Ever since Qiao Beiji had gone to the frontier, Shang Yinyu’s martial lesson time had been greatly shortened. Every day, besides holding court and reading memorials, there were the secret memorials sent from the frontier.
Most of these secret memorials were sent by the shadow guards he had placed at Qiao Beiji’s side, recording Qiao Beiji’s daily life, the frontier’s construction, and every battle.
After finishing the secret memorials, Shang Yinyu habitually spread out paper and picked up his brush, wanting to write to Qiao Beiji.
The brush was lifted, but did not come down for a long time.
What should he… write?
In the past, when Qiao Beiji went to the army, Shang Yinyu had often written to him too.
At that time there was no need to think about anything. There were many things in his heart he wanted to share with the other, and he wanted to know whether the other was doing well, and words would come naturally as soon as he lifted the brush.
He talked about annoying court officials, about whether the begonias at Huaqing Hall had bloomed or fallen, asked about the frontier weather, whether it was cold or hot, whether the food suited his taste, asked about local customs… and finally said a word of longing.
Whatever he wrote, Qiao Beiji would reply seriously, but what he replied always made Shang Yinyu feel he was reading a military report rather than a letter between intimates.
If Shang Yinyu asked whether he had eaten well and slept well, Qiao Beiji’s reply would surely be about the grain and supplies of the whole army, and then about how the frontier commoners lived, more detailed than the memorials submitted by local officers.
Shang Yinyu held the brush. He felt he should not write about the trivia of his own life, and with so many of his people around Qiao Beiji, the other’s daily doings had long since been presented on his desk, so there was no need to ask the other again.
What to write?
Shang Yinyu thought for a long time and thought of Qiao Beiji’s skin hunger.
This was an extremely secret physical condition. Even with only his people around Qiao Beiji, it was hard for them to tell how the illness was.
The brush tip landed on the paper, and Shang Yinyu wrote slowly. He asked Qiao Beiji whether he still craved embraces and touch, and asked about Qiao Beiji’s psychological and physical condition.
After writing the letter, Shang Yinyu sealed it with practiced ease and handed it to the shadow guard waiting to one side, saying: “Disguise this letter as a family letter and send it. Watch it the whole way. It must be delivered into Staff General Qiao’s hands.”
“Yes.”
Qiao Beiji now had almost no contact with the shadow guards, and Shang Yinyu was using this chance to gradually take back Qiao Beiji’s authority among the shadow guards.
When Qiao Beiji returned, he would be the Guardian General and have no more connection to the shadow guards.
Oh, and there was one more thing unresolved.
The woman Qiao Beiji looked after, in the Cold Palace, was still in the palace.
I took Qiao Beiji’s shadow guard authority, so that Qiao Beiji, once a great general, could not come and go from the palace freely, but the woman he cared about was still in the palace. What if Qiao Beiji, in anger, broke through the palace gates?
Shang Yinyu was somewhat troubled for a moment. He wanted to go first and see the woman Qiao Beiji looked after.
“Prepare the carriage to Shou’an Palace,” Shang Yinyu said to the chief eunuch An Dezhong.
“Yes.”
Shou’an Palace was also called the Cold Palace, the residence of the Empress Dowager and the late emperor’s many consorts living as widows. Those living inside were of course not only the Empress Dowager and dowager consorts but also many palace maids and female officials who served them.
Before his rebirth Shang Yinyu had investigated the relationship between Qiao Beiji and that woman.
The woman was the granddaughter of Old General Qiao, and Qiao Beiji was a disciple Old General Qiao had brought up.
One was in the inner courtyard, the other followed to the front line from childhood. Although he did not know how much they had interacted day to day, Shang Yinyu could fully imagine a childhood-sweethearts story with vows as firm as mountains and seas.
The old general had fought all his life and died on the battlefield.
The Qiao family had few people to begin with, and the old general’s several sons had all died young, so when the old general passed, only a few old, weak, women and children were left in the family.
The Qiao family’s eldest daughter-in-law was a sickly one, and after the old general died she sent her daughter into the palace, entrusting her to Noble Consort Lin, her close friend from girlhood, and not long after she passed too.
Qiao Beiji came to the Crown Prince’s Eastern Palace, which was recruiting martial artists, after the Qiao granddaughter entered the palace, and was chosen by Shang Yinyu and became a guard.
“Your Majesty, Shou’an Palace has arrived.”
An Dezhong’s voice came. Shang Yinyu stopped thinking, got down from the imperial carriage, and entered Shou’an Palace.
Shang Yinyu did not let the attendants follow and went alone to the Empress Dowager’s hall.
Shou’an Palace was not empty, but most of the people serving there were old hands from the late emperor’s time, and with age, their walking and handling of things all carried a slow, easy gentleness.
