Chapter 5: The Bond of Sharing the Fire-Avoiding Map
Xiao Xun did not answer.
At that moment, urged by Wang Fu, he mounted his horse.
He made his incognito journey while Qu Yang was inspecting the Ganquan granary and then visiting Yunyang County to reward the hundred households with cattle and wine.
He came here firstly to see Su Dan, and secondly to pay his respects.
He could only offer his condolences briefly before he worried that Qu Yang would find out about his private meeting with Su Dan, so he couldn't stay any longer.
The increasingly harsh wind lashed his face, seemingly bringing with it late autumn rain or early snow, and his face became wet.
Amidst the sounds of horses' hooves, the wind, and whips, his deep voice rang out:
"Okay. I will definitely take you home."
Seven days ago, after he finally settled accounts with the Qu family and issued an imperial decree to restore Su Dan's official status, Xiao Xun got drunk, which was rare for him.
He walked a difficult path, fraught with thorns, and stained with the blood of many, but he made it through.
He saw Su Chan through his drunken eyes.
Su Chan had bright eyes and a beaming smile.
She looks exactly like she did when she was fourteen.
At the age of fourteen, they sat together in the Chengming Hall, reading the Book of Documents with the Grand Tutor.
The Crown Prince of Huaiyang was also receiving instruction in the palace, but a few years after Xiao Xun ascended the throne, Qu Yang forbade the Xiao family princes and nobles from staying in the capital for long, so he went to his fiefdom with the Prince of Huaiyang.
Qu Qingchuan, the eldest son of the Qu family, also studied with Xiao Xun, serving as his study companion.
He was two years older than Xiao Xun and was very quick-witted, but not in his studies. Once discovered, he had hidden a fire-avoidance diagram in the Four Classics, and was therefore punished by Grand Tutor Su with a ruler and also forced to copy an entire book of rites.
However, before he had finished copying the book, he realized that his father held immense power and influence, far surpassing that of Su Dan. Moreover, he was the only son under his father's care. After experiencing this ordeal, no matter how Qu Yang tried to persuade him, he refused to go to Chengming Hall to study again, or rather, he was unwilling to go to Chengming Hall to receive instruction.
Qu Yang had no other choice but to find a position as a vice minister for Qu Qingchuan, fearing that he would spend his days fooling around with his cronies.
Chengming Hall is becoming increasingly deserted, but fortunately, Su Chan is still there.
As Su Chan was reading, she magically produced a scroll from under the desk.
“It can’t be to avoid…” Xiao Xun pursed his lips.
Su Chan glanced at him: "What are you avoiding? Is everyone Qu Qingchuan? This is the most fashionable poetry outside."
“Oh, I thought it was ‘Bi Ming’ (毕命). Xiao Xun’s ears burned, and he pointed to another volume of the Book of Documents on the table, saying, “Bi Ming from the Book of Documents, this chapter.”
"You really only know how to study," Su Chan laughed. "No wonder my elders praised you. They said you are not only intelligent, but also diligent and hardworking."
She glanced at Xiao Xun and said slyly, "No wonder most of the dancers and musicians in the inner palace have been sent away. It turns out that their emperor wished he could change all the songs and dances into the Book of Zhou and military formations."
Xiao Xun blushed at her words, even more so than when Qu Qingchuan dragged him to look at the fire-avoidance diagram.
After Su Chan finished her meal in Chengming Hall, she put on a fur coat and led Xiao Xun to the edge of Taiye Pond. They avoided the crowd and found a quiet spot. She then unfolded the scroll she had secretly hidden: "My father never allowed me to look at these things. He said they were decadent entertainment. I got these from my mother and took them out secretly."
Xiao Xun looked curiously at the scroll, and Su Chan read it aloud in a soft voice: "There is a beautiful woman, whom I cannot forget once I have seen her. If I do not see her for a day, I am driven mad with longing."
She sighed, "It's so well written. If it were set to music, it would be absolutely beautiful. His Majesty really shouldn't have sent all the female musicians from the inner palace out of the palace."
Xiao Xun lowered his eyes and said in a low voice, "It is because the Grand Marshal feels that there are too many women in the palace, and the yin energy is too heavy, which is not good for their health. It would be better to send some of them out."
"The Grand Marshal really meddles in everything." Su Chan pouted, then patted Xiao Xun's shoulder. "But it's alright, I'll compose a song for you another day."
Xiao Xun smiled and continued reading the scroll, word by word: "I wish to be worthy of your virtue, and walk hand in hand with you."
