ITVCFITB CHAPTER 75

Chapter 75 – An Old Case Resurfaces

The Crown Prince, Li Mingze, had never imagined that the identity he flaunted, already shaky in name and right, would turn into a sword hanging over his head.

He couldn’t believe these words were coming from the empress.

His knees trembled. Clutching the table, lips shaking, he blurted, “Mother, what are you saying? Were you coerced? Do you understand this could drag me straight to hell?”

Porcelain rattled to the floor as he swept the tea set away. “If it’s been hidden for so many years, why not keep hiding it? If you don’t speak and Grandfather doesn’t speak, who else would know?!”

The empress flinched at his outburst. “Crown Prince, what are you doing?”

Prime Minister Yan patted her hand. “Let him vent. Anyone who heard this would rage.”

The empress covered her face. “My son… I didn’t want to tell you. But at this point, paper can’t cover the fire.” Rumors pressed from one side; the truth itself pressed from the other.

The prince laughed coldly, glaring between his mother and grandfather. “Why tell me now? Couldn’t you have waited until I sat the throne?”

Yan Xiang answered for her. “Because if we don’t tell you now, disaster may come sooner.”

“Why? What disaster!” He was already the heir. He’d long told himself the emperor either never suspected or chose not to. Still, he had wondered, his brothers resembled His Majesty in face, stature, or temperament; he did not. He had tried to mimic the emperor’s tone and methods, and just as he was about to kick open the final door, they told him he wasn’t a prince at all. No Li blood. No royal blood.

It was a cruel joke.

The Crown Prince of Great Xia, not of the imperial line.

A laughingstock, born of his mother’s premarital affair. For the sake of the Yan clan’s power, the royal bloodline had been muddied.

“Why tell me this shame now!”

“Because your true father disappeared a month ago,” Yan said bluntly.

“My true father? Why is that man still alive?!”

Yan looked startled by the response. “When your mother married His Majesty, we didn’t know she was with child. We realized it only after she’d entered the then Crown Prince’s manor.”

“Then why didn’t you get rid of me? Was an abortifacient too expensive for the illustrious Yan clan?”

“It was too late,” Yan said quietly. “When we saw the emperor hadn’t noticed, we… let it be. We wronged you, Crown Prince. I’m sorry.”

“Me? Crown Prince?” He stabbed a finger at himself. “Do you expect me to sit that seat after this ‘truth’? To covet what I have no right to?”

Yan’s voice grew grave. “No, we tell you because there is no path back. Either forward, or death. If your birth father appears before His Majesty, the truth will out. You will lose the title. The Yan clan will be implicated, nine clans executed. Your mother will face a white silk sash or a cup of poison. We have no choice.”

“We? Or I have no choice?”

“We,” Yan admitted. “At this point, neither of us can turn back.”

The prince sagged into a chair, pounding the table with his fist. “And I must keep pretending to be Crown Prince?”

“You must,” Yan said. “The Yan clan has no alternative. If you fall, whether Third or Fourth ascends, none of us remain. Worse, your bloodline may already be exposed.”

“Then why didn’t you kill that man when you had the chance?” the prince said, eyes going flinty. “End it, and there’s no problem.”

A chill went through Yan. He would kill his own father? What became of all those years of teaching benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom?

“You would murder your birth father?”

The prince’s smile turned razor-edged. “Grandfather, you want me to take the throne without royal blood, yet you keep my father alive as a handle for others to seize. Or what, do you plan to change the dynasty name from Li to Yan?”

So it wasn’t mercy that had stayed Yan’s hand; it was confidence, arrogance, that even if the man were found, the emperor could do nothing. The Yan clan, quieter than Lin’s had ever been, was also far more audacious.

The prince’s hope guttered out. He was a pawn. Telling him now wasn’t for his sake, but to keep him from acting against the Yan clan. Perhaps they were never truly afraid the emperor would learn the truth.

Too brazen.

He’d once thought the Lin clan the very definition of reckless treason. The Yan clan was worse, they had acted long ago. Perhaps since the day he was born. Perhaps since the moment Yan learned of the pregnancy. Perhaps earlier.

It wasn’t that the Yan clan had no choice; it was that he, the false prince, had none. He’d even played at the same tricks “civet cat for crown prince” like some hereditary sleight of hand.

Seeing his turmoil, the empress finally spoke. “Mingze, whoever you are, this realm will be yours.”

He sneered. “And you’re so certain Father knows nothing?”

The empress’s grief-hardened gaze turned steady, like always. “It hardly matters whether he knows. The fact stands.” Perhaps he’d known from the beginning, constrained by the Dowager, by the Yan clan, by his own still-growing wings. He had swallowed the insult, pretended ignorance, even handed over the Crown Prince’s seat. Had he truly not cared all these years?

Perhaps not.

But today they needed the prince yoked to the Yan clan, heart and hand. If he secretly pinned hopes on the Li line, that diverged from their purpose. Better to lay it bare.

Accept it or not, he could do little.

If he refused, would he run straight to the emperor? Unlikely.

If he accepted, then the Yan clan would take the realm from Emperor Tiansheng’s hands and place it in his.

