The Yun household servants who had been waiting outside the Court of Judicial Review saw their marquis emerge from the prison, tears streaming down their faces. Although their marquis had quite a temper, was picky about food, and squandered money from time to time, they still hoped from the bottom of their hearts that their marquis would live to be a hundred years old with many children and much happiness.
In Chang’an city, among those who worked for others, there was no one who didn’t hope to go work for the Yun family. It was said their household ate three meals a day, the reward money given was generous, and as for beatings—only those who angered the old mistress would be beaten. It was said that when the maids in their household broke precious porcelain, they weren’t beaten but only had their foreheads tapped a few times by the housekeeper aunt, who would say they were “porcelain-clumsy, porcelain-clumsy” and told to remember better in the future. If this happened in another household, half their life would already be gone.
Having two days each month to return home to see one’s parents—this one condition alone made the servants and maids of other households so envious their eyes practically sparkled with stars. Working year after year as beasts of burden for wealthy families, unless parents stood guard outside the estate gates to catch a distant glimpse of their own child through the main doors, being able to openly return home was just a pipe dream.
Only the Yun family would use carriages to send servants and maids on their rotation days off back home for two days. Any maid in the Chang’an market who could go out strolling alone was definitely from the Yun family. Street constables and patrol officers would ask: “Are you from the Yun family?” As long as that maid produced a small token, the authorities wouldn’t bother her and would let her stroll freely. If she couldn’t produce the token, she’d be sent to the authorities as an escaped slave. After sixty lashes with the board, she’d most likely be sent to the mass grave mound to await death.
The servant, holding the marquis’s clothes, had been waiting outside the Court of Judicial Review since the ward gates opened. Old Zhuang had said the marquis’s clothes were given to that pitiful songstress as burial goods. Poor marquis didn’t even have an outer robe. The marquis was always so careless, strolling on the main street in just his undergarments. The head of the He household beside him didn’t even advise against it. The two men chatted and laughed, oblivious to others.
The servant felt his face had already flushed scarlet with embarrassment. What kind of marquis was this? He hurriedly helped the marquis put on his clothes. Even then, the marquis wasn’t satisfied, saying walking in undergarments was more convenient. For the sake of his own dignity, with great difficulty he got the marquis dressed, then hung up the gold fish pouch and the jade pendant. The marquis was always losing jade pendants—such precious things yet he didn’t take care of them. This was already the third one.
Yun Ye walked in front while the servant behind him continuously adjusted his belt. After finishing the adjustments, he hung his head and followed behind Yun Ye, afraid he might get lost.
They hadn’t walked far when the Yun family carriage came to pick them up. The old mistress, dressed in black clothes and skirt, leaning on the cane Yun Ye had made for her, stood by the roadside waiting for her grandson to arrive. Yun Ye and Old He knelt together by the roadside before the old mistress. The old mistress smiled and stroked the top of her grandson’s head, saying: “Good, good. There are no cowards in my Yun family. Good grandson, this matter was handled well. Let those black-hearted people see that the heavens above have eyes.”
Yun Ye and Old He helped the old mistress into the carriage. Old He clasped his hands in farewell and went off to handle his business.
Not only was grandmother in the carriage, but Xinyue was there too. The old mistress really wanted to slap her grandson, but though she raised her hand, she only gently stroked Yun Ye’s head and sighed, saying to him: “When we get home, grandmother will arrange your marriage to Xinyue. This matter should be done sooner rather than later.”
“Grandmother, grandson’s marriage is naturally for you to decide. But this time in competing with the Dou family, grandson couldn’t avoid it and didn’t want to avoid it. If grandson had evaded this time, it’s certain that in the future whenever grandson encountered powerful enemies, he would choose to avoid them. Sometimes, surrender becomes a habit—a habit we slowly cultivate ourselves. If there were no academy, grandson would have retreated, would have pretended not to see, would have escaped. Escaping is simple—just turn your head away.”
“Now grandson has only one thought: since I don’t have the ability to make everyone in the world happy, then I’ll work hard to make the people around me happy. Let’s return to Yushan. I only want to return to Yushan, to return home. Whatever you tell me to do—marry if you say marry, do whatever you say do—anyway, grandson has done everything he could do.”
Yun Ye lay in the carriage and threw a flirtatious glance at Xinyue. Xinyue hurriedly covered her red and swollen eyes. The old mistress swatted Yun Ye’s head again.
Zhangsun was living quite comfortably at the academy. She hadn’t moved into the large room the academy had specially prepared for her, but chose instead to stay in Li Tai’s room. Li Tai had moved to share quarters with Li Ke. For this, Li Tai was extremely excited—for the first time since becoming aware, he was so close to his own mother.
Zhangsun was also pregnant. She kept only one personal palace maid to attend her. Li Tai always thought that the palace maid who had served his mother for decades was clumsy, didn’t know how to light the stove, didn’t know how to brew tea, and even small tasks like fetching meals were done unsatisfactorily. He believed he was rather clever and could take good care of his mother, so he completed all the trivial tasks himself.
Before dawn, he would kick Li Ke awake. The two brothers would carry water buckets to the great waterfall to fetch water. The road was far, but Li Tai didn’t care. After fetching water from below the waterfall, the brothers would carry it back. On the winding mountain path, the two walked with great difficulty. Zhangsun’s daily water consumption was quite large.
