Hearing His Majesty call him, Chen Dasheng hurriedly handed his teacup to a young eunuch and stood up quickly.
Steward She finally finished laughing, wiped the corners of his eyes, and went into the hall ahead of them. Registrar Liu hurried in with Chen Dasheng in tow, and they entered to pay their respects. The Emperor bade them rise.
Once they’d stood, they saw Steward She seemed to be in a temper, hauling several waist-high stacks of ledgers with some effort and dumping them beside the couch as though venting frustration.
Him acting like this? The Emperor didn’t seem the least bit angry, and instead said with a smile to Steward She: “Qingling, you’ve worked hard.”
With that, the Emperor shot a glance at Zhang Minwang, Steward Zhang.
Steward Zhang naturally outranked Steward She, and yet he happily went to pour tea himself, presenting it to Steward She with both hands.
Steward She took the tea with one hand and drank it all in one go. Without waiting for the Emperor to invite him to sit, he simply sat himself down off to the side.
Seeing Chen Dasheng today put him in a good mood, and he kept looking at this “Choutou” and laughing again.
Pleased to see him so happy, the Emperor grew even more satisfied with Chen Dasheng. He opened his mouth to speak, but just then someone outside announced that the Minister of Rites, Zheng Xingyun, had come requesting an audience.
The hall fell silent at once. The Emperor smacked his forehead, while Steward She stood and went straight into the back hall, returning moments later holding a pair of cotton socks, kneeling to put them on the Emperor himself.
The Emperor seemed unwilling to accept this service, drawing his foot back slightly, but Steward She said: “Your Majesty, this is exactly what your servant should be doing.”
The Emperor, who’d been in quite a good mood, was now thoroughly displeased.
He waved a hand at Zhang Minwang.
Zhang Minwang caught on at once, turned and also went to the back, and before long emerged carrying a large tray covered with red cloth with both hands, handing the tray to Chen Dasheng.
Chen Dasheng had no idea what this was, but since it was clearly a reward, kneeling to give thanks seemed the right thing to do.
Once thanks were given, the Emperor no longer seemed in a mood to talk, and waved the two of them off. Registrar Liu and Chen Dasheng kowtowed once more and hurried out.
Descending the steps from the side hall, Chen Dasheng, still utterly bewildered, was pulled aside by Registrar Liu to make way for a middle-aged court official in his forties or fifties, stern-faced, with three long wisps of beard beneath his chin, dressed in plain white.
From what little he overheard, Chen Dasheng understood at once this was the Minister of Rites, Zheng Xingyun. He bowed slightly, but Minister Zheng swept past him like a whirlwind.
That felt rather infuriating.
Chen Dasheng was about to leave, but noticed Registrar Liu dawdling, straightening his robes, meticulously flicking imaginary dust off the hem again and again…
Before long, a loud voice rang out from inside the hall — a voice he hadn’t heard before, presumably Minister Zheng’s.
“…Since ancient times, the people’s livelihood has always come from farming and animal husbandry — throughout the ages, there has never been a ruler of a prosperous age who did not value agriculture! The sages who governed the realm said: the wise rulers of old, though their laws and decrees differed, all became true kings of the realm for one reason alone — the state must be rich and grain plentiful… Your Majesty has only just ascended the throne, the realm is not yet stable, why must you daily humiliate men to the point of dying in protest, and repeatedly bring up matters concerning lowly merchants and cunning servants again and again!!”
Liu Daya drew a sharp breath and patted his chest.
Chen Dasheng, not understanding what was going on, stared at the steps on the ground and wondered — it was only seven or eight steps, how long could Registrar Liu possibly take to walk down them?
Behind them, the hall fell silent again, and before long, Steward She could be heard laughing — heh heh.
That kind of laughter was clearly not a laugh of amusement — it could only be called deeply cutting.
But the Steward She from moments ago hadn’t been like this at all. Chen Dasheng wasn’t good at reading people, but he’d felt Steward She was actually rather warm and approachable.
