Chapter 13

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Eunuch Xu led the two young eunuchs away, carrying the two bulging cowhide bags of scrolls exactly as they had brought them.

Princess Yihe, Jiang Shuanglu, had watched the whole affair. Though astonished, she was delighted for her younger sister. Taking Jiang Luan by the hand, she smiled and congratulated her on the imminent establishment of her own residence.

“Putting off the matter of a prince consort for another two years is no great concern. Being permitted to leave the palace and establish your residence ahead of time is a rare and wonderful blessing.”

They laughed together for a while, but then sorrow clouded her face. The corners of her eyes reddened as she said sadly, “A-Luan has only just turned fifteen, and His Majesty has already promised to let you establish your residence. I... I am sixteen this year, yet His Majesty has shown no sign of remembering me. I fear he has forgotten his younger sister...”

Jiang Luan embraced her second elder sister and wheedled, “When someone is constantly on His Majesty’s mind, it usually means nothing good is waiting for them. Once A-Luan has her own residence, I’ll find a way to bring Second Sister out of the palace. Don’t cry anymore. You’re so beautiful when you smile. Come, smile.”

Jiang Shuanglu was coaxed into laughing through her tears. She tapped Jiang Luan lightly on the forehead with a crooked finger, then rose to take her leave.

“The covered corridors in A-Luan’s palace twist and turn so much that I had to make a long detour coming in. May I simply cross the courtyard on my way out?”

Jiang Luan sat on the couch with a bowl of sweet soup in her hands and nodded obediently. “Of course. Second Sister, do as you please.”

Jiang Shuanglu then departed under the escort of Xue Duo, accompanied by her trusted wet nurse and palace attendants—more than ten people in all.

Not long afterward, a shout came from beyond the window in the distance:

“Lu Jixiang! The courtyard is filthy again! Come out and scrub the floor!”

Lu Jixiang emerged from some obscure corner with a face full of gloom. He fetched another cloth and began grunting as he scrubbed away the dirty footprints scattered across the courtyard.

Jiang Luan leaned against the window and watched him work for a while, his buttocks sticking up in the air. Then she yawned and went to take her afternoon nap.

Before falling asleep, she summoned Xue Duo and instructed him, “The administrator of the princess’s residence has been chosen. We have settled on Chunyu Xian, Registrar of the Honors Office in the Ministry of Personnel. If he receives the news and comes to seek an audience outside the palace gates over the next few days, please bring him in. He will, after all, be one of this princess’s future capable assistants.”

Xue Duo stood outside the palace hall and answered with great caution, “This general will report the princess’s exact words to the commander.”

“Then make inquiries as soon as possible. There are many matters in the capital. In a few more days, your commander may be busier still.”

“...What does the princess mean?”

Jiang Luan ignored him. She continued writing in the record scroll spread across the long table, dipping her purple-tipped brush slowly into the ink.

“April the second. Rain fierce, wind violent.

“Great progress has been made regarding the princess’s residence. Yet my heart remains uneasy, for I fear that a long night may bring unforeseen dreams.”

Her nap was far from peaceful. Perhaps because the last thing she had seen before falling asleep was Lu Jixiang’s raised backside, the arrogant face of the Lu Jixiang from her previous life appeared in her dream as well.

When had that been?

Ah, perhaps during the Lantern Festival of some year.

She had spent the festival alone in the Facing-the-Wind Hall. Sitting before the candle flames, she had been unable to endure her loneliness. The distant sounds of the common people celebrating beyond the palace walls had drifted faintly through the imperial city. Overcome with sorrow, she had ordered Lu Jixiang to help her climb the tower and look into the distance, to gaze upon the capital’s lights in the night.

Lu Jixiang had refused.

“It is the Lantern Festival today, and things outside are certainly lively.” Lu Jixiang had clicked his tongue several times in admiration. “Everyone knows that the capital observes curfew all year round, except for the three days before and after the Lantern Festival, when the people may travel through the streets at night to celebrate. If you leave through the Supreme Gate now and head south to Vermilion Bird Street, oh, what a spectacle it is. Your Majesty, listen—the sounds of people viewing lanterns and watching acrobats have carried all the way into the palace.”

He had tucked his hands into his sleeves and spoken in a neither warm nor cold tone.

