When Mei Zhuyu awoke, he felt somewhat dizzy. He had fallen asleep fully clothed on the couch, his legs too long and hanging off the edge, which was quite uncomfortable. As he reached up to rub his forehead, Mei Zhuyu noticed something was amiss. His chest felt warm and heavy. He reached down and felt something furry. Looking down, he discovered he was holding a familiar tabby cat in his arms.
Sitting up, he placed the still-sleeping tabby on his lap. Mei Zhuyu closed his eyes and, out of habit, quietly practiced breathing exercises for a while. Suddenly, his lap felt lighter. Mei Zhuyu opened his eyes to find the cat had also awakened. It stretched languidly on his lap, casually brushed its tail against his wrist, then jumped to the floor and ran towards the window.
He wasn’t sure whose cat it was, but it had appeared in his room three times in recent days. He occasionally saw it at the Ministry of Justice as well. Mei Zhuyu pondered this briefly but didn’t dwell on it. He stood up, took a wooden sword from the cabinet, and went to the backyard to exercise.
Mei Zhuyu was deeply dissatisfied with himself for passing out after drinking just a small jar of what was supposedly the mildest wine. With such a low alcohol tolerance, wouldn’t he disappoint Wu Zhen’s expectations? He resolved to drink a jar every day from now on to quickly build up his tolerance!
As the night deepened, Mei Si put down his brush and carefully admired the fruits of his day’s labor under the light of more than a dozen bright lamps. The smooth paper was now covered with patches of ink in varying shades. Fierce demons rode black clouds and eerie mists, their expressions grotesque and terrifying, so vivid they seemed almost alive as if they might fly off the paper at any moment.
Mei Si gazed at his work with satisfaction for a long time, feeling his painting skills had improved. He laid out the painting and weighed it down with paperweights to dry. Pleased with himself, he went to bed. He had only completed a small portion of his Thousand Demons painting and would need to wake up early to continue his efforts. The sooner he finished, the sooner he could show it off to his friends.
What Mei Si didn’t know was that after he fell asleep, the demons he had painted that day crawled out of the paper at the sound of a sudden bell. They slipped through the window cracks and escaped outside.
Once free from the paper, the ink demons appeared much more solid and lifelike, each one terrifying enough to frighten someone to death. They left Mei Si’s residence and headed straight for the imperial palace, like a silent black cloud melting into the night.
A faint, delicate bell sound kept ringing through the streets, but the soldiers on night patrol seemed unable to hear it. The sound guided the black cloud of demons to the palace walls like a thin thread.
This group of demons, condensed into an ink cloud, emitted no ghostly aura or the typical malevolent energy of evil spirits. They carried only a faint scent of ink. They passed through the thick palace walls without hindrance, entering the inner palace with its layers of lofty halls and pavilions.
Outside the palace walls, under a locust tree, a man wearing a long veil smiled softly. He put away a silver bell and looked up at the towering palace walls.
“Come now, let’s see what kind of trouble you can stir up,” he said.
After entering the inner palace and losing the guidance of the bell sound, the ink demons quickly found something else that attracted them. The emperor and empress’s palace was still brightly lit, but these demons showed no fear of the light and rushed fiercely towards the hall. However, they were soon blocked by something in mid-air, unable to advance even half a step further. The demons howled angrily in the sky for a while before reluctantly retreating to seek other targets.
To the right of this palace, past two palace lanes, there was a slightly smaller palace that also emanated an aura that tempted the demons. The lights were out in this palace, and there was no invisible barrier—the demons easily touched the palace doors and were about to invade when a sudden wind arose, rustling the tea tree that stood two men tall in front of the palace.
A white figure materialized from the tea tree like smoke. With a wave of his hand, a gust of wind blew the demons away, preventing them from approaching the palace.
Thwarted three times, the demons refused to give up. Seeing the white-robed man appear before the palace doors, firmly blocking their way, the demons glared with bulging eyes and all surged toward him.
Faced with countless ghostly claws and fangs, the white-robed man stood his ground, steadfastly guarding the palace entrance. Even when injured, he refused to let the demons advance an inch. Seeing how troublesome this white-robed man was, the demons split into two groups. One group engaged the man in battle while the other tried to slip through the cracks of the palace doors.
Noticing this, the man waved his long sleeves, and the wind suddenly grew stronger. It howled through the cracks of doors and windows, creating a wailing sound and squeezing out the ink demons.
Enraged, the demons gave up on entering the palace and focused their attacks on the white-robed man.
As the night passed and the first cock crow sounded, the first bell of Chang’an City rang out. The demons, who had battled with the white-robed man all night, appeared weary. The bell toll made them even more listless, and they hastily retreated from the imperial city, disappearing into the sky as it began to turn white.
In Mei Si’s room, all was quiet. The demons, now as defeated as fighting cocks, crept back through the window cracks, no longer resembling their imposing appearance from the previous night. One by one, they slunk back into the painting. Mei Si muttered in his sleep, chuckled twice, turned over, and fell back into a deep slumber, completely unaware of his painted demons’ nocturnal adventure.
