Chapter 6: An Eye For An Eye

In the middle of enjoying himself at Lichun Garden, Lei Shengda received an order to present himself to the emperor. He dared not slacken as he entered the palace. Seeing Rong Tai, he hurried forward, looked at him with some nervousness, and asked cautiously, “Grand Steward, why has His Majesty suddenly summoned me?”

Rong Tai shook his head. “General Lei, you’ll know when you get there.” He then led Lei Shengda toward the training ground.

After only a few steps, Lei Shengda still felt uneasy and asked again, “Grand Steward, I haven’t made any major mistakes recently, have I?”

Rong Tai gave him a long look, sympathy in his eyes, and said only, “General Lei, I wish you all the best.”

Lei Shengda, who had been only slightly apprehensive, grew even more nervous at those words from Rong Tai.

At the training ground, Fang Rui had long since heard Lei Shengda’s approaching steps. He looked over the row of weapons: he first picked up a sword, frowned after holding it, and put it down, then picked up a broadsword.

It was still too light, so he set it down again.

His gaze skimmed past spears, bows and crossbows one by one, finally resting on the spiked club. After a long moment he took the spiked club down, hefted it, showed a satisfied expression, and decided on it.

Lei Shengda entered the training ground and was dumbstruck at the sight of Fang Rui in black, holding the spiked club. What did His Majesty intend to do?

Knowing Lei Shengda had arrived, Fang Rui turned around and gave a slight, somewhat kindly smile. “My good General Lei, you’re here. You can accompany me for some practice.”

Hearing it was only to spar, Lei Shengda breathed a quick sigh of relief. Fortunately it wasn’t a summons to account. But… His Majesty intended to use a spiked club as his weapon?

Wasn’t that spiked club more suited for someone like him? Didn’t His Majesty usually use lighter weapons?

Lei Shengda truly thought Fang Rui only wanted him as a sparring partner. After all, his strength was great, and many generals in court were no match for him. It was only natural that the Emperor would ask him to spar…

An hour later… Lei Shengda realized this was no mere sparring. It was a fight for his life.

Only now did Lei Shengda see how absurdly wrong he had been: this wasn’t practice, the Emperor was trying to cripple his left arm!

Lei Shengda had once been a ruffian in the wilderness. It was because Fang Rui had personally brought him into the fold that he submitted. He possessed tremendous strength but had chaotic technique and many weak points. After submitting to the court he received instruction and fewer weaknesses remained, but inevitably his form was still disorderly.

Fang Rui was the late emperor’s most beloved son, well-versed in both civil and military affairs, and had campaigned with the army for years. Though his strength did not match Lei Shengda’s brute force, he excelled in seeing through all of the general’s weaknesses.

Lei Shengda was suited to battlefield slaughter, not one-on-one duels.

The twenty-kilogram spiked club felt in Fang Rui’s hands like an ordinary wooden stick and he swung it without effort. After his arm was struck repeatedly by the club’s force, Lei Shengda, a mere brawler, could not withstand it. After stumbling back several steps he suddenly fell to his knees. “Y-Your Majesty, I was in the wrong!”

What was pride? Lei Shengda didn’t know it anymore!

A strong gust swept by and the spiked club came to rest beside Lei Shengda’s left arm. Fang Rui arched an eyebrow in puzzlement and asked, “My good General Lei, why do you suddenly confess? What fault have you committed?”

Lei Shengda was nearly in tears. Your Majesty! This beating is Your Majesty telling your servant he did wrong!

Whether he had actually erred or not, confessing first was the lesson Lei Shengda had learned since becoming an official.

Fang Rui put the spiked club away, tossed it casually, and it landed precisely back in its original place, causing the rack to shake violently.

He gave Lei Shengda a cold glance, some of his anger cooled. “Rise.”

Lei Shengda cautiously cradled his injured arm and stood, studying Fang Rui’s expression carefully, and asked nervously, “Pardon my boldness, but Your Majesty, what exactly did I do wrong?”

Fang Rui had calmed down quite a bit, but when he heard that Lei Shengda had taken advantage of Shen Yu and yet was oblivious, his anger flared again. He glanced at him. “What is this, not going home yet? Do you want to spar with me some more?”

Lei Shengda immediately shook his head, his voice ringing like a bell, “I take my leave!”

Watching Lei Shengda flee in panic, Rong Tai shook his head. General Lei, you should not have patted Lord Shen on the back with your left hand, you should not have invited Lord Shen to drink at the brothel, and you certainly should not have taken Lord Shen’s hand—the worst of all is that these three acts were done outside the palace gates.

This was like digging your own grave without realizing it.

Watching Lei Shengda’s fleeing figure, Fang Rui rolled his eyes and snorted in disdain.

Rong Tai handed a handkerchief to Fang Rui, who used it to wipe sweat from his neck. Rong Tai asked curiously, “Your Majesty, your martial skill seems even stronger than before.”

