When Yang Lun left the Palace of Tranquil Longevity, the rain outside was getting heavier, hitting the glazed tile roof as violently as if stones were being smashed.
Yang Lun hesitated, then turned around and saw Deng Ying stepping out of the hall and opening an umbrella beside him.
"His Majesty ordered me to escort Lord Yang."
The rain was roaring, but the two people on the palace road walked in silence.
It was not until the end of the meeting that Yang Lun took the umbrella that Deng Ying had been holding up. "That's enough."
Deng Ying hid under the wall and wrung out her sleeves which were full of water.
According to the rules for escorting officials, Deng Ying protected Yang Lun with an umbrella all the way, and his official robe was soaked by the rain.
"Then I will take you there."
"I was the one who sent you to the village."
Deng Ying was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "Yes."
He bowed and saluted him.
Yang Lun looked at his hand raised in front of his forehead and suddenly said, "Deng Fuling, do you think that I, a classmate, am worthy of you after we met?"
Deng Ying lowered his hands and stood up straight, then smiled and said, "Zi Xi, you and I have both tried our best."
Yang Lun said: "I didn't try my best."
"But that's enough."
He smiled and said, "Zi Xi, I have asked His Majesty to grant my status to the Yang family if he agrees to do so after I am convicted."
Yang Lun's ears suddenly buzzed, "How do I give it to you?"
"The wealthy families in the capital also keep eunuchs..."
"Deng Fuling, didn't you say you didn't want this identity a long time ago?"
After Yang Lun finished speaking, he trembled all over and took a step forward and said, "Whether you survive or not, I will take care of your affairs after your death! Seeing you end up like this... Deng Fuling, I... I am already ashamed, do you really want to make me lose face?"
His emotions were somewhat out of control. He turned around immediately after he finished speaking, pinched his palms tightly, exhaled the foul air, and forced himself to calm down.
The person behind him sighed.
"I'm sorry, I didn't think of you."
He lowered his eyes and said, "I want to follow Wanwan."
Yang Lun's shoulders slumped.
He married when he was only seven years old, and he didn't know any emotions beyond marriage, and he didn't understand the reason why a man should follow a woman. But until today, he didn't have the heart to ask the person in front of him. After all, he had nothing, and all he wanted was a false and humiliating destination. Even if Yang Lun couldn't bear to give it to him, in the end, he seemed to have to give it to him.
"Zi Xi."
Yang Lun turned his back and spat out the word "."
"I sold my outer house to Yang Wan because I was worried that Yang Wan would be implicated if I was convicted, so I didn't stamp it with the official seal. Although it is not a red deed (1), it is still valid. I gave the deed to Chen Hua and asked him to pass it on to Wan Wan. I know Wan Wan doesn't care about the house, but it is my life savings. Please persuade her to accept it."
"good."
Yang Lun suppressed his emotions and said calmly: "I will go with her."
Deng Ying nodded, "There's one more thing I want to give you, but don't give it to Wanwan."
"What?"
Deng Ying unbuttoned his robe and took out a cloth bag from his arms.
Yang Lun took it and opened it, and inside he saw a jade pendant carved with a hibiscus of superb quality.
The Yang family values jade. Yang Lun, Yang Wan, and Yang Su all love to wear jade.
Yang Wan had a nickname called Yu Furong, and Yang Lun doted on her. When he was in office, he often found jade materials and brought them back to make a jade ornament with a hibiscus pattern for his sister. Yang Lun had seen most of the better quality jade ornaments with hibiscus patterns in the capital, but this was the first time he had seen a jade pendant.
"Where are you from?"
Deng Ying replied, "It was left to me by my teacher before he died. I have kept it all along, but it is inevitable that our house will be confiscated. I can only give it to you."
Yang Lun looked at the jade face and said, "Why don't you give the carved lotus to Wan'er?"
Deng Ying followed Yang Lun's gaze and said softly, "It's a betrothal gift. Zixi,"
He looked up at Yang Lun, "Will you give it to her?"
