DLWAV CH87

None of them could have imagined that Zhou Hongyi would let them go.

This made no sense at all.

After all, Zhou Hongyi was Emperor Zhangwu’s own son.

It was the milk dumpling that snapped back to its senses first.

It hurriedly pulled up Zhou Hongyi’s information.

A few seconds later, it suddenly understood: “No wonder he was capable of doing something like this……”

Zhou Hongyi’s mother, Empress Chen, had been born into the Chen family, a distinguished scholarly clan, and was also one of the three most celebrated learned women of the capital in her time.

After giving birth to Zhou Hongyi, she had kept him by her side and personally overseen his education.

From childhood, Zhou Hongyi had followed her in studying the Four Books, the Five Classics, the Records of the Grand Historian, and the Book of Han, and in the end, he had fulfilled every expectation placed upon him, growing into a man of genuine moral rectitude.

In her and the Chen family’s original hopes, Zhou Hongyi would ultimately become a benevolent ruler.

But Zhou Hongyi never became emperor in the end.

Even though he was Emperor Zhangwu’s eldest legitimate son, once the crown prince.

Otherwise, given the sincerity he had shown today, it would have been impossible for him to ascend the throne and still fail to clear Zhou Ruize’s name.

Because he was not Emperor Zhangwu’s only son. Besides him, Emperor Zhangwu had seven other princes, three born before his capture by the Western Rong, and four born during the years he was confined in the Huaiyang Traveling Palace.

And compared to the Empress and Zhou Hongyi, Emperor Zhangwu far preferred the accommodating Imperial Noble Consort and her son, the second prince Zhou Hongzhen.

So barring any unexpected turn of events, the one who would eventually ascend the throne would be Zhou Hongzhen.

But the one who ultimately ascended the throne was the third prince, Zhou Hongyue.

Because the second legitimate daughter of the Yangzhou prefect, Song Qingying, had drowned after a misstep into the water, and into her body had transmigrated a female university student from the modern era who shared the same name.

Song Qingying had fallen into the water in the first place because her stepmother, the prefect’s second wife, had been scheming to harm the prefect’s eldest legitimate daughter.

The prefect’s eldest legitimate daughter and eldest legitimate son were both children of the original wife.

Song Qingying’s mother had originally been nothing more than one of the prefect’s concubines. Through skillful maneuvering, she had secured a firm hold on the prefect’s affections, and the moment the original wife died, she had manipulated the prefect into elevating her to the position of principal wife.

Once she had settled into that position, she began scheming tirelessly to ruin the eldest legitimate daughter’s younger brother, and to plunder the dowry the original wife had left behind.

But even that was not enough to satisfy her. She also wanted to marry off the eldest legitimate daughter to her own nephew from her family back home, in order to elevate her family’s social standing.

Because her family were nothing more than minor merchants.

Naturally, as anyone could have predicted, the eldest legitimate daughter refused. So the stepmother devised a scheme: have someone push the eldest daughter into the water, then have her nephew make a public show of rescuing her, ruining her reputation in the process, so she would have no choice but to marry him.

But the eldest legitimate daughter was no pushover.

Through her own maneuvering, the person who ended up in the water became Song Qingying instead.

The critical thing was that the stepmother’s nephew had already realized that the person who had fallen in was not the eldest legitimate daughter but Song Qingying, and yet he was actually more excited because of it.

So there was no need to guess what he had in mind. After all, one was an eldest daughter the prefect paid little attention to, while the other was the second daughter the prefect doted on. It was self-evident which one would benefit him more to marry.

The first thing the transmigrated Song Qingying did after coming through was plant a firm kick that sent the stepmother’s nephew, who had already swum over to her side, straight back underwater, then continued to play the part of someone drowning.

She had only meant to give him a good scare, but apparently used more force than intended, so that by the time her personal maid pulled her to safety, the stepmother’s nephew was beyond saving.

The stepmother was immediately stunned senseless, for he was her only nephew.

But the matter did not end there.

Song Qingying was well aware of how vital a good reputation was to a woman in ancient times.

Everyone currently believed that the stepmother’s nephew had drowned trying to save her. The stepmother’s family would certainly come after her, and the eldest legitimate daughter would certainly not let her household off the hook either.

