Daming: Brother, there is no future for monks, let's rebel

"For whom?" the Grand Princess demanded sharply. "For yourself?"

"For a world that can be sustained." Lady Jingyi raised her eyes, her gaze flickering between light and shadow. "For the 'new master'."

"Who?" Prince Jing'an asked, his voice as firm as iron.

Lady Jingyi smiled, like a rootless flower in the night: "Your Highness, why ask? Didn't you already guess what happened the night you went to Chongzhen Temple?"

King Qi stood under the lamp, his expression unchanged, not even the light on his eyelashes trembled.

He looked at Prince Jing'an and said calmly, "Madam, you misunderstand. If I were the 'new master,' I wouldn't be here today."

"Where is Your Highness?" Lady Jingyi's gaze fell upon the Crown Prince. "Your presence is the answer. If you are willing to draw your sword, there is no need for me."

The crown prince remained silent, his fingers slowly tapping three times on the edge of the table, as if he were knocking on a door.

He suddenly looked up at the Empress Dowager: "Mother, put away Deshou's knife."

The Empress Dowager gazed at him for a very long time, so long that the lamplight changed its brightness.

She finally spoke, her voice low but seemingly drowning out all the wind: "Jingyi."

"The minister is here."

"Go and cleanse yourself. Tomorrow you will go to the court."

The Empress Dowager said, "The Ministry of Justice will not ask about the reasons, but only about the palace rules. You issued a white card without authorization, took a deputy order without authorization, used the apricot fragrance to record your name, and privately transferred funds from the inner treasury. You will be punished for all of these. You did not confess to Han Su's death, and I will not ask about it. You protected my face, but you also broke my rules. I will hold you accountable for all of this."

After a moment of silence, Lady Jingyi bowed, her forehead touching the ground, and rose with the same elegance as before.

She looked back at the Empress Dowager, a glimmer of her youth suddenly appearing in her eyes: "Your Majesty, with this strike, I protected a situation for you. But I know that with the next strike, you will come in person."

The Empress Dowager closed her eyes, like an extremely old tree receiving the wind.

When she opened her eyes again, she looked at Prince Jing'an and the Crown Prince: "The situation is not over yet. The Phoenix Seal has been moved south to prepare for the border; the Deputy Commander has left the palace because of an urgent need; the forgery of the seal and the silencing of witnesses are acts of ambition. The ambition is not in me, nor in the Empress—it is in the court, in the capital region, in places you cannot see and are unwilling to look."

She raised her hand and gave the order: "Jing'an, starting tomorrow, lead half of the Imperial Guards, seal the Imperial Treasury, the Seal Bureau, and the Juyi Granary, and settle all accounts within three days."

"Crown Prince, take him to the Censorate to interrogate the people listed under the western eaves. Empress, suspend you from your inner palace for three months to avoid suspicion. Prince Qi, return to your post station tonight and do not leave the capital; await further orders."

With each command she gave, the lamps seemed to brighten by one degree.

Finally, she sighed slowly: "As for the 'new master'—if he is in the palace, then let him see clearly: I am not dead, and the heavens have not changed. If he wants to sit in that position, he must first get past this sandalwood bead."

The sandalwood bead rolled in her hand, making a very soft "tap".

Under the sea of ​​lights, the wind suddenly stopped. Everyone responded in unison.

Surrounded by guards, Lady Jingyi slowly retreated, her figure disappearing into the shadowy corridor, like a boat sailing into the dark water.

"Uncle," the Crown Prince suddenly called out to him, his voice low, "accompany me to the Imperial Treasury first thing tomorrow morning. I need you there."

"As ordered."

The King of Qi bowed to the Empress Dowager, turned and left. As he passed the Prince of Jing'an, he paused for a moment, his voice low and husky like the night wind: "He's moving. Go back tonight and keep watch over him. Don't sleep."

"I understand." Zhu Han's reply was also light, like the backs of knives tapping against each other.

The swallows dispersed, and the lanterns went out one by one. The Imperial Garden returned to darkness, with only the pond water still gleaming in the blackness.

The Empress Dowager stood in the waterside pavilion, her back straight, as if confronting some unseen shadow.

The Grand Princess walked to her side and whispered, "You're old, but still hard."

