The capital had been peaceful lately, but there were always hidden undercurrents surging beneath the calm surface.
“Wait, wait, wait. All you know how to do is tell me to wait!” Jing Shao hurled the porcelain cup in his hand onto the floor and shouted angrily. “How much longer do we have to wait? All four southern prefectures have already been reclaimed by Jing Mu. Are we supposed to wait until he comes marching back and takes the throne?”
Sitting opposite him, Zhao Langzhi lowered his eyes and said calmly, “Your Highness, the current situation is unfavorable to both of us. If we act rashly now, I’m afraid we’ll only be making a wedding garment for someone else.”
Hearing this, Jing Shao curled his lips into a cold smile.
“Afraid is afraid. Why dress it up in such grand words?”
Zhao Langzhi raised his eyes and looked at Jing Shao with his calm gaze.
The worry that had always existed in his heart was now faintly surfacing. It was gradually taking shape as the beginning of a great collapse. He had not realized before that the matter he had painstakingly planned for three years had perhaps been under Jing Mu’s control from beginning to end.
They had searched for alchemists and secretly drugged Emperor Qian Ning for three years, yet Jing Mu had remained silent and never asked a single question. Their collusion with officials both inside and outside the court had likewise been within Jing Mu’s control.
The only thing Jing Mu had failed to anticipate, the only opening they had managed to exploit, was Zhuo Renyue.
Zhuo Renyue’s position had indeed been secure, but now Jing Mu had eliminated him. Even if an empty capital were left to them, killing Emperor Qian Ning was probably already part of Jing Mu’s calculations.
Jing Mu also wanted to kill Emperor Qian Ning. But because of the bond between father and son, he could not do it himself, so he could only provoke Jing Shao into taking action.
Once Jing Shao killed Emperor Qian Ning and bore the crime of murdering his own father, they would all become fish on Jing Mu’s chopping block, entirely at his mercy.
Only over the past two days had Zhao Langzhi gradually understood all the twists and turns. By the time he had figured everything out, there was already no way back.
At present, the only thing they could do was keep Emperor Qian Ning alive for as long as possible. Every extra day Emperor Qian Ning lived meant one more day before Jing Mu could ascend the throne.
Jing Shao thought that he had control over Emperor Qian Ning’s life, that whenever he wanted the emperor dead, the emperor would die, and everything would be fine.
But he should have known that while the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole waits behind.
And now, the one about to reap the benefits without lifting a finger was Jing Mu.
However, although Zhao Langzhi thought this way, he was unwilling to tell Jing Shao.
Now that they were already at the end of the road, if he told Jing Shao, then in his fury, Jing Shao would certainly kill him first.
Zhao Langzhi sat there without speaking. Jing Shao gradually sneered.
He swept everything on the table onto the floor and sneered, “All of you are so hesitant and fearful. But even if you’re afraid, does that mean the thing you’re afraid of won’t come? Let me tell you, impossible! The more afraid you are, the more you have to do it. Once you sit on the position you deserve, none of those frightening things will be worth fearing.”
At this point, he was extremely agitated. He pointed at Zhao Langzhi.
“You’re already in the same boat as me. You’ve done too many things for me. Even if you want to hide now, I won’t let you go.”
Zhao Langzhi lowered his eyes, acknowledged him softly, and remained silent.
“We’re only one step away now.” Jing Shao sneered. “I’d rather do it myself and have peace of mind. Tomorrow night, I’ll have those alchemists double the dosage. The emperor will definitely die tomorrow night. I’m the legitimate heir, so without an imperial edict, naturally I’ll become emperor.”
Zhao Langzhi said, “That would be unwise, Your Highness.”
Jing Shao shouted furiously, “What else do you want? Do you want me to kill you right now?!”
Zhao Langzhi raised his head and smiled.
“Your Highness, although His Majesty’s body has already been hollowed out, no one has ever used that medicine before. We only know that it damages the body. But what if increasing the dosage merely worsens His Majesty’s illness without killing him? If His Majesty doesn’t die but suddenly becomes extremely weak, he will certainly have to leave a final edict. He has always favored the Second Prince. If you give him the opportunity to leave such an edict, I’m afraid…”
At this point, Zhao Langzhi stopped speaking and smiled at Jing Shao.
