Chapter 134

 

Maybe she was too tense just now. After Prince Ning left and her body relaxed a little, Xuyu felt a dull pain in her injured shoulder.

She held onto the temple door and slowly sat down on the knee-high threshold in front of the imperial family temple’s Hall of Worship to rest for a while.

Slowly, the cold air, as sharp as ice knives, penetrated through her clothes and seeped into her skin underneath.

The temple threshold was carved from a single piece of rare nanmu wood, and its ends sheathed in gilded bronze, engraved with an intricate pattern of rolling waves, sea horses, and lions at play—no doubt a symbolic wish for the empire’s foundation to endure for a thousand years, unshaken and everlasting. If the etiquette officer was here and saw her sitting on it like this, he would surely have been appalled, condemning it as an act of grave disrespect.

She subconsciously looked around the place again.

Behind her, within the main sanctuary, the ancestral tablets stood in their solemn arrangement—left for the honored, right for the revered. The ever-burning lamps, never extinguished day or night, were offerings of unwavering devotion from the Li family’s pious descendants, an unbroken thread of incense and prayer dedicated to their ancestors. In the side halls on the left and right, enshrined alongside them, were the princes, dukes, and generals of the sacred dynasty. Their epitaphs, inscribed by court historians, immortalized their illustrious deeds, towering virtues, and unparalleled prestige—worthy of such supreme honor.

A general like Pei Gu was not qualified to have a stand in such a solemn and precious place.

However, he himself had never thought about or cared about such things after his death.

This Li family temple, which always had its doors tightly closed and exuded a noble and decaying smell of age, was probably not the destination he wanted.

Died in the battlefield, wrapped in his horse’s hide, was the most magnificent epitaph written for a god of war.

And yet, the god of war’s final act was a death by a blade from behind.

She withdrew her gaze, leaned her head against the door, closed her eyes for a moment, and suddenly felt an urge to leave.

She didn’t want to stay in this place any longer.

She opened her eyes and was about to stand up, but paused slightly.

In the distance, at the end of the steps of the palace, there was another sedan chair parked, and the shadows of several palace servants were hidden in the darkness outside the gate.

In front of her, under the steps, the old palace eunuch supported the emperor, guiding him to this place. Then, the emperor reached out, and placed his hand on the white jade railing of the steps. Following the stone path, he walked up to her.

She steadied herself against the temple door and slowly stood up.

The emperor managed to climb the lowest section of the stairs on his own. At that point, the cloud-carved railing curved downward to meet the ground, leaving a gap in between. His hand grasped at empty air, and in that instant, he lost his sense of direction. That withered hand continued to grope nearby, searching in vain.

After several attempts, he finally gave up, standing still where he was. His hunched figure seemed to sink further, revealing a trace of dejection and helplessness.

Xuyu walked down the steps and came in front of him.

“Father.” She said softly, “Why are you here?”

When the emperor heard her voice, a slight look of joy immediately appeared on his face. He stretched out his hand towards her, and the moment he touched her hanging sleeve, as if he felt something, his hand paused in the air for a moment, then slowly retracted.

“Father heard that you woke up and came here…” the emperor murmured, and his tone seemed to contain some flattering meaning.

“I’m fine, and the injury isn’t serious.”

Xuyu responded calmly, stretched out her hand and supported the emperor’s arm.

“Let’s go. I’ll take Father back.”

The emperor did not take a step immediately. He lowered his head slightly, as if he was staring at the hand that Xuyu was holding on to.

“Hao’er, you know everything, right?” Finally, he slowly raised his head.

“You already know that Father is a complete villain. Aren’t you disappointed in Father?”

Xuyu looked at the emperor in front of her.

There was no trace of the terrifying look when he raised his sword to kill people. His face was hidden in the remaining flame of the long-burning lamp in the hall behind her. In the dim light, this old face now showed a bit of helpless frustration and panic.

She took a deep breath.

“Father, you are truly ruthless—far beyond anything I had ever imagined before. It even makes me shudder just thinking about it,” she responded softly.

The emperor’s face twitched slightly.

“What happened back then… perhaps you truly had no other choice. I can more or less guess why, even after all these years, you have never restored the names of General Pei and the others, never granted them the honors they should have received in death. I cannot say you were wrong, because I was not in your position. I have no right to casually judge the choices a ruler must make, both in life and in what he considers for the future. What truly unsettles me, Father, is your coldness. You feel guilt toward the dead, yet you have wrung every last ounce of value from them. And worse still—you have not hesitated to continue harming the living who were tied to them.

