His Majesty arrived with impressive speed. The very next morning, traveling light and with little ceremony, he appeared at Dazhuosi with Hua Bolin, accompanied by Zeng Han, who had just completed the early morning monastic prayers at his teacher’s instruction and had come to the gate to receive them.
Looking at his little fellow student, who carried himself with such a precociously adult air, the Emperor teased him with a grin. “Wearing those robes, you really do look like a little novice monk. How are you holding up? Can you sit still through all of it? If you can’t, tell your older brother and I’ll go plead your case to the Grand Preceptor.”
“I can sit still.” Zeng Han pressed his lips together, and said nothing about how he had been fighting the urge to doze off. But his teacher always had good reason for what she did — if she said spending a few days with the monks would be good for him, then he would follow through. Even if he had to resist the pull of exploring Dazhuosi’s archive tower, he would endure it.
The young Emperor was far too perceptive for such poorly disguised insincerity to fool him. He gave the boy’s head an affectionate pat and stopped teasing him. He took in the courtyard around him — bathed in sunlight, serene and tranquil, with the fragrance of sandalwood hanging in the air — and felt the settled, steady calm sink all the way into him. This was especially true when he caught sight of the Grand Preceptor, dressed in ordinary clothes, her entire presence radiating extraordinary warmth.
Without waiting for the two of them to bow, the Emperor stepped quickly forward and lifted the Regent Prince by the arm. Laifu, seizing the opportunity, immediately helped support the Princess Consort. “We are outside the palace — there is no need for such formalities. Come, everyone sit and talk.”
Hua Zhi smiled and assented, taking a seat to one side. Her gaze swept past her younger brother with only the lightest of touches.
“Yesterday, upon receiving the Regent Prince’s message, I summoned the official responsible for overseeing this matter. According to his account, the number of monks applying for ordination certificates has indeed increased since the start of the year. I then sent people to investigate further, and discovered that among all nineteen temples, large and small, throughout the capital, monks have swelled in number greatly — far beyond the mere modest increase he had described.”
His Majesty’s expression bore a trace of irritation — yet Hua Zhi was not the least bit surprised. Ordination certificates were not issued for free; they had to be purchased. An official with insufficient integrity would naturally be reluctant to cut off such a profitable channel.
“Can the price of ordination certificates be raised?”
“Not openly.” The Emperor’s lips curved slightly upward while his eyes carried a layer of frost. “But privately, without the right inducements, one cannot obtain them at all.”
Hua Zhi understood this completely — yet her original intention had been to use this very matter as a trial through which the Emperor could be tested and refined. And so she offered no opinion of her own, and simply asked: “Has Your Majesty formed a plan of approach?”
“Better to guide the flow than to dam it up. I cannot very well order all the monks to return to secular life on account of this. Even if there are those who have joined with scheming intentions, there are also the good monks who, like Master Boruo, hold the Buddha and all living beings in their hearts.”
Picking up a plain dried fruit, the Emperor turned it between his fingers with an inward, cold amusement. When all was said and done, this matter had its roots in that careless decree of his late father’s — if one were to trace the fault to its source, the fault began there, at the very foundation.
Hua Zhi asked no further. In any case, she and Yanxi were behind him to catch whatever might go wrong — nothing would come to any serious harm.
Clearly, the Emperor had no wish to discuss such unpleasant matters in this peaceful, leisurely setting either. He shifted the conversation at once: “Little Han rarely gets out. Why not let him come along with us to the market?”
“I was going to propose exactly that even if Your Majesty had not.” Hua Zhi glanced at her young student, barely suppressing a laugh. “He had a rare chance to come outside, and all he could think about was the rare texts in their archive tower. Wolfing books down too quickly is worse than not reading at all.”
Zeng Han lowered his head and scuffed the tips of his shoes together, feeling a little pleased, and a little embarrassed.
The Emperor had no such reservations. He burst into open laughter at once, stood up, scooped the boy into his arms, and walked straight out the door. “Then I shall take him with me. Grand Preceptor, you must save lunch for us!”
Hua Bolin hurried to follow. At the doorway, he turned his head, flashed a wide grin at his elder sister, clasped his hands in a quick salute, and walked away briskly.
