Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 27 Wei Zhongxian's Fear
The hour of Hai (9-11 PM) had passed, and the deep night, like a huge, unparalleled black velvet canopy, enveloped the entire Forbidden City.

The palaces and pavilions with their flying eaves and gleaming lights during the day have now all turned into enormous silhouettes lurking in the darkness, their rugged outlines resembling the ferocity of ancient beasts.

In stark contrast to the bitter cold and desolation of the palace, Wei Zhongxian's residence in the Western Garden was brightly lit, with the underground heating burning brightly, making it as warm as late spring.

This powerful official, who truly held a position second only to the emperor in the court, was not resting like an ordinary person.

He was dressed only in a fine dark silk casual suit, leaning back on a large, soft couch covered with a thick white fox fur coat, leisurely holding a freshly brewed cup of Wuyi Mountain Da Hong Pao tea. The bright red tea soup rippled slightly in the white jade cup, steaming up wisps of heat.

Before him, several of the most trusted eunuchs of the Eastern Depot were kneeling with their heads bowed, reporting in a low, suppressed tone every noteworthy trivial matter that had occurred inside and outside the capital.

Wei Zhongxian's eyes were slightly closed, his expression languid, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep. However, his ears were perked up like the most alert hunting dogs, accurately capturing every word and every emotion in his subordinates' words.

His brain was like a sophisticated machine born for political maneuvering, rapidly categorizing, filtering, integrating, and analyzing these seemingly chaotic fragmented pieces of information, ultimately weaving them into an invisible net to manipulate the political situation and consolidate his power.

Ever since the newly enthroned young emperor entrusted him with important responsibilities, Wei Zhongxian felt as if he had returned to the most spirited and vigorous peak period of the Tianqi era.

He regained control of the Eastern Depot, which held the power of life and death, and through Tian Ergeng, whom he recommended, he reforged the rusty Embroidered Spring Blade of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, making it shine with a cold light!

In the capital city today, those civil officials who once righteously impeached him, and those upright officials who cursed him behind his back, are all silent as cicadas in winter. When they see the agents and spies of the Eastern Depot, they avoid them like mice seeing a cat.

This long-lost sense of control, as if he had the whole world at his fingertips, deeply captivated him.

Even so, a persistent shadow lingered deep within his heart, a shadow that clung to him like a bone-deep sore, preventing him from finding true peace.

The source of that shadow was the Qianqing Palace, and the young emperor who sat on the Nine-Dragon Throne.

He couldn't see through this new master at all!
This young emperor possessed a temperament that was both extremely contradictory and perfectly harmonious.

He possessed the ruthless methods typical of youth, such as ruthlessly uprooting the deeply entrenched Duke of Cheng, Zhu Chunchen.

At the same time, he possesses the unfathomable composure and cunning of an old fox. For example, in the imperial court, he used an unprecedented "performance accountability system" to force all the seasoned civil and military officials into a dead end where they could neither advance nor retreat.

He dared to reinstate himself, a eunuch regarded as a mad dog by the entire civil service group, while at the same time quietly supporting Zhou Quan and his ghostly Western Depot, like a cold nail, imperceptibly wedged behind him and the Eastern Depot, constantly monitoring his every move.

The emperor granted him immense power, so much so that he could do whatever he wanted!
But the invisible chain around his neck tightened more than ever before!
This feeling is like being a chess player, only to discover that you, along with the entire chessboard, are merely playthings in the hands of another, more skilled player.

This unprecedented sense of loss of control filled Wei Zhongxian with deep fear.
Throughout his life, he devoted himself to understanding the emperor's mind. From Wanli's neglect of state affairs to Taichang's short reign, and then to Tianqi's dependence on him, he considered himself the person in the world who knew best how to serve the emperor.

But now, facing this young emperor, he felt like a toddler who had just learned to walk, looking up blankly at an unfathomable yet capricious giant.

Just as he was deep in thought, a very faint sound of footsteps came from outside the door, almost blending into the sound of the wind.

