Yun Ye entered the imperial palace through gritted teeth. The reason for being summoned to the imperial palace today was very strange—the Emperor had invited Yun Ye to view a newly painted withered lotus picture. This was an unprecedented first. Previously, when summoning Yun Ye to the palace, the language had been simple and direct, such as “Get your ass into the palace” or “Get over here.” Rarely had there been an occasion allowing Yun Ye to walk in normally on his own. As for inviting him into the palace to appreciate a painting with such extremely polite language, Yun Ye had only seen Li Er use this with the venerable Master Yan Zhitui.
Upon entering the palace, he felt the atmosphere was eerie. Even the eyes of the guards conducting body searches seemed to contain stories, their hesitation to speak making one’s scalp tingle. Duan Hong walked like a ghost, feet not touching the ground. When nearly at the Liangyi Hall, a young woman in blue clothing stealthily poked her head out from behind a large tree to observe him. There wasn’t a single normal thing in the imperial palace—in the direction of the Cold Palace there was even a large flock of crows cawing loudly, and the broken palace gate didn’t know to be oiled, creaking as it opened like the gates of hell.
The sunlight outside was excellent, yet Li Er insisted on staying in the gloomy palace hall. Seeing Yun Ye enter, he beckoned for him to come over. At this moment, Yun Ye very much hoped Zhangsun would also be there—in a moment when Li Er made his move, there would at least be somewhere to seek rescue.
“Get over here. I’m not going to eat you. What are you cowering about?” Li Er shouted somewhat angrily.
That’s right! Hearing Li Er get angry, Yun Ye felt everything around him was back to normal. Why be so polite to me for no reason? It scared people so much their heart was about to jump out, thinking they were going to be beheaded. While privately criticizing Li Er, Yun Ye slowly walked over. That young girl in blue had hidden behind the curtain again. Before Li Er was spread out a “Withered Lotus Picture.” The brushwork was childishly crude. Yun Ye had been forced by Lishi to practice ink wash painting seriously, so he could still distinguish good from bad.
Not only was the brushwork poor, but the shading was also bad, and the composition wasn’t very reasonable either. In the middle position of the entire painting stood a withered lotus—placing it in the center was already brain-dead behavior, destroying the aesthetic beauty of the entire painting.
“How is this painting?” Li Er asked, tapping the table with his hand. Yun Ye keenly discovered that Li Er also didn’t think much of this painting. It definitely wasn’t painted by him—with his narcissistic personality, even if what he painted was a pile of crap, he would still be extremely proud of it.
Yun Ye looked left and right for a long while, praising the layout of Liangyi Hall and also praising several treasures on the table. He especially lavished great praise on Li Er’s teapot, because that teapot had been handled so much by Li Er that it had developed a patina, black with a red luster showing through.
“I know my teapot is a treasure. I’m asking you about this painting. Why are you babbling nonsense?” Li Er himself also found it strange—whenever he talked with Yun Ye, he inexplicably got angry. He only felt comfortable after slapping Yun Ye on the back of the head. Thinking of how Zhangsun said Yun Ye was now extremely afraid of him, he forcibly restrained the impulse to slap him.
“Your Majesty, let’s talk about something else. This painting isn’t worth mentioning.” Seeing Yun Ye say this, Li Er couldn’t help but laugh. The curtain, however, was shaking violently. He had figured it out. This painting was done by that woman called Xu Hui.
“Xu Hui, give up. Yun Ye is also a famous master of turtle painting. If he says your painting is no good, then it has flaws. You’re still young—just start over from the beginning.”
Yun Ye shook his head and said: “Your Majesty, this business of painting isn’t something that can be painted well just through diligence. Many times it requires natural talent. Anyway, from this painting, I don’t see where the talent is.”
No matter what Yun Ye said, Xu Hui didn’t dare rush out. Propriety was still required. When Yun Ye was with elders like Zhangsun, Yang Fei, and Yin Fei, there was no need to observe proprieties, but with women like Xu Hui, he still needed to avoid suspicion.
Li Er paused and said: “Isn’t that too harsh? She’s only fifteen years old this year. There should still be room for improvement.”
It seemed Xu Hui was extremely favored—he was already speaking up for her. And he had the face to say it! Since he knew she was only fifteen years old, yet he still took advantage of her—what kind of thing was this? No respect for his age!
“Your Majesty, that teapot of yours—as long as you persist in soaking it with tea water every day and handling it in your hands, when all that patina has penetrated into the teapot and the tea stains have built up thick enough inside, in the future you won’t need to put in tea leaves—you can just pour in clear water and drink top-grade tea.”
Li Er saw the curtain still shaking, turned his head and said impatiently: “Give an evaluation. Stop talking about other things.”
Talented women were naturally born to be struck down. Yun Ye picked up the brush and wrote on the “Withered Lotus Picture”: “Frost withers lotus leaves—one-legged ghost wearing a carefree hat.”
Li Er didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Pondering the meaning of the words and looking again at that withered lotus picture, the lotus stalk right in the middle didn’t it look just like a one-legged ghost wearing a carefree hat? He couldn’t help but burst into loud laughter.
