Extra (I)
The moment he passed through the palace gates, Lu Ronghuai flung the imperial edict behind him to the gathered officials following in his wake. He knew these people would not resign themselves and wished to verify whether the edict was genuine. It happened that he, too, was equally tired of looking at them.
After tossing away the edict, he pressed his heels to the horse’s belly and galloped down the broad palace road with Chu Yuan. In the span of a moment, the two had vanished without a trace.
This time, not a single remonstrating official dared step forward to rebuke him.
Xu Zhizhi rode close behind them. The three arrived together at the palace where Lu Ronghuai had once resided.
What surprised the two of them was how still and silent the place was. Much less guards, there was not even the shadow of a young eunuch to be seen.
Lu Ronghuai’s dark eyes swept the surroundings with cool indifference. His lips parted, “Knowing This Prince has entered the palace, have they all fled?”
Xu Zhizhi swung herself down from her horse. A brief, bitter smile flashed across her face. She was the first to step forward, raising a hand to push open the palace doors. “Your Highness will know once you step inside and see for yourself.”
Lu Ronghuai helped Chu Yuan down from the horse and led him slowly forward by the hand.
Xu Zhizhi withdrew to the side of the door. The hems of their robes brushed past her eyes.
The next moment, footsteps stopped before her.
White mourning streamers filled the hall, drifting soundlessly in the wind that came through the windows. The vast palace, wherever the eye fell, was cold and desolate white.
“His Majesty... has passed away?” Chu Yuan turned back, his gaze shifting slightly.
Xu Zhizhi lifted her skirt and stepped into the hall. “Yes. Cousin’s body had long been at the end of a spent crossbow. Before the new year, the imperial physicians said he would not live long. That he managed to hold on until this summer had already far exceeded our expectations.”
“His Majesty also passed away this summer? Why was there no national mourning proclaimed?” Chu Yuan frowned. Doubt still lingered in his clear, crisp voice.
Xu Zhizhi tilted her head up and looked around at the white cloth fluttering through the hall. “Because my aunt and my grandfather refused. They feared it would shake the foundation of the state, and they feared even more that you would learn of it, so they resolved to conceal it from the people first... By chance, only a few days later, the Retired Emperor also passed away. Borrowing the Retired Emperor’s funeral, they buried the two of them together in the imperial mausoleum.”
Lu Ronghuai lowered his eyes, hiding the trace of a sneer within them.
When the Son of Heaven of a kingdom died, it was handled in a hasty and perfunctory fashion, with no one so much as asking after it. For the sake of monstrous private desire, what was there that they would not do? Even the beautiful lines of Chu Yuan’s face reflected the same quiet disbelief.
“Cousin saw through them long ago. With admirable foresight, he had the abdication edict drafted early and entrusted it to me for safekeeping. Well then, my cousin was rather clever, was he not?”
Lu Ronghuai cast her a cold sidelong glance. “What other words did that madman leave behind?”
The proud smile on Xu Zhizhi’s face vanished at once. She looked as though she had seen a ghost. “How can you call my cousin a madman? No, that is not right, how did you guess that my cousin also left words behind?”
Chu Yuan likewise lifted his eyes in curiosity.
Instead of answering, Lu Ronghuai asked, “Why do you think he abdicated the throne to This Prince?”
Xu Zhizhi said blankly, “Because... Cousin did not have long to live, and you won the war, sparing the common people suffering. The people on both rivers respect you greatly. Cousin, he... he ought to have been very pleased in his heart.”
“Wrong.”
Xu Zhizhi said, “Where was I wrong?”
After a brief moment of thought, Chu Yuan’s brows stirred faintly. “His Majesty, could it be that he simply did not wish the Empress Dowager and the others to have their way?”
The cold sternness in Lu Ronghuai’s eyes warmed at once. The corners of his lips lifted. “My Yuan-Yuan is still the clever one. That is why I said that fellow was a madman.”
