Chang Zhao raised the candlestick in his hand and paced slowly, making his way into the depths of the Zhuque Bureau’s prison cells.
He had been coming often of late, and everyone knew it. Yuanming, who stood holding his sword in silence, cast him a glance, then finally said nothing and lowered his head, departing together with the others.
Su Shiyu lay face down on a heap of straw, and felt the faint cool brush of silk fabric against his cheek, followed by the arrival of a scent — a bittersweet fragrance of medicinal herbs.
This medicinal scent was not merely the astringent smell of herbs alone, but was mingled with costly incense — a strange yet not jarring combination.
He had begun to notice this scent a long time ago. Su Shiyu had attended on his ailing adoptive father Su Zhoudao for many years, even more closely than Luowei had, and was consequently very attuned to medicines. From the very first time Chang Zhao had come by imperial order to the Su family residence to see him, Su Shiyu had noticed that this man had been taking medicine for a long time.
Though Chang Zhao appeared somewhat pale, his build was tall and upright, and the arm strength he had shown with a single arrow at the Mochun Tournament grounds still held — clearly it was no deep-rooted ailment that had invaded his muscles and bones. What illness, then, required him to take medicine continuously, and heavy medicine at that?
Now, even amidst the thick, stale smell of blood in this grim place, that scent was still so distinctly clear.
Chang Zhao set the candlestick down on the ground at one step’s distance from him, sat down with casual ease, and idly raked his fingers through the bloodstained straw before him. “Do you know why he established the Zhuque Bureau?”
Su Shiyu did not reply. Chang Zhao continued on his own, “Whether it was me or Ye Tingyan — the reason we could be put to such use by him was because of that single arrow at the Mochun Tournament grounds. Before that, we had both guessed: before His Majesty assumed personal rule, he would certainly establish within the forbidden city a directly subordinate institution like the Imperial City Bureau, tightly grasped in his own hands, to serve as his sharpest blade.”
“This is something he learned from the history books — a sovereign must have such a fierce watchdog to keep watch over the forbidden grounds and supervise all officials. He needed someone who was both learned and skilled in martial arts, who appeared no different from court officials on the outside, yet who had both means and capability on the inside — someone to hold the Zhuque Bureau for him and handle everything that could not be processed through the Ministry of Justice or the Court of Judicial Review. Of course, he studied the lesson very thoroughly: such a place is extremely dangerous, so naturally one person cannot be allowed to oversee it indefinitely. And so — before the Empress and the Grand Preceptor it was Ye Tingyan, and afterwards it became me.”
“He stripped the Grand Preceptor of his chancellery power, seized the Empress’s authority, hollowed out the Six Ministries, and took direct control of the Imperial Guards. Before long he would be able to gather all power into his own hands. All of this had been planned from the moment he ascended the throne — so long as the Empress and Yu Qiushi kept fighting to the death, the ultimate beneficiary was always going to be him.”
He had said all this in one breath, and only then did Su Shiyu laboriously lift his eyes and send him a glance.
Chang Zhao let out a sigh, took out a handkerchief, and moved to wipe some of the blood from his face. Su Shiyu turned his head to one side and refused the gesture.
Chang Zhao took no offense, and continued, “Since the Grand Preceptor must die, the most vulnerable point in his consolidation of power is this Zhuque Bureau. I have spoken of this with your sister and with Ye Tingyan — what is his weakness? Though he has mastered Yu Qiushi’s full measure of political skill and the Empress’s every means of calculation, the one thing he does not know how to do is win people’s hearts. A place like the Zhuque Bureau absolutely requires agents who will fight to the death for him — so guess for yourself: how many people in here would truly die for him?”
Su Shiyu coughed, forcing down the tainted blood that surged in his throat, and said in a hoarse voice, “What is the point of telling me all this?”
“I want to tell you that what your sister and I are doing is no different. Does it truly matter that much whether we are of the same path?” Chang Zhao said slowly. “I also want to tell you — though I can see Song Lan’s weakness, I can see my own as well, the difference being that he is entirely without self-awareness, while I, even knowing, do not understand how to address it. For instance — before yesterday, I had truly not been guarding against you. I wanted to regard you as a true and trusted friend. Why did you do this? Can it be that everything you said before was a lie?”
On the morning after that early court session, Su Shiyu had submitted a memorial and gone to Qianfang Hall.
Chang Zhao had left the palace early that morning, but after midday he was quietly escorted by the Yan brothers with Imperial Guards to the rear hall of Qianfang Hall. As he approached the hall entrance, he heard Su Shiyu’s characteristically cool, even voice: “…Your servant and Lord Chang shared the same bed. In the night, when I woke from the wine and got up to fetch water, I suddenly noticed at his neck the seam where a skin-like mask was joined. These past days, your servant has been mindful of this matter, lying awake in thought, and has also heard the news that the entire Chang family was killed in an assault years ago, with him alone surviving.”
