Wish You All the Best - Chapter 70
Chapter 70
Pei Youan tracked the footprints through the snow, chasing all the way to the back of the mountain. He saw a black shadow ahead, moving with acrobatic agility, scaling the ten-foot-tall mountain wall like a spider.
Beyond that wall lay the old forest. Once the intruder escaped into the darkness, it would be impossible to track him in such a snowy night.
Without breaking stride, Pei Youan hurled his long sword with all his might. The blade streaked through the air like a striking snake. Just as the figure reached the top of the wall and was about to leap over to safety, the tip of the sword caught him, piercing his rear shoulder. The figure jolted, then tumbled from the wall to the ground.
A guard reached the scene shortly after. Seeing the man struggling to rise and attempting to flee again, the guard pinned him to the ground. Pei Youan hurried forward, knelt, and swiftly clamped the man’s jaw. With a sharp flick of his fingers, a faint "click" echoed—the man’s jaw was dislocated, and a bitten-through wax pill rolled from his mouth.
……
In the imperial bedchamber, the Empress, surnamed Zhou, remained awake all night.
Today was a morning court session, and though it was nearly five in the morning, the Emperor had not yet returned.
Her people had sent back no news either.
This was the second time since the Crown Prince’s wedding night that Xiao Lie had secretly slipped out of the palace in the dead of night.
Empress Zhou was certain that the place Xiao Lie visited that night must have been that specific location at Ci’en Temple.
She could also deduce that the Emperor’s departure tonight was, in nine cases out of ten, the same destination as before.
It was not that she was unaware of the consequences of spying on the Emperor should she be exposed, but she could not suppress her own cravings.
Princesses and noblewomen from Goryeo and Annam would soon be brought into the palace to be granted the title of concubine. Furthermore, after the spring, the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Clan Court would oversee a selection of palace maids. The inner court would continue to swell.
Empress Zhou understood that this was no longer the Manor of Prince Wuding; the days of the past twenty-plus years, where she had her husband all to herself, would never return. Beside the Emperor, there would soon be women younger and more beautiful than her. From now on, even if she continued to govern the inner court and held a lofty position, she alone would know the bitterness of it.
If that were all, she might have let it be. Empress Zhou was not so foolish as to risk everything just because the Emperor was expanding his harem.
For years, the heart-sickness born of suspicion had led her to scent a hint of abnormal danger in this otherwise ordinary act of the Emperor expanding his court.
It started with the Crown Princess’s reckless words, which sparked an unexpected disaster. Though it was barely smoothed over, the Crown Princess and the Crown Prince had clearly fallen out of favor with Xiao Lie ever since. Just as one wave subsided, another rose; her own brother’s methods were too extreme, and his failed attempt to claim merit left the Zhou family looking incompetent, once again implicating the Crown Prince.
In truth, at the beginning of Xiao Lie’s reign, there had been officials in the Ministry of Rites with nothing better to do who had cited ancient texts and submitted memorials suggesting the Emperor expand his harem. At the time, Xiao Lie had sent them all back, citing the instability of national affairs as his reason for having no interest in the harem.
The Emperor choosing to speak and open the harem at this time could not possibly be as simple as it appeared on the surface.
If the Emperor had only been dissatisfied before, then this moment might truly be the beginning of the Crown Prince’s peril.
Xiao Lie was in his prime; he had plenty of time. If he changed his mind, who in this world could stop him?
From the day he brought the sixteen-year-old Pei Youan to Wuding, perhaps out of a woman’s intuition, Empress Zhou had felt that Xiao Lie’s regard for this son of his so-called "old friend" was extraordinary.
And the root of all this, perhaps, lay in that courtyard at Ci’en Temple.
Now, even if only for the sake of her son, she had to get to the bottom of everything concerning the Emperor.
To ensure there would be no accidents, she had acted with extreme caution. Even the Crown Prince was kept in the dark. The person she had dispatched was a guard she had secretly employed since her days in Wuding; she was certain that if he failed, he would take his own life by poison on the spot.
