Chapter 47 Impossible to Cleanses One's Name

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By the time Zhu Hao dragged Zhu Houcong into the courtyard, the fire in the warehouse next door had already spread into a raging inferno.

The smoke had been thick from the beginning, making the flames appear especially fierce. But that had been deliberate. Zhu Hao had poured plenty of water over the timber near the ignition point and soaked a great deal of dry grass as well. The result was heavy smoke but little fire, creating the impression to outsiders that the blaze was rapidly spreading.

Yet houses in this era were built mainly of wood. Under the scorching heat, the damp timber and wet grass quickly dried. Once the flames escaped the small area where they had initially been contained, there was no longer any hope of controlling them.

The fire grew larger, and waves of heat swept over them. For Zhu Hao, however, there was no immediate danger.

When he reached the entrance, he found, as expected, that the courtyard gate had been blocked from the outside.

“Put out the fire! Put out the fire! Nobody comes through here!”

Spiky Hoe stood at the entrance like a gate guardian. He was the one who had ordered the gate sealed.

Someone demanded, “How are we supposed to put out the fire if we can’t go in?”

“Can’t you toss the water over the wall?” Spiky Hoe replied.

The men carrying wooden buckets and basins looked up. Flames roared and smoke billowed, while the wall before them stood a full ten feet high. Getting water over it would not be easy; most of it would simply splash against the wall.

“Open the gate!” Zhu Hao shouted.

Spiky Hoe had been speaking, but when he heard Zhu Hao’s voice, he merely turned his head away, pretending not to hear.

“There’s a child inside! He belongs to the prince’s household!” Zhu Hao continued to shout.

Spiky Hoe curled his lips into a mocking smile.

Do you take me for a fool?

Don’t I know that you’re the only one living in that warehouse?

Don’t insult my intelligence. I’m not falling for that trick.

“Old Li, there’s someone trapped inside! Are you really going to stand by and watch him die?” Old Song could bear it no longer. Knowing there was no point trying to persuade Spiky Hoe, he turned to Li Shun instead.

Li Shun’s expression shifted uncertainly.

It was not that he did not want to put out the fire. But at present, extinguishing it carried great risk and offered little reward. Killing Zhu Hao, the undercover agent of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, would be far more worthwhile.

These laboring craftsmen ought, in principle, to have been honest and simple folk. But after spending so long in a princely household where desires and bribery ran rampant, they had witnessed too many exchanges of favors and profits. Over time, they had learned to care only about their own interests.

At last, Lu Song arrived with a water-dragon fire brigade, whose main force consisted of guards from the Prince’s Household Guard Office.

Spiky Hoe hurried forward with several craftsmen to stop them. This time, however, he was clearly unable to hold them back. The guards were far larger and more imposing than Spiky Hoe and his companions.

“Ceremonial Officer Lu, if you refuse to listen to me and something goes wrong, you’ll answer for it!” Spiky Hoe threatened.

Lu Song was caught in a terrible dilemma. Whether to save Zhu Hao or not was a difficult choice. Zhu Hao knew his true identity, and had claimed that if he died, Lu Song’s secret would be exposed. Could that really happen?

At that moment, Zhu Hao shouted from inside the gate, “Hey! There’s someone in here—a child from your prince’s household! His name is Zhu Si!”

By now, Zhu Hao was prepared.

If the gate remained blocked and he could not get out, he would not simply wait for death. He could climb over the wall; there was plenty of scrap wood nearby that he could use as a foothold. As for Zhu Houcong, leaving him near the gate would not be a problem. The flames had not yet reached that area, and the black smoke was mostly rising upward. For the moment, the surroundings were still safe.

Once Zhu Hao escaped, would Spiky Hoe and the others really continue standing there, blocking the gate without putting out the fire?

As long as the gate was opened, Zhu Houcong could be carried out.

At that moment, Zhu Houcong coughed several times and showed signs of waking.

“Don’t listen to that boy’s nonsense,” Spiky Hoe said. “There’s no one in there except him.”

Lu Song, however, was startled.

The craftsmen outside knew nothing about the matters concerning “Zhu Three” and “Zhu Four.” But as a ceremonial officer in the Prince’s Household Guard Office—and with a wife who had been Zhu Houcong’s wet nurse—Lu Song understood the truth behind it all. Zhu Hao had also told him what was really happening, and Lu Song had even had his own son carry messages on his behalf.

“Open the gate!”

