When the Deposed Crown Prince Was Reborn as Troublemaker - Chapter 75

“Magistrate Li, there’s no need for this — I merely said what needed to be said. There’s no cause for such a grand gesture.” Cui Yan put on a look of concern while quickly helping the weak-kneed Magistrate Li to his feet.

“Thank you, Imperial Physician Cui. I’ve made a fool of myself before you.” Magistrate Li steadied himself by gripping Cui Yan’s arm and managed to stand, saying, “I’ll have my servants bring over items from my collection of many years right away — I hope Imperial Physician Cui will not refuse them.”

“Not at all, not at all,” Cui Yan said with a smile.

With that, Magistrate Li hurried away in a flustered state — it was clear that the news of someone having arrived at Jinyun Temple had thrown him into complete panic.

After seeing Magistrate Li off, Cui Yan returned to the room where You Yusui was staying.

Inside the room, You Yusui was reclining sideways on a chaise longue, with a bunch of chilled grapes and a plate of watermelon with the seeds already picked out placed beside him, while he held a storybook in his hands and read it with great enjoyment.

These fruits had naturally been sent by You Yusui’s maternal grandfather — the things sent by the Magistrate of Dayang County had never had a chance of passing You Yusui’s lips.

Naturally, this manner of conduct only made the Crown Prince appear all the more spoiled and indulgent, extravagant and wasteful, pleasure-seeking, and incapable of handling affairs.

“How did it go?” You Yusui looked up, saw Cui Yan walk in, and set down the storybook in his hands.

Cui Yan, upon hearing this, said only four words. “Hook, line, and sinker.”

The moment he had spoken the name Jinyun Temple, Magistrate Li had been so frightened that he dropped straight to his knees. Jinyun Temple was no doubt the place where they had hidden the embezzled disaster-relief silver.

But then — how could His Highness the Crown Prince have known?

You Yusui, of course, knew. It was because this group of people in Dayang County had hidden the disaster-relief silver inside the bodies of the bronze Buddha statues at Jinyun Temple. At the time, although he had traced the dirty silver to Jinyun Temple, he had been unable to find the exact hiding place. Later, when he was being hunted down, he had been forced to hide behind the great Buddha statue, and only then did he discover that the back of the great Buddha had been chiseled open and then patched back up again.

You Yusui had waited until the pursuers moved elsewhere, and when no one was around, he knocked on it with his hand — and only then confirmed that there was something inside the great Buddha.

Afterward, once the people who had come to rendezvous with him obtained the account books that Magistrate Li had hidden in a secret chamber, the corrupt officials and powerful clans were either executed or exiled, and the common people of Dayang County finally came to live good lives.

You Yusui didn’t know how to explain any of this to Cui Yan, nor did he wish to. He simply extended all ten fingers, placed them against his lips, and said, “Heaven’s secrets must not be revealed.”

Cui Yan could only scoff inwardly at that, and resolved to turn around and write up a report about the unusual things he’d observed in You Yusui, to send to his cousin.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Magistrate Li, upon learning that the person the Emperor had secretly dispatched to investigate the case had already traced things to Jinyun Temple, was thrown into such a panic that he hastily summoned the heads of the Qi and Wei families to discuss countermeasures.

“Why don’t we simply finish what we’ve started and kill the investigator!” said the head of the Qi family, fingering the sandalwood prayer beads in his hand.

The head of the Wei family nodded in agreement, adding, “We can pin the cause of death on the refugees afterward — who would ever know?”

“No, no, no — that won’t do,” Magistrate Li said hastily. “Do you know who it is that came to investigate?”

“Who?” the heads of the Qi and Wei families asked.

“Lord Xie’s own grandson, the Junior Minister of Dali Temple — the one who handled the Jiangnan private salt case back then, purged a large number of people from the Jiangnan officialdom, and shook the entire court.” Magistrate Li sat down and spoke slowly, his eyes filled with nothing but fear.

