So butter silk was an old friend of mine. No wonder my fate was tied to it like this. I really hadn’t noticed before how familiar it was.
Therefore, the butter tree whose leaves gave sustenance to the local silkworms was in reality the golden cedar. It was often used to make co ns.
I had heard that when my ashes were dug up to be given a grand funeral, they had been placed in a big co n made of golden cedar. A boa-embroidered robe had also been used to wrap the urn containing the ashes; perhaps that had been made of ambergold brocade.
If that were truly the case, when I ed to the south sea, if I took along a few bolts of ambergold silk and some butter tree wood to sell in the south on the way, I could make a nice pro t.
I acted as if I hadn’t heard Liu Tongyi’s last statement. I touched the threads and cloth and said, “No wonder that as Ruihe’s general manager, Master Mei would come in person during the ooding to force up the price.”
Liu Tongyi said, “That is precisely what I have to explain. You know that there are many rms like Ruihe in Jiangnan, and they plant spies in our weaving mills and shops. I am afraid that by now everyone in the business is aware that there is ambergold silk in Chengzhou. If we were to purchase the silk at the price you o ered, it would inevitably be intercepted. Perhaps
those who raise the silkworms would think we were engaged in dirty business, and they wouldn’t sell their silk to us again. We would like as far as possible to keep hold of Chengzhou’s silk resources and continue operations going forward. But as we were previously unacquainted, I lacked an understanding of Master Zhao’s conduct and temper. I was concerned that if I discussed raising the price of silk with you, you wouldn’t agree, so I acted as I did. I had no intention of stealing your deal. In fact, I only wanted you to be able to talk to us and to agree to raising the o ering price, so we could have a long-term business arrangement in the future. I’m sorry to have overstepped.”
He removed a folded piece of paper from his sleeve. I took it and unfolded it to see it was a signed note returning all the silk that Ruihe had taken. The handwriting throughout the note, and for the two characters of
“Mei Yong,” was in Liu Tongyi’s usual vigorous style.
I couldn’t help saying, “I can feel con dent while dealing with Master Mei. No wonder Ruihe does business on such a large scale.”
Liu Tongyi picked up the wine pitcher. “Master Zhao’s way is the more comfortable one.” He raised his wine cup to his lips, then put it back down.
“Have you always traveled like this?”
“I just go around here and there and pick up a bit of work while I’m at it,”
I said.
When my leg had healed and I wandered out, I decided to do some business. The fuss about Prince Huai being absolved of wrongdoing had just died down. When I went north, I deliberately passed close to the capital to let the echoes of that event wash over me.
Though I had started a new life, I still wanted to hear news of the life I had left behind. What I heard was that Liu Tongyi had resigned his position.
The emperor, after assuming responsibility, had continued to manage a airs of state wisely. Prince Dai had taken all the remaining money in Huai Manor and traveled to Henan, where he diligently strove to ful ll his aspirations; probably he had nally realized that antiquities dealers were unreliable and was ready to do his own digging. Prince Zong no longer took part in a airs of state but had retired to his home to rest in his old age. The empress dowager had said she would eat a vegetarian diet on Prince Huai’s behalf for the rest of her life. The princess’s child had been born; it was a boy. He had been taken by the Li family to raise. The princess said she would recite scripture for Prince Huai as long as she lived. I hadn’t heard anything about the others.
And so there shouldn’t have been anything to hear. The court was stable, with no more great evils. They were all comfortable, living well. Everyone was happy.
As I went north, my cutsleeve problem went away. After all my experiences, once I was free, common women turned out to be like fresh owers and sweet spring water. There was Xiaodie of Baicheng, Wanwan of Qinzhou, the northern frontier’s Xue’e, the desert’s Alianna, Kim Mija in Goryeo… They were each gentle, or understanding, or unsophisticated, or lively and innocent. They truly warmed the heart, and they had thoroughly consoled me.
Outside the half-closed window, the sound of rain was growing stronger. I looked out and said, “I heard you plan to leave tomorrow. I don’t know whether the rain will have stopped by then.”
“I might stay in the city another few days,” Liu Tongyi said.
“Then we will be able to discuss this deal in more detail,” I said.
I would be glad if he stayed a few more days. After we parted in Chengzhou, who knew whether we would ever meet again?
I said to Liu Tongyi, “It must be very hard work overseeing a business concern as large as Ruihe. How did Master Mei end up in trade?”
Liu Tongyi looked out the window as well. “When I was young, I read a romance. There was a hero in it who, after roaming around doing chivalrous deeds, switched to trade. Although…”
I picked up: “Although, that hero was in the antiques trade? The Legend of the Zither Hero of the Late Sui Dynasty.”
Liu Tongyi nodded. His face opened into a smile. “Yes.”
I stood and strode to the window. Liu Tongyi came up beside me and pushed the window sash fully open. Rain struck the eaves and wet the windowsill.
We returned to nish the banquet, and by the time we left Jiqing Lane, it was full dark outside, and the rain had become heavier. Liu Tongyi and Ruihe’s accountant were staying at an inn not far from Jiqing Lane, so they bade us farewell.
There were two boats from the Bai residence picking us up. Bai Rujin and I each took one.
Bai Rujin said, “It’s raining hard, young fellow, so I won’t stand on ceremony with you. You hurry home now.” We parted ways at a fork in the road.
The boat swayed amid the pouring rain as I sat in the cabin looking out.
We had nearly reached the house. The boatman said, “Master Zhao, there’s a boat at your gate. Do you have guests?”
I left the cabin and opened an umbrella. There was indeed a boat moored in front of the house. At the bow, a single person stood in the rain. By the dim light of a dark lantern in the downpour, I still recognized him at a single glance.
I had thought before about what I would say to him if we ever really did meet again.
My idea had been that I would treat him as a stranger, exchange some small talk, then bid farewell. But now I knew that I had been wrong.
When I saw him, I couldn’t say a thing. I didn’t know what I could say.
Say, Excuse me, who might Your Excellency be?
Say, Why are you here?
What am I supposed to say to you? How can I talk to you?
On his rst day in Chengzhou, the imperial commissioner was standing here in the rain at night. The local prefect and all the government soldiers would now be certain that I was a character who merited close investigation.
What were his intentions?
To capture me on Qizhe’s behalf and make me face the charge of treason?
Or to reminisce about old times, then let me go and act as if this had never happened?
Or only to ask me who I was, discover the truth?
Standing there, I heard him say on the boat across from me, “You’re back.”
After a pause, I heard myself say, “It’s raining so hard. Why don’t you come in.”
Inside, I groped my way to the table, shook a re stick to life, and lit the oil lamp. When I looked back by the dim yellow light, Yun Yu had sat in the
place where I had sat to eat meat earlier. He picked up the wine jar next to him and shook it. “There’s still some left. May I drink it?”
I remembered a summer day just like this, years ago, when Yun Yu had come to my residence. When he was about to leave, the skies burst open without warning. Yun Yu had stood on the veranda and said, “It looks like I can’t escape.” I said, “This is heaven telling me to insist you stay. Only, I didn’t prepare a banquet in advance.” Yun Yu said with a smile, “Just as long as there’s wine.”
At the time, Huai Manor’s cellar had been full of mature vintages. Not like now, when all I had left was half a jar of Chengzhou’s Bamboo Leaf Green.
And Yun Yu then had not been the Yun Yu of now.
Just as the Liu Tongyi I beheld back then was only an illusion I had drawn in the air, and not the real Liu Tongyi, the Yun Yu of those days, the Yun Yu who was the only person who could have an idle chat with me, whose tastes agreed with mine, was also nothing but an illusion, an image of a man drawn on paper.
Only, the vision of Liu Tongyi was one I had drawn myself. The image of Yun Yu had been drawn for me by the real Yun Yu.
From beginning to end, it had all been false, and the illusion had long since dispersed, like a cloud, gone altogether, leaving no trace. Only a lingering impression remained in my mind.
Because for Jing Chengjun, there was no one to compare to that Suiya.
It was tting. What real person could measure up to a drawing?
Jing Chengjun had been dead three years. True as this platitude might have been, it was meaningless.
Suiya, Suiya.
That day in prison, I had called to him for the last time. After that, there was no longer anyone I could call by that name.
I took two steps forward and saluted. “Your Excellency, might I ask if you are some important o cial? I couldn’t see you clearly in the dark just now and slighted you. Pardon my rudeness. What can I do for you on this rainy night?”
Yun Yu slowly set the wine jar back on the table. The oil lamp in the room wasn’t very bright. His expression was a little hazy.
I smiled and said, “If Your Excellency won’t talk, I won’t know how to react.”
The men who had come with him were all standing outside on the veranda, their posture perfectly erect, their expressions capable; it was clear at a glance that they were guards. I received no answer from Yun Yu, so I said to those outside: “It’s raining hard, why don’t you all come inside?” I turned to nd the kettle. “I have no hot water prepared and cannot brew tea right away. I will have to trouble you to wait awhile.”
They continued to stand there with their backs straight, unmoving.
Holding the kettle, I looked at them, then looked at Yun Yu. I said,
“Gentlemen, we are strangers to each other, and I am only an honest trader.
I think… you haven’t come here to settle a score with me.”
Yun Yu’s eyes wavered as he looked at me; perhaps it was because the oil lamp was swaying in the wind. Had I made a lucky guess? Was he really here with these guards to arrest me and make me answer for my crimes?
Just as well. If he really did take me back, the worst of it would be another stay in the imperial prison. Prince Huai’s big mausoleum was already built and contained a ready-made co n for me to lie in.
I took the kettle to the water barrel and bent to scoop water. Yun Yu nally spoke, but it was addressed to the guards on the veranda: “You can all head back.”
I straightened up and turned my head. The guards left. Shortly after, there came the sound of splashing. It was the boat Yun Yu had come in being rowed away.
Hadn’t they left a little too fast? Their commissioner was still sitting here.
Holding the kettle, I spoke again to Yun Yu. “If Your Excellency has dismissed your attendants because you have something important to say, do speak openly.”
Yun Yu still sat there, saying nothing.
He was much thinner than before. Hurrying to Chengzhou to manage the ooding, he must have had a weary journey. That was why he was so pale and exhausted. On his brow, I saw none of his former high spirits, but instead an appearance of melancholy.
Looking at him, I couldn’t describe what I felt.
He had to have some aim in coming here like this. It might have appeared that Yun Yu did just what he pleased, but in reality, he considered every angle carefully, letting nothing slip. On his rst night in Chengzhou, he had cast aside his duty as commissioner to come here, and neither the local o cials nor his personal guards were doing anything about it. There had to be a reason.
Had he sent his guards away now, all the better to catch me later?
Sitting here alone, unspeaking, had he already prepared his trap? Was he waiting for me to fall for it?
Forget it, let him carry on how he liked. If he wouldn’t talk, I would stop asking. I lled the kettle and went to the copper stove, temporarily moved
the grilling rack aside onto a small table, and asked Yun Yu, “Why don’t you sit over there for a bit? I’m going to change the coals and warm up a kettle of water. I don’t want any specks of coal to leap out and soil your clothes.”
Yun Yu nally spoke to me. “There’s no need… to make me tea.”
I picked up the poker and said politely, “How can I not serve tea to a guest?”
Yun Yu paused brie y, then said, “Can I have wine instead of tea?”
“Of course,” I said, “but the wine isn’t anything special, and certainly not t for company. I’m afraid Your Excellency won’t enjoy it. Your Excellency’s clothes are damp from the rain and the nights are chilly. It would be better to drink some hot tea.”
But as Commissioner Yun wanted wine, I wouldn’t argue the matter. I put down the poker, found a clean cup, rinsed it with water, put it on the table in front of him, then re lled the wine pitcher.
Yun Yu immediately poured himself a cup and downed it in one gulp.
I changed the coal in the stove and lit it, then put the grilling rack back on top of it. I pulled over another stool to sit beside the stove. Yun Yu watched me roll up my sleeves and arrange slices of meat on the frame.
Holding his wine cup, he looked startled.
“I really have nothing to eat with wine here,” I said. “I can only serve you some slices of mutton. I hope Your Excellency won’t nd it too lacking.”
The re roared, and the meat on the rack sizzled. With a pair of chopsticks, I ipped the slices over one by one, then sprinkled on some salt, black pepper, and cumin. The whole time Yun Yu watched, unmoving, holding his wine cup. Soon the meat was done, and I put a few pieces on his plate. Seeing him still unmoving, I said, “This is how the herdsmen in the northern desert eat. Perhaps Your Excellency has never seen it before. It isn’t
strongly seasoned, but it also isn’t very gamey. This is the only dish available in my humble abode. Please try it and see whether it suits your tastes.”
Yun Yu picked up his chopsticks and was about to place a slice of meat onto the plate next to me. “No need to be polite,” I said. “Please eat it yourself. I just had two meals and won’t be able to eat anything else for a little while. I can’t eat with you.”
Yun Yu’s hand hung in midair with the chopsticks. He paused, then drew back his hand and ate a slice of meat. He poured another cup of wine and again swallowed it in one gulp.
Eating the meat seemed to be causing him great anguish. I couldn’t resist asking, “Does it taste all right? Is there too much salt?”
Yun Yu shook his head, and I seasoned the still-grilling meat. Yun Yu kept watching me grill, then nally spoke again. “Have you gone beyond the northern frontier?”
He was starting to ask after my whereabouts these last couple of years.
Finally we were getting to the point.
“Yes,” I said. “The scenery there is wonderful, elds of green grass blending into blue sky.” I tapped the grill with my chopsticks. “I brought this contraption back from the north.”
Yun Yu nally smiled. “What kind of business do you do?”
I answered truthfully: “Minor trade, picking some things up here and selling them there. I’ve dealt in furs and medicines and things of that nature.
Oh, yes, has Your Excellency come to discuss a deal with me?”
Yun Yu was silent again. I added some more grilled meat to his plate. “The hour is late, and it’s raining hard. Please speak plainly if you have business, Your Excellency. You may have a hard time getting back if you take too long.”
Yun Yu’s voice seemed very weak. “I didn’t come here out of any ulterior motive. I just… I just wanted to come and see.”
I feigned confusion. “That sounds like a joke. What did Your Excellency want to see?”
Yun Yu looked up at me, pressed his hands to his temples, and gave a bitter laugh. “Yes, I actually came here, and I’m sitting here, and I have food and drink, and I’m joking. I really am shameless.”
“How can you say that?” I said. “I’m only a little surprised. Though Your Excellency will not state your purpose, you are still an honored guest. But it really is late. When will Your Excellency’s men be coming?”
Yun Yu looked at me and said, “In the morning.” He raised his wine cup.
“Since I am still a guest tonight, I’ll impose on you thoroughly.”
What did he mean by loitering here? Any a ection between us in the past had been a lie. He couldn’t have come here to reminisce with me on that account.
More likely the commissioner had a heavy workload and could only come investigate me at night.
Yun Yu downed one cup after another, but his face remained white, without a trace of a ush. It distressed me to see him like this. He had his whole heart set on Qizhe and was always giving all he had. One couldn’t work too hard and live properly; one needed to think of oneself.
Mutton caused excessive internal heat and was hard to digest, and drinking a lot of wine at night certainly wasn’t bene cial. I put the last few slices of meat on Yun Yu’s plate, put away the grill, and stoked up the re to heat water.
When he had drunk nearly all the remaining wine, Yun Yu once again stared emptily at me, holding his wine cup.
I scooped up water to wash the grill. Yun Yu stood and walked over to the basin as if he wanted to help. Without even rolling up his sleeves, he reached for the water. I quickly stopped him. “No need to be polite, Your Excellency. I can do it. How could I make a guest wash up?”
Yun Yu still wanted to touch the grill. I added, “It’s clear Your Excellency has never done this kind of work. I don’t suppose you would be able to get it clean.”
Finally, Yun Yu drew back his hands and stood by the basin without moving. He only went back to his chair when I told him to sit down.
By the time I had washed the grilling rack, the water was boiling. I remembered that I still had half a pot of porridge left over from this morning, so I brought it to the stove to warm it up and served a bowl to Yun Yu. The nights were cold, and he needed some plain hot porridge after all that meat and wine. If Commissioner Yun fell ill, that would be another mark against me.
While Yun Yu ate, I warmed up washing water in the big kettle and went to nd a set of clean clothes. “Your Excellency’s clothes are wet. You shouldn’t wear them to pass the night. Change into these for now.”
Yun Yu was quite cooperative. He did what I said. When the washing water was ready, I told him to go bathe, and he did. By the time he was nished, I had washed and put away all the dishes.
Yun Yu emerged from behind the screen in clean clothes, then once again stood there blankly. Once, his stature had been the same as mine. Wearing my clothes now, he looked even thinner, like a bamboo pole holding up a robe that hung empty and oating. Probably it was because of this that he didn’t seem as lively as before.
“It’s late,” I said. “If Your Excellency truly has nothing urgent to say, you ought to retire for the night.”
He had come to investigate me but was unwilling to speak openly; at any rate, he couldn’t stand there staring until daybreak.
Yun Yu looked toward the bed. I’d originally had only this one bed, which wasn’t large, and of course Commissioner Yun and I couldn’t share.
Fortunately, Bai Rujin had sent over another piece of furniture a few days back.
I said to Yun Yu, “Please go ahead and lie down, Your Excellency. I still haven’t washed.”
Yun Yu once again looked at me and at the bed, then walked over to it and sat down. I put a kettle of tea on the bedside table and told him where the chamber pot and commode were. When I had my washing water ready and glanced into the inner room, Yun Yu had already lain down to sleep.
The outer robe he had removed was on the chair, neatly folded.
When I was through washing and looked into the inner room again, Yun Yu was lying peacefully in bed. I didn’t know whether he was asleep. In spite of myself, I wanted to sigh. It had once been my fondest wish to have someone to keep me company by lamplight at night, to have someone to join me in bed. Unfortunately, I had only ever had emptiness.
I shut up all the doors and windows. Yun Yu rolled over in bed. I went to the outer room and moved the reclining chair by the wall into a larger space and unfolded it; just like that, I had a bamboo couch to sleep on. Because it had been raining for several days, the nights were so chilly it didn’t feel like summer. I couldn’t just sleep on a bamboo couch like this, so I went to the closet and took out two thin quilts: one to spread on the bed and one to use
as a cover. Next, I put down a cooling pillow. That would be more than su cient to make do for the night.
I unfolded the screen between the inner and outer rooms, extinguished the oil lamp, and lay down on the bamboo couch. The house was pitch dark and utterly silent.
After I know not how much time passed, I actually fell asleep and slept the whole night without dreams.
Early the next morning, when I awoke, Yun Yu was already up. He had changed back into the clothes he had worn yesterday and was standing at the window. It was light, the morning sun shining in. As it shone on him, I thought for a moment that I was dreaming.
Yun Yu cast down his eyes. “Pardon me for imposing last night.”
“It was my pleasure,” I said politely.
We stood across from each other and could nd nothing to say. Soon, a boat came to the gate. The people standing in the boat silently bowed to Yun Yu and saluted.
Yun Yu looked into my eyes. “I’ll be taking my leave.”
“Stay safe, Your Excellency,” I said.
Yun Yu stood there looking at me a while longer, then turned. I watched him board the boat, watched the boat slowly depart.
Not long after Yun Yu left, the Bai family’s boat came as well. And standing on it was Bai Rujin.
Bai Rujin came inside, looked around, and quietly said to me, “Young fellow, I just happened to run into that boat coming from your place. I thought my servants must have been mistaken and didn’t know what they were talking about, but it turns out it’s true.” He looked around again and
said in an even lower voice, “It seems the person who came to see you last night is important.”
“Imperial Commissioner Yun Yu,” I said.
Bai Rujin gave a start and stared at me. “Young fellow, you really know how to keep things to yourself. Since when have you been friends with Vice-Minister Yun?”
I sighed lengthily. “We aren’t friends. There is an old quarrel between us.”
Bai Rujin gave another start. I said, “I cannot explain, but I’m afraid I am in for a bit of trouble. I’d like you to take me to see someone, Bai-xiong.”
The Bai family’s little boat moved quickly. After a series of twists and turns through the streets, we nally stopped in front of the Gracious Reception Inn.
I went inside and asked the manager for information. An attendant took me to the door of one of the principal rooms and knocked.
Shortly after, the door opened. Liu Tongyi stood there blankly. I went right inside and bolted the door. “Master Mei, I have something important to ask of you. I hope you will agree.”
A trace of confusion appeared in Liu Tongyi’s eyes. “Go ahead, Master Zhao.”
“I suppose you are leaving Chengzhou on your own ship,” I said.
Liu Tongyi nodded.
I said, “I want to leave Chengzhou in secret. Might I join you?”
Liu Tongyi considered in silence for a while, then said, “All right.”
He must have already heard the news that Yun Yu was here, but he didn’t ask, and he didn’t say anything.
I said, “Thank you, Chancellor Liu.”
But Liu Tongyi only smiled and said, “Master Zhao is too polite.” He said nothing more.
For some reason, I was feeling sheepish. “Well, Chancellor… Master…” I didn’t know how to address him. “When are you planning to set out?”
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that, Master Zhao?” said Liu Tongyi. “When do you want to leave?”
“The sooner the better,” I said at once. Even better if it could be today.
“Well, at the earliest, it will be two or three days from now,” Liu Tongyi said. “The commissioner has come to manage the ooding and has temporarily sealed the waterways in and out of Chengzhou in order to survey the area. Otherwise I would have left yesterday instead of delaying here for a few days.”
So that was it. I considered it. A delay of two or three days would still leave me plenty of time to spare, so I said to Liu Tongyi, “Then we will leave once the waterways are open. Thank you, Master Mei.”
Liu Tongyi was still calling me Master Zhao. He must have been telling me that the events of the past, the man named Jing Weiyi, no longer existed for him. How I had escaped, what I had been doing these last few years—he wasn’t going to ask about any of it.