Lu Song charged forward.

Spiky Hoe tried to stop him, but Lu Song had already drawn his saber and knocked him to the ground with the scabbard.

“You’ll pay for this! Just wait until you’re in trouble!” Spiky Hoe cursed, clutching his head. Relying on the support of Hou Chun and the powerful Yuan Zonggao behind him, he was furious and ground out his threats through clenched teeth.

The guards from the Prince’s Household Guard Office had come to fight the fire in the first place. Without another word, they pulled out the wooden bar that had been fastened across the gate and opened it.

Behind the gate, they saw Zhu Hao covered in flames, dragging a half-dead child who lay sprawled behind him.

Lu Song’s eyes nearly bulged from their sockets. He seized a bucket of water and overturned it over Zhu Hao and Zhu Houcong. With a loud splash, the bucketful of water doused them both, and the phosphorus fire vanished at once.

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A group of people worked together to carry Zhu Hao and Zhu Houcong over the threshold.

They moved them to the open ground at the mouth of the alley.

The fire grew larger and larger. More people arrived to fight it, but tung oil had been used to feed the flames, and the best opportunity to extinguish the blaze had already been lost. The fire had spread beyond control. All they could do now was minimize the damage.

Some rushed into the courtyard to fight the fire in the warehouse, but the dense smoke drove them back out. In the end, they could only retreat to the edge of the courtyard and throw water inside. No one dared approach any closer.

Zhu Hao sat there, pursing his lips and pretending to look aggrieved while watching the spectacle.

Lu Song continued directing the firefighting at first. Later, all he could do was have men stand on the fire wall, using long poles and hemp beaters to stop the burning embers from drifting away and setting the neighboring buildings ablaze.

More and more people from the prince’s household arrived after hearing the news.

Among the household’s senior officials, Supervising Eunuch Zhang Zuo was the first to reach the scene with his men.

When he saw Zhu Houcong lying on the ground, both his knees nearly gave way. Fortunately, his attendants caught him in time; otherwise, he would have collapsed outright.

“Your Highness, the heir…”

Zhang Zuo’s reaction stunned all the craftsmen present.

Everyone knew that the Prince of Xing had only one son. The heir was the future master of the household—in other words, their young master.

Although they had never seen the young master before, they knew that their future livelihood would depend on him.

Could the child Zhu Hao had rescued really be the heir of Prince Xing?

“Supervising Eunuch Zhang, please do not worry,” Lu Song hurried over to reassure him. “I have already examined the heir. He is not seriously injured. He merely fainted after inhaling too much smoke.”

Zhang Zuo cried out toward Heaven, “Great Lord above! What fiend would do such a thing? Are you trying to leave the Prince of Xing without an heir?”

Hou Chun had arrived at the fire only a short while earlier. Li Shun, Spiky Hoe, and Daxi had already been there from the beginning. All of them realized that matters had taken a turn for the worse.

Hou Chun glanced from side to side, then walked over to Zhang Zuo.

“Supervising Eunuch Zhang, we’ve discovered the truth. This fire is connected to Zhu Hao!”

Zhang Zuo immediately shouted, “Seize him!”

Several guards from the Prince’s Household Guard Office rushed over and pinned Zhu Hao down.

Zhu Hao cried out, “I’m the one who rescued him from the fire! On what grounds are you accusing me?”

“What?”

Zhang Zuo had instinctively assumed that Zhu Hao was an agent sent by a hostile faction. When he heard one of his own people claim that Zhu Hao had started the fire, he had ordered his arrest without a second thought.

But after hearing Zhu Hao’s protest, he was suddenly bewildered.

Indeed, could a child really have set the fire?

Then he looked at Zhu Hao’s clothes, burned through with countless holes, and at his soot-blackened body. It was obvious that he had come out of the flames.

Would the person who started the fire trap himself inside the burning building?

“Zhu Hao saw the fire break out together with us,” Lu Song said. “He was the one who risked his life by rushing into the flames and rescuing the heir. He has committed no crime. On the contrary, he deserves credit.”

Lu Song had no time to determine whether Zhu Hao had actually started the fire. At that moment, he had no choice but to say this—to protect Zhu Hao, and to protect himself as well.

Besides…

He was not lying.

“Why did the fire start?” Zhang Zuo demanded of Hou Chun.

