A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 21

The hunting grounds were patrolled by columns of the Imperial Guards and the Sixteen Guards, with sentries and security checkpoints dotting the inner and outer perimeters.

Following the announcement of the migration order, many wealthy merchants and gentry traveled long distances, carrying countless conspicuous treasures that drew the attention of bandits.

Banditry had become unusually rampant in recent days.

Chen Liangyu was not assigned to guard duty today, so she walked around to observe. Outside the hunting park’s temporary palace, Xing Rui, dressed in the Imperial Guards’ armor, wore a sullen expression, looking as if he was about to cry from grievance. Gao Guan walked past him and quietly scolded him about something.

Chen Liangyu stepped up and patted Xing Rui’s shoulder, “What’s the matter?”

“Boss, do you know how awful the things they are saying are? They say I clung to the right leg, and when one person achieves greatness, even their chickens and dogs ascend to heaven. But why does no one ask if the chickens and dogs are willing to ascend to heaven?”

Gao Guan snorted twice, unwilling to listen to his unambitious excuses anymore. He clasped his hands behind his back and retorted, “Forget it. You haven’t swept that ground very clean either. Willing or not, you’ve ascended. The imperial relatives and nobility are resting inside. This spot is close to the Noble Consort’s resting chambers. If you stand here with that sour face, won’t it bring bad luck if a noble person sees you?” He then flattered Chen Liangyu, “Commander, this boy listens to you, help me talk some sense into him. I have duties to attend to; I don’t have your leisurely life.”

“You go on.” She, however, did not desire this leisurely life.

Gao Guan was extremely displeased with Xing Rui and did not forget to reprimand him before leaving: “Why is this boy so single-minded? The Imperial Guards in the capital have always been selected only from the children of aristocratic families. A commoner like you would be beheaded just for getting near the palace! If it weren’t for the reorganization of the Sixteen Guards and the shortage of men, it wouldn’t be your turn! And you’re still feeling wronged!”

After the division of powers in the Southern Palace (Nan Ya), it became a combination of the Fubing (Militia) and the Imperial Guards. The Sixteen Guards were restructured into four directorates (Fu) and twelve guards (Wei), collectively known as the Sixteen Guard Directorates (Fu).

The four directorates were the Left and Right Qianniu Directorates and the Left and Right Jianmen Directorates, which commanded the inner army. Among them, the Left and Right Qianniu Directorates were the Emperor’s close personal guards, and the Left and Right Jianmen Directorates managed the palace gates. Because the old name was easier to say, everyone habitually referred to the four directorates as “Guards” (Wei) in conversation.

That is, the Left and Right Qianniu Guard and the Left and Right Jianmen Guard.

Gao Guan was appointed the Grand General of the Left Qianniu Guard, serving as a close personal guard to the imperial family and relatives. Chen Liangyu was granted the title of Grand General of the Twelve Guards, leading the Fubing to garrison the capital.

However, the Fubing served as a military reserve force. In peacetime, the court was reluctant to issue rations, only distributing farmland to them. After their daily drills, they would farm and sustain themselves like ordinary farmers, only to be mobilized during wartime. Under this arrangement, the Grand General of the Twelve Guards was merely a “remote commander” in peacetime—an empty honorary title. They were not even guaranteed command authority during war; the Emperor would typically appoint a temporary Field Marshal for the expedition.

Although her position and status were nominally still above Gao Guan’s, as he said, she was still a “leisurely official.”

Emperor Xuanyuan’s elevation of her was merely superficial; he had no intention of letting her wield real power.

Princess Jiangning’s warning had been overly cautious. She currently lacked the qualifications to be an enemy of the Crown Prince’s faction.

“Why don’t you want to be an Imperial Guard?” she asked.

Xing Rui lowered his head and said, “Everyone has their proper place. My parents are commoners, and I am just an ordinary person. I don’t have any special skills. Asking me to be an Imperial Guard… I don’t have the diamond drill, so I shouldn’t take on the porcelain job.”

A commoner? Chen Liangyu raised an eyebrow.

The Imperial Guards of the Great Lǐn indeed were, as Gao Guan said, selected from the sons of aristocratic families, or at the very least, from military households whose ancestors or fathers had served as centurions or chiliarchs in the army. Xing Rui had arrived at the Southern Palace a few days before her, so she hadn’t paid attention to how he got there.

It now seemed there was a story behind it.