“Minister, you’re quite the character! One moment it’s ‘the sages say’ this, the next it’s ‘the sages say’ that! This humble servant isn’t much, but I’ve read a few books of the sages myself! The sages, aren’t they just men holding a few steamed buns, each shouting that his own bun smells the best, hollering all day about how his own writings are the most dazzling? All that talk, on and on, isn’t it just angling to fetch a good price in front of the throne? But the ancients also said, only with a stable livelihood can one have a stable heart.
This servant hasn’t been out and about these years, but I still know plenty. What did Huayang used to look like? Now it’s three thousand qing of scorched earth without a single household in sight! Shouting on and on, and it’s always you who’s right? Always you with the loudest voice? Always you whose ‘sages say’ is correct? What’s wrong with reopening the markets? All you’re really saying, over and over, is just that same old stale stuff, isn’t it? You talk about a rich state with plentiful grain, but a rich state also needs to send the people back to their fields! Outside Yandu and Qingfeng there are more than fifty thousand refugees gathered. The Ministry of Revenue has tried everything just to scrape together a thin gruel to keep the people from starving, and now winter’s bearing down fast — Minister, quite the big talk you’ve got! Are you telling these starving refugees to strip bare and fly home on the wind!!”
“She Qingling!!”
“Zheng Xingyun!!”
Steward She laughed loudly several times: “What can you do to me? I’ve already drunk the soul-severing tea brewed from heartbreak grass — what needed eating has been eaten, what needed dying has died! Does that disgust you? You cold-hearted, faithless, utterly false wretch of a man — what are you doing wearing mourning white, putting on this show of grief!”
A teacup was hurled to the floor, and the hall fell instantly silent.
Registrar Liu slowly crouched down, tugging at Chen Dasheng’s hem, and Chen Dasheng, glancing around in confusion, crouched down too, still holding the tray.
The Emperor seemed used to this sort of commotion by now. He wasn’t angry about the smashed cup at all, and instead said unhurriedly: “Pity, that piece — from the raw clay to the glaze, it would’ve cost thirty strings in the old dynasty. And just like that, one crash, gone! Heh, how would I have known that back then!
Back then I — ah, bah! I never wanted to be emperor in the first place! I just wanted to vent my anger… The day Ruyi died, I ran off to drink in the prefecture in a rage, and that day I ran into Tan Er too — he’d had a hard day too, and drank plenty as well… Later I said I wanted to rebel, and he said, if there’s ever a chance to make a name for himself, he’d be my vanguard, no question. Oh… and now Tan Er’s gone too. Who would’ve thought — just an offhand remark, and it put me on this throne, riding fire… Can’t you all just get along? If you don’t want to see each other, then avoid each other, that’s all it takes…”
Before the Emperor could finish, a round, plump ball of a figure came rolling in from the side of the hall. Rather than use the door, he pushed both hands against the side hall’s window, half his plump body draped over the sill, shouting inward: “Ten thousand blessings to Father Emperor! Your son seems to have heard that an immortal brother has come to visit — today’s weather is so clear and bright, could it be my brother of Yang De come to see me? Hm?”
The Emperor was laughing despite himself, exasperated: “You — what on earth are you talking about?”
The Sixth Prince, Yang Qian, struggled his way back down off the windowsill, straightening his robes with great dignity while muttering: “Hmph! Your son knew Father Emperor couldn’t bear to let me see him — always hiding the immortals away from me, cutting off my immortal fate! Not even father and son can discuss this properly! Does your son not know? Such swift clouds and racing mist — if it’s not Brother Yang De coming in person today, then at the very least it must be my little brother Tianxi…”
He kept talking as he walked further inside, and once he’d disappeared from sight, Registrar Liu finally stood up slowly, and together they saw Zhang Minwang standing outside the hall, wiping away beads of sweat.
