Chapter 598: Questioning the Eunuch Faction, Becoming the Eunuch Faction |
The sun was three poles high (late morning).
The Director paced back and forth with his hands behind his back under the plaque of the Imperial Academy of Medicine.
He walked a few steps, stopped for a bit, looked up toward the entrance of the Alley, then walked a few more steps, and stopped again.
Completely disregarding his appearance, the Vice Director lifted the hem of his clothes and sat on the high threshold of the Imperial Academy of Medicine: "Lord, Liu Chun has gone and who knows when he will return. How long are you going to walk at the doorway?"
Hearing this, the Director stopped his footsteps, glaring with a pair of ox-like eyes and saying stiffly: "I am worrying about Liu Chun's safety."
The Vice Director, unable to open his eyes under the strong sun, used his hand to cast a shade: "He received an order to conduct a Property Confiscation. What danger could there be?"
The Director sneered: "Who knows if the words of the one in the main hall count? I've heard that he's only a Gyrfalcon. On what basis can he order the Twelve Zodiacs to do things? What if the Eunuch Faction Breathes Through the Same Nostrils and doesn't buy his account, and instead escorts Liu Chun into the Inner Prison and destroys the Account Book? Wouldn't Liu Chun be in danger then?"
Hearing this, the Vice Director was startled; the Director's words also made some sense.
Although Chen Ji held the noble rank of Viscount, he couldn't control the Directorate of Ceremonial. His position in the Secret Spy Division was merely a Gyrfalcon. On what basis would Jiao Tu and Yun Yang go conduct a Property Confiscation just because he told them to? Let alone that the one surnamed Li was the adoptive son of the Directorate for Imperial Use Superintendent.
What use could Chen Ji's Medical Prescription with only a name written on it have?
Just as the Vice Director was about to say something, from the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of a figure flashing out at the entrance of the Alley.
Registrar Liu Chun came running back, the hem of his Official Robe carried in his hand, revealing the patched old trousers underneath. Seeing the Director from afar, he raised his hand high and waved desperately, running entirely out of breath.
The Director went forward to meet him, grabbing Liu Chun's arm and pulling him into the shadow of the plaque, lowering his voice: "Did they confiscate it?"
Panting heavily and unable to speak, Liu Chun could only nod crazily.
The Director's eyes lit up: "They really confiscated it?"
Liu Chun finally caught his breath, unable to suppress the excitement in his voice: "Confiscated! Truly confiscated the home of the one surnamed Li!"
Disregarding his reserve, the Director pulled Liu Chun a few steps inside the door: "How was it confiscated? Tell it in detail!"
Standing under the plaque, Liu Chun's expression was beaming with joy: "I took the Account Book to the Falconry Office. Before I even arrived at the place, I was stopped by people from the Secret Spy Division. I said Viscount Wuxiang sent me, and they immediately let me pass, without a second word."
The Director unconsciously lowered his voice, leaning closer: "And then? Did you see Jiao Tu and Yun Yang?"
"Saw them, saw them." Liu Chun nodded. "It was my first time going to the Falconry Office. I originally thought the inside would be gloomy and eerie, but I didn't expect it to actually be quite elegant. In the courtyard were planted over a dozen old locust trees, all well nurtured. From time to time pigeons flew back and forth..."
The Director slapped him on the back: "Speak of the main matter!"
Liu Chun staggered a step forward from the strike: "Upon seeing Jiao Tu, I handed over that Medical Prescription. She took it, glanced at it, and then asked me, 'Who does Lord Chen want to kill?'"
The Vice Director and the Director exchanged a glance.
Liu Chun continued speaking: "I quickly explained, 'It's not to kill someone, it's Property Confiscation.' She just gave an 'oh', stuffed that Medical Prescription into her sleeve, stood up, and walked outwards. Reaching the doorway, she shouted into the courtyard, 'Yun Yang, let's go, the Lord has given us work.'"
The Vice Director interjected: "She can just go after a shout? Doesn't she need to ask her superiors for instructions?"
Liu Chun waved his hand: "I thought so at first too, but she didn't have that intention at all. After she shouted that, Yun Yang popped out from behind the old locust tree, like a ghost. I didn't even see when he got there. Then Jiao Tu selected over twenty men and horses, and mightily headed straight for Checkerboard Street."
"Over twenty men?" The Director gasped.
"Only more, not less," Liu Chun made a hand gesture. "A dozen or so blocked the front door, a dozen or so blocked the back door; not a single one was let escape. I watched with my own eyes that bastard surnamed Li being tied up like a live pig and escorted out of the pharmacy, his face completely white."
