Chapter 38 The Willow Tree in the Breeze (Part Six) "He doesn't even live for himself..."

Yan Chao paused, his gaze passing over him and looking towards the outside of the hall: "Then what are you doing here?"

As Lan Huaien watched her approach, he stepped aside to avoid her and replied softly, "I saw Liang Lu outside, and I assumed Your Highness was alone. His Majesty has always valued sacrifices; if you are slow or something happens, I will also bear the responsibility, won't I?"

Yan Chao didn't speak, but quietly glanced at him. Just as his gaze was about to shift, he suddenly spoke again: "They say that people are heartbroken on Qingming Festival, and Your Highness's sorrow is written all over your face."

She paused for a moment, feeling genuinely saddened, mostly for Empress Wenhui. When the Emperor paid his respects, his face also showed grief. She wondered to herself whether he was remembering the Empress Dowager, the late Emperor, or perhaps truly mourning his ancestors.

Stepping out of the main hall, I saw raindrops dripping from the eaves. The rain had stopped for a while, but the sky was still overcast, leaving patches of water on the ground. It wasn't too cold yet; after changing into a light shirt, I felt a refreshing coolness that went straight to my heart.

As Yan Chao descended the steps, Liang Lu caught up with her and opened an umbrella for her. He spoke up when Yan Chao looked at him with a hint of doubt in her eyes: "Your Highness, the rain isn't as heavy as it was this morning, but it's been falling on and off."

She nodded slightly, without refusing. She stepped onto the clean floor tiles, which had been swept by the palace servants, and walked forward step by step.

Lan Huaien suddenly stopped her and asked, "Your Highness, are you going to Funing Temple this April?"

Yan Chao was taken aback for a moment, then realized what was going on. Before her death, Empress Wenhui would go to Funing Temple to worship Buddha and pray for blessings around this time of year. She had accompanied her a few times before, and she had continued this habit ever since Empress Wenhui's passing.

All they had to do was copy a few scrolls of Buddhist scriptures in advance and offer them up, then spend most of the day in the temple, sometimes to pray for blessings, and sometimes to remember their birth mother.

Funing Temple was relatively remote, but it was also the temple that Empress Wenhui used to visit most often. She went there every year and was quite familiar with it.

He nodded slightly: "Go. Does the Grand Eunuch have business to attend to?"

When Lan Huaien saw her turn around, he bowed and said, "I have nothing to say, I was just asking casually." His smile was gentle, no different from usual.

Just as Yan Chao was about to turn around and continue walking, his eyes suddenly flashed, as if he had remembered something, and he asked him, "Is the Grand Eunuch currently free?"

“I have a plan to serve Your Majesty. As long as Your Majesty does not summon me alone, I am always free. Please give me your orders.”

“It’s not really an order,” Yan Chao glanced at his eyes, pursed his lips, and said, “I just have some questions I’d like to ask you, but it’s not very convenient to ask in public…”

Her words abruptly stopped. She realized that it was inappropriate to speak so rashly at this moment, and was about to give up when she heard Lan Huaien say, "Your Highness, rest assured, I understand."

Yan Chao, unaware of his plans, said no more, nodded slightly, and turned to leave.

.

After the sky cleared completely, the warm east wind gradually dispelled the remaining chill. After all the flowers had heralded spring, they sprouted lush green leaves from their colorful branches, and the capital city took on a completely different look.

The morning court session at Fengtian Hall had just ended, and the officials, who had been on edge, were finally able to relax. They strolled along the long street in unhurried steps, discussing the matters discussed at the morning court session in hushed tones as if they were having a good time, occasionally glancing casually at their surroundings, appearing unusually unrestrained compared to usual.

Suddenly, a commotion arose at the front of the crowd. Those behind initially craned their necks to watch the spectacle, but later began to whisper among themselves.

"The one who's been rushing off every time these days is Imperial Censor Xu. I heard it's because Old Madam Xu is seriously ill, and I'm afraid she won't make it through the spring," someone whispered.

The others all sighed, but said nothing more.

Madam Feng, the matriarch of the Xu family, was notorious in the capital for her arrogance and domineering nature. Not only did she manage to subdue her husband, Xu Fu, but she was also extremely fierce in her daily interactions with others. Even the emperor had mentioned her sharp tongue.

Madam Feng had been in poor health for the past few years, and since last year, she had been bedridden for months without recovering. Xu Zhen, being a dutiful son, sought medical help everywhere, and even the emperor sent imperial physicians to her, but to no avail.

