Li Zhaoji rummaged through the painting basket until he finally found what he was looking for.
Tang Jiayu returned from the small kitchen and instructed the maids to set the table and serve the dishes. Seeing Li Zhaoji standing before the desk, she walked over and said, "My lord, what are you looking at? It's time to eat."
Li Zhaoji unrolled the painting of the Divine Beast in his hand and asked, "Where did you see the creature in this painting?"
Tang Jiayu glanced at the paper, thinking to herself that the moment had finally come. She kept a smile on her face, looking innocent and artless as she said, "A couple of years ago, Father hired a painting tutor for me. I learned it from him. My lord, is something the matter?"
Zhenchun paused outside the bead curtain and bowed: "Madam, the meal is ready."
"Very well. You may all leave." Tang Jiayu dismissed the maids, gently tugged Li Zhaoji's hand, and pulled him to the dining table. "The food won't taste good once it gets cold. This is a tea congee made with my secret recipe. Would you like to try some?"
Tang Jiayu took the initiative to ladle out some soup and held it to Li Zhaoji's lips. Li Zhaoji didn't care for sweets, but with Tang Jiayu watching him with such expectation, he reluctantly took a small sip. To his surprise, the flavor that entered his mouth was unexpectedly fresh and fragrant.
Tang Jiayu asked expectantly, "How is it?"
Li Zhaoji nodded faintly. "Acceptable."
Tang Jiayu immediately broke into a smile, her eyes curving into a pair of crescent moons. "I knew you'd like it. These are all signature dishes from the small kitchen. If anything doesn't suit your taste, just tell me, and I'll have them improve it."
Tang Jiayu kept piling food onto Li Zhaoji's plate, afraid he might go hungry. Li Zhaoji thought to himself that although Tang Jiayu was dim-witted, she did have some unique insight when it came to food, drink, and pleasure—and even her instructions to the grain shop manager today had been quite articulate and reasonable. Had she been born into an ordinary family, she might well have been a blessing that brought prosperity to the household.
Unfortunately, she was a princess born into a dynasty in decline, on the eve of chaos.
Tang Jiayu was so focused on taking care of Li Zhaoji that she barely ate anything herself. Once Li Zhaoji was nearly full, he casually steered the conversation to the main topic. "Do you know why your father was so strongly opposed to us?"
Tang Jiayu quietly steeled herself, keeping her smile as she widened her eyes and shook her head in feigned ignorance. "I don't. Isn't it because he looks down on the poor and fawns on the rich?"
Li Zhaoji smiled. "Yes, but also no."
Tang Jiayu looked puzzled. "What do you mean by that, my lord?"
"Do you truly wish to hear it?" Li Zhaoji fixed his gaze on her with an unreadable expression. "If I say it, I'm afraid you won't want to marry me anymore."
"My heart for you, my lord, endures until the seas run dry and the rocks crumble, until water wears through stone—unchanged until death." Tang Jiayu's eyes shimmered with tender affection as she said, "Besides, I have already married you. Even if you wanted to cast me aside, you could not do so in this lifetime."
The two locked eyes. Li Zhaoji's gaze was cold and severe, while Tang Jiayu's smile was sincere and full of deep feeling, as if she would leap into a cliff without regret so long as it were before her. In the end, it was Li Zhaoji who looked away first. He said, "My grandfather was a mountain bandit."
Tang Jiayu's gaze faltered for a moment, nearly losing her composure. "Ah?"
What kind of move was this supposed to be?
"My grandfather once took to the hills as an outlaw, made himself king of the mountain, smuggled private salt, and killed government officials—every crime punishable by death, he committed them all." As Li Zhaoji spoke, he kept his eyes fixed on Tang Jiayu's expression, waiting for disgust, fear, or revulsion to surface. Tang Jiayu seemed stunned, then suddenly she darkened her face and stood up. Li Zhaoji sneered inwardly. And there it was—in the end, she couldn't keep up the act after all.