He was always capable of exercising perfect tact, leaving the perfect amount of leeway. This was why I appreciated Liu Tongyi.
Liu Tongyi also invited me to take tea with him and discuss arrangements concerning the upcoming purchase of ambergold silk. All the steps had been suitably planned out. I cared for nothing but reaching Java and planned to give the ambergold silk to Liu Tongyi and forget about it, just as long as Bai-xiong got a nice dividend in the process.
But Liu Tongyi said seriously that this was not possible. Things had to be done right, and business was business. He had come to make a pro t, but he didn’t want to take advantage. He added, “Regardless of where you wish to go, it can’t hurt you to make some money to convert into more cash to have on hand. As the saying goes, one should be frugal at home but well-supplied on the road.”
I had to put aside my original plans. Smiling, I said, “No wonder Master Mei was able to grow his business to this extent in a few short years. You are trustworthy and loyal—in a few years, there will be hardly any merchants in Jiangnan to measure up to Master Mei.”
Liu Tongyi smiled faintly. “I’m merely doing my best to run a business.
But thank you for your good wishes, Master Zhao.”
I sat awhile longer. I had meant to invite Liu Tongyi to eat, as I would need him to look after me on the road in a few days. But Liu Tongyi seemed to have something else to do, and he seemed to be waiting for someone.
Perhaps he had arranged a business negotiation. So I rose and bade him farewell.
Just as I was about to turn and leave, there came two sudden knocks at the door. I was near it, so I opened it, and was immediately surprised. The head of the group outside the door was also startled.
It was Yun Yu.
A few people stood behind him: the guards who had picked him up this morning, as well as a pudgy man in a satin robe. Him, I knew—he was Chengzhou’s prefect, Ma Jingru. When I had rst come to Chengzhou, Bai Rujin had introduced me, and I had given him some gifts.
All kinds of ideas surged up in my mind, but Yun Yu put on a thin smile.
“So, Mister Zhao is here.”
An expression of realization appeared on Prefect Ma’s face. “So the expert in ood management that Lord Yun went to visit last night was this…” He looked me up and down a couple of times. “This Mister Zhao.” Then he glanced at Liu Tongyi. “Then can this be Mister Mei?” Smoothing his beard, he took on a look of complacency. “Two experts in ood management, here in this city. Heaven has truly blessed the imperial commissioner’s e orts!”
“It is because of His Majesty’s wisdom that heaven has granted us favor,”
said Yun Yu dully. Then he raised his hands toward Liu Tongyi and me and said, “No need to observe the formalities, gentlemen. Lord Ma and I have come again to ask for instruction on the subject of ood management.”
Yun Yu must not yet have told Prefect Ma of my identity, and had even made up a plausible explanation for last night. But the fact that he hadn’t revealed this matter to Prefect Ma did not mean that he hadn’t written it in a note and then dispatched that note on the person of a guard who had already left Chengzhou by a fast boat and was even now on the road to the capital.
Liu Tongyi took a stack of papers from his desk and passed them to Yun Yu. “This is what we spoke of yesterday, my family’s knowledge of ood management. I do not know whether it will be useful to Lord Yun. I don’t know a thing about the subject myself, so there is no further help I can o er.”
Yun Yu accepted the papers, ipped through them, and tucked them away in his own sleeve. “Thank you.”
Liu Tongyi smiled.
I stood by looking on, but Yun Yu didn’t give me another look. His manner was completely di erent from last night. There was a biting chill in it. The aristocratic ease that had come so naturally years ago was gone without a trace, and the o cial might he subtly exuded was very powerful.
Prefect Ma lifted his sleeves and said, “Thank you both for your surpassing e orts in support of Chengzhou’s ood management. I will host you this afternoon at the local government o ces for a banquet as a show of gratitude…”
Before he could nish, when a refusal was already on the tip of my tongue, Yun Yu interrupted him, “Misters Zhao and Mei are both of a somewhat unsociable disposition. They particularly dislike banquets and social gatherings. I will think of a way to thank them another day. There is no need for Prefect Ma to go to the trouble.”
Naturally, Prefect Ma obeyed without question.
Yun Yu’s gaze nally swept over me, then fell on Liu Tongyi. He said,
“Thank you for your help, gentlemen, I have imposed on you both. I will not come disturb you again. I will rst bid farewell and convey my gratitude later.” Then he departed with his attendants and Prefect Ma, leaving behind an open door and the countless curious, prying gazes of attendants and guests in the corridor.
Liu Tongyi closed the door and said, “Lord Yun became aware of my presence in Chengzhou not long after I arrived. I met with him yesterday.
My father once engaged in ood management and left notes behind on his experiences. I have read them, but I do not have them with me, so I wrote down what I remembered to hand over to Lord Yun today.”
I hadn’t suspected Liu Tongyi to begin with. Given Yun Yu’s thoroughness, after seeing me on the boat, he would immediately have screened all the
merchants coming into Chengzhou. If he could nd me, he could certainly nd the newly arrived Liu Tongyi. Liu Tongyi’s business was so large that his identity must be known to everyone from Qizhe to Yun Yu.
Yun Yu must have anticipated that I would come see Liu Tongyi. I hoped that he would do as he had just hinted and let me go.
Though my hopes weren’t high.
All I could do was keep walking forward and hope that things would turn out all right. I was even regretting that I had come to Liu Tongyi for help. I had given him a scare when I faked my death, and now I didn’t know whether I would cause more di culties for him.
I owed him so many favors that it was hard to know how to repay them.
In the boat on the way back to my house from the inn, I spent the trip pondering again.
What I didn’t especially understand at present was what Yun Yu was doing.
I had been unable to see through him three years ago, and now I certainly had no idea.
He had spent the night at my house, and his manner had been strange, his words and actions all greatly altered. I did not know what he wanted.
I asked myself whether I still loved him, and the answer was that I did.
But love was love, and facts were facts. What I wanted more was to live the rest of my life freely. I couldn’t face another round of torment.
In fact, while Yun Yu was lying in bed last night, I lay on the bamboo couch and sighed to myself.
Jing Chengjun had borne the reputation of being licentious, yet I had been so prudish back then; I really hadn’t touched Yun Yu or Liu Tongyi.
Once I went to Java, I would be unlikely to see anyone like Yun Yu and Liu Tongyi in a savage place like that. Perhaps for the rest of my life, there would be nothing but simple and passionate exotic ings.
Though I was quite looking forward to that, for whatever reason, I still couldn’t resist sighing.
Alas…
After I returned to the house, at midday, an o cial really did come to make a delivery. He said this was Commissioner Yun’s gift to Mister Zhao to thank him for his pointers on ood management.
It was a square box containing a small jar of wine, a wine pitcher, and two cups. I opened the jar and sni ed. It was a mature Yuqiong wine.
I couldn’t help but smile. Yun Yu’s habit of collecting hadn’t changed. He liked wines with elegant names, of respectable age; even the jars had to be su ciently fashionable and well-crafted. He seemed to keep them for the sake of keeping them, not to drink them.
But when he needed to give someone a gift, they were ready to hand. It was quite convenient.
Yet this set of drinking vessels didn’t match Yun Yu’s usual exquisite style.
They were quite simple. Two willow branches were painted on the pitcher, and two slanting willow leaves on the cups.
I casually asked the courier for the name of the drinking vessels; they were called Willow Leaf Intoxication.
I wondered where the commissioner had picked them up.
When the courier was gone, I put away the wine and drinking vessels. I was just deciding what to eat for lunch when Bai Rujin arrived in front of the
house in a fast boat. From his expression, I knew yet another problem was coming my way.
Sure enough, without even coming inside, Bai Rujin waved to me from the bow of the boat beyond the railing. “Hop in, young fellow, a relative’s come to see you. He’s waiting at the shop.”
I sensed the impending crash of a hammer onto my head.
“What relative?” I asked.
Bai Rujin scratched his scalp. “He says he’s your nephew.”
When I got on the boat, Bai Rujin kept rambling: “Your poor nephew. Just look at the boy, coming all this way through the ood just to see you. I hope there’s no family emergency. Chengzhou is sealed o on all sides. He said he had to beg the guards for ages before he could get in…”
At the door to the shop, I stepped from the boat onto the second- oor corridor and immediately spotted the gure inside.
When I got a clear look at him, I froze. Then I sighed in relief, but my astonishment was still greater.
He launched himself at me, excited and elated. “Uncle! It really is you! It really is you?”
My temples began to twitch uncontrollably.
When I saw that gure, the rst thought that popped into my head was—
Qitan, have you nally spent all the rest of my money in Henan?
Qitan and I sat in a small, airy room on Jiqing Lane.
He sipped his wine, then brought it up to his nose and sni ed. “The wine is better than I expected from a little place like Chengzhou. This Huadiao is truly unique.”
“That’s Bamboo Leaf Green,” I said.
Qitan looked astonished. “It isn’t Huadiao? Why does Bamboo Leaf Green taste like Huadiao?”
“Because it’s Chengzhou’s style of Bamboo Leaf Green,” I said.
His face still a picture of disbelief, Qitan tasted a whole cup, exclaiming again and again. Then he put the empty cup back down on the table. “Uncle, where have you been all these years?”
“Oh, all over the place, just roaming.”
Qitan seemed to hesitate. Then he said with a smile, “I didn’t think you would acknowledge me, Uncle. I’d only meant to come and take a look. If you’d looked at me cluelessly and asked who I was, I would have left.”
Even you’re here, I thought to myself. If I still refused to admit anything, it would be much too unreasonable.
Qitan hesitated again, then said, “Uncle, you might have guessed that I actually came with Yun Yu.”
I inclined my head slightly.
Qitan continued, “We came at my imperial brother’s behest. Yun Yu is to act out in the open, primarily to manage the ooding, but we’ve also come
with another important assignment. I’m here in secret for precisely that reason.”
I remained composed and listened to him continue.
Qitan paused. “I… and Yun Yu were both issued a command by my imperial brother, telling us to bring a certain person back with us… You must have already guessed who that person is…”
The words were already in my throat—
Qitan, though you called Uncle and your uncle answered, the uncle sitting here in front of you is only a merchant, nothing to do with that treacherous prince now sleeping inside a tomb. Do you understand?
I drank my wine calmly, and Qitan said, “It seems you have guessed, so I’ll stop beating around the bush.” He knocked on his forehead with an anguished look and sighed lengthily. “That’s right, that person is Liu Tongyi.
My imperial brother wants to ask Liu Tongyi to come back and be imperial chancellor again.”
“I think my imperial brother’s decision is truly wise beyond compare,” said Qitan with a grimace. “I approve of it wholeheartedly. Zhang Ping… Ugh!
Zhang Ping…”
“What’s wrong with Zhang Ping?” I couldn’t resist asking.
I recalled Zhang Ping being quite upright and incorruptible. He had accomplished a great deal at the Court of Judicial Review, solving cases deftly and speedily, his actions even more vigorous and resolute than Liu Tongyi’s in the same post.
“That’s right,” said Qitan bleakly, “you’ve been happily wandering far and wide. You don’t know what we’ve been su ering in the capital. Zhang Ping… He is a good o cial. But he really is only suited to the Ministry of
Justice or the Court of Judicial Review. He’s simply not t to be imperial chancellor.”
According to Qitan, during the years Zhang Ping had been imperial chancellor, the whole court had been imbued with the grimness of a Court of Judicial Review interrogation. Even Qizhe, when he came to court every day and saw Zhang Ping standing at the head of the o cials, felt as if he were on trial.
Solving cases had become an addiction for Zhang Ping, especially peculiar cases like family massacres, violent murders, and so on. When he had served in the Ministry of Justice, in addition to examining new cases, he had buried himself in old les and dug up all the peculiar old unsolved cases to reinvestigate, and even reinvestigated cases that had been wrongly decided and resulted in a miscarriage of justice. This had implicated certain courtiers, giving him a reputation for being honorable that spread far and wide. After Liu Tongyi became imperial chancellor, Zhang Ping was promoted to chamberlain of the Court of Judicial Review. Based on popularity and public acclaim, and especially his reputation among the common people, Zhang Ping was the greatest of all the o cials. After Liu Tongyi resigned his position, most of the candidates to become imperial chancellor after him were decades his senior. Only Zhang Ping was of similar age to his predecessor and popular, with an impressive record.
Apparently, when deliberations about Zhang Ping’s appointment had still been underway, Zhang Ping had earnestly declined several times. He wished to dedicate his whole life to the Court of Judicial Review. At the time, Qizhe and all the o cials had taken this for false modesty, a necessary a ectation.
The night the edict came down with the appointment, Zhang Ping sat in the o ce of the Court of Judicial Review till daybreak, weeping over the les.
As Qitan spoke, I remembered that when I had still been the treacherous Prince Huai, Zhang Ping had once come to Huai Manor on my birthday to deliver a gift. He said solemnly to me that bladed weapons hanging on the walls shouldn’t be sharpened, that it would be easy for assassins to hide in the big vases by the walls, that my nightly patrols needed nets to dredge the water features, and that Huai Manor’s encircling wall should be a little taller.
He had looked at me with eyes lled with anticipation of my assassination.
When it came time for him to bid farewell and depart, his gaze lingered signi cantly on the rose trellis, as if he hoped that some assassins would leap out from its shelter, or perhaps that he could get a shovel and dig up a corpse from underneath it. I thought at the time that this Lord Zhang really was too forthright. I might be a treacherous prince, but he still didn’t have to be so obvious about hoping I’d be murdered on my birthday. Now it seemed that he was always like that, and I was being paranoid.
Qitan said that when Liu Tongyi was imperial chancellor, it had been all gentle sunshine and spring breezes at court; when Zhang Ping took over, it was all chilly winds. The year before last at least Qitan had been serving diligently in Henan; he hadn’t been at court and hadn’t had anything to do with Zhang Ping. When he had returned last year, bringing the antiques his
“diligent service” had turned up to show o to Qizhe, Zhang Ping just happened to be present, and Qizhe had casually asked him to appraise them.
Zhang Ping had then suggested three or more bloody histories for each antique—all murders, miscarriages of justice, unsolved cases—and scared Qitan’s wife and some young princesses listening from behind a screen to tears. That night, when they came home, Princess Dai had lost her temper at Qitan. She insisted on having a Daoist priest come in to perform a cleansing
ritual, and insisted that Qitan throw away those haunted things, or else she was leaving him, taking the children, and going back to her parents’ house.
“I still have no peace at home,” Qitan said bitterly. “Oh, right. What Zhang Ping was most interested in was you, Uncle Jun.”
He spoke more and more loquaciously and was now even calling me Uncle Jun. I didn’t bother telling him that he was wrong, and he ought to be calling me Uncle Wang or Uncle Cai.
Qitan continued, “I don’t know if he was doing it on purpose or not, but Zhang Ping kept bringing you up over and over in front of my imperial brother, Uncle. One day he’d say that you might not be dead, that the whole thing was a hoax, and so on and so on. And then not long after that, he’d say that you probably were dead, because of such and such, and the examination of the body hadn’t turned up such and such. When Eldest Imperial Uncle rst woke up and the whole truth came out, he advised that those ashes be examined. He said that the ashes of a person who had been poisoned were di erent. When it came time to relocate the grave, Yun Yu was responsible for it, and Zhang Ping went to Yun Yu and asked whether he could scoop up some ashes to examine them. Nearly annoyed Yun Yu to death. My imperial brother was ready to have him dragged out and beheaded. Well, anyway, a lot was happening then.”
Qitan looked up at me. “Actually, Imperial Uncle, why didn’t you tell anyone but Eldest Imperial Uncle about this business back then? Even if you were afraid my imperial brother wouldn’t be able to conceal it from the empress dowager, you still might have told someone else.”
“All of this is ancient history,” I said. “Let it go.”
Qitan looked at me. “You’re right.” Then, with a sudden smile, he said, “It’s a good thing Zhang Ping has been going back and forth all these years,
saying you might not be dead or that you really were dead. That’s the only reason I didn’t take you for a ghost and jump out of my skin when I saw you in the boat.”
He served himself some food, poured himself another cup of Chengzhou’s Bamboo Leaf Green, and drank a bit. “Uncle, what are you planning to do now?”
“I’m a merchant,” I said. “I think I’ll go on roaming far and wide.”
Qitan said, haltingly, “But… the fact that I’ve met you… even if I don’t say anything… Yun Yu must have…”
This brat was getting craftier by the day. Even Yun Yu was covering for me, but he had come running to the shop with a crowd of secret guards, those from the capital and those dispatched locally alike, and called me Uncle right in front of Bai Rujin. Bai Rujin hadn’t noticed anything at the time, but given his connection to the prefect, if he asked a few questions, he was sure to get the gist. And here he was looking innocent and putting the blame on Yun Yu.
“We can come back to that later,” I said. “We haven’t seen each other in years. We ought to drink a few more cups.”
Qitan said, “Uncle, you aren’t mad at me for rushing over here thoughtlessly and giving your identity away, are you… I did hesitate, but I thought that since Yun Yu spent the night at your place yesterday, and Liu Tongyi must have known already, there was no way it could be concealed…”
“Liu Tongyi only found out after reaching Chengzhou, about the same time as the two of you,” I said.
The words “must have known already” were rich with implication; I would rst clarify matters on Liu Tongyi’s behalf to avoid getting him in trouble.
Qitan looked at me and gave a bitter laugh. “Uncle, there is one thing Zhang Ping was right about. If you really weren’t dead, you wouldn’t trust anyone.” He picked up his wine cup and drained it in one gulp.
After three pitchers of wine, Qitan was beginning to slur a little. He said pitifully to me, “Uncle, there’s something I’ve been keeping bottled up that I have to tell you about. You always used to feel bad because you were suspected, but you weren’t alone. For example, they actually suspected me more than you. My imperial brother and I are brothers after all… My imperial father favored my mother, and you doted on me when I was little…
It only got better after I’d spent all my money on antiques and everyone decided I was a spendthrift. And you were the only one willing to lend me money, even at the risk of rousing suspicion… You’d think everyone wanted to be emperor. But my imperial brother really is a good emperor, and he’s really nice to all us brothers… What I think is, you can’t always be thinking about gloomy things like that… You just have to be happy…”
I lifted my wine cup. “I’m quite a bit older than you, but my views on this subject fall short of yours. I honor you for that speech.”
Qitan giggled and said, “Uncle, I’m only telling the truth.” But his eyes were drifting over to the place he had been constantly staring at ever since he and I had met. “After this cup, will you take that bone hairpin out of your hair and let me see it? It looks pretty old. Is it some foreign relic?”
When we left the restaurant, Qitan was stumbling a little. The secret guards who had followed him did their duty admirably, staying ambushed nearby and leaving me to prop him up by myself.
Qitan wasn’t going back to the government o ce. If he went to see Liu Tongyi in his current condition, instead of talking him into anything, he was
more likely to send him running from the reek of alcohol. I had no choice but to haul him onto the Bai family’s boat and return to my little house.
When I pulled Qitan onto the second- oor corridor, he looked around with glazed eyes. “What an unusual-looking latrine.”
I nearly let go and allowed him to topple over the railing and into the water. “This is where Uncle lives now.”
Qitan rubbed his eyes. “You live in a latrine?” He pointed at the wooden barrel I kept my water in. “Uncle, why do you have a stove next to the commode? Is it so you don’t catch a chill while going at night?”
I’d been planning to send him o to the bed, but when I heard this, I knew he was drunk out of his senses. Therefore, I once again unfolded the bamboo couch Bai Rujin had sent and dropped Qitan onto it. I stuck a pillow under his head. Qitan rolled over and immediately fell asleep.
I lit a re and heated a kettle of tea, then sat inside sipping tea and checking my accounts, waiting for Yun Yu or someone from the local government to come pick up Qitan. Eventually, I also got tired and went to bed to nap through the afternoon. In the evening, Commissioner Yun nally came in a little boat.
Qitan was awake, but he wasn’t planning to leave. He wanted dinner.
Yun Yu sent his guards to get some porridge and side dishes. Qitan and I sat at the table, but Yun Yu stood by. I said, “Please come eat with us, Lord Yun.”
“I have already had dinner,” Yun Yu said calmly. “Thank you, Master Zhao.”
After eating, Qitan nally left with Yun Yu. He didn’t appear the next day. I gured that he had gone to lobby Liu Tongyi.
The day after that was when Liu Tongyi and I had arranged to discuss the logistics of purchasing the silk. In the morning, Liu Tongyi arrived at the shop as arranged. Bai Rujin brought out his ledger and rst veri ed the count, then settled the price and delivery arrangements. Bai Rujin must have already learned something. His manner was a little di erent from before.
Instead of genially calling me “young fellow” at every turn, he was now a little reserved. Liu Tongyi, however, behaved as usual, still acting the part of Master Mei.
When we had paused after a lengthy discussion to drink some tea, while Bai Rujin went to use the latrine, I smiled and said to Liu Tongyi, “I hear Master Mei had a guest come by recently who wanted to convince you to go into a di erent trade.”
“Master Zhao is well-informed,” Liu Tongyi said, smiling. “I nd my current trade congenial and have no intention of going into another one for the time being.”
“Very good,” I said. “I was worried that Master Mei would change professions and wasn’t planning on transporting me anymore.”
Holding his teacup, Liu Tongyi said, “Master Zhao’s transport is a major transaction. Am I likely to renege on my promise?”
I saluted grandly and said with a smile, “With Master Mei’s promise, I am as con dent as Kongming borrowing the eastern wind.”
“There is no call to borrow the eastern wind,” Liu Tongyi said languidly.
“A southerly wind is rising, and the oodwaters are falling. The day after tomorrow, we can set out.”
The next day, Bai Rujin did not visit. Qitan must have gone to be a mouthpiece and had no time to come, so I was free to pack my things at
I had gone far and wide over the last few years and was accustomed to traveling light. As long as I had money, I would be able to buy anything I needed. I would certainly bring none of the things I had purchased in Chengzhou.
