“The position of Crown Princess isn’t one that just anyone can occupy,” the Empress’s gaze surprisingly turned to Wei Shubin. “Someone like young Miss Wei, pure-hearted but straightforward to a fault, brave but lacking in strategy, unable to keep secrets—that won’t do. She wouldn’t last a few years in the inner palace, not even bone fragments would remain. But someone like Ying’er, too clever and too bold—that’s even worse… During Zhenguan, as you visited the palace more frequently, Ying’er, I watched you and became increasingly grateful for my firm decision not to comply with His Majesty’s wishes. If you were to preside over the inner palace as the mother of the empire, you would not only bring disaster to the state but also cause turmoil within the palace. Neither you nor your father, brothers, nor the entire Chai clan of Linfen would likely meet a good end.”
Wei Shubin felt chills throughout her body. These were probably the coldest, most threatening words Empress Zhangsun had ever spoken, yet her tone carried no hint of menace or warning, instead filled with hoarse sorrow and heart-wrenching pain. After a moment of silence, she smiled bitterly:
“After speaking so ill of Ying’er, if I were to say that I’ve always truly loved and cherished her, would anyone believe me?”
“Your niece believes it,” Chai Yinglu surprisingly responded immediately, looking up at the Empress with a smile. “All these years, serving you day and night, being together constantly—how could I, not being stupid, fail to perceive Aunt’s feelings toward me? My second Uncle also dotes on me, but mostly for my mother’s sake. It’s not like Aunt, who treats me as intimately as her daughter.”
The Empress returned a gratified smile:
“Lately, as my health weakens, sometimes while resting in bed, half-asleep watching you busy yourself, I become confused and think I’m still that young girl of twenty-some years ago, newly married into the Tang Duke’s Li family, traveling northeast to Zhuo Commandery with First Sister-in-law and Third Sister. I was only thirteen then, understanding nothing. The Duke and his wife were in Zhuo Commandery, overseeing grain transport for the former Sui dynasty’s Goguryeo campaign, and had Second Brother come to Chang’an to marry me. Everything was arranged by Elder Brother Jiancheng and Third Sister, who even left her two or three-year-old daughter—you—at home to personally accompany me on the long journey to meet my in-laws in Zhuo Commandery…”
Her thin face lit up with a smile of remembrance and yearning, momentarily glowing as if time had reversed:
“First Brother, Second Brother, Third Brother-in-law, and my brother—these four gentlemen provided protection outside, while Third Sister and I shared carriages and horses, traveling together by day and sleeping together at night, our convoy moving from the Western Capital to Luoyang, to Liyang, following the transport canal north to Zhuo Commandery. No need to speak of the hardships and dangers we faced or the human suffering we witnessed along the way. I barely knew my new husband then, but I completely admired Third Sister. I’d never met a remarkable woman like your mother before—born with a beautiful feminine form, yet so strong and brave in horseback riding and archery, with insight and courage no less than any man. With her present, no matter how difficult things became, she could always be comforted with cheerful words, like a spring breeze, making one believe she would find a solution. I just had to sit quietly and follow her arrangements… If not for your parents, in my first year of marriage, forget about making it in time to see Mother-in-law Dowager Dou one last time—whether I could have even survived those chaotic times would have been questionable.”
As Empress Zhangsun spoke, she addressed only Chai Yinglu, tears welling in her eyes. The Daoist priestess didn’t avoid her gaze, smiling as she listened and responded:
“When Mother was alive, she often mentioned traveling to Zhuo Commandery with Aunt, praising Aunt’s courage and wisdom.”
The Empress shook her head with a smile: “What courage or wisdom did I have as a thirteen-year-old girl? It was good enough that I didn’t cry in terror the whole way. Later, when I went to Taiyuan with Second Brother, after the righteous army rose and he went south with his father, I heard that Third Sister was also recruiting soldiers near Chang’an, forming her own women’s army to capture territory and besiege cities. Beyond my amazement, I could only sigh that ‘only Third Sister could accomplish such great things.’ But those great things… didn’t last long. After Chang’an fell and the Supreme Emperor established the dynasty, he bestowed rewards and honors on the Third Sister, and that was it. Her hopes of continuing to campaign and achieve merit like a man were completely dashed.