Xu Zhen rushed out of the palace, got into his sedan chair and started urging the bearers on. On the way, he bumped into Prince Xin's sedan chair and had to apologize hastily.

The weather has been nice lately, so Prince Xin has been visiting the palace more often.

His reasons for entering the palace were always trivial matters. Even if he wasn't proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, or painting, he would still want to discuss them with the emperor. Or he would go to seek advice on some recent academic difficulties. When the emperor was busy, he would simply wait quietly in a side hall.

The emperor initially thought he wanted something, but after repeatedly questioning him, he only said that he was bored at home, and then let him go.

Prince Xin naturally knew what Xu Zhen was anxious about, and waved his hand to let him go.

But as soon as he turned around, he suddenly bumped into Lan Huai'en, who was coming towards him. He asked in surprise, "Where are you going, Eunuch?"

Lan Huaien bowed to him and replied with a smile, "Your Majesty is going out of the palace. His Majesty is busy and, knowing that Prince Xin is coming, has already instructed Ji Bingbi to wait for him. You can go directly to the side hall."

After saying this, he bowed and took his leave, then hurriedly left without looking back. Prince Xin turned around and saw that he seemed to have followed Xu Zhen. He stood there, his expression slightly furrowed.

Lan Huaien, along with his men from the Eastern Depot, followed Xu Zhen to his residence, stopping and starting along the way.

Watching Xu Zhen alight from the sedan chair and hurriedly enter the gate, Cheng Tai asked in a low voice, "Lord Eunuch, how do we get in?"

Lan Huaien stood at a distance, watching the magnificent vermilion gate slowly close. A pair of lion-shaped doorposts guarded the entrance, and several guards stood watch.

This was a scene he was all too familiar with.

For more than ten years, there has been little change. Although Xu Zhen was more successful than Xu Fu, as an imperial censor, he always talked about setting an example, so apart from renovations and repairs, he refused to expand his residence.

More than a decade ago, Beijing seemed to be always rainy.

Xu Yue, the illegitimate son of the Xu family, was thinner and weaker than his peers. He was always hungry, pale and emaciated, and could barely walk steadily even at the age of four or five. At first, it was only Madam Feng who mistreated him, but later even Xu Fu couldn't help but frown when he saw him and refused to look at him.

He had tried countless times to escape through that door, but there were always people guarding the door, beating him every time they saw him.

One day, covered in dirt, he stumbled out of the door when no one was looking. Before he could even take his other foot out, his tall and imposing father walked towards him and kicked him in the chest.

He rolled down the steps and crashed into a stone lion, breaking his head and bleeding profusely.

Then his father strode down, grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up, not even glancing at the blood on his face, told him to stand properly, and scolded him for being disheveled and unkempt.

All he could see was a blur; he couldn't remember what his father looked like at all, and he never remembered him again for the rest of his life.

Then one day, Madam Feng ordered a servant to teach him manners. After being punched, kicked, and beaten, he was dragged and thrown to the front gate, where he was left to stand against a stone lion in the rain for a day and a night, until he was frozen stiff and unconscious.

When he woke up again, he was in a mass grave, surrounded by the stench of corpses, blood, and rotting mud. He was so weak that he didn't even have the strength to vomit.

That time, he didn't need anyone to lift him up; he simply moved his fingers and called the eunuch "Father."

Throughout his life, he never knew what his birth mother looked like before she died. Even after he rose to a high position, he could not find Liu Mei's remains. A cenotaph was built, but he never went to pay his respects there again.

Lan Huaien touched his face; it was dry and cold, without a single tear.

He moved his lips and heard himself say, "With so many of us, we're not afraid of not being able to get in."

Cheng Tai immediately understood his meaning. He hesitated for a moment and was about to ask something when he saw that Cheng Tai had already taken a step forward. Without hesitation, he signaled the people behind him to follow.

The two guards at the gate were unfamiliar faces. Yes, those two who used to bully him were now long gone, reduced to ashes.

The two men, seeing that the man was aggressive and had no response to their questions, went back to report.

Lan Huaien's expression was cold and stern, his lips tightly pressed together, and he stepped inside with his hands behind his back. He had never set foot in the Xu family's gate since entering the palace. After more than ten years, when he stepped onto this ground again, what surged in his heart was not pain and hatred, but a calmness that even he himself had not expected.

Xu Fu is dead. He died a long time ago.

