142: Dawn Breaks (Part 5)

"A blood moon... this celestial phenomenon is truly ominous."

Looking up at the sky, Luo Nantian couldn't help but sigh with emotion. To be honest, everything would settle tonight, but now his heart felt even more tense.

"I keep feeling like something is about to happen, yet I can't think of what it could be," Luo Nantian muttered while picking up his teacup and taking a sip. "Has the matter with Daoist Zhang been handled?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, everything has been taken care of."

Hearing the report from the night-watch eunuch, Luo Nantian's heart finally settled. Initially, he hadn't wanted to trouble this expert who almost never involved himself in worldly affairs, but he had no choice; it was better to be fully prepared for certain things.

"Old Fang has followed me for so many years, from our youth until now. Honestly, I might have spent more time with him than with the Empress." Luo Nantian couldn't help but let out a long sigh. "The words my late father spoke back then were truly right; I really am not suited to be Emperor."

An emperor must be heartless and emotionless, yet an emperor must also consider the common people of the world and the state of the empire. the late Emperor's meaning was that Luo Nantian had sufficient talent and was very decisive, but he possessed the one thing an emperor should never have: a devoted and long-lasting heart.

"Your Majesty's words are incorrect."

Empress Shen walked in from outside, followed by Eunuch Fang, whose face still bore bruises. Seeing that he was truly alright, Luo Nantian's heart slowly began to relax.

"Yes, the Empress has a point." Luo Nantian smiled. "the late Emperor's ideas were too idealized. In fact, the late Emperor himself didn't realize that although he and Zhou Chutian clashed until the very end, he never personally took action to deal with him."

With military power in hand, no matter what Zhou Chutian did, he couldn't cause any significant waves. Not to mention there was the Pacification Bureau and the Imperial Guard. Even if he truly feared that Daoist, if he had been like himself and invited the Old Celestial Master of Longhu Mountain, how could that Daoist possibly be a match?

Ultimately, the late Emperor just couldn't bear it. An emperor is also human; the so-called Son of Heaven is merely a high-sounding excuse. All humans have feelings, and all humans have weaknesses and things they cannot bear to do.

By the same logic, any person can be influenced by others. Even someone like the late Emperor, who could be called a wise ruler based on his political achievements alone, and who even strongly opposed many of Zhou Chutian's ideas—

After years of being together, he was still subtly influenced by Zhou Chutian. Luo Nantian understood all of this, but he never mentioned it, nor did he truly follow the late Emperor's words to turn himself into someone cold-blooded and heartless.

"Old Fang, you don't need to serve here anymore." Seeing the bruises on Eunuch Fang's face, Luo Nantian felt distressed. "Someone, call the imperial physician to come and check on Eunuch Fang. Old Fang, don't refuse. I didn't get to eat this late-night snack; once you're recovered, you'll still have to go to the Imperial Kitchen."

"Yes, this old servant obeys your command."

Eunuch Fang's heart warmed. He bowed deeply and then truly withdrew. In the Imperial Study, only Empress Shen and Luo Nantian remained.

"Alright, Empress, say no more." Luo Nantian smiled. "A parent's love for their child means planning far ahead for them. To be honest, no matter how much they misbehave, they are still our children... If nothing else, you must consider things for the sake of Yongfu and Yongze, right?"

Empress Shen seemed to want to say something more, but after a moment's thought, her thousand words could only turn into a single sigh. Indeed, although Luo Yongan and Luo Yongning wouldn't truly kill their two brothers, they likely wouldn't let their two sons off easily either.

Over the years, the couple had watched how their two daughters tormented their two sons... but they had only watched.

After all, as long as the trouble didn't reach them, and there was no treason, rebellion, or harming of the common people, however those two sisters wanted to act... they could only let them be.

"It's just that after tonight, our dear Imperial Son-in-Law will probably need to have his head checked." Thinking of this, Luo Nantian felt an indescribable distress. "Such a good child. Sigh, you tell me, that son of a bitch surnamed Zhang..."

"Ahem, Your Majesty, could you please mind your language a bit?"

As the grand sovereign of Daxing, he would frequently spout profanities in private. Sometimes, when he couldn't control his temper, he would actually point at the noses of the officials Zhou Chutian sent to annoy him and curse them out—cursing them so thoroughly that if their ancestral grave had a certain number of people, he would dare to curse every single one of them.

"Hah, am I not just cherishing talent? The Imperial Son-in-Law is indeed a dragon among men. If it weren't for those two wretched girls, in time he would surely be a pillar of the court, worthy of being enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple!"

