Free Web NovelChapter 1290: Chapter 1279: Illegitimate Son
"Your Majesty..." Ye Sheng knelt there trembling all over, his body shaking like a sieve.
"Bastard!" The old Emperor smashed an inkstone down. "Look at what you’ve done!"
"Your Majesty, I’ve been wronged, this humble Minister absolutely never said such things, how could I possibly harm my own son?" Ye Sheng cried his grievance in a wretched voice. "Besides, if my son were to be convicted, this humble Minister would certainly not escape either. How could I do something that stupid?"
"But weren’t you the one who got drunk last night? Weren’t you the one babbling nonsense? So many people heard it — are you saying all of them misheard?" The old Emperor knew that with Ye Sheng’s cowardice he’d never dare do such a thing, but she was simply furious — furious at his loose tongue, furious that he strutted around relying on his son’s merits.
"A frame-up, this is definitely a frame-up, it was Mr. Zhu and Lord Lan. I was going to go home right after the palace banquet yesterday, but they insisted on dragging me off for drinks, they coaxed and tricked me into saying those words. Your Majesty, you must redress this injustice for your humble Minister!" Ye Sheng might crave power, but he was extremely timid; now he was sobbing with tears and snot running, and the old Emperor found him utterly repulsive.
"No matter whether they had ulterior motives or not, the fact remains that you couldn’t control your own tongue. From today on, you’re not to attend court anymore. Stay at home and reflect on yourself properly."
Ye Sheng was scared pale on the spot by those words. Not let him attend court? Could it be that his Duke title was going to be stripped as well?
The old Emperor, although not stripping his Duke title, grew more and more incensed the more he thought about it. How was someone like this fit to be Minister Ye’s father?
Perhaps it was because he had been suppressed and beaten by the barbarians for too long, or perhaps because Ye Qiu had rejected the attempts by several of his sons to draw him in; now that he was middle-aged, he was becoming increasingly suspicious, always feeling that everyone was coveting his throne!
Mingming his body was still very healthy, Mingming he could still push the Daru Dynasty toward a flourishing golden age; whoever coveted his throne was opposing him. Someone like Minister Ye was just fine — he chose none of his sons, he just kept being his pure minister, as if he believed he could keep going for decades more.
Which Emperor would dislike a capable minister who harbored no disloyal intentions?
Precisely because he was so satisfied, the old Emperor was all the more displeased with Ye Sheng’s behavior this time. Even confining Ye Sheng to quarters didn’t ease his anger; he continued to sneer coldly: "How can there be a father like you, who ruins his child’s future? When Minister Ye returns to the capital, you will split the family estate and set up a separate residence from him! So you don’t drag him down again in the future!"
"Your Majesty!" Hearing the Emperor say this, Ye Sheng wished he could crawl into a hole in the ground from shame. Was this saying he was unfit to be a father? To be personally ordered by the Emperor to split households — how would others see him?
But did Ye Sheng dare to contradict him? He didn’t. At this moment he regretted it bitterly. He had finally gotten others to envy and fear him, only for it to all be destroyed overnight. It was all because of those two colleagues — why did they have to drag him out drinking? Maybe this whole thing was something they deliberately set up to frame him!
At the same time, the old Emperor was suspecting the same thing, because with Ye Sheng’s courage he still wouldn’t dare, whereas Ye Sheng’s smug, triumphant manner yesterday was very likely to provoke jealousy.
Normally, the old Emperor rarely meddled in the private squabbles between his Ministers; as long as things didn’t get too big, he couldn’t be bothered. But Ye Qiu was the Minister he valued most. If these two wanted to frame Ye Sheng, so be it, but they even wanted to drag Ye Qiu down with him?
"Summon Zhu Tong and Lan Xie into the palace for me."
The eunuch hurried off to transmit the edict, secretly sighing to himself. He thought, whatever Mr. Zhu and Lord Lan’s goal was yesterday, today they were probably doomed. In this capital, there are some things you just can’t say recklessly.
In fact, once they learned that the story was spreading wider and wider, and that there were even Imperial Censors ready to risk their lives to remonstrate, Zhu Tong and Lan Xie were scared out of their wits. They had only wanted to teach Ye Sheng a lesson so he wouldn’t get so carried away, but they never imagined it would blow up like this.
And what they’d coaxed Ye Sheng into saying wasn’t even that, either! The two of them sat at home uneasy and on edge; when they received the imperial summons, their legs almost gave out from fright.
When they entered the great hall, sure enough, the old Emperor was looking at them with a face of icy coldness. The two of them hurriedly knelt down. "Your Majesty, this Minister is guilty!"
"So you still know you’re guilty? Look at what you’ve done. Minister Ye is still on the border killing enemies, and you smear him like this. Are you trying to chill the hearts of the border generals and soldiers? Are you trying to make Me a sinner through the ages?"
Those words were grave; the two almost pissed themselves from fear, their foreheads knocking crisply against the stone tiles of the hall. "Your Majesty, this Minister absolutely never had such intentions. We were just drinking a bit of wine yesterday, babbling drunken nonsense, that’s all. Someone deliberately misled things, someone behind the scenes wants to destroy this Minister and Lord Ye. Please, Your Majesty, see the truth clearly!"
The old Emperor said nothing, only watching them with cold eyes.
The other quickly added in explanation: "We only said that Marquis Ye must have had helpers on the barbarians’ side for things to go so smoothly — those words were absolutely twisted by others. With Marquis Ye’s great military merit, how could that be fake? We wouldn’t dare say such a thing!"
The old Emperor narrowed his eyes, his suspicions deepening. If these two hadn’t done it deliberately, then someone must have used their hands in the dark. Who could it be? And what was the purpose?
But whatever the case, the trouble these two had stirred up could not be lightly forgiven.
"With minds so petty, how are you fit to serve the court? Today you can frame a courtier out of jealousy; tomorrow will you be able to secretly harm Me?" the old Emperor thundered.
The two Ministers were terrified and kept kowtowing. "Your Majesty, we absolutely never had such intentions, we wouldn’t dare, we truly wouldn’t dare!"
"Yet you did it anyway. In consideration of your past service, I will not implicate your families. Go and submit your retirement and return to your hometowns."
Their faces turned ashen, but they understood this was already the result of Your Majesty’s leniency. They couldn’t help regretting bitterly — why had they insisted on giving Ye Sheng a little lesson yesterday? Being able to have such a son was his ability! What were they jealous of?
They hadn’t managed to hurt him, and instead had ruined themselves. How were they supposed to face their families when they went back?
After the two resigned, the old Emperor swiftly moved to suppress the rumors in the capital, and issued a strict decree reaffirming that Ye Qiu was a war hero of the court, forbidding anyone from spreading any news detrimental to Ye Qiu. If discovered, it would all be handled as treason.
With those words, who would still dare discuss Ye Qiu? Treason meant extermination of nine clans!
Besides, since the Emperor was willing to shield him so strongly, Marquis Ye clearly had nothing to do with the barbarians; otherwise he would have been punished long ago.
In this Capital City, for the sake of that little bit of power, there truly was no trick people wouldn’t use. This tactic of false accusation was nothing surprising; everyone was only curious who it was that wanted Young Master Ye’s life so badly.
By the time Ye Qiu received the news from the capital, half a month had already passed and the uproar had died down. When he learned of it, he merely gave a faint, mocking smile. He didn’t know who the person behind it was, but he knew that person was probably just testing his weight in the Emperor’s heart — he just didn’t know whether that person was satisfied with this result or not.
