Chapter Sixty-One: Oppression in the Chest, The Assassin

Although... actually... the old emperor didn’t really want to hear whatever Di Ying had to say. But if he dealt with Di Ying without clarifying the reason, it would not stand on the imperial court. His partiality toward the Wu family would once again be used by the ministers to attack him.

Following the emperor’s gesture, Wu Qiongsi glanced over and saw it was Di Ying. He looked ready to pounce, mouth agape, as if he would bite Di Ying to death. The old emperor kicked him to stop him.

Awakened by the head physician’s needle, Di Ying opened his phoenix eyes. Upon seeing the emperor, he struggled to rise and pay his respects, but after several attempts, he failed to steady himself and could not sit upright.

“All right, just sit and speak. Tell me what happened,” the old emperor said, casting him a glance and directly questioning him.

Di Ying leaned weakly against the head physician’s shoulder and replied, “This afternoon, I went outside the northern suburb to the mountain forest to exhume bones and prepare for examination…”

“You’re lying!” Wu Qiongsi jumped up, interrupting Di Ying. He rebuked, “That place is steep and densely forested, rarely visited, and teeming with fierce beasts. Who would bury remains there? Even if someone stubbornly did so, wild animals would have dug them up long ago. How could you be the one to dig them out? Speak! How did you set the trap and falsely capture my Xiangjin? Where are his guards? Did you kill them all too? Answer me!”

Wu Qiongsi, slick and pampered, was so furious that the oil in his hair stood straight up. Di Ying pursed his lips and stopped speaking. He wasn’t a criminal, and Wu Qiongsi wasn’t the chief judge—he had no obligation to explain anything to him.

Noticing the emperor’s gaze at him, Di Ying turned his head and asked the head physician, “You doctors gather herbs and make medicines, but do you care where the seeds are blown by the wind and grow?”

The head physician looked baffled. “How could we manage that?”

“What if the seeds fall in a place where growth is extremely difficult?” Di Ying pressed.

The white beard under the head physician’s chin trembled as he glared at Di Ying. “What does that have to do with us?”

Di Ying grinned at him. The old emperor, seeing this, ground his molars and kicked Wu Qiongsi again, warning him with his eyes to stand aside.

The emperor spoke, “Di Ying, explain everything to me in detail. Do not lie, understood?”

Di Ying shifted his legs. After taking several deep breaths, he continued weakly, “Where was I? Oh, yes, the bone examination. I had just unearthed a section of leg bone when suddenly an arrow, shot from who knows where, pierced my left arm. Here, this one. It hurt so much that I cried out. It really hurt. Then, I heard hoofbeats. When I looked up, a young man was charging at me on horseback, his bow fully drawn, arrow ready to shoot. Clearly, he was an assassin—coming to kill me!”

Wu Qiongsi, hearing this, was about to speak, but Eunuch Su covered his mouth. Di Ying glanced at Wu Qiongsi and continued passionately, “I was terrified. I thought: I haven’t done anything evil, why am I being hunted down? I wanted to run, but my legs were weak. Luckily, Guard Peng Liang appeared in time, kicked the man over, and quickly captured him. Oh, and recently there have been so many cases, I haven’t even been home. I selected ten skilled men from the Left Golden Guard, but haven’t had time to report this to Your Majesty. Those ten guards truly deserve their reputation for bravery and loyalty. When Peng Liang acted, they rushed in as well, fought hard for a while, and ultimately brought down another twenty assassins. Seeing how fierce the assassins were, I dared not delay. I didn’t even tend to my own wound and hurried straight back to the Court of Judicial Review, convening a trial immediately. Actually, to call it a trial isn’t accurate. For days now, the court I oversee has never closed its doors. I conduct the investigation openly. Peng Liang, those ten guards, and several bailiffs witnessed everything firsthand. Perhaps it was late, so no civilians gathered to observe.”

At this point, Di Ying looked regretful. The old emperor bared her teeth and asked grimly, “So you mean, you didn’t know it was Wu Xiangjin?”

“I did,” Di Ying admitted, spreading his hands. “How could I investigate without asking the suspect’s background and name? I’m not a muddle-headed official. I asked him in court, and he told me. But what does that have to do with whether he was an assassin? Your Majesty, are you suggesting that if he’s Wu Xiangjin, he can’t be an assassin? Or that if he’s an assassin, he can’t be Wu Xiangjin? Such reasoning is hardly fair, is it?”

The old emperor fell silent, feeling that oppressive tightness in her chest return.

Wu Qiongsi, hearing Di Ying call his son an assassin over and over, finally couldn’t hold back. He forgot his usual caution, tore Eunuch Su’s hand away, and shouted, “Di Ying, stop talking nonsense! My Xiangjin is absolutely not an assassin!”

“Yes,” the old emperor felt she had finally found the key point and pressed further, “You two don’t even know each other, and you have no enmity. Why would he lead men to assassinate you?”

Di Ying said nothing, glanced at the emperor, then at his wounded arm.

The emperor understood. She wanted to say: an injury doesn’t necessarily prove it was Wu Xiangjin who shot him. However, she also recalled Di Ying saying that several people were present at the time—especially those newly selected from the Left Golden Guard. Those men wouldn’t be so quickly aligned with Di Ying. As Di Ying said: they are courageous and loyal, and for now, their loyalty is to her, the emperor. She was confident in this.

She changed the topic. Wiping her face and flinging it to the ground, she spoke sternly, “Di Ying, even if Wu Xiangjin did attempt to assassinate you, since you did not kill him on the spot, by law you should have imprisoned him. Then hand him over to the Ministry of Justice for investigation, followed by approval from the Court of Judicial Review, and finally the chief justice’s endorsement. You tried and executed him without authorization, disregarding the laws of our Great Xia!”

Di Ying slowly rose, ignoring the emperor’s displeased expression. Standing straight, he smiled coldly and asked, “If I had killed him in the forest, would Your Majesty accuse me of deliberate murder? If not, does it matter where I killed him?”

Without waiting for the emperor’s response, Di Ying turned to Wu Qiongsi.

“Your son, Wu Xiangjin, is implicated in dozens of murder cases. Yet every time he’s involved, someone steps forward to confess. These people are either your household staff, street beggars, vagrants, or the impoverished. If all else fails, there’s always a ‘letter of forgiveness.’ Whenever one is presented, the suspect is acquitted. Minister Wu, can you explain this logic to me?”