Chapter 152

 

In the second half of the night, the mountain moon was bright and clear, hanging high on the top of Cangshan Mountain.

Within the temporary palace, in a secluded garden, a young man in plain mourning clothes, with a sad expression, sat alone in front of the incense table. On the table, the offerings—fresh fruits and clear wine—were all arranged with meticulous care. In the drifting threads of incense smoke, a bundle of incense sticks meant for honoring the dead slowly burned to its end, the glowing embers crumbling into ash.

The incense burnt out, but he did not leave, still sitting there in silence.

An old palace maid walked up from the depths of the palace corridor behind him.

“Grand Empress Dowager invites Your Highness in to talk,” said the old woman.

He continued to sit down, and the old woman urged him again and again. Finally, he slowly got up and walked in.

For more than a year, ever since to the death of the deposed Empress Xiao Liu, the Grand Empress Dowager had suffered from lingering ill health due to the severe shock. In accordance with her own wishes, later she moved to Cangshan Palace to recuperate.

She was the birth mother of the late former emperor, the grandmother of the current emperor. Born into a prestigious noble clan, no one in the world could rival her in terms of status. Though the present emperor, due to his devotion to Taoist cultivation, could not attend to her personally morning and night, his filial piety remained unchanged. Since her move to Cangshan Palace, she had continued to receive the same level of care and respect as she did in the palace at Chang’an.

When the young man entered, the Grand Empress Dowager was about to get off the bed, clearly having grown impatient from waiting. He hurried forward, held her by the hand, and helped her back to sit down, saying that he was unfilial and made his great-grandmother worried.

This young man was Li Yan, who had sneaked here quietly in the middle of the night. Under the light, the Grand Empress Dowager saw his eyes shining with residual tears and felt distressed. She sighed and said, “You stayed up all night, were you offering sacrifices for Wei shi?”

“Yesterday was her birthday. Great-grandson is unable to even protect himself, this is all I can do: burn a few sticks of incense in her memory, to express a small token of mourning.” He explained in a low voice.

The Grand Empress Dowager shook her head, clearly unconvinced. “You are indeed a man of deep feeling and loyalty. But that girl—she’s already gone, and her fate was ill-starred from the start. You, on the other hand, are of true dragon blood. How could she possibly be worthy of your personal offerings? The sentiment alone is enough. If you truly cannot bear to neglect it, then have someone else do it—why must you take such pains yourself?”

Li Yan assented respectfully, then seated himself beside her bed and began gently massaging her legs. The Grand Empress Dowager gazed at him with loving satisfaction. Slowly, her eyes turned red, and she raised her hand to tenderly stroke his brow and eyes. “So alike! You and your father are simply made from the same mold. My dear great-grandson, when you were forced to leave Chang’an, you were only fifteen or sixteen. You must have suffered greatly out there all these years. It’s all my fault—for being useless. But at least, Heaven has finally opened its eyes. Your time has come. All these years I’ve endured humiliation and bided my time, fearing I wouldn’t live to see your return. Who would have thought that foolish Xiao Liu woman would finally do something right—burying the body in the right place, no less!”

A few days ago, the remains of Empress Zhaode, who was rumored to have eloped with someone, were found in a wild forest deep by the Taiye pond. The emperor was greatly shocked and vomited blood when he picked up the bones himself, and fainted on the spot.

According to a bribed medical officer’s secret report, the emperor was exhausted and had been in a coma for the past few days. And a group of people headed by the princess tried their best to cover up the news, obviously waiting for the arrival of the troops to the capital. Once the troops were assembled, her intentions were self-evident.

“Yan’er! My dear great-grandson, Wang Zhang and the others will not let her scheme succeed. This time, just wait for me peacefully, and there is no need to hide anymore. Very soon—tomorrow, or at the very latest, the day after tomorrow, Great-grandmother will personally take you back to Chang’an to ascend the throne. You will return as the rightful heir of the holy dynasty, with legitimacy and honor. Everything has been arranged. It’s close now, very close! Only… what a pity, your father…”

The Grand Empress Dowager thought of her beloved eldest grandson again, and she felt extremely sad and burst into tears.

Li Yan’s eyes turned red. He shifted down from the bed and knelt before her knees, tearfully saying, “Great-grandmother, you are the pillar that holds up Great-grandson’s world—please, you must take care of your health.”

“Get up quickly, get up quickly!” The Grand Empress Dowager hugged Li Yan lovingly, and when her eyes fell on the scar in the center of his forehead, her eyes suddenly turned fierce.

“That villain Pei Er dared to hurt you so badly! When we return to the court, I will not let him go! I will tear him into pieces to avenge you…”

At this time, a slightly panicked voice came from behind the palace door: “The Princess is coming! She didn’t say what she wanted, and she looked very angry. No one outside dared to stop her. She will be here soon!”

