Late at night, lights blazed throughout the Chief Eunuch’s residence.
Scrolls lay spread across the red sandalwood desk in the study. They were maps of Yangzhou’s land and waterways. Fang Shoulian held a candlestick while he and a group of advisers huddled nervously over the desk, retracing the routes used to escort tax silver in previous years, hoping to discover where the missing funds might be hidden.
But the case was too difficult. By midnight they had made no progress at all.
Wei Xiao sat expressionless behind the desk, his face half swallowed by shadow. No one could tell whether he was pleased or angry. Only his white-knuckled grip on the arms of his chair betrayed the fury he was struggling to contain.
Ever since returning from court, his mind had been in turmoil.
He could not tell whether he hated being maneuvered into a trap before the entire court, or whether he hated the fact that the man who had set it was Gongsun E.
The thought of that name finally shattered his restraint. With a violent sweep of his arm, he sent every map on the desk flying to the floor.
“A pack of useless fools!”
Malice flashed in his eyes as his knife-sharp gaze swept over the terrified men kneeling before him.
“You’ve wasted half the night poring over a handful of maps without coming up with a single useful plan! When disaster befell Shen Wanjin, the authorities already searched every inch of Yangzhou. If there had been any clue to the silver there, do you think you would be the first to find it?!”
Map scrolls lay scattered across the floor, but no one dared pick them up. The advisers dropped to their knees and begged forgiveness, terrified even to breathe too loudly.
“Calm your anger, Your Excellency! Please calm your anger!”
Of them all, Fang Shoulian was the most frightened. As Intendant of the Lianghuai Salt Administration Circuit, he had lost the taxes right under his nose. If they could not be recovered, he would be the first held accountable.
But with Wei Xiao in such a rage, Fang did not dare suggest they continue investigating. He waited for Wei Xiao to calm a little, stole a glance at him from the corner of his eye, and cautiously ventured:
“Please calm yourself, Your Excellency. We are all to blame for our incompetence. But that silver vanished under such strange circumstances that it would be a perilous case for anyone to handle. To avoid incurring His Majesty’s displeasure, perhaps… perhaps Your Excellency could claim to be ill and step aside for the time being?”
The more he considered it, the better the idea seemed. His eyes even brightened.
Wei Xiao said nothing. He rose slowly from behind the desk and approached Fang Shoulian. Looking coldly down at the man on his knees, he asked, enunciating each word in a low voice:
“Claim to be ill?”
The next instant he seized Fang Shoulian by the throat. Veins rose on his forehead. He was plainly furious beyond measure.
“Has lard clogged your heart, or has water filled your skull? His Majesty expressly ordered the Eastern Depot to assist with this case in open court, and you suggest I feign illness now? Are you so eager to die?!”
Fang Shoulian could scarcely breathe under the grip. Inwardly he was wailing in despair, and his face twisted as though he wanted to cry but had no tears. He stammered, “Y-Your Excellency, this lowly official truly has no solution. For some reason, Lord Gongsun insisted in court today on dragging you and the Crown Prince into this affair. I really cannot fathom what he is thinking…”
Those words struck Wei Xiao’s most secret wound like a sharp silver needle.
Why?
What possible reason could there be?
Gongsun E was simply taking revenge on him.
Had the two of them not fought this way at court for years? Why had he lost his composure this time? Was it merely because Gongsun E had said a few pleasant things to him a few days earlier? Had he really believed the man had changed?
Countless thoughts surged within him.
A dark light crossed Wei Xiao’s eyes and his fingers tightened without his realizing it. Only when Fang Shoulian let out a strangled groan of pain did he snap back to himself and fling the man aside with an icy expression.
Fang staggered to the floor, clutching his throat and coughing so hard it seemed his lungs might tear apart. He had narrowly escaped with his life. Wei Xiao had already turned his back on the wrecked room, his voice as cold as ice.
“Get out. All of you!”
The advisers fled as though granted a pardon, and Fang Shoulian scrambled out after them. But just as they were leaving, a guard hurried through the curtain with unexpected news.
“Reporting to Your Excellency, Criminal Investigation Commissioner Gongsun is outside requesting an audience.”
The study fell silent as soon as he spoke.
Wei Xiao’s gaze cut toward him like a blade. “Who did you say?”
The guard swallowed hard. “Reporting to Your Excellency, Criminal Investigation Commissioner Gongsun E requests an audience. He specifically asked me to convey that he knows you will certainly not wish to see him now, but he possesses crucial clues concerning the Lianghuai salt case and must discuss them with you face to face.”
Having delivered the message, the guard lowered his head even further and dared say no more. The only sound in the still room was the soft crackle of the candlewick.
Wei Xiao stood in place, half his body lost in the darkness. His anger seemed to have faded somewhat, but its savagery had transformed into a calm more frightening than his rage.
Gongsun E.
Gongsun E again.
Only that morning the man had set him and the Crown Prince up before the entire court, yet now he dared come requesting an audience in the middle of the night.
