Thousand Verdant Mountains – Chapter 50
Chapter 50
Out of Chang’an, a hundred miles to the northwest, deep in the mountains, lies a burial mound nestled between two mountain ridges on a site known as the ‘Twin Dragons’ Embrace.’
This was the tomb of the late Empress Zhaode. The early-departed Empress Zhaode rested peacefully in this grand tomb, a secluded mausoleum that, blessed by favorable feng shui, rivals the imperial mausoleums in scale and grandeur.
Last night’s thick fog had yet to fully disperse, and the sky was still shrouded in a deep, heavy grayish-green hue. Before dawn, in the dim light of early morning, an old palace eunuch dressed in gray slowly walked out from within the gates of the mausoleum.
He held a bamboo broom in his hand and walked slowly to the sacred road, sweeping away the dead branches and grass that had been blown onto the path by the wind last night.
All the sounds were still in the silence of last night. A few mountain birds that had been resting on the wild branches nearby were startled, flapped their wings and flew away, turning into black dots and disappearing into the forest at the end of the mausoleum.
The old palace eunuch’s body was hunched, his eyebrows and hair streaked with white. His face, worn down by years of suffering, was covered with deep, silent wrinkles. One of his legs was also crippled, with the left and right legs being of different lengths, forcing him to drag his lame leg awkwardly as he walked, which was not very convenient. Yet, none of this hindered him from carrying out his duties.
After cleaning the long straight sacred road outside the mausoleum gate, the sky gradually brightened. He took off the whisk hanging on his waist, limped towards the tall stone statues standing on both sides of the sacred road, and began to sweep the dust off their backs.
This palace eunuch should be an old servant who guards the mausoleum. He obviously repeated this kind of work every day. After carefully cleaning a stone without leaving any dust on it, he came to another stone nearby.
The divine beast was kneeling on the ground with its front paws, but it was still huge. After brushing its back, the old eunuch pounded his injured leg, which was becoming more and more swollen and painful due to rheumatism, and then continued to tiptoe with difficulty, leaning forward to reach a fallen leaf attached to the top of the beast’s head. Suddenly, he seemed to realize something, stopped, slowly turned his head, and looked behind him.
Behind him, at the end of the straight sacred road where the morning mist gradually thinned, a young man appeared.
The young man seemed to have arrived at some unknown time, staring quietly. He then took a step forward, and his boots landed on the smooth and clean bluestone pavement of the sacred road, making a slight sound.
The old eunuch looked at the young man with a dull expression as he walked closer and closer and stopped in front of him.
He narrowed his dim eyes, and his cloudy gaze stayed on the young man for a moment, then he turned his head indifferently and continued what he was doing, reaching for the fallen leaf on the beast head that had not been brushed away.
Although Xuyu had prepared herself on the way here that Zhao was no longer the person she remembered, but at this moment, when she really saw the appearance of the man in front of her, her heart, which had not yet completely recovered from the shock of her father’s old and sick appearance that day, trembled again.
She moved her lips and wanted to call out, but found that her voice was stuck in her throat and she was unable to make a sound for a while. It was not until the old eunuch brushed off the fallen leaves, stepped forward, and left her behind, limping away on his lame leg once again that she finally uttered that call.
“It’s me!”
She looked at the hunched back that once carried her high up as he staggered along the sacred road, and spoke softly, as if she was afraid that her voice would be too loud and would frighten him.
“It’s me!
“Zhao Bandang, don’t you recognize me?”
The old eunuch stopped suddenly, as if something hit him hard on the back, and he stood frozen in place.
Slowly, he turned his head hesitantly, his cloudy eyes fell on her face again, his eyelids twitching constantly.
“It’s me, Li Hao’er.
“I’m back, Zhao Bandang!”
Xuyu’s eyes turned red and a smile appeared on her lips. She stood in the middle of the road, looking at the old palace eunuch whom she had called.
The old eunuch turned his head and looked at her for a moment. Suddenly, he seemed to catch the unique light in her eyes that belonged only to her among thousands of people in the world.
At that moment, his originally dark eyes seemed to be cleared of shadows, radiating an incredible light of ecstasy, and his wrinkled and silent face also burst into amazing brilliance. Then he began to tremble, as if he had a serious illness, and could hardly stand, making the whisk fell out of his hand and fell to the ground.
“Little Princess… Little Princess… It’s really Little Princess…”
The old eunuch muttered a few words in a hoarse voice with trembling lips. Suddenly, as if fully snapping back to awareness, he turned around and began walking toward Xuyu, his pace quickening with each step. By the end, his lame leg could no longer keep up, dragging awkwardly behind him in a twisted manner. Then, losing his balance, he fell to his knees on the sacred road.
