The Imperial Son-in-law Yang.
Yang Xinzhi’s birth father, Imperial Son-in-law, Duke of Ande Commandery, and Chief Minister of the Imperial Secretariat Yang Shidao.
It was he who had come to take away Princess Hailing Yang and her family before the fire broke out at the forbidden temple.
Li Yuangu had always thought—well, actually he had “secretly hoped”—that it was someone from Princess Yinde’s household at Daan Palace who had taken away Princess Yang’s family. Following this lead might have revealed that Princess Yang was the murderer of his mother, acting under Princess Yinde’s orders… With such a crime, he could have rightfully requested to punish that worthless woman and avenge his mother and sister.
But it turned out to be Yang Shidao, his fifth sister’s husband, the Imperial Son-in-law of Princess Guiyang.
Yang Shidao was famous for his mild temperament and cautious nature, and he was currently highly favored, serving as Acting Chief Minister of the Imperial Secretariat—the head of the department who daily accompanied the Emperor to draft imperial edicts. Even Li Yuangu couldn’t believe that Princess Yinde could bribe him.
However, according to palace gossip, Yang Shidao and his wife were also mortal enemies of Princess Hailing, accused of killing her child. Although he had shown kindness in raising Yang, after that June in the ninth year of Wude, shouldn’t they have been sworn enemies who would never associate with each other again? Why did he come to take Princess Yang away? Or rather, why would Princess Yang agree to quietly leave Ganye Temple with her two remaining children, following someone who had allegedly killed her child?
He pondered this confusion the next morning as he escorted Yang Xinzhi to Princess Pingyang’s mansion in Guangde Ward, his head aching from thinking without reaching any satisfactory conclusion. Finally giving up, he focused on a more pressing challenge—
How to “beg forgiveness” from Chai Yinglo.
“Fourteenth Brother, you need the True Master’s help,” Wei Shubin earnestly advised while standing in the grove, the setting sun casting a soft honey-colored glow over her entire form. “This case of the First Lady involves many matters of the inner palace. As a young gentleman, it’s too inconvenient for you to investigate alone. There are many places you can’t enter, many people you can’t meet…”
Li Yuangu recalled his experience trying to visit the Former Sui Dynasty’s Empress Xiao and had to admit Wei Shubin’s words made sense.
Her words were naturally reasonable.
Yesterday evening, when he walked Wei Shizhong’s young lady back to Purple Void Temple, he had completely forgotten about his horse left at the garrison. They discussed many things along the way but deliberately avoided the topic that made them both uncomfortable. Li Yuangu tried hard to ignore the fact that Wei Shubin was a young woman—and a beautiful maiden of marriageable age whom he had once failed to marry—and tried to think of her as a friend like Yang Xinzhi, someone he could trust and confide in. He found himself enjoying such companionship.
If only Wei Shubin could go around investigating with him—as soon as this thought flashed through his mind, he knew he was being unrealistic. She was just an unmarried young lady who was already trying her best to hide from her parents, how could she go running around in public with him? Her taking the initiative to talk with him and spend time alone together already showed great courage.
Therefore, Chai Yinglo was the only female helper he could rely on.
“Since you say so, I’ll go apologize to Sister Ying and make amends”—he almost said these words directly to Wei Shubin but held back at the last moment. By all rights, he should apologize to his niece, but it had nothing to do with Wei Shubin, and he had no right to use it to curry favor with her.
That day at Purple Void Temple, he regretted quarreling with Chai Yinglo immediately afterward. Though unwilling to admit it verbally, he knew he had vented his frustration from unsuccessful investigations on his niece, just as the Emperor later took out his anger on the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince in turn vented it on Li Yuangu and his siblings. Looking at it this way, this temperamental trait seemed to run in their Li family bloodline…
Having resolved to visit the Chai residence to apologize, he brought only Yang Xinzhi as an attendant, changed into a plain black robe, and rode into the city together. After riding half a day on the muddy post-snow streets, they entered Guangde Ward. Just past the crossroads, with Princess Pingyang’s mansion gate already visible in the distance, Yang Xinzhi suddenly exclaimed in surprise, and Li Yuangu also felt something was amiss.
They galloped into the outer courtyard and dismounted. A few mourners had just dispersed, and only three or five people remained, all strangers in shabby clothes, shaking their heads and muttering laments about something. Li Yuangu glanced at the main hall beyond the front gate, mumbled “So few people,” and hurried inside.
