Coming out of a warm, cozy bed in the dead of winter night, walking through the rear palace’s long east-west streets, from the Western Six Palaces to Changchun Palace in the Eastern Six Palaces, with wind and snow swirling and slippery ground underfoot—even a living Buddha would be in a foul mood.
Hu Shanwei “coincidentally” encountered Female Official Jiang Quan on East Long Street.
The lanterns lining the east-west long streets swayed in the wind and snow, occasionally being blown out by strong gusts. Night-duty eunuchs worked through the night here, lighting lamps and adding oil to keep the long streets illuminated.
Jiang Quan had built some connections in the palace, so she learned about any disturbance at Changchun Palace.
Jiang Quan said: “I woke up before dawn and couldn’t fall back asleep. I’ll accompany you on this trip.”
This excuse was rather flimsy. Hu Shanwei knew who she was concerned about. On winter nights, the only thing more precious than a warm bed was one’s own great-granddaughter. She sighed inwardly, took Jiang Quan’s arm and said: “Let’s go.”
Changchun Palace.
The wet nurse and the Hair Combing Chamber people each held their ground, both crying and begging Dianzheng Hu to make the decision.
Having experienced several major incidents, Hu Shanwei’s eyes now held something resembling Fan Gongzheng’s tempestuous authority. When she displayed her official power, she quite resembled the real thing.
Hu Shanwei sipped some hot tea, gently set down the teacup, and placed both hands on a warm hand warmer. This winter, the strawberry-like chilblains on her hands hadn’t returned, all thanks to the palace’s fine clothing and rich food nurturing her.
“Are you finished?” Hu Shanwei asked.
The wet nurse and Hair Combing Chamber people nodded.
Hu Shanwei raised her right hand: “The weather is cold. Don’t kneel on the ground—be careful that the cold air damages your knees and gives you lifelong joint problems. Get up, sit down. Bring them hot tea and snacks. After causing a commotion all night, you must all be hungry.”
The wet nurse and Hair Combing Chamber people could hardly believe it. The Palace Justice Bureau’s operating style was consistent with the Embroidered Uniform Guard—basically relying on beatings and scoldings. The torture chamber’s instruments were said to be even more comprehensive than the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s. For simple cases with solid evidence that could be solved at a glance, they would just detain the parties and judge according to palace rules.
Once they encountered troublesome matters where plaintiff and defendant each held their ground, the basic routine was to beat both plaintiff and defendant with fifty strokes each, seeing who couldn’t endure the torture first and would sign and seal to settle the dispute—much like the routine of government courts.
The wet nurse and Hair Combing Chamber people had all prepared to be beaten with boards, yet Hu Shanwei was amiably inviting them to drink tea and eat snacks!
They had taken off their pants preparing to be beaten, and she gave them this?
But they were truly cold and hungry. With food and drink available, Hu Shanwei also chatted with them gently: “Who provides everything you now eat, drink, wear, and use?”
Everyone said it was the Emperor and Empress.
Hu Shanwei smiled: “Since you’re all clear in your hearts, you’re not confused—you know who supports you. But you should also understand: why do the Emperor and Empress support you?”
“The wet nurse is here to nurse the little princess, the Hair Combing Chamber is here to request hair for the little princesses. It’s the little princess who gave you the opportunity to serve in the imperial court. Now the little princess is ill, and according to Ru Siyao, she was mostly frightened. Can you help figure out where this illness originated?”
No one dared speak, not even touching their tea.
Hu Shanwei sighed softly: “She’s only a six-month-old infant who can’t speak, can only eat, drink, sleep, and relieve herself, completely dependent on your care and protection. However, no matter how young she is, she still bears the surname Zhu—she is your little master whom you should be loyal to. Now that your little master has been bullied, would you rather slander each other and throw mud than dare speak that person’s name?”
Changchun Palace was Consort Li’s territory. Without Consort Li’s authorization, who would dare take the initiative to shave the other half of the little princess’s hair?
Everyone knew the answer in their hearts, but just didn’t dare say it. They all harbored wishful thinking, pushing responsibility onto each other, not daring to offend Consort Li. After all, the little princess had only suffered some fright. When Ru Siyao came, her fever broke and she fell asleep—there was no major harm.
Everyone knelt on the ground again claiming innocence.
Hu Shanwei gave Female Scholar Huang Weide a meaningful look.
Huang Weide understood, stood up and said: “I used to be just a kitchen maid, with status even lower than yours. I understand why you would rather go to the Palace Justice Bureau’s torture chamber to suffer cruel punishment than tell the truth. When those above open their mouths, those below run their legs off, sometimes even losing their lives, taking responsibility for their superiors.”
