The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 51
Song Hongfu silently stepped aside and allowed the physicians to clean his brother’s body.
Suddenly, a clamor rose outside.
He frowned in displeasure and strode from the room, only to freeze.
The courtyard was filled with people carrying pine torches.
Leaping firelight played over the gold-embroidered fish patterns on their robes.
Song Hongfu’s heart pounded.
He knew at once who they were. His gaze instinctively searched for Song Xiu.
Instead, he saw a small Jingning Guard agent standing before his father.
The two exchanged several words.
Song Xiu’s body abruptly shuddered. He turned toward the room in disbelief and found Song Hongfu standing in the doorway.
At first, Song Hongfu did not react when his father looked back.
Then he saw the disbelief in Song Xiu’s eyes.
His heart lurched, and he unconsciously retreated half a step.
“F-Father.”
He could not help swallowing, and even his voice stammered.
“Song Hongfu?”
A clear voice rang out.
Song Hongfu watched the Jingning Guard agent step forward.
Her face entered the firelight, revealing a remarkably pretty young woman.
But he had no attention to spare for her appearance. The ominous feeling swelling inside him left him unable to speak.
“You colluded with the White Lotus Sect, erected an illicit altar, murdered innocent commoners, attempted to curse your elder brother to death, and cursed His Majesty and senior ministers at court.”
“The matter has now come to light. You will come with us.”
Song Xiu was close to Shen Zhixing and Shen Yan, Zhao Li’s direct superiors. Strictly speaking, Marquis Ningsu’s Estate was also a victim.
Thus, although Zhao Li had led men through the gates, she had not immediately seized anyone with excessive violence.
She spoke calmly to the stunned young man in the doorway.
Song Hongfu abruptly recovered.
“I did not collude with the White Lotus Sect!”
As a scholar, he knew the gravity of colluding with that sect, let alone cursing the emperor.
His mind fell into chaos.
“I did not curse His Majesty. I only—”
He slammed his mouth shut.
Facing his father’s disappointed, furious gaze, sweat broke across his forehead.
“You merely paid those villains to erect an altar and curse your elder brother to death,” Zhao Li finished for him.
With an impressive collection of additional targets thrown in free of charge.
Zhao Li swallowed the second sentence.
Song Xiu was not blind.
His second son’s panicked reaction made further proof unnecessary.
A roar filled his head, and his knees nearly gave way.
“Why?”
He had placed his greatest expectations on his legitimate eldest son, Song Hongjun, but he had never spared any effort or discipline in raising his second son.
Song Hongjun had always shown his brother abundant care.
Song Xiu could not understand how his second son had developed such a vicious desire to murder his elder brother.
“A-Fu, tell me. Why?”
Overwhelmed by grief, Song Xiu could no longer stand. He collapsed onto a stone stool in the courtyard.
“How did we fail you? What made you commit such evil?”
Song Hongfu clenched both fists and remained silent.
Only when Song Xiu demanded to know how he had been failed did he abruptly raise his head.
“My Song family descends from the founding nobles, yet you force us to associate with the wicked men of the Eunuch Faction. That is how you failed me!”
Song Xiu had never imagined such an answer. He stared blankly.
“What are you saying?”
Their highest leader had been insulted.
As loyal members of the Eunuch Faction, the surrounding Jingning Guard agents drew their sabers.
Song Hongfu screamed himself hoarse.
“Father and Elder Brother associate with powerful eunuchs and their faction. Do you know what kind of life I live at White Deer Academy?”
“They empty chamber pots onto my bed. They refuse to let me sleep in the dormitory.”
“They constantly tear my schoolwork to pieces.”
The people he called *they* were plainly his fellow students at White Deer Academy.
The scholars of Great Jing’s Purist Faction.
Zhao Li knew a fair amount about White Deer Academy for one simple reason: that bastard Zhao Kaiyang studied there.
The academy proclaimed itself a sacred place of teaching and learning. Since its founding, it had selected students by talent and accepted pupils without distinction of background.
Its students included sons of noble clans and boys from impoverished families.
To prevent aristocratic sons from bullying poor students without powerful roots, attendants and guards were forbidden.
Perhaps that was precisely why a group of students had been able to band together and bully the second son of Marquis Ningsu’s Estate.
Song Xiu had never imagined this was the cause and fell silent.
Only Song Hongfu’s voice filled the courtyard.
“Even when I told the instructors, they protected the others and accused me of causing trouble.”
His eyes turned crimson, veins bulging at his temples.
“I told Father, but he never took it seriously. He only told me to endure.”
“They took pride in humiliating the second son of Marquis Ningsu’s Estate, and I could only obey Father. Endure. Endure. Father sent me back to the academy again and again, all for some damned future.”
“I am the son of a marquis. Even if I accomplished nothing in my life, I would never starve. Yet Father forced me to struggle for a future. If you wanted me to have one so badly, why did you not give Elder Brother’s future to me?”
By the end, Song Hongfu’s voice was raw from screaming.
Song Xiu sat numbly on the stool.
His mouth opened and closed several times, but no words emerged.
Long ago, when Song Hongfu was still young, he had often fled home from the academy in tears.
But Song Xiu had believed the eldest son would inherit the title while the second possessed the talent for scholarship. He could not allow that gift to be buried.
He had regarded the bullying as an opportunity to temper his second son’s character and had sent the fleeing boy back to White Deer Academy time after time.
At the memory, tears streamed down Song Xiu’s face.
“Everything I did was for your own good!”
Having witnessed this educational catastrophe, Zhao Li finally spoke.
“If you truly wanted what was best for him, you should not have forced him into an environment that did not suit him.”
“Parents and elder siblings should protect a child, not tell him to endure. Even if you broke those bastards’ legs, are you saying Marquis Ningsu’s Estate could not bear the consequences?”
Her words resonated strongly with the crowd of spectators behind her.
“Exactly. Hundred-Household Commander Zhao is right. If I learned someone dared bully my child, I’d chop off the bastard’s paws.”
A black-bearded Jingning Guard commandant snorted.
“Don’t they need their hands to study and write? I’d cut them off and see whether they could still produce their damned essays.”
“Bully my child, and I’ll destroy your future.”
Those who entered the Jingning Guard tended to share certain traits.
His satisfying declaration earned approving nods from his colleagues.
Song Hongfu listened in a daze.
After a long while, he suddenly released a miserable laugh.
Zhao Li signaled to either side.
“Take him.”
Several large men approached.
Song Hongfu did not resist. He obediently lowered his head and allowed them to place a wooden cangue around his neck.
Song Xiu stepped in front of Zhao Li.
“He is still young. He—”
Zhao Li raised a hand and cut him off.
“Please do not make this difficult for me, Marquis.”
Whatever the circumstances, Song Hongfu had caused deaths.
Neither his age nor the wrongs he had suffered justified murdering innocent people.
Was the child who never had the chance to be born not a child too?
“You should concern yourself with your own position, Marquis.”
Marquis Ningsu’s Estate might also be a victim, but the case implicated the emperor and numerous court ministers.
Rather than waste time here, Marquis Song would be better served by immediately submitting a memorial confessing fault and prostrating himself in apology.
Then he could tuck his tail between his legs and pray.
Zhao Li signaled to her men.
“Take him away. No one from Marquis Ningsu’s Estate may enter or leave.”
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