So she made a snap decision, knelt directly before the eldest legitimate daughter, and declared that it was entirely her fault, that she had caused the death of the eldest daughter’s beloved, meaning the stepmother’s nephew, and added that even while he was already unconscious, he had kept murmuring the eldest daughter’s name.

In this way, the story of the stepmother’s nephew drowning while trying to save her was transformed into the story of the stepmother’s nephew drowning while trying to save the beloved younger sister of the woman he loved, with that woman being the eldest legitimate daughter.

The stepmother was the first to catch on, and she of course chose to stand on Song Qingying’s side.

So the eldest legitimate daughter didn’t even get a chance to protest before she was publicly pinned with the label of having been in a mutual attachment with the stepmother’s nephew.

The prefect had always been partial to the stepmother, and the moment she wept, he agreed without hesitation to marry off the eldest legitimate daughter to the stepmother’s already deceased nephew as a way of repaying that supposed debt of gratitude.

And just like that, they cleanly disposed of the eldest legitimate daughter.

In the years that followed, drawing on the modern scientific knowledge and marketing methods she carried in her head, Song Qingying successfully built a network of enterprises that spread across the entire Jiangnan region.

Later, owing to Song Qingying’s contributions, Yangzhou’s economy rose to new heights, and when the prefect’s six-year term concluded, he was smoothly promoted to Left Vice Minister of Revenue.

Song Qingying returned with him to the capital.

In the capital, she encountered the second prince and the third prince in succession, both of whom attempted to draw her in.

But the one who had truly caught her eye at a palace banquet was the elegant and refined eldest prince, Zhou Hongyi.

It was a pity that Zhou Hongyi was unwilling to break off his engagement to his betrothed for her sake.

So she could only settle for the “modest and courteous” third prince Zhou Hongyue.

She even harbored resentment toward Zhou Hongyi for it, feeling that he lacked discernment.

With her backing, the third prince Zhou Hongyue used money alone to buy the loyalty of three or four thousand officials, and in the end successfully seized the throne through a palace coup.

As for Zhou Hongyi, because he refused to use underhanded means against the second and third princes, he was steadily outmaneuvered in the ensuing power struggle. In the end, the second and third princes joined forces to frame him with the charge of hoarding imperial dragon robes with treasonous intent, after which Emperor Zhangwu had him exiled to Yunnan.

Because Yunnan was a land of miasma, insects, and venomous creatures, within barely a year he succumbed to a sudden chill and never recovered.

—

Only then did the head eunuch Lu Dang and the others come back to their senses.

They didn’t particularly care why Zhou Hongyi had let them go. All they knew was that they didn’t have to die, and that they had been saved again.

But once the joy subsided, they couldn’t help falling into confusion.

Zhou Hongyi might have released them, but Emperor Zhangwu would certainly not. So what were they to do now, and where were they to go?

Thinking this, the head eunuch Lu Dang and the others quickly looked toward Ao Ruize, still lying on the door panel: “Your Majesty?”

Ao Ruize let drop the handful of stones he had been holding, which he had prepared to use against Zhou Hongyi if it came to that.

But he did not answer Lu Dang’s question. Instead, he turned to look at the others: “You are all temporarily safe for now. From here on, anyone who does not wish to come with me is free to go their own way.”

At these words, nearly a third of those present immediately knelt: “Thank you, Your Majesty. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Among them were even a number of the original body’s consorts.

With that, they turned and fled.

Because in their eyes, staying at Ao Ruize’s side now was nothing short of seeking their own destruction.

The head eunuch Lu Dang didn’t even have time to stop them.

In the end, he could only watch their retreating figures and berate them furiously: “Ingrates. A pack of ungrateful ingrates. If His Majesty hadn’t raised you up, do you think you would have lived this long?”

“Enough.”

Ao Ruize cut him off: “We are going to Yangzhou.”

The head eunuch Lu Dang could only swallow his fury: “Yangzhou?”

Generally speaking, when fleeing, wasn’t one supposed to head somewhere remote and out of the way?

Besides, Yangzhou was only three hundred li from the capital. If their whereabouts were discovered, escape would become far more difficult.

Ao Ruize: “Emperor Zhangwu will think the same thing.”

