The matters of the inner manor, even if more than one person died, in those men’s eyes, it was still just small quarrels. If it touches something he cares about, then perhaps he might get involved, and the method was usually just simple and crude. If there were certain restrictions, then perhaps he would even speak some truths, but if he had absolute authority at home, then sorry, whoever his heart leans towards is who he’ll unscrupulously help. Even if the others stomp their feet in anger, they could only just swallow their grievances.

In their eyes, important matters only resided in the imperial court. Aside from those that truly harbored the common people of the world in their hearts, the rest, even the matters of their own jobs, all may not necessarily be put to heart. Eagerly seeking fame and profit, climbing on this one, and making friends with that one, all for the sake of gaining benefits for their own clan, attempting to climb even higher, and obtain unparalleled power. They didn’t have the ability to open up new territory, expand the battlefield, and get conferred into nobility. So they just hope to rise a level higher from their merits to the throne.

Today’s important matter of the imperial court was none other than yesterday’s fire at the flower market. Because the fire wasn’t put out in time, and not dealt with properly, the entire flower market was practically all destroyed, with severe casualties. If it were said to be an accident, then the most unfortunate was probably the fire rescue army, and perhaps also the city defense squad. But it was very obvious that this was an arson case, because at the scene of the fire, there were too many corpses. Because of the severity of the matter, after the large fire was extinguished, the task of arresting the perpetrator was handed over to the capital’s local magistrate, Right Fu Feng[1], and Left Feng Yi[2], these three officials to jointly investigate and handle.

Just, in this short 24-hour period, even if all three of them took all the people of Jing Zhao Fu[3] and worked strenuously day and night, by the morning court session, they still didn’t have the slightest lead. In fact, they couldn’t even figure out the identities of those that died.

The capital’s magistrate’s eyes were filled with blood veins, as he knelt upon the palace hall, while being violently berated by Le Cheng Emperor.

The capital’s magistrate was also very helpless. The corpses’ burns were truly too severe, even the coroner couldn’t get too much information out of it. It’s unknown whether they were burned to death, or thrown into the fire after they had died. And they couldn’t find any other clues at the scene of the crime either, very much like everything was purposefully erased. Everything all pointed towards having been caused by someone, but they just couldn’t find any evidences. The more it was like this, the more confusing it became.

However, in actuality, there was quite a few people in the palace hall that actually knew the ‘truth’ of the matter. However, because there was no evidence, each and every one all kept silent, yet inside, perhaps they’ve long given their regards to the other party’s ancestors a few hundred times already.

That’s right, the third prince, Rui Qinwang was determined that it was the eldest prince, Kang Qinwang’s doing. And Kang Qinwang was also determined that it was Rui Qinwang’s doing. And as for the pawn who still didn’t even know he was a pawn, the poor bug, fourth prince Gong Qinwang, he also was determined that it was one of the two, or even both temporarily working together only to trap him. Inside, he hated that he couldn’t have their skins stripped and their tendons cut. The power in his hand was already relatively weak in itself. The damage this time, to him, wasn’t considered small at all.

(T/N: ….don’t these three all have the same ancestors though)

Besides these three, the second prince died young, fifth prince was sickly, hardly ever going out, and sixth prince Li Hong Yuan didn’t concern himself with anything. For him to be able to come to morning court once or twice out of ten times was already pretty good in itself. Right now, he was also not present. The remaining princes that have already reached age 16, all stood in their respective spots, looking down to their noses with their heads lowered. Regardless whether they’ve secretly casted themselves under a certain powerful brother, or also had their own ambitions, and regardless whether they knew the inside story of this matter, or completely didn’t know anything, they all do not intend to get involved. After all, one misstep, and they might bring disaster upon themselves. Being pushed out to be the scapegoat was light, but losing their little life would be too much of a loss.

The people of each faction naturally weren’t idle. Even if they didn’t have anything to do with matter, they would make something up. Otherwise, they’d bring out any teeny tiny trifling matter to attack the opposite party, mutually digging pitfalls for one another. If the master they vowed loyalty to on the surface and in secret weren’t the same person, then they were even more unbridled in pulling hate with all their might. In any case, the one that would actually suffer would only be their master on the surface anyways.

Because there were rarely wars, the military generals compared to the literary officials were even more weak in influence. But that bunch of old crude man, among them with Qin Tian Ming being the first to stand out, directly used their fist as soon as they got into a disagreement. Even if he’d once been dragged out and beaten with the rod by Le Cheng Emperor before, he was still unrelenting.

Le Cheng Emperor felt a splitting headache from the quarreling. The important matters still weren’t getting taken care of, and the matter was getting more and more off track. “Enough!”

The palace hall that was originally noisy like a marketplace instantly quieted down.

“Ministry of Justice and the Judicial Court will coordinate with Jing Zhao Fu to investigate this matter. Time limit is three days, if you can’t give this emperor a satisfying outcome, all related personnel will forfeit their salary for three years. If there’s someone that’s slacking and not putting in the effort, their official rank will be demoted by one rank, then sent back to reflect for three month. End of court.” Le Cheng Emperor finished saying this with a cold face, and then directly stormed off.

“Respectfully seeing off your Majesty.”

Those that weren’t involved all cupped their hands towards their colleagues and appropriately retreated out of Feng Tian Hall.

