Master Told Me to Keep an Eye on Your Highness
Yao shi’s unexpected death was not part of Xuan Tian Ming’s original plan, but he still stared at the casket with his brow furrowed for a long time. This scared the soldiers nearby so much that they did not dare breathe loudly. Feng Jin Yuan was able to understand and was not too horrified, but Ji Ling Tian and the officer that had killed Yao shi had wet themselves in fear. They were afraid that the ninth prince would immediately kill them in a fit of anger.
However, Xuan Tian Ming did not choose to kill those two at this time. He ordered someone to open Yao shi’s casket. After personally going forward to verify her identity, he immediately ordered a new and more valuable casket be prepared. She was to be buried three days later. He then turned around and returned to the residence in Sha Ping City that he had been staying in.
But everyone could see that the ninth prince’s expression was not good. They were worried that he would no longer be kind. Feng Jin Yuan saw everyone watch the ninth prince depart. After this, nobody knew what to do, thus he took the initiative to speak up and say to the soldiers: “Someone should be sent to the coffin shop. Do as His Highness the ninth prince ordered and buy the best coffin possible. At the same time…” He looked toward Ji Ling Tian and said with hatred in his eyes, “Lock up those two and keep an eye on them. No mistakes must be made. Do you understand what I’m saying? That means they cannot be treated well, but they also must not die. Just letting them die so easily would be letting them off easy.” He paused for a moment then continued: “As for me… in the end, Yao shi was my first wife. Just let me help out with this mourning! Don’t worry, I won’t run away. Also, this place is Sha Ping City. It’s His Highness the ninth prince’s territory. Even if I want to run, I have no place to escape to.”
The soldiers felt that what he had said was rather reasonable, and along the way, Feng Jin Yuan had been pretty obedient. Either way, they did not dare go and ask the ninth prince anything further. It would be better to just do as he said. At worst, they could go and ask General He Gan later on.
The people immediately went to work. The ones that had to buy a casket went to buy a casket. The ones that needed to choose a burial spot went to choose a burial spot. The ones that needed to lock up Ji Ling Tian went to lock up Ji Ling Tian. In truth, all of these were easy to do, but choosing a burial spot was truly a bit difficult.
This place was a desert, and there was sand everywhere. How did this resemble a place to bury people? As for inside the city, the ground was suited for digging, but that was near a river that the people of Sha Ping City depended on. Burying someone nearby would not be good. In addition to this, Song Kang had said that once a corpse was buried, nobody could guarantee what sorts of changes would occur. If the rotting contaminated the source of water, that would be life-threatening.
There was nothing the soldiers could do. Even after asking He Gan, they did not have any ideas. In the end, they could only place their hopes in Feng Jin Yuan. Ever since Feng Jin Yuan had fallen from the position of left prime minister, he had not done any actual work. Even when he, Yao shi and Fu Ya were acting as the fake imperial daughter’s family, and even with Ji Ling Tian repeatedly calling him lord left prime minister, in truth, he never recovered that feeling from the past. As for now, performing the funeral for Yao shi, he seemed to have gone back in time to a few years ago. He had returned to a time when the Feng family was still glorious, and everything was decided by him. When the people below him did not know how to do something, they would seek him for help.
Feng Jin Yuan took the initiative to take on the work of finding a burial location. He asked a few of Sha Ping City’s citizens and earnestly asked them how the people of Sha Ping City buried their dead. In truth, Yao shi’s corpse should have been transported back to the capital. After all, that was where the Yao family’s foundation was. But the conditions did not allow it. The South was too hot. In just a couple of days, she had already begun to decompose. If they moved it too much, perhaps the casket would be completely ruined before they could even exit Luo Province. Burying her would be the most reliable thing to do. After a few years, if the Yao family wished, people could be sent to fetch her.
The citizens of Sha Ping City told him that there was a small oasis ten li to the East of the city. There were no people living there, and it was used specifically for burying the dead. But Yao shi was an outsider. Normally speaking, she should not be buried there. The prefect of Sha Ping City also would not agree to it. After all, the place was too small. If people were recklessly buried there, it was very likely that there would not be enough space. When that time came, it would not be good if Sha Ping City’s own citizens could not be buried there. That was why whenever the people in the city performed a funeral, they would need to report to the government office. Only with a note from the prefect were they granted permission to bury their dead in that oasis.
But the citizens also said: “Right now, Sha Ping belongs to Da Shun. Gu Shu’s regulations no longer matter. As long as Da Shun’s ninth prince permits it, there is no problem.”
Feng Jin Yuan knew that Xuan Tian Ming would definitely permit it and simply did not even bother asking. He just arranged for the soldiers to bring him to the oasis to take a look. Picking a nice place, a grave was dug, and a tombstone was engraved. When the tombstone was being engraved, Feng Jin Yuan personally went to ask Xuan Tian Ming for his opinion on what should be written on the tombstone and whose names would be used to set up the tombstone.
Xuan Tian Ming was not vague about it, immediately expressing his view: “Naturally, it would be this prince and Heng Heng’s names.” After some more though, he added: “Add in Zi Rui too.”
Feng Jin Yuan saluted to him and did not say anything else before leaving. As for Xuan Tian Ming, at this moment, he was seated in the main hall of his temporary residence in Sha Ping City. At his side, Song Kang was also present and was messing around with some medicine. Xuan Tian Ming very helplessly said: “Can you go and do that in some other place? Don’t you have your own room?”
Song Kang replied very naturally: “Right before leaving, master told me to keep a close eye on Your Highness.”
