He was in pain
Wei Qiao, dressed in a dark blue robe, rode a tall, chestnut-red horse, his face full of gentle smiles.
Last night, his uncle asked him if he, as the father, had thought of a name for the child since the baby was about to be born. Wei Qiao then remembered that he and Xi Chun had not yet discussed naming the child. Last night, he had searched through all the books he carried with him and only came up with a few names he liked at dawn this morning. He wrote a letter back to the mansion and asked Xi Chun to choose one that suited her.
A few days ago, Wei Qiao received a letter from Xi Chun, saying that she had gone to Zijin Street to buy a bolt of persimmon-red silk embroidered with bat patterns, intending to make a little outfit for the child and a vest for herself. She said she was waiting for him to return to the manor and told him to be careful on his journey and to return home soon.
Ever since Wei Qiao realized his own feelings, he felt like a kite drifting in the sky. No matter how high or far he flew, the string that held him was always in Xi Chun's hands. His body moved further and further away from her as the Emperor went to Mount Tai, but his heart remained with her, wishing he could stay with her for even a moment.
"Your Highness, a letter from the Princess." The guard dismounted and respectfully presented the letter to Wei Qiao. Lost in happy memories, he didn't notice the gloomy expression on the guard's face. The Princess would occasionally send him a letter reminding him to take care of his health, and he assumed it was just an ordinary family letter.
Wei Qiao put the letter away, intending to read it when they set up camp that night. Seeing this, the guard hurriedly said, "Your Highness, the Princess says there is something important in the letter and requests that you open it immediately."
Upon hearing this, Wei Qiao glanced at the guard who had already lowered his head and took out a letter from his pocket. Seeing the words on the letter made him dizzy. He steadied himself and read it again from beginning to end, only to feel all his strength drain away. He wanted to ask the guard if the princess's letter was true, but found his throat seemed blocked, and he couldn't utter a sound.
Just as he was about to dismount, he loosened the stirrups and fell heavily to the ground.
"Your Highness, Your Highness!" the guard who delivered the message cried out in alarm.
A-Gui, who was chatting with someone behind Wei Qiao, heard the noise and saw Wei Qiao fall off his horse. He quickly dismounted and ran to Wei Qiao's side.
Others nearby also heard the commotion from Wei Qiao's side and gathered around.
"Prince Zhao has fallen off his horse."
"Prince Zhao's identity has been exposed."
In no time, the news of Wei Qiao's downfall spread throughout the entire imperial procession.
"Your Highness, are you alright?" A-Gui asked anxiously.
Wei Qiao clutched the two thin pages of the letter tightly in his hand, wanting to immediately bid farewell to the emperor. With the help of A Gui, he got up from the ground, and without even brushing the dust off himself, he headed straight for the emperor's residence. A Gui and Zhao Yu quickly followed.
Upon hearing the news of Wei Qiao's fall from his horse, the emperor, who had been chatting with the empress, immediately ordered his palanquin to stop and dismounted to head towards where Wei Qiao was. Seeing his beloved nephew walking hurriedly towards him, looking distraught, the emperor quickly ran forward a few steps.
The emperor pressed down on Wei Qiao's shoulder, looked at his bloodless face, and asked with heartache, "What happened?"
Wei Qiao knelt down before the emperor with a thud, choking back tears, and said, "My concubine has gone missing and her whereabouts are unknown. I beg Your Majesty to allow me to return to the capital to search for her."
The emperor was startled. Seeing the letter in Wei Qiao's hand, he helped him up, took the letter, and read it. He sighed. His nephew had finally welcomed his first child, and now this had happened.
He said, "I grant your request. But before you return, I will order the imperial physician to examine your leg." After saying this, he instructed the chief eunuch Li Cong to summon the accompanying imperial physician.
"Your Majesty, Prince Zhao has injured his leg bone. I have already used a wooden strip to fix it, but this injury requires at least two months of rest. He must not walk around casually, otherwise he may be left with a limp for the rest of his life." The imperial physician with a goatee bowed and reported to the emperor.
Seeing Wei Qiao's eyes fixed on the outside of the tent, clearly eager to leave, the Emperor sat down on the couch and patted his shoulder. "I have already sent people to search for the concubine's whereabouts. You should return to the Prince's residence to recuperate and must not wander around outside."
Wei Qiao did not respond. Shortly after the emperor left, he had A Gui bring his horse.
"Your Highness, the imperial physician says you shouldn't move around too much right now," A-Gui advised. He understood that the prince was heartbroken and anxious because of his concubine, but someone had already gone to search for her. The prince could simply return to his residence and wait for news. Why insist on running around like this, disregarding his health?
