed this time, they would surely try again.

Once he found a lead, he would let no culprit go, whoever it was.

Leaving Zichen Hall, he decided to celebrate his narrow escape at the Court Entertainment Bureau.

Before he could begin humming a tune, a large foot struck him hard in the backside from behind.

Caught off balance, he flew more than ten feet.

He turned, ready to curse, only for half his bluster to wither away.

The kicker was his grandfather.

Li Zhenbei came up and glared down at him.

“You wretched boy!

“Tell me the truth. Where did you steal that poem?”

“Steal?” Li Xuanzhen’s mouth twitched. Ignoring the pain in his backside, he hurriedly stood and snorted. “I composed it myself!

“Besides, did you actually see me steal anything?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to respect his elders. This was how the body’s original owner had always spoken to his grandfather.

Which made sense. If Great Li’s foremost wastrel behaved deferentially toward everyone, wouldn’t that disgrace his reputation?

Li Zhenbei, moreover, appeared accustomed to his grandson’s attitude.

A grandparent’s special affection!

The duke snorted angrily.

“Don’t think I don’t know you. With the little you have in your head, you could compose a poem that brilliant?

“Tell me the truth at once.

“If you really copied someone else’s work, I can prepare in advance.

“Otherwise you’ll drag the whole household down with you.”

Warmth stirred in Li Xuanzhen’s chest again.

“And how exactly,” he asked, “would my honored grandfather prepare?”

Li Zhenbei snorted. Without caring who might be nearby, he answered with utter frankness.

“What nonsense! I don’t like twists and turns. I’d kill the man to keep him quiet, of course.

“If the original author came looking for you, a hundred mouths wouldn’t be enough to argue your way out.”

The other three dukes, still within earshot, glanced over.

Feeling their looks, Li Xuanzhen’s hair stood on end.

Kill the man to silence him? Did his grandfather have to put it so bluntly?

As the six vice ministers passed, the Duke of Liang’s words made them shudder. They hurried away at a near trot.

They did not have the standing of the other three dukes.

Besides, the Duke of Liang controlled troops. Accusing him over a single remark would mean a feud to the death.

Mere vice ministers had no reason to take such an enormous risk.

Zhang Wenzhen and Wei Mingyuan, by contrast, strolled over leisurely.

The chancellor chuckled and saluted.

“Your Grace is truly a man of spirit. This junior admires you.”

Wei Mingyuan laughed heartily. “As decisive in matters of life and death as ever, Your Grace.”

A row of question marks might as well have appeared over Li Xuanzhen’s head.

Wasn’t Great Li’s Right Chancellor supposed to impeach a duke who openly proposed murder to silence a witness?

Wasn’t the director of the Prison Pacification Bureau supposed to hate evil like a mortal enemy?

Yet their expressions gave Li Xuanzhen the peculiar feeling that if his grandfather really did kill someone to keep him quiet, these two might not report him at all. They might even applaud from the sidelines.

He swallowed and spoke nervously.

“Grandfather, I really did compose that poem.

“If you don’t believe me, you can offer a large reward for information.”

Li Zhenbei frowned suspiciously.

“You really wrote it?”

Li Xuanzhen nodded. “Absolutely.”

Zhang Wenzhen stroked his beard and smiled.

“You certainly aren’t modest, lad.

“As it happens, my son is holding a poetry gathering at our residence today. Come along if you’re interested.”

Wei Mingyuan saluted the old duke.

“I have urgent business, Your Grace. I shall take my leave.”

Li Zhenbei nodded. “You’re a busy man. Off you go.”

After a bow and salute, Wei Mingyuan strode away.

The duke glanced at his grandson and snorted.

“Since Chancellor Zhang has invited you, you might as well go broaden your horizons.”

Li Xuanzhen rolled his eyes and curled his lip.

“It’s only a poetry gathering. What’s there to see?

“However good it is, can it be more entertaining than the Court Entertainment Bureau?

“However good the poetry, can it sound better than a courtesan queen’s music?”

Li Zhenbei’s mustache bristled.

“Wretched boy!”

Beside him, Zhang Wenzhen stroked his beard and laughed.

