While Xing and Seiren were getting ready for their battle, in the palace, the Emperor met Rijun held in the interrogation room. The guards were sent away as the Emperor ordered them to.The Emperor sighed in relief seeing Rijun unharmed, calm and collected . Even in the room dark, stinky and dirty his figure excluded a scholarly aura.
"Why are you here, Your Majesty? ,Rijun asked in surprise. He was seated on a stool and he was even provided water and other basic needs and he looked as proper as he usually does.
" To see you of course. We don"t want you to get hurt, do we? ", the Emperor sat in a chair they brought for him.
" People here are scared of my father. They won"t dare to touch me. You don"t have to worry ", Rijun said smiling. They know the basic rule here, "you don"t touch AoTian"s son unless you want to court death" .
" I"m more scared of your sister. The image of her fifty feet above the ground still haunts me. I do not want to be on the other side of that arrow",the Emperor said in a joking tone. She did all of that because s.h.i.+hong tried to hurt her father!
There was a silence in there for sometime.
"She won"t blame you for doing your job though", Rijun said, " You are doing the right thing"
"Yeah", the Emperor said dryly, "I cannot have personal preferences and should judge by the proof in front of me, because everything under the sky is mine and I am the son of heaven", he said sarcastically. What is the use of being the highest authority in the land when you cannot decide by yourself? The ones most loyal to him are accused falsely and he has to wait for proof to let them go.
He cannot help his friend but he can suffer with him. They cannot stop that! He decided to stay with Rijun.
"Don"t be like that...", Rijun comforted him, "Did father go home? And Mingxia? "
"No, Lord AoTian even spread rumours that he"s being held against his wishes here",the Emperor sighed, " He won"t get out until the allegations on you are cleared. He is prepared for war and his supporters are not leaving too. And Mingxia is staying in the Zhong Manor today. Your father received a letter just now. But why are they accusing you of stealing the glowing solution from the treasury when all of the coins are accounted for? "
Rijun chuckled, "That"s more like father" he said, his father can make a scene when needed. "But the allegations on me seems nonsensical!", he sighed.
There was a long pause in there and Rijun saw the not so clean cup and jar of water and didn"t want to touch it.
Guess, I"m too much of a Pampered n.o.ble than I originally thought. I"d rather die of thirst than touch this dirty water, Rijun thought. Hmm! Even my friend here who was saying he don"t want to take women had "graduated" recently. Here I am, sitting in an interrogation room with a dirty gla.s.s of water for some ridiculous reason!, Rijun sighed.
"What kind of feeling do you have for your sister?", the Emperor asked making Rijun perplexed.
"What..?", Rijun asked.
" I think I consider Consort Shu as a sister. Since you have a sister, I asked you to confirm my feelings", the Emperor looked at Rijun with a genuine expression.
"What the....!", Rijun held himself from swearing, "Your Majesty, you cannot consider your consorts as sisters", Rijun said in a gentle tone as he was explaining to a child.
"Why not, both are women are they not? And she calls me big brother!", the Emperor retorted seriously.
"This guy is actually serious! ", Rijun wanted to bang his head, " Do you want to kill her?", Rijun asked.
"What?", now the Emperor was confused.
" You know how much I love mooncakes. The other day, Mingxia ate the perfect mooncake I was saving for consuming later, without even asking me right from my plate. I wanted to kill her for that! That"s the kind of feeling I have for my sister", Rijun answered.
"But you were willing to oppose me, the Emperor, for her before", the Emperor had the perfect refutal.
"Ah! That....! Only I should kill her. n.o.body else can touch even a hair on her head!", Rijun answered. Wow! I am contradicting myself! I really want to kill her but I don"t want her dead! Well! Now I am confused, "But you cannot consider your Consort as your sister", the confused Rijun was clear about this point.
" Last night I told her tomorrow was my brother"s birthday when she was looking at the stars. She did some calculations and said tomorrow, the end of the Zhong family will begin and before the end of this year there won"t be anyone with the Zhong blood left. I wanted to kill her", the Emperor was seriously explaining to Rijun about his feelings.
What are they? Five year olds? Looking at stars in the night? Rijun was flabbergasted. Now I know why the G.o.ds have to interfere to save this kingdom! But what was that about the Zhong family? Didn"t the elder Shu said something like this too?
Just then Eunuch Xin came in to announce that some of the officials are here to meet the Emperor. The Emperor"s calm face got serious and he waved his hand to let them in. Eunuch Xin hesitated to let the officials meet the Emperor in the prison. This is so unbecoming of a Monarch!
"What? Is this place too lowly for them to come in?", the Emperor asked dryly. The Eunuch kneeled and apologised as usual and sent the officials in.