Lu Ronghuai had known since his previous life that although Lu Rongze appeared frail, refined, and gentle on the surface, in truth his temperament was uncertain, and good and evil within him were hard to discern.
Lu Rongze had never cared about the people under Heaven. He merely wished to oppose the Empress Dowager. She was greedy for power, so he wished her to taste what it felt like when power slipped away from her hands little by little. Only after one had deeply savored the taste of power would one grow hysterical, half mad and half possessed, when it was lost completely.
The entire court wished that Lu Ronghuai would not ascend the throne, and so he insisted on placing the imperial seat into Lu Ronghuai’s hands.
It had to be said that Lu Rongze’s move of drawing fire from beneath the cauldron was ruthless indeed. Once the Empress Dowager and the Xu family fell, the officials outside were likewise full of dread, unable either to sit or stand at ease.
Chu Yuan said, “I truly did not see before that the hatred in his heart toward the Empress Dowager ran so deep.”
“With that gloomy temperament of his, who could ever see through him? The Empress Dowager wronged him. She felt guilty on one side, yet never ceased using him on the other. In time, he discovered a few threads and traces.”
“What traces?” the two asked at the same time.
Lu Ronghuai clasped Chu Yuan’s hand and lightly scratched his palm, then turned his eyes sideways toward Xu Zhizhi, who still had her ears pricked up. “Speak. What words did he leave for This Prince?”
Xu Zhizhi stamped her foot in anger. “How can you be like this? You speak halfway and then refuse to go on. What exactly did my cousin discover?”
“What exactly did he leave behind? Do you believe This Prince will not throw you into prison as well?” Lu Ronghuai’s temper was even greater than hers.
Xu Zhizhi yielded at once. “I will speak, I will speak. Cousin said that what I did today counts as making amends for my crimes through meritorious service, and that you would spare me once.”
Lu Ronghuai tugged at the corner of his mouth in a smile that did not reach his eyes.
Xu Zhizhi was so frightened by that smile that her hair seemed ready to stand on end. In her fear, words tumbled out of her mouth like beans poured from a jar. “Cousin said that all under Heaven hoped the two of you would fight like the snipe and the clam, brothers turning on one another. Though he was inferior to you in every respect, he held one advantage. He became Emperor before you did. So no matter how you fought, both of you would meet ruin.”
“Nonsense. Speak the important part.” Lu Ronghuai’s brows lowered.
“Everything I am saying is the important part,” Xu Zhizhi retorted, stiffening her neck. “Cousin wished to tell you that he never had any intention toward that seat nor did he wish to cross arms with you. Although your relationship with Cousin was ordinary, and the two of you could scarcely exchange a few words, in Cousin’s heart he still greatly respected you as his Third Brother.”
On Lu Ronghuai’s incomparably handsome face, an odd expression could not help appearing. “Could it be that all the words he left behind were only to praise This Prince? This Prince knows very well that he is outstanding, but praise is unnecessary. Humility is a virtue.”
“...”
Xu Zhizhi said, “On Your Highness’s journey back to Ye Jing, you ought also to have noticed that Cousin bore you no ill will.”
Chu Yuan inclined his head. In a cool, soft voice, he spoke slowly. “Indeed. His Majesty set question barriers in the cities and prefectures. It did not appear he intended to make things difficult. Rather, he was testing Your Highness.”
“Exactly, exactly, that was Cousin’s meaning.” Xu Zhizhi’s eyes shone as she looked at Chu Yuan. “Cousin said that sooner or later this realm would belong to Prince Li. Rather than both sides ending in ruin, it would be better for him to offer a slight bit of meager strength for Your Highness’s great undertaking of enthronement, and return stability and peace to the world.”
Hearing these words, Chu Yuan felt a hundred turnings and a thousand windings within his heart, and he let out a quiet inward sigh.