“The palace had originally petitioned to erect several lantern mountains in the rear gardens. The request was submitted before the New Year, but Chancellor Pei said the national treasury was empty. The Ministry of Revenue had already allocated funds to build the lantern displays on Vermilion Bird Street, so there was no money left to build them in the palace. Lantern mountains in the streets of the capital would allow the entire populace to celebrate together and raise their spirits. As for putting them in the rear gardens, Your Majesty might not even be well enough to rise from bed and see them. And so the request was rejected with a single sentence. Your Majesty should stop troubling yourself. Everyone in the palace can simply spend the festival in cold and desolate silence.”

His words had naturally been laden with sarcasm, though they were not quite enough to do any real harm.

But at that time she had already been confined to her sickbed for an entire month. Illness was especially difficult to endure. Her spirits had been low, and Lu Jixiang’s barbs had unsettled her until she began coughing and wheezing violently, unable to stop for a long while.

Lu Jixiang had ordered several palace attendants to carry in a pile of portrait scrolls.

“These were prepared two months ago. Every one of them depicts a young man of sound family background and robust health. Chancellor Pei instructed us long ago to bring them for Your Majesty to choose from, but Your Majesty refused even to look. Pick one or two at random and bring them into the palace. During festivals, at least there would be someone beside Your Majesty to talk to.”

The woman in the dream said nothing.

“Your Majesty should stop being so particular.” Lu Jixiang had curled his lip. “This servant is speaking out of turn again. Naturally, the sons of the great clans in the capital are better than these men in the portraits. But someone must first be willing to enter the palace and serve you. The first obstacle is Your Majesty’s chronically ill body. The second is the rule laid down by our ancestors: the children of a female sovereign must bear the imperial surname. Wouldn’t any young man who entered the palace therefore become a bridegroom marrying into his wife’s family? A fine son of an eminent house—who would be willing to—”

Several young eunuchs were still placing the portrait scrolls one by one beside her. She picked up a scroll at random and hurled it straight at Lu Jixiang’s head.

“Get out.” Coughing, she raised a hand and pointed toward the hall doors. “Take the portraits and get out of here.”

* * *

She woke from the dream with a start. Only after drinking half a cup of honeyed water did the scorching, bloody taste at the back of her throat fade.

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In her previous life, she had damaged her lungs while still young. Whenever she breathed too deeply, the taste of blood and froth would surge straight from the depths of her lungs into her throat.

It had been unbearable.

She lifted the hanging curtain and asked Xiazhi, who was standing guard outside, “Where is Diandian? Bring Diandian here.”

A moment later, the golden cage containing Diandian was brought in. Jiang Luan gathered the soft cat into her arms and pinched one of its pink paws. Her sharpened chin, thinned by illness, sank into its snowy fur. Closing her eyes, she rubbed her face against it from side to side.

She had not slept for long. When she awoke, Lu Jixiang’s backside was still sticking up outside the window. He had scrubbed more than half the courtyard, only for another group of people to take a shortcut through it and leave behind a fresh tangle of footprints.

Lu Jixiang lay sprawled on the ground, sobbing miserably.

“I cleaned it spotless this morning, and then Princess Yihe and her people trampled it dirty on their way out. In the afternoon, just when I was about to finish cleaning it again, another group came through and dirtied it! I’ll never finish this work! I can’t go on living!”

Sitting on the couch by the window, Jiang Luan listened to the lament outside and took a leisurely sip of honeyed water.

The Facing-the-Wind Hall had now become a whirlpool of uncertain fortune. Anyone passing its gates could only detour around it. Naturally, the group that had soiled the courtyard again that afternoon had come under orders as well.

Three female officials from the Empress’s Pepper Chamber brought an incense table, sticks of incense, several large chests of yellow paper for copying scriptures, gold-flecked ink, a jade Buddha, and a stack of Buddhist scriptures half a foot high.

They conveyed the Empress’s verbal decree: There were many bandits in the region surrounding the capital, so Princess Hanyang was exempted from making the journey to the ancestral temples outside the city. However, the family discipline administered by the Imperial Clan Court could not be delayed. Burning incense, cultivating herself through religious practice, and copying scriptures to pray for blessings were to begin immediately.

Jiang Luan flipped through the topmost scripture, the *Sutra of the Heroic March*, and nodded. “You have gone to great trouble on Her Majesty’s behalf. Leave everything in the hall. I will find a suitable place for the incense table and jade Buddha.”