Yang Lun clenched his fingers, his throat choked for a long time, and suddenly said: "It's up to you to control me. In the past few years, I can't control Yang Wan, you know it."
Deng Ying said nothing more.
The rain rumbles.
At the back of the meeting, several eunuchs who were running in the rain shouted, "The water in the moat is rising."
There is a folk saying that if the water in the moat rises, it means that the day of justice is approaching.
At this moment, Yang Lun felt that this idea was true, but also false.
***
June of the first year of Jinghe.
Deng Ying was officially removed from his two official posts in the Silijian and Dongjishichang and was remanded in prison.
The Ministry of Justice reviewed nearly a hundred old cases involving the Communist Party, and all the people from the Imperial Household Department who were detained in the Imperial Prison were brought out one by one to have their charges reconsidered.
Bai Yuyang submitted a memorial to the Three Courts to discuss Deng Ying's crime, but it was rejected by the emperor on the same day.
When Bai Yuyang was preparing to submit another petition jointly with the cabinet, the emperor sent a petition of crime written by Deng Ying himself to the Ministry of Justice.
The officials from the Inspectorate and the Dali Temple looked at the criminal report and were somewhat surprised at how much the prisoner cooperated.
Based on the criminal reports, the two departments jointly investigated the Liulichang case and the Xuetian case in the capital and the local areas. Within four or five days, they wrote more than eight charges against Deng Ying. The Left Inspector General looked at the crime record and said, "Although it is not enough to impose the death penalty, it will definitely be sentenced to beheading."
Bai Yuyang said: "It's still light."
Qi Huaiyang said: "Master Prime Minister, if His Majesty approves the petition we submitted, sentencing him to be beheaded in public would not be too light a punishment."
The Left Governor said: "The murder case in Shuntian Prefecture has caused great public outrage. If he is not sentenced to death, the people will not be appeased."
Qi Huaiyang was about to speak, but heard Bai Yuyang say, "What Prime Minister Bai said is very true. In the past, the late emperor indulged the clique to cause trouble, and we impeached it several times, but it was refuted. Now is the new dynasty, and both inside and outside the court are waiting for a new atmosphere. If this person is not dealt with seriously, how can it be clear to your majesty that he should strictly control the inner court?"
Qi Huaiyang lowered his head and was silent for a while. "Do you two mean to call for another joint trial of the three courts?"
Yang Lun had been sitting on the sidelines and had not said anything. After hearing what Qi Huaiyang said, he could not help but ask, "Can you please stop torturing him?"
When everyone heard these words, they didn't know what to do for a moment and fell silent.
Yang Lun stood up and took the evidence in Qi Huaiyang's hand. "Everything he did is written down here. The trial in the court will take several days. He will be shackled, kneeling before the judge, and tortured. What's the point of saying the same thing? His health is already very poor. Do you want to torture him like Qi Yixian, unable to even go to the execution ground?"
The imperial concubine hurriedly said, "Master Prime Minister, what Yang Cifu said makes sense. We use the death penalty to deter the eunuchs in the inner court. If the prisoner dies before the execution, it will lose our original intention."
Yang Lun felt a chill down his spine because of these cold-blooded words.
He didn't care about official etiquette, and shouted, "Isn't there still one more crime missing to put him to death by slicing? You guys agreed to hand him over to the Northern Pacification Division Prison, and ask him directly whether he admits it or not, and don't try him again!"
Bai Yuyang looked at Yang Lun, "In your opinion, who should be the best person to ask?"
Yang Lun smiled miserably and took a step back. "Wait until the judges have discussed it. I, Yang Lun, will go and ask."
Bai Yuyang nodded and said sideways: "Last month, the second son of the late emperor died of illness in the palace. Afterwards, there were rumors that Your Majesty was harsh on his brother. Now that the new emperor has ascended the throne, these words will damage Your Majesty's reputation. See if you can resolve this matter with that person."
**
Autumn of the first year of Jinghe.
It was a very meaningful period for the Ming Dynasty.
Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the Supervisory Office have worked together to finally clear up most of the unjust, false, and wrong cases during the reign of Emperor Yixian. The emperor rehabilitated Zhang Zhanchun, built a temple for the eight dozen students of Tongjia Academy, confiscated the eunuchs of the Ministry of Rites, and provided pensions to his descendants.
Qi Huaiyang, the Minister of Justice, was ordered to confiscate the property of the eunuchs in the Ministry of Rites. The amount of gold, silver and land was staggering. Yixian alone was found to have more than one million taels of silver and more than 10,000 taels of gold. The land in his hometown in Hangzhou was countless. Even the eunuchs who followed him hid tens of thousands of silver at home.
However, when they found Deng Ying, they only found a few sets of old clothes, half a box of medicine for his wounds, and more than two taels of silver.
The officials from the Ministry of Justice who were in charge of the search and confiscation had encountered such a situation for the first time. They were afraid that Deng Ying had hidden his property, causing them to miss the search. When they reported it to Qi Huaiyang, they did not know how to start.
Qi Huaiyang ordered his men to seal these things together with the private belongings of other eunuchs and wait for their families to take them back.
At the end of July, the emperor approved the verdict of the Ministry of Justice. One person was sentenced to lingchi, two were beheaded, and most of the others were exiled to Nanjing and Lingnan. This was undoubtedly the most severe punishment of the eunuch party in the history of the Ming Dynasty. On the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, the court published the "Hundred Crimes Record" written by the emperor himself, in the name of the new emperor, listing nearly 100 crimes committed by Deng Ying, the eunuch in charge of the Silijian and the commander of the Dongjishichang.
Yang Wan saw the original text of the "Hundred Crimes Record" included in the "Ming Shilu" at the Shenming Pavilion (1) in the capital.
And just yesterday, she received Deng Ying’s household registration card at Qingbo Hall.
Yang Lun went to the museum personally and handed it to her.
Yang Lun said to her: "Although this ID card is meaningless after his death, he told me that he wants to follow you, so you should keep his ID card."
Yang Wan held Deng Ying's household registration card in her hand, her voice trembling, "Thank His Majesty for me."
Yang Lun nodded.
Yang Wan coughed, looked up and asked Yang Lun: "Did Deng Ying say anything else?"
Yang Lun took out the emerald lotus jade pendant from his sleeve and handed it to Yang Wan. "He won't give it to you, but it would be inappropriate for me to keep it. Since he has given you his identity card, you can take his things. As for the things sealed in the Ministry of Justice, you can go and collect them when the Ministry of Justice returns them to the family after the execution."
Yang Wan took the jade pendant and was about to say something, but then she heard Yang Lun say, "Put away this jade pendant. It was left to him by Mr. Zhang before he died."
Yang Wan lowered her head, "Is that a lotus sculpture?"
"yes."
After he finished speaking, he added, "We in the Yang family worship jade. Whether it is a betrothal gift or a dowry, we must see jade..."
"He didn't let you give it to me because he didn't dare to use it as a betrothal gift."
Yang Lun was silent for a while, "He is already a criminal slave, you should stop thinking about things you shouldn't think about."
Yang Wan looked at the words on the declaration pavilion, and kept thinking about Yang Lun's words: "He is already a criminal slave. You should stop thinking about things you shouldn't think about." Her body trembled slightly.
Song Yunqing was afraid that she would be grief-stricken, so he held her arm lightly.
"After seeing Yang Wan, let's go back."
Yang Wan rubbed her slightly sore neck and shook her head, "Let me finish reading it."
Chen Hua blocked the crowd behind them and said in a low voice, "Miss Wan, there are so many people here. It would be embarrassing if someone recognized us."
"Chen Hua!"
Song Yun interrupted him in a low voice: "If you don't know how to talk, then don't talk."
As soon as he finished speaking, a voice came from the crowd, "It's that eunuch's vegetable farmer!"
Chen Hua hurriedly blocked the crowd and said, "Yun Qing, hurry up and follow Miss Wan."
Song Yunqing tried to pull Yang Wan, but Yang Wan did not move. She endured the noisy dirty words around her and finished reading the last word on the declaration pavilion.