Shao Yuan, not because the youth was knowledgeable and erudite.
But because in his youth, he had fallen into the abyss, walking in darkness.
Zhao Yān recalled when she first returned to the Eastern Palace and had Liu Ying gather information about the empire’s important ministers. The dossier on Wenren Lin’s background was merely a single page.
Yet this page, every character was striking, every sentence heart-stopping.
In the tenth year of Tianyou, during the siege of the lonely city, the Wenren father and sons led 100,000 soldiers in a desperate battle to the end, building walls with their flesh and blood to protect the peace of thirteen cities and their citizens behind them. Under rolling dark clouds, swords broke and flags fell, corpses strewn across the field.
It was said that when General Wenren died, he maintained a standing posture with sword in hand, intimidating the northern barbarian forces from advancing until General Huo Feng arrived with reinforcements. With tears, he took the broken sword from General Wenren’s hand, and only then did that statue-like, tall, broken body collapse with a thunderous sound.
The Wenren family’s eldest son, Wenren Cang, and second son, Wenren Mu, died in succession. When the sixteen-year-old youngest son Wenren Lin was dug out from the mountain of corpses, he was barely clinging to life.
Why the imperial court’s rescue order was delayed remains unknown.
At the end of last year, Zhao Yān had Gu Xing secretly investigate the details of the Yanluoguan battle, attempting to discern Wenren Lin’s intentions for self-protection. Strangely, all the supervising officials and censors involved in that battle had already died, leaving no way to verify what happened.
…
…
No one knew what Wenren Lin experienced during those two months trapped in the isolated city. His heart, just like the courtesy name he chose for himself, was like a deep, immeasurable abyss with no visible bottom.
Her heart felt a small tug.
Zhao Yān unconsciously turned her head, her lips almost brushing against Wenren Lin’s cheek.
She wanted to ask more about the Yanluoguan battle and Wenren Lin’s past.
She parted her lips slightly, pondering how to phrase her questions, but Wenren Lin released her hand that held the brush. His hand, with distinct tendons, pressed against the desk, half-enveloping her in the crook of his arm.
It was a posture that appeared to be leaning in to inquire, yet slightly intimate and pressuring.
“Now, it’s my turn to question Your Highness.”
He lightly tapped the edge of the desk with his index finger. “Have you finished studying all the books?”
The topic circled back, and Zhao Yān felt guilty, only able to stall: “Let’s discuss this when we return to the Eastern Palace. Chongwen Hall is where the Crown Prince studies governance and strategy. Asking about those things here might be disrespectful to scholarly tradition.”
Wenren Lin glanced at her sideways and said lightly: “This Prince has already been disrespected, why would I still care about scholarly tradition?”
The desolate pain that had just surged in Zhao Yān’s heart instantly scattered. She irritably tapped her brush, leaving a crooked ink mark on the paper.
Recently, she had been so busy that she just wanted to sleep soundly upon returning to the Eastern Palace, and hadn’t looked at the books at all. Naturally, she couldn’t answer most of Wenren Lin’s questions about health cultivation methods.
So Wenren Lin used her body as a model, demonstrating the acupoints for warming the palace one by one.
His expression was serious, his knuckles barely touching through her clothes before quickly withdrawing, his gestures neither frivolous nor deliberate. Yet Zhao Yān was still flustered, her lips red and face flushed.
This was, after all, Chongwen Hall, not the Eastern Palace bedchamber.
When he was nearly finished, Wenren Lin finally smiled and nonchalantly picked up “Alliance of States” to continue his explanation.
……
On a summer night, sudden thunder roared, and torrential rain descended without warning.
For a full fortnight, the sun remained hidden, and memorials about floods from various regions arrived in succession, piling up on the long desk in the Taiji Hall.
The court officials argued incessantly about disaster relief funds and grain, and even the Empress voluntarily reduced the scale of her birthday celebration, simplifying everything. The palace was trying to stretch every tael of silver, yet only the construction of the Star-Gazing Observatory continued vigorously, aiming to complete the roof before year’s end.
Princess Shoukang’s family was delayed by the heavy rain and floods, not arriving in the capital until the beginning of the seventh month. After settling in the Princess’s mansion, they were to enter the palace to pay respects to the Emperor and Empress.
Outside the palace gate, puddles reflected the flowing clouds above.
Zhao Yān, dressed in the purple robe and golden crown of the Eastern Palace Crown Prince, personally welcomed her aunt, Princess Shoukang, from her carriage.
The copper bells jingled, and before the ornate, fragrant carriage had fully stopped, a delicate, small hand lifted the curtain.
“Crown Prince brother!”
