In the summer of the twenty-seventh year of the Jian’yuan era of the Great Daqi, Empress Dowager Gao passed away from illness in Baoci Palace at the age of seventy-five.
During her lifetime, Empress Dowager Gao was known for her kindness and benevolence. Having dwelt deep within the inner palace for twenty-seven years without ever interfering in politics, the only imperial decree she ever issued was on her deathbed, requesting that His Majesty proclaim throughout the realm that there need not be a grand state funeral, and that whether officials or commoners, all should remove their mourning garments after three days, with marriages, celebrations, and festivities to resume as usual thereafter.
When the edict was issued, all of Bianjing mourned in grief. Merchants in the city closed their shops, and commoners knelt in the streets and alleyways, weeping bitterly. Court officials voluntarily requested to observe mourning for thirty-six days to express their sorrow.
After lying in state for forty-nine days, the Empress Dowager was interred in the imperial mausoleum.
Because the Empress Dowager’s last thoughts before her passing had been of her granddaughter who had married far away to the northwest, Shen Lingzhen, the only daughter of Grand Princess Zhenguo, voluntarily petitioned His Majesty after the funeral procession, requesting permission to go to Gong County to guard her imperial grandmother’s tomb.
His Majesty, moved by her filial devotion, specially granted permission.
That same month, the Xiqiang, disregarding the righteous principles and礼法 (ritual propriety and law) that forbade military campaigns during national mourning periods, raised their troops and invaded Dingbian Army garrison, a thousand miles from Bianjing.
Huo Qi, the Military Commissioner of Dingbian Army, received orders from the court to lead troops in response. He met the main Xiqiang forces at Shentang Fort in a grueling month-long stalemate that ended in victory, successfully repelling the enemy.
The Xiqiang suffered heavy losses and ceased hostilities for nearly half a year, yet they had not abandoned their intent to conquer. As the year’s end approached, they once again knocked heavily on the gates of Great Daqi, practically committing their entire national strength by dividing their forces into four routes, simultaneously attacking Huan and Qing Prefectures as well as Dingbian and Bao’an Army garrisons.
The entire northwestern border of Great Daqi was in critical danger. Heavy snow blanketed the northern lands, yet the common people lived in constant fear, in no mood to welcome the first month of the new year or celebrate this auspicious snow that augured a bountiful harvest.
In mid-February of the twenty-eighth year of the Jian’yuan era, after resisting for over two months, Huan Prefecture and Bao’an Army garrison fell in succession. Qing Prefecture and Dingbian Army, caught between these two locations, thus became an isolated “island,” surrounded by enemies on all sides.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward the Huo family stationed there.
However, the Xiqiang were determined to devour Great Daqi’s northwest this time, coming with overwhelming and unstoppable force. Huo Qi held firm until mid-March, but under siege from all sides, he was forced to retreat from Shentang Fort all the way back to Donggu Fort. Dingbian Army garrison was also in dire straits.
A large number of officials in the Bianjing court petitioned one after another, beseeching His Majesty to dispatch troops for reinforcement. His Majesty remained unmoved, keeping his forces inactive.
In early April, the isolated and unsupported Dingbian Army garrison ultimately could not escape being lost, and Huo Qi preserved his troops by retreating to Qing Prefecture.
At this point, Great Daqi’s northwest relied solely on Qing Prefecture to barely maintain support through a precarious and narrow gap.
The Xiqiang swiftly concentrated their forces, advancing with sharp momentum and bold maneuvers, pushing deep into Qing Prefecture’s heartland in mid-April.
Just as the civil and military officials in Bianjing were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, assuming that Qing Prefecture would also fall, an apparently insignificant piece of news arrived from the west: with the warming early summer climate, the accumulated snow on the mountain ranges in Qing Prefecture’s heartland had melted overnight.
Before everyone could understand what this meant, a series of messages followed—the melting snow caused sudden flooding, and the rising river waters precisely blocked the supply lines between the Xiqiang vanguard and their rear grain transport teams. Intoxicated by their string of victories and blindly advancing deep into enemy territory without securing their provisions first, the Xiqiang cavalry found themselves in a dilemma due to this natural barrier. The Qing Prefecture defending forces seized the opportunity and completely annihilated this elite vanguard force.
