Chapter 144

Late at night, in the Lizheng Hall.

Palace attendants stood silently outside the door, heads bowed, daring not make the slightest sound.

Inside the illuminated palace pavilion, a small, spirit-laden sparrow sat on a round table, chirping and chattering.

The Qian Emperor, clad in a bright yellow sleeping robe, sat before the round table; a broken teacup lay on the floor, not yet cleared away.

The Empress held a blanket, draping it over the Qian Emperor's back:

"Your Majesty, calm your anger. Li Gongpu merely lost his wits..."

"He is smarter than anyone."

The Qian Emperor had used Li Gongpu for twenty years; how could he not know the capability and character of this dog under his command:

"He simply feels my end is near and is plotting his own escape route.

"He has always been adept at reading the air; whatever I think, he guesses and arranges without me needing to say much. I did not expect that he would also guess I would not survive this winter... cough... cough..."

The Empress sat nearby, helping to soothe his breathing, her expression complex:

"Sigh... Li Gongpu is an old servant by Your Majesty's side. Even if he was bewitched, if he must be punished according to the law, it should wait until Zhao Jinghuan takes up the burden later, to show the civil and military officials..."

"I originally intended exactly that, and only wished for his death alone."

The Qian Emperor looked at the Purple Thunder Sparrow:

"But you do not understand how skilled Li Gongpu is at pleasing people. I had even forgotten this bird, yet he remembered it clearly. And whenever I grew tired of some object, he could always find a new favorite in time, arranging everything perfectly.

"My body is frail and ill; I suffered hardships when I was a prince, and upon ascending the throne, I could not suppress the senior officials. Every chain taught me to restrain myself.

"But Zhao Jinghuan is different. He is only twenty. Over these years, I have already swept the court and the countryside clean for him. Once he ascends, he can act with bold strokes. If aided by virtuous ministers, he can become a wise ruler of a generation; if he favors flatterers, he will be autocratic, arrogant, and indulgent..."

The Empress sighed softly: "Then what does Your Majesty mean?"

"I am not dead yet, and Li Gongpu has already begun to curry favor with the new monarch. If court officials follow suit, what kind of Emperor am I? When Zhao Jinghuan succeeds in the future, will they not again secretly conspire with the feudal princes?"

"Uh... Your Majesty speaks most wisely."

The Qian Emperor turned his gaze toward the door:

"Fo'er, go gather the memorials from the court officials impeaching Li Gongpu for embezzlement, bribery, and abuse of power, and send them to the Dali Temple. Also send the cases regarding the Li family of Danzhou burying gamblers alive, privately selling Ascension Pills, and smuggling salt, all together. Order the Red Scale Guard to confiscate their private assets. The ringleaders shall be executed by beheading; the implicated clan members shall be exiled three thousand li, as a warning to others. As for Li Gongpu, in view of his past hard work, let him take his own life."

Cao Fo'er felt the Sovereign still held some regard for old ties, thought for a moment, and said:

"Li Gongpu bribed Zhou Ming'an and insisted on a heavy sentence for Xie Wen. Although Hou Jiye insisted on a fair judgment, there was ultimately an intent to kill Xie Wen. Xie Jinhuan has been watching Li Gongpu for flaws precisely because of this. If it were up to this old servant, why not do a favor that goes with the flow?"

The Qian Emperor fell silent for a moment, nodded slightly, and looked again at the Purple Thunder Sparrow:

"Send this bird to the Crown Prince. In his youth, Zhao Jinghuan desired it but could not have it because he was too young and immature; I feared he would become arrogant if favored. Now that he has reached adulthood, his conduct has its own measure. Correcting a wrong too severely will produce the opposite effect."

"Yes."

—

By midnight, the streets should have been devoid of people, but the street outside Li Gongpu's residence was brightly lit.

Censors, imperial scholars from the Guozijian, and idle townsfolk who had heard the news from various streets were beating gongs and drums on the street; every restaurant and tavern was packed, and wealthy patrons waved their hands to pay for all the wine and spirits, not for any other reason, but to celebrate the joy of the whole world!

Just one double-hour ago, the Dali Temple Minister Hou Jiye, the Crown Prince's teacher Fan Li, and several other court officials jointly submitted a memorial at the palace gate, impeaching Li Gongpu on twenty major charges: bewitching the Crown Prince, embezzlement and bribery, using power for private gain, unjustly killing commoners, and bringing disaster to the countryside.

