The death of the Eighth Prince

Song and dance filled the Qionglin Banquet with an air of peace and prosperity.

At the banquet, the advisers waited and waited, but the Eighth Prince never appeared. As the night grew late, they felt something might have happened and were discussing it.

"It's been so long. Why is there still no word from the Eighth Prince? Could something have happened?"

"Oh no, could he really have been killed with a single punch?!"

"We'd better send someone to look for him."

They secretly summoned the informants the Eighth Prince had stationed in the palace and told them to look for traces of him.

The Eighth Prince's birth mother, Consort Shu, noticed their furtive movements and demanded to know what they were doing.

When she heard that the Eighth Prince had gone to find the Ninth Prince and had yet to return, Consort Shu, who had seen far too much darkness within the palace, panicked as well and also sent people to search in secret.

Clear moonlight spilled over the Lotus Pond, illuminating the Eighth Prince's pale, livid face and its terrified expression in the water.

By the time the Eighth Prince was found, he had already drowned. Water weeds wound around his legs, and his furious, wide-eyed appearance in the water resembled a water ghost.

"Aah-!"

The palace maid who first discovered the Eighth Prince's body screamed, disrupting the merriment of the Qionglin Banquet and drawing quite a crowd.

The gathered people exchanged bewildered looks over the Eighth Prince's body. A prince had actually died at the Qionglin Banquet. Nothing like this had ever happened since the founding of the dynasty.

Who had dared to kill the Eighth Prince with so many people at the Qionglin Banquet!

The emperor was still here. This was nothing short of a provocation against him.

Consort Shu heard the news of the Eighth Prince's death and nearly fainted at the sight of his body. Casting dignity aside, she threw herself over him and sobbed.

"My son, my son! What a terrible death you suffered! Who was cruel enough to murder my poor, innocent son? Your Majesty, you must give me justice."

Without the Eighth Prince, what did she have left to compete with anyone?

Who was it? Who on earth was it?!

Her venomous gaze swept over everyone present, trying to find her innocent child's true murderer among them.

"My lady, please restrain your grief."

She suddenly remembered that the Eighth Prince had gone to kill Xie Huizhou. There was a very good chance he had killed him instead. "Your Majesty! It was the Ninth Prince! The Ninth Prince couldn't tolerate my Ting'er and killed him with his own hands! Your Majesty, please avenge my son!"

An uproar swept through the crowd. Was fratricide within the imperial family something they could be allowed to witness? Would they be killed to silence them?

Would Xie Huizhou really murder his elder brother?

This was within Zhang Lanhe's plans. He spoke up to clear Xie Huizhou of involvement. "The Ninth Prince was with me the whole time just now. He's a sickly man who gets breathless after a few steps. When could he have killed the Eighth Highness? I performed a divination. An evil spirit is causing trouble in the palace. Why not let me personally conduct a ritual to purge it?"

He himself was that evil spirit committing wicked deeds.

Xie Huizhou's sickly image was deeply rooted in everyone's minds, and he did not look like someone capable of delivering a killing blow. The people around them also felt the Imperial Preceptor made perfect sense.

"The Imperial Preceptor is right!"

"The Ninth Prince is an upright gentleman of impeccable character. Why would he murder his elder brother for no reason?"

"It couldn't have been the Ninth Prince. There may have been a misunderstanding."

Seeing that the Imperial Preceptor, whose power dominated the court and beyond, stood on Xie Huizhou's side and looked as though anyone who opposed Xie Huizhou would be opposing him, none of the clever ones continued to suspect him.

Besides, the Eighth Prince was already dead. Taking the opportunity to curry favor with Xie Huizhou would benefit them more.

Hearing that no one suspected Xie Huizhou, Consort Shu grew so furious that she spoke without thinking. "Then why did my son follow Xie Huizhou? Xie Huizhou isn't here now, yet my son is dead! If he didn't kill him, who else could have?"