Li Yan turned around and saw that it was the leader of his personal guards, a deputy general serving under Li Meng.

He was startled, and a look of horror immediately flashed in his eyes.

The Grand Empress Dowager frowned: “She’s not in Chang’an at this time, why did she come to me?” Then she comforted: “Yan’er, don’t worry. I am her great-grandmother. No matter how domineering she is, what can she do to me? I think she’s here to find trouble with me because of her mother’s matter. Hide quickly and don’t let her find you!”

After the deputy general finished his report, he and Li Yan quickly came to a screen behind the Grand Empress Dowager’s bed.

With the sound of a mechanism on the wall moving slightly, the two disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

The Grand Empress Dowager lay back with her eyes closed, as if resting.

Xuyu wore a gauze hat and walked quickly inside as fast as the wind, causing the belt ornaments on her body to jingle violently, and the sound of tinkling bells could be heard continuously.

“Princess! Princess! The Grand Empress Dowager is unwell and has just been settled down! This servant begs you to wait a moment, and let this servant go and report first, so as not to alarm the Grand Empress Dowager!”

The old woman kept trying to dissuade her, but Xuyu acted as if she didn’t hear anything and just walked forward until she came to the outside of the hall.

The old woman turned her head and looked anxiously inside the hall. Just as she was about to raise her voice to dissuade her again, a loud “pa” sound was heard.

Yang Zai’en, who was traveling with Xuyu, stepped forward, raised his arm, and slapped the old woman in the face.

“How dare you! How dare you block the Princess’s way! What is your intention?” Yang Zai’en flicked the whisk in his hand and scolded loudly.

The old woman was the confidant of the Grand Empress Dowager. She never expected that she would be treated like this. She was shocked and angry, but did not dare to lose her temper. She covered her face, lowered her head and dared not move.

The palace eunuch then pushed open the lattice door, and Xuyu walked in without any pause. She went straight to the Empress Dowager’s bed before stopping.

The old lady was also shocked by the loud resounding slap just now and could no longer act as if nothing had happened. She suppressed the ominous feeling that arose in her heart, slowly opened her eyes, and snorted through her nose: “What are you doing here? Such airs—daring to posture in front of me? Even your father, when he stood before me, still had to kneel. Are you planning to defy all human decency and commit the crime of disrespecting your elders?”

But after her questioning, she saw that the other woman remained utterly still, looking down at her from above. The veil covering her face hung quietly, like a surface of undisturbed water.

It was an unreserved, blatant contempt—so bare it was as if the one before her saw not a person, but merely a lump of rotting flesh with orifices that happened to breathe and move.

The old lady flew into a rage, shaking with anger. She raised her palm and slammed the edge of the bed, shouting, “Someone! Get this rude girl out of here!”

Outside, there was a chaotic sound of shoes hitting the ground, and a group of people were walking quickly outside the hall.

The old lady supported herself with one hand and jabbed the young girl in front of her with the other. She stretched her body outwards and tremblingly called the name of the palace guard: “Hurry up! Get her out!”

With two “pu pu” sounds, two wet, bloody human heads were thrown in from outside the lattice door.

It was the head of the two generals responsible for guarding this palace.

“Grand Empress Dowager! This is bad! She’s going to rebel openly—”

The old woman who had just been slapped in the face stumbled in with her eyes wide open. She had just finished shouting halfway when the soldier who caught up with her chopped off her head with a sword.

The old woman’s head, with her mouth still open, fell from her neck to the ground, splattering blood all over the ground.

Amid the desperate screams of the palace maids outside the door, the old lady took a deep breath, moved her eyes away from the heads on the ground, and stared at the girl in front of her.

“What are you going to do?”

She gnashed her teeth and said, “You think you can scare me like this? I have seen everything in my life. You wild girl! I don’t believe you dare to do anything to me!”

The old lady paused again and spoke more slowly.

“I’ve also heard about what happened in the Taiye Pond forest. Are you blaming me? That was all the fault of that bitch Xiao Liu! She did it under my name, but I knew nothing about it! After returning to Chang’an, your father did not pursue the matter at all. Instead, he promoted that bitch to be the empress. What can I do…”

“Yuan Zhi!”

Xuyu suddenly called out. A person walked in silently from outside the door and stopped behind her.

“What should we do with this old woman?” Xuyu asked.

Yuan Zhi’s indifferent eye swept over the old woman.

“The Grand Empress Dowager is a noble person. It would be disrespectful to treat her like a human pig. This servant remember that Li Yan once drove wild beasts to attack Prince Consort. This servant dares not use wild beasts, but there is a ready-made kennel in this palace. There are not many dogs, only about a dozen. Why not follow suit and invite Grand Empress Dowager in as well?”

