Cao Fangzheng was the youngest brother of the late Empress Cao.
Emperor Shunyuan had buried two empresses in his lifetime—one was Lady Liu, mother of Prince Xian, and the other was Empress Cao.
Roughly seven years prior, Empress Cao had been elevated to the position of empress for her gentle temperament, refined grace, and quiet virtue. But less than a month later, Emperor Shunyuan suddenly decided to embark on an incognito tour of Mianzhou, Wen Zhuo's hometown. Only the imperial guards accompanied him, and no one knew his true purpose.
Rumor had it that when the emperor returned, he was deeply stricken with sorrow, and Empress Cao attended to him devotedly at his bedside.
Yet it so happened that the emperor had contracted smallpox during the journey. Plagued by low spirits, the illness erupted upon his return to the palace. Empress Cao spent several nights consoling and coaxing him—and in turn, she too was infected.
After a perilous course of treatment, the emperor ultimately recovered, but Empress Cao perished.
Overwhelmed with guilt, Emperor Shunyuan immediately named Empress Cao's son, the then Second Prince Shen Zhen, as Crown Prince. To silence the whispers of the court, before the ministers could react, he swiftly conferred upon the First Prince Shen Bi the title of Prince Xian, cutting off any ambition he might have harbored for the throne.
What he failed to foresee was that this act of bypassing the eldest son in favor of the younger only stirred the ambitions of even more princes, who believed they too were worthy—among them, Shen Chen.
Empress Cao's maternal clan reaped the benefits as well. Her hapless, good-for-nothing brothers were all given official posts, and thanks to the Crown Prince's position, they soon swaggered about with impunity, bullying all who crossed them.
It wasn't just Shen Zheng; princes without powerful backing, like Shen Chen, were also looked down upon by the Cao clan. That was why Shen Chen harbored such a deep hatred for consort kin, and once he ascended the throne, he wished nothing less than to exterminate them all.
As for Cao Fangzheng, he had not been granted a post in the capital. Instead, he was dispatched to the impoverished Qianzhou. Emperor Shunyuan had once held high hopes for him, but over the years, Cao Fangzheng had achieved no great feats, and little by little, the emperor forgot him entirely.
Emperor Shunyuan's lifelong obsession was with Consort Chen, his first love. The guilt he felt toward Empress Cao had long since been worn thin by time, and so when Cao Fangzheng repeatedly petitioned for a transfer back to the capital, he was rejected on the grounds that no positions were available. And so Cao Fangzheng languished in Qianzhou for six long years.
His return to the capital this time was due to the Spring Terrace Chess Tournament.
This national celebration served as an opportunity for many local officials to request entry into the capital. Emperor Shunyuan, in good spirits, would generally permit them to attend the festivities and pay their respects in person.
Local officials typically stayed in official lodgings upon arriving in the capital, but Cao Fangzheng, as a member of the imperial clan, was entitled to higher treatment. To flaunt his status, he chose not to stay at the Cao family residence.
At this moment, Cao Fangzheng had become the center of attention. He wore a pair of oversized brocade boots embroidered with beast-mask patterns. Having just drunk, the tip of his nose glistened a shiny red. A round, bulbous belly strained against his belt, and his thick-lipped, square mouth was moving with great animation:
"Ladies and gentlemen, you have no idea," he said.
In his hand, he held a horsewhip. With the lofty air of a man who owned the room, he used the whip to flick open the collar of Liu Qiying's garment, revealing a round, dark red mark on her chest, just below her collarbone.
"This woman is a rouge thief who fled from Qianzhou!"
"A what?" The officials from various regions lodging in the station were baffled, and crowded around Cao Fangzheng with a mix of curiosity and flattery. Whatever their intentions, Cao Fangzheng certainly achieved the adoring attention he craved.
"Years ago, a band of female thieves appeared at the Lianghe Ferry in my Qianzhou. They would take the initiative to receive wealthy merchants and officials crossing by boat. Those merchants and officials, for reasons unknown, would follow them back to their village—only to be robbed of their belongings overnight and dumped back on the main road."
Someone gasped. "Such a thing exists?"
Cao Fangzheng continued, "When I heard of this, I was furious. Under my governance, how could I allow a pack of female bandits to run wild? So I led troops to quell them, only to find that these thieves posed as upstanding citizens, blending in among the common folk, making them impossible to distinguish."