Hua Zhi shook her head with a smile and went to stand at the doorway. She watched the silhouettes of the three of them walking away in animated conversation, and for a moment her gaze grew distant. How wonderful this all was. If only these many years to come could carry on exactly like this.
She sensed a presence beside her. Without even looking, she leaned naturally in that direction, and rested herself against a solid chest without a moment’s hesitation. An arm encircled her, and the two of them stood watching as those three figures talked and laughed into the distance, until they disappeared entirely from sight.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be all right.”
Hua Zhi gave a quiet shake of her head. How could she not worry? Even with all her ability, even if she could calculate every move under heaven, she could never calculate every turn of the human heart. One was her younger brother, two were her students — she could not bear to see any of them come to harm. And so: “I will be a good Grand Preceptor.”
At the very least, she had to teach each of them that life needed two or three kindred spirits to be truly worth living. If one truly became an utterly solitary sovereign, one could only speak to oneself.
Gu Yanxi gave a soft murmur of assent. He, too, would be a good Regent Prince — and before he withdrew from the court, he would ensure the Emperor understood which things must never, under any circumstances, be done.
Away from the eyes of palace maids and eunuchs, away from the ever-watchful gazes of assembled ministers, looking upon the faces of the people who came and went with expressions of devout reverence, the Emperor felt as though even his bones had grown lighter by a few degrees.
He bounced his little fellow student — who was obediently clinging to his neck — a little higher in his arms, and glanced left and right for a moment before abandoning any attempt to find the way himself. “Laifu, which way do we go?”
Laifu bowed his head to hide a smile, bent in a deferential posture, and led the way to one side. Out of the corner of his eye, he took in the warmth of the three figures walking together. It was a scene that, to any onlooker, would seem entirely ordinary — and yet within the imperial family, it was the most extraordinary sight of all.
Zeng Han struggled lightly, trying to get down. The Emperor smacked him once on the bottom and hoisted him into a better hold, keeping him firmly in place. He tilted his head toward Bolin and said: “This business is likely Grand Preceptor’s test for me. Keep sharp about it — if there is any information from the Seven-Star Bureau, report it to me the moment it comes in. I want to see how many people are entangled in this.”
“Yes.”
“A policy in circulation for barely a single year has already come to this — as for other matters, I dare not even imagine how deep the water runs.” The Emperor’s expression grew cold. He had thought he already knew a great deal of darkness and corruption — yet having truly taken up that position, he realized that what he had known amounted to nothing more than the surface. Living in such an environment, it was no wonder that those within that deep palace all ended up either mad or dead.
“This minister actually thinks this is rather a good thing.”
The Emperor raised an eyebrow and looked at him.
Hua Bolin smiled, his expression clear and composed. “The enemies from outside have been driven away, and the realm is at peace. If every matter were already resolved without need of Your Majesty’s effort, do you think those days would hold any meaning? And what force would drive us to keep growing stronger?”
Using the domestic troubles of Huang Chao to motivate himself? The Emperor glared at him — then found himself wanting to laugh. The Grand Preceptor’s boldness was all on the surface, known to everyone; there was nothing she did not dare do. Bolin’s boldness, however, ran deep inside, undetectable in ordinary moments — and when it surfaced without warning, it was enough to leave people so startled their jaws could drop.
Yet the words held truth.
He now understood that beneath that still surface lay a bed of hidden currents. Even if they could not yet be disturbed, and even if it was not yet the time, he would one day stir them. When he was strong enough.
And so he had absolutely no right to grow complacent.
The noise and clamor of the marketplace drew nearer. The two of them let the conversation drop, and their walking pace quickened. Matters of state could wait — what pressed most urgently now was what the Grand Preceptor had tasked them with. Knowing the Grand Preceptor’s nature, she would certainly question them upon their return. Neither of them could afford to stand before her and be unable to answer.
PS: The extra chapters are not guaranteed to update daily, but every other day should be manageable. Just to clarify — I do not want these extra chapters to feel too scattered, so I am using a single thread to draw everyone in. That said, there will not be too much plot development. A new book is in the works as well, and I hope to have it out by the end of June.