A drizzle fell outside the Buddha Hall, the weather gloomy. The incense from the boshan censer seemed to sink with the atmosphere, floating low in the dim hall.
Qi Shu propped her elbows as she watched Empress Dowager offer incense before the Buddha. Her fingertips, dyed with henna, toyed with the cups on the low table as she slowly asked, “Mother, with so many people in the world praying to the gods and Buddha, can the Bodhisattva truly hear every wish?”
Empress Dowager An finished offering incense and lightly chided her daughter, “Do not be disrespectful before the Buddha.”
As she returned to sit at the low table, she added, “Sincerity brings divine response.”
Qi Shu lowered her eyes, still absent-mindedly playing with the crackle-glazed porcelain cup half-filled with tea on the table. As the water rippled, the tea leaves floated along.
It was unclear whether it was the water’s pattern that was in disarray or her heart.
Empress Dowager An’s hand, which had been fingering her prayer beads, suddenly paused as she asked her daughter, “Shu’er, do you have something on your mind?”
Qi Shu withdrew her hand and rested her chin on her snow-white arms, sprawled across the table. Her sheer golden-orange gauze sleeves flowed to the ground like a blooming golden lotus. She gazed at the white jade Guanyin statue enshrined before the Buddhist altar and mumbled, “No.”
Empress Dowager An inquired, “On that day at the polo match, were both the Junior Preceptor and Young Lord Shen injured while saving you?”
Qi Shu’s cherry lips pressed together slightly: “I am a princess of Great Yin, a golden branch and jade leaf. What’s so surprising about them rushing to save me for fear I might get hurt? Besides, I had A’yu to save me.”
Empress Dowager An’s brow furrowed slightly: “Shu’er, when did you become so arrogant and disrespectful?”
Qi Shu fell silent, only plucking at the petals of a small lotus flower, no bigger than a palm, growing in a nearby porcelain pot.
Knowing her daughter well, Empress Dowager An sighed softly: “The Shen family has held high positions for generations. Although Young Lord Shen cannot compare to the Regent, he has a good reputation in court and an excellent temperament. He would be a good match for you. As for the Junior Preceptor, though he now teaches the Emperor, the Gong Sun clan of Hejian hasn’t entered official service for a hundred years. They are only renowned among scholars across the land. He ranked third in the imperial examinations at seventeen but was unwilling to take office, merely wanting to show the world that the foundation of the Hejian Gong Sun clan still exists. This man is close to the Regent, and even if he’s not as arrogant as the Regent, he has the wild spirit of a scholar, as elusive as the wind. You can’t hold onto him.”
The plucked lotus petal was completely crushed in her delicate palm. Qi Shu finally replied, “I’ll listen to you, Mother.”
As she draped the light cyan wrap over her arm and stepped out of the Buddha Hall, Empress Dowager An watched her daughter’s retreating figure and shook her head slightly. She knelt before the Guanyin statue, pressed her palms together, and softly chanted: “Buddha be merciful…”
…
The fine rain fell like powdered sugar. After leaving the Buddha Hall, Qi Shu dismissed her attendants and leaned on the railing of the palace corridor, lost in thought as she listened to the raindrops hitting the banana leaves outside the corridor.
Her first encounter with Gong Sun Yin originated from a visit to her maternal family in Hejian when she was fourteen.
After her mother became a devout Buddhist, she made a vow before Buddha to pay respects at every temple she encountered. When her maternal grandmother fell seriously ill, her mother went to the famous Guangling Temple in Hejian to pray for three months for her grandmother’s health.
Life in the temple was monotonous and austere, with no meat in the daily meals. Thinking it was for her grandmother’s well-being, she endured it.
However, being surrounded by old monks chanting sutras every day became tedious for Qi Shu. She spent most of her time exploring the temple grounds and admiring the historic sites.
At the temple’s peak stood a pavilion named the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion, said to have stood for nearly a hundred years. It was where the high monk who founded the temple had passed away. Curious, Qi Shu climbed up to see it.
Born in the gilded and jade-carved imperial palace, Qi Shu had seen the most magnificent palaces in the world. The pavilion on the mountaintop didn’t impress her much. However, a stone table in the pavilion caught her interest. It was carved with an xiangqi board and set with a partial game using black and white stone pieces the size of tea lids.
People of the time favored Go, considering xiangqi, with its implications of military confrontation, less reflective of gentlemanly virtues than Go.
Qi Shu had always been unconventional and had seen many Xiangqi game records in the Imperial Library. That day, she sat in the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion for half a day, finally figuring out how to break the deadlock, and moved a black stone piece on the board.
She had almost forgotten about it for the next two or three days. Later, out of boredom, she decided to climb up to the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion again to play against herself. To her surprise, she found that the white stone pieces on the opposite side of the stone table had also been moved, precisely the next move that should have been made after her previous breakthrough.