Was he truly so reckless, or was he convinced Wei Xiao would never harm him and thus felt free to act without fear?
“He certainly doesn’t fear death,” Wei Xiao said coldly through clenched teeth.
He slowly lifted his gaze to the guard. Dark currents stirred in his black eyes, and each word carried a chilling menace.
“Let him in.”
He wanted to see precisely what trick Gongsun E intended to play.
“I’ll see to it at once.”
The guard withdrew to carry out his orders. A night breeze swept through the hall, rustling the scattered scrolls across the room. Cold air spread everywhere. The silence was so complete that one could have heard a needle drop. Only the candle on the desk flickered, making the shadows dance.
A little later, faint footsteps sounded along the corridor. A white-clad figure lifted the curtain and entered. Gongsun E still wore the official robes from that morning’s court audience. Against the deepening night, his white garments seemed immaculate, his refined features so serene that he resembled an immortal descended to earth.
Seated behind his desk, Wei Xiao pressed his tongue silently against his back molars.
It was a tiny habit he had only when he hated someone so much his teeth ached.
Gongsun E behaved as if he had not noticed Wei Xiao’s piercing stare. He entered at an unhurried pace, casually surveyed the wreckage on the floor, and let his eyes rest briefly on the scattered scrolls. He had an inkling of what had happened, yet gave a soft smile nonetheless.
Bending down, he picked up a fallen map. His fingertips traced the intersecting waterways upon it as he spoke gently.
“There is nothing wrong with Your Excellency’s plan to investigate by means of Yangzhou’s maps. In previous years, the local salt merchants handed their tax silver over to the head of the general merchants’ association. From there it was escorted along the Grand Canal in stages until it reached the capital. At every checkpoint, local officials inspected and countersigned the shipments. Following the transport routes and questioning the people involved would ordinarily be the soundest method.”
He paused, raised his eyes toward Wei Xiao behind the desk, and changed tack with a faint smile.
“But this year was different. Shen Wanjin had only just collected the entire year’s salt taxes when his family was massacred, before the shipment could even begin. The silver never passed through any checkpoints. Naturally, investigating the old transport routes will lead Your Excellency nowhere.”
Wei Xiao regarded him coldly, his low voice dripping with mockery. “Did Lord Gongsun pay me a special visit in the middle of the night simply to tell me I’ve been wasting my time?”
Gongsun E raised an eyebrow, the amusement in his eyes undiminished. “Of course not. This is a serious matter. I only worry that if Your Excellency cannot recover the silver, you might incur His Majesty’s blame.”
He always had this talent. A few words were enough to kindle the deepest fury in Wei Xiao’s heart.
If Gongsun E had not made that proposal before the emperor today, why would he and the Crown Prince have been forced to shoulder this hopeless disaster?
Wei Xiao’s chest rose and fell as his emotions surged beyond his control.
He could not bear to see the man in distress or injured. But neither could he bear to see Gongsun E standing calmly before him, pleased with himself and winning at every turn.
“Gong. Sun. E.”
Wei Xiao suddenly spoke, pronouncing each syllable of his name with cold deliberation. There was no trace of open anger in his low voice, which only made it more terrifying.
“Do you truly think I have no way of finding that silver?”
“More than a million taels of silver would weigh tens of thousands of jin. Even with the largest government grain-transport boats, it would take thirteen vessels to carry it all. One person could never steal and hide that much alone. The more hands involved, the harder it becomes to keep everyone silent. There are no walls in this world through which the wind cannot pass.”
Supporting himself against the chair, he rose and approached Gongsun E one step at a time. His blind right eye was clouded with a bluish film of disease, its pupil as thin as a needlepoint. Against his pale skin, it lent him a spectral, chilling ferocity. Then, in a deceptively casual tone, he disclosed something alarming.
“Perhaps you haven’t heard. After court today, His Majesty secretly ordered the Eastern Depot to recover the salt taxes at any cost.”
“Shen Wanjin may be dead, but plenty of salt merchants remain in Yangzhou. If no one talks, I will interrogate and execute them one by one! If a man refuses to confess, I will kill his family. Under enough torture, someone is bound to break.”
He gave a sudden laugh, cold and utterly without warmth. There was deliberate triumph in it as he asked softly:
“What do you think of my method, Lord Gongsun?”
A moment earlier, Gongsun E had jabbed directly at Wei Xiao’s sore spot.
Now Wei Xiao meant to jab just as mercilessly at Gongsun E’s weakness.
No one knew why Wei Xiao was forever surrounded by such self-destructive, obsessive brutality. In his previous life, when the emperor moved to destroy him, he had neither fled nor resisted. He had preferred to hurl himself and all the power he had spent years building into the flames like a moth, choosing a wretched end.
Gongsun E did not display the anger Wei Xiao had expected.
He only watched him silently, his gaze so deep that it seemed to see through Wei Xiao’s former life, his present one, and even the years of fate that lay ahead.