The Empress Dowager smiled and said, "If it softens, there will be no tomorrow."

"Tomorrow," the Grand Princess said, looking towards the dark east, "let's hope it's not bloodshed again."

The moment the boy lowered the latch, a series of soft footsteps swept past the base of the wall outside the courtyard.

The guard's whistle was extremely soft, like a willow leaf trembling in the night.

Zhu Han stepped into the hall, raised his hand, and gestured for everyone to return to their places.

Just as he was about to remove his armor, the lantern on his desk suddenly trembled, swaying without wind, its flames stretching out and then retracting.

"Your Highness," the boy whispered, "a draft is coming in through the back door—"

The door knocker was then knocked three times at even intervals, like some kind of secret signal.

Zhu Han's eyes sharpened, his hand already reaching for the bow on the table. Before he could utter a sound, a very soft laugh came from outside the door:
"Your Highness, it's been a long time."

He'd heard that laugh once—in the smoke of Chongzhen Temple. The circle of Dharma.

The door opened a crack, and a dark figure darted in like a wisp of smoke, then casually closed the door behind him.

He stood under the lamp, took off his hat, revealing a thin face with a serene gaze.

"You deserve to die in this temple." The boy pressed down on the short blade, veins throbbing on his forehead.

"Thanks to your blessing, I was half dead, but I came back to life."

Yuanfa bowed to Zhu Han with a solemn expression, "I have come to present you with a gift. If Your Highness does not accept it, you will regret it tomorrow."

He took out an extremely thin bamboo tube from his sleeve.

Zhu Han took it, pulled it out, and inside were two thin wax pieces, as thin as cicada wings, with a picture sandwiched between them—a dark rubbing of a seal handle, the pattern of which was very similar to that of the Phoenix Seal, but with an extra ring of extremely fine meander pattern.

On the back of the wax tablet are three characters: "Night Crossing Picture".

"What is this?" the boy asked, puzzled.

“The seal handle has a hidden pattern, and the phoenix seal is not unique.” Yuanfa said in a low voice, “The ‘new master’ uses ‘Phoenix Two’. Phoenix Two has only appeared three times: once when the late emperor opened the imperial treasury during a severe drought, once when the Northern Di sought peace and paid tribute, and once again—tonight.”

He looked directly at Zhu Han: "Your Highness, if the Empress Dowager strikes first on her own people, the 'new ruler' will surely retaliate with a second blow. Tomorrow, the Imperial Treasury will be clearing accounts. If you don't strike first, the knife will fall on the Crown Prince's head."

"Why are you telling me this?" Zhu Han's gaze was like iron.

Yuanfa sighed: "Because I don't want the change of rulers to be based on bloodshed. If you can expose 'Feng Er,' you can preserve some of the rules."

After saying that, he put on his hat, and his whole body seemed to be sucked into the night. The door opened and closed again, leaving only the lantern shaking once more.

The wax flakes in Zhu Han's palm were so fine they were almost translucent.

Inside the bamboo tube was a short line of small characters, written in a hurried hand: "De Shou Hou Well, fifth step down the stone steps."

"Your Highness?" the boy asked, looking at him.

"Let's go." Zhu Han stuck the wax tablet under the table, picked up his cloak, and said, "Let's go to Deshou Houjing."

"As for the Empress Dowager—"

“That’s exactly what she wants us to do.” Zhu Han’s gaze was deep: “If we don’t act tonight, it will be too late tomorrow.”

The door opened again, and a night wind rushed in, like thousands of fine needles, piercing the closed eyes of every person in the city.

The night was as dark as an inkstone, and the cypress trees in the back garden of Deshou Bureau were as black as pens stuck in the sky.

The wind passed through the corridor, brushing past the copper bells and producing a very subtle tremor, like a taut string.

Zhu Han and the boy bypassed the artificial hill and slipped into a side courtyard.

Few people walk here, except for a well platform surrounded by blue bricks, with a wooden lid covering the mouth. The lid is engraved with the ancient seal character "静" (jing, meaning stillness), which was commissioned by the Empress Dowager in her early years and symbolizes "cultivating oneself through stillness".

The stone steps beside the well lead down to a small embankment, the surface of which has been worn extremely slippery by the years, and the rain stains have not yet dried.

