Chapter 14: Your Highness, the Crown Prince has returned to the capital
The evidence was irrefutable. There was no suspense left.
The upright officials who had been wailing and swearing that they would plead for the Left Censor-in-Chief just moments ago now looked like chickens strangled by the neck.
Eight hundred thousand taels of silver were laid out before them. Who would still dare say a single word of objection?
Since the founding of the Great Abyss Kingdom, they had never seen a traitor to the nation so brazenly corrupt—nor one who had stolen such an astounding fortune!
“Guards! Strip this old bastard of his official hat and peacock feathers!”
Su Zhen sat firmly upon the imperial throne. With a sweep of his hand, his voice rang out like that of Yama, come to claim a soul.
“Throw him into the Sky Prison and interrogate him thoroughly. Confiscate all his property—not a single copper coin is to be left behind!”
“And that good-for-nothing son of his—drag him back as well. Break both his legs and toss him into prison!”
The Imperial Guards surged forward.
The Left Censor-in-Chief no longer even had the strength to beg for mercy. He was dragged from the Golden Hall like a dead dog.
A glaring trail of urine streaked across the golden bricks. The old bastard had wet himself on the spot.
The Golden Hall fell utterly silent. One could hear a pin drop.
Su Zhen’s deep gaze swept over the kneeling officials below, and the corners of his lips curved into a cold smile.
“My dear ministers, who was it just now that said the Crown Princess should be deposed?”
“Step forward and let me take a good look at your so-called integrity.”
Silence.
Deathly silence.
Every official in the court wished they could bury their heads in the cracks between the golden bricks. Who would dare provoke the Tyrant at a time like this?
Even if they were given ten times their courage, no one dared mention deposing the Crown Princess again.
“Since no one has any objections, court is dismissed!”
Su Zhen rose abruptly, in an excellent mood.
This morning’s court session had removed the most disgusting poisonous fang, torn the purists’ mask from their faces, and netted him an entire mountain of gold.
It was truly exhilarating!
After court, in a side hall of the Coiled Dragon Palace.
Su Zhen looked at the mountains of wooden crates and waved his hand, making good on his promise to his daughter.
“Sweetheart, you deserve the greatest credit for what happened today!”
Su Zhen smiled so broadly that his wrinkles deepened, his eyes overflowing with affection.
After the Minister of Revenue had personally counted everything, the actual cash and land deeds confiscated from the Left Censor-in-Chief’s household—excluding the half his son had gambled away—amounted to exactly two hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver that could be deposited into the treasury immediately.
“I am a man of my word. Since I promised you a cut, I won’t go back on it!”
Su Zhen pointed at several large redwood chests. “You’ll get thirty percent of this two hundred and fifty thousand taels in cash!”
“Seventy-five thousand taels. Consider it payment for your information!”
“Take it back and spend it however you like. If you run out, just tell your imperial father. I’ll go confiscate a few more officials’ estates for you!”
Seventy-five thousand taels!
Su Yaoyao stared at the gleaming silver ingots, her beautiful, peach-blossom eyes curving into two crescent moons.
[Tyrant Dad is mighty! Tyrant Dad is so generous!]
[This golden thigh is absolutely worth clinging to! He’s a walking, human-shaped money printer!]
Hearing his daughter’s straightforward praise in her thoughts, Su Zhen straightened his back proudly.
At that moment, the vanity of a doting old father was fulfilled beyond measure.
He felt that just to hear a few more thoughts like that, he could turn the entire capital upside down and confiscate every corrupt official’s estate.
“Thank you, Imperial Father! Long live the emperor! Long live the emperor! Long, long live the emperor!”
Su Yaoyao called out sweetly, then directed the Imperial Guards to move her share to the Hall of Radiant Dawn.
A grand procession of carts hauled several loads of heavy silver.
Under the envious, near-mad stares of the imperial consorts in the rear palace, the procession swaggered all the way back to the Crown Princess’s residence.
Inside the Hall of Radiant Dawn, the doors were tightly shut.
Su Yaoyao sent all the palace maids and eunuchs outside, leaving herself alone in the main hall.
She dumped all seventy-five thousand taels’ worth of banknotes, gold, and silver ingots onto the enormous rosewood canopy bed.
The bed was piled high with gold and silver, glittering so brightly it could blind a person.
Su Yaoyao let out a cheer and threw herself onto the bed.
She rolled left and right through the ocean of money, coating herself in the scent of wealth. To her, it was the finest fragrance in the world.
“I’m rich! I’m rich!”
“With this startup capital, my imperial arms factory can finally begin operations!”
Su Yaoyao sat cross-legged on the bed, a golden abacus in her hands, her little face taut with concentration.
As a top-level interstellar poison doctor and mechanic, she knew all too well that in this ancient world, even the greatest martial artist would still be afraid of a kitchen knife.
If she wanted to truly secure her position, she had to establish overwhelming firepower!
[Building a Gatling gun requires a huge amount of refined iron, and I’ll also need to buy the ingredients for smokeless gunpowder.]
[Sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal—back in ancient times, all of those things are restricted goods. I’ll have to spend a fortune sweeping up supplies on the black market.]
[And my upgraded biological poison-gas bombs will require quite a few rare medicinal ingredients too...]
Su Yaoyao calculated every expense carefully, a grand blueprint for a military-industrial empire taking shape in her mind.
Just as she was considering whether to take another stroll through the Golden Hall tomorrow and see which minister had a treasury stamped on his head—
Bang!
The doors of the Hall of Radiant Dawn were slammed open from outside.
A young palace maid in a jade-green uniform came tumbling in, crawling and rolling across the threshold.
She had been running too fast, tripped over her own feet, and landed flat on her face.
