Chapter 153 — On the Verge

Gazing at the corpses laid out in neat rows in the center of the main courtyard, Song Cen's chest seized up; with a great "urgh," he vomited everything he had eaten that morning.

The few men who had fled alongside Guard Xie were now mixed in among Song Cen's personal guards. Their faces were ashen; some vomited just as Song Cen had, some stood about at a loss, and others secretly regretted not having found somewhere to hide. Only Guard Chang still looked relatively composed.

But that was mere appearance.

In his heart, all was ice.

It's over. It's all over!

No wonder Gu Yu had been so agreeable!

So it was the Young Heir's trick to lure the tiger from the mountain!

By now the Ying Ducal Estate must have fallen into the Young Heir's hands!

What was to be done now?

His gaze drifted involuntarily to Song Cen, who, propped up by two guards, was still there vomiting.

The Duke... was irresolute in all he did; eight or nine chances in ten, he was a man one could not count on. Fortunately, the Ying Ducal Estate was, after all, the Duke's; these guards were dead, but more could be recruited, and they still had the retainers kept by the estate—their power to strike back was not entirely gone. Yet the Duke and the Young Heir were, when all was said, father and son; the Duke could not simply take the Young Heir's life, nor could the Young Heir commit an offense against his superior. If this affair blew up, the Duke would lose face and be stripped of all dignity, and the Young Heir could not escape the charge of filial impiety either. That was why the Young Heir had taken advantage of the Duke's absence from the estate to slaughter all these guards loyal to the Duke.

So long as the Young Heir still had misgivings, all was not lost!

The Ying Ducal Estate was, after all, the Duke's.

Guard Chang's heart was somewhat eased. He stepped forward, clasped his hands in salute to Song Cen, and said in a low voice, "My Lord, do you think we should dispose of these bodies as quickly as possible..."

To hear of a thing was one matter; to see it with one's own eyes was another. If too much time passed and outsiders caught sight of this, it would not do.

"That unnatural son! That unnatural son!" Song Cen cursed, his spirit utterly broken. Though his heart was unwilling, he had to admit that Guard Chang's words made sense. He could only nod and say, "You see to this matter—compensation and the rest, that's all easy enough to arrange."

With those words, it would be easy to handle.

Guard Chang let out a breath and assented respectfully, then added, "And the Young Heir, my Lord—what do you..."

"That wretch—what more does he want?" Song Cen stamped his feet. Yet a flash of panic crossed his eyes. "He's killed so many people; if I don't have him bound and delivered to the Shuntian Prefecture, that's already leniency on my part. What more does he want..." Yet he produced no plan at all for what was actually to be done.

Guard Chang could not help sighing inwardly.

The Duke's attitude toward the Young Heir... was nothing but... bluster over weakness!

He had no choice but to say, "Since the Young Heir dares to kill, he must have further moves in reserve. My Lord, should we not first think of a countermeasure?"

"Countermeasure?" Song Cen said blankly. "What countermeasure?" Clearly his mind was in a muddle.

Guard Chang said quietly, "Should we send word to Guard Meng to bring some men? And then there's the Young Heir... I wonder what the Duke intends? Even a cornered rabbit will bite; if the Young Heir throws caution to the winds... apart from Gu Yu, the Third Princess also comes and goes freely about the palace... If the Young Heir goes through them to lay a complaint before His Majesty, then even if His Majesty dislikes the Young Heir's impiety, I fear he will still inquire into the matter, and then what are we to say? The Duke had best make up his mind early!"

Though his words were delicately put, Song Cen understood them well enough.

Guard Meng was the one in charge of the Ying Ducal Estate's retainers.

At present they had only a handful of battered survivors left. If they did not quickly summon the skilled men under Guard Meng, and Song Yan used the pretext of thieves in the house to go on killing, these men of theirs would be no match for him at all.

And then there was the question of how to bring this affair to a close.

If they decided to move against Song Yan, then once Song Yan was pushed to desperation he would certainly go to the Emperor to pour out his grievances. They would then have to produce compelling evidence to prove Song Yan's misconduct; if they could not, they would have to find a way to quell the matter as quickly as possible.

At these thoughts, Song Cen shuddered involuntarily.

After Empress Wan had become mother of the realm, there had once been petty men who slandered the Crown Prince before the Emperor, saying he was unfilial. The Emperor flew into a rage and said, "A father's fault lies in lax discipline of his sons; a mother's in lax discipline of her daughters. Are you accusing Us?" He had every one of those who spoke such words dragged to the Caishikou execution ground and beheaded. Afterward he had said to him bitterly, "...These men do nothing but take advantage of the Crown Prince's loss of his mother in childhood. Nothing angers Us more than this!"

The Emperor held Empress Shen in the deepest respect. Only five years after Empress Shen's death from illness did he take the gentle and gracious Consort Wan as his new empress.

Lady Jiang had just passed away.

If Song Yan went before the Emperor to lodge a complaint, and he could produce no tenable justification, he feared he would have no good answer to give before His Majesty!

"You're right, you're right!" Song Cen wiped the sweat from his brow and hastily ordered Guard Chang, "Quickly, send word to Guard Meng to bring all his men..." As for what was to be done about Song Yan, he pursed his lips, his expression obscure.

To have become one of Song Cen's trusted confidants, Guard Chang must have had qualities that set him apart.

Some things could be said but not done; some things could be done but not said.

The relationship between the Song father and son belonged to the category of things that could be spoken of but not acted upon.

He could remind Song Cen, but he could not meddle in the affairs between father and son.

Guard Chang made his respects to Song Cen with due deference, dispatched a man to summon Guard Meng, and then, taking several guards with him, went off to deal with that heap of corpses that looked for all the world like so many naked challenges flung down before them.

The bloodshed in the main courtyard made Song Cen feel that the whole Ying Ducal Estate had become a slaughterhouse. Escorted by several guards, he took his rest in the side rooms beside the sedan hall where the bearers and grooms had once shaken the dust from their clothes.

By lamp-lighting time, Guard Meng arrived with more than twenty guards.

These guards were plainly more experienced at dealing with corpses than Guard Chang and the others. With their help, when the third-watch drum sounded—boom, boom-boom—the Ying Ducal Estate could, if one overlooked the faint smell of blood seeping through the water stains all over the ground, and overlooked the trembling looks on the serving women's faces, just about be counted as having returned to normal.

※※※※※

Song Dan, lying face down on the bed with a quilt over him and only a thin garment beneath, watched Song Han, who lay at the edge of his bed, with a smile: "It's so late, and you still haven't gone to sleep?"

Song Han squirmed at his brother's side. "Brother, I want to sleep with you!"

"No!" Song Dan said. "I'm in agony right now. What if you knock my wound in the middle of the night?"

Hearing this, Song Han carefully touched his brother's hand and said, "Next time Father beats you again, I'll go beg him to let you off!"