The consensus in the room was absolute: the mastermind had to be found. Emperor Kangxi summoned Nuomin, the Minister of Justice, and Zhang Jiwu, the Governor of Shuntian Prefecture, ordering a joint, unsparing investigation.
"Imperial Father, the investigation is paramount, but we cannot allow the rumors to fester in the meantime," Crown Prince Yinreng stated.
Kangxi sighed. "Waiting for the truth before acting is too passive."
Time favored the enemy. The Qing Dynasty currently enjoyed high public trust, largely due to the success of the new hybrid rice and the cowpox vaccination program. The Sixth Prince, Yinzuo, had recently died after receiving the cowpox vaccine, and rumors were now spreading that the government was using the populace as test subjects. Trust was difficult to build, but a single calculated rumor could destroy it. It was a knife aimed at the empire's heart.
"To silence the people is harder than to dam a river. We must redirect the flow, not block it," Yinreng analyzed. "The lower classes cannot read official edicts, but they consume stories. We will use storytellers."
Zhang Jiwu immediately grasped the strategy. "We commission the city's most popular fiction writers. We provide an outline mirroring our current crisis—a dead royal heir, spreading rumors, hidden enemies—set in a fictional, ambiguous past."
"Precisely," Yinreng nodded. "We leave the ending unresolved. The story must be thrilling but lack a clear conclusion regarding who killed the prince. Human nature dictates that the audience will obsess over the details to find the answer themselves. We plant the clues within the narrative: the child was murdered, and the rumors were spread by the murderers to destabilize the state. When the public 'discovers' this truth on their own, their belief in it will be unshakable."
It was a flawless counter-strike. Not only would it deflect the blame, but it would also inadvertently cast the imperial court as the tragic, benevolent victim, solidifying public loyalty.
***
The Psychological Strike
The next day, Zhang Jiwu delivered a masterful outline. Yinreng reviewed it, satisfied with the lethal efficiency of the psychological warfare.
However, external threats were only half the battle. Stepping outside, Yinreng found Yinzhen, the Fourth Prince, returning from the Palace of Eternal Peace in a state of severe mental decline.
"Consort De still refuses to see me," Yinzhen muttered, referring to his biological mother. Yinzuo, the deceased prince, was her favored son. "Her maids claim she is resting, but I heard movement inside. She blames me, doesn't she?"
"Do not succumb to baseless paranoia," Yinreng replied sharply, pulling him into the study. "Why would she blame you?"
Yinzhen's voice trembled. "The scooter. The wooden toy I gifted to Yinzuo. The investigators found smallpox pus hidden inside it. My adoptive mother, Consort Tongjia, hates Consort De. What if Consort Tongjia used the scooter I provided to kill Yinzuo, framing me in the process?"
Yinzhen was spiraling, crushed by the logical weight of his own deduction. If his adoptive mother used his gift as a murder weapon, he was the fatal catalyst.
"Your premise is flawed," Yinreng countered rationally. "If the Head Eunuch genuinely suspected Consort Tongjia's maids of planting the pus, they would not have been released from interrogation so quickly. Furthermore, the timing of these events is entirely too synchronized."
Before Yinreng could deconstruct the situation further, an aide rushed in: Yinzhi, the Third Prince, was violently beating a group of servants in the courtyard.
Yinreng intervened immediately, pulling Yinzhi off the bloodied men. "Explain your lack of discipline. If a servant offends you, order an execution. Do not lower yourself to street brawling."
"You do not know what they were whispering!" Yinzhi gritted his teeth. "They were saying Yinzhen murdered Yinzuo out of jealousy for Consort De's affection, using the scooter. They even claimed Consort De believes this, which is why she refuses to see him!"
Yinreng's expression turned frigid. He ordered the servants dragged to the interrogation cells.
Palace servants did not gossip loudly in public spaces unless instructed to do so. This was a coordinated psychological attack. Yinreng analyzed the sequence of events: Yinzuo dies. A weapon (the scooter) linked to Yinzhen is found. Rumors spread outside the palace to destabilize the empire. Rumors spread inside the palace to destroy Yinzhen and his mother.
'The scooter is a decoy,' Yinreng realized. 'Why target the scooter out of all the items in Yinzuo's possession? Because it maximizes the collateral damage. It kills a prince and breaks a political alliance in one move. This utilizes the illusion of truth—hide the real murder method behind an obvious, politically damaging weapon.'
