Qingbuyi’s final assassination attempt on Tan Shiyuan came in late autumn — this mad nun had turned all of Yanjing upside down, and Jiu Si Tang, despite exhausting all its strength, still couldn’t flush her out of the capital, losing no small amount of trust from His Majesty in the process.
Tan Shiyuan, one had to admit, was a pitiable figure — no one knew how he’d offended this mad nun, but truly, every ten-odd days he’d lose another piece of flesh, from arm to leg, one eye gouged out then the other, nose gone, then ears — it was, quite literally, a slow execution by a thousand cuts.
By the end, Tan Shiyuan himself wished desperately to die, but the court would not permit it.
With the old recluses all gone, the Tan family had no one left to come to their aid, and so he became bait.
That ghost-like madwoman wandered Yanjing at will — never mind that she hadn’t targeted the court directly, Great Liang’s dignity could not be trampled on, and what did it matter that she was Tan Shize’s widow?
His Majesty issued four kill orders in succession.
Qingbuyi had to be captured, had to die under the law of the court…
And yet, Qingbuyi was unfathomably skilled — ever since His Majesty personally issued the kill order, fearing she might lash out in desperation, Chen Dasheng had his men guard the palace hall day and night, resting wherever they could find a corner when tired, not even going home anymore.
In this season of autumn’s harsh chill, the old lady at home was, by contrast, perfectly at ease. When the solar term arrived, she didn’t even stay at the Prince’s residence, but took Qiqian’er and the wives from Guard’s Alley up Mount Baiquan to dig wild greens.
To them, no matter how momentous the affairs of state, none of it mattered as much as a bowl of hot autumn soup.
As the saying goes: autumn soup cleanses the organs, washes the liver and bowels, brings peace and health to young and old in the household. The old lady personally tended the fire and seasoned it, doling out a large potful to each household by headcount.
They drank the soup at noon in Guard’s Alley, and only then did Qiqian’er bring a potful back to Yanjing. But no sooner had she entered the residence than she heard that her adoptive mother had come by?
Madam Chai’s husband and son were both away, and she didn’t get along well with her two daughters-in-law — however good a daughter-in-law might be, living under a mother-in-law’s roof still meant deferring and playing small. She didn’t want to go before the old lady, and it wasn’t proper to go wandering about outside either, so all that was left was to drop by the Prince’s residence.
“Has my adoptive mother really not stayed home to tend her own pot?”
Qiqian’er offered up the hot soup and bowed before sitting down.
“Ah, different households, different customs — our family doesn’t observe this custom. Though in years past, when your adoptive father was home, our house did hold the autumn sacrifice, but he’s not here this year, and among all the wives in the household, who else could manage it? Oh! This smells wonderful though — did the old lady make this?”
Madam Chai smiled as she looked at the bowl of wild-green-and-fish soup, praising it aloud, though privately she noted that the old lady’s cooking relied too heavily on salt, and the soup didn’t look particularly appetizing.
Sniffing it again, Madam Chai wrinkled her nose, but nevertheless picked up the spoon and sat properly to finish the whole bowl.
After finishing, she downed two cups of strong tea before finally working her tongue loose to talk.
Once the servants had cleared away the dishes and there was no one else around, Madam Chai turned to Qiqian’er with an excited expression and said, “Qian’er, ah, come sit closer, Mother has something to tell you.”
Qiqian’er suppressed a laugh inwardly, thinking, just as expected — another belly full of gossip stored up.
Ever since she’d moved to Yanjing to serve at her father-in-law’s side, every few days her adoptive mother would find some excuse to visit. By now she even knew which family’s cat out back had given birth to how many kittens.
They were all outsiders here, after all — not like Zhang Wanru and the others who had relatives to visit. Even with some gossip to share, it had to be told to someone trustworthy, otherwise it’d just be idle chatter.
Madam Chai, looking thoroughly mysterious, leaned in close to whisper in Qiqian’er’s ear: “Mother tells you, in our Yanjing, something big has happened!”
Qiqian’er asked, puzzled: “Something big?”
Madam Chai nodded like she was pounding garlic: “Of course! I’m telling you, you mustn’t spread this outside. Mother went to drink at the Little Cao family’s place yesterday, and overheard some gossip — I don’t know if it’s true or not. You know, half a month ago, didn’t the Marquis Tan’s wife come to the capital?”
