Chapter 95: Suspect illness

Xu Shuqiao stood before the doors of the imperial study, her thumb thoughtlessly smoothing the wrinkles of the fabric atop the memorial. The midsummer's wind swept by the skirts of her court attire, the breeze making the tassels at her waist sway. The sunlight glinted such that one's head grew dizzy and their eyes grew blurred, and she shifted her feet, wanting to hide away under the eaves, when she suddenly heard the sound of footsteps.

"Xu-daren," Xun Zhu's voice floated along with her footsteps, "you'd best hurry up and come in; her majesty is waiting for you."

When she finished speaking, she extended a hand, gesturing to the inside of the hall, and Xu Shuqiao followed it inside. However, the instant she entered the imperial study's threshold, cold sweat arose on Xu Shuqiao's back.

It wasn't because of her; it was because of the content written in that memorial of hers—the jaw of anyone who saw it would drop from shock.

The incense lit in the imperial study was frighteningly heavy, and the window cut the sunlight into golden fragments. It wasn't clear if it was because she'd been under the sun too long, or because of her nerves, but Xu Shuqiao had only stook still for a moment when she felt faint and blurry-eyed. Jiang Changbai was halfway reclined on the low couch, her brows furrowed with wrinkles.

"That's to say—" Jiang Changbai suddenly tossed the memorial aside, startling Xu Shuqiao such that she couldn't help but straighten up, "this matter was carried out by Lin Yingqing?"

The end of her words rose, and her gaze seemed to stab into Xu Shuqiao's body like a hook. At this moment, it was precisely the hottest time of the day, and though the imperial study had had ice placed in it, it could only lower the temperature a bit. More than that, Xu Shuqiao had just come in from outside, and by reason, the heat on her body ought not to have had the time to fully dissipate. But at this moment, she felt her entire body had fallen into an icy cavern.

She felt her inner clothes had been soaked with cold sweat, and her raised hands trembled faintly. "Responding to Bixia, the Warden's confession is here. This matter was interrogated by this minister personally, with Meng-daren supervising, and we…wouldn't dare to falsify it."

Before she'd even finished speaking, a bead of sweat fell from her forehead to the ground, scattering with a splatter.

The sound of the cicadas outside the window seemed to have grown suddenly larger in this moment; when Jiang Changbai rose, the ornaments stitched to her waist made a clatter as they struck each other. She walked to the bookshelf, and took something out. "How is it that We recall that Lin Yingqing hasn't attended court on account of illness for a long while?"

"That…that is the case," Xu Shuqiao hurried to respond. But actually, she'd never met Lin Yingqing before; after all, Lin Yingqing had fallen ill before she'd entered the official sphere, and the two of them had never met before.

Jiang Changbai looked at her, and continued, "Recently, We even sent some imperial physicians to take a look, and they weren't able to find anything; how is it that such an ailing person would have the wherewithal to pay mind to the matters of the Imperial Prison?"

Xu Shuqiao hung her head. "This minister—this minister doesn't know."

"Would you be able to know?" Jiang Changbai's voice suddenly softened. "As we recall, you've never met Lin Yingqing, have you. Someone come, summon Zhao-taiyi!"

"Understood!"

Xun Zhu turned and left, and Xu Shuqiao saw that her whisper a few sentences to Qing Huai, who had been waiting in the corridor, and Qing Huai hurriedly trotted towards the Academy of Imperial Physicians.

The scent of incense in the imperial study grew stronger and stronger. Xu Shuqiao, head bowed, stared at the dust that had dirtied her official's boots, and only now sensed that her inner clothes, which had been soaked through by sweat, were sticking wetly to her spine.

The cicadas outside the window still droned clamorously without tiring.

"Is there something else?" Seeing Xu Shuqiao was neither leaving nor speaking, Jiang Changbai asked, puzzled. As soon as she'd spoken, Xu Shuqiao's knees suddenly went weak, and with a thud, she fell to her knees.

"Responding to Bixia," Xu Shuqiao said, feeling her palms were clammy with sweat, "though Yang Zhuofei committed a great crime, she was never stripped of her title as Princess. The funeral rites…will her body be wrapped in a woven mat as for a prisoner, or will it be done according to the practices of the imperial clan…"

Before she'd finished speaking a bang suddenly sounded from outside the window. They looked in the direction of the sound, and saw a black ball fall dazedly down.