The affairs of the world were ever changing. If Lu Rongze had possessed a healthy body, and had both ruthlessness and gentleness besides, perhaps he truly would have been the greatest obstacle on His Highness’s road to the throne.
He possessed wisdom and strategy inferior to no one, and he also possessed a breadth of mind and clarity that ordinary people lacked. He could take things on, and he could let them go. Had he still been alive, perhaps the two of them might even have become friends.
“Your Highness, Cousin said he did not wish to be buried in the imperial mausoleum. I ask that, when it is fitting, you have his coffin taken out and reinter him upon some desolate mountain.”
“Granted.”
“There is more. I wish to cast off the identity of a daughter of the Xu family, and the identity of Empress.” Xu Zhizhi looked at him quietly with wide-open eyes.
Lu Ronghuai lowered his eyes. “Why?”
Xu Zhizhi said, “As a daughter of the Xu family, I may seem spoiled and overbearing, but in truth I am constrained everywhere by the Xu family’s rules. The more fiercely I resist, the longer they keep me confined. I loathe the Xu family. I loathe every one of them.”
Everyone in the Xu family treated her as a token to be bartered for gain. They never considered her feelings. Whom she was to marry was for them alone to decide. Xu Zhizhi hated their hypocrisy and scheming to the marrow, and she no longer wished to have the slightest tie with them.
When Chu Yuan looked at a person, his eyes were quiet and gentle. He asked, “You would cast off even the title of Empress?”
Now that Lu Rongze had passed away, and Xu Zhizhi had rendered merit in protecting the edict, she could remain in the palace or choose a royal estate elsewhere to dwell in.
“I do not want it,” Xu Zhizhi said, waving a hand. “Cousin and I were partners in name. He was unwilling to marry, and I was unwilling to wed. We came to an understanding and joined hands, merely putting on a show for others. Now he is gone as well. This one will go and live freely and at ease.”
Chu Yuan was amused by the longing written across her face. “If Miss Xu wishes to cast off her former identity and begin anew, then you may try feigning death.”
“Feigning death?”
Chu Yuan said, “Yes. To the outside world, it can be said that, out of grief and longing for His Majesty, you fell ill, and now that you have completed the task His Majesty entrusted to you, you have chosen to follow him in death.”
“Good, this is good, this is very good.” Xu Zhizhi clapped her hands. “Only, a new identity is difficult to obtain. I do not wish to become an unregistered vagrant. This small matter, Prince Li and the Prince Consort will surely help me settle properly, will you not?”
Lu Ronghuai cast her a faint glance. “Feigning death is troublesome. Better simply to die. When This Prince digs Lu Rongze’s coffin out, I can place the two of you together as well.”
Xu Zhizhi: “................”
Prince Li truly was no good thing.
She glared, huffing with anger.
Chu Yuan smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “Enough. His Highness is teasing you. It is growing late. Miss Xu should hurry back and rest. From today onward, do not show yourself before others. Within these two days, everything will be arranged properly for you.”
“Mm, mm, mm, then many thanks, Prince Consort.” Xu Zhizhi had obtained her wish. Gathering up the heavy and elaborate skirts of her palace robes, she ran off faster than anyone else.
The two of them walked hand in hand along the palace path through the imperial garden. It was the refreshing autumn of the ninth month. In the imperial garden, blossoms flourished in splendid profusion, and in the pond the brocade carp swam back and forth without care.
“Does Your Highness still remember this pond?” Chu Yuan raised a hand and tilted his head, smiling at him.
Lu Ronghuai lifted his eyes and looked over. Ripples stirred in the depths of his gaze. “I remember. In the cold winter of the year you married over, I first brought you into the palace to pay respects to the Emperor. Lu Lingshuang meant to harm you here.”
Waves shimmered in Chu Yuan’s eyes, and the curve at his lips was beautiful. “Mm. At that time, I was thinking that Your Highness did not seem as fearsome as rumor made you out to be.”
