Chapter 17: The Monster Is Actually Myself!

Empress Dowager Li stood before the gate of the Qianqing Palace. She should have lived in the Cining Palace, which was the Empress Dowager's sleeping palace.

But after the Gao Gong case, Zhang Juzheng led the officials to submit a memorial, hoping that Empress Dowager Li could oversee the Emperor's daily life, so she moved to the Qianqing Palace.

The Qianqing Palace was the Emperor's sleeping palace. Empress Dowager Li living here meant she was acting on behalf of imperial power. Acting on behalf was just acting on behalf; she could not touch the 'Wanli Treasure' seal, only select the opinions she felt were appropriate and let the Emperor use the seal.

Empress Dowager Li actually didn't want the little Emperor to leave the palace to watch the execution, but the little Emperor said: After the assassination attempt, if the Emperor hides, it will only show weakness. If the ministers of the Outer Court see this, they will think, 'Oh, the little Emperor is so cowardly that he doesn't even dare to see a little blood, doesn't even dare to face the person who wants to kill him,' and the ministers will become even more unscrupulous.

Death by a thousand cuts is not a standard punishment; it belongs to the Emperor's decree, a case judged by the Emperor himself. In normal times, the Emperor wouldn't need to supervise the execution, but at this time, when the ruler is young and the state is suspicious, and the ruler is not shaking the net, if the Emperor shows weakness, wouldn't the ministers, who are already bold, go even further?

Empress Dowager Li permitted the little Emperor to leave the palace to supervise the execution and secretly made up her mind that this would be the last time—the last time she would allow the little Emperor to be so neglectful of his proper work.

Zhu Yijun strode into the East Suburb Rice Lane. According to his standards, this Dissection Institute had been completely separated from the Imperial Academy of Medicine. It was a four-courtyard compound without a single tree, and the floor was paved with bricks to prevent mosquitoes, flies, and rodents for the sake of hygiene.

Zhu Yijun was very satisfied with the environment of the Dissection Institute, and the suspects Wang Zhanglong, Chen Hong, Meng Chong, and others had all been sent to the Great Ming's newly completed Dissection Institute by the Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

"Remove the mouth gags." Zhu Yijun looked at the suspects, who were bound tightly, and said to the martial arts teacher Zhu Xixiao.

"Pah! You dog Emperor!" Wang Zhanglong spat a mouthful of thick phlegm at Zhu Yijun. Zhu Yijun saw Wang Zhanglong's malicious intent and, as he gathered his strength, stepped aside. This mouthful of phlegm happened to land on the shoe of Ge Shouli, the Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

Martial arts practice is useful. When facing such a sneak attack, at least one has the reaction time to dodge when one sees it.

Ge Shouli's expression changed drastically, his face turning red. He had originally intended to remonstrate before the Emperor, to persuade him to cultivate benevolence and virtue, and that such heaven-offending things should not be done. The assassination attempt was certainly detestable, but death was the end of it; beheading and displaying the head would suffice.

Yang Bo supported Ge Shouli's intention to remonstrate. After all, if he could really persuade him, and use an imperial oral decree or even an imperial edict to ban the Dissection Institute, could Zhang Juzheng really defy the imperial order?

If Zhang Juzheng and the Shanxi Faction didn't confront each other head-on, everything would have room for relaxation, and everything would be easy to discuss.

But this disgusting mouthful of phlegm landed on Ge Shouli's shoe, and he completely forgot about his intention to remonstrate. He only felt a disgust that surpassed any other, and hurriedly took out a handkerchief to wipe it off, letting the accompanying ceremonial official throw it away before he breathed a sigh of relief.

Wang Zhanglong was wriggling on the ground, shouting arrogantly: "Come on, kill me! You dog Emperor! If you hadn't dodged so fast, I would have stabbed you to death! I'm also a man who killed an Emperor. Eighteen years later, I'll be a hero again!"

"Even if I become a ghost, I won't let you go!"

"Isn't it just death? Who's afraid of whom! Come, stab me to death!"

Zhu Yijun looked at Wang Zhanglong. This man was shouting, not out of fearlessness, but out of incoherent arrogance.

The little Emperor signaled the Commander to present the case files. Zhu Xixiao handed the files to Zhang Hong, who presented them to the Emperor.