I packed two changes of clothes and gathered up all my money. I picked out a few of the local baubles I had bought in various places over the years.
Qitan would probably enjoy the rest, so I left them in the closet, con dent that he would nd them.
The drinking vessels Yun Yu had given me were inconvenient to bring along, but he had gone to the trouble of giving them to me, after all. It wouldn’t look good to leave them behind. I found some pieces of soft cloth, wrapped them up, and shoved them into my travel bag. And that was it for packing.
At midday I took the Bai family’s boat out to eat. After returning, I lay in bed and took a midday nap. I felt quite emotional. I had bought a house, made myself a nest at last; I’d thought I could settle down for a little while.
Now I had to start drifting again.
It was my destiny to lead the life of a drifter.
When I opened my eyes, I saw a person in the outer room. It gave me a start.
He was dressed casually, sitting at the table. It was Yun Yu.
I stood up and straightened my clothes. “When did you arrive, Lord Yun?
However did you nd time among all your cares to come to my humble abode?”
Yun Yu stood from the table. “I arrived recently. I saw you were asleep, so I did not disturb you. I hope you will forgive me.”
Smiling, I said, “It’s no problem, Lord Yun.” I went to the outer room and lit the stove to heat a kettle of water, then pulled up a chair at the table.
“Please sit, Lord Yun. Tea will take a moment.”
Yun Yu sat across from me. “Master Zhao leaves the door open while sleeping. Are you not afraid of thieves?”
“You’re joking, Lord Yun,” I said. “I’m a single man and empty-handed.
The thieves wouldn’t come if I invited them.”
Smiling, Yun Yu said, “You’re the one who’s joking, Master Zhao. You are a major merchant who has traveled far and wide, with ample property. How can you call yourself empty-handed? You packed your bags this morning.
Are you planning to travel for business?”
I had thought that my heart wouldn’t sink, but when I heard his nal question, I still felt it drop.
I smiled as well. “Thank you for taking the time to check up on me, Lord Yun. I was only cleaning up. I suppose your men don’t have very good eyesight.”
Yun Yu sat slouched at the table, looking at me. “Where are you going?”
“Are you interrogating me, Lord Yun? Or merely asking?” The atmosphere grew slightly rigid. Just then, the water on the stove boiled. Smiling, I said,
“I’m joking. Don’t take o ense, Lord Yun.” I stood and picked up the copper kettle. I extinguished the re, brought out a teapot and teacups, and brewed tea.
As I was rinsing the cups, Yun Yu’s voice came slowly from behind me. “If Your Highness Prince Huai leaves again, things will be very awkward.”
I turned around and sat back down at the table. I laid out the cups and poured tea. Yun Yu slowly went on: “There are secret guards near this house. I positioned them yesterday. After Your Highness encountered His
Highness Prince Dai, it was only natural for me to make these arrangements.
There were no guards before, though I suppose Your Highness won’t believe that.” He laughed softly. “At any rate, I’ve never done anything good.”
Perhaps I ought to have a proper chat with Yun Yu today.
Now that I thought about it, he and I had never actually spoken the truth out in the open. So I sighed and said, “Yun Yu, let us speak openly.”
When I spoke the name “Yun Yu,” the expression of the man across from me changed abruptly. His brow eased a great deal. While his expression was admittedly still solemn, it was the familiar gravity with which Yun Yu had used to discuss serious a airs.
I got right to the point. “Yun Yu, are you here today because you are planning to keep me in Chengzhou?”
“I am not so bold,” said Yun Yu. “Your Highness may say all you like that Prince Huai has been dead for three years, but as far as I am concerned, the person sitting in front of me is still His Majesty’s uncle. In all the world, no one but His Majesty would dare to keep Your Highness anywhere. Your Highness ought to know that a lackey like me would not commit such an o ense unless acting under orders. But since Your Highness and Prince Dai have met and recognized each other, there is no way for this to remain unknown to His Majesty. If Your Highness leaves now, and leaves with Liu Tongyi, it will likely cause trouble and embarrassment for many people, Liu Tongyi included. I am only being honest. If I have been disrespectful, I hope Your Highness will make allowances.”
I nodded. “All you say is indeed reasonable. I will reconsider leaving.”
I picked up my tea and drank. Since we were speaking openly, some things came out of my mouth spontaneously. “You’ve changed a great deal, Yun Yu.”
Yun Yu held back his sleeve and picked up his cup. “So has Your Highness.”
“Traveling far and wide naturally weathers one’s face.”
“Being at court exposes one to all manner of attacks.”
I was silent. His position was an awkward one. It was easy to imagine what his lot had been at court these past few years. So I asked, “Is Grand Tutor Yun well?”
Yun Yu was silent awhile, then nodded slowly and said that he was. After three years of cultivating his mind in a temple, he had calmed a great deal.
I had meant to ask about Qizhe as well, but asking Yun Yu might have been taken for an insinuation, so I changed the subject again. “When you stayed here the other night, I refused to acknowledge my identity only because I did not wish di culties to arise once again because of the past. In fact, there were things I wanted to say to you then.”
Yun Yu looked intently at me. I said, “Years ago, while I was defeated by the plans His Majesty, Liu Tongyi, and you yourself had made, before that I was plotting against you and your father. So you and I are even. If I had told His Majesty the truth earlier, later circumstances would not have arisen.
Therefore, there need be no debate over right and wrong, and there is no call to take o ense.”
Yun Yu’s expression went through several alterations. He seemed to want to say something, then stopped himself. Finally, he smiled and said, “After all these years away from the palace, Your Highness’s mind is truly as open as the sea and sky.”
“It is true that going so many places has given me a fresh understanding of the vastness of the world compared to the insigni cance of a man,” I said.
Then I spoke a little of some of the places I had been over the last few years,
and got out the local specialties that I hadn’t packed up and had meant to leave to Qitan and showed them to him.
An oxhorn cup, a gemstone pendant, sheep-bone dice, small stone carvings… Yun Yu looked at each one avidly, but at last, he picked up a piece of cloth I had used to wrap the dice, unfolded it, and smiled without speaking.
I saw something strange in his smile. I looked at the cloth again and saw that it was only an old and wrinkled coarsely made piece of patterned fabric; I didn’t understand what he was seeing.
Yun Yu spread the piece of cloth at on the table, turned it around, and pushed it up in front of me. He pointed at one particular place.
In the corner where he pointed, I saw a crookedly embroidered mess.
Looking more closely, it seemed to be small writing: For my beloved Cai-lang, do not forget. Mija.
It looked like the gift that girl from Goryeo, Kim Mija, had given me before I left…
And those words… seemingly, she had asked me to teach her to write them…
And I had given her a ve-character quatrain in answer. After I read it to her, she was so moved that she wept bitterly and said that she had never heard anything more beautiful than this poem.
Then a ripple surged up in my heart, and I said insincerely that this piece of cloth was the most beautiful embroidery I had ever seen, and I had folded it away over my careworn heart, which felt a moment’s solace.
Oh, the events of the past…
The corners of Yun Yu’s lips tipped up. He said, “It seems this was quite the romantic a air. Neither the cloth nor the embroidery technique seem to
belong to this country. It must have been a foreign romantic a air.”
A little embarrassed, I said, “Merely a young lady I found congenial.” I had seen him admire the oxhorn cup earlier, so I o ered it to him and said, “I received a set of drinking vessels from you a couple of days ago. Why don’t I give you this in return?”
Yun Yu froze. “That’s… most polite, Your Highness.” He refused for a while, but I pressed it on him, so he accepted.
This talk seemed to have completely dispersed the emotional frustration brought about by the events that had taken place years ago. Yun Yu’s awkwardness on the night he had spent here had gradually given way to a more natural manner. After a few more exchanges, he stood and bade farewell, but before leaving, he asked me, “On what day had Your Highness planned to depart?”
Because this concerned Liu Tongyi, I did not give an honest answer, only said, “In a few days.”
Yun Yu said nothing else. He boarded his boat and left.
That evening, I went to see Liu Tongyi and said that we could forget about what I had asked him for. I wasn’t leaving.
After hearing me out, Liu Tongyi asked, “Does Master Zhao not want to leave, or do you feel unable to leave?”
I froze. Then I said that naturally I wanted to leave as soon as possible, but it seemed leaving wasn’t going to be so easy.
“The authorities have issued a decree permitting free movement in and out of Chengzhou starting tomorrow, with no further restrictions,” Liu Tongyi said calmly. “What di culty could there be in two traveling merchants like Master Zhao and myself leaving?”
“I am afraid of causing trouble for you, Ransi.”
Liu Tongyi raised his eyelids and looked at me. “It makes no di erence whether you go or not.”
At these words, everything suddenly became clear.
I had already brought Liu Tongyi down with me. It really was all the same whether I went or not.
So I immediately took the boat, rst to see Bai Rujin and give him a brief explanation. I only told him that a deal had come up, and I was leaving all matters in Chengzhou in his hands. Then I returned to the little house, took my luggage, and boarded Liu Tongyi’s merchant ship.
It was indeed extremely easy for the ship to leave Chengzhou. The guards let us pass without even a cursory inspection. Yun Yu and Qitan were probably still in dreamland, not yet out of bed.
As the sky began to lighten, Liu Tongyi’s ship sped through the water with the wind at its back, carrying me away from Chengzhou.
N
The ooding around Chengzhou had disrupted the waterways. After we left the city, we rst had to go a ways north and turn into another river, then travel southeast in order to avoid the oodwaters.
Liu Tongyi’s merchant ship was swift, and the wind was in our favor as we traveled north. Approaching nightfall, we had already reached the intersection of the two rivers. We moored at a pier in a town called Rivermeet to pass the night. We would be back on our way early the next morning.
Rivermeet was quite an a uent little town. Because of its convenient position on the waterways, merchants coming from all directions used it as a place to drop anchor and rest while traveling. Merchant ships of all sizes were packed tightly at the pier, on which all kinds of little stands were set up. Some little dinghies hawked their wares among the ships, though the prices were steeply marked up— ve coins for a mantou, fteen for tea leaves.
Liu Tongyi said that all the vendors on the pier eeced their customers like this, and that prices were slightly better in the town itself. All of Rivermeet’s markets stayed open throughout the night, which was as busy as day. I was feeling a little sti ed after spending all day aboard ship, so I went for a walk around town with him.
The town was indeed quite prosperous, with all kinds of stalls crammed elbow to elbow along the streets, the majority of them put up temporarily by traveling merchants who were passing through taking advantage of their
resting time to sell o some of the knickknacks they had picked up in the course of transporting their shipments. One little street embraced all four corners of the world, from the desert to Jiangnan, from the capital to foreign parts—they had everything.
The shops lining both sides of the street were sumptuously decorated.
Listening to the accents in which their proprietors solicited customers, I heard the Rivermeet Town locals and all kinds of outsiders. Looking along the street, the businesses were mainly of three kinds: restaurants, bathhouses, and brothels. This was in keeping with the towns I had passed through in the course of my business. A ship’s stores were limited, after all, and the fare was monotonous, and while there was water all around, bathing wasn’t as convenient as on land. When merchants who traveled the waterways came ashore, the majority of them went straight to a restaurant to eat to their heart’s content, then to a bathhouse to soak in hot water to their satisfaction, and nally to a brothel to relax and enjoy themselves.
Liu Tongyi and I spent a while wandering the streets, then went into a restaurant that still had an empty table, which happened to be in a quiet corner of the second oor, next to a window. While we were ordering, I said to Liu Tongyi, “You must let me pay for this meal to thank you for bringing me along.”
Liu Tongyi didn’t refuse. He smiled and said, “Then I won’t insist.”
I already knew that he liked spicy food and didn’t have any particular aversions, so I freely ordered some dishes and asked for a pitcher of wine.
Shortly after, the wine came. I tried it. While it was a local brew, called Rivermeet Vintage, it was much better than Chengzhou’s Bamboo Leaf Green. Liu Tongyi tasted some of the lamb tripe and chicken gizzards in chili oil and said that the dish had an authentic avor. The restaurants here
were likely used to receiving customers from all over and were pro cient in all sorts of cuisines.
The waiter brought over a lily bulb and water chestnut soup just then. I said, “Seeing water chestnuts always reminds me of a funny story. A couple of years ago when I was trading in the desert, I ate grilled meat every day and washed it down with sheep’s milk and warm wine. My internal heat got so bad that my whole throat was sore. I could barely drink water. Suddenly I desperately wanted candied water chestnuts, ideally the kind chilled with cold water. I spent all night thinking about them, and then I actually ate some. The taste was still in my mouth the next morning. But when I got up, I found that the piece of fur I’d been using as a pillow had a big chunk nibbled out of the edge, as if a rat had been at it. When I thought about it, the candied water chestnuts I’d eaten in my dream had been a little strange.
Chestnuts are tender and crisp, but mine were even chewier than jerky.”
Smiling, Liu Tongyi said, “This dish certainly doesn’t taste like jerky. Have some more.”
I scooped up a spoonful and put it in the dish in front of me. “I didn’t nish the story. When I left the desert and came south, the very rst thing I did was go to the market to purchase a few jin of chestnuts and take them back to my lodgings to prepare them. But it turns out, water chestnuts have a skin that’s very hard to get o , and they have to be boiled to make them sweet and tender. I borrowed a kitchen knife from the inn’s cook, spent ages hacking away at the skins and nearly cut o a nger. When all the skin was cut away, there was almost nothing left of the chestnut. So I went out and bought some more and peeled those as well. I practiced for days, peeling and slicing. Finally a waiter at the inn couldn’t stand it anymore and asked me, since I wasn’t planning to sell them and was only going to eat them myself,
couldn’t I just dip them in sugar and eat them? Why bother slicing them? So I found out what I’d been doing was super uous.”
Liu Tongyi looked at me dubiously. “Why not ask the inn to prepare them for you?”
Smiling, I said, “It’s clear you aren’t used to being out on business alone, or else you aren’t as stubborn about food as I am. Your business is on a larger scale than mine, so in this aspect, you aren’t as savvy. You can’t always have a cook around. If you learn to make something yourself, as long as you can get together the ingredients, you can eat it whenever you want.”
Liu Tongyi’s expression became one of approval and admiration. I said modestly, “Though up to the present, I’ve only learned to make a few dishes and soups, which are just barely edible.”
Liu Tongyi smiled and said, “Then I also want to go to the kitchen to learn a little. At least I want to learn to make chili sauce and chili oil, so I don’t have to do without.”
“I don’t know what ingredients you have aboard ship,” I said. “I’ll see if I can scare up a few dishes to show o my meager skills, just by way of thanks.”
“This meal is thanks enough,” said Liu Tongyi. “Anyway, it doesn’t cost me anything to have Master Zhao aboard.”
His tone was still relaxed, just the same as when he had taken me away from Chengzhou.
We nished the meal and left the restaurant. Naturally, I couldn’t go with Liu Tongyi to the two other kinds of establishments in town. It was already late, so we simply returned to the ship.
When I nished my bath, I left my cabin for a stroll and saw that the door to Liu Tongyi’s cabin next to mine wasn’t fully closed, and a light was still
burning, so I went over, knocked, and opened it. “I wonder if I might get a cup of tea.”
Smiling, Liu Tongyi said, “I’ve just made some, as it happens.” He found a cup and lled it. It was weak tea.
He and I sat on either side of a table. Liu Tongyi said, “Since we left Chengzhou, I haven’t yet asked where Master Zhao wants to go, and what plans you have for the future.”
“When you drop me o in Suzhou,” I said, “I’ll continue southeast to the sea.”
“Are you planning a sea voyage?” said Liu Tongyi.
“I’m planning to nd a place where I can settle down. I won’t be coming back.”
Liu Tongyi was silent. I sighed and said, “This wasn’t an easy decision to make, but it’s no longer up to me. A dead man should take care not to show himself. The empire seems large, but in reality, it’s very small. I’ve been all over these past few years, and I’ve still run into some people I used to know.
So I’m going to nd a place where such problems won’t arise, and everyone can relax.”
In Chengzhou, Yun Yu’s emotional knot about me ought to have been untied. He and Qizhe could only rely on themselves going forward. There was no room for outside interference. I could nally be at peace.
Qitan also seemed quite well, and I had heard nothing of the princess or Chu Xun; they were probably also doing ne.
“In the end, I still can’t say I’ve returned the favor I owe you,” I said. “It wasn’t very fair to deliberately give you a fright in prison like that, and now I’ve also asked you to transport me.”
“I think that… you don’t owe me any favors,” said Liu Tongyi. “What’s more, Master Zhao has presented me with an excellent deal.”
“Then let’s say this,” I said. “If Master Mei one day goes to sea to purchase stock and passes by where I’m staying, I’ll take care of food and lodgings for you.”
Liu Tongyi paused. Smiling in the lamplight, he said, “I trust Master Zhao not to go back on that promise.”
Looking at Liu Tongyi, I suddenly felt moved. Three years ago and now, when it came to the very end, it was always Liu Tongyi of all my acquaintances who was with me. Even if I had always been the one to deliberately seek him out, it was still a kind of destiny.
I returned to my cabin. The dark of midnight was a little desolate. In the silence, there came the splash of oars moving through the water. Next, I heard a couple of gentle raps at the cabin’s window. A mincing female voice, slurring a little, said, “Sir, are you lonely tonight? Shall I keep you company?”
I was stunned. I thought to myself that she ought to change her method of soliciting customers. I was more likely to be scared than seduced.
I heard a few more knocks at the window. When no one answered, the splashing came again and moved away. Next, I heard crisp knocking on the window lattice of the neighboring ship. “Sir, are you lonely tonight? Shall I keep you company?”
Next, a window sash opened noisily, and a low voice said, “How would you keep me company, lovely?”
I was shaken. The mincing female voice said, “However you like, sir. My company doesn’t cost much.”
Laughing, the voice said, “How can a lovely lady be cheap?”
I opened the window a crack and saw the big ship moored next to us brightly lit. A man leaned against a window frame. His silhouette seemed familiar.
The reason that man looked familiar was that he bore a strong resemblance to Yun Yu. But it took only one glance for me to know this wasn’t Yun Yu, only someone who looked like him. Even the posture he was sitting in and the tone he was using to speak to that woman had something of Yun Yu in them, but it was the Yun Yu of three years ago, not the Yun Yu of today.
His voice was di erent from Yun Yu’s too, but it did resemble Yun Yu’s father, Yun Tang.
But Yun Tang was in his fties now. Even if he had escaped his little temple, he wouldn’t be out here behaving like a suave young rake.
The similarity was so striking. Was he related to the Yun family?
I simply opened the window. On the deck of the ship next to us, some servants holding lanterns were helping a woman aboard. She straightened her dress and followed the servants into the ship’s hold. The boat that had brought her unexpectedly rowed back in my direction. The boatman bowed and said, “Sorry, sir, you didn’t answer, so I thought you didn’t want company. There are other women on shore, shall I bring you one?”
“Forget it, I think it’s not my fate tonight,” I said.
The boatman said at once, “Sure it is, there’s plenty of fate to go around.
The ladies on shore are all hoping it’s their fate to be with you.”
Very persistent.
As I was about to respond, the man sitting by the window raised his voice. “My friend on the neighboring ship, the night is quiet, and I have wine and a lovely lady. Why not come over and drink with me?”
I was a little moved, but still I said, “Thank you for the invitation, but staying up late is bad for me, and I must turn in early so I can travel tomorrow.”
He laughed. “Then I won’t insist.” He saluted me from a distance, and I lifted my hands to return the salute. Only, I was in the dark with no lamp burning, so he must not have seen.
After a while, the window sash on the neighboring ship closed. I gave another tactful refusal to the boatman standing under the window waiting attentively and also closed my window and went to sleep.
The next morning, when I had nished washing up, I wanted to go ask Liu Tongyi whether he knew the background of the man on the neighboring ship, but I heard from a page that the traveling merchants from the surrounding ships had come to call, and Liu Tongyi was talking to them now.
I came to the cabin used as a hall and, sure enough, found Liu Tongyi sitting with a number of men. They stood when they saw me arrive, and we exchanged greetings. One of them seemed to be the man in the cabin on the neighboring ship last night. Liu Tongyi said, “This Master Wan is a major merchant in the jewel trade.”
I said at once that it was nice to meet him, and he smiled and said,
“Master Mei is too kind. My name is Wan Qianshan, a mere seller of rocks.”
The other traveling merchants around us laughed. “With Master Wan so modest, the rest of us won’t even dare to claim to be in business.”
I lifted my sleeves and said, “I am Zhao Cai, just a wanderer who makes my living picking up odds and ends. I am currently traveling on Master Mei’s ship on my way to purchase wares in the south.”
The merchants around us laughed again. “Master Zhao is being even more modest. You see, Master Wan really did go too far just now.”
Seen by daylight, Wan Qianshan didn’t look as similar to Yun Yu as he had in the dark last night. He seemed to be a few years older, close to thirty, and Yun Yu now was much sparer than him. This man was an excellent conversationalist and had an unbridled air about him. There must be something interesting in his background; he was no ordinary merchant. His face was faintly like Yun Yu’s, but at a closer look, the details were very di erent. This man’s eyes had an inborn smile that gave one an automatic feeling of ease and closeness. Only in the magni cence of his attire was there further resemblance to Yun Yu.
It occurred to me that examining Wan Qianshan so closely might make him suspicious, so I looked him over again and said, “I nd that it is Master Wan who invited me to drink with him last night.”
Realization appeared on Wan Qianshan’s face. “So Master Zhao was the gentleman who refused to answer that lovely lady’s knocking last night.” He waved the fan in his hand. “It was precisely because I wanted to meet the man from last night that I came over this morning.”
All the traveling merchants sat there awhile, exchanging goodwill, then bade farewell and left one after another.