A long time passed before his eyes darkened and he finally spoke in a low voice.
“Don’t you understand? His Majesty intends to use the Eastern Depot as a shield. If nothing goes wrong, well and good. But if public resentment breaks out, you will be the first scapegoat he throws to the wolves.”
Could Wei Xiao really fail to understand that?
He understood better than anyone.
But this was his fate.
It was the fate of the tens of thousands of castrated servants crawling through the imperial city in a struggle for survival, a fate they could not escape even to their dying day.
Wei Xiao neither retreated nor avoided Gongsun E’s gaze. Instead, he raised his head defiantly and gave a soft, frigid scoff. There was pride and mockery down to the marrow of his bones as he pronounced each word.
“So what? Life or death is mine to bear.”
He had chosen his own road. It was no one else’s place to pity him.
Not even Gongsun E’s.
Gongsun E remained silent, his gaze slowly tracing Wei Xiao’s unyielding features. The feelings in his eyes were difficult to name.
“It was so difficult for Your Excellency to earn His Majesty’s trust, so difficult to attain your present position, so difficult to forge an alliance with the Crown Prince… If you fail in this assignment, not only will His Majesty turn his anger upon you, but even the Crown Prince will decide the Eastern Depot is useless and cannot support him. Is it worth it?”
The words were gentle, almost weightless, but they found another of Wei Xiao’s wounds with perfect accuracy.
There were more than ten thousand eunuchs in the imperial city. No one knew what a menial sweeper had to sacrifice to climb as high as he had.
Outsiders saw only the power he wielded over life and death, his seemingly limitless glory. They did not understand how unpredictable the emperor could be, or that one mistaken step meant plunging into an abyss.
Gongsun E knew all this perfectly well, and yet he had deliberately trapped Wei Xiao in this affair at court that very morning.
So why had he come tonight? To gloat over his victory, or to watch Wei Xiao suffer?
A blood-red tinge spread uncontrollably through Wei Xiao’s eyes. There was some hatred there, but far more pain.
If anyone else had schemed against him, he had a thousand ways to make them pay dearly. But when that person was Gongsun E, could he truly bring himself to be ruthless?
No matter how many times he professed hatred, the longing he dared not bring into the light still won in the end.
Perhaps unwilling to let Gongsun E see the raw redness of his eyes, Wei Xiao abruptly turned with a sweep of his sleeves. Facing the bronze mirror, his back to Gongsun E, he spoke through clenched teeth in a low voice.
“Gongsun E, I miscalculated at court today. If I ultimately fail to find the salt silver, whether I live or die, I will have no one else to blame.”
“But do not celebrate too soon. I may be willing to swallow this humiliation, but the Crown Prince may not let you go.”
Gongsun E listened to this reminder disguised as a threat and smiled with an expression impossible to read, though the smile vanished almost before it could be noticed. He slowly approached Wei Xiao from behind and lowered his eyes to study his reflection.
Accept defeat gracefully?
When had Wei Xiao ever accepted defeat in his life?
Was he yielding only because Gongsun E had laid this trap?
Gongsun E had once thought this eunuch very clever. Now, he thought him foolish beyond belief.
At last he spoke softly by Wei Xiao’s ear. “Does Your Excellency think… that I deliberately set this trap to harm you?”
Wei Xiao closed his eyes coldly and said nothing.
But the next instant, he felt Gongsun E’s fingers brush his cheek and lift his chin. Forced to open his eyes, Wei Xiao unexpectedly met the other man’s deep, tranquil gaze. A quiet sigh reached his ear, tinged with an elusive smile.
“How could I bear to lay a trap to hurt Your Excellency?”
Gongsun E gently stroked the reddened corner of Wei Xiao’s eye with the pad of a finger. His voice was low and beguiling, audible only to the two of them.
“The Crown Prince is suspicious by nature. Although he is allied with you, he may not truly trust you in his heart. It would do him good to suffer a little.”
“If I dared push this case onto Your Excellency, then naturally I have a foolproof plan to help you recover the missing silver…”
Wei Xiao’s eyelashes trembled violently. He lifted his gaze and stared straight at Gongsun E, who only watched him in attentive silence. No trace of a lie could be found in his face.
The muscles in Wei Xiao’s cheek twitched. He had never imagined that Gongsun E’s meticulously arranged trap was intended to ensnare the Eastern Palace instead. He lowered his voice until the words were almost forced through his teeth.
“Gongsun E, what madness has possessed you?!”
Gongsun E, however, refused to answer.
After a long silence, he finally gave a soft laugh. He took Wei Xiao by the shoulders and gently turned him back toward the bronze mirror. Tilting his own head, he fixed his gaze upon their overlapping reflections and pressed his lips close to Wei Xiao’s ear. His voice was lazy and unhurried, yet so warm it left Wei Xiao’s heart tingling.
“Didn’t I tell you already? I have no other wish in my heart. I only want to join Your Excellency…”