Looking from our Earth toward space, all celestial bodies—the sun, moon, planets, stars, nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies—have their own specific positions in the sky. To record their positions in the sky, star charts need to be drawn. The history of star charts is almost as ancient as astronomy itself.
The world of star charts belonged to Zhao Yanling. Now, this world was tranquil and peaceful, permeated everywhere with the fragrance of tea. Li Chengqian lay on an enormous reclining chair, looking at those brilliant gemstones on the ceiling—or rather, those brilliant stars. These were all arranged by Zhao Yanling in strict accordance with the star charts of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The size and position of each star strictly followed the star charts.
He actually couldn’t read star charts. He simply purely liked looking at stars. He loved vastness, loved being unfettered. That experience of marching and fighting on the Gobi kept him longing day and night. Lying on a blanket, breathing the cold air of the Gobi, wisps of white vapor exhaling from his mouth, watching the stars filling the sky winking at him. Turning his head sideways, scattered stones and yellow sand were everywhere. At this moment, his heart wanted to fly free.
Li Chengqian had never liked Chang’an or that magnificent palace. He even wanted to wear fur robes, ride a bareback horse, and lead a pack of wolf-like warriors charging from one end of the earth to the other. Therefore, when racing horses with Yun Ye and Li Tai, he was always the winner. Although he didn’t understand why Yun Ye always looked at his feet with shifty eyes and cawed like a crow that this foot wasn’t far from misfortune, Li Chengqian still loved galloping wildly, loved the stimulation brought by speed.
Now he had fallen in love with such a room. He decided that after returning, he would build one just like it. Although it would cost many gemstones, the Eastern Palace still had some. Adding what Qingque and Yun Ye had, which wasn’t little either, they would always gather enough.
Thinking that from now on he would fall asleep in such a room, Li Chengqian trembled with excitement. The Crown Princess wouldn’t do—that woman who insisted on wearing upper garments even during marital union wasn’t suitable for this room. However, Hou Shi should be fine. Thinking of Hou Shi’s wild abandon on the bed, a trace of a smile floated to the corner of Li Chengqian’s mouth.
“You’re smiling very lecherously!” Two pig-like heads leaned over from above his head, looking down at him. Their daytime brawl had been too severe—now both men’s faces were swollen badly.
Li Chengqian put away his smile and asked seriously: “Is it time?”
“No, we were just drinking tea and wanted to ask if you want some?” Li Tai shook his head and answered suspiciously.
“You’re the first person I’ve seen who can look at star charts and become aroused. Could it be that emperors since ancient times have all been like this? Treating earth and sky as their beauties, able to ravish them at will in their minds? Qingque, do you have this ability?”
“No, I’m too rational, so when I see mountains they’re mountains, when I see water it’s water. When I see stars they’re just stars—I won’t see stars as beauties. However, Elder Brother, having only two wives until now is rather unfair, isn’t it? Your brother already has seven or eight women. Let me tell you a secret—each woman has a different flavor.” Li Tai lecherously raised his eyebrows, indicating to his elder brother how capable he was.
“But I already have one son and one daughter. Qingque, you don’t even have a single child yet. Last time Master Sun said your body is weak—I wonder how your tonics are working? Don’t play so much that you delay having descendants.”
This was Li Tai’s weak point—couldn’t be mentioned. Whoever mentioned it, he’d turn on them. Sometimes even he felt uneasy—had he really ruined his body with all that play?
Before Li Tai could get angry, Zhao Yanling walked in and said: “Crown Prince, that large patch of clouds just drifted away. This subject looked and the comet can already be seen very clearly. Compared to yesterday, it’s grown larger by a fraction. In two more nights, it can be clearly seen without a telescope. Now please, Your Highness, move to the observatory.”
Since they already had psychological preparation, the two brothers had some understanding of the comet’s arrival. They very much wanted to see what this evil star actually looked like—how ugly did it need to be before people would associate it with disaster?
On the observatory was a spherical room. Two servants laboriously turned the winch, and the roof split in two halves. The stars filling the sky immediately appeared before the Li brothers.
Li Chengqian opened his eyes wide, trying hard to find that evil star among the densely packed stars, but no matter how he looked, he just couldn’t tell which one was his mother’s evil star.
Compared to his brother’s irritation, Li Tai was more interested in that roof that could split open. He chased away the servants and happily played by himself, constantly cranking the handle back and forth.
“Your Highness, this spherical room was designed by Marquis Yun and completed by the Gongshu family. Look—the roof is all specially made zelkova wood. The two joining surfaces have grooves. Once transmitted to position by gears, they fit together perfectly. Truly marvelous.”
“Zhao Yanling, where’s all this idle talk coming from? Hurry and find the evil star for me. I want to see what it looks like.” Li Chengqian discovered he couldn’t find that star and was somewhat displeased.
