The Glory After Rebirth

After snatching the messenger’s letter and coercing him into pretending to have already delivered it into the imperial palace and not to breathe a word of this matter to anybody, the King Hui returned to his residential compound in a great hurry, hastened into his study, shut the door and read the letter from the head star-watcher to the emperor once again.

The King Hui, restraining his excitement, muttered to himself, “Even the head star-watcher says so. It seems that my sister’s dream was indeed a herald as well!”

“Guards, get my aides here!”

The King Hui had a couple of aides living in his residential compound, all of whom were very much in his confidence. These people gave counsel to him, sharing life and death with him. The King Hui believed that they would never betray him, so he confided to them the Ninth Princess’ dream and what the head star-watcher said in the letter.

The look on his aides’ faces turned from shock to rapture and then a mixture of nervousness and fright.

“Your Highness, originally this could’ve been unbelievably good news, but now it has come to the knowledge of the head star-watcher. You intercepted this letter today, but how could you intercept a second one? We must make sure the head star-watcher keeps his mouth shut about it,” an aide said immediately.

Certainly the King Hui himself was also aware of this. Earlier this day when his eyes had fallen on that letter, he’d felt a great thrill and broken out in a cold sweat. Had his father been informed of the head star-watcher’s prophecy, given his suspicious mind, he would no doubt figure out a way to have this potential usurper executed, though he wasn’t really a big fan of star-watchers.

“I’ve already sent some men to stake out the Star Observation Platform, keeping their each and every move under surveillance. The head star-watcher must die, but my father would definitely order an investigation into it if he dies a sudden death, so this matter has to be handled with great caution, and it’ll take a lot of doing,” said the King Hui.

His aides exchanged glances. They could see the mixture of delight and concern on each other’s faces.

“Your Highness, there could be many a slip between the cup and the lip, so I believe we should seize the initiative and strike first!” suggested one of the aides.

“That’s right. There’s no telling whether there will be a second head star-watcher after this one is down. Also, somebody else with knowledge of astrology might foresee this as well and report it to His Majesty. In that case, there’d be nothing we could do, so we might as well launch a pre-emptive strike before anybody could react,” another aide also said.

“We haven’t made any preparations whatsoever. It’ll be too hasty,” said a third aide.

The King Hui hadn’t made any remarks so far. On the surface, he was sitting in his seat listening to his aides’ opinions with utter composure, but excitement had actually been bubbling inside him for quite some time. As a matter of fact, on his way back from the imperial temple, he had already made a decision – striking first before the prophecy came to the knowledge of his father.

But as regards how to do it, as one of his aides had said, they were totally unprepared.

“Your Highness, once you take action, the King Duan, the King Yu and the Crown Prince would definitely come to stop us like wolves smelling blood. Moreover, His Majesty is still in good health. Unless we adopt special means, he–”

“Then we adopt special means!”

“But we could give this matter further thought, made a long-range plan and confound our rivals step by step. If we are to suddenly face them all at once, what kind of special means could we possibly find to defeat all of them?”

Finally, the King Hui knitted his eyebrows in spite of himself. “Making a long-range plan is no longer an option. For us, that prophecy is not only a good omen but also a death sentence. Once my father or any of my brothers finds out about it, we will meet our ends in no time.”

All his aides lapsed into silence. In other words, making their move as soon as possible was their only choice!

After a short while, one of them said through gritted teeth, “Your Highness is right. Things came to this too suddenly. We must take this path wherever it might lead us. For Your Highness’ great undertaking to succeed, we must create opportunities if there aren’t any in sight!”

On hearing this, the King Hui inclined his head, very pleased. Even wealth couldn’t be achieved without taking risks, let alone a position representing supreme power and utmost glory!

“Your Highness, our original plan is to cooperate with the Wan Kingdom. Do you think we could still join hands with Shan Congwen in these circumstances?” said an aide.

“Indeed, Shan Congwen has at his disposal some marksmen and also powerful crossbows suitable for assassination. Maybe he could lend us a hand,” another aide commented.

The King Hui pondered over it for quite a while. “That might not be a bad idea. I’ll contact Shan Congwen. Also, I’ll talk to my mother and my uncle about it. But first I need you to figure out a way to create that opportunity for me!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

...

Shan Congwen was astounded by the letter from the King Hui.

“Your Highness, why did the King Hui decide to make his move so suddenly?” his henchman was very confused.

Shan Congwen also had a puzzled look on his face. “Something must have happened. Go and make some inquiries immediately! Find out whether there was any recent news spreading in this city that we neglected!”

“Yes, Your Highness! And, should we reply to the King Hui in the affirmative?” said his henchman.

Shan Congwen coldly snorted. “Zhou Mingci wants us to help him take the throne when there is no marriage contract or a solid alliance of any form between our two families. He really should stop kidding himself. Just ignore him. Ascertain what it was that had made Zhou Mingci rush into a decision like this.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

The next day, the one sent to make inquiries returned to the courier hostel.

“Your Highness, there haven’t been any special occurrences in the capital city lately, and none of the other sides have taken any action.”

“Impossible. Something definitely has happened. What’s Zhou Mingci been doing these days?”

“He just paid a visit to the imperial temple... By the way, previous to his visit to that temple, he had stated that for him to cooperate with us, we had to kill Ling Zhang first, but after his return from the temple, he suddenly changed his mind. Could it be that something happened in the imperial temple?”

“Then what are you waiting for? Go and find out!”

Meanwhile, the King Hui, who had written Shan Congwen a letter but hadn’t received any replies so far, was rather anxious and soon sent another man to sound Shan Congwen out.

