Fish Meat – Chapter 170

The Fourth Year of Zhao Wu

Double Silk Net (5)

The originally gray sky had completely darkened, snowflakes drifted one by one onto Zhen Wenjun’s head and shoulders, gradually wrapping her up like a snowman.

            

She was still wearing her new wedding dress, its hem exposed in the snow, looking like dried blood clots.

Zhen Wenjun’s face was stiff, without a trace of expression, like a corpse that had been there for hundreds of years.

Wang Wulang’s memories of Ruan family’s Ah Qiong only went as far as her disappearing into the vast sea of people while pregnant, where this legendary woman went afterward and what she encountered, Wang Wulang did not know.

            

“Stop following me. Following me will only bring endless danger.”

Wang Wulang always remembered Ah Qiong’s determination when master and servant parted ways. Wang Wulang wept uncontrollably; he had followed the Ruan family for so many years, and now Ah Qiong was the only one left of the Ruan family, how could he bear to leave?

“My lady… this servant knows you want to protect my life, but I have sworn to assist the Ruan family until the day I’m buried! My lady! Through trials of fire and sword [meaning: through extreme hardship], please let me follow you!”

            

The cold night wind swept through the valley as Wang Wulang kept kowtowing to Ah Qiong, until his forehead was covered in blood and tears filled his face, but Ah Qiong showed no emotion, she didn’t even look at him once.

“You were bought by my father for the Ruan family back then, weren’t you?” Ah Qiong asked.

“Yes, during the famine, Master Ruan took pity on my parents who were considering exchanging children for food, and bought me for a bag of flour.”

            

Speaking of her father, a slight smile appeared at Ah Qiong’s lips: “My always benevolent father, the refined and loyal Master Ruan who was so devoted to Yu, how could he have imagined ending up like this.” Ah Qiong said to Wang Wulang, “From today on, you are free, no longer belonging to the Ruan family. Go.”

No matter how much Wang Wulang pleaded, Ah Qiong no longer paid him any attention.

“Ruan family’s Ah Qiong disappeared into the vast sea of people like this, and Wang Wulang never saw her again,” Bu Jie said, “However, Wang Wulang did one very important thing. He brought the last traces of the Ruan family’s story to Su Du, and recorded it in the Guqiang language.”

            

Zhen Wenjun could guess roughly what happened to Ah Qiong afterward, which Wang Wulang didn’t know.

Ah Mu was a proud person. When Xie Fuchen first approached her with impure intentions, regardless of whether he truly fell in love with Ah Mu during the process, in the end, he not only won her heart but also got her pregnant before marriage, having his child – this was undoubtedly a fatal blow to Ah Mu. She never mentioned anything about Xie Fuchen to me, showed no attachment to her brilliant past, and only constantly warned her daughter not to stand out, to learn to keep a low profile and show restraint. It was clear she was trying to forget the past, to forget everything about Xie Fuchen.

She concealed her identity and changed her name to “Xiaoshi”, firstly to commemorate her ancestors, and secondly to avoid investigation. Even during the Shenchu years, she remained a sensitive topic, and if discovered, she could still face mortal danger.

            

But she was indeed a rare talent, perhaps unwilling to let her only daughter live an unremarkable life in this small county town at the northwestern frontier, not wanting her daughter to be just a servant forever. She saw her daughter’s intelligence and potential, so she secretly molded her, hoping that one day she could achieve something, not letting her clever mind go to waste.

Ah Mu was contradictory, as evident in how she educated her daughter.

She was also very clever. If Xie Fuchen truly developed genuine feelings for Ah Mu as Wang Wulang said, he would have searched everywhere for her whereabouts. But he would never have imagined that Ah Mu would be so bold as to hide in the Xie Clan’s relatives’ home in Suichuan, right under Xie Fuchen’s nose.

            

All these years, Xie Fuchen never discovered this.

In fact, even if he had encountered Ah Mu, after so many years, with Ah Mu having aged and become lame, could he still recognize this village woman as that brilliant female general from the past?

Following this line of thought, when Ah Mu first entered the residence of Xie Taihang in Suichuan, making it appear as though she was the result of Xie Taihang’s drunken indiscretion – it was all planned.

            

Even if the daughter born looked just like Xie Fuchen, Xie Taihang, that straw bag [meaning: incompetent person], wouldn’t suspect anything. Even if he disliked them, Xie Taihang still believed it was his own flesh and blood, and wouldn’t drive the mother and daughter away.

