Massive crossbow bolts were driven into the cliff by eight-ox crossbows. Brave warriors carried ropes and climbed straight up along the cliff face. Unfortunately, the reason Eagle’s Beak Rock was called Eagle’s Beak Rock was because there was a huge protruding section at the top. The warriors grabbing the crossbow bolts could only reach the bottom of the protruding part. Wanting to climb up the cliff was truly an extravagant hope. The range of the eight-ox crossbows was insufficient to reach the cliff top. This difficulty immediately caused the academy’s teachers and students to despair.
Fortunately, Li Tai was there. A very large Kongming lantern was raised up, pulling a thin rope below. Watching the Kongming lantern rise up the cliff, Yun Ye wasn’t the least bit surprised. The guard captain added a rope to his meteor hammer, swung it in a full circle and flung it out. The hammer head wrapped around the rope beneath the Kongming lantern, and everyone joined forces to pull the Kongming lantern up.
A finger-thick rope couldn’t be used to set up a cable system to send people down. Yun Ye no longer held any hope for these people’s intelligence. He directed everyone to pull up the rope. When the rope was pulled to its end, they discovered a thicker rope was tied below. For a hundred-zhang-high cliff, one coil of rope weighed a full five hundred pounds. Fortunately, the academy had originally prepared several coils of long rope to survey the back mountain, otherwise finding such long rope would have been nearly impossible.
Huge iron rings were hammered into the rock by guards with iron hammers. Two long ropes—one as the load-bearing rope, one as a safety rope. Looking at the ropes pulled taut at an angle, Empress Zhangsun asked Yun Ye: “Why is this?”
“This is to ensure everyone’s safety. Even if the basket carrying people falls, the other safety rope will also let people slide down along the slope. You see they’ve piled lots of rice straw there just in case.”
Empress Zhangsun asked no more questions. The guard captain ordered two light-bodied guards to take the lead. The two sat in the bamboo basket, hung their waist belts on the other rope, rang the bell, and the bamboo basket slowly descended. Before long, both landed safely.
After the bamboo basket was pulled back up, Yun Ye invited Empress Zhangsun to sit in it, and ordered an agile female guard to accompany her. Watching the basket slowly descend, Yun Ye’s heart was about to leap out. All guards faced outward in strict battle array. If any living thing appeared, Yun Ye’s order was to kill without question.
Finally waiting until Empress Zhangsun landed safely, everyone felt their souls had returned to their bodies. They dared not imagine what kind of madness Li Er would fly into if anything happened to Empress Zhangsun. They estimated that all the people here, large and small, from Hou Shi to Yun Ye, absolutely not one could escape.
The guard captain immediately knelt on one knee before Yun Ye in obeisance, and the others did the same. Even Hou Shi curtsied. Yun Ye accepted with a smile. When the basket came up, he had Hou Shi and the palace maids go first.
The winch at the cliff bottom continuously operated, from early morning until afternoon. At this time only Yun Ye, Liu Jinbao, and some other guards remained on the cliff. Now everyone was talking and laughing, and had an appetite. They ate the last of the food. Yun Ye cheerfully set the warm pavilion ablaze with a fire, then was first to sit in the basket with Liu Jinbao and swoosh down the cliff.
The last person to come down was the guard captain. After counting heads, Liu Jinbao lit the cable system on fire. The rope was smeared with tallow. Two bright flames quickly drilled up from the cliff bottom into the clouds. At this time, no matter how capable the people above were, they couldn’t come down.
Empress Zhangsun’s imperial carriage had been stopped at the cliff bottom all along. Seeing that everyone had landed safely, only then did she set off to return to the palace, because of her willfulness, the Emperor ordered her to return to the palace immediately.
Knowing she would definitely be punished upon return, everyone was still very happy. Li Chengqian, Li Tai, and Li Ke all came. Hearing that the Empress had landed safely, the Emperor who had been preparing to come didn’t come after all, only ordering the Empress to return to the palace.
“Lord Yun, how is the cable system this old man made?” Gongshu Mu couldn’t wait to jump out and claim credit. Yun Ye rolled his eyes and said: “So-so. Sitting on it wasn’t comfortable at all. This Marquis originally planned to sing a song loudly on the cable, but ended up being so scared I couldn’t make a sound. At least I came down alive.”
One sentence drew hearty laughter from everyone. Old Jiang drilled out of the crowd and said: “My lord, this old man personally went to look—the heavy snow buried a full dozen li. The snow surface is soft, people can’t walk on it. Even using what my lord said about tying pot lids to feet won’t work. On flat ground it’s still okay, but on mountain paths it won’t work. One careless step and you’ll fall off a cliff. The previous railings and stone barriers are all covered tightly by heavy snow. The mountain is terribly cold—it probably won’t melt until spring.”
Hearing Old Jiang’s words, Yun Ye immediately took off his soft armor. Ever since that one dangerous incident, this suit of soft armor hadn’t left his body. Taking off the soft armor, his whole body felt refreshed. He jumped twice in the snow, feeling an unprecedented lightness.
On the road home, Wu She looked around, then beckoned with his hand. Suddenly a large snow mound rose up in the snow. Gou Zi, in white fur clothing, drilled out of the snow, ran a few steps, caught up with the carriage, ducked down and crawled in.
“No abnormalities discovered, no one tailing us.” After speaking to Yun Ye and Wu She, he grabbed the wine flask and took a big gulp. Being buried in the snow truly wasn’t very pleasant to endure.