“From the day you became the emperor, you are no longer the same Father I knew when I was a child.”

“Father did this, all for the sake…”

Amid his daughter’s merciless accusations, the emperor wanted to defend himself, opened his mouth, then stopped and closed his lips again.

“I know, Father. What you want to say is that everything you did was to protect the court and the foundation of the Holy Dynasty after you left, right? Just like what you did to Mother.”

“Hao’er, you’re also going to leave Father too, aren’t you?”

Finally, the emperor asked, his expression shrouded in a faint sense of despair.

Xuyu stared at him and slowly shook her head.

“No, I won’t go and leave you,” she replied.

“Father, you make me feel a chill down to my bones… yet I cannot truly hate you. I can only feel sympathy—sympathy for the father I once knew, the one who was still Prince Ding.”

She lifted her gaze, looking toward the imperial ancestral temple, its solemn and towering silhouette looming in the night.

“From the moment he ascended, his remaining years—his very soul—became trapped in this place, just like the countless officials of the court, kneeling before that throne. His every thought, his every concern, was for that seat. Loyal ministers, men of honor, even the woman he once loved—they could all be cast aside. His heart hardened like iron, unyielding to blade or spear—”

She turned to the emperor and once again, with her fingers spread out, slowly grasped his arm.

“Father, my mother has reminded me in my dreams not to come back. This is indeed not the place I want to stay, but I will not leave you. It will be the same in the future as it was in the past. I will still be Father’s eyes and accompany you until the day when you no longer need me.

“Who told me to be your daughter, Father?”

Her voice fell.

“Hao’er.”

After a while, the emperor finally reacted. He called her in a trembling voice, opened his arms, and hugged his daughter tightly in his arms.

Xuyu gently leaned her face against the emperor’s arms, closed her eyes for a moment, and said, “I’ll send Father back.”

“Alright.”

The emperor had never been as obedient as he was at this moment. He even leaned against his daughter obediently, letting her lead him slowly out of the temple.

Half a month later, at the same place, the princess who was acting as regent for the ailing emperor, led the princes and the high-ranking court officials eligible to hold the ancestor worship ceremony which had been postponed until today due to earlier unforeseen events.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, a major announcement was made: the court appointed Xue Mian, Duke of Song and governor of Liangzhou, as the general commander of the army to suppress the rebellion in Jiannan Road, and the Military Commissioners of Lizhou and Langzhou as deputy commanders, jointly mobilizing a total force of 200,000 troops to campaign against Yuwen Shouren, the former County Prince of the southwest and the Military Commissioner of Jiannan. The date of departure was set for three days later—on the 20th of the Twelfth Month.

The origin of the matter lay in a message delivered to Chang’an by express courier a few days prior: Yuwen Shouren had issued a proclamation denouncing the current emperor for numerous crimes, declaring that the bloodline of the original rightful heir, Crown Prince Jingsheng, had not been extinguished. He claimed that the imperial grandson, Li Yan, had received Heaven’s favor and had now been found. Therefore, he had enthroned him locally as the new emperor, adopting a new reign title, Fuben, and assembling a force of one hundred thousand soldiers. He called upon all regions of the realm to respond and rise together, to march to Chang’an, restore rightful order, and uphold the sanctity of the ancestral temple.

This sudden rebellion shook Chang’an instantly. The people immediately thought of the turmoil that occurred at the end of the Jingsheng period. If not handled well, there was a real fear that other regions might follow suit—and the unrest would no longer be confined to the southwest. For a while, people were in a panic, and everyone in the streets and alleys, inside and outside the walls, were all talking about this.

And within the imperial court, this matter instantly overshadowed the previously most sensational and hotly debated issue—the unresolved suspicions surrounding the prince consort. Ministers were outraged, submitting memorials in droves to denounce the traitor and his rebellion. However, the news had come far too suddenly. Yuwen Shouren went from being a veteran minister of two dynasties to the leader of the revolt overnight. Many court officials were caught off guard. Meanwhile, the emperor’s health remained unstable, and the princess, being but a woman, was only temporarily acting as regent—

Everyone thought that it might take some time for the court to make an effective response.

