HomeCrane NotesChapter 132: Evening Light on Cornus (Part 3)

Chapter 132: Evening Light on Cornus (Part 3)

Deng Ying changed into a court robe and left the Imperial City through the Xihua Gate, heading toward Bai Huan’s residence.

The temple bells rang incessantly both inside and outside the city. Due to the Emperor’s death, slaughtering was forbidden within the city. The capital, deprived of its culinary pleasures, could barely smell the scent of cooking fires anymore.

Various government offices throughout the capital maintained staff on duty. Since officials couldn’t return home, their families had to deliver food, clothing, and daily necessities. As a result, horse carts carrying food and coal crowded the side and back entrances of every office.

This year’s snow disaster was severe, and the capital faced a serious coal shortage. Street robberies targeting coal were common.

The Five Cities Military Commission barely bothered to investigate thoroughly. If official coal was stolen, the coal thieves would receive a severe beating when caught. Some office officials who witnessed this felt uncomfortable but couldn’t spare any extra coal to help. They could only watch, at most saying, “That’s enough.”

Right beneath the Son of Heaven, the earth was frozen solid.

At this moment, a white cloth tent stood before Bai’s residence, where servants were moving coal inside.

A steward at the front gate told Deng Ying, “Our master dismissed half the household staff this year. This coal won’t be needed, so we’re preparing to donate it to the government to distribute to the common people.”

Deng Ying followed a servant toward the inner residence. Snow lay unswept everywhere, with many areas showing no signs of footprints. The snow was packed thick and tight, remaining firm even when stepped on.

“Can so few people manage all this?”

The servant smiled slightly. “With His Majesty’s important matters at hand, everywhere is tense. It just means more work to do, but everything else remains the same. This year is better – the ladies have returned south, so without the inner courtyard affairs, our burden is halved. Although the matters up front seem significant, they’re manageable. Now that the master is gravely ill and officials from various offices can’t move freely, there’s even less to handle.”

He stopped at Bai Huan’s door and said, “Director, please wait here while I check if the master is awake.”

Shortly after, a voice from inside said, “Please enter.”

Deng Ying clasped his hands in thanks before lifting his robe to enter.

Bai Huan wasn’t sitting on his sickbed.

Instead, he was fully dressed, wearing mourning robes, sitting properly in a round-backed chair.

“You’ve come.”

“Yes, please accept your student’s respect, Teacher.”

Bai Huan softly responded with a “Good,” and tremblingly stood up holding the chair’s back.

Deng Ying knelt, bowing his head in respect. After he straightened up, Bai Huan also clasped his hands and bowed, returning the formal teacher-student greeting.

“Teacher, are you heading south?”

Bai Huan said, “Stand up first.”

Deng Ying rose and helped Bai Huan sit down. Bai Huan pointed to the chair opposite him, gesturing for Deng Ying to sit.

“I have served two emperors and lived to this age – I can be considered blessed. Although scholars all wish for a peaceful death in bed, I have already abandoned such desires. Therefore, I won’t go south. I want to make one final effort to support Yang Zixie, support the Cabinet, support the Ming court…”

He looked at Deng Ying and continued, “These past few days, I’ve been thinking over and over about what Zhang Zhanchun told me in the Ministry of Justice prison. He said… you were his student, and with him there, no one could humiliate you. Ah…”

He smiled wistfully and sighed, “In scholarship and officialdom… there’s no comparison, but in ‘being a teacher,’ he surpassed me a thousandfold. Fu Ling, you and Yang Lun are both my students, but I… never protected you properly.”

Deng Ying shook his head, lowering his gaze: “Since I came of age, I’ve received teachings from both you and Master Zhang. I view you as a fathers, and Zixie as a brother. If I hadn’t been castrated, I would have wished to be a good student at your knee, enter official service, and constantly receive your protection in the official world. But now… I dare not.”

His words “dare not” brought heat to Bai Huan’s eyes.

“Fu Ling…”

“Teacher.”

Deng Ying interrupted Bai Huan, “I came to your residence today because I have something to tell you.”

After a moment of silence, Bai Huan asked, “What is it?”

Deng Ying looked up and said, “I am going to confess to the crime of forging the imperial edict.”

Bai Huan’s hands trembled as he suppressed his emotions: “Who pushed you to take this step?”

“It was my own decision.”

Deng Ying raised his head, “I know you want to protect Zixie. You plan to lead the challenge against the edict, opposing the Palace Ceremonial Office and the Directorate of Ceremonial. But this isn’t the best solution for the Cabinet or the Crown Prince. Groundlessly challenging an imperial edict is a grave crime. You might save Zixie’s life, but his political career would end along with yours. Teacher, I cannot agree with your approach.”

“Then do you think I would agree with your approach?”

“Even without your agreement, I will defy you.”

“Fu Ling!”

Bai Huan raised his voice, standing up while gripping his chair, his whole body trembling, “How is this any different from me forcing my student to death?”

Deng Ying stood up, knelt before Bai Huan, and bowed deeply: “Teacher, I don’t want to disgrace your best student.”

These words transported both men back to the twelfth year of Zhenning.

After his castration, when the teacher and student first met before the Hall of Supreme Harmony, they exchanged a few words. When he tried to call Bai Huan “Teacher,” Bai Huan had rebuked him with “How dare you!” At parting, there was only one sentence: “I forbid you to disgrace my best student.”

That statement was both a rebuke and contained inexpressible heartache.