Not long after, the ship left Rivermeet’s pier and continued on its way.
Liu Tongyi and I at last had time to spare for breakfast.
The cook on Liu Tongyi’s ship was most impressive. The porridge, the side dishes, and two plates of steamed dumplings were all exquisite.
I said to Liu Tongyi, “That Wan Qianshan just now, who did he look like to you?”
“At rst glance, he looks a lot like Vice-Minister Yun,” said Liu Tongyi.
“That’s right,” I said. “And when I heard his voice last night, I thought he sounded something like Yun Tang.” I told him what had happened last night.
“But when I took a closer look, the resemblance wasn’t as strong. I was wondering whether he could be a relative.”
Liu Tongyi calmly nished eating a dumpling, then said, “Maybe. I seem to recall that Vice-Minister Yun has an older brother.”
I paused. “You mean Yun Zai?”
Yun Yu was the third of Yun Tang’s children, with one older brother and one older sister. All three of them were the children of Yun Tang’s rst wife.
This Madam Yun was of low birth, the beloved daughter of some merchant.
Before Yun Tang made his name in the imperial examinations, his family was impoverished, and he married this lady in order to support himself. Yun Yu’s grandmother was very fussy; when Yun Tang gained fame through scholarly honors, she began to nd her daughter-in-law dissatisfying. She simply wasn’t well-bred enough and lacked the manner of an o cial’s wife.
She would embarrass Yun Tang. She couldn’t help often regretting that marriage; if she had known her son would attain scholarly honors so young, she wouldn’t have approved it. Naturally, Madam Yun felt unhappy listening to this all the time. Yun Tang had made a name for himself very young; there was no shortage of beautiful ladies to run to his embrace. He wedded several concubines, each one beautiful and talented. Madam Yun was melancholy. She died in labor while giving birth to Yun Yu’s younger brother, and the child also did not make it. Apparently, Yun Tang was celebrating one of his concubines’ birthdays at the time. Yun Yu and his sister were still very young, but Yun Zai, the eldest, was old enough to see the situation for what it was. He bitterly resented his grandmother and Yun Tang. At thirteen or fourteen, he abandoned his studies and left home. He
claimed he would have nothing more to do with the Yun family. He hadn’t been heard from since.
He would be about the same age as Wan Qianshan. If Yun Zai had run away to his maternal grandparents then, he might very well be in business now. Only, I didn’t think Yun Tang’s wife’s surname had been Wan. Perhaps he had changed it to conceal his identity.
Liu Tongyi said, “I just heard Wan Qianshan say that he is going to Yangzhou on business. He’ll be traveling the same route as us much of the way. If you wish to investigate, there will be plenty of opportunities.”
“Investigating won’t be any use,” I said. “Even if he is Yun Zai, rst, he won’t stage a rebellion; second, he won’t avenge Yun Tang; and third, it’s the Yun family’s private a air. I was only a little curious because the resemblance was so strong when I saw him last night.”
Liu Tongyi smiled and said nothing else.
When I went up on deck to stand and get some air, I did see Wan Qianshan’s ship swaying not far from us. I wasn’t planning to investigate further, but that evening, when we once again tied up at the same pier for the night, Wan Qianshan came over of his own accord and arranged to eat with us.
Wan Qianshan was always traveling the waterways, making shipments. He was familiar with piers in towns everywhere. He arranged a banquet on his own ship, but a cook came from shore to prepare the meal. The lanterns burned as brightly as midday, the table was laden with dishes, and beautiful women with their breasts half bared played and sang and poured wine. I hadn’t witnessed this kind of production in three years; the sight of those women made me a little dizzy. Liu Tongyi, meanwhile, was absolutely
unperturbed. Two women pressed up against him and touched him till the corner of my mouth was spasming, and he still went on drinking wine with an unaltered expression.
Wan Qianshan said, “In a little while, I’d like to take you two to a nice place so you can enjoy it with me.”
I steadfastly declined. I couldn’t even enjoy what was in front of my eyes; I didn’t think I could stand a nice place.
His eyes narrowed in a smile, Wan Qianshan said, “Why not rst hear about its features?” He drew closer to Liu Tongyi and me, and whispered mysteriously, “Some beauties from Dongying have just arrived at a bathhouse in town. Their massage technique is very unique. Wouldn’t it be a pity to miss out?”
When he mentioned Dongying beauties, I was a little intrigued. I had always heard that women from Dongying were naturally obedient and would do anything a man asked, with a meekness that had an entirely di erent appeal from women of the midlands.
Once, my imperial nephews had been talking of nding a few to play with. Qili rubbed his hands together and said that when he sent people over there, he would instruct them to nd a few pretty Dongying boys as well to give me a taste of something fresh. Unfortunately, the court’s honest o cials were remonstrating at the time, saying that wastefulness and extravagance must be curbed. The emperor’s edict was issued, and the Dongying girls and boys all melted into thin air. This was a matter of some regret.
I hadn’t expected an opportunity to make up for those regrets today.
“Let me play host,” said Wan Qianshan. “Think of it as an opportunity to expand your horizons, how about that?”
“How could we let you do that? Master Mei and I have already eaten Wan-xiong’s banquet. No matter what, when we go into town, it’s my turn to treat you.”
Wan Qianshan clapped. “That’s as good as agreeing to go, Zhao-xiong.
You’ve said it’s your treat, you can’t go back on your word now.”
I agreed at once. When the words were out of my mouth, I realized that I had been in too much of a rush to agree. Liu Tongyi probably wouldn’t go to a place like that.
As I thought this, Liu Tongyi was already saying with a smile, “Then I will come and bene t from the o er along with Wan-xiong.”
I was a little surprised that he was going. I knew very well that he had spent many years at court and had worked in trade for years; he must have seen his share of brothels. But somehow he did not seem to belong in those places.
The bathhouse Wan Qianshan had mentioned was called the Garden of Fragrance. It was in the main street of Dongping City on the shore. Wan Qianshan only ordered two servants to come with us. We went ashore and walked for a short time, then reached the gate.
Dongping’s shopping district was similar to Rivermeet’s, but because the city was larger, the main street was more prosperous. The town had a number of other bathhouses alongside the Garden of Fragrance, though none as magni cent. When we entered, an attendant came toward us with two foreign girls, who twisted their hips and wore garments that left their abdomens bare. The attendant’s manner was very gracious. He pro ered a booklet containing drawings of the bathhouse’s various rooms for us to choose from.
According to the drawings, the great hall in the bathhouse featured a big bathing pool in the center, called the Pool of Fragrance, in which many ordinary customers could bathe together. Small rooms with private pools were divided into two areas. One was called Taste of Tranquility, which contained a Hangzhou Chamber, a Suzhou Chamber, a Capital Chamber, and so on, all domestic place names. The other area was called Experience of Serendipity, containing a Persia Chamber, a Goryeo Chamber, a Java Chamber, and so on. They were all in foreign styles; there was even a Nahe Chamber.
The attendant pointed to an innermost corner and said, “This is our new Dongying Chamber. The pool is also the newest. There’s just one room with a rst-class pool left. It’s perfect.”
“How many bathing pools in a single room?” I asked.
“Only one,” said the attendant. “But don’t worry, sir, even with three more of you, it wouldn’t be cramped.”
The rst-class Dongying Chamber was tastefully appointed, divided into an inner room and an outer room. The outer room was supplied with a table, chairs, mats, and couches. There was fruit and tea on the table and slender bamboo summer mats laid out on the couches. Though the calligraphy and paintings on the walls were not the works of famous masters, they still gave the room some elegance. Five girls knelt by the door. They attened themselves in greeting. Liu Tongyi and I both told them to rise, but the girls remained kneeling. The attendant said, “They are genuine Dongying young ladies. They kneel like this while serving guests. You gentlemen will get used to it.”
“Will they be able to reach to help us undress?” said Wan Qianshan.
The attendant quickly said, “Of course they’ll stand up when they need to.”
We just had to go through the experience step by step. First, we dismissed the attendant. The oor was of long wooden planks and extremely clean.
When the three of us went inside, a girl followed us on her knees with a cloth, wiping the oor. Her clothing was di erent from the four other girls.
She seemed to be here especially to perform this role.
Wan Qianshan sat on a couch, and a girl came up in front of him on her knees to remove his shoes. Liu Tongyi and I also each had a girl attending us. When it came time to remove our clothes, the kneeling girls did indeed stand. They kept their heads meekly bowed all the while, and their technique was unusually gentle. Snow white necks emerged from their collars. They had a great deal of foreign charm.
I was appreciating the beauty a little, but from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of another girl helping Liu Tongyi remove his outer robe.
The lapels of his undergown were half open. In the steam rising from the pool in the inner room, he did not look very much like the usual Liu Tongyi.
Steam billowed in the inner room. The hot water in the pool was clear enough to see the bottom. Soaking in it was very comfortable. The three girls knelt by the pool to serve us. The massage was a little weak, but there was a kind of intimacy to it.
Wan Qianshan was evidently a regular visitor. He leaned back at the poolside, letting the girl behind him massage his neck and shoulders as he chatted to Liu Tongyi and me. Liu Tongyi was next to him, not far away, speaking little as usual, leaning back against the edge of the pool in a slightly indolent posture. Once, I had longed to the point of dreaming about
it to have a glimpse of Chancellor Liu unclothed. Now that my long-cherished wish had been ful lled, it gave me a strange, complicated feeling.
Some time later, the fourth girl knelt by the pool holding a tray. On the tray was a silver pitcher and wine cups. Wan Qianshan drank a cup of wine from the hand of the girl attending him. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her down. There was a splash. The girl fell into his arms and meekly took the initiative to raise her head. Wan Qianshan pulled open her dress in the water. Soon they were entangled.
The girl next to me slipped into the water. The scent of wine drifted from her delicate lips. I tasted the wine in her mouth. It was sweet and fragrant, but lacked the rich intoxication of liquor; it was a little like sugar water. I pushed her away slightly and saw the girl attending Liu Tongyi climb atop him. Their lips met.
I stood, left the pool, and went to the outer room. The girl attending me followed. Seeing me put on my inner robe and sit on a couch, she knelt beside the couch and looked up at me. She looked a little frightened.
I waved at her. “Go in and attend to those two gentlemen. I’m going to rest here.”
She obediently left at once. She had actually understood me. I thought that perhaps these girls didn’t come from Dongying. They might be local to Dongping City itself.
I didn’t know when Wan Qianshan and Liu Tongyi would be out. I lay down on the couch and took a nap.
In my dreams, I returned to the capital. In a private room at a restaurant, Chu Xun lled my cup with wine. The man across from me pulled the beautiful prostitute beside him into his embrace, raised a jade cup, and said to me with a smile, “Does Your Highness nd this wine acceptable?”
I heard myself say, “When Supervisor Yun has gone to the rare trouble of warming Huadiao himself, who could say it wasn’t good?”
When we left the Garden of Fragrance, Wan Qianshan sighed in profound dissatisfaction. “Zhao-xiong and Mei-xiong have awfully high standards.
Those girls were already better than average, and one of you left after just a touch, while the other only brie y went through the motions. I didn’t see any point in staying after that. Oh, well.”
I cupped my hands and apologized. “For some reason, I wasn’t in the mood today. I said I wanted to play the host, but instead I spoiled Wan-xiong’s good time. I’m so sorry.”
Liu Tongyi’s expression had been a little odd for a while. He seemed thoughtful. Now he frowned and said, “The behavior of those Dongying girls at the bathhouse was highly suspect.”
“Of course it was suspect,” I said. “How could girls just brought over from Dongying understand our language? They must be local girls from Dongping.”
Liu Tongyi shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. They kept kneeling on the ground and seemed extremely interested in what was under our clothing. After that, in the pool, they were very proactive. They seemed to want something.”
Wan Qianshan and I looked at him simultaneously and coughed.
“Ahem… Ran… Master Mei, naturally those girls wanted something…
They wanted… ahem…”
Wan Qianshan put in, “That’s right… ahem… it was their approval of myself and you two gentlemen that made them want something… haha.”
Liu Tongyi looked at me seriously. “You really didn’t realize that those girls were deliberately inspecting our bodies? I thought you left early because you’d noticed.”
He wasn’t speaking very loudly. I looked around automatically. It was all right, nobody seemed to have heard.
Wan Qianshan laughed heartily. “Mei-xiong is a remarkable man. You’re right, but sadly we didn’t satisfy them. Those girls must be very disappointed!”
Liu Tongyi frowned. “That is not what I’m talking about. Those girls actually seemed to be…”
Before he could nish, I stopped in my tracks.
In front of us, a person strolled slowly out of an alley and stood ten paces up ahead.
The lamps were dazzling, the street was bustling. He put his hands behind his back and looked our way.
“Uncle, were the Dongying girls to your liking?”
T
At the angle of the passage in the ship’s hold, Liu Tongyi quietly asked me,
“What should we serve him?”
I glanced at a door that stood ajar. “Just avoid any foods he doesn’t eat.
You ought to know what those are.”
Liu Tongyi smiled bitterly. “How would I know? That is why I’m asking you, Master Zhao.”
“You must have attended many banquets, Ransi,” I whispered, “and probably received plenty of imperial visitations at home.”
The Liu family had produced generations of senior ministers, all honest o cials burning with loyalty. Liu Tongyi had worked closely with Qizhe to deal with the conspiracy I had headed. Though his relationship with him was nowhere near as close as Yun Yu’s, he still ought to know something of Qizhe’s preferences and temperament.
“To tell you the truth,” said Liu Tongyi, “my family did enjoy imperial grace in the past, so I know something of the late emperor’s preferences. But this present one is di erent from the previous generation. I never had the pleasure of receiving him at home, and when I was occasionally invited to attend banquets at the palace, it was hard to pick up any likes and dislikes.”
I had once regularly heard it remarked in private that Qizhe surpassed the late emperor in every aspect, except that his tastes weren’t as simple. I agreed with this. The fault lay with the empress dowager, a very fussy woman who had overly coddled her son, letting him grow up picky. When Qizhe came to visit Huai Manor as crown prince, everyone treated it like
the impending invasion of an enemy army, not daring to slack o . Seating, food, utensils—there could be no mistake in any of it. Later we had arranged the room separated from the main hall by a side hall for the crown prince’s particular use.
When it came to foods Qizhe avoided, the number was unusually large. I recalled that Huai Manor used to have a notebook with a dense record of everything he wouldn’t touch. I’d heard that when he grew up, to better suit the demeanor of a wise ruler, he had changed a great deal, so I didn’t know what foods he avoided now. I could only give Liu Tongyi a vague idea:
“Scallions, ginger, garlic, and such should be put in when they’re necessary during cooking, but when the dish is ready, the scallion stalks and ginger slices have to be picked out. For sh, only use the two aps of meat behind the gills and the meat from the anks, absolutely no bones. Milder avors, best if there’s nothing spicy. It’s late, so nothing sweet…”
Liu Tongyi noted everything down and went to the kitchen himself to deliver instructions.
I turned back and entered that half-open door. Qizhe was talking to Wan Qianshan.
Wan Qianshan was just saying, “…The cloth trade is a pro table one, but there are too many connections you have to make at every level, so I thought it over and chose to trade in stones. The sort of wide-ranging business you and your uncle do takes a very open mind.”
“I don’t have much contact with business,” said Qizhe. “It’s all my uncle’s doing.”
“A young man with your qualities is sure to surpass his elder a year or two after taking up the work,” said Wan Qianshan. He turned his head and
smiled at me. “I hope you won’t take o ense to me saying so, Master Zhao.”
“Of course not,” I said, “Master Wan atters me.”
I had thought that Wan Qianshan and the likely counterfeit Dongying girls were all Qizhe’s spies, but from the contents of this conversation, that didn’t seem to be the case. If Wan Qianshan were a spy, Qizhe certainly wouldn’t be playacting with him here.
I entered the room and said, “The kitchen is preparing supper. It will be ready soon.”
Wan Qianshan rose tactfully. “Well, it’s late, I’ll take my leave. We’ll be traveling together for a time. I’ll come visit again when we go ashore another day.”
I politely asked him to stay for supper. After a few exchanges, I saw Wan Qianshan out.
When I returned to the room, Qizhe was standing at the table with his hands behind his back. When he had suddenly appeared in the street, I had been taken completely by surprise. All I could think of was to escort his imperial person to Liu Tongyi’s ship. This was my rst chance to speak openly.
Just then, Liu Tongyi came in with tea. I shut the door. Liu Tongyi put down the tea and performed a full ceremonial obeisance. I also knelt.
“Leave it,” said Qizhe. “This is no place for it. Rise, O cial Liu and Imperial Uncle.” He slowly strolled toward us. “Zhang Ping’s guess was correct, as expected. Imperial Uncle faked his death. O cial Liu, Zhang Ping was seen visiting your home late at night after Imperial Uncle’s faked death.
Imperial Uncle had your assistance in carrying out his plot.”
Liu Tongyi knelt again and calmly said, “I have committed treason and ought to be punished with death.”
“Your Majesty,” I said at once, “when I faked my death, I deliberately put on a show in front of Chancellor Liu to fool him. Everything that happened after, I did alone. It really had absolutely nothing to do with Chancellor Liu.”
Qizhe laughed. “O cial Liu, that house in Qincai Alley in Suzhou is yours, is it not?”
Qincai Alley? That was the place where I had brie y stayed right after escaping the capital. I slowly turned toward Liu Tongyi.
When I woke up after faking my death, I found myself in a secluded little house, with no one around but Zhang Xiao and his teacher. I hadn’t taken the initiative to ask where we were and only learned later from their conversation that I was in Suzhou, and the lane where the little house was situated was called Qincai Alley.
The house didn’t belong to Zhang Xiao’s teacher? How could it be Liu Tongyi’s?
I was still struggling in the dark when Qizhe said, “O cial Liu, though you have committed treason, it was by this means that Imperial Uncle avoided dying in a miscarriage of justice. At last there is a way for us to remedy our great error. Balancing merit against fault, you have made a great contribution.” He took another two steps forward and stooped to raise Liu Tongyi to his feet.
“Ransi, we have not known peace day or night during these years without you at our side. Return to court with us.”
Liu Tongyi bowed and said, “Your Majesty, I have…”
Qizhe gripped his arm. “Ransi, how can there be such distance between us? When you insisted on leaving, you must have known that it was very much against our own will that we let you go.”
Watching the scene before me, in spite of myself, I felt a little enfeebled.
Reasonably speaking, I wasn’t old enough for my eyes to be betraying me.
Qizhe held Liu Tongyi by the arm, looking intently into his eyes.
“In recent years, we have produced a number of children, while you remain unmarried. We… have honored the promise we made to you three years ago. Only, Chu Xun insisted on becoming a monk, and we arranged for him to chant scriptures at Pufang Temple. Ransi, it has been three years.
Isn’t it time you returned to our side?”
“This is my rst time receiving such profound favor from Your Majesty,”
said Liu Tongyi. “I am in nitely distressed. I know not what to do.”
Qizhe frowned. “Ransi, were we not su ciently good to you in the past?”
Liu Tongyi said, “Generations of the Liu family have enjoyed imperial benevolence, and Your Majesty has always treated me with particular kindness. But I am slow and mediocre, unsuited to serve as an o cial. A vigorous and decisive man like Lord Zhang is better able to assist Your Majesty and bring prosperity to the empire.”
These circumstances were rather remarkable.
I’d thought at rst there had been something between Qizhe and Liu Tongyi, but from Liu Tongyi’s behavior, that did not seem to be the case.
When Liu Tongyi mentioned Zhang Ping, Qizhe’s expression sti ened.
“We think that he does not bear comparison to you.”
“Lord Zhang’s conduct is in some ways unique,” said Liu Tongyi, “but he is honest and upright, a keen and able investigator, and a worthy pillar of the court.”
Qizhe looked green. “Leave it. We are well aware which man belongs in which position. Zhang Ping is best placed leading the Ministry of Justice or
the Court of Judicial Review. As imperial chancellor, he su ers, and we su er to see him.”
It seemed that Qitan had been telling the truth. Zhang Ping really had driven Qizhe up a wall over the past few years.
Qizhe looked at Liu Tongyi again. “Forget it. Whatever we say now, you will only give a diplomatic refusal. At any rate, we will rest here tonight.
You can take your time and think about it.” Finally, he released Liu Tongyi’s arm.
Yet Liu Tongyi looked alarmed. He looked at me. I knew this was because Qizhe had said, “We will rest here tonight.”
But I couldn’t speak now. I could only look helplessly back at Liu Tongyi.
In the end, it was Liu Tongyi who asked, “Your Majesty, may I make so bold as to inquire, where are your guards?”
“Oh,” said Qizhe, “we did not want them to spoil the mood for our chat with Ransi…” He glanced darkly at me. “And Imperial Uncle. Deng Tan is in the neighborhood with them.”
Liu Tongyi’s expression relaxed a bit.
Deng Tan had been a deputy captain in the emperor’s personal guard. He must have been promoted in the past couple of years. He was steady and taciturn, a dependable man.
Liu Tongyi bowed and said, “Supper will be brought shortly. I will go have a cabin prepared.”
Qizhe walked over to the bed and stroked the bed curtains. “Ransi’s ship is so elegant. There is no need to go to much trouble. This room looks good to us.”
Liu Tongyi looked again at me, because this cabin was mine.
Qizhe turned beside the bed and looked around. “It seems someone has been staying here.”
“Your Majesty,” I had to say, “this is my cabin. It is unsuited for hosting Your Majesty. Let… Master Liu arrange another room.”
Qizhe sat on the edge of the bed. “We are staying in this room.”
Liu Tongyi was about to try again. I gave a covert tug on his sleeve and said, “Then please take some tea and rest, Your Majesty. Allow Master Liu and myself to withdraw for the moment.”
Qizhe made a noise of assent.