Even if appointments could be made swiftly, the mobilization of troops and the distribution of supplies were no simple tasks that could be settled by wishful thinking. Faced with a rebellion of this scale, the court would need at least a month of preparation before any hope of mounting a full-scale counteroffensive.

However, no one expected that the imperial court would dispatch troops so quickly and effectively, and they were clearly well prepared. How could it be possible to dispatch 200,000 troops, twice the number of the rebels, in just three days?

This was not only a powerful counterattack to the rebels’ momentum, but also a deterrent to other people in other region who may also want to take advantage of the opportunity to speculate.

When the news spread, not only the court officials were excited, but the people of Chang’an were even more overjoy. They ran around to tell each other and looked forward to the grand moment of sending off the troops.

Another dark night fell. In an unknown dungeon in the palace, in the silence of midnight, Prince Ning came to the cell where Pei Xiaoyuan was detained.

In a small room, with a dim light. In a corner where the dim yellow light could not reach, a figure lay with his back to the cell door. The back of the figure looked like a collapsed mountain, motionless and heavy.

Prince Ning stopped outside the cell door, remembering what the guard had said just now: during the first few days after prince consort came, he did not drink a drop of water nor he sleep all night. Later, things improved slightly, but his food intake remained minimal. Regardless of day or night, he either sat silently in a corner or lay with his eyes closed. He hardly said a word, and the silence was almost eerie.

As the cell door opened, the iron locks made a jarring clatter in the still night. The figure in the corner stirred in response, then slowly straightened his clothes and sat up cross-legged, facing forward.

Pei Xiaoyuan had already taken off his official robe and boots, and was now wearing prison clothes. His black hair was disheveled and his eye sockets were deeply sunken.

In just over half a month, he looked much more haggard, but his posture and demeanor were still as dignified as he was used to. He did not seem to become depressed at all due to being imprisoned in prison clothes.

He looked at Prince Ning, smiled and nodded in greeting.

Prince Ning looked around the cell.

It was likely Zhao Zhongfang who had given quiet instructions—this was, by all appearances, the cleanest cell in the entire prison. Even so, it was still narrow and simple. Beneath prince consort lay only a woven mat and a thin quilt. He also remembered that the guard had just told him that thick bedding and a warming stove had been offered, but prince consort, citing his guilt, had refused them all. He couldn’t help but sigh quietly: “How are you holding up? These days… you must’ve suffered.”

Pei Xiaoyuan smiled and said, “It’s already good here. I’m fine.”

Perhaps it was because he hadn’t spoken for many days, but when he suddenly spoke, his voice was harsh and hoarse.

Prince Ning quietly sighed again. Since he came here for some matter, he said no more and sat on a stool brought in by the guard.

“Erlang, what are your plans for the future?” he asked directly.

“What I want, I have already told His Majesty that day.” After a moment of silence, Pei Xiaoyuan responded.

Prince Ning nodded slightly, “You’ve been here for a few days, so you probably don’t know about the big things happening outside.”

Prince Ning recounted the story of how Yuwen Shouren welcomed Li Yan as emperor and how Jiannan Road had become a rebellious area.

“Fortunately, the court has been prepared, and tomorrow is the day to send troops. Not only that, you should also know that the Princess detained Yuwen Zhi in advance. Her original intent was, of course, to make his father reconsider for his son’s sake, to pull back before going too far. But instead, he chose to sever all father-son ties and press on regardless. On the other hand, Yuwen Zhi’s maternal uncle, General of Xuanwei and Commandant of Yizhou, Li Dalu, has never given up on his nephew since his escape. The Princess has now reached an agreement with him, and as promised, has released Yuwen Zhi.”

Pei Xiaoyuan listened in silence.

“Though on the surface the rebellion in the southwest seems fierce, it is actually all within expectations. As for that so-called ‘mighty force of a hundred thousand,’ in truth, it’s at most fifty or sixty thousand—and even then, some of them are barely trained. The court, by contrast, is truly dispatching a force of a hundred thousand, claiming it to be two hundred. This response should be enough to intimidate the other provincial lords. As long as the battle doesn’t end in defeat, the unrest shouldn’t spread too far. What truly worries His Majesty and the Princess are the situations in the northwest.”

Prince Ning looked at the figure sitting on the ground opposite him.