“And so your servant entrusted an old friend in Yanzhou to look into the matter, and discovered that the wet nurse he had sent back there had actually survived against all odds. She identified him as not being Chang Zhao. Your servant has already had someone bring her to the capital — she traveled ahead by swift horse, sending back a portrait she had drawn. If Your Majesty summons Lord Chang here and removes his mask, one look will confirm the truth.”
Chang Zhao raised a hand and touched the scar at his neck, unable to suppress a derisive snort.
Su Shiyu turned to look at him, his gaze flickering before finally settling into calm. Song Lan was curled in his golden throne, his expression unreadable — it was impossible to tell whether he was displeased. He only said, “Ping Nian — Su Aiqing has spoken. Do you acknowledge this?”
Chang Zhao walked forward and knelt, his face blank. “Your servant cannot acknowledge it.”
Song Lan then summoned the imperial physician, who carefully removed his disguise. Su Shiyu could not read his expression, but seeing his look of absolute composure, the hand hidden within his wide sleeves still trembled uncontrollably.
In the end, when the physician lifted away his mask, Su Shiyu held his breath and turned to look — and saw a face so covered in scars it was nearly beyond recognition.
Chang Zhao immediately prostrated himself, burying that face against the ground. “Your Majesty, your servant’s face was destroyed in the assassination attempt of those years. To wear a false face was an act of necessity. A gentleman is expected to maintain dignified bearing; for your servant to enter government service in such a disfigured state would have inevitably invited ridicule. It was out of this helpless circumstance that he resorted to this stratagem. The crime of deceiving the Emperor is one your servant cannot avoid even in ten thousand deaths — yet the claim made by Deputy Minister Su is utterly absurd!”
Su Shiyu gripped the hem of his robe with all his strength and said nothing.
In the instant he had seen that face, he understood: the scheme was finished. There was nothing more to say.
“Deputy Minister Su is a close kinsman of the Empress. In these recent days he has falsely befriended your servant, all in order to lay this deadly trap and eliminate a trusted aide of His Majesty! The wet nurse your servant sent back long ago passed away from illness last year — a funeral rite was even held for her in Yanzhou. Where has Deputy Minister Su found this person he speaks of? And on what basis does he make accusations with a mere portrait? Your servant implores His Majesty to bring the person named by Deputy Minister Su into the palace without fail, to restore your servant’s innocence!”
The reason Song Lan had sent Su Shiyu to the Zhuque Bureau for the time being, rather than executing him outright, was precisely because of this “surviving wet nurse” Su Shiyu had mentioned.
But both men knew full well: once they left Qianfang Hall today, that “wet nurse” could never, under any circumstances, appear.
Su Shiyu gave a low laugh, and blood frothed at the corner of his lips.
After entering the Zhuque Bureau he had undergone severe punishment. His pale white outer robe had been soaked through with blood, and he could only lie face down on the straw. The straw was quite damp, with a faint moldy smell — perhaps because of the consecutive days of early spring cold.
Chang Zhao looked only for a moment before averting his gaze. “Shiyu — you wanted to rid your sister of me. Were you not being too hasty? You falsely befriended me for two or three months, and then in the few days before the wet nurse was to arrive in the city, how could you not hold back? Ah — you were afraid that by the time she arrived I would have noticed something amiss, weren’t you? You see, in truth you knew full well she could never enter the city gates of the capital. You wanted to catch me off guard, but what a pity, what a pity—”
Su Shiyu said haltingly, “Having him… harbor a little suspicion of you… would also be… worthwhile…”
Cold sweat dripped onto the back of Chang Zhao’s hand. His brow furrowed faintly, and he shed the earlier tone of grievous sorrow from his voice. “In truth, you formed this intention from the very first time you met me, did you not? At Fengle Tower, the Empress staged a scene with you. After getting deeply drunk, you feigned sincerity and poured out all those confessions. And I actually believed those complaints of yours about feeling unrecognized — I wanted to be open with you. Yet you only ever wanted to see me dead. Deputy Minister Su — have the things you said to me never crossed your own mind? Are you truly content to be nothing more than a dog for the Empress and the Su family?”
As he spoke, his voice grew louder toward the end, almost losing composure.
Su Shiyu, seeing him like this, let out a labored laugh. “What difference is there between what you and we are doing? There is no need to dress yourself up… so grandly. No need… to keep pretending in front of me.”