The Empress’s family was called the Big Cao family; the family of the consort who bore the Ninth Prince was called the Little Cao family.
As for this Marquis Tan’s wife — she was Tan Shiyuan’s birth mother, wife of the founding Marquis Tan Shouyi, née Zhong.
This Madam Zhong had, due to certain past incidents, been confined at home by Tan Shouyi, with the official story being that she was of advanced age and poor health.
But who could have guessed — she’d somehow found a way to break out of the estate, and bringing along a group of her natal family’s old retainers, had marched straight into the capital.
Hearing this, Qiqian’er nodded: “I know about that, yes. Da Sheng mentioned it when he came home — he said a few days ago His Majesty avoided court specifically because of her, doing nothing but listening to her tearful pleading all day. Adoptive Mother, you don’t know — she even lodged a complaint before the Emperor against the old Marquis, accusing him of trying to murder his own wife.”
Among the top noble households, the gossip carried a different weight altogether — truly, one moment mentioning the imperial family, the next a marquis.
But today, Madam Chai wasn’t interested in Madam Zhong’s accusation against her husband. With a strange expression, she leaned in close to Qiqian’er’s ear and said, “It’ll scare you to death! They told me that Madam Zhong poisoned her own son with wine — Tan Shiyuan, ah, he’s already been dead… three days now!”
“What?!”
Qiqian’er let out a low cry, but Madam Chai clapped a hand over her mouth: “Hey~ keep your voice down.”
Madam Chai glanced furtively around, then said nervously, “This matter, tsk, the court’s going to lose face over this again — a first-rank official’s mother murdering her own son, that’s a real blow to virtue. You mustn’t go spreading this around outside, ah — this came straight from the palace. Old Madam Cao had one too many cups, and seeing that I keep my mouth shut, couldn’t hold it in, and let it slip to me.”
Madam Chai, having held it in for so long, let out a breath after saying this, then nodded firmly at Qiqian’er again. “Elder Tan is a pitiful case too, from what I hear — his arms and legs were already gone, his face, his mouth and nose too, and there was a great hole clean through his chest, festering with maggots…”
Retching a few times into the air, Madam Chai said fearfully, “But His Majesty won’t allow him to die, so he can’t die — four imperial physicians are watching over him, just to keep him from breathing his last.”
Qiqian’er sighed after a long moment: “That is, after all… a mother’s devoted heart…”
“Indeed…”
In this world, only a woman could understand another woman. Qiqian’er had once been a mother herself, and Madam Chai had several children of her own — the two of them understood at once that this was a mother, unable to find her husband, watching the court use her son as bait, unable to bear seeing her child suffer, and so with her own hands, ending his life.
Thinking it over carefully, how utterly desperate must one be, to do such a thing?
Autumn had come, and beneath the eaves, the swallow chicks in their nest had grown their wing feathers and were learning to fly, though not very high yet, just fluttering about beneath the roof’s edge.
The two women gazed quietly at the swallow’s nest for a long moment, until Qiqian’er finally said, pursing her lips, “Adoptive Mother, I’ve never cared for the Tan family — you know what happened between Da Sheng and the rest of them and the Tan family. Not adding fuel to the fire is already generous of me.”
Madam Chai nodded. “It’s not just your family — who doesn’t despise them? Your adoptive father said their military training violates the harmony of heaven, hmph, I think this is just retribution. Just count it up — since our Great Liang was founded, it’s like our Emperor’s whole reign has been at the mercy of that family — if it’s not Tan Er dying and them cheating their way into a title, it’s some perfectly good frontier post they refuse to take up, insisting instead on lingering around Yanjing.
And now this vile affair on top of it, the court’s lost all face over it — go back a thousand years and there’s never been a case of mother murdering son like this. And I’m not boasting about my own useless brood, but whatever else they lack, they at least know how to read the room.
If our family ran into something like this, we’d never dare cause His Majesty even the slightest bit of trouble — we’d rather die far away from it all! Better to spare everyone the eyesore, isn’t it?