Xuan Tian Ming was speechless. Keep an eye on? Like this? Feng Yu Heng meant for Song Kang to keep an eye on his health, alright? Why was it that this guy was keeping an eye on him as though he was a criminal? But he could not be bothered to argue with him. As a whole, Song Kang was not irritating. This person was addicted to medicine, and he was completely immersed in medicine. Even if the two were in the same place, the two might not speak for an entire day. They would work on their own work and would not get in the other’s way. In addition to this, nearly half of the 100 thousand troops from Qian Zhou were struggling to endure the heat. The symptoms would suddenly appear, and Xuan Tian Ming would need to frequently enquire about the condition of the soldiers.
But this time, after Feng Jin Yuan left, Song Kang had some things to say. He stared at Feng Jin Yuan’s parting figure for a while then said: “Did this person eat some medicine to become good? He’s become normal.”
Xuan Tian Ming snorted coldly: “Some people just will not look back until they reach the land of the dead. He needed to see death before he was willing to change. If he treated Yao shi and A-Heng like this in the past, how could the Feng family have fallen to this situation?”
Song Kang sniffled and agreed, saying: “That’s right! He had a daughter like my master, yet he did not want her and insisted on some uncultivated one. Who knows what his mind is made of. How about giving it to me to be cut open to take a good look?”
Xuan Tian Ming did not continue the discussion with him. Song Kang’s mind was only filled with cutting this and cutting that. He even said that he had learned how to cut open someone’s head from his wife. He really… was a weirdo!
Naturally, Song Kang did not know of Xuan Tian Ming’s evaluation of him. Turning his head, he continued to study his medicine.
Very quickly, the date of Yao shi’s burial was about to arrive. On that morning, everyone got up early, including Xuan Tian Ming. For the first time, he changed out of his purple robes and put on a set of white clothes.
Nearly nobody had ever seen the ninth prince wear white clothes. In everyone’s mind, white clothes seemed to be representative of His Highness the seventh prince, but seeing His Highness the ninth prince wear them, they felt that it was very beautiful. Amidst the wicked beauty, there was a bit of misery. It was a very unique sight.
Yao shi’s funeral could be said to have been carried out by Feng Jin Yuan alone. Even if Xuan Tian Ming felt that Yao shi was still Feng Yu Heng’s mother, the relationship of mother and daughter was there for all to see. All of Yao shi’s actions were also out in the open. For him to order a burial was already a grace. There was no need to expend any additional energy.
Fortunately, Feng Jin Yuan was very serious about this matter. There were also some feelings of regret toward Yao shi. The funeral was performed in a very grand manner. During these few days, a mourning hall had been built, and he would kneel in front of Yao shi’s coffin each night to stand guard and burn joss paper. It was such that Feng Jin Yuan’s eyes had dark shadows under them on the day of the burial. His entire person was lacking in spirit.
The coffin was transported from Lan Zhou in the West by Xi Fang. It was a high-quality nanmu. He Gan and Xi Fang had believed themselves to be Feng Yu Heng’s disciples, thus they took the initiative to undertake the mission of carrying the coffin. They took the front, while the back was left to Song Kang and Bai Ze, who had been following Xuan Tian Ming.
Feng Jin Yuan held the funeral banner and walked at the front. He also held a basket and would occasionally grab some joss paper from the basket to be thrown into the air; however, he did not speak.
Xuan Tian Ming followed along at the side of the coffin, silently walking. Seeing the confused expressions on the faces of Sha Ping City’s citizens, he wondered to himself. When Feng Yu Heng arrived in this place, would she blame him? Although he was not the one that killed Yao shi, it was because of his order that she had died. When it came to this matter, he needed to shoulder a certain degree of responsibility.
Ji Ling Tian and the officer were locked up, and even Ji Ling Tian’s madam, Jiang shi had been brought to Sha Ping City. From time to time, she asked the people around her: “Is the ninth prince going to kill us?”
The soldiers at her side snorted coldly and said without any politeness: “What? You two had the ability to work with the eighth prince to produce a fake imperial daughter. Did you never think that a day would come when you would need to pay the price? You dare to do things that would exterminate your entire family, but when it comes time for the family to be exterminated, why do you no longer have any integrity?”
When Jiang shi heard these words, she collapsed. If it was not for there being someone holding her from behind, she would have collapsed to the ground. Even in his present difficult condition, Ji Ling Tian felt saddened to see his madam like this, but there was nothing that he could do. It was as the soldier had said. Back when he had pretended that Fu Ya was Imperial Daughter Ji An, he should have expected that he would need to pay the price. It was just that he had been too optimistic in the past, and he had not thought that the ninth prince’s army would be so valiant. Without help from the 300 thousand of the Southern Army, they actually took Gu Shu’s first city. This point was something that the eighth prince, who was away in the capital, could not have imagined!
He sighed bitterly and apologized countless times to his madam internally. He then recalled the words “exterminate the family,” and he began to mourn for his family.
The oasis to the East of Sha Ping City was reached very quickly. The location that Feng Jin Yuan had chosen for the grave was very good. It was near a large tree, and the water was immediately next to it. When people stood there, the heat of the desert had been dissipated by quite a bit.
Xuan Tian Ming did not know that Feng Jin Yuan had such an ability, and he nodded his head in satisfaction; however, he did not say anything. As he saw it, no matter how much Feng Jin Yuan did to make amends, it would not be enough to make up for all that he had done, nor would it make up for the years of unfair treatment that his wife had endured at the hands of the Feng family. Just thinking about it made him gnash his teeth.
Do as the locals do. For Yao shi’s funeral, Feng Jin Yuan had invited a master of fengshui from Sha Ping City to help organize it. The ceremony was very proper and solemn.
Before the corpse was placed in the coffin, Xuan Tian Ming spoke up: “Prefect of Lan Zhou, Ji Ling Tian, and the guilty officer will be executed together to accompany the soul of the newly deceased Madam Yao!”