Young Master System: My Mother Is the Matriarch

Chapter 208 207: Dust and Secrets

Hui Tong looked down at his sleeve.

The blood stained cloth still rested within the fold, clearly a dark reminder of earlier wounds.

He pulled it free and examined the stain, "My grandfather's blood….." he murmured. "Passed down through generations and sealed in ceremony when I took the throne."

Emperor Hui Tong's thumb rubbed against the dried fabric,"They say the emperor's blood belongs to the empire. we are simply vessels, not men."

He looked up, "I truly believe that our lives are not our own to spend but to hold in trust."

"Vessels can easily be shattered and relationships can be quickly forsaken." He folded the cloth carefully and tucked it back into his sleeve. "I will not be the emperor who allows his line to end in a chamber, while a group of conniving councilors pick through his belongings."

Li Wei inclined his head. "Then we proceed?"

"Of course" Hui Tong repeated the word. "You continue to involve yourself in matters that do not concern you, young master. The affairs of the imperial court are far removed from the struggles of the martial world."

"Are they?" Li Wei allowed a faint smile. "Men still bleed and vie for influence….."

"Ambition still drives them to treachery, while power continues to corrupt those who grasp it too tightly. I have seen these truths in every province, every sect and city I have walked through. The walls may be higher here, but the people within them are the same."

Hui Tong studied him for a long moment.

Then, unexpectedly, he laughed with a sound devoid of humor.

"You are either the most ascetic man I have ever encountered or the most unusual lad to ever stand in this chamber." He shook his head slowly. "I have not yet decided which."

"Does it matter?" Li Wei asked. "Both evidently serve a cause tonight."

The emperor had no answer for that.

He moved back to the table and looked at the scattered evidence of the attack.

It did not take long finding the dart, the blade and overturned ink pots. All of them were amidst a pile of rumpled scrolls. Evidence of failure on the part of his enemies. Evidence of survival on his own part.

"The council meets at the sixth hour," he said. "Four hours from now, I believe this is our window to prepare."

He looked at Li Wei, "The passage behind the screen… Am sure you can find your way to the western archives from there"

"That is a formality at this point"

"Then go.""

"Try and find whatever records exist on the councilors who attacked tonight. Anything from their histories, alliances, debts and obligations." Hui Tong spoke plainly, " Bring me what you discover."

The emperor straightened his robes, smoothing the wrinkles where the attackers had grabbed him. "I will speak with the prisoners and learn what they are willing to share."

Li Wei moved toward the screen, while his hand paused on the frame.

"And if the prisoners prove unwilling?"

Hui Tong's expression did not change. "Men who attempt to murder an emperor rarely retain their courage once they face the consequences. I will find someone willing to speak…. One way or the other."

Li Wei nodded once and slipped behind the screen.

His fingers found the recessed panel, pressed the hidden latch to reveal the narrow passage beyond.

Cool air drifted from the darkness with a scent of cobblestone and dust.

He glanced back once.

The emperor stood alone in the chamber, lamplight casting long shadows across his form.

His hand rested on the blade that had drawn his blood earlier.

The blade that had belonged to his grandfather then his father, and now to him.

~click~

The panel closed behind Li Wei, and darkness swallowed him whole.

He stood motionless for a moment, allowing his eyes to adjust. Faint light bled through gaps in the stone.

A passage followed the inner wall, running parallel to the corridor outside.

Sounds carried through the barriers from distant footsteps to muffled voices, as Li Wei moved forward paying particular attention to the creak of wood settling in its frame.

His steps made no sound against the stone floor, while the young master's breathing remained steady and controlled.

The veil hung ready at his collar, waiting to be called if needed.

The passage branched twice before he reached the archives looking left and right.

He took a fork on the left, following the path the emperor had described.

Dust grew thicker here, undisturbed for years. No one had used these ways in a long time. The western archives lay behind a wooden door reinforced with iron bands. Li Wei pressed his ear against the surface and listened. Nothing stirred within.