Registrar Liu gave Steward Zhang a thumbs up; Zhang Minwang glared back at him and pointed off into the distance.
With that, Registrar Liu quietly led the still-baffled Chen Dasheng away.
Once they’d left the side hall, without any instruction, Yu Qingguan and the others silently fell in step behind them, moving without a sound, each footfall landing in perfect unison as though seven men moved as one.
Registrar Liu looked on with envy, then went over affectionately to pat each of them on the shoulder, wearing an expression of genuine, heartfelt delight, as though he too shared in their glory.
The old palace’s corridors stretched long and narrow, blue-grey stone and vermilion glazed tiles gleaming golden — a narrow single passage, and yet with eight men walking through it, the echo sounded as though only two walked side by side.
Registrar Liu chatted idly as they walked: “Old brother Chen, tell me, this corridor we’re walking now — how many palace women from the previous dynasty do you suppose passed through here?”
Chen Dasheng shook his head blankly.
That night, he and his brothers had gripped their blades and charged down this very corridor in pursuit, the former dynasty’s officials stumbling along as they shielded their sovereign in flight. Thinking back on it now, they hadn’t been without loyal officials — like that final line of cavalry, and those officials, weak and frail, who’d blocked the corridor one after another at the very end.
Those men had looked much like today’s minister — thin, gaunt, robed in flowing sleeves in the willow-tree scholar’s style. They’d been afraid to die too, some soiling themselves before the end, and yet none of them had fled.
Then more men had rushed in, cutting them down from the front — bodies covered the floor, bodies lined the walls, and so-called men of the martial world had poured in from all directions to cut off escape. They’d all fought back and forth down this very corridor, trampling over corpses, blood everywhere, the ground sticky with it.
Now, there was nothing here at all — swept spotlessly clean, no telling how many buckets of water it had taken to scrub it down.
Registrar Liu continued waxing sentimental as they walked: “In this world, it’s always been that one household shares one roof — like you and me, we’re one family! Those officials out there, they may hold rank too, but each has his own household, his own circle! We, though, share the same circle as His Majesty — quite different from those officials.”
At this, he stopped and looked at Chen Dasheng: “Do you understand this?”
His wife had told him something like this before, so Chen Dasheng nodded seriously to show he’d remember it — he was, essentially, hired help for the Emperor’s household.
Seeing his sincerity, Registrar Liu smiled, patting his shoulder: “Going forward, we brothers in the palace — our freedom may not match that of the inner officials, our ears not quite as sharp as theirs, but it’s close enough. Except we come to know so much more. Old brother Chen… some things — no, everything you hear, see, or catch wind of — the moment you turn around, it’s best to forget all of it!”
Chen Dasheng stopped walking and thanked Liu Daya earnestly: “Much obliged for your guidance, Brother Liu.”
The six men behind them nodded in unison, as if on the same rhythm.
Hearing himself called “brother,” Registrar Liu happily threw an arm around his shoulder: “As it should be! As it should be! In this life, brother here admires nothing more than a man of true grit like you! Let’s get along well from now on — I may not be much, but you can ask anyone, from the earliest days following His Majesty, there’s no one who doesn’t know my name!”
In his first twenty years, aside from family and Little Hua, every person of standing Chen Dasheng had encountered had been unkind to him, even cruel and petty at every turn.
But then one day he’d received a letter from his wife, and learned his own name, and from that moment the whole world seemed to have changed its face. Now every kindness he received filled him with gratitude — and the person he was most grateful to, above all, was his wife.
He hadn’t even been away long, and already he felt himself missing her. Just the thought of her brought an aching, swelling feeling in his chest, making him want to turn around and go straight back to her side, and never leave again.
…When she lit the fire, he’d chop the wood for her. When she cooked, he’d work the bellows for her. When she husked rice, he’d turn the millstone for her… he thought, that must be the kind of blissful life the immortals spoke of.
With his wife, he himself had become something like an immortal.
