Chapter 214: The Prince of Chu's Manor

The Prince of Chu's manor in Wuchang, Huguang, sat at the southern foot of Gaoguan Mountain, facing south with the mountain at its back. It stretched two li from east to west and four li from north to south, covering several hundred mu of land—roughly half the size of Wuchang city itself.

Before the manor, the waters of Gedi Lake shimmered with rippling light. Now and then a white waterbird would streak across the lake's surface, snatch up a fish in its beak, and spread its wings to fly toward the woods on the far shore.

In an elegant courtyard tucked into the southeastern corner of the sprawling manor, several burly men, bare-chested and powerfully built, were whipping a young man bound to a tree. The man's body was already a bloody mess, his head lolled to one side—he looked as if he might draw his last breath at any moment.

Seeing this, the burly men stopped one by one, and one of them stepped forward to test the breath of the man who had been beaten.

"Your Highness, it seems the Prince of Shouchang has more breath going out than coming in! If we keep beating him, I fear..."

The big man reported with a trace of panic to a man seated in a chair not far away.

"That beast got off easy! Leave him tied to the tree. Come back tomorrow and have a look—if he's not dead, I'll spare his life!"

The man in the chair was past thirty, wearing a round-collared crimson robe embroidered with coiled dragons and black leather boots. His features were delicate, his lips slightly thin, his expression sinister. When his narrow, elongated eyes fixed on a person, it felt like being stared down by a venomous snake.

He was Zhu Yunhui, the Hereditary Prince of Chu, while the one beaten to the brink of death was his full younger brother, Zhu Yunhao, the Prince of Shouchang.

"Your Highness, should we summon a physician to tend to the Prince of Shouchang? If he's truly beaten to death and the Prince blames us, Your Highness will also suffer the consequences!"

The big man reported cautiously.

Though they had acted on the Hereditary Prince's orders, if the Prince ever learned that they were the ones who had beaten the Prince of Shouchang to death, every member of their families, young and old, would be buried with them.

"Li San, you dog of a slave! Mention that old bastard again and I'll skin you alive! Get over there and see what that vile woman is up to!"

Li San hastily picked up his clothes from the ground, dressed himself, and ran toward the moon gate on one side of the courtyard.

He knew Zhu Yunhui's temperament was vicious and suspicious—at the slightest displeasure he would beat, curse, and punish his servants. No small number of manor attendants and maidservants had been beaten to death or crippled for no reason.

Though Zhu Yunhui and Zhu Yunhao were full brothers born of the same mother, the two had long been at daggers drawn. The reason was simple: years earlier, Zhu Huakui, the Prince of Chu, had begun to entertain thoughts of changing the heir, and the matter had long been the talk of the manor. In the past year or two, this trend had become even more pronounced—the Prince and Princess Consort's disgust for Zhu Yunhui was written all over their faces, while their affection for Zhu Yunhao only grew.

The Prince of Chu had three sons and one daughter in all. Zhu Yunhui and Zhu Yunhao were both born of the principal consort, Lady He. Another son, Zhu Yunlong, was born of the secondary consort, Lady Ma, while the daughter, Zhu Fengde, was born of a manor maidservant and was not yet five years old.

As the eldest son, Zhu Yunhui had been clever since childhood and was deeply loved by Zhu Huakui. When he was five, his father submitted a memorial to the Emperor requesting that he be invested, and subsequently the Wanli Emperor conferred upon him the title of Hereditary Prince of Chu.

The Prince and Princess Consort had doted on Zhu Yunhui excessively since he was small, fostering in him an arrogant and domineering nature. Once grown, he became both addicted to debauchery and utterly ruthless. He had raped numerous maidservants in the manor. When Zhu Huakui learned of it, he punished him severely many times, but Zhu Yunhui never mended his ways.

Lustful by nature, Zhu Yunhui once summoned dozens of prostitutes from Wuchang city and joined in with a gang of street ruffians—men and women alike naked in each other's presence, drinking and making merry while engaging in open debauchery in broad daylight. When word of this spread through those with knowledge of it, it caused an uproar outside, and the Prince of Chu's manor, whose reputation was already poor, became even more disreputable.

Zhu Yunhui also frequently gathered the city's thugs and scoundrels, parading through the streets by the hundred. Whenever they encountered a beautiful woman, they would seize her by force and carry her back to the manor. When they tired of her, they would either drown her in the lake or toss her out beyond the manor gates. The victims' families would appeal to the authorities, but successive Prefects of Wuchang, cowed by Zhu Yunhui's vicious methods, dared not intervene or confront him—which only emboldened Zhu Yunhui's tyranny.

Disappointed in Zhu Yunhui, Zhu Huakui had his other two sons take up residence within the manor, hoping to observe them in secret and determine which one might be suitable to replace Zhu Yunhui as Hereditary Prince. Little did he imagine that this seemingly innocuous decision would bring utter catastrophe upon the Prince of Chu's manor.

