The silence inside Chunhui Hall became heart-palpitatingly oppressive.
Yinreng had not even wiped the tears from his face.
He stared at Kangxi, who sat above him, his mouth agape in disbelief.
Behind the screen, Fang He clicked her tongue inwardly, ‘The Crown Prince’s acting here seems even better than the one in my timeline. Right now, he looks like he is about to crumble into pieces.’
Ultimately, it was Kangxi who spoke first.
He suppressed the murderous intent and towering rage in his heart, looking at Yinreng with forced calm.
“Since you no longer wish to be the Crown Prince, I will announce it during the morning court tomorrow. I will demote you to Prince Li of the First Rank. You will leave the palace and establish your own residence alongside your Eldest Brother. I have already selected the estate for you…”
“Father!” Yinreng’s raspy voice was filled with shock, cracking from the force of his exclamation.
However, Yinreng was no fool, he quickly calmed himself, though his entire body seemed to teeter on the edge of collapse.
His voice grew even more impossibly hoarse, “Your son is not greedy for the position of Crown Prince, nor would I dare to disobey your Imperial Edict. But if the position of the heir is shaken, it will surely cause turmoil in the Court Hall and unrest among the people. Where exactly has your son failed to satisfy Father?”
His face was a mask of confusion as his entire body began to tremble.
“Father has always cherished this son. Do you know how Eldest Brother, Third Brother, and the rest of the world will ridicule me if I am deposed?”
Yinreng gritted his teeth and kowtowed, “Please… for the sake of having raised me yourself, can you at least let me die with understanding? If I have truly committed a wrong, even if I am reduced to a commoner, I will have no complaints!”
Kangxi looked at his legitimate son, whom he had held such high expectations for, with a complex gaze.
A trace of self-mockery flashed deep in his eyes.
So Baocheng knew. Baocheng knew that he would never easily shake the position of the heir, nor would he allow any blemish to touch the Crown Prince.
Yet, Baocheng still collaborated with outsiders to make things difficult for his own Father.
Baocheng knew that his Father would clean up any mess he made, even at the cost of slighting his other sons or using the situation to suppress his brothers.
He knew his Father’s love was genuine, but he used that very love as the foundation for his laments, pleas, and tactical retreats.
Kangxi had never wanted to think of the son he raised with his own hands as someone so contemptible.
But… Kangxi had to admit that he had indeed raised a capable son.
All of that cunning was used against him, while the boy forgot his duties as the Crown Prince.
His mind turned to the evidence the Shadow Guards had uncovered after Zhao Chang had seized the hidden agents.
The rage in his chest caused waves of dull pain in his heart.
He still suppressed his fury, speaking with a modicum of calm, “In the winter of the twenty-third year, So’etu privately ordered someone to drug the soothing incense in the A Ge Suo palace. Afterward, you provoked your Eldest Brother several times, making it difficult for him to sleep. Was that your doing, or did So’etu act on his own?”
“In the autumn of the twenty-fifth year, Hesheli Fubao met with Ma Jia Rong Shang in Beimeng. Afterward, Rong Shang tampered with Baoqing’s horse, causing him to encounter a pack of wolves in the forest. You were kicked out when you went to visit Yinzhi, and Baoqing even received twenty boards because of it. What did you say to your Eldest Brother back then?”
“In the winter of the twenty-seventh year, the Eldest Brother’s wife fell and suffered a difficult labor. Both mother and child almost died in the delivery room. Afterward, the midwife’s entire family perished in a fire. Was that your idea, or did Hesheli Xin Yu act on his own?”
“In the spring of last year, I questioned Cao Yin about someone using the Jiangnan salt certificates. The imperial commissioner I sent was murdered in Yangzhou. Was the silver gained from selling those salt certificates easy for you to spend?”
As Kangxi asked each question, Yinreng’s face grew paler and paler.
It was impossible.
He and So’etu had done these things with extreme secrecy.
They never laid a hand on the matters themselves.
In fact, many times they had used the connections within the Imperial Household Department or the people around the Emperor to handle them.
How could…
The more Yinreng thought, the more panicked he became.
When he entered earlier, he realized he hadn’t seen Qi Sanfu…
No, it felt like he hadn’t seen Qi Sanfu for a very long time!
Previously, the Shadow Guards had been assigned tasks and hadn’t sent news to the Yuqing Palace for a while…
All the prepared sophistry and excuses were frightened back into his stomach by this realization.
Yinreng’s head buzzed, his mind going blank.
He opened his mouth, but his throat was so dry that the taste of blood surged up, preventing him from speaking.
Of course, Kangxi did not need him to speak.
He simply let out a low, self-mocking chuckle.
“Baocheng, I truly did raise you from the time you were in swaddling clothes. I pitied you for losing your mother so young, so I always cherished you and treated you more kindly than any of your brothers.”
After a pause, his voice sank even lower, “I gave you everything I could, yet it only encouraged you to become so bold that you not only meddled in the Imperial Household Department, but you even dared to touch the Shadow Guards by my side…”
He stood up, walked over to Yinreng, and kicked him away.
Then, he walked to the side of the panicked prince, who was too terrified to even stand up, and looked down at him.
“Are you truly so impatient to take the burden of the Great Qing from my hands? Are you thinking that if one day you lose your patience, you might personally send your Father on his way?”
Ignoring the sharp pain in his shoulder, Yinreng hurriedly knelt.
His words sounded as if they were being dragged across the edge of a blade.