Shan Congwen, seeing the King Hui was in such anxiety, fell even more dismayed, but on no account would he take any precipitous action without knowledge of what had happened exactly.

Shan Congwen made an ambiguous reply. The King Hui immediately came to know what Shan Congwen meant after reading it.

“What does Shan Congwen think he’s doing? Not long ago he was fawning on me trying to convince me to cooperate with him, but now he’s adopting a totally different attitude!” The King Hui was both angry and afraid – angry with Shan Congwen’s fence-sitting, and afraid that Shan Congwen might disclose his plan to usurp the throne.

“I think you might as well pay Shan Congwen a personal visit, Your Highness,” an aide of his suggested.

The King Hui, though indignant, took his aide’s advice eventually.

Shan Congwen’s men returned from the imperial temple empty-handed, which sent him even more restless.

It was not until after having a meeting with the King Hui that Shan Congwen came to know the reason.

He found it hard to believe that there was a prophecy saying Zhou Mingci was to be the next emperor.

Shan Congwen immediately understood why the King Hui was so anxious, but he was still hesitating, because he couldn’t put his trust in the King Hui, though the reason had now come to his knowledge.

“I think you know very well what I desire. Yuwen Tong’s head is the only thing I want in return for helping you take the throne. If you refuse to kill Yuwen Tong after ascending the throne by dint of my assistance, wouldn’t all my efforts be in vain?” said Shan Congwen.

The King Hui remarked, “Under no circumstances will I break the promise I made you. When I become emperor of this country, Yuwen Tong naturally will be a mortal malady for me, one I will stop at nothing to eliminate even without my promise to you.”

Shan Congwen was hesitant, for this had happened so suddenly and he kept feeling that there were so many uncertainties.

Shan Congwen replied, “Please give me some time to consider this. I know time is not something you have in abundance. You shall have my reply by tomorrow at the latest.”

The King Hui was disgruntled, but there was nothing he could do about it. He said, “This is a golden opportunity. As long as you offer me help, all terms of our previous deal will remain unchanged, and I’ll fulfill all my promises to you, but if you give up this opportunity, the consequences...”

Shan Congwen’s face slightly changed.

...

In the Ling Mansion.

“Zhou Mingci did have an audience with Shan Congwen, but neither of them has taken any action after such a long time. Surely they’re still going to take the bait, aren’t they?”

Ling Zhang, after hearing the message sent back promptly by Yao Yi and the others, was deeply worried. Not long ago, when Yuwen Tong had told him about the plan, it had struck him as very ingenious, but now neither Zhou Mingci nor Shan Congwen had made their move, so he feared that they might not rise to the bait.

Yuwen Tong said, “There’s no doubt that Zhou Mingci will fall prey to the trap. It’s probably Shan Congwen who’s being the problem. He is worrying that Zhou Mingci might refuse to hold up his end of the deal after he helps him.”

Ling Zhang asked, “Then what do we do?”

Yuwen Tong thought for a while and then said, “Shan Congwen’s going after two goals. The first one is to kill me, and the second one is to throw the Great Yue into disarray and make a puppet of the new emperor. If one of these two is achieved, he would no longer have that many misgivings.”

Ling Zhang furrowed his brow. “If one of these two is achieved?”

The having sensed something, he asked, his countenance slightly changed, “What do you want to do?”

Yuwen Tong said, “Help him achieve the first goal of his.”

An I-knew-it expression appeared on Ling Zhang’s face, but the problem was that it was Yuwen Tong’s life that Shan Congwen wanted to take.

“I’ll just pretend to be severely wounded and is close to death,” said Yuwen Tong.

Ling Zhang felt that even this was very difficult. “But how? Once word gets out that you’re injured, there’ll be an unbroken stream of people coming to sound you out. How are you going to fool all of them? On top of that, in what way will you be able to keep up the pretence of a serious wound without arousing people’s suspicions?”

Yuwen Tong replied, “Most people are easy to fool. After the incident in the hunting ground in the western suburbs, they all believe that the Wan Kingdom wants me dead, but this time around, apart from them, we also have to trick Shan Congwen, which will take some other finesse.”

Then he added, “Actually finesse is not important. What’s important is the fact that I’m seriously wounded and dying.”

As a result, this time Yuwen Tong had no intention whatsoever of playing any elaborate tricks. He planned to directly arrange an assassination and then fake grievous injuries.

On that very night, the whole capital city was thrown into confusion – Marshal Yuwen had sustained severe wounds in an attempted assassination and was at his last gasp.

Shan Congwen was briefly dumbstruck as the news reached his ears. “Yuwen Tong is dying?”

“Yes, he is rumored to be ambushed by some assassins. Their emperor has hurried to the Ling Mansion bringing with him a large group of court physicians.”

Shan Congwen had a subtle expression on his face, feeling both overjoyed and worried that this was some kind of subterfuge. He instructed, “Figure out a way to get some definite information about this. I need to confirm Yuwen Tong is really dying!”

Meanwhile, the King Hui, who had also received the news, was almost delirious with joy, feeling that this was help from heaven!

“If Yuwen Tong really dies, Shan Congwen would no doubt join hands with me, and it’ll spare me the trouble of eliminating him after my enthronement, too. Divine intervention – this is definitely divine intervention!”

“Your Highness, we must confirm as soon as possible that Yuwen Tong is really dying from grievous wounds. We cannot afford any mistakes.”

“You are right. We need confirmation.” The King Hui exercised all his self-restraint and recovered himself.

Very soon, the threshold of the front doors of the Ling Mansion was worn smooth by shoes of a steady stream of visitors coming to pry. As regards Yuwen Tong’s injury, even physicians of the imperial hospital found it incurable. It seemed that he was really near his end.