"But that didn't stump me. I ordered a squad of soldiers to disguise themselves as merchants. When they arrived at the ferry, they were indeed targeted by the thieves. Just as the women made their move, the soldiers lying in ambush swarmed out and captured them all. Only then did we discover that the entire village—old and young alike—was made up of thieves!"
Someone led the applause: "Magistrate Cao is truly brilliant and heroic, ridding the people of a scourge!"
"Magistrate Cao is wise and resourceful. Truly, I am humbled."
"The people of Qianzhou are blessed."
"Who would have thought a band of female thieves could take over an entire village? Utterly baffling."
Cao Fangzheng grew even more self-satisfied: "Not quite. They were originally villagers, but taking advantage of the fact that their men had gone off to repair the levees, they abandoned all decency and turned to crime."
Someone asked in surprise, "All the men in that village went to repair the levees? Why didn't some of them stay behind to keep the women in line?"
A man beside him answered, "Ah, colleague, you may not know. Seven years ago, Qianzhou suffered a great flood. Several villages were washed away, and the people were left homeless. The court allocated considerable silver for disaster relief, so the levees had to be repaired—and quickly."
"I see."
Cao Fangzheng sneered: "Indeed. The court treated the victims with such compassion, yet these women, instead of showing gratitude, turned to banditry. After I apprehended them, I originally planned to execute them all, but considering our great Gan Empire's dwindling population, I showed mercy. I branded a unique mark on their chests, dubbed them 'rouge thieves,' and sold them to entertainments houses or estates as servants—also to warn owners to be wary of the mark."
"But how did a rouge thief end up in the capital?"
"Yes, and look at her—her attire doesn't suggest a humble background. That outfit alone—it's from the Jade Studio, isn't it?"
Cao Fangzheng narrowed his two puffy, swollen eyes, also noticing that Liu Qiying's clothing was far from ordinary. While she wasn't dressed like a lady of some great household, it was clear she lived comfortably.
Suddenly, he raised his whip and cracked it hard, slicing through the lotus-colored gauze across her chest, leaving a long, bloody welt.
If she had been any ordinary woman—pressed by officers, disheveled, subjected to such brutality—she would have been so humiliated that she'd wish to die on the spot, weeping and wailing, or dash her head against the nearest wall.
But Liu Qiying didn't let out a single sound. She didn't even flinch under the stares of all the officials—some surprised, some contemptuous, some merely curious. She knelt there, straight-backed, as if all those gazes were no more than stale tea from last night—muddy and flavorless, stirring not a single ripple in her.
Her clothes were torn open, the whip wound seeping blood, but there wasn't a trace of tears in her eyes. On the contrary, they burned with alarming intensity, as though a blade of ruthless fury were poised to lash out from those hate-filled pupils and carve Cao Fangzheng into a thousand pieces.
Several officials around took secret note, shaken by her gaze. They found themselves lowering their eyes, turning away, as if the very air in the room had turned several degrees colder.
"Look at those eyes!" Cao Fangzheng said, relying on the presence of soldiers to remain unafraid. "Those aren't the eyes of a proper woman!" He continued, "When these rouge thieves were being transported, there was a sixteen-year-old girl who, under cover of night, sharpened a tree branch into a blade, stabbed one of the guards, and escaped with a group of eighteen female thieves, fleeing into Bozhou."
"Bo... Bozhou?" someone hesitated, trailing off with a meaningful pause.
Bozhou had once fallen under Wen Zhuo's jurisdiction, and in recent years, this Wen Zhuo had risen meteorically, becoming the emperor's most favored minister.
Though he neither formed factions nor built alliances, appearing unfettered and utterly indifferent to power, he was in truth a powerful minister of the highest order.
Because whatever he said, Emperor Shunyuan would ultimately agree to.
This was not only because Wen Zhuo was genuinely erudite and always spoke with substance, but also because of the extraordinary trust the emperor placed in him.
In short, he was a singular presence. Seeing that Cao Fangzheng was about to drag Wen Zhuo into the matter, several local officials began to slip away, fearing they might be splattered with the same filth.
Cao Fangzheng, however, did not think that deeply—first, Wen Zhuo had left Bozhou four years ago; second, dealing with a rouge thief was hardly enough to disturb the head of the Hanlin Academy.
