Chapter 99: Secret Dispatch

Chapter 99: Secret Dispatch

After the mourning period, it's already August. This year's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet is unlikely to happen. Most consorts remain quiet due to the Dowager Empress's passing, cautious not to displease the Emperor.

The Emperor increasingly visits Yaohua Palace, seemingly seeking mutual comfort with Consort Jiang.

One day, the Emperor, holding Yearn, sits in the warm pavilion, watching Consort Jiang embroider a small garment. Despite her many talents, Consort Jiang rarely excels in needlework, but this piece, crafted for the child in her womb, is an exception.

A few wood hibiscus flowers and some sweet osmanthus sprigs loosely arranged in a white-glazed, slender-necked vase on the side table, lightly scenting the air in the warm pavilion.

Consort Jiang, focusing on her embroidery, hears the Emperor's calm voice break the serene silence.

"The attendants with my mother tried to escape the temple, but were separated by the crowd. The few survivors, fearing my retribution would extend to their families, eventually took their own lives."

Consort Jiang's hand, holding the needle, freezes momentarily. She looks up at the Emperor, meeting his dark, brooding eyes.

Her brows slightly furrowed, she directly asks, "Does Your Majesty suspect that the Dowager Empress's death wasn't merely due to the wildfire?"

The Emperor looks back into her clear eyes and softly hums in affirmation.

"Does Your Majesty know?" Consort Jiang calmly meets his gaze, suddenly asking, "After my mother's passing, I've often pondered something."

Without waiting for the Emperor to respond, she lowers her head to resume sewing the garment, her tone cool, "I wonder, my mother was so young, even if she had a cough, how could it become so fatally ill? Could someone have deliberately harmed her?"

Emperor Xiao's brows twitch slightly, but he remains silent.

Consort Jiang continues in her clear, cool voice, "Lying in bed those days, I couldn't help thinking over and over, from the moment I opened my eyes till I closed them. Only seeing Yearn could bring me out of that engulfing sensation..."

"Yearn is here!" Yearn immediately responds, reaching out his arms towards his mother.

Consort Jiang glances at him tenderly. Emperor Xiao softly tells Yearn, "Yearn, Mommy is holding a needle, it's not safe to hug. Play over here with Daddy."

Understanding the latter part, Yearn reluctantly turns away, fiddling with a jade piece on the Emperor's belt.

Emperor Xiao indulges him and quietly asks, "And later? Did you stop thinking that way, Consort Jiang?"

"No," unexpectedly, Consort Jiang denies it. She finishes the edge, cuts the thread with scissors, shakes out the garment, and neatly folds it into a bamboo basket beside her, "I still think that way... Perhaps it will take many years before I can let it go."

Emperor Xiao, upon hearing this, softly smiles, "I thought Consort Jiang would comfort me to mourn appropriately."

"It's not something that can be done just by saying 'mourn appropriately.' I can't even do it myself, let alone comfort Your Majesty," Consort Jiang replies softly.

Holding Yearn, Emperor Xiao moves to the window, his eyes filled with indiscernible emotions. After a long while, he finally responds.

The Emperor doesn't stay for dinner at Yaohua Palace, seemingly recalling some urgent state affairs, and returns to Liangyi Hall.

Autumn Osmanthus, assisting Consort Jiang to walk around the table, whispers, "Consort, the Emperor today...?"

Although the Emperor seemed usual, apart from being a bit more silent due to the Dowager Empress's death, Autumn Osmanthus senses deeper implications in his conversation with Consort Jiang.

Consort Jiang completes her walk and slowly sits back down on the soft chair, calmly stating, "It's nothing."

If His Majesty had indeed discovered something, his reaction today would likely have been different.

In Liangyi Hall.

Rows of carved golden dragon candles emit a warm yellow light, the scent of dragon's brain incense slowly diffusing from a Boshan incense burner on the shelf. Shen An stands slightly bent, in the shadow of the dark golden columns, his gaze on the carpet still embroidered with round flowers, the sound of paper rustling from the throne area.

Shen An knows that this secret report, handed over by General Yang Rong'en of the Jinwu Guard, has been read several times by the Emperor.

Approaching the late hours, the Emperor still shows no intention of returning to the Jianzhang Palace to rest, sitting quietly behind the imperial desk, deep in thought.

The lengthy secret report, opened wide in the center, stretches from the far right to the far left of the desk.

At the end of the report are the firm and powerful words "Your humble servant, Yang Rong'en respectfully presents" and the dark red seal of the Jinwu Guard, followed by a carefully deliberated phrase: Although there appears to be a coincidence, it is indeed a natural disaster.

Previous pages include records of historical wildfires and casualties from six counties under the jurisdiction of Jinzhou.

Further ahead are testimonies from surviving monks and palace attendants, a map of Wutai Mountain, followed by interpretations from the Director of the Astronomical Bureau.

Earlier sections list various doubts, such as most of the Dowager Empress's attendants not being around, and traces of tung oil found in the inner chambers where the Dowager Empress resided.

But Yang Rong'en immediately provides explanations for these points.

Most of the palace attendants and guards were dispatched by the Dowager Empress herself to distribute porridge at the foot of the mountain.

As for the tung oil, it was prepared for driving away insects and cicadas due to the abundance of trees on Wutai Mountain. Normally, catching cicadas wouldn't require tung oil; one could simply use a bamboo pole with glue to stick them on trees. However, the Dowager Empress, being a clean person, feared insects and ants inside and had ordered a thorough coating with tung oil. Both commands were personally given by the Dowager Empress.

At the very beginning of the report is the full account of the incident: how the fire started, why it wasn't detected in the middle of the night, and how the panicked crowd dispersed in all directions…

"Shen An."

In the solemn atmosphere of the hall, Emperor Xiao Sheng suddenly speaks.

"Your Majesty, your servant is here," Shen An promptly steps out from behind the shadow of the column, respectfully responding.

"If Yang Rong'en brings anyone back, temporarily house them in the Cheng Wang Mansion and have Luo Yunlai interrogate them," Emperor Xiao Sheng instructs indifferently.

Cheng Wang Mansion, as the Emperor's secret residence, is always heavily guarded.

"Understood, your servant will see to it," Shen An acknowledges.

He is well aware of what the Emperor is implying. Many of the palace attendants and guards sent by the Dowager Empress to Wutai Mountain were scattered, some not even in Jinzhou. Fearing the Emperor's punishment after learning of the Dowager Empress's misfortune, many fled during the night. Yang Rong'en spent considerable time recapturing these individuals. Once they are brought back to the capital, they will likely face the harsh methods of the head of the Punishment Bureau, Luo Yunlai.