The Vice Director was puzzled: "The Directorate for Imperial Use Superintendent didn't come to stop it?"
"He stopped it," Liu Chun gave a 'heh heh' laugh. "When the confiscation was halfway through, an inner official from the Directorate for Imperial Use came and greeted Jiao Tu, saying something like, 'Eunuch Li over there already knows, Lord Jiao Tu, please provide a convenience.' Guess what Jiao Tu did?"
The Director leaned forward a bit: "What did she do?"
Liu Chun waved his hand, making a grabbing gesture: "Arrested him together with the rest!"
The Director and the Vice Director looked at each other again. The Director muttered to himself: "This kid doesn't even put the Directorate for Imperial Use Superintendent in his eyes?"
Liu Chun said merrily: "I heard that this new Director of ours previously even whipped the Divine Palace Directorate Superintendent's face with a whip."
The Director flew into a great rage: "What new Director? This old man is still here!"
Liu Chun hurriedly changed the subject: "After Jiao Tu finished confiscating the pharmacy, she went to confiscate the house of the one surnamed Li. They confiscated many treasures from his home; Gold Ingots and Silver Ingots box after box, as well as a large stack of Land Deeds and Property Deeds. They also investigated his matters of Bullying the Market and Dominating Trade, and Forcibly Taking a Commoner's Daughter. The forced woman was locked in the woodshed in the backyard for over a year, her face sallow and her body emaciated."
Liu Chun recalled: "At that time, Jiao Tu told the woman that the matter of her being forcefully taken definitely couldn't be kept secret, and returning back she also wouldn't be able to marry well. She asked if she was willing to go to Wunian Mountain. As long as she went to Wunian Mountain, she wouldn't have to endure the stigma, and from then on she could kill whoever she wanted. But that woman said she wouldn't go, wanting to go home to find her parents. Jiao Tu then gave the woman two hundred taels of silver and let her go."
The Director pondered: "This Eunuch Faction is still considered to have a bit of human touch."
Liu Chun gave a 'heh heh' laugh: "Before I left, Jiao Tu specifically asked me to bring a message to Lord Chen, saying she guarantees the one surnamed Li won't live past tonight."
The Vice Director sighed with emotion: "The one surnamed Li deserved this. At the beginning of the year, I went to reason with the one surnamed Li. This bastard crossed his legs in the pharmacy and told me that wherever I sued him, it would be useless... However, the methods of the Secret Spy Division are also too ruthless; a human life, they say to kill and they kill."
Hearing this, the Director stood frozen in place for a good while.
He turned his head, looking toward the main hall across the courtyard of the Imperial Academy of Medicine. The doors of the main hall were open. Inside, a flash of a red back figure could faintly be seen, leaning over the desk without moving an inch, as if reading a book.
The Director suddenly lifted the hem of his clothes, lowered his head, and walked hurriedly toward the depths of the Imperial Academy of Medicine.
The Vice Director and Liu Chun were stunned, hurriedly chasing from behind: "Director, where are you going? You must absolutely not provoke him..."
The Director didn't answer, his footsteps quickening a few parts.
He crossed the courtyard, stepped up the stairs of the main hall, and stood in front of Chen Ji's desk. Sunlight shone in from behind him, casting a patch of shadow on the book pages.
Chen Ji slowly looked up: "Does the Registrar have a matter with me?"
The Director remained silent without opening his mouth immediately, seemingly deliberating something.
The Vice Director and Registrar Liu tugged at his sleeves from the side, but he acted as if he didn't notice.
A moment later, the Director said earnestly: "Of the medicinal herbs collected by my Imperial Academy of Medicine every year, the best batch must be sent into the Imperial Pharmacy next to the Hall of Literary Brilliance, to be prepared for the nobles in the palace. But with that many medicinal herbs, the palace actually cannot use them all up. Therefore, every year the Directorate for Hall Maintenance Superintendent instigates his subordinate Managing Eunuch Wang Kui to falsely report the medicinal herbs as moldy or moth-eaten..."
Chen Ji was thoughtful: "Is there evidence?"
The Director held it in for a long while: "They only tamper when no one is in the Imperial Pharmacy. How could we catch evidence? Does your Eunuch... Secret Spy Division need evidence to do things?"