After the demons retreated, the white-robed man in front of the princess’s palace began to fade. He glanced at the tightly closed palace doors but couldn’t maintain his form for long. He dissipated into a wisp of blue smoke and drifted back to the tea tree.
The tea tree, which had been lush with leaves and branches just yesterday, now stood with sparse foliage, its unopened buds scattered on the ground.
When the palace servants opened the doors early in the morning to attend to their master, they were shocked to see the pitiful state of the white tea tree in front of the palace. They cried out in alarm.
“Oh no! The princess’s beloved white tea tree… it looks like it’s dying!”
The palace maids serving in the princess’s palace heard the commotion outside and hurriedly went out to check. Seeing the white tea tree in such a withered state, they were also terrified.
“How could this happen? Who could have done such a thing? Quickly, call the night watchmen and the nearby eunuchs on patrol. We must find out what happened! If the noble mistress wakes up and sees the tea tree like this, there will surely be trouble!”
“Yes, yes!” A young palace maid hurriedly lifted her skirt and ran off.
The current emperor had few children, and there was only one princess in the palace, born to Empress Wu, named Li Yuanzhen. This princess held a noble status and had a somewhat naive and carefree nature. Despite being doted on, she hadn’t developed a spoiled or willful temperament. Usually, when the palace maids served her, she wouldn’t mind if they made small mistakes. But this time, even the maid who had cared for her since childhood didn’t dare imagine how angry the princess would be when she saw the state of the tea tree.
Casting a worried glance at the tea tree, the maid sighed and entered the palace, wondering how to break the news to the princess when she woke up. If things went poorly, she might be punished today.
Wu Zhen entered the palace in the afternoon to see the empress. As soon as she walked into the hall, she heard someone crying. Then the empress’s voice rang out, “What’s the use of crying to me? Do you think I can cure that tea tree just because you’re crying here?”
Then came the gentle comforting voice of Concubine Mei, “There, there, Yuanzhen. You’ve been crying for so long, your eyes are all swollen. It pains your mother and me to see you like this. Don’t cry anymore, be a good child, don’t cry.”
Wu Zhen saw her usually cheerful niece with her head buried in Concubine Mei’s embrace, sobbing, while her sister, the empress, sat nearby with an exasperated expression, holding a brush and reviewing some documents.
Wu Zhen paid her respects and, glancing at her niece, asked, “Your Majesty, what’s wrong with my niece? Why is she crying so much?”
Hearing her voice, the sobbing girl immediately raised her head, revealing eyes as swollen as walnuts, and cried as she threw herself at Wu Zhen, calling out pitifully, “Aunt!”
Wu Zhen let her grab her arm and gently rubbed her red cheeks. “Oh my, crying so pitifully. What’s wrong? Tell your aunt, and I’ll solve it for you.”
The empress pursed her lips. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. You’ll be drowning in her tears if you can’t deliver.”
Li Yuanzhen, with red-rimmed eyes, said, “Aunt, my white camellia tree is dying… I… I had all the palace gardeners look at it, but no one knew what to do. What should I do?”
Wu Zhen asked in surprise, “Is this the white camellia tree you insisted on bringing back and planting when you were six years old on Mount Mang?”
Li Yuanzhen nodded, her voice choked with sobs. “Yes, it was fine yesterday, but overnight, somehow, nearly half of it has withered and died.”
Almost everyone in the palace knew about this white tea tree. It was the little princess’s most treasured possession. No one was allowed to break even a twig or pick a single leaf from it, so precious it was to her.
Ten years ago, the emperor and empress went to the Mount Mang palace to escape the summer heat. The then six-year-old princess, mischievous as she was, ran off and somehow ended up in the mountains behind the palace. Those mountains were full of wild beasts, and the little girl was lost there for a night. Everyone thought she was surely dead, but the next day, they found her unharmed under a white camellia tree in the mountains.
The princess never spoke of what happened that night, but she insisted on bringing that wild white camellia tree back with her to plant in her palace. The emperor, doting on her, easily agreed when his little daughter tugged at his arm and ordered people to dig up the tree and bring it back.
The area in front of the princess’s palace was originally paved with bluestone, but because the little princess wanted to plant the white camellia tree as close to her as possible, she had large sections of the bluestone pavement dug up. They brought in soil from the mountains to properly plant the white camellia tree.
Ten years had passed, and the tea tree that had grown in the mountains, transplanted to the deep palace walls, had not withered. Thanks to the little princess’s loving care, it grew lush and full, with camellia flowers blooming all over it every year.
“I want to ask Mother to issue an edict to find someone from among the people who can cure this tea tree, but Mother won’t agree. Aunt, please, help me persuade Mother. I don’t want to watch helplessly as the white camellia tree dies,” Li Yuanzhen pleaded, large tears falling from her swollen eyes, which clearly showed genuine despair and sorrow as she looked beseechingly at Wu Zhen.
Wu Zhen’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly before smoothing out again. She comforted her niece, “Come, wipe your tears. Yuanzhen, take your aunt to see the white camellia tree. Perhaps I can think of a solution for you.”