Xie Yuzhang did not stay long at the Xiaoyao Marquis Estate, nor did she remain for lunch. It was not that she was cold-hearted — rather, the people of the Xiaoyao Marquis Estate had not truly been overjoyed at her being enfeoffed as a princess. No one had any desire to celebrate or mark the occasion in any way.
Leaving the Xiaoyao Marquis Estate, Xie Yuzhang followed Yang Changyuan directly to the Yang Residence.
Compared to the Xiaoyao Marquis Estate, it was a world apart.
The Yang Residence, from top to bottom, radiated a vigorous and flourishing vitality. Even the former air of listless indulgence could scarcely be felt anymore. On the faces of the servants and maids alike shone the self-assured expressions of those who served a great and powerful household.
When one thought about it, it made perfect sense. In the Yang Family’s eldest main branch, the master of the house was the Secretariat’s Under-Secretary — a Chancellor. The First Young Master was a Secretariat Drafter, a position of distinguished refinement. The Second Young Master served in the Flying Tiger Army, destined to become one of the rising new elite.
What is more, with Yang Huaishen at its center, the Yang Family now straddled both the Yunjing old faction and the Hexi faction. In the new dynasty, they occupied a position of quietly transcendent prestige. How could they not be thriving and glorious?
The four maternal aunts surrounded Xie Yuzhang and wept. Cousins who had already married out all came back to their family home, having waited especially for her.
One moment they grieved for her eight years of hardship in Mobei; the next they rejoiced at her triumphant return and her status as a princess — truly all at once weeping and laughing. At midday a family banquet was held, brimming with festive cheer.
Xie Yuzhang said to her eldest maternal aunt — formerly of the Duke Xun’s household, now the Secretariat Minister’s wife: “Second Elder Brother has become as dark as charcoal. I told him to apply green olive oil, but he simply ignores me.”
The Yang Madam laughed and scolded: “When he was in the capital I told him to stay at home and keep out of the sun, but he would not listen to a word of it. He was out riding every single day, never at home. He was entirely corrupted by that Beironghou.”
The cousins all chimed in at once: “Baohua — oh, Yongning — your complexion hasn’t darkened at all!”
Xie Yuzhang smiled. “It did darken a fair bit, but the whole journey back I rode in a carriage, so it faded.”
One cousin said: “I went out into the streets yesterday to watch you! You rode into the city on horseback! It was magnificent!”
Another cousin asked: “Why didn’t you take a carriage?”
Xie Yuzhang curved her lips into a smile. “So many people in Yunjing were waiting to see me — so I let them look.”
The Yang Madam clapped her hands. “Well said! Let them look to their hearts’ content!”
The cousins erupted in agreement, all feeling a surge of pride and vindication.
“You don’t know what Zhang Fen has been saying! It’s infuriating!” one cousin said. “Wei Wei nearly came to blows with her.”
At the mention of this, Wei Wei’s delicate brows shot up furiously. “If she dares to talk such nonsense again, I shall absolutely tear that mouth of hers apart!”
Others were exchanging meaningful glances with them, trying to signal them to drop the subject.
Xie Yuzhang smiled faintly. “Let me guess — something along the lines of ‘remarried within the same family, father and son’ and ‘a fallen, ruined flower’?”
Everyone paused, then all spoke at once to reassure her: “Don’t listen to her raving!”
“Next time I hear it, I won’t hold Wei Wei back — we sisters will all rush up there together and tear her to pieces!”
“Has anything decent ever come out of that mouth of hers!”
Xie Yuzhang said: “If I were afraid of such verbal arrows and vicious tongues, I would not have ridden into the city on horseback.”
One cousin sighed. “Zhuzhu, you truly are different from before. You used to be so soft and gentle — we all loved to tease and bully you.”
Xie Yuzhang scolded her: “What do you mean ‘we all’ — it was just you! You always ran away so fast! It was such a chase to catch you!”
Everyone dissolved into laughter. Wei Wei laughed so hard the baby in her belly started to kick. Everyone hurried to press their hands against it, praising the child for being so vigorous and strong.
Xie Yuzhang alone stood in respectful awe, not daring to touch Wei Wei’s round, full belly.
Since Zhang Fen had already come up, she asked: “How has Zhang Fen been faring? I heard she became the Beironghou’s wife?”
At the mention of this, all the cousins were puffed up with indignation and exasperation.
Xie Yuzhang raised her brow. “What is it?”
