Chapter 62

 

On the way to the palace in a hurry, Xuyu’s mind kept replaying the scene of her conversation with Yuwen Zhi this morning.

“That Pei guy is not as simple as you think.” This is what he said when they met by chance before. She didn’t pay attention to it at that time, but now she thought that Yuwen Zhi may not be wrong in this sentence.

Perhaps because he had always wanted to seek revenge, he knew more about the Pei family than Chengping. According to Yuwen Zhi, the man behind Chen Sida and Feng Zhenping back then was Liu Ceye. Now they all hold high positions for their merits in following the emperor, and the Liu and Feng families have also become the backers of the crown prince and Prince Kang respectively.

“To speak bluntly, I really don’t know what His Majesty was thinking. Why didn’t he take advantage of the prime opportunity when Crown Prince Jingsheng attempted rebellion back then, to wipe out the Pei family once and for all and eliminate future threats? Pei Ji is fine. He’s already in his seventies and doesn’t have many years to live. But that Pei guy is different. Even if things are calm now, if someday the emperor is no longer around, regardless of whether the Crown Prince or Prince Kang takes the throne, in my opinion, that Pei guy won’t see peaceful days ahead.

“The feud of blood relatives are absolutely irreconcilable. This is an unsolvable problem. Even if that Pei guy were to accept it, can Liu Ceye and Feng Zhenping rest assured? If it were me, I would just rebel. Rather than waiting for someone else to kill me first, I might as well draw my sword first. Success or failure aside, the important thing is to kill them first.

“That Pei guy is not a fool, how could he not know this? So I advise you to stay away from him, lest he bring trouble on yourself.”

When Yuwen Zhi said these words, his tone was relaxed, even with a hint of gloating pleasure. However, Xuyu was secretly frightened. This feeling continued until she entered the palace, and the little palace eunuch told her that the old father was waiting for her.

“Old Father” was a respectful title given to Zhao Zhongfang by the people in the palace. Upon hearing this, Xuyu put away her worries and hurried to Ziyun Palace with the eunuch. When she arrived at the palace steps, she saw Zhao Zhongfang dragging his crippled leg and walking anxiously around the hall behind the door, while constantly looking outside. When he saw her figure appear, he left the eunuch who was about to come up to support him and hurried towards Xuyu.

Xuyu hurried into the palace. Zhao Zhongfang ordered the palace eunuch to step aside and led her to the back. When he heard her asking about the emperor’s condition, he said in a low voice with a worried look on his face, “Last night, after the princess left the palace, His Majesty’s illness recurred. This old servant called the imperial physician and let His Majesty took medicine. He finally got a little better, but he didn’t sleep all night. No matter how this old servant persuaded him, he wouldn’t listen. He just kept his eyes open while waiting for the princess’ news. He only felt relieved when he learned that the princess had returned in the morning. Who knew that the pain flared up again. He couldn’t take food or medicine. I asked the Imperial Physician Hu to give him acupuncture to relieve the pain, but he wouldn’t let it. He wanted to take pills again. This servant persuaded him for the time being. Princess, please go and see him.”

Xuyu was extremely worried and regretful after hearing this.

If she hadn’t lost control last night and barged into the palace to ask those questions, causing what happened later, her father wouldn’t have gotten sick to this extent.

She hurried to the outer hall and saw five imperial doctors gathered together, discussing the medicine in a low voice. Suddenly, they saw Zhao Zhongfang leading the young court painter in. They all looked at them with puzzled expressions.

Xuyu didn’t care about all this. She walked past the crowd, opened the crystal curtain, and went straight into the vihara.

This was the emperor’s bedroom.

It was already bright outside, but the vihara was still closed off from all sides, with no sunlight visible. It was lit only by candlelight and filled with the smell of bitter medicine. There was no one else inside except the emperor. He was wearing an inner-clothes, lying on the innermost part of the bed, with a medicine bag pressed against his forehead to calm his spirit. His eyes were close, motionless, and only made a few slight groaning sounds.

In Xuyu’s childhood memories, her father had always as majestic as a god, a tough man. She had never seen him so weak and powerless. She ran to the bed and asked him what was wrong. The emperor opened his eyes with difficulty, saw that it was her, and stopped immediately, but his expression seemed to be more painful than before.

Xuyu felt extremely distressed and asked hurriedly, “Father, how are you feeling? Where does it hurt? Is it in your chest?”

She knew that the emperor had an old wound on his chest, which was caused by an arrow.

“It’s not just there… the whole body hurts…” the emperor closed his eyes and groaned.