Zhu Yijun opened the first case file and said: "In the autumn of the forty-fifth year of Jiajing, you committed a crime in your hometown and fled under the alias Wang Dachen. What crime did you commit? You acted on lust."

"You saw that Chen, the daughter of the village head, was beautiful, broke into her house at night, raped her, and then strangled her. Then you demanded to know where the family's money was from Chen's mother. After getting the money, you killed Chen's mother and a ten-year-old child, just for one string and thirty-seven coins of flying money."

"Chen's father returned home, saw the three corpses, and reported it to the officials. Chen's father was so angry that he died of a broken heart."

"The Ministry of Justice of Southern Zhili issued a warrant for your arrest."

Wang Zhanglong's expression changed drastically. This was a case from many years ago, yet it had been dug up by the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He shouted loudly with a fierce look: "That little bitch deserved to die, she even dared to hit me! That old hag deserved to die, I asked her where the money was, and she wouldn't say! I kicked her once, and she died herself! That brat deserved to die, he even dared to bite me!"

"They all deserved to die!"

His ugly deeds were exposed, and such a tragic case—although Wang Zhanglong was tough-mouthed, he still felt a sense of shame at having his foundation exposed.

Zhu Xixiao kicked Wang Zhanglong hard in the stomach. This kick made Wang Zhanglong's face turn red and then immediately pale. Zhu Xixiao was the Commander; since the Emperor wanted to slice him, he would never let him die early. This kick just hurt.

"Kill me! Kill me!" Wang Zhanglong gritted his teeth, still smiling on his face.

Zhu Yijun picked up the second case file, opened it, and said: "In the summer of the first year of Longqing, you became a bandit in Shandong, joined the 'Sun-Rising Gang' of horse bandits, robbed and destroyed dozens of households, with countless blood cases. Your nickname was 'Earth Tiger.' The government troops wiped you out, but you escaped by luck and fled to the capital under an alias, becoming a servant for the Wang family in the Eastern City."

"These case files are all evil deeds related to you, the 'Earth Tiger,' totaling thirty-four households."

Wang Zhanglong immediately shouted loudly: "Bitches! They were all bitches! They wouldn't hand over their grain willingly. Is there anything else to say? They were all bitches who deserved to die!"

Zhu Yijun put down the case file, looked at Wang Zhanglong, and said: "You became a servant, got addicted to gambling, often stole, were expelled by the Wang family, and then drifted, living by theft. You owed twenty taels of silver in gambling debts, couldn't pay it back, took a desperate risk, colluded with Chen Hong, committed a great treason, and attempted to assassinate the Emperor."

Zhang Juzheng had a strange feeling. The little Emperor described the assassination attempt in only a few words, but he detailed the previous evils of Wang Zhanglong in great detail.

In the Great Ming, where ritual teachings were strict, daring to assassinate the Emperor, who was molded as extremely sacred among the people, represented that Wang Zhanglong had already become lawless.

In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Jiashen National Change occurred. When the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian rode out of the palace, the rebel army recognized the Emperor but still didn't dare to step forward. Only then did the Chongzhen Emperor escape to the back mountain to hang himself.

Chongzhen could have escaped. His Grand Eunuch Wang Cheng'en prepared a way out, and after the master hanged himself, Wang Cheng'en's body was transported to Guangxi by his disciples to be buried.

"You deserve to die." Zhu Yijun put down the case file and looked at Wang Zhanglong. "Killing you with one blade is too cheap for you, so We chose to use a knife. Grand Eunuch Feng, give the knives We had you make to Physician Chen."

"This is a dissection knife, extremely sharp. It can cut through your skin and muscles very smoothly, and the tip can clean up blood vessels. You might not even feel pain."

"This is a bone-prying knife. Its function is to pry your bones apart one by one—*crack, crack*—and then soak every piece of bone in pine resin so that it can be observed at any time."

Wang Zhanglong shivered as soon as that row of knives was displayed in the sunlight. As the Emperor calmly described the function of each knife, Wang Zhanglong finally shook like chaff and kept twitching.

"Yes, there's more." Zhu Yijun continued: "Your internal organs will also be soaked in pine resin so they can be observed from time to time."

"This is still not the most terrifying part. Wang Zhanglong, do you know what is the most terrifying part?"

"W-w-what...?" Wang Zhanglong shivered violently and asked with an angry roar.

