# Chapter Twenty-Three
Even with a guilty conscience, Qi Xiao still refused to let Bai Ren leave.
"You just went through something like this, and we still don't know who wants you dead. How can I rest easy letting you return to your residence now?" Qi Xiao gently pulled Bai Ren to his side and spoke soothingly. "I'm not trying to frighten you. They were bold enough to ride horses wildly through the market and ram your carriage—what wouldn't they be capable of? Those people in your residence, can you really trust them all?"
Bai Ren had been determined to leave, but upon hearing this, he hesitated. Qi Xiao pressed on, "The people in your residence... from what I know, quite a number of them were sent by the Emperor to监视 you. The Emperor isn't foolish enough to make a move against you, but how can you be certain that none of them are Qi Hua's people? The Emperor never guards against Qi Hua—letting him slip in a few agents wouldn't be difficult at all."
Bai Ren shook his head. "That's not something to worry about. Although there are many outsiders in my residence, the servants in my study, bedroom, and kitchen are all people I brought from the south. They're trustworthy."
"You understand this yourself, but these people are your trusted confidants—what if there's a single oversight and those with ill intentions find a way in?" Qi Xiao spoke with gentle reasoning. "Back in the palace, I kept blocking your attempts to return precisely for this concern. My place may not be as good as your residence, but at least I can guarantee your safety. Once the Court of Judicial Review concludes its investigation and finds out who's behind this, I'll let you return immediately. Deal?"
In battles of words, Bai Ren could never match Qi Xiao. He could only nod. "Your Highness must promise me—once the Court reaches a verdict, you'll let me return right away."
Qi Xiao smiled to himself. Naturally. By then, Cen Zhaoge would already be gone. He certainly wouldn't block his departure then.
"When have I ever deceived you?" Qi Xiao lowered his head and pressed a kiss to Bai Ren's forehead before rising. "I'll find someone to send word to the palace... they probably already know anyway. Rest for a while. I'll have them make your favorite dishes for lunch."
Bai Ren hummed in acknowledgment. Qi Xiao turned and walked out of the warm pavilion.
In Zhaoyang Palace, Empress Feng led several trusted palace maids straight into the sleeping quarters. The palace servants of Zhaoyang Hall, seeing the Empress's dark expression, all held their breath and went silent. Not a whisper stirred in the great hall. Empress Feng swept her gaze across the kneeling servants and said coldly, "All of you, withdraw!"
The servants kneeling on the floor felt as though they'd been granted amnesty. They bowed and retreated.
Qi Hua, still lying face-down on the bed recovering from his injuries, was stunned. He forced a nervous laugh. "Mother, what's wrong now? Have you come to lecture your son again?"
"None of your cheeky remarks with me!" Empress Feng fought to contain her fury, but the moment she spoke, twelve parts of rage spilled out. "What did I tell you before?! No more trouble at this critical time! No more trouble! And how did you promise me?! Fine, the Second Prince has grown wings indeed—even my words don't matter to you anymore. You agreed so prettily, but behind my back it's the same old story!"
Qi Hua was nearly dazed by Empress Feng's scolding. Only after a long moment did he manage, "Mother, what are you talking about? What did I do?"
"You dare still talk back?!" Empress Feng had wielded her authority over the nation for nearly twenty years. Though she came from humble origins, after all these years of comfort in the palace, she had cultivated considerable dignity as the mother of the empire. She rarely lost her composure before others, but today she simply couldn't hold back. If Qi Hua hadn't been injured, she might have struck him. She drew a deep breath, snatched the memorial from the handmaid behind her, and hurled it directly at Qi Hua's face. "Read it yourself!"
Qi Hua's brow furrowed tightly. He opened the memorial and read it. The more he read, the worse his expression became. Finally, pale-faced, he cried out, "Mother, save me! This... this really wasn't my doing!"
"If it wasn't you, then who?" Empress Feng wanted to strangle Qi Hua. She shouted furiously, "You still want to hide things from me?! If you'd told me earlier, I could have asked your uncle for strategies sooner!"
Qi Hua protested his innocence loudly, his voice cracking. "Have I gone mad? Even if I wanted that kid dead, would I use someone from my own residence?! Am I that stupid?"
