PROVOCATEUR, TRAITOR, AND CORRUPTOR 1

"You can't find the troublemaker who spread the hate speech and stir the pot in Kaifeng last time?! Aren't all of you the Jinyiwei who have been well-trained to arrest the criminals?! What are you actually doing during this time?!"

Zhu Di was glaring at ten Jinyiweis who were genuflecting before him. "We are really sorry, Your Majesty... the captives don't confess no matter how severe they are being tortured... and there is no evidence at all..."

"How stupid you are. The rumor is correct, after all, that the current Jinyiwei degrades so much than the era when Fu Huang was in power, you are so weak due to that frail Zhu Yunwen."

"We are really sorry, Your Majesty! We promise, in the future we will..."

"Don't promise. I don't want you to work for me again."

"Your... Majesty?..."

Zhu Di waved his hands towards the guards near the gate. "Drag them out and have them executed."

"Your Majesty?!?..."

Now those ten Jinyiweis were busy begging for forgiveness. "Your Majesty, please have mercy! We swear, we will work harder! But please, Your Majesty, spare our lives!..."

But Zhu Di had absolutely no intention of listening to the apologies of the ten of them. Even though they kept kowtowing pitifully, Zhu Di instead rose out of his throne, thus went out of the room, while the guards were dragging them to the killing field.

Zhu Di did not trust Jinyiwei anymore, since Jinyiwei had been programmed to be faithful towards Zhu Yunwen from the beginning. Since then, he tried to get rid of them whenever he had a chance to do it. But after all, it was very difficult for Zhu Di to trust anyone. If he followed his sincere conscience, actually he was eager to trust the officials as well as the people near him, but his logical mind forbade him to do so. Like his other relatives, he had been warned by The Huang-Ming Zuxun that "traitors are everywhere, even including your relatives and spouses." The throne he ascended, he did not get it easily, how could he take it easy? Of course, he must look after it very carefully.

And even, there was still a secret about Zhu Di's worry he did not reveal it to anyone.

His fear of his brothers.

"... Yongle Emperor, you once betrayed your nephew, in the future you will be betrayed too! By your own brother! Let's wait for this karmic retribution to happen!..."

He indeed made his brothers still be in their powers as it should be. And granting them with abundant suilü. But it did not mean that he really trusted them. No. He was suspicious of Zhu Quan, his 17th brother who was an expert in the military. He was distrustful towards Zhu Hui - Gu Wang - as Zhu Hui was loved by his people. Most of all, he distrusted Zhu Su, his ally during the Jingnan War, and the legitimate son of the emperor and the empress besides him.

If finally Zhu Su dethroned him and became the Ming Emperor, then it would not be big trouble for the officials and people, because the royal blood Zhu Su inherited was as pure as his.

Zhu Di passed through the covered walkway, mind traveled elsewhere. Just at the moment, pieces of paper fell from the palace roof, scattered over the floor in front of him. Being curious, Zhu Di picked the pieces of paper up.

His eyes went round.

"W... what's this?!?..."

The pieces of paper were all the same. All had four Chinese characters written on them. Su Shang Li Xia. "The Respectful goes up and The Humility goes down". Only that, nothing more.

Zhu Di looked up, watched at the roof. No silhouette of anyone. But he was certain that someone had thrown these pieces of paper. There was no way the paper could fall on its own, he was sure of it since he did not believe in occult.

"Who's that?!" Zhu Di shouted. "Show your real face!"

Nothing replied Zhu Di except the blowing breeze.

At last, Zhu Di decided to take the pieces of paper to his chamber. For further investigation.

His hunch said, he must be able to decode this mysterious pieces of paper. For the sake of his survival, and his power as Ming Emperor.

***

Zhu Su, Liu Ku, and Qu You followed the village residents who were surged towards the area afflicted severely by the flood. Their focus centered on the edge of the swift Yellow River, to be precise, at some people dressing like Dao Priests. Those Dao Priests were a group of men from various ages, the youngest were in their mid-thirties and the oldest were around sixties to seventies. Consisting of five people, all Dao Priests had neat and tidy mustaches, appeared serious, wore dapper in their bizarre suits, and brought a lot of ceremonial tools for prayer rituals with them. Their conspicuous appearance, as well as their excessive promise saying that they were capable to bring the villagers out of disaster, soon attempted to get the villagers' attention on them.

Standing at the front was a Dao Priests at Zhu Su's age, he was the most dapper in dressing, and the most commanding and confident in appearance. He uttered, "Terrible disaster has devastated Kaifeng and dismayed people. Famine occurs everywhere. And, with great regret I tell you, the flood has not yet subsided completely, and will recur before long. This is all the Curse of Heaven!..."

"What?! Flood will recur before long?!" An old man screamed.

"As long as Heaven hasn't tamped down His irritation, the disaster will still go on!" The Dao Priest answered loudly.

The villagers began to whisper in fear.

"But don't worry, dear Kaifeng people. Heaven protects you, that's why we are here. Our mission is to help you out of this disaster!"

All villagers stared at them with great interest. The Dao priests began their chanting. Somebody hit the drums, somebody lit incense, and the head of the Dao priest stepped forward, mumbled while chanting the mantra. The mantra chanting took a long time, it also sounded strange - Zhu Su was sure that it was not in Chinese.

Finally, the mantra chanting stopped. The head of Dao priest took three big incense sticks with a third of his height, lifting it up high, bending their bodies for three times, and sticking it into the tripod.

"Can the chanting dispel the flood?" Another old man asked.

The Dao priest smiled meaningfully. He looked at the Yellow River. Strangely, the flow turned slower a little.

"Ooohh! The River is tamped!" All villagers shouted in awe.

"And we also bring to you... this!" The Priests began to share the food with the villagers - they apparently had lots of food supply. The starving villagers immediately ate the food voraciously, the women even ate with tears flowing down their cheeks.

"Thank you very much, Great Priest, thank you very much!" All villagers started to kneel down, worshipping them.

"You are welcome. I have tried my best. But if you want this flood really disappear, it is still not enough."

"Eh?..." The villagers looked up.

"Heaven is still angry. However, it's not your fault, it's the government's fault! The noblemen are only busy partying lavishly and collecting taxes for their interests, and actually the Heaven is angry with them, but it is you who are affected. So, if you want this disaster to vanish completely, then the government must be responsible by apologizing to Heaven and the people - especially the Kaifeng Government must apologize and be responsible to the suffered Kaifeng people who become the victims!"