Despite the question in his heart, Rong Zhi did not say it out loud. From what he could read of Chu Yu"s expression, she did not appear to be joking, but instead, genuinely mulling over something that troubled her.
Chu Yu thought for a while before speaking. "My question, is regarding a river. Let"s say there is such a river, a particularly long river. For ages, this river has always flowed straight, irrigating the two sh.o.r.es alongside it. Even now, it continues to flow forth. However, what if one day – and I"m just saying what if – this river were to suddenly have a mind of its own. Or for another example, a small stream of water within the river desires to change direction, and as a result, the entire river"s direction changes a little. Following this, the change becomes greater and greater, until the river"s course has long since shifted away from its former destination… …"
Chu Yu frowned and bit her lip, thinking hard on how to better phrase her question. While she had previously stated this question to Huan Yuan, in front of Rong Zhi however, she had to heed ten times the caution, practicing the tact of hiding meaning behind metaphors, all to prevent him from reading the truth behind her lines.
At this moment, Rong Zhi set aside his carefree att.i.tude to listen on intently, as if he were the best audience in the world one could wish for.
A momentary pause later, Chu Yu continued. "If it were just the matter of changing the river"s course, that wouldn"t be a problem. However, it becomes a problem because of a large stretch of land lying downstream that river. The land desires to be watered by the river, and without that river, the land would have dried up." Chu Yu looked to Rong Zhi at a loss. "What about you – do you think the river should change its course?"
Blinking night-dark eyes, Rong Zhi sat up slowly. His slender white hand pinched a small delicacy no bigger than a finger"s length and gently brought it into his mouth.
Coming up with guesses at Chu Yu"s question was possible, but who would have thought it would be this absurd? A river with its own will? What kind of reasoning was this?
Or perhaps, she was using the river as a means to say something else?
Rong Zhi picked up another morsel in deep thought.
As for Chu Yu, she was absolutely clear on what she wanted to ask. She was using the river as a metaphor for the course of history. The constantly flowing river referred to the turbulent fall of history - from the dynasties Xia, Shang and Zhou; to Han, Jin, Sui and Tang; before finally reaching Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing; the waves of history will crash forth in a shrill arrival, then recede, thunderous and swift.
By accident, a trickle of disharmony had appeared in the river. This trickle of water wanted to try changing its course. And this tiny trickle was none other than Chu Yu, who had come from a thousand years in the future.
According to what she knew of history, Princess Shanyin would reach her demise soon. However, she herself did not wish to die. Therefore, she needed to create change. This was the premise for everything that would happen hereafter, and in order to live, she had to make a move.
But there were two serious problems. Firstly, Chu Yu did not know how to make a move, and secondly, she did not know what consequences her actions would bring.
Chu Yu"s history knowledge was truly abhorrent. It was so terrible, that upon coming across the record of Princess Shanyin, she had not known the Northern and Southern dynasties even existed. And upon reading Princess Shanyin"s record by chance, she had merely treated it as an average fable - smiling at the fun of knowing there was such a person, going on as to ignore it entirely.
Besides knowing Princess Shanyin would pa.s.s on soon, no matter how hard she tried, she could not recall the name of the insurgent group"s head - the very person who would kill Liu Ziye and take his throne. From what little she could recall, Liu Ziye would go on to summon the three Princes of the First Rank[1] (their uncles) and it should be one of them. At that time, she and Liu Ziye should be returning to Jian Kang City. The princes would be kept in the palace for his entertainment and one of them would join the coup d"état. Of course, the first thing Chu Yu had done upon awakening this day was to find out whether such an event had already occurred. Only after a.s.suaging her worry did she calm down a little. Nothing dire would happen to her for now, and she still had some time left.
The biggest problem was being unable to recall who the uncle was. Even after scanning the entire imperial bloodline"s name registry, she still could not remember. Moreover, besides that one uncle, there had been other blood-related brothers who had joined the insurgency. Of course, Chu Yu could not recall who these people were.
She could only blame it on the virility of Princess Shanyin"s father and grandfather, who had left behind a whole bunch of uncles and brothers. Even remembering their names required immense effort.