Xuyu thought of herself when she fell down as a child, and she would always cry desperately, as if the louder she cried, the less pain she would feel. She hurriedly said, “Father, if you feel pain, just cried out, don’t bear it.” After saying that, she turned around and was about to call the imperial physician, but heard the emperor say weakly, “Father don’t want to see them… It makes Father angry seeing them… If the disease can be cured, it would have been cured long ago, why wait until now and let Father suffer half-dead all day long…”

Xuyu was so stirred by these words that her eyes instantly reddened, and she persuaded: “Just now Zhao Bandang said that Father wants to take pills again. Father, you have to be patient. You really can’t take pills anymore. No matter how good the imperial physician’s treatments are, they still need your cooperation. Father, you’ve always been like this. You don’t see a doctor when you are sick, and you just put it off. Now that you’ve ruined your body, you blame the imperial physicians for being useless. If something bad happens to you…”

She couldn’t hold it in any longer, and crystal tears welled up in her eyes. She paused, and afraid of being seen, she quickly lowered her head to wipe her tears.

She didn’t want to cry at this time, but the more she wiped away her tears, the more she shed them. Suddenly, she heard the emperor sigh twice: “Doesn’t it seem like Father getting better? It doesn’t hurt as much anymore…”

She raised her eyes and saw that the emperor had opened his eyes and was looking at her. The pain on his face was indeed much lighter.

“Is it really better?” Xuyu was still worried.

Imperial Physician Hu was proficient in acupuncture and could use needles to relieve some of the pain. If the pain was reduced to a tolerable level, and with her supervision, her father should be able to slowly get rid of the habit of taking pills to relieve pain whenever he gets sick.

“Imperial Physician Hu is outside. I’ll call him over. Let him take another look at you…” After saying that, she wiped her eyes, turned around and hurried out.

“No need, no need!”

The emperor’s face changed slightly when he heard this. He sat up suddenly, leaned forward and raised his hand to stop Xuyu.

Xuyu was pulled by the emperor, stopped and turned to look. The emperor took off the medicine bag on his forehead and threw it away. He also sat up and said with a smile: “Father’s pain is really gone! It’s all healed! No need to call Imperial Physician Hu!”

In a blink of an eye, he recovered from his dying state. Xuyu was relieved, but also surprised. She couldn’t help but look at him a few more times. She saw that the emperor suddenly frowned again, grabbed the edge of the bed, and pretended to slowly lie down, saying, “It seems that Father is still a little dizzy… Hao’er, help Father…”

At this moment, Xuyu’s mind was crystal clear, and felt furious. She roughly wiped away the lingering traces of tears on her face and said angrily, “Father, what are you doing? Do you think you’re three years old?”

The emperor was indeed unwell last night, and he recovered after a night of tossing and turning. In the morning, he was relieved to learn that his daughter had returned safely, but he was also troubled by the things she had asked him last night. He was afraid that she would still not give in after she came back, so he pretended to be sick in order to get away from it.

Seeing that he was found out, his face turned red. Fortunately, the vihara was dimly lit, so his daughter couldn’t see clearly. He pretended to be calm and said, “How can Father feels at ease after you run away in anger? It hurt all night last night, so how can it’s call lying? If you don’t believe it, go ask your good bandang!”

Xuyu looked at the emperor in front of her. His clothes were wrinkled and his hair and beard were unkempt. How could he still have the dignity of an emperor? While she was angry, she felt a little sorry for him. After thinking about it, she finally swallowed her anger and decided not to argue with him. She said with a stern face, “Just now, Zhao Bandang said that you didn’t take the medicine either.”

The emperor noticed that his daughter’s tone had calmed down, and hurriedly said, “Eat it right away. Bring it in.”

Xuyu went out. Zhao Zhongfang was waiting outside the vihara. When he heard Xuyu say that the emperor was fine and was going to take medicine, he breathed a sigh of relief and asked the imperial physicians to go back and bring back the medicine that had been kept warm.

Xuyu brought it in, and the emperor drank it. Zhao Zhongfang then asked the palace eunuch to bring a food tray, and when the palace eunuch left, he said with a smile on his face: “Princess, you haven’t had breakfast yet, right? Just accompany His Majesty to have some light meals.”

There was not much food on the table, but it was clean and delicious. There were two kinds of porridge, one sweet and one salty, the sweet one was almond porridge, the salty one was fish and mutton porridge, as well as two plates of cakes, several kinds of fresh vegetables and fruits. They were all the things Xuyu liked to eat when she was a child in Prince Ding Mansion.

