Chapter 66: Exemplar of the Upright and Pure!

They say a scholar's tongue is sharper than a blade, and this was especially true of Gu Jiaojiao, an official of the Censorate renowned for his unyielding uprightness.

With just a brief remark, he had pinned a rather serious charge on Lan Yu.

Well...

Strictly speaking, it was not an official crime, but if one were to face such an accusation under normal circumstances, clearing one's name would be no easy feat for Lan Yu.

Yet today, Lan Yu merely offered a disdainful smile and glanced at Gu Jiaojiao.

Then, before anyone could react, he raised his hand...

*Slap!*

A crisp, resounding crack echoed through the Fengtian Hall.

Gu Jiaojiao stood frozen in place for a long while before coming to his senses. His eyes turned red as he glared at Lan Yu, filled with bitter hatred and malice.

A moment later, with a heavy thud, he dropped to his knees and looked up at Zhu Yunxiu, his voice choked with tears.

"I implore Your Highness to dispense justice for your servant! The Duke of Liang has defied the late Emperor's edict by engaging in private commerce, and worse, he has disrupted court order and assaulted a high-ranking official of the imperial court. This humble servant begs Your Highness to punish him for the crime of great disrespect."

After all, Gu Jiaojiao was an official of the Censorate. With matters having escalated to this point, Ren Taiheng, as the Chief Censor of the Censorate, had no choice but to step forward.

"Your Highness, this old servant likewise implores Your Highness to punish the Duke of Liang for arrogance and for disrupting the order of the court."

With Ren Taiheng taking the lead, the remaining officials of the Censorate, along with many others on good terms with him, stepped forward one after another, demanding that Zhu Yunxiu punish Lan Yu.

Lan Yu looked at them coldly, a scornful smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

Others might not know who truly stood behind the mortal paradise of the "Realm in the Heavens," but he, Lan Yu, knew it crystal clear.

To accuse him right in front of the very person who owned the place was nothing short of pipe dream.

Naturally, Lan Yu was not the type to take a blow without fighting back. He looked at Ren Taiheng and the others, sneering, "Ha! Ren Taiheng, don't think I don't know why you're all attacking the Realm in the Heavens today. Isn't it simply because you can't stand others cutting into the profits of your own brothels?

"You are, after all, a second-rank official of the imperial court, the Chief Censor of the Censorate, and the leader of the upright literati. How could you stoop to such shameless behavior?"

He was not only tearing away Ren Taiheng's fig leaf but also reminding Zhu Yunxiu of Ren Taiheng's true motives.

They were trying to use the power of the state to crush the Realm in the Heavens so that their own businesses could flourish once more.

Understanding dawned on Zhu Yunxiu. He exchanged a glance with Lan Yu, nodded slightly, and then turned his gaze back to Ren Taiheng and his cohorts.

"Lord Ren, is this true?"

***

*Thump.*

Ren Taiheng's heart skipped a beat. He glanced back at Lan Yu, hardened his expression, and shook his head defensively. "Your Highness, it is not true! This old servant has always conducted himself with integrity; how could I ever commit such disgraceful acts?

"The Duke of Liang is merely framing me—"

"Oh? Framing you?" Zhu Yunxiu's tone remained unreadable, devoid of joy or anger. "Framing a second-rank official is no trivial matter. Even though the Duke of Liang is my maternal great-uncle, this affair must be investigated thoroughly and clearly."

"Song Zhong."

"This humble servant is here."

"Go immediately and retrieve the intelligence gathered by the Embroidered Uniform Guard regarding the backgrounds of all the brothels and pleasure houses in Nanjing. Search carefully and see if there are any establishments secretly controlled by Lord Ren."

"Understood."

"Your Highness, no... please, no."

Just as Zhu Yunxiu's order fell, Song Zhong's response rang out simultaneously with Ren Taiheng's frantic plea.

Ren Taiheng's face turned beet red. He cast a beseeching look at Song Zhong before dropping rapidly to his knees once more.

