Chapter 28

Meng Zhou blinked unhurriedly, and the resemblance from a moment ago vanished without a trace.

He must not act guilty.

Throughout the journey, Afu had practically broken Guan Jiasheng's experiences into tiny pieces and spoon-fed them to him, and Old Madam Guan had just briefly explained the family's circumstances.

Guan Jiasheng had been away for five years. No one in the capital knew him better than Afu and his mother. With the soul of an award-winning actor backing him up, if he still let Chu Huaiyin expose his alternate identity, he might as well go back into the furnace and be remade.

It was normal for Chu Huaiyin to harbor some suspicions.

Meng Zhou immersed himself fully in the role, confining himself to Guan Jiasheng's characterization. He strode into the center of the hall and dropped to his knees with a thud.

"This guilty subject, Guan Jiasheng, kowtows before Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty, may you live ten thousand years."

Since entering the capital, he had been cautious at every turn, speaking entirely in Guan Jiasheng's voice. After the incense smoke in the Buddhist hall and his bout of crying with the old madam, his throat was already uncomfortable, though only half a day had passed. Meng Zhou sighed inwardly. If this went on for ten days or half a month, his voice would be ruined.

Come to think of it, this was the first time Meng Zhou had performed such a formal obeisance to Chu Huaiyin, yet he carried it out with considerable familiarity, as though he had knelt countless times before.

Chu Huaiyin's gaze flickered, unreadable, as he tried to find more traces of Meng Zhou in this man. Yet he had merely blinked and looked away for an instant, and when he looked again, they were completely different people. That earlier moment seemed more like an illusion brought on by the sudden sight of Guan Jiasheng.

Guan Jiasheng exuded forthright integrity, neither servile nor overbearing, a far cry from Meng Zhou. His gaze toward him was entirely that of someone looking at a sovereign: there was reverence and loyalty, but no closeness whatsoever.

"Ahem." Ji Yang reminded His Majesty that the man had a wife and child. Surely staring at him like this was inappropriate.

Chu Huaiyin withdrew his gaze. "Rise. Why did you leave Suzhou without authorization?"

Meng Zhou's eyes took on an appropriately pained look, as though he were recalling those harrowing attempts on his life. He recounted the investigation in Suzhou as Guan Jiasheng had described it to him, then briefly mentioned the attack in the ruined temple.

When he spoke of his wife dying after taking a blade meant for Guan Jiasheng, Meng Zhou's eyes were sorrowful and desolate, his voice hoarse. His profound longing for his wife drew even the onlookers into that moment of despair in just a few words.

Ji Yang was shocked by the information Meng Zhou revealed. He had never imagined that, after a hundred years, remnants of the former dynasty were still stirring up trouble, with far-reaching means and long-laid plans. Even the prefect of Suzhou had been unable to send word back to the capital and had suffered repeated attacks on the journey back.

"You suspect those villains have a dedicated channel for transporting Lake Tai stones?" Chu Huaiyin immediately thought of the fleet owner's cargo vessels, which operated throughout Great Wei. The Lake Tai stones in Qing Garden were not particularly large, but the former dynasty's imperial garden stood on the capital's outskirts. Any Lake Tai stones brought into the capital's vicinity by land would certainly be discovered.

Only the waterways would work. During checkpoint inspections, they could simply tie the Lake Tai stones to the stern with ropes and drag them underwater, avoiding notice and entering the capital without difficulty.

Meng Zhou would certainly have connected this to that fleet of unknown origins. Chu Huaiyin asked casually, "Whom do you suspect?"

Meng Zhou identified the trap in those words precisely. He analyzed the situation. "The official roads between Suzhou and the capital are clear and level. Since we do not yet know how the integrity of the Lake Tai stones affects Qing Garden's mechanisms, the other party might have cut them apart for transport and reassembled them upon arrival at Qing Garden. Thus, transport by either water or land is possible. This guilty subject has no leads."

Meng Zhou did not answer directly, and Chu Huaiyin felt faintly disappointed. "Transporting them by land would take twice the effort for half the result and involve too many people. Great Wei's waterways extend in all directions, and there are waterways near Qing Garden as well. Those people most likely used water transport. Qing Garden has long been abandoned. Ji Yang, take a thousand elite soldiers and investigate whether any stone has been stockpiled nearby."

"Guan Jiasheng, you will serve as acting capital prefect and assist with the investigation." The former capital prefect had abused his authority to grant privileges to wastrel sons and had been thrown into prison by Chu Huaiyin to await a joint trial by the three judicial offices.

He also ordered the left and right court historians to retrieve all recorded statements by officials and commoners from the past ten years and check whether anyone had advocated rebuilding Qing Garden.