***
The Vector and the Source
Armed with this deduction, Yinreng bypassed the palace hierarchy and went directly to Zhang Jiwu at the Shuntian Prefecture.
"Do not focus solely on the scooter," Yinreng instructed. "Focus on the biology. The imperial physicians confirmed Yinzuo died of natural smallpox, not a complication of the cowpox vaccine. Natural smallpox cannot survive a long journey; the virus degrades. Therefore, the infection vector must be fresh, and it must be local."
Zhang Jiwu's eyes sharpened. "We need to find a recent, unreported smallpox patient within the capital."
"Correct. And since the perpetrators needed to bypass palace security, they likely used external family connections of someone within the harem. Follow the disease."
Days later, the trap closed. Nuomin and Zhang Jiwu brought their findings to the Emperor's study. Yinreng seamlessly seated himself at a side desk, quietly observing the report. Kangxi noticed his son's blatant eavesdropping but permitted it; this was a masterclass in statecraft and treason.
Nuomin delivered the first strike: the physical vector.
"We investigated the quarantine facility where the princes received the vaccine. The inner staff is vetted, but peripheral labor is outsourced. We found a fire-stoker, Sister Liu, who bumped into the Sixth Prince, physically entangling with him. She vanished the next day, claiming illness. Her house is abandoned."
"Did she infect him through contact?" Kangxi demanded.
"Yes. We traced the prince's clothing from that day. A newly hired laundress, Lady Min, manipulated the laundry supervisor into letting her wash the prince's garments, thoroughly destroying any biological evidence. When I summoned the laundry staff for questioning, Lady Min committed suicide in her room."
Calculated, efficient, and ruthlessly clean. The assassin delivered the virus, and the cleaner erased the evidence, killing herself to break the chain of information.
Zhang Jiwu stepped forward with the second strike: the source of the disease.
"Following the Crown Prince's logic, we searched the capital's underbelly. Beggars reported an old man exhibiting smallpox symptoms. A 'doctor' took him away in a carriage. We tracked the carriage to a residence, which was burned to the ground five days ago—the exact day the Sixth Prince died."
Zhang Jiwu smiled coldly. "Fire destroys evidence, but movements leave tracks. We tracked the residents' prior supply runs. They intersected with two known strongholds of the Tiandihui."
The Tiandihui. The anti-Qing rebel faction.
"We raided the strongholds," Nuomin continued. "Under extreme torture, a regional leader confessed. The operation was commanded by Vice Helmsman Chen Guangyi, acting on behalf of a 'Little Prince Zhu'—a supposed descendant of the fallen Ming Dynasty."
Kangxi sneered. "Another fake Ming royal. It matters not if his blood is real. He has committed treason and murdered an imperial prince. Eradicate them."
***
The Anatomy of a Frame-Up
The macro-conspiracy was solved, but the micro-mechanics remained. Kangxi turned his cold gaze to Liang Jiugong, the Head Eunuch. "If the Tiandihui used Sister Liu to infect him, where did the smallpox pus in the scooter come from?"
"It was planted by Yujuan, the Sixth Prince's personal maid," Liang reported. "She endured heavy torture without breaking. I finally broke her by threatening her family. She confessed that Lady Min, the laundress, approached her with a jade pendant belonging to Yujuan's younger brother. Believing her brother had been kidnapped, Yujuan followed orders to plant the pus in the scooter to create a false trail."
"And the brother?" Kangxi asked.
"Safe. He merely lost the pendant in a street scuffle a few days prior."
Yinreng mentally dissected the maid's failure. It was a bluff. The Tiandihui never kidnapped the boy; they merely capitalized on a lost item to create leverage. Yujuan lacked the situational awareness to call their bluff. She made a poor risk assessment, choosing to commit treason on the assumption that obedience would guarantee her family's safety.
"One final detail," Kangxi said, his voice dropping an octave. "Who orchestrated the internal rumors framing the Fourth Prince?"
"Answer Song," Liang replied. "A low-ranking concubine who has not shared the imperial bed in seven years."
Kangxi stood abruptly, his aura radiating absolute lethal intent. "I will interrogate her personally."
Yinreng moved to follow, but Kangxi halted him with a gesture to the guards. "Escort the Crown Prince back to his quarters. State treason is your business to learn. The filth of the inner harem is not."
Yinreng stopped, analyzing the boundary drawn by his father. He nodded once, spun on his heel, and departed. The logic was sound; the Emperor had to clean his own house.