Chapter Sixty-Eight: The Final Chapter (Part Three)
——Returning Home to Jiangnan——
Three days later, the two carriages drove out of Kyoto.
The first car carried Mu Lian, Ye Yiqing, and Li Peixuan, while the second car carried the Meng sisters with their two children. They would escort the children to Jiangnan and then decide whether to stay or leave depending on the situation.
When the carriage reached Shili Pavilion on the outskirts of the city, it suddenly saw a man and a horse standing in the pavilion.
Ye Yuqing lifted the carriage curtain, surprised: "Third Prince?"
The young man on horseback was none other than the Third Prince, a fifteen-year-old boy dressed in a smart outfit. His handsome face still had a touch of childishness, but his eyes were resolute.
"Miss Mu, Imperial Censor Ye, Senior Li," the Third Prince said, bowing. "I heard you were leaving the capital today, so I came to see you off."
Mu Lian alighted from the carriage and returned the greeting: "Your Highness personally escorted me; this humble woman dares not accept such a favor."
The Third Prince took out a scroll from his bosom: "This is what the Empress asked me to deliver." Upon unfolding it, he saw that it was "Three Heroes on the Road" painted by the Empress herself. In the painting, Mu Lian was dressed in red and riding a white horse, Ye Yuqing was dressed in white and holding a scroll, and Li Peixuan was dressed in black and carrying a sword. The three of them stood side by side on the mountaintop, full of vigor and spirit.
The inscription on the painting reads: "Free and unrestrained, chivalry endures."
Mu Lian's eyes welled up with tears, and she solemnly put the item away: "Please tell His Majesty that this kindness will be remembered forever."
The third prince mounted his horse and suddenly said, "Miss Mu, when I come of age, may I go to Jiangnan to find you? I also want to see what the martial world is like."
Li Peixuan laughed loudly: "The martial world is full of wine and poetry, swords and shadows, and moonlit encounters. If Your Highness comes, we will certainly treat you well."
"It's a deal!" The boy's eyes shone like stars as he rode away in the warm autumn sun.
The carriage continued its journey, and Kyoto gradually disappeared from view. Wild geese flew south, maple forests were ablaze with color, the desolation and chill of the north gradually receded, and the gentle warmth and grace of the south slowly arrived.
Inside the car, Mu Lian unfolded the painting "Three Heroes on the Road" and gazed at it for a long time.
With her slender fingertips gently unfurling the scroll, Ye Yuqing gazed intently, and with a lingering tone, grasped Mu Lian's hand: "We will both be alright."
Not wanting to be left out, the man immediately grasped the woman's other hand, and Li Peixuan sighed, "The journey through the world is long, but with three people traveling together, we will not be lonely."
Looking at the two most important men in her life, Mu Lian finally smiled: "Yes, the three of us together."
In the next carriage, Chang Le leaned against the window, pointing to a flock of geese flying across the sky: "Aunt Luan, what are those?"
“They are wild geese. It’s autumn, and they are flying south,” Meng Luan replied gently.
Mu An asked softly, "Aunt Yuan, are we also flying south?"
Meng Yuan patted his head: "It's not flying, it's going home."
"Home in Jiangnan?"
"Yes, there are mountains and rivers, your parents, and our home."
The two children seemed to understand, but they both smiled.
The carriage drove into the distance, towards a new life. The story of Mu Lian, the head of the Women's Court of Justice, Ye Yuqing, the third-ranked scholar, and Li Peixuan, the former heir, will become another legend in the Daxing Dynasty, sung in teahouses and taverns, told in women's academies, and planting a seed in countless hearts yearning for freedom.
Perhaps one day, this seed will blossom and bear fruit, giving the world more choices and more freedom.
At this moment, the world is warm and life is good.
——Other Versions——
The palaces are magnificent.
Snowflakes fell softly onto the blue bricks of Zhuque Street, and the wheels of the carriage made a soft cracking sound as they rolled over the thin ice. Mu Lian tightened the reins and rode alongside the carriage. The frost on her silver mask reflected the pale winter light, casting shadows of the dark banners that swayed faintly between the red walls and green tiles on both sides of the street—the insignia of the Empress's personal guards.
"Lord Mu, the welcoming banquet will be held in Xuande Hall." The eunuch's high-pitched voice pierced through the cold wind.
The carriage curtain was suddenly lifted, revealing Ye Yiqing's nose, red from the cold: "Xuande Hall? Isn't that a place where officials from outside the capital are not allowed to enter without permission..."