The common people cried out that Heaven had opened its eyes, but the court officials in Bianjing saw clearly that what had turned the tide of battle was not Heaven, but rather the divinely skillful hands behind Qing Prefecture.
These hands traced across the mountains and hills on sheepskin maps with deliberate precision, deftly planted bright red flags one by one in the sand table, calculating both human nature and Heaven’s timing.
The owner of these hands was none other than the second son of the Huo family, who had been crippled for eleven years—Huo Liuxing.
Caught off guard by this devastating blow, the Xiqiang were unwilling to lose this “easy prey” they had nearly grasped, and dispatched follow-up troops to continue fierce attacks.
Having preserved his forces early, Huo Qi defended Qing Prefecture strictly, steady as Mount Tai.
Unable to bite into this “meat,” the Xiqiang had no choice but to transfer troops from Qing Prefecture’s left and right flanks—Huan Prefecture and Bao’an Army garrison—to reinforce.
This redeployment created gaps in the long-occupied Huan Prefecture and Bao’an Army garrison. Huo Qi immediately dispatched troops divided into two routes to attack from left and right, completely recovering both territories within three days.
The Xiqiang were thrown into complete disarray and hastily retreated.
Huo Qi personally led troops northward, pursuing the victory. During this campaign, he engaged the Xiqiang seven times, winning decisively each time. In mid-May, following the recovery of Huan Prefecture and Bao’an Army garrison, he successfully recovered Dingbian Army garrison as well.
The Xiqiang remnant forces fled in disgrace, withdrawing from Great Daqi.
The entire court celebrated, and His Majesty was greatly pleased. Finally, because of this face-saving battle, he made up his mind and changed his previous conservative wait-and-see attitude. He issued a lengthy “Proclamation Against the Xiqiang,” preparing to launch a counteroffensive. He designated troops to fully reinforce Huo Qi, commanding him to lead the army in an attack on Xiqiang territory.
The Xiqiang were clearly unable to resist such an offensive. After repeated defeats, they urgently sent envoys at the end of May to beg for mercy, requesting peace negotiations with Great Daqi.
For a time, the Bianjing court split into two factions over whether to accept the peace talks. One faction supported Huo Qi continuing the offensive to recover Hexi, which Great Daqi had lost for eleven years. The other faction supported quitting while ahead to rest and recover in a timely manner.
The day these two factions argued endlessly in court was exactly one year and seven days after Empress Dowager Gao’s passing.
Cold gave way to heat, and once again it was midsummer.
The June sun blazed brilliantly, the summer heat steaming, yet the bamboo pavilion built half a mile from the Gong County mausoleum was cleverly constructed, standing with its back to the sun. Inside the pavilion it was cool and comfortably pleasant.
A woman dressed entirely in plain white mourning clothes had her hair bound with a simple wooden hairpin, her face free of cosmetics, sitting upright before a small table, holding an embroidery hoop in one hand and threading a needle with the other.
As the needle and thread shuttled back and forth, splendid mountains and rivers emerged on the embroidered surface.
The maid beside her, also dressed in plain white mourning clothes, poured her a cup of cooling tea: “Miss, have some tea and rest a while.”—It was none other than Bailu.
Shen Lingzhen set down the embroidery hoop, accepted the tea she handed over and took two small sips, then moved the teacup aside and continued embroidering earnestly.
Bailu tilted her head, watching her pleasing hand movements: “Miss, what is this pattern you’re embroidering today called?”
Without pausing in her movements, Shen Lingzhen smiled with lowered eyes: “I haven’t decided yet.” After thinking for a moment, she said, “How about calling it ‘Mountains and Rivers at Peace’?”
“‘Mountains and Rivers at Peace’—that’s a good meaning. Everyone is hoping the border war will end soon.”
Shen Lingzhen’s fingers paused.
Bailu, realizing her mistake, quickly changed the subject: “Miss, your tomb-guarding period is almost over. Look, should this servant start packing and preparing plans to return to the capital?”
She shook her head: “No rush, there are still forty-two days left.” After a moment of silence, she smiled again, “Actually, I’ve grown accustomed to living here. I’m somewhat reluctant to go back. Look at this mausoleum, isolated from the world, free from worries and troubles—how peaceful it is.”
