Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court

[Pfft, now that the ‘enemy’ also has a cold, they’ve prepared fifty handkerchiefs to flaunt in front of them—using one and then tossing it away.]

The old emperor sipped his tea and judged silently: So petty.

[Oh! This one!]

The emperor, poised to address a serious matter, paused again. His gaze wandered, and his attention drifted back to Xu Yanmiao.

[Someone’s offering honey-soaked dried mangoes to the emperor. Sounds delicious.]

The emperor nodded.

Indeed.

[But maybe refuse it? It feels similar to the lychee proposal—both waste manpower.]

The old emperor widened his eyes.

[Or, how about letting them bring it to the capital during the New Year when they’re already visiting?]

The emperor couldn’t help nodding again.

Half an hour later…

“Xu Yanmiao.”

Xu Yanmiao jolted upright. “Your Majesty?”@@novelbin@@

The emperor glanced at the two serious memorials he’d managed to review, feeling pained.

“Sort through these memorials and take some back with you to review.”

If this continued, he wouldn’t finish today’s work.

Why is it that when I read these frivolous memorials myself, they’re just annoying, but when Xu Yanmiao mutters them in his head, I can’t help but pay attention?

Xu Yanmiao blinked in confusion. “Understood… I obey, Your Majesty.”

He lowered his head and began gathering the memorials.

[Huh? Why is there a memorial from a prince consort? Aren’t they forbidden from holding official posts? Oh! It’s from the consort of the eldest princess, Princess Fangling. Impressive! He was the top scholar in the imperial examination, the first after the founding of the dynasty! At that time, the rule forbidding consorts from holding official positions hadn’t been established. That came later, around the seventh year of the Tian Tong era.]

[Let’s see what he wrote…]

[It’s about bandits ravaging several counties. After a long period of inaction, a woman took advantage of their drunkenness to kill them. He’s petitioning for her to be rewarded.]

[This seems like serious business.]

Xu Yanmiao placed the memorial beside the emperor. As soon as he handed it over, he watched the emperor glance at it, seemingly skimming it at lightning speed before writing something.

[Did he just write “Reviewed” and call it done?]

Peeking secretly, he discovered the emperor had actually read the content and wrote: “Confer the title of Lady Chongyi (Righteous Lady).”

[This is the legendary speed of an emperor’s eyes! Hundreds of characters in a single glance?!]

Hearing Xu Yanmiao’s astonished thoughts, the emperor felt as pleased as if he’d eaten ice cream on a sweltering summer day. Clearing his throat, he said, “Xu Yanmiao, I haven’t seen the eldest princess in a long time. She and her husband are in the Liaodong Commandery, though not in Fuzhou Guard—they’re about seven or eight hundred li away… What do you think?”

A modern student’s mind is still sharp: “This is a family matter, Your Majesty.”

[—If you want to see them, just go see them.]

The old emperor nodded in satisfaction, his mood light and cheerful.

He decided to set off the next day to visit his only daughter who had neither caused him trouble nor embarrassed the family.

Ah, his Fangling! For half a lifetime, she had never given him cause for concern. Compared to the Second, Fifth, and Eighteenth Princes, she was the one daughter who was truly poised, reliable, and presentable.

She was, after all, the child who resembled him the most!

This pleasant mood lasted until the next day.

“Someone is trying to kill us! Please, sir, seek justice for us!”

A woman, accompanied by her son, seized an opportunity to rush forward. Stopped by the Imperial Guards, she knelt down immediately.

Apparently, she didn’t realize the man before her was the emperor. She only saw them leaving the yamen (government office) and decided to take a gamble.

“Sir! I wish to file a complaint against the imperial prince consort! He abandoned his wife and child! He even sought to eliminate us!”

The old emperor hadn’t cleared the area near the yamen of civilians, so the woman’s piercing cries were clearly heard several streets away. Moreover, the explosive nature of her accusation—touching upon family ethics—shocked everyone. Onlookers stood agape, craning their necks to see.

“Is that true? The prince consort? Abandoning his wife and child?”

“Remember that popular opera from a few years ago? It was about a prince consort who had married in his hometown but lied to the emperor, claiming he was single so he could marry the princess. Later, when his wife and child came to find him, he drove them away and even tried to have them killed to erase the evidence.”

“Could it be that the story wasn’t entirely baseless?”

“That’s vicious!”

“But look at this woman; she’s no spring chicken. And her son looks to be in his thirties. How old would the prince consort be? Wasn’t the prince consort in the opera supposed to be in his twenties?”

