In truth, Qinglan had already guessed why the Grand Princess had summoned them. Her earlier remonstrance had given the Grand Princess a thorough account of the Flower Reception’s dangers, and it had moved her — the risks laid out with perfect clarity. But the Grand Princess, having withdrawn from the world for so many years, was not fully conversant with the shape of the capital’s affairs, and had not imagined that, given Qinglan’s prior warning, Lu Wenyin would still dare to act. So beneath the shock and fury, there was inevitably a measure of suspicion.
You, Ye Qinglan — was your remonstrance so precise as to be prophetic? Or did you know in advance and deliberately withhold the information?
That was also why Lingbo had been summoned alongside her. In the Grand Princess’s eyes, Ye Lingbo had prior form — the Ping’an Ward affair, though it had been aimed at Lady Wei, had also borrowed the Grand Princess’s influence and, one might even say, factored in the Grand Princess’s own likely reactions. Doing such a restless thing once was enough to put one on record in the minds of patrons. When trouble arose, one was the first to be suspected. And then came the Chen Mengliu affair — the Ye family’s public severing of ties with the Cui family had looked very much like deliberate distancing. Lingbo’s hand had been visible in that too.
Qinglan herself had known nothing of the Ping’an Ward affair, and had never suspected Lingbo of anything in the Chen Mengliu matter, but the fact that the Grand Princess had summoned Lingbo along with her suggested something, and she had half-guessed what that something was.
It would not be a good thing.
Lingbo’s nature — Qinglan had tried to correct it many times, and always failed. Words were weightless as wind; what carried real weight was lived experience. Lingbo had used these methods to defend her household, protect her family, and carve a bloody path through the world for herself, bringing security and comfort to their home today. Knowing the wisdom that those who swim best are often drowned by the water — how could she resist?
But there was still Qinglan.
People always said that she resembled the father of the Wutong Courtyard, while Lingbo resembled the mother. There was a reason for that. Among the capital’s great families in earlier times, this pairing had been common — the husband wielding power in the outer world, the wife weaving alliances and intrigues in the inner quarters, one attending to appearances, the other to substance. Many celebrated partnerships had allowed a family to rise to prominence within a single generation.
But after the late Emperor’s purges in his final years, the entire court had been swept clean, and among the present generation of great families, there did not seem to be a single husband and wife whose partnership could be called seamlessly coordinated. Lord Shen was a powerful minister, but the couple’s relationship was distinctly cold, and Lady Shen — daughter of the Duke of Yongguo — was not the sort for covert coordination; if anything, she was the more upright of the two. So the Shen family, though influential, had limited reach. The Lord and Lady Chen were of one mind, but both were equally venal, so they lacked a respectable face to present. The others need not even be mentioned.
It was Qinglan and Lingbo who had something of that quality. Qinglan was excessively upright and tolerant; Lingbo was the sword behind her. And when Lingbo risked being called to account, Qinglan stepped in front, shielding her from the scrutiny of those above, relying on her long-established reputation for integrity. A true back-to-back partnership, seamless in its coordination.
Today’s situation was fraught with danger — but if one spoke honestly, there was no one in the entire capital except Ye Qinglan who could navigate it. Not even the Yanglin City women — if they could, they would not still be kneeling in the snow under the Grand Princess’s deliberate judgment. This, too, was a reckoning held against Lady Wei, whether or not she was present in person.
Female Official Su still had a measure of regard for talent. She guided Qinglan inside, and as she lifted the door curtain, the fringe of its tassel brushed across Qinglan’s forehead. Female Official Su said, her words carrying a double meaning: “Young Miss Ye, please take care.”
Ye Qinglan replied with equal doubleness: “Many thanks for the warning, Senior Lady Official Su.”
Inside the warm inner chamber, the Grand Princess sat upright on the raised platform, reading. Beside her stood a woman Qinglan did not recognize — no older than her mid-thirties, wearing a deep dark robe with gold-thread patterns, her face unadorned. Nanny Song and the palace maids attended on either side.
Qinglan lifted her skirts, went forward, and knelt into the soft carpet.
“This humble subject Ye Qinglan pays her respects to Her Highness the Grand Princess. May Your Highness enjoy blessings and enduring health.”
