After several days of not attending court, Emperor Shunyuan was finally feeling somewhat better. At night, he was no longer jolted awake by coughing and wheezing.
The Hall of Mental Cultivation was scented with a faint wisp of suhe incense. Consort Zhen gently rested the emperor’s head on her lap, her fingers skillfully massaging his temples.
Emperor Shunyuan kept his eyes closed and let out a satisfied sigh. He raised a hand and patted the back of Consort Zhen’s hand. “You’re still the most considerate. No one else can compare.”
Consort Zhen lowered her eyes with a faint smile. “Your Majesty has shown Your Consort such great favor. It is only natural that I should devote myself to serving you.”
As though remembering something, Emperor Shunyuan sighed. “Zhaoyue is no longer a child. In another two years, she will be old enough to discuss marriage. I intend to personally see her off when she marries.”
Consort Zhen’s fingers suddenly stilled, pressing the wrong acupoint.
Emperor Shunyuan slowly opened his eyes, puzzled by her reaction, when the sound of Liu Quan’s footsteps came from outside the hall.
“Your Majesty, several grand council ministers wish to ask when you will return to court.”
Emperor Shunyuan temporarily forgot Consort Zhen’s odd behavior, his brows immediately drawing together. “They certainly seem anxious. Is there some urgent matter?”
Liu Quan kept his eyes lowered and merely repeated what the ministers had said. “The Grand Secretary says that Your Majesty’s health has been unwell and that you have not attended court for many days. The hundred officials have been worried, longing to behold Your Majesty’s countenance once more. Though there are no urgent matters in court at present, there are still numerous affairs of state awaiting Your Majesty’s decision. Therefore, they humbly beseech Your Majesty to set aside your leisure, ascend the Golden Hall at the earliest opportunity, attend court, hear the affairs of state, and decide the myriad matters of government.”
Emperor Shunyuan let out a cold laugh. “Their mouths are full of lofty righteousness, but every one of them is harboring his own schemes.”
Though displeased, he knew he could not continue resting forever.
After a long silence, he finally waved his hand impatiently. “Very well. I shall attend court tomorrow.”
He had assumed that Gong Zhiyuan would merely plead for Shen Chen once again. He would casually refuse him and return to the palace to rest as soon as possible.
He had not expected that this day would unleash such a world-shaking storm.
The next day, thin snow fell in the early winter air. Snow pellets pattered against the glazed tiles and melted into murky black streaks.
Wrapped in an exceptionally thick fur cloak, Wen Zhuo walked all the way along the imperial avenue to the Hall of Martial Valor. He stopped on the steps and quietly gazed at the palace before him. He allowed the snowflakes to settle on his black crown, and only after a long while did he lower his eyes and enter.
In his previous life, Xie Langyang and the others had launched their attack on a day just like this. Caught entirely off guard, he had suffered a crushing defeat.
But in this life, that would never happen.
He curled his fingers, tightening them around the white piece in his palm. Then he lifted a hand to brush the remaining snow from his shoulder and walked straight to the head of the assembled officials without so much as a sideways glance.
Xie Langyang entered the hall at the very last moment. Today, he was utterly different from his usual self. His expression was solemn, his gaze grim, and his back held perfectly straight. His shoulders were squared with a grave dignity, as though he were a judge holding a vermilion brush, ready to pronounce someone’s fate with a single word.
Wen Zhuo shifted his gaze toward him and saw that he had once again tied around his waist the sash woven by Gong Yuwen.
Their eyes met from afar. Xie Langyang’s eyes were streaked with red. There was not the slightest trace of his former guilt or sorrow in them—only a deep, icy coldness.
Wen Zhuo tugged lazily at the corner of his lips, a hint of mockery flashing through his eyes.
An official of the Court of State Ceremonial called out the formal salutations. With Liu Quan supporting him, Emperor Shunyuan slowly made his way to the imperial throne.
Weariness still lingered on his face. After receiving the officials’ bows, he was just about to adjust the sash around his waist when Xie Langyang strode out of the ranks.
With a thud, he dropped to his knees on the freezing floor and slammed his forehead against the ground.
“Your Majesty, I impeach the Director of the Hanlin Academy, Wen Zhuo, for disregarding human morality and defying the laws of the state! He deserves banishment!”
In an instant, every drowsy official in the court was wide awake. The Hall of Martial Valor fell so silent that a needle could have been heard dropping. Dozens of pairs of eyes turned toward Xie Langyang.
Gu Weizhi and Jun Dingyuan tensed, their palms immediately slick with sweat.
Gong Zhiyuan exchanged a look with Luo Mingpu. Though both appeared composed, their hearts could not help but tighten as they exerted themselves in secret.
Emperor Shunyuan was so startled that he sat upright, his imperial expression darkening. “Xie Hengze, do you know what you are saying?”