He looked up at Su Chan.
The faint sunlight and snow enveloped her in a hazy mist.
She was still immersed in poetry:
...I cannot fly, which leads to my downfall.
She smiled slightly, and you could still vaguely see the shadow of her when she was seven or eight years old.
The end of the year when I was seven.
Xiao Xun moved to the North Palace.
The North Palace is the residence of the Crown Prince of this dynasty. It was built to be exceptionally magnificent and spacious. However, because it was flooded two months ago and was built hastily, it appears even more empty.
Outside, the snow raged and the wind howled, blowing through the windows and doors into the inner chamber, where it crashed against the door frame and turned into eerie whistles.
He had just lost his mother. At such a young age, he didn't know the reason why all that had happened, and inexplicably felt that it was his fault.
His mother, who had always been respectful and favored, was ordered to commit suicide by the emperor. Yet, on the same edict, he became the crown prince.
If he hadn't become the crown prince, Mother wouldn't have died, right?
But why did he become the crown prince?
His father had six sons, and he had five older brothers. Except for his father's fifth son, who died of illness before he was born, the rest, except for his second brother, Prince Xiao Cheng of Huaiyang, all died suddenly overnight.
Crown Prince Xiao Heng perished in a great fire. The fire was strange yet fierce, starting in the North Palace and spreading all the way to the southern suburbs of Chang'an. The fire raged for more than half a month, and later a black snow fell.
The Crown Prince's wife, his son Xiao Yu, and his two daughters all perished in the fire.
The third brother, Prince Xiao Rui of Yan, was implicated and died of anxiety and fear.
The fourth brother, Prince Guangling, Xiao Jie, was instigated by his maternal uncle, the General of Chariots and Cavalry, and the Prime Minister to befriend court officials and plot for the position of Crown Prince. When the plot was exposed, the General of Chariots and Cavalry, the instigator, was executed along with his entire family, while the Prime Minister was executed by being cut in half at the waist. Prince Guangling was sent to the execution ground to witness the execution, and was so frightened that he fell ill and died the following month.
Meanwhile, his second elder brother, Prince Xiao Cheng of Huaiyang, suffered a seizure in his fiefdom of Huaiyang at the time of the incident. His personality changed drastically, and he became addicted to wine, women, and music. People said he had been possessed and gone mad.
Xiao Xun couldn't understand all of this, so he locked himself in seclusion. Except for the emperor's occasional summons, he refused to leave his house, dismissed everyone, and even refused to let Wang Fu get close to him.
The hardest part is the night.
The painted beams and carved pillars transformed into living mythical beasts at night.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew by, the door opened halfway, the dustpan shook violently, and the two lamps flickered and went out in an instant.
Xiao Xun looked nervous as he slowly walked towards the fluttering curtains.
A pair of bright eyes were glimpsed beneath the silk curtains.
Then a slender figure jumped out.
"Sister?" Xiao Xun exclaimed in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
Xiao Xun was two months younger than Su Chan, so he called her "elder sister".
“I heard from Mother that you often have trouble sleeping.” Su Chan looked up at him, a smile spreading across her face in the dim candlelight. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you company.”
Without waiting for Xiao Xun's reply, she climbed onto the bed and crawled into the quilt, saying to herself, "I'll stay with you from now on."
They leaned against their pillows and talked all night until they both drifted off to sleep.
Xiao Xun doesn't remember their childlike words and expressions.
When the Grand Princess of Yangyi and her mother could not find Su Chan, they were so anxious that they turned the Su residence, the princess's residence, and Chang Le Palace upside down. Even though Su Chan was bold, she no longer dared to sneak out at night.
However, that was the first full night's sleep Xiao Xun had taken after arriving at the Northern Palace.
From then on, there were no more giant beasts with gaping mouths trying to devour him in his dreams, nor were there any more of those charcoal-black ghosts that looked like his brother.
Xiao Xun looked at Su Chan, whose eyes were filled with drunkenness, and said:
"I've finally brought you home."
Her wide sleeves often lifted a jade cup that had just been filled with wine.
The jade cup was overturned and rolled away from the table.
The wine spilled onto Lin Yuan's clothes, and the deep blue-green robe immediately blotted red from the waistband.
It looks exactly like a patch of blood.
*
Lin Yuan covered her lower abdomen.
There was a slight, dull ache there.