Empress Feng had actually been suspicious after first hearing the news. Qi Hua was impulsive, but he wouldn't be foolish enough to do something so obviously stupid. But now with witnesses and evidence all pointing directly at Qi Hua, she had no way to make excuses for him. Seeing Empress Feng remain silent, Qi Hua went through another round of sworn oaths. Gritting his teeth, he said, "With Bai Ren's personality, who knows how many people he's offended in just the month he's been in the imperial city. How do we know someone else doesn't want him dead? Does that mean every time Bai Ren stubs his toe or bruises his arm from now on, it all gets blamed on me? When he lives to ninety-nine and dies of old age, do people blame me for that too? And besides... this time he caused such a huge commotion—how do we know it wasn't Uncle and Grandfather losing their tempers..."
"Quiet!" Empress Feng lowered her voice and hissed. "You've already become untouchable in this matter, and now you want to drag your uncle and the others into it too?! The news came from your uncle—if not for him, I'd still be blind and deaf! So you're suspecting your uncle and his people? Even if it were them, would they be so foolish as to use your residence's servants?!"
Qi Hua wept as he beat the bed. "Mother! Uncle wouldn't use servants from my residence, would I? Do I have one fewer brain than Uncle?!"
Empress Feng sighed deeply, shaking her head. "Don't panic... I was just terribly angry earlier and was trying to provoke a confession out of you. Since it wasn't you... then we can't cover this up. I'll have your uncle make some moves—demand the Court of Judicial Review conduct a thorough investigation. If they find the truth, good. If not... we must still pin this on someone else. Huo-er... at this critical time, you cannot have any more trouble..."
Qi Hua understood this perfectly well, of course. The Emperor had already been disappointed in him because of the previous incident. If he got caught up in yet another scandal and lost public support, then what future would he have? Whether Qi Xiao or any other prince ascended the throne, he would have no good outcome!
Qi Hua had always believed the Crown Prince position would eventually be his, so he'd lived recklessly and made many enemies. Now that he'd stumbled and finally come to his senses, he was seized with fear.
Qi Hua was still young, after all. Terrified, he grabbed Empress Feng's hand and wept bitterly. Empress Feng rubbed her weary brow with a sigh. Stroking Qi Hua's back gently, she spoke slowly, "Someone has identified our unstable position and wants to take advantage. Don't worry... Fortunately, the carriage driver isn't dead yet. If he won't confess, then let the Chief Justice interrogate him again and again. Those implements in the Court aren't just for show... after a few rounds, even a mouth of iron could be pried open."
Though Empress Feng comforted Qi Hua like this, she knew the truth in her heart. Even if they discovered someone else was behind it, they were still going to be dragged into this mess. Combined with the earlier incident, how could they possibly clean their names?
Thinking of the carriage driver only gave Empress Feng more of a headache. After Qi Hua had established his residence, to prevent him from being corrupted by lowlifes outside and to guard against enemy spies, Empress Feng had personally selected everyone sent to serve when building the residence. They were either palace servants who had served Empress Feng for years or people recommended from her own family. The carriage driver, along with his parents, had been stewards on the Feng family's estate—not purchased outsiders. Her own household-born servants, yet they'd been bought off by someone...
After comforting Qi Hua a couple more times, Empress Feng left. The most urgent matter now was to send word to her family. And also... to gauge the Emperor's attitude.
In the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Emperor read the memorial from the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review and laughed in his fury. "Excellent! Under clear skies, right at the imperial city's doorstep, in broad daylight! Someone actually dares to plot against the Prince of Lingnan's heir! Bai Ren just sustained injuries in the palace! How much effort I expended! How much thought I gave to suppressing this matter—and now, what fine timing! They want Bai Ren's life directly! Fortunately, he wasn't harmed... If anything had happened, what excuse could I give to the Prince of Lingnan?!"
The ministers in the hall hastily knelt to urge the Emperor to calm his anger. The Emperor took a sip of tea to compose himself, then said gravely, "Zhen Bonan, tell me again—everything the criminal said, and what those attendants said... every detail."
