The Fisherman's Profit
King Liang fled like a madman, and when the guards pursuing him from behind seemed to draw ever closer, he suddenly whirled around, slashing wildly with a dagger. The Bai family guards hesitated and fell back.
His head was drenched in sweat. Since being attacked by the assassins, King Liang's vitality had been so badly drained that he couldn't even handle two guards anymore.
Just as he was racking his brain for a way out, a tall knife-wielding swordsman abruptly appeared. A chill poured off his blade, and in the blink of an eye, the two Bai guards who had been chasing King Liang stiffened and collapsed where they stood.
The swordsman, with his back to King Liang, slid his long blade back into its sheath.
“Who are you?”
“I serve the Old Ninth Prince of Yan. I was ordered to save King Liang's life once. My master instructed me to rescue Your Highness when needed, and then deliver this message: this is the one and only time. Should there ever be another occasion requiring your life be saved, he will doubt whether you possess the ability to make a suitable ally.”
The swordsman kept his back to King Liang as he continued.
“Go on ahead. I will handle things here.”
No one but King Liang himself knew of the alliance with the Old Ninth Prince of Yan. Watching the two men sprawled on the ground, he nodded without a trace of suspicion, then bolted out of the alley.
Only after King Liang's footsteps had faded completely did the guards on the ground spring to their feet. Grinning ear to ear at the swordsman standing there, they asked:
“Well? Was our acting passable?”
The swordsman gave each of their heads a light knock.
“Let's go!”
The three of them vanished swiftly from the alley, mounted their horses, and raced off after Bai Jingyan's carriage.
Having escaped the alley, King Liang scurried back to his residence in a panic. Clutching the wall as he gasped for breath, he tried to calm his wildly pounding heart.
Bai Jingyan's words from moments ago surfaced in his mind. If the Crown Prince entered the palace, pinned a false charge on him, and seized Liu Yafu for himself—wouldn't that be the worst outcome imaginable?
He had to turn his enemy's own scheme against him. The Crown Prince had drugged Liu Yafu, intending to forcibly take Han King's only daughter into the Crown Prince's residence—so what if it was King Liang who opened his eyes to find himself lying in the same bed as her?
Weak and timid as he was, he had fled in terror from Liu Yafu's maternal grandfather's estate, then rushed into the palace to confess the truth to his imperial father and beg for a plan. He would claim he feared Advisor Dan finding out—that he was terrified of ruining the marriage his father had arranged for him, terrified that Dong Zhengzhen would lose all faith in him.
King Liang headed for the imperial palace at once. Rattled and disheveled as he was, he stood at the palace entrance waiting for the gates to open, then went straight to the Emperor.
“Imperial Father, you must help me. If Zhengzhen learns of this, how heartbroken she will be! Even if I cannot take her as my wife, I do not want to bear the name of a shameless man.
“Yesterday, I went to the Dong estate intending to beg Lord Dong not to make things awkward for Zhengzhen. But as I was leaving, someone approached me and said that my elder brother, the Crown Prince, had defiled the County Mistress of Nan Tao and meant to force her into his residence.
“With peace talks between Jin and Liang underway, I thought if my brother stole the County Mistress away, it would only hand Liang an excuse—so I set off for his residence at once. But the moment I turned, everything went black, and I remember nothing after that.
“When I awoke... the County Mistress of Nan Tao was lying beside me. I was terrified, Imperial Father! I didn't know what to do, and so I have come to the palace to beg for your help.”
The Emperor stared down at King Liang, who was sobbing as he spoke, and his heart plummeted. Looking down at the young man kneeling on the floor, clutching the hem of his robe with a face full of terror, the Emperor clenched his jaw.
“Did anyone see you leaving the residence?”
King Liang had thought it over carefully on the way here. If he claimed someone had spotted him, the Emperor would grow suspicious—would think he had deliberately allowed himself to be seen to frame the Crown Prince and profit from it.
And if he mentioned Bai Jingyan, the Emperor would certainly ask how exactly he had escaped her grasp. He could hardly confess to forming an alliance with the Old Ninth Prince of Yan, could he?