The gang leaders kneeling on the ground suddenly froze, their breaths stopping for a moment, and the huge hall fell silent.

Wei Zhongxian didn't even lift his eyelids, but said in a lazy yet unquestionable tone, "All of you, step down."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

The foremen, feeling as if they had been granted a pardon, hunched over and slipped away silently like shadows, not daring to make a sound.

A plain-looking eunuch in a blue robe slipped in silently, like a ghost.

Without a word, he walked straight to Wei Zhongxian's side and gently placed a small, exquisitely crafted hand warm to the touch on the edge of the soft couch within Wei Zhongxian's reach. Wei Zhongxian's hand, seemingly casually, moved from the teacup and slowly rested on the hand warmer.

His fingertips tapped the smooth, delicate copper exterior of the hand warmer three times in a very rhythmic manner.

The little eunuch's body trembled almost imperceptibly. Then he bent down and squeezed out two words from deep in his throat in a voice softer than the flapping of a mosquito's wings: "His Majesty wants you to come over now."

As soon as he finished speaking, he silently slid backwards out of the room, just as he had come in, as if he had never been there at all.

Wei Zhongxian slowly opened his eyes, which were always half-closed.

A terrifying glint flashed in those seemingly cloudy old eyes, only to be quickly obscured by a deep sense of weariness.

He slowly stood up, took off his luxurious silk robes, and put on an inconspicuous, even somewhat worn, bluish-gray straight-cut robe. He also changed his head to a six-in-one hat, which was worn by ordinary palace eunuchs.

This outfit made him look no different from any other ordinary old eunuch in the palace.

Without alerting any of his attendants, Wei Zhongxian, carrying a small sheep-horn lantern, walked out of the warm, spring-like mansion and willingly disappeared into the darkness that could freeze one's bones.

Wei Zhongxian could walk the entire route from Xiyuan to Qianqing Palace with his eyes closed without making a mistake.

He had walked this palace road, a symbol of power and honor, countless times, each time with a grand procession and rows of lanterns and torches illuminating the night as if it were daytime.

However, tonight, this familiar road seems exceptionally long, and also exceptionally... eerie and terrifying.

He carried the small ram's horn lantern alone, the faint candlelight inside flickering precariously in the biting wind, as if it might go out at any moment.

That dim, yellowish light could barely illuminate the ground three feet square beneath his feet; beyond the light lay an endless, thick darkness that seemed capable of swallowing everything in the world.

The towering palace walls and halls cast huge, distorted shadows in the darkness, their claws outstretched as they lunged at the ground, like monsters awakening from their slumber to devour their prey.

The wind howled mournfully in his ears, a sound mixed with countless subtle noises, as if countless wronged souls were whispering in his ear, weeping in a language he couldn't understand.

Wei Zhongxian unconsciously wrapped his not-so-thick straight-cut coat tighter around himself.

He had to admit that he was really getting old.

Looking back on his youth, he could fight shirtless for a whole day and night in the freezing cold for a few coins' gambling debt. But now, the pervasive chill of this winter night in the capital made him feel as if cold steel needles were being pierced into the cracks of his bones, bit by bit.

This bone-chilling cold didn't just come from the weather, but more from his destination and the person he was about to meet.

As he walked along the palace path, which was covered with a thin layer of ice, his mind raced with unprecedented speed.

What was the purpose of the emperor's secret edict late at night?
Is it for the progress of the Lanyang breach incident discussed in court today?
Or was it for the sake of supplying provisions to that mysterious new army in the suburbs of Beijing?
Or perhaps... he has given some new, more secretive instructions regarding his recent swift and decisive purge of the Imperial Guards?
He imagined countless possibilities in his mind, but each one made him feel uneasy, as if he were walking on thin ice.

He sadly discovered that he was completely unable to predict the new emperor's thought process.

He was like a blindfolded gambler, groping cautiously forward in complete darkness, while the young emperor was the darkness itself, unfathomable and unfathomable!

(End of this chapter)