Hidden in the dust
Her face turned deathly pale, and she said in a hoarse voice, "What? Yanxiu didn't..." Before she could finish speaking, she suddenly realized that Xie Lang had been using the martial arts technique of "transmitting sound secretly and concentrating it into a line" when he spoke to her. If she hadn't had excellent internal strength, she wouldn't have been able to hear him.
But she couldn't care less about any of that at the moment, nor did she care why Xie Lang was waiting here alone, as if he knew she would come. She turned and ran towards Qiwu Palace.
Xie Lang moved swiftly, blocking her path without making a sound.
She angrily said, "General Xie, you..."
Xie Lang said in a deep voice, "Don't go to Qiwu, His Majesty is there right now."
He added, "You are Lanxiu's sister, which is why I stopped you here. The best thing you can do now is to try to distance yourself from all of this, and that's not difficult."
He whispered again, "Besides me, no one else in the palace knows about your relationship with the Empress."
Under Xie Lang's meaningful gaze, she finally understood that he was here precisely because of Li Lanxiu, to prevent her from doing something foolish and forcibly breaking into Qiwu.
Even Li Lanxiu wasn't entirely clear about her true relationship with Yanxiu, but Xie Lang knew.
It seems that Xie Lang not only heard those words that day, but also took them to heart, and even investigated them secretly.
But back then, the young lady-in-waiting in the weaving room, filled with fear, anxiety, and despair, didn't think too much about it.
She thought that Yanxiu had given herself away. After all, she and Su Jinlan were just the two of them, and although the palace seemed relaxed, it was actually quite shrewd. There was a hidden master, Aunt Chu, by her side who was watching her every move. Leaving the palace was not an easy thing to do.
She thought Li Lanxiu's drunkenness was a coincidence, and Xie Lang's temporary replacement for her duty was lucky. But later, she was indeed frightened when she thought about it. That night, Yanxiu was caught red-handed, and if someone had seen Li Lanxiu, the Left General of the Tiger Guard, smoothing things over for her, under the watchful eye of the tyrannical Emperor Sima Yan, who was looking for someone to vent his anger on, could Li Lanxiu have escaped unscathed?
She thought Xie Lang had deliberately stopped her outside the barracks, only because of Lan Xiu, and that he had spared her life. She was extremely grateful to him and they became close friends.
Xie Lang appeared before her on the most anxious and helpless night of her life. Knowing all her suspicious qualities, he did not avoid suspicion or ask about the cause and effect, but protected her secret and life.
After that, together with Li Lanxiu, Sikong Zhao, and Mu Huaying, she helped Xie Lang usher in the Flying Phoenix Era of Dayan.
The existence of these sisters, to some extent, soothed her pain and loneliness after losing Yanxiu. But she never forgot her promise to Yanxiu.
She later asked Xie Lang about Yanxiu's fate after that night and the whereabouts of the child.
Xie Lang was the highest-ranking person she knew at the time, and the one closest to the core of the court.
Xie Lang was always vague in his answers, and finally declined, saying that these were royal secrets and how to handle them was no longer his concern as a mere junior officer; he could simply wait for the emperor to issue an edict.
After Li Lanxiu sobered up and learned of what had happened that night, he remained silent. However, seeing that she was being watched closely, he repeatedly warned her not to act rashly, and especially not to personally investigate where Yanxiu had been imprisoned after the incident.
She felt guilty towards Li Lanxiu. It was all because he had kept it from her. He had only said that Yanxiu had a letter to send out of the palace, but the result was that the Empress had eloped. If this was true, what a huge pit she had dug for Li Lanxiu. But Li Lanxiu never mentioned it, so she pretended that it had never happened, and she had no choice but to pretend to forget it as well.
She was extremely anxious and waited anxiously in the weaving room for twenty days. Finally, she received the imperial edict from the emperor announcing that the empress had died in the autumn of that year.
Empress Shangguan, a virtuous woman of her generation, passed away just like that. As for the child, the imperial edict made no mention of him at all, as if the child had never existed.
Upon receiving the news, she experienced shock, disbelief, denial... but she barely went insane.
It felt like the whole world was falling apart before her eyes, a complete upheaval.
She knew perfectly well that there would never be another person like Yanxiu in the world. The world is bustling, all for profit; the world is in turmoil, all for gain. Only Yanxiu would be like a moth drawn to a flame for something so ephemeral.
As I grew older and experienced the affairs of two dynasties, I gradually realized that, given Yanxiu's personality, it wasn't entirely unexpected that he would end up like this.
Many people and events that followed are now like a dream, like a beautiful illusion, in Zhao Lingying's memory.
The court was in turmoil, with one power struggle after another, a battle for power, lust, fame, and fortune. A clash of titans ensued, with the jade pen in hand deciding life and death, every word and action a masterpiece. She assisted Xie Lang in his power grab, purging dissidents. Everyone knew only of the talented woman Zhao Lingying, her sharp tongue and cold-blooded wit, her cold observation of the court always tinged with sarcasm, her relentless attacks leaving no room for doubt. But few knew that the most vibrant years of her life had already vanished in the fifth year of the Xining era of the Great Huan Dynasty. All her personal emotions, along with those of Empress Wen, Shangguan Yanxiu, had been buried in the dust of the earth.
Everything else had faded into indifference, except for one thought that lingered like lotus root threads, appearing and disappearing intermittently in her heart.
That child.
The child whom Yanxiu had entrusted to her, but who later disappeared without a trace in historical records.
A great fire later broke out in the side hall of Qiwu Palace, and all traces of the past were melted away. But she finally found the gold hairpin that she had given to Yu Yanxiu in the ashes.
It's likely that no one in the world will ever acknowledge or remember that child's existence again. And that little baby girl will be as if she had never been here, her traces completely erased.