Yun Ye had figured it out. Who knows how Xu Hui had acted coquettishly toward Li Er, dragging him over to make a name for her. Painting so poorly, yet she still had the face to have people critique it. Probably Li Er was too embarrassed to call anyone else, so he called him over to make up the numbers. Since she had already entered the palace, she should properly engage in palace intrigue and advance toward that ultimate goal of Empress. Why play at elegance?
Li Er led Yun Ye away, leaving this place of heartbreak to Xu Hui. Xu Hui looked at that painting on the table, carefully savoring those few characters Yun Ye had left behind. Her face turned alternately green and white.
Li Er liked to take walks by the edge of Taiye Pool, never minding whether it was winter or summer. The Qujiang was flowing water that didn’t freeze year-round. Taiye Pool was a pool of stagnant water—as soon as cold winds blew, the pool surface would freeze. It was actually part of Chang’an City’s water conservancy project. During high water periods it stored water; during low water periods it released water, similar to a reservoir’s function. Since it was now winter, most of Taiye Pool’s water had been drained away, leaving only a shallow layer. The parts near the shore had already frozen—only the very center still had a small patch of dark pool water. Several wild ducks that hadn’t managed to fly south in time were still paddling on it, looking for food.
Yun Ye had always believed that the coldest time in Chang’an wasn’t the depths of winter, but rather early winter. At this time, people hadn’t yet adapted to winter’s harsh cold, so they felt the cold was severe. Especially the cold wind by Taiye Pool that drilled into one’s clothing—before long, Yun Ye was frozen like a turtle.
“Where has all the fire of youth gone? Fooling around all day, wearing down your body. In the future, if I’m to rely on you to govern the realm, can I feel at ease?” Li Er scolded Yun Ye with his hands behind his back.
Yun Ye pulled both hands into his sleeves and shook his head like a rattle-drum: “I have no plans to help govern the realm. I just plan to happily finish this lifetime. Our Great Tang already has nothing that requires me to manage. Having one more of me isn’t much; having one less of me isn’t little. I just plan to be wealthy and noble for a lifetime under Your Majesty’s protection and be done with it.”
“Really so? Boy, if you want to obtain a wealthy and noble ending, it’s not impossible. You’re right—I now feel I don’t have much use myself. Holding a sword but unable to find enemies is indeed boring. The Great Tang has already passed the time when expansion is needed. What’s important is domestic governance. On this point you must have clear awareness. It’s not that I don’t value the military, but rather that the Great Tang’s current priority is people’s livelihood. This inevitably means the military will be somewhat slighted.”
“Having too many armies in peacetime is a disaster, not a blessing. With troops in hand, I want to pacify this or destroy that, because the military itself is an unstable factor. I am a horse-mounted emperor, so I naturally know what the warriors are thinking. Everyone wants meritorious service, everyone wants wealth and nobility. But there are too few common people—they cannot support so many idle nobles eating free meals. This is why I’ve been reducing the nobility. It’s not because they were the previous emperor’s subordinates that I stripped their titles. Of course, there’s also my personal interest involved—stripping their titles is better than stripping my old brothers’ titles.”
“The reason I’m telling you these things is I want you to tell those old generals that their wealth and nobility were all won by risking their lives. I won’t take them away for no reason. Now the country has entered a relatively peaceful period—it’s time to enjoy blessings. You just need to convey my words to them.”
Li Er’s face was also blown red by the cold wind, but his spirit and vitality were excellent. Yun Ye had always believed that as long as nothing went wrong and he didn’t eat lead pills or mercury pills, with his physical constitution he absolutely shouldn’t die after living only fifty-some years.
“Your Majesty permits the old generals to enjoy blessings, but why have you become increasingly harsh with yourself? In Liangyi Hall, you don’t even light extra candles. I also heard Your Majesty has increased your daily sword practice time by half a shichen. In your diet, you’ve even eliminated your favorite braised pork and oil-fried meat. Daily vegetables account for eighty percent of your daily meals. You no longer eat refined rice and white flour, but have started eating various coarse grains. Even ordinary households in Chang’an market aren’t like this.”
This was the reason for Yun Ye’s awe of Li Er. Out of the blue, he had begun restricting his diet, and moreover, he started as soon as he said he would. The meals at each meal truly were inferior even to ordinary common people’s households. This was a manifestation of great ambition. Watching Li Er’s big belly gradually disappear, Yun Ye became even more afraid of him. Heaven knew what resolution he had made.
“Hehe, this is the price I as this emperor must pay. We are walking a road no predecessor has ever walked. I want to walk further, so from now on I must strive energetically. The ministers have begun to slack off—I, as the emperor, cannot slack off. I must properly watch over this country, looking at it until I close my eyes. It’s very unfortunate that the theory of immortality is ultimately illusory. Otherwise, I truly would like to try it.”
Yun Ye pulled out three jade plaques from his bosom and gave them to Li Er, saying: “Your Majesty, I inadvertently discovered that at the instant of sunset, these three jade plaques display three patterns—one is a one-horned demon king, one is a responding dragon, one is a mask, with the words ‘Jin Dong Zhi Mu’ written on them. Han Zhe said that mask should belong to the Bin Mei people, and also said I am a Bin Mei person. But I believe that just peeling off other people’s face skin and wearing it on one’s own face to inherit that person’s wisdom is pure nonsense, so I’ve lost interest in these disgusting things. If Your Majesty has interest, then try to find the last jade plaque and see if you can find a bit of hope for immortality.”