Empress Zhou lay down fully dressed, finally drifting into a hazy sleep, only to be jolted awake by a nightmare. Discovering that dawn was breaking, she hurriedly summoned Nanny Lin to inquire about matters. The palace attendants set out on their orders, but a moment later, Nanny Lin did not enter; instead, the sound of footsteps echoed outside the hall.
Those footsteps were exceptionally heavy, striking the floor with a rhythmic cadence that drew closer and closer. They seemed laden with anger, vibrating against the eardrums.
In this imperial palace, who else walked like this?
Empress Zhou’s heart beat wildly. She scrambled off the phoenix bed and had only run a few steps when she saw the palace attendants kneeling in a sea on the floor. The floor-to-ceiling curtains rippled violently as they were swept aside, accompanied by the faint clatter of golden hooks falling to the ground. Xiao Lie’s figure appeared before her.
Empress Zhou stopped abruptly. Facing the two gloomy gazes Xiao Lie cast upon her, her heart sank, but she steeled herself and forced a smile: "Your Majesty is not attending the morning court; do you have business here?"
Xiao Lie said coldly: "You have quite the audacity to send someone to spy on me! From this moment on, you will move out of the Kunning Palace and relocate to the North Garden. Without my permission, you are not allowed to step out even half a step!"
Xiao Lie finished speaking and turned to stride away. Cui Yinshui led a few sturdy eunuchs, bowed to Empress Zhou, and said: "Your Ladyship, I must follow His Majesty’s decree. I ask that you leave the palace now so that I may escort you to the North Garden."
The North Garden lay hundreds of miles outside the imperial city, near the imperial mausoleums. Originally built by the Founding Emperor, the restricted garden was vast in area, but the palace chambers were primitive. In those days, every time he commemorated his ancestors, the Founding Emperor would take the royal family there to live a life of hardship for a month to honor them. After his passing, this tradition gradually fell into disuse, and the North Garden grew increasingly desolate. More than twenty years ago, Emperor Tianxi had moved there for nearly a year to escape a plague that had swept through the capital. Now, the North Garden was little more than a cold palace.
Empress Zhou’s hands and feet went cold, her face turning deathly pale. Watching the Emperor’s departing back, she suddenly let out a cry, pushed Cui Yinshui aside, chased after the Emperor, and grabbed his sleeve.
"What proof is there for such an accusation? I do not know what crime I have committed! Why would I spy on Your Majesty’s whereabouts? I have been framed! I am not afraid of a confrontation!"
Xiao Lie turned and stared at Empress Zhou, his eyes narrowing: "Do not say I have already investigated it. Even if there were no survivors, who else in the palace but you would know I left the palace last night?"
He nodded and sneered: "Now, in this vast inner court, only you and the Eastern Palace hold power. If it was not you, very well, then it must have been the work of the Eastern Palace. If you wish to stay, stay as you please—I shall have someone go and interrogate the Crown Prince!"
Xiao Lie pulled back his sleeve and strode away. Empress Zhou collapsed to the ground, reached out to grab the Emperor’s leg again, and cried out: "Your Majesty, this has nothing to do with the Crown Prince! It is my fault! I admit my error! I should not have been muddled and committed this wrong. I beg Your Majesty, for the sake of the twenty years I have served you, please spare me this once!"
The Emperor gritted his teeth and said: "Spying on the Emperor’s trail—that single act is enough for me to depose you from your position as Empress! I will not strip you of your title, but from this day forward, go there, nurse your illness well, and we shall never meet again!"
Xiao Lie wrenched his leg from the Empress’s grasp and marched angrily forward.
Empress Zhou shouted: "Your Majesty! When the late Emperor passed away, your elder brother grew suspicious of you and confined you to Wuding at the start of his reign. In the second year of Tianxi, you left the borders in secret without even telling me where you were going, and you did not return for half a year. If I had not hidden everything for you back then, could you have today?"