The cousins said: “Don’t even bring it up — a person like that, living as free and easy as an immortal. It truly is maddening.”
“No parents-in-law above to keep her in check, and though her husband has ten beauties, they are not in the residence, and she cares nothing for the Beironghou and doesn’t pay him any mind at all.”
“The Beironghou doesn’t return to the marquis’s residence at all now — even his father-in-law calls for him and he still won’t come back. Zhang Fen has the entire marquis’s residence all to herself. She rises whenever she pleases, goes out wherever she likes, and if she wants to return to her parents’ home, she simply lifts her feet and goes.”
“Except for not having a son, she is living a life fit for an immortal! Ah, it is enough to make one seethe with rage!”
Upon learning all the details of Zhang Fen’s circumstances, Xie Yuzhang could not help but feel a grudging admiration.
“She has lived with more clarity than others,” she said. “She knows what she depends upon to keep herself alive.”
A cousin said: “Tch, and here you are still speaking up for her!”
Xie Yuzhang said: “Though she is disagreeable, she has never done any great evil.”
On the road back from Mobei to the capital, when she had heard that Zhang Fen had not after all become Empress, Xie Yuzhang had spoken of her to Lin Fei.
“In my former life, I truly despised Zhang Fen. But now when I look back, what were the things Zhang Fen actually did?” she had sighed. “She never struck me, never caused me any physical harm. She was only a woman confined to inner chambers — even if she bore malice toward others in her heart, it only ever amounted to the pettiness of speech.”
“When it comes down to it, it was no more than making me kneel a little longer when paying respects, deliberately humiliating me at banquets, saying things that caused me to lose face — that was the sum of it. If I were to hear those things now, I would feel nothing at all.”
“She merely relied on her father’s clan’s power and influence, and so seemed to bare her teeth and claws. But in truth, she has never known what it is to take a life with her own hands.”
The cousins told Xie Yuzhang: “She has been saying terrible things about you and Fei all over the place. Now that you’ve come back and been made a princess again, she must surely be ready to die of spite.”
Everyone cheered up together at the thought.
When Lin Fei was brought up, Wei Wei asked: “How is Fei doing?”
Xie Yuzhang replied: “Her brother came early this morning to take her home.”
Wei Wei pressed her palms together in a gesture of prayer: “Amitabha, thank heavens she is safe. Zhuzhu, you don’t know — back then when she went on a hunger strike, she truly took not a drop of water nor a single grain of rice. Second Elder Brother was frightened out of his wits and called me to go and persuade her, but I had no way to reach her either. In the end we had no choice but to send her off with the tribute envoy. She wouldn’t let us breathe a word about it, afraid you would find out. Afterward I kept dreaming about her — every time I was jolted awake by fright. Has she married now? Does she have a husband?”
Xie Yuzhang said: “A savage borderland like Mobei — think about Fei’s standards and discernment. Who was there worthy of her to marry?”
“Not married is all the better,” Wei Wei said happily. “Now there is the Lin Family, and she has reclaimed her identity. There is no fear of her being unable to marry.”
Xie Yuzhang took the opportunity to speak on Lin Fei’s behalf: “She became a disciple of the National Preceptor on the steppe and compiled the records of the Khanate’s history. The languages alone that needed to be translated numbered seven or eight. She labored painstakingly for years and still had not finished. Even at the moment of departure, she was still thinking about it.”
Compiling historical records had always been considered a matter of great significance. All the Yang Family women who heard this clicked their tongues in wonder, and could only exclaim: “No wonder — she is truly worthy of being the granddaughter of Grand Chancellor Lin.”
Afterward, whenever anyone spoke ill of Lin Fei behind her back, the Yang women would bring up this matter. Gradually it became widely known that the granddaughter of the late dynasty’s Grand Chancellor Lin was fiercely loyal, hot-blooded, and possessed of great learning.
But that is a story for another time.
After the reunion with maternal aunts and cousins was complete, a banquet was opened at the Yang Residence — a scene of magnificent wealth and splendor, lively and clamorous.
After the meal, Yang Changyuan led Xie Yuzhang to the back storage room behind his study and said: “Your things — take them back.”
Xie Yuzhang watched the burly men swinging great hammers and smashing through the wall with a clang, and was stunned: “Why was the doorway bricked up?”