“Meow, meow.” A big cat dashed out of the hall and stopped just in front of Shang Yinyu.
“Twenty,” Shang Yinyu called.
“Meow~” The big cat cried happily, circled around Shang Yinyu, and tilted its head up at his side to rub against his leg.
Shang Yinyu took Twenty into the hall and ran into the Empress Dowager, who was coming out supported by attendants.
The Empress Dowager wore a bright, gorgeous dress, and her makeup was also extremely vivid. If not for the authority settled by long years in high position in her eyes and brows, which resembled Shang Yinyu’s, she would really have looked like an unmarried young girl.
The Empress Dowager first looked at the big white cat clinging to Shang Yinyu’s leg, then at Shang Yinyu, and said: “Today is neither New Year nor a festival. How does Your Majesty have time to come to my place?”
Shang Yinyu thought the Empress Dowager’s reaction rather odd. In the palace it was widely said that he and the Empress Dowager did not get along, but actually he had no grudge against her. The Empress Dowager simply disliked the late emperor and, by extension, rejected Shang Yinyu along with the late emperor.
Shang Yinyu was a transmigrator, and although his body had been a small child, he already had an independent personality and would not be upset or make a fuss for lack of a mother’s love.
When the late emperor was alive, the two lived in a way where well water did not interfere with river water, and when Shang Yinyu was occasionally ganged up on by other princes, he did not go to the Empress Dowager for help.
If some of the methods had not been aimed at his life, he would not even have bothered with a group of children.
All the probing and scheming in the palace he took in full, and then returned everything himself.
Of the princes, some died and some were crippled, and after the late emperor’s passing, Shang Yinyu took the throne.
After these years together, his relationship with the Empress Dowager had eased somewhat. It could not be called a kind mother and filial son, but eating a meal sitting together was no problem.
Why, today when he came, did the Empress Dowager find Shang Yinyu’s eyes not eyes and his nose not nose?
“I came today because I have a matter to ask of Mother.”
“Is there something Your Majesty cannot do that needs me to step forward?” Although the Empress Dowager was speaking to Shang Yinyu, her gaze moved to the big cat circling Shang Yinyu and sweeping its tail across Shang Yinyu’s hand.
Shang Yinyu thought the Empress Dowager felt it rude to have a pet clinging to him during a conversation, and looked at the big cat at his feet and said: “Twenty, sit.”
“Meow.” The big cat very cooperatively lowered its tail and crouched at Shang Yinyu’s feet.
The Empress Dowager instantly blew up. “Qianqiu Xue! Come to me.”
The big cat looked at the Empress Dowager, then at Shang Yinyu beside it, and silently crouched without moving.
The Empress Dowager glared at Shang Yinyu. “What do you want me to do?”
Shang Yinyu looked at the Empress Dowager and the big cat at his feet and said with a smile: “Dowager Consort Lin has a female official surnamed Qiao at her side. Could Mother help me ask whether she has any intention of leaving the palace?”
“Just that? Your Majesty could have had An Dezhong say a word. Why make the trip yourself?”
As she spoke, the Empress Dowager raised her chin slightly, and the palace maid supporting her stepped forward, picked up the big cat at Shang Yinyu’s feet, and brought it, half carried and half shouldered, to the Empress Dowager’s side.
“Meow~” The big cat turned and cried to Shang Yinyu.
“Your Majesty, this cat of mine is called Qianqiu Xue, not any Twenty of yours. If you lose a cat, don’t come to my palace.”
Shang Yinyu: “I don’t keep cats.” I only pet other people’s.
·
“Staff General Qiao! A letter from your family.” The officer in charge of delivering letters and supplies entered the army tent and handed a sealed letter to Qiao Beiji.
What family did he have?
Qiao Beiji looked at the letter in his hand.
Before he had even made out the handwriting on the envelope, Qiao Beiji first smelled a familiar scent of ink: the set of five-colored ink from His Majesty’s study.
Qiao Beiji’s eyes lit up. This was surely a further arrangement from Master.
There were others in the army tent, so Qiao Beiji could not open and read the letter; instead he carefully tucked it inside his clothes.
A martial graduate of the same year as Qiao Beiji had just finished writing a military affairs report. Looking up and seeing Qiao Beiji carefully put the letter away, he said with a smile:
“Staff General Qiao, a family letter arrives and you don’t read it but put it away so carefully. Could it be…”
Qiao Beiji’s heart tightened, and he looked sharply at the martial artist across from him. His fingers quickly and secretly took three sugar beans from the pocket at his waist, exactly matching the three people in the tent besides himself.
If the other had seen through anything, it would surely affect the completion of the mission His Majesty had assigned, and he could only silence them first.
“Could it be… this is a love letter written by your wife or lover?”
The martial artist gave Qiao Beiji a “I understand” smile.