Those years when Ah Mu could hide in the corner and peacefully raise her daughter – it was all part of her plan…

As for Xie Fuchen and Wei Jinghe’s Rangchuan tragedy, it was probably the bitter fruit of years of accumulated grudges.

            

According to Wang Wulang, Wei Jinghe should have been the last person to see Ah Qiong. How would he report back? He must have said Ah Qiong was dead, which is why Emperor Ming stopped searching for her whereabouts.

Wei Tingxu said she was nine years old when she encountered the Rangchuan disaster. If she wasn’t lying about her age – Zhen Wenjun calculated – assuming she was four years older than herself, it would mean five years after Ah Qiong’s disappearance, the Wei family became a thorn in the emperor’s side, causing Xie Fuchen to strike mercilessly.

It’s actually easy to understand – after the Ruan family was eliminated, the Hu tribe continued their harassment. Emperor Ming urgently needed another military general to guard his realm and drive away the Hu bandits. On the other hand, when a prestigious family like the Ruan Clan suddenly disappeared, though the common people were forced into silence, they kept it in their hearts. If Da Yu suffered defeats on the battlefield, the people would become even more restless in secret.

            

How could everyone be made to forget the Ruan family? Emperor Ming was clear-headed; he needed to establish another impressive general to replace the Ruan family. This heavy responsibility naturally fell on the Wei family, specifically on Wei Jinghe.

Wei Jinghe’s abilities were no less than Ah Qiong’s; he too was a dragon among men [meaning: an outstanding person], and frequently establishing military merits was no difficult task for him.

Probably within five years, the Wei family would replace the former Ruan family, becoming the Li family’s most useful weapon.

            

And historical tragedies always cycle, wearing extremely similar faces.

Just looking at Li Yanyi’s methods now, one can see that ascending to the throne inevitably breeds suspicion. Whoever achieves unparalleled merit becomes the emperor’s new target of vigilance.

Moreover, Wei Jinghe was the last person to see Ah Qiong.

            

How Wei Jinghe reported back to Emperor Ming, perhaps no one knows now. But if Zhen Wenjun were Emperor Ming, without seeing the actual corpse, she wouldn’t believe Wei Jinghe’s words, and might even doubt his loyalty. In the following years, the Wei family’s rise further amplified the emperor’s suspicions and fears, and with Xie Fuchen pushing waves and adding ripples [meaning: to aggravate a situation], it finally reached the perfect time to eliminate Wei Jinghe.

Xie Fuchen imprisoned Wei Jinghe, Wei Tingxu, and many Wei family servants in Rangchuan, torturing and killing many people probably to make Wei Jinghe reveal Ah Qiong’s whereabouts. Wei Jinghe would rather let his sister be tortured and so many people die than reveal the whereabouts of Ah Qiong and her daughter, possibly because he was determined to protect Ah Qiong from Xie Fuchen’s harassment and Emperor Ming’s continued pursuit. However, Zhen Wenjun leaned toward another possibility – perhaps Wei Jinghe truly didn’t know Ah Mu’s whereabouts; he had merely helped her escape, and Ah Mu hadn’t told him where she was going. But Xie Fuchen, desperate to find Ah Qiong, wouldn’t believe this, until he tortured Wei Jinghe to death.

Years later, the winds of change rose again.

            

That young lady who suffered innocently in Rangchuan carried a seed of revenge, which slowly sprouted under her careful nurturing. She began to lay a heaven and earth net [meaning: an inescapable trap], determined to make the Xie family, and even the Li family, pay blood for blood!

The past swept through Zhen Wenjun’s mind like a hurricane heavy with the scent of blood, leaving her thoughts in chaos.

There was still one most important matter unresolved.

            

“So why did Emperor Ming exterminate the entire Ruan Clan back then? What was the real reason that led to the Ruan family’s extinction and all that followed? It couldn’t have been simply about a subject’s merit overshadowing the ruler. If it were just imperial suspicion, he wouldn’t have struck so ruthlessly immediately – look at how he handled the Wei family. Moreover, with the Ruan family killed and the Wei family not yet established, what about the Hu tribe’s invasions? Who would guard the borders? Emperor Ming was suspicious of the Wei family too, but he only killed Wei Jinghe as a warning to them, yet he was much more ruthless with the Ruan family. Executing nine generations wasn’t enough; he had to kill everyone with the Ruan surname, spending enormous effort to erase all traces of the Ruan family’s existence…” Zhen Wenjun asked, “In your last letter, you said no one knew the reason for the Ruan family’s extinction, not even Wang Wulang?”

