11: Sleeve Lantern Chang"an, Daming Palace.
In the deep of night the Milky Way flows through beams of cypress, as the twenty-eight mansions faces the jade hall.1
A sharp bird-call cut through the night sky, and in the bedroom, the Emperor who had been listening to his attendant read aloud with eyes closed, abruptly opened his eyes.
A moment later a eunuch in full-length gown crossed over the threshold, quickly walking through the main hall, a small eagle surprisingly halted on his forearm!
"Exalted one2," the eunuch bowed, and then continued forth to offer with both hands the silver tube taken off of the eagle leg, murmuring: "Please have a look."
The Emperor took the silver tube, yet he did not rush to open it, only doing so after a moment of careful study before he made a cold sneer which was not very obvious:
"The mail eagle of the Secret School, it"s been years since I"ve seen them… it turns out that they still remember this master."
The eunuch bowed deeper: "Master for one day, master for all one"s life, the exalted one is correct."
The surroundings were extremely quiet, the inner attendant having already packed up his book, docile in his retreat to one side, and in such a big bedroom only the remote chirps of the night insects were heard.
After a while the Emperor finally gave a light snort through his nose, and from the silver tube he extracted a paper scroll, opening it to look.
"Exalted one," the inner attendant hurriedly advanced from the doorway: "Her Highness the Empress is here!"
Within a fragrant wind there pressed along the striking of minute pearls and jade beads from far in the distance, rings and ornaments jingling, with a floor-length skirt, mounting the white jade steps level by level, to stride through the centre hall. The Empress of this great empire brought along her personal maids, with a wool overcoat draped over her sleepwear, as she arrived before the back palace of Zichen Hall, stooping at the same time as the palace maids" slow salutes, as she brightly spoke: "Your Majesty."
—the Empress Wu may be over forty years of age, yet she still vaguely maintained the mien of her youth. For the past many years the experience of resolute killing and cutting down at the apex of power left her appearing without the delicacy of a housewife, and on the contrary she had a robust, fitting, yet calm, and rather charming grace.
The Emperor studied her for a while, as he lightly spoke: "Why has the Empress come?"
Empress Wu said: "The guards reported an eagle flying over the Palace, and I thought that there had been changes at the front-lines, thus I hurried over, pray Your Majesty does not blame me."
For these years if only in the inner court, Empress Wu had been addressing herself as "I"3 in front of the Emperor, so everyone was used to it.
"Your information is fast and abundant indeed," the Emperor threw the silver tube onto the desk with a clang, and suddenly asked: "—where is the Imperial Guard Commander Xie?"
The expression in the Empress"s eyes changed slightly, and she did not reply directly: "The Imperial Guard Commander cannot leave the capital without orders."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Then where is Commander Xie?"
"He is not on duty tonight, and ought to be in the Commander"s manor."
The bedroom was silent for several breaths, before the Emperor coldly said: "If that"s the case, order someone to go out of the Palace and urgently summon Commander Xie, to enter the Interior for an imperial audience, men, give the Empress a seat, serve tea!"
Empress Wu was filled with doubts, advancing to sit down, and a moment later she spotted outside the bedroom door in a corner no one else was looking at a dark red gown flashing — it was an Imperial guard personally carrying tea to the door, which was received by a young palace maid, who pa.s.sed through the inner corridor with downcast eyes, to come to the Empress"s seat.
"Your Highness, please."
Empress Wu raised her eyes, to see the palace maid looking down, but her mouth was slightly open to shape a few words—
Hang, Zhou.
Snow, Lotus, Flower.
Empress Wu "s expression changed in a split second, rising to move before the Emperor and salute: "Your Majesty!"
The Emperor was just in the midst of summoning the inner attendant to continue reading, but raised his head upon hearing what she said: "What?"
"I just concealed a matter, may Your Majesty forgive me. Your Majesty can summon back the messenger sent to the Commander"s manor, Xie Yun has left the capital on my orders, it was simply that I hesitated in my heart, and thus I did not disclose the actual situation…"
A thread of distrust pa.s.sed over the Emperor"s face: "What did he leave for?"
"He went to the south," Empress Wu spoke calmly, "to seek the Snow Lotus for the Crown Prince"s treatment."
The Emperor waved a hand to order the inner attendant to withdraw, both arms crossing in front of him, and after a very long time he asked frowning: "Why did you not mention this just now?"
Only trusted palace maids and guards were left in the hall, and Empress Wu glanced out of the corners of her eyes, before her skirts shook, and she clenched her teeth and knelt on the ground:
"May Your Majesty hear from me. Ever since the poisoning of the Eastern Palace, Your Majesty has rarely set foot into Qingning Palace, and I know that Your Majesty has suspicions of me to some extent due to my several reprimands of the Crown Prince, but—a tiger, though cruel, will not devour its cubs, and Hong"er is after all the eldest son of Your Majesty and I!"
"Does Your Majesty remember, that Hong"er was the child I conceived while still in Ganye Temple? After returning to the palace the interior held the deposed Empress w.a.n.g, and the exterior had Han Yuan and Lai Ji, with the old clans of the Guanlong glaring like tigers watching prey, how dangerous and frightening those times were! In those days Your Majesty and I ardently hoped for Hong"er to be born, and I think of it to this day, vividly in my mind, how could I have the heart to personally poison my own child?!"
The Emperor"s face was slightly moved to some extent, and asked after a while: "If you wanted to find medicine for the Crown Prince, you could just directly say it, why did you secretly order Xie Yun out of the capital?"
