Chapter 91 The Hard Battle: His cat-and-mouse game never ended...
The journey from the capital to Linzhou was a thousand miles long. From the bustling and vibrant capital to the desolate and uninhabited border region, Emperor Chongming traveled tirelessly without stopping in order to see Feng Tan as soon as possible. The large army escorting him walked along the rugged mountain road. Looking at the towering and steep mountains ahead, Emperor Chongming was filled with mixed emotions and only wanted to go faster, faster.
The Imperial Guard that Wei Shengxian had just sent to deliver the message rode back and knelt outside the imperial carriage, saying loudly, "Your Majesty, Princess Yongle has sent word that she will not be going down the mountain. She requests that Your Majesty return to the capital and not waste time here."
Inside the spacious sedan chair, where incense smoke curled, Emperor Chongming's face fell with sorrow upon hearing this. A lonely man... sitting in this seat, he truly lived the life of a solitary figure.
“Your Majesty, please don’t be sad. Princess Yongle is stubborn. Since she said those words, she will certainly not easily come down the mountain to see her master.” Sheng Honghai poured Emperor Chongming a cup of tea, his mature and composed expression unchanged in his dry eyes. “Your Majesty, why don’t you rest here for a while? Let this old servant go up the mountain and put in a good word for you. This old servant is, after all, half a companion of the princess. The princess will not keep this old servant waiting at the foot of the mountain for too long.”
Sheng Honghai always spoke slowly and deliberately. Having served Emperor Chongming for over thirty years, he knew what to say to put the emperor at ease. He was thoughtful in his words and actions. He was strict when disciplining his eunuchs, but he always stepped in to forgive them when they made mistakes. He lived like a Maitreya Buddha. Letting him go and invite Feng Tan to see the emperor was indeed the best solution.
The sky was overcast today, and soon a light rain began to fall. Sheng Honghai stood at the foot of the mountain. The people behind him wanted to hold an umbrella for him to shield him from the rain, but he waved his hand to indicate that they should give up and let the raindrops fall on him. Sure enough, after a while, the gate of the mountain stronghold opened and invited him in to talk.
Feng Tan stood in the pavilion and greeted Sheng Honghai, who had come from afar. Sheng Honghai quickly took two steps forward and said, "It should be this old servant who greets the princess."
A light rain was falling outside the pavilion, the bamboo was lush and green, and inside the pavilion, one could smell the unique dampness of the earth, making it a secluded place.
“You’ve lost some weight,” Feng Tan said, inviting him to sit down. Seasonal fruits were laid out between them. “Did you not enjoy the food on the road?”
Sheng Honghai looked at Feng Tan and said, "Princess, you've actually lost weight. You look far less plump than when you came to the capital."
Feng Tan smiled and said, "I was a little chubby back then, but I'm just right now."
Both of them avoided the heavy topic. Sheng Honghai knew that some people and things were unavoidable hurdles, so he sighed and said, "In the years since the princess left the capital, His Majesty has had a really hard time. Every Mid-Autumn Festival, he would go to the princess's palace and sit for a long time. He specially dispatched a team of Imperial Guards to search for the princess's whereabouts. Every time the spies came to report, he would fly into a rage. In fact, in order to alleviate his longing, he even doted on a child who was not his own daughter."
Raindrops fell on the bamboo leaves, turning into tiny, transparent droplets that reflected the shadows of the two sitting opposite each other. Feng Tan remained silent for a long time after listening. Sheng Honghai looked at her calm face and continued, "When one is in a high position, the love for one's children becomes especially precious. His Majesty did not know that Feng Tan was the princess before, otherwise he would never have allowed Lord Xiao to interrogate the princess. The day he learned the princess's true identity, His Majesty was so anxious that he vomited a mouthful of blood. During the days since the princess was kidnapped, His Majesty has devoted himself to the cause, constantly deploying troops and planning to rescue her. His Majesty put aside matters of state and traveled thousands of miles to come here. His Majesty's love for you and the Empress has always been seen by this old servant. Princess, please see His Majesty."
