Early the next morning, the snow had already stopped. With the Marchioness about to go out, carriages, horses, and two rows of guards were already prepared before the main gates of the Marquis’s manor. At the very front was a carriage made of golden nanmu wood, intended for the Marchioness to ride in, its four corners hung with gilded bronze bells and its harnesses fully inlaid with silver ornaments. The two thick wooden carriages behind it were meant for transporting goods.
At that time, Xue Ding was directing the servants to load the precious wooden chests onto the rear carriage. Finishing a round of work, he glanced at the three carriage drivers sitting on the front board of the carriage: “Hey, wasn’t Tian Wu scheduled for today? Why hasn’t he come?”
“Reporting to the steward, Elder Brother Tian ate something bad, had diarrhea all night, and didn’t come this morning, so he asked Huai’en to take his place.”
Xue Ding glanced at Huai’en, and just as he was about to say something, his sharp eyes caught sight of a crowd of maidservants surrounding the Marchioness as she came out, so he hurried forward to greet her.
As for Jiang Lan, from afar she also caught sight of the carriage driver on the last carriage, who looked quite honest. Although she felt somewhat impatient with him, recalling the instructions given by the Marquis, she said nothing and let the maidservants support her into the carriage.
……
Yesterday, after General Dingguo arrived in the capital, he first entered the palace to have an audience with the Sovereign. Being young, capable, and a new favorite in the court, everyone guessed that the Sovereign had summoned him back at this juncture precisely to maintain stability within the capital. Consequently, many high-ranking officials and nobles came to pay formal visits today.
Upon returning from Grand Madam Qi’s residence, Jiang Lan was exceedingly pleased. That very evening, she chatted with her husband about this matter.
When speaking of Grand Madam Qi’s son, she was full of unreserved praise: “Having not seen him for so many years, I could barely recognize him. The boy has grown taller and is already able to fight in battles and achieve military merits. Although the winds of the northern frontier have tanned his skin dark, it makes him look all the more valiant and martial, showing the exact demeanor his father had back then……”
The Marquis of Wu’an was reading a book beside the table. Hearing this, he raised his gaze to look at his wife and remarked indifferently, “Haven’t you ever faced the winds of the northern frontier? Your own husband also fought his way up from the battlefield; when have you ever praised him like this? Hearing you shower him with such praise makes it sound almost as if you’ve taken a fancy to this General Dingguo.”
“And what if I have taken a fancy to him?”
Jiang Lan caught a hint of slight jealousy, but unbothered, she smiled and walked to Helan Chang’s side. “The boy is seventeen this year, exactly the same age as Yu’er. Do you think he and our Yu’er are a good match?”
“Oh……”
The Marquis of Wu’an put down his book and actually pondered it seriously. “A match they certainly are; their family has generations of military merit, and they are our social equals. I know you are close with the Qi family and hope to form a marital alliance in the future, but Yu’er was married before, after all, and we haven’t mentioned that to outsiders yet.”
“I know, and I haven’t brought it up either; I was merely mentioning it to you first.” She genuinely wanted Yu’er to marry well; as parents, they always had to walk a step ahead, as they couldn’t accompany their daughter for a lifetime. In her heart, she even wanted Yu’er to make a better match than Yan’er; after all, she truly owed this child far too much.
……
A winter wind blew across Bianjing, covering the city in flying snow. Amidst the vast expanse of heavy snow, the year-end and the Lunar New Year arrived.
During last year’s New Year, they had eaten inside a crude, low thatched hut, using a small, rustic wooden table with two catties of pork. Shen Mingyu meticulously figured out how to stir-fry it—dishes like shredded pork with bamboo shoots or mu-shu pork. The young maiden’s culinary techniques were exquisite and deft, always managing to turn ingredients into dishes of various styles, complete in color, aroma, and flavor. They listened to the firecrackers outside the house, and thus spent New Year’s Eve in such an ordinary, peaceful way.
As for this year’s New Year’s Eve, that former thatched hut stood completely empty without a single soul. The north wind swept across the dilapidated small courtyard, leaving behind nothing but a blanket of goose-feather snow.
At that time, the Marquis’s manor was brightly lit with festive lanterns, laying out singing and dancing banquets, serving lavish meat dishes and golden flagons of fine wine.
On this day, even the servants were granted leisure. Some maidservants pasted up spring couplets, others cut paper silhouettes while chatting, or gathered in groups of twos and threes to drink Tusu wine, while the pages engaged in finger-guessing games and gambling. Before long, Steward Xue and the others brought dishes from the Pan Family Restaurant to distribute among them. He also announced that the Marchioness was bestowing a special favor by giving everyone an extra three months’ wages as New Year’s money. All the servants were overjoyed, and the entire Marquis’s manor was filled with a celebratory atmosphere.