“That was in the first year of Wude, which Ying’er probably doesn’t remember, and you children naturally wouldn’t know. Third Sister came to find me in Chengqian Palace, drinking heavily and crying bitterly. What could I say? I don’t even remember how I comforted her… I think I said something about her being born at the wrong time.”
“Aunt means,” Chai Yinglu interjected with a bitter smile, “that Mother and I, both of us, were born at the wrong time.”
“Perhaps that’s true.” Empress Zhangsun’s smile carried a rare confusion. “From childhood, I studied poetry and classics at my uncle’s home, following rules and regulations, measuring my actions against womanly virtues, and selecting my daughters-in-law by the same standard. I know this is the only way to maintain family prosperity and govern the empire well. But when I watched Third Sister in my youth, and now watching you… seeing your forthright nature, speaking and laughing without restraint, and expressing emotions freely, I can’t help but feel joy and envy… Lately, I’ve been thinking, if you truly decided never to marry, instead devoting yourself to the Dao and medicine, moving freely through the world, perhaps it wouldn’t necessarily be… lonely and miserable…”
Before she could finish, she suddenly began coughing. Crown Princess Su hurriedly rubbed her chest and patted her back, as the Empress coughed heartbreakingly, making everyone uncomfortable. Crown Prince Li Chengqian also rose to attend to his mother. When the Empress finally caught her breath, she pushed her son’s hand away:
“Go handle it… I’ve requested His Majesty’s decree… leaving it to… your judgment…”
Li Chengqian, face pale, called out “Mother” and stood stunned by the bed. He wore a silk scarf around his neck which had seemed somewhat unsightly, but now after moving about, some redness showed beneath the white cloth. The Empress raised her hand to loosen it, revealing a shallow knife wound with dried blood.
The Crown Prince’s neck wound…
Wei Shubin suddenly understood why Chai Yinglu had agreed to return with him to face the Emperor and Empress, despite the enormous risk, even though she didn’t want to spend her life with Li Chengqian. She had seen outside Chang’an’s South Gate, where reed flowers danced like snow, the Crown Prince who had pursued the Chai family’s convoy with just a few guards, pulling his cousin aside to speak privately, becoming so agitated that he drew his knife to harm himself as leverage… Chai Yinglu ultimately couldn’t resist the heir apparent—she still had family, still had attachments and concerns in this world.
The Empress looked at her son’s wound without speaking, but her eyes conveyed thousands of words in an instant. Wei Shubin, drawing courage and quick wit from somewhere unknown, crawled forward on her knees:
“Your Highness, please swear before the Empress that you will never see True Master Chai again in this life, nor summon her to the palace to hear any words from her. Send her far away in exile… or let her marry into a foreign country as a peace envoy… just please spare her life…”
As she spoke, tears streamed down her face again. Li Yuanxu also knelt beside her to join in the plea. The Empress just watched her son while breathing heavily, her eyes dark and bottomless:
“Are you willing to swear… never to see her again?”
Li Chengqian slowly shifted his gaze, looking at his wife, then at his cousin who sat quietly awaiting her fate, and asked in return:
“Is it my mother asking her son? Or the Empress asking the Crown Prince?”
The Empress was silent for a moment, then asked in return: “That we mother and son are here today… alive… and have come to this point… is it because your father is a filial son and worthy brother, or because he… is an unmatched hero?”
Wei Shubin closed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw Li Chengqian gazing at Li Yuanxu beside her, his eyes as dark and deep as his mother’s, muttering something that sounded like “suppress feelings and sever love” before smiling sorrowfully:
“Since that’s the case… I am weak-willed and dare not trust myself to cut off these personal feelings, nor dare I deceive the Empress with false oaths.”
With these words spoken, Chai Yinglu’s death sentence was sealed. Wei Shubin collapsed in bitter tears, seeing only a blur of robes and boots as Li Chengqian rose and left the chamber without looking back.