Jing Shao had already been overwhelmed by his anxiety and the ecstatic joy of being about to ascend the throne. Hearing Zhao Langzhi’s words, he froze.
“…What you say makes sense.”
After Zhao Langzhi pointed it out, he really did begin to feel afraid.
“Then tell me, what should we use?”
Zhao Langzhi smiled.
“Whatever can make someone die immediately. Use that.”
Jing Shao hesitated.
“But…”
“Your Highness need not worry.” Zhao Langzhi said, “Once His Majesty dies, there will be no ruler within the four borders, and everything will surely descend into chaos. At that time, if Your Highness steps forward and turns the tide, won’t everyone obey your commands? When that happens, whatever you say will become the law, and no one will question the regicide. Even taking ten thousand steps back, if this matter is truly discovered, what does it have to do with Your Highness? Those alchemists realized that there was something wrong with their prescription and, fearing punishment, killed His Majesty themselves.”
Hearing this, Jing Shao suddenly understood.
“Do exactly as you said!”
As he said this, Jing Shao kept a little precaution in mind. He said, “Then you will be the one to find the medicine.”
Zhao Langzhi acted as though he had not noticed his calculations and concerns and smiled readily.
“Yes. I will certainly fulfill Your Highness’s command.”
Zhao Langzhi turned his gaze toward the window. Outside, the common people streamed back and forth, and the streets looked extraordinarily lively.
He suddenly remembered how, three years ago, after visiting Shu Changyu’s residence in the capital, he had sat at a roadside tea stall and seen exactly this scene.
At the time, he had even laughed, laughing at how these people lived under wolves and tigers without realizing it at all.
But looking back now, perhaps the day Jing Shao took power would be the day these people fell into deep suffering.
——
On this day, there were fewer than ten days remaining before the imperial examination.
After Zhao Langzhi left the restaurant, he went home for a brief while. Near evening, he went to Dai Wenliang’s residence.
Dai Wenliang had not finished eating yet and was practicing martial arts in the courtyard. Zhao Langzhi stood at a distance, watching him silently for a long while.
A person who had grown up beneath the sunlight, someone whose very bones were filled with uprightness and honor, was different from someone like him who had allied himself with a tiger.
The more Zhao Langzhi watched, the more his eyes felt sore, as though tears were about to fall.
People’s names really were strange. They insisted on naming people after things they did not possess.
Dai Wenliang’s father had not wanted his son to spend his entire life as a crude, uneducated man like himself. Yet throughout Dai Wenliang’s life, aside from having made friends with a top scholar, he had not been connected to the word “wen”—scholarly—even in the slightest.
And as for himself, his name was “Langzhi,” meaning bright and clear, yet he had been born to live in the dark gutters.
Still, he shamelessly yearned for the light even while living in the mud.
In his previous life, he had coveted Commandery Princess Danyao and ended up dying a miserable death. In this life, he had no fate with Commandery Princess Danyao, yet this simple-minded Dai Wenliang had reached out and pulled him up.
These people probably could never imagine that Zhao Langzhi had never intended to approach anyone for any particular reason. Yet the aura they possessed, something that had grown under the light, was something he could never touch in either of his two lives.
They were like the sun hanging in the heavens.
Zhao Langzhi knew that Jing Mu and Shu Changyu had caused the fate he had suffered in both his lives. Yet he vaguely understood that he could not blame them.
It was as though an invisible hand existed in the void, trying to press him back into his original life.
If he wanted to fight against that hand, he had to chase after the sun. And therefore, he always had to pay a price.
No one could explain the matter of fate, but no one could go against it either.
Just then, Dai Wenliang saw him while putting away his sword.
“Guangting!” He raised his hand and greeted him with a smile. “Why didn’t you say anything when you arrived?”
A smile appeared on Zhao Langzhi’s face as he walked toward Dai Wenliang.
“It’s mealtime. For some reason, I suddenly felt like eating meat.” He smiled. “I kept thinking about how good the pigeons you raise are, so I thought I’d come over and beg you for something to eat.”