Yang Changyuan tucked his hands into his sleeves. “Who knew you would actually make it back? I thought perhaps a son of yours might have the chance to come here someday, and I could give the things to him then. These years have been turbulent, and I was also afraid the people at home might get ideas — so I simply sealed the door shut.”
Xie Yuzhang’s eyes stung with tears. She turned away to wipe them, then turned back and said only with a light scolding: “Uncle is truly amusing.”
Yang Changyuan: “Heh heh.”
Once the bricked-up wall was dismantled, an iron door was revealed within. Xie Yuzhang took out the key she had kept hidden close to her person and opened that door, which had not been opened in many years.
A damp, musty smell rushed out to meet her.
The chests were carried out one by one. Each required two sturdy men and still they labored under the weight.
“I have no idea what is inside these.” Yang Changyuan said, his hands tucked away. “Nor am I going to ask. Only — live your life well.”
Xie Yuzhang smiled and agreed.
She brought the substantial wealth belonging to a legitimate princess of the flourishing and prosperous Great Zhao dynasty back to Princess Yongning’s residence of Great Mu.
In the storehouse within Princess Yongning’s residence, she opened those chests. The glow within them cast her cheeks in a warm, golden hue.
She closed the chests and locked them, then let out a long, slow breath.
Returning to the main chamber, a maidservant reported: “Yuan Ling and Lord Wang and Lord Li are all waiting for Your Highness.”
Xie Yuzhang went out to meet them.
Yuan Yu looked relaxed and at ease. Wang Zhong and Li Yong both still appeared somewhat anxious.
Seeing this, Xie Yuzhang said to Yuan Yu: “Let your matter wait for a moment — let me put these two at ease first.”
Yuan Yu smiled and stroked his beard.
Xie Yuzhang said: “His Majesty has permitted me to retain two hundred men as the princess’s personal guard. As for the remaining three hundred, His Majesty has also agreed to absorb them into the ranks — everyone will have a path forward, so do not worry.”
Wang Zhong and Li Yong both breathed a tremendous sigh of relief and laughed: “We were just worrying needlessly. We should have known Your Highness would have it all figured out.”
Xie Yuzhang said: “Go back and take stock — see who wishes to stay, and who wishes to go and seek greater prospects. Those who carry injuries, have them all stay here with me. Let them stop running themselves ragged.”
Wang Zhong and Li Yong expressed their gratitude to Xie Yuzhang on behalf of those men in advance.
Xie Yuzhang added: “You two — go back and think it over carefully as well, whether you stay or go.”
She said: “There is still half the empire to the south of the Yangtze. There will be more battles to fight ahead. If you have ambitions of making a name for yourselves, then go. Here with me, the highest rank would be Captain of the Guard — that is the ceiling. But if you simply want peace and stability, then follow me in my old age with a steady, settled life — that too is perfectly fine.”
Li Yong could not make up his mind on the spot.
But Wang Zhong said: “This subordinate is not leaving. Back then, the General — oh, no — His Majesty! Back then, His Majesty said that in this lifetime, this subordinate only needs to do one thing well, and that is to follow Your Highness and protect Your Highness.”
Xie Yuzhang scolded him: “Quickly go and forget those words of his for me!”
She said: “Who could have imagined back then that we would still be able to come back? He naturally assumed you and I would both spend our whole lives over there, and indeed you would have had no choice but to follow me for a lifetime — there simply was no other path. But now open your eyes and look — where are we? This is Princess Yongning’s residence of Great Mu. The person he told you to follow was Princess Baohua of the former Zhao — and that princess is no more!”
“Ptui ptui ptui!” Li Yong hurriedly said. “Your Highness, we mustn’t say such things! Your Highness is alive and well!”
Xie Yuzhang had spoken carelessly. She also pressed a hand to her forehead: “Oh — not ‘no more,’ she no longer exists. My title is now Yongning.”
Everyone pressed their hands to their foreheads and laughed in spite of themselves.
Wang Zhong’s mind had always been simple and straightforward. Her words had left him somewhat bewildered. He thought it over and rubbed his knees: “This subordinate will go home and discuss it with the family…”
“Now that is the right thinking,” Xie Yuzhang said with a smile. “A wife is a companion of equal standing — on important matters one should not make decisions alone. It is only right to discuss it together with one’s new bride.”
Wang Zhong laughed his simple, good-natured laugh.
At last it was Yuan Yu’s turn to speak.