They gambled the emperor still didn’t know. They had many plans besides, to be executed one by one.

Lin was gone. The Fourth Prince, now prancing center stage, was next on the list, a grasshopper in autumn, lively but not for long.

As for father–son affection between emperor and Crown Prince, the Yans had measured it well: cool at best. Within half an hour, they had the prince persuaded or perhaps he had merely seen which way the wind blew. Puppet under the Yan clan, or prisoner under the Lis, the endings were both cages, one gilded, one iron.

The empress and prince left the Yan residence separately and shut themselves away to think.

The next night was New Year’s Eve.

From his seat, the Crown Prince watched Emperor Tiansheng drink, watch performances, and trade pleasantries with consorts. The Fourth offered smooth compliments from the side. Laughter warmed the hall.

Looking at the man he had called Father for over twenty years, the prince suddenly found the emperor pitiable.

Why fret about producing heirs? This throne would inevitably be his, only his. He was grateful to be a Yan, grateful for their foundations. What did it matter whose child he was? Would the emperor announce to the world that the Crown Prince was a fraud?

Reassured by this logic, his expression eased for the first time in ages. He poured wine for the emperor, spoke amicably with the Fourth, even played the gracious brother to the lesser princes. The emperor noticed the change; the empress smoothed it over, saying her son was simply joyous for the holiday.

The prince was joyous. The emperor, less so.

By now, the prince and Yan Xiang were one body, acting under Yan’s direction. Knowing the truth of his birth, the prince also began to slacken in ways. When he had believed himself a Li, some part of him had strained to break the Yan yoke. Now the yoke was bone-deep. To tear it off would cost his life. Better to “submit to fate.” If the Yans took the world, he would be a puppet emperor. If they lost, he would still be “of the Li line” and likely be confined rather than killed.

He considered these two outcomes, but missed a third: the Fourth Prince, whom he and the Yan clan dismissed, would begin nibbling away Yan influence piece by piece.

Armed with the experience of toppling the Lin clan, the Fourth had already sent people to dig into the Yans, starting from their ancestral home. It was hard going; the Yans’ reputation was pristine. But every clan has a fool or two.

Unlike Lin’s corruption, the Yan case was bigger.

It touched an incident from over a decade ago, one that involved a former Vice Minister of Revenue who had been forced from office: Chen Sheng.

Luo Shuyu’s maternal grandfather.

Complicated, to say the least.

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Back then, Vice Minister Chen oversaw northern military provisions. Somehow, of the grain that arrived, only thirty percent was new; twenty percent was stale; half was sand and gravel. Half the quilted cotton was stuffed with straw. Half the pay silver was missing.

With neither food nor clothes, Gucheng fell. King of the Northern Garrison nearly froze to death in the snow, rescued only by troops from Lincheng. Ten thousand elite soldiers died. Civilians were slaughtered. The streets ran red.

The court reeled. Emperor Tiansheng, young and fierce, ordered a full investigation. The trail led to Chen Sheng.

Chen had always been upright, but the documents bore his signature and seal. Those implicated were executed or exiled. Thanks to the Left Chancellor’s pleading, Chen himself was spared exile and permitted to “retire” to his hometown as there was no proof he’d pocketed provisions, and subordinates can conceal things from a superior.

But the stain remained. All Great Xia knew. The Chen family became pariahs. This was why Luo Renshou had long disdained his Chen in-laws and neglected Luo Shuyu for years.

---

Even then, the case teemed with doubts. The emperor’s rage had swept wide: anyone found was punished. Now, to pursue the Yan clan, that old case had to be reopened.

Back then, the people punished were all linked to the Left Chancellor. The Right Chancellor, the Yan clan, seemed untouched.

But now, a Yan clansman had been found spending pay silver from that very batch. And with that, a hornet’s nest was kicked.

Every allocation from the treasury to the armies carried numbered marks, all recorded. Which lots were missing was perfectly clear.

The Yan youth swaggered into a brothel with those coins. The Fourth’s agents spotted it at once. Investigation showed him to be the grandson of the Right Chancellor’s full brother. In other words, a cousin of the Crown Princess.

The case had not yet gone public, but the Fourth had already uncovered plenty.

Before the Yans even sensed danger, Li Mingjin and Luo Shuyu received word.

Luo Shuyu never imagined his grandfather’s disgrace hid deeper rot.

A face flashed through his mind Chen Rong, who in his past life had refused to serve under the Fourth Prince.

---

Author’s Note:
Third Prince: Wife, en garde!
Luo Shuyu: Very well.
Third Prince: I’m still the big-shot CEO. I bought a seaside villa. On vacation, I meet you, disguised as a human. You fall for me at first sight and want to have little mer-babies, so on the beach we—
Luo Shuyu: Suddenly, I revert to my true form.
Third Prince: Spicy! You’re finally playing along, good boy.
Luo Shuyu: True form: fish head, human body. You’re so terrified you go… soft. From then on, you’re no longer a man.
Third Prince: Just kill me!
Luo Shuyu: Didn’t you say you didn’t want to die?
Third Prince: This time I beg for it!!!
Luo Shuyu: Nope.

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