Chapter 64: The Truth of the Thousand Buddha Temple

Princess Anping let out a cold laugh. "Crown Princess, that is a rather boring way to speak. I just said you were a clever woman, yet you treat me like a fool?"

Shen Chabai let out a breath. "Since that is the case, I will be blunt. The Crown Prince has already left the palace, and naturally, the fewer people who know his whereabouts, the better."

"The Eastern Palace has been surrounded by your men so tightly that not even a fly can get in. If you intended to use me as a hostage, why go through all this extra trouble?"

Shen Chabai did not know what Princess Anping was plotting, but showing up at her doorstep now could not possibly mean anything good. Naturally, she wanted to avoid going outside at all costs.

Princess Anping squatted down, placed her hand on Shen Chabai's shoulder, and then slowly slid it down to rest upon her belly. "After all these years, my brother is finally going to have another child."

"What are you trying to do?" Shen Chabai instinctively tried to protect her stomach, but she could not break free from the grip of the two guards.

Princess Anping stared intently at her belly. "Common folklore says that if a woman's belly is round, she will bear a daughter, and if it is pointed, she will bear a son. Judging by my Crown Princess's condition, this child should be a boy."

"It is a pity that His Imperial Highness knows not where he is and cannot see it. How about this? We shall trouble you, Sister-in-law, to be hung from the city gates, and I will have someone slice open your belly to see whether it is a boy or a girl."

"If it truly is a boy, my brother might just be so overjoyed that he returns." Princess Anping's expression grew frantic as her hand gradually tightened.

Merely hearing these words conjured the horrific scene in Shen Chabai's mind, causing her to retch uncontrollably.

Disgusted, Anping pinched her nose and took two steps back.

Suddenly, Shen Chabai lifted her head. "Was such a vicious idea concocted for you by Liaoji? To think he is a monk; beneath that compassionate exterior lies such a malicious heart."

Anping remained unconcerned, clearly already well aware of Liaoji's true nature.

Yet Shen Chabai suddenly burst into laughter. "If I were the Princess, I would kill Liaoji immediately to prevent inviting a wolf into the house."

Anping chuckled dismissively. "We have reached this juncture, and you still think I would listen to your provocation?"

"Did Liaoji attach himself to His Majesty in the past for anything other than power? Yet now that His Majesty is aged, he has turned to cooperate with the Princess instead. Can the Princess truly rest easy with such a two-faced, opportunistic man sleeping beside her pillow?"

Shen Chabai's words were utterly unsparing, yet they struck precisely at the knot in Anping's heart.

Anping shook her head. "No, I am not the Empress Dowager..."

"You will not grow old before him? But how can the Princess be certain he is still willing to be manipulated by you?" Shen Chabai said with biting sarcasm. "The Princess has no heirs of her own yet, does she?"

Anping grew somewhat flushed with annoyance. "What do you mean? Naturally, Her Ladyship does not."

"Yet Liaoji does. Not only does he have them, but he has many."

"You spout nonsense!"

Shen Chabai indicated the jewelry box on the dressing table with a glance. "Ever since Liaoji came to the Empress's side three years ago, I felt this man was not simple, so I sent people to investigate thoroughly at the Thousand Buddhas Temple."

"Hard work pays off; I finally found a clue. The Thousand Buddhas Temple does not worship Bodhisattvas, but rather is most famous for praying for sons. Do you know why?" Shen Chabai asked softly.

Anping vaguely sensed that the truth behind this was more than she could bear, yet her curiosity got the better of her. She waved her hand, dismissing all the guards from the room. "Why?"

"Because the one responsible for granting children in the temple is not a Bodhisattva, but those robust young men in the prime of their youth." Having said this, Shen Chabai's complexion turned even paler.

Even before she found the proof, she had harbored suspicions; learning the actual truth had filled her with nausea, and that feeling remained unchanged today.

"Impossible!" Anping's face instantly went pale. "You are lying!"

Shen Chabai raised her chin slightly. "If you do not believe me, you can go and ask the person at the very bottom of the roster."

"Many women in the capital who were long unable to conceive were deceived by them. I was unwilling to speak of it for fear they would not survive learning the truth, but the person at the very end is the chief culprit of all this."

Anping slowly raised her head, and Shen Chabai continued, "That man was unable to father children, so he had men illicitly couple with his wife and then claimed the resulting children as his own."

"Yet because of this, resentment festered in his heart, so he founded the Thousand Buddhas Temple and made himself the abbot, specifically to receive the wives of prominent households and use the opportunity to gather intelligence. Liaoji was the first to enter the Buddhist temple."

Shen Chabai steadied herself against the table and stood up. "That abbot is still locked away in the Capital Garrison camp by me. If you do not believe it, you may go and ask him yourself."

"So what?" Although Anping had clearly reached the absolute limit of her anger, she stubbornly refused to yield. "I shall settle accounts with him myself in due time, but since you dare to make a laughingstock of me, I will start with you."

With that, Anping snatched a vase from the table and made as if to smash it down upon Shen Chabai's head.

Shen Chabai hastily stepped back, covered her mouth and nose, and scattered the packet of medicine hidden in her sleeve, then watched helplessly as Anping collapsed in a faint.

This was a powder she had asked Physician Li for under the pretense of abdominal pain to protect herself; she never expected she would end up using it on Anping.

Shen Chabai grabbed Anping's ankles and dragged her further into the room.

Anping broke into a cold sweat. "What are you trying to do?"

Dragging her to the footstool, Shen Chabai found her strength depleted. "Princess, rest assured, I do not wish to kill you just yet and be hacked into mincemeat by the people outside. I merely wish to reason with the Princess."

Despite her words, Shen Chabai's hairpin was honestly pressed against Princess Anping's neck.

Knowing that Anping was naturally proud and that such threats would only produce the opposite effect, Shen Chabai had no intention of engaging in a war of words with her. "The Princess's desire to ascend the throne does not actually conflict with me."

Her only response was a cold sneer from Anping. "You are the concubine who has given birth to the only heir my brother currently has. If my brother ascends the throne, you will at the very least be a Noble Consort. Are you not tempted by such glory?"

"If the Princess wishes to attain the throne, should you not show the utmost consideration toward the sole surviving widow of the former Crown Prince?" Shen Chabai's words stopped right at the point of implication.

Anping could not help falling silent.

"Even if His Highness has taken a primary wife, no matter how many children I bear him, I could never possibly sit on the imperial throne. Even if my son were to inherit the supreme rule in the future, my glory would never surpass that of the Crown Princess."

"Does the Princess still believe that a conflict exists between us?" Shen Chabai's words were practically a blunt overture.

Court struggles had nothing to do with her. As long as she survived, she cared not whether Li Tinghan lived or died; indeed, so long as Princess Anping was willing to treat her kindly, she was more than willing to help Anping put on a show for outsiders.

Naturally, she did not forget to kick Liaoji while he was down. "Although Her Late Majesty set a precedent for a female ruler, if the Princess ascends the throne, it will inevitably invite gossip and slander."

"At such a time, if I were to be hung before the palace gates to force His Highness to show himself, would that not simply give ambitious individuals everywhere a pretext to march into the capital and 'rescue' the monarch?"

"Does the Princess believe that Liaoji offered you such a plan merely to help you eliminate rivals, or to seize a legitimate excuse to replace you himself?" Shen Chabai intentionally emphasized the final few words.