Wish You All the Best - Chapter 104
Chapter 104
On the twenty-third day, three days before the Emperor’s fiftieth birthday celebration, Jiafu and her son, Ci'er, arrived quietly in the capital without alerting any outsiders.
It was already late at night. The carriage carrying the mother and son entered the Imperial Palace directly through the Chang'an Left Gate. When they reached the Chengtian Gate, they alighted and transferred into a soft-sedan chair enclosed on all sides. Carried by palace attendants, they headed north into the Duan Gate, passed through the path between the Altar of Land and Grain on the left and the Imperial Ancestral Temple on the right, crossed the Meridian Gate, and continued westward. In the deep of night, one tightly closed palace gate after another opened before them. Finally, the group passed through the West Flowery Gate and arrived at the West Garden. When the drum for the third watch struck, they were delivered to a palace garden called Banana Garden.
In the Banana Garden, flowers and trees grew lushly, and white bridges spanned clear, rippling waters. The garden ponds were connected to the Taiye Pond, in which hundreds of colorful koi fish, each a foot long, were kept. On a clear day, if one stood on the bridge and scattered fish bait onto the water’s surface, the koi would compete to swim and leap, creating a truly delightful scene. The palace chambers prepared for the mother and son were clearly meticulously arranged in advance: the floors were covered in cloud-patterned carpets, the brocade curtains were resplendent, jade screens shone with embroidered clouds, and incense wafted from a Boshan burner.
The journey from the palace gate to this place in the sedan chair had been quite long. Ci'er had fallen soundly asleep in his mother’s arms while Jiafu was still holding him in the chair. Jiafu settled her son down and, that night, lay down fully clothed beside him. Despite the fatigue of travel, she felt not a trace of drowsiness and remained awake until dawn.
The next morning, Ci'er woke up well-rested. Cui Yinshui was already waiting outside the hall to serve, but Jiafu did not utilize him, simply telling him to return. Cui Yinshui knelt on the ground. Jiafu did not call for other palace attendants to serve them either; she dressed her son, washed his face, and combed his hair herself. Once they were ready and had eaten breakfast, Ci'er curiously looked around. Upon learning that this was the grand building called the "Imperial Palace," he remembered the "Royal Grandfather" he had never met, whom the high-ranking eunuch had mentioned, and asked, "Mother, when can I see Royal Grandfather?"
Just as he finished speaking, Jiafu heard Li Yuangui’s voice outside: "Madam, His Majesty has arrived."
Jiafu turned her head and, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, saw a figure enter. The silhouette appeared at the threshold of the hall. The person walked slowly inward for a few steps and then stopped.
Xiao Lie had come. Wearing a black gauze cap and a round-collared, narrow-sleeved robe embroidered with golden dragons on the chest and shoulders, he stood still where he was.
Jiafu was slightly startled.
She had left the capital for Suye City in the autumn of the second year of Zhaoping. Now, it was the spring of the sixth year of Zhaoping. Three or four years was not a short time, nor was it particularly long, but the Emperor looked much older. Perhaps it was the excessive worry over state affairs in recent years, but gray hair had already begun to sprout at his temples.
In Jiafu’s original impression, the Emperor should still have been a man in his middle years. But at this moment, seeing him for the first time, she felt that the Emperor had truly aged, no longer possessing the vitality of his prime.
Jiafu looked for only a second before immediately lowering her head. Leading Ci'er, she knelt with him and kowtowed to the man before her, addressing him as "Your Majesty."
Xiao Lie’s gaze fell upon the small figure kneeling beside Jiafu, staring fixedly, motionless. A moment later, seeing the child quietly lift his head to steal a look at him, his bright eyes filled with curiosity and confusion, he smiled at the boy and beckoned to him.
Ci'er crawled up from the ground and walked toward the man dressed in yellow with a jade belt. He stopped several paces away, tilted his head slightly, and stared at Xiao Lie for a moment before hesitating and asking in a small voice, "Are you my Royal Grandfather?" His voice was youthful, still carrying a childish softness, yet his demeanor was extremely solemn.
Xiao Lie’s voice trembled slightly: "Are you Ci'er?"
Ci'er nodded: "Ci'er is my nickname. My formal name is Pei Yiyuan. 'The kite flies to the heavens, the fish leaps in the deep'—that Yiyuan."
Xiao Lie gazed at the child before him, suppressing the infinite agitation surging within his heart. He walked toward him and finally stopped right in front of him.
"Pei Yiyuan, I am indeed your Royal Grandfather!"
Xiao Lie bent down, scooped the child up, and lifted him high above his head.
Jiafu looked up and saw her son’s small body held high above the Emperor’s head. Her son let out a happy laugh that rang out like a bell, echoing in the corners of the hall. She could not help but feel increasingly terrified.
She could not help but recall the last time she had met the Emperor. When she had rushed to the capital to plead for an audience, the Emperor’s lingering anger had not yet subsided, and during her audience, he had even interrogated her about exactly what she knew.