The three female officials set the objects down, but did not leave.

The woman leading them was thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old. Her features were plain and cool, her bearing rigid, and her hair arranged so neatly that not a strand was out of place. Empress Xie brought her everywhere she went. She was clearly a trusted confidante, and everyone in the palace respectfully addressed her as Aunt Fuxin.

Aunt Fuxin stepped forward and bowed.

“We have some understanding of Buddhist doctrine. By Her Majesty’s command, we will remain in the Facing-the-Wind Hall from this day forward and attend upon the princess. Should the princess encounter any passages she does not understand while copying the scriptures, we can offer some explanation.”

Nanny Yuan’s expression changed at once.

“What does Her Majesty mean by this?” She rushed forward a step, like a hen spreading its wings to protect its chicks from a vicious hawk. “Our little hall cannot possibly support three great bodhisattvas such as yourselves!”

Aunt Fuxin behaved as though she had not heard her. Completely ignoring Nanny Yuan’s guarded hostility, she faced Jiang Luan and spoke in a stiff, measured tone.

“This is the Empress’s decree. The three of us entered the Facing-the-Wind Hall today, and from this day forward we will attend upon the princess here until she has completed one thousand copies of the scriptures before the jade Buddha and incense table. If the princess wishes us to return ahead of time, she must first have all three of us beaten to death and carried out of the hall on door planks.”

Without paying attention to the astonishment around her, she bowed once more, rose, and stood properly to one side.

Jiang Luan stroked Diandian’s long fur with her fingertips and gave a soft laugh. “What are you saying, Aunt Fuxin? Door planks and being carried out—this place is hardly a den of dragons or a tiger’s lair.”

She ordered Bailu to take the three women away and find rooms in which to settle them.

Qiushuang was the oldest among the senior palace maids. Watching the three female officials disappear into the distance, she lowered her voice and said, “Princess, we cannot let those three aunts from the Empress’s side remain here. They are all old hands of the palace. Who knows how they will torment people later? We must find a way to send them away.”

The other senior maids wore worried expressions and began whispering among themselves.

“Better to send them away as soon as possible,” Chun Zhe said anxiously. “Aunt Fuxin’s eyes are terrifying. Just looking at this servant makes my heart go cold...”

Xiazhi was likewise troubled. “They were sent by the Empress. Unless they directly offend the princess, it would be difficult to drag them away and punish them with the rod.”

Jiang Luan squeezed Diandian’s pink paw and murmured, “She really has sent us three bodhisattvas.”

Sitting beside her, Nanny Yuan could barely contain her fury.

“How long has it been since the late emperor passed away? When he was alive, our princess, a golden branch and jade leaf, was the apple of his eye. Who would have dared stand before her and say no? And now this pack of dog slaves comes here to swagger about under the protection of another’s power!”

Jiang Luan licked one of her small tiger teeth and laughed, entirely unconcerned.

“It is precisely because the late emperor is gone that we have lost our support and hold no power in our hands. How long can we survive on the empty title of princess alone?”

She patted Nanny Yuan’s shoulder. “Do not worry too much. I have a way. By the way, is the box of golden pellets bestowed by the late emperor still in your keeping? I need it. Nanny, bring it to me.”

Xue Duo was now also responsible for reorganizing the palace guards. After the hour of the Monkey had passed that afternoon, Wen Jing came to the Facing-the-Wind Hall to relieve him.

He had only just led his soldiers halfway around the courtyard when a creak came from the western side room of the rear hall. A window was pushed open, and someone beckoned to him.

“Young General Wen, our princess would like a word with you.”

Wen Jing’s eyelid twitched. Pretending not to hear, he walked straight past beneath the window without turning his head.

A moment later, Jiang Luan appeared at the window, holding an iron slingshot and leisurely adjusting the tension of its tendon cord.

Wen Jing caught sight of it from the corner of his eye. Both eyelids began to twitch violently.

A powerful and inexplicable premonition rose in his heart.

It seemed that something unfortunate was about to happen again.

* * *

At dusk, weary birds were returning to their nests.

The pear tree flourishing in the courtyard had grown there for several decades. Numerous birds’ nests were hidden among its dense branches, and several sparrows were perched high in the boughs.