His wife had come into his life, then Little Hua, and now even His Majesty… like the black lacquer mask beneath this tray, clearly the work of a skilled craftsman, made with great care.
His Majesty had given him so much — how was he ever to repay it?
Lost in these sweet thoughts, Chen Dasheng followed Registrar Liu to a duty courtyard near the west outer gate.
This small courtyard wasn’t large, six rooms in all, not especially ornate, but roofed with glazed tiles — and most remarkably, tucked in a corner of the courtyard was a cluster of scattered bamboo, and clinging to a half-formed rockery was some withered, dried moss…
Ah, and there was also a hexagonal well of blue stone, and some stone locks leaning against the wall for strength training… Chen Dasheng thought, Registrar Liu must be a diligent sort, surely practicing daily — he’d have to ask him for pointers on waist-blade technique sometime.
Registrar Liu gestured at the courtyard: “This is the shared duty quarters for our Imperial Bodyguard Rear Guard and your Long Blade Guard. From now on, if you’re on night duty or His Majesty has other orders, you’ll wait here. Don’t wander the palace without a summons.”
Chen Dasheng nodded, walking the courtyard with him for a look around.
All six rooms were clean, the old bed frames and furniture still in place, even the bedding woven with a wan-character brocade pattern. This had originally been the private courtyard of a seal-keeping eunuch from the previous dynasty, later assigned to the Imperial Bodyguard.
Registrar Liu led him to the two rooms on the west side and told him these now belonged to the Long Blade Guard.
Yu Qingguan and the others had stayed quiet the whole time, only growing lively once they had their own rooms — each one poking around, lying down on the beds, rifling through the cabinets, pulling books off the shelf and holding their breath as they studied them intently, still not recognizing a single character, holding the books upside down.
Registrar Liu, good-natured, simply stood by laughing generously the whole time.
Once they’d had their fill of exploring, Registrar Liu brought out a freshly lacquered nameplate, still fully dried, and hung it at the courtyard gate alongside the Imperial Bodyguard Rear Guard’s own plate.
He pointed at it and said to Chen Dasheng: “Old brother Chen, come, come, look — this nameplate was just made for you Long Blade Guard brothers. What do you think, satisfied?”
Chen Dasheng nodded, satisfied — this meant they’d been formally recognized, that they finally had a place to stand among others.
He recognized the characters for “Long Blade Guard,” and stood there quietly gazing at them for a very long time, until Registrar Liu patted his shoulder and he reluctantly looked away.
Registrar Liu brought Chen Dasheng into his own room, personally lit the charcoal, fetched water from the well outside to fill a copper kettle and set it to boil, and only then began chatting with him.
He said: “Old brother Chen, weren’t you frightened by what happened back there today?”
Chen Dasheng paused, recalling what had just happened, and nodded, puzzled.
However simple or inexperienced he was, he still understood what standing a palace eunuch held — yet that Steward She? Somehow he seemed rather frightening, throwing a fit like that, and the Emperor hadn’t even seemed angry.
Seeing him deep in thought, Registrar Liu said: “Actually, to explain this properly, we have to go back to the previous dynasty. But first you should know — in this palace, only two men are addressed as ‘Uncle’: one is Zhang Minwang, Steward Zhang, who serves at His Majesty’s side, and the other is this She Zixiu, Steward She…
Now, these two — occasionally showing Steward Zhang a bit of disregard is no great matter, and even before the princes and imperial relatives, we needn’t bow and scrape either. We’re His Majesty’s own guard, and His Majesty grants us our own dignity! But this Steward She — him, you absolutely cannot afford to offend. You need to remember this firmly, and make sure to pass it on properly to the other brothers too. Whether or not Steward She’s body is whole, you must treat him with the respect due a complete man — otherwise, the scholars of this realm would curse you to death! And His Majesty certainly wouldn’t spare you either!”
