Chapter 13: The Imperial Seal Worth 95,000 Taels

Xiao Chengzi handled the matter of smuggling Ling’er out of the palace quite efficiently.

The news was tightly sealed, barely leaking beyond the Eastern Palace, yet it had already spread throughout the Eastern Palace itself!

On the morning of the third day of the New Year, the Crown Princess learned of Ling’er’s affair from Xiao Zhen and was greatly shocked!

But she chose to pretend ignorance, feigning stupidity, acting as if she knew nothing, turning a blind eye.

On the night of the Lantern Festival, after accompanying the Crown Prince to view the lanterns, the Crown Princess did not return to the Eastern Palace but instead stayed overnight at Lingtai Temple.

That night, He Xiang also came, but before he could ask about the efficacy of the Seven-Times Pill for marital relations, he was immediately confronted by the Crown Princess’s accusations!

She spilled everything—about the Persian cat “A Jing” and the private boy Ling’er!

“Didn’t I already warn you...”

He Xiang rebuked her in exasperation: “Within two hours, no other woman must be near the Crown Prince!”

“...”

The Crown Princess, speechless and forlorn, dared not confess to He Xiang about the wine cup she had misplaced.

He Xiang: “That Seven-Times Pill... is merely a yang-enhancing medicine; even His Majesty and I take it! It’s no fierce or demonic remedy, nothing so sinister.”

“You and His Majesty!”

The Crown Princess looked astonished.

He Xiang: “After taking it, two cups of tea later... strength like a tiger, courage like a wolf! If yin and yang harmonize, water and fire blend, hearts become one...”

The Crown Princess: “And if they don’t?”

He Xiang paused, then spoke slowly: “If yin and yang are unbalanced... two yins meet, it’s merely rain on banana leaves! If it meets yang, the consequences are unpredictable—organs shatter, intestines tear!”

“Nonsense!”

The Crown Princess added: “Then how do you explain the cat? Same male and female, yet no harmony of yin and yang!”

“Ah, the dosage for beasts differs from humans!”

He Xiang snapped: “For a cat, half a pill is enough; one pill is too much!”

Before leaving, He Xiang gave the Crown Princess a peculiarly shaped wine flask, giving her an excuse to invite the Crown Prince to drink together and create another opportunity for shared bedding.

The Crown Princess placed the flask on the table and examined it closely.

The flask was about half an arm’s thickness, milky white in color, with a graceful spiral shape.

The mouth of the flask curled inward in a spiral, the entire form resembling a giant conch shell.

The flask’s exterior was hard and smooth, shimmering with a faint pearlescent glow under light.

Tiny perforated patterns were scattered across its surface, especially prominent near the mouth and base.

These holes appeared naturally formed, not compromising the flask’s strength, but adding an air of mystery.

At the center of the base was a raised ridge, its outline wavy, as if the conch had once adhered to the seabed during growth.

The Crown Princess: “What is this?” she asked, holding the conch-shaped flask, half an arm’s thickness.

“This is a ‘Glowing Wine Conch’ from the southern seas of Sumatra...” He Xiang boasted: “Legend says that on full moon nights, these conches emit a faint bioluminescence—quite extraordinary! Locals use them as wine vessels, drinking with unique charm.”

After accepting the Glowing Wine Conch, the Crown Princess had no time to ask further details before He Xiang had already boarded his carriage and swiftly departed Lingtai Temple, leaving in a cloud of dust.

After the Lantern Festival, the Crown Prince resumed his studies. By court protocol, a Crown Prince’s education has no end—he must continue reading even after adulthood, until his ascension and assumption of power.

On the first day back, the first lesson was taught by Lu Tanwei, Minister of Works.

Everything in class proceeded as usual, except that before dismissal, Minister Lu deliberately left the Crown Prince a sealed letter with red wax.

The Crown Prince did not inspect it nor hand it to his eunuch attendants; instead, he directly passed it to Jiang Mingyu and instructed him to hold onto it.

Only after all classes ended that day did the Crown Prince invite Jiang Mingyu to dine at the Eastern Palace that evening, hinting he bring the letter.