Luo Nantian truly liked Mo Yingqi from the bottom of his heart. In fact, if not for his daughters, he would most likely have transferred Mo Yingqi out of the Pacification Bureau and personally recommended him for a position in the Ministry of Justice.

Dali Temple was currently in Zhou Chutian's hands. In the past, when Ning Wuya held office, he was clean, honest, and his judgments were fair. But now Ning Wuya had become the current Grand Secretary, and the vacancy in the Ministry of Justice had been filled by Zhou Chutian's people.

Compared to Ning Wuya, Mo Yingqi was more ruthless and, by comparison, even more impersonal. This was not a derogatory term; a high official of the Ministry of Justice should sometimes be like the Pacification Bureau. Otherwise, what would be the point of every dynasty establishing penal laws?

Although Luo Nantian didn't quite approve of the tyranny of the former Qin State, it had to be said that the Qin State's leap from a small state to the head of the Seven States relied on strict law enforcement and impartial justice.

Now, as dynasties changed, the penal laws were also being perfected. The upheaval brought by Zhou Chutian would have to end sooner or later. When that time came, the Six Ministries and Nine Ministers, the entire court, would likely need a slow infusion of new blood.

Therefore, people like Mo Yingqi and Tang Jingzhong were like treasures to the talent-hungry Luo Nantian. But there was no helping it; Mo Yingqi likely wouldn't be able to continue his duties in the Pacification Bureau in the future. He would only need to hold the title of Marquis Yongding and accompany his daughters.

"Forget it, to gain one must give. One can only have if they are willing to let go." Luo Nantian had also come to terms with it and stopped brooding over these things. "Right, Empress, regarding the Grand Chancellor and Clerk Tang..."

"Rest assured, Your Majesty. People have already been sent. According to the news just received, both are fine." Empress Shen nodded. "As for that Centurion Lu who is on good terms with the Imperial Son-in-Law, I have also sent people to him."

"That's good, that's good then." Luo Nantian finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Right, when the Imperial Son-in-Law takes Zhou Chutian away, remember to send someone to tell him not to rush to send him to the Imperial Prison. Someone wants to see him."

"This... Your Majesty, could it be the Grand Empress Dowager?"

"Ha, as they say, husband and wife are of one mind; you actually guessed it." Luo Nantian wasn't surprised. "It is indeed the Grand Empress Dowager. She specifically came to see me, saying the late Emperor once said that if Zhou Chutian reached his end—whether he died of illness or was dismissed and imprisoned by me—the Grand Empress Dowager would go on the late Emperor's behalf to see him off one last time."

Hearing this, Empress Shen said no more. After all, the relationship between the late Emperor and Zhou Chutian back then was too complex; it was hard to say what kind of thoughts they held toward each other.

But the deeper the later resentment, the truer the former friendship. Mo Yingqi had a saying that Empress Shen had actually thought of more than once: he and the late Emperor were like an old couple who constantly grumbled at each other, complaining for a lifetime, but when it came to their feelings... they were probably more deeply ingrained than anyone else's.

"That is why I say, those with different paths cannot make plans together."

Zhou Chutian did not know what the Grand Empress Dowager would say to him. He knew he was heading toward destruction, but all of this was something he had long ago surmised.

However, upon hearing Mo Yingqi's words, he still snorted in disdain. "Marquis Mo, this world does not consist only of a front and a back, nor is there absolute black and white. The world is like this, and officialdom is even more so."

"Sometimes, for longer-term plans, one must sacrifice the interests or even the lives of a small number of people. Moreover, it's not that I didn't save my people. Didn't those commoners survive by eating chaff and sleeping on broken mats? Hasn't the court given them a way to live by helping them reclaim farmland and replant grain and vegetables?"

"So, don't dwell on those matters. Those who died can only be said to have had fates that weren't tough enough, nothing more. In such a situation, the court is stable, the commoners survive, and those officials who gained benefits can better serve the court. Tell me, what exactly is wrong with this?"

"I know what is on your mind, Marquis Mo, but I will say it again: there is no absolute right or wrong in this world. Only children dwell on such things. For adults, especially those in government, what is right or wrong? What is justice? Nothing but a joke."

Mo Yingqi eventually finished all the noodles in front of him, even drinking the soup clean at the end. Looking at Zhou Chutian's noodle bowl, which had barely been touched, Mo Yingqi smiled. "I suppose the Grand Chancellor looks down on this bowl of noodles now?"

"Ha, to be honest with Marquis Mo, I really do look down on it." Zhou Chutian pushed the bowl forward. "Do not say that I am extravagant, but such is the reality. Once a person has eaten bird's nest, they will not think of that bowl of hot porridge from their childhood. When there is something better, naturally one must eat the better thing."

