The next morning, Bai Ruofeng had breakfast in the Eastern Palace before returning to his residence.
The Crown Prince was grounded for seven days and was staying in the palace to recuperate from his injuries. Since he could neither attend the Imperial Study nor hold court, he was inevitably bored. Bai Ruofeng promised to visit him often.
Upon returning to the Northern Marquis Manor, Bai Ruofeng bathed and changed his clothes. Ah Yuan knocked on his door full of high spirits, chirping, “Young Master, hurry out once you are done scrubbing, and see what has arrived!”
It was obviously good news. The moment Bai Ruofeng heard his voice, he immediately sped up. Hurrying out the door, he saw Ah Yuan leading a lean horse in the courtyard, with a heavy package strapped across its back.
Ah Yuan waved at him. “Come quickly, come quickly! I sent the messenger off to rest and specifically brought the horse over so Young Master could untie the gift with your own hands and have some fun.”
“Ah Yuan understands me!” A bright smile bloomed across Bai Ruofeng’s face. He bounded across the steps in two or three strides, not even waiting to stand firmly before rushing forward. Stopping beside the horse, his bright eyes scrutinized the lean horse that had traveled from afar, and then he gave Ah Yuan’s shoulder a slap. “What do you think is inside such a big package?”
Having grown up together with him, how could Ah Yuan fail to guess his thoughts? “Let me guess first. There is definitely a letter. The Madam probably sent clothing, and as for the Heir and the Young Miss, they probably entrusted some tokens as well.”
There was no time for him to chatter. Unable to suppress his excitement any longer, Bai Ruofeng plunged his head into the blue package and fished out a thick family letter. Tucking it straight into his inner robe against his chest, he and Ah Yuan tore open the rest of the package like unwrapping presents.
The newly tailored clothes were sent by the Marquis Madam, still carrying a faint scent of dye. Bai Ruofeng pulled out the new garments one by one to inspect them. As he shook a robe out, a stack of large-denomination silver banknotes slipped out from the pocket. Ah Yuan cried out in surprise and scrambled to pick them up for him. “The Madam is too generous!”
A mild warmth stirred in Bai Ruofeng’s heart. After pulling out quite a few clothes, the package suddenly flattened out, feeling quite heavy at the bottom. Reaching his hand inside to feel around, Bai Ruofeng touched newly forged small knives and whips, among other weapons. Needless to say, these were definitely packed by his father.
Deeper down were several military books. Bai Ruofeng held them in his hands and flipped them open; the name Bai Yunqi was written on the front page, and casual thumbing revealed dense notes written all over the margins. Ah Yuan voiced what was on his mind. “Truly worthy of the Heir.”
Finally, Bai Ruofeng even managed to dig a crude straw doll out from the package. The doll was tied with two little tufts of hair and had a bow tied around its neck. Its face was sketched with charcoal to create black, beady eyes, missing a nose and featuring a sloppy, smiling mouth.
Bai Ruofeng fondled the straw doll with absolute fondness, the smile at the corners of his lips refusing to fade.
Seeing such an ugly straw doll and recalling how the dirt-covered Bai Yunqi would roll around on the ground and throw tantrums, Ah Yuan chuckled as well. “Ah, this must have been made by the Young Miss.”
“Who else could it be.” Bai Ruofeng stroked the somewhat thick family letter nestled in his bosom and said to Ah Yuan, “Pack this up properly for me, I am going to the study.”
He could not wait any longer.
Clutching the palm-sized straw doll, Bai Ruofeng went to the study and placed it at the corner of his desk, where it occupied a fair chunk of space. The wooden doll looked sloppy and crude, flashing a giant smile right at him. Bai Ruofeng could not help tapping the space between its brows, as if poking the forehead of his younger sister thousands of miles away. “You…”
He pulled the family letter out from his bosom.
His name was written on the red slip pasted on the envelope. Bai Ruofeng could not help tracing his finger over the characters, his gaze growing gradually warmer.
In truth, the Northern Marquis and his wife treated him remarkably well. Yet due to past experiences and his personality, Bai Ruofeng was destined not to act like an ordinary infant who behaved coquettishly and sought closeness.
He even felt a subtle sense of rejection and detachment. After all, who knew when he might suddenly leave?
Thinking of the energy the couple had poured into him over more than a decade, Bai Ruofeng let out a breath of remorse from his chest. He broke the seal of the envelope, pulled out four sheets of paper, and laid them out one by one across the tabletop.
He read them in chronological order.
The handwriting on the first sheet was somewhat sloppy and flying, the continuous strokes making it almost difficult for Bai Ruofeng to recognize the original form of the characters. There were only two or three sentences, amounting to nothing more than where to collect money if funds ran low, who to ask for help if he got bullied, and a warning to stay away from the capital youths. The original phrasing was: “Those pretty boys are all full of dark schemes, you would be sold off and still have no clue.”
The handwriting on the second sheet was delicate and neat, matching the writing on the envelope’s red slip. It contained the most text of all four sheets, densely detailing what aspects of daily life he needed to pay attention to, and reminding him to make sure he returned home for the New Year at the end of the year.
It was currently only spring. Counting the months, Bai Ruofeng realized he had been in the capital for less than seven days, yet his mother had already started counting down the days for him to come home for New Year.
The third sheet clearly belonged to his eldest brother, containing more words than their father’s but fewer than their mother’s. The entire letter detailed what he had been up to recently, using that to admonish Bai Ruofeng not to slack off even in the capital.
Naturally, a sentence was tacked onto the very end that completely overturned all the previous diligent exhortations: “The capital is different from the Northern Frontier, my younger brother is all alone outside so please take good care of your health and do not overexert yourself. Training or whatever can be skipped if you don’t feel like it, and if you run into danger just run away. With your eldest brother around, no one will ever dare bully you in the future.”
