Day came once more. Morning light filtered through the windows. The glazed roof tiles of Ziwei Palace glittered in the light of the newly risen sun.

Mu Fulan sat before the mirror. A’Ru stood behind her, combing out her long hair.

“Mistress, your hair is so beautiful — it is like the spring waters of our Lake Dongting, so smooth, so bright…”

The young girl combed her hair and praised her with heartfelt admiration in a soft voice.

Mu Fulan gazed at herself in the mirror — black hair, snow-white complexion — and in a daze, suddenly thought of herself at sixteen, ten years ago.

She remembered it was also such a morning as this. She had been married less than a year at the time. That young and ambitious husband of hers had left her on their wedding night and had not returned for a long time. And she had just awakened from a nightmare.

It was that nightmare that had changed everything.

At that time, she had thought of nothing but leaving the man who had brought all these misfortunes upon her. She had wanted to return to the Kingdom of Changsha that had given her life and raised her, to live out this new life of hers in peace — how could she ever have imagined that ten years later, she would find herself in the imperial palace, revered by all as Empress Dowager?

Three months ago, the young Emperor — who had long prepared and personally planned it — launched a southward campaign to pacify the court of the Prince of Qi, and achieved a great victory. That small court which had lingered in the south for several years after the founding of Great Cheng was no more. Zhao Xitai, cornered by the pursuing forces, threw himself into the sea and drowned. A few days before, the army had returned in triumph. The young Emperor, with all civil and military officials in attendance, walked twenty li out of the city to receive them.

The founding Emperor of Great Cheng, Xie Changgeng, had personally led his campaign abroad and unfortunately suffered a relapse of old wounds during the expedition. Half a year later, he had died in his prime. Subsequently, the Crown Prince had ascended the throne under the regency of the Empress and several senior officials. Over these two years, he had proved not only clever and capable in governance but also remarkably diligent — earning universal admiration. Each day, besides attending to affairs of state, he rose at the fifth watch of the morning, and, as he had done since childhood, practiced swordsmanship and read his books, never missing a day regardless of weather.

Now the realm was at peace and unified under one rule. The young Emperor’s prestige had grown greatly with this southern campaign, and he was nearly fourteen — old enough to assume personal rule.

Just yesterday, the Empress Dowager had relinquished her regency. Before the assembled civil and military officials, she had personally placed the jade seal — which she had held in custody until now — into the young Emperor’s hands.

“Empress Dowager, His Majesty has come —”

Accompanied by what sounded like a somewhat hurried set of footsteps, a palace attendant’s announcement followed.

A’Ru’s hand paused mid-stroke. Her cheeks quietly reddened, and she hastily set down the comb and slipped away.

Mu Fulan watched her slender retreating figure as she withdrew with shy haste, and a trace of amusement showed in her eyes.

Everyone knew that the young Emperor and the commandery princess A’Ru had grown up together since childhood, the closest of companions. Now that the young Emperor had assumed personal rule, once the mourning period for the late Emperor was complete, the two would be wed.

“Mother!”

A young boy in imperial robes came rushing into the hall from outside. He strode quickly to her side and dropped to both knees with a thud, kneeling before her.

“Mother, is it true? Are you truly leaving?”

The young boy stared up at her, his expression filled with astonishment and disbelief.

Mu Fulan dismissed everyone around them.

“Yes. In a few days, I will be returning to Lake Dongting.” She said.

The young boy gripped Mu Fulan’s sleeve tightly. “But why would Mother suddenly want to leave, out of nowhere?”

“Xi’er, Mother has long wanted to go back. In the past there was no getting free. Now that you have assumed personal rule, I am very at ease where you are concerned.”

“It is time for me to go back.”

The young boy stared at her blankly. After a moment, the fingers clutching Mu Fulan’s sleeve slowly released.

“Mother…” he said quietly, “though your son wishes to see Mother’s face morning and evening — if Mother no longer wishes to be confined here and wants to return to Dongting, your son will not stand in the way.”

As he said this, his eyes slowly grew red at the rims.

Mu Fulan smiled gently: “Mother grew up there since childhood. Going back now will be like a fish returning to water. You need not worry about me. Besides, Mother is not leaving forever — when it is time for your wedding, Mother will of course come back.”

“Mother!” The young boy pressed his forehead to the ground before her in a deep bow, and for a long while did not rise.

Mu Fulan helped him up, and gazed for a long moment at the face before her — increasingly resembling that other person with each passing day. Then she considered for a moment and said: “When I go, I would like to take someone with me.”

“Mother, just say the word!” The young boy nodded. “Who is it?”

Mu Fulan spoke a name.

The young boy was startled.

The person in question was the Deputy Commander of the Upper Capital’s Imperial Guard — taciturn by nature in daily life, missing the thumb on his left hand. The story went that in his early years following the late Emperor, he had severed it himself as a form of self-imposed penance for some transgression, though the nature of that transgression was unknown. But owing to his considerable skill and unwavering loyalty, over these past two years he had not only carried out his duties guarding the imperial quarters but also taken charge of the training and instruction of the Imperial Guard.

“I have already asked him. He has agreed of his own accord to accompany me to Dongting.”

Though he did not understand why his mother would wish to take this man named Zhu Liuhu with her, she had already asked — how could the young boy refuse? He agreed at once: “Your son understands. I will have him prepare to accompany Mother today.”

