BERW - Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"Reporting to the Princess, one man could not withstand the torture and confessed. The others may take a while longer," Yu San replied.

It had only been a day. Desperadoes who lived with their heads tied to their belts did not loosen their tongues so quickly.

Shen Yuyao was somewhat surprised to learn that one had already spoken. Was there really someone with so little backbone? Before the torture had even properly begun, he had confessed straightaway?

He really was a hero who knew how to read the times.

This was a smart man. He knew he could not escape and would gain nothing. Rather than suffer every torture and die in agony, he might as well speak obediently and ask for a quick end, sparing himself the suffering.

"I want to see the written confession."

Shen Yuyao was still curious about where those people had come from and what they wanted. One man's testimony was not persuasive enough, but it would satisfy her passing curiosity.

Yu San assented and walked to the window, where she blew a whistle.

The whistle sounded much like a bird, and she blew it loosely and without order, so that anyone else would merely think birds were making a racket.

But Shen Yuyao's ears were sharper. She could tell that Yu San's whistling followed a pattern.

This must be the legendary secret signal. Quite sophisticated, too.

Soon someone leaped up, delivered a small bamboo dispatch tube, and vanished again in the blink of an eye. His footwork was not as light and swift as Yu San's, but it was still superb.

He was probably a Shadow Guard as well. Shen Yuyao was tempted again. Were there really so many talented people in the palace? If she had not come out this time and had kept wandering aimlessly inside the palace, she likely would never have seen even one in her whole life.

So she really did need to go out and about. In her heart, Shen Yuyao quietly resolved never to spend every day cooped up in the Imperial Palace.

The bamboo tube was opened. Inside were several rolled sheets of paper. Yu San took them out, smoothed them flat, and presented them to Shen Yuyao with both hands.

It was a detailed written confession. The man giving it called himself Zhang Sanlang and said he had previously worked as a waiter in the inn.

Shen Yuyao remembered him: that money-grubbing waiter. She had not expected him to be the first to speak. It seemed this waiter had not been very loyal to the innkeeper either.

His name also suited his outlaw identity.

Zhang Sanlang stated that he was nineteen this year and had attached himself to the innkeeper three years ago. He did not know the innkeeper's real name, only that the man had run a criminal inn in Yudu Town for three years.

Because of the Fan family's cats and the Lantern Festival, two lively attractions, Yudu Town had always drawn many travelers from the Capital. It also lay on the road to the Capital, so the flow of people was heavy.

In a place with such heavy traffic, sometimes seven or eight people could go missing without anyone noticing. In ancient times, transportation and communication were undeveloped. People who left home might not return for three or five years; some vanished without word, and some died abroad. Such things happened.

Thus they had boldly run the criminal inn for three years and accumulated a great deal of wealth, and no one had discovered it.

In Zhang Sanlang's confession, the identity of the "Benefactor" was clearly stated. The reason these people could remain in Yudu Town was that this "Benefactor" had rescued them.

Coincidentally, that Benefactor was the very official who had earlier caused the fight between Yang Chengye and Shi Bingsheng: Yang Chengye's former fellow student, Du Gaojun, who had risen to Prefect of Zuozhou.

Mingfu was the title of a prefect, and a prefect of a place was a high official indeed. How could such a high official have any entanglement with a nobody like Zhang Sanlang, much less become their Benefactor?

Shen Yuyao read on.

It turned out that Du Gaojun had once funded the local Ciyen Hall, building lodgings for orphaned children with no parents.

Zhang Sanlang was an orphan, and so was the innkeeper.

Was that the favor? Du Gaojun was a prefect of a place; did doing a little practical good count as a favor?

Oh, this was not a favor from when Du Gaojun was prefect, but from when he first entered officialdom, eighteen years ago. At that time Du Gaojun had only been a county magistrate, and later he rose step by step to prefect.

Shen Yuyao thought that the various things Du Gaojun had done at the beginning were mostly policies benefiting the people, advantageous to them. This showed that Du Gaojun when he first entered officialdom matched the image Yang Chengye remembered: an upright and unyielding fellow student.

Only later had he changed, and in the end he was caught for embezzlement and corruption and died in prison.

Back then Du Gaojun had given the innkeeper and the others a tile to shield them from wind and rain; today the innkeeper wanted to take revenge on the Shi Clan for Du Gaojun. When he encountered a daughter of the Shi Clan, of course he had to act.

Not only would he act, he would also let Shi Bingsheng know that if Shi Bingsheng had not persecuted loyal and good men, they would never have turned on a weak woman!

After reading this section of the confession, Shen Yuyao laughed aloud.

"Hah, however high-sounding the words, they cannot hide the fact that these are a pack of desperadoes. In three years they have killed who knows how many 'loyal and good men.' If they truly had such a sense of justice, the first blow of their blades should have fallen on their own heads!"

Shen Yuyao rolled her eyes, so angry she wanted to hit someone.

Truly, when a person has no shame, he is invincible under heaven. They had done evil and still found themselves so many excuses and reasons.

Yu San was somewhat startled. She had not expected Shen Yuyao herself to be so fiercely righteous, hating evil as if it were an enemy.

"Princess, the truth will soon be clear. This matter will certainly clear Minister Shi's name," Yu San said. She intended to report it to His Majesty as soon as she returned and let His Majesty decide.