“Heaven!”
The old eunuch raised his arms high, looked up to the sky, and shouted in ecstasy with a trembling voice. Then he knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the young man in front of him in tears.
“Old servant Zhao Zhongfang, kowtow to the princess!”
For a moment, he was choked with sobs and could hardly speak.
At this time, two clear bird calls were heard nearby. This was a reminder from Pei Xiaoyuan, who was guarding her. It was already dawn, and the mausoleum guards would begin to come out.
Xuyu walked up to her childhood companion, helped him up from the scared road, and took him to a deserted place, where she let him sit on a flat stone. Then, she recounted the story of how she had escaped, been taken in by others, and managed to grow up safely—all without mentioning her grandfather’s name.
“Zhao Bandang, how did you escape later?” she asked Zhao Zhongfang.
Zhao Zhongfang told her that after he drove her away, he had prepared to die. Unexpectedly, at that time, there was a ragged young beggar hiding on the roadside. After promising him a fortune, the beggar agreed to take the risk to rescue him. Before those people caught up with him, the beggar dragged him out from under the carriage body and he ran away on his back.
The beggar was unusually smart and alert, and he successfully avoided the search. This was how he managed to survive and escape the disaster.
Xuyu looked at the old eunuch’s deformed leg that had just been dragged, and her eyes turned red again.
“Your leg is broken. It became like this because you saved me.”
Zhao Zhongfang smiled with relief and shook his head: “To still be alive to see the princess return safely, this servant is already satisfied! Not to mention a leg, even if Heaven takes this servant’s life right now, this servant is also willing!”
Regardless of the inconvenience of his crippled legs, he got down from his seat, knelt down and kowtowed again, solemnly paying homage to heaven and earth for saving the little princess in his heart. Then, as if he remembered something, he looked in the direction of Chang’an City, wiped away his tears, and looked at Xuyu again and again, wanting to say something but stopping himself.
Xuyu knew what he was thinking.
“Father doesn’t know that I’m back yet,” she said.
Zhao Zhongfang’s joy faded, and a hint of deep melancholy appeared in his eyes, as if he had understood everything.
“Princess, why are you…”
In the end, he didn’t dare to ask and fell silent.
“Zhao Bandang, there is something I want to ask you. That night, my mother was summoned to the palace. She never returned, and only Chief Guard Guo came back. He then called you to talk. What did he say to you?”
Xuyu asked softly.
Zhao Zhongfang remained silent. After a moment, he answered in a low voice: “The princess asked this servant. If this servant could remember, he would tell you. But it’s been a long time, and this servant really can’t remember it clearly…”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t say it. I will tell you and you can tell me if it’s right or not.” Xuyu said.
“That night, the previous emperor quietly escaped from the palace. The current empress, taking advantage of her identity, knew about this earlier than anyone else. She took advantage of the fact that no one was in the palace and pretended to be the Empress Dowager to trick my mother and me into the palace to murder us. The court painter Ding Baiya learned the news and risked his life to tell her, but Empress Liu found out and the people she sent caught up with her. In order to give me more chances to escape, my mother ordered Guo Zong to come back and take me away. As for her and Ding Baiya, after Guo Zong left, they must have tried every means to attract those people to chase them, and finally died at the hands of Empress Liu.”
Xuyu spoke calmly, as if she was talking about something that had nothing to do with her.
“Guo Zong came back that night and told you about Empress Liu’s conspiracy. He also told you to take me and run away quickly, which is why you panicked to such an extent that you almost tripped when you came in. Is that right or not?”
As Xuyu spoke, a look of sadness appeared on Zhao Zhongfang’s face. He slowly slid down from his seat and finally knelt in front of Xuyu.
“Princess! Princess, please don’t let your imagination run wild—” he pleaded in a trembling voice.
“Really?” Xuyu smiled.
“But when you forced me to run for my life, I turned around and saw a face I recognized. That person was the Liu family’s guard. Just a few days before, he came to pick up Li Mao.”
Zhao Zhongfang closed his eyes, his body became even more hunched, and he could only kneel on the ground.
Xuyu paused, took a deep breath, and stared at the old eunuch at her feet.
“I’m going to ask you one more question, just one question. You must answer me.”
The old eunuch still did not react. He just knelt on the ground with his head bowed, unable to move.
“Tell me, my father, does he know what happened that night?”
Just as she asked this question, Zhao Zhongfang felt as if a sharp needle pierced his heart. He suddenly stood up, opened his eyes, and his face was as pale as a dead person.
He shook his head: “His Majesty doesn’t know! He has no idea at all!