The sword wound I sustained last year in the Shanglin Garden left a scar about an inch long, but thanks to proper treatment, the scab has fallen off and the old wound is barely visible. The imperial physician said that fortunately, it did not injure any vital organs, and with careful care, it will be completely healed in the future.
So it must be because it's been freezing cold these past two days.
Also, the carriage was bumpy.
The carriage bounced and bounced until it passed the capital region. As dusk approached, it arrived at the foot of the mountains in Yuzhou.
She lifted the carriage curtain and said to the driver, "Uncle, we won't make it to the destination today. Let's find a place to stay and rest for the night."
Wang Fu stopped the carriage, wiped his chapped face, looked at the sky that had been gloomy all day, and said, "That's fine too."
At first, Lin Yuan addressed Wang Fu as "Attendant Wang," just as she would in the palace. However, Wang Fu felt unworthy of the title and lowered his head, saying that now that he was out of the palace, "where would I still be an Attendant?"
Even the newly arrived palace eunuchs straightened their backs in front of him and threw his bundle out of the house. Everyone could see that "returning home to receive imperial favor" was just a pretense to show the monarch's benevolence; he was actually being driven out of the palace.
“Yes, it was my oversight.” Lin Yuan took over the conversation, then suddenly laughed, “Once we leave the palace, we won’t have to serve people all the time anymore.”
So they called him "Uncle".
As the New Year approached, the wind and snow continued, and the snow on the official road was ankle-deep, turning the old market town into a desolate place as far as the eye could see.
They settled in a secluded county residence that was as cold and desolate as an icebox.
Lin Yuan endured the dull pain in her lower abdomen and, taking advantage of the twilight and the faint light of the snow, cleaned the two long-uninhabited, shabby rooms. Compared to her home yesterday, the quilts here were as cold as iron, and a cloud of grayish-white dust would rise at the slightest touch.
Lin Yuan sneezed twice in a row, and tears welled up in her eyes through the hazy grayness.
Wang Fu went out for a while and asked a shopkeeper with nostrils on top of his head for a pot of hot soup. He also paid an extra twenty coins for a hand warmer.
They ate the sesame cakes that Lin Yuan had brought while enjoying the hot soup.
As the steam rose, I pressed the hand warmer against my lower abdomen, and the pain subsided slightly.
They also gained the energy to speak:
"Is Uncle Wang's hometown in Yingchuan?"
Wang Fu mumbled a reply, slurped down a mouthful of hot soup, swallowed the frozen flatbread, and exhaled a puff of white breath: "It's not far ahead. Actually, it's not really a hometown. I left when I was ten, and I haven't had any relatives for a long time."
"Then, how did you leave—" Lin Yuan paused, replacing "hometown" with "Yingchuan".
“Back then, it wouldn’t rain for months on end, and we couldn’t survive. My father and elder brother both died fighting the Xiongnu. They died without even receiving a title for their war merits, and we don’t know where they died—a title could grant land and a house, it was a good thing.” He said with a hint of longing, then suddenly laughed, “Later things got better. After entering the palace, even titles like kings and marquises weren’t unusual. I even met two emperors.” He held up two fingers, indicating “two.”
“After my mother died, my uncle tricked me into having a knife cut. I was lucky to survive. Among those who had the knife cut, some died directly from the rusty iron knife, while others died from a high fever after two or three days. Even after all these years, I still remember the blood. It splattered on my face with a ‘whoosh’ sound, and it was still warm.”
The two fingers he made were still hanging in the air, making them look like the pair of scissors that would kill off offspring.
Lin Yuan suddenly noticed a strange, salty taste in the hot water.
"Back then, a donkey cart entered the palace in the dead of winter. It took the donkey a full half-month to walk from Yingchuan to Chang'an, limping along." Wang Fu chuckled twice, seeing Lin Yuan's gloomy expression. "Now, thirty years later, as we leave that palace gate again, the donkey has become a horse. The uncovered cart has become a supply wagon. It's progress, isn't it?"
Lin Yuan remained silent for a while, then buried her head and slowly finished eating most of the sesame cake.
As they approached the gate of Weiyang Palace, their unassuming carriage, pulled by an old horse, encountered the imposing, tall horse of the Minister of Ceremonies, followed by countless Imperial Guards, as they left the palace one after another.
She hesitated for a moment, then asked Wang Fu, "Uncle, do you know Prime Minister Su's daughter?"
