A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 35

Xun Shuheng was confined to the Vermilion Cloud Terrace (Jiangxiao Terrace).

It was a ladies’ chamber specially built for her by Lady Xun, a privilege none of her other sisters shared. The name Jiangxiao (Vermilion Cloud, High Heaven) expressed the family’s greatest hope for Xun Shuheng.

They wished for her to achieve a phoenix-like rebirth, soar straight to the Ninth Heaven, and win supreme glory for the family.

Xianyu and her several close maids were originally scheduled to be sold off. Only after Xun Shuheng’s repeated pleas and a vow to the heavens that she would never sneak out to a wine house for a drink again were they leniently punished, transferred to other courtyards, and assigned menial duties.

When Chen Liangyu ascended the tower, she noticed that none of the maids currently serving Xun Shuhang were familiar faces.

“Liangyu, you’re here.”

Xun Shuheng greeted her as usual. With her smooth hands, she skillfully threaded a needle for embroidery. What she held seemed to be a pair of shoe tops.

She was still quiet and graceful.

She ate and drank as usual, as if the confinement had never happened.

Chen Liangyu mentioned that the Emperor had banned the Discourse on Women and told her to dispose of the copy she had.

“Just read it and keep it in your heart,” she advised.

Xun Shuhang seemed a little distracted, not listening to what she was saying.

She pushed aside the embroidery basket in front of her, rested her chin on her arm, and said, “Liangyu, if I wasn’t a Xun family daughter, would I be freer?”

“That year, when the Marquis returned victorious, you rode a red-maned horse, accompanying your elder brother and the Marquis. I watched you from the railings on the second floor of the small studio that day—so proud and unrestrained, so full of youthful spirit.”

“Do you know? I’ve been taking you as my rival since I was young. Father wanted me to surpass you in every way. Father said that the Crown Princess would either be me or you. The first time I saw you that day, you did nothing but ride your horse and gallop away, yet I felt a tiny bit of jealousy. I didn’t know a woman could live like you—you could ride a horse, wear armor, and show your face without a veil.”

“When I was drunk and ran into you that day and called out your name, I didn’t expect you not to recognize me. How could you not recognize me? I’ve been secretly competing with you for so many years; it makes me feel like a joke, performing a solo act. Father spent his life competing with the Marquis—in official rank, in the Emperor’s favor, in children—vying for supremacy in every aspect. In the end, only one side was serious about the contest. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

“As the daughter of the Prime Minister, I was born to enter the Imperial City. Like many daughters of famous families, I’ve been taught the ways of serving the sovereign since childhood. Marrying into the palace is my destined path, my fated destiny. I originally thought you were the same as me, the same as all the noble young ladies in the world—learning the formalities, studying the sovereign’s preferences, waiting for the selection, and willingly stepping into that gilded cage, then personally locking the door, confining myself within, all for the prosperity of the family and to pave the way for the official careers of the men in the paternal clan.”

But Chen Liangyu did not follow this conventional path.

After a brief jealousy, she began to admire her, then sought to befriend her, and later, wished to become her.

“I don’t want to be the Crown Princess, and I don’t want to be the Empress.”

She saw through her destiny. She didn’t want to submit, yet she had to. When the honor and prosperity of the family were laid before her, she had no choice.

She could only walk the path her father had chosen for her.

Xun Shuheng could not continue speaking, her eyes filled with sorrow.

“If I wasn’t a Xun family daughter, perhaps I could try to choose my own beloved!”

Chen Liangyu also leaned on the other side of the table. “A Chen family daughter might not be able to marry her own beloved either; she still has to enter the palace and be offered up to be scorned.”

Xun Shuheng lifted the unfinished shoe pattern from the basket. By the style, it was a pair of men’s boot tops.

“Liangyu, what flowers or birds does he like? I know this counts as an illicit private exchange, but I want to leave something for my feelings.”

“My second brother?” Chen Liangyu said, “He doesn’t like tending to flowers and plants. If you give him something, it might be alright to embroider a bowl of noodle soup on the shoe tops.”

“Noodle soup?” Xun Shuheng was amused, and her heavy mood just now vanished. “How can one embroider noodle soup on a shoe?”

“He loves to eat it.”

“Then I’ll try to embroider it.”

“But how do you know what size boots my second brother wears?”

Even she didn’t know Chen Luan’s shoe size.

Xun Shuheng replied, “He is similar in stature to my older brother, so the shoes should be close in size. He is a little leaner, so slightly smaller will do. I just don’t know if he would wear boots of unknown origin.”

