Spoiled and mad critic of powerful ministers

Pei An, who was waiting outside the door, immediately pushed the door open and knelt on the ground.

"master."

"Pass on my orders." Pei Zhihui's voice was still weak, but every word was crystal clear. "Order Zhang Wei, the deputy commander of the Zhenbei Army, to immediately take over the defense of the capital. Fu Chuan'ang... return to the Xishan camp and rectify military discipline."

Shen Qiongju's pupils suddenly contracted.

Why was Fu Chuan'ang transferred at this time?

Pei An was also stunned, but he didn't ask anything. He just kowtowed heavily and said, "Your subordinate obeys."

"Go."

After Pei An left, Shen Qiongju finally couldn't help but ask, "Why?"

“Fu Chuan’ang must hold military power.” Pei Zhihui looked at her and patiently explained, “Transfer him back to Xishan, and then back to the Northern Border. Military power must be firmly held in the hands of our own people.”

"What about Zhang Wei?"

“Zhang Wei is a veteran general, steady in his actions, but he doesn’t belong to any faction. He’s only loyal to the military tally.” Pei Zhihui said, taking a cool, black iron tiger tally from under his pillow and placing it in Shen Qiongju’s hand. “Take this. With it, the 100,000 troops in the capital will only listen to you.”

Shen Qiongju held the heavy tiger tally in her hand, her palm burning.

This is no military tally.

This was clearly a protective charm that Pei Zhihui had traded his own life for.

Shen Qiongju remained silent for a long time, simply looking at him.

"What's wrong?" Pei Zhihui asked.

"Pei Zhihui," Shen Qiongju finally spoke, her voice very soft, "Do you think you've schemed against everyone in the world?"

Pei Zhihui was taken aback.

"You've arranged everything. You've paved the way for me and for Nian'an." Shen Qiongju's eyes were a little red. "And then? You can die in peace, right?"

"You left behind a country riddled with problems, a puppet emperor, and a group of political enemies eyeing you covetously, then you just walked away, leaving me, a woman, with a crying baby, to clean up the mess you left behind?"

"Pei Zhihui, what gives you the right?!"

Her voice suddenly rose, filled with anger and grievance that had been suppressed for too long.

Tears rolled down my cheeks without warning.

Pei Zhihui looked at her, somewhat at a loss.

He had calculated everything, but he hadn't foreseen her tears.

He reached out to wipe away her tears, but Shen Qiongju slapped his hand away.

"I don't want you to die!" Shen Qiongju grabbed his collar, almost shouting, "I hate you! If you die, what will happen to Nian'an and me?"

"You selfish bastard! You dragged me into this quagmire, and now you want to run away alone? Not so easy!"

"If you dare to die, I'll take Nian'an and remarry! I'll make sure your Pei family's empire is changed to the Wang, Li, or Zhang family! I'll make sure you never have peace even in the afterlife!"

She was like a cat driven to desperation, baring all her claws and uttering the most vicious curses.

But the tears just wouldn't stop.

Pei Zhihui stared at her blankly.

He had never seen Shen Qiongju like this before.

She is a living, breathing person who can get angry with him, cry, and yell at him.

He laughed suddenly.

He started coughing as he was laughing.

The cough was so severe it felt like I was coughing up my heart and lungs.

Shen Qiongju was terrified and quickly let go of him, frantically patting his back to help him catch his breath.

"Don't...don't cough..." Her voice was choked with sobs.

Pei Zhihui coughed for quite a while before stopping.

He leaned against the soft pillows, panting heavily, his face even paler than before.

But when he looked into Shen Qiongju's eyes, they shone with an astonishing light.

"Okay." He took her hand, placed it to his lips, and gently kissed it. "I won't die."

"I promise you, I won't die."

His voice was weak, yet it carried an unprecedented firmness.

Perhaps, even he himself didn't know.

What kept him alive was never any sense of national duty or any obsession with revenge.

But what struck me most was the woman's tears and her unreasonable statement, "I don't want you to die."

Outside the door, Du Hengniang held the sleepy-eyed Nian'an in her arms, and stood with Pei An under the eaves.

They heard the argument inside the house.

Du Hengniang sighed and whispered to Pei An, "Go, invite all the best doctors in the world. Tell them that if they can't cure the Grand Secretary, I will send the account books of the thirteen merchants for the past ten years to the Ministry of Justice."

Pei An glanced at the feisty woman and, for the first time, found her much more agreeable.

"Yes." He turned and strode away into the night.

Inside the room, Shen Qiongju cried herself to sleep, then lay down on the edge of the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

Pei Zhihui turned his head to look at her peaceful sleeping face and the tear stains at the corners of her eyes that had not yet dried.

He stretched out his finger and carefully traced her eyebrows and eyes.

Outside the window, a bright moon rose, illuminating the snow-covered ground.

