“What happened?”
“Hundreds of Yucheng Army soldiers have removed their armor and weapons, dressed in white, kneeling outside Zhuque Gate. To avoid suspicion, they dare not enter the city, but they’ve come here to… cry injustice for the condemned minister Xie Queshan!”
Nanyi looked up in surprise. Once she began understanding court affairs, she realized that an army so clearly crying injustice for a treacherous minister was extremely suspicious and risky—if they could organize to cry injustice today, couldn’t they rebel tomorrow? If they angered the dragon’s wrath, no matter how much merit they had from following the dragon, it would become a death warrant. But the Yucheng Army still came. She was in the city, they were outside—they were her support.
A torrent quickly filled her body. She had touched bottom in the abyss, but the expected complete destruction didn’t come—many people lifted her up, lifted them up.
Justice lay in people’s hearts. She wasn’t fighting alone. And his noble character and dedication hadn’t sunk like a stone in the sea.
But even so, His Majesty still didn’t agree to immediately re-examine the case, only saying the matter required careful consideration before making a decision.
When the Yucheng Army knelt like this, the people exploded first. This matter spread rapidly. Belief aside, curiosity was certain. Everyone gathered to comment, so more and more people hoped to reopen the case and investigate the truth.
Nanyi waited anxiously at the hostel, not knowing what His Majesty was still hesitating about or what more she could do. The next day, however, a servant from the household of Minister Hu Ruhai of the War Department came, saying that regarding Xie Queshan’s case, he requested her presence for a discussion.
Nanyi didn’t know what kind of person this was, but she had heard he was a former minister stationed in the south, and among the ministers who opposed sending troops, his voice was the loudest. She felt somewhat uneasy, but thinking that she was now in the public eye, he surely couldn’t kill to silence her. Moreover, she couldn’t let any possible opportunity slip by now, so she steeled herself and went.
Unexpectedly, Minister Hu wasn’t the sinister-looking person she had imagined, but rather a burly military man with a voice loud as a bell and a somewhat impatient nature. Upon seeing Nanyi, he looked her over, half-believing, obviously not taking a mere woman too seriously, and got straight to the point.
“Besides the Yucheng Army, are there others who can corroborate what you said?”
Nanyi hesitated, wondering if this was a trap to destroy evidence? But on second thought, the people she would mention were completely beyond Minister Hu’s reach.
“Princess Lingfu,” Nanyi met Minister Hu’s eyes directly without flinching. “Xie Queshan’s code name in the Bingzhu Bureau was Goose. I can tell you Goose’s contact method. You only need to ask the Princess—when Xie Queshan was recovering at Wanyan Jun’s house, did he have her make contact on his behalf? If the contact method matches what I say, then it can prove Xie Queshan worked for the Bingzhu Bureau.”
Hu Ruhai hadn’t expected this small woman to have such clear thinking.
He suddenly sensed from her a kind of fierce offensive desire. Where she stood was justice itself, what she said was truth itself. She was righteous and confident, open and aboveboard. She feared nothing, and any lies or darkness that approached her would be crushed.
Even before he had time to verify, Hu Ruhai already had an intuition.
—He had done wrong.
And the Princess’s answer proved that woman was right.
Hu Ruhai sat down with an ashen face, not bothering that Nanyi was still in the hall waiting for the result with him. His mind was in chaos—everything he believed in and had constructed was beginning to completely collapse.
Not long ago, he learned that Xie Zhu had defected to Great Qi, but His Majesty had suppressed this matter, forbidding any announcement. The reason was simple: if the Xie family produced another traitor at this critical juncture, the entire Xie clan would be doomed. His Majesty intended to protect the Xie family.
Hu Ruhai had never imagined that the seemingly upright and selfless Master Xie would be a treacherous rebel who colluded with enemies. But thinking of Master Xie’s previous attitude, he felt somewhat chilled. Regarding sending troops to Li Du Mansion and his nephew’s issue, he hadn’t expressed much opinion, but such silence precisely proved he already had a preference.
But now that Xie Zhu was a traitor, what about Xie Queshan, who was executed with his tacit consent?
The thought had already sprouted. Today, when Hu Ruhai heard someone had struck the Dengyuan Drum to cry injustice for Xie Queshan, his unease grew stronger. This was why he urgently invited this lady over—he wanted to verify what kind of person Xie Queshan really was, to know whether his insistence in court was right or wrong.
Only now did he confirm that those deserters who came with true and false information were a trap set for him. Someone had used his straightforwardness as a killing blade. At that time, he feared His Majesty was being deceived. He firmly believed what he saw—Li Du Mansion was a trap, he couldn’t watch the army walk into a tiger’s mouth, so he opposed more loudly than anyone.
This blade of his had actually killed a loyal minister and good general.
He was indeed a student of Shen Zhizhong, with the same literary heart and iron backbone as his teacher.
Nanyi didn’t interrupt Minister Hu’s silence either. She just felt this minister wasn’t like a bad person.
After a long time, Hu Ruhai looked up at Nanyi: “If Minister Shen were still here, His Majesty wouldn’t be walking on thin ice like this… nor would he let short-sighted people like me influence His Majesty’s decisions. Madam, fortunately you came.”
Nanyi seemed to grasp a thread of hope: “Then would you be willing to help me with this case?”
After long consideration, Hu Ruhai said: “His Majesty refuses to nod for re-examination because the time isn’t right. He wants to use public opinion to pressure the court so ministers have no words to refute. His Majesty is waiting for the right moment.”
Nanyi was stunned. Being in the situation, she indeed hadn’t thought of this level.
So even Minister Hu had no solution?
When leaving that day, Nanyi felt somewhat dejected. Although she could convince Minister Hu, they both knew this still wasn’t enough to convince the world. The most troublesome aspect of this matter was that it no longer had much to do with right or wrong. Too many people who knew the truth were forced to close their eyes and let injustice happen. Individual versus greater good—they were constantly in fierce conflict.
And when would be the right moment His Majesty was waiting for?