Liu Tongyi left the cabin with me. In a quiet corner, he whispered, “There aren’t any attendants in that room. What do I do?”
“That is precisely what we came out here to take care of,” I said. “Order someone to go up on deck and shout, ‘Are Young Master Zhao’s attendants here?’ Someone will show up. Have them taken to the room to attend him.”
Liu Tongyi nodded and hurried o to do it. Soon enough, a sailor brought someone over, a man around fty years old, wearing the short robe of an ordinary servant, with a perfectly smooth upper lip. When he saw Liu Tongyi and me, he lowered his head and bowed.
This man was Wang You, a palace eunuch who had always attended Qizhe, and who had also served my father in his youth. He had often come to visit Huai Manor. When I saw him, I felt unwontedly moved.
We couldn’t speak out here. Liu Tongyi and I went to his room. When the door was closed, I quietly said to him, “Now send someone with Wang You to change the bedding and small items for ordinary use.”
Liu Tongyi took note of this and asked if there was anything else he needed to do.
“Nothing else,” I said. I gestured in the direction of the cabin. “He’s been like this since he was little. He won’t stay in a fresh room out of caution.
The empress dowager spoiled him.”
The empress dowager had instructed that each time he came to Huai Manor, anything Qizhe might use must be brought from the palace, and she wouldn’t let him sit in a room that had been specially prepared; she insisted that only a room in regular use would do, as if she were afraid that a freshly arranged room would have some mechanism for assassination. Later, when she came to believe that my mother and I weren’t so stupid that we would assassinate the crown prince at Huai Manor, she nally allowed a room to be set aside for Qizhe to rest in, and even that had once been my usual retiring room.
Liu Tongyi smiled. It looked to me like a di erent smile from his usual one, so I couldn’t help asking, “What is it?”
“Nothing,” said Liu Tongyi, “just that I used to hear the empress dowager complain at court that His Majesty had some bad habits that he’d picked up by going to Huai Manor so often and being spoiled by Prince Huai.”
The empress dowager had said that? This was slander. When the crown prince or the emperor came to visit, wouldn’t it have been a greater o ense not to treat him well?
Smiling, Liu Tongyi said, “Though when it comes to calling a person by his courtesy name out of nowhere, His Majesty and Prince Huai really are somewhat alike.”
I was surprised. I looked at Liu Tongyi and blurted out, “Ransi…”
“I’m going to send someone to change the bedding,” said Liu Tongyi. He turned and left.
I watched him leave. Some things were weighing on my mind, but this wasn’t the time to ask.
Qizhe ate a little supper. He didn’t say it was bad, which meant it was all right.
By the time he had been assisted in washing up, it was already nearly daybreak. Qizhe was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as if he had no intention of going to sleep. Fortunately, Wang You was there to persuade him, and he nally went to bed to get some rest.
After he fell asleep, Wang You quietly came to the new cabin Liu Tongyi had arranged for me. He conveyed His Majesty’s verbal edict, an order for me to enter the imperial presence after I had breakfast.
That evening, I strolled to the fore of the ship and stood there. The river was wide. Ruddy clouds lled half the sky.
Liu Tongyi came to stand beside me. “In another shichen, we’ll reach the pier where we’re stopping for the night.”
There was no one around. I turned my head to look at him. “Ransi.”
Liu Tongyi looked at me.
“I call you that because what I want to ask isn’t addressed to Master Mei, but it isn’t very appropriate to address you by your former title, and just using your full name might be considered rude. I hope… I hope you don’t mind, Ransi.”
Liu Tongyi froze. Then, smiling, he said, “It seems Master Zhao took my joke to heart last night. A form of address is nothing more than that. There’s no need to worry about it. Please speak openly.”
Something was di erent about him in the sunset glow. I remembered that, once, I had poured out my feelings to him by the light of sunset. This was a
memory so old it was nearly buried in the earth.
“I said I have something to ask, but that isn’t very apt. I’ve been considering it for a while, and I don’t know what to say. About Qincai Alley… I don’t know what happened, and I don’t know how you helped me, nor why you wanted to help me. In short, thank you.”
I didn’t say the words “thank you” very weightily, but they were the weightiest words I had spoken in my life.
Liu Tongyi’s expression stilled. After a while, he said, “There are some things it would perhaps be better to speak of openly and in their entirety. I wonder what His Majesty spoke of when he bade Your Highness Prince Huai enter his presence today. Would Your Highness permit me to speak of what happened in the past from the beginning?”
I sighed and said, “Ransi has never been willing to call me Chengjun.
Prince Huai is dead. Go ahead, what would it hurt?”
Liu Tongyi froze. I found that this expression of slight confusion made him look better than usual, more domestic.
Finally, with an indescribable expression, Liu Tongyi mumbled,
“Chengjun.”
I laughed in spite of myself. The atmosphere relaxed.
But then Liu Tongyi schooled his expression into solemnity and said to me, “This is not a good place to talk. Can we go to my room?”
Of course I agreed. I went with Liu Tongyi to his room. He closed the door and made tea. In a mild voice, he quietly recounted to me, “Since I was young, I often heard my grandfather say that Huai Manor’s power and in uence were overwhelming, and disaster was sure to come from that quarter one day. If any member of our family had the good fortune to be
appointed to o ce, we had to undertake to curb Prince Huai’s power. Later, I received scholarly honors and entered the court, and one day, I received an invitation to attend a banquet with Lord Li Yue and a number of other honest o cials of the court. At that banquet, I learned that as a precaution against Prince Huai, they had already planted a spy beside him. My position wasn’t high then. I did not participate. It was years later that a credible secret report claimed that Yun Tang and Wang Qin were planning a rebellion. Lord Li Yue was dead by then, and the others had been pushed out and transferred elsewhere. I was already at the Court of Judicial Review and received His Majesty’s summons to confer with His Highness Prince An and a number of other important ministers. I said to His Majesty that, while Yun Tang and Wang Qin had great in uence, they had little military force at their disposal. What had given them the boldness to rebel? Was there something we were unaware of? And it was I who said that the greatest suspicion lay with Huai Manor.”
His face was a little pale. He went on speaking.
“When Prince An and the other ministers had withdrawn, His Majesty kept me back alone. He asked whether I had any other views. I could tell that His Majesty did not want to suspect Prince Huai. In the interests of caution, I said to His Majesty that I would not speculate in the absence of evidence. But His Majesty said that he was already certain. Then he had me meet someone. That person was Yun Yu.”
I continued listening in silence.
“It was then that I learned that Lord Yun’s political opinions di ered from his father’s. Only His Majesty and I knew of this. His Majesty already had evidence against Yun Tang and Wang Qin. It was only Huai Manor’s power that had yet to be su ciently plumbed. Lord Li Yue had used his own
daughter to spy on Prince Huai, but after years of probing, there was still no concrete evidence. Therefore, I said to His Majesty that I had always heard Prince Huai was not interested in women, and wouldn’t it be more suitable to investigate along another line. I recall that when I said this, Lord Yun laughed and said, ‘That is a brutal tactic.’ Then he said to His Majesty, ‘It seems we can depend on Lord Liu to become a pillar of the court.’ Some time later, I became imperial chancellor. Still later… Chu Xun…”
I frowned. “I remember you saying that you didn’t send Chu Xun to me.”
With a mocking smile, Liu Tongyi said, “But I may as well have. Chu Xun used to be a laborer at the examination center. He couldn’t stand up to the beatings and humiliation, so he tried to drown himself, but I happened to run into him. I often gave him books to read, and I was the one who taught him to play the zither. He was intelligent and well-mannered. Later, his sister redeemed his bond and brought him to her brothel to be a musician, and he said to me that, as I was an o cial of the court, it wouldn’t be good for people to learn that we were friends, so he wouldn’t come see me again.
Still later, I learned that he was close to Your Highness. I went to see him, and I was spotted by Lord Yun…”
And that was why Yun Yu had gone out of his way to make Liu Tongyi and Chu Xun perform a duet.
Liu Tongyi continued, “Chu Xun collected a heap of evidence against Prince Huai for me. Lord Yun once said something incisive about me—that I’m always sanctimoniously directing others, but I don’t even have the guts to risk myself.”
I was astonished. “Do you mean that assassination attempt was something you and Yun Yu arranged, so you would risk yourself in order to help Yun Yu gain my con dence?”
Liu Tongyi went on, “Later still, Prince Huai was arrested. I had not arranged a spy. I let Lord Yun do that, and Lord Yun arranged to be the spy himself and at last captured Prince Huai during the rebellion. I only made my appearance when it came time for the interrogation… Your Highness Prince Huai admitted everything, confessed everything, but I realized that something was wrong. Apart from the evidence Lord Yun and Prince An were aware of, there was still absolutely no other evidence of your guilt.
This was not the way a rebel ought to have left things. Moreover, Your Highness Prince Huai confessed too much.”
Liu Tongyi nally looked at me. His gaze was empty. “When Your Highness Prince Huai said you wanted to see me, I thought that there would be some clues, but instead Your Highness committed suicide right before my eyes…”
The nails of his right hand turned white as he gripped his teacup, but he pulled his lips into a faint smile. “So… regardless of anything I might have done in the matter of Qincai Alley… Your Highness Prince Huai still need say nothing to me. If Your Highness really had died then, even if I had killed myself, I wouldn’t have had the gall to go to the underworld.”
Liu Tongyi put a hand to his forehead.
“I hadn’t yet told Your Highness Prince Huai of these things because I wished to avoid having to reveal the truth behind the whole sequence of events. Perhaps Your Highness will think that I’ve been putting on an act around you, but in reality, I just didn’t know what to do. In this whole business, I have played the most sordid role.”
I couldn’t help myself. “Ransi, you…”
Liu Tongyi continued, “Perhaps people like this often appear in my family.
Always boasting of our loyalty, but more despicable than the so-called
schemers. Your Highness may not be aware that an ancestor of mine once replaced a youthful emperor with his own twin brother. The true emperor hanged himself in the very cell where Your Highness was held. Then my grandfather, during his time as imperial chancellor, constantly made trouble for the late Prince Huai. And then there’s me. I was no loyal minister, and neither was I an honest man. I didn’t know what I amounted to. I could no longer remain at court. That is why I resigned my position and took to wandering, changed my name, and went into trade.”
Liu Tongyi raised his cup. “A merchant is crafty and cares only for pro t.
I suppose this occupation suits my nature.” He tipped back his head and downed the tea in his cup as though it were wine.
“And did Fang Haoran also become a merchant because merchants are crafty and care only for pro t?” I said.
Liu Tongyi looked blank when I said this.
Fang Haoran was the main character of The Legend of the Zither Hero of the Late Sui Dynasty. He had been created by the Scholar of Wind and Rain, the author of the book . The Scholar of Wind and Rain’s other works were mediocre, but Fang Haoran’s tale stood out among them. In terms of fame among writers of romances, he didn’t match up to Bai Ruyi or the Mad Drunkard, but Fang Haoran, along with Zhao Yu in the Scholar of the Red Leaves of the Western Hills’s The Divine White Jade Sword and Tan Yizui in the Mad Drunkard’s Drunken Odyssey, were together considered the three heroes of literature. I had greatly admired them as a child.
I said seriously to Liu Tongyi, “You’re the same as me. We both went into trade in imitation of Fang Haoran. Even the names Zhao Cai and Mei Yong were copied in part from the aliases Fang Haoran uses. If you disparage
yourself like this now, aren’t you also bringing myself and Fang Haoran down with you?”
Liu Tongyi looked straight at me. He was much more adorable now than with his usual calm act.
“Master Mei—since it makes you uncomfortable when I call you by your courtesy name, then this is what I’ll call you—I don’t want to waste any more time talking around things. In your speech, apart from self-re ection and self-disparagement, there is another implication, which is that you don’t want to return to court as an o cial.”
Liu Tongyi’s expression stilled again. I said, “Still another implication is that you want to tell me that I owe you no favor for saving me.”
Everything he had said, apart from what concerned the assassination attempt, were things I had guessed at the time. I’d even had my suspicions on the subject of Chu Xun. He had put all of this together and told me about it because, after seeing the emperor, I would naturally have understood a few of the key steps in the sequence.
I gave a couple of bitter laughs and sighed in jest. “In the end, whether we’re Prince Huai and Chancellor Liu or Trader Zhao and Master Mei, there will never come a day when I call you Ransi and you call me Chengjun.”
Liu Tongyi’s expression changed repeatedly. Finally, with a bitter laugh, he said, “Your Highness Prince Huai is as impressive as expected.”
I went a step further to set him at his ease. “Prince Huai, Jing Weiyi, has been dead a long time. What happened is in the past. A minor merchant like myself has no place acting as spokesman for the court. Do not worry, Master Mei.”
We were nearly at the pier where we would be staying the night. A leisurely evening breeze blew in through the half-propped window sash. I looked out at the river cloaked in dusk and recalled the lines Liu Tongyi had favored me with: With his a ections at Mount Wu engaged, what needs King Xiang in dreams to seek Jiangnan?
The ship slowly pulled in. People were densely packed on shore, in another scene of prosperity. A shing boat sailed past our ship. There was a big catch of crabs in the net in the sherman’s hands.
That was right. In another month, it would be the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The crabs were beginning to grow fat.
Liu Tongyi stood. “Now that we’re here, I’m going to His Majesty’s room to pay my respects and make suitable arrangements.”
On impulse, I abruptly asked Liu Tongyi, “Why don’t you get married?”
Liu Tongyi froze. Then he smiled. “I’m used to being on my own.”
“If there’s no one on your mind, you should hurry up and nd someone,”
I advised. “You won’t feel it now, but once you get past thirty and nd you have no one to eat mooncakes and New Year’s Eve dinner with during the holidays, you’ll feel the lack. A man like Master Mei is sure to be able to nd a gentle, virtuous woman with both beauty and talent if he likes.”
Smiling, Liu Tongyi said, “All right, I’ll nd one in the future.” Facing the dusky light ltering in through the window, he looked at me and sighed.
“Actually, I don’t understand it. I meant to talk to Master Zhao about the past. How did we end up on this subject?”
“We’ve been over what happened three years ago again and again,” I said.
“What can come of bringing it up again? It’s better to grab hold of the present.” I put my hands behind my back and looked out the window. “Are
you going to tell me you’ve never thought of a poem while watching the sunset?”
“At the moment, I am only thinking of how to arrange His Majesty’s dinner tonight,” Liu Tongyi said seriously.
The ship approached the shore. The emperor was not planning to make landfall here and return to the capital. He said that the scenery was pleasant on the river, and the local customs along the way were charmingly simple.
He wanted to go for a stroll.
In spite of myself, I felt sympathy for Wang You, Deng Tan, and that crowd of guards.
The emperor ordered Liu Tongyi to accompany him on his walk. I remained aboard ship and ate a sumptuous dinner on my own. Next to us, Wan Qianshan’s ship was once again fully illuminated. Waves of music and laughter escaped and came my way.
When the night watches began, the emperor returned, having eaten dinner on shore. Liu Tongyi gave me a quick greeting, then went to arrange the emperor’s bath. He just had time to drink a little tea and get some rest before the emperor nished his bath and summoned him to his room to chat.
I strolled to the fore of the ship to catch the breeze. Beside us, Wan Qianshan’s ship was bright and raucous.
Some boats were drifting quietly beside the ship. Deng Tan and the guards must have been on them.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. All was peaceful. I recalled one Mid-Autumn Festival, after my mother passed, the princess said she was going to her parents’ house for the holiday. I allowed it. When it
was nearly dark, I looked at the sky from the veranda thinking that I was the only one in this courtyard to eat and drink and enjoy the enormous round moon. I really felt unbearably lonely.
Suddenly, I was noti ed that Lord Yun had come. I watched as he was brought over by a servant. From a distance, he smiled and said to me, “Why is Your Highness Prince Huai standing here alone on the Mid-Autumn Festival?”
Perhaps it was then that I had the realization: everyone needs a companion.
I did want to have such a person by my side, he with no one in his heart but me, me with no one in my heart but him, steady and enduring, always together.
Sharing our meals, sleeping in the same bed, celebrating holidays together.
But nding this might be easy, or it might be hard. It was a matter of fate.
I returned to the ship’s hold. Liu Tongyi was still entertaining the emperor. I went to my room to sleep. That night I had a dream.
In my dream, I was old, with a beard hanging down my chest, unable to straighten my back. Leaning on a cane, I stood in the courtyard of Huai Manor looking around in a daze, thinking that there was something I had forgotten but unable to remember anything. Suddenly, an old woman was standing in front of me, a gold pin in her hair, dressed in ne clothes, her hair gray and her face wrinkled. She was looking at me resentfully.
“Jing Weiyi, I never thought I would spend my whole life with you like this. Is this what they call growing old and gray together?”
I looked closely at her and determined that she might be… the princess.
She laughed sadly. Her features slowly became youthful, until she looked as the princess had looked before. She stared at me and said emphatically,
“Jing Weiyi, though you have possessed my body all my life, you will never have my heart!”
I was petri ed. I recalled in bewilderment that I never had possessed the princess’s body. I wanted to tell her this, but I couldn’t speak. The princess and the scene in front of me blurred. Someone was calling, “Your Highness, Your Highness…”
My eyes ew open, and I found myself lying in bed. Beside me was the sound of weeping. I turned my head. Someone was sitting at my bedside, wiping away tears as she looked at me. It was the princess again.
The servants crowding behind her were also wiping their tears. Sobbing, the princess said, “Your Highness, at last you’re awake… Is there anything you want to say… Any last words… You can say them…” She sni ed.
I opened my mouth and still could not utter a sound. My whole body felt heavy. My arms and legs did not seem to belong to me. I couldn’t move.
The princess grabbed my hand, which lay outside the covers. “Your Highness, there is something… that I must tell you… I have wronged you…
Though we have been together so many years, I never loved you… Before I married you, I was already in love with another. I’m sorry, I tried, but I couldn’t forget him. My heart is the only thing I could not give you…”
I shuddered. With a start, I sat up, sweat soaking through my sleeping robe. This time I was really awake.
I drank some cold tea, donned an outer robe, and left the hold. The night breeze was crisp. It gradually dried my sweat-soaked inner robe.
It was all right. It had only been a dream.
Such a thing could only happen in a dream. Now no one would grow old with me.
I sighed morosely. From a distance, someone asked, “Is that Master Zhao standing on the bow at night?”
I looked to the side and saw a man standing on deck at the fore of Wan Qianshan’s big ship. He saluted me by lantern light. “If Master Zhao is having trouble sleeping, why not come aboard my ship and drink with me?”
“There is wine on this ship too,” I said. “Will Master Wan come here to drink?”
“Very well,” said Wan Qianshan. He turned and clapped his hands. At once a boat was prepared for him.
Shortly after, he was standing on the boat, slowly oating over. He came up on deck and went into the ship’s hold with me.
I trimmed the candle wick to brighten the ame. He sat at the table. I lled the cup in front of him from a pitcher. He looked at it and frowned.
“This seems to be tea.”
I sat down across from him. “Tea is not like wine, and you, Lord Yun, are not like your brother.”
The man across from me laughed and peeled a diaphanously thin object o his face, revealing Yun Yu’s features. On the left side of his face was a slightly swollen bruise, and a cut at the corner of his mouth. He looked a bit of a mess.
Surprised, I said, “What happened…”
Yun Yu pointed to the injuries to his face. “Oh, this? My brother punched me.”
“Why did he do that?”
Yun Yu’s lips tilted up. “First, on account of family matters. He resents our father but still disapproves of my actions. Second, when I’ve come running
like this, he can’t resist calling me a lackey and casting aspersions on my moral character.”
He tossed the mask on the table. “I told him that, since he’d already punched me, he might as well let me travel with him.”
I glanced at the mask. “I was wondering how you’d gotten your hands on a thing like this. So it’s your brother’s.”
Yun Yu smiled.
I couldn’t stand the sight of the injuries to his face any longer. I rooted around in my baggage and found a box of balm. “This will reduce the swelling and bruising. Apply some after you’ve washed your face.”
Yun Yu took the balm and thanked me. In the dim light, I looked into his eyes and asked a little uncertainly, “Weren’t you managing the ooding in Chengzhou?”
Why had he suddenly turned up here? Why had he been standing at the fore of the ship in the middle of the night? Why had he spoken to me?
Invited me to drink with him?
The candle ame leapt in Yun Yu’s eyes, making it hard for me to read his mood.
After a while, he nally said, “I received a message from Zhang Ping while in Chengzhou. He was worried Deng Tan and the rest were unreliable, so I handed over responsibility for managing the ooding to Prince Dai and traveled nonstop to get here.”
So that was it.
“His Majesty is asleep,” I said. “This evening he went out to the market with Liu Tongyi and others. There were no incidents.”
Yun Yu nodded. “I am aware of this. I caught up in the evening. It seems His Majesty still wants Liu Tongyi to return to court.”
That was Liu Tongyi’s a air. I couldn’t comment on it, so I brushed past and changed the subject. “You’re not sleeping. Are you really standing watch through the night like a guard?”
Yun Yu yawned. “That’s right. When the ship is moored for the night, greater caution is required. During the day, when the ship is in motion, I can rest a little. As I was looking out, I happened to see Master Zhao standing at the fore of the ship and wanted to invite you to drink with me.”
“Fair,” I said. “Two people talking through the night is more pleasant than staying up alone. But making yourself up to look like your brother was a super uous gesture. Your gures and voices are very di erent. If even I could spot it at a glance, His Majesty would certainly have no trouble.”
Smiling, Yun Yu said, “That’s true.” He put the mask away.
He and I drank tea and chatted idly till daybreak. He spoke of interesting events at court over the past few years, and I talked about things I’d picked up while wandering.
At dawn, Yun Yu made to leave. I kept him back. “Why not have breakfast before you go? You can see His Majesty that way. Perhaps when he wakes up, he’ll hear that you came aboard, and it won’t look good if you don’t go visit.”
