◎An Old Dream◎

The day of Bai Shating and Ye Liuchun’s wedding.

After Gao Yunyue had gone out with her maidservant, and Ye Liuchun had said that line — “though the wayward son has returned, his heart is not yet at peace” — Qu You fell silent for a moment.

She didn’t know exactly what had happened between Ye Liuchun and Bai Shating; she could only guess at fragments from those few sorrowful, lingering verses. A shattered mirror was hard to mend, but remembering the lovers’ knot that always hung beneath Ye Liuchun’s moon lute, she understood that whatever tangle of feeling lay between the two of them was not something an outsider could easily untangle.

From the front courtyard came the noisy laughter of arriving guests. Qu You reached for a box of plum-blossom powder on the table, opened the lid, and took a sniff, changing the subject. “I’ve heard the Shouyang Princess’s plum-blossom fragrance was lost to time long ago. I meant to ask you the first time we met — where did you get this formula?”

Ye Liuchun dabbed a bit onto her fingertip and pressed it to her cheek, looking at her reflection in the bronze mirror with a smile. “I blended it myself, of course. I’ve always had a talent for making perfumes since I was young. In my idle time, I came across a damaged old formula in some ancient text, and after no small effort, managed to restore it. If you like it, I’ll send some your way.”

Qu You agreed at once. “Wonderful — then I’ll thank you in advance, Sister Chun.”

Ye Liuchun laughed at her. “Oh, you…”

No sooner had she said this than her smile suddenly froze. Seeing her lost in thought, Qu You called out, “Sister Chun?”

“Something just came to me,” Ye Liuchun said, closing the lid of the powder box in Qu You’s hand, and speaking suddenly. “Youyou, do you know that before the deposed crown prince entered the palace, there was an advisor in his household he trusted deeply?”

Qu You thought for a moment, brow furrowed. “I seem to remember someone like that — Song Shiyan seemed to favor him greatly.”

Ye Liuchun asked, “Have you ever seen him?”

Qu You shook her head.

Ye Liuchun said, “Just as I thought — neither have I. Once, on my own initiative, I went to the deposed crown prince’s study and nearly ran into this man. The moment he saw me come in, he ducked behind the folding screen at once… The crown prince never seemed to bring him into the palace afterward. By the time the prince died, I don’t believe we’d ever laid eyes on him. Just now, when I was handling this powder box, it suddenly struck me — that day, through the screen, I’d caught the scent of medicinal herbs.”

Qu You repeated, brow furrowing further, “Medicinal herbs?”

Ye Liuchun pressed a hand to her forehead. “I haven’t worn plum-blossom fragrance in so long — if you hadn’t asked, I probably wouldn’t have remembered it at all.”

“If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have thought of the deposed crown prince’s advisor either. He actually had over a dozen advisors, but this was the only one he truly trusted,” Qu You said, setting the powder box back on the table. “I’ll look into where this man went.”

“All right.”

Inside the chamber, the incense hung heavy and dim; the Empress had left the sleeping quarters long ago. After Song Shixuan gave a few instructions, he retreated behind the bed curtains and fell silent. Luo Jiangting leaned against the daybed by the flower-latticed window, having dismissed her attendants, meaning to rouse herself to attend to him properly — but for some reason, she sank into a deep sleep instead.

She dreamed many strange and vivid dreams.

At times, she was in a back courtyard where water froze the instant it dripped, kneeling in the snow, watching a young girl in front of her washing clothes, her hands frozen bright red, the water in the basin already half iced over. The girl’s trembling hands hadn’t been washing for long before she fainted from the cold, and was dragged away, out of sight.

At times, she was in the wine-scented Luoqi Tavern, struck across the face, nearly falling from the second floor. The girls beside her passed by laughing, no one paying her any mind; eventually she had to climb to her feet alone and walk back to her dim, gloomy room.

In her room lived a foreign woman, half-mad — she’d heard the woman had already been insane when she was taken in. Fortunately she wasn’t violently so, and being beautiful besides. No one else wanted to share a room with a madwoman, so she spent her days with her eyes shut, enduring the woman’s ravings.

Until one day, a man whose face she couldn’t make out entered her dark room.

By then she had already been ill for a long time, could smell the beginnings of rot on her own body; even the mad woman had been moved out of the room, leaving her simply lying there, waiting to die.

The man carried the faint scent of herbs steeped over long years, faintly bitter.