Tang Jiayu hurried to the outer room. Li Zhaoji took a sip of tea, thinking to himself that it was rather foolish of her to think of running only at a time like this.
Tang Jiayu, of course, had no intention of running. She pushed open the window and took a deep breath under the pretense of surveying the surroundings.
Li Zhaoji still didn't trust her. It seemed he was trying to extricate himself from her emotional offensive, unwilling to play the role of newlyweds with her any longer.
That wouldn't do—she couldn't let him leave. She sensed that a hard battle lay ahead. Pretending to check the environment, Tang Jiayu adjusted her expression and firmly shut the windows and doors.
She clattered back over and snatched the teacup from Li Zhaoji's hand.
Li Zhaoji was taken aback and looked up at her. Tang Jiayu stood before him with a stern face, scolding, "How could you just say something so secretive without checking if anyone was around? What if someone overheard and ran to the authorities to report you? You'd be arrested!"
Li Zhaoji was surprised and raised an eyebrow. "You're not afraid?"
"You are my husband. Your family is my family. What is there to fear?" Tang Jiayu set the teacup aside, sat down beside him, and asked with concern, "What happened?"
Li Zhaoji hadn't expected her to dare press further. He let out a light scoff, making no effort to hide his defiance toward the court. "What else could it be? When officials push the people, the people have no choice but to rise up. My grandfather originally only wanted to be a farmer, but with official salt prices so high, he refused to let the salt officials rob him of a year's harvest. So he sold private salt to support the family. When the Salt and Iron Inspection Bureau couldn't collect their levies, they broke into homes under the guise of suppressing smuggling—but in truth, they were committing robbery. My grandfather could bear it no longer. He killed the inspectors and their soldiers, leaped over the wall, and fled to the mountains to lie low. When the prefect learned of this, he flew into a rage, called my grandfather a bandit, and reported him to the Salt and Iron Commissioner, who sent heavy troops to suppress the 'bandits.' My grandfather clashed with the imperial soldiers many times, and the feud only grew deeper. In the end, he simply became a real bandit and never looked back."
Tang Jiayu's beautiful eyes shimmered with light. There was no judgment in them—only earnest listening. She asked, "And then?"
And then?
Li Zhaoji thought for a moment and said coldly, "Nothing but the same old story. The court lured them with offers of amnesty, and traitors emerged from within their own ranks, colluding with the enemy from the inside. The great stronghold crumbled and was gone in a single night. Unfortunately, those who surrendered didn't get their high positions and fat salaries either. Once the 'bandit menace' was eliminated, they were the first to be beheaded as a public spectacle, and the prefect gleefully took their heads to claim credit."
Li Zhaoji's words were half-truth and half-fiction. This was indeed his grandfather Chu Di's early experience, but his grandfather hadn't been so submissive. The court used the salt monopoly to extort wealth, while selling private salt reaped enormous profits. Chu Di led the village's able-bodied young men to sell private salt with him, with every household protecting one another. Eventually, they drew the attention of the Salt and Iron Inspection Bureau. Chu Di had considered bribing them to settle the matter, but those men's appetites were too vast—they were after nothing less than seizing the entirety of their family assets. Seeing that the matter couldn't be resolved peacefully, Chu Di killed the officials, seized the court's weapons, and led his men to occupy a mountain and declare themselves kings, playing hide-and-seek with the imperial troops.
In the end, the armies sent to suppress them grew larger and larger, and Chu Di was ultimately defeated. The cause of his defeat was indeed betrayal from within—men who hoped to whitewash their identities and obtain official positions. The irony was that those traitors who dreamed of becoming officials were beheaded in public, not one spared. As for Chu Di, he was captured alive by the Yunzhou Defense Commissioner, who, appreciating his talent, spared him from the death penalty and brought him to Yunzhou, taking him under his command. And so Chu Di was transformed—from bandit to soldier of the imperial army.
Chu Di had been with the Yunzhou Army for only a few years when Wu Ye rose in rebellion. The Yunzhou Army was summoned south to suppress the revolt, and Chu Di, through outstanding battle merit, even received a personal name grant from the emperor—transforming from an outlawed private salt smuggler into Li Wu'an, savior of the Great Qi in its hour of peril.