Near the end of the year, it was originally the time when the theatrical troupe’s business was most prosperous, but the theatrical troupe that Li Huairen had secretly been watching had fallen apart. After inquiring, they learned the troupe master had disappeared. Without their backer, everyone could only disperse and each seek their own living. Hearing this news, Yun Ye happily drank a large pot of liquor and got drunk at home. The death-demanding demon had finally been trapped on the mountaintop.
Hunters said there were ghosts on Yushan’s mountaintop, with shrill wailing sounds often coming out…
The twenty-third day of the twelfth month—the Yun residence was already immersed in the rich New Year atmosphere. The fat pigs that had been bought were slaughtered one by one. Over a dozen large pots were lined up in a row. Today the residence was slaughtering livestock—chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep all needed to be finished slaughtering today. After the twenty-third, no more killing would be done.
The steward herded over flocks of chickens and ducks. As soon as servants caught one, they didn’t even look—they twisted the head a couple times and casually threw it into the large pot to scald off feathers. When killing chickens and ducks, they insisted on not seeing blood. Although Yun Ye was very unaccustomed to it, life wasn’t lived by him alone, so he let it be.
Yun Ye took Yun Mu and Yun Baobao to deliver New Year goods to the palace. This was the Yun family’s annual custom. Because Empress Zhangsun was Yun Ye’s teacher, proper etiquette had to be observed. This year going to the palace also included Shishi, Xiao Wu, and Di Renjie—the three of them were going to kowtow to Empress Zhangsun. The generation of grand-disciples—Empress Zhangsun had long wanted to examine them.
Just entering the palace, Shishi carrying gifts went to Yang Fei’s residence. Empress Zhangsun also didn’t require Shishi to necessarily pay her respects. Li An grinned as he came over, saluted Yun Ye, then eagerly took Shishi’s bundle. The two went to the rear palace talking and laughing.
“Sister Shishi really—marrying a good-for-nothing prince yet so happy about it. She carefully knitted a beautiful sweater. I wanted some but she wouldn’t give any, saying it was to give to Yang Fei. There’s also a very beautiful scarf with such a large peony pattern. I don’t know how Sister Shishi knitted it. She wouldn’t even let me borrow it to show off—such a stingy look.”
Xiao Wu watched Shishi and Li An with dissatisfaction, always feeling the two of them didn’t match. Shishi was gentle, her needlework was good, her cooking was good—especially the vegetarian buns she wrapped tasted the best. Even more rare was a full set of good martial skills. She could fly up a wall over a zhang high just by stepping on the wall—truly walking on walls. Plus she was beautiful—more than sufficient to match that toad-like Li An.
However, Li An also knew his limits. Ever since Yun Ye betrothed Shishi to Li An, this fellow’s disgusting faults disappeared in an instant. Previously they’d heard he and Li You when not in class would go to brothels or act tyrannically in Chang’an City, but now he was simply a model among princes, even walking properly and orderly. Previously when he shook his head and swayed his waist, anyone who saw him wanted to hit him. He and Li Ke were blood brothers, but not a trace of royal elegance could be found on him.
The Yun family sent many gifts into the imperial palace. They had to start by sending to Li Yuan. He now occupied the entire Taiji Palace, lording it over people in this great hall. Hearing Yun Ye had come, he happily had the inner attendants welcome him in. Seeing Yun Ye bringing four children, each holding a box, he walked down from the dragon throne full of interest and personally opened the boxes. The more he looked, the more pleased he became.
The box Xiao Wu held contained a very large peach—a fresh peach weighing a full pound, beautifully red and bright. Even the fuzz on it hadn’t been washed off. Li Yuan took the box and deeply smelled it, saying to Yun Ye: “Young fellow, you’re thoughtful. Finding this peach in the dead of winter wasn’t easy. This old man accepts the sentiment.”
He removed a bright pearl from his body and placed it in Xiao Wu’s already outstretched little hand. This was an annual program. The mischievous greedy look made Li Yuan laugh heartily again. Patting Xiao Wu’s hair, he said: “If you want good gifts, come again next year.”
Yun Mu held a box and saw Li Yuan busy talking with Xiao Wu and not paying attention to her, so she kept rubbing the box against him. Li Yuan happily opened Xiao Mu’s little box and saw it contained a glass box. Not understanding the principle, he only saw Yun Ye take the box and pull out a key, turning it several times in a hole. Then they heard tinkling and clanging sounds coming from inside the glass box.
“Grand Emperor, please discern—this young one calls this thing a music box. The iron cylinder inside has small protrusions. The musical scales are different. As long as the spring strikes the protruding tone posts and the speed is controlled well, it will automatically play. Unfortunately, this young one doesn’t understand music. The Grand Emperor is a great master of it. In your leisure time, you might adjust it and see if you can play even more wonderful music.”
“Is this true?” Li Yuan’s interest was immediately piqued. Opening the box lid, he indeed saw a spring inside striking the tone posts. Overjoyed, he immediately prepared to study it.
Seeing she had no gift, Yun Mu pouted and was about to cry. Li Yuan quickly felt in his bosom and pulled out a very large gold medallion to hang around Yun Mu’s neck, which made her break into a smile through her tears.
The gifts the boys held were very ordinary—a hundred-blessing robe that Grandmother Yun personally embroidered, and a longevity turtle picture that Yun Ye personally painted. Although these were the formal gifts, Li Yuan just liked the peach and music box. He didn’t value the formal gifts much, casually rewarding Yun Baobao and Di Renjie each with a jade pendant and sending them off.
After delivering gifts around the imperial palace, by evening they were sent out of the palace by Li Tai and Li An. Li An looked forward to the coming of the Lantern Festival so he could admire the moon together with Shishi. Li Tai held deep resentment toward Yun Ye—such a good thing as the music box, yet he had no share.