Chen Dasheng took this to heart, and after thanking him, asked: “Brother Liu, is there some particular story behind this?”
Registrar Liu nodded: “Naturally there is. It’s rather a long story, can’t be told in a sentence or two. Sigh, we’d have to go back to the previous dynasty. Oh — you know the former emperor was buried just a few days ago, and His Majesty granted him a posthumous name — You. You know that, right?”
This was something Chen Dasheng didn’t understand, and he shook his head honestly.
Registrar Liu, himself only half-informed, seeing Chen Dasheng didn’t understand, just shook his head and said: “No need to dig too deep into it, it doesn’t concern you anyway. Just know that from now on, when speaking of the former Hongshun Emperor, call him Emperor You — ‘You’ is a disparaging posthumous title, meant to shame his name.”
“Oh!” Chen Dasheng nodded, repeating: “Emperor You.”
“Right — Emperor You! Speaking of this Emperor You, I wonder, old brother, have you heard of the former dynasty’s Fanxi Fish Channel…”
Before Registrar Liu could finish, Chen Dasheng shot to his feet and asked loudly: “The Fanxi Fish Channel? The one where they rerouted the river?!”
Seeing Chen Dasheng so worked up, Registrar Liu asked: “Could it be, old brother, that you’re from the lower reaches of the Two Rivers?”
Chen Dasheng clenched his fist, then finally sat back down, and after a long pause said with difficulty: “My — my family is from Wu Commandery.”
Hearing this, Registrar Liu sighed helplessly, wanting to pat Chen Dasheng’s shoulder in comfort, but just then the water on the stove began to boil.
He stood, poured the kettle to fill Chen Dasheng’s cup, patted his shoulder, and said: “Drink some water, take it easy. Hongshun has fallen, Emperor You is buried — old brother, try to let it go.”
In the eleventh year of Hongshun, Emperor You’s Empress, Lady Du, had contracted consumption, and the Emperor, deeply worried, had searched the realm over for a cure. Eventually he obtained a folk remedy requiring, as the sovereign ingredient, female fish from the Fanxi River — a thousand li from Yandu.
The requirements for this fish were extremely strict: it had to be female, had to weigh exactly six liang, and had to be alive when used in the medicine.
The overland route was arduous, crossing mountains and ranges, so in desperation, Emperor You issued an edict to dig a channel connecting the Fanxi River to the Li River, to make water transport easier.
The Li River was a tributary of the Two Rivers system, but it was a flood-control channel that generations of emperors had carefully maintained and reinforced. The moment this new channel was completed, the lower reaches of the Two Rivers began suffering catastrophic flooding every single year during flood season. From that point on, the Hongshun dynasty began its steady decline toward ruin.
Chen Dasheng held his cup, stunned into silence for a long while before looking up: “Brother Liu, the officials I met in the side hall today — any careless word from them could turn into another Fanxi Fish Channel, couldn’t it?”
Registrar Liu hadn’t expected Chen Dasheng to ask this at all, and was stunned himself for a moment before answering: “Yes and no. Someone like Minister Zheng, yes, that could happen. But someone at the third or fourth rank, like Steward She’s father, grandfather, or uncle back then — no, that couldn’t.”
How had this circled back to Steward She again?
Registrar Liu’s tone grew heavier: “You know how our Emperor’s always going on about people dying in protest? Well, that all actually traces back to this.
Back then, when Emperor You announced in court that he wanted to dig the Fanxi Fish Channel, of all the civil and military officials in the whole court, only Steward She’s grandfather stood up to oppose it — not one other soul dared say half a word against it.
That old gentleman stood alone, with no support, yet he was a man of fierce integrity. When Emperor You rejected his memorial, he truly did die in protest — he dashed his own head against the pillar and died on the spot! Right in the main hall ahead of us here — I’ll take you to see it another day, they’re renovating it right now.