He pushed the door open.

Shelves stretched into darkness, loaded with scrolls and ledgers and bound documents going back centuries.

The smell of aged paper filled the air.

Li Wei stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Somewhere in this room lay the truth about the men who had tried to kill an emperor tonight.

Within these records lived the connections regarding numerous hidden alliances that would rest at nothing until Hui Tong joined his ancestors.

He began to search amongst the darkness pressing close around him, silent and undisturbed. Li Wei stood just inside the doorway, allowing his senses to expand beyond the reach of his eyes.

The archives breathed around him.

It was a slow exhale of aging texts and antique frames of wood, accompanied by the distant drip of water somewhere deeper in the palace foundations.

He moved forward.

His hand found the nearest shelf, fingers trailing along rolled scrolls bound with silk cord.

Dust clung to his skin like fine powdered chalk.

He wiped it on his robe and continued deeper into the room.

The archives stretched further than he had anticipated. Shelf after shelf receded into blackness, each one crammed with the accumulated records of generations.

Some bore labels in faded ink likely provincial tax ledgers and military appointment rolls, diplomatic correspondence from courts long since fallen.

Others carried only numbers and dates, indicating codes whose meaning had likely died with the clerks who created them.

Li Wei stopped at a cross aisle and considered his approach.

Three councilors had entered the emperor's chambers tonight. Three men with histories, with families, with debts accumulated over decades of service.

Names would appear somewhere in this room.

Whether they be in appointment records or property transfers, these were records carefully documented using favors and rewards that kept the imperial bureaucracy functioning.

But the archives were vast, and time was not.

He turned left and began scanning shelves methodically, both eyes moved over labels quickly discarding those unrelated to the current council.

Civil service examinations from forty years past.

Grain tribute records from the eastern provinces.

Census data from the border regions.

None of it was useful.

The fifth shelf bore a different mark with a small brass plaque reading, "Parliamentary Appointments, Current Reign."

Li Wei stopped and examined the scrolls bundled there.

Each bore a name and a date. He worked through them quickly, fingers brushing across aged silk cords until he found what he sought.

Wei Chang; Appointed year four of the current reign. Prior service: Ministry of Rites, junior secretary. Promoted through three positions before ascending to the parliamentary seat upon the death of his predecessor. No mention of family connections or notations among patrons or sponsors.

The scroll told him nothing he did not already know.

He set it aside and continued.

Liu Guan. Appointed year seven. Prior service: Military Affairs Commission, logistics officer. Transferred to parliamentary oversight of southern granaries before elevation. A note in the margin mentioned a brother serving as prefect in the western provinces. Possible connection, possible leverage.

Li Wei memorized the name and moved on.

The third councilor that had thrown the dart, bore the name Zheng Yuan. Appointed year two. Prior service: Consulate, investigating investigating internal affairs. Known for aggressive prosecution of corrupt officials. No family noted, no patrons listed. The scroll was sparse, almost deliberately so.

He frowned and read it again.

The handwriting differed from the others, more cramped as though the clerk had been in a hurry or had wished to conserve space.

The dates aligned with the official record, but something felt incomplete.

A man did not rise from investigating magistrate to parliamentary councilor in a single jump without connections. Someone had cleared the path.

Li Wei rolled the scroll and tucked it into his robe.

He moved deeper into the archives, past the appointment records and into sections devoted to internal investigations.

If Zheng Yuan had served in the Consulate, records of his cases would exist nearby.

Those records might name the men he had protected, maybe even men who had later smoothed his rise.

The shelves here were older, the scrolls more brittle.

Dust lay thicker, undisturbed for years.

Li Wei moved carefully, quickly finding the consulate files arranged by year.

Zheng Yuan's tenure covered years eleven through fifteen of the previous reign. It was a span of four years during which he had investigated forty-three cases, much of the scrolls documenting each investigation filled an entire shelf.

Li Wei pulled the first and began reading.