Just when Su Zeqian thought he was about to be beaten to death, the punches and kicks on him finally stopped, and he heard the sound of the attackers leaving.
Struggling to get up from the ground, Su Zeqian took off the thing covering his head. By the moonlight, he saw that it was a very rough hemp sack, and it smelled of a disgusting stench.
Unable to hold it back, Su Zeqian retched at the smell. His face turned extremely ugly as he threw the sack to the ground violently.
Who on earth was it? Who had covered his head with this sack and beaten him up! If he caught them, he would surely tear them to pieces!
Meanwhile, Su Huaiyuan and Su Huaisheng, the two brothers who had just pulled off this big stunt, had already run a long way.
Recalling how they had worked in perfect harmony just now, covering Su Zeqian's head with the sack and beating him up, both of them felt extremely elated and couldn't help bursting into laughter.
"Third brother, did you see just now? That heir of the Marquis of Pingyang didn't even have the ability to fight back. We knocked him down so easily!"
"Humph, this time we'll just teach him a lesson. If he dares to lay a finger on our Yuanbao again in the future, we'll surely knock out all his teeth!"
The two brothers put their arms around each other's shoulders and walked home contentedly.
The fact that Cang Xuan was "in seclusion" also caught the attention of Wang Chongling, the head of the Wang family, and his party members.
In the study of the Wang family mansion, several figures stood in front of Wang Chongling. They were all officials who belonged to the Wang faction in the court.
"You tell me, why on earth did Cang Xuan suddenly decide to go 'into seclusion'?"
"Humph, it's just a show. He wants the Emperor to know that the court can't do without him. This traitor has become even more arrogant since the incident at Yandang Mountain. He's really taking advantage of the Emperor's favor and doing whatever he wants."
"To have a grand secretary like him in the cabinet and a self - serving sycophant like him in the court is truly a misfortune for the Great Chu."
"Isn't there any way to get rid of this traitor?"
A member of the cabinet who belonged to the Ministry of Revenue hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Even though he's 'in seclusion', he's still involved in all the affairs of the court. The day before yesterday, he even asked us to send the list of candidates for the vacancies in each department to his princely mansion, saying that he wanted to consider them carefully."
His words sparked another round of heated discussions and denunciations.
"Come to think of it, this so - called new way of selecting officials is really too shocking. All of us who have entered the officialdom have endured decades of hard study in the cold window before we finally made it. Why should commoners be allowed to compete with us?"
"Yes, isn't this like asking us to fight with beggars for a bowl of rice? It's really too much!"
"If the fate of the Great Chu is left in the hands of such incompetent people, the Great Chu will be in danger!"
After everyone had discussed enough, Wang Chongling finally spoke up, "Alright, it was the Emperor's decision to use this method to fill the vacancies. If you question this order, you're questioning the Emperor. Be more careful. Don't mention such things again in the future."
The officials then restrained their previous expressions and replied, "Yes, Grand Tutor."
Shortly after, after dismissing the people gathered in the study, Wang Chongling twirled two shiny redwood beads in his hand and frowned in deep thought.
In the matter of the Yan family, he knew that he had been badly set up.
And this trap had probably been laid a long time ago.
It started when Yan Wenqi was beaten and crippled by that young man named Su Huaiyuan from the Duke Yong's mansion, then Yan Huan went to the palace to complain on behalf of his son but was dismissed from office, and then Yan Huan came to him for help in order to save himself and the Yan family...
One step after another, everything was closely linked and the layout was extremely meticulous.
Everything seemed to happen without anyone's push, and it was all the choices of Yan Huan and the Wang family themselves. But in fact, they had all become pawns in the hands of the other side and were led around by the nose.
Wang Chongling had been in the officialdom for many years and thought he had firmly grasped the situation in Shengjing City. But when Yan Huan led some of the Jingji Army to "rebel" and he didn't get any news at all, he realized that he no longer had control over Shengjing City.
There was a ruthless character hiding here.
This person's scheming, tactics, and means were all extremely terrifying.
Could this person be Cang Xuan?
A fortune - teller who only knew how to look at the stars and the moon and use copper coins and tortoise shells to divine, could he have such abilities?
Wang Chongling instinctively denied this possibility.
But the fact that the other side could avoid his spies and take the Emperor out of the palace without a sound really bothered him.
Wang Chongling couldn't help but think of the Queen's previous speculation.
When Cang Xuan first appeared in the palace with the Emperor, both he and the Queen were shocked by Cang Xuan's appearance. He looked seven - tenths like Shu Moyun, especially his eyes. Looking into them was like seeing an old acquaintance.
At first, both he and the Queen instinctively thought that Cang Xuan was Shu Moyun's son. But Cang Xuan was twenty - four years old, and the time didn't match the incident back then.
So they thought that the Emperor favored Cang Xuan because his appearance, which resembled Shu Moyun's, had stirred up the Emperor's long - buried feelings.
Anyway, he really needed to be more vigilant and on guard against Cang Xuan.
This night was destined to be another sleepless one.
...
In fact, this wasn't Cang Xuan's first time "going into seclusion". It was just that this time it happened right after he was enfeoffed as the Prince of Cang, so it attracted extra attention.
When Cang Xuan went "into seclusion", even the Emperor couldn't see him. If the Emperor wanted to ask him for divination, he had to send a visiting card to the Prince of Cang's mansion.
As for the reason for "going into seclusion" and turning away guests, it was that he was communicating with the will of heaven and couldn't be disturbed too much by the mortal world. Otherwise, he feared that he would be punished by the gods. However, when he was "in seclusion", he didn't ignore everything. The cabinet could submit the drafted edicts to the Prince of Cang's mansion, and he would leave his red - ink comments on them according to the will of the gods.
Then, the cabinet members would send them to the Emperor. And the Emperor rarely refuted or denied the drafted edicts annotated by Cang Xuan. He always carried them out according to Cang Xuan's wishes, which made many court officials dare to be angry but not speak out.
On the surface, they didn't dare to say much, but most of them, like the Wang faction, secretly cursed him for being pretentious and showing off his divination skills.
However, no one knew that while Cang Xuan used the excuse of "going into seclusion" to avoid seeing people, he wasn't actually in Shengjing City at all.
When Cang Xuan returned to the Cang mansion from Foxing Temple that day, he received a message from a carrier pigeon sent by the Liuyun Pavilion.
The letter said that on that very morning, a fur shop of the Wang family in Shengjing City had sent a caravan out of the city.
The night before the caravan set off, a woman had sneaked into the fur shop under the cover of darkness.
Although the woman had disguised herself, it was not difficult to tell from her every move that she was from the palace, and moreover, she was Chen Fang, the chief maid beside the Queen.