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Jiang Luan had deliberately changed into a close-fitting jacket with narrow sleeves, exposing a small section of her fair wrist.

She tightened the tendon cord, raised the slingshot, and narrowed her eyes at the sparrows high in the branches.

“Diandian,” she asked softly, “do you like sparrows?”

In the golden cage resting on the long yellow-pear table against the wall, Diandian gave an enchanting little cry.

“Meow~”

“Ah, you do.” Jiang Luan licked one of her small tiger teeth. “I like them too... I like shooting sparrows.”

Twannng—

The taut tendon cord vibrated without a sound. In the afterglow of the setting sun, a faint streak of golden light flashed like lightning toward the treetop.

With a sharp crack, a sparrow fell stiffly from the pear tree and landed on the great blue-gray stone tiles of the courtyard.

The guards on duty immediately noticed the disturbance. Several soldiers ran over at once. One picked up the dead sparrow, while the others searched among the nearby shrubs. Before long, they found the small pellet of pure gold and carried it in both hands as they raced to find their commanding officer.

Jiang Luan stood beside the open wooden window, toying with the slingshot and waiting with a radiant smile.

Not long afterward, Wen Jing approached the window with helplessness written from head to toe. He lowered his head and offered up the dead sparrow and the golden pellet with both hands.

“The princess’s golden pellet and her prey.”

Jiang Luan took only the dead sparrow and tossed it to Diandian to play with.

“The golden pellet is yours. Take it.”

“Thank you for the reward, Princess.”

Wen Jing said no more. He closed his fingers around the little golden pellet and turned to leave.

“Wait.”

Jiang Luan called him back from behind.

On the low table beside her sat a square blackwood box, half a foot across, decorated with a lotus and auspicious-cloud pattern. She casually lifted the lid.

With a soft click, the box revealed a compartment filled with round, gleaming golden pellets of pure gold. Wen Jing was so startled that his breath stopped for an instant.

“Young General Wen, do not hurry away.” Jiang Luan lifted one of the pellets between her fingertips, her voice smiling. “Since you have accepted one of my golden pellets, you may as well listen while I explain what they are for.”

“There are ten pounds of golden pellets in this box altogether. The late emperor bestowed them upon me for my tenth birthday. They come in three sizes.”

She pointed toward the pellet clenched in Wen Jing’s hand.

“The little one I gave you weighs two mace. It is the lightest grade, used for shooting birds.”

“There is another kind.” She rummaged through the box for a moment, then lifted a pellet visibly larger than the first. “This one weighs half an ounce. It is the second grade, used for shooting hawks and other birds of prey, or large rats and beasts.”

“As for the third grade...”

This time, Jiang Luan searched through the box for quite a while before finally finding a truly enormous pellet. She rested it in her palm, and its weight was obvious even at a glance.

“This one weighs two ounces. While he was alive, the late emperor warned me not to use it often. Only ten were bestowed in total.”

The heavy pellet lay in Jiang Luan’s palm. She tilted it slightly in the evening light, and it cast a dazzling gleam of gold.

“Can Young General Wen guess what such a large two-ounce pellet is used for?”

Wen Jing’s expression gradually grew grim.

“Ah, Young General Wen has guessed.” Jiang Luan clapped her hands in delight. “For shooting horses and people. Strike a horse in the head, and it drops instantly. Strike a person in a vital spot, and they die on the spot.”

She leaned forward over the wooden window frame, adopting an intimate, confiding posture. In a gentle voice, she said, “I dislike the three aunts the Empress sent this afternoon very much. Young General Wen, do me a favor. Tonight, courteously invite them to leave. If the three of them walk out of my Facing-the-Wind Hall on their own feet, it will be excellent for both you and me. But if Young General Wen is unwilling to help...”

Her fingertips toyed with the great golden pellet. As though it understood her command, it revolved nimbly between her slender fingers. Jiang Luan tucked the pellet away, then began leisurely tightening the leather cord again.

“Ten large pellets weighing two ounces each. Three people. Close the hall doors and seal off every exit. One night will be more than enough to deal with them. I will trouble Young General Wen to carry three door planks in tonight, then help place them on the planks and carry them out tomorrow morning.”

Wen Jing stood beneath the window with a blank expression.

Xue Duo had exchanged shifts with him only half an hour earlier.

Why did all these cursed troubles happen whenever he was the one on duty?

Why?!!