Xiao Lie shouted furiously: "When you colluded to deceive the Emperor and defied the heavens in the name of witchcraft to protect the Crown Prince, did you really think I was old and dazed enough to be manipulated? At the time, I only considered our twenty years of blood ties and allowed you to repent! I did not expect you to show no restraint at all! Today, I am showing you this final shred of face only out of respect for our past! Say no more. Go—and from this day forward, never return to the palace!"
Xiao Lie strode away.
Empress Zhou lay on the ground, staring at the Emperor’s retreating back, tears streaming down her face.
Cui Yinshui waited a moment, then signaled to the eunuchs. Two of them stepped forward, knelt on either side, and moved to hoist the Empress from the ground, saying: "Your Ladyship, please forgive us; we are only following orders. Do not blame us. It is best to go quickly so as not to further incense His Majesty..."
Empress Zhou raised her hand, and several "slaps" echoed as the eunuchs’ faces were struck. Having struck them, she steadied herself and slowly climbed from the ground, wiped the tears from her face, glared coldly at Cui Yinshui, and said: "No matter how low I have fallen, I am still the Empress of the Great Wei! I know how to walk; do you think you lowly slaves can trample upon me?"
Cui Yinshui said "Ah," slapped his own face, bowed, and said: "I am guilty; I punish myself! How would I dare treat Your Ladyship with disrespect? It is for the best that you are willing to move yourself; I am deeply grateful." He straightened up, his face turning cold, and shouted toward the outside: "Why are you all still kneeling? His Majesty has decreed: Empress Zhou, deeply moved by the drought across the provinces and the hardships of the people, has voluntarily relocated to the West Garden to pray for blessings. Why have you not risen to prepare for Her Ladyship’s move?"
The palace attendants on the ground looked as if they had lost their parents as they rose one after another. Empress Zhou’s face was deathly pale. She turned to take one last look at the palace she had inhabited for so long, and finally, stepped forward.
She walked out of the Kunning Gate and saw the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess kneeling by the side of the road to bid her farewell.
She fixed her gaze upon the Crown Prince, staring unblinkingly. Though she could not speak, she believed her son would surely understand the words of her heart.
With one slight slip, she had enraged the Emperor and was driven from the central palace to the West Garden.
The Emperor of today was no longer the Prince of Yunzhong in Wuding. His imperial majesty was unfathomable, and he could turn heartless in an instant.
Just now, when she heard the cold words of her banishment to the West Garden, for a fleeting moment, she almost could not hold back; the resentment and unwillingness she had suppressed for over twenty years threatened to spill out.
But in the end, she forced herself to swallow it down. Everything was for the sake of the Crown Prince.
Now, she needed her son to be more patient. At the very least, as long as he could not confront the master of this world, he must not lose his composure.
In those days, when Emperor Tianxi held his wedding, the young Xiao Lie also obeyed the late Emperor’s decree, married her, and fathered a son with her. For over twenty years, even if he had no other women by his side, Empress Zhou knew clearly that this man had a heart of iron and stone; he had never loved her and would never be moved by her tears. Now that he had sent her away, before long, new people would enter the palace. If not for her son, perhaps she would never return to this palace of the central court for the rest of her life.
Fortunately, there was still the Crown Prince.
Sooner or later, she would certainly return, walk through this North Main Gate of the central palace, and reclaim everything that originally belonged to her.
She stared at the Crown Prince in this way, step by step, as she passed before him.
Sadly, the irony is that fate often plays tricks on people. It gives them hope, yet in the end, it is often just to let them experience the doubled pain of seeing that hope shattered.
At this moment, Empress Zhou did not know that this was indeed the last time she would ever walk through the Kunning Gate.
……
Xiao Yintang stared at his mother’s gradually departing back, his gaze gloomy. His shoulders shifted slightly as he moved to rise from the ground, but Zhang Fengtong pressed down on his hand.
