When Ye Tingyan came to call, Yu Qiushi was reading a government gazette beside him. He looked up and caught a glimpse of a pink-robed gentleman among the green lotus leaves, momentarily startled, then said: “Lord Ye, please sit.”

Their appointed meeting place was a pavilion on the Bianhe River belonging to a certain pleasure house. It was summer, and lotus-scented breezes drifted into the pavilion. The surrounding lotus leaves had also grown quite tall, forming excellent cover, so that even the various pleasure boats that frequently passed along the Bianhe River in summer could not see the figures inside the pavilion.

Yu Qiushi wore a deep blue-gray Daoist robe of a quite antiquated color, while Ye Tingyan wore his favored pale pink thin gauze scholar’s robe, without even a hat, simply with a flower-shaped jade hairpin inserted — the type of flower was indeterminate.

The two sat facing each other. No one would have taken them for close attendants of the Son of Heaven — they appeared only as a kindly elder and a young man of fine appearance, a pleasing sight.

National men of the dynasty were fond of elegant pleasures. Such attire, though appearing like recreational outings, was without fault. Yu Qiushi had never seen him dressed like this and looked on with considerable interest for some time.

The serving woman at their side held a silver pot and poured wine for the two men, also unable to stop herself from repeatedly stealing glances.

Yu Qiushi swept a glance over the red-gold hairpin on the serving woman’s head and smiled: “Green-haired youth with golden hairpin, pale pink pitcher wherein amber wine is submerged — old as I am, with clouded eyes, I had never noticed before: Lord Ye is quite the connoisseur.”

Ye Tingyan’s expression did not change; he responded with a smile: “You flatter me, you flatter me.”

Yu Qiushi gave the serving woman a look, about to send her away, when a thought suddenly struck him and he said by way of a test: “If Tingyan is fond of her, today I shall give you this beauty as a gift. I hear your manor is still empty — would not a red-sleeved companion add fragrance to your studies?”

To his surprise, Ye Tingyan declined without so much as a blink: “I have someone I hold in my thoughts, separated by vast distance in another land. Thank you for the Grand Preceptor’s kind intention, but it is that from my youth, my parents arranged a marriage for me with the daughter of a close friend. The entire north frontier knows of it — I already have a betrothed.”

He had sent men to the northern frontier to investigate matters concerning the third son of the Ye family and had indeed heard something of this, but youthful men’s romantic conduct was a commonplace thing, and he had not expected Ye Tingyan to refuse so decisively.

Likely also because this woman had been offered by himself.

Yu Qiushi let out a genial chuckle and waved his sleeve in jest: “Not yet married, and Tingyan’s betrothed feels confident letting you enter the capital alone to seek your future?”

Ye Tingyan said warmly: “I seek my future for my wife’s sake. What is there to feel confident or not confident about?”

Yu Qiushi raised his cup in praise: “You are a loyal and devoted gentleman.”

The other’s expression still did not change: “The Grand Preceptor praises me too generously.”

The wine was drunk, and Yu Qiushi picked up the government gazette at his side again — the gazette of the twenty-first day of the fifth month, written by Ye Tingyan’s own hand. He kept his eyes down, reading and contemplating. This man had been in the capital for half a year now and was increasingly earning Song Lan’s trust. He already wore a crimson official robe, and the speed of his advancement was rarely seen in the dynasty’s history — he must be quite skilled at divining the ruler’s wishes.

After the Twilight Banquet case, he had truly begun to plumb this person’s depths. At that time he did not yet know that Ye Tingyan was already serving the Empress. Ye Tingyan had swiftly cut away one of his arms, yet this had not provoked fury but rather reflection: if he could not be removed, perhaps he could be drawn over to his side.

Had he only known his heart was as deep as the sea, he should not have opposed him at the red-lit pavilion.

But Yu Qiushi had rarely encountered a person as strange as Ye Tingyan — gold and silver treasures, Ye Tingyan seemed to have no lack of, and even gifts sent to his door such as Dingzhou red-kiln ware and Guzhu Zisun tea were all returned; fame and power, he need not be given — he was already a popular figure in court, and despite remonstrance officials sending up memorials day after day, he still continued to rise without pause.

As for beautiful women, he had just gotten his answer.

As for other things — he, having been steeped in court affairs for many years, could not make out a single thing. He could not tell whether this man harbored in his breast the welfare of all under heaven, or whether he carried burning ideals.

He was like a deep and serene pool, its surface unruffled and accommodating all things, appearing to desire nothing whatsoever.

No wonder he could earn such trust — he was virtually a loyalist without divided allegiances.