“It’s all this servant’s fault! This servant failed Empress Zhaode and the princess, and this servant will surely go to hell after he die! It is this servant who after returning to the palace, got bewitched, accepted Liu shi‘s favors, and was even more afraid that he would die if he didn’t obey, so this servant kept it a secret from His Majesty until now. His Majesty knows nothing!”
Xuyu looked at Zhao Zhongfang who was shaking his head.
“Zhao Bandang, I am no longer your former little princess, and you are no longer my Zhao Bandang, right?”
Zhao Zhongfang paused, stared at Xuyu, his lips trembling slightly.
“In the past, whenever I was naughty and you wanted to trick me into being obedient and lied to me, you would blink your eyes. You didn’t even know that, did you?”
She smiled sadly: “I saw when you were talking to me just now, you kept blinking.”
Zhao Zhongfang shuddered, and then he slapped himself hard: “Princess, you are mistaken! His Majesty, His Majesty really doesn’t know!”
Xuyu turned her head and looked at the towering mound at the end of the sacred road. After a moment, she said, “Zhao Bandang, although I don’t know why you were later driven out of the palace by father and sent here to suffer, I guess it must be related to this incident.
“My mother, not only has her good name been slandered by evil people, but if my guess is correct, she has not been buried yet. She is not under this mausoleum at all! I don’t know where her bones are now, and how they are being gnawed and bitten by the insects. If we can’t find her, she will not be able to receive incense and sacrifices from the human world. Her soul will be a lonely ghost in the underworld, unable to cross the Naihe Bridge, and will never be able to rest or reincarnate.”
She turned her head and looked at the old eunuch who slowly stopped slapping his face.
“You are willing to defile yourself in front of me, but I know you are not that kind of person. Even if you are more loyal to my father, you will not bear to watch my mother, your former princess consort, suffer so much.”
“Just now you were afraid that I would hate my father, so you took all the blame on yourself to protect your master, right? But how can you possibly take it on yourself?”
Zhao Zhongfang’s arms fell limply to his sides, and his body sank weakly to the ground. His face was ashen, and with eyes closed, he remained silent.
Xuyu nodded slowly: “I understand. In fact, I shouldn’t have come this time. It makes no difference whether you say it or not. I just…”
She paused.
“Zhao Bandang, please take care of yourself. I will always remember your kindness. It’s time for me to go.
“Also, if you still remember that I was once your little princess, you should know my wishes. Be less loyal to your master and do not tell him that I am coming today.”
After Xuyu finished speaking, she turned around and left.
Zhao Zhongfang suddenly opened his eyes, crawled on his knees with difficulty to chase her a few steps, and kowtowed: “Princess! Please don’t hate His Majesty! He has his own difficulties! Begging Princess to please go back! His Majesty only has you now!”
Xuyu stopped and turned around, meeting the old eunuch’s pleading eyes.
“Father has his own world, what does Mother and I mean to him?”
She said softly, and without stopping, she turned and left.
The old eunuch’s repeated pleas and the solemn and majestic sacred road were all left behind her, getting farther and farther with every step. She walked down the mountain, thinking about the warning not to return in her dream, thinking about the scenes of last night, the emperor, his hand that reached out but did not touch the hem of her mother’s skirt and slowly let go, his old face full of pain and torture…
Suddenly she saw Pei Xiaoyuan, like an agile leopard, silently emerging from behind a cluster of thick branches beside the road. His usually clear and expressionless face now showed a hint of worry. His clear eyes looked at her, and it met with hers.
She stopped and watched him walk towards her. She tried her best to hold back the overwhelming emotions that were churning in her chest at the moment, fearing that he would ask her questions, so she nodded to him first and intercepted, “I’m fine.”
Pei Xiaoyuan paused, glanced at her again, and did not say anything. He nodded, then turned around and walked forward to lead her down the mountain.
Xuyu looked at his back as he walked at the front. The two tears that she had just endured could no longer be held back and rolled down from her eyes.
Pei Xiaoyuan took a few steps forward but, not sensing her following, turned to glance back. Seeing her standing there, staring at him with tears streaming down her face, he froze for a moment before quickly returning. In a soft voice, he asked, “Why are you crying?”
His question immediately brought out Xuyu’s infinite sadness.
From the first moment she regained her memory and recalled the past, the thing she feared most and did not want to see in her heart was finally confirmed.
From now on, she could no longer deceive herself.
Her father had known everything for a long time, but he did nothing except building such a huge and useless mausoleum for her mother.
If this was the love of a king, then her mother who received this love was too humble and pitiful.
Tears flowed like beads.