If those few traitors hadn't betrayed them and had followed his grandfather all along, perhaps they would have already obtained the high office and unparalleled military glory they had yearned for.
"Huh?" Tang Jiayu's heart ached. She asked, "Then what about your grandfather?"
Li Zhaoji, following the story he had prepared in advance, said, "Naturally, he could not escape death. When the stronghold fell, my father was carried out by a trusted confidant and fled to Bingzhou, where he was registered under a household as the man's own son. Otherwise, my father wouldn't have lived to grow up. But the confidant was also an accomplice, and his descendants were barred from officialdom and from respectable trades. Later generations could only live in poverty."
Having said this, Li Zhaoji stared intently at Tang Jiayu and said, "Your father should have told you—no woman around here was willing to marry me. Not because they feared poverty, but because they knew my family's background, knew I had bandit blood, that I might kill them in their sleep, or follow in my ancestors' footsteps and drag their whole family to the execution ground. Now that you know all this, do you regret it?"
"I already told you I won't regret it." Tang Jiayu suddenly drew close. Li Zhaoji's arm tensed, instinctively preparing to strike, but then he felt a soft touch land on his neck.
Tang Jiayu embraced his shoulders, her cheek resting against his neck, and gently patted his back, soothing him the way one would comfort a child: "All these years, being ostracized by others—it must have been so hard for you. If only I had met you earlier."
Li Zhaoji was stunned. She was feeling sorry for him? His face cold, he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her off him, saying coolly, "Do you understand what I'm telling you? Or are you stupid enough not to grasp that for the crime of treason, male descendants are beheaded and females are made slaves?"
"Of course I know." Tang Jiayu, having been pushed away, said with a wounded look, "I was just afraid you'd be sad."
If Tang Jiayu didn't know the true identity of the man before her, no matter how much she loved that handsome face, she would have sought a divorce. What man was worth dragging her whole family down? But she did know. Li Zhaoji's words were half true and half false—and even if they were all true, so what? Even if Chu Di had once been a private salt peddler and a bandit chief, he was now Li Wu'an, former Yunzhou Defense Commissioner and father of the current Military Governor of Hedong.
He who steals a hook is executed; he who steals a kingdom is made a lord—how simple a truth. Li Zhaoji trying to scare her off with such things was utterly impossible.
Li Zhaoji frowned, finding the woman utterly unreasonable. Seeing him soften, Tang Jiayu gentled her voice and continued asking, "So, is Li your original surname?"
Li Zhaoji's pupils dilated slightly. Clearly, this question was completely beyond his expectations. The world hated him and feared him; countless people wanted to take his family's place. Who had ever cared whether Li was his original surname?
Li Zhaoji frowned and stared at Tang Jiayu for a while longer, then released his grip, his gaze drifting slowly into the distance: "No. The original surname hasn't been spoken by anyone in so long that few remember it."
After all, a name granted by the emperor, bearing the imperial surname—what greater honor could there be? Who would be so tactless as to bring up their family's original lowly, bandit surname?
Tang Jiayu endured the pain and rubbed her shoulder, then gently placed her hand on Li Zhaoji's: "Bingwen, do not tell anyone these words. Once we leave this door, I will never bring them up again. I only want you to be safe and sound. It does not matter who you are, or who your ancestors were."
Li Zhaoji had said these things partly to test Tang Jiayu's attitude toward the imperial court, but Tang Jiayu's mind was full of love and romance. She did not worry about her own safety, but instead worried about him. Li Zhaoji stared at her coldly with his phoenix eyes, then suddenly seized her by the back of the neck and pulled her close: "I am the descendant of mountain bandits. Are you not afraid that I will kill you and seize your family property?"
"You are not someone who kills the innocent indiscriminately." Her vital point was in his hands, yet Tang Jiayu showed no nervousness at all, letting her fragile neck be gripped by Li Zhaoji. "Besides, you and I are already married. My family property is yours. Why would you need to seize it?"