Upon hearing the news, the Qian Emperor flew into a rage, ordering the Red Scale Guard to raid Li Fu. Since Li Gongpu's ancestral home was Danzhou, the Danzhou prefectural office provided personnel to assist in the investigation.

Raiding the home of Li Gong, the Eunuch, was a task praised by all. The Commander Cao Huaian personally led three hundred red-robed plagues, surrounding the vast Li Fu so tightly that not even water could leak through.

After finishing his work, Xie Jinhuan had intended to go find Big Ice Lump, but somehow he was conscripted, turned into the representative of the Danzhou prefectural office, and followed the Red Scale Guard to raid the house.

Yang Dabiao, hearing this great news, sat up in shock from his deathbed, and with great effort dragged along Xiao Wang and others, who were limping, changed into the office uniforms, and climbed over from the Imperial Medicine Bureau.

At this moment, inside Li Fu, numerous Red Scale Guards were concentrating personnel and inventorying assets.

In the rear residence, inside a study that was bare of all furnishings.

Li Gongpu, clad in his official robe, sat alone on a tea couch. On a tray beside him lay a three-foot length of white silk. His entire person seemed to have lost its soul, staring blankly ahead.

Xie Jinhuan, with two weapons hanging at his waist, stood at the door, surveying the familiar study:

"The Sovereign indeed remembers old ties. You bribed officials to pass unjust and false judgments, causing no fewer than ten families to be destroyed, yet you are still given a dignified end. Vice Minister Li, please proceed. If you delay any longer, the Red Scale Guard will find it hard to explain to the outside world and will have to help Vice Minister Li achieve his dignity."

Li Gongpu's eyes moved; he came to his senses and looked at Xie Jinhuan:

"That day in the Linde Hall, did you use illusion magic on this old man?"

Xie Jinhuan did not deny it: "Is Vice Minister Li preparing to go out and cry injustice, claiming I framed you?"

Li Gongpu knew that crying out would be meaningless; their reputations were set in stone. Even if he described the scene he saw in detail, he would only be regarded as a mad dog biting wildly in its death throes.

Secondly, even if someone guessed that Xie Jinhuan had set a trap behind the scenes, buying the Purple Thunder Sparrow to curry favor with the Crown Prince was not arranged by Xie Jinhuan.

Now that he had crashed headlong into the Emperor's reverse scale, with the wall fallen everyone pushes, who would investigate Xie Jinhuan, a knight backed by the Prince of Dan and famous throughout Jingcheng with a bright future, just for the sake of a flatterer known to all?

Li Gongpu knew that if the Emperor wanted him dead, he could not live. Xie Jinhuan was watertight; there was no way to bite back. After a long silence, he propped himself up by his knees, stood, and picked up the three-foot length of white silk:

"My only mistake was that three years ago I did not act ruthlessly enough; I failed to cut the roots and remove the grass."

"That is about right. If you had not given Han Jingchuan advice, my father would not have been dragged out to take the blame; if you had not demoted him to Ruizhou, the convoy would not have encountered an ambush, the accompanying servants would not have all died miserably, and my father would not be missing, life and death unknown. I survived purely by luck. You ending up with such a fate is already a bargain for you."

Li Gongpu draped the three-foot white silk over the beam and stepped onto the stool:

"In that case, this old man has not suffered retribution. Not only did I keep my body intact, but I also prevented you from personally slaying your enemy."

Xie Jinhuan did not care about this provocation:

"Say what you wish to say; there are only a few words left."

"Heh~ Now it is the Sovereign who wants to kill me, not you. The Sovereign even left me a dignified end. I am leaving very smoothly. If I fell into the hands of the Crown Prince, I would be beheaded and subjected to lingchi. Speaking of which, I must thank you..."

After tying the rope, Li Gongpu hung his neck in it, looked at Xie Jinhuan, and kicked the stool away with his foot.

Clang—

The round stool fell to the ground, emitting a dull thud.

Li Gongpu's body swayed a few times, but he continued to stare at Xie Jinhuan, striving to appear calm and open, hoping to make Xie Jinhuan uncomfortable; after all, the more fear and anger the opponent felt, the more relaxed and content the other would inevitably be.