“All right,” said Yun Yu, and he stayed awhile longer. When it was fully light, I gured that Qizhe would be awake and was about to go out to check when there came a gentle knock at the door. “Master Zhao, are you up?”
It was the voice of one of the ship’s servants. I said I was.
Some time passed, and I heard another knock. I went to open the door.
Two workmen came in carrying a bathing tub, which was full of slightly steaming water.
I was perplexed. My face spasmed in spite of myself. The two workmen put the wooden tub down in the center of the room, then bowed their heads and left.
I called them back. “I always bathe before bed. Why have you brought water in the morning?”
One of them, head bowed, said, “It was the general manager who instructed us to prepare it.”
Yun Yu snorted, then burst out laughing.
I stood next to the bathing tub, caught between the equally inappropriate options of sending it away and letting it stay.
Smiling, Yun Yu said, “The water’s already here. It would be a waste to send it away. Just take another bath. I’m going to pay my respects.” He stood and left languidly.
I had no choice but to wash again. I was a little tired after staying up all night, and the bath did make me feel much more alert. On my way out the door, I accidentally bumped my leg badly against a chair. I was hobbling a little when I left.
In the hall, Liu Tongyi was sitting alone drinking tea. I looked around and didn’t see Yun Yu, and I didn’t see Qizhe either. Liu Tongyi said, “Your nephew and Little Young Master Wan have just gone to the Wan merchant ship.” He called for breakfast.
The breakfast porridge and side dishes were quite bland. I asked for a bowl of chili sauce to dip my dumplings in. Liu Tongyi’s chopsticks paused in midair as he served himself. “The kitchen forgot to prepare it.” He picked up some bamboo shoots and put them into his bowl of porridge.
After eating, my leg still hurt. I had given Yun Yu my balm last night, so I said to Liu Tongyi, “Do you have any kind of balm or tincture for bumps and bruises?”
Liu Tongyi looked at me with a complicated expression and said calmly,
“Yes, I’ll have someone bring it.”
Shortly, a servant brought the balm. Liu Tongyi took it and had a look.
“Why did you bring this one?” he said. “Go bring the snow balm from the Healer’s Hall to Master Zhao’s room.”
I looked at the bottle. It was bruise liniment made by the Academy of Internal Medicine, an excellent product, so I said, “This will do.”
Liu Tongyi gave me another unreadable look. “This balm contains mint.
Better switch to something milder.”
Enlightenment immediately came to me. My face spasmed again. I simply picked up my robe and raised my pant leg. “I just bumped my leg. Balm with mint is perfect.”
Liu Tongyi again looked at me with a complicated expression. He said nothing. The servant handed the medicine bottle to me.
The morning was hot. I went back to my cabin to get a fan and right away saw a box of medicine on the table. On the lid of the box were the impressively carved words “Healer’s Hall.”
I couldn’t take it any longer. I grabbed the box of balm, put it into my robes, and went to see Liu Tongyi.
He was reading in his room, his brow tightly furrowed, his expression severe. I closed the door and solemnly said, “Master Mei, Lord Yun and I only drank tea and chatted last night. And anyway…”
Though what came next was embarrassing to say, I still said it proudly:
“Since I was rst inducted into the mysteries, I, Jing Weiyi, have never taken the passive role.”
Liu Tongyi put down his book. He seemed at a bit of a loss. His face and neck ushed slightly. It was the rst time I had seen him incapable of coming up with a response. It was an interesting look on him.
I went to his table and sat down, picked up a teapot, and poured myself a cup. “There was never love between me and Yun Yu, and all there is now is guilt. I’m going to Java in a few days. Some entanglements that either never existed or have already ruptured will bear no more fruit.”
When I said this, I still felt a slight stinging and ache in my heart. In fact, it was only last night that I had entirely given up on certain ideas.
I had once believed that Yun Yu might feel something for me.
He and I had been drinking companions, fellow revelers. There had to be some kind of feeling there.
That night in Chengzhou had brought a bit of life to my dead hopes. It was only last night that I had nally come to a full understanding.
Yun Yu had never had feelings for me. I ought to have known it that day at Yuehua Pavilion.
That day, Yun Yu was drowning his sorrows in wine, but when I held him, he was rigid. I could feel the ne hairs on his skin standing up under my palms, and his irrepressible shudders and goose esh.
People always lie to themselves, but no matter how much you lie, there always remains a line you cannot cross. Therefore, you can lie to yourself so much that even you believe it, but you still cannot make the lie true.
Liu Tongyi nally recovered his usual manner and picked up his book. “I should not speak of others’ personal a airs. But to the best of my
knowledge, Lord Yun and His Majesty have never had the relationship that… some people guess.”
When he said this, I froze. My heart shuddered.
“I see,” I said.
Liu Tongyi was still holding his book. “Lord Yun was under imperial orders to manage the ooding in Chengzhou. Even upon learning that His Majesty was here, it would have been most natural for Prince Dai to come.
If His Majesty wished to see Lord Yun, or Lord Yun needed to speak to His Majesty about something, it might have waited until after they returned to the capital…”
At this point, he looked at the book and said nothing more.
“Yes,” I said.
Liu Tongyi was still holding the book. He stared at the book, and I stared at him, waiting for him to look at me.
He was very persistent. I waited for ages, and his gaze remained stubbornly glued to the book. He even turned a page.
I made conversation. “What are you reading? Is it so fascinating?” I craned my neck to look. “An almanac? Is Master Mei planning to open a new shop?
Do you need to pick an auspicious date?”
A swift look of distress passed over Liu Tongyi’s face. It was only for an instant, but I still caught it. However, with composure, he shut the almanac.
“There are some other things I need to check dates for.”
Smiling, I said, “Master Mei’s explanation to me just now was very much in the style of the Court of Judicial Review. Here I thought that those who had held o ce at the Court of Judicial Review weren’t particular about dates.”
“Only Zhang Ping is not particular,” said Liu Tongyi.
I rotated my teacup and said to him, “I think that what Master Mei said earlier is very true. I wonder if Master Mei might have any other opinions to share with me.”
Expression still composed, Liu Tongyi said, “Also… arriving here and not going directly to see His Majesty isn’t Lord Yun’s style.”
As our eyes met, I felt a riot of emotion.
Everything Liu Tongyi was saying had already occurred to me. Only—
A thought ashed through my mind. Quickly, I said to Liu Tongyi, “Oh, yes, books often mention masks to change your appearance. Have you seen such things in reality?”
Liu Tongyi nodded. “Yes… There have been some cases involving so-called gentlemen of the road, and the Court of Judicial Review has some in its storehouse.”
I asked Liu Tongyi whether he knew how long it took to make a mask.
Liu Tongyi thought about it. “Back when my… I once went out of my way to verify that. Making a mask is very time-consuming. Even the greatest master craftsman would need at minimum six or seven shichen to complete one.”
“Is it possible to start one at sundown and have it ready by midnight?” I asked.
Liu Tongyi shook his head. “Impossible. The mask must be designed, then a mold created, and then the mask must be molded. Some use human skin, but most use a special kind of adhesive wax. Then it must be dried and modi ed. One way or another, there is no way it can be completed within a couple of shichen.”
I leapt to my feet. “Ran… Master Mei, can you do me another favor?
Approach Wan Qianshan’s ship. I have urgent business aboard it. As fast as
Liu Tongyi also stood. His eyes paused on my face. “All right,” he said.
Wan Qianshan’s merchant ship was traveling ahead of Liu Tongyi’s ship, with boats carrying imperial guards in between.
As Liu Tongyi’s ship swiftly gained on the Wan ship, the imperial guards thought that our ship had been boarded by assassins targeting Qizhe.
Fighting nearly broke out. Then Deng Tan brought people aboard himself to search the ship and determined all was well. Finally the ship was permitted to approach. Up ahead, Wan Qianshan’s vessel temporarily pulled in to the shore and stopped.
Seeing that they were willing to stop, I heaved a sigh of relief.
Accompanied by Deng Tan and a number of guards, I jumped aboard Wan Qianshan’s ship.
A man with the look of a steward came forward. I grabbed him and asked,
“Where are Master Wan and his little brother?”
The steward said ponderously, “Do you mean Young Master Daoshui, sir?
He and our master are sitting with the young gentleman who came this morning. Have you come to see the young gentleman, sir?”
Deng Tan was muttering beside me: “Notice up ahead, notice up ahead, notice up ahead…”
I ignored this and said to the steward, “No, I have come to see Master Wan’s little brother, Young Master Wan Daoshui.” As I said this, I stepped right into the hold.
Deng Tan and some guards followed me closely. “Notice up ahead, notice up ahead, notice up ahead…”
I glimpsed a page who had been on deck just now and slipped o to somewhere rejoin us and hurry toward a door.
Just as the page was caught at the door, I pushed the door open. I saw Qizhe, Yun Yu, and Wan Qianshan seated in chairs. There was also a group of dancing girls standing frozen.
Qizhe raised his eyebrows. Wan Qianshan stood, laughing. Before anyone could speak, I strode in and grabbed Yun Yu by the arm.
Yun Yu had still been seated. Now he stood and looked directly at me.
“What is it?”
“Naturally, I want to talk to you,” I said.
The corners of Yun Yu’s lips turned up slightly. “Oh? What is it that calls for Master Zhao to…”
I drew close to his ear and whispered, “Come outside with me. We can’t talk here.” I pulled him out of the room with me.
Yun Yu froze for a moment, then allowed me to pull him out. We left the ship’s hold and went up on deck. Yun Yu nally came to a halt. “Any further and we’ll be in the river. Where are you taking me?”
“You might as well jump with me,” I said.
Yun Yu’s expression stilled. Smiling, he said, “That won’t do. I’m a poor swimmer, and I won’t enjoy being a water ghoul.”
“Actually, I can’t swim either,” I said. “I just want to see, before you and I drown, which of us tells the truth rst.”
Yun Yu looked at me again and said, “If we open our mouths, the water will get in. How will we be able to say anything?”
“We can say it in our hearts,” I said, “and the other will still hear.”
Smiling, Yun Yu said, “Perhaps this technique is written of in a new romance Master Zhao has read. I haven’t read about, and it is beyond me.
There is a retiring room on this ship. Liu Tongyi’s ship might not have anything as reliable. Why don’t we go there and have a talk.”
“Very well,” I said.
With me aboard, Deng Tan and the others, out of concern for His Majesty’s safety, invited Qizhe to come aboard Liu Tongyi’s ship.
After Qizhe left, the ships slowly continued forward.
Yun Yu took me to a cabin with empty rooms on either side: a good place to talk.
“Wine or tea?” Yun Yu asked.
I thought about it. “Wine, please.”
Yun Yu smiled and called for good Huadiao to be brought. He closed the door, and the fragrance of the wine hovered in the cabin. He poured and asked me, “I suppose we can talk now. What did Master Zhao want with me?”
“I came to see you so I could say one thing,” I said. “Suiya, I love you.”
Yun Yu’s hand paused in midair. He put down his wine cup and stared at me.
“I’ve been to many places these past few years, seen many people. I thought I had forgotten the past, but it won’t stay forgotten. You can fool anyone but yourself. I thought you had been lying to me from the rst. But why did you come see me when we were in Chengzhou? Why did you appear last night? Life is short and bitter, and souls and reincarnation are unknowable. Perhaps this one life is all there is. I can’t keep lying to myself.
So—”
Yun Yu’s expression was unfathomable. He picked up: “So you had Liu Tongyi chase after this ship so you could come aboard, then said you wanted
me to jump into the river with you, and now all of this?”
I gripped his wrist. “Suiya.”
Yun Yu looked into my eyes. The corners of his lips twitched. “I don’t believe you.”
I frowned. “Why not? Must I dig out my heart before you’ll believe me?”
“Even the village boys have worn that line threadbare.” Yun Yu sneered.
“Your Highness Prince Huai’s joke is pretty funny.”
I looked at him with my brows drawn together, then simply pulled him up, took aim at his lips, and closed the distance.
Yun Yu’s body sti ened in my embrace. Heedless, I pried his teeth apart.
Soon, Yun Yu responded. His body gradually relaxed.
I released him, caught my breath, and said quietly, “Now do you believe me?”
Yun Yu was still watching me with an unreadable expression. “No,” he spat.
“Why not?” I said.
“Why did you give me that pill?” Yun Yu said slowly.
My heart stuttered.
When the rebellion had been close at hand, Yun Yu had come to me one day for a heart-to-heart talk. He said to me that there was no knowing whether our uprising would succeed. If it failed and we were captured, we were certain to su er all the world’s tortures. It was best to be prepared.
My heart had gone cold. I asked him whether he had made preparations.
Yun Yu said that of course he had. He even took out a medicine vial and showed it to me. It contained an extremely potent poison. I watched him drip a bit on the stone table, and its surface bubbled.
I said to him at once, That one’s no good, drinking it will be painful. I took him to my bedroom and, from a hidden drawer, took two pills, which I showed to him, and said, This is a secret drug I ordered made, guaranteed to be fatal, as well as fast and painless. A true marvel.
I threw his vial away, found another one, put one pill inside it, and gave it to him as a precaution. Yun Yu accepted it solemnly.
Yun Yu looked at me coldly now and said, “It was indeed immediately e ective. It was quick, and the e ects were impressive. I had the runs so badly I didn’t leave the latrine for a day and a night.”
My palms broke into a cold sweat. “Why… why would you take it?”
With no expression on his face, Yun Yu said, “I have never liked owing a debt. It was I who tricked you, so it was only natural that I make it up to you with my life. But it seemed to me you were telling me that my life wasn’t good enough to pay the debt.”
He laughed coldly. “I thought then that there was truly no call for that. A loyal and heroic subject like Your Highness was certain to be dei ed after death, while I was sure to go to hell. Even if there is a life after death, you and I would never meet.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t sure what I could do.
Yun Yu, Yun Yu—what kind of a person are you?
How can I ever understand you?
Yun Yu looked at me again. There was another change in his expression.
He laughed helplessly. “Then I saw that note. Thank you for enlightening me.”
I had been afraid that when Yun Yu was captured, he would do something drastic before I could get to him, so I had hidden a last trick in the vial.
Inside the lining was a note I had written:
Letting loose clears the mind. Let all things loose.
Yun Yu sighed. “I simply couldn’t understand how the man who could do such a thing would choose to kill himself. It was only three years later, when someone saw you at Liu Tongyi’s rm and reported it to the court, that I knew you had been faking.”
I’d had everything planned out, but this was a fresh surprise, and my heart was in chaos.
I looked intently into his eyes. “Yun Yu.” I no longer knew who I was.
Prince Huai, Jing Weiyi? No. Zhao Cai? Also no.
Softly, I said, “Suiya, call me Chengjun.”
He smiled. “I’ve always wanted to, but I’m not Jing Qizhe. If I called you that, it would be mixing up the generations. Imperial Uncle.”
When I heard this, the whole world became a vast blank.
It was true. Like Qizhe, Qitan, and the others, he ought to be calling me Imperial Uncle.
“Imperial Uncle,” he said, “you and I have said many things today, all words from the heart. Words from Jing Weiyi and Yun Yu’s hearts. But this spectacle must end now. Because I know that in reality, you came here and said these things for Jing Qizhe’s sake. When you called me Yun Yu, you already knew who I was.”
Yes, I knew who he was, but I had lied to myself, always said to myself, perhaps I had guessed wrong. This was impossible. He was Yun Yu.
Yun Yu looked directly at me. “When did you nd out?”
I heard my own voice say slowly, “When Yun Tang was plotting to rebel, there was something I couldn’t understand. He was only a civil o cial, with
no direct military authority. Even if his rebellion succeeded, how was he planning to make the people submit to his rule…”
After I encountered Yun Yu in Chengzhou, there were still some things that surpassed my understanding.
Yun Yu wasn’t sloppy. In Chengzhou, he had let me and Liu Tongyi leave.
Afterward, when we encountered Yun Zai, and later, when I saw Yun Yu on the Wan ship, I found it very strange.
Yun Yu said he had come for Qizhe.
But since Qizhe had decided to travel, all the appropriate arrangements must have been made. Though I did not have a deep understanding of Zhang Ping, I still thought that he wouldn’t have sent a Ministry of Works o cial in the course of managing a ood to run o to guard the emperor.
Not to mention that Qitan had also been in Chengzhou then.
It was the same as Yun Zai’s ship inexplicably following us the whole time.
It couldn’t be for my or Liu Tongyi’s sake, so it could only be for Qizhe’s.
Last night, Yun Yu had impersonated Yun Zai and met me.
Liu Tongyi had told me that making a mask required a great deal of time.
So the mask Yun Yu had used to impersonate Yun Zai had not been made at the last moment.
There were a few possibilities then. First, that Yun Yu often impersonated Yun Zai as he moved through the world; second, that in the course of Yun Zai’s large-scale business, he had engaged in some dishonest practices, and in the interests of safety, he had his trusted associates impersonate him.
Therefore, he would have these things ready.
Yun Yu never did anything super uous; when he had made Liu Tongyi and Chu Xun perform a duet, in reality, he had been telling me that the two
That Yun Zai had punched Yun Yu showed that his discord with Yun Tang had not led him to cut o all emotional ties.
When the rupture between Yun Zai and Yun Tang had taken place, Yun Tang had not yet achieved high rank or reached the point where he could contemplate rebellion.
When he had sent his eldest son away, he had been planning for the future. This was even stranger.
This reminded me that after I faked my death and ed the capital, while we idled in Qincai Alley, Zhang Xiao had said to me, “The princess was always worried that this would happen, because even if Your Highness does not have the high merit of the late Prince Huai, Huai Manor still knows too many secrets.”
In addition to his military honors, my father, it turned out, had also been mixed up in the case of a bastard of imperial blood.
Zhang Xiao and Chief Steward Cao knew only the outlines of the situation. The Tongguang emperor had once had a brief a air with a common woman.
Empress Liu had died of illness, and the Tongguang emperor had found solitude unbearable. This romance had taken place during an outing from the palace.
And the woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
The Tongguang emperor did not acknowledge the mother and child, nor did he bring them into the palace. I didn’t know the precise reason for this, but it was a wise move. The child’s mother was humble, without backing.
He was better o outside the palace.
My father looked after mother and child in secret. Later, the Tongguang emperor passed away, and the late emperor inherited the throne. During this fuss, there was a ood in the woman’s hometown, and my father lost track of them.
“My father once said that my grandfather and grandmother met under the haitang blossoms. That was why he was named Tang.”
He smiled. “In fact, my brother has no intention of harming His Majesty, but for better or worse, he and His Majesty are rst cousins. He wanted to have a chat. You were making too much of it, Imperial Uncle.”
I really would rather have been dead than hear him call me that, but he kept saying it.
“Imperial Uncle,” he said, “I’m actually the same as Jing Qizhe and Jing Qitan.”
My head was splitting. I almost wanted to pull out a knife and cut o my ears.
Yun Yu was looking at me and smiling. “Imperial Uncle, if my brother and I really had wanted to do something to Jing Qizhe today, what would you have done to us? What would you have done to me?”
I stood, leaning against the table. “There is no ‘if,’ because nothing happened. His Majesty just came aboard the Wan ship for a visit. There was nothing else. Nothing at all happened.”
“That’s right,” said Yun Yu. “There was nothing. From the very rst, there was nothing.”
There could only be nothing.
So what did everything that had come before mean? What should I make of it?
If even Yun Yu was false, what was true? I asked myself this, and I asked Yun Yu.
The corners of Yun Yu’s mouth twitched. His voice was calm. “The only thing that’s true is that I am your imperial nephew, Imperial Uncle.”
In the evening, the ship stopped at Linqiao Town. Another day’s travel, and we would reach Suzhou.
When I left the Wan ship, before I could return to Liu Tongyi’s ship, I saw a handful of people on the pier dressed in square-necked jackets like servants. They arrived at Liu Tongyi’s ship and whispered to a guard. One took something from his sleeve and ashed it at the guard, who hastily let them aboard.
As I watched this, someone next to me said, “You aren’t going back aboard, Master Uncle?”
I looked back. It was Deng Tan, who had come up behind me unnoticed. I said, “I am. Did these people come from back home?”
Deng Tan followed me aboard as he said, “Precisely. The young master has been away too long, naturally they’re getting worried at home. It must be Madam hurrying him home.”
I entered the hold. Wang You stood alone in the hall. He bowed to me.
“We were just waiting for you, Master Uncle. Please go to the young master’s room to talk.”
I followed him to Qizhe’s door. The handful of servants from earlier were just leaving. Qizhe’s voice came from the door, which stood ajar: “Is Uncle out there?”
This meant there was no need to announce me, so I opened the door and went in. Wang You closed it behind me.
Qizhe was sitting at the table. He put down his teacup. Before I could get down on my knees, he said, “Rise.”
I thanked him for his graciousness. Qizhe pointed at the chair next to him. “Sit.”
I hesitated slightly, then sat. Qizhe said, “Why have you only grown more cautious at this stage, Imperial Uncle?”
“The closer to the end, the more cautious one becomes,” I said.
Qizhe silently cast down his eyes.
After a while, he nally said, “We are returning to the capital tonight.”
“Your Majesty ought to have returned to the capital before now,” I said.
“First, because without a ruler at court, it is di cult to meet great events with decision. Second, Your Majesty’s health is precious. You should not spend too long out in the world.”
“Our health is precious?” said Qizhe. “If we were not emperor, we would be a prince much like Qitan now, perhaps also running around digging up antiques and admiring trinkets at home.”
“Your Majesty could never be a spendthrift like Prince Dai,” I said sincerely.
Qizhe raised his eyebrows and looked at me. He laughed. “That’s true.”
The smile faded from his lips. He looked into my eyes. “You do not hate us, Imperial Uncle?”
“One performs the actions suited to one’s station,” I said. “I understand this.”