Perhaps because the wounds were hurting severely, after forcing out these words with the last of his strength, he drifted for a long moment before murmuring to himself in a faint, disordered voice. “Father pulled me from the rainstorm and saved my life, and spent so many years raising and teaching me with care… Luowei has always treated me as her elder brother, never once looking down on me… Even if such thoughts crossed my mind, what of it? I have always known I am an ordinary person without great gifts. Back in those days… sending her to Xuzhou in my stead… I have never once regretted it. I have no outstanding ambitions. If I could drag you down with me to death, it would simply be… it would be… but…”
By the end, he grew so confused that his words were incoherent. Chang Zhao listened to every word of it, his eyes turning red — and then he threw back his head and burst into wild laughter.
“Ha ha ha… A fine bond of friendship! A true gentleman!”
When the laughter died, he flung the handkerchief onto Su Shiyu’s face, rose to his feet, and looked down from his full height. “Since you are this way, do not blame me for having no regard for old friendship. Is the Noble Consort not nearly at the time of her confinement? Come to think of it — if it weren’t for her, I would never have trusted you so quickly. Since she has been your excuse from beginning to end, it doesn’t matter to you what happens to her, does it?”
Su Shiyu’s eyes flew open. He struggled to drag himself forward a few paces and grabbed onto the hem of Chang Zhao’s robe with all his remaining strength, but could not force out a single word — Chang Zhao could only hear the whistling rasp of air in his throat.
“Your sister chose to make a wager with me, yet has been intent on killing me all along. I agreed not to cause bloodshed, but things have come to this point, and I have no other recourse.”
He kicked away Su Shiyu’s hand, watched him fall backward and tremble all over in pain, and his voice became almost cheerful. “When they behead you in the marketplace, your sister will certainly come to save you. If she shows herself, Ye Tingyan will inevitably be exposed. What His Majesty chooses to do at that point is not something I can stop — it can hardly be said to violate our agreement. Ah, if those two were simply to die like that, it would not be ideal — the court situation is not turbulent enough yet. But the matter of the Noble Consort should be enough to give His Majesty a headache for some time. Let me think…”
He calculated as he departed, without a single backward glance.
*
Spring rain fell without end, draping the imperial city in a layer of gauzy mist. The new leaves of the season and the soft willow branches were swallowed up within the endless clouds and overcast sky.
When Luowei finished listening to Ye Tingyan’s account, the taste of blood rose faintly in her throat. In disbelief she said, “Why was my elder brother sent to the Zhuque Bureau by Song Lan? He… he acted?”
Ye Tingyan fell silent and did not answer.
So Luowei understood the answer. “I told him not to be impatient! He should have waited at least — at least until the person Zhou Xuechu had found arrived in the capital; at least until he had discussed it with me…”
“Chang Zhao is on close terms with the Yan brothers, and his eyes and ears within the Imperial Guards are numerous. Had that wet nurse entered the capital, she would certainly have been detected by him. Shiyu must have feared that if the matter dragged on too long, all their efforts would come to nothing.” Ye Tingyan said in a pained voice. “He must have reasoned that even if he could not eliminate him in one decisive blow, the fact that there was another face beneath the mask could still plant a seed of doubt in His Majesty’s heart. Chang Zhao was indeed caught completely off guard — only it was unforeseen that…”
Luowei was breathing hard. After a long moment she forced out a single question: “And Suiyun — how is she?”
“Yesterday, shortly after Shiyu was sent to the Zhuque Bureau, someone — it is not known who — quietly passed this news to the Noble Consort, which threw her into a state of agitation and shock, and she went into labor right then and there.” Ye Tingyan answered. “In the early hours of the morning she gave birth to a son — both mother and child are safe. Chang Zhao returned from the Zhuque Bureau and informed Song Lan of the old affair between Shiyu and Suiyun.”
He gripped Luowei’s hand tightly and, before she could speak, continued, “Song Lan flew into a furious rage, suspecting the Noble Consort and Shiyu of having an illicit affair, and summoned the imperial physician to verify paternity. The child… is indeed of Song Lan’s bloodline.”
Luowei let out a tentative breath of relief, then felt a renewed unease. “We must find a way. After the Noble Consort’s delivery, Song Lan will certainly…”
“This morning, Song Lan received news in the middle of early court and stormed out before the court session was even finished. The officials were dismissed. Only Chang Zhao and I were kept behind.” Ye Tingyan avoided her gaze. “After a night of upheaval, the Noble Consort had fallen asleep holding the child. Song Lan rushed off to court. Then, because the Empress Dowager had briefly regained her clarity of mind and came to the hall to visit, the guards were relaxed, and then…”
Luowei felt her heart nearly leap from her chest. “What happened?”
Ye Tingyan gently stroked the back of her hand, and after a long silence finally said in a low voice, “While the Empress Dowager was not paying attention, the Noble Consort struggled to her feet and strangled that child… with her own hands.”