The emperor stood up and sat down at the dining table, but he did not move his chopsticks and just looked at Xuyu.

She hesitated for a moment, and under Zhao Zhongfang’s expectant gaze, she finally walked over slowly and sat down with him.

Zhao Zhongfang then came up to serve. The father and daughter did not speak, and ate breakfast together again after many years. After the meal, they rinsed their mouths, cleared the table, and went back to the room. Xuyu went to extinguish the candles, drew up the curtains one by one, and opened the windows for ventilation.

At this time, Zhao Zhongfang came over with a comb and mirror, then cleaned the emperor’s face and combed his hair.

Xuyu watched quietly beside them, while the emperor sat back on the bed with his eyes half closed.

After all, he was already fifty years old, and probably because he had been tossing and turning all night last night, his face showed a hint of fatigue. As she looked at him, she walked up to him and motioned Zhao Zhongfang to hand her the comb.

Zhao Zhongfang was stunned at first, but soon understood. Feeling overjoyed, he hurriedly presented the rhinoceros comb.

Xuyu gently climbed onto the ned, knelt beside the emperor, and combed his hair.

In the past, she often combed Grandpa’s hair, and Grandpa always praised her for her dexterity. Now, just like combing Grandpa’s hair, she scattered the emperor’s hair, slowly combed it, and then tied it into a knot, only to find that the hair was too thin to hold a hairpin.

This situation reminded her of her childhood. When her father was working in the study, she would often sit on his lap and ask him to talk to her. He ignored her, so she pulled his beard. He felt so much pain but could do nothing.

She remembered that at that time her father had thick, black and shiny hair and beard. She never thought that one day, he would become an old man with sparse hair and beard like the one in front of her.

The morning sun entered the room, and the cool morning breeze fluttered the curtain nearby. The room was silent, except for a wisp of smoke rising slowly from the lid of a golden incense burner in the corner.

The emperor closed his eyes slightly and did not move.

Xuyu combed his hair more slowly. Finally, she put down the comb, picked up the jade hairpin, and with her nimble fingers, she gently inserted it into his bun.

After combing his hair, the emperor still did not move, as if he had fallen asleep while sitting.

Although it was summer, it was still early in the morning. Xuyu was afraid that the emperor would catch a cold. She was about to get out of bed to get a quilt, when she heard light footsteps outside and Zhao Zhongfang’s low voice.

“Your Majesty, the Crown Prince, the Imperial Tutor Minister Liu, and the Imperial Attendant Wei Juren came to ask for an audience. The Crown Prince’s confinement is over, they want to thank Your Majesty.”

Xuyu paused, lowered her eyes, and was about to get up in a hurry, but suddenly her hand felt heavy. A large hand with protruding joints reached out and grabbed it, preventing her from leaving.

She raised her eyes and saw the emperor slowly opening his eyes. There was a gleam in his eyes, and he didn’t look sleepy at all.

“Tell them to wait.”

The emperor said this, then turned to Xuyu, his eyes became gentle.

“No need to leave. Follow Father out and listen to what they want to say,” said the emperor.

Xuyu silently helped the emperor get up from the bed, fetched his outer robe, and helped him put them on. The emperor returned to his usual majestic and lofty appearance that people dared not look directly at. She followed him out, and when the emperor took his seat, she hid behind the screen beside the crystal curtain behind the emperor.

The current Crown Prince, Li Mao, entered the palace accompanied by his uncle Liu Ceye and his brother-in-law Wei Juren. Upon seeing the emperor, he quickly rushed forward, almost lunging, before kneeling at the emperor’s feet and bowing deeply. When he had finished his formal greetings, he lifted his face, eyes brimming with tears, and choked out that in those past days, obeying the emperor’s orders, he had secluded himself to reflect on his actions. Whenever he thought of the emperor’s cultivation of him and how he had let him down, he felt heartbroken and felt regretful. In the future, he would follow the emperor’s teachings and never disappoint the emperor again.

The emperor’s expression was indistinguishable, and he just nodded. Liu Ceye secretly observed and joined in the conversation. As usual, he first scolded himself for not fulfilling his duties as a tutor, then he noticed that the emperor was gradually showing impatience. He knew that his health had declined in recent years and he often had no patience to listen to his subjects’ long speeches in front of him. Every time they meet, they would only talk about the most important things.

“Zhen understands. What else?”