“Whoa—”
At midnight during the hour of rat, a horse’s neigh pierced through the night of New Year’s Eve.
Before the majestic Tongtian Gate, the general guarding the city took one look at the waist-token presented by the horseman and immediately ordered the guards to open the city gates, causing every soldier to drop to their knees and bow low. Amidst flying dust, a dark silhouette flashed past like lightning, galloping on horseback toward the imperial city.
At that moment, inside the Chongyuan Hall of the Great Inner Palace, the dragon curtains of the Emperor’s bedchamber hung halfway down.
Head Eunuch Li Shunzhi entered the hall anxiously, kneeling before the dragon couch to whisper, “Your Majesty, the person has arrived, the person has finally arrived…….”
The person on the couch was half-asleep, but upon hearing this commotion, his eyes suddenly widened as he stretched out a half-wasted, withered hand: “Proclaim him, quickly proclaim him!”
Before long, the leader dismounted his armor, brought his men into the hall, and knelt in obeisance: “Your Majesty, this subject Pang Congzhi has not failed the sacred trust, and has finally brought back His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!”
The Emperor struggled to prop himself up, lifting the dragon curtains with trembling hands. A pair of turbid eyes inspected the person kneeling on the ground.
That person had handsome, clear-cut features; although kneeling, he kept his gaze lowered, neither servile nor overbearing, bearing a striking resemblance to his wife. He coughed heavily several times, frightening Li Shunzhi into hastily handing over water and gently stroking the Emperor’s back. After a long while, the Emperor finally eased from the fit and rasped with an aged voice: “These years, you’ve suffered. You’ve truly suffered……”
The person kneeling on the ground said nothing.
The hall fell into a moment of complete silence. Even though numerous people were kneeling, none dared to make a sound, holding their breath in unison. The Emperor gazed up at the pitch-black rafters, murmuring after a long while: “Five years ago, I was already searching for you, secretly dispatching many, many people…… And just last year, you were found. Found at last……”
“Yet the Marquis of Wu’an claimed you were unwilling to return. Though I didn’t understand, I still thought—forget it, forget it…… For so many years, you and I, father and son, have been separated for so many years, and you also have your own life to live. You and your Empress mother always share the same disposition……” At this point, the Emperor coughed heavily several times again, spreading his trembling hands to reveal a startling patch of blood.
Terrified, Li Shunzhi hurriedly called for the imperial physicians. Even Pang Congzhi anxiously knelt forward to steady the Sovereign’s hands. Everyone was panicked and terrified, except for the young man kneeling in the center of the side hall, who remained unmoving like a rock.
The Emperor gazed at him a few more times with his turbid eyes, and finally struggled to lie back down on the dragon couch, murmuring: “The Xu family who cared for you has performed a great service; I will posthumously confer honors upon her name and reward her surviving clansmen. Pang Congzhi, Pang Congzhi…… I entrust the Crown Prince to you. You must assist him well, and then I will not have lived in vain, nor failed—failed the Empress……”
When Pei Shumin stepped out of the Kaiyuan Hall, it was still pitch-black night.
Under the firmament, a flurry of snow was falling, and imperial physicians carrying medicine chests rushed urgently into the hall.
He stood within the vast, snow-drifting courtyard, gazing at the towering, soaring eaves on all sides, his deep, dark eyes cold, calm, and detached. He hadn’t tasted much of the flavor of family reunion; it was even flat and devoid of ripples, as if witnessing a person’s life and death was nothing more than that. He suddenly thought of that vain and covetous woman—when she recognized her family, was she also like this? Since it was like this, why return at all? Why abandon everything just to go back?
Three months later, in the twenty-first year of Kangqi, the Emperor—who had once personally led an expedition to the northern frontiers, later been captured by the Di and Rong tribes without a trace, and then broken through the encirclement to return five years ago—passed away from illness in the Kaiyuan Hall.
His offspring had all been slaughtered by rebellious troops over a dozen years prior, leaving him truly isolated and companionless. Yet during his final days, he finally saw his son—the son born of his legal wife. Over those short three months, he had people teach him everything a crown prince needed to learn over the past decade and more, fortunately aided by his innate intelligence and quick comprehension. Before his dying breath, he summoned his closest ministers and officials, striving to pave a much wider path for his son.
On the following day, the new Emperor ascended the throne in the Daqing Hall, receiving the homage of all civil and military officials, with the reign title changed to Changping.