Hou Chun stammered, unable to explain. Li Shun answered from the side, “Perhaps the weather was dry and the timber caught fire…”

“Supervising Eunuch Zhang,” Lu Song said, “putting out the fire is what matters most. So long as the heir is safe, everything else can wait.”

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Only after most of the warehouse had burned away did people begin entering the courtyard to fight the fire.

It was too late to mend the pen after the sheep had escaped.

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Everything combustible in the warehouse had been destroyed. Only blackened ruins and charred walls remained.

Because no one yet knew Zhu Houcong’s condition, Zhang Zuo and the others did not immediately move him. They merely summoned a physician and had him examine the child with great care. Zhang Zuo possessed a certain amount of practical knowledge and understood that when someone—especially a frail child—had been rescued from the scene of a disaster, treating him where he lay was safer and more effective.

By the time Yuan Zonggao, the chief administrator of the prince’s household, arrived with his men, the fire had nearly been extinguished.

“Chief Administrator Yuan, someone deliberately set this fire!” said the men who had gone inside to inspect the scene. They could naturally distinguish between an accidental fire and deliberate arson.

Tung oil had been scattered throughout the area, with flames still flickering here and there. Moreover, the fire had not begun inside the warehouse itself.

Yuan Zonggao first glared at Zhu Hao, his anger overflowing.

The prince’s household had become wary of Zhu Hao entirely because of him. Just as Yuan Zonggao was about to blame Zhu Hao like everyone else, Lu Song came over and gave him a rough account of what had happened.

“…We do not know how the fire began, but Zhu Hao was not inside at the time. Only after the flames broke out did he rush in and rescue the heir.”

He had not set the fire to harm anyone. He had rescued someone instead.

Even Yuan Zonggao’s sharp mind was confused for a moment.

“Why was the heir here?” Yuan Zonggao asked.

“That…”

Lu Song could not answer.

“Who discovered the fire first?” Yuan Zonggao asked again.

Everyone looked around.

The maid who had first shouted that there was a fire had already returned to the inner compound. A delicate young woman would hardly take part in fighting a fire.

Most of the people then turned their eyes toward Spiky Hoe.

“When we came out,” Lu Song said, “we saw a torch lying on the ground, still smoking after having been extinguished. Jiang Maosun was standing there…”

Spiky Hoe’s real name was Jiang Maosun. Perhaps the sound of his name bore some resemblance to his nickname, which was why people had taken to calling him Spiky Hoe.

“I’ve been wronged! It had nothing to do with me!” Spiky Hoe cried. By now, the alcohol had completely worn off, and he hurriedly began protesting his innocence.

Someone immediately brought over the “evidence” left beside the wall.

When the torch was handed to Yuan Zonggao, he frowned and examined it. Then he tossed it to the ground, for it gave off a nauseating stench.

One of the guards who had been drinking with Lu Song said, “Spiky Hoe, and you still claim you didn’t do it? You said you were going out to relieve yourself, and not long after you left, a fire broke out here. What are the odds of that?”

“Exactly.”

The craftsmen who had been drinking together that night all felt that Spiky Hoe could not escape responsibility.

Spiky Hoe defended himself. “I only went to the corner to urinate. Who could have known that this thing would fall from above? I saw that it was still burning, so I put it out with my urine!”

He was telling the absolute truth. Spiky Hoe felt that he had never been so honest in his life.

But to everyone else, his explanation was sheer nonsense.

He claimed that he had gone to urinate, and then a burning torch had just happened to appear before him? And he had extinguished it by urinating on it?

Even a three-year-old child would not believe that.

“Why did you set the fire to burn me alive?” Zhu Hao wailed, crying as he recounted what had happened. “When I was inside rescuing someone, you even blocked the gate! You’re all bad people!”

Lu Song said, “Chief Administrator Yuan, after we discovered the fire, Jiang Maosun deliberately prevented us from going in to help. He said that… the person inside should be burned to death… so that everything would be over…”

Spiky Hoe had originally still had a chance to prove his innocence.

But after the fire broke out, he had indeed stopped others from fighting it. That was an undeniable fact.

If the fire had truly had nothing to do with him, why had he prevented others from putting it out? The idea of trapping someone inside and burning him to death had also come from Spiky Hoe himself. Even Li Shun and the others could not deny that.

There was motive for arson. There was proof that he had blocked the rescuers. Everyone present was a witness. And the torch he had supposedly extinguished with his urine could serve as physical evidence.

Spiky Hoe suddenly realized that he had no way to defend himself.