“Your Majesty, please hear me out!” Xie Langyang suddenly raised his voice. He drew a thin sheet of paper from inside his robes and held it high, his eyes roiling with the fury of absolute resolve. “This is Wen Zhuo’s own handwriting—the ‘Wanshan Rhapsody.’ Every line reveals his contemptuous feelings toward me! The laws of Great Qian explicitly state that affection between men is a crime against human morality. Wen Zhuo is the model for all officials, yet he has committed such an indecent and scandalous act. It is truly impossible to forgive!”
The hall erupted into an uproar.
The expressions on the officials’ faces were a spectacle in themselves. Some elderly ministers stroked their beards, their eyes filled with disbelief. Several censorial officials wore looks of disgust, as though even hearing another word would defile their ears. Others, filled with suspicion, leaned toward one another and whispered, their voices buzzing like mosquitoes.
Those complicated, clinging gazes wrapped themselves around Wen Zhuo, as if they could soil his clean, immaculate robes.
A surge of fury shot straight to Gu Weizhi’s head. The fingers gripping his court tablet bulged with veins. He nearly rolled up his sleeves and rushed forward to smash Xie Langyang’s sanctimonious face to pieces.
“Lord Gu!” Jun Dingyuan said in a low voice, seizing him by the arm. “Have you forgotten what the Director instructed us?”
Gu Weizhi turned and met Jun Dingyuan’s eyes, the anger in his gaze nearly bursting forth.
Jun Dingyuan’s expression was no better. He had fastened the jade belt around his waist so tightly that it seemed ready to snap. His handsome face was as cold as a deep pool in winter, and his eyes looked capable of tempering steel into ice.
Emperor Shunyuan’s gaze fell upon the sheet of paper Xie Langyang held aloft, and his expression grew even darker. “You claim that he had feelings for you? How is it that I never noticed?”
Xie Langyang met the emperor’s questioning gaze, and his throat suddenly tightened.
He had already stated the accusation so plainly, and the evidence was right there in the open. Wen Zhuo was standing in the hall before them, yet the emperor had not questioned Wen Zhuo even once. Instead, he was filled with suspicion toward Xie Langyang.
Such favoritism. No wonder Wen Zhuo had dared to act so fearlessly before Yuwen.
Fortunately, he had made all the necessary preparations. Today, he would nail this matter firmly in place and ensure that Wen Zhuo would never have the chance to recover.
“This piece was written by Wen Zhuo himself in the sixteenth year of the Shunyuan era, when he and I traveled together to take the imperial examinations! Out of consideration for our friendship as fellow students, and because I pitied his rare talent, I was unwilling to ruin his future over it. Thus, I concealed the matter and never reported him to the authorities.”
Xie Langyang pressed his forehead to the ground, his voice carrying a hint of grief and indignation.
“Later, I entered government service and fell in love with the Grand Secretary’s daughter, Gong Yuwen. We were devoted to one another and married, believing that our hearts were joined as one. I thought this matter had long since been buried, and that Wen Zhuo would have abandoned such an unspeakable obsession. Who could have imagined that he would turn love into hatred? All these years, he has made things difficult for me in court and opposed me at every turn!
“A few days ago, my wife happened to see this ‘Wanshan Rhapsody.’ Upon learning the truth, she was furious and went to the Wen residence to confront him, hoping to persuade him to turn back from the wrong path—”
As Xie Langyang spoke these words, his mind was utterly numb.
His soul seemed to have been torn in two. One half was shattered by every word, desperately trying yet unable to gather the fallen camellia petals scattered across the ground. The other half was like a walking corpse, devoid of love or feeling, its heart filled with nothing but a desire for power.
In the end, the fragile, compassionate, kind soul had its lips sealed and its eyes covered.
“—Yet not only did Wen Zhuo refuse to repent, he instead ordered the vicious servants of his household to beat my wife! Her hands are covered in injuries, and she has been confined to bed ever since. Such wickedness cannot be tolerated! Today, I have taken the liberty of coming forward both to seek justice for my wife and to purge the court of this shameless, scandalous man!”
Xie Langyang held his head high, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Emperor Shunyuan, without the slightest attempt to evade his gaze, as though he truly were an aggrieved man unable to clear his name.
At last, Emperor Shunyuan turned his gaze to Wen Zhuo. His face revealed neither pleasure nor anger as he asked, “Wanshan, is what Lord Xie says the truth?”
Wen Zhuo slowly stepped out of the ranks. His eyes swept contemptuously over Xie Langyang’s prostrate figure, as though he were looking at nothing more than a clown making a spectacle of himself.
He then turned toward Emperor Shunyuan, bowed, and replied calmly, “What Minister Xie says is a complete distortion of the truth. I do not know why he would fabricate such lies. Madam Gong did indeed come to the Wen residence that day, but she behaved without restraint and spoke offensively. She fell by her own carelessness; it had nothing to do with anyone in my household. Yet Lord Xie has assigned the blame to me without distinguishing right from wrong. Could it be that he plotted this from the beginning, intending to frame me?”
