In the western wing of Lizheng Hall’s courtyard, bookshelves lined the walls, packed with volumes upon volumes. Near the window stood a writing desk complete with brushes and ink. The outermost stack of books on the shelves bore labels reading “Book of Han,” followed by “Chronicles of Wei,” “Chronicles of Shu,” and “Chronicles of Wu.” For a moment, Wei Shubin felt as if she had returned to her own family’s study—her father Wei Zheng had recently received an imperial decree to compile historical records, and his shelves too were filled with thick historical texts.
When Crown Princess Su Lingyu introduced this as “the Empress’s private study,” Wei Shubin was momentarily surprised. In her home, when her mother and sisters wanted to read, they would borrow books from their father’s study and write in their chambers. She had never imagined that a woman could have her dedicated study.
But when Su Lingyu mentioned that “His Majesty’s study is in the eastern wing opposite, with shelves full of maps and military texts,” Wei Shubin thought it quite sensible that the couple, with their different reading interests, each had their own space without disturbing one another.
As they walked over from the main hall, they addressed each other formally as “Crown Princess” and “Lady Wei,” maintaining polite conversation. In the months since they had last met, Su Lingyu had grown noticeably thinner, her face dim and her gaze wandering. Though she now wore a married woman’s hairstyle and heavy brocaded shawl, she appeared even more delicate than when she was unmarried, lacking the radiant vitality expected of a young wife.
In previous years, the two women had been intimate friends who shared everything, and Wei Shubin had considered herself thoroughly familiar with this eldest daughter of Secretary Su Dan. But now she felt increasingly cold at heart, sensing that the person before her was not the Su Lingyu she knew.
Though Su Lingyu had always been known for her graceful deportment and gentle nature, she had been a young woman of strong opinions and spirit, additionally blessed with extensive literary knowledge and natural eloquence that made her stand out even among the talented ladies of the Women’s Academy. While her family, the Sus of Wugong, could not be considered low-ranking among the noble families of Guanlong, having produced notable figures like the former Sui Dynasty Prime Minister Su Wei, they still fell short of the Five Great Surnames and Seven Great Clans. Moreover, Su Wei had experienced some friction with the current Emperor, which still occasionally sparked behind-the-scenes gossip.
Su Lingyu was the eldest daughter of Su Wei’s grandson, and her father Su Dan currently held the modest fifth-rank position of Secretary. That someone of her background should be chosen as Crown Princess—the future Empress and Mother of the Nation—and yet face no objection from anyone in the capital, spoke volumes about her outstanding personal qualities.
But who was this woman before her now, with Su Lingyu’s features somewhat distorted, eyes fearful, and speech hesitant…
The two sat facing each other, scraping together bits of small talk that quickly gave way to silence. The cold detachment emanating from Su Lingyu formed an invisible barrier, blocking out Wei Shubin’s many questions. Considering how rare it was to have a private conversation, and feeling heartache at her friend’s condition, Wei Shubin gathered her courage and called out “Ayu,” but Su Lingyu immediately stood up in panic:
“I almost forgot, the Empress asked me to transcribe some passages… Since we have brush and ink here, I should do it now…”
Forcing a smile, she gathered her shawl and skirts, slowly walked to the writing desk, and knelt. She picked up the celadon water pitcher and began pouring water into the Biying inkstone.
The water gradually flooded over the ink-grinding platform in the center of the inkstone, then mercilessly overflowed its edges, spreading across the desk.
Another hand grasped the ceramic pitcher, stopping the flow, and returned it to its original place.
Wei Shubin held Su Lingyu’s hand after replacing the water pitcher but didn’t let go. Seeing tears welling up in Su Lingyu’s eyes as she looked back at her, Wei Shubin couldn’t help but take her other hand as well, holding both her arms as she asked:
“Ayu, what’s going on?”
Su Lingyu parted her cherry-red lips but couldn’t utter a word. Two clear streams of tears flowed down her cheeks as she closed her eyes and collapsed into her friend’s embrace, crying uncontrollably.
On the day of Jiashen in the first month of the ninth year of Wude, Crown Prince Chengqian took Su as his consort. The Emperor held a grand feast for his officials, and silk was bestowed according to rank.
The joyous ceremony, resplendent with flowers and brocade and celebrated throughout the realm, still seemed fresh in memory: Lady Su, wearing the ceremonial robe adorned with nine flower trees, entering the Eastern Palace through the Mingde Gate in the phoenix carriage to the sound of imperial court music, receiving the golden seal and jade charter, with officials announcing her installation as Crown Princess to the imperial ancestral temple—ascending to the pinnacle of glory and wealth that any maiden could hope for.
That had been just over a month ago. Since then, this new bride of the Eastern Palace hadn’t appeared in public, and this was likely her first meeting with an old friend from home. Upon hearing the familiar “Ayu,” all her pent-up grievances could no longer be contained.