And so when he had laid a scheme at Huiling Lake and discovered that Ye Tingyan had gone over to the Empress, Yu Qiushi had been genuinely curious: what on earth had the Empress promised him?

Today he had invited him to this banquet, and intentionally called him “Tingyan” to signal a willingness to let bygones be bygones. But the other party remained cool and detached, and had even dressed this way — another person might have taken this as an insult, yet his demeanor was natural, as if he had simply put on any garment and come to dine with a close friend.

The two sat opposite each other, chatting idly, picking out a few amusing incidents from court to discuss casually with an intimacy like old friends. When the dishes were cleared, Ye Tingyan even grew animated, and with a little intoxication to his air, picked up a bamboo chopstick and tapped the wine vessel, leisurely humming a verse of the melody “Full Garden of Fragrance.”

Yu Qiushi harmonized with the second verse, and the two looked at each other and laughed aloud — yet when they gazed into each other’s eyes, both could see clearly that neither pair of eyes held any warmth of laughter whatsoever.

Seeing he would not open his heart, Yu Qiushi could do nothing, and thinking that one day he would certainly have to remove him with his own hands, he said “what a pity” several times in succession.

Before Ye Tingyan departed, as if on a sudden whim, he abruptly asked: “Grand Preceptor, you were demoted three times, received the late Emperor’s patronage, rose meteorically, became Chief Minister in middle age, maneuvered on all sides, and now hold all power in your hands — in twenty-three years of serving as an official, is there anything you regret?”

These words were quite discourteous. Yu Qiushi’s cup-holding hand stiffened: “What do you mean by these words, Tingyan?”

Having asked the question, Ye Tingyan seemed to instinctively place his hand over his previously injured right shoulder, revealing a trace of a bitter smile: “Grand Preceptor, this servant was born into a military family. I ought to have ridden horses across the wild plains and drawn bows at the frontier, following in my forebears’ footsteps and becoming a general who protected all under heaven. Regrettably… my father died young, my elder brother was implicated in a treason case, leaving this servant branded with a mark of humiliation. Along the wandering road, my health was also damaged, making it impossible for this servant ever to become the figure of his former dreams. After the fall of my family, ten years of deep kindness were all squandered. Looking back on the past, I often feel as if in a daze. If my elder brother had survived the battle of Youyun River that year, how might this life have unfolded?”

What he spoke of had plainly nothing to do with the question he had just asked about “regrets,” yet hearing it, Yu Qiushi was unexpectedly stunned. Old memories welled up in his heart, a hundred feelings mingling at once, and for a time he was speechless.

But he was after all a seasoned old hand. After a moment he recovered his composure and deflected: “The tides of officialdom rise and fall, the military families more so. Ups and downs are a common occurrence. Tingyan has after all gained good fortune from misfortune — becoming a civil official, in fact, earns more esteem than a military one.”

Ye Tingyan stared at him fixedly, reading in his eyes a flash of absent-mindedness.

The smile at the corner of his lips gradually hardened, and his tone grew colder than before: “The Grand Preceptor speaks truly.”

He drank the last cup of wine in his hand and, as if in provocation, placed the wine cup upside down before Yu Qiushi, then flicked his sleeve to leave. Yu Qiushi, finally provoked to anger by his insolence, said coldly from behind him: “You ignorant, arrogant youth — you think that turning toward your mistress means she can protect you for a lifetime? Laughable. Today this old man also merely regrets your talent and wishes to offer you a word of counsel: the rift between your mistress and the Emperor is one that even the gods could not mend. One can only hope that someday you will not descend into hell alongside her.”

Ye Tingyan’s footsteps halted: “…one that even the gods could not mend?”

Yu Qiushi realized he had spoken out of turn and would say no more, only flipping through the government gazette in his hand: “Lord Ye studied the Yan style of calligraphy? This script is solemn and powerful. Without practice from childhood, there will always be some deficiency. Lord Ye still has room to improve.”

He shifted to calling him “Lord Ye” and mocked his Yan-style brushwork as lacking force — but seeing the expression of startled uncertainty on Ye Tingyan’s face after hearing that the Emperor and Empress were at odds, he still softened his manner: “As it happens, this old man has considerable insight into calligraphy. Should Tingyan someday find himself unable to grasp its inner workings, he is welcome to come to the Yu residence for a discussion.”

As soon as Yu Qiushi finished speaking, the serving woman from just before drifted silently back into the pavilion from outside, and placed a brocade box in his hands.