Judging the time, Chu Huaiyin rose to leave. Old Madam Guan invited His Majesty to stay for a meal, but he declined. "The grand general will soon return to court. I still have matters to attend to. There is no need for such courtesy, Old Madam."

"We respectfully see Your Majesty off."

Meng Zhou watched Chu Huaiyin's retreating figure with worry in his eyes. He seemed even busier since becoming emperor, without even time for lunch.

Why had that uncle he had never met chosen to enter the city right at noon?

As though sensing something, Chu Huaiyin suddenly turned back, only to find Meng Zhou kneeling properly, his expression perfectly calm. Old Madam Guan was helping her son up affectionately, seemingly pleased that he had been promoted a rank as soon as he entered the capital.

After leaving the Guan Residence, Chu Huaiyin could not help asking Ji Yang, "Do you think he resembles Meng Zhou?"

Ji Yang answered with some difficulty, "He does, yet he doesn't." Their appearances were similar, but their bearing and speech were entirely different.

Chu Huaiyin said, "His mother had no suspicions either. Perhaps I truly was mistaken." Cowards sought substitutes; the strong faced reality. Searching for traces of Meng Zhou in Guan Jiasheng was a slight to all three of them. Chu Huaiyin would not allow himself to be weak.

When Jiang Yi returned to the capital, His Majesty welcomed him in person, and for a time, no one could rival his prominence. New tales sprang up in the teahouses: when the grand general had fallen from a cliff and lay at death's door, a tigress had rescued him and cared for him as her cub. It was said that the grand general even rode a tiger into battle. How imposing...

After the Jiang Residence was renovated, its main courtyard had remained empty. Jiang Xin had been listless ever since Meng Zhou died. Without his nephew's guidance, he had lost all confidence, terrified of bringing the general's household into another embarrassing predicament. No one was happier than he was at Jiang Yi's return. When a meddler tried to sow discord between him and Jiang Yi, Jiang Yi flew into a rage, severed ties with the meddler, and swept away.

He had sold the general's residence once, and in his heart, it had long since belonged to Meng Zhou. He had even planned to wait a while before encouraging Meng Zhou to sever his father-son relationship with Meng Fushan and take the surname Jiang, so they could openly move Jiang Yao's grave back to the Jiang Clan, far from the filth of the Meng Clan.

Jiang Xin had only entertained the thought, but his cousin Jiang Yi acted decisively and put it into effect as soon as he returned.

Without even entering the general's residence, Jiang Yi charged straight into the left chancellor's residence with his saber. "Meng Fushan, come out!"

A hypocritical smile still hung on Meng Fushan's face. "Eighteen years apart, and my young brother-in-law has grown ever more distinguished as a veteran general. If my father-in-law knows of this in the afterlife, he will surely be deeply gratified."

Jiang Yi sneered, disinclined to waste words on him. "Bring paper and a brush."

"Today, I will act in my father's stead and seek justice for my late sister." Jiang Yi took the brush and swiftly filled a sheet of paper. "Henceforth, the Jiang Clan and the Meng Clan will have no connection except as blood enemies."

The Meng Residence's gates stood open, and commoners craned their necks to watch the spectacle. Meng Fushan, who prized his reputation above all else, changed expression. "Preposterous! Our marriage was arranged by our parents through a matchmaker. Jiang Yao was my first wife, and in death, she belongs in the Meng Clan's ancestral hall. When you were young and refused to call me brother-in-law, Yao'er persuaded me not to hold it against you. What, have eighteen years passed in vain, leaving you as childish as ever?"

Meng Fushan's lecture in the tone of an elder nearly made Jiang Yi want to burn down the left chancellor's residence. After years in the army, he had not encountered anyone as hypocritical as Meng Fushan in a long time.

He slapped the written document down before Meng Fushan. "Don't make me use force."

Meng Fushan took one look and nearly spat blood. The document was neither a husband's repudiation of his wife nor an amicable divorce, but Jiang Yao's repudiation of her husband!

With so many people watching, Meng Fushan refused to sign no matter what. Otherwise, he would be the entire capital's laughingstock by tomorrow.

Jiang Yi summoned two burly attendants, who pinned Meng Fushan to the ground. Crouching down, Jiang Yi grabbed Meng Fushan's thumb, pressed it into red ink paste, and stamped it on the paper.

"Meng Fushan, a native of Xuchuan in Jiangnan, already had a wife and children at home, yet proclaimed himself unmarried, committing marriage fraud and deceiving the sovereign... Today, her younger brother Jiang Yi acts on her behalf to repudiate her husband, severing all past ties and grievances."

