“…Why?”
“Liu’er, you shouldn’t ask such a foolish question.”
Xiao Wenliu fell silent.
Yes.
She shouldn’t ask.
Everyone knew that begging the Crown Princess to show mercy at this moment was simply a joke.
The game of those in power uses the world as their board and the court as their chessboard. Once the game has begun, how could there be any withdrawal?
She was merely a small encounter on the Crown Princess’s path of training. Even if she had shown slight kindness to the Crown Princess, using that kindness to seek repayment could at most save her own life.
Originally, she didn’t want to do this thing of using kindness to seek repayment, but as grandmother said, the Xiao family had birthed and raised her – she couldn’t be completely ungrateful.
If they wanted her to go, she would go. She wouldn’t say anything, only thinking that perhaps in this lifetime, she could see the Crown Princess once more.
But it turned out…
It turned out she was that Jing Ke, going to assassinate the king on the high palace throne.
No one cared about the fate of blood and flesh dragged before the hall.
The Xiao Old Dowager still gripped her hand tightly. She felt a slight stinging pain in her palm – it should be scratched by grandmother’s long fingernails.
She had been silent too long. The Xiao Old Dowager’s expression changed slightly, but she never let go.
Suddenly someone in the courtyard wailed: “Young Madam, this aunt kowtows to you here!”
With a “crack,” the window opened. Xiao Wenliu turned back to see her second aunt in plain clothes, kneeling in the muddy courtyard, kowtowing toward the room.
Behind her was Xiao Bixing’s wife, her eldest sister-in-law, who was crying so hard she was about to faint. Her whole body prostrated on the ground, trembling fingers digging into the cracks between the blue stone bricks.
Everyone in the courtyard looked at her with heartbreaking grief.
At this moment, Xiao Wenliu suddenly wanted to laugh.
She wanted to laugh and also wanted to cry.
Or perhaps she also wanted to cry out loudly, to spill this burning heart from her chest.
Suddenly someone hurried over and with a “slam” closed the window again.
It was Lan Xian.
This time, Xiao Wenliu really did laugh.
The bright young woman’s first nearly sorrowful smile of her life was like the flower that remained fragrant longest on the branch, yet was the first to suffer winter wind’s punishment.
She said softly: “I respectfully follow grandmother’s instructions.”
The Xiao Old Dowager’s whole body seemed to relax.
For an instant, tears blurred her eyes.
She choked: “…My child, grandmother is extremely reluctant to have you undertake this dangerous task. It’s truly a matter of family survival, life and death… If grandmother could go, grandmother would go in your place! But don’t worry, the Xiao family still has some people in the palace. As long as you succeed, someone will naturally come to meet you and quickly escort you out of the palace… As long as Tie Ci dies, the Xiao family will be fine. Protecting you is still achievable…”
The corners of Xiao Wenliu’s lips curved up slightly.
“Grandmother is truly good to Wenliu.”
The Xiao Old Dowager tearfully stroked her face: “My child, you are my most beloved granddaughter…”
Xiao Wenliu slightly turned her face away.
The Xiao Old Dowager’s hand paused, gently withdrew, stood up, and patted her hand again: “It’s late today. Enter the palace tomorrow. Sleep early.”
Xiao Wenliu bowed to see her off.
The curtain was thrown open, and Lan Xian hurried in, first looking her up and down completely. Finding no injuries, she finally let out a sigh of relief.
Xiao Wenliu didn’t look at her, sitting down wearily: “I want to be quiet for a while. You go out first.”
Lan Xian looked at her for a moment and said: “Yes.”
After she left, Xiao Wenliu opened her palm.
A small white jade bottle with a bit of colorless, odorless liquid inside.
Following grandmother’s instructions, she soaked her fingernails in the liquid.
After soaking for a while, the poison would penetrate the nails. Afterward, just scratching the skin slightly could kill someone.
She watched her fingernails slowly soften in the colorless liquid, then harden again. Taking them out, she held them up to the lantern light under the eaves.
They were still crystal clear like shells, but when turned, they faintly revealed some iridescent colors.
Very beautiful.
In this world, the more beautiful things are, the more poisonous they are.
She sat blankly at her dressing table, not knowing what she was thinking, a gentle smile at the corners of her mouth.
Perhaps it was that first meeting at Yibo Mingyue Tower that year, when that person caught fish and chased ducks on the lake, riding the wind and treading waves with flowing robes and streaming light, and she was instantly struck by that immortal-like demeanor.
Perhaps it was watching the iron flower display in Dongming County, when before the rolling hot molten iron smashing down from the sky, that hand blocked in front of her, pressing firmly at the edge of the molten iron, instantly revealing white bone at the fingertip.
Or perhaps it was watching the long river before Sanbai Dike, chattering to ask for that hairpin, or perhaps the silent welcome before the capital’s city gates, lifting the carriage curtain to exchange a smile.
Or maybe it was the day of the Crown Prince’s birthday, when she and she leaned against the palace hall railings watching fireworks, a bright line ascending to the heavens, armor gleaming toward the sun like golden scales opening.
The rare, unforgettable memories of her life.
That person who was the gentlest and most magnanimous in the world, yet also the most vast and distant – the Xiao family’s eternal enemy.
She had originally wanted to see her once more.
Perhaps when she said in the hall that day that they should never meet again, fate had written her footnote from that moment.
Then, let them never meet again.
Xiao Wenliu smiled slightly, slowly bringing her fingernails toward her lips.
Her eyes rippled like waves, as if she were still that year when she stood beneath Yibo Mingyue Tower, looking up at that youth’s robe hem, her heart moved and spirit swayed, unable to help but put her fingertip in her mouth.
That initial, most beautiful time.