Ye Tingyan accepted it and looked inside to find a brush carved entirely from emerald jade, the shaft fashioned in the shape of bamboo, the whole piece translucent and free of a single flaw — to look at it was to feel it must be worth a thousand gold pieces. It was a gift that any scholar in the realm, upon seeing it, would feel their heart stir with delight.

The gift box was carried away. Yu Qiushi did not raise his head until the sound of footsteps had long faded, and then he looked at the serving woman who had poured his wine: “Is the brocade box still there?”

The serving woman kept her eyes downcast: “It was taken away by that handsome lord.”

And so Yu Qiushi laughed aloud, pointing at the lotus grove before him: “In the end, none of us are exempt from our natures. Golden hairpin, golden hairpin — pick the most beautifully blooming lotus blossom, and bring it to accompany my wine.”

* * *

Flowers bloomed in splendor on the Bianhe River, and the lotuses in the Qionghua Hall grew luxuriantly this summer as well. At the beginning of the sixth month, Li Inner Official came skipping past the small pond crammed full of lotus blossoms, trailing a long drone of cicada song behind her.

Following Luowei’s instructions, she had caught a large bagful of cicadas and was carefully tending to them in the garden. When she finished and wanted to return to the inner hall, she noticed Zhang Siyi standing guard at the door.

When he saw her come, he did not push open the door behind him, but instead guided her to sit together at the corridor pillar before the door.

It seemed there must be a guest inside the hall.

Li Inner Official’s original name was Aai Yan. She had entered the palace at the age of five and did not know where her parents were, knowing only that her surname was probably Li. She had formerly served as a maidservant in the laundry room, and the name “Aai Yan” had been casually given by the head palace attendant.

She had not thought anything of it before, but after Zhang Siyi came and spoke more with her, she felt it was somewhat disagreeable.

“Yan” was a fine character, but throughout the Great Yin dynasty, how many “Aai Yan”s were there?

Having learned that Zhang Siyi had formerly served in the archive tower, she had asked him to choose a new name for her.

Zhang Siyi chose the characters “Chao Lan” but told her to first go and ask the Empress whether it was appropriate.

Luowei, upon hearing that Zhang Siyi had chosen the characters, clapped her hands and smiled: “‘In the morning I drink the dew that falls from magnolia blossoms; at evening I dine on the fallen petals of autumn chrysanthemums’ — lines from the “Li Sao,” naturally very fine.”

She wrote out the two characters “Chao Lan” and gave them to her as a gift. Li Inner Official, having received her new name, asked in puzzlement: “Why did Zhang Siyi tell me to come ask Your Highness first?”

Luowei smiled: “Suwu was worried that using this name might mean you were required to observe a taboo, because half of my courtesy name also comes from this very line. But it does not matter — after all, it is only half.”

At that time, Li Inner Official had just learned that the Empress’s courtesy name was Luowei — those in the forbidden palace all called her “Your Highness,” and on the rare occasion an outer official was met, it was at most a respectful “Empress Su.” Just as everyone called her “Li Inner Official.”

As time passed, those fragrant and beautiful personal names were gradually forgotten by others.

“The character ‘luo’ comes from the ‘Li Sao,’ the character ‘wei’ comes from the ‘Book of Songs.’ One is the ‘fallen petals,’ the other is ‘picking the fern shoots,’ both things of high purity. The character ‘xu’ was chosen for her given name, meaning talent; taking one character from each of the two poems for meaning virtue — both name and courtesy name are the blessings and hopes of parents and teachers.”

When there was no one around, the Empress spoke to them without much restraint. Afterward, Zhang Siyi would always repeatedly warn her not to go out and chatter about it, lest someone overhear and use it to impeach the Empress for being too indulgent with her inner officials.

Li Inner Official — who could now be called “Chao Lan” — Chao Lan had heard the Empress’s words and sighed in wonder: “So these names, these courtesy names, carry so many layers of meaning.”

She pestered her again: “Your Highness, will you tell me more? What is Your Highness’s favorite name?”

The Empress, hearing her question, inexplicably grew somewhat sorrowful — her sadness was plainly evident in unguarded moments. Her brow was gently furrowed, her gaze flickering. Chao Lan, having attended her all this while, could see it clearly.

Luowei held her brush over the paper and let three drops of ink fall onto the writing paper, yet wrote nothing further.

Chao Lan had originally thought the Empress was writing the Emperor’s name-taboo characters. Later, Zhang Siyi told her secretly that the Empress was most likely thinking of a childhood companion who had grown up alongside her but had passed away young.

He sketched the character “Ling” on her palm, then wrote “Ling Ye,” paused for a moment, and slowly added “Chengming.” Chao Lan asked curiously: “Is the last one a title? What bright and brilliant names they are — so bright and so cold, like… like distant stars.”