But she remembered. She had been instrumental in bringing that girl into the world; she had gently touched her through her mother's belly. She had secretly vowed to protect her and her mother for the rest of her life. This unfulfilled promise reminded her day and night that she was not alone, left behind by Yanxiu.
She had a persistent feeling that the girl was still alive, and not far from her. She could sense the feelings and wishes of the deceased.
From the former head of the Imperial Textile Bureau to a female official, then to the Imperial Guard of the Great Yan Dynasty, the most favored person in the imperial court, and the head of the Imperial Archives in charge of imperial edicts and documents, every step of her rise to power was a preparation for exploring a secret in the palace of the previous dynasty.
Having been in charge of official documents, edicts, and historical records for so many years, no one in the palace was more familiar with the documents and edicts left behind in the former Huan Palace than she was.
She came into contact with these secret documents and edicts that she would have had no chance of accessing during the Qian Huan period, given her lowly status at the time. As she followed the clues, some facts gradually came to light.
For example, according to the former Huan Army Law, the commander of the Imperial Guards was strictly prohibited from drinking alcohol while on night duty, and violators would be punished with fifty strokes of the military rod.
Li Lanxiu was always strictly self-disciplined, and having promised her a favor that night, it was impossible for her to be careless and make such a mistake. In the more than ten years that followed, whether as the "Golden Goblet Moonfall" Vermilion Bird Guard in the Emperor's presence or as the Consort Chen, the mistress of the six palaces, he had never seen her lose control or drink excessively. Her drunkenness that night in the fifth year of the Xiyuan era could only be attributed to someone deliberately getting her intoxicated.
For example, there were five edicts of deposing the empress, dated that night, all scrawled in red ink. They were clearly written in a fit of rage, and the charges against Yanxiu were all different. None of them were sealed with an imperial seal and never saw the light of day—presumably because the emperor, in his fury, was finally persuaded by his attendants that the situation was too dire and it was not advisable to directly damage relations with the Shangguan family in this way.
This is not a particularly valuable secret, but the truly special and important secret lies in another draft edict attached to it.
The imperial edict, consisting of only two simple lines, stated that Xie Lang, the Right General of the Imperial Guards, was loyal and devoted to his master, and was therefore promoted to Attendant Gentleman of the Palace and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guards, with a salary of two thousand shi (a unit of grain). The date at the bottom left was also signed on the same night.
So what exactly did Xie Lang do that night to be promoted three ranks and become the number one guard in the Imperial Guard?
From then on, the entire Imperial Guard was under Xie Lang's command. This reduced many obstacles for his later ascension to the throne. But her question was not about Xie Lang's promotion, but rather what great achievement would make the incompetent and debauched Sima Yan entrust him with this most important position on the very night when the palace was under full alert?
Many traces of events have vanished into the dustbin of history. She had no evidence, yet she could painstakingly glean the truth of what happened from the smallest clues, bit by bit.
Sister Lanxiu probably doesn't know about these things.
Even if she knew, she only knew that Xie Lang deliberately got her drunk to prevent her from being implicated in the serious crime of eloping with Yanxiu, to protect her. Just like she had done back then.
At that time, she also thought that her brother Xie was only acting out of loyalty, which conveniently prevented her from going to find Lan Xiu.
I still remember Sister Lan Xiu solemnly saying at the time: "Don't worry, as long as it's something I don't want him to know, no matter whether he hears it or not, or how much he hears, he will act as if he didn't hear anything."
He added, "A true friend should be like this."
But, Sister Lanxiu, you trusted the wrong person.
But it's alright.
In her increasingly unfocused vision, Xie Lang's blurry figure was reflected, and she smiled softly and silently.
Brother Xie, you're still in my hands, so you might suffer another big fall.
Two years after Yanxiu's death, a great fire broke out in Jianzhang City, and the rebel army entered the city, burning, killing, and looting. Emperor Sima Yan hanged himself in the ancestral temple, and the palace was in turmoil.
She had already been promoted to the position of Junior Steward of the Imperial Household Department, in charge of the palace's finances and supplies. However, given the circumstances, a decision had to be made quickly as to whether she should stay or leave.
If one wanted to escape, one had to immediately blend into the crowd at the palace, take a boat downstream, and head south to return to one's hometown.
Eastern Wu was Zhao's territory, so there was no chance of war. But if she did, all the hard work she had put into cultivating her position in the palace over the years would be for naught. Now that she was old and no longer of any use, returning to her hometown would only bring her ridicule from her relatives. Did she want that kind of ending?
Xie Lang and Li Lanxiu were both preoccupied with dealing with the rebels. Even if they were willing, she couldn't keep them sending an army to protect her indefinitely.
At this critical moment of life and death, she stroked the gold hairpin and suddenly a flash of inspiration struck her, remembering what Yanxiu had said before.
When she gave the gold hairpin to Yanxiu for self-defense, Yanxiu said, "I once saw a pair of fine pens, each about a foot long, in my uncle's study. I sent someone to my mother's house to retrieve them a couple of days ago."
He added, "I will hide it on the top shelf of the bookshelf on the south side of the main hall of Qiwu Palace, in the fifth compartment. If you encounter any difficulties in the future, go there to retrieve them."
Although she didn't believe that a pair of pens could stir up any storm or reverse any situation, at this critical moment of life and death, she was determined to trust her old friend.
At that time, Qiwu Palace was deserted, with only fallen leaves, withered grass, and the mournful cries of crows remaining.
She flew through corridors and walls, disappearing without a trace, and no one stopped her.
As she nimbly leaped onto the top of the bookshelf and swiftly took down the lacquer box from the wooden shelf, she suddenly sensed something was amiss.
This abnormality originated from within herself.
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