Now he mentioned these words again, and though spoken softly, they were enough to break the heart of Bai Huan in his twilight years.

“Teacher, I have lived unworthily, falling short of the integrity expected of your student. But I truly tried my best. Walking this path until now, wearing this skin until today, I believe I haven’t disgraced the Deng Fu Ling of those years. Now there’s only the final stretch of road, and I want to walk it.”

Bai Huan looked down at Deng Ying prostrated on the ground, speechless.

Deng Ying raised his head, hands still pressed to the ground. He turned his head to cough several times, then looked at Bai Huan and spoke evenly:

“Teacher, after I confess, the edict will become void. The Cabinet can then legitimately draft an edict on behalf of the late Emperor. The Directorate of Ceremonial will share my guilt, and the eunuch faction can be eliminated at once, ending their evil influence. I hope Zixie and the new emperor can uphold the iron laws of the founding emperor, strictly controlling the inner palace servants, and not repeat the dynasty’s mistakes.”

Bai Huan slowly sat down, holding the chair’s back, shaking his head with tears in his eyes.

The young man before him hadn’t changed in appearance or character over these dozen years.

“How long have you been planning this?”

“About a day.”

Bai Huan heaved a long sigh, “Do you truly not want to live anymore?”

“That’s not it.”

Deng Ying shook his head, “I want to live, but Teacher, I don’t deserve a peaceful end. I should have faced execution alongside my father. These three years of life were granted by imperial mercy and heaven’s grace. I cannot be greedy for more.”

“Very well…”

Bai Huan turned his face away from Deng Ying’s gaze, wiping his eyes.

This was the student he and Zhang Zhanchun had taught, but also an outcast criminal. After the Tongjia tragedy, Deng Ying had stepped over eighty-some white bones to reach the position of Eastern Depot Director. Like others, Bai Huan had doubted his true nature. However, when he tore his nature from his flesh and laid it before the empire’s scholars, not one would look at it.

Or rather, it wasn’t that they wouldn’t look, but that they instinctively avoided it.

In partisan attacks, his “evil” would be displayed on the city walls, while his “good” would forever be lost in the light.

Bai Huan’s hands gripped the chair back tightly. Despite the winter cold, the cloth on his back gradually became damp with sweat.

“Stand up, don’t kneel anymore.”

Deng Ying stood up, “I apologize, Teacher, I was too disrespectful.”

“It’s fine.”

Bai Huan released one hand and waved at him, saying softly, “Have you prepared a coffin for yourself?”

Deng Ying silently shook his head.

“After years as Director, you couldn’t even save up for that?”

“I have an outer residence in a good location that might sell for some money, but… it’s the only thing I can leave behind. I don’t want to sell it.”

He smiled slightly, “Having clothes for burial is good enough.”

“Fu Ling.”

Bai Huan called Deng Ying.

“Yes.”

“Your teacher will give you one.”

This became the historical “Bai Huan’s Gift of a Coffin.” Although many private histories and unofficial records described this event, it was absent from the “Ming History” written during the Qing Dynasty.

Like the characters “Achieving Purity” written by Yang Lun, this had been one of Yang Wan’s research breakthroughs. However, at that time, she was only trying to explore research possibilities from these two generations of ministers’ unusual attitudes. She didn’t know then that Bai Huan’s gift of a coffin while ill contained that era’s “identity acceptance.”

As part of “humanistic culture,” this identity acceptance couldn’t be considered an awakening of thought – it existed only in the relationship between teacher and student across two generations.

But for Deng Ying, it was proof of the “literary heart.”

Just like the clear sky of the fifteenth day of the eleventh month in the fourteenth year of Zhenning, when the snow wind swept dust and dead leaves up to the blue heavens, and by chance, the sun hung bright that day.

Under the sunlight, all things shared the same radiance and dust.

Yang Lun sat eating noodles at a stall in front of Guangji Temple. A strong gust blew several dead leaves into his bowl. The old man at the stall saw this and hurriedly wiped his hands, walking over and saying, “Oh my, let me make another bowl for you, sir.”

Yang Lun said nothing, but rolled up his sleeves to pick the leaves from his bowl, then lifted it to take two large mouthfuls.

“Sir… you don’t seem very happy today.”

Yang Lun remained silent, but wouldn’t put down his bowl.

The old man saw his hands trembling slightly as he held the bowl, but couldn’t know that behind the bowl, he was using all his strength to hold back inexplicable tears welling in his eyes.

“How much?”

He put down the bowl and stood up, reaching to take out money.

The old man at the stall covered his pot lid, breathing on his hands for warmth as he waved him off: “No charge for you. It’s windy at this stall, making you eat dust and suffer the cold. In this area, they don’t allow stalls during the day. When the Five Cities Military Commission comes, I’ll be in trouble. I’ll pack up after a while. You’d better head to the palace soon.”

Yang Lun glanced toward the Bell and Drum Tower.

Today there would be a court discussion on the late Emperor’s funeral rites. The throne would be empty, with the Directorate of Ceremonial and the Cabinet standing on either side.

And only one person would stand in the middle.

Yang Lun closed his eyes. At this point, he could do nothing more for this person, not even maintain his dignity in dress and appearance. He recalled their conversation yesterday when he visited Deng Ying at the Ministry of Justice.

He had asked Deng Ying if he needed anything, saying he would have someone buy it.

Deng Ying lowered his hands and smiled slightly, saying he only needed paper and brush to write his confession, but these were already available in the prison, so there was no need to buy them specially.

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