Zhang Siyi explained to her: “‘Ling’ means the highest virtue of water, from the ‘Classic of the Way and Its Power,’ meaning perfect morality. ‘Ling Ye’ is another name for lightning. The ‘Songs of the South’ also records it: ‘Fearing that heaven’s seasons may shift in succession, the brilliant light blazes and campaigns westward’ — ‘Brilliant light’ is the sun, ‘Ye’ means radiant and glorious. So his literary name, Chengming, means inheriting the brightness of the sun — indeed very bright, very bright.”

Chao Lan clicked her tongue: “I wonder who could bear names as vast as the sun, moon, stars, and rivers… Ah, wait — ‘Chengming’? Is this not—”

Zhang Siyi made a “shh” gesture: “Silence, silence.”

Chao Lan covered her own mouth but asked quietly: “Have you seen that former Crown Prince? Is he as bright as his name suggests?”

Though she did not know what it meant to call a person “bright,” Zhang Siyi still nodded without hesitation: “His Highness… is a very, very good person.”

Chao Lan did not believe it: “How good?”

Zhang Siyi was somewhat lost in thought: “As good as the Empress.”

“I don’t believe that. Is there really someone as good as the Empress? The Noble Consort is also very good, but she is always prone to fits of temper and is not as gentle as the Empress.”

“There is. Though I have also never seen anyone better than His Highness and the Empress. Even if I had, I would feel they were not as good.”

Chao Lan thought for a long time and then announced proudly: “You have seen His Highness, and so you think him good. I have only seen the Empress, so I naturally only think the Empress good. The realm has many good people, but in our eyes, they are the best.”

Zhang Siyi paused, then agreed: “You are right.”

Chao Lan sat with Zhang Siyi at the corridor, and for no particular reason suddenly remembered this conversation from a few days prior. A thought stirred in her heart, and she asked: “Zhang Siyi, I forgot to ask — what is the meaning of your name?”

Zhang Siyi then replied: “Ordinary, empty nothingness — it is a term from the Buddhist scriptures. I chose it myself: the meaning of all former times and prior affairs becoming empty nothingness.”

Chao Lan was astonished: “How can it be empty nothingness? Does Zhang Siyi also have no family?”

Zhang Siyi slowly recalled: “It seems there was once a brother…”

He did not continue. Chao Lan had wanted to ask one more question, but Zhang Siyi turned and asked instead: “Where did you go just now?”

And so she forgot her original question: “Catching cicadas! Now that the Emperor has forbidden killing cicadas, the Empress asked me to catch some and identify them. I thought cicadas all had very short lives, but the Empress said there are also thirteen-year cicadas and seventeen-year cicadas. So I caught some and am keeping them in the garden to see how long they can live.”

Before the words had fully fallen, the great hall door opened.

A young lady of splendid dress walked out from inside the hall and, before departing, bowed once more to Luowei.

Chao Lan returned the bow, and inwardly thought that the Empress had recently seemed to be receiving many old acquaintances. These acquaintances were mostly inner wives of officials at court. Before, when they had come to call on the Empress, she had generally declined them. But lately she accepted all of them — for reasons she could not fathom.

This person had barely left when Liu Mingzhong, the Emperor’s personal attendant, came to relay a message: the Emperor invited the Empress to Qianfang Hall to discuss affairs.

“I shall go at once.”

Luowei returned to the inner hall and tossed a silk handkerchief into a basin — this handkerchief was something she had obtained from the archive tower’s flower arrangement spot that day. Just as it had come into her hands, word came that a guest had arrived, and she had been forced to clutch it in her hand the whole time.

Characters had appeared on the copper basin, in only a single line:

— This servant is willing to assist Your Highness in commencing from the first day of the sixth month.

Though this person had said on that day that she was reckless, when the moment truly came, he still stood with her in the end.

Luowei revealed a faint smile. She wrung out the handkerchief, held it to the candle flame and burned it. When Chao Lan pushed the door open and entered, she saw only what seemed to be a flash of firelight in the empty air, and then the light dissolved into ash, falling before her.

Luowei turned and walked to the inner hall to change her clothes, asking as she walked: “Did Liu Mingzhong tell you what this concerns?”

Chao Lan made an effort to recall: “Liu Siyi said it concerns the southwestern tax revenues. The Emperor is vexed today. Not only was Your Highness summoned, but the Deputy Minister of Finance and the Silver Terrace officials as well. The Grand Preceptor is also present. It sounds like a serious matter.”

Luowei raised her eyebrows with some surprise.