"You must not be impulsive! The Empress Mother is already lost. Even if you go before His Majesty to speak for her, he will not listen; he might instead vent his anger on you. Fortunately, her position as Empress remains intact. The Crown Prince must be patient and wait for the right moment to act. I believe this is also the Empress Mother’s wish."
Zhang Fengtong whispered quickly.
Xiao Yintang glanced at her, brushed her hand away, stood up, turned, and headed straight toward the Eastern Palace.
……
That same day, the entire court of civil and military officials learned that the Empress had moved to the West Garden to pray for the people, and they were all shocked. The Ministry of Rites issued a formal statement. The officials whispered among themselves, and after speculating, although they remained in the dark, they vaguely sensed that after Zhou Jin, Empress Zhou had also become completely intolerable to the Emperor.
Everyone avoided the Zhou family gates. The Zhang family, perhaps mourning their own kind, had Master Zhang citing illness and staying out of sight. Beneath the calm of the imperial court, invisible undercurrents surged in silence.
In the Pei family’s main house, however, things had become chaotic over the past few days.
Though the Empress’s move was called "praying for blessings," who did not know that the Emperor could no longer tolerate her? To move against her was equivalent to shaming the Crown Prince. It was said that new concubines would soon enter the palace, and what the future held was truly unpredictable.
Madam Xin regretted having let her son marry Zhou Jiao’e, but the rice was already cooked. Now she could only accept her bad luck. While she dared not vent her anger on Zhou Jiao’e as before, she was no longer as accommodating, and her expression was quite ugly. Pei Xiuzhi had lost all patience; Zhou Jiao’e’s threats while clutching her belly were of no use. The room was filled with weeping and noise day and night. In the end, not wanting the second branch to secretly laugh at them, Madam Xin ordered the courtyard gate locked, forbidding Zhou Jiao’e from leaving under the pretext of resting for her pregnancy. Zhou Jiao’e finally seemed to realize that her main support had suddenly been cut away. Thinking that she would have to rely on the son in her belly in the future, she gradually restrained herself and began to tend to her pregnancy, and the house finally grew quiet.
The end of the year passed in this hurried, chaotic manner.
As spring arrived, Jiafu began to pack her luggage.
A few months prior, a letter had come from Madam Meng in Quanzhou, mentioning that their grandmother, the elder Madam Hu, had caught a cold at the end of the summer. Though she recovered, her health had seemed frail since autumn. At the time, back at the Pei household, the Old Madam was also critically ill, and Jiafu had no way to split herself in two, so she could only write a reply and send some medicinal herbs to express her filial heart. Now that the New Year had passed and Pei Youan was at home observing mourning, he finally had no official duties and had emerged from the period of intense mourning. Learning that Madam Hu’s health was not as it once was, he had taken the initiative a few days ago to suggest that they take advantage of the arrival of spring to accompany Jiafu back to Quanzhou for a visit.
In a short while, in the three-month-old spring of Quanzhou, the city inside and out would be covered in blossoming kapok trees—a sight impossible to see in the capital. Jiafu held deep feelings for the land that had raised her. Toward the end of last year, she had harbored such a longing, but because she had just emerged from the mourning period and Pei Youan had been busy for the past few months—though he closed his doors to guests, spending his days in the study with books, paintings, or teaching her to read—she felt he had his own worries. He never revealed them before her, so she found it difficult to speak, keeping it buried in her heart. She never expected that he would have noticed it, and taken the initiative to accompany her back to Quanzhou.
Jiafu was joyful and excited. She packed her things early, chose an auspicious day, and hoped day and night for their departure. Finally, the day arrived. The weather was fair, and she took her leave of Madam Xin alongside Pei Youan. With Jiafu’s Nanny Liu, Tan Xiang, and Muxiang, along with Pei Youan’s Yang Yun and several other attendants—a total of more than a dozen people—they arrived at the wharf, boarded a great ship, and set their sails to head south, meeting the southern wind that already carried the breath of spring.