Everyone looked at Huang Weide with envious expressions. Scholar Huang came from the bottom and knew their unspoken difficulties.
Huang Weide said: “That’s exactly why I desperately studied and took the female scholar examination, to escape the fate of being manipulated by others. I know all your worries. The little princess is still young and doesn’t remember things—she can’t even speak. Even if you’re loyal to her, she doesn’t know it. Her birth mother is gone, her brother Prince Chu has married and moved out of the palace, and cannot enter the palace without summons. So no matter how good you are to her, no one will reward you.”
Everyone hastily said they wouldn’t dare think such things.
Huang Weide said: “Don’t play dumb with me. I’ve seen plenty of palace people who fawn on the powerful and step on the weak. You think the little princess being frightened is just a small matter—at worst you’ll be beaten and punished, have your silver and rice rations cut for a few months. But if you offend a certain someone, you’ll have no good days in the palace afterward. Weighing the pros and cons, naturally you all keep mum about the truth. But—”
Before she could finish speaking, Female Official Jiang Quan suddenly burst through the door covered in wind and snow, quickly walking to Hu Shanwei’s side and whispering a few words. Hu Shanwei was drinking tea when she heard this and was so startled her hands shook—crash! The teacup fell to the ground, and broken porcelain pieces and hot tea splattered everywhere.
Hu Shanwei’s face turned pale: “Really? Didn’t her fever already break?”
Jiang Quan said: “It’s flared up again. She cried until she had convulsions and fainted. Ru Siyao is at her wit’s end and wants to carry the little princess to Qianqing Palace for the Imperial Medical Academy physicians to jointly examine her.”
Hearing this, everyone assumed something major had happened to the little princess and thought things had gone badly wrong.
The wet nurse hurriedly said: “This is impossible… just holding down her head to shave some hair, how could… it wasn’t me! It was Consort Li who found the little princess’s crying annoying and thought the yin-yang head looked ugly, so she ordered her trusted palace woman to hold down her head and shave the hair… very quickly, just in the blink of an eye it was finished. The little princess wasn’t hurt—she just cried for a while then stopped and played with the rattle. I thought nothing was wrong…”
The Hair Combing Chamber people also chimed in: “Consort Li found the yin-yang head ugly and had instructed us to quickly force her down and shave it. How would we dare? We said we’d come back at night when the little princess was sleeping soundly to request the hair. When we arrived at Changchun Palace, the wet nurse handed us the hair, saying they had shaved it while the little princess slept, so we didn’t think much of it…”
When they learned the little princess was to be carried to Qianqing Palace for Imperial Medical Academy consultation, the plaintiff and defendant realized things had become serious. They couldn’t bear this responsibility even if they lost their lives, so they had to confess the truth.
Hu Shanwei asked the wet nurse: “Which palace woman did it? Where is the razor?”
The wet nurse said: “It was Mama Wang, who specifically combs Consort Li’s hair. She used the small knife normally used to trim the consort’s eyebrows.”
Hu Shanwei said: “Bring Mama Wang to the Palace Justice Bureau, and collect her hair-combing and grooming tool box as well.”
She also told the wet nurse and Hair Combing Chamber people: “You should also make a trip to the Palace Justice Bureau to confront Mama Wang face-to-face.”
After everyone was taken away, Huang Weide smiled: “You two female officials performed quite a show—even I was fooled.”
Hu Shanwei and Jiang Quan exchanged amused glances.
By now it was slightly dawn. Ru Siyao stayed by the little princess’s side without leaving for a moment. The little princess still occasionally showed fright in her dreams, whimpering and waving her little fists as if fighting monsters in her dreams.
Ru Siyao gently stroked her violently heaving little belly. Her small hands seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw, tightly gripping Ru Siyao’s finger and instinctively putting the finger in her mouth to slowly bite it.
The little princess hadn’t grown teeth yet, so her bare gums didn’t hurt when biting, like a large carp opening its mouth wide to suck on the finger.
Ru Siyao was twenty-three years old, at prime childbearing age. Looking at the tiny little bundle on the bed, her maternal instincts were aroused and her gaze became tender.
The little princess clearly lacked a sense of security. People say infants don’t understand things, but this isn’t true—infants are extraordinarily sensitive to atmosphere and people’s emotional reactions. Despite being served day and night by over a dozen people, surrounded by jewels and finery, the little princess was still often anxious and restless. Since she couldn’t speak, the only way to vent her emotions was crying and fussing.
Therefore, everyone at Changchun Palace said the little princess was difficult to care for.