Zhu Yijun's face was full of sunshine, and he said with a smile: "The most terrifying part is that you won't die immediately. The purpose of the Dissection Institute is to keep verifying the art of dissection on you. You will live for a long time, because the medical skills of the physicians in the Dissection Institute are extremely exquisite. The most terrifying part is that you won't die immediately, but you will always be waiting for death."

"The time spent waiting for death before the execution is the most terrifying, because you don't know when death will come. That kind of fear before death is the most tormenting."

"Kill me! Kill me! Kill me!" Wang Zhanglong was completely terrified. He kept shrinking his body, his voice sounding quite strange—as if he were angry, and as if he were wailing. He looked at the ten-year-old little Emperor with fear and unease. In his eyes, the little Emperor was simply more terrifying than the King of Hell!

Being beheaded and displayed, having no complete corpse, and not being able to rest in peace after death was already an extremely terrifying way to die.

Now the little Emperor had given Wang Zhanglong an even more terrifying way to die: dying over and over again.

"Your Majesty, spare my life! Your Majesty, spare my life! Your Majesty, kill me, kill me!" Wang Zhanglong was already scared into incoherence.

Zhu Yijun smelled a scent of urine; clearly, Wang Zhanglong had already been scared into wetting himself.

The little Emperor of the Great Ming stood in the sunlight, revealing a sunny, cheerful smile, and said: "We thought your mouth was tough. You're begging for mercy already?"

"Too late."

"Grand Eunuch Feng!" Zhang Juzheng looked at Feng Bao with anger.

Although he was a political ally with Feng Bao and had joined forces to drive Gao Gong away, he didn't want to see the Emperor of the Great Ming be such a violent monarch. Zhang Juzheng thought these knives and these words were all taught by Feng Bao.

Feng Bao had bitter words he couldn't speak. How could he have known that the Emperor asking him to make knives was for this purpose?!

Feng Bao's legs were shaking now. Knowing that he had previously had some insubordinate behavior!

If the little Emperor held a grudge and sent him to the Dissection Institute one day...

Just thinking about it made Feng Bao feel his heart beating like a drum. How could he have the energy to argue with Zhang Juzheng?

Chen Shigong finally couldn't watch anymore. How could it be that terrifying? The Emperor was really good at bluffing.

Chen Shigong, the head of the Dissection Institute, brought a bowl of medicinal soup and wanted to feed it to Wang Zhanglong. Wang Zhanglong naturally refused to drink it, so two Embroidered Uniform Guard soldiers pried open Wang Zhanglong's mouth and fed it to him.

Before long, Wang Zhanglong's tongue hung out, his eyes rolled back, and he lay on the ground, still alive. This was a bowl of soul-stealing soup, mainly made of *Datura stramonium* and *Aconitum carmichaelii*, which was folk medicine for bone-setting—in other words, an anesthetic.

Chen Shigong also had a local anesthetic called 'Fennel Powder,' used for surgeries like removing nasal polyps with copper wire or treating hemorrhoids with thread-tying.

Zhu Yijun smiled at Zhang Juzheng and said: "Senior Grand Secretary, We are just scaring him. If he dies, then we will dissect him. As long as he is still alive, we will only treat him for surgeries we are not sure about."

Such good material naturally couldn't be wasted easily. Zhu Yijun was a very frugal person.

Zhang Juzheng read this sentence earnestly and repeated it. Doing surgeries he wasn't sure about—it would be better to just die.

Zhu Yijun said to Chen Shigong: "A hundred thousand diseases are gathered in a few prescriptions. Using a few prescriptions to treat common diseases is inevitable. I leave this Wang Zhanglong to you, Physician Chen. I have high expectations for you, Physician Chen. I hope that one day, the four seas and eight directions will all be bathed in the virtue of the Sage of Medicine; reaching the heavens and the earth, sharing the grace of the Great Physician. Bringing the people to longevity and health, and summoning harmony to the universe."

"This subject obeys the decree!" Chen Shigong heard the Emperor's expectations and hurriedly knelt to receive the decree. Chen Shigong discovered that after staying with the monster for a long time, he had also become a monster.

Because for such a cruel thing, for the sake of medical progress, he actually accepted it calmly.

The monster is actually myself! ===== CHAPTER 18 =====