Frost for a Thousand Years

Chapter 277 Am I a Rebellious Minister Responding to a Dream?!
"Your Highness still refuses to receive guests."

Ye Changqing, the magistrate of Sheng'an who was still on duty, was refused entry after going to the Sima residence. So he went directly to the Wu Prince's residence and reported the matter to him in the main hall.

"Are you using official business as an excuse?" the King of Wu asked.

"Yes," Ye Changqing said, "He still claimed to be ill, and didn't even inform Sima Yu."

Even a high-ranking official of the third rank, who was also the prefect of the entire Sheng'an, couldn't get through Sima Yu's gate.

The two of them increasingly felt that this matter might actually be quite serious.

"If all else fails, we can let Jia Guihao in under the pretext of searching for thieves," said the King of Wu.

"Absolutely not!" Ye Changqing hurriedly waved his hand, reminding him, "This is a fourth-rank official position. Even if there are some criminal cases, only the Court of Judicial Review can handle them. Jia Guihao might be able to get in, but that would be with Your Highness's influence. If we do this, we will be in a very passive position among the officials."

Before he even became emperor, he used his son to bully court officials.

After this, who would dare to oppose the King of Wu?

It's not a good thing to be afraid to go against the grain.

It will lead to political isolation, with the attitude of "go play by yourself."

"Then what should we do?" King Wu asked. "Should I go myself?"

"This..." Ye Changqing said, "There is something I would like to ask Your Highness for forgiveness for."

“Just say it, I pardon you,” King Wu said hastily.

"After hearing about this yesterday, I arranged for some officials to patrol around the Sima residence under the guise of fire prevention during the night," Ye Changqing said. "And then, we actually encountered some people."

"What do you mean? An assassin, an arsonist?" King Wu asked, puzzled.

“No, they are His Highness Prince Zhongping’s men,” Ye Changqing said.

"Huh? Did the other party admit it?" King Wu asked in utter surprise.

“The curfew patrols are under the jurisdiction of the Sheng’an magistrate. After encountering people, they took the initiative to pursue and caught a few,” Ye Changqing said. “Just as they were about to detain them, the other party claimed to be a man of the Prince of Zhongping. Moreover, they produced a token from the Prince of Zhongping’s residence, so they were released.”

“The King of Zhongping’s men are loitering around the officials’ residences in the city during curfew. Why not arrest them and impeach them?” King Wu said quite forcefully.

"Your Highness..." Ye Changqing forced a smile and explained, "Let's spare the lives of those young masters. They can't afford to offend the royal family."

"So you didn't ask why you violated the curfew?"

Even members of the royal family can't get the information they want.

"Alright, I understand." King Wu didn't press the matter further.

The position of Sheng'an Ling was responsible for maintaining order in the capital.

In principle, it is capable of arresting anyone who disrupts stability, even potential ones.

But the principles are in the hands of the Prince of Zhongping.

Even the Dali Temple wouldn't dare to act recklessly when it comes to princes.

"Then what is he doing?" King Wu still couldn't quite understand.

“Your Highness,” Ye Changqing pointed out astutely, “Prince Zhongping must have had some premonition all along, and may have visited more than once. Because the other party refused to meet with him, he went to this point, all in order to capture Sima Yu.”

"Tsk, so what should we do?"

"It seems we must meet Sima Yu. Moreover, it must be the former Prince Zhongping and Prince Jin who meet him," Ye Changqing said after some struggle. "Your Highness, I would like to borrow your influence."

"Borrow freely," King Wu readily agreed. "But how shall I borrow it?"

“The Prince of Zhongping will certainly not admit that he sent people to do this, after all, it is a capital offense to violate the curfew,” Ye Changqing said. “Therefore, I went to ask him, under the pretext that I had arrested some people yesterday who were carrying the Prince’s token and were around Sima Yu’s residence during curfew, whether any of his family members had lost their tokens.”

"Brilliant!" King Wu thought with admiration. "He doesn't want to admit it; he'll definitely say it was stolen. Since it was stolen, you have grounds to arrest these people who violated the curfew while holding the tokens."

“The young master wouldn’t dare to offend Prince Zhongping, and Prince Zhongping shouldn’t get into trouble either,” Ye Changqing said. “From now on, His Highness Prince Zhongping should no longer continue to monitor Sima Yu.”

This will also prevent King Zhongping from getting there first.

"Then shall I go?" King Wu asked.

"If Prince Zhongping doesn't come, Your Highness..." Ye Changqing hesitated to finish his sentence.

“The absence of the King of Zhongping does not mean that the Kings of Jin and Wu are not going,” said the King of Wu. “I know the King of Jin very well. He is cautious and overly cautious in his actions, even a bit timid and afraid of trouble. He certainly has not gone there in person. Therefore, I can give it a try.”

"Yes, Your Highness, please make the decision."

After all, it involves the emperor, which is not a simple matter, so Ye Changqing couldn't be too aggressive.

But it might be really crucial, and we have to take action.

"Then Changqing, you go."

.........

In the Zhongping Prince's residence, Wei Yiyuan was in his study, waiting intently for news.

Just then, a eunuch outside the door came to report: "Your Highness, the magistrate of Sheng'an has arrived."

"Who? Oh, Ye Changqing. No, what's he doing here?" Wei Yiyuan's expression went through a series of changes before he suddenly realized something. "Let him in."

“The magistrate of Sheng’an said he had official business to attend to and needed to verify something with His Highness,” the eunuch said. “Last night, the officials in charge of the curfew encountered several people who were loitering around the Sima residence and claimed to be from the Prince of Zhongping’s residence, and they even had the Prince’s token.”

"Oh?" Wei Yiyuan revealed a hint of hostility.