"Your Majesty!" Empress Wu raised her head and spoke in a trembling voice: "If I had said so at that time, what would Your Majesty think? Once doubt arises, doubt exists in all respects, if Your Majesty believes in your heart that I am a crafty, stingy and malicious person, then that is not a misunderstanding which could be explained in one or two sentences! I only wanted to quickly find medicine to treat Hong"er, and when that time comes Your Majesty"s suspicion towards me, would it not naturally dissolve?"
"Your Majesty and I have been husband and wife for many years, and what kind of person am I, could Your Majesty still be unclear on that!"
Within the bedroom hall it seemed that even the air had frozen, even the fragrant smoke of ambergris rising in spirals from the golden burner, had soundlessly frozen there.
"……"
After a very long time, the Emperor finally gave a long sigh, and got up to help the Empress up from the ground.
"Don"t blame Us4 for having suspicions…for these few days since Hong"er was poisoned, it has been very chaotic for Us…"
Empress Wu"s heart relaxed slightly, and she turned a hand over to support the Emperor, husband and wife walking to sit down face to face, mutually gazing at each other.
The night breeze of early autumn pa.s.sed through Zichen Hall, swaying the jade hooks and ice-silks, appearing to be innumerable b.u.t.terflies dancing in the breeze, carrying the sweet scent of water lilies from the distant Taiye Lake through the entire hall.
"Commander Xie"s fighting skill is prominent throughout the entire world, and he always has his Jianghu methods, if he could scout out news of the Snow Lotus, that is naturally a good thing…"
The Emperor paused, and the topic of discussion made a detour: "Yet the Imperial Guard Commander cannot leave the capital, this rule was established after the Taizong Emperor set up the Northern Bureau, and it carries its own logic—We suggest another way. Tomorrow morning you shall send orders to Commander Xie to return to the capital immediately, and the task of scouting news of the Snow Lotus can be taken over by the Secret School…"
Empress Wu spoke in curiosity: "The Secret School? Isn"t the Secret School already—"
The Emperor nodded, but did not explain too much, only saying: "If you are not a.s.sured by the Secret School, We shall order the Great Cavalry General Yuwen Hu to bring military forces to go down south for support, so long as we find the antidote, they will return to the capital at the gallop. We still find Yuwen Hu"s loyalty reliable, and with this it is absolutely foolproof, what does the Empress think?"
Husband and wife mutually smiled face to face, much like an ordinary harmonious and affectionate couple.
Empress Wu nodded her head in answer to the Emperor"s gaze, and softly said: "I also think it a very good idea."
Half a shichen later, before Qingning Palace.
The inner attendants put down the shoulder sedan chair, and Empress Wu waved aside the palace maids who stepped up to help her down, personally stepping to the ground in a single step, as she coldly said: "What is going on with your Commander?!"
Two Imperial Guards in dark red martial gowns had already knelt waiting before the main hall of Qingning Palace—this included one with profound brows and eyes, with a handsome appearance, especially his jaw which strikingly resembled Xie Yun, it was unexpectedly the decoy guard who had been conversing with Yuwen Hu in the Xie manor!
"Replying to Your Highness. Our Commander had indeed set out down south half a month ago to find a trace of the Snow Lotus, but owing to the difficulty if finding the Snow Lotus, we definitely had no intentions of disobeying Your Highness"s instructions! Ma Xin and others had already sent back news a few days ago, and everything is progressing smoothly on the Commander"s side, we have already—"
Empress Wu bellowed: "Why did no one tell me! Is your Commander concealing something from me?!"
Both Imperial guards immediately kowtowed, and that Imperial guard in his panic even began to sound like Xie Yun: "May the Empress calm down! It was truly that the Commander"s departure was unexpected, and before it we truly did not expect such a change! The only one accompanying him was Xin Chao, a monk from Ci"en Temple, even Ma Xin set out from the capital with troops and horses three days after, and there was not enough time to to notify Qingning Palace of the news…"
Empress Wu indicated for the imperial guards to get up and follow, and she herself turned to walk into the main hall. After she walked two steps she suddenly realised something strange: "Wait, a monk fro Ci"en Temple? What"s his name?"
"Replying to the Empress, he"s named Xin Chao."
"……"
The Empress"s footsteps abruptly stopped.
"Your Highness?"
The Empress turned around, and if one listened carefully her current tone was slightly unsteady: "…how old is that monk, what does he look like?"
Both Imperial Guards did not know the reason why, giving mutual glances, and hummed and hawed as they described the monk Xin Chao"s appearance, height, and age, and even added: "This person was taken in my Master Zhiyuan two years ago, and had always been content with his lot in the temple, with no ugly criticism. Actually the Commander also ran into him quite by coincidence, approximately because on the day of the Eastern Palace poisoning this monk was also at the scene of the crime…"
The Empress gasped slightly, backing half a step.
"Why…" she murmured, the red lips coloured with top-notch rouge unexpectedly shivering.
"Why is he… still alive…"
1 ZH: 夜深银汉通柏梁，二十八宿朝玉堂 — this is a line from late Tang poet Wen Tingyun"s "Song of the Taiye Lake" which describes Daming Palace at that time.
2 ZH: 圣人 - generic word for "sage", also used by others to refer to the current reigning Emperor when in direct address or in the third person.
3 ZH: 我 - generic first-person p.r.o.noun. Ladies in the Inner Palace usually use the first-person 臣妾 "your subject and consort".
4 ZH: 朕 - first-person p.r.o.noun, exclusive to the Emperors. I have therefore translated it as the royal We.
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