“In addition to this residence and the food and stipend provisions, His Majesty has also imperially bestowed two manor estates. I completed the handover for both today. Over the next few days I will go and inspect them and then report back to Your Highness on how to settle everyone.” Yuan Yu said. “Would Your Highness like to look over these ledgers first?”
This was going to take some time. Xie Yuzhang therefore dismissed Wang Zhong and Li Yong to go back for now.
Her guard and the remaining people who wished to continue serving under her were currently encamped temporarily outside the city walls. These former Zhao subjects, after eight years in Mobei, had learned little else, but their skill at making camp on the spot and putting down roots wherever they landed had grown considerably.
The conditions on the Mobei steppe had been truly harsh. The common people lived entirely at the mercy of the heavens, and everything had to be done by one’s own hands — creating something out of nothing.
Now, though they were temporarily camped outside the city walls, everyone could enter the city freely. Rice, flour, grain, oil, ready-made clothes, shoes and socks, pots and bowls and ladles and basins, cooking oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar — all the necessities of daily life, whatever one could think of could be bought. It was incomparably convenient.
Only Yuan Yu, Wang Zhong, Li Yong, and the five company commanders had moved into Princess Yongning’s residence with their families. When they said they were “going back,” it simply meant returning to the side courtyard within the residence set aside for these household retainers and subordinates.
Xie Yuzhang skimmed quickly through those ledgers, first getting a general picture of how many properties she possessed, then discussed with Yuan Yu the matter of settling the people under her.
By the time the two had finished their discussion, the sky outside had grown dim.
Yuan Yu was tidying up the ledgers when he asked: “Your Highness, what has been the matter with you today? You have been so distracted and restless.”
Xie Yuzhang was slightly startled.
Yuan Yu said: “Your Highness may not have noticed it yourself — but just while looking through these few ledgers, how many times did Your Highness raise your head? How many times did you look to the left and right?”
Xie Yuzhang was a little dazed and asked: “Did I?”
Yuan Yu stroked his beard and asked with a smile: “Is Your Highness looking for Fei?”
Xie Yuzhang suddenly found herself at a loss for words.
She had indeed been feeling that something was off the whole time. While flipping through the ledgers, she had kept instinctively lifting her head and looking toward the seat beside her.
Because in the past, this sort of task had always been done by the two of them together.
The two of them in the lamplight, shoulder to shoulder, head bent close to head. Both were adept at arithmetic, and Lin Fei was especially gifted — one glance and she could spot any error. The accountants had always prepared the accounts with the utmost care, terrified of being caught out by her.
After Yuan Yu had also left, Xie Yuzhang walked outside, looked at the dimming sky, and hesitated, unable to make up her mind.
But when she went back inside, she was still restless.
After a brief moment, she stamped her foot, called over a maidservant, and asked: “Have you finished packing the things for Fei?”
The maidservant smiled. “The moment Your Highness went out the door, we began packing. Several large chests are now full.”
Xie Yuzhang said: “Let me go and see.”
When they had arrived at the residence the day before, the princess’s estate had only a few rough servants. It appeared that Li Gu had foreseen that Xie Yuzhang would have her own capable people around her, and so had not placed additional staff in the residence.
But this was by no means an empty estate.
Setting aside the fact that the cellars in the kitchens were packed to the brim, even the storehouses within the residence were half-full — silks, brocades, vessels and utensils, all complete and in abundance. Had Li Gu not been concerned that Xie Yuzhang would have no room for her own belongings, he would likely have filled the other half of the storehouses as well.
When Lin Fei had first followed her, she had been a person whose family had been destroyed and who possessed nothing. Now that she was returning home, though she had brought many items she used regularly, how could Xie Yuzhang bear for her to leave with no means of her own, empty-handed?
Since the goods were already at hand, Xie Yuzhang had the maids pack out a share for Lin Fei.
Now Xie Yuzhang looked it over and added a great deal more, yet her heart still felt it was not enough. She thought it over, then opened the inner treasury and selected one of the chests she had retrieved from the Yang Residence that very day, and had it loaded onto the cart as well.
“Let us go — to Xuanping Ward!”
The maids all covered their mouths to laugh.
Just this morning she had shooed the person away in such a hurry, and not even a full day had passed — already she could not hold herself back and was rushing eagerly off to see them.
Xie Yuzhang’s face flushed red. She scolded: “No laughing — not a single one of you is allowed to laugh!”
“You, and you — why are you still laughing!”
—