Mrs. Feng is old, she's been old for a long time.

Xu Zhen rushed out upon hearing the news, looking at him with a terrified gaze for the first time: "Lan Huaien! This is the Xu family home. I am an official appointed by the imperial court, and my mother is a Lady of Imperial Decree personally bestowed by the Emperor. Even if you are the Director of the Eastern Depot, you cannot be allowed to act recklessly!"

Lan Huaien slowly turned her gaze to him, licked her dry lips, and scoffed, "How can you call it reckless? It's just that I heard the old lady is nearing her end, so I had to come and visit her. After all, she was the head mistress of the household back then, and she took good care of me."

Upon hearing those four words, Xu Zhen trembled with rage and was about to unleash a torrent of curses when Cheng Tai restrained him.

No one dared to defy the name of the Eastern Depot. The entire household, including the master and servants, was quickly brought under control. A few who tried to escape to report the incident were met with a long, gleaming knife held to their necks, causing them to tremble with fear.

As Lan Huaien walked towards Madam Feng's inner room, he instructed Cheng Tai, "Bring Xu Zhen in as well and gag him."

Madam Feng was on the verge of death in the room. The maid who was feeding her medicine dropped the bowl when she saw the commotion outside. A eunuch entered, gagged her, and tossed her out like a chicken.

Madam Feng lay pale on the bed, her eyes still closed. Hearing the sound of a bowl shattering, she cursed, "You wretched girl, you can't even hold a bowl? I'll sell you off tomorrow..."

Lan Huaien approached step by step and could tell that although her voice was old and weak, her tone was still exactly the same as it had been back then. He couldn't help but smile slightly: "The old lady's aura is indeed as strong as it was more than ten years ago."

Feng opened her blurry eyes, but couldn't see the person in front of her clearly. However, the voice made her feel very uncomfortable.

"Whose junior is this, with no manners at all!"

Cheng Tai frowned, and his grip on the knife tightened involuntarily.

Lan Huaien pressed him down, stepped forward, casually picked up a pot of cold tea from the table, poured a cup, and said, "Please have some tea, Madam."

Before Madam Feng could speak, she was doused with cold tea, letting out a hoarse scream. Xu Zhen struggled violently beside her, but Lan Huaien watched him quietly.

“The old lady is a person of high status and has a bad memory, so of course she doesn’t remember me. But I remember very clearly how you beat me to death and dragged me to the mass grave back then.”

After thinking for a long while, Madam Feng slowly revealed a ferocious smile: "So it's you, you little bastard, a dead eunuch, unworthy to enter the Xu family!"

"Do you think I wanted to come in?" Lan Huaien dusted off his sleeves, took two steps back to avoid being touched by her in her madness, "Even eunuchs live longer than you, isn't that infuriating?"

“Your son is in the room right now, with a knife to his neck. What if you say something wrong and the knife slips, and he goes to the Western Paradise with you?”

Madam Feng's face immediately changed. After a long silence, she managed to squeeze out a few words through gritted teeth: "You despicable scoundrel..."

He casually picked up a knife and threw it on the ground with a clatter. Madam Feng immediately panicked and cried out, "You, you mustn't touch my son! I don't have long to live. I'll do anything you want!"

Lan Huaien glanced at Xu Zhen, whose face was deathly pale. He looked as if he wanted to run into the blade, but in the end he didn't dare. At this moment, he no longer hated looking at him, but only stared at him for fear that something might happen to Madam Feng.

However, Lan Huaien did not come today to take Feng's life. The two of them knew the old scores clearly, and it would be superfluous to say anything more.

He said, "Kowtowing, you owe my mother."

With great effort, Madam Feng climbed out of bed, rolled onto the floor, and, despite her illness, kowtowed towards Lan Huai'en. Lan Huai'en stepped aside, watching coldly.

She had heard of Lan Huaien's methods, but didn't hear Xu Zhen's voice. She just kept kowtowing until her forehead was covered in blood.

"How about I grant your mother the title of a concubine, allow her to enter the ancestral hall, and have the eunuch's name included in the family genealogy? I beg you..."

“Not rare. I may have the surname Lan, or the surname Liu, but not Xu.”

He added, "The taste of murdering your husband must have been a nightmare all these years, right? That old lecher Xu Fu, it's too good for him to die at your hands."

Feng fainted and collapsed to the ground.

Lan Huaien had Cheng Tai release Xu Zhen and then left the Xu family residence on his own.