Li Zhaoji stared at Tang Jiayu, and Tang Jiayu stared straight back. After a while, Li Zhaoji slowly released his hand. Tang Jiayu pressed a hand to her chest and drew a long breath, then heard Li Zhaoji say: "When my father came down from the mountain back then, he brought a Treasure Map with him. It seems my grandfather had long worried he would not meet a good end, and hid the stronghold's treasures away. Unfortunately, my father was too young at the time to remember anything, and half the Treasure Map was burned during the escape. The true meaning of the map is unknown."
Tang Jiayu laughed inwardly. Sure enough, the dagger was revealed when the map was unrolled. It must have been difficult for him to fabricate such a seamless, flawless story to make her decipher The Lingyun Chart. Tang Jiayu could not resist needling him: "You want the treasure?"
Li Zhaoji countered: "Did you not also ask me for gold?"
Tang Jiayu was momentarily stumped. After a few breaths, she broke into a bright smile and admitted frankly: "I do indeed love wealth. So it turns out my husband and I are kindred spirits."
"To claim you are unmoved even knowing about the Treasure Map is far too hypocritical," Li Zhaoji said. "I am also a worldly man. I may as well speak plainly: I want to obtain the treasure. Are you willing to help me?"
Tang Jiayu looked at the young man before her. Even at such close distance, not a flaw could be seen on his face. He was still so handsome that her heart stirred. What a pity. If they had met in a different setting, if they were not the daughter of the Son of Heaven and the son of a Military Governor, Tang Jiayu might very well have truly fallen in love with him.
She liked this kind of honest, greedy, yet clear-headed and clever person far too much. What mattered in flirtation between men and women was atmosphere, and people generally tried to avoid talking about money. But the two of them were different. They had detonated such a sensitive topic as money right from the start, and afterward neither pretended in front of the other anymore, brazenly exposing their own dark sides and openly admitting their private desires. Li Zhaoji and Tang Jiayu had many, many differences, but in essence, they were the same kind of people.
Unfortunately, their identities destined them to be enemies.
Tang Jiayu pretended to be muddled while knowing full well, and asked: "I do not understand what my husband means. How can I assist you?"
Li Zhaoji took out the painting from his sleeve and said: "These Divine Beasts are exactly the same as the fragments on the Treasure Map. Where did you get this?"
Tang Jiayu glanced over the bait she had deliberately left behind, her face full of innocent confusion: "This was copied from a model given to me by the tutor who previously taught me painting."
Tang Jiayu let out a low cry, covered her mouth, and said: "Could it be that that tutor was one of the fugitive bandits from back then? I always thought he did not look like a good sort, with his shifty eyes and rat-like head. Husband, let us go report him to the authorities at once and have him captured quickly!"
When Li Zhaoji heard Tang Jiayu call Duan Ze shifty-eyed and thieving-looking, his brow twitched. He pressed down on Tang Jiayu's shoulder and said, "Don't rush to conclusions. Everyone in the stronghold was killed back then—not a single one escaped. My father was the sole survivor."
"I see." Tang Jiayu obediently stopped, leaning close to him with a furrowed brow as she helped him puzzle it out. "Then why would these patterns have made their way to the Tang estate?"
Why else? Naturally, someone had deliberately ensured she would see them. Li Zhaoji stared at Tang Jiayu's profile as her lashes fluttered like butterfly wings, wholly devoted to fretting over his troubles. And yet every word he'd told her was a lie.
Tang Jiayu's reaction was nothing like what Li Zhaoji had anticipated. He'd assumed that once he revealed his ancestors were bandits, she would shrink from him, her affection curdling into disgust, and she would no longer wish to be close. She liked him for his looks; she happened to be wealthy, so she didn't care that he was a "poor boy." But once she learned that the poor boy also carried the blood of rebels, what woman would still love him?
