The Emperor’s bedchamber was brightly lit with lamps, imperial guards standing in formation, sealed tight as a drum. It seemed even a moth couldn’t hope to fly in.
But when one person approached, without saying a word, the walls of copper and iron automatically parted for him, allowing him free passage.
Seeing him step into the great hall, the attending eunuchs all lowered their heads and bowed. “Grand Tutor.”
Deng Yi walked past them to the front of the bed.
The Emperor reclined with his eyes closed, seemingly asleep.
“Your Majesty,” Deng Yi knelt and sat down, saying softly, “The heir of Prince Zhongshan requests to enter the palace to guard Your Majesty.”
The Emperor, with closed eyes, let out a snort of laughter.
“So he managed to catch up after all,” he said, then laughed coldly again. “It seems tonight he poured quite a lot of oil on this fire.”
Deng Yi said, “Long ago, this subject received money from Prince Zhongshan. A great deal of money.”
The Emperor opened his eyes to look at him, his expression somewhat surprised, then he laughed again. “My brother—with one leg broken, he actually jumps higher and more energetically.”
Speaking of this, he felt somewhat melancholy.
“Imperial Grandmother shouldn’t have broken his leg back then. With a broken leg, his ambitions actually grew larger.”
“In the end, it was a woman’s compassion. She didn’t understand that to truly destroy a person, you don’t destroy their body—you must destroy their heart.”
“Unfortunately, I was still young then. If it had been a few years later, I would have had countless methods to obtain a good younger brother.”
But there was no chance now. The Emperor looked around the hall. The hall was brightly lit with lamps, but to him, everything was a dim, blurry yellow.
“What did he ask you to do?” the Emperor asked.
Deng Yi said, “He asked this subject to open the palace gates for him.”
The Emperor looked at the person before him. Although he had already entrusted this person with the重任 of the nation, to him this was a stranger—he couldn’t even remember what Deng Yi looked like.
The reason he used Deng Yi was because previously, Eunuch Qi had pushed this person before him, daring to make difficulties for the Crown Prince’s people. Clearly, he was a fellow with ambition.
In times of crisis, this kind of ambitious person was most suitable to pull out and use.
Was this Deng Yi’s ambition also arranged by someone else?
“What will you do?” The Emperor looked at Deng Yi, asking each word deliberately.
Deng Yi knelt with his spine straight, his gaze neither evasive nor hesitant in the slightest. “This subject will honor my promise and open the gates for him.”
The Emperor smiled, seemingly not finding this particularly frightening. He said, “Then open them. Since you’ve harbored such intentions all along, you’re not the only one he can use. If you don’t open them, someone else will.”
Deng Yi nodded. “This subject thinks the same. Right now, outside is already very chaotic. If Prince Zhongshan takes action again, it won’t be good for Your Majesty. Moreover, Your Majesty, you now have no other choice. The Crown Prince is dead, and as for the Third Prince—”
He looked at the Emperor.
“Can Your Majesty tolerate allowing a prince who committed fratricide to inherit the imperial throne?”
The Emperor let out a harsh laugh, but as soon as the laughter started, he suddenly coughed violently. He had no choice but to cover his mouth with his sleeve.
Was Deng Yi acting as Prince Zhongshan’s advocate?!
The eunuchs standing on both sides couldn’t believe it. Was this pressuring the Emperor?
“Your Majesty—” Two eunuchs rushed forward with tears in their eyes.
Two others wanted to fight Deng Yi to the death.
Deng Yi was neither anxious nor angry. He continued, “However, this subject has one condition for the heir of Prince Zhongshan.”
The Emperor covered his mouth with his sleeve, muffling his cough, looking at him.
Deng Yi smiled.
“This subject will give the heir of Prince Zhongshan an imperial edict,” he said. “In his own name, ordering the execution of Prince Zhongshan. Then he may step through the palace gates and remain constantly at Your Majesty’s side.”
The Emperor was stunned, then burst into loud laughter, coughing and laughing at the same time.
“Good, good!” he shouted. “What a Deng Yi! What a Grand Tutor! Truly worthy of being the person I favor!”
Whether this Deng Yi was someone he had favored first, or someone Prince Zhongshan had pushed before him, no longer mattered.
This Deng Yi belonged to no one—he belonged only to himself.
He looked at Deng Yi, his eyes full of admiration and even envy.
“You are precisely the kind of person I spoke of—capable of destroying someone by destroying their heart.”
You, Prince Zhongshan, want your son to become Emperor? Fine, you die first as tribute, and moreover, have your own son order your execution.
Your son, stepping over his own father’s life to sit upon this imperial throne—will he be happy or unhappy?
The eunuchs lowered their heads and respectfully withdrew in silence.
Deng Yi sat upright, wooden and impassive, but in the next moment his expression changed slightly, because the Emperor removed his sleeve, and on it were spots of blood.
“Your Majesty!” Deng Yi stood up.
But the Emperor didn’t care. He spread open his sleeve and leaned back against the dragon bed, letting the blood from the corner of his mouth drip onto his body.
“I will answer you. I can tolerate a son who commits fratricide, but I cannot tolerate a son who would commit patricide,” he said. “That bitch Noble Consort actually poisoned me.”
Those delicious pastries—no wonder they tasted different from what the imperial kitchen made. Accumulating over the long years, little by little.