Lu Ronghuai raised a hand and gently stroked the smiling corner of his eye. “Was Ah-Yuan very afraid of me then?”
Chu Yuan laughed softly. “Who would not be afraid of you? You were so fierce, and so cold.”
There was no one around. Lu Ronghuai drew close, wrapped an arm about his waist, and pulled him into his embrace. His breath brushed against Chu Yuan’s cheek as he murmured, “And now? Is Ah-Yuan still afraid of me?”
“Take care, someone may come!” Chu Yuan had already been kissed several times. His pale cheeks were tinged with red. He pushed hard at Lu Ronghuai, yet could not move him in the least.
“There is no one.” Lu Ronghuai began kissing the other side of his cheek.
“Who says there is no one?”
“I say...” Lu Ronghuai paused.
He suddenly realized that the words just now had not been spoken in Chu Yuan’s voice. Turning toward the source of the sound, he saw Nie Siran carrying Lu Duoyu, with Xian Shuang and Xian Yu beside him. Four pairs of eyes were staring straight at the two of them.
The two of them: “...”
Lu Duoyu clapped his little hands excitedly. “Kiss-kiss. Little Fish wants kiss-kiss too.”
Chu Yuan lifted his sleeve to cover his face.
“Why have you all come over?” His Highness Prince Li, whose face was thicker than city walls, looked at them in displeasure.
Nie Siran came forward and handed Lu Duoyu to Chu Yuan. “Little Fish kept clamoring for the two of you. Father and the others have already returned to the residence. At the gate, it is packed so tightly by Grandfather’s former students that not even water can pass through. Su Su and I still have some matters to attend to, so I could only bring him here.”
Originally, Xian Yu and Xian Shuang could have brought the child over, but Young Master Nie was uneasy and insisted on delivering him in person.
“Very well, go attend to your matters.”
Now that they had just returned to Ye Jing, there were many matters still requiring their attention. Taking into account the hardship of their journey, Lu Ronghuai also told Xian Shuang and the others to return to the residence first and rest.
Children grew quickly. After holding the child for only a short while, Chu Yuan’s arms were already beginning to ache. Once the others had gone, Lu Ronghuai took the child into his own arms. With Lu Duoyu in one arm and Chu Yuan’s hand in the other, he strolled forward at an unhurried pace.
“Does Little Fish like it here?” Chu Yuan picked a canna blossom and handed it to Lu Duoyu to play with.
Lu Duoyu turned his little head and looked all around. “Mm, I like it!”
It was large and beautiful here, with flowers and fish, and he liked it very much.
Chu Yuan hooked an arm around Lu Ronghuai’s shoulder and tapped the little fellow’s nose with a slender finger. “Then let us live here from now on, shall we?”
“Yes.” The little fellow swayed his head happily and tugged at the flower. Before long, the flower in his hands had been ravaged until almost nothing remained, and his plump white fingers were stained red with flower juice.
“Ah-Die, dirty, wipe-wipe.” The little fellow looked at his own small hands in disgust.
Chu Yuan laughed as he taught him, “Flowers are for admiring. Little Fish did not cherish the flower and dirtied his hands besides. You are a little bad egg.”
“Little Fish not bad.” The little fellow twisted his plump body in protest, defending himself.
Lu Ronghuai smacked his bottom. “Sit properly. Why are you wriggling about?”
The little fellow’s eyes rolled round and round. Those bright black eyes shone with slyness. Using the little hand that had just been wiped clean, he covered the bottom that had been smacked and at once put on a pitiful expression, as though tears might fall at any moment.
“Little Fish not bad. Papa bad-bad.”
“Lu Ronghuai.”
Along with the little fellow’s tender voice, there rang out a woman’s voice that was cold and icy.
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
The Empress Dowager: This palace wants to rule from behind the curtain! I want to hold power!
Lu Dog: Every trade is separated by mountains. This is difficult to judge, so I wish her success instead.
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