Li Wanxi’s body lay in state at Princess Pingyang’s mansion with the status of “Principal Wife of the Duke of Qiao’s Household, Commander of the Guard Army.” Chai Zhewei, Chai Shao’s eldest son, also wore the appropriate mourning clothes of the deceased’s husband and received condolences, with all ceremonies properly arranged, showing great respect for the First Lady. The spirit tablet inscribed with “Spirit Tablet of Lady Li of the Chai Family, Countess of Linfen” and the coffin were placed under the main hall’s eaves, with ritual implements arranged in a line from the steps to the courtyard gate. The sides of the path were lined with numerous funeral gifts and condolence money sent from outside, making it quite an impressive sight. However, there were few people—apart from the Chai household members and servants in mourning clothes wailing in grief, there weren’t many visitors. This was the formal lying-in-state period, which made it truly strange.
After Li Yuangu and Yang Xinzhi paid their respects at the spirit tablet, Chai household staff led them to find Chai Yinglo, who was sitting with her father under the western corridor. The Imperial Son-in-law and General Chai Shao was brewing in anger:
“Look at those funeral gifts sent by the Court of State Ceremonials! This is too insulting!”
“What’s wrong with the gifts?” Li Yuangu asked. “For a Countess of second rank, it should be one hundred and fifty bolts of silk and one hundred and fifty shi of grain. Surely the Ministry of Rites and Court of State Ceremonials wouldn’t dare to short-change the allocation?”
“They wouldn’t dare to short-change, but—” Chai Shao seemed to have drunk quite a bit, belching right in Li Yuangu’s face, nearly knocking him over with the fumes, “…Fourteenth Brother, go… go see for yourself…”
Li Yuangu turned back toward the grain and cloth placed nearest to the memorial tablets. Before he got close, a strong smell of mold and rot hit him in full force.
The one hundred and fifty shi of grain, piled high in sacks and baskets like a small mountain, showed blue-green patches where the grain was visible, some with mold growing half an inch high. Grain this moldy couldn’t even be used as animal feed. Forty-five bolts of silk were insect-eaten over the years, forty-five bolts of cloth were fuzzy and dusty, and sixty bundles of silk wadding had completely stuck together in a large mass, making it impossible even to count whether the quantity was correct.
Most infuriating was that these old warehouse dregs came with the title “Imperial Bestowment,” and protocol required they be displayed in the most prominent place among the funeral gifts—they couldn’t even be hidden away. Could the Chai household secretly replace them with good rice and new clothes? No—all the ropes binding the grain baskets and cloth bundles had yellow tags with clay seals bearing the storehouse stamp, which would break upon tampering, specifically preventing such substitutions.
“They delivered these yesterday afternoon, with Court of State Ceremonials Vice Director Wen Seventeen personally leading the escort,” Chai Yinglo said to Li Yuangu with a cold smile. “Wen Seventeen apologized, saying something about too many recent court ceremonies depleting the treasury, asking for the Duke’s understanding and such. But the malicious satisfaction on his face—did he think we wouldn’t understand? Isn’t he just taking advantage of mother’s early death and First Lady’s father being taboo, knowing our family can only swallow this insult silently?”
Chai Shao just kept panting heavily, his square face completely flushed from drink. Li Yuangu shook his head at father and daughter:
“In my view, news has leaked that the Empress ordered First Lady’s case to be concluded as suicide. The Wen family already had grievances with the Third Brother-in-law, and now thinking the First Lady’s death has offended the Inner Palace, they believe that degrading her will please the Empress and even the Emperor. How could they pass up this opportunity for revenge?”
“The Wen family has a grudge against Third Aunt’s husband’s family?” Yang Xinzhi asked. Wen Seventeen, the Vice Director of the Court of State Ceremonials, was the nephew of the three Wen brothers who had been meritorious officials in the Taiyuan uprising. He hadn’t known the man was such a petty person.
“There wasn’t any serious conflict, just taking different sides,” Chai Yinglo explained with furrowed brows. “In the fourth year of Zhenguan, when Duke of Ji Li Jing defeated and destroyed the Eastern Turks’ Jieli Khagan, he nearly cost the life of Director of State Ceremonials Tang Jian, creating bad blood between them. The Wen family has had a close friendship with the Tang family for two generations, while Father was Duke of Ji’s comrade-in-arms with a good working relationship. That would have been fine, but last summer, when Father heard the news of foreign envoys plotting rebellion at Jiucheng Palace, he reported the emergency in the middle of the night, alarming the Emperor. After thorough investigation, Tang Jian was dismissed, and officials from Vice Director down were all reprimanded with salary reductions, Wen Seventeen included…”
“That Wen fellow started ha-hating me for this!” Chai Shao slapped his thigh angrily with a thick tongue, “Yes-yesterday morning, there were still quite a few mourners coming to pay respects, but in the afternoon… when the gifts arrived… then…”
“After the bestowments were displayed at the spirit tablet, everyone who saw them shook their heads,” his daughter continued. “Those opportunistic cowards thought they could divine the imperial will—some barely kowtowed before fleeing, others wouldn’t even enter the gate. As the news gradually spread, now you see—”
She waved toward the main hall, where the desolate scene needed no further description.