If no one suspected Xie Huizhou, wouldn't her son have died for nothing?

No. Whatever happened, she had to drag someone down to accompany her dear son in death.

The emperor looked at her suspiciously. "How do you know the eighth went missing only after following the Ninth Son?"

Consort Shu realized with a start that she had let something slip.

The advisers were utterly weary. So their lord had inherited his stupidity from Consort Shu.

Consort Shu did not know how to explain. "Well..."

Explain what? That her son had tried to kill someone, only to be killed instead?

How could she possibly say that?

Consort Shu hemmed and hawed, and even the emperor could see something was wrong.

The emperor turned to Zhang Lanhe. "My esteemed subject, what is your view of this matter?"

Zhang Lanhe said, "His Highness was with me the whole time then. Wine spilled onto his clothes, so he went to change. I never saw the Eighth Prince. Your Majesty might ask those who were nearby at the time whether they saw him."

Zhang Lanhe had hypnotized quite a few people and fabricated plenty of false memories in their minds. He was not afraid of an investigation; he was only afraid they would not investigate.

"Someone, investigate this thoroughly!"

Soon, a eunuch was brought before them. He had reportedly witnessed the entire course of the Eighth Prince's death.

Consort Shu glared viciously at him. "Speak! Was it the Ninth Prince who pushed the Eighth Prince into the water? My son could swim. He couldn't possibly have died in a place like this!"

"This servant didn't see the Ninth Prince. I only saw the Eighth Prince go into the water himself to retrieve something. Perhaps he slipped and fell in." The eunuch's eyes darted about, and he dared not speak of what he had seen. "As for why, this servant dares not say. Your Majesty can take a close look at what His Highness retrieved."

He vaguely remembered the Eighth Prince following an imperial consort to the vicinity of the Lotus Pond. A gust of wind had blown her handkerchief into the water.

The Eighth Prince had jumped into the water to retrieve the handkerchief and never resurfaced.

And the Eighth Prince tightly clutched a silk scarf in his hand, as though it were exceedingly precious to him.

The emperor's expression shifted repeatedly, his face visibly turning green.

This was a silk handkerchief belonging to a consort in his harem!

He was not dead yet!

His Eighth Prince already dared covet his woman. Would his next step be to covet the throne and murder his father?

As the investigation continued, more and more people became implicated. The emperor could no longer sit still either. He simply could not afford this humiliation.

"The Imperial Preceptor is right. An evil spirit is haunting the palace. I ask the Imperial Preceptor to resolve this matter."

At this point, continuing the investigation would only strip the emperor of all dignity before the crowd. He simply turned a blind eye and closed the case as an accidental fall into the water.

"Give the Eighth Prince a dignified funeral."

The emperor swept his sleeve and left without so much as glancing at the Eighth Prince's body.

Consort Shu was dumbfounded.

The Eighth Prince had died for nothing, just like that.

Unwilling to accept it, she glared angrily at the Imperial Preceptor. But when she saw his Snake Pupils, she felt afraid and dared not say anything, swallowing her resentment.

Seeing the emperor leave in a fury, everyone could only depart one after another, lest they incur his wrath.

The Fifth Prince, Xie Shiqing, had secretly watched for quite some time before sauntering out. "That idiot finally died? I thought he could kill the Ninth Son. In the end, I overestimated the eighth and underestimated the Ninth Son."

The Fifth Prince and the Fourth Prince were full brothers. Apart from the slightly different positions of their tear moles, they looked almost exactly alike.

The Fifth Prince had long since noticed the Eighth Prince's intent to kill Xie Huizhou. He had always liked watching others fight from the sidelines, so he had turned a blind eye.

He had not expected that the one to die in the end would be the Eighth Prince, who had fought against them for so many years.

What a pity. The Eighth Prince's death had failed to implicate any of the other princes.

"Speaking of which, where did Fourth Brother go? I've been looking for ages and still can't find him. Surely he isn't secretly plotting against someone again?"