In front of this young man who had been her fiancé, her sworn brother, and now the one she trusted the most and with whom she had no secrets, she could no longer suppress the sadness and disappointment in her heart. She rushed forward, grabbed his sleeve, and cried uncontrollably as if she had grabbed a life-saving straw.
“Father, father, my father…he knows everything…” She cried and sobbed, and finally said these words with difficulty.
Pei Xiaoyuan stared at her tearful face, slowly raised his arm, and cupped the back of her head with his palm, letting her forehead rest lightly on his shoulder and chest. After a moment, he half dragged and half hugged her to the back of the dense trees from which he had just come out.
The light suddenly dimmed. Damp leaves hung low, dripping with dew that had gathered from the previous night. Small insects, well-rested, busily spun webs in the branches above them. The tall grass, grown past their ankles, slowly soaked the hem of their hanging robes. From the direction of the sacred road, faint morning bells echoed through the trees.
He held her gently in his arms, took her to the hidden darkness behind the trees, and created a secret world where she could cry freely, without restraint.
It was unknown how much time had passed, but the rising sun shone on the top of the tree. Through the gaps between the branches and leaves, golden rays of sunlight shone down, sparse or dense, and shone on the hair on her head that was still buried in his chest.
“I don’t want to go back to that place today.”
She closed her eyes, her forehead still pressed against him, and spoke in a muffled voice with a heavy nasal tone.
“Alright. I’ll take you out to relax. You can do whatever you want.”
Pei Xiaoyuan lowered his head, his eyes fell to the top of the head that had been buried in his chest for a long time. He felt a slight tremor in his chest that was pressed by her, but the sound he made was still slow and steady as usual.
At dawn, the emperor woke up from the pain he had suffered last night. Although his face was ashen, he seemed to have almost recovered.
The imperial physicians of the Imperial Medical Bureau had not been summoned for several months, and they had been terrified for a long time because they knew that the emperor was not satisfied with the effectiveness of their medicine. Unexpectedly, they were able to diagnose the emperor again last night, and used all their skills and stayed up all night. Now they were still gathered together to discuss new prescriptions.
Yang Zai’en presented the imperial physician’s opinions to the emperor and was delighted to find that the emperor did not refuse. Seeing the emperor lying on the pillow and closing his eyes again, as if thinking about something, he did not dare to disturb him rashly. He just turned around and signaled the palace eunuch to bring the emperor’s breakfast.
At this time, the emperor opened his eyes and ordered him to summon the painter from last night.
Yang Zai’en said, “This morning this servant also remembered, and had gone to find him. But it was said that he had left the palace. At the fourth watch last night, he was picked up by Master Pei Erlang, who was in the palace guards. The two of them left the palace together.” After he finished reporting, he saw the emperor’s two eyes on him and he immediately understood, “Your Majesty, please wait a moment and let this servant pass it on.”
He hurried out, but when he came back, the news he sent to the emperor was that the painter named Ye Xuyu was missing. There was no one in Jixian Hall, and no one in the Pei family mansion in Yongning Lane.
The emperor’s face turned slightly cold, his eyes filled with anger, and he asked about Pei Er’s whereabouts.
“As for Chief Pei, this servant has sent people to look for him, but he is nowhere to be found in the government office or in the Jinwu Guards. General Han also said he doesn’t know.”
The emperor was pondering for a moment, closing his eyes again, as if falling asleep.
Yang Zai’en dared not speak, holding his breath and waiting. After a while, he heard the emperor speak again and ordered Yuan Zhi to come in, and he hurriedly complied and left.
In the afternoon, Yuan Zhi went to the palace to report what he had personally learned about the relationship between the County Prince Xiping’s shizi, Yuwen Zhi, Ashina Chengping, and the painter.
“…Shizi claims that he met the pair of master and apprentice when they helped him build a pagoda for his deceased mother a few years ago. Apart from that, they did not have much contact and did not know each other much.
“As for the prince, he said that when he passed by Ganliang before, the master and apprentice happened to be working for Pei Ji, so he got to know him. Like Shizi, he also claimed that he didn’t have much contact with him and knew very little about him.”
The emperor lay on the bed with his eyes closed. He was silent for a long while, then suddenly said, “Take Wei Yinniang to you. Don’t let anyone see her. I want to interrogate her myself.”
Yuan Zhi paused, glanced quickly at the emperor, complied, bowed, and then respectfully retreated.
Thanks for the updates, I have been refreshing everyday waiting for the next chapter to arrive.
So heartbreaking and sad for the princess…imagine fearing and hiding from your own father. He deserves his lonely and pathetic disease ridden ending.
At least she has Pei er and a few loyal friends. I am worried about Yinniang now, hope emperor won’t kill her off.