Yan Shifan's single move had caused enormous trouble—trouble that neither he nor Yan Song had ever anticipated.
The Jinyi Guard and Eastern Depot seemed to have gone mad, relentlessly conducting internal investigations and questioning and screening everyone in the palace, determined to uncover every person's connections.
It left everyone inside and outside the palace deeply unsettled, with not a trace of New Year cheer. Amid such chaos, Yan Song submitted a memorial before the New Year requesting retirement, but Jiajing kept it without granting approval.
After the New Year, on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Censor Zou Yinglong submitted a memorial impeaching Yan Song and Yan Shifan. That very day, Yan Shifan was thrown into prison...
"So this is the renowned Imperial Prison."
Qi Dazhu looked around curiously. "Third Master, it doesn't seem much different from the prison back in Chun'an. It's just bigger than ours."
Zhu Qi laughed. "The most your county prison can hold is a few clerks from the county yamen. But this Imperial Prison of our Northern Garrison holds nothing but important figures."
"I think these important figures aren't much different from the clerks in our county," Qi Dazhu muttered.
With his hands clasped behind his back, Wang Yan strolled along leisurely and gave a satisfied hum. "That's right. You've improved, Dazhu. The people in this Imperial Prison are no different from those below. They're all traitors with no loyalty to their sovereign and no love for the people, men with neither ruler nor father, neither country nor conscience, who think only of themselves.
"The only difference is that they've committed greater sins and embezzled more silver than those below. But that doesn't make them worse people than those below. It's just that the ones below never had the chance to rise higher—not