Chapter 8

Chu Wenjing is the biological elder brother of Consort Zhen and the uncle of the Fourth Prince. He is the only promising member of his generation in the Chu family.

Xue Jin'an knows of him; in the original novel, he served as the Minister of Justice. Initially, he was a loyalist who served only the Emperor and remained neutral. However, in the later stages of the story, as the Emperor aged and the struggle for the succession reached a fever pitch, he suddenly threw his support behind the First Prince. He targeted the Fifth Prince several times, successfully suppressing the rising star to the point where the Fifth Prince suffered a mental breakdown.

Not long after, the First Prince’s clandestine activities were exposed to the Emperor, leading to his titles being stripped and his confinement. His entire faction was demoted or dismissed, and Chu Wenjing was no exception. It was later rumored that he had died of illness.

Xue Jin'an never expected that simply observing the original characters would involve him personally. He confirmed that this plotline did not exist in the original book. After clicking through trending topics to piece together the situation, he began to understand what was happening.

It was previously mentioned that Consort Zhen and the original owner’s biological mother, Consort Zhou, were close friends who entered the palace one after the other. It turns out that the heads of the Chu and Zhou families studied under the same master, were classmates at the Imperial Academy, and later served together in the Hanlin Academy.

Even though their family statuses were mismatched—the Chu family being an established official household with three generations in the capital and an inherited minor title, while the Zhou family were merely scholarly farmers whose third generation finally produced a jinshi—they were close. They had even made a verbal agreement to become in-laws. However, after Master Zhou angered the Emperor and was demoted to Dianzhou, the matter fell through.

Although their fathers’ relationship had faded after Master Zhou’s death, the bond of childhood friendship remained. It was said that when Consort Zhou met her end, the Chu family initially tried to intervene, but then suddenly fell silent. Many speculated that the patriarch of the Chu family had stepped in to restrain his son.

Shortly after, Chu Wenjing fell gravely ill. The imperial physicians declared him incurable, and the Chu family sent him to his favorite garden to wait for death, even preparing his coffin. Unexpectedly, he recovered, and afterward, it was as if his potential had been unlocked—he began to work with intense dedication.

Originally a low-stakes official as the Mayor of the Capital—holding a high rank but little real power—he managed to turn the position into a powerhouse. He cracked a major human trafficking case, saved the daughter of Princess Baoyi, and caught the Emperor’s eye, leading to his transfer to the Ministry of Justice. At the start of this year, the former Minister of Justice committed a crime and was imprisoned, implicating half the ministry. Chu Wenjing emerged to seize the opportunity, becoming the new head of the Ministry of Justice.

People said Chu Wenjing’s sudden drive was born of trauma; he was determined to enter the Ministry of Justice to reopen the case of Consort Zhou. Now that he had finally found an opportunity, he was assassinated that very night. Not only was the culprit dead, but he himself was found unconscious in the Ministry’s dungeons. Had he not been discovered in time, he would likely have met his end.

"Lord Chu is truly deeply devoted to Consort Zhou!" Every trending topic seemed to confirm this, even going as far as spreading rumors with a misleading tag: #TheSeventhPrince'sParentage#.

It was clear that this was a public opinion war aimed at Chu Wenjing, intended to smear the relationship between him and Consort Zhou, casting doubt on his motives for investigating the case.

However, setting aside their relationship, none of the content definitively settled the case, instead obscuring the details and evidence. Often, a lack of denial implies confirmation. At the very least, Xue Jin'an was now certain that the case of Consort Zhou was suspicious. He was 70% confident that he could reconstruct the general events using the original owner’s memories, the novel's content, and various details.

Upon discovering that the initial timestamps of some trending topics were from yesterday, his confidence rose to 90%.

The situation was becoming clear: someone had discovered Chu Wenjing was investigating, caught the witnesses, and struck first.

Yet, if the opponent had the upper hand, why not simply kill Chu Wenjing? Why leave him alive to appeal to the Emperor? Were they so certain the Emperor would suppress the matter? And why act so blatantly—were they not afraid of the Emperor’s fury?

Even though the Emperor’s face looked grim while reading the memorials and his eyes were cold, he had only issued a verbal warning to Chu Wenjing, clearly intending to protect him. It did not seem like he was ignorant of the inner workings of Consort Zhou’s case—so why not take action?

Who was the mastermind behind the scenes? Xue Jin'an admitted that he was becoming curious.

He was also curious about another point: why was Chu Wenjing reopening the case for Consort Zhou?

Xue Jin'an was certain that Consort Zhou and Chu Wenjing were not close—certainly not childhood sweethearts—and the verbal marriage contract between the families had nothing to do with them.

His reasoning was purely based on their age gap. Master Chu married early, while Master Zhou, due to poverty, was still unmarried at twenty. He only became engaged to his master’s daughter after moving to the capital, marrying after his success in the imperial examinations. His daughter, Zhou Yuting, was born two years later.

In those times, men and women were kept apart, and the age gap made it impossible for them to be playmates. Trying to force a connection between them would have been a catalyst for enmity, not a marriage.

The verbal contract was most likely intended for Zhou Yuting’s brother, who was four years younger, Zhou Yushu.