This winter in Beijing seems to be exceptionally long.

Shen Qiongju stayed by the bedside all night. At this moment, her eyes were dry, hot, and bloodshot, but her mind was clearer than ever before.

Pei Zhihui's faint breathing echoed in the silent inner room like a spider's thread that could snap at any moment, tugging at everyone's hearts.

She gripped the black iron tiger talisman tightly in her hand, the cold, hard edges digging painfully into her palm. She needed this pain to stay calm.

Just as dawn was breaking, the sound of light footsteps could be heard outside the courtyard gate.

"Madam," Pei An's voice came through the curtain, extremely low, "Someone from the palace has arrived."

Shen Qiongju tucked the tiger tally into her sleeve and stood up. Having not moved all night, her legs were numb, and she nearly fell.

She steadied herself by holding onto the edge of the bed, walked behind the screen, and tidied her slightly disheveled hair.

"Let him in." Her voice was soft, but steady.

The one who entered was an unfamiliar young eunuch, about fifteen or sixteen years old. He kept his head down, but his eyes darted around restlessly, trying to peek into the inner room through the screen.

"This servant greets Your Excellency the Grand Secretary." The little eunuch's shrill voice sounded particularly jarring in the empty room. "Your Majesty... Your Majesty's enthronement ceremony is imminent. I would like to ask Your Excellency the Grand Secretary's instructions on how the proceedings should be decided?"

The new emperor is the late emperor's youngest son, a puppet whom Pei Zhihui placed on the throne. This little eunuch, ostensibly to deliver an imperial edict, is in reality a spy sent by some impatient court officials to scout the way.

Shen Qiongju stood behind the screen without speaking immediately.

She recalled the way Pei Zhihui usually spoke.

When he was ill, his voice was always weak and hoarse, and he spoke slowly with a very brief pause between each word, as if he were gathering the strength to say the next sentence. Those seemingly weak pauses often brought tremendous psychological pressure to the listener.

She cleared her throat, deliberately lowered her voice, and slowly uttered four words, mimicking that unique rhythm.

"Keep everything simple."

The sound was not loud, even somewhat ethereal, yet it was like an icicle, piercing precisely into the little eunuch's ear.

The young eunuch trembled, abruptly raised his head, and his face drained of all color.

In that instant, he seemed to feel that familiar, deep-seated pressure from Pei Zhihui.

Even if the regent, who was on his deathbed, only said four words through a screen, it was enough to make people not have the slightest thought of resistance.

"Yes...yes! This servant obeys! This servant will return to the palace to report immediately!"

The little eunuch scrambled out of the room as if a demon were chasing him.

Behind the screen, Shen Qiongju leaned against the cold wall and let out a long sigh. Her back was soaked with cold sweat.

The first hurdle has been overcome.

Du Hengniang walked in carrying a bowl of freshly cooked bird's nest porridge, and what she saw was Shen Qiongju, pale-faced and leaning against the wall.

"Why are you doing this to yourself?" Du Hengniang put down her porridge bowl and helped her up with heartache. "Just let Pei An handle this kind of thing."

"No," Shen Qiongju shook her head. "Pei An is a military general. If he intervenes, it will only make people think that the Pei family is all bark and no bite. Only when Pei Zhihui speaks for himself can those monsters and demons be subdued."

She paused, looked at Du Hengniang, and a hint of ruthlessness flashed in her eyes.

"Hengniang, use the intelligence network of the thirteen merchant guilds to post a reward for me. Ten thousand taels of gold and a hundred acres of land. No matter what method you use, bring me all the famous doctors in the world. Live or dead... bring me their medical books."

Du Hengniang's heart skipped a beat; this wasn't a medical consultation, it was a kidnapping.

A great upheaval suddenly erupted in the capital.

The astronomical reward offered by the Regent's Palace acted like a giant magnet, attracting countless people from all walks of life. There were white-haired, renowned medical experts, wandering barefoot doctors, and even a few blond-haired, blue-eyed merchants from the Western Regions, all carrying their medicine chests to try their luck.

The gates of the Pei residence opened and closed repeatedly.

However, these so-called "miracle doctors" all changed their expressions after entering the inner room, which was filled with the smell of blood and medicine, and taking the pulse of the man on the bed whose face was as pale as paper.

At first, some people dared to boast a few words and prescribe formulas such as "Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup" and "Resurrection Pill".

But when Pei An placed a blood-stained embroidered spring knife next to the consultation fee with a blank expression, they were all speechless.

"My master said that His Excellency is on the verge of death, beyond the help of even a god. Farewell!" A young apprentice, carrying his master's medical kit, ran faster than a rabbit.

"Our manager said this illness... this illness requires rest and cannot be rushed. We don't need the consultation fee, see you later!" A pharmacy clerk almost ran out of the palace in tears.