Chen Ji said sincerely: "Naturally it is needed. It is not that the legal principle requires evidence, but when attacking opponents in this Imperial Court, the opponent will not submit and be captured with hands tied. Only by having evidence can one put the opposing party to death. Just now the Li family could be confiscated because both witnesses and material evidence were present. Whoever came couldn't help him either."
The Director pursed his lips, fell silent for a moment, and spoke again: "Then Let's change one... My Imperial Academy of Medicine holds Four Minor Examinations annually, and a Three-Year Major Examination. Receiving a 'First Grade' assessment allows for promotion, 'Second Grade' forbids duty within the palace, 'Third Grade' results in demotion and salary reduction, and 'Fourth Grade' strips the official cap and belt, expelling the person from the Imperial Academy of Medicine."
Chen Ji nodded: "I know. It's the same as the Ministry of Personnel's Capital Evaluation."
The Director continued saying: "This matter is under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Ceremonies in the Ministry of Rites. But that newly appointed Bureau Director of the Bureau of Ceremonies in the Ministry of Rites, Ye Yan, is an animal. If imperial physicians give him gifts, he goes easy and allows them to pass the test easily. If they don't give gifts, he deliberately creates difficulties."
Chen Ji raised his eyebrows: "Create difficulties how?"
The Director explained: "Every imperial physician in my Imperial Academy of Medicine excels at different matters. Some excel at the Internal Medicine Department, some excel at the Pediatrics Department, and some excel at the Cold Damage Department. It's impossible for an imperial physician to be an expert in all medical subjects. If you don't give gifts, Ye Yan will use difficult and incurable diseases from the Cold Damage Department to test the imperial physicians of the Pediatrics Department. Who could answer that? Over three years, the number of imperial physicians driven away by him has reached twelve."
Chen Ji fell into deep thought. He now knew that the Internal Medicine Department was actually internal medicine, and the Pediatrics Department was pediatrics. Although they were all imperial physicians, the Medical Books they normally read were completely different.
Seeing him remain silent for a long time, the Director muttered a sentence in a low voice: "...If Physician Yao were here, he definitely wouldn't sit idly by and ignore it."
Chen Ji suddenly closed the book and his body leaned back slightly.
He leaned against the back of the chair, his gaze slowly sweeping over the Director's face, landing on the imperial physicians standing at the back.
Unknown when, a circle of people had already surrounded the doorway of the main hall. They were all people who heard the commotion just now and gathered over. Some still gripped pestles for pounding medicine in their hands, while some had black soot marks from decocting medicine stained on their sleeves.
Chen Ji's gaze, however, bypassed the Director and looked at those people at the doorway: "Have you all given gifts to Ye Yan?"
Zhou Fangping said loudly: "The year before last, I gave that old boy half a side of pig. As a result, he ordered his servants to throw the pig out the door, and even told me to wait to have my cap and belt stripped. Later, I sold ten mu of ancestral land in the suburbs of the capital to scrape together two hundred taels of silver for him."
Another imperial physician said loudly: "That grandson accepted a piece of Cursive Script by the Calligraphy Saint Zhang Ji from my father's generation dating back to Emperor Taizu's reign, and just hung it in his study. That was passed down from my old Ren family's ancestors. That piece of calligraphy even had a signature inscription given to my ancestor by the Calligraphy Saint."
The doorway instantly became lively. Seven or eight people chimed in one after another, scrambling to squeeze forward, deeply afraid Chen Ji couldn't hear their words.
Chen Ji didn't interrupt them, just listening quietly.
Waiting until the voices gradually died down, he finally withdrew his gaze, pulled a Medical Prescription from the side, wrote the two characters "Chen Ji" on the back, and handed it to the Director: "Take it to the Falconry Office, lead the imperial physicians to go and identify him. If it is true, confiscate the Ye Family."
The Director's eyes shone brightly. He took the Medical Prescription, turned around, and left right away. The old Director walked with the wind of a tiger, carrying quite a feeling of Raising the Eyebrows and Exhaling, completely devoid of his previous doddering appearance.
The imperial physicians also bowed slightly to Chen Ji and followed the Director away together.
The Vice Director stood outside the main hall's door, watching the figures of the Director and the imperial physicians disappear at the main gate. He turned his head again and glanced at Chen Ji, who was looking down at his book behind the desk, flipping the pages as if nothing had happened.
The Vice Director turned to look at Registrar Liu, hesitated for a long time, and asked in a low voice: "Say, do we count as Eunuch Faction now?"
Registrar Liu also hesitated for a moment: "Don't say it, but the feeling of being in the Eunuch Faction is actually pretty good..." (End of Chapter)