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“Do you want to trust the list to me while you are away…?” Chen Fan prompted.
“I haven’t written it yet!” Dou Wu retorted. “Chances are, I probably won’t until I get back… no, really, go… you must prepare your forces tomorrow, and I need to arrange for cover to my work while I am away… someone I can trust, of course, and not some spy of theirs that can create false evidence while I am away. If I do prepare anything, I have Shan Bing to entrust it to… so do not fret.”
Chen Fan bowed respectfully, glared at Shan Bing, snorted loudly as a
sign that he was concerned, and retreated.
“…It wasn’t meant to be like this,” Dou Wu murmured.
“Perhaps I should not be involved,” Shan Bing suggested.
“You are pivotal to my plan,” Dou Wu admitted. “We cannot simply prepare
a list… my foolish daughter will rebut it, after a week of being fawned upon by
the very creatures I hope to indict. We need evidence… proper evidence.”
“You mean confessions,” Shan Bing supposed.
“Those monsters interrogated hundreds for their wicked ‘partisan’
scheme,” Dou Wu recalled with anger. “It is not simply fitting, but pragmatic
that I also resort to interrogation… we need a close ally of theirs in custody,
someone that can be put under pressure to admit that they are corrupt… perhaps
more than that. I know that what I ask you to do is dangerous, but-”
“You trust me and respect me, which is more than can be said for almost
everyone else… although Mister Chen Fan trusts me, regardless of his
demeanour,” Shan Bing replied. “I want to do whatever I can, just as you do,
and just as he does. I know the very one to ‘interview’… you may leave it with
me.”
*************
Dou Wu arranged for trusted allies to act in his stead and left the capital to take a short rest. Grand Tutor Chen Fan continued with his official and unofficial duties, and the Empress Dowager obliviously awaited the return of her father and the delivery of his proposal.
“…The father of the Dowager has had a private meeting with her, and it
concerns me,” the eunuch Cao Jie said to a small gathering of his fellow
attendants, whose hairless faces made them almost indistinguishable from each
other, just like their identical clothing and hats.
“Have we any need to be worried?” another eunuch, Wang Fu, asked
plainly. “We are trusted by the Dowager and the Emperor. Would he dare attack
us now? He has done nothing but appoint former partisans and friends to high
places, and there has been no effort made to remove us by force, only by
rebuked petitions.”
“He left the capital two days ago to spend time with family,” Cao Jie
reported. “I do not think that we can take any chances when the issue is our
lives. I understand that his associate Chen Fan is making no movement at
present, but a member of our own number, Shan Bing - to whom Dou Wu has
entrusted many of his own administrative duties in his absence - has decided to
side with them rather than us… a regrettable situation. He will not be bribed
or coerced in any way… but we need to get into Dou Wu’s office and ensure that
he plans nothing else.”