He had heard of that case back then and had been deeply unsettled by the thunderous methods Xie Tan had displayed. That was the Jiangnan officialdom — the most tangled web of connections imaginable! And yet Xie Tan had not only walked away unscathed, but had combed through the Jiangnan officialdom from top to bottom.

“Moreover, he is the heir of the Xie family. If he were to die here, Lord Xie would not let us off, and neither would the great clans connected to the Xie family through marriage ties,” Magistrate Li murmured.

The two princes had disappeared before even entering the borders of Dayang County — there had still been ways to distance themselves from that. But if Xie Tan were to meet with misfortune within Dayang County’s borders, even if it appeared to have nothing to do with them, would the Xie family truly not strike them down with everything they had?

Compared to the imperial family far away in the capital, they feared far more the great clans bound together by complex marriage alliances — because the court still needed evidence to deal with them, whereas the great clans needed no evidence whatsoever to destroy them.

“The way you put it, we can neither kill him nor touch him?” the head of the Wei family said, frowning.

They had not expected the court to send someone so difficult to handle, leaving them at a loss for how to deal with him.

Magistrate Li was seen to steel himself before speaking. “Capture him first and see if we can persuade him. If that truly won’t work, then kill him.”

Everyone present nodded one after another upon hearing this, then dispatched men to search the area around Jinyun Temple for any suspicious individuals, with orders to apprehend them immediately if found.

Meanwhile, back in Chang’an, Consort Xian, who had been waiting in the palace for news, finally received word from her son, and the heart she had held in suspense finally settled.

“Go and invite Princess Wu, who is offering prayers at Prince Wu’s residence, to come here,” Consort Xian said, holding the paper slip as she spoke.

These past days, Princess Wu had been staying in the prayer hall of the Prince Wu’s residence, reciting sutras and offering prayers, and had grown noticeably thinner from the ordeal. Each time she emerged from the prayer hall, she would ask the servants whether any news had come from the palace, and if there was none, Princess Wu, Su Yingying, would reveal an expression of disappointment and dejection.

Even someone as seasoned as Consort Xian felt that Su Yingying had truly fallen in love with her son. Telling Su Yingying the news about You Yufan at this moment could also set her heart at ease. And even if Su Yingying had other intentions, Chang’an and Hedong Commandery were several hundred li apart — it was not something a woman could freely meddle in on her own.

Consort Xian sat at the head of Jianjia Palace, and the moment she raised her eyes, she saw Princess Wu, visibly moved and with tears glistening in her eyes, come walking in with quick steps.

“Mother-consort, has there been news of my husband?” Su Yingying pressed a hand to her heart and asked, her voice trembling.

Consort Xian took Su Yingying by the hand and had her sit beside her, then handed Su Yingying the paper slip.

The moment Su Yingying looked at it, she understood that You Yufan was currently recuperating at Jinyun Temple in Dayang County, waiting for the Crown Prince to uncover the evidence before coming to seize the final credit.

“As long as my husband is safe, that is all that matters — one can only imagine how much hardship he must have endured along the way.” Su Yingying could not help but weep tears of joy.

“You can set your mind at ease now — there is no longer any need to keep offering prayers,” Consort Xian said, patting Su Yingying on the shoulder. “Go back and take good care of your health, so that when he returns, you can give me a grandson.”

Su Yingying could not help but show a coy and bashful expression upon hearing this, saying, “Mother-consort, what are you saying?”

Yet inwardly, Su Yingying felt utterly revolted. To bear a child with someone like him — she would sooner die.

Consort Xian kept Su Yingying for a little while longer in conversation before finally seeing her off.

Once Su Yingying had left, Consort Xian took a sip of tea and said, “Have the servants of Prince Wu’s residence keep a close watch on her — see who she visits or writes to.”

“Yes,” Consort Xian’s trusted attendant replied.

Upon returning to Prince Wu’s residence, Su Yingying’s face was radiant with joy. She personally entered the prayer hall to offer thanks to the Bodhisattva, then rewarded all the servants of the household with silver, before beginning to attend to herself and turning her attention with playful interest to the thrush perched on the birdstand.

