Chapter 29: Not a Single Innocent One

Wei Zhangmo spoke.

"Commandery Princess..."

Huo Yun choked up and burst into tears.

Yue Tang smiled and beckoned him: "Alright, come inside with me. I have matters to discuss with you."

She led him into the room, followed by Hua Lin. Yue Tang first asked, "How is my condition?"

Hua Lin replied, "It is nothing serious. It is merely a temporary disruption of blood and qi due to a long absence of intense physical activity. I will adjust your prescription; taking it for ten days to half a month should bring improvement."

Yue Tang nodded, then looked toward Wei Zhang and Lan Qin, who had followed them in. "I assume Little Huo has told you everything about last night."

"Zhang Shaode's words have confirmed my suspicions. What happened that night was not something the Du family could have managed on their own. However, the Du family's secrecy from beginning to end—not even showing a hint of suspicion before the He or Zhang families—shows just how cautious the person behind them is."

"But the more cautious they are, the more it proves that the conspiracy is not as simple as what we saw on the surface."

Twenty-two people had accompanied her that night. Aside from Wei Zhang, twenty-one had died.

The twenty-one who met such a tragic end in that disaster, her father, and the countless wounds she had sustained themselves—there were too many to list.

If not for Huo Xun's father, Huo Xiao, thinking of the river at the bottom of the cliff at that critical moment and arranging with Wei Zhang to use A-Xiu's body as a substitute for her, she would undoubtedly have become a wandering ghost in the woods.

The burden of vengeance she carried was far too heavy.

And if she could not find the truth and completely expose the conspiracy, the souls of those who died for her would never find peace.

The Du family had to be dealt with, but it was inconvenient to act rashly and kill Du Minghuan easily; doing so would sever the thread leading to the truth behind the scenes.

"The Princess is absolutely right," Wei Zhang nodded. "To be able to orchestrate an assassination attempt on the Princess in a single night while simultaneously facilitating the situation in the Palace is certainly not something an ordinary person could achieve."

On the night of the third of the seventh lunar month, not only did the Commandery Princess "die," but the late Emperor also passed away.

Even Prince Duan, who usually remained in the palace to accompany the Emperor, unexpectedly committed suicide within the palace walls.

Why did Prince Duan commit suicide?

According to the information Wei Zhang gathered after rescuing Yue Tang, the explanation was that the late Emperor had redirected his anger toward Prince Duan, who had suggested that the eldest prince leave the capital to welcome the second prince, and ordered him to commit suicide.

The late Emperor's first wife, Empress Mu, had suffered a miscarriage. Consequently, the prince born to the subsequent pregnant Consort An became the eldest prince by succession.

However, the late Emperor respected Empress Mu. Even though the eldest prince was exceptionally talented, he refused to issue an edict to name him Crown Prince. Instead, he insisted on waiting until the Empress's biological second prince turned sixteen and returned to the capital before choosing a successor.

In June of that year, with only a month left before the second prince's sixteenth birthday, the late Emperor moved up the selection of a suitable party to welcome the second prince back to the capital.

He asked for Prince Duan's opinion, and Prince Duan recommended the eldest prince. His reasoning was that since the two brothers had been separated for a long time, having the elder brother personally welcome the younger would sufficiently demonstrate the Emperor's importance and help foster a bond between the brothers.

Furthermore, over the past years, the eldest prince had personally delivered many of the seasonal gifts sent to the Mu residence.

The late Emperor readily agreed, allowing the eldest prince to lead a contingent of guards, ceremonial processions, and the specially commissioned sedan chair for the second prince on their journey.

But halfway through their journey back to the capital, on the canal less than a hundred miles from the capital, a sudden flood overturned the boats. Both princes, along with some of the guards and attendants, were caught in the disaster.

With the lives of both princes unknown, the news reached the capital, and the late Emperor's condition suddenly took a turn for the worse.

Prince Duan rushed to the palace overnight to attend to him; at that time, things were still normal. Yue Tang, who was outside the capital, had just taken A-Li back to Bieye at that very moment, only to rush back to the capital upon receiving news sent by Prince Duan's men.

As a result, after Yue Tang's ordeal, her first thought upon waking was to contact the Prince's Mansion as quickly as possible. It was only then that she realized something had also occurred in the palace on the very night she was being hunted.

Since it involved his two biological sons, including the prospective Crown Prince, no matter how deep the fraternal bond between the Emperor and Prince Duan was, it was considered reasonable for the Emperor to vent his fury upon him.

But since the events Yue Tang encountered were entirely a conspiracy, Prince Duan's death and the events in the palace that night could not, in the end, be viewed in isolation.

"The Secretariat takes the Shen family as its head; the person behind the Du family is the Shen family. This is naturally the greatest suspicion, not to mention that the late Emperor left such an edict to Empress Dowager Shen. The Shen family rose rapidly, and it cannot be said they did not benefit from it."

"And the Du family deployed hundreds of men to kill me that day. The Du family of that time could not have mustered such a scale, but the Shen family, with four generations of officials, certainly could."

"Not only is their clan massive, but their wealth is also immense. Setting aside the tens of thousands of taels of silver given to the He and Zhang families through the Du family's hands, even adding the portion given to the Du family themselves would not be difficult."

Yue Tang fiddled with a wax pellet, her brow furrowed. "However, the Shen family's rapid rise requires careful deliberation."

"If it truly were the Shen family, there would have been no need to wait three years for us to seek revenge. The watchful Mu family, or the calculating Chu family, would have long ago found a weakness and dragged them out in secret."

"But the timing of Empress Dowager Shen's rise to power is very intriguing, making it hard to say the Shen family is innocent," Wei Zhang voiced his concern. "After Empress Mu passed away, the late Emperor once said he would not appoint another Empress."

"Yet later, he suddenly appointed Lady Shen, who had only entered the palace for three years, and that was while the late Emperor was bedridden."

"Three months later, when the late Emperor was in critical condition, he unexpectedly left a will allowing Empress Dowager Shen to control the Imperial Seal. All of this is highly unusual."

"The Shen family is certainly not innocent. However, our current strength is too meager; our only advantage is that no one knows we exist yet. Therefore, we can only follow the vine to find the source."

Yue Tang set down the wax pellet and placed the blueprints she had brought back from Feiyun Temple on the table. "The Du family is the vine we can climb. Zhang Shaode has already mapped out the positions of the sentries in the Du family's study. I have calculated based on the directions of the Five Elements and the Eight Trigrams, and it should be correct."

"But after last night, the Du family will certainly have strengthened their external defenses. A forced entry would be like a sheep walking into a tiger's mouth."

"We can only find another opportunity to bypass these eyes and ears to reach Du Minghuan's study."

During their escape last night, Du Yu had already discovered the existence of Yue Tang and her companions.

"A guilty conscience," since there was a third person besides the Zhang and He families who knew the Du family's secret, how could the Du father and son sleep soundly?

Not to mention, after they had laid a massive net, they discovered that people had still managed to escape!

Under such circumstances, the Du family would naturally increase their defenses and palace restrictions immediately.

"News of the upcoming birthday banquet at the Marquis of Guangling's manor is already spreading widely. I will wander the streets; perhaps I can find an opportunity."

"Let Little Huo do it," Yue Tang looked toward Huo Yun, who was shrinking into a corner like a quail. "Your master has just returned; let him rest. I will have other tasks for him later."