Feng Tan took a sip of tea and said, "If he truly loved Empress Xiaoxian, why would he have taken Consort Su into the harem?"
Sheng Honghai said, "When Empress Xiaoxian was alive, His Majesty did indeed have the intention of taking concubines to win over powerful families, but because of Feng Youming's pill, he lost the right to become a father again, so he never filled the harem again. Consort Su was only brought into the palace because after the late Empress passed away, she looked like the Empress, and His Majesty missed her dearly."
Feng Tan frowned and said, "The late Empress? Ha, so a new Empress has been appointed already?"
"It is truly inexcusable for our great nation to be without a Queen Mother for several years. It was only after the ministers offered their advice that His Majesty agreed," Sheng Honghai replied.
As the patter of rain on bamboo leaves deepened, Feng Tan's hatred intensified. Consort Su had truly won decisively. She slowly said, "Emperor Chongming, as my father, has done nothing to wrong me; he is a good father. But my mother, my husband, my friend Ren Pingsheng, and the seven ladies of Hongxiu Pavilion—they all died because of Emperor Chongming. My resentment is deep. Do you expect me to step over their corpses to return to the palace and enjoy wealth and glory? I cannot do it. My father has come today to act as an intermediary between us, so I will speak frankly. What I want, he refuses to give me; what I don't want, he forces upon me—I don't want either. The conflicts between us are numerous, and the entanglement is unresolved."
Sheng Honghai sighed inwardly. His stubbornness hadn't changed at all since he was a child.
......
After Sheng Honghai descended the mountain, Emperor Chongming waited at the foot of the mountain for seven more days. Seeing that Feng Tan was determined not to come down to see him, he felt sad and knew that he could not delay any longer. Finally, he wrote a letter and sent it up the mountain. He then returned to the capital at the beginning of autumn.
As the summer heat gradually dissipates, the autumn wind quietly climbs to the mountaintop, and the branches and leaves of the trees turn from emerald green to golden yellow and orange-red. Standing on the mountaintop, one can see the continuous mountain ranges, with the forests ablaze with color.
Qingcang hovered atop the mountain, a cool and refreshing mountain breeze gently caressing Feng Tan, as if washing away worldly troubles and weariness. She closed the letter, looked at Lin Wanzhou's flushed cheeks as she climbed to this spot, and laughed, "It seems that the training these past few months has been completely useless."
Lin Wanzhou was already shy, and her cheeks turned even redder upon hearing this. She was taken aback when she saw the letter in Feng Tan's hand and asked, "Was it sent by His Majesty again?"
“No,” Feng Tan leaned casually against a tall sycamore tree, looking languid. “It was a letter from a scout of the Imperial Dragon Camp that reported a mutiny in Hua Kingdom.”
Lin Wanzhou was taken aback upon hearing this. Since Feng Tan came to the Imperial Dragon Camp, although she still greeted people with a smile and jokes, there was always a gloomy aura between her brows. She must have worries in her heart, so she dared not fully enjoy this hard-won peaceful time.
A fallen leaf twirled and landed at Lin Wanzhou's feet. She picked up the withered leaf, held two leaves by their stems, and handed them to Feng Tan, saying, "A Tan, let's see whose leaves are harder."
This was a game the two of them played every autumn when they were children. The leaves were in a semi-soft, not-dry state, making them particularly resilient. Feng Tan casually took one from Lin Wanzhou's hand and said, "Here."
The two leaf stalks intertwined, and Feng Tan lost easily. Lin Wanzhou smiled and said, "I won. Then A Tan will cook me something delicious tonight."
Feng Tan smiled indulgently and said, "Okay, if you don't mind the taste, I'd be more than happy to accept it."
The setting sun cast a golden glow on Lin Wanzhou, making her look as if she were gilded. Looking at her, Feng Tan suddenly realized that she didn't look like Feng Youming at all.
Feng Tan's scrutinizing gaze was too serious, so Lin Wanzhou curled the corners of her lips and said, "Why are you looking at me so seriously?"
Feng Tan said sincerely, "Wanzhou, you are very beautiful, but you don't look much like your mother."