This was undoubtedly an unexpected delight. Qi Shu pondered the game for a long time before moving another black stone piece.
She returned that day feeling somewhat happy. The next day, when she climbed up to the pavilion again, she indeed saw that the opponent’s piece had also moved one step.
For the next half month, she would climb up to the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion once a day, just to play a game of chess with that person across space. Sometimes she would be forced by her opponent’s chess skills to spend several days figuring out how to break the deadlock. When she finally thought of a move and went to move the piece, after a day, the white pieces on the opposite side would move again.
It was then that Qi Shu suddenly had the desire to meet the person who was playing chess with her.
The next day, she climbed up to the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion early and sat there for a whole day, from sunrise to sunset, but didn’t see the other person come.
She wondered if perhaps the move she made yesterday was too tricky, and the other person hadn’t figured out how to counter it yet. Or maybe something had come up, and they couldn’t come?
Feeling utterly disappointed as she was about to descend the mountain, Qi Shu saw an old monk in a gray robe approaching, treading on the thin evening sunlight. Seeing her sitting in the pavilion, he raised his palms in a Buddhist greeting: “Amitabha.”
Qi Shu, half surprised and half inexplicably dejected, asked the old monk: “Master, have you been the one playing chess with me for the past half month?”
The old monk smiled kindly and nodded, seeing that she had already moved a piece on the stone table. He also moved a white stone piece and said with his palms together: “This old monk didn’t expect that the one playing chess with me was such a young female benefactor.”
Hearing this, Qi Shu felt relieved in her heart. Of course, only the monks in the temple would be here in Guangling Temple every day. Other pilgrims wouldn’t stay for months like her mother to worship Buddha.
The old monk’s move was tricky, and Qi Shu couldn’t figure out how to respond immediately. Seeing that it was getting late, she bid farewell to the old monk for now.
There were several paths down from the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion, leading to different main halls and guest quarters at the foot of the mountain.
Qi Shu hadn’t gone far along her usual path when she suddenly had a flash of inspiration on how to break the deadlock. She hurriedly turned back, wanting to make another move with the old monk.
The Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion was built on a lonely cliff. Before reaching the mountaintop, one could only see rugged rocks and a corner of the flying eaves hidden in the dense shadows from the stone steps below.
Qi Shu heard voices coming from the pavilion above.
“…This old monk has fulfilled Young Gong Sun’s request and let that female benefactor leave satisfied.” It was the voice of the old monk she had met earlier.
Qi Shu’s feet seemed rooted to the spot, her heart suddenly racing.
“Thank you, Master.”
The young man’s voice that followed was extremely gentle, like a spring afternoon breeze passing through a courtyard, warm yet elusive.
The old monk sighed lightly: “This old monk observes that the female benefactor is beautiful and wise, with excellent xiangqi skills. You two are brought together by a partial game of chess in this pavilion, surely there must be some connection in your destinies. Why does Young Gong Sun want to sever this bond?”
The young man laughed: “Yin is but an unrestrained person, with nothing to his name. How dare he mislead a fine lady? I hadn’t realized earlier that the one playing chess with me was a young woman.”
Qi Shu couldn’t hear clearly what else the young man and the old monk said. As they were leaving, she and her accompanying palace maid hid behind some strange rocks. Only after the two had walked far away did she dare to take a peek at the man who had been in the pavilion.
The setting sun blazed like fire, half the mountain bathed in red. The young man walking alongside the old monk wore a robe as white as snow, his wide sleeves catching the wind. In the sunlight, he looked like an immortal.
Qi Shu stared at that retreating figure, her heart beating faster than ever before-
The old monk called him Young Gong Sun, and he referred to himself as Yin.
In Hejian, finding someone with the surname Gong Sun was not difficult.
The Gong Sun family of Hejian was a century-old prestigious clan. Although family members hadn’t entered official service for a hundred years, the Gong Sun clan was still one of the top two great clans in Hejian. The Luyan Academy they founded could even rival the Songshan Academy, known as the first academy in the world.
Qi Shu quickly found out who Gong Sun Yin was – the eldest grandson of the Hejian Gong Sun clan’s main line. The old madam of the Gong Sun family would come to Guangling Temple to worship Buddha for over a month every March, and he had come along with his grandmother this time.
Empress Dowager An had always kept a low profile. When she entered the temple to worship Buddha, she didn’t have the abbot close the mountain to other pilgrims and even discussed Buddhist teachings with Madam Gong Sun.
Although Qi Shu hadn’t formally met Gong Sun Yin yet, she had heard many rumors about him.
It was said that he was exceptionally gifted from a young age, beginning his education at three, mastering the Four Books and Five Classics by five, and being able to compose poetry spontaneously by seven. He was called a sage of Hejian.