Dying like that, His Majesty and the court would remember you fondly. Well, this family gives everyone a scare every few nights — even imperial relatives don’t cause this much trouble. Back in Shaoshang we never noticed, but the moment this family entered Yanjing, they became like this — why is that?”
Qiqian’er nodded in agreement: “Who knows, really?”
The eldest maid Siyue directed the servants in laying things out under the corridor, and the two adoptive mother-and-daughter sat there, sipping autumn wine and gossiping disparagingly about the Tan family.
All of Yanjing knew that the Old Blades and the Tan family had completely severed ties, half a step from being outright enemies.
Every festival and holiday, the Tan family would still send over the customary seasonal gifts to the Old Blades’ households. But sadly, these seven men’s attitude toward the Tan family was one of open, direct loathing — never mind accepting their support, even at court, if they crossed paths with a Tan family official, all seven would step aside and put distance between them.
Everyone knew they had grievances, yet rarely did anyone hear the Old Blades say an ill word against the Tan family outright — even when someone deliberately steered conversation that way in front of them, the seven would just smile, excuse themselves, and step away.
That alone was no small feat.
Swallowing her autumn wine, Madam Chai wasn’t gloating, but said rather sympathetically instead, “Isn’t it hard, being a woman? Heaven sees you’re about to be born and cuts your legs out from under you first — raised up like a treasured jewel at home with great difficulty, only to be sent off to live in someone else’s family, bearing children for them, managing their household affairs. If you’re lucky enough to land with someone with a conscience, at least on your deathbed they’ll say you had a hard life. But if you land with someone heartless and cruel — well, whether it’s sweet or bitter, if fate stores up a whole courtyard’s worth for you, that’s your whole life made.”
Qiqian’er held the pot with both hands and refilled Madam Chai’s cup. Madam Chai drained it in one go, then said with a bitter laugh, “Ever since I heard this news, my heart’s been unsettled, I had a whole river’s worth of words pent up, just wanted to find someone to pour it out to.
Being a mother myself, hearing about a birth mother poisoning her own son to death — it’s the kind of thing that turns inward on you. Tsk, if you lie awake at night thinking about it, you won’t sleep at all.
How much despair does it take, to drive someone to do such a thing? It’s not that I sympathize with Madam Zhong — Shaoshang isn’t that big, don’t you think I know what she got up to in the inner chambers? How many of the old Marquis’s children never made it past her hands? But now that this has happened to her — I, I’ve only been the lady of the house for a single day and already I pity myself, pity myself something awful! My child, do you understand what I mean?”
Qiqian’er nodded. A main wife and a concubine’s position were naturally different by nature.
Setting down her cup, Madam Chai patted Qiqian’er’s shoulder and laughed, “But you’re the lucky one. I know how our family’s children turned out — truly, whoever married in was blessed by virtue accumulated in a past life. They used to laugh at our Chai family’s eldest daughter for marrying a military man, heh! Look at her now — the eldest girl’s living the good life, caught His Majesty’s eye, and got an imperial title the moment she married in…”
Just as she was speaking, she saw Siyue leading the gatekeeper into the back courtyard. Asked what the matter was, it turned out that the second young master of Judge Hu Chunhou’s family from Nanfeng County had been sent to deliver the autumn festival gifts — including hot soup?
Qiqian’er, hearing this, was startled, and asked in confusion: “Their family sent hot soup? Why would it come to the Prince’s residence?”
The gatekeeper had wondered the same thing, and bowing, replied, “In answer to my lady, this one asked the very same question, but the second young master of the Hu family said it was originally meant to be delivered to Old Daoist Camp, but Fifth Master has been on duty in the palace these past few days, and with the weather so hot, they worried the soup would spoil, so they had no choice but to send it to our residence instead.”
Chen Dasheng truly treated his subordinate brothers like his own flesh and blood — with only two of them still unmarried, he kept them by his side every day.
That the Hu family could track down this address wasn’t surprising either — it was common knowledge by now.
Madam Chai, utterly puzzled, asked, “Whose family is this?”
Seeing that her adoptive mother wasn’t an outsider, Qiqian’er recounted Hu Yougui’s background in full. Madam Chai, quite astonished after hearing it, said after a long moment, “Well now, this really is the stuff of legend. My child, you can’t just casually accept this soup — accept it, and you’re as good as kin.”