“If this happened decades ago, the timeline might match!”

The woman was in a pitiful state, her body battered, and her appearance disheveled. Kneeling, she kowtowed repeatedly, her lips trembling as she spoke in a jumbled, frightened manner:

“Please, sir, deliver justice! My husband is the imperial prince consort. He abandoned my son and me to marry the princess. I never dared to compete with the princess. I stayed quietly in the countryside with my son, never leaving. Thirty years have passed without incident, but a few days ago, someone suddenly set fire to my house. If my son and I hadn’t been in the county at the time, we would’ve died there! Today, when we were eating, we accidentally dropped our food bowl, and a neighbor’s dog ate from it and immediately died! He sent people to set the fire! He poisoned us! It must have been him! I’ve always been timid—I don’t dare quarrel with people, let alone offend anyone. My son is simple-minded and has no enemies either!”

Her son, equally disheveled, knelt behind her, kowtowing incessantly and crying out, “Please deliver justice! Please deliver justice!”

The old emperor’s face darkened with anger.

Thirty years ago, only two of his daughters had married prince consorts. Qinghe and Jisui’s marriages were fake, so this couldn’t involve them. That left Fangling…

“Summon the prince consort!” the emperor commanded after listening to the woman’s account. Though he didn’t believe it outright, he said, “Bring him here, but do not disturb Princess Fangling.”

With a sweep of his sleeve, the emperor turned and entered the yamen. Behind him, the woman offered profuse thanks, kowtowing until she was led inside by the Imperial Guards.

The prince consort arrived hastily on horseback. It was evident that the guards had briefed him on the situation during the journey. As soon as he entered the yamen, he lifted his robes and knelt without sparing the woman a glance.

“Your Majesty! I have never had a wife or child. I implore Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly!”

Hearing the term “Your Majesty,” the woman froze as if a duck’s neck had been stepped on. Her eyes widened as she looked toward the man at the center of the hall.

“Your Majesty?! The official I appealed to is the emperor himself?!”

Then, realizing what the prince consort had said, she wailed heart-wrenchingly, “Yan Lang! Even if you deny me, you cannot deny your child! The year he was born, you were preparing for the imperial examination. You barely held him a few times! Now you deny him entirely and even try to kill him!”

The commoners outside, who hadn’t been dispersed, craned their necks to catch a glimpse of the drama unfolding in the hall.

The prince consort, Yan Chun, was already in his fifties. With a long, elegant beard and upright posture, he retained the demeanor of the top scholar he once was. Decades of life in the harsh Liaodong region had not diminished his noble bearing; in fact, it added to his composed and regal demeanor.

This only made the contrast starker between him and the barefoot, ragged woman beside him, whose appearance was utterly pitiful.

Several officials were beginning to sympathize with the woman.

Despite the pressure, the prince consort remained unflustered. “Madam, I do not know you,” he stated calmly.

The woman’s face turned deathly pale. “Bo Ye County, North Yang Village, in Baoding Prefecture! Yan Lang, have you truly forgotten?”

The prince consort spoke neither hurriedly nor slowly, and his words were well-organized: “My household registration is not a secret; anyone with intent can investigate it. If that alone is enough to claim I’m her husband, wouldn’t that mean I could be married to anyone?”

How crafty!

Scattered coughs broke out among those present, attempting to stifle their laughter.

The woman froze momentarily, then sobbed, “The child can undergo a blood test to confirm parentage!”

The prince consort calmly replied, “His Majesty has already decreed to the world that blood tests for parentage are unscientific and unreliable. Even unrelated individuals can have their blood mix together.”

The woman’s eyes were blank with confusion.

An official, dissatisfied, voiced his discontent: “How would a rural woman know such matters? The prince consort seems to be bullying her.”

Yan Chun, the prince consort, chuckled, “Minister Liu, what integrity! Why not lead by example and do a blood test with your son first?”

Minister Liu: “…” He was caught off guard and, after being speechless for a while, said no more.

It had been too long since they had seen the prince consort; they had nearly forgotten that both the princess and he were famed for their competitiveness and sharp tongues. Annoying!

The woman stared blankly for a long moment, then suddenly grew agitated. “Your Majesty! I have evidence!”

Her confidence made the prince consort’s heart skip a beat for no apparent reason.

Then they heard the woman shout, “Yan Lang has a birthmark on his back that looks like a three-petal plum blossom! It’s more delicate than embroidery! If I don’t know him, if I’ve never shared a bed with him, how could I know this?!”

The prince consort: “…”