The princes all bowed again with their hands clasped, "We will carry out the imperial decree, long live our Emperor, long live, long live forevermore!"
Emperor Xiping waved his hand, "You all need to hurry and carry out your tasks. I am awaiting your victorious report."
The three replied, "Yes!"
The three of them bowed deeply, retreating backwards out of the Imperial Supreme Hall as Emperor Xiping’s gaze, ice-cold, bore down upon Shen Fa sweating profusely. After a moment, his eyes softened slightly.
He knew that the situation having gotten to this point was not entirely Shen Fa’s fault.
It was from a heart loyal to the Emperor and dedicated to the country that Shen Fa had cultivated and introduced that stubborn ass Yang Ge into the Brocade Guards; Shen Fa indeed had previously strongly remonstrated many times to restore that stubborn donkey to his post.
"Alas..."
Upon this thought, Emperor Xiping sighed deeply... such a useful man as a slaughterer, yet why is he so insubordinate?
But immediately, he extinguished the tiny flame of remorse in his heart, once again picking up two memorial petitions from the imperial desk and weighing them, he set down the one on the right and took up the one on the left with both hands, reading it eagerly, chewing over the words slowly and meticulously.
As for the petition he was holding, its opening sentence was: "Open your eyes and see the world."
Although it was the tenth time Emperor Xiping was reading that petition, halfway through, he couldn’t help but heave another sigh, as the tiny flame of regret in his heart threatened to revitalize.
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Even though he had never met the stubborn donkey personally…
Emperor Xiping knew that this petition wasn’t intended for Prince Ning, but for his ears.
He also knew that just after that stubborn donkey had delivered such an influential report, one that could change the present and earn praise for generations to come—titled "Open Your Eyes and See the World"—he turned around and chopped Prince Ning into four parts in public, displaying his head for all to see, in effect telling him, "I have no ill will towards you, I have no designs on your realm, my issue is solely with Prince Ning. Hereafter, you go your broad road, and I’ll cross my log bridge..."
He even knew that the stubborn donkey surely understood that once he struck at Prince Ning, whether Prince Ning deserved death or not, whether he wanted to kill or not, he would necessarily go to great lengths to make an example out of him.
Look, Emperor Xiping knew everything.
Yet, he still had to... at all costs, make an example out of him!
Even though he was well aware it would be difficult to actually capture that stubborn donkey and display his head, he still had to make an example out of him!
Such a precedent, could not be set!
"You, you see..."
He caressed the petition in his hands with affection, as the recently extinguished feeling of regret resurged, ’If only back then, if only at the beginning...’
"Ah!"
He listlessly put down the petition he was reluctant to part with, his gaze unfocused as he stared up at the great hall’s dome and muttered, "Not being those narrow-sighted fools, why can’t you just restrain that momentary anger?"
"Shopkeeper gave you a job as a lowly errand boy, yet you risked your life to repay that kindness."
"All the civil and military officials knelt at the palace gate to have you killed, yet I, at the risk of falling out with my subjects, did everything in my power to save you!"
"You were demoted to a common laborer, and I never forgot to bestow upon you holiday gifts, even personally arranging for them to be delivered into your hands!"
"Even when you killed Geng Jingzhong and his son, I turned a blind eye, pretending to know nothing about it..."
"Why can’t you remember even a little bit of the good I have done for you?"
"You ungrateful cur, heartless as a wolf, forgetting kindness and betraying trust, no sense of loyalty or filial piety, unfit to be called human..."
...
Elsewhere, Shen Fa and Wei Heng managed to get through their encounter with Huang Jin, their faces painfully switching to a smile full of forced cordiality. But as soon as they turned around, both of their expressions instantly became gloomy.
"What should we do?"
Wei Heng glanced at Shen Fa and hissed through clenched teeth, his voice as faint as that of a mosquito, "Are we really going to follow that old skin-flint and confront that little bastard? That kid is probably crazy right now, he won’t care who we are, whether I’m the Eastern Factory Supervisor or you’re the Brocade Guards Commander!"
Shen Fa’s face darkened. He suspected this damn eunuch was implying something about him and perhaps had even gathered evidence: "Just so the esteemed Supervisor knows, it’s just ’I’... there are no ’we’!"
Wei Heng was taken aback and then exploded in anger, "This mess you created, and now you want to wash your hands of it? If that little bastard really does kill me, I’ll strangle you first!"
Enraged and humiliated, Shen Fa thought to himself, ’Am I a fake Commander? Why does everyone seem to defecate and urinate on my head?’
"What do you mean, ’this mess I created’?"
He growled in a low voice, "Was it I who took that toad’s rank? Was it I who refused to restore his position? Was I the one unwilling to go down to Jiangnan to bring him back?"
"Enough of this useless talk!"
Wei Heng waved his hand impatiently, "Let’s talk about what to do instead. That little bastard may act crazy, but he never does anything without certainty. He dare to kill Prince Ning because he must have foreseen our descent to apprehend him. Given that he still dared to kill, it means he must have some assurance. If we just blindly rush in like fools, we may not die, but we’ll certainly be crippled!"
Shen Fa was even less patient, "Telling me all this is pointless. I am already bearing guilt, trying to atone for my actions is already too late, let alone considering other matters... You should take these words to Huang, both of you are from the Palace, it should be more convenient for you to talk!"
Wei Heng frowned tightly and took a deep breath, speaking solemnly, "I and that old skin-flint are not cut from the same cloth; we are wretched people with different paths, with nothing to say to each other."
Shen Fa looked deeply at him. The severe infighting among the eunuchs in the palace, lethal yet bloodless, was common knowledge in Heluo, not at all a strange tale, but today was indeed the first time he learned that the heads of the Eastern and Western Factories were actually eunuchs from two different factions.
But this also made sense; otherwise, why would there be a need for a Western Factory when there was already an Eastern Factory?