"There is nothing wrong with those words, Grand Chancellor. So, if you can enjoy the better things, why must you make the disaster victims endure the worse ones?" Mo Yingqi propped up his hands, resting his chin on the back of his hands. "I understand. You would probably say you are at the pinnacle of officialdom, the current Grand Secretary of the court, and even have the merit of having supported The Emperor's ascension."

"I don't deny it. If you and I were to switch places, I'm afraid I wouldn't have done better than you did back then. In fact, because of my mistakes, the late Emperor might have lost his position as Crown Prince or even his life."

"So I still admire you, Grand Chancellor. These are my sincere words. You used your talent to exchange for your current status where you can despise this bowl of clear soup noodles; there is nothing wrong with that."

"But Grand Chancellor, you have never understood what even the late Emperor understood. Water can carry a boat, but it can also overturn it. The millions of people in the world are the water. A little bit of ink might not seem to have any effect, but if you cast filth into the water day after day, year after year, guess what will happen?"

Zhou Chutian's eyes cast downward, and his expression turned somewhat ugly. Mo Yingqi didn't care and didn't mind what he thought, but continued to speak: "You don't truly believe that the overthrow of every dynasty at its end was due to how a certain final monarch acted, do you? Even if the Qin Dynasty fell under the Second Emperor, it was because the First Emperor was too tyrannical and the people were left with no livelihood in his later years. Of course, perhaps Emperor Yang of Sui was an exception, but with the new dynasty's foundation not yet stable, he implemented tyranny and was licentious and unscrupulous; if his kingdom didn't perish, whose would?"

"To put it bluntly, everything is an accumulation. When it finally erupts, it is merely the last straw that breaks the camel's back. You indeed have peerless talent, but unfortunately, you are short-sighted. Or rather... you could foresee these things, but you just didn't care."

"You, Grand Chancellor Zhou, were indeed loyal to the late Emperor and indeed did everything with his interests in mind. But people are selfish. No single person is without their own agenda. I am like this, and so are you."

"Your so-called desire to leave a name for eternity is just a hope that when future generations mention you, it will be like mentioning the former Lord Xuande and Chancellor Zhuge. the late Emperor was a wise ruler, but more importantly, it was because of you that he could become one. On this path, the further you went, the more you diverged from the late Emperor, and the more extreme you became. Many principles that I understand, you—who are well-read and brilliantly talented—cannot see because a single leaf obscures your view of Mount Tai."

"Your loyalty is all built upon yourself, built upon your desire to become a capable minister whose name lasts for eternity. You want people to think you are our Daxing's Grand Duke Wang, Chancellor Zhuge, Fang, or Du. But in reality, you are nothing. You are just a selfish, narrow-minded, conceited, dictatorial, and controlling... mad dog."

"Oh, wait. A dog still has a measure of blind loyalty, but you have nothing. I even doubt whether you truly cared about the late Emperor, or if you were indifferent to who was Emperor as long as you could achieve the glorious reputation in your eyes."

After Mo Yingqi finished speaking, he deliberately paused. His beautiful eyes, filled with playfulness and scrutiny, stared unblinkingly at Zhou Chutian.

The Grand Chancellor's hands had already clenched tight; Mo Yingqi could even clearly hear the cracking sound of his knuckles. Mo Yingqi smiled slightly. Not only did he not care that the other was also a master, he leaned his body even further forward.

"Actually, you are like a clown on a stage. You felt that after the late Emperor passed away, the current Emperor would be fine too, but you didn't expect the current Emperor wouldn't listen to you either. The most ironic thing is that the late Emperor worried you had military power and feared you would jump over the wall in desperation. Even if your prestige in the court is great, without soldiers, you are no threat at all."

"How you raised these death soldiers, I don't know and don't want to know. But tonight you've been jumping up and down, saying you're just unwilling to accept things. In truth, you just wanted to test the waters a little. If all these people really died and it truly came down to you assassinating the monarch, you'd probably dare to do it."

"The Third Prince has been grounded until now. I'm afraid his mother's family behind her had already taken your advice; otherwise, I really don't believe he had the courage to rebel against his own father. Yet you've seen the result: no matter how many experts there are, they can't change anything. Whatever you could think of, the Great Ancestor had already thought of back then."

Mo Yingqi looked out the window. The moon in the sky had turned blood-red, as eerily crimson as his own pupils. However, in the eastern horizon, a sliver of light had already begun to faintly appear.

"Grand Chancellor, dawn is coming. And you are destined to fall forever into your own night, never to come out again."