His fingers were slender and cold, brushing gently over her cheek. A moment later, she felt a piece of candy pressed into her mouth.

He said softly, “You must live.”

She could no longer remember the taste of the medicinal wine, black as the lightless room itself, but she drank bowl after bowl of it gladly, letting his fingers move over her face, remaking her into someone she no longer recognized.

On a snowy, windy night, she had stopped that carriage, watching helplessly as the young man’s expression changed at the sight of her. He’d taken off his own warm cloak and wrapped it tightly around her; in a daze, she’d entered the palace walls, and it wasn’t until much later that she opened her fingers and found he’d slipped a piece of candy into her hand as well.

“My lady…”

Suddenly there came the sound of a servant knocking softly at the door. Luo Jiangting woke from her dream, dragging her shawl along as she opened it.

A cold, metallic scent of armor rushed in. A guard knelt three paces before the hall’s doors, speaking urgently: “An urgent report from the Forest Guard for His Majesty.”

She could more or less guess what the Forest Guard had come for, and unlike before, made no move to stop it. But no sooner had she turned than she saw Song Shixuan already risen from bed, coughing as he draped his own cloak over her shoulders.

“Cough… What is it, Forest Guard?”

The attendants bowed their heads and withdrew. The guard stepped forward and said in a low voice, “Your Majesty — the wife of Prime… of Lord Zhou was abducted on her way home. Because you were ill, he could not get his petition through to you, so he… he…”

Cold sweat dripped from him, but Song Shixuan remained perfectly calm, though the hand resting on Luo Jiangting’s shoulder tightened without his realizing it. “Go on.”

The guard said, “He privately sought out Young General Zhou Yan. It seems the young general didn’t think it through carefully — he immediately took a company of his personal guard and left the city with Lord Zhou to search for her.”

Luo Jiangting gave a soft cry of surprise and turned her head. “How could the young general allow his personal guard to be used by a former chancellor? No orders, no imperial command — isn’t that…”

She didn’t finish the thought, only studying Song Shixuan’s expression, watching his brow crease slightly, then smooth out again just as quickly.

Song Shixuan’s face was expressionless. He asked, flatly, “Is that so?”

He rolled his shoulders and made to walk out. Luo Jiangting startled. “Your Majesty, what are you—”

“Since my teacher has taken such action, I, his student, should go and ask him about it in person,” Song Shixuan said coldly. He turned his head, and seeing her, something warm crept into his eyes. “A’Luo is family to me. Come along with me.”

Something sweet spread through her chest, as though she’d swallowed the most delicious candy — Zhou Tan had never so much as deigned to look at her properly, and Song Shixuan taking her along on this outing was plainly meant to spare Zhou Tan no face at all.

So she bowed slightly, lowering her eyes demurely. “Yes.”

Qu You, brow furrowed, was still turning over her earlier conversation with Ye Liuchun when Bo Ying suddenly laughed. “The scent of medicinal herbs — is that what made you suspicious of me?”

“No, I hadn’t thought of you at all back then,” Qu You said quietly. Perhaps because of the drug that had knocked her out earlier, her voice was a little hoarse. “Zhou Tan and I went to investigate the whereabouts of Song Shiyan’s advisor, but came up with nothing — only that he’d earned the crown prince’s trust early on, and had spent his time gathering information for him among the common people of the capital. After Song Shiyan usurped power, he made an excuse about matters still needing his attention at his residence, and didn’t follow him into the palace. I was imprisoned for a long while and lost track of the news; during that time, he likely wasn’t in the palace either.”

Bo Ying, uncharacteristically, said nothing.

“Master Shisan once said, drunk, that the two of you were close as children — that before you were even fifteen, you’d left the Bai household and come to the capital alone. After that, there were only a few letters, saying you’d found a skilled master to teach you medicine — and then even those stopped. It wasn’t until six or seven years later that Master Shisan came to the capital looking for you, but couldn’t find you, and so he took the examinations while writing verses on the side, and became quite famous,” Qu You recalled, as though lost in thought. “If you were ever short on money, why didn’t you go to him?”

“He does nothing but linger in the pleasure quarters — where would he get any money?” Bo Ying gave a scornful laugh. “I… simply never liked seeing old friends grieve over reunions. Tiresome. Troublesome.”