“I have already contacted Bozhou, and they are cooperating fully in the pursuit. Unfortunately, this woman is vicious and full of tricks—she never went deep into Bozhou but led her band of female thieves over the mountains to another place. Who would have thought she’d hitch herself to some hostage prince today and dare to swagger into the capital? Unfortunately for her, she ran into me, and I brought her to justice!”
“Well said! Magistrate Cao truly has sharp eyes!”
“Sharp eyes? I’d call them blind.” A lazy, arrogant voice came from behind the crowd. The Fifth Prince, who had slipped away without a trace earlier, now swaggered back into view. He pushed through the crowd, strode directly between Cao Fangzheng and Liu Qiying, and without the least ceremony, pulled Liu Qiying to her feet.
In the guest house, the constables were naturally the lowest in rank, and even if Shen Zheng’s status was awkward, he was still a prince—none of them dared to stop him.
Liu Qiying’s knees had gone numb from kneeling, and she nearly stumbled as she stood, but Shen Zheng’s grip was steady, and she quickly regained her balance.
She looked at Shen Zheng with some surprise.
When the incident had erupted and Shen Zheng slipped away, she had not complained, because it was understandable.
Their status was low, they had no real connection to Shen Zheng, and besides, Shen Zheng had just been driven out of Wen Zhuo’s residence by that slap— if he wasn’t nursing his own anger, why would he stick his neck out for them?
So from the start, she had not pinned her hopes on Shen Zheng but had told Jiang Mannü to run and find Wen Zhuo to think of something.
Even when she was forced to her knees, had her collar ripped open, and was lashed with a whip, she did not rashly utter Wen Zhuo’s name, afraid that saying too much would interfere with his plans.
She never expected that it would be Shen Zheng who appeared first.
Wen Zhuo and Jiang Mannü arrived by carriage at that same moment. Wen Zhuo stepped down, the wind catching his robes and brushing past his striking, delicate face. The guards at the gate caught sight of him and involuntarily caught their breath, their hearts fluttering.
Even as a man, his beauty was overwhelming.
Wen Zhuo calmly held up his ivory tablet, and when they got a proper look at it, they broke out in a cold sweat and dropped to their knees in unison: “Head of the Academy!”
Without a single word, Wen Zhuo stepped through the gate of the guest house.
Once inside, he saw that things were at a standstill. Jiang Mannü was about to shove her way through the crowd when Wen Zhuo reached out and stopped her.
Expressionless, Wen Zhuo stood behind the crowd, calmly watching Shen Zheng help Liu Qiying to her feet.
Cao Fangzheng sized him up, puzzled as to how this kid had suddenly grown a spine. He twirled his horsewhip and snickered: “I thought the hostage prince had gotten scared and run home—oh wait, the hostage prince hasn’t even been granted an audience with His Majesty, so he can’t go home, can he? Want me to put in a good word for you at court, so that the overburdened emperor might actually remember you exist?”
He then burst into loud, self-satisfied laughter. A few lackeys who fawned over the Crown Prince let out a couple of sycophantic chuckles, while the others watched carefully, unwilling to offend anyone.
Shen Zheng smiled too, but only for a moment before letting it drop. He clasped his hands behind his back, using his height to his advantage, and deliberately looked down his nose at Cao Fangzheng: “With a fool like you around, I’ll be seeing the emperor in no time.”
Cao Fangzheng could not stomach such humiliation. Though his rank was lower than a prince’s, his sister had died for the emperor, and his nephew was the Crown Prince—to offend him was to offend the entire Cao family. And even if Shen Zheng was merely a half-wit rejected by Emperor Shunyuan, what of it? Even if Prince Xian himself were standing here, what could he do?
“Your Highness, beware of curses born from your own mouth,” Cao Fangzheng sneered. “For the sake of a rouge thief on the run, Your Highness would oppose me and oppose the Crown Prince? Or perhaps the Astronomical Bureau was right—Your Highness is deficient in all five virtues, with a mind that never quite woke up.”
Cao Fangzheng thought his taunt was sharp and on the mark, so he felt quite pleased with himself. He was just about to laugh again when Shen Zheng moved, swift and unhesitating, and drove his boot straight into the man’s chest.
Cao Fangzheng could not dodge in time. The kick landed square, his chest went tight, his vision went black, and he staggered backward.