The next day, at the second court session, Steward She’s father and uncle went to the grand court under the pretext of confessing their own fault. Who could have guessed — the two brothers didn’t even mention the old gentleman’s death. Instead, one after another, they submitted memorials begging Emperor You to rescind the edict to dig the Fanxi Fish Channel. Emperor You had them dragged out, and they too dashed themselves to death right at the south gate — yes, the very place you’ll be standing night duty…”
Chen Dasheng drained his tea and poured himself another cup, asking: “And then? What happened after?”
If Steward She had been born the son of an official family, how had he ended up a eunuch?
Registrar Liu sighed: “The Son of Heaven flew into a rage and ordered the entire clan executed! Now, Minister Zheng’s father back then had two daughters — the elder was married into the Yang family, that’s our current Empress Dowager, Lady Zheng, in the back palace. The younger daughter was married into the She family. You understand now? Steward She is actually His Majesty’s own maternal cousin, a proper one — he’s no ordinary man at all!”
Registrar Chen’s throat had gone dry from all this talking, and he drank another cup, wiping his mouth with his sleeve before continuing, his tone thick with regret: “Those noble relations, all tangled together in circles — several households tried to save the She family that year. Emperor You eventually issued a supplementary edict allowing the younger generation to draw lots — he’d pardon three boys and three girls from the family, but only those still shorter than waist-height.
Their relatives finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking at least this preserved some line of the She family! But you wouldn’t believe it — Steward She had been quite the famous young talent in Yandu back then. Among the sons of the Zheng, Yang, and She families, if anyone was praised, he was always mentioned first.
To protect him, his grandmother had his young cousin take his place and die instead.
But who could have guessed — a few days later, when relatives went to visit the family in prison, the surviving She males had already been castrated, and the girls sent into the Bureau of Instruction…”
Registrar Liu’s face showed real pain as he told this, and after a long pause said: “Three boys were castrated — those not yet waist-height died. Only one survived by taking another’s name — She Zixiu… Ah, oh, that reminds me, our Steward She’s given name is Zixiu, courtesy name Qingling. Going forward, when you address him properly before others, use his courtesy name — using his given name would be disrespectful.”
But what did any of this have to do with Steward She becoming a eunuch in the new dynasty? His cousin was already the Emperor now, wasn’t he?
Chen Dasheng asked: “So His Majesty…?”
He still let Steward She serve him? Wasn’t that awkward?
Registrar Liu shook his head helplessly: “Our Emperor — back then, under the old Empress Dowager’s arrangement, was actually betrothed to Steward She’s elder sister. But sadly, the young lady was caught up in a palace selection and forced into the harem, and passed away not many years later. Ah, enough said — this cousin, this brother-in-law-to-be, ending up a eunuch — how do you think our Emperor feels about it? Don’t go repeating this story about Steward She outside, though everyone already knows it anyway, it’s common knowledge! Damn it, it really makes me furious just talking about it!”
Registrar Liu himself was worked up over it, slapping his thigh: “Just think about it — our Steward She endured all this hardship, worked from the inside to help our Emperor win the realm. His family finally had something to look forward to — and there are still three girls of the She family in the Bureau of Instruction, aren’t there? With someone from the family now emperor, giving them a quiet, dignified status back would be such a small thing!
Send them off far away, give them generous dowries, marry them into solid, steady households to live out their days — wouldn’t that be a good life too? Have a few children later, adopt one back to Steward She, and the She bloodline could continue on. Wouldn’t that make sense?”
Chen Dasheng nodded at once — that did seem right!
Registrar Liu sneered, slapping his thigh again: “Hmph! No such good fortune. The very second day after Yandu fell, old Lord Zheng — that’s Empress Dowager Zheng’s father, His Majesty’s own maternal grandfather — sent someone to have all three girls drink poisoned wine. Doesn’t that just infuriate you?”
“What?”
Chen Dasheng was thoroughly shocked: “Their — their own grandfather?”