A cold thought had once pa.s.sed through Chu Yu"s mind - if she could find out the person"s ident.i.ty, she should kill him as a preemptive measure. Despite being vehemently opposed to murder, if push came to shove, she would be left with little to no choice.
Naturally, this kind of measure would be a last resort. Even Chu Yu herself was unsure if she could take that final step. It was simply an imperative solution she came up with after much rationalizing.
But even murder was not enough. The real problem was Liu Ziye. When officials over-subjugate their people, the people will revolt. When a king over-subjugates his officials, his officials will revolt. If only, the little emperor were not so brutal. If only, he could appease the n.o.bles with amiable policies and benevolence. No doubt, if that were the case, the number of insurgents would be reduced by half.
Looking at Princess Shanyin"s influence over the Liu Ziye, manipulating some of his majesty"s decisions would not be an issue. However, Chu Yu lacked experience in matters of war and politics, hence she was unsure of how to go about rectifying court laws. If she were to mess things up by accident, the consequences would only be self-defeating and devastating.
This was the "advance" side to her plan.
After arriving in this era and calming her nerves, the first plan Chu Yu thought of could be broken down into two sides - "advance" and "retreat". "Advance" was meant as an offensive measure, to proactively remove any possibility that could cause her harm. If she were a male, there would be less need for concern. But in this era, it was considered taboo for females to partake in governance matters.
On the opposite hand was "retreat", which meant providing herself with a means of escape. If things were to escalate to the point of no return, she could keep herself alive and flee far from harm.
Still, even "retreat" could be defined differently. Wandering around without a place to call home, going without three full meals a day, living while dressed in poverty could be an outcome of "retreat". Similarly, being pampered with good food and fine clothes, having a luxurious home and living in serenity could be another outcome of "retreat". It all came down to the specifics of planning.
Planning to abscond was not a simple task. This was especially so taking into account the deeply convoluted relationship between Princess Shanyin and the emperor. To escape whole and intact would be far from easy.
The ability to roam wherever one wanted, carefree and easy – although such a thing was common in stories, in reality it was impractical. Firstly, if she wanted to live, she needed money, and a lot of it. The Princess" Residence had no shortage of money so this was not difficult. What was difficult was withdrawing a large sum of money in secret. No one must know of the amount going missing or its usage. To ensure this, covert measures were needed. It was also the reason why Chu Yu was in such a rush to hand over all authority from Rong Zhi to Huan Yuan. She needed control over finances in the house, yet could not let anyone know of her actions.
Tsk ~ tsk.
Chu Yu took a sip of sweet soup, sucking on the inside of her cheek in displeasure. The money was meant to be her own, yet she had to resort to such secrecy. Such an unpleasant feeling.
If she were to abscond, she would have to completely throw away her ident.i.ty as a princess, leaving not a shred of evidence behind that might trace back to her. In any event where the emperor no longer favoured her, or if someone else took the throne, if anyone at all wanted to kill her and get rid of an eyesore, they could easily do so with nary a reason.
And if she were to rely on anyone and that person betrayed her, she would not even be able to cry in peace.
The only person Chu Yu could rely on, was herself.
To escape, she needed a new ident.i.ty. This ident.i.ty must only be under her control, and not that of the imperial family. However, this was not easy to accomplish.
She must first have a place of residence and would prefer if her house were not too small. Money would be necessary to buy the house, but more importantly was its location. It would be best if the location were in an area far away from wars for the next several years. Staying in a place stricken with battle would hardly be peaceful living.
What came next would be the household registration record. Naturally, this record would be forged and by none other than herself. Whoever was handling the matter must also be able to keep it a secret.
That household registration record must have absolutely no relations with the imperial family.
Next was the problem of securing her social cla.s.s status.
Even when it comes to living, there are different ways of life. As a commoner, there is the hardship of escaping oppression from bureaucrats and locals in higher positions of power. Without security forces, even the most wealthiest of commoners would be like sheep out for easy slaughtering by a pack of wolves, and Chu Yu refused to be that sheep.
As to the question of securing cla.s.s status, this is to an extent dependent on a person"s social circle.
She needed good connections with the local authorities and people of power, needed to build a security force for her own protection, needed money, time and manpower! Out of all these, not a single one was easy to obtain.