Mu Fulan smiled: “There is nothing more, then. You have just assumed personal rule and have many matters to attend to. Go on and see to your affairs — there is no need to linger here on my account.”

The young boy rose to go. Mu Fulan watched his retreating figure. Seeing him just about to step out of the hall, he suddenly stopped and turned back around.

“Mother! Your son…”

He started to speak, then abruptly stopped himself.

“Xi’er, do you still have something you wish to say?” Mu Fulan noticed he seemed to have more to tell her, and asked.

“No, nothing…”

He hesitated for a moment, then in the end slowly shook his head.

“Your son wants to say — Mother, may you have joy and contentment all your days. If that is so, there is nothing more your son could ask for in this life.”

As he spoke, he turned back to face Mu Fulan and knelt before her once more with solemn reverence, his voice thick with emotion.

……

That year, the young Empress Dowager of the Great Cheng dynasty — just twenty-six years of age — partly for the sake of her health, and partly to avoid giving others cause to criticize her for treading the path of the former Regent Empress Dowager Liu by interfering in governance, quietly departed the Upper Capital after returning the reins of power to the young Emperor, and in the last days of spring, she made her way back to Dongting.

She traveled southward and returned to Yuezhou. After settling in, the first thing she did was go to the ancestral temple to pay her respects to the forebears of the Mu clan, and to those she had lost over the years — her parents, her elder brother and his wife.

Leaving the ancestral temple, she boarded a plain carriage, passed through the bustling, familiar streets of the city she knew as well as the back of her hand, and made her way to the medicine cottage on Junshan Island. She arrived at the ferry landing, boarded a boat, and summoned Zhu Liuhu — who had been traveling with her in the capacity of guard — and said: “If you had stayed in the Upper Capital, your prospects would have been bright. Coming here with me, for the rest of your days you may only live in obscurity. Are you truly certain you will have no regrets?”

“If you have any regrets now, it is not too late. Tell me honestly, and you may go back — I will have His Majesty restore your previous post.”

Zhu Liuhu did not even pause to think. He slowly knelt before her.

“It was only through the late Emperor’s mercy that Zhu Liuhu survived in this world. I am a man of no account — what virtue or ability do I possess to have merited the Empress Dowager’s regard all this time? Zhu Liuhu is filled with deepest gratitude. To be permitted to accompany the Empress Dowager here is my good fortune. I will never regret it!”

Mu Fulan smiled, and nodded.

“She was originally a palace instructress — clever and sharp-minded. I once sent her to be with you. To this day she does not know that your name is Zhu Liuhu, rather than Zhu Liu, which is what you told her back then. But I was told by my Nanny Mu that she has never forgotten you. All these years, she has in all likelihood been waiting for you. I noticed that you too, all these years, have never started a family, and so before leaving the Upper Capital, I casually put the question to you.”

She turned her head, gazing out toward the dock at the center of the lake growing closer and closer before them.

“She already knows you are coming. Look — there she is now.”

Zhu Liuhu gave a start, nearly unable to believe his ears.

He jerked his head up.

At the far edge of his vision, on the island at the heart of the lake, amid rippling blue-green waves, he made out — faintly, indistinctly — a graceful figure standing on the shore, a woman gazing into the distance as the wind set her skirts moving.

The boat drew closer and closer, his eyes opened wider and wider, and very quickly he recognized her.

The person on the shore — who else could it be but that woman who still haunted his waking thoughts and his dreams?

Over all these years, in the quiet of every deep night, he had dreamed the same dream countless times — of a peddler carrying a shoulder pole, making his way through the lanes and alleys of Yuezhou, and of his woman by his side. Yet every time he woke, he had never once dared to imagine that there would come a day in his lifetime when he might see her again.

He stood and stared.

The boat gradually approached the shore. The woman seemed to see him as well. She stepped forward, running toward him — then after a few steps abruptly stopped, and stood there transfixed, gazing at him.

This ordinarily silent and mountain-still man could wait no longer for the boat to be properly moored. His eyes blazed with light. He gave Mu Fulan a deep and solemn bow, then sprang up with a single leap, waded into the water, and went racing toward the shore toward the woman who stood gazing at him, her face already bathed in tears.

Nanny Mu had grown gradually older, and her health was not what it once was. Over the past several years she had not followed Mu Fulan into the palace, and had been living out her days quietly at the medicine cottage.

She stood nearby with A’Mao — who had left the palace two years prior and come here — and watched this pair reunited after so many years. Her eyes could not help but grow moist.

“Nanny Mu, how does he know my Hua Niang auntie? What is his relationship with her?”

“Goodness gracious! What is he doing!”

A’Mao watched with astonishment as the man came wading ashore and immediately seized Hua Niang auntie’s hand and refused to let go, clapping her hands over her eyes — then, unable to resist her curiosity, parting her fingers just a crack to steal a look.

Nanny Mu wiped her eyes, turned, and walked forward quickly, wrapping her arms tightly around the one she had not seen for so many years. She stroked her smooth, silken hair — unchanged from before — and with a trembling voice called her “Wengzhu,” as though she were still the same guileless and innocent young princess of the Kingdom of Changsha, a girl awaiting her marriage.

That word — Wengzhu — felt like a lifetime ago.

Mu Fulan closed her eyes, letting Nanny Mu hold her, pressing her face into her embrace without moving.

After a long while, she opened her eyes, and said softly with a smile:

“Nanny Mu, I am home.”