Shen Yuyao heard the implication in Yu San's words. She had meant to nod, but when she remembered what had happened when those men attacked, she could not bring herself to nod.

If the Emperor learned that she had left the palace, stayed at a criminal inn, and nearly come to harm, would he still let her come and go from the Imperial Palace afterward?

Very likely not. Even if she were allowed out, she would probably have to bring a guard detail of twenty or more.

This had to be kept hidden for a while.

Shen Yuyao thought that it would actually be all right if the Emperor did not know, because the matter was already settled. Du Gaojun was dead. Yang Chengye and Shi Bingsheng had fought, and the grudge was formed. Even if Yang Chengye learned that Shi Bingsheng had enforced the law impartially and shown no favoritism, so what? Could he simply apologize and make peace?

Impossible. Yang Chengye was born of the Yang Clan; how could he lower his head and admit fault to an official of commoner-scholar origins?

Therefore, exposing it would do nothing except make her future trips out of the palace more difficult.

"Minister Shi was already innocent. He does not need me to clear anything for him. I keep feeling this matter is not so simple. We still have to pry open that innkeeper's mouth. What he knows is all too superficial."

Shen Yuyao had only said this offhand, using it as an excuse to stop Yu San from sending the intelligence back.

But who would have thought that when Shen Yuyao and Shi Caiwen returned after a day of wandering, Yu San handed her another bamboo dispatch tube.

Inside was the innkeeper's testimony.

And when she handed the bamboo tube to Shen Yuyao, Yu San's expression was stern, utterly unlike her usual self.

"Princess, should the innkeeper's testimony be read after returning to the palace?"

This question was very interesting. Shen Yuyao's heart, which had been restless from enjoying an outing with someone, instantly sank.

Yu San still wanted to inform the Emperor of this matter rather than conceal it. She had already been persuaded before, so why had she changed her mind now?

It must be that the testimony inside concerned more than one matter.

Shen Yuyao gripped the bamboo tube and glanced at Yu San, then raised a hand and waved it.

Zhuxiang and the other palace attendants who had followed her bowed and withdrew one by one. As the wooden door closed, only Shen Yuyao and Yu San remained in the room.

Seeing this, Yu San knew that what Shen Yuyao was about to say was important. Her back tensed.

"Don't be nervous. There are just some questions I want to discuss with you. Come, sit down and drink some water." Shen Yuyao raised a hand, gesturing for Yu San to sit across from her.

Yu San knew how to weigh the circumstances. Shen Yuyao's attitude was strange; it was best not to refuse.

So Yu San sat down stiff as a board, upright and solemn, utterly serious.

"Relax a little. Today you followed me out and also had to watch the interrogation over there. You have worked hard." Shen Yuyao picked up the kettle. She had just returned, yet the water in the kettle was hot.

Someone must have given orders in advance. Anyone who knew her movements and could travel so quickly had to be a Shadow Guard under Yu San's command.

So useful. They could serve as palace maids in civil matters and as guards in martial ones. Shen Yuyao truly did not want to return such useful Shadow Guards to the Emperor.

Yu San had been born for her!

Shen Yuyao firmly believed this truth, and her gaze toward Yu San grew even warmer, enough to make Yu San break into a cold sweat.

When something is abnormal, there must be a demon. Yu San did not dare let down her guard. Trembling with fear and respect, she took the teacup Shen Yuyao handed her with both hands, sniffed the steam, and set it down. "Princess, this subordinate is the Princess's guard. Everything I do falls within my duties. The Princess need not thank me. I only wonder when the Princess will return to the palace?"

"What is the hurry? I have not had enough fun yet. Besides, I already promised Imperial Grandmother that I would stay at Qianyin Temple and keep her company until the Double Ninth Festival. How could I just say I am going back? Would that not be deceiving Imperial Grandmother?"

Shen Yuyao brought out the Empress Dowager, and Yu San immediately frowned.

Even the Emperor could not break faith with the Empress Dowager, let alone a princess like Shen Yuyao.

Yu San had no way at all to refute this reason.

"By the way, Yu San, from your name, you must be the third-born in your family. You often accompany princesses on their excursions and keep them safe, don't you?"

Shen Yuyao idly fiddled with the bamboo dispatch tube, asking as if casually.

Yu San's gaze was drawn to the bamboo tube. It contained a secret, and with Shen Yuyao playing with it like that, Yu San was truly afraid something would happen to its contents.

But then she thought: it was only a few sheets of paper. What could happen?

"Before, this subordinate's qualifications were too shallow to be worthy of serving at the Princess's side. I only performed basic patrol duties."

In truth, Yu San was not the one in charge on this outing with Shen Yuyao. Shadow Guards hid in the shadows and generally did not appear. The ones openly responsible for Shen Yuyao's safety were the Imperial Guard.

But trouble had occurred in the middle of the night, and Shen Yuyao had happened to summon Yu San before her and would not let her leave. Having caught Shen Yuyao's notice, Yu San's status had risen with the tide. In a single day she had gone from an obscure little Shadow Guard to the present head of the Shadow Guard, with even some authority over the Imperial Guard.

Shen Yuyao did not know that Great Zhuang's Shadow Guards did not enjoy the status they had in the novels she had read before. One could even say they had no status at all.

A person must have fallen to a place where there was no choice left before becoming that shadow hidden in the dark, burying their name and never showing their face for a lifetime.

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