Li Yuangu frowned in contemplation. He hadn’t expected the First Lady’s case would strike such a serious blow to the Chai family in this way. His Third Brother-in-law Chai Shao had once served as the “Left Guard General,” head of the Twelve Guard Generals at the beginning of Zhenguan, and had led troops in several border campaigns, enjoying unlimited prominence. But in recent years, as he aged and fell ill, he gradually moved away from the court’s decision-making center while holding only an honorary position, attracting much criticism. No doubt this weighed heavily on his mind. Now, encountering this situation while still in mourning, he had drunk so much alcohol in broad daylight out of anger…
“If… if your mother were still here,” Chai Shao looked at his daughter, gasping, “if your mother were still here, your Second Uncle would certainly—urgh—”
The nearly fifty-year-old Imperial Son-in-law couldn’t hold it in anymore and began vomiting profusely under the corridor. Chai Yinglo directed the servants and her second brother Chai Lingwu to help their father back to his bedroom. Li Yuangu and Yang Xinzhi also helped, together getting the General to his bed, and calling for water and towels to clean him up.
While they were busy inside, another matter arose outside, and servants came to summon Chai Yinglo away. Li Yuangu sat by his brother-in-law’s bedside, murmuring words of comfort, while Chai Shao, his face deep red, continued retching—who knew how much he had drunk since early morning.
“Lingwu… where’s Lingwu?” The drunk man opened his eyes, struggled to recognize Li Yuangu, and upon confirming this wasn’t his younger son, closed his eyes in dissatisfaction, “That little scoundrel… causing his parents’ death… never learning anything good…”
Chai Lingwu, not yet thirteen this year, was of poor character. As soon as his elder sister left, he had already run off somewhere outside, showing no awareness of his duty to care for his father. Li Yuangu sighed sympathetically at the boy’s departure—from what he knew of the three Chai siblings, the youngest son of this family had always been more trouble than he was worth.
That little troublemaker was almost his Third Sister’s “posthumous child.” Twelve years ago, Princess Pingyang had died from hemorrhaging during his difficult birth, though the child survived. Perhaps because of this, his father, sister, and brother had an awkward attitude toward the family’s youngest son, and Chai Lingwu himself grew increasingly difficult, close to no one. Now with this major family event, Chai Zhewei had to stay by the coffin as the deceased’s husband and chief mourner to receive condolences, while his elder sister had been busy managing household affairs these past few days, yet he still wandered about carelessly as if nothing had happened.
“My lady… my lady…” Chai Shao mumbled softly, “You were right… I shouldn’t have… shouldn’t have stayed in the capital… your brothers weren’t reliable… I should go to war… go to war…”
Li Yuangu looked at his Third Brother-in-law with pity, feeling no embarrassment at being criticized to his face. Chai Shao was talking to his deceased wife in his semi-conscious state, and “your brothers” certainly didn’t refer to Li Yuangu—when his legendary Third Sister was still alive, Li Yuangu was at most two years old. How could they have been thinking of him in their marital conversations?
In the sixth year of Wude, when Princess Pingyang passed away, the court specially bestowed her the posthumous title “Zhao” and buried her with exceptional honors beyond protocol. But Chai Shao hadn’t completed the mourning period for his wife before leading troops to war against the Tuyuhun. People at the time thought it was just urgent military affairs requiring service while in mourning, but from Chai Shao’s unconscious mumblings, it seemed his wife had given some instructions before her death.
“My brothers—” which one or all three “—aren’t reliable?” “Don’t stay in the capital?” “Go to war?”
Indeed, at the end of Wude, Chai Shao spent most of his time-fighting wars abroad, thus avoiding the increasingly intense pressure to take sides in the capital and staying clear of the struggle between the Crown Prince and Prince of Qin. Was this also thanks to Princess Pingyang’s foresight?
“Your Second Brother, my lady…” Chai Shao’s face turned from red to greenish, showing signs of impending vomiting, “He… your Second Brother… he killed you… isn’t that enough… must he also humiliate our family…”
With a “wa” sound, filth spewed from the Imperial Son-in-law General’s mouth, splattering the servant kneeling by the bed holding the basin, and even getting some on Li Yuangu’s robe hem. But he didn’t move. Compared to the thunderbolt that had just struck above his head, this was nothing.