"You've been talking so much about leading the horse, hurry up and go!" Wei Qiao shouted coldly. With Xi Chun's whereabouts unknown, his internal organs felt like they were on fire. He needed to see her alive or dead; his Xi Chun couldn't just disappear like that.
Wei Qiao and his entourage traveled day and night, returning to the official road outside the capital three days later. Wei Qiao hadn't eaten a single grain of rice in the past few days and had been traveling continuously, so A Gui was genuinely worried that he might collapse at any moment. He advised, "Your Highness, let's go back to the palace to rest for a while before going to the river to look for the concubine's whereabouts."
"No! I'll go now." Wei Qiao said, turning his horse around and galloping towards the bridge where Xichun had fallen into the river, as mentioned in the letter by the princess.
The traces of a struggle were still faintly visible. He searched back and forth near the stone arch bridge and saw a silver bracelet with a lotus pattern lying in the thorn bushes on the bank. When he saw the familiar bracelet, tears welled up in his bloodshot black eyes, and large tears slid down his cheeks.
A guard found a piece of fabric in the bushes near the bracelet. A-Gui picked it up and examined it. Just as the princess had said in her letter, the concubine had fallen into the river in fear. Seeing the prince's heartbroken state, A-Gui, remembering the concubine's voice and smile, and the unborn child in her womb, couldn't help but shed tears as well.
Beneath the stone arch bridge flowed the rushing Liujiang River. Wei Qiao tucked the bracelet into his sleeve and prepared to wade into the river to search for Xi Chun's whereabouts. Seeing this, A Gui hurriedly caught up with Wei Qiao, tearfully showing him the tattered cloth. "Your Highness," she cried, "so many days have passed; the concubine is likely in grave danger. Your Highness, please return to the manor." A Gui, seeing Wei Qiao's frail appearance, didn't want him to continue torturing himself like this.
Wei Qiao glanced at the strip of cloth in A Gui's palm. He recognized the orange fabric; it was the material he had personally chosen for the embroiderer to sew for Xi Chun's clothes.
He looked at the surging river and then at the fragments; no, he still couldn't believe it. He shoved Ah Gui, who was blocking his way, and ordered someone to row a boat over.
They searched the Liujiang River for another day, and Agui and the others couldn't keep going and took turns resting. Only Wei Qiao, seeing the cold river water, remembered Xichun's smiling face. He couldn't believe that his Xichun had perished in this river.
In the middle of the night, Wei Qiao was still searching for Xi Chun when he suddenly saw her sitting on the riverbank waving at him. He happily ran towards her, jumped into the river with a splash, and then lost consciousness.
"Your Highness, Your Highness!"
Seeing him fall into the water, the guards shouted loudly, and two guards jumped into the river and rescued Wei Qiao.
Upon learning that Wei Qiao had fallen into the water, Ming Chuqing rushed to Ming'an Hall to visit him.
Upon hearing the physician say that he was overworked, deficient in qi and blood, and had a blocked heart meridian, requiring proper rest, Ming Chuqing looked at the bed. He had heard from A Gui that Wei Qiao had not eaten for several days, and now seeing his sunken cheeks and dark circles under his eyes, he frowned.
Her husband truly loved his concubine deeply.
Ming Chuqing walked to the bedside and took Wei Qiao's hand, tears welling up in her eyes. Hearing her sobs, everyone in the room felt a pang of sorrow. After crying for a while, Ming Chuqing took the handkerchief handed to her by Cuiju and wiped away her tears before walking up to the royal physician and instructing him: "You must treat the prince's illness with utmost care. If anything happens to the prince, I, the princess consort, will hold you responsible."
"Your Majesty, I will do my utmost to treat you," said the royal physician, Chao Ming Chu Qing, bowing deeply.
Ming Chuqing nodded and waved to him, "Go and write the prescription."
Wei Qiao lay in bed for three days and three nights, and Ming Chuqing came to Ming'an Hall to see him every day, personally serving him medicine.
"Husband, isn't our child adorable?" Xi Chun smiled at Wei Qiao while holding the baby in the water. Wei Qiao, who was standing on the shore, saw her and wanted to approach. As soon as he entered the water, he saw Xi Chun turn her back, holding the child, and walk further and further away until she disappeared into the vast river.
"Your Highness, Your Highness!" Seeing Wei Qiao's pained expression and his muttering of the concubine's name, A Gui knew that the prince must be having a nightmare, so he quickly went forward to wake him up.
Wei Qiao opened his eyes and found A Gui standing before him. Looking up at the bed curtains, he realized they were back in the Prince's residence. He asked A Gui in a hoarse voice, "Where is Xi Chun? Is there any news of her?"
