Chapter 11: Your Highness, Please Hear My Explanation

"Is your stomach hurting again?"

Yan Bei did not let the three wet nurses standing in line step forward. Instead, he personally lifted the child onto his left thigh, gently patting his back with his left hand to soothe him. Only when the sobbing subsided did he turn his face. "The weather has turned cold recently, and A-Li has caught a chill; he is feeling a bit delicate."

"Keep your voice down."

The Marquis of Guangling gave a dazed "oh," his posture stiffening until he looked even more like a frightened quail.

*Damn it,* he thought, *the child is a boy, yet he’s being coddled like a block of tofu!* The scare had nearly made him think he was going to be sent back to bathe again.

Suddenly recalling his purpose, he felt his heart tighten once more. He whispered, "Does the Prince have any orders for me?"

Yan Bei continued to cradle the child while feeding him. "I happened to run into Du Yu recently..."

The Marquis of Guangling fell to his knees with a thud. "Your Highness, please let me explain!"

Yan Bei paused, his eyes fixed on the man's face.

"Explain what?"

The Marquis looked up. "Ah, well..."

Yan Bei sneered. "It seems you have been up to no good."

"No! Your subordinate would not dare!"

Yan Bei continued to pat A-Li rhythmically. Only when he saw the beads of sweat on the Marquis's brow did he speak slowly. "It is not the first or second time your Du family has used their power to bully others and been caught. The censors have reported you to the Emperor, and the Emperor came to me yesterday."

"I have merely summoned you to issue a warning: if you commit such offenses again, you can forget about being the Commissioner of the Imperial City Guard."

"Your subordinate obeys!"

Yan Bei glanced at the floor again. "The Emperor still has a year before he receives the Imperial Seal and formally takes charge of the government. You are not blind to the situation in the palace."

"If you commit a crime at this juncture, can you guess what your fate will be?"

The Marquis of Guangling dared not utter another word.

Yan Bei scraped the remaining yam puree from the bottom of the bowl. "I will count to three. Tell me everything you have been hiding from me."

A gust of wind blew by, nearly causing the Marquis to collapse from exhaustion.

He gritted his teeth and said, "No, nothing at all. How would I dare? Your subordinate is just... just a bit tired lately..."

He wiped the sweat from his brow and stood up.

Yan Bei studied him for a moment, then took a silk handkerchief to wipe the toddler's mouth. "Tired? If you’re tired, go back and rest."

The Marquis, who had felt his head was hanging by a thread, could hardly believe his ears. He looked up and saw that the Prince’s expression remained as calm as ever while he attended to the child. Seeing no trap, he hurriedly agreed and retreated.

Yan Bei wiped the child’s face clean and carefully applied a layer of balm to the small cheeks chapped by the autumn wind. Turning his head and seeing the man still there, he frowned. "Why haven't you left yet?"

Relieved of a great burden, the Marquis fled quickly.

Once he exited the garden and reached the veranda, Gao An was waiting there with a smile to guide him out.

Wiping his sweat, the Marquis grabbed him and asked, "Master Gao, the matter I entrusted to you last time—is there any result? My mother’s birthday is only ten days away. If the Prince could spare the time to attend..."

Gao An smiled. "The Prince has been very busy lately, and the young heir is unwell, so I fear he cannot find the time to attend the banquet. However, the Prince does value the relationship between our two houses and will certainly prepare a congratulatory gift for your mother’s birthday."

The Marquis gave a disappointed "oh." It was only after walking a few steps that he regained his composure and bowed to Gao An in thanks.

After seeing the man off, Gao An returned to Yangrong Study.

Yan Bei was holding A-Li, coaxing him to sleep. "Du Minghuan is acting strangely. Send men to the Shuntian Prefecture to ask what Du Yu was actually doing there."

Gao An nodded. "When I saw the guest out just now, I already dispatched men. We should have results soon."

A-Li, resting on Yan Bei’s shoulder, reached out softly toward Gao An. "Grandpa Gao, hold me."

Gao An hurried forward to take the child.

With his hands now free, Yan Bei lowered his head to wipe the pastry crumbs from his fingertips. "How is the search for the Hua family going?"

"The Hua family has lived in the mountains for a long time. Ever since the former Princess Duan passed away fourteen years ago, no one has been able to find them. We have sent men to Luoyang several times, and they all say that the last of the Hua descendants left the mountains six or seven years ago. No one knows where they went."

After speaking, Gao An stroked A-Li’s back with pity. "But we have not given up. The guards have sworn an oath that we must find the Hua family to restore the young heir's health!"

...

It was only when the Marquis of Guangling’s carriage fled the vicinity of the Prince’s estate like a runaway that Yue Tang withdrew her gaze from the high walls of the mansion and the dense ranks of soldiers surrounding the gate.

"The Prince’s estate has guarded the border for many years. Despite their influence, they have had no opportunity to cultivate connections in the capital. Upon being recalled and entrusted with the heavy responsibility of assisting the state, the Du family became his ready-made faction."

"Regardless of whether they were the masterminds back then—if they were, given his immense power, we must be even more cautious not to make a single mistake. If they were not, once the Du family is exposed, his position dictates that he will not stand idly by."

"The Prince of Jingyang reacted so quickly to the Marquis’s estate; we must determine exactly how deep his ties with the Du family run, or we will inevitably face complications later."

Although their fathers had been close, Yue Tang had never met the current Prince of Jingyang. She had only heard that four years ago, after the old Prince passed away, the seventeen-year-old had inherited the title as the only son among four children.

The first thing he did upon ascending was to have his own master killed...

Rumors of his violent, volatile, and unpredictable nature spread naturally after that. Even Yue Tang, who lived outside the capital, had heard them repeatedly.

Whether the late Emperor had this concern in mind when he summoned him to the capital to assist in governance on his deathbed, she did not know. After all, the estate held the border, and if this Prince of Jingyang were to act recklessly or turn against the state, the stability of the frontier would be in jeopardy.

Huo Yun was troubled. "But my master and I have both tried; it is truly impossible to get in."

Since arriving in the capital three years ago, the Prince of Jingyang had almost never accepted invitations from subordinate officials. His only interactions were with the Marquis of Guangling’s estate, which he considered his closest kin. With such tight security, infiltrating to uncover his secrets was out of the question.

Yue Tang poured herself a cup of tea. "Do not act rashly. Finish the current task first, and let us get what we want from He Jianzhong and Zhang Shaode."

The true culprit had not yet surfaced, and Yue Tang and her companions were unaware of the situation in the capital that night.

That day, she had received an urgent message from the estate saying the late Emperor was critically ill and his time was near. Her father had ordered her to pack and return to the capital immediately.

That was the morning of the day it happened, and half a month later, on the eighteenth of the seventh month, would have been her and the Second Prince’s sixteenth birthday.

The old monk at Xiangguo Temple had said that the heavenly curse they carried from birth would be dispelled once they safely passed their sixteenth year.

Therefore, their sixteenth birthday was a day worth grand celebration for both the palace and the estate. The palace had already prepared a banquet for the siblings.

Had it not been for that message, Yue Tang would have already been prepared to return to the estate in three days’ time.

The night before, she and her live-in husband had settled their marriage. She had ordered her things packed in the morning, received the terrible news in the afternoon, and after a hurried preparation, traveled back to the city overnight.

But they encountered assassins halfway. After Wei Zhang arranged for her to jump off a cliff and then led her away to seek out Hua Lin, they immediately fled the capital with Lan Qin, Huo Yun, and the others who had remained at the villa to handle the aftermath.