Chapter 1: One Loom

After this, Feng Jing expressed to her brother her request to return to Jifang Garden the next day. Although Feng Jun found it difficult, he had witnessed the scene of the Crown Prince conversing with Feng Jing, and understood in his heart that the Crown Prince held considerable affection for his sister. Holding onto a thread of hope for facilitating a good match, he made arrangements both high and low, allowing Feng Jing to appear at Jifang Garden as agreed the next day.

In the afternoon, Zhao Xi encountered her by the lakeside in the garden.

“Fifty-three.” He spoke the answer he hadn’t immediately calculated yesterday. Feng Jing nodded, confirming the result was correct. Zhao Xi then sought her guidance: “I arrived at this answer by calculating step by step using multiples of seven. Miss, do you have a better calculation method? Could you offer some instruction?”

Feng Jing agreed, and immediately accepted his invitation to enter the lakeside Qingsheng Pavilion to explain the method to him.

Qingsheng Pavilion was used as a study, with all the necessary scholarly implements complete within. Feng Jing took up the brush to explain the problem-solving method in detail. Zhao Xi listened carefully, then posed several more mathematical problems for her to solve. The two discussed for a long time before Feng Jing suddenly realized: “The Eastern Palace has many tutors and instructors. If Your Highness has questions, it would be easy to find experts to answer them. My actions here – aren’t they like showing off one’s skills before an expert?”

Zhao Xi replied: “The imperial examinations do not test mathematics, so scholars mostly don’t value it. I myself have been somewhat negligent about mathematics in daily life, learning only poetry, rhyme-prose, and classical interpretations with the Eastern Palace teachers. Only after seeing yesterday’s matter with the flowing cup channel did I realize that the smallest error can lead to enormous mistakes. Mathematics is intimately connected to people’s livelihoods everywhere, and it’s not excessive to mention it alongside poetry and classical interpretations. Therefore, I wish to learn it well, and your explanations are accessible and clear – I very much enjoy listening to them.”

Feng Jing then asked about the poetry he had sung with the qin. He patiently explained: “That was Emperor Wu of Han Liu Che’s ‘Autumn Wind Rhapsody,’ which begins with the immediate scene to express emotion, moving from describing scenery to missing someone. There are several more lines of lamentation afterward, but because the meaning is sorrowful and didn’t match yesterday’s atmosphere, I didn’t sing them. If you’re interested, I can recite them for you.”

Feng Jing was naturally interested in hearing them. From this, they formed a unique way of interacting between the two of them – Feng Jing would teach mathematics, and Zhao Xi would teach poetry and rhyme-prose. Both listened with great interest, and the initial constraint caused by status differences and unfamiliarity gradually disappeared. During their conversations, laughter frequently filled the air.

This kind of meeting therefore continued. Every two or three days, Zhao Xi would always come to Jifang Garden in the afternoon to read, and Feng Jing would also meet with him in Qingsheng Pavilion under her brother’s arrangements. Each time, Feng Jing still wore the clothes of a palace woman. When the Crown Prince asked her name, she hesitated before answering that her surname was Meng and given name was Jing – “Meng” was her mother’s surname. She had considered telling Zhao Xi her true background honestly, but after hearing from her family that His Majesty wanted to formally establish Consort Li as empress and that the Crown Prince opposed this, she retreated.

The Crown Prince was so hostile toward Consort Li – if he learned her true identity, he would immediately turn and leave… she thought gloomily. It wasn’t that she hadn’t considered how continued concealment might provoke even deeper resentment from him in the future, but she still hoped that their current sweet scholarly life could last as long as possible. Once he understood her better, might things take a turn for the better?

After becoming familiar with each other, their learning method changed, adding a punishment element. The two agreed that Feng Jing would pose problems for Zhao Xi to solve, and Zhao Xi would present literary passages for Feng Jing to identify their sources. If they couldn’t calculate or couldn’t answer, they would be punished. The ruler on the table, originally used for measurements, became their tool for striking each other’s palms.