Yun Ye pointed at that extraordinarily large telescope and said to Li Chengqian: “Use that thing to look. Master Zhao has done nothing else for five years—just produced this thing. It’s nearly bankrupted the Academy. The number of colorless crystals ruined is countless. Xu Jingzong has already had many loud arguments with Master Zhao. Although it’s still not satisfactory, at least this thing can be used adequately.”
Zhao Yanling lovingly removed the silk cloth from the telescope and invited Li Chengqian to lie on a reclining chair, saying softly: “Your Highness, look at the upper left corner. Yes, below the Moon. Wrong—very close to the Horn Mansion. The Dipper Mansion is right beside it. Yes, a small white dot. Two days ago, this subject hadn’t discovered it. Last night I suddenly found an unusual star approaching from behind the Moon, dragging a white tail. I thought it was a meteor. But when this subject looked again at dawn today, I found it had grown considerably larger. Only then was I certain it must be the comet. This subject’s rough calculations resulted in this: ten days from now, when the total solar eclipse appears, the comet will certainly be in celestial opposition. Therefore, I reported to Marquis Yun, hoping the Crown Prince would prepare early.”
Li Chengqian looked for a long time before getting up from the reclining chair, yielding it to Li Tai. After arranging his own clothing and cap, he respectfully bowed to Zhao Yanling and said sincerely: “Master Zhao’s generous consideration, Li Chengqian will never dare forget. I only wonder what view the Master has of this evil star?”
Since it touched on Zhao Yanling’s forte, this pleased him. Putting his hands behind his back, he said slowly: “The Crown Prince may not know—using stellar phenomena to determine human fate, using stellar phenomena to measure the infinite past has existed since ancient times. The origin of our knowledge of the firmament comes from it. Ever since the ‘Gan Shi Star Classic’ appeared, this relationship has been fixed as astronomy’s most important content. Later, successive generations of worthies continuously supplemented it. For example, the ‘Five Planets Divination,’ ‘Treatise on the Celestial Offices,’ and ‘Zhou Bi Suan Jing’—these famous works gradually filled out our speculation about the firmament. However, they led astronomy astray.”
“Marquis Yun told me that from fallen meteorites one can deduce that those stars in the sky are the same things as the earth beneath our feet. Having earth and metal-stone determine our human fate is truly laughable. Therefore, this subject believes this so-called evil star is merely a somewhat larger meteor. It’s just that it’s too large—completely disappearing requires a very long time. Crown Prince, this subject very responsibly tells you: that is just a star. Beyond that, it is nothing else.”
Li Chengqian exhaled a long breath. At first, his reason for rejecting the evil star was because this star’s arrival might harm his mother. Now, learning from an astronomer’s mouth that it was just a star—a slightly strange star, nothing more—
“Ha ha ha! I see many meteors. One star exploded—shattered into pieces. Meteors are as numerous as raindrops.” Hearing Li Tai’s words, Zhao Yanling yanked Li Tai up in one motion and lay down on the reclining chair himself.
Controlling the telescope to look at the firmament, he saw it was indeed so. Good heavens, how thrilling! Among the Big Dipper’s seven stars, Po Jun and Tan Lang—both stars’ light blazed intensely, brilliantly shining as if about to split apart. Zhao Yanling hastily aimed the telescope at the Southern Dipper’s Seven Killings, only to discover nothing was happening there. What was this about? Could the Purple Star pattern also be inaccurate? Wasn’t it said that when one star moves, three stars all move? Why was Seven Evils completely motionless?
Not only did Zhao Yanling ask this—Yuan Tiangang also asked this. Whose stars would explode? Looking at the meteors flying everywhere, he didn’t know how to explain this astronomical phenomenon. Speaking carelessly at this time could get you killed. Hadn’t he noticed the Crown Prince was already nearly crazed, and Prince Wei was also filled with fury? In the future, the realm would definitely be controlled by one of these two people—this required no thought. Who could the comet harm? The Empress! These two were both sons born to the Empress. History wasn’t without examples of new emperors whose first act upon ascending the throne was avenging their mothers.
With the Li brothers’ capabilities, whoever became Emperor, that loose-tongued person would definitely have no good end. Even if fortunate enough to die before the new Emperor’s ascension, it would probably still bring disaster to descendants.
“A star has fallen!” Zhao Yanling danced with joy. Yun Ye was scared into trembling all over. Bastard—a star fell? Then why not run quickly?
Zhao Yanling abandoned the telescope and ran outside on flying feet. Li Chengqian and Li Tai also followed running out. Yun Ye moved his stiff legs and followed out as well, only to see Zhao Yanling pointing at a meteor, shouting happily: “Ha ha ha! I finally have a star I can study. Heh heh…”
Li Chengqian was extremely excited. Leading guards, he mounted his horse and went to find where the star landed. Only then did Yun Ye understand it was a star that couldn’t be smaller. This piqued his interest. Happily mounting his horse, he chased after Li Chengqian, leaving the hopping and cursing Zhao Yanling far behind.