Xu Shuqiao immediately stopped talking. Actually, at the very start, she hadn't been so reverential of Jiang Changbai. When she'd just passed the keju, she'd been able to meet the Emperor, and all the strategies she'd raised, her majesty had accepted without question, such that when there hadn't been anyone in the court she could trust, she'd once more earned the Emperor's confidence, and been put in an important position.

As Xu Shuqiao saw it, Jiang Changbai was an Emperor who could be no more benevolent and righteous. But the recent matters had changed her views; the previous grandeur, the Minister of Appointments, who'd seemingly been able to cover the heavens with a single hand, and the noble Princess Yu, had, in a single short week, successively been sent to prison. And now, even the uncorrupted, well-known Lin-daren, who'd been ill for a long while, had been investigated in secret.

It was as if, as soon as her majesty was angered, everyone would meet disaster. The phrase "being companion to a ruler can be as perilous as being companion to a tiger" was now not an empty idiom at all.

Xu Shuqiao trembled, fearing that the next thing she said would be wrong, and incur imperial wrath.

"Bixia," Xun Zhu said, in a timely manner, "it seems as if some sort of bird flew into the window; this servant will go take a look."

"Go, then," Jiang Changbai permitted indifferently, not giving the outside a single glance.

She didn't pay Xu Shuqiao any mind either, merely stamping her own seal on that thing with a lowered head. Only after a while did she set the seal down, raising her gaze to look at Xu Shuqiao. "And what do you think?"

"This minister—this minister…" Xu Shuqiao stuttered a bit as she spoke.

"Naturally according to a princess' standards," Jiang Changbai said, rising and sitting by the desk. "Don't come ask Us about such small matters in the future."

"But…" Xu Shuqiao was a bit hesitant still. Just then, by chance, another voice carried in from outside the imperial study, and the owner of that voice wasn't so timid as Xu Shuqiao.

"But wasn't Prince Yu's tomb long since destroyed?" Song Juguang's voice carried in alongside the sound of her footsteps. She wore everyday attire, striding into the hall.

"You're well-informed," Jiang Changbai, seeing who it was, wasn't angered, and merely replied lightly.

Not knowing why, Xu Shuqiao felt that the atmosphere in the imperial study lightened a great deal as well.

Song Juguang didn't wait for Jiang Changbai to speak, and, without leave, took a seat on the low couch. Jiang Changbai had only just left from there, and even a teacup was still set on the small table by the low couch. The hot tea was agitated into rippling by the voice's sound, and Song Juguang, not even hesitating the slightest bit, picked it up and swallowed it all down.

Yet Jiang Changbai's brows weren't furrowed in the slightest.

Song Juguang seemed not to feel that she'd caused any offence at all, and said, "Last year, when leading forces into the capital, when chasing after some traitors, we chased them into Prince Yu's tomb. Only once the gunpowder had opened a skylight in the tomb did this minister realise that it was Prince Yu's tomb."

Though the word she used was traitors, even Jiang Changbai was utterly certain of the implication of the word "traitors". Perhaps, these so-called "traitors"'s bodies had had the same blood that she did.

But Xu Shuqiao didn't know this; she could only motionlessly use her gaze to monitor the two's expressions. Exploding a prince's tomb, that was a great crime as well, but Jiang Changbai's face didn't have the slightest ripple of emotion.

"Since that's the case," Jiang Changbai said as she picked up the original memorial and opened it, "have the Ministry of Works erect a new tomb at the site of the original Prince Yu's tomb. Since Prince Yu's tomb was already destroyed, the body ought to be hard to find as well. Now, Prince Yu's manor has fallen apart as well, so treat it as if there wasn't such a person."

Then where would Yang Zhuofei's body be buried? The question rose in Xu Shuqiao's mind; with such scorching temperatures, even a place as frigid as the Imperial Prison couldn't keep a corpse for too long. Delaying it further, perhaps the body would even fill with maggots.

But she didn't ask it, only waiting for this Emperor before her to speak.

"During her life, she was a bit unyielding as well; We aren't a petty person either, so for her tombstone, write her own name, Yang Zhuofei. All the matters of conspiracy to overthrow the regime were instigated by Wu Dongmu and Liu Zihe, so what's to be done in specific, you don't need Us to tell you, do you?"

"Understood, this minister will go see to it now," Xu Shuqiao responded, about to leave, but was called back by Jiang Changbai.