“Of course,” Lin Wanzhou lowered her eyes, hesitated for a long time, and then looked up again, her eyes filled with timidity as she looked at Feng Tan. “A-Tan, don’t you find it strange? How could someone like Feng Youming get married and have children?”
Feng Tan suddenly sat up straight, his eyes filled with undisguised shock, and said, "Do you know what you're saying?"
Lin Wanzhou had kept this matter bottled up inside, and her voice trembled as she spoke, "After arriving at the Imperial Dragon Camp, I accidentally saw Feng Youming's biography. I'm not her daughter at all; I was clearly just an abandoned baby she picked up in the Infant Tower... I received her kindness, yet I harbored resentment towards her for years in the Red Sleeve Pavilion... A-Tan, I miss her, I miss her so much... I can't do anything for her in the Imperial Dragon Camp, I can't help her with anything..."
Feng Tan wiped away her tears, hugged her, and comforted her, "Alright, alright, everyone learns their skills little by little. You grew up in Hongxiu Pavilion, and you can read, write, do needlework and weaving. Isn't it good to be the girls' teacher these days?"
After talking with Feng Tan for a while, Lin Wanzhou felt much better and asked, "A-Tan, have you thought about how to find out the cause of Master's death, avenge the deceased, and return to officialdom?"
“Wait for the right moment,” Feng Tan said, opening her palm. Golden light danced through the dappled leaves and fell into her hand. “A moment that will win the hearts and minds of the entire court.”
Lin Wanzhou knew that Feng Tan had a plan, so she didn't ask any more questions. Looking at the letter in her hand that had been crumpled into a ball, she said, "A-Tan, was the person who launched the coup in Hua Kingdom Xiao Yin who kidnapped you? You were very wary of him, so even though His Majesty had been gone for more than two months, you still didn't come down the mountain?"
Lin Wanzhou wanted to say "I dare not go down the mountain easily", but then she thought that her fear of Xiao Yinshi was ingrained in her bones. A person as upright as Feng Tan would not be as timid as she was.
As the sun set behind the mountains, Qingcang landed on the paulownia tree, casting a shadow over Feng Tan's face. "I am wary, so I dare not relax my guard easily. I have defeated his troops and taken his gold. Even if he no longer has any effect on my body... but I cannot easily let my guard down against such a vengeful person."
However, some things cannot be avoided simply by staying home. The seeds of its development were sown from the very beginning. During the turbulent war in Dahua, Menghe Nabul fell into a deep sleep from which it never woke up.
Menghe Nabul, a healer, could not heal himself. The Imperial Dragon Camp invited renowned medical experts from all over the country, but none of them could cure him. Feng Tan looked at Menghe Nabul's ashen face, and her heart was in turmoil.
"Feng Tan, you're finished."
Therefore, from the very beginning, Xiao Yinshi laid a trap to capture her.
His cat-and-mouse game never ended.
As the well-trained Shen family army and the physically strong Luosha army were stationed outside the capital of Hua Kingdom and about to attack the city, Xiao Yinshi finally seemed to have time to collect another of his spoils of war. A piece of blood-stained cloth was wrapped in a yellowish oiled paper and handed to Feng Tan by the Imperial Dragon Army at the foot of the mountain.
At that moment, everyone was laughing and chatting by the campfire. Yu Ruxi's sword dance was heroic and graceful, and it complemented Lin Wanzhou's zither music perfectly. Feng Tan threw the piece of the breast wrap into the campfire, and the flames licked it and devoured the cloth.
Seeing that her expression was off, Yu Ruxi asked, "Yongle, what's wrong?"
Laughter and cheers filled the air, but it seemed as if vines were spreading from all sides through the mountains and forests, trying to trap Feng Tan in a snare. She suppressed her racing heart and said to Yu Ruxi, "Before I re-enter officialdom, I will fight a tough battle."
It was a tough battle that she had to fight, a battle she herself wasn't entirely confident about, and one that she even had to plan out how they would continue to fight for their rights if she died at Xiao Yinshi's hands.
Author's note: First, a scene of chasing after his daughter through a crematorium. Wishing all the little ones a happy holiday!
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