Converting a farm household to a military household was not difficult, but converting a farm household to a military household and then transferring them to the Southern Palace, an agency guarding the capital, required the authority of a third-rank Vice Minister of the Ministry of War.

Furthermore, there was no one else transferred to the Southern Palace in the same batch as Xing Rui.

In other words, the Ministry of War went to all that trouble just to transfer Xing Rui over.

Moreover, the young man was clearly unwilling, as he had accidentally poured a full pot of hot tea on Gao Guan right after arriving, resulting in his demotion to sweeping duty.

Gao Guan frequently looked back at them as he walked, sensing something. He returned and pulled Chen Liangyu aside, whispering a piece of advice, “Commander, his parents really are just vegetable farmers. Since he can be in the Southern Palace, there must be a reason for it. It’s not necessary to know everything too clearly; being a little clueless isn’t a bad thing.”

Chen Liangyu already had a rough idea in her mind.

She took Gao Guan’s advice and did not press the issue. Just as he said, there was no need to know everything too clearly.

“You don’t want to get involved in the royal disputes?” she cut to the heart of the matter.

Xing Rui nodded, still hanging his head.

“I’m the only son my parents have. I still have to support them in their old age.”

Chen Liangyu clapped a hand on his back. Xing Rui immediately straightened his head and stood ramrod straight.

“Fulfill your duty. There are bandit troubles in the Xiling area, only thirty li from the hunting grounds. Be diligent in your guard duty. Once the newly arrived recruits are properly trained, I’ll write a note asking the Ministry of War to remove you from the newly added military household registry and send you back to sweeping. The Noble Consort is not well, don’t bring her bad luck with a gloomy face.”

She had long heard that the Noble Consort was frail. Today, she had seen her being helped out of her carriage from afar—she was truly tender and boneless, delicate as a willow in the wind.

Lady He had some old acquaintances with the Noble Consort. When Chen Liangyu arrived, her mother had entrusted her to visit the Noble Consort if the opportunity arose. However, the Noble Consort refused to see outsiders. Her health was originally unsuitable for accompanying the Emperor, yet she still came to the hunting grounds with His Majesty.

Chen Liangyu glanced at the high wall in that direction, trying to picture the Noble Consort’s face in her mind, but the image that surfaced was Princess Jiangning’s.

A daughter resembles her mother; it was probably close enough.

Just as she was about to leave, a young eunuch rushed out, “Commander Chen, the Noble Consort requests your presence in the inner chambers.”

Led by the eunuch, she entered the walled area. A faint scent of medicine permeated the sleeping chambers. The Noble Consort was reclining on a soft couch, looking soft and delicate. She was richly dressed, her hair neatly combed and adorned with pearls and jade ornaments.

“Your servant, Liangyu, sends regards to the Noble Consort on behalf of my mother.”

“Come closer.” The Noble Consort extended her hand and said gently, “I have not yet thanked you for rescuing Jiangning from the bandits.”

“Your Ladyship is too kind. It was merely my duty.”

Finally, up close, she could clearly see that ethereal face.

Beautiful, a beauty like utter stillness, devoid of life.

Her skin was pallid. Not a translucent white, but the white of someone constantly confined to a sickbed, hidden from the sun.

She was sickly.

Yet, a person so sickly could still possess such captivating beauty.

This meeting gave credence to the popular story of how the current Emperor, in his youth, had flown into a rage and forced a marriage for the most beautiful woman in Yongdu.

The Noble Consort took Chen Liangyu’s hand and spoke warmly. She held a exquisite hand warmer, and her palm was warm. “You really resemble Yunzhou, but you look a bit more like Chen Yuanqing. Jinge, what do you say?”

Aunt Jinge, who stood beside her, examined Chen Liangyu and smiled tenderly, fine lines creasing the corners of her eyes. “Your Ladyship is right, she does resemble the Marquis of Xuanping more.”

The Noble Consort’s eyes held a gentle smile, and her speech was light.

It was rumored that she suffered from madness and lived in seclusion in a remote palace, often failing to recognize people. But she was clearly normal, only overly frail.

“Back then, I and Yunzhou, that is, your mother, were close friends in the inner chambers. We often competed for the empty title of ‘First Female Scholar.’ Later, Yunzhou revised your maternal grandfather, Duke He’s, personally authored military treatise, The Six Scrolls of the He Clan, into a finalized book. I forget who ultimately decided it, but the title of ‘First Female Scholar’ was given to Yunzhou.”

So, the initial draft of The Six Scrolls of the He Clan was revised by her mother.