Emperor Shunyuan raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying that ‘The Wanshan Fu’ was not written by you?”
Wen Zhuo’s voice remained even. “It was not.”
Xie Langyang abruptly raised his head and retorted sharply, “Your Majesty need only examine the piece closely. The diction and artistic flavor are entirely in Wen Zhuo’s customary style, while the movement of the brush is unmistakably his own. Every word I have spoken comes from the bottom of my heart. I would never dare deceive Your Majesty or conceal the truth.”
Emperor Shunyuan braced himself against the armrest of the throne and stared at him for a long while before beckoning to Liu Quan. “Bring it here.”
Liu Quan bowed in acknowledgment and hurried down the steps. He went to Xie Langyang and accepted the thin sheet of paper. As he turned around, he cast a swift sidelong glance at Wen Zhuo.
Emperor Shunyuan’s body was weak, and his vision had gradually grown blurred. He blinked several times before instructing Liu Quan, “Read it.”
“Yes.”
Liu Quan cleared his throat and began to read slowly. “I journeyed from Mianzhou, treading the long road to Qingping Mountain, traveling a thousand li… Bound by a friendship as close as the fragrance of orchids, growing deeper with the passing years; steadfast as pine and bamboo, never withering through the coldest seasons. I now commit these words to ink and pledge that our hearts shall remain as one…”
Every word and sentence echoed clearly throughout the grand hall.
Luo Mingpu stepped forward. “Such a depraved and indecent work—if it is not severely punished, I fear it will corrupt the court’s moral character and mislead the scholars of the realm!”
Gong Zhiyuan also spoke harshly. “Wen Zhuo occupies the honored position of Director of the Hanlin Academy. He is supposed to be a model for the scholarly world and an exemplar to all under Heaven’s students. Yet now he has knowingly violated the law and cast aside all sense of shame. How can he continue to oversee the literary offices and guide the scholars of the next generation?”
As Wen Zhuo listened, his fingertips curled ever so slightly, biting into his palms.
Even though he had been prepared for this, his insides still felt torn apart when the moment finally came.
If he had a choice, he would never have wanted things to become so disgraceful—to have the sincere feelings and secret affections of his youth laid bare before everyone, exposed for their scrutiny, judgment, and condemnation. It was as though all the dignity he possessed had been stripped away, leaving not even the last shred of his pride intact as those gazes ground it into the mud.
This was not the first time.
At the Grand Court of the Dali Temple in his previous life, Gong Zhiyuan had also read the piece aloud again and again, scraping away Wen Zhuo’s dignity until not a shred of face remained. But at the time, his entire body had been consumed by pain, and he could no longer spare any thought for such an insignificant thing as dignity.
Today, he stood here once more. Once again, he had cast his dignity aside. Yet there was a slight difference this time.
Someone had once told him that there was nothing shameful about any of this.
There was no shame in loving a man, no shame in bodily desire. It was human nature, as natural and proper as the laws of Heaven and earth.
Whenever he remembered those words and refused to look at the condemning gazes or listen to the contemptuous murmurs, Wen Zhuo felt that he could, for the moment, straighten his spine and live on without yielding.
Emperor Shunyuan’s expression grew increasingly dark. He had long since grown numb to such heart-searing words and crushing accusations.
He had heard them from Liu Changbai, from those erudite scholars whose brilliance and reputations shook the court, and even from his own father, the august and mighty former emperor.
The weight of those shackles had pressed upon him until he could scarcely breathe, until even his spine seemed on the verge of breaking.
At last, he had admitted defeat before that towering mountain. Though he was the Crown Prince, he had humiliatingly bent both knees and, awed and bedraggled, prostrated himself before the unshakable rites and laws handed down by his ancestors.
In the end, he had become a part of that mountain, simply so he would no longer have to endure the humiliation.
Emperor Shunyuan snatched up the sheet of paper, narrowed his eyes as he examined the handwriting, and then slammed it onto the imperial desk. The jade ornaments rattled with a buzzing sound.
“Wen Wanshan, what more do you have to say? After all the trust I placed in you!”
Wen Zhuo lowered his eyes. His tone betrayed not the slightest panic at having been exposed. “Literary style and brushwork can both be imitated. There is more than one person in all the world capable of such a thing. Minister Xie has gone to great lengths to produce this piece and then shamelessly claimed that it was a declaration of love I wrote to him. It is truly beyond disgraceful.”
“You’re still trying to argue!” Xie Langyang had long anticipated such an excuse and had made every preparation. Even so, when the words left his mouth, a bitter ache still spread through his chest.