The carpet pattern — she noticed it now. This was a xiezhi motif, seen only in the Emperor’s own quarters for handling affairs of state. The xiezhi could discern the loyal from the treacherous, and it was never used in the rear palace. This room, then, must be where the Grand Princess conducted her own official business.
The Grand Princess still did not bid her rise and give her answer. Instead, the woman in the dark robe spoke.
“I have long admired the renown of your remonstrance, Miss Ye. I have sought this meeting for some time, and am delighted today to hear it for myself.” The female official’s voice was cold, but with a peculiar edge of lightness. “Might I ask — as you passed through the courtyard just now, what was your assessment?”
If Qinglan could not read the hostility in that, she would have been exceedingly obtuse.
It was only natural, if one thought about it. Not all of the people around the Grand Princess could be as direct and honest as Female Official Su. The Grand Princess might be said to have retreated from the world, weary of its affairs, for so many years — yet it had been more than seventeen years since the Huo family’s fall, and the Emperor’s favor and remorse had not diminished. The Grand Princess’s standing among the wives of court officials — indeed, among all the inner palace’s women of rank — was the highest in the land, surpassing even the First Consort Empress in prestige. It was unlikely this had come about entirely by letting nature take its course.
A Grand Princess who had been relied upon by the late Emperor and had married into the Duke of Yingguo’s family to balance the court’s power — how could she not have a blade or two at her side?
So Qinglan only bowed her head and replied: “Senior Lady Official Qin speaks too highly of me. This humble subject only wished to ease the burdens of Her Highness.”
Senior Lady Official Qin laughed at once, and cast a glance at Female Official Su — as one might look at a naive younger sister who had been taken in.
“Without ever having met, you could already name my identity. And this is the person Jingrong described as someone of upright intent?”
“To be selected as a female official is the highest honor for a daughter of a great family — and the names of those chosen are spoken of with admiration. So I too have long admired Senior Lady Official Qin.” Ye Qinglan’s answer was composed: “If I have given any offense, I hope Senior Lady Official Qin will forgive it.”
Her answer was so completely impeccable that the female official Su beside her involuntarily let out a small laugh. Senior Lady Official Qin immediately shot her a glance.
“Jingrong has been working hard today as well — why not go and rest a while?” Senior Lady Official Qin said.
But Su Jingrong refused: “There is no need for Elder Sister Qin to worry over me. Her Highness has not yet rested — how could I?”
Qinglan took in these words, and arrived at a preliminary reading of the situation. It seemed that the Grand Princess herself had not yet reached a decision — otherwise, even the female officials at her side would not be divided in their positions.
Senior Lady Official Qin was clearly very displeased with the current state of affairs. Seeing that Su Jingrong insisted on remaining, her voice grew colder still: “Miss Ye — for all your declarations of wishing to ease Her Highness’s burdens, you hold no official position, you are not an insider in this matter, and your earlier eagerness seems rather suspicious. Surely if you had heard news of the Northern Pacification Army women’s complaint in advance, you had an obligation to report it to Her Highness. Why did you not? Is this how one eases Her Highness’s burdens?”
“What happened before — I have already made clear to Her Highness. Senior Lady Official Qin uses this kind of accusation to impugn my motives — that is not how worthy people are found.” Qinglan lifted her head calmly and looked at Senior Lady Official Qin. “If Senior Lady Official Qin suspects the women of the Northern Pacification Army of having acted with premeditation, why not go and question their leader?”
“I should like to, but unfortunately every last one of them is playing the tortoise and pulling its head in. Punishing only these few who stuck their necks out does little to satisfy.” Senior Lady Official Qin narrowed her eyes.
A cat often wore that expression — the readiness before a pounce. A great cat was no different. Cui Jingyu had once told Qinglan about the time he had hunted a tiger, tracking it through dense forest for an entire day — watching it hunt, watching it devour a deer in great ravenous gulps, then striking in that moment of gorged and lowered vigilance, to bring down the king of the jungle. Hearing it, she had found it made her heart beat faster.
As Lingbo had said — the Grand Princess, having long been away from the field of battle, had grown rusty, and seemed to have forgotten the right measure of things. Deploying Senior Lady Official Qin — a hunter with an appetite for blood — for something like this was not a wise choice.
From her tone, the displeasure was not directed only at Lady Wei. It included Marquis Wei as well.