It was those two paper-bound military treatises that brought disaster upon her maternal grandfather’s family that year.

A forged copy fell into someone’s hands, who then fabricated evidence, accusing the Duke Zhenguo’s residence of colluding with the enemy and plotting rebellion. When He Yunzhou married in haste, she burned the entire hidden library, and from then on, the He Clan’s military strategies were never again committed to paper for transmission.

Aunt Jinge smiled and said, “But they gave the title of ‘First Beauty’ to you, Miss. It was a balanced decision, favoring neither side.”

“Beauty is the most fleeting of things. Why would I compete for that title?”

The Noble Consort also smiled.

“At that time, though your father and mother were not formally engaged, they were a couple tacitly approved by the world. Later, during the chaos, Chen Yuanqing went to the front lines. That stubborn fellow said that a man who goes to war might be wrapped in a horsehide shroud any day, so he was reluctant to marry Yunzhou. Yunzhou waited and waited, until she became an old maid. Can a girl keep delaying? With that delay, the best years of her life passed by.”

After so many years, one could still hear the Noble Consort’s deep dissatisfaction with the young Marquis of Xuanping, as she did not even use his formal title or rank, referring to him directly by his name.

A person who had suppressed their feelings for too long suddenly opened up and poured out and recounted the past, which did not seem like a good sign.

But apart from listening, she seemed unable to do anything else.

Unlike Princess Jiangning’s subtly aggressive nature, the Noble Consort was genuinely mild-tempered and passive. Despite the collapse of her clan and years of cold shoulder from her husband, there was no trace of resentment in her.

She simply sat there, smiling, as if recounting a story that happened to someone else.

“Speaking of which, my fate and your mother’s, neither was spared. All the men in my clan died defending the city when it was breached. A few years later, your grandfather was falsely accused of colluding with Northern Yong and plotting rebellion, leading to the destruction of his family. Yunzhou and I, in our youth, competed for everything. When both our families fell into misfortune, we stopped competing with each other.”

She had spoken a great deal, detailing her youth. She avoided all mention of anything after entering the palace and did not speak a single word about the Emperor.

Aunt Jinge repeatedly reminded the Noble Consort that she should rest, but she was speaking with enthusiasm, and she would not stop even when the excitement triggered a cough.

As she spoke, the underlying color in her eyes turned sorrowful.

“Child, I have a favor to ask of you today.”

Chen Liangyu immediately said, “Your Ladyship is too kind. Please command me.”

The Noble Consort held Chen Liangyu’s hand even tighter.

But she was so weak that no matter how tightly she held it, she had no strength.

“In this world, Jiangning is my only bond. Originally, I did not need to worry, as she was being raised by the Crown Prince. But now, the Eastern Palace…”

She paused, swallowing the words that should not have been spoken.

“I have lived in the deep palace for many years and no longer have any old friends I can entrust things to. After much thought, only the long-ago bond of sisterhood with your mother can be brought up. Seeing you today, I want to borrow that friendship to make some plans for Jiangning.”

She started coughing again. A moment later, she held the handkerchief she had used to cover her mouth in her hand. Chen Liangyu clearly saw bloodstains on the handkerchief.

“Jiangning, she really likes you. I want to entrust you to look after Jiangning in the future, protect her, and not let anyone bully her.”

Chen Liangyu was still in a daze when she left the warm chamber, which was saturated with the smell of medicine. Aunt Jinge came out to see her off, turning back to the chamber only after she had walked a few steps away.

Feeling a slight chill in the chamber, Aunt Jinge asked a small maidservant to add another brazier and took a white fox fur blanket to wrap around the Noble Consort, attending to her with meticulous care. “Your Ladyship, though Miss Chen is young and promising, she will eventually marry. How can she spare the time to look after the Princess when she is confined to the inner chambers of a noble family?”

The Noble Consort was helped to lie down, her spirits flagging after speaking so much.

“You have been by my side for many years and have witnessed a lot, both big and small, yet you haven’t noticed? That child walks with a confident stride, her back straight and her waist taut. One look tells you that Yunzhou and her husband never intended to train their daughter into a deep-courtyard woman of propriety and virtue. They are training her to be a great commander. What they are seeking for her is not a husband, but a future.”

She covered her chest, frowned, and coughed softly. After she calmed her breathing, she sighed, “Why wasn’t she a boy? What a pity. If she were a boy, Jiangning would have someone to depend on for the rest of her life.”