Bu Jie nodded: “That’s right.”

“Then…” Zhen Wenjun felt confused and anxious, but Bu Jie maintained his calm smile.

            

Zhen Wenjun stared at him, waiting for him to speak.

Bu Jie, as always, didn’t disappoint her.

“Wang Wulang doesn’t know, but Wensheng does.”

            

“Tell me quickly!” Zhen Wenjun almost shouted.

Over these years, Bu Jie started from the small Dark Bird totem, traced the origins of the Ruan Clan, and investigated the blood purge of that year. This matter had become the center of his life, and the more he investigated, the more mysteries he uncovered, which fueled Bu Jie’s fighting spirit to unveil the secrets of the Da Yu royal family.

After spending nights in deep conversation with Wang Wulang, extracting all of the Ruan family’s history, Bu Jie, like Zhen Wenjun, became very interested in why Emperor Ming was so suspicious of the Ruan family that he had to execute their entire clan.

            

Something that could make an emperor so fearful and even drive him to madness couldn’t just be the vague reason of a subject’s achievements overshadowing the ruler.

There was only one possibility: it must have been a real threat to Emperor Ming’s throne, a threat Emperor Ming was absolutely certain about.

This threat was something both Emperor Ming and the Ruan family were well aware of, which is why Master Ruan could predict their family’s impending doom.

            

Bu Jie didn’t sleep for several days. In the dead of night, he sat at the mountaintop of his home in Su Du, where all sounds were silent, with cool breezes blowing, and he understood something.

The matter that could threaten the throne was probably something Emperor Ming and the Ruan family had done together.

In the midst of his contemplation, Bu Jie had a feeling, and he began investigating all the major central affairs since Emperor Ming’s birth. Just as he started his investigation, Bu Jie discovered something very, very interesting.

            

It turned out that Emperor Ming was a twin, and he had a twin brother, Prince Rui Li Xu!

Bu Jie had a vague suspicion in his heart and immediately began investigating the matter of Prince Rui. He discovered that Prince Rui died in the eighth year of Anyuan, four years before Emperor Ming ascended to the throne.

The first timeline matched, and Bu Jie continued his investigation with excitement.

            

While investigating the Ruan family’s affairs was difficult, looking into what happened to Emperor Ming was quite convenient.

After Prince Rui’s death, Emperor Ming, who was still the Crown Prince and hadn’t ascended the throne, was supposedly grief-stricken over his twin brother’s death, falling seriously ill and secluding himself in the Eastern Palace for nearly half a year, with very few people seeing him. During this period, the Eastern Palace remained very quiet, and historical records of everything that happened during this time were sketchy, as if someone had cut them out. Until the tenth year of Anyuan, when a major case suddenly erupted in the Eastern Palace – someone tried to poison the Crown Prince! Emperor Ming barely survived, but suspicion fell on everyone in the Eastern Palace, even the Crown Prince’s consort couldn’t escape suspicion.

The Crown Prince’s poisoning incident led to a complete purge of the Eastern Palace. From the Crown Prince’s consort to all palace maids and eunuchs, all were either deposed or killed, replaced by a new group. Two years later, Emperor Ming ascended the throne. In the first year of Zhenghong, Emperor Ming’s young son died. Emperor Ming, who already had few offspring, established Geng Shi as empress, who gave birth to Princess Li Yanyi.

            

From Li Yanyi’s birth onward, there wasn’t much to investigate, and everything seemed normal. What concerned Bu Jie most were the events between the eighth and tenth years of Anyuan.

Even for twin brothers, how could a brother’s death cause the Crown Prince to grieve for nearly a year, not even seeing anyone? It seemed like an excuse to hide something. Then came the bloody purge of the Eastern Palace, where even the Crown Prince’s consort couldn’t escape her fate. More bizarre was that as soon as Emperor Ming ascended the throne, his young son died – possibly his last close relative, he too died… This method resembled Emperor Ming’s later elimination of the Ruan family.

If eliminating the Ruan family was to hide a secret, was the Eastern Palace tragedy also Emperor Ming’s doing?

            

Bu Jie was accustomed to making assumptions first – if all this was Emperor Ming’s doing, there must have been a specific reason driving him to do so.

“Because he needed to kill everyone familiar with the Crown Prince,” Bu Jie said, and Zhen Wenjun, her face as white as snow, realized it too, “Because he wasn’t the Crown Prince… he was Prince Rui Li Xu!”