“Ah, to be young.”

Li Xuanzhen raised a hand helplessly.

At a moment like this, the more the Right Chancellor praised him, the more he stoked Li Zhenbei’s anger.

Judging the moment right, Zhang Wenzhen spoke again.

“Young people make friends through poetry. It may offer fewer delights than the Court Entertainment Bureau, but it is a useful place to meet people.

“You saw what happened today. Zhao Ji is one of Great Li’s leading wastrels, just like you.

“Someone must have put him up to framing you.

“You seem to have guessed that you were not his true target.

“Today’s gathering may introduce you to people and matters you will never encounter at the Court Entertainment Bureau.

“Whether you go is for you to consider.”

He saluted the old duke, turned, and left.

Li Xuanzhen understood. The Right Chancellor was giving him a hint.

Apparently, Zhang Wenzhen knew things other people did not.

Of course, Li Xuanzhen also knew the chancellor did not get along with his second uncle.

Whenever they met, they argued until their faces reddened, then parted on bad terms.

Li Zhenbei snorted.

“Well, boy? Are you going?”

Li Xuanzhen shook his head.

“I think I’ll pass.

“Making friends through poetry really isn’t my thing.

“I’m afraid once I start composing, those self-proclaimed geniuses will be too ashamed to show their faces.”

Li Zhenbei promptly raised his foot and kicked him to the ground again.

The two kicks combined made Li Xuanzhen feel as if his backside had split into eight pieces.

The duke’s mustache bristled.

“Wretched boy! You think I’m sending you there to make friends? I’m sending you to look around. If there’s a girl you fancy—”

“What else do you do at a poetry gathering but make friends?” Li Xuanzhen rubbed his backside, looking aggrieved.

Li Zhenbei scolded him angrily.

“And you call yourself Great Li’s foremost wastrel!

“A poetry gathering means men and women. If you see a girl you like, you can simply abduct—

“Invite her home to be your wife.

“You’re my legitimate grandson. It doesn’t matter whose daughter she is.

“Besides, with that swaggering temper of yours, you’ve made enemies everywhere. Some villain might frame you again any day.

“Better give me a great-grandson before disaster strikes.

“Then I won’t bother keeping you in line. You can do whatever you please.”

At these loving words from his grandfather, Li Xuanzhen’s mouth twitched yet again…

Meanwhile, at the Duke of Liang’s residence.

Ever since Li Xuanzhen had been taken toward the palace in a prison cart, and the old duke had gone to court armed and armored, the household had been in complete turmoil.

A woman’s sobbing rose repeatedly from the main hall.

Li Cijiu, General Who Pacifies the North, stood beside her with a miserable expression, trying to soothe her as she wept.

She was his wife, Lu Lingyi.

And she was a legitimate daughter of the main line of the Lu clan of Fanyang, one of the Five Surnames and Seven Great Houses.

Li Cijiu looked helpless.

“My dear, don’t cry. Zhen’er may not be in danger.

“Besides, you saw Father go too.”

Lu Lingyi only cried harder.

Her father-in-law had gone to the palace with a coffin!

Through her sobs, she reproached him.

“What do you know? When your elder brother and his wife died one after the other, Zhen’er was hardly bigger than a kitten.

“I raised him myself, through every dirty nappy and every mess.

“Nearly twenty years I’ve raised him. I’ve treated him even better than my own son.

“And now he’s gone to see the emperor in a prison cart.

“My heart feels as though someone’s carving it out with a knife.

“If anything happens to Zhen’er, I won’t go on living either!”

Li Cijiu went numb.

For all his standing as a great northern general, the one thing he could not bear was his wife’s tears.

Just then, Old Huang, the gatekeeper who had served the household for nearly thirty years, rushed into the main hall.

Li Cijiu had anger and nowhere to put it. At the sight of the flustered gatekeeper, he stood and snapped:

“What the hell are you panicking for?”

Old Huang was so breathless he could barely speak. Still, he forced out a few words.

“General…

“Madam…

“The old duke…

“The young master…”

Li Cijiu’s face turned black.

Lu Lingyi stopped crying. She gripped her husband’s hand tightly, her palm slick with cold sweat.