The memory of Bai Jingyan's enigmatic, half-smiling expression flickered through his mind, and a sudden chill ran down his spine.
“No one saw me. I was so frightened I ran straight here to the palace. I simply cannot understand why I was lying in the County Mistress's bed! Imperial Father, please, spare me. I fled in secret... from her maternal family's estate.”
“In secret?”
The Emperor frowned.
“Are you telling me everyone in the residence is dead? That they simply left the gates open for you to slip out unseen?”
“I don't know, Imperial Father! When I woke, the County Mistress was lying beside me, and I was so frightened I grabbed my clothes and ran...”
King Liang babbled on, then a strange feeling crept over him and he lifted his head.
“There were no serving maids in the room, and when I fled... I didn't run into a single soul on the way out...”
The Emperor's head began to ache. He recalled the Crown Prince's offhand remark—that Dong Qing'e held military command in his hands.
The Emperor knew everything about King Liang's household. When King Liang had declared he would make elixirs, the Emperor had investigated every single person in the manor. Refining elixirs was a matter of the gravest importance. The fact that the Emperor was defying the ancestral precepts by consuming them must never, ever leak out.
Could someone with no accomplice inside have breached the guards of the residence, entered it, and then slipped back out without crossing paths with a single person?
The Emperor looked at King Liang, who hung his head, unable to contain his weeping. Then he raised his chin and called for Gao Demu.
“Summon the Crown Prince. I have questions for him!”
With those words, the Emperor fixed his gaze on King Liang.
“Go wash your face. Look at the state of you!”
Tears streaming down his cheeks, King Liang spoke.
“Imperial Father, Imperial Father. Please, tell no one of this. I am already in enough pain, knowing I cannot marry Zhengzhen! I pray she never finds out.”
The Emperor looked up and rapped King Liang on the head.
“Get out!”
The Crown Prince was changing into his court robes to attend the morning audience when the palace summoned him in haste.
Advisor Fang found it strange. An urgent summons from the Emperor at this hour—it had to mean the affair between King Liang and the County Mistress of Nan Tao had come to light. So why had the assassins he sent still not returned?
Anxious as he was, he could hardly tell the Crown Prince not to go. The eunuch dispatched by the Emperor was waiting, and there was no time to waste.
Advisor Fang gave the Crown Prince his parting counsel.
“Your Highness, if His Majesty asks how this matter should be resolved, you must present yourself as the ideal elder brother. Say that King Liang acted on a moment's impulse... and that with Liang and Jin on the verge of peace, the truth must be kept hidden at all costs.”
“Advisor Fang, that is exactly what I shall say.”
The Crown Prince straightened his sleeves and, supported by Zhan Yu, climbed into his carriage.
The moment the Crown Prince departed, Advisor Fang sent someone to the residence of Lord Wang, the Minister of Rites, to find out what was going on.
By dawn, the commoners eating breakfast at street stalls had gathered in twos and threes, whispering among themselves. The County Mistress of Nan Tao, Liu Yafu, had seen King Liang off at the side gate of the Minister of Rites's mansion—and his clothes had been in disarray. What was more, someone had witnessed the two of them behaving tenderly toward each other even at the entrance.
“Is it true? Wasn't the County Mistress Liu Yafu supposed to marry the fourth prince of Liang?”
“Ah, don't you know? The Zhenguo Commandery Princess beat Liang so badly it knocked their senses loose. They say Grand Marshal Xun is dead! Why would the County Mistress marry into Liang now?”
“Hm, hearing it put that way, it does make sense.”
Before long, Liu Yafu awoke—and the moment she saw her own face in the mirror, she nearly lost her mind.
On the pale skin she had always taken such fierce pride in, marks lingered everywhere. The coverlet atop the bed was stained a red that stung the eyes, and her whole body ached as though she had been beaten.
Her two close maids had woken slowly, only after hearing Liu Yafu's screams. But when they opened their eyes, they found themselves lying beneath the back window. Disoriented, they ran as fast as they could—and before they could even reach the room, they saw the Old Lady Wang and three of the Wang daughters-in-law rushing over in alarm.