“Ayu, what’s wrong? Is the Crown Prince… not treating you well?”
Su Lingyu cried for a while on Wei Shubin’s shoulder, and when she finally gained some composure, she wiped her tears with the edge of her shawl while choking out:
“He hasn’t bullied or mistreated me… it’s just…”
Another wave of tears welled up, and Su Lingyu covered her face, steadying her breath before continuing in a trembling voice:
“Sometimes I feel as if someone has cast a spell on me… an invisibility spell… Even when I’m right before his eyes and he’s looking at me, his gaze passes straight through me, fixed on something—certainly not me… When he occasionally smiles, his eyes softening for a moment, it’s never for me, but for someone thousands of miles away…”
“You mean… the Crown Prince is thinking of another woman?” Wei Shubin asked softly.
Well, it was certainly sad for a new bride, but wasn’t it also quite normal? Crown Prince Li Chengqian was already eighteen this year and should have had more than one concubine serving in his chambers by now. His younger brother by the same mother, Prince Tai of Yue, had already fathered a son with a serving maid several years ago, making the Emperor and Empress grandparents, which only highlighted how late the Eastern Palace’s marriage was, with Su’s selection and wedding appearing rather rushed.
“If he had a favored consort, I wouldn’t be surprised or angry,” Su Lingyu shook her head as tears fell. “What’s there to say about such things? I’ve mentioned it to his face—whoever he likes, he should properly bestow titles upon them. There are so many vacant positions for Noble Ladies, Noble Consorts, and Ladies of Bright Deportment. Would I be jealous? But he…”
She swallowed a sob and took a deep breath: “He simply ignores me… He has never paid any attention to me… Can’t even speak three sentences before he gets up and leaves… I don’t even know what I’ve said or done wrong…”
Wei Shubin could only stroke Su Lingyu’s arm as she watched her friend bury her face in her shawl and sob, unable to hold back her tears:
“You’ve only just married, it hasn’t been long… Perhaps things will gradually improve…”
“I could have accepted even that,” Su Lingyu said between sobs. “I know what life is like in the imperial family’s inner chambers, I had already prepared myself—if I never found favor my whole life, I could read books and write, burn incense and recite sutras, as if I had entered a nunnery, and that would be fine. But… the Empress…”
The words “the Empress” came out in a cough mixed with crying. Wei Shubin started, asking:
“What did the Empress say to you? Or has she made things difficult for you?”
For new brides, the mother-in-law was usually the most challenging to serve. But Su Lingyu kept shaking her head:
“Never… I come to Lizheng Hall daily to attend to her illness, and the Empress treats me as kindly as her daughter. When she’s feeling better, she discusses poetry and literature with me, tells me stories about the Crown Prince’s childhood, and talks about the future, when we… The Empress has given me so many ideas about how to rein in a man who’s like a wild horse, how to keep a willful emperor from going too far astray, and how to protect loyal ministers. The more I listen, the more distressed I feel, thinking how useless I am…”
Wei Shubin thought for a moment and understood her meaning. The selection of Su Lingyu as Crown Princess had been arranged by the Empress with the Emperor’s approval. Naturally, Empress Changsen had high hopes for this daughter-in-law and was molding her into the image of a “future mother of the nation.” The higher the expectations and the better the treatment, the heavier the pressure Su Lingyu felt on her shoulders, yet she couldn’t even speak properly with her husband and could only blame herself for failing to live up to such grace.
After her bout of crying, Su Lingyu seemed slightly more relieved, her sobs gradually subsiding. Wei Shubin couldn’t help but say softly:
“Ayu, you shouldn’t blame yourself. When all is said and done, this is Li Chengqian’s fault.”
Few people dared to directly use the Crown Prince’s name, and Su Lingyu’s shoulders trembled as she looked up at her. Wei Shubin continued:
“Since he married you by his parents’ command and properly installed you as his primary wife in the Eastern Palace, regardless of whom he loves in his heart, he should at least show you respect on the surface. That’s not even respect for you, but respect for the Emperor and Empress, and indeed for the Tang Dynasty’s ancestral lineage. Moreover, you haven’t done anything to dishonor your duties as a wife, haven’t made things difficult for him at all, following his wishes in everything, yet he won’t even tell you what his wishes are—this inexplicable behavior, how can you be blamed? If it were me since the Empress treats you so kindly, you might as well confide in her—”
“Report on her son to my mother-in-law?” Su Lingyu smiled bitterly through swollen eyes. “And not just any son, but her eldest son and heir apparent, the one securing her position as Empress… Shufen, once you marry into your husband’s family, you’ll understand.”
Wei Shubin was speechless for a moment before asking, “Then what do you plan to do now?”
“What you said isn’t wrong—the key to this lies with him,” Su Lingyu said slowly. “I just don’t understand why he treats me this way. In the month since I entered the Eastern Palace, I’ve had my maids quietly investigate whether the Crown Prince has any particularly favored woman. You know such things can’t be hidden from servants…”
“And what did they find?”