“Level five,” Zhu Han said in a low voice. The boy bent down and counted: “One, two, three, four… this one.”

He pointed to the fifth level of bluestone, where the cracks were slightly wider than the ones next to it, and there were very fine iron marks on the edges.

The boy raised his wrist, inserted a thin blade into the crack, and gently pried it open. The stone steps loosened with a "click," revealing a narrow, hidden compartment below.

A thin layer of fine salt was laid in the hidden compartment, on which were placed the tubes and rolls:
A short, black lacquered handle, about half a palm's length, with the surface engraved with extremely fine meander patterns;
A thin roll wrapped in oiled paper;
A tiny copper rivet, completely black, with a tiny spark of light in the center.

The boy held his breath and handed out the items one by one.

“It’s this one,” he whispered.

The oiled paper roll was slowly unrolled, revealing only two items: a thin wax sheet with three overlapping prints—the same pattern, but with varying degrees of intensity; and a small hand-drawn picture titled "Night Crossing (II)".

Unlike the one given by Yuanfa, this diagram depicts the turnaround from the inner treasury to the east warehouse, passing through a secret passage under the well platform to the back wall of the treasury, and then turning out through the hidden gate of the imperial river. The artist added three characters in small regular script in the corner:
"Jingyi's signature." Next to the annotation was a fingerprint, so thin it was almost invisible, but it was dotted with cinnabar, as if someone was afraid that later generations would not be able to see it clearly.

"Who hid it?" The boy placed the small copper rivet in his palm. The rivet head was extremely thin, like a positioning pin on a carving tool.

“The bamboo tube that Yuanfa gave us says ‘Deshou Houjing’, which most likely wasn’t hidden by him himself, but he knew about this place.”

Zhu Han held the wax pieces up to the lantern; the three pieces overlapped, one dark and two light. The darkest piece had a missing stroke at the end of the meander pattern—echoing the gouging mark on the short handle.
"This was done with the same handle, three times. The first time it was light, to test the color; the second time it was dark, to apply the seal; the third time it was even darker, to make it clear. The person who applied these overlapping seals... was 'showing me'."

"To whom?"

"To anyone who dares to expose it."

Zhu Han carefully put away the wax tablets, his fingers tracing the edge of "Night Crossing Picture (II)". "'Jingyi's seal' - she nailed a stake into herself. She knew she would be questioned one day, so she tampered with the handle of 'Feng Er' and hid the overprinted seal in the well. She didn't do it to escape, but only to leave evidence."

The boy felt a chill run down his spine and couldn't help but ask, "Whose side is she really on?"

“She’s in charge.” Zhu Han tucked the short handle into his sleeve. “With this certificate in our hands, we can settle the accounts tomorrow and establish ‘Feng Er’ as the real person. But—”

Before he could finish speaking, a lantern in the distance under the corridor suddenly dimmed and then brightened again, the flame inside the lampshade tilted by an invisible wind.

Zhu Han and the boy looked up at the same time, their eyes darkening.

"They're here." He rolled up the oiled paper, stuffed it into his bosom, and hid with the boy on either side of the well in the shade of the cypress trees.

The footsteps were light, like a cat's, like stepping on cotton cloth on tiles—a common gait used by assassins.

Several shadows slid down the pillars and stopped in front of the well.

The leader was thin and dressed in the blue robe of an ordinary eunuch, with a low-brimmed hat. He raised his hand and pulled out a thin iron from his sleeve, about to pry open the fifth level.

"Too late," someone murmured from the shadows.

The head eunuch sneered, "If I had come a step earlier, would I have been collecting your corpse?"

"Each other." The second figure's voice was hoarse, and his age was impossible to discern.

As soon as the iron pry bar entered the gap, there was a loud "clang," and sparks flew everywhere.

Zhu Han's hidden arrow deflected the iron pry bar first, followed by a palm strike that burst forth from the shadows of the cypress tree, directly sealing the throat of the leading eunuch.

The eunuch suddenly ducked, hooked his foot, and thrust out a knife with his backhand. The blade was as thin as a cicada's wing, drawing a cold moon in the lamplight.