He was a hefty man, and there were people behind him, so he reeled back two steps and was caught before he fell, none the worse for wear.
Except for a neat set of boot prints stamped on his embroidered robe, absurdly comical.
Shen Zheng looked at it and sighed in regret, muttering to himself: “This body is too weak. Needs more training.”
Liu Qiying was stunned speechless by the display.
Even if Wen Zhuo himself had come, he would not casually kick Cao Fangzheng in the chest, would he?
Liu Qiying’s mind raced—could it be that Shen Zheng, after ten years as a hostage, had undergone a drastic change of temperament, sometimes cowardly and sometimes insane? Cowardly enough to dive under a table, insane enough to touch Wen Zhuo’s face and kick the Crown Prince’s maternal uncle in front of everyone?
Or was it that the lingering prestige of Marquis Yongning and the triumphant return of Jun Dingyuan had given Shen Zheng some confidence that he could smooth this over?
“Sir… is that the Fifth Prince?” Jiang Mannü asked, her mouth hanging open.
Wen Zhuo’s face revealed nothing, but inwardly his heart tightened.
He had thought that upon his return he could take control of the situation. Who would have guessed there would be an unexpected variable like Shen Zheng?
Did Shen Zheng have any idea that offending Cao Fangzheng was the same as offending the Cao family and the Crown Prince?
That kick, with no thought for the consequences—if it dragged Marquis Yongning’s household into opposition with the Cao family, then the newly rising Jun Dingyuan would become a thorn in the Crown Prince’s side.
Wen Zhuo’s expression darkened.
Acting rashly on impulse, making trouble with no thought for the outcome—he did not seem capable of great things, and what was worse, he was adding to Wen Zhuo’s burdens.
Wen Zhuo was mulling over a way out when Cao Fangzheng shoved off the officials holding him and pointed at Shen Zheng: “You all saw it! The Fifth Prince openly obstructed an officer in the pursuit of a criminal and even laid hands on a court official!”
Shen Zheng snatched the horsewhip from Cao Fangzheng’s hand and, mimicking the man’s gesture, pointed the whip at him: “I said you had eyes but couldn’t see—you’re truly blind in heart and sight! What rouge thief? That’s clearly a birthmark!”
Liu Qiying’s eyes went wide with disbelief. She could not believe Shen Zheng would just make up a story like that without blinking.
Cao Fangzheng, oddly, only saw a blur before his eyes and his whip was somehow snatched from his hand. But he had no time to worry about the whip. He shot back: “Nonsense! That’s clearly a burn scar—a brand shaped like a scorpion’s tail, a sign of a heart as venomous as a serpent’s!”
The burn on Liu Qiying’s chest, worn by years of time, had crinkled into a dark red scar, but the shape of a scorpion’s tail could still be made out—a testament to the cruelty of the person who had designed that brand.
“How do you know no one’s birthmark happens to look just like that?” Shen Zheng’s dark eyes glimmered with amusement as he pressed forward. “Maybe you’ve got a birthmark like that on your own chest—why don’t you tear your robes open and let everyone see?”
As he spoke, Shen Zheng raised the whip as if to flick it, ready to slice open Cao Fangzheng’s outer garment.
The horsewhip's handle was made of sandalwood, and the tip was bound with seven strands of fine hemp cord—supple yet sharp. Even a wild horse would rear its head and neigh in agony when struck; naturally, when it landed on a person's body, the pain would be unbearable.
Cao Fangzheng had always had a fiery temper, and he certainly wasn't about to endure such torment. Emboldened by wine, he too raised his leg and kicked out, just as Shen Zheng had done.
Shen Zheng did not dodge. The kick landed square on his chest, and his lean frame stumbled back several steps, nearly crashing into Liu Qiying.
Liu Qiying caught him, her expression complicated.
Cao Fangzheng, seeing that his angry kick had struck a prince, sobered up by half and felt a twinge of regret—but then he thought better of it. This was, after all, merely a discarded hostage prince; the Emperor wouldn't care. Besides, he had the legitimate excuse of capturing the rouge thief.
What's more, even if he offended Marquis Yongning, he wasn't afraid. Marquis Yongning might be powerful, but was he more powerful than Cao Fangzheng's own father, the State Preceptor Cao? Even if Jun Dingyuan had military merit, could he outrank the Crown Prince?