The thrush sang in its sweet, delicate voice, causing many birds in the surrounding area to sing along in chorus. A maidservant beside Su Yingying could not help but remark, “These past few days, with Your Ladyship not coming to see this thrush, it could not seem to lift its spirits at all — but now that Your Ladyship has come, it is full of life again.”

“Zhuiyun, go and have the kitchen prepare nourishing dishes for me — I need to restore my health so I am in good form when I see my husband,” Su Yingying said, issuing her instructions.

“Yes.”

In the eyes of the Prince Wu’s residence servants, Su Yingying’s behavior upon returning was entirely ordinary — she visited no one and wrote to no one.

What they did not know, however, was that a small bird had already flown from the Prince Wu’s residence to the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace, and into Jiang Yan’s hand.

Jiang Yan listened to the sounds of the small bird in his hand, then tossed it a handful of millet. He then wrote several characters on a strip of cloth, stuffed it into a small bamboo tube, and attached it to the leg ring of a bird of prey.

“Off you go,” Jiang Yan said, releasing the bird of prey that had been perched on his arm.

This was a bird of prey he had trained himself, capable of flying several hundred li in a single day. If His Highness the Crown Prince had followed his instructions and left the special incense he had prepared at intervals along the route, then this bird of prey would likely be able to fly the message into the Crown Prince’s hands by the following evening.

At that moment, the men dispatched by Magistrate Li and the two powerful clans had already conducted a thorough, sweep-style search of Jinyun Temple and its surrounding area. No matter how well the subordinate with ties to the Li family had concealed You Yufan, his whereabouts were exposed.

The wound You Yufan had sustained after falling off the cliff had never properly healed, and now, caught in the encirclement by Magistrate Li’s men and the forces of the two powerful clans, he could not even manage to flee.

“Do you know who I am?!” You Yufan glared furiously at the men surrounding him.

“Chang’an accent,” one of Magistrate Li’s subordinates remarked to the others.

“His appearance bears some resemblance to His Highness the Crown Prince,” another person said.

“You’re the one we’ve been looking for — Xie Tan, Junior Minister of Dali Temple!” the group declared in unison.

A Chang’an accent, a passing resemblance to His Highness the Crown Prince, and found hiding within Jinyun Temple of all places — who else could it be but Xie Tan, the secret investigator sent to look into the case?

You Yufan was left completely dumbfounded by this declaration. Xie Tan? What did this have to do with Xie Tan? Xie Tan had never even left Chang’an.

“You’ve got the wrong per—”

Before You Yufan could say more than a few words, someone knocked him out cold with a single blow to the head.

“It seems the rumors aren’t entirely accurate after all — who would have thought that the widely feared Junior Minister Xie would be captured by us so easily?” said one of the Qi family’s hired thugs.

“Move — take him back and report in.”

That night, Cui Yan walked hurriedly into You Yusui’s room, and looking at You Yusui — still reading his storybook and eating fruit — he said, “I heard them say that they’ve captured Xie Tan.”

“What?” You Yusui froze. “Isn’t my cousin in Chang’an?”

Just then, a large bird came flying in through the window. You Yusui quickly got down from the bed, went to the window to let the bird in, and removed the message tube from its leg.

“I’ll feed you meat in a moment,” You Yusui said to settle the large bird down before unrolling the cloth strip.

Written on it were the words: The Third Prince is at Jinyun Temple — biding his time, intending to play the mantis that seizes the cicada, while he acts as the oriole.

You Yusui thought back to what Cui Yan had said earlier and could not help but draw a sharp breath. He handed the cloth strip to Cui Yan and said, “Tell me — who do you think they actually captured?”

Cui Yan read the contents of the cloth strip and fell into silence.

The Third Prince had come to play the oriole waiting behind the mantis stalking the cicada — and ended up getting caught by the cicada himself.