After frightening Tang Jiayu, Li Zhaoji planned to bring out the treasure map and use the lure of profit to make her help him solve the puzzle. Ephemeral romance couldn't be trusted; he'd rather use fear and greed to control his pawns—pressuring and tempting them into cooperation.
All those other women were the same. They loved his face, his family standing, his being the sole son of the Military Governor. The moment he killed someone in front of them, revealing the coldness, greed, and cruelty of his true nature, they scattered like startled birds. Li Zhaoji had employed the same tactics on Tang Jiayu—deliberately peeling back his skin, shattering women's overly rosy fantasies of him, laying his ugly side bare in the open.
But why hadn't she recoiled? Why did she keep looking at him with those eyes?
Only the weak drew pity. He was strong—what was there to pity about him?
Tang Jiayu sensed Li Zhaoji's scrutiny and tensed inwardly. Li Zhaoji was far harder to handle than men like Pang Cheng. He wouldn't be fooled by her coquettish antics. Unless she took real action, she could never trick her way into his heart. But Tang Jiayu relished gnawing on tough bones—matching wits with a worthy opponent was its own delight.
Tang Jiayu already knew the full layout of the Lingyun Chart, and she was poring over it day and night to crack its code. She absolutely could not let Li Zhaoji and the others glimpse its secrets before her. She needed to throw them off track; if they slowed down, she'd surge ahead.
A flash of inspiration struck. Tang Jiayu grabbed Li Zhaoji's sleeve, her eyes shimmering like cut crystal. "Husband, I've thought of one possibility. These strange beasts, though bizarre in form, share unified brushwork and a consistent style—they look like the work of a master. Perhaps this is an illustration from some book, and the treasure map corresponds in some way to the text on its pages. But when your father fled, he only carried the painting, and the book was carelessly lost. That's why later generations couldn't decipher its meaning. My tutor saw this book on the market, found it intriguing, and brought it home for me to copy."
Li Zhaoji furrowed his brow in thought, his dark eyes deep and unfathomable. There wasn't a single character on the Lingyun Chart. Li Jichen and Duan Ze had also speculated that it might be only half of a whole—like a tiger tally split in two, perhaps the Lingyun Chart required its other half to reveal the treasure's location. Maybe they'd been wrong from the start. Perhaps the Lingyun Chart wasn't the original key; rather, the Lingyun Chart itself was the cipher.
Li Zhaoji mulled it over and found Tang Jiayu's conjecture highly plausible. He asked, "So what do you think our next move should be?"
"Go look in a bookshop. As long as you find this book, the secret will be solved easily." Tang Jiayu smiled as she looked at him, thinking to herself that there were so many illustrated books in the world—you can take your time searching, search yourselves to death!
Li Zhaoji nodded and said, "Alright. Another day—no, tomorrow. Tomorrow you'll come with me to the bookshop to look."
Tang Jiayu's smile froze: "I'm going to look?"
Li Zhaoji looked at her, his dark eyes like fine ink-jade, clearly reflecting her figure: "You don't want to?"
Tang Jiayu inhaled, then inhaled again, before she could maintain her smile and say in a sweet, cloying voice, "Of course I'm willing. As long as I can stay with you, my lord, I'm willing to do anything."
Li Zhaoji had originally planned to dump her there and leave, but she liked him far too much—even for something like this she had to cling to him. Li Zhaoji frowned and said, "I can't be by your side forever. You need to learn to be independent."
"No." Tang Jiayu leaned against his shoulder and said in a delicate, affected voice, "We already made a vow at the wedding—golden sparrows side by side, never to part. I don't want to be separated from you."
She was always touching him and grabbing him. In just one short day, Li Zhaoji had gone from resisting to becoming numb to it. He turned his face and looked at her brows and eyes: "When did I make a vow?"
Tang Jiayu raised his hand, swiftly linked pinkies and pressed thumbs, then lifted her eyes and said to him with a smile, like a cat that had successfully stolen a treat, "Now. The vow is made. Neither of us is allowed to break it."
"If it is broken… may lightning strike me down, and may I die alone in old age."