Initially, on the day of the little princess’s hundred-day hair-cutting naming ceremony, Consort Li had specifically requested Cao Shanggong from the Bureau of Palace Attendants to cut the hair. Everything was proper and thorough, more thoughtful than a birth mother. Everyone in the palace praised her, saying the title “Worthy Consort” was truly deserved.
But after gaining praise and the Emperor’s favor, having achieved both fame and profit, Consort Li was like White Snake who had drunk realgar wine—immediately showing her true form. Caring for children requires patience and love, and some people are simply not suited to care for others’ children.
When people from the Palace Justice Bureau came, based on past experience, Consort Li assumed the wet nurse and Hair Combing Chamber people wouldn’t dare implicate her, especially since the little princess wasn’t seriously harmed.
Children, after all, love to cry and fuss. In the palace, princes and princesses all had episodes of high fever at night when young—inexplicably burning up, then inexplicably recovering.
So when Hu Shanwei came to interrogate, Consort Li, confident in her pregnancy, didn’t get up to receive her and continued sleeping. It wasn’t until nearly dawn when someone suddenly screamed: “Consort, save—”
The rest of the words cut off abruptly. Half-awake, Consort Li thought she was dreaming. Pregnancy made her constantly drowsy and mentally unfocused. She lay back down to continue sleeping, unaware that her trusted palace woman had already been gagged by Palace Justice Bureau people and dragged away.
When she woke up at daybreak, Consort Li learned of the night’s events and angrily knocked over the copper basin on the washstand: “Why wasn’t I awakened when such a major incident occurred?”
The palace servants knelt on the ground crying: “Ru Siyao said Your Consort is pregnant at an advanced age and needs good rest, that you must not be disturbed. If Your Consort were to harm the fetal qi because of this, we would die without burial ground.”
Consort Li’s pregnancy complications were known throughout the palace. Everyone feared accidents, and Ru Siyao’s medical skills were excellent—the palace servants didn’t dare disobey her words.
After hastily washing and grooming, Consort Li went to the west side hall to visit the little princess, but the main door was tightly closed with unfamiliar palace servants guarding it, not allowing her to enter.
Consort Li was furious: “She is my daughter! Why can’t I see her?”
The palace servant said: “Ru Siyao says the little princess was frightened and needs quiet rest. Please return, Consort Li.”
In the morning, Fan Gongzheng went to the Palace Justice Bureau. Hu Shanwei informed Fan Gongzheng of the incident’s cause and effect: “…According to palace rules, the hair-combing palace woman is punished to carry the bell at night for half a month and do hard labor at the Laundry Bureau. The wet nurse was stripped of her position, and before being expelled from the palace, she and the Hair Combing Chamber people were each beaten with twenty strokes. As for Consort Li—the Palace Justice Bureau can only manage palace servants. Changchun Palace belongs to the Eastern Six Palaces, and the Eastern Palace Mistress is Noble Consort Sun. Huang Weide has already informed Noble Consort Sun of this matter.”
Carrying the bell at night for half a month in this weather would cost at least half a life—sufficient warning for the palace servants.
“Mm.” Fan Gongzheng nodded lightly. When her subordinates had schemes, methods, and could handle affairs, she could relax and just wait to hear the results. After thinking, she asked: “How many people are now guarding the little princess?”
Hu Shanwei said: “Ru Siyao said the little princess was frightened, so none of the previous attendants are allowed near. Currently Ru Siyao has brought six medical women and three medical matrons from the Medicine Bureau. Our Palace Justice Bureau also sent ten people, totaling twenty people guarding the little princess. Since the wet nurse was expelled from the palace, the Bureau of Rites also selected two new wet nurses to send over for selection.”
Palace storms were like this—surging when they arose, but the next day’s snow would cover everything in white, and all would return to calm.
Noble Consort Sun was the Eastern Palace Mistress. Consort Li was under her management, so it wasn’t Empress Ma’s turn to deal with a mere consort.
Noble Consort Sun first bestowed her warm palanquin on Ru Siyao, having her carry the little princess in the palanquin to her own palace, moving her away from Changchun Palace. Consort Li cried and wanted to remove her hairpins to await punishment, asking Noble Consort Sun to give her another chance.
Noble Consort Sun had given birth to two princesses. Princess Lin’an was the eldest imperial daughter and had already married, establishing a princess mansion outside. The younger Sixth Princess had already come of age and would be formally granted a title in the twelfth lunar month. The Imperial Clan Court was also beginning to select a prince consort for Sixth Princess, so Noble Consort Sun had been very busy recently. Consort Li’s unnecessary trouble that frightened the little princess into illness naturally displeased Noble Consort Sun.
