Book 14: Chapter 88
Night Night
If there was going to be another a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, the scene of the attempt would still be Ming Feizhen’s exam room. There wasn’t actually an “if” in there, though. All ducks needed to be in line even though he didn’t know why he was targeted. He realised he wasn’t the only one in an unfamiliar environment. There was no justifiable reason to sit idly and wait for them to ready up.
Ming Feizhen got up after waiting pointlessly for two hours. The cover of the night made the perfect opportunity for him to sneak into the palace where w.a.n.g Zhenyun and company rested. The palace neighbouring the Taishu Hall was often reserved as a resting place for the examiners during the exams. If the Hanlin Academy officials needed to work and couldn’t leave due to the imperial city doors closing, then they could stay the night there. The places they used daily were the exam venues for examinees in the future, so it was easy to imagine how many unnecessary desires the conveniences gave them. w.a.n.g Zhenyun wasn’t fearless just because the illusion of “the fate of the world is in my hands behind the doors”, but it wasn’t Ming Feizhen’s problem. That being the case, he had no qualms infiltrating the palace.
Even without internal energy, it was so simple that it was boring for Ming Feizhen to sneak into the resting palace. Although there wasn’t a shortage of strong guards in the imperial guards, which was why Ming Feizhen couldn’t identify the a.s.sa.s.sins based on their combat skills, strength didn’t equate to patrol skills. Of course, they had specific and strict procedures to follow, such as maintaining a specific distance between their neighbouring ally, but they weren’t superior to Liu Shan Men’s constables at patrolling once circ.u.mstances forced them to operate outside of their guidelines. Unlike the guards in charge of security deep within the imperial palace grounds, the imperial guards out here didn’t receive advanced training in tailing, patrolling and pursuit. Accordingly, they weren’t equipped with the skills to judge the risk of off-radar operations or think fast on their feet. Strictly speaking, the imperial guards’ primary function was to intimidate not to actually subdue hostiles. They weren’t going to be very effective against an elite from the martial world, after all. The martial world’s conflicts were best settled between members of the martial world.
It would’ve been a totally different story if the Qilin Guards were stationed in the outer section of the imperial palace. While they did have spare manpower in the capital, they were stationed elsewhere. Compared to the likes of Gongsun Chu, the safety of the examinees were several seats in the rear.
Few people, including Emperor Yuansheng, noticed that Gongsun Chu and the White Princes had impacted security in the capital. Notwithstanding him noticing it, Ming Feizhen was powerless to counteract it. n.o.body was sure if Gongsun Chu actually was hiding somewhere whilst scheming something, nor could they say with certainty if the White Princes had genuinely laid down their arms. Under such circ.u.mstances, it’d be folly to persuade Emperor Yuansheng into allocating more security to the outer zone of the imperial palace. The brilliance of Gongsun Chu was his ability to make it impossible to erect a defence strategy, putting his opponent in a fully defensive position until he made his move – despite it possibly being another part of his strategy.
As Ming Feizhen walked, he inwardly sang Gongsun Chu’s praises again. At the end of the day, though, he wasn’t really invested in stopping Gongsun Chu because he was Ming Feizhen, not a monarch with a duty to protect the people.
Following an aural audit, Ming Feizhen entered the building and then gently leaned onto the door’s pillar. He slowly pulled the hoodie of his light armour over to cover his eyes. Even after so many years, covering his eyes with a hoodie still gave him a sense of security. By this point, he had become a part of the darkness.
In spite of how late it was, members of Hanlin Academy were still awake.
“What were you doing in Young Master Feng’s room?!” Though the palace was quite far from the exam venue and everyone present was on the same side, w.a.n.g Zhenyun still didn’t raise his voice. Perhaps it had become a habit to control his volume no matter what in case he was ever overheard.
The drenched proctor s.h.i.+vered as puzzlement, terror and the cold disabled him from figuring out what he was supposed to do upon waking. Chen Lin was just another disposable member of Hanlin Academy, and he knew it. He was privy to corruption in the circle for many years, but he knew he was a coward they didn’t lack. His forefront thought was also staying alive. Hence, he relied on feigning the fool to survive when others had been carried out despite it not being how he envisioned his life would be.
