Siege towers! Catapults! Battering rams! Shield carts!
When Li Yuanxu was brought from Kong Sumi’s residence in Buzheng District to the East Yong’an Palace in the Imperial Gardens, he stopped in his tracks at the sight of the towering siege towers on the grounds. Although he had seen illustrations of these siege weapons in military texts and heard commanders describe their uses, this was his first time seeing them in person. His excitement was beyond words.
If not for the repeated urging of the eunuch guide saying “Prince Wu, please hurry, we’ve already delayed many hours,” he would have run down to climb to the top of the siege tower and personally operate the catapult for the thrill of it. Yang Xinzhi, following behind him, saw his lord’s eager excitement and advised, “Young Master, first go for your imperial audience. You can come back to play… uh, study afterward.”
So Li Yuanxu was ushered forward, somewhat reluctantly climbing the long steps to remove his sword before the audience at the main pavilion. When the attendant at the entrance said “His Majesty is currently meeting with a young lady, please wait a moment, Your Highness,” he exchanged knowing glances with Yang Xinzhi, secretly laughing at his second brother’s reputation for philandering. But as fragments of a woman’s voice drifted through the lifted curtain, he grew increasingly uneasy.
When suddenly there was a call from inside for people to enter, and several attendants responded by heading in, Li Yuanxu grabbed the last one:
“Who exactly is this young lady having an audience inside?”
The attendant thought for a moment before replying: “I believe it’s the daughter of that minister… Wei Xuancheng?”
At that moment, screams and crying erupted from inside the pavilion. Li Yuanxu heard clearly – it was unmistakably Wei Shubin. All the blood in his body rushed to his head, and he released his grip to dash inside, only to be firmly held back by a pair of strong iron arms from behind:
“Young Master, don’t rush! The situation inside is unclear, you cannot barge into the imperial presence…”
“Let go!” At this point, he didn’t care about clarity – he only wanted to charge in with his sword and hack that lecherous emperor to pieces.
He struck Yang Xinzhi’s abdomen with an elbow strike, and when the tall guard doubled over in pain and loosened his grip, he broke free and sprang into the pavilion, where he saw four or five people dragging a disheveled Wei Shubin toward the exit.
“Stop!”
Although the scene wasn’t quite what he had imagined – it didn’t appear to be “a depraved emperor forcing himself on a commoner girl” – seeing Wei Shubin’s disheveled hair and hearing her screaming and kicking, Li Yuanxu was beyond rational thought. He charged forward like a madman, pushing aside several guards to embrace his beloved while backing away, all while shouting at the figure seated behind the imperial desk:
“If Your Majesty wants to harm her, you’ll have to kill Yuanxu first!”
“Your Majesty, forgive us!” Yang Xinzhi’s deep voice also rang out from behind, filled with desperate urgency. “The heat outside has affected the Young Master’s mind during his journey here. For this violation of imperial presence, we deserve death. We shall atone with our lives…”
The tall guard, while kowtowing for mercy, managed to steady both Li Yuanxu and Wei Shubin with his hands. The frightened young woman sobbed in her lover’s arms, pulling out a handkerchief to cover her face. Li Yuanxu took several deep breaths as he knelt on the carpet, raising his head to look at his imperial brother.
The Emperor rested one elbow on his desk, frowning as he watched their commotion on the ground. Once the three had mostly calmed down, he waved for the guards and eunuchs to leave the pavilion.
“Your subject has shown disrespect before Your Majesty and willingly accepts execution,” Li Yuanxu, having caught his breath, habitually added a formal phrase. “But may I ask why Miss Wei is here? I beg Your Majesty, for her father’s sake, to pardon her and let her return home!”
The Emperor snorted:
“You’re asking me? Who should I ask? Why is this young lady here? Let her tell you herself! This is truly unprecedented – in all my years, this is the first time your imperial brother has encountered someone daring enough to come demand payment from me! Haggling over thirty thousand or fifty thousand bolts of silk-like some marketplace merchant! Wei Zheng always boasts about his moral character and literary accomplishments, yet this is how his daughter behaves!”
Thirty thousand or fifty thousand bolts of silk?
Li Yuanxu was shocked. He looked down at Wei Shubin in his arms but saw that the young woman had already wiped away her tears. With reddened eyes, she turned her head away, gently broke free from his embrace, and knelt while raising her head to retort in a strong voice:
“The thirty thousand bolts of silk were originally promised by Your Majesty to my father as a reward for solving the case. I’m not trying to claim unearned rewards or make unreasonable demands! In the case of the Linfen County Princess, Prince Wu, and Master Shangtrue were also imperially commissioned to investigate. I happened to be involved and contributed what little I could. Now that my family has met with disaster and we have nowhere to turn, I came to beseech Your Majesty’s mercy. Whether to grant or deny this favor lies entirely in Your Majesty’s benevolence. Why must you…”
“Shubin!” Li Yuanxu had started sweating after hearing just her first few sentences. He quickly embraced her again to stop her, whispering in her ear: “Say no more, leave everything to me. Please, say no more.”
Wei Shubin had no experience with imperial audiences and didn’t understand proper protocol – she lacked even basic etiquette, and her stubbornness would only make things worse. The fact that the Emperor hadn’t ordered her immediate execution was probably only out of respect for her father’s position, and because he didn’t want to seriously quarrel with an ignorant young lady.
Yang Xinzhi also knelt behind them, trembling as he pleaded: “May Your Majesty’s anger be appeased. The Wei girl is young and ignorant, bold and rash. She has offended Your Majesty, but please consider her father’s service to the state…”
The Emperor behind the desk laughed again, his eyes fixed with interest on the young couple kneeling and embracing before him, and the tall guard desperately trying to salvage the situation behind them. Stroking his chin, he said:
“What a pair of passionate lovers… Fourteenth Brother, who would have thought? I assumed you were solely devoted to martial pursuits, but it turns out you’re quite the romantic!”
Li Yuanxu’s face reddened, and he instinctively released his embrace of Wei Shubin. The young woman turned to face him, their eyes met for an instant, and they simultaneously reached out to hold hands.
“Hahaha…”
The Emperor leaned back against his couch, resting on the armrest. His earlier anger seemed to have completely dissipated, leaving only amusement and mockery. “The Empress told me about your romance as an amusing tale. It’s not a serious matter. A prince and a minister’s daughter – the match is quite suitable in terms of status. As long as your father-in-law Wei Xuancheng doesn’t object, why should we play the villains? But alas… what a pity for you young lovers…”
Li Yuanxu’s heart experienced a mixture of sweetness and sourness as he gazed down at his beloved’s delicate face. For a moment, he nearly melted in the young woman’s luminous gaze.
If only this moment could be frozen in time, how wonderful that would be! He no longer wanted to think about the difficult road ahead or the twists of fate, about the desert winds of the Western Regions, the foreign bride waiting there, or the ill-intentioned Hu merchants traveling with him. In his heart and mind, there was only this clever-eyed young woman he loved, his thoughts filled only with her warm presence and intelligent gaze. He would gladly trade all his past experiences and future hopes for this precious moment, to remain forever lost in it until the seas turned to mulberry fields and the cycle of reincarnation reached its end.