"His Majesty has decreed that Commander Mu has rendered meritorious service in protecting the Emperor, and is hereby bestowed with a purple-gold fish-shaped tally." The eunuch bowed and presented a gilded tray, on which lay a jade plaque engraved with a double phoenix pattern. "Lord Ye also has important matters to discuss."
Mu Lian's fingertips trembled slightly as she accepted the jade token. This symbol of her privileged position serving the Emperor clinked against the black iron token hanging at her waist, producing a very soft "ding." Five years ago, when she received the token in the Yeting Prison, the old eunuch's withered hand had gripped her wrist tightly: "Remember, the lives of the secret guards are not lives."
"Lord Mu?" Ye Yuqing had gotten off the carriage at some point, his fox fur collar still damp with fine snow. "The palace road is slippery, perhaps..." He handed over half a bamboo walking stick, the bamboo joints still warm from his body.
Mu Lian took a half step back, about to push him away, when she suddenly saw a golden thread flash across Ye Yuqing's sleeve. It was the wound she had sustained three days ago at the Luocheng post station, when she was slashed by an assassin while protecting him. The scholar's hand, wrapped in gauze, trembled slightly in the cold wind.
"Thank you for your help." She took the walking stick, the fragrance of bamboo permeating her palm.
As she passed through the three vermilion palace gates, Mu Lian counted the patterns on the gold bricks beneath her feet. This was her third time entering the Xuande Hall, the first two times accompanied by the stench of blood—once to execute the rebellious commander of the Imperial Guards, and once to collect the body of the poisoned Censor-in-Chief.
"Your Majesty, we, your humble servants, pay our respects."
The palace was thick with the pungent scent of ambergris, and the crisp sound of pearls clinking against each other echoed from behind the twelve gilded screens. The Empress's languid voice, mingled with the rustling of her peacock-feather cloak, said, "Minister Ye's memorial is exquisitely written. Liu Zhang's move to confine himself to his duties has made those barbarians in the Western Frontier restless."
Ye Yuqing's back, which was lying on the ground, suddenly tensed. Mu Lian noticed the fine sweat on the back of his neck and suddenly remembered the vermilion marks this man had made on the canal transport ledger during the torrential rain in Luoyang that day. It turned out that those seemingly scattered annotations had long hidden irrefutable evidence of Liu Zhang's secret dealings with the Western Frontier within the exquisite language.
"Mu Qing," the Empress's tone suddenly changed, "I heard you acquired something interesting in Luo City?"
Mu Lian hesitated as she untied the leather pouch from her waist. The bronze tiger tally, which had been found on the Gu Master's corpse, should have been reported to the Dark Guard last night, but now it sent chills down her spine even through the leather. She suddenly understood why she hadn't seen a single member of the Dark Guard when she entered the palace today—the freshly painted vermilion beneath the gold bricks clearly covered the unwashed bloodstains.
"Your Majesty, you are wise; this item..."
"Present it here." The Empress chuckled, her gilded armor flashing across the map of the Western Frontier displayed on the screen. "The Minister of Rites died suddenly yesterday. Mu Qing, who do you think should be sent to negotiate the marriage alliance?"
Mu Lian's temples throbbed. She thought of the courtyard in Chang Le Fang that always smelled of medicine, and the small blue sedan chair that appeared outside the courtyard wall without fail on the seventh day of every month. If she were to reveal the name of the Imperial Censor Mu now, there would likely be more corpses floating under the Vermilion Bird Bridge tomorrow.
"In my opinion..."
"I recommend Pei Yan, the Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review," Ye Yuqing suddenly spoke, her wide sleeve brushing against Mu Lian's drooping hand. "Vice Minister Pei is fluent in the languages of the twelve tribes of the Western Frontier. Last year, when he presided over the trial of the Kucha caravan robbery case..."
"Oh?" the Empress interrupted, "Minister Ye and Junior Minister Pei seem to be quite familiar with each other."
Mu Lian sensed danger. She saw that Ye Yiqing's back was soaked with cold sweat, yet he still stood tall and smiled, saying, "Your subject and Pei Shaoqing were both Jinshi graduates in the same year, and we co-authored 'A Study of the Customs and Products of the Western Regions,' so I know a little about it."
Suddenly, a white jade paperweight was thrown from behind the gilded screen, hitting Ye Yiqing squarely on the shoulder. Mu Lian heard a dull thud as if a bone had dislocated, and her fingers, hidden in her sleeve, gripped her bamboo cane tightly.