Finally, even the Western Region merchant who claimed to be able to heal flesh and bone, after gesturing for a long time, saw the black blood coughed up by Pei Zhihui and frantically made the sign of the cross, muttering incomprehensible bird language, before scrambling away.

For three days in a row, hope was ignited time and time again, only to be extinguished again and again.

The atmosphere in the Pei residence was extremely oppressive.

That night, Pei Zhihui briefly woke up from his deep sleep.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Shen Qiongju, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, half asleep.

She had lost a lot of weight, and her chin was so sharp it looked like it could poke someone. The dark circles under her eyes were so thick they seemed impossible to erase, and she was carrying a thick stack of files in her arms.

His gaze slid from her tired face to the stack of files.

He didn't speak, but simply raised his hand with difficulty and grasped hers.

Shen Qiongju immediately woke up.

"You're awake?" she asked in surprise, leaning closer, her voice hoarse.

Pei Zhihui didn't have the strength to answer. He simply used his withered fingers to slowly, stroke by stroke, write two characters in her palm.

Food and soldiers.

Those two words, like two scorching hot irons, were deeply branded onto Shen Qiongju's palm.

She understood Pei Zhihui's meaning in an instant.

Ultimately, stabilizing the capital and appeasing the people depended on these two things.

Food is the foundation of public sentiment. Military power is the basis of authority.

"I understand." Shen Qiongju grasped his cold fingers in return and nodded heavily. "Sleep soundly. I'll take care of things outside."

Pei Zhihui seemed to smile, then fell into a deep sleep again.

Shen Qiongju tucked him in, then turned and walked out of the inner room.

Outside the door, the cool moonlight spilled across the ground.

"Pei An," she called out.

"Your subordinate is here." Pei An stepped out of the shadows and knelt on one knee.

"Issue the Grand Secretary's order." Shen Qiongju took out the black iron tiger tally from her sleeve, her voice icy cold. "Order the three major camps in the suburbs of the capital to immediately change their garrisons and take full control of the thirteen gates of the capital, all official granaries, and the four major canal wharves. Without my order, no person or vehicle may enter or leave without authorization. Every grain of rice and every drop of water must be registered."

Pei An suddenly looked up at the tiger tally that gleamed in the moonlight, then glanced at Shen Qiongju's resolute profile.

He got it.

"Your subordinate obeys!" Pei An kowtowed heavily, accepted the tiger tally, and turned to disappear into the night.

That night, before the curfew drums sounded in the capital, the heavy clatter of horses' hooves shattered the silence of the long street.

Squads of heavily armored Zhenbei Army cavalry set off from the main camp outside Beijing, like a black tide, swiftly surging towards various key locations in the capital.

Overnight, the defenses and supply lines of the capital were firmly in the hands of the Pei family.

At the same time, another order came from the Pei residence.

"Hengniang." Shen Qiongju looked at Du Hengniang, who had rushed over covered in dust, and said, "Use all our money to go to Jiangnan, to Huguang, to every place where we can buy grain, regardless of cost, and buy it for me."

"Buy them to stock up?" Du Hengniang asked, somewhat puzzled.

"No." Shen Qiongju shook her head. "Once we buy them, we'll sell them at the major rice shops in the capital at a fair price. Not only a fair price, but also 30% cheaper than usual. I want all the people in the capital to know that there's an endless supply of rice in the granaries."

Du Hengniang gasped.

This is burning money.

They used mountains of gold and seas of silver to create the illusion of abundant food and a stable social order.

"I understand." Du Hengniang didn't ask any further questions. "Even if it means losing all thirteen of your businesses, I'll still make it happen for you."

Under the swift and decisive measures, the restless thoughts in the capital were temporarily suppressed.

But the clashes in the imperial court have only just begun.

Three days later, the morning court session began.

Wang Jian, the Minister of Personnel, submitted a memorial stating that the case of Prince Shou's plot to rebel had emptied the national treasury. Currently, the military situation in the north is urgent, and the soldiers stationed there are still no provisions or pay. Meanwhile, the Zhenbei Army is stationed in the outskirts of the capital, incurring enormous expenses, which violates ancestral regulations. He earnestly requests His Majesty to issue an edict reducing the Zhenbei Army's pay by 30% to replenish the national treasury and support border defense.

This memorial, like a boulder, was thrown into the seemingly calm imperial court.

It was obvious to everyone that this was the first probing attack launched by the civil service group after Pei Zhihui's downfall.

Their target was Pei Zhihui's foundation—the army.

The memorial was quickly delivered to the Pei residence.

Shen Qiongju looked at the grandly written memorial and sneered.

Wang Jianzhi, the old fox who was the first to turn against the Prince of Shou after his downfall, has found a new master so quickly.

She neither refuted the memorial nor went to argue with anyone.

She simply sat in her study all night, flipping through the secret scrolls left by Pei Zhihui that recorded the scandals of the officials again and again.