Qizhe looked down again. “We are glad you understand. We will have Wang You follow you.”
Qizhe never let anything slip by him. “As you command,” I said.
Qizhe looked at me again. “It seems you do harbor some resentment. It is impossible that you would not. If there is anything else you want, you may tell us.”
“I have already done everything I have been thinking of,” I said. “There is nothing else.”
The smile once again hovered at the corners of Qizhe’s lips. “Imperial Uncle is truly direct. We are very much afraid a-Yu will be unwilling to return to court with us.”
“Lord Yun is Your Majesty’s subject,” I said. “It would make no sense for him not to return to court.”
When I bade farewell and made to leave the room, Qizhe suddenly said,
“Imperial Uncle.”
I turned back, but saw him stand there and look at me, then turn away.
“Go ahead, Imperial Uncle.”
I opened the door and went out. I remembered one time, a decade or more ago, when Qizhe had called to me like this.
He had just ascended the throne then, a child who had just lost his father, in court dress with his little face all tense, with a guarded look for everyone.
Once someone had sent a newly weaned snow leopard cub to Huai Manor.
Supposedly it could be trained to hunt if it was fed raw meat growing up.
While the leopard cub was curled up in a corner of its cage, not making a sound, the look in its eyes had been identical to Qizhe’s then.
When he held his seal with both hands to a x it, they were very steady.
At court when he said, “Rise,” or, “Granted,” his voice was very rm. Every time I saw him, he was in the imperial study, but when I went in, there was nothing on the desk, or else only some light reading laid out.
I knew the empress dowager must have said something to him. When he spoke to me, his manner and tone were both studiously correct.
Thank you for coming to see us, Imperial Uncle.
We are very well, Imperial Uncle. We have not been ill recently. There is no call for your solicitude.
It was all of this sort. Not like before, when he had always been coming to Huai Manor.
Occasionally, I brought curious baubles with me to amuse him, and at rst, he couldn’t resist looking at them, at which point I would as before o er up the item and say, Does this please Your Majesty?
He would say mildly, “Thank you, Imperial Uncle,” and permit me to put the item on the desk, cast down his eye to hide his wariness.
I hated to see the empress dowager teaching a perfectly nice child to behave like this, but I did understand that as emperor, he could be no other way.
So I stopped going to see him privately and let Qitan and Qifei have their pick of the baubles.
But one day, when the empress dowager bade me come to the inner palace to talk, I went to look in on Qizhe. He was in his sleeping quarters for once, but there were only two or three attendants there.
An attending eunuch said that His Majesty was engaged in a few days of self-re ection. The empress dowager had given instructions that he needed only a few servants to attend.
I recalled then that, because Qizhe was usually a bit picky about his food, a remonstrating o cial had submitted a memorial on this subject, advising that His Majesty’s daily expenses were too extravagant. I’d heard that Qizhe had issued an edict that he would engage in self-re ection, and the empress
dowager had issued her own edict that His Majesty’s self-re ection was to be supervised.
I entered the imperial sleeping quarters and found them bare, all playthings and decorations put away, the silk-embroidered landscapes on the walls changed for some characterless works of ink wash painting and calligraphy conveying some mean poems. The heavy curtains embroidered with dragons had been swapped for nondescript drapes that were neither blue nor purple. The whole impressive set of imperial sleeping quarters had been turned into a hovel out of ction.
It was summer. From the imperial bed’s four posts hung an aged curtain, and it was laid with a straw mat. A wretched child dressed in a burlap robe sat feebly on the edge of the bed, his little face yellow as a candle. Yet this was the present Son of Heaven, my imperial nephew.
The eunuch said that His Majesty had been diligently studying statecraft for some days, hard at work poring over his books, rising with the rooster’s crow and going to sleep at the third watch of the night, eating the most meager diet. As he spoke, he surreptitiously wiped the corner of his eye with his sleeve. I did not know whether it was out of admiration or pity for the emperor.
The enfeebled Qizhe saw me and managed to rouse himself a little.
“Imperial Uncle has come to see us. Please sit.”
I sat on a chair covered with a straw mat. Looking at his pitiful yellow face, a re ared up in my guts. The empress dowager, that stupid woman, and those so-called loyalists, and their so-called overcorrection—this was it.
Even to establish a good reputation, was it necessary to torment a child like this for the sake of appearances? If even the emperor went hungry and lived in a hovel, what prosperity could there be for the empire?
By my own temper, I would have immediately had these ostentatious trappings changed, and ordered the imperial kitchens to send out a substantial meal. But these were the emperor’s sleeping quarters, and however powerful my distaste, I was still a subject. Just then, heaven came to my aid. Black clouds gathered, the sky darkened, and a low roar of thunder rumbled.
“It is raining,” said Qizhe. “Stay a little longer, Imperial Uncle.”
This phrasing was meant as a dismissal, but I said, “Then I thank Your Majesty for your favor.” I looked at the hourglass. “It grows late. It must be time for Your Majesty’s supper.”
“We… have lately been engaged in self-re ection, eating one meal per day,” said Qizhe. “We already ate at midday.”
I deliberately rubbed my belly. “I hold Your Majesty’s actions in esteem. I ought to emulate them.”
As I expected, Qizhe said, “Are you hungry, Imperial Uncle? We will order a meal prepared for you.”
I hastily said, “If Your Majesty is not eating, I would not dare.”
In a timely manner, the eunuch put in, “Your Eternal Majesty, as His Highness Prince Huai is here today, there is no harm in making an exception.”
Qizhe must have been starving. After a little more encouragement from us both, he nodded and said, “Very well, have the imperial kitchens prepare supper.”
“I enjoy wine,” I said. “Will Your Majesty grant me permission to drink?”
“Granted,” said Qizhe.
With wine, there had to be meat.
The imperial kitchens must have felt sti ed lately and itched to make a display of their skills. Though there were only ten or so dishes, two soups, six kinds of pastry, and all the meat was chicken, duck, or sh, the dishes were exquisite, the avors perfect. I concentrated on eating, pretending I didn’t notice Qizhe quietly wol ng down his food.
When the meal was over, it was already dark. A few small lamps were lit in the imperial chambers. Their light was dim and dusky.
When I stood and took my leave, an unheralded ash of lightning lit the sky, setting o an earthshaking clap of thunder. As I walked toward the door, I heard Qizhe behind me say, “Imperial Uncle.”
I turned back and saw him standing all alone in the midst of the enormous sleeping chamber. The shadows cast by the lamplight were elongated and overlapping, like a gathering of apparitions.
“Imperial Uncle… the storm is at its strongest, why not… stay awhile longer.”
So I turned back and picked out some segments of legends to tell him. I told one after another, until it was nearly the third watch of the night, and all the while, Qizhe refused to go to sleep. The storm outside was still raging, with no break in the thunder and lightning.
I said, “In ancient times, on stormy nights, loyal ministers and able generals often took up swords and stood watch over the emperor through the night. I have a favor to ask of Your Majesty now. My leg is damaged, so I cannot take to the battle eld to show my loyalty to Your Majesty. Please grant me an opportunity to be a loyal subject. Allow me to stand watch over Your Majesty tonight.”
Qizhe looked at me with his eyes bright in the lamplight. “Permission granted,” he said.
The attendants conveyed word from the inner chamber to the outer chamber, and a mat was laid for me. Qizhe nally went to bed.
The attendants let down the bed curtains. I lay down on the mat. From within the curtains, I heard Qizhe’s childish voice say, “Imperial Uncle.”
I said, “I am here.”
“When our father passed away, it was also storming like this. Our mother told us that our father would come back to see both of us. But we have never seen our father. Will he really come back to see us?”
If the late emperor really could see us at this very moment, I thought, he would be utterly despondent.
But such an irreverent thought had to remain in my own mind.
“The empress dowager surely would not lie to Your Majesty,” I said.
“When my father passed away, my mother said the same thing to me.”
At length, a sound of assent came from inside the curtains.
It was a long time later that I fell into a doze.
My staying the night in the imperial sleeping quarters later provoked censure from many ministers, and became one more piece of evidence of my attempts to usurp the throne. With my reputation already what it was, they might say whatever they liked.
Whether many years later, when Qizhe recalled that event, he would also think I was attempting to usurp the throne, I could not say. When a person grew up, everything would change. Just as the Qizhe of back then had grown into the emperor of today. There were no certainties.
After nightfall, a number of carriages arrived on shore. Liu Tongyi and I respectfully saw o the emperor in the ship’s hold. Smiling brightly, Qizhe said to me, “Uncle, you should also hurry back, or you’ll be missed at home.”
To outsiders, this must have been a scene of perfect harmony between uncle and nephew.
“These past few days have been an imposition on Master Mei,” said Qizhe.
Liu Tongyi bowed. “Not at all.”
Deng Tan and the others crowded around Qizhe as he boarded his carriage. The carriages all receded into the distance in the night. Behind me, Wang You said, “It is late. What do you wish to eat for dinner, Master Uncle? I will arrange it.”
“Steward Wang is a guest as well,” said Liu Tongyi. “Allow me to undertake expenses for meals.” He ordered a room prepared for Wang You.
Wang You said, “I do not dare to impose on Master Mei. I will wait personally on Master Uncle, or else my master will reproach me on my return.”
Liu Tongyi smiled and said, “Very well.”
I stood on deck looking out. The Wan ship stood beside us, blazing with light. Through the open windows, the scene of two men drinking and watching a performance could be faintly seen; they were Yun Zai and Yun Yu.
After dinner, Liu Tongyi said he wished to check the accounts for the silk purchase with me. He asked if it was a convenient time. Then he said to Wang You, “Steward Wang can also help Master Zhao make sure that I have left no omissions in my accounts.”
Wang You said, “How could a servant like me dare to interfere with Master Uncle’s business? I will attend outside. Just call me when you would like tea.”
I went with Liu Tongyi to his bedroom. Liu Tongyi shut the door and took a letter from his sleeve. He dipped his nger in tea and wrote on the table: Zhang Ping.
I took the letter and tore it open. The letter consisted of a scant few words:
Your Highness Prince Huai, I know of all that took place in the past. But I hope we will live in harmony and the nation will be at peace.
My heart chilled. Zhang Ping really was somebody. Even this he had uncovered. But why had he written me this letter?
Liu Tongyi took the letter and burned it.
I watched the last bit of paper turn to ash. “Soon it will be beyond me to meddle. He ought to keep his attention on matters that merit it.”
Liu Tongyi poured some tea into the bowl holding the ashes, opened the window, emptied the bowl outside, and let the window screen down. “Chief Steward Wang is…”
“Keeping an eye on me to ensure I make a clean exit,” I said.
Liu Tongyi said, “Tomorrow we will reach Suzhou. What plans does Master Zhao have for the future?”
I paused, then said, “Master Mei, I am going to be brazen again and ask for your help with some things. May I?”
Liu Tongyi looked at me and said nothing.
So I continued, “In Suzhou, I will hire a carriage and go straight to the sea. Perhaps I will never return. During my years doing business, I’ve accumulated a bit of property, which I can’t take with me. I’d like to ask you to take it. What you have a use for, you can keep if you don’t mind.
Whatever you don’t, you can give to others or throw away as you see t.”
Liu Tongyi said, “The luggage Master Zhao brought aboard did not look like much to me. Why can’t you take it to sea with you?”
“There isn’t much luggage,” I said, “but there’s the shop in Chengzhou, which I hope Master Mei can look after for me. I also have some silver banknotes here which can be exchanged throughout the country. I won’t be able to use them when I go abroad, and I can’t carry that much gold and silver. Please take them for me, Master Mei. You can give them to Prince Dai whenever he gets into a hole again. Other people can also nd a use for my things… Also… No, there’s nothing else.”
Liu Tongyi frowned. “I’m afraid I can’t agree.”
I hadn’t expected him to refuse. I was startled.
Liu Tongyi said, “Master Zhao and I aren’t especially close friends, yet you are always asking me to help you with your personal a airs. It doesn’t seem appropriate. Perhaps it would be better if Master Zhao found another trustworthy person.”
I felt embarrassed, then forced a smile and said, “Master Mei… is right. I have imposed on you too much.”
I, Jing Weiyi, had lived thirty-two or thirty-three years, and my life was a failure. Decades at court, over three years roaming the world, and when I needed to commit something to another’s care, however I thought about it, the only person I could go to was Liu Tongyi.
But why should he agree to my request? Did I think that just because he was a gentleman, he was bound to agree?
That really was unreasonable.
When I had this realization, my speech became faltering. “Master Mei…
I… did not give this su cient consideration. Forget I said anything.”
Liu Tongyi smiled. “When we reach Suzhou, if you have trouble nding a carriage, I can make arrangements for you.”
I clasped my hands. “Thank you.”
I returned to my cabin. There were no stirrings from the Wan ship next to us. All remained calm till daybreak.
The next day, we reached Suzhou. I packed my bags in the hold. I thought it would be overhasty to have a last meal on the pier. First I would say goodbye to Liu Tongyi.
I didn’t nd him in the hall and was about to go to his room, but halfway there, I heard footsteps and saw him coming out. He was carrying a wine pitcher and wine cups.
I had rarely seen him drink. Liu Tongyi put the pitcher and cups on the table. He said, “I do not drink much, but I know Master Zhao enjoys wine, so I have prepared a pitcher of poor wine to bid Master Zhao farewell.” He lifted his hand and lled the cups, then raised one. “Take care of yourself when you go.”
I picked up the other cup, but the weight in my hand seemed immeasurable. “I have caused you so much trouble. I’m afraid I will never be able to repay you in this life… Look after yourself too.”
Liu Tongyi tipped back his head and drank his wine in one gulp. Smiling, I said, “Seeing Master Mei drink so freely, I believe your tolerance isn’t as poor as you’ve always disclaimed. If it were early enough now, I would like to drink to intoxication with you and see who falls rst.”
Liu Tongyi shook his head, smiling. “I really can’t drink. I can handle a few cups, but more than that and I can’t walk straight.”
The ship gradually slowed as it entered the Suzhou pier.
When the ship was moored, a page came in to tell Liu Tongyi that Ruihe’s carriages were here and waiting on shore.
Liu Tongyi said, “If the Wans have no carriage prepared, Master Zhao can choose a couple of carriages to use with Little Young Master Wan and Steward Wang. The Wans have no residence in Suzhou. If you do not like to stay at an inn, my home has a separate courtyard that is tranquil enough. If you nd it adequate, you can spend the night there.”
Wang You put in a word, “No need. My master has arranged a carriage for Master Uncle on shore.”
Wang You and Ruihe’s page helped me move my luggage. We left the hold.
Under the setting sun, a man stood alone on the deck of the ship next to us.
I met his eyes. After a while, I raised a hand and said, “Look after yourself.”
He said nothing, only slowly turned and went into the hold.
I went down the gangplank and onto the pier. Liu Tongyi stood in front of Ruihe’s carriages, looking at me with a confused and doubtful expression.
I smiled at him. “Master Mei, this time it truly is goodbye. You…” Now that it had come to this, I felt that I had absolutely nothing to say. It had to be those two words again: “Take care.”
Wang You led a carriage over. I got in, and it jolted ahead. Wang You said respectfully, “Your Highness Prince Huai, His Majesty told me to notify you that if there is still anything you cannot let go of, any place you wish to visit, you should feel free to do so in the next few days.”
“There’s nothing,” I said. “But I spoke of going to sea, so let us head for the sea now.”
Wang You said he would obey and stuck his head out of the carriage to give the driver instructions.
I glanced at the bundle next to him and said, “Let me have a look. It’s for me anyway.”
Wang You hesitated a moment, then trembled as he passed the bundle to me.
I opened it. Inside it was a blue-and-white porcelain jar, cool to the touch.
It produced a crisp sound when struck. It was good quality porcelain.
When Qizhe had come to Huai Manor with Qitan and the other princes, in a bout of mischief, they had taken sticks and struck the big vase in the hall, and it had made the same sound. As they struck the vase, they had called out, “Imperial Uncle, Imperial Uncle…”
That day, when Qizhe had seen me alone, when I was in his room, he had also rst called out, “Imperial Uncle.”
Then he asked me, “Imperial Uncle, what should we do?
“When we learned of the injustice that had been done to you, we blamed ourselves profoundly. We know you did it all for us. Can you tell us what we should do now?”
Yes, what should he do? His Majesty had issued a penitential decree, he had built a tomb, he had established a memorial; but the man who ought to have been asleep in that tomb was running freely out in the world. What was there to be done?
I said, “Prince Huai is dead, there is only…”
Qizhe raised a hand. “Enough, Imperial Uncle, do not trot that out to lie to us both. When you stand there, even with some common name like Gou a-San or Mao a-Si, you are still our Imperial Uncle.” 15
“Your Majesty must not use such examples,” I said at once. It was nothing for me to be named Gou a-San or Mao a-Si, but if the emperor were to become Gou a-San or Mao a-Si’s nephew, now that really would be…
Qizhe sighed and looked at me.
That look was the same as when he had wanted something when he was little.
“Your Majesty,” I said, “I am planning to go to sea, never to return.”
Still Qizhe did not speak.
I continued, “If the ship were to encounter a storm and sink, there would be no further cause for concern.”
Finally, Qizhe spoke. Distinctly, he said, “Imperial Uncle, do not blame us.”
He took a small vial from his sleeve.
I accepted it. The vial was made of jade. Because Qizhe had kept it in his sleeve, it was warm from his body.
Qizhe had rarely given me anything. Ever since he was little, he had always taken things from me. I squeezed it and said, “Thank you for this gift, Your Majesty.”
Qizhe sighed again.
“Your Majesty,” I said, “the only thing is, can it not be on Liu Tongyi’s ship?”
Qizhe slowly said, “This drug needs several days to take e ect. Do not worry. Imperial Uncle, do you want to return with us to the capital, or…”
“Too many people know me in the capital,” I said. “It will be cleaner to handle this elsewhere.” I removed the stopper from the vial. It contained a liquid, which was slightly bitter.
Qizhe turned away. After a while, he said, “Imperial Uncle, we promise you that mausoleum will always be yours.”
The carriage rattled. I put the jar back into its bundle.
Wang You would use it to take me back to that big tomb. He said hoarsely to me, “Do not worry, Your Highness Prince Huai, that tomb was created on His Majesty’s personal orders. I may be getting on in years, but my hands are still steady. I will convey Your Highness there safely.”
I said nothing. I lay down in the carriage to doze, then remembered what had happened that day aboard the ship, after I drank from that vial.
I had been about to withdraw then, when Qizhe turned around. “Imperial Uncle, stay and talk to us.”
Afterward, Qizhe spoke to me for a long time. He spoke of nothing more momentous than minor doings at court in bygone years. For example, which tree in the palace the late emperor had personally planted, under what circumstances he had planted it, and so on.
He said, We remember everything about going to visit you when we were little, Imperial Uncle.
He said, We have always remembered your kindness to us.
He said these things as though it were an ordinary conversation. He said, We have never said these things to anyone else, and we never will again.
I said, There is no need for Your Majesty to say this. To make an irreverent comparison, relationships between members of an ordinary family are much closer than those between members of the imperial family. Look at Prince Dai. When he’d nearly emptied out Huai Manor, if he came over and called me Uncle, I still had to give him money. This was only reasonable.
Huai Manor was seized after I was arrested. The things my father had brought home in years past, and the trinkets I had purchased when I was young, the decorations and jewelry my mother had liked when she was alive, must all have been destroyed or con scated or pocketed during the seizure.
I remembered a couple of years back when I was in the desert buying sheepskins. I lost a drinking contest with some herders and spent half the night throwing up, then caught a chill and ran a fever. In my delirium, I thought I was still in bed in my bedroom at Huai Manor, and my mother was bringing me a hangover remedy. She berated me as she raised it to my lips, but when I drank it, it tasted of plain water.
When I opened my eyes, I found that I was wrapped in a sheepskin jacket, sleeping on horsehide, with a young woman beside me holding a rough pottery bowl, giving me cold water to drink.
She was ordinary-looking, with a dark ruddy face and coarse hands, but her eyes were bright and clear, with no trace of impurity, perfectly clean.
When she smiled at me and showed her white teeth, I thought she was like a goddess.
That girl was Alianna.
When I left, she said she was going to marry a young man who rode a fast horse. Perhaps they even had children now.
The carriage rattled forward. I slept in it awhile. In my dreams, I now saw Qizhe talking to me, now Alianna, now Mija, now Xue’e, now Wanwan.
Finally, it was Xiangniang, who had kept a stall at the corner of an alley in a town where I had once stayed.
I hadn’t felt like cooking then. Every day I took a small pot and went to her stall to buy noodles with shredded chicken.
I would eat it at midday, then in the evening, add water to the leftovers and eat them as though they were porridge; that made a second meal.
She always gave me extra, lling that little pot right up.
She told me that her husband was dead, and all she had left were two children who had just learned to walk. She said she wanted nothing in life, only to nd someone who could support her and her children. She would do everything in her power to treat that person well.
I thought at the time that she was hinting something when she said this to me, but unfortunately, I didn’t stay long in that town. Before I left, I wanted to give her some money, but she said she only spent money she had earned herself. I realized then that she had been looking after me, not favoring me.
In my dream, I sold noodles with her at the corner of the alley. She rolled them, and I watched the pot. When the water boiled, I removed the lid, and the steam rushed up into my face. At my feet were children who tugged at my shirt, calling, “Papa, Papa…”
The carriage gave a sudden jolt. I awoke.
Wang You’s hoarse voice said, “Your Highness, we’re nearly there.”
The carriage stopped, and I alighted. Before me was a noisy pier. Ships were anchored near the shore, people came and went, heaps of goods were stacked and carted.
I had thought I might catch a glimpse of boundless waves, but instead we were in an inlet.
A boatman carrying goods by the shore told me that of course a large pier could only be built in an inlet. Beyond this was the open sea.