Cheng Tai was puzzled. Was such a grand display just for kowtowing a few times? Madam Feng was still alive, and Xu Zhen was still enjoying his former glory.

Lan Huaien looked up at him: "Otherwise what? I've been in charge of the Eastern Depot for so many years. I could have wiped out the Xu family on the very first day. Why would I have waited until now?"

"I understand even less..."

"Feng's madness has been recurring on and off for a year. It just didn't come to light in previous years. She's been having nightmares for about three or four years now. She looks glamorous on the surface, but who knows what's really going on inside. Xu Fu was genuinely good to her, but she still managed to poison him to death. Nothing can hurt someone as hard-hearted as her anymore."

"She'll live a few more days."

If I remember correctly, when Madam Feng woke up this time, she could not hear, see, or speak, and she would have to stay in bed for a few more days.

He just regretted that the medicine was administered too late.

Lan Huaien entered the Xu family under the guise of visiting them. Xu Zhen was furious and couldn't help but complain to the emperor, but the emperor only gave him a few perfunctory reprimands and then let it go.

When news of Madam Feng's death reached Yan Chao, she was on her way to Funing Temple. She remained silent upon hearing the news, as it was not a big deal to her. However, Duan Shou whispered, "I heard that Madam Feng went mad last night, fell into the Night Fragrance Pond, and drowned."

Yan Chao frowned: "Is it related to Lan Huai'en?"

"I don't know, but when Eunuch Lan went to the Xu family last time, he really angered Madam Feng quite a bit."

Yan Chao nodded slightly, lowered the sedan curtain, and said nothing more. She had thought about Lan Huaien's background, and despite the vast difference in their social status, she couldn't help but feel a sense of shared misfortune.

She just couldn't understand how someone who had survived that way, and who was a respectable man, could endure more than a decade of humiliation, fighting to become a servant in the palace.

To outsiders, he seemed to have it all, getting whatever he wanted, and he would stop at nothing to achieve his own selfish interests.

She just found Lan Huaien to be a strange person. Over the past few decades, he had risen and fallen. When he was in a high position, he was arrogant and could easily frame and slander others; when he fell into a quagmire, he became humble and subservient, groveling for others.

It seems that it is never afraid of people kicking it when it's down. Even if it's shattered to pieces, it will survive one day at a time. If it's alive, it will always get back up step by step. If it's dead... then it's dead.

What kind of despair must one have experienced to live for decades without ever having a shred of hope or anticipation?

She always felt that everyone has obsessions and attachments, whether it's love or hate, but Lan Huaien was not one of them.

He doesn't live for anyone, not even for himself.

Funing Temple is serene, nestled against a mountain, and often appears somewhat desolate. Entering the temple at this time, one finds the flowers in full bloom, their shadows fading into a somber green. As one ascends the steps, the deep, resonant sound of the gong still carries the tranquil atmosphere of post-rain. Yan Chao temporarily sets aside his worries, his heart finding peace as still as water.

Upon arriving at the front hall, a monk came to greet her. After bowing as usual, she followed the monks to the back mountain. Master Huaiqing was waiting for her in the pavilion as always, having brewed a pot of tea. When he saw her arrive, he stood with his palms together and bowed, saying, "You're a little late this year, benefactor."

Yan Chao lowered his head and sat down, about to speak up to explain, when he heard him say, "Not long ago, someone came looking for you, completely drunk. This is really against the rules of Buddhism, so I took it upon myself to lock him in the meditation room."

Huaiqing had already poured her tea, filling it to about seven-tenths full. The aroma of the tea blended into the tranquility of the mountain, accompanied by the chirping of birds and the sound of a cool breeze carrying the scent of the forest and springs.

She pursed her lips: "Did the master ask his name?"

"This humble monk sees him as acting erratically and thinks that he probably won't be able to get any information from him, so his name is not important, lest it disturb our peaceful sitting."

Yan Chao then stopped asking questions and turned to look at the scenery outside the pavilion.

"What is your request this year, benefactor?"

"Same as in previous years." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"How confident are you, benefactor?"

"very."

Huai Qing smiled faintly: "If you are so confident, why are you asking for anything before the Buddha?"

"I am not asking Buddha for help, I am appealing to Buddha."

Huaiqing was stunned. He stared blankly at the person in front of him. His master had once told him that this person had the aura of an emperor. He had always thought it was just a compliment because of her status as the Crown Prince, but now he seemed to understand something.