Registrar Liu nodded, his tone full of contempt: “That’s right! Their very own grandfather! That old… forget it! You heard Minister Zheng’s tone today — like grandfather, like son, both cut from the same cloth… pedantic and sour to the bone! Our Emperor was furious. That dukedom was originally supposed to go to the old lord, but in his rage, he gave it to Minister Zheng instead — so yes, Minister Zheng is also Duke Zheng now.”
At this, he glanced carefully toward the door and lowered his voice: “That whole family is thoroughly rigid and pedantic! Ugh! Pedantic, that’s the only word for it! You haven’t heard how people curse them outside — lately someone throws filth at their gate every single day! These scholars, once they get worked up, it’s not a pretty sight! And so Minister Zheng doesn’t even dare go outside, but he’s pent up something fierce, and still has to attend court, so — of all things, he’s put his nieces into mourning white. Utterly absurd, if you ask me.”
A memory flashed before Chen Dasheng’s eyes — the riverbank where his mother had died, pale bodies laid out in rows, villagers weeping as they dug graves by hand to bury them properly, one by one.
His own sister, his cousins, his aunts and uncles’ wives, and all the other women of the village… he thought, if even one woman in his family had survived, would they have saved her? Of course they would have. No matter what had happened, family was family.
After a long while, Chen Dasheng murmured: “Steward She’s had it rough too.”
Registrar Liu sighed: “Exactly! Hasn’t he just! Hmph! And still they weren’t satisfied — I heard they said the only fitting path left for our Steward She now was to become a monk.
And that’s why our Steward She, in a fit of anger, came right back to this palace, back into this whole enclosed world, and properly became a eunuch. That fourth-rank seal-keeper position of his wasn’t given to him by His Majesty — he went and demanded it himself. When His Majesty wouldn’t give it to him, he threw a fit over it… heh heh!”
Registrar Liu suddenly burst out laughing: “The man was pushed to the edge and just threw himself into it entirely! These days he parades around in eunuch’s robes right in front of his own cousin on purpose. Not long ago, Minister Zheng’s expression when he ran into him… he’d stand there and no one within several feet would go near him, even the old officials of the former dynasty say they’re ashamed to be seen standing near him. So now, the two of them either avoid each other entirely, or the moment they meet, it’s a fight. The Zheng family…”
Registrar Liu tapped the side of his head: “Something’s just never been right in that family’s head, no disrespect meant. Look at how I treat Steward She — I’m nothing but deeply respectful whenever I see him. With a person, it’s never just about whether the body’s whole or not — it’s about character too, don’t you think?”
Registrar Chen kept rambling on with these small talk, not expecting Chen Dasheng to suddenly stand up and walk outside.
He hurried after him, asking all the way: “Hey! Old brother! Where are you going? You startled me there! Where to?”
Chen Dasheng reached the doorway and stopped, stunned himself for a moment. He turned to look back at the palace walls, at the towering, undulating glazed rooftops, and after a long while murmured: “Brother Liu, His Majesty avenged our whole village’s blood feud for us…”
Registrar Liu was startled at this, but after thinking it over carefully, nodded: “Ah — now that you put it that way, that’s exactly right! He really did avenge it! He did! Emperor You got what he deserved too, brought his own downfall on himself, serves him right. Eh? Eh! Old brother, where are you going?”
His heart stirred with emotion, Chen Dasheng walked on, thinking to himself — His Majesty had avenged his entire village, and he really ought to thank him somehow. But what could he possibly offer someone who already had everything?
His steps grew slower and slower, until he reached the west gate, and when he saw the row of shuttered shops facing the palace gate, he stopped, and turned to the still-bewildered Liu Daya: “Brother Liu, tell me — what would it take to make these shops reopen, the way His Majesty wants?”
Liu Daya was struck completely speechless. After a long pause, he finally answered seriously: “Old brother, if I knew the answer to that, I’d go take Minister Zheng’s job myself and become the minister. Have you lost your mind?”