"Well said, 'You know a little bit.'" The Empress clapped her hands and laughed. "Then let Pei Yan go to the Court of State Ceremonial to serve. As for Minister Mu—" The tip of her armor suddenly pointed at Mu Lian, "He will accompany the peace envoy out of the pass in three days. Go and see for me whether the moon in the Western Frontier royal court is truly rounder than that in the Central Plains."
As dusk fell when they left the palace, Ye Yiqing limped into the carriage, only to find Mu Lian still standing there, staring blankly at the palace walls. The snow on the glazed tiles reflected the setting sun, much like the ashes of paper that drifted in the great fire of Luoyang that night.
"Lord Mu, are you not getting in the carriage?" He lifted the curtain, deliberately letting his injured arm dangle outside the window.
Mu Lian mounted his horse, his black cloak sweeping across the carriage shaft: "Lord Ye, you've been quite talkative today."
"Lord Mu has softened his heart today." Ye Yiqing took out a gilded hand warmer and placed it in her hand, "The nights are cold in the Western Frontier, this thing..."
"Ye Yiqing." Mu Lian suddenly called him by his full name, her voice behind the mask colder than snow, "You knew all along that Pei Yan was Liu Zhang's protégé."
The scholar's smile froze on his lips, but then Mu Lian rode up to the carriage window: "What the Empress wants isn't the truth, but balance. If you recommend Pei Yan today, Liu Zhang can easily stuff people into the marriage alliance tomorrow." She tossed the hand warmer back into the carriage, the goldware striking the sandalwood table with a dull thud. "Ye Tanhua, the officialdom isn't the Hanlin Academy."
As the sound of horses' hooves faded into the distance, Ye Yuqing stroked the lingering warmth of the brazier and suddenly chuckled softly. Moonlight filtering through the gap in the carriage curtain fell on the secret letter hidden in his sleeve, where the words "Mu Sicheng," "poison," and "twins" were faintly visible.
[Danger in the Dark Alley]
As the third watchman's clapper sounded, Mu Lian slipped into the shadows of Chang Le Fang. The bronze tiger tally from earlier that day now burned against his heart; the wolf's head engraved on the tally gradually overlapped with a birthmark from his memory. Rumor had it that Mu, the Imperial Censor, had been sent on a mission to the Western Frontier twenty years ago, and when he returned, his carriage was filled with the scent of medicine...
"call out!"
The sound of crossbow bolts whistling through the air whizzed past her ears. Mu Lian spun around and swung her sword, severing the arrows only to have them burst into a cloud of purple poison. Instantly, more than ten men in black leaped down from the rooftops on both sides of the alley, their blades forming a dense net.
"Hand over the Tiger Tally!" The leader, with blue patterns on his eyepatch, was none other than the Gu Master's accomplice who had escaped from the net in Luo City that night.
Before Mu Lian could retract her sword strike, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her dantian—the poisonous mist from before had actually penetrated her mask! The scenery before her eyes began to distort. Taking advantage of her last moments of clarity, she pierced the throats of the two men and staggered open the gate of a courtyard.
"Bang!"
As her back pressed against the cool stone wall, Mu Lian caught a familiar scent of agarwood. Someone caught her falling body from behind, warm breath brushing against her ear: "Lord Mu, breaking into a private residence at night, are you trying to confirm your affair with this envoy?"
Ye Yuqing's laughter carried a bloody undertone. Mu Lian turned her head with difficulty and saw large patches of blood blooming on the scholar's moon-white inner robe, his right hand still clutching half a blood-stained wolf-hair brush.
A muffled thud came from outside the courtyard, and twelve men in black each had a silver needle, about an inch long, inserted into their throats. Mu Lian recalled a note on a page in the Hanlin Academy archives: "Third-ranked scholar in the third year of Jinghe, apprenticed to a disgraced disciple of the Tang Clan..."
"The one that Minister Mu was infected with in the Western Frontier was a mother-child Gu poison," Ye Yiqing suddenly said, her fingertips tracing the tiger tally at her waist. "The Gu worms were removed by the royal court's shamanic physician when he cut open a pregnant woman's belly. The mother Gu entered the general's body, and the child Gu entered the infant's body."
Mu Lian's pupils contracted sharply. The mask was suddenly removed, and Ye Yiqing's bloodstained fingers touched the vermilion birthmark at the corner of her eye: "This spot is exactly the same as the baby girl in the portrait in Mu Sicheng's study."
In the distance came the hoarse cries of the night watchman, and the snow began to fall again...
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