After carrying water for several days, Li Ke asked Li Tai: “Qing Que, don’t we usually drink water from the river in front of the academy? Why do we now run all the way to fetch water from below the waterfall? What’s the difference?”
“The water at the gate is dirty,” Li Tai’s speech was always concise and to the point.
“It’s very clean. Besides, the water in front of the academy flows down from the waterfall. What’s the difference?” Li Ke thought Li Tai was being unreasonable.
“In the water at the gate, people wash their feet and vegetables. Bamboo rafts float back and forth on the water surface. Some thoughtless people even urinate in the water. It’s one thing for us to drink such water, but how can we give it to Mother Empress?”
Li Ke felt a wave of nausea. Thinking that he had drunk such dirty water for a full year, he complained to Li Tai: “You knew this—why didn’t you tell me?”
“I originally planned to tell you when leaving the academy. These past few days, seeing you help me carry water, I told you. You should thank me.” Li Tai carefully steadied himself, not letting water spill from the wooden bucket.
Every day at sunrise, Zhangsun would rise, supporting her belly, and watch from afar as the academy students did their morning exercises. Even Master Li Gang, over seventy years old, performed them earnestly and meticulously. Though the formation was of varying heights, it was perfectly aligned in rows and columns. Following the cadence called out by Liu Xian’s mouth, their movements were uniform and neat—quite impressive to watch. Zhangsun didn’t see Li Tai among the crowd, nor did she see Li Ke. Just as she was about to inquire, she saw Li Tai and Li Ke carrying a large bucket of water entering through the academy gate, swaying back and forth yet with steady footsteps, as if it weren’t difficult at all.
Watching them laboriously pour the large bucket of water into the water vat, no one in the academy came forward to help. Those guards only stood beside them without any intention of helping. Why was this?
Li Tai wiped away his sweat and came forward with Li Ke to pay respects to their mother. Seeing the sweat covering their heads, Zhangsun felt somewhat distressed. She took out her handkerchief to wipe the sweat from their foreheads and asked with concern: “Qing Que, Ah Ke, must you carry water every day? Why is this?”
“In reply to Mother Empress, Qing Que believes the water in the river at the gate is unclean, so he asked this child to carry clean water with him for Mother to use.” According to Li family upbringing, the elder speaks while the younger remains silent.
Zhangsun smiled and said: “The river water at the gate is running water—how could it be unclean? Tomorrow, don’t go fetch water from far away. Your studies are more important.”
“Since Mother has come to this child’s place, naturally this child will take care of you. You still carry in your womb this child’s unborn younger siblings, so naturally everything must be of the best quality—we dare not be careless.” Hearing Li Tai speak like a little adult, Zhangsun couldn’t help but smile.
The personal palace maid interjected: “Your Majesty, you still don’t know—these past few days, this servant has received no shortage of scoldings from Prince Wei. One moment he says this servant doesn’t know how to light the stove, the next moment he says this servant doesn’t know how to brew tea. Even when fetching meals from the dining hall, Prince Wei says this servant doesn’t understand food pairing. Alas, this servant is truly becoming more and more useless.”
She had originally been Zhangsun’s maid before marriage. Later, when Zhangsun married Li’er, she married over together with her. It was just that her appearance was ordinary and she couldn’t win Li’er’s favor, so she gave up on that notion and devoted herself wholeheartedly to serving Zhangsun. Her position in the palace was special. Finding the situation amusing, she came forward to tease Li Tai a bit.
Li Tai smiled but said nothing. He simply picked up pine cones by the wall, lit the small stove, and boiled a pot of water, preparing to brew tea for Zhangsun. Zhangsun had always had the habit of drinking tea. What she used to drink was decocted tea with many kinds of seasonings added. Li Tai had specifically asked Sun Simiao, who had just returned, and learned that decocted tea had no benefits whatsoever for pregnant women. So he specially obtained flower tea from the Yun family. Though it still had a bit of tea flavor, it was much milder than decocted tea.
Li Ke went to their brothers’ small dining hall and brought back a food box. Opening the lid, inside were several steaming buns, a bowl of porridge, a small dish of pickled vegetables, and several plump pickled beans, which he placed on the table and invited Zhangsun to eat.
Zhangsun didn’t call the two brothers to eat together—this was imperial family protocol. Seeing a small notch on the bun, she smiled knowingly, picked up a bun and took a bite. The leek and egg filling was exceptionally fresh and delicious. The imperial palace had no such delicacies. She originally didn’t like greasy food, but unfortunately Li’er’s entire family was of barbarian descent, and even her Zhangsun family carried barbarian blood. Naturally the diet was mainly large portions of fish and meat, and daily beverages were mostly dairy products. Today, first tasting the academy’s food, she found it very much to her taste. The thick millet porridge—one mouthful went down warming and nourishing. The pickled vegetables were also good, with just the right saltiness. The plump vegetable beans were soft, tender, and sweet. Before she realized it, she had eaten the entire dish of buns clean.
Seeing his mother enjoyed the academy’s food, Li Tai wondered: now that Yun Ye had been released from prison, shouldn’t he prepare a delicious meal for mother? He had never worried about Yun Ye, nor did he believe that Yun Ye sitting in prison meant he would suffer misfortune. He knew his father emperor wouldn’t do anything to Yun Ye. Imprisonment was imprisonment, misfortune was misfortune. Who said that sitting in prison necessarily meant suffering misfortune? At least he hadn’t discovered any inevitable connection between these two things.