If Female Official Su could be called something of a strategist, then Senior Lady Official Qin was the Grand Princess’s “blade” — blades knew only how to kill. But a person who wished to be queen of the jungle still needed a generous heart. So Qinglan directed her words only toward the Grand Princess.
“Your Highness — Lady Wei does not come in person because she is loyal. Not because she is afraid, but because she understands that she is not only the leader of the Northern Pacification Army’s women — she is also Marquis Wei’s wife. The Marquis carries upon his shoulders the great affairs of the state and the military, and he cannot be implicated in this, no matter what. The fact that Marquis Wei has not intervened is also a mark of his loyalty. I am told that today he has attended the Chen family’s banquet as usual, without punishing any of the commanders. Your Highness might consider why — by military law, a commander consorting with entertainers should be punished, and yet he has not. Because he is waiting for Your Highness to decide. He is leaving the judgment to Your Highness. Both he and Lady Wei have already made their loyalty plain. The question now is whether Your Highness is willing to honor their earnest intentions.”
Senior Lady Official Qin immediately let out a cold laugh.
“So you are indeed working as a lobbyist for the Wei family.”
Qinglan lowered her eyes. There was even a trace of self-deprecating humor in her expression.
“Senior Lady Official Qin overestimates me.” She seemed entirely untouched by the provocation. “And overestimates the Wei family.”
The Grand Princess’s expression shifted slightly at last.
How does one person come to heed another? They are entirely unknown to each other — trust cannot be assumed. It can only come from finding that another’s judgment aligns precisely with one’s own. The Grand Princess looked down on the Wei family as well — Lady Wei especially. Those in positions of power are not afraid of wicked people; they are afraid of foolish ones, because the damage a fool can do far exceeds that of any villain. In her view, what the Yanglin City women had done was more a matter of foolishness; it was Lu Wenyin who had done something wicked.
Qinglan’s words were also a way of testing whether the Grand Princess saw things the same way.
“I hear you have had conflict with Lady Wei.” The Grand Princess said quietly. “She insulted you in Lu Wenyin’s presence. You hold no grudge? And yet today you speak on her behalf?”
All of the capital knew — during the period when the Wei and Lu families had been on good terms, Lady Wei had served more than once as Lu Wenyin’s instrument. The Cui family incident was a recent example — though Lady Wei had ultimately spoken up for justice, she had still wounded the Ye family in the process.
The Grand Princess asked this partly out of concern for the story of Zhou Yu and Huang Gai — though she also knew that Lady Wei’s capacity for scheming was hardly enough to play the role of Zhou Yu; she would struggle even to be the Huang Gai. Qinglan’s remark about overestimating the Wei family aligned with her own reading of them. The Wei family were not the sort of ministers who appeared compliant on the surface while harboring hidden designs — that kind tended to emerge from among the literati and upright officials. Military commanders, when they overstepped, did it openly.
Those who had come out of the imperial palace were trained to expect the worst of human nature. A little extra caution was never amiss.
But Qinglan’s answer was, to the Grand Princess’s surprise, entirely open.
“Has Your Highness sent someone to Luming Temple?” she asked.
“I have, naturally.”
“Then Your Highness should know why Lady Wei insulted me.” Qinglan said, with quiet composure.
When something unusual happens, there is always a reason behind it. Lady Wei had never been generous toward Qinglan — and yet here Qinglan was, speaking on the Wei family’s behalf at every turn. Unless this point was addressed, her words before the Grand Princess would always carry a shadow of doubt.
But she had made her sincerity plain from the very first moment the Grand Princess asked her about the temple. In the small rural temple outside the capital, she had kept a longevity incense burning for four years, written with Cui Jingyu’s name. With that clue, someone of the Grand Princess’s capabilities would not have found it difficult to uncover Qinglan’s history with Cui Jingyu — the Tonghua Du banquet, the once-formal betrothal, the awkward circumstances of the present day —
From the beginning, she had known the Grand Princess intended to use her. And so she had offered up her vulnerability — as a subject’s act of submission before a sovereign. Just as she was now, kneeling quietly before the Grand Princess, her expression candid and serene, her face composed as jade — all the probing, the testing, even the provocations had lost their purchase.
Long before the Grand Princess asked, she had already given her answer. Such openness made the Grand Princess herself seem to have fallen short of graciousness.
And so the Grand Princess said: “Rise. Jingrong — pour Miss Ye a cup of tea.”