“He Du has a cousin named He Lituo. You might recall—during the Grand Archery Rite, he attempted to seize power but failed and fled into exile. Li Yan, that cunning man, secretly made contact with He Lituo and devised a scheme: he sent men disguised as imperial envoys to meet He Du. Carrying old court tokens, they fooled He Du into thinking they were true emissaries of His Majesty. He received them with honor, completely off guard—only to fall into an ambush and nearly lose his life. He barely escaped and is now leading his most trusted men toward Chang’an, seeking help. As for He Lituo, he has already declared himself king and promised Li Yan he would raise arms at an opportune time to support his claim to the throne.”

Prince Ning’s brows were furrowed tightly.

“Not only that, in Beiting, Ashina has also declared himself Khan and is fighting against the other chieftains, winning skirmish after skirmish. If he succeeds and integrates Beiting, he will definitely invade the south. When Xifan rise again at the same time, then we’ll truly be caught on both fronts. The court’s true focus is in the northwest. As we speak, Linghu Gong is gathering troops, preparing to respond at a moment’s notice—but if war breaks out on all sides, the strain may prove too great, and we’ll find ourselves unable to respond effectively.”

He paused and stood up from the stool.

“Pei Xiaoyuan receive the order.

“His Majesty has issued a verbal decree, permitting Pei Xiaoyuan to atone for his crimes through meritorious service. He is hereby conferred as General Zhongwu, and is to depart at once for Ganliang to assist the general commander Linghu Gong. He must repel the enemy chieftain, secure the frontier, and keep the invaders outside the borders of the country.”

Pei Xiaoyuan slowly knelt down.

After Prince Ning finished speaking, he hurried over and helped him up from the ground.

“As for the situation in the northwest, news of it is still being suppressed for the time being—so as not to unsettle the people or disrupt the campaign in the southwest. Therefore, this journey north will have to be a quiet one. I’m afraid there can be no grand expedition ceremony like the one tomorrow. You’ll have to set out in silence. However, you can choose personnel from the various guards in the capital to go north with you.”

“That’s all right with me. It suits me just fine.”

Prince Ning nodded: “Fine, fine, follow me now, and make preparations early so that you can set off to perform your duties.”

After Prince Ning finished speaking, he was in a hurry to leave, but he did not hear anyone following him. He stopped and turned around, only to see him still standing there with a difficult look in his eyes, so he asked what was the matter.

“How is the Princess’s injury?” Pei Xiaoyuan finally asked in a low voice.

That night, in order to protect him, she was accidentally injured by the emperor and fainted in his arms. Looking at her pale face with blood on her shoulder, he was so stricken with fear that it felt as though his very heart and lungs were being torn apart. This feeling of shock and pain even completely overshadowed his own injuries. Yet before he could fully come to his senses, she had already been taken away—snatched from his arms by her father. No one spoke of drawing swords against him anymore. The emperor, who only moments before had been enraged enough to cleave him in two, now remained motionless at his daughter’s side, not moving a single step away. And he—he was left utterly outside it all, watching the entire palace in chaos around him, people rushing to and fro in a panic, while he stood alone, completely shut out.

She was nearby, and yet he could no longer get closer.

This unprecedented feeling of despair, of being completely pushed out of the world she was in, of being just a door away and yet so far away, was the first time in his life and it was deeply imprinted in his heart.

He would never be able to erase it.

Prince Ning smiled and said, “The Princess’s shoulder injury is fine, so don’t worry, Prince Consort.”

His eyes quickly swept across Pei Xiaoyuan’s injured hand and paused.

“Prince Consort must also take good care of your injuries. The Princess… I think she will not be able to come out tonight because of the ceremony of sending off the troops tomorrow. Please don’t worry…”

Prince Ning spoke words of comfort.

“No, no. Your Highness has misunderstood. She was injured because of me. I’m glad she’s fine. Thank you for letting me know.”

Pei Xiaoyuan immediately closed his lips. However, he couldn’t help but think of the night in Yuyun Tower when she asked him in a sad voice if he no longer liked her. At this moment, the wound on his hand suddenly throbbed with pain again. Every time he thought of her, he felt pain. Every time he felt pain, he thought of her.

She must have been completely disappointed in him, and even disgusted with him. She would not even see him for the last time.

Holding his injured hand, as he walked out of the cold prison where he had been sitting alone for many days, such a thought flashed vaguely through Pei Xiaoyuan’s mind.

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