Xuyu didn’t comment. Yuan Zhi signaled at the people behind him. Immediately, the guards, as fierce as wolves and tigers, entered.

“Presumptuous! You dare!” Grand Empress Dowager was trembling with rage. She grabbed a cane leaning beside her and swung it forward violently, screaming and yelling, but the guards snatched it away, then they restrained her and were about to take her out.

Amid the suppressed and terrified cries of the palace maids outside the door, the old lady fell off the bed. When she realized that everything that happened before her eyes was real, and that the girl in front of her was clearly coming for her to avenge her mother, she tightly grasped a bed frame and refused to let go. She could no longer suppress her resentment and it violently burst out.

“You wild little wretch! How did you manage to escape back then—why didn’t I kill you along with her! I hate you! My grandson, Dalang—he was the true Son of Heaven! And your father! A lowly prince born to a servant girl in the back palace—what right did he have to seize what was never his? He should’ve died long ago! All of you should be cast into Avīci hell, burned by molten metal and fire, never to be reborn for all eternity—”

The biological mother of the current emperor was a palace maid who was punished to serve in the imperial palace for her family’s crimes. She had gained favor with the old emperor due to her beauty, but died young. Thus, the current emperor had no maternal family to rely on in his early years and remained obscure among the princes.

Her curses were suddenly replaced by a blood-curdling scream. With an expressionless face, Yuan Zhi stepped forward and stomped down on the Grand Empress Dowager’s hand, which was clutching the bed frame in a death grip. A faint crunching sound rang out beneath his boot—her hand bones were likely crushed on the spot. The Grand Empress Dowager’s eyes rolled back from the pain, and she passed out with a choking breath.

Xuyu slowly lifted her veil, looked around, and said, “Brother Yan, I know you’re nearby. The great-grandmother who loved you the most, who exhausted herself scheming and shielding you all these years—she’s ended up like this, and you still can bear to stay hidden, not come out and see her?”

The unconscious old woman on the ground let out a breath and woke up again. Suddenly, she understood everything.

A terror and despair greater than any she had ever felt before lit up in her eyes. She screamed at the top of her lungs, “Run! Run! Don’t worry about me! She’s after you! Don’t fall into her vicious trap—”

The old woman climbed straight from the ground and slammed hard against the edge of hard sandalwood bed in front of her.

Bang, a loud dull sounded.

Amidst the palace maids’ screams, the old woman’s skull burst open, her brains splattered, and she fell to the ground. Her limbs twitched for a moment, before she slowly died with her eyes wide open and refusing to close.

Behind the hidden door, in that pitch-dark world, blood welled from Li Yan’s eyes as rage contorted his face. He shot to his feet, ready to break through the door and charge out—only to be tackled to the ground and forcibly silenced by the deputy general beside him.

“Your Highness! General Li’s two thousand armored men are waiting outside for you! Every one of them is loyal to you! So long as the green hills remain, there will be wood enough to burn!”

The voice rang in his ears.

Those two thousand soldiers had been hidden here for one purpose: to escort him in glory through the gates of Chang’an. However, tonight, that dream may be shattered once more.

Li Yan staggered forward, unsteady with every step, guided by the light of the fire stick in the hands of the person next to him. As he moved down the narrow hidden passage, he saw his shadow cast against the low walls—flailing in a frantic, grotesque blur, aimless and distorted. Its absurdity struck him suddenly with a cruel clarity, reminding him of the court jesters from his youth in Chang’an, whose role in palace feasts had been to amuse through ugliness. His eyes burned, and hot tears spilled forth.

Finally, he reached the end of the secret passage, behind the palace, near the Qinglong River.

He stumbled out, almost like a drunkard, crawling from the secret passageway his great-grandmother had specially built to shield him from prying eyes. His legs nearly gave out the moment he emerged, and he would have collapsed had several men not rushed forward to catch and steady him. He stood still, closed his eyes, and drew several deep breaths of the crisp spring night air that drifted from the depths of Cangshan. It was only then that he noticed: the palms gripping his arms—those of his loyal subordinates—were all slick with sweat.

“Your Highness, look.” Someone whispered in his ear, the voice extremely tense.

He opened his eyes blankly and looked across the stream.

Across the rippling waves, a figure of a rider quietly stood on the opposite bank.

Pei Xiaoyuan sat on the horse’s back.

He urged his horse, waded slowly across the gurgling stream, and gradually approached.

“All the mountain passes are now sealed—there’s no way out.

“Tell your men to lay down their weapons. Don’t waste your lives in futile resistance.”

He looked around at the tranquil Cangshan under the spring night sky, then turned back to Li Yan and spoke with finality.

Previous     TOC     Next