But Xie Jinhuan clearly did not care about that gaze. After thinking for a moment, he took an old brush from his sleeve:

"Right, this brush really is quite mystical. You took the imperial exam and rose to great heights — did you have some master consecrate it?"

"Pfft… rob… lotus…"

Li Gongpu had already given up struggling, but upon seeing the writing brush, his pupils shook violently. His whole body suddenly came alive again. He thrashed desperately, grabbed the rope, tried to break free, and let out a muffled hissing sound. His eyes strained toward the door, looking as though he wanted to call for help.

But that was obviously impossible.

Xie Jinhuan looked into Li Gongpu's eyes and said nothing more.

Li Gongpu's legs kicked furiously, his eyes full of unwillingness as he tried desperately to speak, but as time passed, his struggles grew weaker and weaker, and in moments there was no more movement.

After confirming he was thoroughly dead, Xie Jinhuan put away the old writing brush and turned to walk toward the corridor outside the courtyard.

The two Scarlet Qilin Guard centurions waiting in the corridor went in to take a look, verified the identity and confirmed he was thoroughly dead, then went out to call people in to sort through the study's belongings…

……

The outer residence.

Everyone in the household was gathered in the main courtyard for identity verification one by one. Short-term hired servants and maids were dismissed on the spot; indentured slaves and family members were detained for interrogation.

Yang Dabiao stood in the yard, looking at the swarms of household servants and the account books laid out before him, his eyes full of shock:

"Li Gongpu is simply greed-mad — how much of the people's wealth must he have plundered?! The Saint of Thieves caused such a stir all over town, and I thought he'd cleaned the place out, but it turns out he only took a drop in the bucket…"

Linghu Qingmo had already been displeased with the Li family's abuse of imperial favor to flout the law and plague the countryside back in Danyang. Standing nearby now, recording the property information, her heart was full of the satisfaction of rooting out a great corrupt official:

"The stolen goods all have to be turned over to the national treasury. If the Saint of Thieves took it all, what will the imperial court use to reward meritorious servants like Xie Jinhuan…"

Princess Changning was supervising nearby, also somewhat shocked by Li Gongpu's staggering wealth. After waiting a moment, she saw Xie Jinhuan come out, then stepped forward and asked:

"How did it go?"

Xie Jinhuan honestly felt nothing much — after all, Li Gongpu got what he deserved. The Emperor seemed generous, giving him the chance to watch Li Gongpu die, but if the Emperor didn't covet private desires and had dealt with this corrupt, bribe-taking sycophant sooner, far fewer people would have been harmed.

The matter was already over, and Xie Jinhuan did not linger on the dead man any longer;

"His Majesty just wanted me to come watch Li Gongpu meet a decent end. There's nothing else for us here — shall we head back?"

Princess Changning didn't want to stay either. She led the way at the front, thought for a moment, and said:

"The Li family has plagued the countryside for years. Pulling them out is also ridding the people of a scourge. How could this princess not reward that? How about tonight let Qingmo attend your bath…"

"Hmm?"

Linghu Qingmo was walking nearby, still taking in the splendid houses of Li Fu. Hearing this, she turned her eyes back at once:

"Ling'er!"

Duoduo followed behind, smiling brightly: "How about me? I promise I won't take advantage of Young Master Xie — just a plain face wash."

A plain face wash…

Xie Jinhuan felt that if Nai Duoduo wouldn't let him wash his face with her, she was already holding back. Though greatly tempted, when he thought about Seeing Bing Tuozi's matter, and that Wanyi had surely cooked and was waiting at home, he thought it over and said:

"Um… I promised to visit Physician Lin tonight, and I've really been delayed quite a bit…"

?

Linghu Qingmo blinked, thought of her vase-like elder sister who only knew how to sleep, and stepped closer:

"What watch of the night is it already? Physician Lin has gone to sleep. You've been busy all day — go back, wash up, rest properly, and visit tomorrow morning. Wouldn't that be just as well?"

"Heh, uh…"

Xie Jinhuan chuckled, said no more, and escorted the three clients he hadn't accompanied well onto the carriage:

"Let me see you all back to the residence first."

……

(End of chapter)