Qiqian’er thought, that’s exactly the principle at play — since there was no one to consult in the palace, she sent someone to ask the household elders instead.
Siyue went off for a while, then returned with Jixiang.
Madam Chai, seeing that they were handling their own affairs, stood up to take her leave and head home.
She’d had a whole belly of words to unload, and having finally gotten it all out, she left feeling thoroughly light.
Jixiang said with a smile to Qiqian’er, “My lady, the master’s thinking is this — with the elders on that side still living, all three of them, it’s simply not a fair fight, Fifth Master would naturally come out at a disadvantage. Better to just accept the gift and send him on his way.”
With She Qingling’s instructions in hand, Qiqian’er then had someone summon Hu Yougui’s younger brother, Hu Youlu, in to see her.
Hu Youlu was twenty this year, held the rank of xiucai scholar, and was currently studying at the Imperial Academy.
That very morning, the two elders from Nanfeng had sent half a cartload of goods along with a large pot of hot soup to find him, saying that half the gift was meant for him, and the other half for his elder brother.
This left the young man utterly at a loss.
Ever since he’d found his brother again, Hu Youlu hadn’t had the face to go seek him out. He had, in fact, snuck off to Old Daoist Camp in secret, and from a distance had spotted him and recognized at a glance that it was his brother — yet he hadn’t had the nerve to go up and acknowledge him.
Before Heaven teaches someone a lesson, it will always first make them fall into a deep pit and bleed before they learn what pain is.
Hu Youlu had been raised at his grandparents’ side since birth, while his brother had sided with their mother, and was often criticized by the grandparents for it.
Later, when their mother passed and the family fell into ruin, his brother came to resent their father, and the grandparents began speaking ill of his brother too.
At the time, what did he understand? Since the grandparents disliked her, and he was close to them, he naturally turned against his mother too, and only ever heard bad things said of his brother and mother from the grandparents.
But later, his brother too was gone, the family fell into such poverty they couldn’t even eat, he himself was weak-willed and had no one to lean on, and only then did the grandparents finally think to blame their father.
Their family was strange this way — whoever showed any capability became the target of suppression. Later, everyone claimed to know their mistakes, claimed to regret it, but their mother and brother could never come back.
As time passed, the matter became something no one was allowed to bring up.
Occasionally, if he spoke of it out of grief, they’d scold him with a tone of “you don’t understand” — the dead are dead, should the living stop living? Why bring it up again?
Later still, their father’s fortunes turned, he became an official, took a new wife, had a new younger brother and sister — and just like that, they were a family again, and he became more of an outsider than ever.
Qiqian’er, looking at this young man the servants had brought in, thought first that he looked refined and delicate enough, but nowhere near as handsome as her own Yougui — not even close.
Hu Youlu, entering, saw the gauze curtain drawn across the main hall, and understood at once that he was being treated as an outsider.
He smiled, not particularly bothered by it, straightened his appearance, and bowed earnestly to Qiqian’er.
Qiqian’er politely bid him rise, had tea brought for him, and once he was seated, said coolly, “Young scholar, visiting relatives — could you have come to the wrong door?”
Hu Youlu had earned his scholarly rank through the special examination, and having passed the xiucai exam, had pulled some strings to transfer from Nanfeng to continue his studies at the Imperial Academy in Yanjing.
As such, Qiqian’er addressing him as “young scholar” was entirely appropriate.
Hearing the lady behind the curtain speak rather coldly, Hu Youlu didn’t dare take offense, and said instead with a face full of shame, “It truly was too presumptuous of me — I’ve caused your household trouble…”
Qiqian’er said coldly, “Knowing it was presumptuous, and knowing it caused trouble — in the future, think twice before doing such things, or else we’ll all end up in an impossible position, and in the end nothing will come of it either way. Young scholar, think it over carefully — isn’t that so?”
Hu Youlu slowly stood, and forcing a smile, bowed with cupped hands to Qiqian’er, saying, “My lady speaks truly, but this student came today because there are a few words I wished to convey.”
Ever since his brother had died, and the grandparents changed their tune, Hu Youlu had grown three times more calculating than most people in this world. He had little talent for study, but could endure hardship better than anyone.