When the case of Consort Zhou occurred, the original owner was five and had indeed met his uncle, but children often have fragmented memories. With the subsequent years of misfortune, the original owner barely remembered the past. Yet, the human brain is a marvel; forgetting does not mean non-existence—it is merely buried deep within.

If Xue Jin'an wished, he could exhume every day of the original owner’s conscious life.

In short, Xue Jin'an unearthed all memories of Zhou Yushu. Zhou Yushu was indeed a refined and elegant man, though physically frail from premature birth. Even after learning a few martial arts moves, he appeared sickly and suffered from nyctophobia, needing a candle by his bedside to sleep.

Zhou Yushu was brilliant with a photographic memory but had no interest in officialdom; instead, he was fascinated by the insects of Dianzhou, aspiring to be a biologist. Upon reaching adulthood, he stole away back to Dianzhou.

As a place of exile on par with Lingnan and Ningguta, its remoteness was evident. There was no news of Zhou Yushu in the original novel, and Xue Jin'an suspected that this "cheap" uncle might have died in some forgotten corner, or perhaps he was entirely unaware of the news from the capital.

After all, one could hardly rely on the speed of information transmission in ancient times.

Regardless, the two members of the Zhou family were not particularly close to Chu Wenjing. In his memories, they spoke of the Chu family with indifference. Since there were problems with Consort Zhou’s case, the role of Consort Chu as the "victim" was subtle. Perhaps she wasn't the mastermind, but her status as the "murderer" was essentially confirmed.

In this situation, why did Chu Wenjing want to reopen the case? And was his involvement in the struggle for the throne against the Fifth Prince related to this?

Could it be that Chu Wenjing was truly in love with the original owner’s mother? To drag his entire family down for one person—that wouldn't be "unlocking his potential," but "losing his mind." It made no sense, yet in novels, people often lose their senses for love.

As a smartphone, Xue Jin'an found it hard to understand humanity.

Unable to fathom it, he chose to let go of the remaining 10% of uncertainty; he was bound to win the probability game.

Xue Jin'an shifted his focus to the Fifth Prince.

The Fifth Prince, Xue Junjue; the Ninth Prince, Xue Zhuojian; and the Fourth Princess, Xue Ruyun were all children of Noble Consort Rong.

Noble Consort Rong was the cousin of the late Empress Xiaojingyi—the Emperor’s "white moonlight"—and a cousin from the Ningguo Mansion. Because her looks and temperament somewhat resembled the late Empress, she was highly favored. After Consort Zhou was deposed, she became the new favorite, though she was disliked by the Ningguo Mansion. The Empress Dowager had even fallen out with the Ningguo Mansion over her entry into the palace.

This matter involved the late Emperor. Simply put, the Empresses of the three Emperors of the Great Qi dynasty all came from the Ningguo Mansion, though the last two met tragic ends.

The late Emperor did not care for his three thousand concubines, but fell in love with a widow. Keeping her outside the palace was one thing, but he insisted on bringing her in as a Noble Consort and even wanted to adopt her child from a previous marriage and grant him a title. The Empress, eight months pregnant, was so enraged that she went into premature labor and died from hemorrhaging that night at the age of nineteen.

The current Emperor and Empress Xiaojingyi were a loving couple. The Emperor personally went to the Ningguo Mansion to propose, and the coronation and the empress-investiture were held simultaneously, giving her immense honor. The following year, the Empress gave birth to the eldest son, Xue Jue, who died in infancy. Two years later, she gave birth to the second son, Xue Zhang, who died at age two. Overcome with grief, the Empress fell ill and passed away that winter, also at nineteen.

Afterward, the Emperor sealed the Weiyang Palace and canceled a round of selection, refusing to bring new people into the palace for a long time. Whenever the topic of re-establishing an Empress was raised in court, the Emperor would fly into a rage.

It was not until the De Consort gave birth to and successfully raised the First Prince, Xue Luowen, that the selection finally resumed, and princes and princesses began to appear one by one.

The Emperor is now in his prime, and the princes are all young, the eldest being only fifteen—just the age to begin listening to affairs of state. Courtiers and concubines naturally dared not eye the position of Crown Prince yet, so they all hoped to vie for the position of Empress; after all, a child of the Empress inheriting the throne would be far more legitimate.

They assumed that after so many years, the Emperor would eventually name a new Empress and that the Weiyang Palace would eventually be unsealed.

However, Xue Jin'an, knowing the plot, understood that the Emperor never named another Empress until his death, and the Weiyang Palace remained sealed until it was consumed by the fire set by Xiao Luzi.

Thinking of it this way, perhaps the death of Consort Zhou was indeed about the position of Empress, and the one who benefited most was Noble Consort Rong. Her suspicion was indeed the highest.

Xue Jin'an noted this person. He looked at the live feed from the Imperial Study and decided that before he went to "drain" the Fourth Prince’s battery, he could first pay a visit to the Fifth Prince.

No, just to be safe, he would visit every prince.

As Xue Jin'an plotted how to scheme against them, he had no idea that the Qianyuan Palace and the Cining Palace were currently discussing him.