The Emperor slowly opened his eyes.
“Li Yuangui, where is Lady Zhen?” he asked in a murmur after a moment.
“The Imperial Grandson has been at Your Majesty’s sickbed, refusing to leave. The Imperial Tutor brought Lady Zhen into the palace, and she has been caring for His Highness these past few days.”
“Go and summon Lady Zhen,” the Emperor said.
…
Jiafu had been in the palace for several days, accompanying Ci’er.
During the day, Ci’er had been keeping watch at his grandfather’s sickbed, refusing to leave even half a step. Only at nightfall was he finally brought back by Jiafu. Now he had fallen into deep sleep, but even in his dreams, one hand still clutched Jiafu’s, unwilling to let go.
These three years, Jiafu had dreamed of holding her son like this again, accompanying him to sleep. Now that her wish was finally granted, she hadn’t expected it to be under such circumstances. How could she possibly sleep? She held her son’s soft little hand that was curled around her finger, gazing at his sleeping face until deep into the night. In a hazy state between sleep and wakefulness, she suddenly heard Cui Yinshui’s soft call from outside the curtain. She immediately awakened, gently got out of bed, went to the outer chamber, and learned that the Emperor had just regained consciousness and had suddenly summoned her. After changing her clothes, she hurried to the Hall of Chenguang. Entering, she saw that the Emperor, who had been in a coma for many days with only a few brief moments of consciousness, was now clothed and sitting up in bed. Though his face showed the ravages of illness, his eyes were extremely clear, and his spirit was unusually good as if he had already begun to recover from his grave illness.
Jiafu felt an ominous premonition pass through her heart. She stepped forward, knelt before the bed, and kowtowed in greeting with the propriety of a subject’s wife. After a moment, she heard a voice from above saying, “Lady Zhen, are you, like You’an, still unwilling to call me Father Emperor?”
Jiafu was slightly startled and raised her head to see the Emperor’s eyes looking at her.
Jiafu’s heart was in turmoil. As she hesitated, she suddenly saw the Emperor smile slightly, a smile that seemed to carry a hint of self-mockery: “You may rise. Never mind, I know that not everyone desires this throne or the world. Because of me, you and Ci’er, though mother and son by birth, cannot meet as mother and son. That you don’t hate me is already a comfort to me…”
The Emperor suddenly began to cough, and Li Yuangui hurriedly stepped forward to pat his back.
The Emperor gradually stopped coughing, but his breathing remained unusually rapid.
Jiafu rose from the ground, picked up a cup of warm medicine from nearby, and offered it to him.
The Emperor shook his head and pushed the medicine away. When his breathing had somewhat calmed, he stared ahead, lost in thought for a moment.
“Lady Zhen, I called you here for no other reason than that I just had a dream—I dreamed of some youthful memories… I simply wanted to find someone to talk to…”
“I sit possessed of the world, rich with all within the four seas, yet now, approaching death, I cannot find even one person with whom I can speak. Just now, I remembered the clothes you presented to me on my fiftieth birthday. Though I never wore them even once, I deeply appreciated your sentiment…”
“If Your Majesty has something to say, please instruct me,” Jiafu said softly, suppressing the sadness welling up in her heart.
“Lady Zhen, do you know why I insisted on establishing Ci’er as Emperor?” the Emperor suddenly asked after a moment.
Jiafu looked at the Emperor on the sick bed.
“In my youth, through a twist of fate, I forever lost the one I loved, and later made a grave mistake that could never be remedied. No matter how You’an views it, in my eyes, this throne is the greatest compensation I can offer.”
“I was born into the imperial family. In this lifetime, I have experienced brothers killing each other, fathers and sons forcing each other, and relatives harboring different intentions. I know he is ashamed of his birth, but the imperial blood flowing in his veins is beyond question, and this is the source of all sins.”
“Since the misfortune of being born as my, Xiao Lie’s, son, then in this life, there is only the path to the summit.”
“In this life, I have wronged many people. With this arrangement of mine, whether it brings fortune or disaster in the future, I dare not predict.”
“There are few things in this world that satisfy everyone. Being born into the imperial family means making the world bow at your feet!”
“To hold the butcher’s knife and slaughter others, rather than to wait on the chopping block!”
“In my view, this is the only way to ensure a long life!”
The Emperor finished speaking in one breath, gasped again, and seemed to have lost all his energy. His shoulders suddenly collapsed, and he fell backward, caught by Li Yuangui, who helped him lie back down slowly.
“All I wanted to say has been said. You may go now, take good care of Ci’er—” the Emperor said softly after a while, with his eyes closed.
Jiafu slowly knelt, kowtowed, rose, and withdrew. As she crossed the threshold of the hall and walked a few steps, she turned her head to look at the deep silhouette of the palace building outlined by the night, and tears were already streaming down her face.
…
Though it was the Lantern Festival that night, because of the Emperor’s condition, there were still secretariat officials on night duty at the Eastern Pavilion.
Tonight, besides Pei You’an, Zhang Shiyong and Lu Xiang were also on duty. The two were discussing the Emperor’s condition in low voices.
“May His Majesty be blessed by heaven; surely he will turn misfortune into good fortune this time…”
“Master Pei, you are also skilled in medicine, do you have any method? Master Pei?”
The two did not hear Pei You’an’s response. Turning their heads, they saw his figure step out of the Eastern Pavilion and disappear beyond the door.
Pei You’an came out of the Eastern Pavilion and stopped in the night.
A high palace wall divided the inside and outside into two different worlds. Outside the wall was the Lantern Festival with its trees of fire and silver flowers; inside were the deep palace gardens with layered shadows. A few palace lanterns swayed slightly in the night breeze, casting dim, moving shadows on the ground, adding to the solitude and desolation.