“Bang.” A sound.
The door was burst open, the curtain scattered, someone rushed in and knocked her hand away.
“Miss, what are you doing!”
Xiao Wenliu was knocked backward, her hand hitting the edge of the couch heavily.
The curtain swayed, and another person entered, wearing robes like ice and snow, her face also like ice and snow.
Xiao Wenliu’s eyes widened, not expecting Dan Shuang, the Crown Princess’s head palace maid, to suddenly appear here.
Dan Shuang looked at her, also showing slight pity in her eyes: “Her Highness ordered me to find you.”
Xiao Wenliu’s eyes suddenly brightened.
“Her Highness said you must be in a difficult situation now, so don’t stay with the Xiao family anymore. She told me to escort you out of the capital, has prepared travel money for you – you can go wherever you want. There will be reliable people at the city gates to escort you… Don’t pack belongings, leave now.”
The quick-acting Lan Xian had already carried a small bundle and stood at the door, looking at her hopefully.
Xiao Wenliu looked steadily at Dan Shuang and suddenly laughed.
“Her Highness…”
One sentence unfinished, and no need to continue.
“Let’s go.” Dan Shuang said, “Your courtyard is heavily guarded outside. I can’t stay long.”
Xiao Wenliu sat without moving, pointing at Lan Xian: “Please trouble Sister Dan Shuang to take her away.”
Dan Shuang: “…You won’t leave?”
“My grandmother said something right – I am a person of the Xiao family, in life and death.” Xiao Wenliu said softly, “I cannot assassinate Her Highness for them, but I also won’t abandon them to escape alone at such a time.”
The room was silent, only the sound of accumulated snow on the window lattice that hadn’t melted for long, rustling as it fell.
After a long time, Lan Xian threw the bundle on the couch: “Then forget it.”
Dan Shuang said: “Are you going to defy Her Highness’s will? Or do you want to prevent me from completing my task?”
“Go.” Xiao Wenliu said gently, “Her Highness won’t blame you, because Her Highness won’t disrespect my will.”
Dan Shuang bit her lower lip and glanced outside.
There were faint footsteps approaching – she had to leave.
Finally, she could only say hurriedly: “Her Highness regards you as a close friend and asked me to tell you she’s sorry. But please take care of yourself.”
Xiao Wenliu smiled, still looking like the bright, innocent young woman of old.
“No, Her Highness needn’t apologize to me. She owes me nothing.”
Dan Shuang lowered her head and sighed, then turned around.
The moment she crossed the threshold, Xiao Wenliu behind her extinguished the lamp. She heard her say in the darkness:
“Please tell Her Highness for me.”
“I have never regretted being able to meet Her Highness in this life.”
“May all she sees hereafter be peace, all she loves be attainable, all she seeks have response, may her path be smooth, and the world free of sorrows.”
…
A quarter-hour later, a pigeon landed on the windowsill in front of Ruixiang Hall.
Chi Xue untied the small tube from the pigeon’s foot, took out the cloth strip, and quickly presented it to Tie Ci.
After reading it, Tie Ci said: “No movement. Xiao Liheng stays holed up, hasn’t seen anyone.”
Chi Xue breathed a long sigh of relief.
But Tie Ci frowned.
No movement, no emotion – sometimes that wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
She turned to look toward the distance, but all she could see were layers of palace towers.
The courtyard was deep, and human hearts like the sea.
Until the very end, who could see the truth?
…
Half an hour later, Tie Ci heard Dan Shuang’s report.
At this time, she was standing before the huge boxwood screen behind her desk, writing Wei Zheng’s “Memorial to Emperor Taizong on Ten Reflections” stroke by stroke.
This was her recent new habit. With all affairs troubling and myriad complications, the court having three shocks daily, she had also stayed up many nights and inevitably had moments of mental agitation.
Whenever her mind was disturbed, she would put down memorials and come to this screen to take up the brush.
“…This minister has heard: Those who seek a tree’s growth must strengthen its roots; those who desire a stream’s distance must deepen its source; those who think of a nation’s peace must accumulate virtue and righteousness. If the source is not deep yet one hopes for distant flow, if roots are not firm yet one seeks the tree’s growth, if virtue is not thick yet one thinks of national peace – though this minister is foolish, he knows this is impossible, how much more so for the wise and intelligent? When a sovereign bears the weight of the sacred vessel and dwells in the greatness of the realm, he will achieve the ultimate height of heaven and eternally preserve boundless glory. If he does not remember to think of danger in peace, restrain luxury with frugality, if virtue does not dwell in thickness and emotion cannot overcome desire, this is also like cutting roots to seek luxuriant trees, blocking sources while wanting distant flow.”
As Dan Shuang reported, she watched the Crown Princess’s back.
Slender waist like bound silk, long robes touching the ground, one hand holding the brush, one hand behind her back.
The hand holding the brush was still and steady, stroke by stroke, without any hesitation.
The pale yellow halo of the flying crane bronze lamp outlined half her profile. She still looked strong and unmovable, like a mountain of jade – wind could not destroy, filth could not pollute. All the disputes and helplessness, partings and difficulties of this human world were floating dust passing through high sky, scattered in the firmament.
Dan Shuang said no more, bowed, and withdrew.
Tie Ci finished writing the last character “ye” of the first paragraph stroke by stroke.
She slightly lowered her eyes.
Fully inking the brush, she started a new line.
“…Placing mayflies between heaven and earth, like a grain in the vast sea. Lamenting the brevity of my life, envying the endless Yangtze River. Carrying flying immortals to wander freely, embracing the bright moon to end forever. Knowing this cannot be suddenly obtained, I entrust remaining echoes to the sorrowful wind.”
…