Princess Pingyang’s Second Brother… the current Emperor Li Shimin… “he killed you”?
Buddha’s mercy, had he just heard an imperial secret worthy of silencing him?
Li Yuangu anxiously turned to look at Yang Xinzhi standing behind him, hoping perhaps he had misheard due to ringing in his ears but saw that Yang the Meat Tower also had tightly pressed lips and a serious expression, clearly having heard that statement as well.
The Guard Officer pulled the manor’s master up, saying: “Third Uncle-in-law is unwell, let the servants attend to him and let him sleep it off.”
The implication was for Li Yuangu to stop staying there, lest the drunk man spout more treasonous words. Just then, the door pushed open and Chai Yinglo entered again, followed by servants carrying medicine bowls.
“Sister Ying!” Li Yuangu sighed in relief, first letting the Daoist priestess direct the servants to help her father drink the medicine, then pulling her aside, dispensing with courtesies and probing, asking directly:
“Your father said your mother was killed by her Second Brother… what’s this about?”
“What?” Chai Yinglo looked at her young uncle as if he were a monkey.
Li Yuangu lowered his voice and briefly repeated Chai Shao’s drunken mumblings. Before he finished, Chai Yinglo was already holding her forehead:
“Fourteenth Uncle, Father drank too much! Haven’t you seen what drunks are like? You’re taking his words seriously?”
“So… it’s false? Just Brother-in-law’s drunken rambling?” Li Yuangu hoped so.
The Daoist priestess sighed: “It’s not that Father completely fabricated lies about His Majesty… how should I put it—Mother died after weaning, and it did have some connection to Second Uncle. She was trying hard to mediate between her Eldest Uncle and Second Uncle and got into an argument with the Second Uncle. She was nine months pregnant then and wasn’t careful, disturbing the fetus… Ai, later Second Uncle and his wife were also very grieved and guilt-ridden, but to say Second Uncle killed Mother because of this—that’s Father’s drunken nonsense. Fourteenth Uncle, you’ve always been clear-headed, please don’t spread this talk around.”
“Don’t worry, Sister Ying.” With the truth clarified, Li Yuangu felt a great weight lift from his heart, and only then remembered his original purpose for visiting the Chai residence today. The funeral gifts situation wasn’t within his expectations but could inadvertently help him.
“Ultimately, Brother-in-law’s distress today is because the court has slighted First Lady’s funeral,” Li Yuangu analyzed softly to Chai Yinglo. “The First Lady’s unclear death is unreasonable, and the more suppressed it is, the more unpredictable consequences might arise from the Empress and Crown Prince. While His Majesty still tacitly allows me to investigate the case, shouldn’t we make an extra effort together to catch the real culprit as soon as possible?”
Remarkably, the Daoist priestess didn’t contradict him. Her beautiful face showed changing expressions before finally looking at her father and sighing with a nod:
“You’re right… First Lady’s reputation affects our Chai family’s honor and Zhewei’s future career prospects. We can’t just let this pass unclearly.”
“Yuangu will certainly exhaust all efforts to pursue the true culprit,” Li Yuangu quickly said, “I hope Sister Ying won’t hold past grievances and will continue to assist my investigation.”
This was the closest to an “apology” he could manage to say. The Daoist priestess looked at her young uncle, smiled radiantly, lightly waved her whisk, and slowly parted her crimson lips:
“Fourteenth Uncle, did you go to Purple Void Temple for a private meeting with the young lady of the Wei family?”
Notes:
1. “Funeral bestowments” were goods granted by the emperor or court to assist with funeral arrangements. According to “Tongdian” Volume 86, “Rites” Section 46 on funeral gifts: “For officials of the second rank… 150 bolts of goods and 150 shi of grain.” The grain was millet, and the “goods” were textiles. According to “Tang Liudian” Volume 3, Ministry of Revenue Section: “For every 10 bolts of bestowed goods, the approximate ratio is 3 bolts of fine silk, 3 bolts of cloth, and 4 bundles of cotton.” Note the term “approximate ratio”—it didn’t have to strictly follow this proportion, as long as the actual value was similar.
2. This Vol 2 – Chapter briefly mentioned the conflict between Li Jing and Tang Jian during the Tang dynasty’s war against the Eastern Turks in the fourth year of Zhenguan, as well as how court officials took different sides, though many details were creatively expanded upon.