A group of officials from the Ran family"s side entered lead by official Qui. They gave the memorials in their hands to the Emperor and immediately kneeled in front of the Emperor,
"We have received information that the Zhong family had part in the robberies in the city in the past year. They are planning to revolt against the throne. We have proof for all of that. Your Majesty please conduct a detailed investigation ", Lord Qui was the one who spoke kneeling in front of the Emperor with reverence.
Rijun gasped and the Emperor maintained his indifferent expression. So they"ve trapped Huang family here and try to get Zhong family? So they placed the stolen coins there and are here to accuse them?
When they find the stolen coins there, Zhong family will be implicated. But will they find the stolen coins or the treasury coins? Judging by the unusual allegation on Rijun, I bet they"ll find treasury coins there.
And when the Zhong family refuse the allegations on them, Rijun who is accused to have stolen the secret solution will be blamed of framing the Zhong family. They"ll say that the Zhong and the Huang family were together in stealing the coins and the robberies were conducted by both the families. But somehow their alliance got shattered and Rijun tried to frame the Zhong family to get rid of them as he knew where they kept the coins. With this both the Zhong and the Prime Minister"s family will be eliminated. This is a well thought out plan carefully executed for a long time.
Both the Emperor and Rijun had figured out their plans. But there is no way they can directly help them. If they send someone to the Zhong family to inform them of the hidden coins, will it be too late?
The Emperor stood up, "Zhen is tired. Let"s discuss this tomorrow"
Eunuch Xin tried to disperse the officials but failed, "Your Majesty, we have received information that the Zhong army is going to stage a rebellion tonight. We have arranged proper security for you with the help of Lord Ran and we respectfully ask Your Majesty to stay in his courtyard tonight"
The Emperor smirked, "In other words, I"m a captive of the Ran family tonight"
Within minutes the situation in the prison had turned hostile.
Rijun stood beside the Emperor, "How dare you detain the Emperor?"
"How dare a criminal talk back to us?", Official Bai in there shouted.
Rijun tried to retort but the Emperor stopped him.
"Your Majesty! We have already secured the entire palace with the Ran family"s personal army. So Your Majesty can rest a.s.sured that the Zhong army cannot enter the palace and Your Majesty can rest well in your courtyard", Lord Qui said in a humble tone even though it was a threat.
"So all the way in and out of the Palace is closed",the Emperor gave a menacing glare at those who were kneeling in front of him looking all humble. The foxes of the palace!
"What a loyal bunch!", the Emperor chuckled, "Then zhen will stay here for the night with my friend"
"Prison is not the place for Your Majesty", Lord Qui stood up and waved his hand and two burly guards came in to the Emperor"s side to get him. Eunuch Xin tried to stop them but he was pushed to the side by them.
What have they planned? They are trying to detain the Emperor? Rijun was shocked.
Just then two arrows from a crossbow pierced the two guards between their eyes and they fell down dead. Around twenty men in dark clothing surrounded the Emperor and Rijun and the Officials stepped back in fear.
"Your Majesty! Your orders!", the leader of the black clothed group asked.
"Guard the prison. And send for dinner. Zhen will stay here tonight", the Emperor ordered.
The officials were shocked by the sudden arrival of the guards but they knew that these twenty cannot win over the five hundred they have stationed outside. The Emperor knows that too!
The officials moved to the side and the guards formed a perimeter around the Emperor and Rijun noticed one of the guard was the mute one who used to deliver Shengli"s letters to Xing. So these are Shengli"s men? He wondered but kept the thought to himself.
The Emperor sat back in his chair leisurely and asked Rijun to join him. Soon, dinner was brought and both of them savoured the various delicacies served in jade bowls with silver chopsticks.
Soon the interrogation room in the prison was filled with various furnis.h.i.+ngs fit for the stay of the Emperor and both the Emperor and Rijun spent some time playing the game of GO and enjoyed themselves.
Well! They looked like they were playing GO, but they were actually pa.s.sing messages to each other. Those two were bosom friends and they had secret ways to communicate and this was one of them they had created for themselves for amus.e.m.e.nt.
"Your brother"s man is one among the guards", Rijun said.
"I can see at least five of my brother"s men", the Emperor said.
"Mingxia is with the Zhongs. So don"t worry", Rijun said. Somehow he was being confident that this situation will be resolved tonight in their favour.
"I know, my brother is there too", the Emperor replied.
So both of them didn"t mind much about anything and eagerly waited for any news from the outside.
Meanwhile, Xing and Seiren who were unaware of the situation inside the palace, were in the brothel owned by Qui family sitting in adjacent tables with a bunch of women fawning over them.