"Your Highness, this old servant... this old servant does indeed secretly control a pleasure house, but that establishment is a refined retreat for literary gatherings and does not engage in fleshly commerce!" Even on the brink of ruin, he was still struggling to defend himself.

Primarily, Ren Taiheng had never expected the Embroidered Uniform Guard to be so idle as to investigate the proprietors behind the brothels; caught completely off guard, he had been ambushed.

"Oh! Lord Ren truly is a paragon of scholarly refinement and elegance," Zhu Yunxiu said with an ambiguous smile.

*Pfft—*

As soon as those words left his mouth, ripples of laughter broke out among the faction of military officers.

Normally, whenever they, the nobility, engaged in some business venture, they were incessantly impeached by the officials of the Censorate, a torment beyond description.

Today, having finally caught Ren Taiheng in a vulnerable spot, they were naturally unwilling to let the matter drop so easily.

"Ren Taiheng, you shameless old hypocrite!" Zhu Shou was the first to leap forward, pointing straight at Ren Taiheng's nose for a direct confrontation. "To think you still boast of being a paragon of the pure literati! In my eyes, you're the absolute paragon of shamelessness. What damned refined retreat? Don't think I've never set foot in your Peony Pavilion. When it comes to the art of flute-playing, I daresay not a single brothel in the entire capital can compare to your establishment!"

Immediately following, Zhang Yi chimed in with a chuckle, "Hahaha! Zhu Shou, that's where you're wrong. The art of flute-playing *is* a form of refinement, after all! How can you so viciously slander the Chief Censor?"

"Hahaha!" The nobles burst into unified laughter, their knowing yet disdainful gazes making Ren Taiheng wish he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

Not knowing how to defend himself any longer, he simply lowered his head in defeat.

***

At that very moment, Song Zhong drove another dagger straight into his heart. "Your Highness, there is no need to retrieve the documents! This humble servant recalls clearly that Lord Ren directly and indirectly controls four brothels of various sizes within the capital.

"Among them, the Peony Pavilion is the largest; that single establishment alone brings in over ten thousand taels of silver in revenue every month."

*Puff—*

Unable to withstand the blow any longer, Ren Taiheng spat out a mouthful of stale blood.

His body swayed unsteadily, and he collapsed unconscious.

The Censorate officials fell into a flurry of panicked motion. Shortly after, under the diagnosis of the imperial physician, Ren Taiheng's eyelids fluttered, yet he refused to open his eyes.

He was unwilling—and far too terrified—to wake up.

During the reign of the founding Emperor, regulations explicitly forbade court officials from engaging in commerce or visiting brothels and pleasure quarters for amusement. These very two clauses were the ones the Censorate most frequently used when impeaching the nobility.

Yet now, not only had he engaged in commerce, but the business he ran was a brothel.

This was tantamount to profiting from the nobility while simultaneously stabbing his own financial benefactors in the back.

Ren Taiheng was genuinely terrified that if he woke up, those brainless military brutes would tear him limb from limb.

"Hmph! Carry Minister Ren away and tend to him properly. I shall wait for him to wake up and give me a reasonable explanation," Zhu Yunxiu remarked. He had long since seen through Ren Taiheng's feigned unconsciousness, but he chose not to expose him.

Before officially taking over the reins of government, he had held a shred of favorable regard for these fellows—though much of that had initially been a strategy to win over the civil bureaucracy.

Yet after these past few days, Zhu Yunxiu discovered that these figures destined to be remembered in history were nothing like what they appeared on the surface.

Outwardly, they wore the masks of moral paragons, but behind closed doors, their corruption and depravity surpassed anyone else's.

Especially the officials of the Censorate and the Hanlin Academy, who fancied themselves paragons of purity; the sordidness of their private lives made Zhu Yunxiu's blood boil with suppressed rage.

If not for the acute shortage of available talent at present, Zhu Yunxiu would have gladly launched a thorough and ruthless purge of the court before his formal enthronement.

As the old saying goes: a train runs fast only because of the engine at the head.

With officials like these, whose bellies were filled with corruption and hypocrisy, it would truly be a miracle if the Ming Empire ever flourished.