A female official personally pouring tea was a rare mark of honor. But condescension followed by appeasement — first the stick, then the sweet — was nothing more than the way of those who ruled.
Female Official Su respected her and poured the tea willingly, finding nothing remarkable in it. It was Senior Lady Official Qin who was displeased, speaking first: “All this talk, and it comes down to one thing — asking Her Highness to involve herself in the Wei family’s affairs. Interference in politics is hardly admirable. Are we to pursue the Minister of Revenue over the matter of a few concubines?”
Qinglan smiled.
“Your Highness is cautious about Lord Chen — but is Lord Chen cautious about Your Highness?”
This single question wiped the expression from Senior Lady Official Qin’s face entirely. The Grand Princess, however, continued to drink her tea with unhurried ease, the light from the glass window behind her falling across her face — breath-taking beauty, and yet imposing to behold, severe as frost.
“Interference in politics is naturally improper, and Your Highness’s caution is entirely reasonable — but the Flower Reception is under Your Highness’s purview, and the prohibition against unseemly conduct has been issued three times over. Yet the Chen family’s people have acted with such brazen disregard. To let it pass without correction would in fact undermine Your Highness’s authority.” Female Official Su responded immediately.
She admired Qinglan precisely because their views so closely aligned. Senior Lady Official Qin, standing to the side, gave a cold rejoinder: “I rather suspect Miss Ye has personal motives in this as well.”
“The worth of a remonstrance is determined by the rightness of its argument. Senior Lady Official Qin makes a habit of questioning a speaker’s intent — that places her firmly in the lesser ranks.” Qinglan’s tone was mild, but her words carried a sharp edge.
The Grand Princess laughed.
“Then what rightness of argument does Miss Ye have? Let us hear it.”
Qinglan rose from her seat, knelt, and prepared to address the court in earnest. The gravity of her posture made plain to everyone present that what followed would be of great weight — even Senior Lady Official Qin, for all her deliberate show of indifference, actually listened with close attention.
“Your Highness asked about my history with Lady Wei. In truth, I made my peace with it long ago. Those who serve in the military are straightforward by nature — because the battlefield has no room for the meanness of calculating minds, and one must be willing to trust the person at one’s back. They cannot endure betrayal, even a misunderstood one. Lady Wei misread me — but she had her reasons. She spoke of clear rewards and punishments as the method of commanding troops; that is also the first principle I would commend to Your Highness.”
“Senior Lady Official Qin said a moment ago that this is all merely a matter of a few concubines — treating the present matter as a trivial thing. I beg to differ. It may be trivial in the eyes of the capital’s great families — but the Yanglin City women followed the Northern Pacification Army through mortal peril. They are wives who married their husbands in poverty and hardship. Chen Yaoqing and Lu Wenyin have humiliated them, as have their own husbands. A man of worth may be killed, but he cannot be shamed. Your Highness presides over the Flower Reception — rewards and punishments must be clear. Every lady in the capital looks to Your Highness to uphold justice. The women of the Northern Pacification Army are no exception. That they have come to Your Highness is not a show of boldness — it would be far more worrying if they had not. A commander who cannot protect her own soldiers cannot command their loyalty. This is the first principle.”
“The second is the matter of how to treat the Wei family. The northern frontier campaign is concluded, and it might seem that the Wei family cannot escape the fate of those whose achievements have grown too great for comfort. And so the Chen family, the Shen family — all of them — are bent only on breaking apart the Northern Pacification Army, tripping up the Wei family, and currying favor with the Emperor. But Your Highness has seen things — Your Highness knows that the factions of the court always shift. What thrives today may be nothing in ten years. Tides rise and fall; the changes are endless. Yet one thing never changes across all those changes: our Great Zhou will always need loyal ministers of genuine ability.”
“Marquis Wei is a loyal minister — a pillar of Great Zhou, a trusted ally of the Emperor at his right hand. To constrain him, to weaken him, to scheme against him, is to weaken Great Zhou itself. Scheming and maneuvering are always an inferior art — even when they briefly succeed, they are no more than flowers in a mirror, a moon on the water. Only those who truly do things — do good things, do real things, do great things of genuine benefit to the realm and its people — are ever the final victors. That has always been the province of the Emperor and Marshal Wei. It is not for others to reach into. The Chen family does not understand this principle; Lu Wenyin does not understand it either. But Your Highness should understand it.”