A-Gui helped the man up and said, "Your Highness, the guards in the manor are searching, but there is still no news of the concubine."
"I'm going to find her, I'm going to find her!" Wei Qiao said, about to lift the covers and get up to go find Xi Chun.
"Your Highness, the royal physician says you need to rest for a while. The Emperor has dispatched five hundred soldiers and our palace guards several hundred to search for the concubine. You should wait for news at home," said A-Gui.
Seeing the prince so heartbroken over his concubine's situation, A-Gui felt sorry for him. But after searching for so many days, there was still no news of the concubine, and no one knew what had happened to her.
"Help me change my clothes," Wei Qiao shouted to A Gui.
A-Gui couldn't dissuade Wei Qiao, so he helped him change his clothes and then followed him, leading a troop of personal guards, out of the mansion and headed straight for Liujiang. Ming Chuqing came over after breakfast to check on Wei Qiao's condition, but only found an empty bed.
She stopped a maid in Ming'an Hall and asked, "Where is the Prince?"
"Your Highness, the Prince has gone out." The maid didn't know Wei Qiao's exact whereabouts, so she could only give a vague answer.
Cuiju asked in confusion, "This prince is still very weak. Could it be that he went to see his concubine again?"
Ming Chuqing said, "Of course, otherwise who else would be worth him risking his life for? But these days have passed, and the hundreds of guards in the mansion have searched everywhere, but there is still no news of her. I think the concubine has probably been fed to the fish long ago."
Cuiju felt that although her mistress's words were unpleasant to hear, they were indeed true. The mistress had come to serve medicine, and now that the prince was not present, she looked at Ming Chuqing and said, "So, what do we do now..."
“Let’s go back to Yunhe Hall. The flowers in the small flower hall need to be changed,” Ming Chuqing said with a slight smile, adjusting her hair.
Wei Qiao rode his horse all the way to the stone arch bridge, then took a boat to search along both sides of the river. He also had the painter paint many pictures of Xi Chun and had the guards ask the fishermen and hunters along the riverbanks. A few people lied and claimed to have seen the people in the paintings, but after careful questioning, they all gave themselves away.
Winter passed and spring came, but Wei Qiao never returned to the Prince's Mansion. He ate and slept on a two-story boat.
Ming Chuqing had come looking for him twice, but Wei Qiao had already set off downstream and she couldn't find him.
At the end of March, the Emperor returned to the capital from offering sacrifices to Heaven at Mount Tai. Upon hearing that Wei Qiao was still searching for someone on the Liujiang River, he dispatched another five hundred soldiers to help with the search. They searched the area thoroughly but still found no trace of him. Hearing that Wei Qiao was now haggard and spent his days searching for his concubine, with his unkempt beard reaching his chest, the Emperor worried that Wei Qiao might go mad from excessive grief. Therefore, he specially sent Li Cong to the Liujiang River to deliver an imperial edict summoning Wei Qiao to the palace.
Seeing his nephew, whom he hadn't seen for over a month, transformed, his once bright and deep eyes now devoid of their former brilliance, the emperor sighed deeply. It was all because of love that he had been led astray.
"Ren'er, you've spent so much time and effort searching, that's enough. She'll understand your feelings for her if she's watching from heaven. Go back to the manor, don't look anymore. Your princess is still waiting for you there," the emperor said gently.
Wei Qiao stared blankly at the emperor and argued, "Uncle, she must still be waiting for me to come find her. She and the child are waiting for me. I can't abandon her."
Seeing his nephew speaking while weeping, the emperor couldn't bring himself to reprimand him. Perhaps this is what it means to love someone deeply. He remembered how his elder brother, the Crown Prince, had grieved for a long time after his sister-in-law died in childbirth. Ren'er, like him, was also a sentimental person; it would probably take him some time to recover.
The emperor patted Wei Qiao on the shoulder and said, "Since that's the case, I won't force you. I'll allow you to go find her again, but you have to go back to your residence and rest for a few days. Look at you now, you don't look like the most majestic Prince Zhao of my Great Zhou at all."
Wei Qiao returned to the Prince Zhao's residence and stayed for two days. During this time, Ming Chuqing came to see him once, exchanged a few words with him, and then he rode back to the stone arch bridge. Wei Qiao walked back and forth along the Liujiang River twice, and also went to many large and small ferry crossings on the Jishui River and Fengshui River, which are connected to the Liujiang River, but still found nothing.
She was like the last light snowfall on the river in February; once she touched the water, she vanished without a trace.
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