"Since it'll be treated as if there never was such a person as Prince Yu, all of the vestiges must be removed as well. Go to the Ministry of Rites, and remember to have the scribes remove Yang Zhuofei's title of Princess."

But this time, Xu Shuqiao didn't have the time to respond, when, from outside, Qing Huai brought Zhao-taiyi in.

Zhao-taiyi wasn't young, and her temples already had white hair. When she'd been young, she'd been spoken of by the common people as a miracle doctor, and when she'd grown old, she'd been summoned into the Palace by Jiang Changbai to be an imperial physician. She'd never seen such a scene before, and seeing the situation, her legs went weak, the things in her purse falling out, her silver needles nearly falling to the ground.

"Bixia, forgive me, please forgive me." Zhao-taiyi hurriedly knelt and apologised, but the next moment, she was helped to her feet by Xun Zhu at Jiang Changbai's indication.

"What are you doing dazed? Do you need Us to pick them up?" Jiang Changbai's gaze swept over the group, her voice still mingled with displeasure. Only now did the people in the room react, and chaotically clean up the mess.

Zhao-taiyi was still a bit fearful and trepidatious, and she trembled, not daring to make a single movement. Only now did Jiang Changbai cast a glance at her. "Please, sit."

"Thanks to Bixia."

Though Zhao-taiyi had sat down, her heart was still hammering. Having lived so long, she could more or less guess why Jiang Changbai had sought for her today, but she still carried the tension of having made a mistake and not having been found out.

But what if?

But the next words Jiang Changbai spoke snuffed out the hope in her heart.

"We ask you, is this illness of Lin Yingqing's true or a sham? If you deceived Us before, as long as you tell the truth now, We will let bygones be bygones."

Though Zhao-taiyi's temples were speckled with white, when she spoke, it was still full of vitality. "Respond—responding to Bixia, Lin-daren's pulse is as faint as a gossamer thread, just like…" She cast a glance at the memorial in Jiang Changbai's hand, her throat suddenly stoppered up, and she only spoke after hesitating a while. "Just as in poor health. But what the cause of illness is, exactly, this subject—this subject wasn't able to diagnose."

"Not able to diagnose?" Jiang Changbai narrowed her eyes, looking at Zhao-taiyi, "then of the Academy of Imperial Physicians, who do you think could diagnose this illness of Lin Yingqing's?"

Zhao-taiyi, hearing this, fell silent; after all, as she saw it, of the Academy of Imperial Physicians, their medical expertise was all far inferior to her own. For an illness not even she could diagnose, it was likely that no one in the Academy of Imperial Physicians could.

"Bixia, please forgive me."

After thinking it over and over, she could only get up from the chair and once more kneel down.

"You're kneeling at every turn," Jiang Changbai said, her expression showing some impatience, "as if We are mercurial—get up."

"Thanks to Bixia."

Zhao-taiyi's heart returned to its place, but Jiang Changbai's mind wasn't the same. Lin Yingqing's power had always been mutually exclusive with Wu Dongmu and Liu Zihe and the others, and more than that, was known for being a loyal and uncorrupted official.

Before, when the books had all said that a woman couldn't be Emperor, no matter which dynasty or generation's Empress Dowager had held power, they'd been ridiculed as usurping men's authority. Lin Yingqing's dogma was inflexible and he was known in the entire city, so Jiang Changbai had never hoped for Lin Yingqing to be especially loyal to her.

But she'd never thought there'd be such a situation. In order to drag her off the Dragon Throne, those who, in the previous reign, had been unable to reconcile, had even joined hands. Wu Dongmu and Liu Zihe were infamous; the common people dared to be angry but didn't dare to say a thing; though once they'd been imprisoned, there were those in the court who weren't pleased, the people were happy. But Lin Yingqing was the utter opposite of them; to say nothing of not being able to deal with him, now even his illness couldn't be diagnosed.

"Bixia," Song Juguang said, slowly waving the folding fan in her hand, as if having made some decision, "actually, this minister has always been interested in the medical arts, and I've done quite a bit of research in recent years; wouldn't it be better to allow this minister to to the the Lin residence and take a look?"

"Quite a bit of research." Jiang Changbai repeated Song Juguang's words lowly, her finger unconsciously smoothing over her green jade thumb ring. Only after hesitating to speak for a while did she finally say, "Fine, We'll go take a look Ourselves."

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