At least five days ago, he would never have imagined that the desperate stratagem he had labored over so painstakingly would one day be used against the man with whom he had once boiled wine beneath the snowy night sky and discussed poetry and the classics.
“Your Majesty, please look.” Xie Langyang held up the evidence. “This paper was produced by Wang Liuji’s paper workshop. Three characters are hidden within its watermark, and a small vermilion seal along the edge clearly bears the mark ‘Sixteenth Year of Shunyuan.’ That was the year Wen Zhuo and I took the imperial examination together. Now examine the ink. It has penetrated deeply into the fibers of the paper, its color mellow and softly diffused, without the slightest trace of superficial brightness. From these details alone, it can be determined that this fu was not forged recently, but is an old piece from many years ago. Your Majesty may summon an experienced paper appraiser and an ink maker to verify it. Even if I possessed abilities that reached the heavens, I could not possibly have obtained paper and ink from several years ago in order to frame Director Wen!”
Every word Xie Langyang spoke was reasonable, and every claim was supported by evidence. The contempt in the ministers’ gazes toward Wen Zhuo had become unmistakable. Not a single person in the entire court stepped forward to speak on Wen Zhuo’s behalf, as though the matter had already been conclusively proven.
In truth, Xie Langyang’s greatest advantage had never been the arguments he had prepared. It was that the matter itself was true.
And the truth would always leave traces.
Wen Zhuo suddenly let out a low laugh. His rippling, limpid eyes swept across the polluted air of the hall, leaving those who met his gaze momentarily dazed.
With a mocking smile, he asked, “I would like to ask Minister Xie something. Since you detested me so deeply, why did you preserve this sheet of paper as though it were brand-new, without even a single crease? Shouldn’t you have torn it to pieces and thrown it away?”
The moment he said this, the ministers, who had still been staring at him with strange looks, all froze. Then whispers began to stir once more.
Indeed. If it was truly something that disgusted Xie Langyang at the mere sight of it, how could he have kept it until now?
If Xie Langyang had already harbored the intention of exposing him before he entered official service, then the depth of that malice was truly enough to send a chill through the body.
In fact, “The Wanshan Fu” really was Wen Zhuo’s weak point, and the evidence Xie Langyang had produced was flawless. But there was one truth he had concealed: he, too, had once been caught up in those feelings.
That was the greatest flaw in his impeachment.
Xie Langyang’s face finally went pale for an instant. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he forced himself to remain composed. “I kept it out of consideration for our friendship as classmates. Back then, you and I were young and proud. Even though you had taken a wrong step, I could not bear to ruin your reputation. It was nothing more than… an act of compassion.”
Wen Zhuo’s smile grew colder. “Since I was supposedly pestering you relentlessly, there should have been other gifts besides this fu—perhaps a sash, a pendant, or the ancient texts I copied out by hand for you. Surely I, a high-ranking court official, would not have been so stingy as to give you nothing at all?”
Xie Langyang’s chest felt tight. He shook his head. Those things had all been disposed of. He truly could not produce them.
“I have already said that you harbored those disgraceful feelings for me at the time. I rejected you sternly, and so there was no continuation. Later, you did indeed restrain your behavior, which was why I never brought this fu to light—until you mistreated my wife and I could endure it no longer…”
“So you simply can’t produce it.” Wen Zhuo tilted his head, his tone mocking. “Then why, when I first built the Wen residence, did I choose a site ten li away from the Xie residence?”
“You… had only just returned to the capital and didn’t have much money saved. You couldn’t afford a residence near mine.” Xie Langyang tried to numb himself to it, yet he still unconsciously avoided Wen Zhuo’s gaze.
Wen Zhuo pressed on. “Then when the Xie family fell into calamity during the Chuntai Chess Gathering and I was ordered to assist with the investigation, did I ever show even the slightest partiality toward your family?”
One question followed another, delivered so rapidly that Xie Langyang had no chance to catch his breath.
Cold sweat broke out across Xie Langyang’s forehead. He clenched his teeth and said hoarsely, “By then, you had already turned love into hatred! I impeached you today for loving men and violating the laws of the realm. What does that have to do with whom you loved?”
“If I truly loved men, then back in Qingliang Hall, when the Sixth Prince angered His Majesty by passionately arguing that love between men was not a crime, why didn’t I speak up for him?” A glint flashed through Wen Zhuo’s eyes. His words were like a sword drawn from its sheath—swift and sharp. “Yet you, Lord Xie, were the first to step forward and plead for the Sixth Prince. What was it, then? You didn’t find it disgraceful back then? Or were you and the Sixth Prince so close that you were willing to hold your nose and say a few good words for him anyway?”
“You—” Xie Langyang was rendered speechless.
In this lifetime, there had been a reason Wen Zhuo had not pleaded for him in Qingliang Hall!
He had never imagined that, after being reborn, even this would become Wen Zhuo’s excuse!