Jiang Mingyu still didn’t understand why the Crown Prince had given him the letter until, that evening as he left the palace through the Wu Gate, the imperial guards there found the letter and he suddenly realized!

“Lord Jiang, what is this letter? It doesn’t look like a textbook.”

A burly, broad-faced guard with narrow eyes and a Mongolian accent, Deputy Commander Tu Kexiluo, asked.

Jiang Mingyu was no stranger to Tu Kexiluo; in the past six months of palace tutoring, he encountered him on duty at the Wu Gate eight times out of ten.

First meeting, stranger; second, acquaintance; third and fourth, friend—so Jiang Mingyu answered without hesitation: “Nothing much—just some notes I scribbled during class, idle writing.”

“Idle writing?”

Tu Kexiluo frowned suspiciously: “Though I’ve never read much, this seal wax on the letter looks genuine... Who is it addressed to?”

“...”

Jiang Mingyu fell silent, struggling for words.

Tu Kexiluo: “I recall your family has all relocated to the capital—so do you still have close kin far in the south?”

“Hehe...”

Jiang Mingyu smiled and explained: “I do have many relatives still in the south, but not just relatives—my ancestors’ graves are there too. Now that the Lantern Festival has passed, Qingming is coming soon; I wanted to write a family letter, praying for ancestral protection and household safety.”

“Ah, naturally...”

Tu Kexiluo did not detain Jiang Mingyu, returned the letter, and let him pass.

That night, Jiang Mingyu arrived at the Eastern Palace as agreed, carrying the letter; only then did the Crown Prince reveal what was inside Lu Tanwei’s letter.

The Crown Prince dismissed his attendants; now only he and Jiang Mingyu remained in the hall. He then opened the letter, revealing a folded sheet of paper and a small yellow card.

The letter was a copy of a memorial submitted by the Ministry of Works to the Emperor, detailing last summer’s cost estimate for the new imperial seal. The yellow card was the seal’s wax impression, bearing a raised seal in small seal script: “Dark Night Star River.”

“Nine... ninety-five thousand taels!”

Jiang Mingyu murmured in disbelief, clutching the letter.

The Crown Prince: “That’s the price the Ministry submitted to His Majesty. Look at the annotation beside it...”

Jiang Mingyu: “Eighteen thousand taels...”

The Crown Prince: “Correct—that’s the actual cost of the seal!”

Jiang Mingyu: “Eighteen thousand taels to carve a single seal? That’s way too expensive!”

The Crown Prince: “The reason I invited you tonight is to have you secretly investigate how much the Emperor’s new seal truly cost.”

“But isn’t it eighteen thousand taels?” Jiang Mingyu asked, puzzled.

“Didn’t you just say eighteen thousand taels for a seal is too expensive?”

The Crown Prince patted Jiang Mingyu’s shoulder and continued: “If they can inflate an eighteen-thousand-tael cost to ninety-five thousand, I suspect even the eighteen thousand contains plenty of padding!”

Jiang Mingyu stared at the Crown Prince in alarm, speechless.

“You’ve only just entered officialdom—you’re still unfamiliar with court politics, and your hands are still clean.”

The Crown Prince added: “You’re the perfect person to investigate the true cost.”

Jiang Mingyu: “But Your Highness, I don’t understand... why are you doing this?”

The Crown Prince sighed deeply, then fixed him with piercing eyes: “I want to know just how corrupt the entire court has become!”

After accepting the Crown Prince’s secret assignment, Jiang Mingyu returned home that night and sat in silence beneath the flickering candlelight.

His wife, Tang Yiqi, noticed his distracted state and sleepless night, and came to inquire.

“That’s simple!” Tang Yiqi said immediately upon hearing the full story.

Jiang Mingyu: “How is it simple? This task is so delicate—it could offend a whole crowd!”

Tang Yiqi: “You weren’t afraid of offending the Emperor before—why fear others now?”

Jiang Mingyu shook his head, sighing: “I was new to officialdom then, naive—but things are different now.”

“Enough,” Tang Yiqi said with a mischievous smile: “When I said ‘that’s simple,’ I meant...”

“Go to ‘Manager Zhang’—he’ll surely know how to help you.”