Chapter 32: The Scapegoat Princess Is Sentenced to Death (32)

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“Armor, bows, and crossbows? Golden antiquities?”

“They even found the bones of pregnant women who had been starved to death?”

“Human hearts that had been prepared?”

A steady stream of astonished exclamations rose and fell. It could be said that every item uncovered in this search was horrifying in its own way.

Horrifying because Prince Lu was outrageously bold—hardly human at all!

At the same time, Zhai Hongxia found himself at a loss. In the past—or at least under the current dynasty—no princely residence had ever been searched and confiscated. Generally speaking, unless a prince had been conclusively proven to have attempted or committed rebellion, the emperor was unlikely to order the confiscation of his residence.

Zhai Hongxia’s purpose in conducting the search had not been to uncover evidence of Prince Lu’s crimes. He had wanted to find the culprit behind the scenes and restore Prince Lu to normal.

Yet now they had unexpectedly uncovered so many things.

Should he report them, or conceal them?

If he reported them, the search itself had not exactly been lawful. Even if he could barely claim that the evidence had been discovered by accident while trying to help Prince Lu, it would still depend on whether Emperor Tianwu was willing to accept that explanation. If the emperor refused to accept it—or deliberately interpreted it maliciously—

then Zhai Hongxia would be accused of deliberately provoking the imperial family.

But if he concealed everything and it was later discovered, he might be charged with failing to report the matter, or even with conspiring with Prince Lu to rebel. In that case, he would surely meet a miserable end.

At the thought, Zhai Hongxia felt as though darkness had fallen before his eyes.

If only he had known, he should have died yesterday—or at least stayed out of the affair as much as possible, avoiding any dispute with the prince’s residence. He could have left the matter to the judicial commissioner, or perhaps to the commandery commandant. He never should have allowed his curiosity to draw him personally into it.

Curiosity truly was the death of the cat!

“Secretly stockpiling armor, bows, and crossbows is tantamount to rebellion, isn’t it? Even princes, apart from those charged with guarding the borders, should not be allowed to keep so many weapons in their residences.

“This… What exactly is Prince Lu trying to do?”

As Zhou Hui murmured under his breath, Imperial Physician Wang examined some of the gold and antiquities brought by the guards and said in surprise:

“Finding gold antiquities would not be strange, but this gold is clearly Qilin-Toe Gold. And these antiquities are all objects that have never circulated among the living; traces of earth still cling to them. They must have been dug out of ancient tombs. Is Prince Lu robbing tombs?”

“None of that is important.

“By regulation, His Highness Prince Lu is entitled to three hundred guards. Although their armor should technically be issued directly to them, armor also requires maintenance and repair. Keeping a hundred or so suits in the princely residence as reserve stock is entirely reasonable. As for the bows and crossbows, they may simply be a hobby of Prince Lu’s. After all, firearms are far more powerful than bows and crossbows nowadays, and restrictions on firearms are also much stricter.

“The old regulations from the previous dynasty, however, have never been revised.

“Still, I imagine His Majesty will not concern himself with such a minor matter.”

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In truth, the people present were merely grasshoppers tied to the same rope for the time being. Dong Huaide and Prince Lu, however, were genuinely bound together. If Prince Lu were accused of rebellion, what kind of fate could possibly await his chief steward?

It would make no difference that Dong Huaide had only recently arrived at the prince’s residence.

So naturally, Dong Huaide had to do his best to argue in Prince Lu’s defense.

“As for the gold and antiquities, perhaps they were offerings from outsiders. It is difficult to say whether His Highness knew about them. He could not possibly attend to every detail of every minor matter.

“If there is truly any crime involved, it is the fault of the former chief steward of the residence.

“His Majesty will certainly investigate the matter with perfect clarity.

“Imperial Physician Wang, and all of you, be careful what you say.”

The brilliance of his defense lay in the fact that he mentioned Emperor Tianwu twice. He was reminding them to recall how the emperor had responded on the previous two occasions when faced with similar circumstances—or even circumstances far worse than the evidence uncovered today. What had his response been? And what punishments had ultimately been imposed?

His words were brief, but their effect was unmistakable.