At this, Fang Rui was slightly startled and stopped wiping, stretching out his hand. He had just realized that not only were his hearing, sight, taste, smell, and touch much more acute, his strength and martial ability had also increased considerably.

Was this some kind of compensation for him?

“Your Majesty, while you were sparring with Lei Shengda, the watchers by Anyi Palace sent word that Minister Wang just went to Anyi Palace.”

Half a month ago, Fang Rui had instructed Rong Tai to closely watch every movement around Anyi Palace.

Wang Zhongyuan going to see the Empress Dowager was expected. After making a grunt, Fang Rui asked Rong Tai, “How are the tasks I assigned to you progressing?”

“Your Majesty, the tasks you arranged have already been set in motion,” Rong Tai replied. The task Rong Tai had begun was exactly what Fang Rui had mentioned: if they could topple the head of the Department of Prudence, that post would become Rong Tai’s.

“Continue surveillance.” The Empress Dowager had not seen him in the past half month, she probably suspected he was waging a cold war with her.

Two days before Fang Rui’s rebirth, the Empress Dowager had him begin selecting concubines. In his previous life, Fang Rui had been indifferent to women and disliked the selection process. In this life, he knew what had really happened. He had been foolish enough to allow the Empress Dowager to place another large contingent of her people into the palace because the poison in the soup was clouding his mind.

Moreover, since he had already decided to bring Shen Yu into the palace, why would he need so many people in the harem? To prevent him and Shen Yu from being affectionate to one another?

So what was the point of the selection process?

“Besides the surveillance, help me investigate one more matter.”

“Your Majesty, please instruct your servant.”

“The Ministry of Personnel, Minister Chen.” If the trajectory of his previous life hadn’t been disrupted, targeting the Ministry of Personnel was the right entry point.

Tomorrow, the one to impeach Shen Yu will be Minister Chen of the Ministry of Personnel.

Fang Rui squinted slightly and curled his lips. If the path he walked in his last life was strewn with thorns, in this life he would cut those thorns down one by one and pile them at the doorsteps of those who planted them, letting them taste the pain of being pricked all over.

He would force-feed them the bitter fruits of the evil seeds they had sown.

…

Night fell again. Rong Tai entered carrying the tray with three jade slips and placed them on the outer room’s table, as if there was nothing more to ask.

Rong Tai walked into the inner hall and saw Fang Rui beginning to change into a servant’s uniform.

“Your Majesty, are you going out again?”

Fang Rui glanced at him and said, “Isn’t it obvious enough that I’m dressed this way?”

Rong Tai didn’t know how to answer that. It was…indeed quite obvious.

After dressing, Fang Rui felt his sleeve and realized the little packet of dried fish had fallen out. He instructed Rong Tai, “Bring over the dried fish tribute from Persia.”

Although he didn’t know what the Emperor intended to do with the tribute fish, Rong Tai knew that the dried fish the Persian envoys brought were extremely precious. Only members of the Persian royal family could enjoy them.

If Rong Tai knew His Majesty was feeding them to General Lei’s household cat, he’d surely suspect the Emperor had slipped something into the fish.

Each time, an inner attendant of no small rank under Rong Tai carried the Grand Steward’s token to lead Fang Rui out of the palace, while Rong Tai stayed behind to adapt as needed.

Fang Rui had three hours to do as he pleased.

He climbed from the abandoned houses in the alleys up into the general’s mansion courtyard. Waiting for the patrol to leave and about to jump from the abandoned yard into the neighboring Grand Guardian’s residence, he heard Lei Shengda’s complaints.

“Ow, be gentler! Are you trying to murder your husband?” Lei Shengda’s voice was rough and coarse.

It seemed Lei Shengda’s concubine was dressing his wounds.

“General, did you do something wrong again that caused His Majesty to strike you?”

“How should I know what I did to anger His Majesty! I was confined for a month and was only just released. What mistake could I have made?!”

“Then why did His Majesty hit you so hard?”

“How should I know! Maybe His Majesty took out some grievance from the Empress Dowager on me!”

Fang Rui’s lips curled nastily as he restrained the urge to go in and thrash him again. He took a deep breath and turned to leave, but something furry brushed his foot.

Fang Rui looked down and saw the white cat curled on his shoe, contentedly rubbing against his trouser leg.

He never had to seek it out. This cat always came to him on its own.

“Meow~” The cat lifted its head. Its nose was pale pink, and a soft pink paw scratched its ear. Its blue eyes were wide and round too. Combined with its plump shape, it looked utterly adorable.

“Really like a furball.”

He knew the cat’s taste well. He took out a little dried fish, and placed it on the ground. The cat didn’t even sniff this time and immediately chomped down.

With food, it was content and let others pick it up.

He again followed the old route and leapt into Shen Yu’s courtyard. Just as he landed and was about to continue with executing his diversionary tactics, the cat jumped down from his arms and sauntered into the corridor.

Fang Rui heard footsteps in the corridor, glanced at the cat and secretly smiled. Feeding this cat for so many years had not been in vain.