Qi Shu had also sought out and studied those poems and essays of his that were widely praised. The more she learned about these, the more she wanted to meet him.
In her hazy feelings, she had fallen in love with the person who played chess with her.
Now this shadowy figure was becoming clearer, and she knew his name was Gong Sun Yin.
He probably didn’t know what she looked like either. That day in the pavilion, he had only seen a woman’s back from afar before leaving, then asked the temple monk to meet her instead-
A month later, Luyan Academy opened for the new term. Qi Shu asked her mother for permission to return to her maternal grandfather’s home. Empress Dowager An knew her daughter was restless by nature and had already done well to keep her on the mountain for a month, so she agreed to let her return to the An family.
However, Qi Shu didn’t stay obediently at the An family home. The An Prefecture Governor had a good-for-nothing son named An Xu. He wasn’t inherently bad and hadn’t committed any major wrongdoings, but he spent his days cockfighting and dog racing, learning nothing of value. The Prefecture Governor had to swallow his pride to secure a place for his son at Luyan Academy, but his son only thought about skipping classes.
When Qi Shu heard that Gong Sun Yin was also at Luyan Academy, she came up with a plan and arranged an identity swap with her irresponsible cousin.
She dressed as a man to attend Luyan Academy in An Xu’s place, while An Xu pretended she had gone to play at a country estate, helping her deal with the An family and Empress Dowager An’s people.
Although Qi Shu was skilled in xiangqi, she paled in comparison to those hardworking students when it came to poetry and prose. Fortunately, An Xu was known to be a fool, so she could barely pass the entrance test.
All students at Luyan Academy lived on campus, mostly two to a room. With enough money, one could have a single room. Qi Shu, of course, didn’t skimp on her money and successfully secured an independent room for herself.
All academy students were divided into three teaching areas: “Outer Hall,” “Inner Hall,” and “Upper Hall.”
Perhaps because the Prefecture Governor had informed the academy’s teachers, An Xu, despite being completely ignorant, was arranged into the “Upper Hall.”
Most of the students here were proud individuals who generally didn’t have good attitudes towards those who entered through family influence or money. On Qi Shu’s first day of classes, she received quite a few scornful looks.
Qi Shu didn’t mind, scanning the room only to find the figure she had seen at the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion that day.
But after looking through the entire classroom, she didn’t see a similar figure. Qi Shu immediately frowned.
A chubby son of a rich merchant, who like An Xu had been pushed into the academy, was arranged to sit next to Qi Shu. The little fatty thought they were of the same ilk. Seeing Qi Shu looking around privately, he poked her arm with his brush handle: “Brother An, what are you looking at?”
Qi Shu said, “I heard… the eldest grandson of the Gong Sun family, known as the sage of Hejian, is also in the Upper Hall. Why haven’t I seen him?”
The little fatty stuck his head under the desk to take a bite of the chicken leg he had brought from the dining hall in the morning, then explained to Qi Shu with his mouth full of oil: “You mean Young Master Yin? The students in the academy all call him ‘Little Teacher.’ The academy’s principal is his grand-uncle, and his scholarship is no less than many teachers in the academy. The next class is Teacher Han’s, he’s probably been called by Teacher Han to help grade assignments.”
Sure enough, when the old man struck the bell hanging on the locust tree in the courtyard, all the students in the classroom sat up straight. Even the little fatty didn’t dare to nibble on the chicken leg hidden in his desk.
Qi Shu saw that outside the wide-open door, the locust flowers in March were blown wildly under the corridor. Walking behind a stern-looking old man was a young man whose white robe was coated with a layer of pale golden sunlight. He was carrying a stack of thick scrolls, his fingers long and slender with distinct tendons. His eyebrows were clear, the corners of his mouth slightly raised as if carrying a hint of a smile.
Qi Shu stared, feeling her heart skip a beat.
The person who had played nearly a month of chess with her at the Wind and Rain Corridor Pavilion to finish that partial game, was this what he looked like?
Perhaps her gaze was too intense. After entering the classroom, Gong Sun Yin’s warm, spring-like gaze swept over her direction. His eyes paused for a moment, his brow imperceptibly furrowing, before he nonchalantly moved his gaze away.
The little fatty whispered to Qi Shu: “Don’t be fooled by Little Teacher’s gentle and kind appearance. He treats everyone with a smile, but when it comes to grading assignments, he’s even stricter than the teachers. If you get a ‘D’ grade, you’re in for it!”
Just as the little fatty finished speaking, they heard the stern-faced teacher declare, “I have finished grading the entrance exam papers. Anyone who received a ‘D’ grade must copy the ‘School Rules’ twenty times in the Imperial Scribe’s Office after the next term!”
As he spoke, he picked up a paper from the top of the stack and, lifting his head, his expression became even more severe. “An Xu, ‘D’ grade!”