The boy twisted and rushed in, the short crossbow whizzing past the opponent's ear and embedding itself in the well wall, sparks flying everywhere.

He showed no mercy, and with a sudden movement, aimed straight for his opponent's tiger's mouth.

The knife and crossbow clashed with a crisp, clean sound. The opponent's hand went numb, and the knife lost its grip slightly.

Taking advantage of the situation, Zhu Han leaned in, his five fingers like pincers, and grabbed the other's wrist. With a "crack", the wrist bone was dislocated.

"Speak," he said in a low voice, without beating around the bush, "Who sent you?"

The eunuch's eyes rolled back in pain, but he forced a smile: "Your Highness has asked the wrong question."

He raised an eyebrow. "I don't ask who sent it, I don't ask who took it... I should ask who guards it."

Before he could finish speaking, a green shadow flashed on the other side of the well platform, and a short dart pierced the air, heading straight for the boy's vest.

The boy was prepared; he leaned out to the side, and the dart grazed his shoulder blade, causing blood to seep out immediately.

He gritted his teeth, flipped his left hand, gripped the short blade in reverse, and used the momentum to force the second person who was about to crawl in back to the corner of the well platform.

Taking advantage of the chaos, the third person tried to pry open the stone steps, but was kicked away by Zhu Han. He rolled down the stone embankment and hit the base of a pillar in the forehead, causing blood to gush out immediately.

“Bring it alive,” Zhu Han shouted.

"Good!" The boy turned the crossbow handle, the string made a sound, and it pinned the second man's sleeve. Another short blade was pressed against his throat, and the man dared not move.

Despite his dislocated wrist, the head eunuch remained fierce, pulling a thin reed from his sleeve with his left hand and stuffing it into his mouth.

Zhu Han, with his sharp eyes, flicked his finger and with a "snap," the reed fell to the ground.

He then noticed that the reed was extremely thin and had a faint almond scent, which was the common "almond kernel fragrance".

If the eunuch put it in his mouth, the poison would take effect immediately.

"The last one who was imprisoned died in the Imperial Garden."

Zhu Han said coldly, "Do you think I would watch my servants die a second time?"

The eunuch's eyes were cold and sharp, then he suddenly grinned, his smile chillingly pale: "Your Highness is still too straightforward."

With a soft "hum," the wooden cover of the wellhead popped up from the inside, and the well rope shot out like a snake, striking Zhu Han's waist.

The boy exclaimed, "Your Highness!"

He lunged forward, grabbed the end of the rope with his backhand, and found that the rope had barbs, which immediately cut two bloody marks on his palm.

The boy was in excruciating pain. He pushed off with his feet, spun around with the rope, and swung it back to the wellhead. With a "click," the mechanism on the rope was forcefully locked back in place.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, the head eunuch broke free, flipped backward, touched the ground with his toes, and was about to leap onto the corridor.

A sharp gust of wind blew from Zhu Han's sleeve, and a hidden hook flew out, striking him squarely in the shoulder blade.

The eunuch grunted and froze.

The next instant, a thin knife was pressed against his neck, the icy chill penetrating his skin and reaching his very bones.

"If you laugh again, I'll slit your throat." The boy's voice was hoarse, as if his throat had been slit.

The group froze in place, when they heard a very faint whistle coming from a distant corner of the corridor.

That's the code name of the Jing'an Secret Guard.

Immediately afterwards, three dark figures swept down from the roof ridge and landed around the well platform, their steps precise, forming an arc.

"Your Highness." The head guard clasped his hands in greeting.

"Take the two men away and seal the well." Zhu Han did not let go. "Leave the leader behind—I have questions."

The head eunuch was forced to kneel by the well. He had been wounded in the shoulder blade, and blood was streaming down his clothes. He still sneered, "If Your Highness asks 'who sent you,' you should ask 'who didn't go?'"

"Who's not going?" the boy frowned.

"Tonight, De Shou, the Empress Dowager won't be there, the Empress won't be there, the Crown Prince won't be there—they all won't be there, but you insist on going. And that 'whose' scheme will be complete."

The eunuch's smile froze. "The new master commands you to go, so go. You're not just straight, you're also..." He suddenly coughed up blood, his eyes slowly rolling upwards. (End of Chapter)