Bailu was shocked: “It was agreed you’d guard the tomb for one year and then return. You’re not changing your mind and planning to stay here for a lifetime, are you? You may be content to stay, not afraid of having nothing to do—practicing calligraphy, reading, embroidering, day after day without tiring of it—but think back to winter, how unbearable it was.”
This remote wilderness was barely comfortable in spring and autumn. Summer, though hot, at least had the bamboo pavilion to provide shade during the day. But winter was truly unbearable—the cold wind howling like wailing ghosts, utterly tormenting.
Although the Duke’s mansion had sent plenty of charcoal, during the coldest season last year, even stuffing the bedding with hot water bottles didn’t help. It was only by having her and Jianjia take turns warming Shen Lingzhen while she slept that they managed.
Going through another winter would likely ruin even a healthy constitution.
Seeing Shen Lingzhen’s serene and noncommittal expression, Bailu panicked: “Miss, don’t frighten this servant. Are you truly not planning to leave?”
Shen Lingzhen set down her needle and thread, gently tapping her forehead: “I’m leaving. This tomb-guarding period was requested from my imperial uncle. Even if I wanted to stay, I’d first have to return to petition for an imperial decree, wouldn’t I?”
As soon as she finished speaking, a resonant female voice came from below the bamboo pavilion: “Miss, more flowers have arrived!”
The two turned to look and saw Jianjia rushing up with an armful of jade-white ginger lilies: “Miss, look! This time it’s ginger lilies. Aren’t they beautiful?”
Shen Lingzhen’s expression was indifferent, somewhere between a smile and not, as she pointed to the vase on the table holding a bouquet of nearly withered light purple wild peonies: “Then replace them.”
Jianjia responded with a cheerful “Alright,” happily coming to change the flowers while chattering: “This flower sender is truly persistent. Nearly a year has passed in the blink of an eye, yet they still come every few days with a fresh bouquet, each time different, and always arriving before the previous one has died.”
Bailu also sighed: “And after nearly a year, we still haven’t caught the flower sender. To this day we don’t know who this mysterious person is.”
Jianjia heaved a sigh, thinking to herself that this couldn’t entirely be blamed on them—wasn’t it because the person was too clever, leaving the flowers in the pavilion in front of the bamboo building each time before disappearing without a trace?
The first few times, not knowing who had picked these flowers, they left them there until they withered. As it happened more frequently, they suspected someone was deliberately trying to harm Shen Lingzhen and made a big fuss investigating the flowers. After much investigation, they found no clues, and even questioning all the guards around the mausoleum yielded no leads. Finding them pretty, they brought them inside.
After collecting them once, the flowers came even more frequently, endlessly.
Curious about who it was, they went so far as to nearly prop their eyelids open with bamboo sticks, taking turns watching the pavilion around the clock to catch the flower sender. Yet somehow the person managed to evade their surveillance and successfully deliver flowers without leaving a trace.
Eventually, they simply gave up. After all, in these monotonous days, having fresh flowers to admire and smell every few days was actually quite nice.
Bailu said: “I wonder if the flowers will still come after Miss leaves?”
Jianjia said with certainty: “Of course not. Besides Miss, who else here deserves these flowers? After Miss leaves, if they’re going to send flowers, they’ll send them to the Duke’s mansion!”
Bailu nodded, finding this quite reasonable, and counted on her fingers: “Then I estimate this must be the seventh-to-last bouquet.”
——
Neither more nor less, after six more bouquets of flowers, it was time for Shen Lingzhen to return home.
Shen Lingzhen didn’t seem particularly happy, but Jianjia and Bailu were delighted in their hearts. They helped her remove her pale mourning clothes and change into a plain-colored chest-high襦裙 (cross-collar robe and skirt), then carried various packages large and small as they accompanied her onto the carriage returning to the capital.
The Duke had originally planned to send people to fetch her, but Shen Lingzhen didn’t want to make a big fuss, so everything was kept simple.
Along the way, Bailu attended to her inside the carriage while Jianjia drove outside. The three of them traveled with stops and starts for three and a half days before entering Bianjing city.
The city was as bustling as ever, traffic moving as slowly as a crawling tortoise, hardly any different from walking. Jianjia drove the carriage while leisurely turning back to chat with Shen Lingzhen: “Miss, we haven’t been back for a year, and the marketplace seems even livelier. Everyone’s beaming with joy—I wonder if something good has happened recently.”