But she did not even have time to feel the pain. Using both hands and feet, she crawled across the golden bricks, her face pale as paper.
“Your Highness, the Crown Princess! This is bad! Something terrible has happened!”
The maid’s voice was choked with tears and trembled like a leaf in an autumn wind.
The golden abacus in Su Yaoyao’s hands came to a halt. She frowned.
[What happened? Did the old witch escape and come looking for me to settle the score?]
“Why are you panicking? If the sky falls, Imperial Father will hold it up.”
Su Yaoyao calmly stuffed several large-denomination banknotes into her robes, then casually picked up a solid-gold teapot beside her.
“Speak slowly. Who’s trying to steal my money?”
In Su Yaoyao’s eyes, the most important matter in the entire world right now was anyone trying to touch her money.
“N-no one is stealing your money...”
The little maid knelt on the floor, her teeth chattering. She looked as though she were speaking of some terrifying forbidden existence.
“It’s the Eastern Palace... It’s that Living Yama in the Eastern Palace!”
“Your Highness, the Crown Prince has returned to the capital!”
Su Yaoyao froze.
The Crown Prince?
Her legendary older brother, who supposedly killed without blinking, was psychologically twisted, and took pleasure in tormenting people?
As far as she knew, the Crown Prince of the Great Abyss Kingdom, Su Jin, had inherited the Tyrant Dad’s ruthlessness perfectly—and even surpassed him.
He had been sent to a frontier military camp at the age of ten. At sixteen, he had led troops in slaughtering three cities of an enemy nation. His reputation as the God of Death had shaken the entire world.
Rumor had it that he was temperamental and bloodthirsty.
His favorite pastime was to skin living people whole, turn their skins into lanterns, and hang them beneath the eaves of the Eastern Palace.
“So what if he’s returned to the capital? What does that have to do with me?”
Su Yaoyao curled her lips.
[At worst, I just won’t provoke him. We can stay out of each other’s way.]
[As long as I cling tightly to Tyrant Dad’s leg, I can quietly work on my military industry in this palace.]
“But... but just now, when I went to the imperial kitchens to fetch some pastries, I overheard people from the Secret Guard Camp whispering...”
The little maid was so frightened that tears began rolling down her cheeks. She lowered her voice as though afraid even a ghost might hear her.
“The Crown Prince returned to the capital in secret this time. He didn’t even notify His Majesty in advance!”
“And... and as soon as he entered the city, he started asking about you!”
Su Yaoyao rubbed her chin.
Asking about me?
[Could it be that he heard the imperial family had gained a younger sister and rushed back especially to bring me a welcoming gift?]
【Could This Deranged Brother Really Be Coming to See Me with a Boxful of Human Heads?】
“Your Highness, how can you still be laughing?”
The little palace maid was so frantic she kept nodding. “The Crown Prince is suspicious by nature and hates anyone else sharing His Majesty’s favor!”
“He’s heard that not only were you named Crown Princess, but you also got Noble Consort Jing placed under house arrest. He thinks you’re devious and calculating.”
“Everyone in the palace is saying that the Crown Prince is coming to the Zhaoyang Palace tonight to personally teach you a lesson!”
Teach me a lesson?
Su Yaoyao let out a cold laugh, disdain flashing in her eyes.
【Wants to teach me the rules? He should first find out what I did back in the interstellar era.】
【Let alone a Crown Prince—even if the Emperor of Heaven himself showed up, anyone who dared touch my money would walk in and be carried out!】
“All right, stop crying. You’re giving me a headache.”
Su Yaoyao waved her hand. “Go on. Eat when you’re hungry and sleep when you’re tired. And make sure every door and window in Zhaoyang Palace is tightly shut tonight.”
Seeing that Her Highness the Crown Princess was completely unfazed, the little palace maid could only wipe away her tears and leave in despair.
The Zhaoyang Palace fell silent once more, and a faint, murderous chill crept into the air.
Night descended, and dark clouds pressed down over the city.
The clear night sky suddenly erupted into a gale.
The howling northern wind sounded like the wails of ghosts and the cries of wolves, whipping the trees outside Zhaoyang Palace into a frenzy. Their shadows writhed like countless demons baring their claws and fangs.
The imperial palace was shrouded in an oppressive, deathly silence. Even the patrolling Imperial Guards hunched their shoulders and quickened their pace.
Midnight.
A faint sound came from the black glazed tiles atop Zhaoyang Palace.
It was so soft it sounded like a fallen leaf landing on the roof.
After that slight noise, a ghostlike black shadow appeared soundlessly on the ridgepole.
The gale tugged at the figure’s loose black night clothes, making them snap and billow.
The clouds parted, and a sliver of pale moonlight spilled down, illuminating the figure’s face.
It was a face concealed behind a grim, fearsome mask resembling a rakshasa with blue skin and fangs.
Through the two hollow eye sockets of the mask gleamed a pair of cold, merciless eyes, bloodthirsty as vipers.
The shadow moved with uncanny lightness, sliding silently down the roof tiles like a bat hanging upside down.
It came to hang outside the carved window of Su Yaoyao’s bedchamber.
In one hand, the shadow held an oddly shaped poisoned blade, its edge shimmering with an eerie blue light.
Several drops of thick poison blood dripped from the blade, giving off a pungent, sickly-sweet odor.
One drop. Then another.
They struck the steps outside the window, corroding several small pits into the stone.
Through the thin Korean paper covering the window, the shadow could hear the steady sound of breathing inside the chamber.
Beneath the rakshasa mask, the corners of the figure’s mouth curled into a cruel smile.
A bone-chilling, sinister laugh drifted eerily through the howling wind...