Chapter 518 — Twisted

Ruozhu came back and told her, "Two physicians have come from the Imperial Medical Academy. They dared only lay chicken skin over the wound, and then left some wound medicine for external use, saying that whether the Zhenguo Lord pulls through will depend on tonight. As for the Second Master, it is only a great gash on his head and excessive loss of blood; a prescription to fortify the qi and nourish the blood will suffice." She paused, then added, "I hear that the moment the Second Master came to, he began shouting wildly, railing even at the Zhenguo Lord. Those attending him were frightened out of their wits and had to stuff a handkerchief into his mouth."

It would be strange indeed if he did not shout.

To be betrayed and abandoned by the father he had regarded as his mountain — for a man of Song Han's lofty self-regard, that was the fatal blow, was it not?

Still, Song Han was truly tough of life.

Yet had he really died there in the ancestral hall, that would have let him off far too lightly.

Dou Yan smiled coldly.

That evening Song Yan did not return, but he sent someone to deliver to her the document striking Song Han from the family register.

Dou Yan looked at the names of Song Maochun and Song Fengchun upon it and quietly let out a breath of relief. Early the next morning she sent someone to the Shuntian Prefecture to register the deed.

When the clerk of the household office at the Shuntian Prefecture saw the document, his face drained of color. Looking up, he caught sight of the Vice Prefect who stood at Yan Che's side, and at once lowered his head and hurriedly affixed the great seal of the Shuntian Prefecture. But the moment the Vice Prefect had escorted Yan Che out of the household office, he darted straight into the personnel office and whispered to the men there, "Just now a retainer of the Yingzhenguo Mansion, with the Vice Prefect himself in attendance, came to have a document of expulsion drawn up for the Song family's Second Master, Song Han. Do you know why?"

The men of the personnel office were hearing this for the first time. At once they said excitedly, "Tell us quickly — what on earth is going on?"

When Yan Che came out from thanking His Excellency Huang, he found a crowd packed into the personnel office, all talking of Song Han's affair.

The Vice Prefect flushed to the ears.

Song Han had committed monstrous treason — how could word of it not spread?

Yan Che only smiled faintly, pretending he had seen nothing, bade the Vice Prefect farewell with a smile, and returned to the Yingzhenguo Mansion.

Song Cen, however, ran a persistent high fever for several days on end, and his condition was very grave.

Song Yan saw that this would not do, and submitted a memorial to the throne requesting leave on his father's behalf.

The Emperor had always been cool toward Song Cen, but ever since he had heard of Song Han's "misdeeds," and thought of the Prince of Liao, who was much the same, he had grown suddenly much warmer toward Song Cen. Hearing that Song Cen had fallen ill, and taking it that he had been made ill by rage over Song Han's affair, he sent a young eunuch to inquire after him.

Since the eunuch came in the Emperor's name, not only must he be led into the inner chamber to see Song Cen, but the prescriptions Song Cen had used and the like must also be shown to the young eunuch for his inspection.

The young eunuch was frightened half out of his wits; he asked a few hurried questions and then returned to the palace.

The Emperor flew into a rage, recalling the humiliation he had suffered when the Prince of Liao held him captive at Yuquan Mountain.

For the sake of his promise to the Crown Prince he could not punish the Prince of Liao — but could he not punish a Zhenguo Lord's second son?

The Emperor issued an edict: Song Han was to be cast out beyond the city gate at once, and no one was to give him a drop of water, a grain of rice, or a thread of cloth, on pain of being judged guilty of treason, with all nine degrees of kin put to death.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard still had no commander, so the director of the Eastern Depot went in person to the Yingzhenguo Mansion to "invite" Song Han out, and dumped him outside the Chaoyang Gate.

Song Han's fever had broken after three days of medicine, but he could not get so much as a cup of tea brought to him, let alone food and tonics. He was starving, his vision swimming, when the Eastern Depot men seized him for no reason, threw him into a cart, and for no reason pushed him out again.

He stared at the clamorous, crowded causeway, at a loss.

A pack of little beggars came swarming in and surrounded him, crying "Brother!" The stench of filth that clung to them, the black grime beneath their fingernails, made Song Han shiver despite himself.

"Get away with you!" he shouted at the little beggars.

The beggar children paid him no mind. Still grinning, they rushed forward and pinned him to the ground, hands and feet working every which way to strip the clothes from his back.

Song Han was still very weak; several times he failed to break free, and at last he began to cry out loudly for help.

Passersby gathered at a distance to watch, clumping together in twos and threes to point and jeer at him, yet not one came forward to rescue him.

When Song Han's clothes had been stripped from him until only a pair of short drawers remained, the pack of little beggars scattered and vanished.

Sisters and brothers, here is today's update.

It is already the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. Are there any other girls out there still working, like me?

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※rs! (go read it..cm

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