She had managed to deflect it then. Perhaps the Emperor had truly believed her, or perhaps he had not—it had simply been an unspoken understanding.
Several years had passed. The day Li Yuangui had come to collect her and Ci'er and had addressed Ci'er as "Royal Grandfather" had already shocked her. Now, the Emperor was recognizing Ci'er directly in front of her, without the slightest attempt at concealment.
What exactly did he intend to do?
As if sensing her shock, Xiao Lie slowly set Ci'er down, looked at Jiafu, and said, "I have received your birthday gift. Ci'er is my grandson—my own flesh and blood. You have raised him well. You may rise. Since you have come, you may stay here at ease." Having said this, he looked at the child with a smile: "Ci'er, Royal Grandfather will take you to play where I live. Will you come?"
Ci'er was about to nod, but hesitated and turned to look at Jiafu, running back to her: "Mother, Royal Grandfather wants to take me to play at his place. Can I go?"
Jiafu met the two sharp gazes the Emperor cast upon her and then looked at her son, whose eyes were filled with anticipation. She nodded slowly.
Ci'er turned happily and said to Xiao Lie, "Royal Grandfather, Mother gave her permission!"
He then looked back at Jiafu: "Mother, after I am done playing with Royal Grandfather, I will come back to keep you company."
After he finished speaking, as if remembering something, he ran back in quickly and ran out holding that chess box.
Jiafu watched as Xiao Lie took her son’s hand and led him bouncing and skipping out of the hall door. Watching his silhouette gradually disappear from view, she could not help but fall into a daze.
...
After Xiao Lie finished the morning court, he led Ci'er to the Imperial Study and dismissed the attendants. Li Yuangui, his face full of smiles, personally presented twelve plates of dried fruits—longans, lychees, walnut kernels, eight-treasure candies, pickled plums, dates, and chestnuts—and six plates of fresh fruits—apples, pears, and grapes—before withdrawing, leaving only the grandfather and grandson together.
Xiao Lie beckoned for Ci'er to come over. Seeing him holding the chess box and staring at his face without blinking, he smiled and asked, "Ci'er, why are you looking at Royal Grandfather like that?"
Ci'er said, "Mother told me before that Royal Grandfather is not the same as ordinary people. How are you different, Royal Grandfather?"
Xiao Lie was stunned. He touched his own face and laughed out loud, scooping Ci'er up onto the long daybed where he usually spent his time, which featured three-sided sandalwood railings and mother-of-pearl cloud-dragon screens. He laughed, "Your mother is wrong! Royal Grandfather is no different from ordinary people. When I cannot see Ci'er, I miss you, too."
"That man without a beard also said that Royal Grandfather was sick, which is why you called for Ci'er and Mother to come see you. Are you feeling better now, Royal Grandfather?"
Xiao Lie laughed heartily again and nodded: "When Royal Grandfather sees Ci'er, all the sickness is gone."
Ci'er looked happy. Xiao Lie looked at the box in his arms and asked with a smile, "What is Ci'er holding?"
Ci'er hurriedly placed the box on a small table on the daybed, opened the lid carefully, took out the chess pieces one by one, and said, "This is the birthday present Father gave me; Father made it himself. Would you like to play chess, Royal Grandfather? If you don't know how, Ci'er will teach you."
"Good, good!"
Xiao Lie nodded hurriedly, climbed onto the daybed, and sat cross-legged opposite Ci'er.
Ci'er unfolded the board and set up the pieces for both sides one by one. As he set them up, he taught Xiao Lie the moves, his expression serious and earnest.
Xiao Lie gazed at the busy little person opposite him. While feeling comforted, a look of final determination gradually appeared in his eyes.
"Pei Yiyuan, in three days, Royal Grandfather will be fifty years old. At that time, before the Meridian Gate of the Imperial Palace, there will be a Ceremony of Presenting Captives. Those captives are all Japanese pirates who have harmed the people of our Great Wei’s coastal regions for decades, murdering and burning, committing every evil imaginable. Now, those pirates have all been wiped out, and the envoys of the Japanese nation are trembling in fear, having submitted a confession of their crimes. At that time, before the Meridian Gate, I will order all those people to be beheaded to show the might of our nation and to sacrifice to the souls of our heroes. Pei Yiyuan, are you afraid?"
Ci'er’s face slowly flushed red, and he opened his eyes wide: "Pei Yiyuan is not afraid! My father killed countless bad people in Suye City! Pei Yiyuan wants to grow up soon and kill bad people with my father!"
"Good! I ask you again: when the time comes, are you willing to accompany Royal Grandfather up to the Meridian Gate to witness this grand ceremony?"
"Pei Yiyuan is willing!"
Ci'er clutched the chess piece in his hand tightly and nodded.
Xiao Lie laughed loudly again, the sound shaking the tiles of the hall: "Good! Then Royal Grandfather has a deal with you. When the time comes, Royal Grandfather will take you up to the Meridian Gate tower, and you will help Royal Grandfather give the order to slaughter all those scoundrels who dared to offend our Great Wei!”