Since knowing Yang Wan, she has always been writing in this notebook. Deng Ying couldn’t understand the writing on it, but he rather liked watching her write.
Composed and focused, showing none of the self-pity common among inner palace women.
“They just executed someone for this matter, you were so ill just now, why do you still want to ask?”
“Want to understand things clearly while living in the palace.”
She pointed her brush tip toward the window, “Look at them, didn’t they die unclear about everything?”
She drew back her brush, blocking the hair that had fallen loose from her temples, and continued, “Besides, I only ask you, nothing will happen.”
Hearing her say this, Deng Ying couldn’t help but smile, “You trust me so much?”
“Of course I trust you, no one in this world trusts you more than I do.”
Deng Ying was slightly stunned.
When people are in humble circumstances, or trapped in inexplicable disgrace, they become afraid of someone recklessly trusting them, as this represents not only their sinking but will also be their downfall.
Just like those scholars from Tongjia Academy who were now being tortured in the imperial prison.
Deng Ying didn’t feel his life deserved such sacrifice.
Since his imprisonment, he had spent a long time convincing himself that if he couldn’t walk in daylight, he would move in the cold night, but he preferred to walk alone, unwilling to mention any lantern lit solely for him.
“If you don’t want to talk about it, I’ll speak first, and you listen to see if I’m right.”
After speaking, she lifted her notebook and turned forward several pages, one hand propping her chin, the other reversing the brush handle, pointing at key places in her notes as she said: “This Wang Shunchang from the Liuli Factory is the adopted son of He Yixian, the seal-holding official of the Directorate of Ceremonial. Though the deficit discovered by the Ministry of Works this time amounts to over a million taels, compared to the entire inner court’s deficit, it’s just a drop in the ocean.”
She circled something at a certain point, but didn’t directly state the specific number verified by later generations, and looked up to ask Deng Ying: “You and Master Zhang have led the imperial city construction for so many years, do you have a concrete figure in mind for the construction’s income and expenditure?”
Deng Ying was silent at first, then gave a slight nod.
“How much?”
Deng Ying didn’t answer.
Yang Wan didn’t ask further, lowering her head to move her brush away from that number, “Alright, you don’t need to say it yet, anyway it’s a number that would get a lot of people killed if spoken.”
She turned another page, “Now the imperial cabinet very much wants to hand Wang Shunchang over to the Three Judicial Offices, but the Directorate of Ceremonial wants to treat him as a servant and handle him within the palace. The reason is that once Wang Shunchang enters the Ministry of Justice’s prison, the foundations of these Directorate officials will also be completely exposed. The imperial city’s construction over forty years, with income and expenditure of no less than tens of millions, the twenty-four departments inside and outside during the Zhenning years – weaving, coal and firewood, rice and meat, water supply – the consumption was enormous. It’s unavoidable for taxpayers to support the imperial clan, but to support…”
“Yang Wan.”
Deng Ying suddenly interrupted her.
Yang Wan looked up, “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t touch this matter, it has nothing to do with you.”
Yang Wan put down her brush, “I know, but this matter is related to you.”
She stopped speaking at this point, quietly looking at her notebook.
“Yang Wan.”
He called her name again.
“Hmm?”
“How did you see this layer?”
“You asking this means you’ve thought of it too, haven’t you?”
Deng Ying was stunned.
Yang Wan’s words were almost touching the core of the matter.
When his father Deng Yi was in the imperial cabinet, to please and deceive Emperor Zhenning, he indulged the Directorate of Ceremonials to take the lead, forcing the Ministry of Revenue to heavily skew finances toward imperial clan expenses. The imperial city construction item was already overburdened, yet the emperor kept bestowing gifts on various princely mansions.
The year before last, when Prince Cheng, Emperor Zhenning’s brother, reported to the inner court that his consort Lady Jiang had given birth to a son, Emperor Zhenning had impulsively granted Lady Jiang’s maternal family in Nanjing a thousand taels of gold. It should be noted that at the time, there was still fighting on the northwestern border, and the salt commissioner going south to raise military funds was so burdened he nearly hanged himself on the ship returning to the capital to report. Yet the inner court paid no attention to the severe financial situation, continuing to expand the number of eunuchs and palace maids, while various royal mansions remained insatiable in their demands for silk, cotton, and food.
And once these things were accounted to the inner court, they fell under the emperor’s name. No one in the Three Judicial Offices or Six Ministries dared investigate, and there wasn’t a eunuch in the Directorate of Ceremonial who didn’t line their own pockets. As for how much these eunuchs embezzled, even later historical research could only estimate roughly – during the Zhenning years it was an “astronomical number.”
This was the Great Ming Dynasty under Deng Yi’s control.
Precarious as eggs piled high, the collapse was but a moment away. Though Deng Ying wasn’t in court, he was involved in the imperial city construction, and over more than ten years, he had seen and recorded much. In his youth, he had even written down some items, but when Zhang Zhanchun accidentally discovered this, he called Deng Ying to his study and severely scolded him.
Since then, he has constantly warned Deng Ying, “The time hasn’t come, don’t attempt the impossible.”
After that, Deng Ying never saw the account book he had privately kept in his youth again.
Even when Zhang Zhanchun retired that year, when Deng Ying personally cleaned his chambers, he couldn’t find it.
So, in his teacher’s eyes, was it still not time?
“Deng Ying.”
Yang Wan waved her hand in front of his eyes.
Deng Ying came back to himself, to find she had already closed her little notebook and was leaning forward, slouching in front of him.
“Don’t think too much. Did you hear me?”
“Do you know what I’m thinking about?”
“I do. If you don’t feel it’s offensive, I’ll tell you.”
Deng Ying smiled, “Nothing you say to me is offensive.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
He nodded sincerely.
Yang Wan smiled too, “You’re too good to me.”
She straightened up, looking into Deng Ying’s eyes, “Hmm… you’re thinking, if the Three Judicial Offices of the imperial cabinet trace the Liuli Factory connection to you, whether you should stand together with your former teacher and fellow disciples.”