Princess Changle, Huo Zhenzhen, wearing a light golden gauze shawl, jumped down from the carriage, stepping in small puddles as she quickly ran over. The golden bells at her waist jingled with her light steps as she smiled and threw herself into Zhao Yān’s arms.
The young woman in her arms exuded a soft, sweet fragrance. Zhao Yān was bumped back a step by her impact, barely maintaining her balance.
She couldn’t help but be surprised: the little lotus-root dumpling who used to quarrel with her and pull her hair when they were children had grown into such a fresh and lovely young lady.
The gold and jade bracelets on Huo Zhenzhen’s wrist made tinkling sounds as she stepped back slightly and fired off words like a string of firecrackers: “Flooding was everywhere around Luozhou, I almost thought I wouldn’t make it to the capital! Oh, I heard that the Liu vixen by the Crown Prince’s brother’s side is gone, is that true? Hmph, daring to steal my Crown Prince brother, serves her right!”
Then she put her hands on her hips proudly and said, “Crown Prince brother, I had my coming-of-age ceremony last month. Why didn’t you write me a letter? I want a golden hairpin crafted by the Crown Prince’s brother, too. If Zhao Yān has one, I should have one too!”
Zhao Yān smiled as she watched her cousin talk about herself, her eyelids twitching as she endured it. Then a clear, chilly female voice came from behind: “Zhenzhen, you’re a grown young lady now, don’t be as unruly as when you were little.”
Zhao Yān looked toward the voice and saw an elegantly adorned, noble-looking beautiful woman stepping down from the carriage with a maid’s assistance, followed by General Huo who carefully protected her.
Zhao Yān composed herself and respectfully bowed: “Nephew Zhao Yǎn pays respects to Aunt and Uncle.”
The beautiful woman merely nodded slightly, then shifted her gaze and walked directly to Huo Zhenzhen, gently fixing the hair that had come loose from running.
General Huo returned the salute with clasped hands, breaking the awkwardness: “Minister Huo Feng pays respects to Crown Prince.”
The Princess had to meet the Emperor and Empress first upon entering the palace. Zhao Yān personally led her aunt and uncle toward Ziyun Pavilion for receiving guests. Along the way, the couple didn’t speak a word, but fortunately, Huo Zhenzhen chirped non-stop like a little bird, preventing the atmosphere from becoming too stifling.
Zhao Yān glanced at Princess Shoukang walking ahead with a somewhat cold demeanor, and turned to ask Liu Ying quietly: “Did I fail in some etiquette just now, making my aunt angry?”
Liu Ying quickly lowered her voice: “Last spring, when Your Highness insisted on bringing back Liu Ji, Princess Changle found out and came to the Eastern Palace to throw a tantrum, then left the capital in anger.”
Zhao Yān understood—her aunt was supporting her daughter.
It wasn’t that Huo Zhenzhen was truly enamored with Zhao Yǎn; it was more the bond of childhood playmates, combined with jealousy that Zhao Yān had a kind and gentle brother while she didn’t. So she was determined to also receive that gentleness.
As for Zhao Yān, since childhood, she had envied her aunt and uncle’s deep love for each other, with all their affection poured onto Huo Zhenzhen—that was the perfect parental image in her mind.
The two children envied each other, disliked each other, and Zhao Yǎn became the prize caught between them.
Looking back now, it seemed both amusing and melancholic.
After dining in the palace, Huo Zhenzhen insisted that the “Crown Prince” take her to the cherry orchard in the Western Garden.
Zhao Yān, who had been worried about finding an excuse to approach the Divine Light Sect, smiled and said: “Cherries are out of season now, there’s nothing much to see in the Western Garden. The Northern Garden is spacious with nice scenery, though, would the Princess like to go for a walk there with me?”
Huo Zhenzhen didn’t suspect anything and happily agreed.
The evening glow dyed half the sky like rouge, and unidentified birds flew by with flapping wings. The buildings in the Northern Garden that had been destroyed by wind and thunder were being rebuilt, with foundations expanded several times. The erected beams stood like a giant beast’s skeleton, making the workers and palace servants move back and forth seem as small as ants in comparison.
“Your Highness, stones and timber are piled like mountains ahead, truly dangerous. Please stop here,” said a Works Ministry clerk in charge of supervision, bowing and smiling apologetically. “If someone careless were to bump into you, or even if a small pebble were to fall, this humble one could not bear the responsibility.”
Zhao Yān good-naturedly agreed: “Very well, we’ll just look from a distance.”
As she spoke, she covered her mouth with a light cough, giving Li Fu behind her a meaningful look.