Upon hearing this, Dai Wenliang cried out dramatically, “You brat, you sure know how to eat! Do you know how precious those darlings I raise are? I can’t bear to hurt them on ordinary days, and now you want me to slaughter one for you!”
As he spoke, he pushed Zhao Langzhi toward the house.
“But I wouldn’t let you go hungry. Since you’re here, why don’t you have a couple of drinks before you leave?”
Zhao Langzhi smiled and agreed.
Dai Wenliang pushed him inside and gave the maid a few instructions.
In less than half an hour, servants began bringing dishes to the table one after another.
Unexpectedly, right in the middle of the table was a bowl of pigeon soup, stewed until it was milky white.
Dai Wenliang looked extremely displeased.
“You’re getting a bargain, you brat! I’m only doing this because your examination is just a few days away. After drinking my pigeon soup, you’d better come back with the title of Top Scholar to repay me!”
As he spoke, he poked around in the pigeon soup with his chopsticks.
After one stir, his expression changed dramatically.
“Good grief! I told them to catch a pigeon and stew it, and they actually caught my best-looking one!”
Seeing his expression, Zhao Langzhi could not help smiling.
Then he said, “Wenliang, I came here today because I have something important to tell you.”
Seeing that he was no longer joking, Dai Wenliang stopped moving his chopsticks and looked up at him.
“Go ahead! If you need help with anything, just say so.”
Zhao Langzhi paused upon hearing this.
This man really only knew how to help others.
When he had first met him, he had thought he was an idiot. Judging by his appearance, he really wasn’t very clever.
Zhao Langzhi smiled.
“It’s not about asking you for help. But it concerns a matter of great importance to the fate of the empire. If Wenliang is willing to agree, I hope you’ll simply do it and don’t ask me how I learned about it.”
Dai Wenliang stared at him blankly.
He was merely the commander of the imperial guards. Although he was responsible for matters at the Son of Heaven’s gates, matters concerning the fate of the empire had never had anything to do with him before.
Zhao Langzhi continued, “I’m afraid the palace won’t be peaceful tomorrow night. But I don’t yet know exactly what will happen. I’ve only heard about it. Tomorrow, I hope you’ll replace all the guards stationed inside His Majesty’s sleeping quarters with trusted men of your own. If anything unusual happens then, you’ll be able to bring it under control as quickly as possible and deal with it.”
Dai Wenliang looked at him and blankly nodded.
Zhao Langzhi laughed.
“With that expression of yours, you really aren’t putting my mind at ease.”
Dai Wenliang hurriedly said, “No…! I just didn’t expect that… that something like this would be something I could actually handle!”
Zhao Langzhi laughed.
“Of course you can handle it. You command the guards throughout the entire imperial city, and all the guards within the imperial city are under you. How could you not be able to handle something as important as protecting the Emperor?”
Dai Wenliang swallowed a mouthful of wine before finally managing to digest all this information.
“Guangting, rest assured! If we save His Majesty’s life, I’ll definitely report it to His Majesty and make sure you receive half the credit.”
Zhao Langzhi chuckled upon hearing this.
By then, whether he would still be alive was another question entirely.
But he knew very clearly that Jing Mu was no good, and Jing Shao was even worse.
If Jing Shao ascended the throne, it would bring nothing but harm.
Since he had already reached the end of the road, he did not mind giving Jing Shao one last push.
As for himself, no matter what he did, wasn’t it all already arranged by Heaven’s mandate?
Zhao Langzhi did not answer Dai Wenliang. Instead, he continued, “Wenliang, there’s one more thing you absolutely must remember clearly.”
“If things fail, you must keep the situation under control and immediately summon the officials of the Dali Temple to the palace.”
Author’s Note: I think my Zhao Langzhi is the most refreshingly unconventional villain ever.
Zhao Langzhi: I caused this mess myself, so I’ll solve it myself. ←_←
Okay, fine. Actually, he just can’t clean up the mess anymore. Jing Mu has known about everything they’ve been doing all along. He just wanted to use their hands to kill Emperor Qian Ning.
Emperor Qian Ning: I’ve been such a failure as a father. 5555555