As for the head officials of the Ministry of Justice, Judicial Court and Jing Zhao Fu, they all headached. Just what was all this? The most innocent was Head Magistrate Diwu. As the head magistrate of the Judicial Court, he’d just happened to be present at the scene yesterday, and just happened to belong to the neutral faction too. Regardless who the masters behind the Head Minister of Justice and the Capital’s Magistrate were, there was not the slightest pressure in going to him. In short: ‘Sir Diwu, not only were you present at the scene, your investigation abilities are also top notch. The most capable people do the most work, if there’s anything you need, feel free to say.’

Never mind the capital’s magistrate, who occupied a fourth ranked position, his position itself was lower than the Judicial Court’s Head Magistrate to begin with, so for him to speak a bit flatteringly, couldn’t be faulted. But you, the Head Minister of Justice, don’t you feel shame in saying something like this? Head Magistrate Diwu looked to him with a cold eye. Unfortunately, the other party’s face was super thick, not feeling ashamed in the slightest, and his entire face was written full of the words ‘thank you for your trouble’.

Head Magistrate Diwu coldly snorted. It wasn’t false that he was a hard bone to pick, but he wasn’t the kind that liked to take complete charge either. He was clearly aware that if this matter isn’t taken care of properly, it won’t be as simple as just losing one’s salary and getting demoted. If it really was the battle of the princes behind this, might even lose one’s life. Who would be so stupid as to take on that responsibility alone? “It’s better to respectively take action on our own today, then gather to report tomorrow. Naturally it’s for the best for the matter to be taken care of well. If not, then continue investigating. If there’s nothing then everyone will all be fine. If there’s something, then everyone will shoulder it together.” Circling around the two, he quickly caught up to Luo Pei Shan. Although Luo Pei Shan only resided over the Ministry of Rites, Head Magistrate Diwu never underestimated his abilities. He was also present yesterday. Perhaps by asking him, he can get some relatively useful suggestions.

The two met up, and Luo Pei Shan just knew what he wanted to do. He waved his hand, blocking all his words, and just meaningfully gave the Head Magistrate Diwu the words: “His Majesty wants a result he’s satisfied with.”

Head Magistrate Diwu blanked. ———A result that his Majesty is satisfied with might not necessarily be the truth of the matter. Head Magistrate Diwu’s complexion darkened. He more or less wasn’t able to give what his Majesty wanted. Then, he only needed to work according to his own methods, and just have the matter investigated and cleaned up. Whether or not he was able to get results all didn’t matter. Besides, for him, even if he just went through the motions, his Majesty simply wouldn’t care. In contrast, if he were to dig up some things his Majesty didn’t want to see, like brothers of the imperial family fighting one another and disregarding human life, then that would be a major scandal. With this method, at most he would just be punished by forfeiting his salary for three years. This punishment neither hurt nor tickled.

After thinking things through, Head Magistrate Diwu naturally didn’t worry anymore, and went to do what he needed do.

At the same time, Gong Qinwang had stopped his two older brothers, and spoke with a fake smile, “Two imperial brothers rather makes this younger brother feel all the more impressed.”

Kang Qinwang and Rui Qinwang naturally knew what he was talking about. After all, in this game of ‘mantis stalking the cicada with the oriole coming from behind’, Gong Qinwang, from the start, was precisely that unlucky cicada. It was obvious he just didn’t know who had attacked him. In a flash, Kang Qinwang and Rui Qinwang both thought of pushing the matter onto the other party, and join hands with this fourth younger brother to bring down the other. Then, it would be much easier to turn around and bring down this good fourth brother afterwards. Their true acknowledged opponent was each other. Fourth brother was nothing more than a tool to balance and ease the tension when they were fighting to no end.

Kang Qinwang’s thoughts were particularly bold. After all, Rui Qinwang still had misgivings towards the Left Commander-in-Chief, Qin Tian Ming, behind Gong Qinwang, but Kang Qinwang knew that the Left Commander-in-Chief was actually loyal to himself, and this fourth brother was just a dancing clown, not worth a cent. Towards this, Kang Qinwang can be said to be extremely pleased with himself. How would he know that he himself was also a clown played around by someone else.

“Fourth brother……” Kang Qinwang and Rui Qinwang practically spoke at the same time. Subsequently, at the same, they also looked to one another. Can’t say they understood a hundred percent, but seventy to eighty was still there. They didn’t need to say much to already know the other’s intention. Very good, now they can’t say anything. Then, they can only just take care of it privately, just see who has the ability to drag fourth brother to their side. One smiled boldly and ostentatiously, and one smile reservedly and elegantly.

Gong Qinwang was so angered his liver hurt. That kind of ‘mutual understanding’ between these two, completely not taking him seriously and casting him aside, made him hate that he couldn’t directly have them torn apart alive. Belittling him, looking down on him? On what basis? Just where was he worst than them? Just wait and see, there will be a day, where he’ll viciously stomp them under his feet and watch them wag their tails begging for pity.

[1] Right Fu Feng – name comes from ‘fu zhu feng hua’, which means ‘to assist public morals’; along with the other two similarly is in charge of law enforcement, just each presided over different jurisdictions.

[2] Left Feng Yi – name comes the phrase meaning ‘to assist the capital’

[3] Jing Zhao Fu – ‘Jing Zhao’ is just another word for capital of a country, and Fu means seat of government. This is the office of the Magistrate.

T/N: Every time Gong Wang is referred as a poor bug, I laugh. Though I really love the politic side of this novel. It’s really amusing to see the princes fight each other and completely ignore ML.