The moment Old Lady Wang and her party stepped through the courtyard gate, Liu Yafu's harrowed screams rang out one after another.
Her heart lurched, and Old Lady Wang flung off her eldest daughter-in-law's hand, shouting:
“Summon the imperial physicians, now!”
Liu Yafu's two maids knelt at the entrance and pressed their foreheads to the ground, unable to lift their heads.
“We pay our respects to the Old Lady.”
“Baozhen... Baozhen!”
Leaning on her cane, Old Lady Wang called out Liu Yafu's childhood name and hurried into the inner chamber with quick, stumbling steps.
When her old nurse opened the door and hastened around the folding screen, they found Liu Yafu sitting there, wrapped in the coverlet, her face drained white. The skin of her exposed neck was covered in red marks—and at the sight of her, the women's legs gave out beneath them, and they sank to their knees where they stood.
Old Lady Wang fainted dead away.
While the Wang household descended into chaos, Bai Jingyan and her party were making their unhurried way toward Suyang.
Dong Zhengzhen had thrown herself against Bai Jingyan's legs and wept without end, until Bai Jingyan's clothes were soaked through.
Bai Jingyan stroked her hair and comforted her.
“Zhengzhen, stop crying. Grieving over a man who meant to use you is a waste of tears. Go stay with my mother for a while—let Suyang lift your spirits. Later, once Dadu quiets down, if the Zhen family still asks for your hand, give the match serious thought then. I've met Zhen Cuilu. He seemed a man of upright character—a good husband, I'd say.”
Bai Jinchi glanced once at Dong Zhengzhen, who could not stop weeping, then patted her on the back.
“Honestly! Zhengzhen, it's still a mercy, you know. If our eldest sister hadn't caught on, you'd have fallen straight into King Liang's trap. Be glad it turned out this way!”
Only then did Dong Zhengzhen come back to herself. She hastily sat up and looked at Bai Jingyan through tear-brimmed eyes, then seized her hand.
“Sister! It was... it was all thanks to you. Even after you reasoned with me like that, I still couldn't pull myself together. And even so, you went to all this trouble just to show me King Liang's true face.”
“We're family. So don't say things like that.”
Bai Jingyan smiled and took Dong Zhengzhen's hand.
In her past life, Dong Zhengzhen had suffered greatly because of the Bai family.
In this life, Bai Jingyan would protect her with everything she had.
She could not allow Dong Zhengzhen to endure, all over again, what she herself had lived through before.
Dong Zhengzhen buried herself in Bai Jingyan's arms and began to weep. By the time the party reached the way station, her heart seemed at last to be settling, little by little.
While Dong Zhengzhen went to repair her face, Bai Jinchi strolled nearby with Bai Jingyan.
“Sister, will King Liang really go into the palace and accuse the Crown Prince of trying to harm him and Liu Yafu?”
Bai Jinchi scratched her head. She couldn't quite put her mind at ease.
“What if the Emperor believes him? If he does, the Crown Prince's in a real tangle, and only King Liang comes out ahead.”
“It was the Crown Prince who did the deed. Anything done leaves evidence behind. If the Emperor sets his mind to investigating, he'll find it soon enough. The Crown Prince is terrified of the Emperor above all things—he'll confess everything, truth and all, before His Majesty even has the chance to look.
“But I imagine he wanted the Emperor to see that King Liang isn't as weak and feeble as he appears—and to expose, under the cover of the marriage alliance, the fact that King Liang has his eye on military power.
“Above all, the Crown Prince is no fool. If King Liang took Liu Yafu as his wife, not a single thing about it would benefit him... and the Emperor knows that as well as anyone. So he won't scold the Crown Prince too harshly.”
Bai Jingyan turned her head to look at Bai Jinchi, whose eyes brimmed with curiosity.
“If you're so curious, listen in when word arrives from Dadu.”
“Yes, ma'am!”
At that, Bai Jinchi's mood brightened considerably.