Just like that, Jiang Hanyuan was led back to the bedchamber by the man beside her.
He ordered all the night-duty palace servants in the courtyard to disperse, closed the door, walked before her, and raised his hands to remove the cloak he had just draped over her. He smiled, using a tone of fond reproach, complaining softly: “You’re not a child anymore, yet you act like a baby, not sleeping in the middle of the night and running around outside. Didn’t you see the fierce wind and urgent rain outside?”
After removing the cloak, he took a cloth to carefully wipe the rainwater that had splashed on her face and neck.
Jiang Hanyuan stood motionless.
“Why do such things?”
She stared at the nonchalant, smiling face before her and asked.
He raised his eyes to look at her once, didn’t answer, his hand still continuing to wipe her face. She raised her hand and pushed him away forcefully.
“I heard what you said to Liu Xiang! Why treat Wu Sheng this way?”
“He’s just a monk—what crime has he committed?”
He gazed into her eyes that flickered with hidden anger for a moment, and the smile on his face slowly disappeared.
“Isn’t he a Buddhist monk?” he snorted lightly, also throwing down the cloth in his hand.
“They say that at such a young age, he has comprehended the great way and is an enlightened high monk? What is he doing staying in a stone cave? Wouldn’t it be better to send him to a place where he should go, to do what monks should do?”
Jiang Hanyuan was extremely angry: “How nicely put! Then surveillance, keeping watch over him, taking away his freedom, making life worse than death for him, isn’t that right? I know your methods all too well! This is what you call the place where he should go? Moreover, he’s already nearly dying on the road you sent him down!”
He didn’t deny it either. His lips were tightly closed, his gaze falling on her face as if examining and scrutinizing her.
After a moment, he said indifferently: “Since he is a person who has left the secular world, he should know that all retributions arise from karma. If he truly dies, it is his fate.”
Jiang Hanyuan’s hands were already trembling uncontrollably. Looking at this man before her, who was as cold as a stranger, she could hardly believe that just moments before tonight, she had been intimately entwined with him. She was bewitched by him, secretly conflicted about their approaching separation, infinitely melancholy, and even—for the first time in her life—she had begun to waver about her future aspirations. She had started considering whether she could truly bind her remaining life to this man.
Now looking at him again, seeing this familiar yet suddenly utterly strange face, she suddenly thought of her mother, thought of that Eldest Princess who remained high and mighty in the imperial city and perhaps always would be, remembered that he was not just Shu Shenhui either.
She had been deceived by the tenderness he showed her, forgetting that he, too, was a member of the imperial family. That cruelty of treating human lives like grass was the innate common trait flowing in their so-called noble bloodline. And he would only be more cruel than others. She had witnessed this with her own eyes when she first came to the capital alone to investigate him.
She had simply lost her head and forgotten.
She had already clenched her hands tightly into fists, but finally slowly loosened them.
“Then what crime exactly did he commit, how did he offend you, that you would inflict such punishment on him?”
She struggled to control her emotions and asked again.
She couldn’t understand. Really couldn’t understand.
His lips remained tightly closed. Just when she thought he might not answer, she suddenly heard him ask: “On the night before you left Yunluo City to depart for Chang’an at the beginning of the year, what did you do?”
Jiang Hanyuan didn’t understand the meaning of his question at first. She stared fixedly at his eyes. These eyes appeared calm, yet seemed to reveal some unfathomable quality she couldn’t understand. She knew that since he had asked such a question, it was impossible that he would be as calm as his tone sounded.
She continued looking at him, and suddenly, as if enlightened by a revelation.
“What do you mean? You can’t possibly think I had improper relations with Wu Sheng?”
He said nothing, only looked at her.
Jiang Hanyuan felt as if there were thorns on her back, her face flushing hot from the misunderstanding imposed upon her. She immediately said: “You’ve misunderstood! The night before departing, I did indeed spend the night at his place. But I swear, there was absolutely nothing like what you’re thinking! He is my friend! I admit, at that time, my heart was somewhat disturbed because of the approaching marriage. He is a wise person—his counsel and sutra chanting could bring peace to my heart. So whenever I went to Yunluo, I would seek him out. I went that night too. Nothing happened! Just like always, I spoke a few words of my heart’s troubles to him, he chanted sutras for me to hear, and I fell asleep. When I awoke, before dawn, I left. That’s what happened! And in these past few years, that’s the entirety of my relationship with him!”
He remained silent. She thought she had explained clearly. But the look in his eyes as he gazed at her—not only could she see no hint of softening, but somehow it seemed even more somber.
Her heart beat violently. “Why do you look at me like this? Don’t you believe me? If you insist on misunderstanding, imposing your imagination upon me, deciding I’m a dissolute person and humiliating me, then so be it—I accept it. But he is not! He is different from worldly people. He is proficient in Buddhist teachings, with lofty wisdom. He was born to save people. His nature is simple and pure, without the slightest personal desire. In these years living at Moya Mountain, he has practiced asceticism day and night, devoted himself to translating sutras. He treats the townspeople’s illnesses, relieving their suffering. He is not the kind of person you think he is!”
After she finished speaking, seeing his eyes flicker, he laughed sarcastically, as if her words were some kind of joke.
“Si Si, my Si Si,” he called her name twice, using a very strange tone.
“So in your heart, there is also such a highly regarded person? He has become a saint? Only when he counsels and chants sutras can you find peace? What a pity—”
Jiang Hanyuan grabbed his arm, interrupting his mockery.
“I only regard him as a friend! What must I do for you to believe me? Where exactly did you send him? He’s already so sick he’s nearly dying. Believe me, spare him, please. If there’s truly any fault, it’s mine. I was the one who brought him to Yunluo, I was the one who sought him out to talk, and asked him to chant sutras for me. How innocent he is!”