“Your son has no such intention! I… I was just afraid. I was afraid I would disappoint you. I was afraid that Eldest Brother and Third Brother were coveting the position of heir, and I grew obsessed!”
“I was wrong! I am willing to accept any punishment! Please, Father, calm your anger!”
Yinreng knew very well that deposing the heir was not that easy.
The civil and military officials in the Court Hall, who had all chosen sides, would not watch the Emperor depose the Crown Prince for the sake of their own interests and futures.
That would cause chaos throughout the Great Qing.
If Father were calm, he would never act willfully.
However, Father was currently in a fit of rage.
If he truly showed the intention to depose the heir, the wolfish ambitions of his brothers would never be suppressed again.
He had to show as quickly as possible that he had no intention of usurping imperial power.
He had to let Father calm down first before planning for the future.
Understanding this in an instant, he swallowed the blood in his throat and kowtowed repeatedly.
Soon, blood appeared on his forehead.
“If my position as the heir is deposed, the common people will surely speculate about the royal family, and Jiangnan will fall into turmoil. I have already committed a great error and would never dare to cause Father any more trouble.”
“I am willing to confine myself to my palace on the grounds of a serious illness. After a few years, when it is diagnosed that my body truly cannot sustain the responsibilities of the heir, I will personally request to be deposed. This will give Father time to observe the talents of Eldest Brother and the others before choosing a new heir. That way, it will not cause any impact on the state.”
“I truly know my mistakes now. Please, Father, give me a chance to redeem myself through service. When that day comes, I am willing to enter a royal temple and live a life of peaceful cultivation for the rest of my days!”
The hall was silent for a long while before Kangxi gave a cold huff of agreement, “Then you shall stay at Danningju for now. There is no need for you to come out for the time being.”
Once a dazed Yinreng was escorted out, Fang He finally rounded the screen.
She looked somewhat puzzled and asked, “Does the Emperor truly intend to wait a few years and give him a chance to slowly plot a way out?”
Fang He had been the Imperial Noble Consort for many years; she knew exactly how important the position of the heir was.
Even as the Emperor, unless one wanted the reputation of a faint-hearted ruler, it was not easy to depose a Crown Prince without a reason that could convince the people.
The heir was the next Emperor recognized by the subjects of the world.
From the moment a Crown Prince was named, the royal family constantly built momentum for him.
Even if he lost favor, as long as he was still the heir, he and the followers gathered by the Hesheri clan could still use his name to conduct business outside, especially in places where the Emperor’s reach was limited.
When that happened, no matter how the Hesheri clan and the Crown Prince tried to break the deadlock, only the common people would suffer.
Kangxi walked to the high seat with an expressionless face, looking at the memorial Zhao Chang had presented.
It contained evidence of Ling Pu secretly lending money at high interest in the Jingji Region and trapping officials entering the capital with “capital debts.”
Because it had only recently begun, the records were crystal clear under the investigation of the “Heaven” command.
When Fang He had seen it earlier, she had let out a surprised sound, “The official debts haven’t started yet? Oh… you haven’t moved against the Hesheri clan yet. My, the Emperor truly does love the Crown Prince!”
The capital debts targeted local officials.
These officials wouldn’t dare provoke Ling Pu, who had the Crown Prince as his backer, even if they didn’t borrow money.
But the official debts targeted capital officials.
The relationships in Jingcheng were intricate and tangled.
Without the endorsement of the Hesheri clan, Ling Pu’s status as the son of the Crown Prince’s wet nurse was not enough to intimidate them.
In the timeline Fang He came from, the brothers So’etu and Xin Yu had been dealt with by Kangxi early in the twenty-eighth year because they targeted her.
Only then did they have the time to collude with Ling Pu.
Here, So’etu was still standing firmly in the Court Hall.
Kangxi had not yet had the chance to deal with him.
The thought of the official debts, the capital debts, and the high-interest loans being distributed under the guise of the Crown Prince among the common people made a lump of blood stick in Kangxi’s throat.
It wouldn’t go up or down.
Hearing Fang He’s words, he sat at the high seat with a cold face.
His gaze was dark as he stared at the memorial, pondering how to handle the Crown Prince.
Even though he already knew what the boy had done and understood that Yinreng was not fit to succeed the throne, he did not want to truly hurl his son to his death all at once.
Not to mention, the influence of deposing an heir on the court, the common people, and the scholars was indeed something that needed to be considered…
Seeing Kangxi in silent contemplation, Fang He knew that at this critical moment, his fatherly heart had been stirred again by Yinreng’s tactical retreat.
He was considering a way out for the boy.
She said coolly, “Oh, I didn’t remember until I saw the Crown Prince. It seems that after So’etu was dealt with, the Crown Prince had secret dealings with Nala Chenghui, the deputy lieutenant of the Rehe Palace.”
Kangxi snapped his head up to look at Fang He.
Nala Chenghui was a member of Consort Hui’s clan—wasn’t that a joke?
Fang He smiled and continued, “This Chenghui was absolutely infatuated with the widow of a Niru under Prince An, Ma’Erhun. He was prepared to abandon his family and career to stay by the Crown Prince’s side and fight for the merit of supporting a new dragon. The Emperor is about to head to the Mulan Autumn Hunt, right? You should be careful of your safety — “
With a loud “bang”, Kangxi understood the meaning behind her words in an instant.
His pupils shrank as he suddenly kicked the table in front of him, shattering the solid wood desk into pieces.
Fang He shuddered in fright.