His grandparents, selfish by nature, had somehow raised a father as reckless and sentimental as his — and fearing that he himself might grow capable enough to one day take revenge on their father, they had, behind his back, done no small number of contemptible things.
Fortunately, he was resilient, and had managed to pull through in the end.
He looked down on Hu Chunhou, and Hu Chunhou knew it, and so avoided this son of his as much as possible.
Without his father’s protection, he’d grown thoroughly isolated — fortunately he’d passed the xiucai exam and entered the Imperial Academy, and only then did the family change its tune toward him again.
He’d held a bellyful of words in for so long, and finally, that day his father had come to tell him his brother wasn’t dead after all, still alive, and wanted to go with him to Old Daoist Camp to find his brother.
So he’d asked his father with a smile: “Father’s face has always been thick, but I have no face to go.”
Watching his father’s expression of shock, he’d felt a wave of satisfaction.
He understood his father well enough — truly not a bad man, at most a simple, vain sort of man.
Having been rejected once, that man would never seek him out again — only, those two utterly selfish old creatures at home were something he couldn’t avoid either way.
Seeing this man standing there lost in thought, Qiqian’er urged him on: “Young scholar, you have something to say?”
“Oh!” Hu Youlu snapped back to attention, looking up apologetically, “This student was lost in thought. My lady, please forgive me.”
Qiqian’er said behind the curtain, pursing her lips, “It’s a major festival day, and I do have matters to attend to — if you have something to say, please say it quickly.”
Only then did Hu Youlu manage a strained smile: “Yes. This student came today hoping to trouble my lady to pass along a few words… to my brother.”
“Words?”
“Yes. I would trouble my lady to tell my brother — those two elders will both turn seventy come the new year, and given their age, their generational standing, and the blood tie, should anything happen, it’s my brother who’d come out the loser. I would trouble my lady to tell my brother, please endure just two more years, and it will pass. Hu Chunhou cares too much for face, and the one he married after would only be too glad if we didn’t contest the family estate…”
“Wait a moment!” Qiqian’er cut in, her tone turning mocking. “From what I’m hearing, young scholar, it sounds like you hold quite a grudge against that side of the family?”
Hu Youlu could certainly tell what this young mistress meant — that he was the type to curry favor, seeing this side now wealthy and prominent, and so had begun speaking ill of the other side.
He shook his head helplessly, raised a hand toward the sky, and said, “In that case, let me swear an oath before my lady today. I, Hu Youlu, swear to heaven — if I harbor even the slightest ill intent toward my brother in my heart, may I be struck down by five thunderbolts, may I be reincarnated life after life as roadside weeds, trampled by a thousand feet, crushed under ten thousand wheels…”
The oath was so vicious that Qiqian’er hastily cut him off: “Stop, stop! Don’t say such things in front of me, just tell me your original purpose in coming today.”
Hu Youlu, after all, carried genuine grievance in his heart, and hearing this, his eyes reddened. Lowering his hand, he said distractedly, “I won’t hide it from my lady — all these years I’ve harbored resentment, wondering why other people’s grandparents were proper grandparents, while mine, and my father, turned out the way they did? But then war broke out, and our family’s fortunes rose, yet my days became even more unbearable to look back on…
I’ve often thought of my brother too, felt regret — regretted that back then the whole family fed off my brother like leeches, and I never once said a kind word to him… but this regret of mine, I could only voice it to my brother while he was poor and destitute — only when my brother was poor, when things weren’t going his way, could he see my true heart…”
He wept in the end, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. “But now that my brother is wealthy and prominent, whatever I say means nothing anymore! Which is just as well, really, I’m glad — the better my brother does, the more they’ll come to regret it, and that only makes me happier…”
She Qingling had quietly wandered out from the inner hall, and seeing his daughter-in-law utterly dumbstruck, gestured for her to hush…
Having done so, he too sat and listened to Hu Youlu pour out these words he’d held pent up for so many years.
Hu Youlu laughed through his tears, “I’m twenty this year, my fate’s been split into an upper and lower half — in the upper half I had a mother and a brother, in the lower half I had nothing at all, yet I dare not complain, this is my retribution!