Bai Ruofeng thought to himself: All alone outside? Where on earth did you put Ah Yuan and the others?
When he headed to the capital back then, the Marquis Manor had been worried sick and dispatched quite a few servants along with loads of cargo.
The final sheet looked like a ghost’s scribble, filled with messy patches of ink from top to bottom. No matter how Bai Ruofeng looked at it, straight, sideways, or upside down, he could not decipher what was written. With a blank look on his face, his gaze drifted to the smiling straw doll, and sudden understanding dawned on him.
Unfolding his younger sister’s letter to view it like a painting, he saw that the paper indeed contained no words, only a crudely sketched drawing with messy lines. The drawing depicted a head tied with two tufts of hair, a massive grin, and a gap in the wide-open mouth, she probably wanted to tell him that she was losing her baby teeth.
The moment he understood the letter, Bai Ruofeng could not help pressing his knuckle against his lower lip and laughing out loud with a light-hearted, bright expression, his eyebrows curving.
How could anyone be this funny, she had to write a whole letter just to announce losing a tooth.
He treasured the four letters, storing them away safely. Then, his thoughts drifted from his own parents and siblings to the Crown Prince. Compared to him, Fang Youcheng was truly rather unfortunate in certain respects.
With that thought, Bai Ruofeng stood up and headed out the door.
Ah Yuan had just finished putting things away and was teasing Old Yuan, provoking the old man into grabbing a broom and chasing after him while feigning anger and threatening to beat him, naturally, he would not dare hit him for real since Ah Yuan was distantly related to Old Yuan as a fellow clansman.
The moment Ah Yuan saw him coming out, he happily scurried over and asked repeatedly, “Where is Young Master heading this time?”
“To the Imperial Guardian Temple, to find that old bald donkey.”
Ah Yuan let out a cheer and excitedly led two horses out. “I am coming too, I am coming too!” he chimed eagerly.
Bai Ruofeng truly failed to understand his sudden burst of joy. “Why are you so excited? Didn’t you get enough of looking at horses by the foot of the mountain last time?”
“Of course not! The little stalls at the foot of Mount Jianjun are so welcoming, last time I tried samples of everything until my belly was round. And there was this pitiful little kid selling flowers, I specifically brought silver with me this time.” Ah Yuan chatted away as he led the horses out the door.
The two mounted their horses and galloped one after the other toward Mount Jianjun.
Leaving Ah Yuan and the horses at the foot of the mountain, Bai Ruofeng ascended alone.
Unlike his previous furious arrival, this time he entered through the front gate, following protocol by first informing the young novice monk at the entrance before being guided to Mingkong’s courtyard.
It was the same guest-reception parlor, the same low table, and the same pot of clear tea.
Mingkong sat composedly at the table. He was twenty years older than Bai Ruofeng, yet he looked remarkably youthful. The reckless and ignorant young monk of yesteryear had now become the abbot, wearing a calm and peaceful expression imbued with a touch of his former master’s broad-minded benevolence. If not for his bald head and the kasaya draped over his lean frame, anyone would have mistaken him for a young nobleman from some prestigious clan.
As soon as Bai Ruofeng arrived, he propped both arms on the low table, peered down at Master Mingkong, whose face betrayed neither sorrow nor joy, and bluntly launched into his inquiry: “Monk, I have come today to ask you another question.”
Mingkong twirled the prayer beads that had been restrung with a new cord, raised his eyes to look at him, and displayed an unexpectedly agreeable attitude. Master Mingkong said gently, “Benefactor Bai, please speak your mind.”
“You were all vague and ambiguous before, talking about some great calamity for Nanyao and claiming I was sent by the mandate of Heaven at an opportune time. As you wished, I am now the Crown Prince’s study companion. So let me ask you, is the great calamity you spoke of back then related to the Crown Prince?”
Mingkong’s hand came to a halt on the prayer beads, showing a trace of surprise. He looked at Bai Ruofeng. He had not revealed a single detail about Guanzhen, mentioning only a great calamity that day without any reference to the Crown Prince whatsoever. Why did Bai Ruofeng now speak as though he had come fully prepared to question him?
“Judging by your reaction, that means it is.” Bai Ruofeng gauged his astonishment. In Bai Ruofeng’s eyes, this emotional reaction was tantamount to a direct nod of admission. Tapping his fingertip against the tabletop, Bai Ruofeng mused, “Let me ask you another question: Is this calamity related to the Emperor and Empress?”
This time, Mingkong’s expression appeared much calmer.
Could it be that things were not as he had guessed? Bai Ruofeng found it increasingly difficult to fathom. Throughout history, struggles for the imperial throne involved the stability of the nation, and no matter how he looked at it, this ominous-sounding calamity ought to be tied to the throne. Yet Master Mingkong’s reaction suggested otherwise.
Since he had already come this far, he braced himself against the table, leaned in closer, and stated with absolute certainty, “Monk, I saw the Empress come looking for you that day. As the abbot of the Imperial Guardian Temple, you definitely know something. Tell me everything.”
Mingkong sighed, looking somewhat helpless, yet he did not refuse. “What does the Benefactor wish to know?”
“Yesterday, some scoundrel twisted words in front of the Empress, claiming the Crown Prince forcibly snatched a civilian woman, and the Empress dealt a harsh blow to the Crown Prince. I saw it with my own eyes.” Seeing that Mingkong was merely silently reciting Amitabha without showing much surprise, Bai Ruofeng grew even more certain that the man knew something, so he cut straight to the point: “The Crown Prince is not only the legitimate eldest son, but also the sole imperial prince. Why is he loathed and abandoned by both the Emperor and the Empress?”