As soon as Zhai Hongxia heard them, he decided that they should help conceal the matter. They had to conceal it. After all, Prince Lu had hidden only a hundred or so suits of armor, not five or ten thousand. If he had stockpiled five or ten thousand suits, there would be no need to wonder whether Emperor Tianwu would let him off. With that many suits of armor, no one could possibly believe that he was not planning a rebellion.

But a hundred or so was another matter entirely. Everything depended on whether Emperor Tianwu wished to punish him. If he wished to punish him, it would be a grave crime; if he did not, they could even call the armor a collection of works of craftsmanship and get away with it.

And Emperor Tianwu was very likely unwilling to punish him.

As for the suspected tomb robbery, that was even less worth mentioning. It would unquestionably bring disgrace upon the imperial family. There was no way Emperor Tianwu would tolerate that.

And regarding the pregnant women who had been starved to death—the emperor had already decided how that matter was to be regarded. What use would there be in bringing it up again? Were they trying to slap Emperor Tianwu in the face? They could only continue concealing it.

Everyone present was intelligent. After pondering the matter briefly, they exchanged tacit glances and smoothly passed over these incidents. They ordered the guards who had come to report to keep silent and had the items temporarily sealed away. Then they continued discussing whether two particularly sensitive locations needed to be searched.

One was Prince Lu’s bedchamber, where he was currently sleeping.

The other was the princess consort’s coffin.

“Searching Prince Lu’s bedchamber will be easy enough. Once he has finished drinking the calming draught, we can move him to one side. The search will take less than half an hour at most. There is no way he could wake during that time. The troublesome matter is the princess consort’s coffin. Opening it for inspection would probably be inappropriate.”

Zhai Hongxia quickly continued:

The prince’s residence had already been searched almost from end to end. Searching the bedchamber as well was no great matter, and Zhai Hongxia was willing to shoulder responsibility for that. But opening the princess consort’s coffin and searching it—

that was a responsibility he was unwilling to bear.

Opening a coffin was deeply taboo even in the home of an ordinary commoner. It was one thing for a family to open the coffin of one of its own. But if the authorities or outsiders opened it and found nothing wrong, the consequences could be serious.

That was why he wanted Dong Huaide to be the one to agree.

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But Dong Huaide was unwilling as well and refused to take the bait.

The atmosphere grew awkward. No one spoke, and when they looked at one another, each seemed eager to avoid the others’ eyes.

“There is no need to open the coffin for inspection, is there?

“When the princess consort died and was placed inside the coffin, and when the burial objects were put in, many people were watching from the side. The eunuch who delivered the imperial edict even inspected everything personally. Immediately afterward, in full view of everyone, coffin nails were driven through all three layers of the coffin and it was sealed shut.

“If the coffin was sealed with nails, who could possibly have entered it and done anything?”

After a long while, Zhai Hongxia finally spoke in a dry voice.

Once a coffin had been nailed shut, nothing inside could get out, and nothing outside could get in.

There was truly no need to take the risk of opening it.

“The eunuch who delivered the imperial edict inspected it personally? Then where is that eunuch? If necessary, summon them and question them.”

Seeing that no one was willing to shoulder the responsibility of opening the coffin, Zhai Hongxia immediately prepared to settle for the next-best option: asking whether the eunuchs who had delivered the imperial edict had noticed anything unusual, and whether the coffin containing the princess consort’s body had seemed normal.

But Dong Huaide, the chief steward of the prince’s residence, once again wore a troubled expression.

“Those eunuchs who delivered the imperial edict slipped away last night, before nightfall.”

“They slipped away? Could they have done it?”

Zhai Hongxia was rarely so animated, even if only for a moment.

“No. Probably not. They learned about the strange changes affecting Prince Lu and may have feared that the matter would implicate them. That is probably why they fled secretly.”

Dong Huaide did not elaborate. One look at his expression told Zhai Hongxia that he was concealing something. But after thinking it over, Zhai Hongxia realized that it was indeed unlikely that several eunuchs who had delivered an imperial edict were responsible.

In the end, he did not press the matter.

After discussing it among themselves, they jointly decided not to open the princess consort’s coffin after all. Instead, they would carefully question the people who had commissioned and prepared it, those who had placed the princess consort’s body inside, and those who had nailed the coffin shut. In the end, they might also have to question the people who had kept vigil and ask whether they had heard any unusual sounds.

Since a direct search was impossible,

they could only ask more questions.

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