Zhen Bonan, the Chief Justice, organized his thoughts and recounted the events. "The accounts from the attendants corroborate each other with both witness testimony and physical evidence—those can be believed. As for the criminal... when he was brought in, he reeked of alcohol. I ordered my men to splash cold water on him and administered needle torture, but... he had drunk too much and never fully regained consciousness. When勉强 I questioned him, he only said that his supervisor told him to deliver this cart of stone inkstones to Book Garden Lane. Beyond that... no matter how much we interrogated him, he couldn't say anything else."
"There's one more matter I must report to Your Majesty. After investigating this man's record, I discovered that the carriage driver Li Yuanbao had, last year as well, driven his carriage into someone. It was said at the time that he was startled by street children and lost control of his horse... He killed a seven-year-old child. Because the incident had a cause, he wasn't given a harsh sentence." Zhen Bonan weighed the Emperor's thoughts carefully and added after a pause, "After that, Li Yuanbao no longer transported his master. He only occasionally delivered goods when the residence was short-handed. From this perspective, Li Yuanbao might simply be a reckless person, and this incident could have been a pure accident. Moreover... although he is a servant from the Second Prince's residence, to use this alone to condemn the Second Prince would be illogical. Who would openly order their own people to do something like this in broad daylight?"
The Emperor laughed coldly in his heart. Illogical? The matter clearly wasn't done by Qi Hua, but what was he supposed to say? All the evidence pointed directly at Qi Hua—could he say it wasn't him?
The Emperor's first suspicion actually fell on Bai Ren.
He remembered the incident in the side hall vividly. Bai Ren was also someone who wouldn't take a single ounce of injustice lying down. That previous incident—the injury Bai Ren sustained—could more accurately be described as Bai Ren luring Qi Hua into stepping into a trap. It was true that Qi Hua had spoken carelessly, but Bai Ren was no gentle soul either.
He'd punished Qi Hua, but who was to say Bai Ren had truly let go of his grudge? Might he have been plotting all along, waiting for the day Bai Ren left the palace to pull off such a scheme?
Moreover, from what the attendants said, it was Bai Ren who suggested he had heard there were several excellent calligraphy and painting shops on Book Garden Lane and wanted to take a look... How perfectly convenient. He just happened to want to browse at that particular time. He just happened to be away from the carriage at that particular moment. And he just happened to have the Second Prince's servant driving into him at that particular time...
But such an elaborate scheme didn't seem like something Bai Ren could pull off. Even if he could devise such a plan, he'd only been in the imperial city for a few days—how could his influence already reach into Qi Hua's residence?
But if not him, then who? Qi Xiao? The Emperor shook his head. That wasn't right either... This wasn't Qi Xiao's style.
That day, chaos reigned throughout the palace. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince's residence remained peaceful. Qi Xiao had been busy outside all day and only returned to his sleeping quarters in the evening. Looking at Bai Ren sitting alone under the lamplight, Qi Xiao smiled. "If you really want to read, light a few more lamps. You're going to strain your eyes like this."
Bai Ren set down the book in his hands and looked up at Qi Xiao. "Your Highness, I've thought about it all day. This morning's incident... it was entirely planned by Your Highness, wasn't it?"
That single quiet sentence from Bai Ren sent tremendous waves crashing through Qi Xiao's heart. Qi Xiao's smile froze on his face. Just as he was about to speak, Bai Ren continued淡淡道, "But there's one thing I don't understand. His Highness wanted to use this excellent opportunity to thoroughly crush the Second Prince's faction and prevent them from ever rising again. If that was the case, why would you stop me halfway? If I had died, the Emperor, to appease my father the Prince of Lingnan, would certainly punish the Second Prince severely as an explanation for Lingnan. Wouldn't that have been better?"
Bai Ren's brow furrowed slightly. "This half-measure approach... it doesn't seem like Your Highness's style..."
Qi Xiao closed his eyes briefly. He had known all along. He could deceive others, but he couldn't deceive Bai Ren.
Since it had come to this, Qi Xiao had no desire to hide anything further. "Yes. In the beginning, I truly did intend for that carriage to crash into you and kill you directly."
Qi Xiao's gaze blazed as he stared straight into Bai Ren's eyes, speaking each word deliberately: "But at the final moment, I stopped you... Bai Ren, tell me—for what reason do you think I did that?"