When Zhu Yunhui happened to encounter his two beautiful sisters-in-law, lust stirred in him at once. On several occasions he sought them out and molested them with words and deeds—both the wife of Zhu Yunhao and the principal consort of Zhu Yunlong, the Prince of Hanyang. Both times, his younger brothers reported the matter to Zhu Huakui.

In a fury, Zhu Huakui became all the more determined to depose Zhu Yunhui. His mother, Lady He, refused even to see his face, showering affection instead upon the gentle and bookish Zhu Yunhao—which made Zhu Yunhui hate his mother and brother to the bone.

This time, under the pretext of making amends, he sent men to lure his mother and brother to this secluded courtyard. After driving away all their maidservants and attendants, he forcibly locked Lady He in a room of the side courtyard, then bound Zhu Yunhao to a tree and began beating him savagely.

He was not afraid of his father finding out. Past sixty, Zhu Huakui had in recent years become obsessed with Buddhist devotion and the pursuit of longevity. He had built a Hall of a Thousand Buddhas in the manor's rear courtyard and spent his days inside eating vegetarian meals and chanting sutras, strictly ordering everyone in the manor not to disturb his cultivation of tranquility. Thus Zhu Yunhui acted with ever greater audacity.

Before long, Li San ran back and reported: "Your Highness, the Princess Consort shows no movement from within the room!"

"That vile woman! So you're protecting the second son, are you? This time I'll let the two of you die together! Come! To the second son's courtyard—my sister-in-law is still waiting for me to comfort her!"

The moment Zhu Yunhui thought of his sister-in-law Lady Mao's pretty features, his heart burned with heat. With everyone who stood in his way either locked up or on the verge of death, wouldn't a weak woman like Lady Mao simply submit obediently to his prowess?

Zhu Yunhui led Li San and the others along the covered corridor straight toward Zhu Yunhao's courtyard. Every maidservant or servant they encountered along the way hastily dodged aside at the sight of him from afar. When they reached the Imperial Wind Pavilion in the fourth courtyard, they happened to meet Chen Nanping, the manor's Steward.

Chen Nanping's background and experience were much the same as Sun Sanxing, the Steward of the Prince of Zhou's manor. He had been sent to the Prince of Chu's manor seven years earlier and knew Zhu Yunhui's misdeeds all too well—and loathed them deeply. It was precisely through his repeated remonstrations that Zhu Huakui had come to entertain the idea of deposing Zhu Yunhui.

"Where might the Hereditary Prince be heading?"

Chen Nanping halted, blocking the path of Zhu Yunhui and his party.

"Since when do my actions require your oversight? Get out of my way!"

Zhu Yunhui naturally knew that Chen Nanping had urged his father to depose him, but Chen Nanping was always at his father's side, so even if he wanted revenge, he could rarely find an opportunity. Now, seeing Chen Nanping accompanied by only two attendants, the anger that had just subsided in his heart flared anew.

"Hereditary Prince, please conduct yourself with propriety! I am dispatched by the court, and His Highness your father treats me with respect. Is the Hereditary Prince not yet the one who has inherited the princedom?"

Chen Nanping said coldly.

For a piece of human refuse like Zhu Yunhui, Chen Nanping wished he could cultivate the Daoist art of the Palm Thunder and strike him dead on the spot.

"What do you think you are! This realm belongs to my Zhu family! You're nothing but a dog in my household! Get out of my way now—or I'll have my men beat you to death!"

Though Zhu Yunhui was filled with hatred for Chen Nanping, the thought of Lady Mao's beautiful face made him so anxious he wished he could fly there in an instant.

"I have heard that the Hereditary Prince sent men to invite the Princess Consort and the Prince of Shouchang to the Peach Creek Retreat. May I ask where the Princess Consort and the Prince of Shouchang are now?"

Lady He's personal maidservant, seeing that matters had taken a dire turn but not daring to report to the Prince, had in her desperation sought out Chen Nanping and told him the whole story. That was why Chen Nanping had hurried over from the front hall.

He knew how vicious Zhu Yunhui was. With the Prince paying no heed to manor affairs, no one in the entire manor could restrain him anymore. Zhu Yunhui suddenly summoning the Princess Consort and his younger brother was clearly a sign that he intended harm to them both.

"Tie this wretch up for me!"

Seeing Chen Nanping raise the matter, Zhu Yunhui knew that unless he dealt with him as well, once Chen Nanping reached the Peach Creek Retreat, the whole affair would be exposed. He might as well go all the way—lock Chen Nanping up there too, and after a few days, let them all starve to death together.

Li San and the others were all wandering martial artists recruited by Zhu Yunhui, and their skills were considerable. Hearing Zhu Yunhui's order, Li San and the rest rushed forward and in a few moves knocked Chen Nanping and his two attendants to the ground. They tore off the men's belts and bound them, then ripped strips of cloth from their robes and stuffed them into their mouths to silence them.

"Lock them in that courtyard. Li San, you come with me. The rest of you take turns standing guard there—don't worry about me!"

Zhu Yunhui smugly led Li San toward his younger brother's courtyard, while the others hoisted the struggling Chen Nanping and his two men onto their shoulders and turned toward the rear courtyard.