Bu Jie nodded in strong agreement: “That’s what I deduced too. Staying secluded in the Eastern Palace for nearly a year was to distance himself from others. After the supposed serious illness, even if his appearance changed slightly, it could be attributed to the illness. But even for twins, close wives, children, and servants would notice differences, so Emperor Ming created a massive case to kill them all. After ascending the throne, he established a new empress, and from then on, his position on the throne was secure.”

            

Zhen Wenjun had unknowingly bitten her lip until it bled, the taste of blood in her mouth going unnoticed: “So the Ruan family was suspected because they helped Prince Rui in this substitution of a cat for a prince? Master Ruan was one who knew this secret?!”

Bu Jie said: “Although the Ruan family lived in Runing, Master Ruan and Prince Rui Li Xu were very close, said to be intimate friends who shared everything. During the Zhenghong period, the Ruan family became the emperor’s confidants. Thinking it through, Wensheng agrees with my lady’s thoughts – killing the Crown Prince and purging the Eastern Palace, then smoothly ascending to the throne couldn’t have been accomplished by one person alone. Prince Rui himself had over a thousand retainers, and the Ruan family was resourceful and clever. At that time, perhaps only the Ruan family could have helped Prince Rui accomplish such a feat.”

“Wensheng, all this is just our speculation. Without solid evidence…”

            

“We have evidence, my lady.”

Zhen Wenjun’s spirits suddenly lifted.

“Wensheng thought, if the person in the palace was Prince Rui, then the one buried in his place was likely the real Crown Prince Li Ao. I visited the former household members and servants of Prince Rui’s residence. Fortunately, this happened only twenty-some years ago, so traces couldn’t be completely erased. As luck would have it, after investigating around, I didn’t find useful clues at first, but there was reportedly a servant called Ah Jun who kept vigil when Prince Rui died, and then ran out of the prince’s residence screaming in terror. This matter was quite strange, so I went to Ah Jun’s homeland to search. After nearly half a month of searching, just when I thought Ah Jun was no longer alive, he found me. He had changed his name to Ah Wang and lived off two mu of land. The first day I arrived, he saw me asking around about his whereabouts. Ah Wang followed me for half a month, only meeting me after confirming I meant no harm. Ah Wang said he indeed kept vigil for Prince Rui that year, when suddenly in the middle of the night came an evil wind.”

            

“Evil wind?”

“Yes, evil wind. At the time, Prince Rui was lying in the coffin awaiting mourning relatives and friends, when that evil wind suddenly blew down a longevity banner, covering Prince Rui’s face. When Ah Jun hurried forward to remove the banner, unexpectedly it also scraped off a mole on Prince Rui’s face. Ah Jun held the mole in his hand, and the more he looked at Prince Rui’s face, the more wrong it seemed. Upon closer inspection, he realized this person wasn’t Prince Rui. Ah Jun was born a servant, growing up in the prince’s residence, and could recognize even the smallest differences between Prince Rui and the Crown Prince. He realized he had discovered an earth-shattering secret, and not wanting to be implicated, he feigned madness and fled. Thanks to the household being in mourning, no one cared about a lowly servant’s fate, allowing him to escape. Now, times have changed, the female Emperor has ascended the throne, and he, poor and ill, told everything about that year for twenty taels of silver.”

Everything became clear.

            

The Ruan family had helped Prince Rui Li Xu plot against the Crown Prince, and after years of stealing the sky and replacing the sun, Emperor Ming, who had become emperor, remained uneasy. What was actually in the Ruan family’s wooden box? Had the Ruan family left behind some evidence? Had they written his crimes on a Secret Scroll and locked it in the box?

With the Ruan family’s great contributions, plus the secret that the emperor was an imposter and the throne had unknowingly changed hands to treacherous ministers and thieves, their attempt to seize power would likely be as easy as turning over one’s palm.

That official who went to test Master Ruan must have been sent by Emperor Ming, and Master Ruan’s response completely triggered Emperor Ming’s murderous intent.

            

But even after all the killing, the Secret Scroll was never found.

Emperor Ming believed Ruan Ah Qiong had taken the Secret Scroll and hidden it, with Wei Jinghe as an accomplice!

“The origin of everything was that wooden box, that Secret Scroll. But no one knows where that box is now…” Bu Jie spoke to himself for a long time, receiving no response from Zhen Wenjun. When he looked back, he discovered Zhen Wenjun had disappeared.

            

“Eh? My lady?”

Only two sets of stumbling footprints remained in the snow.

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