“The result… I don’t know what to think. The Eastern Palace servants all say the Crown Prince’s treatment of his few serving maids and concubines is unremarkable, none seeming especially favored, and none have conceived in all these years. They say the Crown Prince’s appearance and temperament are exactly like the Emperor in his youth, but in this regard, he’s much more restrained than his father…”
Su Lingyu gave a bitter laugh before continuing:
“With no favored women in the Eastern Palace, I began to suspect someone outside. You know that in recent years, the Emperor and Empress often make tours outside the capital, leaving the Crown Prince to govern as regent. He’s also playful and active, and the palace servants say he often goes hunting with his Hu cavalry guards, staying away for days at a time—perhaps some beauty has entangled him outside? But this doesn’t quite make sense either. As heir apparent, if he fancied someone, couldn’t he simply bring her back to enjoy? Even if she were another man’s wife, his grandfather, and father have done such things, and they would hardly scold him for it.”
Wei Shubin recalled the stories she had heard about Xin Chujian’s wife and Prince Lujiang’s concubine, and could only smile bitterly, at a loss for words. She listened as Su Lingyu continued:
“Just a few days ago, my maid Xiaoping happened to chat with some drunk Turkic guards and asked about whether the Crown Prince had any involvement with women outside. One drunk Turk said two sentences that suddenly made me think of a possibility…”
Hearing her voice tremble slightly, Wei Shubin knew she had reached a crucial point. She unconsciously reached out to hold Su Lingyu’s hand, feeling it ice-cold and damp with sweat:
“That Turk laughed and said: ‘The Crown Prince has fallen in love with a woman, but she’s his sister.’ Xiaoping was shocked, nearly dropping her wine pot, then the Turk said: ‘No, no, not from the same parents, it’s…’ He used a Turkic word before being dragged away by his companions. Xiaoping remembered that word and came back to tell me. I had her ask other Turkic servants about it, and apparently, the word refers to ‘female relatives not born of one’s mother’—sisters, aunts, nieces, all included…”
“How can there be such a word?” Wei Shubin was greatly surprised. Su Lingyu smiled bitterly:
“Don’t you know the customs of the northern barbarians? They roam the deserts and grasslands, their way of life is harsh, and they’ve always practiced marriage between relatives. As long as the woman wasn’t born from them or they weren’t born from her, any woman within the tribe can be taken as wife or concubine, so it’s not strange they use one word for all of them. But such a broad term—who exactly does it refer to? Which female relative has the Crown Prince fallen in love with?”
“Hmm,” Wei Shubin suppressed her emotions and tried to analyze seriously, “Since they said ‘not from the same parents,’ it certainly can’t be princesses of this generation—the worst… scandal won’t happen. If it’s an unmarried cousin or aunt of a different surname, the Crown Prince could simply bring her into the Eastern Palace, as our Great Tang doesn’t particularly care about generational order in marriages, right? Since it must be kept secret and they meet in private, it must be a woman who cannot be openly taken as a wife—”
Either she was already married to an important family that couldn’t be ignored, or… she was a paternal aunt, niece, or cousin from within the imperial clan.
Wei Shubin suddenly remembered the jade ring that the Empress had just handed to her son—the suspected male token found in Princess Linfen’s dowry at Ganye Temple, and the Empress’s expression of anger and heartbreak as she let slip half a sentence:
“Keep your…”
“Shufen… you’re thinking about that blood jade archer’s ring too, aren’t you?” Su Lingyu asked softly.
Wei Shubin nodded, then stated: “What ‘archer’s ring’? You mean that male ring?”
“Yes. I’ve seen illustrations in ancient books—that ring is called a ‘she’ or ‘jue,’ used by ancient warriors on their thumbs, with that notch used to hook the bowstring when drawing the bow. People nowadays don’t use these for archery anymore, but…”
But it was still unmistakably a man’s item, and its presence in an unmarried girl’s dowry still carried strong romantic implications. Wei Shubin looked at Su Lingyu’s pale face and asked: “Have you seen that blood-jade archer’s ring before? Is it the Crown Prince’s?”
“I haven’t seen it. How long have I been in the Eastern Palace? But you heard what the Empress said—the Empress must recognize that item…” Su Lingyu shook her head and said no more.
Yes. The Empress recognized that jade ring, which was why after seeing it, she completely reversed her previous stance of insisting on investigating the case to find the true culprit, willingly bearing slander and damaging her reputation by ordering the case closed as Yiniang’s suicide.
The Crown Prince Li Chengqian had given his ornament to his cousin Yiniang, the orphaned daughter left behind by his eldest uncle, former Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, and Yiniang subsequently hanged herself at her wedding. If this got out, it would be… too scandalous to bear.
“But,” Wei Shubin murmured, “Yiniang, she… she was murdered.”