“The daughter of Prime Minister Su and the Grand Princess of Yangyi. She is His Majesty’s cousin.” Wang Fu narrowed his eyes. “As soon as she was born, the Grand Princess asked a fortune teller to predict that she was destined to be a phoenix. At that time, there was a saying, ‘Phoenix, phoenix, still unfinished.’ Everyone said that she would become the empress in the future.”
Lin Yuan nodded listlessly, then asked with a hint of confusion, "From birth?" She pondered, "But His Majesty wasn't even born then, and how could we know that His Majesty would later ascend the throne?"
“Of course not.” Wang Fu shook his head. “His Majesty was six years old when he was born. His older brothers were already adults. Who could have known that an eight-year-old child would inherit the throne?”
He narrowed his eyes, thinking of events from over a decade ago: "The Grand Princess is close to the late Crown Prince. The late Crown Prince's eldest son, the Grand Princess's daughter, and the current Emperor were all born in the same year. If the late Crown Prince successfully ascends the throne, then the eldest grandson, the Crown Prince's eldest son, will be the future heir apparent. The Grand Princess's daughter will naturally be destined to be the Empress."
At this point, Wang Fu sighed deeply: "However, no one could have foreseen the calamity that would occur in the third year of the Tian Shou era. The Crown Prince committed suicide, and the Crown Princess and the imperial grandsons and princesses also perished in self-immolation. The Grand Princess was a shrewd and astute woman who managed to protect herself during this catastrophe and began to gravitate towards the current Emperor. After the death of His Majesty's mother, the Empress Dowager Dao, the late Emperor's Consort Li, the Grand Princess was entrusted by the late Emperor to take care of His Majesty, and thus lived in the Forbidden City with her daughter. Her daughter and His Majesty were childhood sweethearts."
"Childhood sweethearts..." Lin Yuan's heart trembled.
She learned most of what happened after that.
"Prime Minister Su, who was then Grand Tutor Su, and Grand Marshal Qu Yang were both meritorious officials who helped His Majesty ascend the throne. Later, they had disagreements over some court policies. I heard that their daughters were also involved. In the end, Grand Tutor Su was no match for Grand Marshal Qu Yang in court, and Qu Yang made his youngest daughter the Empress."
They were a pair of star-crossed lovers.
Lin Yuan found the sesame cake she was eating to be somewhat bitter.
She asked, "So, Prime Minister Su's daughter has remained unmarried all these years?"
Wang Fu smiled and said, "Since she was determined to become empress since childhood, the Grand Princess and Prime Minister Su would not be willing to marry her off to a commoner so hastily. Compared to the emperor, everyone else is just an ordinary person."
Lin Yuan also raised the corners of her lips: "Yes, that fortune teller's predictions were really accurate."
Wang Fu hesitated for a moment, then looked at Lin Yuan: "Actually, Prime Minister Su's daughter is well-educated and reasonable, and not a difficult person to get along with. Even if she becomes the Empress, she will definitely keep the six palaces in harmony..."
As dusk approached, a thin wisp of light from the oil lamp intertwined with the black smoke, making one's eyes dizzy.
Lin Yuan understood the meaning behind Wang Fu's words and interrupted him: "Uncle, when you found out that His Majesty suspected you were Qu Yang's man, weren't you heartbroken? You've been by His Majesty's side for over twenty years, and you still left, didn't you? Even if you managed to stay in the palace, there will always be a knot in your heart that you can't untie, and you must be feeling terrible. No one is indispensable. It's just that you've just left and are a little unaccustomed to it."
She smiled gently, her eyes crinkling slightly. "The moon in the palace isn't any rounder, and the moon outside isn't any thinner. If you ask me, my uncle and I both benefited. I left the palace five years earlier, and my uncle—fifty years earlier."
Wang Fu laughed loudly: "Fifty years? I'm practically half-buried in the ground by now!"
"May you live a long and healthy life!" Lin Yuan picked up the hot soup and used water instead of wine.
Two rough earthenware bowls collided.
The steam from the hot soup diffused the bright crescent moon.
The snowstorm stopped sometime later.
The snow reflected the moonlight, creating a pure white scene. Lin Yuan propped her chin up and looked out, remembering the silk she had left in the Xuan Shi Hall.
Will Xiao Xun come looking for her?
should……
Won't.
Prime Minister Su and his daughter must have entered the palace long ago.
She recalled that when she left the palace, she saw the Imperial Guards through the carriage curtains fluttering in the wind, a vast and magnificent sight stretching as far as the eye could see.
How much it resembles the imperial procession of an empress!
A note from the author:
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