“I will make him wear them.”

After agreeing with Xun Shuheng on the day to collect the boots, Chen Liangyu rushed back to the Marquis Residence and headed straight to Yan Nian’s quarters.

A huge table was placed in the center of the room, covered with drafting paper. A set square pressed down on the paper, which was densely covered with lines and small characters.

“Sister-in-law, where is An’er?”

Yan Nian had given birth to a daughter, named Huai’an.

“She keeps crying. The nanny took her to soothe her.”

Yan Nian spoke, her eyes never leaving the blueprints on the table for a moment.

“An’er is only two months old. How can such a small baby not cry? If you find it bothersome, just bring her to my courtyard.”

Just then, Chen Luan returned with Chen Huai’an, who had stopped crying. Yan Nian finally finished her work, muttering, “If this repeating crossbow is successfully built, we can properly deal with those mounted bandits.”

Yan Nian was referring to the nomadic tribes like Qiudi, Kuirong, and Ximano. These groups were good at sneak attacks, raids, savage and barbaric, and also skilled at escaping. If they engaged in close combat during an attack, the casualties would be heavy, but if they attacked from a distance, the range of arrows was insufficient.

Therefore, she created a chariot-mounted crossbow whose range was more than ten times farther than that of a manually drawn bow.

Drafting, building the chariot, then overthrowing the design—this cycle was repeated for a year until the design was finally close to completion.

She freed her hands to hold the child, then suddenly remembered something. “Mother said my little brother has a crush on someone. Which family is the girl from? I should find time to arrange something.”

Chen Luan apologized greatly. “I don’t know. I only saw her from afar once.”

If he admitted to seeing her through a door, it might ruin the young lady’s reputation, so he could only say he saw her from afar.

Then Ah-Heng will be misguided in her affection! Chen Liangyu thought.

There is no way to explain this now.

“I have paper and a brush here, Sister-in-law. Draw the girl’s appearance.”

Chen Luan hesitated for a long time before taking the brush to draw. After finishing, he handed the drawing to Chen Liangyu and Yan Nian.

Chen Liangyu glanced at it. The rice paper was covered in heavy ink, and she could barely tell it was a person.

“Second Brother, if you draw like this, I wouldn’t be able to find her even with a wanted poster.”

Yan Nian said, “The Emperor is ill, so no grand banquets can be held. Otherwise, An’er’s hundred-day banquet could invite all the noble ladies in Yongdu, and then my little brother could recognize the person. Are there any other ways now?”

Chen Luan said, “Sister-in-law, you don’t have to trouble yourself with my affairs. If it is a good match, we will surely meet again.”

Chen Liangyu was unable to retrieve the boots as promised.

After Nan Zhou was in turmoil for several years, Liang Qiufeng drove the heir Liang Qiuting off the throne and took his place. Liang Qiuting asked Great Lin to send troops to help him restore his position. Emperor Xuanyuan originally didn’t intend to interfere; as long as a vassal state paid its taxes on time, who sat on the throne was irrelevant.

However, Liang Qiufeng’s ambition was not just to seize the throne but also to break free from Great Lin’s control and establish himself as Emperor.

Emperor Xuanyuan summoned his ministers for discussion and decided to send troops.

When Chen Liangyu went to the Ministry of Revenue to report on military expenditure, the person responsible for verification was Xun Shutai. At the time, he had been promoted to Director of the Ministry of Revenue.

As Xun Shutai took a step, his boot was revealed. The embroidery on the boot top was indeed a bowl of noodle soup.

Chen Liangyu stared at it for a moment and said, “Lord Xun, nice shoes.”

Xun Shutai beamed with joy and showed off, “Ah-Heng made them for me. It’s the first time Ah-Heng has made boots for me since she grew up, but the size doesn’t seem to be measured correctly; they are slightly tight. The Ministry of Revenue controls the granaries of the world, and I work in the Ministry of Revenue. The noodle soup Ah-Heng embroidered has an excellent auspicious meaning.”

Xun Shuheng had a different account of the story. “The boots were finished and placed on the table. My brother came to see me while I was taking a nap at noon. Seeing I was asleep, he took them. Forget it. We were never meant to be. Why am I even doing this?”

The speed at which fate was sealed was so fast, like a hand gripping a throat, suddenly tightening, leaving no room to breathe.

That day, Xie Yu, citing the excuse that Commander-in-Chief of the Left Guard Gate, Liao Zhongqi, forgot to wear his waist saber, removed him and replaced him with the Commander of the Imperial Guard, Jiang Andong.