There weren’t many means of entering Hanlin Academy; studying and purchasing a spot were two ways. Chen Lin, though he took the former route, and it was anything but smooth. Born into a well-off merchant family, he preferred reading over acting and manipulating as was common in the business world. Quite frankly, he was the odd one out in the family. He didn’t have a talent for studying; he took ten tries to memorise what others would’ve memorised in three attempts. Nevertheless, he was able to learn. After twenty-one years of dedication, he realised his dream of entering Hanlin Academy and was appointed a scribe post. To his shock, it wasn’t any n.o.bler in Hanlin Academy compared to the outside business world. Who’d ever think Hanlin Academy was a n.o.ble academy for the top scholars? Who’d ever walk out from there and say they were living in prosperous times? Alas, he was never a brave character, and he knew that he would never be able to go further. Recently, he had a chronic headache that came out of nowhere, but he couldn’t identify what the condition was. He planned to ask w.a.n.g Zhenyun for a consultation with an imperial physician after the imperial exams. The last thing he’d have ever imagined was his current predicament.
The usually graceful officials had Chen Lin bound in a chair in the centre of their encirclement. Even if he only had two brain cells, he knew what was happening when he saw the twisted faces that other former members had probably seen in their last moments.
Chen Lin had yet to voice, “I don’t know,” when he was slapped so viciously that he heard ringing in his ears.
“Don’t give me that nonsense! How dare you collude with Young Master Feng. Do you know how much we could earn from this? I thought you were honest, but you turned on us to steal our money?!” w.a.n.g Zhenyun a.s.saulted Chen Lin’s face and head again. “If you don’t tell the truth, this old one will have someone take your life. Speak: how much did Young Master Feng pay you? What did he promise you?”
Chen Lin released blood everywhere from his mouth as he laughed hysterically.
“What are you laughing about?”
Had they not tightened the rope around his hands and feet, Chen Lin would’ve kept laughing until he fell over.
“I’m laughing at you, you and you, all of you…” Chen Lin cast his gaze onto one official and said, “Come here. I’ll tell you what Young Master Feng told me.”
While the official did feel a sense of fear deep down when he saw the look in Chen Lin’s eyes, he wasn’t convinced the usually honest scribe would try anything. Besides, he couldn’t chicken out in the presence of his colleagues. Hence, he stepped forward and warned, “Don’t try anything funny. If you tell the truth, this old one can give y-, aaahh!”
Had w.a.n.g Zhenyun instructed n.o.body was to approach the building, the scream probably would’ve had guards rus.h.i.+ng over. The scream of the official who had to hold his hand over his b.l.o.o.d.y ear instilled fear in all the others, all except for w.a.n.g Zhenyun.
Chen Lin spat the disgusting ear fragment out, then another few more mouthfuls of blood and then laughed again. Wasn’t it funny? They had him restrained and surrounded to ask questions he couldn’t fathom, yet they didn’t look at themselves in the mirror. Wasn’t it laughable that he was once afraid of a group of people who feared a weak and defenceless scholar would escape? The first thing they asked him was if they were in trouble, if they had offended someone they couldn’t afford to offend and if someone had cut into their profits. They weren’t intimidating; they were scared silly. If they were so afraid of him, wouldn’t they look even more ridiculous when trying to ingratiate themselves with their superiors?
As he laughed, tears welled up in Chen Lin’s eyes. He had his eyes on text all day as a scribe, yet he couldn’t remember some of the stuff he read in his childhood. He hadn’t forgotten the burning pa.s.sion he felt inside him when he read Confucius’ teachings for the first time. What he had forgotten were the big aspirations he kept close to his heart when he first came to Hanlin Academy. All he saw before him now were a bunch of people who only cared for money pretending they were n.o.ble examples caring for their world.
Chen Lin suddenly felt a blunt object collide with his skull, sending him and the chair to the ground. He had no idea how much he was bleeding from his forehead.
“Ignorant fool. Who do you think you are?” w.a.n.g Zhenyun threw aside the hu he used to knock Chen Lin out and then emotionlessly ordered, “Kill him.”
Glossary
Hu – It’s a flat scepter that they used to use as narrow tablets for recording notes and orders. You can see several examples in this link: