Chapter 114 The World as a Chessboard
The Su family.
Su Xueyi had been slapped in the face, the finger marks were deep, and since he had strong self-esteem, he naturally had to take a few days of leave.
Su Xueyi paid attention to his appearance. Ying Xi didn’t want to see him either, and they were in agreement; the monarch granted the leave very quickly.
The Prime Ministerâs Mansion had high walls and deep courtyards. There had been a commotion all night last night, but no crying or shouting from Yin-yin was heard today.
Su Xueyi felt relieved for once. Thinking Su Yin was asleep, he also closed his eyes with a heart full of depression.
“Your father is stupid, greedy, and detestable, with great ambitions but little talent. You are not allowed to learn from him.”
Slap!
His palm swelled up a high layer.
Su Xueyi was in a daze, feeling a burning pain in his palm. He raised his eyes and found that he seemed to be kneeling on the stone bricks of a courtyard in wintry, snowy weather.
He looked up again and met his mother’s sallow skin and freckled face.
“Mother…”
“Recite the Chapter on Setting Standards. One mistake, one strike of the ruler.”
Su Xueyi opened his lips, and his voice flowed out.
“Wrong.”
“Recite the Ordinance on Deciding Affairs again. Recite carefully, not like just now!”
Su Xueyi straightened his back and recited again.
“Wrong.”
Slap! Slap!
The strikes of the ruler hit Su Xueyi’s palm ruthlessly. Blue and red marks crisscrossed.
Madam He said with frustration at his lack of progress, “The world constrains women to be faithful until the end and doesn’t allow them to turn back. I have endured all the infamy by marrying your father; do you want to be the son of a traitor to the state?”
“He is not the backbone of the Su family; you are.”
“You must be capable. In court, you shall be a general or a minister; in retirement, you shall roam the four seas.”
The corners of Su Xueyiâs mouth twitched.
In his memory, his mother was always very strict. If a book was recited incorrectly, he would be punished; if a character was written incorrectly, he would be punished. Punishments were many and praises were few, which made him do everything urgently, quickly, and accurately.
His mother was truly extraordinary, broadly learned and versatile, and he was not as good as her.
Every time after the punishment, she would teach him well, allow him to play for a while, and add more of his favorite dishes.
His mother’s punishment came from deep love. Su Xueyi could understand.
Su Xueyi smiled and held out his palm, saying, “Mother, I recited it incorrectly on purpose just now. I know youâre already dead, and itâs not easy for you to visit me in a dream. Mother, hit me once more.”
Madam He stared at him, her stern expression gradually fading, and her eyes gradually filled with tears.
Madam He touched Su Xueyi longingly.
The outstretched finger turned into a faint silhouette, and Madam He retreated ethereally.
Su Xueyi knelt and moved to keep her, his knees dragging two long marks in the snow. “Motherâ”
The villa instantly turned into a surging sea of fire!
It was said that the fire was caused by the improper use of a charcoal brazier; the midwinter was dry. The villa was far away, and the servants simply couldn’t call the fire brigade in time.
Several loyal servants tried to put on wet clothes to force a rescue of the mistress. The fire was larger than imagined.
The loyal servant died in the fire, unable to break into the core of the blaze.
Before her death, Madam He tightly wrapped Su Yin in a quilt, broke open the skylight, and threw Su Yin out of the fire.
The bamboo building collapsed, and Madam He was buried in the raging fire.
At that time, because Su Bei had become Prime Minister, Su Xueyi remained in the capital to serve as a proofreader in the Palace Library. He had temporarily moved out of the villa and returned to receive the news of his mother’s death, leaving behind a half-dead sister.
“Mother…”
“Eldest Young Master! Young Master!”
Su Fuâs voice was not loud, but he shook him hard. Only then was Su Xueyi pulled out of his nightmare. A Liuding Liu-jia talisman fell from his pillow, and he slowly opened his eyes.
Su Xueyi was usually busy with official duties and rarely had the chance to sleep recklessly; today, the red sun was already slanting in the west.
“Is it very late?”
“Young Master just had a nightmare.” Su Fu said, “Youâve been sleeping for too long. This servant had to wake you up. Will Young Master eat before sleeping again?”
“Go get the bronze mirror.”
Su Fu laughed inwardly. The Young Master paid a lot of attention to his appearance, and recently seemed even more concerned.
Su Fu thought that the Young Master had reached the age for marriage and probably had someone in his heart.
Which heavenly maiden could make their Young Master look up to her?
Su Fu said, “Here.”
Su Xueyi studied the finger marks on his cheek and massaged them gently. “What happened while I was asleep?”
Su Fu replied, “Itâs being talked about everywhere in the city. His Majesty has completely implemented the imperial examinations and has forcefully rejected all the opinions of the opposition. Itâs said that when the decree was publicly read in the West City, the list of recommendations was burned on the spot.”
The light in Su Xueyiâs eyes brightened by a few points. Good Majesty.
Ying Xi never compromised, whether it was with the opposition or his own advances.
If things couldn’t be settled, if he was annoyed, he would flip the table.
If anyone dared to provoke him further, he would surely deploy troops.
The only one in the world to be reveredâYing Xi was the true Son of Heaven.
Regret made Su Xueyiâs throat bitter, while longing made him redouble his efforts. He licked his lips and said, “Continue.”
Su Fu thought about it. “The old women and maids in the back courtyard were whispering that the disciples of each branch returned from court looking disheveled. I investigated carefully; His Majesty is forcing the court ministers to take sides.”
“Those who obey the decree will go to prepare for the Grace Exams, and those who don’t will continue to remonstrate.”
“His Majesty then exposed He Lou on the spot in Weiyang Palace, not giving him a shred of face.”
“The few who were close to He Lou were scared shitless and hurried to clear themselves, biting each other. In the end, they dragged our family into it, and someone even reported that the Master gathered the patriarchs of the noble families to slander the court.”
“Later, everyone said so.”
Su Xueyi sat up and stepped on the Liuding Liu-jia talisman.
“And then!”
Su Fu: “Temporarily… thereâs no evidence…”
Su Fu stammered: “We flatly deny it, and the other families aren’t clean either. Unless someone truly had a ‘favorable ear’ and heard what was discussed in the small reception room at that time, theyâd all have to go to hell together.”
“The disciples of each family started scuffling, so the matter has been put aside for now.”
Su Xueyi took a long breath.
“Only…”
“Only what?”
Su Fu said sincerely: “When you were asleep, the Master had an appointment and just went out. Everyone was huffing with anger.”
“This servant boldly guesses that itâs still to meet those few noble family patriarchs because I heard there is one last plan.”
“‘This plan uses the world as a chessboard and will surely make Ying Xi yield.'”
“Amitabha, may the Young Master forgive me. This servant is repeating it as it was said; I didn’t dare directly call the Emperor by his name.”
Su Xueyi suddenly stood up.
A layer of cold sweat seeped from his pores. Su Xueyi always had an extraordinary demeanor, but at this moment, he couldn’t help but stagger a few steps.
The world as a chessboard!
â”Has he gone mad???”
Su Xueyi said in a lost voice.
Su Xueyiâs face was pale, his expression almost in a daze. Su Fu had never seen such a state before.
He was about to offer a few words of comfort.
Su Xueyi arranged: “You go get my official robes. I must immediately confess and plead guilty to His Majesty.”
The Eldest Young Master had always been arrogant, but he was exceptionally cautious toward the Emperor.
The Emperor had indeed stripped their Su family of its interests and hadn’t given the Su family a good face.
Su Fu couldn’t help but have some emotions.
“Eldest Young Master, wouldn’t doing this ruin the Master’s plan? What if the Master and the others succeed?”
Su Xueyi hurriedly dressed in his official robes, seeing through his father’s wishful thinking clearly.
“In a contest between noble families and the monarch, if public opinion doesn’t work, the only way is to use financial power to shake the monarch’s power.”
“He just wants to touch the salt and water transport!”
“Although the salt fields are state-run, the appointed officials are all people from the noble families. In a while, all the salt fields will shut their furnaces, the salt workers will go on holiday, and the salt supply in Guanzhong will be cut. The price of salt in Chang’an will surely skyrocket.”
“Grain will be collected in the south, and the grain boats will be held back from turning into the Wei River. After the Great Granary is empty, the price of grain will soar in a few days.”
Su Fu murmured: “…The prices in Chang’an have already risen; can people still live?”
Su Xueyi said chillingly: “The point is to not let people live.”
“They will either have to open the state granaries, cutting off imperial and military rations, or wait for the noble families’ grain shops to release grain.”
“Hungry people won’t remember the Emperor who opened the imperial exams for them. A major revolt is imminent; the officials are driving the people to rebel.”
“That would be like holding a knife to his neck; His Majesty would then negotiate with the Master and the others.” Su Fu was horrified.
This move involved several provinces.
It truly could be considered using the world as a chessboard!
It seemed that the realm that had just been settled was about to be thrown into chaos by the noble families and clans.
Su Fu had self-interest but also humanity; his throat rolled.
“Young Master, will the Master win?”
Asking was fine.
Thinking about it, Su Xueyi smiled but not with his eyes; he couldn’t even find the right words for sarcasm.
Refined and superior as he was, he blurted out a crude remark.
â”Win my ass!!!”
Su Fu took a few steps back.
Su Xueyi said sharply: “Ying Xi has soldiers!!!”
The sleeves of Su Xueyiâs official robes whipped up a layer of clear light.
He pointed to the back courtyard: “The idiots think that by dealing with the Yuantai Emperor, they might be able to scare him because the Yuantai Emperor was even stupider.”
“Where the salt fields are, there are Ying Xiâs Imperial Guard stations.”
“Even if they deploy private family soldiers to control the Grain Transport Office, there is the navy in the south that Ying Xi just straightened out.”
“If the price of grain in the city skyrockets, do you think the Emperor wouldn’t dare dispatch the Dragon Martial Guards to directly seize it?”
Even he could not force that Majesty to submit.
The idiots were risking their lives!
Su Xueyiâs fingertips trembled:
“The Emperor won’t kill him; heâll wait for my father’s actions to cause a major disturbance, then kill him. At that time, all the people will rejoice, and not a single soul will be left in the Su family.”
Su Xueyi was far more authoritative to Su Fu than Su Bei.
Su Fu was convinced and felt his legs go soft.
But Su Fu still had a lingering sense of hope and said, “The logic isn’t hard; surely not all the noble family patriarchs failed to notice.”
And they still had to cooperate with the Master to set this trap…
“Because he is the one who sticks his head outâthe chicken that will be killed later to warn the monkeys.”
If it succeeded, it succeeded; if it didn’t, he would die.
The others would then tuck their tails between their legs and behave.
Only then did Su Fu understand. A cold sweat slowly seeped from his forehead. “Then… then Young Master… hurry to see His Majesty…”
Su Xueyi: “Pack your things. Take Yin-yin and hide for a while.”
If there was anything left in the current Su family that was worth protecting and cherishing, it was only this sister.
Su Xueyi urged Su Fu.
Su Fu shook his head. “It was Young Master… when you were resting, the Master had already sent someone to take the Young Lady away.”
“!!!”
“How could youâ”
Yet he couldn’t blame Su Fu. Su Xueyi retracted his voice.
It was he who still harbored illusions about his father, thinking that since his sister had already lost her mother, she shouldn’t lose her father too.
Su Xueyi had never taught Yin-yin to guard against her father.
If his father held Yin-yin, it was no different from holding his own weakness.
Then how could he let go and surrender to His Majesty?
The idiot had truly cut off the Su family’s last chance at life!
Su Xueyi stood in the bedroom, his expression hesitant.
Su Fu suddenly asked unsurely: “Young Master, if you strongly support the Master, do we have a chance to win?”
Su Xueyi was momentarily stunned.
The competitive nature in his character made him involuntarily imagine the thrill of doing so; a contest between experts had its own flavor.
The excitement felt like an electric current running through Su Xueyiâs body.
But that was only for a moment.
The breath Su Xueyi had taken slowly escaped.
He didn’t have much hope.
His power came from that Prime Minister’s seal. Using his identity as the Right Prime Minister, he could find temporary refuge and could also deploy a portion of the Imperial Guards.
But even his stupid father knew to control his own variables; how could His Majesty forget?
Furthermore, as for that portion of manpower, unless a successful assassination could be carried out, it would be nothing more than “striking a stone with an egg” to Ying Xi.
Su Xueyi took a deep breath.
His fear had not yet dissipated.
His person hadn’t even made it out of the mansion gate.
The gateman reported that the eunuch delivering the imperial decree from the palace had arrived and had already entered the courtyard.
Su Xueyi had no choice but to go out to receive it.
He received the decree, and the bright yellow scroll slowly unfurled.
He looked up at the silk surface embroidered with dragon patterns.
The five-clawed golden dragon was high-spirited and vigorous, its pressure intimidating.
Unknowingly, he moved his gaze toward the dragon’s sharp claws and fangs, then spread to the grand wind and thunder behind the dragon’s body.
Su Xueyi pursed his lips.
Across the imperial decree, he listened to Yu Lianjing’s high-pitched voice:
“Prime Minister, you did not attend court today and do not know that you have been hit with many impeachment motions. According to the law, you should reflect on yourself at home.”
“The Prime Minister’s seal is suspended starting today. Please wait well at home for His Majesty’s instructions.”
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