"He asked if there had been any theft of the royal tokens from the Prince's residence," the eunuch said nervously.

“Tell him that a piece was lost,” Wei Yiyuan said casually.

"Yes."

"Wait a minute, call those guys from last night over."

"Yes."

And so, the servants who had been monitoring Sima Yu the night before came over, and upon seeing the Prince of Zhongping, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

“You told me last night that you encountered patrolmen and then ran away,” Wei Yiyuan said sternly. “But why didn’t you mention that you showed them your tokens?”

"Your Highness, I know I was wrong!"

The three of them immediately kowtowed.

“Take them out and give each of them ten strokes of the cane.”

Wei Yiyuan waved his hand casually.

So the group was taken out and punished in the Prince's mansion.

After a while, the three were helped over and knelt in front of him again. Because their buttocks had been hit with a stick, they were all in a half-prone position, struggling to raise their heads and look up, looking rather pitiful.

"Do you know where you went wrong?" King Zhongping asked.

"I shouldn't have shown the Prince's token and implicated His Highness in this matter..."

“Wrong,” Wei Yiyuan corrected. “The matter itself wasn’t wrong; the mistake was concealing it from me.” “I will never dare to conceal it again!”

The three men kowtowed repeatedly.

“If you work for me, I will naturally protect you. Even if you are discovered, no one will dare to make things difficult for you,” Wei Yiyuan said. “But if you hide it and cause any trouble, then I won’t be able to protect you.”

"Thank you, Your Highness! We know we were wrong!"

"You can all rest for a while. Each of you will receive fifty taels of silver to recuperate at home," Prince Zhongping casually bestowed upon him.

The three men kowtowed with tears of gratitude before being led away.

"Sima Yu's residence can no longer be monitored."

Wei Yiyuan knew that this was the King of Wu warning him that if he didn't want to make a big fuss, he should handle things gently.

However, Sima Yu could not ignore the situation.

If the King of Wu were to get there first, we would be in an even more passive position.

However, the Prince of Jin did not want to get involved himself.

Just then, another eunuch from the mansion came over and reported to Wei Yiyuan: "Your Highness, the servants from Sima Yu's mansion have taken a cart to the market."

"Hmm." Wei Yiyuan nodded, but then his brows furrowed suddenly. "Wait, bring me the notebook."

"Your Highness." The eunuch presented him with a booklet with both hands.

This represents a record of the outings of people from Sima Yu's residence.

Time, number of people, format, purpose.

Ever since the day the emperor met with Sima Yu before summoning the two kings, and Sima Yu went back and stayed at home, Wei Yiyuan began to spy on him forever.

No one paid more attention to Sima Yu than him.

Because this is fundamentally wrong.

He definitely has a problem.

“Going to buy groceries…” Flipping through the notebook repeatedly, Wei Yiyuan’s expression suddenly froze. “No, based on their usual grocery expenses, they haven’t even finished their groceries!”

Upon hearing this, the two eunuchs were dumbfounded.

Has voyeurism reached this level?

That's terrifying.

"Your Highness, is this a birthday banquet?" the eunuch asked.

"At what critical juncture would you dare to hold a banquet?" Wei Yiyuan didn't think so.

Besides, I already leaked this information to him yesterday, trying to trick him.

It's impossible for him to have no reaction at all.

Raising his head, Wei Yiyuan said sharply, "Leave the manor."

…………

"Please rise, sir. What is the meaning of this?"

Song Shi'an quickly helped Sima Laodeng, who was kneeling on the ground, to his feet.

"Shi An." Sima Yu didn't waste any time and said, "Yesterday, some things came out of the palace. It's said that a year ago I went to the palace to interpret His Majesty's dream. Did you know that?"

"I don't know." Song Shi'an shook his head, then suddenly realized a problem, "Why is something from a year ago suddenly coming to light?"

“Moreover, only three people know about dream interpretation…” Sima Yu was about to say when he saw Xin Yue standing to the side.

“This is my betrothed, she is absolutely trustworthy,” Song Shi’an said.

“Of course I trust her, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone to find this girl,” Sima Yu said solemnly. “But whoever knows about this will die.”

“Please speak,” Xin Yue said resolutely, showing no fear.

“Then I will tell you,” Sima Yu said. “Only the three of us—Chen Bao, His Majesty, and I—know about this dream interpretation.”

The Song Dynasty was stable.

This means that the emperor leaked the secret.

Or rather, the emperor released the news.

"Come closer."

Sima Yu lowered his voice and gestured for the two of them to come closer.

Then, he finished recounting the dream.

As Song Shi'an listened, he became increasingly shocked.

For the first time, I felt the threat of death.

It wasn't there in the north wind, nor in the state of Yan.

But at this moment, Sima Yu made him realize that he was only alive because of good luck.

"A traitor in a dream?" After hearing this, Song Shi'an said in confusion, "This is at most a traitor in a dream, why did Your Majesty say that?"

In short, the emperor had a dream in which I instigated one of his sons to kill his other son and then force him to abdicate.

This is purely the emperor's tyranny.

If you hate someone and then dream that they did something bad, does that mean they are really a bad person?

But there's nothing you can do. Even if it's unreasonable, he's the emperor. What can you do?
People just think this is bad luck, what can you do?

“You’re right, this is just a traitor in a dream,” Sima Yu asked with a deep gaze. “But do you know when this dream happened?”

"When?"

"Before the provincial examination last year."

"!"

Upon hearing this, Song Shi'an and Xin Yue's pupils dilated simultaneously.

It wasn't that the emperor dreamt that Song Shi'an was a traitor.

Instead, the emperor dreamed of a rebellious minister.

then,

Song Shi'an appeared.

(End of this chapter)