A team of carts transporting timber rumbled past, and when they left, Li Fu was nowhere to be seen. No one noticed that an inconspicuous little eunuch was missing from the “Crown Prince’s” entourage.
When it was completely dark, Li Fu finally returned hurriedly with mud all over his shoes, silently rejoining the palace attendants behind Zhao Yān.
After escorting Princess Shoukang’s party out of the palace to return to their mansion, Zhao Yān finally boarded her palanquin back to the Eastern Palace.
Having worked up a sweat today, Zhao Yān thoroughly bathed herself clean, casually tied her half-dry long hair on top of her head, put on a robe and returned to her bedchamber. Li Fu had already cleaned himself up and was waiting outside the hall.
Zhao Yān dismissed everyone else and asked: “Did you find anything?”
“Your Highness, Taoist priests guard the Tongtiand Platform at all times. Judging by their gait and demeanor, they are all trained fighters, and I really couldn’t get close enough to search for evidence. However…”
Li Fu stepped forward and cautiously said, “However, I heard them saying something about ‘the timber not being right,’ so I mixed in with the workers at the Star-Gazing Tower’s timber shed to check, and indeed found a problem.”
Saying this, Li Fu presented Zhao Yān with a palm-sized piece of scrap nanmu wood.
Zhao Yān took the nanmu piece and examined it, initially not seeing anything wrong, until Li Fu pointed it out. Then she noticed the odd smell and color.
Bringing it closer to smell, she could detect a faint musty odor.
It was aged wood that had been soaked by the recent continuous rain and was now only fit to be discarded. Yet the funds allocated by the court were certainly sufficient to buy the finest new timber. Where the huge difference in cost had gone was obvious to anyone with a brain.
This was a good breakthrough point, but Zhao Yān also knew how difficult it would be to move against her father’s right-hand man. One small misstep could ruin everything.
She needed to plan carefully for a single, decisive strike.
Zhao Yān lowered her gaze in concentration, slowly turning the damp, cold old wood in her palm. Currently, the Eastern Palace has no real power in court politics. To bring down the Divine Light Sect, she would need to choose the perfect moment of opportunity.
And looking at recent events, the only suitable occasion would be…
Realizing something, Zhao Yān glanced at the lotus-patterned jade pendant on her desk that had not yet been polished. Her peach blossom eyes showed signs of struggle.
If she did this, Mother would be disappointed, wouldn’t she?
Time flowed silently as Zhao Yān and Li Fu held their breath, waiting for the next order.
After a long while, Zhao Yān gripped the nanmu wood in her hand, as if having gone through an internal battle, and said wearily: “Take my personal letter to Censor He and Deputy Minister Cen of the Ministry of War. No need to explain what it’s about; they’ll understand after reading the letter.”
Now she could only gamble on the favors she had accumulated during the Jingyun Mountain Villa case.
At Prince Su’s mansion, in the study.
Cai Tian splashed through puddles on the steps and said to the man sitting by the crane-headed lamp: “Your Highness, our spy reports that the other side is desperate and has indeed begun to take action.”
Wenren Lin put down the book in his hand, his face pale but lips a vivid red, with more color than usual.
A dangerous color.
Cai Tian calculated the days and lowered his voice: “Does Your Highness wish to visit Yuquan Palace?”
But Cai Tian knew very well that his lord had already visited Yuquan Palace for two consecutive months. A third visit might give conspirators something to exploit.
As expected, Wenren Lin didn’t answer. His fingers, cold white as frost, lightly tapped once as he rose and said: “Prepare the carriage, we’re going to the Eastern Palace.”
Half a bright moon hid behind clouds as the Eastern Palace’s bedchamber glowed with lamplight.
Wenren Lin walked to the entrance with his hands behind his back, hearing sounds of someone hastily searching for something inside.
When he entered the hall, he saw the little Prince sitting properly at her desk reading by night, with her slightly damp hair loosely tied up. Her fair neck was bent down, presenting an image of serious study by lamplight.
Noticing her rapidly rising and falling chest, Wenren Lin knew she was cramming to deal with him. He couldn’t help but lift the corners of his mouth slightly.
He walked over, bent down, and gently moved Zhao Yān’s fingers away, pulling out a smooth lotus-patterned jade pendant from beneath the open book.
“Has Your Highness been neglecting studies lately to work on this?” Wenren Lin asked.
Since she’d been discovered anyway, Zhao Yān stopped pretending and said resignedly: “Yes. I’m not as scholarly as the Crown Prince. For Mother’s birthday gift, I could only think of giving this.”
Wenren Lin stroked the somewhat crudely carved pattern on the jade pendant and, after a while, said: “I suppose it will do.”