Wen Zhuo couldn't bear to watch any longer. Did Shen Zheng really think that stubbornly claiming the mark was a birthmark would make everything fine?
The man was beyond saving.
He was just about to push through the crowd and take control of the situation.
But then he saw that Shen Zheng, after being kicked, showed no signs of humiliation at all. Instead, he let out a low, knowing laugh—a laugh utterly devoid of anger, containing only mockery.
Before Cao Fangzheng could gloat, Shen Zheng's eyes shot out a sharp, fierce light, his face cold as iron. Suddenly he barked: "Cao Fangzheng, how dare you!"
The sound struck like metal meeting stone, crisp and forceful. The entire hall fell so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Shen Zheng—who clearly had a handsome face with thick brows and deep eyes—somehow emanated a majesty so intimidating that it made people's spines chill with fear.
Cao Fangzheng was momentarily dazed and involuntarily took a step back.
Wen Zhuo narrowed his eyes, his movement halting just in time.
He wasn't exaggerating. That shout from Shen Zheng carried a sliver of imperial bearing.
Cao Fangzheng recovered his wits and began to distance himself: "Everyone saw it. The Fifth Prince attacked me first. My response was self-defense. Even if we go before the court, there are plenty of witnesses here—once the matter is explained, His Majesty will never let you off lightly!"
"His Majesty needn't let me off lightly, because the one guilty of grave disrespect is YOU!" Shen Zheng raised his right hand and opened half of his moon-white robe, retrieving a gold-patterned short letter from the spot where Cao Fangzheng had kicked him.
He twisted it between his fingertips, raised the letter to show the crowd. The ink on it was faintly visible, and the lower right corner bore a vermilion imperial seal.
"While returning to the capital, I often missed my Imperial Father, so I kept this personally handwritten grace-letter from him in my breast, always close to my heart. I live, the letter lives; the Imperial Father lives. Cao Fangzheng—was your kick aimed at me, or at His Majesty Himself?"
Cao Fangzheng's face drained of color almost instantly.
Had it not been witnessed firsthand, no one would have believed that a person's deathly pallor and despair could be so tangible.
The local officials shuffled away from that spot as if they could already see a head rolling and blood spilling everywhere.
Cao Fangzheng didn't so much kneel as collapse, his legs too weak to hold him. He trembled like a sieve, his throat as if a lock had been lodged in it—unable to utter a single word.
Only then did Liu Qiying realize that Shen Zheng's initial escape had been to his room to retrieve the letter, tucking it into his robes.
Everything he said and did afterward was designed to provoke Cao Fangzheng into striking him.
Regardless of whatever excuse Cao Fangzheng had, disrespecting a handwritten imperial document was now a settled fact. There was no escaping punishment.
The Fifth Prince had devised this scheme in the span of mere moments—decisive, ruthless, a single strike to kill.
But... for her, a maidservant suspected of being the rouge thief, was it worth harming a member of the imperial relatives?
Thinking this, Liu Qiying suddenly realized she had asked Wen Zhuo the same question many years ago.
Shen Zheng couldn't be bothered to spare Cao Fangzheng another glance. Instead, he swept his gaze over the shocked officials: "Gentlemen, I said he has eyes but cannot see. Do you agree?"
"Yes, yes, yes..." Anyone who dared to kick the Emperor's personally handwritten letter—who could say Cao Fangzheng wasn't blind?
"With a man so lacking in eyesight claiming that was the rouge thief's mark—do you believe him?" Shen Zheng asked again.
"No... no, we don't believe it!"
"It's a birthmark—it must be a birthmark!"
Shen Zheng was satisfied. With calm composure, he tucked the letter back into his robes, as if he truly couldn't bear to be parted from his Imperial Father for even a moment.
"Then the matter is clear. Cao Fangzheng, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, disturbing public order, sabotaging social stability, spraying spittle at a prince, and kicking His Majesty—according to Article Something, Chapter Something of the Da Qian Code, execution by immediate beheading."
His brows arched high as he spouted all this nonsense with utter seriousness, yet his words flowed smoothly, convincing as truth—as if all the light in the room ought to revolve around him.
Wen Zhuo let his sleeves fall, clasped his hands behind his back, and the faintest curve touched the corner of his lips.