“So he will certainly concentrate his searches on the more remote and outlying regions, and pay relatively little attention to the prosperous prefectures.”

A blind spot hiding in plain sight.

“Besides, Yangzhou has a thriving trade, with merchant caravans coming and going constantly. That makes it far easier for a group our size to slip inside without drawing notice.”

When laid out that way, it made a great deal of sense.

The head eunuch Lu Dang made up his mind at once: “Then we go to Yangzhou.”

Fortunately, when they had left, they had taken everything from the Chenggian Palace that could be carried.

So before long, they used a white jade paperweight worth a thousand taels to purchase from the head of a nearby village several dozen blank household registers and a handful of blank travel passes.

Because in these times, household registers did not require any portrait of the holder, only a brief written description in the appearance column, such as “fair-complexioned, beardless, six chi in height……”

On top of that, the head eunuch Lu Dang happened to be an accomplished seal carver. Before long, they had forged a new set of household registers and travel passes suited to their respective circumstances.

Whenever they reached a new location, they repeated the same trick and produced a fresh set.

Most remarkably of all, despite the fact that the authorities were actively checking all medical halls and apothecaries for patients presenting with tuberculosis, leaving them with no way to obtain medicine for Ao Ruize, his condition had somehow slowly begun to improve on its own.

Combined with generous quantities of gold and silver distributed along the way, the garrison soldiers at each checkpoint were given no reason to suspect them, and half a month later they had truly and successfully reached Yangzhou.

Ao Ruize’s identity had also been transformed: he was now a wealthy merchant of the Zhou surname from Hainan’s Danzhou prefecture, who had traveled thousands of li to try his fortunes in Yangzhou, and was currently confined to bed due to falling ill from the unfamiliar climate after his recent arrival.

One day later, they successfully purchased a residence in Yangzhou and settled in.

Everyone couldn’t help but let out a breath of relief.

But what came next moved them even more.

That evening, in the bedchamber, a full quarter of an hour passed before the imperial physician Wang finally withdrew the hand he had placed on Ao Ruize’s wrist. “Your Majesty…… the master’s health has truly recovered!”

“Heaven be praised.”

The head eunuch Lu Dang and the others immediately sank to their knees, weeping with choked voices: “Thank heaven, thank heaven for its protection……”

After all, His Majesty had been suffering from tuberculosis. Since time immemorial, no one who had contracted tuberculosis had ever survived. And yet now, His Majesty had healed without any medicine at all. If that was not the protection of heaven, what was?

Only one thought nagged at them: if only His Majesty’s illness had recovered even one or two months earlier, the court officials would never have defected to Emperor Zhangwu, and His Majesty would never have been reduced to this state.

So in the end, heaven was still toying with them, wasn’t it?

Thinking this, the voices of Lu Dang and the others gradually fell quiet.

And above all, what were they to do next?

Were they to put aside all their grievances and grudges, and live out their days quietly in Yangzhou? Or…

Ao Ruize could easily guess what was going through their minds. He said: “I have always been a man who repays every slight in kind.”

Lu Dang and the others needed nothing more to understand his meaning.

The imperial physician Wang and the others immediately sank to their knees as well. With firm resolve, they declared: “We are willing to give our lives in your service.”

Because they too were unwilling to accept this.

The milk dumpling immediately said: “On that matter, I have already drawn up a plan. To raise troops, you first need money. So our first step is to make money. That Song Qingying managed to fill her coffers to the brim with nothing more than some basic marketing tricks and a few rudimentary technologies. With you taking action, crushing her would be effortless……”

At present, things had already progressed to the point where Song Qingying, through soap, cement, and glass, had secured the position of Yangzhou’s wealthiest woman.

“Too much trouble.”

Ao Ruize cut it off.

Hadn’t he come here to rest and recuperate?

He had been busy across so many worlds already. He deserved a break.

So he said: “Why not just bring a few people from the modern world over directly?”

“If I remember correctly, in the previous world, China had already made significant advances in its research into temporal regression and spatial transference.”

“So if we send them coordinates from this world, they should be able to get people through, shouldn’t they?”

Let the authorities handle Song Qingying, this modern-day agent of chaos operating beyond the reach of any law. Now that was a fine idea.

The milk dumpling: “……”

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