Hence, Chu Yu needed Huan Yuan. Not only that, she needed more people as a form of precaution and to secure a solid foundation. All she had now which she could use was half a person. Huan Yuan"s experience was not enough, so he could only be counted as half.
Liu Sang was too young to partake in any of these matters. She was uncertain whether Mo Xiang and Liu Se could be of much use. She did not dare touch Hua Cuo or Rong Zhi for the time being. Only Huan Yuan could be counted as half a person on her side. As for Yue Jie Fei, she could not trust him with such matters.
Since coming here, Chu Yu had ascertained Yue Jie Fei"s loyalty. He was loyal to Princess Shanyin, but only because his entire martial arts school was loyal to the imperial family. It was to the imperial family, not to her. Knowing this, Chu Yu could neither place her trust in Yue Jie Fei nor reveal to him her intentions. If she did so, the other party would surely think - why would a princess need to hide her ident.i.ty and whereabouts? How would she explain herself then?
Besides, even if it came down to "retreat", Chu Yu did not wish to face humiliation and oppression at the hands of others. If she were to leave now, this would surely be her downfall.
She needed the power to secure her own well-being in this era of chaos.
Going beyond purely defensive power, this included influential power, manpower, and the power within a wide social network.
Say, if someone were to go about a.n.a.lyzing their situation, they would view it standing from their current location - be it in a county or state, across every corner and plane they could see. The most they can forecast will be limited to whatever is happenstance for the day. As for Chu Yu, she could observe her situation from a broad standpoint across history itself.
A thousand years" span of knowledge from the future made her insight significantly different. Though a tad naïve from lack of experience, her insight was far above what was commonplace in this time and age.
Others looked at what would benefit them most, who were the powerful versus the weak, or by reading people and situations. What Chu Yu saw was history itself.
This is where she stood apart from others.
No matter if her history knowledge was poor, from a general standpoint, she possessed a keen upper hand.
Although she had made up her mind early on regarding her strategy of advancing and retreating, there was still one question which Chu Yu had to examine. If she acted out of self-preservation, would it affect history"s progression?
What if, as a result of her actions, a tiny ripple would appear and this ripple would grow larger and larger, until it accidentally affected what would happen a thousand years later. What would she do then?
In simpler words, Chu Yu was anxious about the ramifications of her desire. If it accidentally ended up erasing the many ancestors from before her 21st century self, would it also erase away her own existence?
This question, albeit boring, was one she could not afford to ignore. In the likelihood of her changing a historical event, with it going on to cause a shift in the course of history… … What would happen next?
Would she disappear into thin air?
Maybe to other people, this question would seem redundantly worrisome, but because this regarded her life, how could she not contemplate it?
"Ah… …" Rong Zhi, who been thinking for a long time, realized Chu Yu was still awaiting his answer. A moment"s consideration later, he replied. "Princess, I"d like to ask, about that river, does it desire to change its direction that much?" He manner seemed ambiguous, as if he had deduced something, yet nothing at the same time.
That river, does it desire to change its direction that much?
Word by word, the question hammered on Chu Yu"s heart, gentle and unhurried.
Chu Yu closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, once, before opening her eyes slowly, calmly. "Very. Very much so." No matter how hard she tried to keep composure, from within her slightly trembling voice, out leaked an insuppressible desire. "That river, very much so wants to try changing its direction."
It wanted to. It desired to.
Rong Zhi looked at Chu Yu with a semblance of a smile. "Since the river wants to change direction that badly, what can I say, that would change her mind? What can possibly I do to stop her?"
Hearing his reply, Chu Yu was stunned speechless. The next moment, she grinned so brightly, even the shades of greenery blocking out the sun could not hide it. "You"re right, that river has a mind of her own, which she won"t change." Her tone settled evenly, as if relieving itself of some burden.
Indeed, the river was set in changing its direction.
Chu Yu stood up abruptly, striding away in quick steps.
Once she was gone, Rong Zhi laid back down on his bench, boneless, languid and content.
A river… …eh?
[1] CN novel"s literal text is Qin-w.a.n.g, a high-standing position held by males in the royal family. I"m using the official English t.i.tle - Prince of the first rank.