Knowing my brother is alive, I could kowtow to all the gods in heaven out of gratitude — my brother survived, and Heaven even granted him great fortune and glory besides. You see, in this world, good and evil are repaid after all. As for my own family, I’ve wondered before, why were they so coldhearted…”
Hearing Hu Youlu speak of his grandparents, Qiqian’er couldn’t help thinking of her own grandmother.
She murmured, “Indeed… why is that, I wonder?”
Hu Youlu already had his own answer, and sighed, “It’s nothing much, really — a poor, remote village, an only son in the family, hearts full of fear and ignorant foolishness. My father was the same way — with no brothers to support him growing up, afraid of being bullied, he put on an act of being a rough, loyal-hearted man, and after pretending long enough, he came to believe it himself.
I won’t hide it from my lady, this student only came to understand this truth myself a few years ago. What’s past is past — this student came today with just one thought in mind, to trouble you to tell my brother, that my brother… is a mighty hawk…”
Wiping the tears from his face entirely, Hu Youlu straightened his appearance, and with both hands solemnly cupped, bowed to Qiqian’er: “I would trouble my lady to tell my brother — Hu Yougui has weathered ten thousand miles of frost and snow, and now is precisely the time he soars above the sea, sheds his mortal scales, a great roc surging toward the heavens at last. Please ask him not to let some trivial worldly matter disturb his spirit — creatures as insignificant as autumn grass aren’t worth his concern. Whatever happens, please, I beg him to endure just a few more years, and then the sea and sky will open wide before him.”
Having said this, Hu Youlu took his leave and departed.
The man had been gone for some time before She Qingling finally gave a soft laugh: “Well now, there’s a bit of our own Fifth Brother’s backbone in him — what he said made sense too.”
Qiqian’er raised an eyebrow with a laugh: “Since when did a mere Imperial Academy student earn this much of your attention?”
She Qingling stood and said with a smile, “Since it concerns our family after all, I had someone go ask around at the Imperial Academy about this boy’s character. Guess what his teacher said?”
“What did he say?”
Prince She, rare praise in his voice, said, “His talent’s rather average, but he’s someone who can endure genuine hardship, which is rather formidable in its own right.”
Having said this, he tucked his sleeves and walked to the doorway, and seeing the autumn rain falling, instructed those below: “Send that man off with an umbrella.” Having given the order, he turned back and said to Qiqian’er with a smile, “The hardest thing in this world to fathom is family ties, wouldn’t you say?”
Qiqian’er, hearing this, felt a wave of wistfulness — not knowing that in this vast city of Yanjing, while some found peace with their past and finally freed themselves from it, others, knowing full well it was an abyss, would still leap in laughing.
At the founding Marquis’s estate, a woman with half her face marked in purple bruises knelt in mourning white before the memorial altar, burning paper money in a daze, her eyes filled with the blank helplessness that follows terror.
Occasionally the woman would look up at the memorial platform, upon which stood two spirit tablets — one bearing her father-in-law’s name, the other, her husband’s grandmother’s.
Wu Xiu leaned idly against the doorway, absently digging in his ear, a strange smile hanging on his face, as he shot a disdainful glance at the Tan clan elders assisting in the courtyard.
It was these very people who had, the night before, suddenly forced their way into the estate, dragged Madam Zhong out of the Buddhist hall where she’d been confined, and forced poison down her throat, staging it as a suicide.
Seeing her brother unmoving, Wu Ling looked up and called to him: “Brother, come here. The old lady doted on you too once, come burn something for her… this household…”
She glanced around, then said with some sorrow, “Not a single man of our branch is even here.”
Wu Xiu obediently went over to burn paper money, and as he did, he heard his sister murmuring by his ear: “It’s strange too, who do you suppose wrote the letter to the old lady? Wasn’t it supposed to be kept absolutely secret?”
She didn’t see it, but her brother, head bowed, was smiling like a very demon. He burned the paper sheet by sheet, and hearing footsteps approach, sat up straight and properly, sighing in grief: “Old lady, why did it have to come to this?”
More people rushed into the courtyard, a string of hurried footsteps approaching. Wu Xiu, paper still in hand, knocked his head against the memorial platform and wailed, “Old lady, you treated me like your own grandson, who could have guessed… in the end, in the end, it would be this unworthy one who sent you off, old lady…”