Pei You’an tilted his head slightly, gazing absently at the brilliant night sky beyond the distant palace walls. After a moment, he walked forward, finally stopping before the closed palace gate outside the Hall of Chenguang.
He stood there for a long time, but eventually turned and slowly walked away.
When Jiafu returned, Ci’er was still in deep sleep. She lay down beside the bed in her clothes, thinking about the Emperor’s summons earlier.
She knew clearly that this was the final scene.
Those words, perhaps the Emperor had originally wanted to say to Pei You’an, or as he said, he simply wanted to find someone to talk to.
She closed her eyes and meditated for a moment, but finally got up, opened the door intending to call Cui Yinshui to go to the Eastern Pavilion to invite Pei You’an, when she saw a figure standing at the bottom of the steps.
The bright moon of the Lantern Festival hung high in the clear sky, and the man’s silhouette was faint, his face like moonlight.
Pei You’an had come.
Jiafu quickly went out to meet him, grasped his cool hand, and led him in.
Pei You’an sat at the bedside, looking at the sleeping Ci’er. After a moment, he quietly rose and left. Jiafu followed him out, accompanying him to the door. He embraced her and smiled, saying, “I suddenly missed you all just now, so I came over. I should return to the Eastern Pavilion now. You go back to sleep.”
Jiafu encircled his waist with her arms and looked up at his face. “Elder Cousin, the Emperor summoned me earlier and said a few things…”
Jiafu repeated everything, and finally said, “The Emperor did not ask me to relay this to you, but I think in his heart, he still hoped you would know.”
Pei You’an was silent for a moment, kissed her, and said softly, “I should go now. You go back to sleep.”
…
“Ajing… I’ve been a wretched man all my life…”
“I made my grandson Emperor, I don’t know if that pleases you. If you don’t like it, when you see me, you can just scold me…”
“Ajing, if time could be turned back, I would have early on asked Father Emperor for your hand in marriage, to make you my wife…”
Xiao Lie murmured to himself, the hand holding the jade pendant gripping tighter and tighter. His gaze fell on the dimness above the hall ceiling where the candlelight could not reach as if he could see through it to the boundless void beyond.
“Whoosh—”
A column of burning fireworks shot up from the direction of the lantern market, soaring into the air and blooming into a huge, brilliant firework that illuminated almost half the night sky over the eastern imperial city.
The fireworks gradually extinguished, dissipating into the night.
“Imperial physician—imperial physician—save the Emperor—”
A sudden, shrill cry broke the deathly silence of the imperial palace.
The group of imperial physicians led by Hu, who was waiting outside the Hall of Chenguang, hurried in upon hearing the cry.
When Zhang Shiyong and Lu Xiang were urgently summoned from the Eastern Pavilion to the Hall of Chenguang, they saw a figure already standing outside the hall.
The man stood straight but thin, standing there motionless—it was the Imperial Grandson’s tutor, Pei You’an.
Soon, officials such as He Gongpu and Liu Jiushao received the news and also arrived outside the hall one after another.
“Summon Pei You’an, Zhang Shiyong, Liu Jiushao for an audience…” a palace attendant came out hurriedly, drawing out his voice, announcing the imperial edict.
Zhang and Liu followed Pei You’an inside. In the depths of the inner hall, on the dragon bed, they saw the Emperor lying face up, seemingly unable to speak, his eyes half-open and half-closed, neither asleep nor awake. Beside him, a row of imperial physicians knelt on the ground. Li Yuangui stood at the foot of the bed holding the imperial edict, his face filled with sorrow.
“Pei You’an, Zhang Shiyong, Liu Jiushao, hear the edict—”
Li Yuangui stepped forward and proclaimed.
Zhang and Liu immediately followed Pei You’an, who was in front of them, kneeling and prostrating themselves on the ground.
The Emperor, knowing his end was near, decreed that after his departure, the Imperial Grandson would succeed to the throne. All funeral rites should be simplified, with days substituting for months. The subjects throughout the empire could remove their mourning clothes after twenty-seven days, and marriages would not be restricted. The concubines left behind in the harem would be exempted from burial with him and would be properly cared for. Before the young Emperor assumed personal rule, Pei You’an would serve as the regent minister, overseeing all internal and external state affairs. Zhang and Liu would be conferred the honorific titles of Supreme Pillar of State to jointly assist in court affairs.
Zhang and Liu, tears streaming down their faces, kowtowed in acceptance after Pei You’an.
On the dragon bed, the Emperor still lay with his eyes closed, motionless.
“Gentlemen, the imperial will has been conveyed. The edict has been received. You may withdraw now!”
Zhang and Liu held the imperial edict with both hands, weeping as they retreated with bowed bodies.
Pei You’an also rose from the ground, his steps unusually heavy, and slowly retreated to the entrance of the hall. There he stopped and slowly turned his head.
Xiao Lie on the dragon bed had somehow opened his eyes and turned his face outward.
The palace candles flickered, and the Emperor’s gaze followed Pei You’an’s back, his eyes sluggish and unmoving.
Pei You’an’s figure froze for a moment, then he suddenly turned around and quickly returned to the dragon bed.
Under the watchful eyes of Zhang and Liu behind him, he knelt before Xiao Lie again, perfectly proper, and performed a formal kowtow.
His forehead touched the ground, and he remained prostrated like that for a long time, his figure unmoving.
At that moment, in the Emperor’s eyes appeared a look of relief and release that had never been seen before in all his years.
He gazed steadily at the figure kneeling before his bed, a faint, almost imperceptible smile appearing at the corners of his lips. He exhaled a long breath and slowly closed his eyes.