One day, Feng Jing had Zhao Xi solve a problem: “A craftsman took on the task of painting red lacquer on the railings and lattice windows of Jinyan Gallery. On the first day, he painted five bays, but afterward he became lazy every day, painting less each day than the previous day, with the daily reduction being the same amount. He painted for thirty days total, and on the last day, he only painted one bay. How many bays did he paint in total over these thirty days?”

A “bay” refers to the distance between two columns.

Hearing this, Zhao Xi laughed: “What use is keeping such a lazy craftsman? Don’t let him come back after the second day – what’s the point of calculating?”

Feng Jing replied seriously: “This is a hypothetical. But sometimes when constructing buildings and structures, one might encounter situations where craftsmen reduce their work for various reasons, and such calculation methods might be needed.”

Zhao Xi pondered: “Jinyan Gallery…” After calculating briefly, he asked, “Is it one hundred eighty bays?”

“That craftsman painted at most five bays per day. Even without reducing his work, he could only paint one hundred fifty bays in thirty days – where would one hundred eighty come from?” Feng Jing had him extend his hand first to be struck, then took up the brush to show him the calculation. “For this type of problem, you first add the first and last numbers, take half of that sum, then multiply by the number of days… So the result is ninety bays.”

Seeing that he seemed to understand, Feng Jing wrote another problem on paper and pushed it toward him: “There is a reed growing in a pond, extending three feet above water. It is ten feet from the shore. When the reed is pulled toward the shore, it falls one foot short of reaching it. What are the length of the reed and the depth of the water?”

“This seems even more difficult…” Zhao Xi looked at it, smiled, and shook his head. “No good – if the problems are getting harder, we must change our punishment method too. The difficulty must be increased, otherwise I’ll be easily struck by you every time.”

Feng Jing asked: “How does Your Highness plan to change it?”

Zhao Xi said: “Next time, the winner striking the loser cannot use hands, feet, rulers, or any implements, cannot use these to directly touch the opponent, and cannot throw objects to strike either.”

Feng Jing had no objection. After thinking with lowered eyes, she readily agreed: “Let’s change it as Your Highness says… Your Highness, please work on the problem quickly.”

Zhao Xi used the measuring cord and ruler to draw diagrams and calculate on paper. After a while, he showed it to Feng Jing, who immediately judged: “Wrong.”

Zhao Xi set down his brush, leaned back against the chair, and smiled at Feng Jing with complete composure: “Good, Miss may punish me now.”

Feng Jing responded with a smile, immediately stood up and went outside. Shortly after, she returned with a bamboo tube-shaped object in her hand, with a long wooden rod inserted in the middle of the tube, its tail extending far outside.

Zhao Xi thought “not good” and quickly raised his sleeve to cover his face, while Feng Jing simultaneously aimed the bamboo tube at him, forcefully pushing the wooden rod into the tube. A stream of water suddenly shot out, striking Zhao Xi’s sleeve and body.

This was a “water syringe” used for firefighting. The bamboo tube had an opening at the bottom, and cotton was wrapped around the wooden rod inserted into the tube to draw water. During fires, it could be used as a water gun. Every pavilion and tower in Jifang Garden had several of these prepared.

Seeing that Zhao Xi had been struck by the water, Feng Jing stopped shooting out the remaining water, tossed the syringe on the ground, and couldn’t help but burst into a string of laughter.

Zhao Xi showed no anger or irritation, wiped clean the few water droplets that had splashed on his face, and cupped his hands toward Feng Jing: “Miss is clever – this humble one admires you!”

Looking at her bright, unclouded smile, he also began laughing with her.

Time quietly slipped away in their laughter. When she thought to check the sky, a ray of sunset glow had already escaped to the horizon.

“We should go back,” she said with lowered eyes, feeling somewhat regretful.

“No hurry – you haven’t finished the problem you need to do today.” Zhao Xi immediately took up the brush again, writing in running script, and composed a ci poem:

One loom, weaving the celestial mechanism within the Nine Chapters of mathematics. A thousand thoughts bound into amaranth of shared hearts, in the long vermillion corridors, reeds growing by the southern islet, reluctant to let her return.