I looked toward the mouth of the inlet. Wang You said softly behind me,
“You can rent a small boat to go have a look, sir. I can do nothing beyond that.”
I considered. It ought to be nearly time. Compared to two days ago, my head was heavier, and my steps were a little uncertain, my limbs numb. It might be tonight or tomorrow.
Though a great man can see the whole universe in a grain of sand, faced with that little inlet, I still wanted to go forward and see more. Soon perhaps I would have nothing left, but right now, at least, I could have something.
I circled the pier and found a small boat that transported goods out to the big vessels, but the boatman refused under any circumstances to take me. He
said he had taken a job from a big ship and couldn’t delay. Even when Wang You gave me silver to tempt him, it still did no good.
The boatman said, “It isn’t that I’m unwilling to deal with you, but I’ve already accepted a job, and I can’t delay. We have long-term jobs, not one-o s. Please understand, sir.”
In plain terms, he couldn’t a ord to o end a major customer for the sake of a tiny transaction.
As we spoke, the major customer’s ship slowly pulled in and dropped anchor by the shore. I saw a name in large characters at the fore of the ship
—Ruihe.
A man with the look of a steward left the ship and bowed to me. “Master Zhao, what a coincidence. We meet again. My master is on the ship and invites you to come aboard.”
I went aboard and saw Liu Tongyi standing in front of the hold.
“Master Mei,” I said, “is there enough wine on your ship this time?”
Liu Tongyi looked at Wang You behind me, smiled, and said, “Naturally there is wine. There is someone in the hold who wants to say something to Master Zhao.”
I entered with Liu Tongyi. He took me to a cabin, knocked twice, and opened the door.
I went in, and the door was gently closed behind me. I heard Liu Tongyi’s footsteps walk away.
The man in front of the window turned around and saluted me. “Your Highness Prince Huai.”
It was Yun Zai.
“I have traveled on Chancellor Liu’s ship in order to thank Your Highness.
Thank you for your kindness to the Yun family.”
“I shouldn’t accept Eldest Young Master Yun’s gratitude,” I said. “From beginning to end, nothing I have done has been for the sake of the Yun family. There are some things that should remain in the past. They have been buried, so treat them as dirt.”
“Please do not worry, Your Highness,” said Yun Zai. “My brother has decided to travel the world with me. Henceforth, there will be no Yun family. I only wish to be a law-abiding merchant. Where there have been no entanglements or quarrels before, there will be none now. My brother has already accepted the situation. But he feels truly guilty that Your Highness has been forced to live abroad from now on.”
“My situation has nothing to do with that,” I said. “This is how government works.”
For the imperial family, power and bene t had always been of greatest import. Familial a ection was extraneous.
Yun Zai said to me, “Oh, yes, my brother asked me to say some things to Your Highness. First, to ask Your Highness to rest easy. Second, to say that he himself does not know the answer to the question you asked him that day. At rst it was false, and while the falsehood became truth, in the end, it was still false.”
I said, “Then please convey a message for me, Eldest Young Master Yun. I have always loved him very much, and whether he is Yun Yu or Little Young Master Wan, I hope he takes good care of himself.”
Yun Zai bowed to me, then left the cabin.
I stood in the room alone, an icy chill spreading from my heart, as in the snow over a decade ago. As I lifted my imperial nephews one by one to pick
plum blossoms and was about to pick up the last child, one of the palace eunuchs said to me, “Your Highness, this is Chancellor Yun’s son, not a prince.”
I could no longer recall what that child had looked like, but that event had been rmly xed in his memory.
“You broke o a plum blossom branch and gave it to me then. I ought to prostrate myself in gratitude. Thank you, Your Highness. Clearly I am the same as them.”
A while later, Liu Tongyi opened the door and came in, then shut the door.
“The servants are preparing a boat. Master Wan is about to leave.”
He put the bundle in his hands on the table and continued, “There will be six boatmen aboard to take Master Wan to his ship.”
Liu Tongyi shifted a potted tree on a shelf beside the window, and a hole opened unexpectedly in the wall, revealing a narrow passage.
“If you leave by this passage, you’ll reach the place where the boatmen are gathering.”
I looked at him. “And how are you planning to deal with Wang You?”
“There are always ways,” said Liu Tongyi with perfect composure. “Don’t worry.”
I looked at him again, picked up the bundle, went to the hole, dropped the bundle into the passage, rotated the potted tree, closed the hole, and grabbed his arms. “Since there is wine on your ship, can you drink a few cups with me?”
Liu Tongyi looked at me with his brow tightly furrowed. “Your Highness Prince Huai, time is short. If you do not go now…”
“Why should I go?” I said. “I want Ransi to keep me company.”
Liu Tongyi’s arms went rigid. I half dragged him out the door. Wang You scurried up to the end of the passage. I pulled Liu Tongyi right past him.
“Eunuch Wang, I am going to drink a few cups with Lord Liu. Why don’t you rest in your room for now?”
Wang You assented behind me.
When we reached the hall, I stopped. “Oh, yes, Master Mei, where would it be suitable for us to drink?”
Liu Tongyi looked at me with a sti expression, called over a servant, gave him some instructions, and said to me, “This way.”
Liu Tongyi took me to a quiet, out-of-the-way little room.
The servant rst brought wine, then a little later brought food. I drank cup after cup as I asked Liu Tongyi, “Why did you come here?”
There was a cup of wine in front of Liu Tongyi. No matter what I said to him, he would only take a few sips. “I just happened to be passing by.”
I laughed. “You even brought Eldest Young Master Yun. How did that just happen?”
Coolly, Liu Tongyi said, “Master Wan happened to want to come, and I happened to bring him.”
I laughed again and kept drinking.
Unnoticed, the sky darkened. Stumbling a little, I took a trip to the latrine. When I returned to the room, I was just about to continue when Liu Tongyi leapt to his feet, went to the wall, wrapped his arms around a vase, and twisted it. Again, a hole opened in the wall.
I looked at him, slightly aghast. “Master Mei, how many secret passages are there on your ship?”
Liu Tongyi once again produced a bundle. “Your Highness Prince Huai, leave now, while it’s dark. Eunuch Wang is asleep, you need not worry.”
I put down my cup and stared at him. “Then what will you do? When Wang You wakes up, how are you going to explain yourself?”
Still cool, Liu Tongyi said, “Please do not worry, Your Highness. Naturally, I have a means to extricate myself.”
I wanted to laugh a little. The pain behind my left ribs was growing stronger, and there was a sour taste in my mouth.
I swayed to my feet and walked up to him. Liu Tongyi put the bundle into my hands. I grabbed his hands, stumbled, and inadvertently fell against him.
Liu Tongyi’s body went rigid again. I whispered into his ear, “It’s no use.
You understand His Majesty’s tactics. That day he summoned me to see him alone, he gave me a drug. My life ends tonight.”
Liu Tongyi’s body was warm. It gave me a feeling of calm.
I couldn’t quite keep my footing. There happened to be a bed in the room, so I fell onto it with him. I couldn’t see Liu Tongyi’s expression now. I only said to him, “Ransi, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to drag you into this again.
Perhaps this is fate. Now that I’m nearing the end, you’re still the one at my side.”
I was very much attached to life. I didn’t know why people were born, nor whether ghosts truly existed. Perhaps life was a brief bout of something, while death was an eternal nothing. No matter what, something was better than nothing. That was what I thought.
So no matter how events panned out, I exhausted all my e orts ghting to keep myself alive.
But the more I struggled, the less I could escape.
Now that it came down to it, I had no thoughts, only a blank feeling of numbness.
I said to Liu Tongyi, “Ransi, I’ve said it before: nothing is owed between us. You don’t have to treat me like this, but thank you for doing it regardless.”
Liu Tongyi’s voice seemed to be very far away. “…I do not do this because of anything I might owe you, and it isn’t to hear you thank me.”
I closed my eyes peacefully. My whole life was worth it to hear these words.
“Liu Tongyi, if there should be…”
If there should be… I thought about it and said nothing. Forget the “ifs.”
They might all be false. In this instant of utter reality, it was unsuitable to speak of such things.
Supposing that what came after this was only a dreamless sleep, when daybreak came and I awoke, if I could only see him, hear him say…
Prince Huai? Your Highness? Master Zhao?
Anything at all would do.
If I could only hear, could only see, how good that would be.
Amid dense darkness, I automatically opened my eyes and saw a blurry face.
When the face came clear, it was Liu Tongyi’s.
He stood by the bed holding a bowl. “You’re awake?”
For an instant, I was totally numb. Then I instantly propped myself up.
“Where am I?”
“Aboard ship,” Liu Tongyi said calmly. “Master Zhao slept aboard this ship last night. It is now midmorning. Did you sleep well?”
When I frowned, a stabbing pain lanced through my head. Liu Tongyi passed me the bowl. I took it and drank it down in one gulp. “How did you ever nd the antidote and save my life?”
Besides which, this antidote was quite pleasant, sweet, like suanmeitang avored with osmanthus.
“This is suanmeitang, a hangover cure,” said Liu Tongyi. “Master Zhao wasn’t poisoned. Why would you need an antidote?”
What.
My head ached even more ercely. I opened my mouth. Liu Tongyi passed me a handkerchief, then a letter.
I took the handkerchief and wiped my mouth. Then I took the letter.
There was writing on the envelope: For Uncle, Private.
It was Qizhe’s handwriting.
Liu Tongyi turned away, holding the empty bowl. “Eunuch Wang left before daylight. He left me this letter to give to you.”
I heard Liu Tongyi’s steps recede into the distance and the door close, then I tore open the letter. There was no address, no signature, only a single sentence:
I have always trusted you, Uncle, but you have never trusted me.
Approaching noon, the sun was resplendent. It sparkled on the sea, dazzling to behold.
I found Liu Tongyi in a cool spot below deck. He was looking into the distance, I knew not at what. When I came up in front of him, he said,
“Steward Wang told me to convey to Your Highness Prince Huai that he was acting under imperial orders and o ended you in many particulars. He also said that blue-and-white porcelain jar was an old possession. Your Highness must have forgotten about it, but His Majesty ordered him to give it to Your Highness as a keepsake. He has left that little jar in his room.”
I said nothing.
After a brief silence, Liu Tongyi turned his head and looked at me. “I wonder what plans Master Zhao has going forward?”
I looked at him. “What plans does Master Mei hope I will make?”
Liu Tongyi paused. “I hardly have room to speak on the matter, but… if Master Zhao still wishes to go to Java, I know where you can get a reliable ship.”
I thought about it, then said, smiling, “Concerning that… there is no need for Master Mei to go out of your way. I have become accustomed to drifting. All this is familiar to me. While the weather is good, I will bid you farewell.”
I packed up the clothes and luggage Wang You had left for me, as well as the little jar. With the bag over my shoulder, I left the hold.
Behind me, Liu Tongyi said, “Master Zhao.”
I looked back. He said, “It’s noon already. Why not eat before you go?”
I smiled and said, “I don’t think so. A noontime meal might last into the evening, and that would be another day’s delay.”
When I was again about to leave, Liu Tongyi again said, “Master Zhao.”
I looked back at him again. His lips moved. Finally, all he said was, “Take care.”
“Take care, Master Mei,” I said. “The world is wide. We may meet again.”
I went down the gangplank and came ashore. I walked on awhile, then turned back to look at the ship. There seemed to be a person at the fore, but the sun was too bright, and I couldn’t see clearly. Perhaps there was no one.
I turned. People came and went around me. The road ahead was long.
I grabbed a handful of dried red owers from the bag and rubbed them between my ngers.
“I think there’s something wrong with your product.”
The middle-aged man glared at me, sti -necked. “How did you even get involved in this? Don’t mess up my sale! These really are top-quality tobacco owers from the Kingdom of Mohe, for the king’s exclusive use. I don’t suppose you’d ever have seen anything this good.”
“I’ve seen plenty of tobacco owers, but the largest dried owers are still only the size of a pea. Yours are all as big as chrysanthemums. Maybe they’re just wild owers growing at your village gate.”
Even the man’s neck turned purple. “Total nonsense! They’re expensive precisely because they’re big! Only the best quality ones are this big!”
I put down the owers and gave him my earnest advice: “Next time you want to cheat someone, remember to do a little more research. As everyone knows, tobacco owers are more expensive the smaller they get. The ones that look like rice our are the highest quality. You have it backward.”
The man’s eyes became two protuberant pigeon’s eggs. He was dragged o to see the authorities by some burly men.
Then I dusted o my hands and turned to the person who had been standing o to the side with his hands behind his back during this exchange.
I smiled and said, “Master Mei, what a coincidence.”
Liu Tongyi gave me a faint smile. The steward behind him said, “Master Zhao, it is a coincidence. This is the third time this month. Each time our
general manager goes out to purchase goods, we run into you.”
“Then it must be fate,” I said. “When you leave the pier, there’s a good restaurant at the corner. Shall we drink a cup of wine together?”
“Master Zhao helped us recognize a fake product,” said Liu Tongyi. “I should be treating you. Only, isn’t Master Zhao doing business in Java? How come we met you the time before last picking up goods in Dongying? And how come we met you last time picking up goods in Goryeo? And now that we’ve come to the desert on business, we meet you again.”
I waved a hand and said, “Well, I haven’t had much to do. Perhaps you know, Master Mei, that Java is a little place, like a pellet. Nothing there but coconut palms. If you want to experience the virtues of spring owers and fall fruits, you have to venture out into the wide world.”
Liu Tongyi inclined his head slightly, but there was a smile tucked into the corners of his lips. “That’s true.”
“You say this is a monkey skull?” I picked up the bowl and weighed it. The edges were inlaid with gleaming brass, and a piece of jade hung from it.
That made it pretty heavy.
The old fellow gasped and extended a trembling hand. “Sir, be careful.
Don’t break it. That’s an old monkey king’s skull. Do you see those six places?” He pointed to the places with inlaid jade owers and copper plates.
“That is where the monkey king’s six ear holes are located. An exceptional six-eared macaque. It took ten great shamans to bring him down. Look here at these talismans! Any lesser personage than Master Mei couldn’t appreciate it. I’ve already decided to sell it to Master Mei. I’m very sorry, sir.”
I opened my eyes wide. “What a truly expensive object. Ten shamans trekked all the way from the desert to the south sea to make this old
coconut. The travel expenses alone must have been considerable.”
The old fellow was aghast. “Don’t talk nonsense, sir! What coconut! This is the skull of an exceptional six-eared macaque monkey king.”
Smiling, I said, “But this monkey king must be very old to have the grain of a coconut shell on his bones.”
When I scraped o the skin of paint with a knife, the object’s true nature was instantly evident.
The old fellow left in a cloud of mournful sighs, clutching the coconut.
Liu Tongyi smiled at me. “Master Zhao is a true expert.”
“Naturally, I’m an expert when it comes to coconuts. They’re everywhere in Java. You can’t avoid becoming an expert. But Master Mei, I recall that you’re very skilled in discerning these things. How did you come to nearly fall for it?”
“I am only skilled when it comes to antiques,” said Liu Tongyi. “I haven’t seen many coconuts.”
True enough. I grabbed him by the arm. “In all this time, I’ve eaten so many meals at your expense. Yuanzhou lies to the south. It’s my turn to pay.”
Liu Tongyi smiled again and let me take him toward a restaurant. “All right.”
The rain was coming down in buckets. I opened an umbrella on the veranda. A gust of wind blew in slantwise and nearly sent me reeling.
The inn’s attendant said, “Sir, you can’t go out in this weather. Rest awhile in your room. I hear several ships on the river capsized between last night and today.”
I looked up. When the wind dropped slightly, I charged into the rain all the same.
I had received word that Ruihe’s people had arrived in the city the day before yesterday, but when I’d arrived, the inn they were staying at was already full. If I didn’t go today and waited until the rain stopped, they might be gone by tomorrow. Besides, it was pouring, and it was midday.
They were sure to be eating in the main hall. It would be more natural for me to go inside to get out of the rain.
I hadn’t gone two steps when a wild gust of wind blew my umbrella away.
I turned back to the inn and borrowed a raincoat and bamboo hat from the attendant, then staggered onward. Up ahead, at a corner leading to the pier, I caught sight of someone standing in the wind and rain, unmoving, looking as if he were on the verge of being bent in half by the wind. The two people beside him were desperately trying to drag him away.
The more I looked, the more familiar he became. When I was right in front of him, I blurted out, “Ran…”
He looked back abruptly, and I tipped up the bamboo hat. “Master Mei.”
I had never seen Liu Tongyi in such a wretched state. His hair and clothes were plastered to his skin as if he were a water ghoul.
I moved my lips, trying to smile, but for some reason, I couldn’t manage it. I only said, a little sti y, “Master Mei… What a coincidence… We meet again.”
Liu Tongyi stared xedly at me, but he was smiling. “Yes, such a coincidence. We meet again.”
I put the bamboo hat on Liu Tongyi’s head and pulled him back to the inn, where I immediately put him in a hot bath and prepared ginger tea. But Liu Tongyi still became feverish at once. For two days straight, he threw up anything he ate. His stewards and servants did nothing but cry. The old
steward clung to me and said, “The old master died of lung disease. If the young master also… What will we do, whatever will we do…”
All the servants sobbed. I threw them out.
Late at night, I wrung out a cool handkerchief and put it back on Liu Tongyi’s head. I said to him that actually, we hadn’t met by coincidence those times.
I had gone to Java, stayed there for a month. Looking at the coconuts and the trees full of monkeys, I had felt an unbearable emptiness.
I felt I had no place to settle.
At my age, all prior entanglements, whether true or counterfeit, were as transient as clouds. But there was one person who, when I had nothing to my name, I could trust, could rely on, who made me feel at peace, who kept me company; only that was real.
That person could only be Liu Tongyi.
Whether he was Chancellor Liu at court, Mei Yong managing Ruihe, or the owner of that little house in Qincai Alley.
I tucked Liu Tongyi’s hand under the covers. “So you have to be all right, or else when I really am about to die, who will I have to depend on?”
I was just about to get up to check on the medicine pot when I heard a weak voice.
“Don’t come to me again… You’ve scared me three times… I’ve had enough…”
I wiped my nose and drank the cold medicine, then heard two knocks on the door. Liu Tongyi’s steward scurried in and said, “Master Zhao, our
general manager can move around now. He’d like to invite Master Zhao to have lunch with him.”
Lunch was very plain, because I still had a cold, and Liu Tongyi had only just recovered from his illness. Apart from a dish of milk-white sh soup, the table was covered in greens and root vegetables.
We couldn’t even have rice wine.
After this uninspiring meal, I was really in no mood for tea.
With nothing to sweeten the palate, I tasted only bland bitterness.
I put a hand over my teacup and said to Liu Tongyi, “Oh, yes, Master Mei, there’s something I’d like to ask your help with.”
Liu Tongyi stopped in the process of pouring tea. “Please go ahead, Master Zhao.”
“It’s like this,” I said. “A little while ago, I lost some money on a deal, so…”
Liu Tongyi put down the teapot and looked at me. I continued, “I’m not asking to borrow money. I wanted to ask… does Ruihe have an opening?
For an assistant manager, or a steward, or something. Your business keeps getting bigger. There’s a lot to do, you’ll need some more people to help out.
Anyway…”
Liu Tongyi kept looking at me. I met his gaze and smiled. “Ransi, how much longer are you and I going to keep going in circles like this?”
Liu Tongyi smiled too. “I don’t want to circle anymore. You’re the one who keeps circling.”
Ten years later, the fth month came again, and Ransi and I went to sea to purchase goods. We returned in autumn. As soon as we came home, Steward Li informed us that an urgent dispatch had arrived from the capital. It had
been waiting at the house for half a month and was addressed to me by full name.
Since coming ashore, Ransi and I had seen some strange indications along the way, and heard some remarks. As soon as I saw that envelope, my heart went cold.
It was Qitan’s handwriting.
I hastily tore open the letter. Only a few words were written there, but they turned my limbs to ice:
Uncle, His Majesty is gravely ill. He wants to see you.
I raced the whole way on horseback. As I arrived outside the capital, I saw the city guard dressed in indigo and raising mourning streamers.
My vision went black, and I knew nothing more.
Fine autumn rain fell, soaking the earth. The leaves among the mountains were a striking eld of red.
I dug the soil and buried that little blue-and-white porcelain jar beside the tablet, which was inscribed: Tablet of Sagacious Benevolence and Divine Merit for Great Yong’s Emperor Dezong.
I only remembered that my nephew Qizhe had been no eternal majesty, and he hadn’t been called Dezong. He had just been a somewhat shy, awkward child.
For those born into the imperial family, there were many rules. You could not play very much nor eat very much for the sake of propriety and dignity, so a child of ten would never even have seen Laba garlic.16
At the time, it had been the last month of the year, and whatever the empress dowager might have been thinking, she had sent the crown prince
to Huai Manor. Naturally, Qitan, Qifei, and the other natural disasters were there as well; it was yet another day of great unrest in our household.
I snatched a moment’s peace to sit in a little hall. My mother happened to tell me then that the kitchen had just nished making fresh Laba garlic, and I had some brought to me. I was just about to sample it when the crown prince, who had just entered the room, shouted, “Stop!”
He swept his sleeve over the table, and the small dish containing the garlic crashed to the ground and shattered.
The servants in the hall were all scared right to their knees. Qizhe looked up at me and said sternly, “This garlic has turned green and must be rank with poison. Why would you still eat it?”
I stared at him, then laughed. The servants in the hall, as well as my mother, who had come running at the noise, also laughed. “The crown prince hasn’t eaten Laba garlic before. It’s only during the last month of the year, around the Laba Festival, that this kind of garlic can be pickled.”
I had more brought and ate it then and there to show him.
A maid said, smiling, “The crown prince’s health is precious, so naturally he hasn’t seen a common food like this.”