Qu You seemed not to have heard him at all, murmuring to herself in a daze. “No wonder… no wonder you were unwilling to see people of rank and status, even when I came looking for you myself that day — the moment you saw that cornel-embroidered robe, you were so cautious you wouldn’t even open the door. After the medicinal food shop opened, you were nowhere to be seen for days on end. Yunyue never once mentioned the medicinal food matter to Li Yuanjun, and yet she showed up at our door with uncanny precision… That chart of food incompatibilities, too — you were the one who left it, passed to her through me.”

Bo Ying said, “You’ve already decided I’m not a good person — naturally the more you think about it, the more certain you become.”

Qu You asked instead, “Then why are you here?”

Bo Ying choked for a moment. “I… I’d also like to know why I’m here…”

“Didn’t Luo Jiangting send people to abduct me today precisely to force Zhou Tan to turn to Xiao Yan for help, to have them lead troops out of the city?” Qu You gave a soft laugh. “If they leave the city and bring soldiers with them — even just ten men — given how suspicious His Majesty is, he’s certain to take offense. And then, wouldn’t the charge of attempted rebellion fall squarely and solidly on them?”

Bo Ying’s heart lurched, but nothing showed on his face; he remained perfectly composed. “What nonsense are you talking? His Majesty trusts Xiaobai and Xiao Yan so completely, how could he possibly—”

“Why haven’t you asked me how I’m so certain it was Consort Ting who had me taken?” Qu You cut him off at once, staring straight into his eyes.

The room was pitch black, the wind howling outside the window. Qu You heard Bo Ying swallow, barely audible.

She closed her eyes, unwilling to keep watching the flicker in his gaze through the darkness. “The day Consort Ting stopped His Majesty’s carriage — you were in that carriage, weren’t you? From that moment on, she began scheming carefully to drive a wedge between His Majesty and my husband. That day, when I ran into you outside the east gate — a person who isn’t free is like a crane in a cage…”

At this, Bo Ying abruptly stood up from where he sat before her. He took two steps toward the door, then seemed to catch himself, his expression darkening unreadably. “You knew… that you’d be brought here today?”

“The day that case at the Bian River broke, His Majesty and my husband argued in his study. When my husband came out, he ran into Xiao Yan and said to him, ‘These days, it seems only Zhuozhou still cares for me,'” Qu You said flatly. “That was when Consort Ting first got the idea — deciding to use the matter of military authority to make her move. But how could she possibly force His Majesty to believe such a thing? The best way would be to make it so Zhou Tan had no choice but to ask Xiao Yan for help with something — for instance, mobilizing troops out of the city, to save me.”

She smiled faintly. “A scheme to sow discord, striking at the heart first — the two of you handled it so smoothly, it can’t have been the work of a single day. You’d have needed to understand His Majesty’s mind completely, and Zhou Tan’s temperament completely. It was a desperate gamble, but as long as he stood in court and Xiao Yan stood in court, you two could never make your move.”

Outside the small window, a flash of lightning suddenly lit the room white, illuminating Bo Ying’s utterly bloodless face. He lowered his head, and after a long moment said slowly, “That day’s flogging in the courtyard, the confrontation before the throne, the words exchanged in the study — all of it, staged deliberately by the two of you.”

Qu You didn’t answer.

Bo Ying continued, “You just asked why I’m here — could it be that… there’s some reason I couldn’t possibly be here, and that’s what made you open your eyes and see me and understand everything all at once?”

“Ha ha ha…” Qu You looked at him and suddenly began to laugh softly. She laughed for a long while, the laughter carrying more sorrow than mockery, or perhaps the other way around. “First — if I were Consort Ting, I would never abduct an imperial physician His Majesty trusts deeply, just to make more trouble for myself; it’s not worth the cost. Once you have the drug, dropping him along the way partway would serve better than taking him too — wouldn’t that give Zhou Tan the perfect excuse to borrow troops? Second—”

“What’s second?”

“Second, I lied to you.”

Bo Ying froze. “What?”

Qu You went on, “I hadn’t figured it out at all — I was only testing you, bluffing. See? You just confirmed it yourself, didn’t you?”

“Ha,” Bo Ying said, raising a hand to point at her, seeming to want to say something but unable to get it out. He stumbled back a few steps, then began laughing along with her. “Ha ha ha… Youyou, we’ve known each other for years now, and you haven’t changed one bit.”

Qu You felt her hand trembling. She reached over with her other hand to grip her own wrist, forcing her breathing to steady somewhat, and when she spoke again, her voice inevitably carried a tremor. “So… when did you become the Bai family’s Eleventh Young Master?”