Why did he have such a reluctant expression?
Annoyed, Zhao Yān stood up and snatched the jade pendant back from Wenren Lin’s hand, returning it to its brocade box.
Just as she was about to close the lid, Wenren Lin’s sharp eyes caught sight of something, and he placed his palm on the box to stop her.
“Is this… also a birthday gift for the Empress?”
His distinctly knuckled hand pinched Zhao Yān’s fingertips and took out another three-finger-wide white jade pendant from the brocade box.
Seeing this jade in Wenren Lin’s hands, Zhao Yān hurriedly reached to grab it, but Wenren Lin was tall with long legs. He raised his hand, and she couldn’t reach it, nearly falling into his embrace.
Wenren Lin loosely encircled Zhao Yān’s waist with one arm to prevent her from falling in her urgency, while holding the jade up to the light with his other hand. The jade pendant had a four-clawed small beast carved on it, looking strange and not like something a woman would wear.
Wenren Lin frowned unusually and clicked his tongue, asking: “What is this carved thing? A dog?”
Zhao Yān opened her eyes wide in anger and protested: “What dog? It’s a cat!”
This peculiar pattern was a cat?
“Cat” was homophonous with “advanced age” in Chinese, symbolizing longevity. Wenren Lin tightened his arm and softly pressed his question: “This jade, who does Your Highness intend to give it to as a lover’s gift?”
“…”
Zhao Yān broke free from his restraint and sat back behind her desk, breathing heavily. Supporting her chin, she said dejectedly, “If you say it’s a dog, then it’s a dog. After all, it’s meant for a dog.”
The mocking smile in Wenren Lin’s eyes paused, as if he were stunned.
“Let’s just say I was bitten by a dog.”
“This Prince is merely a dog, why should Your Highness be angry at a little dog?”
The conversation from the night when the little Prince returned the jade slip still echoed in his ears.
Looking at the crudely carved jade pendant in his hand, Wenren Lin understood almost without thinking—this jade pendant was originally meant for him.
It was something the little Prince had spent countless nights carving and polishing bit by bit.
The jade was pure and noble; giving it to an evil spirit like him would truly be a waste.
The pure-hearted young woman had put all her energy into preparing for this birthday celebration, full of hope, completely unaware that the banquet she was personally organizing was already a trap, a fuse.
It was truly pitiful.
Waves of emotion surged in Wenren Lin’s eyes as he raised his hand to press against his aching chest.
“I’m not someone who doesn’t understand gratitude… Last time Grand Tutor sent me a rouge-colored horse, so I carved this jade, thinking to give it as a return gift,” Zhao Yān said, her voice growing fainter.
She didn’t want to see Wenren Lin wearing that jade-inlaid ring and jade hook belt clip everywhere, always reminding her of intimate moments she shouldn’t remember.
Zhao Yān also knew this jade wasn’t carved well. She had originally planned to carve another one and give it at an appropriate time, but never expected Wenren Lin’s eyes to be so sharp, catching her unprepared.
She lowered her eyelids, turning a couple of pages in the book as if to cover up her feelings, finally coming back to her senses—
The hall was too quiet.
Glancing sideways, she saw Wenren Lin holding the jade pendant in the shadows, his expression unclear.
Was he disappointed with her poor carving? She really should have carved a new one.
Zhao Yān couldn’t bear the silence; her back gradually stiffened with regret and discomfort.
She cleared her throat and randomly pointed to a line in the book, seeking a topic to break the ice: “I don’t understand this phrase, what is ‘red pearl’?”
Wenren Lin finally shifted his gaze from the jade pendant and looked at the line Zhao Yān was pointing to.
Under her slender white finger, the four characters “touching its red pearl” were visible.
In the lamplight, her features were exquisite, her eyes so pure that one wanted to embrace her and cherish her tenderly.
And Wenren Lin did exactly that.
He naturally hung the jade pendant on his belt, carefully smoothed the dark blue tassel, then bent down behind Zhao Yān, completely enveloping her in his embrace.
He undid Zhao Yān’s jade belt clasp, his long frost-white fingers moving downward, showing her the answer with practical action.
The man’s knuckles were cool and strong, with a slight callousness.
Zhao Yān first froze, then trembled all over, the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye burning red. Like a startled deer, she tried to leap up.
Wenren Lin pressed down on her shoulder with just one palm, his half-lowered eyelashes opening to reveal captivating eyes.
“This Prince has said before, there are ways in this world that require neither medicine nor harm to the body.”
His face bathed in the enchanting lamplight, his expression devout and focused, “I wish to let Your Highness try.”