Feng Jing looked at those several lines of calligraphy, graceful as startled phoenixes yet maintaining clear strength and elegant beauty, reading the meaning word by word. Finally, she silently repeated “reluctant to let her return,” her heart feeling as if it had fallen into a warm spring, being warmly supported and floating in the water, gently swaying.

“Please answer, Miss – who composed this poem?” Zhao Xi bowed slightly toward her, asking his question with utmost courtesy.

She gazed at the poem, listening to his voice that sounded moving no matter how she heard it, her cheeks beginning to burn involuntarily. As if feeling weak, her hand resting on the table trembled slightly. Finally, under his gentle but insistent gaze, she lowered her head and said softly: “I don’t know.”

“Then Miss has lost.” His voice was incomparably gentle, his manner still perfectly courteous, but he seemed unwilling to pass up the opportunity to punish her.

She remained silent, tacitly accepting the punishment. She glanced at the water syringe she had thrown on the ground, estimating how much water remained inside.

He didn’t seem to plan on using the syringe. He didn’t even glance at it, but instead stood up and moved slightly closer to her by two steps.

She couldn’t help but feel nervous, yet also somewhat puzzled. Suddenly she thought – if he couldn’t use hands or feet, couldn’t use implements, would he perhaps bump her with his head?

This thought frightened her, and she fearfully closed her eyes.

But he only leaned down, letting a gentle kiss descend like a butterfly upon her cherry lips.

In Jinyan Gallery, Feng Jing looked back at Zhenzhen, who was now covering her chest in shock, speechless with surprise, and smiled with pity: “And this was our most intimate, and also our last private contact… Before parting that day, he made an appointment with me to meet again the day after tomorrow. When that day came, I waited from morning until sunset, but he never came… He never came again after that, nor did he ever send me a single word or letter.”

Zhenzhen sighed: “Could it be that he heard your true identity from someone else?”

Feng Jing said: “I can only think so… There’s another thought that causes me great pain every time I think of it, yet I can’t help but ponder it… He has always disliked Consort Li – could it be that he used me to take revenge on her?”

“No, he wouldn’t.” Zhenzhen immediately denied this speculation. “The Crown Prince has noble character and wouldn’t be so petty as to do such things for revenge.”

Feng Jing said sadly: “But I still can’t understand why he was so heartless. Even if he didn’t want to associate with me anymore because of my aunt, couldn’t he have explained things clearly and bid farewell properly?”

“Perhaps the Crown Prince had some unavoidable difficulty?” Zhenzhen tried her best to explain for the Crown Prince, though she couldn’t find a reasonable explanation for the moment.

Feng Jing sighed and continued: “During my many meetings with him in Jifang Garden, actually, because my brother was leading me there, most people in the garden knew my identity. My private meetings with the Crown Prince gradually became a scandal known to everyone in the palace, especially after the Crown Prince refused to include me among the candidates for Crown Princess… My parents actively sought matchmakers to arrange marriages for me, but no one wanted to marry me. No one believed that I could have spent so much time alone with the Crown Prince without physical intimacy.”

Unable to think of how to effectively comfort her, Zhenzhen finally reached out to grasp Feng Jing’s cold right hand, trying to transfer the warmth from her palm to her.

Feng Jing also turned her palm and clasped hands with Zhenzhen. The two held hands and watched the distant pavilions gradually being dyed red by the evening glow. Feng Jing slowly continued: “For a while, I lay in bed every day, doing nothing. Besides sleeping deeply, I would just stare blankly, and I didn’t want to eat anything… Later, it was my mother who personally made the pastries I loved as a child that I began eating again… I love the warm, sweet fragrance of cakes and sweets, and how they remind me of my carefree childhood. So when my aunt suggested to my parents that I enter the palace, I said, let me enter the Royal Kitchen…”

She still gazed ahead, looking toward the pavilions in the misty haze, but the tears welling in her eyes made the scenery before her begin to sway in ripples: “After experiencing these things, how can you expect me to still face mathematics and related subjects? The moment I see these things, memories both sweet and painful come flooding back like an avalanche… Tell me, how can I let go?”