Jiang Yi read it aloud in public. Someone among the spectators shouted, "Good!" Meng Fushan was so furious that his mouth and eyes twisted.

Even Jiang Yao's grave had initially been exceedingly shabby. Lady Zhou had handled the funeral herself, with every detail arranged according to the standards for a concubine. Later, when Meng Fushan heard that Jiang Yi was returning, he ordered a new grave built.

Jiang Yi moved her into the Jiang Clan's ancestral burial grounds, beside their parents' graves. He even wanted to change Meng Zhou's surname, erasing that offensive "Meng" from the gravestone.

Chu Huaiyin stopped him, unwilling to disturb Meng Zhou's rest.

"Meng Zhou never mentioned it while he was alive. Presumably, he had no strong attachment to the matter of his surname. There are countless people surnamed Meng in this world. Henceforth, Meng Zhou's Meng can simply be Master Meng's Meng, with no connection to Meng Fushan."

That made sense too. Jiang Yi thought it over. He had never seen his nephew and did not know what sort of person he had been. Before leaving on campaign, he had promised Jiang Yao that if Meng Fushan mistreated her, he would return to avenge her.

That delay had lasted eighteen years.

Jiang Yi did not blame His Majesty. Under those circumstances, any member of the Jiang Clan would have chosen not to burden others. Even in peril, His Majesty had kept his promise and protected Meng Zhou. Jiang Yi would remember that kindness.

Men did not shed tears lightly. Jiang Yi spent an afternoon silently practicing his boxing on the training ground, then took a jar of strong liquor to drink with Uncle Liu. Jiang Xin was too young; Uncle Liu was the only person he could talk to.

Uncle Liu, the steward, sighed endlessly. He had never imagined that Jiang Yi was alive, nor that Meng Zhou would leave them in such a way.

Uncle Liu had spent a great deal of time with Meng Zhou. Sometimes, Chu Huaiyin would hint to him about whatever dangerous thing Meng Zhou had done that day, hoping Uncle Liu could talk him out of it. Chu Huaiyin had resorted to this out of helplessness. He had once boasted to Ji Yang that Meng Zhou listened to him, but that was only talk. Compared with him, Meng Zhou listened more to the elderly Uncle Liu. At the very least, he did not dare openly act shamelessly with him.

As Jiang Yi imagined the Meng Zhou Uncle Liu described, his heart alternately ached and swelled with pride. By the time he heard about Meng Zhou's nighttime infiltration of the Liu Residence, he was already somewhat drunk. He slammed his wine bowl down and snapped, "His Majesty is simply too good-tempered. If it were me, I'd give him several hard strokes of the paddle!"

Those words rang out with overwhelming force. Meng Zhou, who happened to be passing outside the wall at that moment, was speechless.

Meng Zhou doubled his pace.

Though he called it a chance passing, it was actually quite deliberate. Meng Zhou had exhausted himself with continuous travel, and before reaching the capital, he had thrown away his pregnancy-stabilizing medicine again.

Meng Zhou was precisely the sort of patient physicians disliked: he merely listened to medical advice and threw away his medicine before finishing the course without a second thought.

But he did not dare buy or brew any medicine. Out of caution, Chu Huaiyin would send people to watch him, and once the mastermind pursuing Guan Jiasheng saw that he was not dead, they would certainly send people to keep an eye on him too.

Besides, he had suddenly remembered that he had not finished the medicine Li Wenle had prescribed for him that day! It was hidden at the Jiang Residence!

Although Chu Huaiyin had sealed his room, and Meng Zhou had hidden the medicine well-under a loose brick beneath the bed-he still could not put his mind at ease. Especially since this uncle of his seemed rather brutal. What if he got drunk, took things too hard, and decided to dig three feet into the ground looking for his sister and nephew?

The route from the Guan Residence to the capital prefect's office happened to pass the Jiang Residence. Meng Zhou walked close to the wall, hoping to find a dog hole.

He was not planning to sneak into the Jiang Residence, only to scout the route first. With his current skills, he would not last a single exchange against Jiang Yi's men.

He needed a foolproof plan.

There was no dog hole.

Last time, Uncle Liu had used the money Meng Zhou gave him from selling himself to seal the final dog hole. Chu Huaiyin had then ordered the residence renovated, and the surrounding wall had been raised by a full two meters.

Meng Zhou left regretfully. Seeing that he seemed unhappy, Afu asked, "Master, did taking up your post not go smoothly?"

Meng Zhou turned and stared at him with a dark, lingering gaze.

Afu clutched his chest.

"When are you getting married and having children?" Preferably consummating the marriage today and conceiving tomorrow.

To tell you the truth, this official would like to cadge a bowl of pregnancy-stabilizing medicine.