Sure enough, after a while, he was interrupted by the emperor. He stopped talking, kowtowed to express his gratitude, and then started talking about the main topic. He mentioned that Wei Juren has a daughter, and that an elder in the family, having seen Pei Xiaoyuan once somewhere, had continually spoken of him as a young talent. They had insisted that Wei Juren pay attention to this matter and consider a marriage alliance between the two families

“Because the elder in the family couldn’t let go of the idea, Wei Juren found himself unable to defy the wish. He came to this minister, asking whether this would be feasible. Pei’s son is an outstanding talent, truly one in a hundred, so naturally this minister has no objections. If a marriage could be arranged, it would indeed be a fine match. However, considering that Your Majesty holds this young man in high regard, and might have other intentions for his marriage, Wei Juren dared not make a decision on his own. Therefore, this minister takes this opportunity today to ask to see Your Majesty and ask for your advice.

“If Your Majesty can make the decision on this matter, or grant the marriage, it will be the blessing for three lifetimes for our family, and we will extremely grateful!” At this time, Wei Juren kowtowed and said solemnly.

The hall fell silent.

It was not the crown prince’s turn to speak on this matter, so he just listened quietly. Wei Juren’s face was full of expectation, while Liu Ceye lowered his head and did not move. For a long time, he did not hear the emperor speak. Finally, he became a little uneasy. He raised his eyes quietly and saw that the emperor’s usually cold face finally showed a hint of smile.

“The Wei family is a big family in Guanzhong, and the Pei family is a famous family in the east of the river. If you two can form an in-law relationship, why would Zhen object? You can handle this matter by yourselves, why bother asking Zhen? If it’s successful, it will not be difficult for Zhen to grant the marriage.”

The emperor’s reply was ambiguous, which made Liu Ceye a little disappointed, but in any case, it was not a slap in the face. This made him breathe a sigh of relief. He and Wei Juren said some words of thanks, and seeing that the emperor looked tired, they said goodbye and left.

The crown prince walked at the end, and when he was about to leave, he hesitated, then turned around, knelt respectfully in front of the emperor, kowtowed, and said with a sob: “What this son’s experience is like being reborn. Thank you, Father, for giving this son another chance. And…”

He wanted to say, “And Aunt wanted to accompany this son to pay respects to Father,” but suddenly remembered that Xioa Liu shi was disliked by the emperor for some reason. Although she was the empress, she had not seen the emperor for more than ten years. Although there was no explicit ban, everyone in the palace knew that the Ziyun Palace was a forbidden place for her to enter. He knew that if he said this, it would not only fail to win favor in front of the emperor, but would instead cause dislike, so he swallowed it back immediately.

“This son will learn from this lesson and never let Father down again!” He bowed his head and then walked out.

After everyone in the palace had left, the emperor turned around and watched his daughter slowly walk out from behind the curtain.

He was thinking about what Liu Ceye had just said.

He naturally understood Liu and Wei’s purpose, but since it involved the boy from the Pei family, the emperor was troubled again. He was afraid that his daughter would not understand again. He was thinking about how to explain to her, but she walked up to him and said softly, “Father, I forgot to tell you that I will not live in Yongning Mansion from today on. Please arrange a place for me temporarily, anywhere is fine. The palace is also fine.”

The emperor was stunned. He had never thought that she had gone out last night and came back as a different person. He did not have time to think about the reason, only breathed a sigh of relief and said hurriedly, “This is the best! Father has thought so too for a long time.

“Stay away from those men. Hao’er, let Father tells you, there is no good man in the world. They’re all fickle and unkind, driven solely by self-interest, saying one thing and doing another. None of them are worth your sadness.”

Xuyu smiled, lowered her eyes and said nothing. The emperor suddenly remembered something, waved his hand, called his daughter to his side and said: “Chang’an is hot and stuffy in the summer, it’s not a good place to live. Father will take you to Cangshan to escape the summer heat in a few days. You can relax, and don’t worry about anything else for the time being.”

Xuyu had been there with the old emperor when she was a child, and she knew that it was indeed a good place. They could avoid the scorching heat here and it should be good for the emperor’s health too.

“It’s up to you, Father,” she replied.

The emperor was very happy. After hesitating for a moment, he carefully asked a question he had always wanted to ask.

“Hao’er, don’t you want to be a princess again? The princess of my holy dynasty.”

Xuyu stared at the emperor and said, “I came back this morning just to ask Father, when is the right time.”

“As long as you want, any time is suitable.”

The emperor’s eyes flashed with joy that he tried hard to suppress. He slowly held his daughter’s hand and said in a deep voice.

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