Emperor Xuanyuan, startled from his sickbed, reproached Xie Yu, “Crown Prince, are you so impatient? Do you want to replace everyone in the Imperial Palace with your own subordinates?”

Sickness had weakened a man who was once the Son of Heaven.

However, as one thing decreased, another increased: the greater fear of anything that might threaten him, and heavier suspicion.

He immediately summoned a Central Secretariat scribe to draft an edict to revoke the Crown Prince’s authority to oversee state affairs.

Revoking the Crown Prince’s authority to oversee state affairs at this critical juncture would undoubtedly announce to the world that the Emperor intended to depose the Crown Prince.

Zhang Diancheng immediately shifted the blame, diverting Emperor Xuanyuan’s attention to Xun Xian and Consort Xian.

But he deliberately avoided mentioning the Prince of Shen.

Having served the Emperor for many years, he deeply knew that Emperor Xuanyuan was no longer the ruler who trusted no one. He only needed to inform him of the collusion between Xun Xian and the Minister of Personnel, Qiu Renshan, and their recruitment and promotion of many people from Consort Xian’s maternal clan. He did not need to say anything else; the Emperor would naturally become suspicious of Xie Yuan.

Besides, the Prince of Shen was not innocent either.

The Palace of Eternal Joy was not extravagant compared to other palaces. After the former Empress and Empress Huixian passed away one after the other, and Consort De Yao Jiyue was confined to the Cold Palace, no new personnel were added to the inner court apart from promoting a few favored maids to the rank of Lady (Yunu).

Now, Consort Xian resided at the head of all the consorts and was in charge of the six palaces.

Consort Xian attended to the Emperor last night and only returned to her palace at noon. Xie Yuan was already waiting for her to have a meal together.

Not long after, Emperor Xuanyuan’s imperial carriage stopped outside the Palace of Eternal Joy.

“Prince of Shen, well done! My subject, my son, and my consort, colluding right under my nose! Forming cliques!” Emperor Xuanyuan smiled faintly. “Consort Xian, I have always thought you were the most virtuous. I know about Xun Xian. What do you think of his daughter, who is rumored to have the fate of an Empress?”

Consort Xian instantly understood what was happening.

Emperor Xuanyuan had never intended to depose the Crown Prince. His choice for the heir apparent had never wavered.

He had always known what everyone wanted and cast out bait, enticing people to compete. He himself sat firmly on the high platform, watching the tigers fight from the mountain.

Allowing Xie Yuan to contend with the Crown Prince was merely having one more person to check the Crown Prince and do things for him.

He would not easily depose the Crown Prince. If he did, the remonstrating officials and historians would not stand idly by.

If the struggle between the two had reached a point of life and death, and he had to step in to eliminate one side, that person would definitely not be the Crown Prince.

Emperor Xuanyuan’s presence at the Palace of Eternal Joy while ill was certainly not just to reproach someone.

Understanding Emperor Xuanyuan’s thoughts, Consort Xian bowed her head and said, “I beg Your Majesty to grant permission for Yuan’er to go to his fief!”

“You can bear to part?”

“This concubine naturally cannot bear it. Yuan’er is an Imperial Prince and also a subject. Although he harbors absolutely no thoughts of coveting the throne, to ease Your Majesty’s worries, he has been too close with court officials, which is a departure from the duty of a subject. If he cannot share in the sovereign’s worries but instead adds to them, it is his fault. If his heart is pure, he should distance himself from trouble. I implore Your Majesty to grant approval!”

Such a result, proposed by her and Xie Yuan, was the only way to dispel Emperor Xuanyuan’s suspicion.

If they were to forcibly go against the imperial will, trying to feign ignorance and muddle through, the situation would definitely become more difficult.

Emperor Xuanyuan seemed satisfied.

“I grant permission for the Prince of Shen to marry the daughter of the Xun family and immediately depart for his fief in Linxia.” Eunuch Sun presented a bright yellow imperial edict. Emperor Xuanyuan snatched it and slammed it onto the dining table. “Prince of Shen, go!”

What factional disputes or Empress destinies were in his eyes were merely ridiculous farces.

He wanted to shatter all their plots into dust, whether it was Xun Xian or the Prince of Shen, to warn those who tried to play tricks in front of him—if you harbor any disloyalty, this is the lesson!

Eunuch Sun helped Emperor Xuanyuan walk out of the Palace of Eternal Joy. Xie Yuan closed his eyes tightly, clenching his fists, but could only kneel and bow toward the Emperor’s retreating back. “Your son accepts the decree and gives thanks!”