A kind-hearted old man nearby overheard and exclaimed: “Oh my! Where has this young lady come from, some hidden paradise? You haven’t heard the big news from the border?”
Jianjia was startled, then heard a voice from inside the carriage say “Jianjia, stop for a moment,” and pulled the carriage to the side.
Guessing Shen Lingzhen’s intention, she quickly asked the old man: “We really did just come from the mountains outside the city. Old sir, please tell us, what happy event is it?”
“This happy event—it’s that Hexi has been returned!”
Shen Lingzhen was so shocked that she lifted the bamboo curtain of the carriage window and called out: “You mean our Great Daqi has recovered Hexi, which has been occupied by the Xiqiang for eleven years?”
“That’s right!”
“How was it recovered?”
“We common folk don’t know the details! But we heard it seems they didn’t even fight their way in or hurt anyone—it was just peacefully returned, though we don’t know which deity accomplished this feat!”
Shen Lingzhen’s heart inexplicably began to pound violently. Feeling completely unsettled, she said “Thank you for explaining, old sir,” then stood there in a daze for quite a while before telling Jianjia to set out again.
Just as she was lost in thought, a commotion of people and horses in chaos came from ahead. Immediately after, shouts of “Make way, make way!” accompanied by rapid hoofbeats swiftly approached.
Jianjia’s voice rang out from outside the carriage door: “Someone’s galloping through the marketplace—Miss, hold tight!”
However, in the next instant, the carriage made a sharp turn and tilted to one side.
Shen Lingzhen cried out as she fell toward the carriage wall. Just as she was thinking “Alas, this is the end,” the expected violent tumbling didn’t happen. After a series of clanging sounds, the carriage came to a steady stop.
Bailu was frightened out of her wits. Just as she was about to ask if Shen Lingzhen beside her had been hurt, the carriage door was pushed open and a head poked in: “Are you alright, Miss?”
Shen Lingzhen was stunned. She saw the man with jade crown binding his hair and brocade robes, a dogtail grass stem in his mouth, asking again somewhat unclearly: “Are you shocked speechless, Miss?” As he spoke, he extended his five fingers and waved them before her eyes.
“Bold commoner, where are you reaching your hand!” Jianjia, who had been thrown dizzy, swiftly climbed up and hauled the man down from the carriage with one grab.
He cried out “Ow ow” and retorted: “I saved your miss, yet you repay kindness with enmity? Besides, which commoner have you seen dressed as arrogantly as I am?”
Only then did Jianjia see clearly his clothing that spoke of wealth and nobility. But then she thought, no matter how wealthy or noble, he couldn’t be wealthier or nobler than their Duke’s mansion, so she argued reasonably: “If you hadn’t been galloping through the marketplace, my miss wouldn’t have been frightened. The nation has laws—violating the law at the feet of the Son of Heaven, I should send you to the magistrate’s office.”
“Jianjia, don’t be rude.” Shen Lingzhen stepped down from the carriage and looked fixedly at the man’s somewhat familiar face. Recalling the surnames of the previous dynasty’s imperial family, she asked suspiciously, “I am of the Shen clan of Duke Yingguo’s mansion. May I ask if you are… Young Master Meng?”
Meng Qufei was stunned into laughter, spitting out the dogtail grass: “I wondered which family’s young lady could be so beautiful as a celestial being—turns out she’s one of our own!”
Before Shen Lingzhen could process the meaning behind “one of our own,” she saw Meng Qufei bow to her properly with cupped hands: “Qufei greets elder cousin-in-law.”
Meng Qufei of the Meng family, a young prince left over from the previous dynasty, was Huo Liuxing’s maternal cousin and by rights should call her “elder cousin-in-law.”
Shen Lingzhen quickly bowed in return.
Meng Qufei smiled: “Elder cousin-in-law, I was quite offensive just now. Please don’t report me to my elder cousin.”
At the mention of Huo Liuxing, Shen Lingzhen’s expression stiffened slightly. She smiled uncomfortably: “Of course not. I’m in Bianjing—I won’t run into him.”
Meng Qufei was stunned: “You’ll run into him precisely because you’re in Bianjing. Elder cousin-in-law, don’t you know? Elder cousin entered the capital today.”