This remonstrance was vast in scope and flawlessly principled. Not only did Female Official Su listen with her heart pounding, but even Senior Lady Official Qin’s expression shifted slightly.
The world had never lied — people assumed deception was easy, not knowing that for a person to convincingly pass themselves off as someone they are not is an impossible task. Even with the most painstaking imitation, what can be imitated is technique — not principle. A person’s true heart reveals itself in the particulars, in the quality of their bearing. Calligraphy demands that the energy flow uninterrupted through every stroke. A person without expansive spirit and the breath of righteousness at their core cannot speak words like these.
Though it must be said — the speech was almost too upright. Excellent for composition; a touch naive for the purposes of political maneuvering.
Senior Lady Official Qin therefore said, with cool detachment: “And if — as rumor has it — the Emperor himself does not understand this?”
How audacious those words were — borrowed under the cover of “rumor,” yet the lightest punishment for them would be a charge of reckless commentary on the Emperor. But from the moment Qinglan had entered this inner chamber, she had sensed that the Grand Princess did not intend to censure her — but rather wished her to say certain things. Within the bounds of this conversation, she need not worry about charges of reckless commentary.
But Qinglan understood more clearly still: what the Grand Princess wanted from her was not what anyone else could say — but what no one else could say.
And so, at this moment, she calmly offered a counter-question: “Senior Lady Official Qin speaks of rumors — and I, too, have heard them. Rumor also says that the Emperor has been harsh and ungenerous. Yet our Great Zhou’s national fortune has flourished — and so after the Duke of Yingguo there was the Duke of Yongguo, and after the Duke of Yongguo there came Marshal Wei. But after Marshal Wei — I wonder: who?”
The Grand Princess’s expression shifted for a heartbeat.
The words Qinglan had spoken before — they had moved with emotion, illuminated with reason, urged with principle, enticed with benefit. But those were only the fundamentals of someone who had read the sages. Through the entire afternoon, it was only this single sentence that constituted a true remonstrance.
“The third principle I wish to offer Your Highness — the Spring and Autumn Annals says: a righteous war is sure to be won. The Chen family’s conduct is corrupt, while Marquis Wei walks the path of loyalty and righteousness. This is also a family matter for Your Highness — I understand that Your Highness once received instruction from the Grand Preceptor alongside the Emperor. The words Your Highness ought to hear — I have come to speak them to Your Highness. The words the Emperor ought to hear — I do not know who will speak them to the Emperor.”
When Qinglan finished, Senior Lady Official Qin, for the first time today, looked with genuine attention at this Ye family young miss who had appeared out of nowhere.
There was no shortage of women who read books — but to speak such words as these was the mark of great talent.
The Grand Princess had been slow to decide all day, and what she was guarding against was not Lord Chen — it was someone else entirely. Ye Qinglan’s words had made it plain.
Everyone by now understood that the power behind Lu Wenyin was Prince Pingjun’s consort, and Prince Pingjun’s consort was the inner niece of the Empress — the daughter of a legitimate National Uncle, from the senior branch of the Gao family. Otherwise, how would a mere prince’s consort dare direct Lu Wenyin to openly violate the Grand Princess’s prohibition and send concubines about at the Flower Reception?
Had Prince Pingjun’s consort been the one presiding over the Flower Reception this year, it would have been a matter among the great families — no different from the Shen family’s wife presiding. But the Emperor had designated the Grand Princess — and that made it a matter of the palace’s inner ranks. Whether out of guilt, or out of the bond forged in the days before he ascended to the throne, since the Empress Dowager’s passing, the Emperor had transferred to the Grand Princess all the highest honors and powers that would rightfully have belonged to the mother of the realm — and the one who should have been mother of the realm was the Empress in the central palace.
The words could not be spoken outright — but the Grand Princess would certainly understand. And among all the words in today’s remonstrance, the most important was precisely this unspoken thing. What Chen family, what Wei family, what Prince Pingjun’s consort — none of them were the Grand Princess’s true adversary. It had always been said that the Emperor’s realm was a family affair — and it had always, at root, been a matter of that family’s internal governance. Who was to manage this household? The sister-in-law, or the wife?
But Qinglan had not anticipated the Grand Princess’s response.
“You say the Chen family’s household ways are corrupt.” The Grand Princess said quietly. “But are your Ye family’s ways so upright?”