Shu Shenhui’s gaze moved from her hand tightly gripping his arm, to her face full of anxiety and worry.
He looked at her for a moment, then said slowly: “Si Si, I can believe what you tell me. But that monk—I tell you, he is not innocent.”
“If he were truly as you say, without any selfish motives, when you saved him after his return from the west and his injuries healed, he should have accepted the invitation from Huguo Temple and gone to Chang’an, the capital of our Great Wei. That place is most suitable for him to preach the dharma. Only in Chang’an can his voice spread to more and farther places. Even for translating sutras, only in Chang’an, which gathers the manpower and resources of the entire realm, could he obtain more assistants and conveniences! Don’t tell me he didn’t know this! He is the last disciple of the Western Region high monk Dongfa. When Dongfa came to the Central Plains, the place he chose to settle was Luoyang, the former capital of the Jin state. It was there that Dongfa was able to translate sutras extensively, expound Buddhist principles, and save all beings. Now this proud disciple of Dongfa—if he were truly as you say, a person devoted entirely to the dharma, would he not know where he should go now? Yet he deliberately chose not to, stopping in that kind of wilderness stone cave, staying for years. If not for you, then for whom? And you tell me he has not the slightest selfish motive? Only you would be so naive and ignorant as to be deceived by him!”
“You are now the Princess Consort of Great Wei’s Regent Prince. I tell you, even if he had no other crimes, this alone is sufficient! Claiming to have left secular life, yet his six roots are impure! How could I allow him to remain by your side, deceiving you and sullying your reputation?”
He paused, his tone becoming cold again.
“Let it be so. This is the best arrangement I can make for him. If he’s truly, as you say, a high monk saving people, where in the world can he not save people? Must it only be in that Yunluo City?”
That he would judge Wu Sheng as such a despicable person made Jiang Hanyuan’s scalp tingle with anger. The fury she had barely suppressed moments before surged up again, no longer containable.
“Shu Shenhui!” she called angrily, directly using his name. “You’re completely judging others by your standards! Where exactly did you send him? He’s about to die!”
He stood there, looking at her coldly, saying nothing.
Jiang Hanyuan gritted her teeth, clenching her fists tightly again, her knuckles cracking.
He glanced at her. “What, calling me by name isn’t enough—you want to fight me too?” After saying this, he pointed his chin toward the west side of the hall. “My sword is right there. Go get it.”
Jiang Hanyuan closed her eyes, took a breath, and suddenly turned and walked outside.
“Stop!”
His shout came from behind.
“Where are you going? To find Liu Xiang again? I tell you, forget about Liu Xiang not having the courage—even if he did and told you, if you dare go, I’ll immediately take that Wu Sheng’s life!”
Along with the words behind her, lightning flashed across the window, followed immediately by thunder exploding over the rear mountain peaks, shaking the window frames with tremors as torrential rain pounded urgently against the windows.
Jiang Hanyuan stopped, stood for a moment, and slowly turned her head to look at the man who shared her pillow.
In his eyes, she could no longer see half a trace of past tenderness. At this moment, those eyes contained only cold contempt.
Jiang Hanyuan knew he was telling the truth.
She listened to the thunderous sounds overhead that suppressed all things, looked at this person before her who held the power of life and death over the world, and the anger in her heart slowly transformed into ice-cold calm.
She stood transfixed for a long time, then turned back, walked before him, and under his shocked gaze, slowly fell to her knees, kowtowing to the ground.
After kowtowing, she straightened up, still kneeling, and raised her eyes.
“Your Highness, if you truly cannot spare him, I beg you to give word that your people should try not to mistreat him, to properly treat his illness, and spare his life. He shouldn’t die like this. He is only my friend—so he was before, and so he will be in the future.”
She looked into the eyes of this man standing before her and spoke word by word.
“You hold power over life and death, treating human lives like ants. I am different. I am an inauspicious person—my mother died because of me. I don’t want my only friend to now also suffer punishment because of me and die like this.”
“I, Jiang Hanyuan, swear by tonight’s thunder that I will never again seek out Wu Sheng. I also swear that for the remainder of my life, whether long or short, and regardless of where I may be in the future, having been the Princess Consort of the Regent Prince, even if I lose this status one day, I would rather die alone than ever do anything that would bring shame to this title!”
“I am a soldier. If I violate this oath, let me die in battle, my head separated from my body, just like—”
She suddenly rose from the ground, walked to the desk on the west side of the hall, grasped his sword resting on its stand, drew it out in one motion, grabbed her long hair with her other hand, and swung the sword to cut it off at shoulder length.
Her sword stroke was as swift as the lightning outside the window. By the time Shu Shenhui caught up, the sword had reached her hairline. He had no time to snatch the sword from her hand and forcibly gripped the blade with his bare hand, barely managing to stop the sword’s momentum.
Several strands of her long hair were cut by the blade edge, slowly floating down. Then, dark red blood quickly seeped from between the fingers gripping the sword, dripping onto her shoulder.
Jiang Hanyuan was startled and quickly looked up, meeting his tightly furrowed brow. Knowing his palm had been cut by the blade, she momentarily forgot everything else and stepped forward to rush out and call for wound medicine, but heard a voice behind her say: “I won’t die!”
She stopped and turned back, only to see him clang as he threw down the sword, tore a corner from his white silk inner garment, wrapped it around his bleeding palm in two or three movements, then stared at her. After looking at her darkly for a long time, he suddenly said coldly: “Do you know exactly what kind of person he is—this person for whom you can humble yourself before me to such a desperate degree?”