But the child in Consort Li’s belly… the Emperor valued offspring above all else.
Noble Consort Sun patiently personally helped Consort Li up: “You’re pregnant and must protect the child in your belly. No matter how vast heaven and earth are, imperial heirs are most important. You need only maintain your health and give birth to the child smoothly and safely. Don’t worry about anything else.”
Noble Consort Sun disapproved of Consort Li’s behavior of using the little princess then treating her as trouble, but currently she needed to placate the consort first to prevent harming the fetal qi. If Consort Li lost the pregnancy, she as Eastern Palace Mistress would also bear responsibility.
Seeing that Noble Consort Sun showed no intention to blame or prosecute, Consort Li immediately felt relieved, thinking that having her own child really made a difference. The child was her protective umbrella, shield, and talisman—her own offspring was more important. But on the surface she cried:
“But what about the little princess? She’s already started eating rice porridge and is used to me personally feeding her. If someone else cares for her, she won’t be accustomed to it.”
Noble Consort Sun had long grown accustomed to Consort Li’s hypocrisy. She took out a handkerchief, wiped away the consort’s tears, and coaxed her extensively: “I know you’ve devoted your heart and effort. It’s just that this pregnancy came too hard for you. At your age, bearing children for the imperial family requires extreme caution in all things. The little princess will be raised in my palace—we’re all in the Eastern Six Palaces. If you want to see her, isn’t that convenient? Don’t lose the big for the small.”
Consort Li cried several more times before finally stemming her tears.
Hu Shanwei went to see Jiang Quan and told her the little princess was being raised at Yikun Palace: “…Noble Consort Sun holds noble status, second only to Empress. Moreover, Noble Consort Sun has given birth to two princesses, both raised very well. Whether in virtue, character, or child-rearing experience, she surpasses Consort Li by thousands of miles. You can rest assured.”
Jiang Quan nodded: “Noble Consort Sun is the most reliable choice. But will Consort Li’s tormenting of the little princess pass so easily?”
Whose bloodline, whose heartache—Jiang Quan couldn’t bear to hear her great-granddaughter’s cries, but she was currently only an eighth-rank female official with limited ability to protect the little princess.
Seeing Jiang Quan’s unwillingness, Hu Shanwei recalled her oath under the old plum tree. She sighed, as if comforting Jiang Quan and also herself: “The future is long. Some things, like raising children, require patience.”
Hu Shanwei constantly reminded herself to have patience. Thousands of miles away at the northern frontier, Mu Chun also repeatedly told himself to have patience, have patience, have patience—repeat the above ten thousand times!
Speaking of Mu Chun bringing supplies to guard the frontier, he truly understood what kind of fierce and cunning enemies the Ming Dynasty faced!
Just as his father Mu Ying had instructed before departure, the Northern Yuan army constantly harassed the border in winter because they knew Ming forces dared not pursue beyond the passes, fearing getting lost in wind and snow. So they brazenly invaded border towns to burn, kill, and plunder.
Large cities were heavily defended and difficult to breach, generally quite safe. But small towns had weak defenses and low walls. Northern Yuan forces would focus their attack on one city gate, swarm in, and leave with their loot before border garrison reinforcements arrived, never lingering to fight.
This day, while patrolling the border, Mu Chun spotted beacon smoke rising from a town ahead and hurried with troops to rescue, but was still a step too late. Most of the town had been ransacked, with debris everywhere. A young father held his swaddled infant and wept desperately in the street:
“My wife was forcibly taken! She had just finished her month of confinement! Those beasts! Without a mother, how will my son survive?”
At the border, a young woman was worth two oxen and was easier to control than two oxen, so women were prime targets for plunder.
Mu Chun looked at the crying infant, and hot blood rushed to his head as he gripped the longbow his maternal grandfather had given him.
Captain Shi quickly advised: “Lord Mu, have patience! Don’t forget Marquis Xiping’s instructions!”
Mu Chun released the longbow.
But even after walking far away, the infant’s cries still echoed in his mind. Mu Chun had also lost his mother while still in swaddling clothes—he knew too well what this meant for an infant.
This child, at life’s most vulnerable and helpless moment when he needed infinite care and warmth, had lost the person who would treat him with the most patience and love. His life was destined to be rough. A child without a mother—it’s a long story.
Patience, patience—what patience!
With youthful spirit, Mu Chun grabbed his longbow and roared: “They’re carrying plundered goods and people—they haven’t gotten far yet! We’re going after them. We won’t linger to fight, won’t take their goods—we’ll just snatch back the people. If you’re brothers, follow me to snatch people back!”