Chapter 11: Beautiful Blooming Peony (Part 2)
She raised her hand to touch her top knot bun, however, when she touched the wooden hairpin on her hair, she stopped for a moment, obviously remembering the mess her hair became last time when she had unknowingly pulled the hairpin out. So, she put down her hand and wrote “one” on the railing with her fingertips, and said, “Firstly, the appearance of this piece of talisman can be done by the people closest to you. Therefore, it must be the people around you who have the intention, so they quietly put this thing on the Xuzhou tower where you are going.”
With that, her finger drew two horizontal lines on the railing. “Secondly, the red circle on the talisman suddenly changed when the paper was around you. Therefore, this person not only follows you to the tower, but also can get in touch with everything about you at any time. He should be the closest person around you, such as a servant.”
“Thirdly, the disability diagnosed and treated by a military doctor coincided with this talisman, which shows that there are more than one troublemaker around you, at least one is a military doctor, and the other, your trusted person.” With that, she retrieved her hand, blew her fingertips, and concluded, “Follow the line of the military doctor, you should be able to find the others hiding in the dark.”
Li Shubai was non-committal and continued, “At that time, the military doctor committed suicide and I have removed all the guards I had trained over the years to various places with no intention to call them back.”
Huang Zixia’s eyes fell on the talisman. “But on that one…”. It seemed that the red circle on the residual character “disabled” had faded, leaving only a faint trace.
“After more than half a year’s treatment, my arm was saved, so the red circle on the “disabled” character gradually disappeared. But my left arm is now powerless. I can only do some day-to-day things like writing and painting, but I can’t use my sword or draw a bow any more.” He stretched out his left hand and moved his finger in front of her, “In fact, the left hand used to be my dominant hand before.”
As a left-handed person, after his dominant hand was incapable of movement, had to train his right hand quickly; the hardships in such a process is probably incomprehensible to most people.
At the thought of his neat skill of pulling her out from hiding in the carriage, Huang Zixia couldn’t help but admire the man in front of him. At least, she felt that she probably didn’t have the willpower to start all over again and train her right hand like him, which was his non-dominant hand for more than 20 years.
“Originally, I thought that this matter was over after I dismissed the people around me, so I have always kept this talisman in a secret place, because I still hope to find out the obscure string around me with the help of this talisman. However, just a few days ago, when I heard that the emperor was going to choose a consort for me, I thought of the word “widowhood” on this piece of talisman. I took it out and looked at it. It turned out that a red circle suddenly appeared on the paper. This time, it was settled on the word “widowhood”.” He took up the rune paper, put his finger on the character “widowhood” delineated in a red circle with a sarcastic smile on his face. “A man who loses his wife is called a widower. It seems that my marriage, perhaps, may suffer some unexpected changes.”
Huang Zixia took the paper from his hand and studied it carefully. The scarlet color like blood on the “widowhood” character indeed looked newer than that on the character for “loneliness”, so it seemed even more ferocious.
“It’s unbelievable. It’s like being haunted by ghosts and gods. It’s predestined. After three or four years have passed, new blood still blooms on this talisman.” Li Shubai slowly said, “The people around me have changed many times, and I hide this talisman more properly than how I handled important military tasks. However, I didn’t expect that this paper, which was supposed to be absolutely impossible to fall into any slip-ups, finally emerged with a bad omen.”
Huang Zixia put down the paper and said, “It seems that this talisman, perhaps, is much more complicated than we imagined.”
“Hhm…” He responded, pausing for a long time, and then slowly saying, “In short, this time, there will be someone who will make trouble with my marriage. If my marriage is taken advantage of, or someone wants to make a fuss about it, for example —”
His eyes remained on her for a long time before he said, “It suddenly occurred to me that Wang Yun, the eldest grandson of the Wang family, seems to be your fiance. It’s the biggest disgrace in his life that you refuse to marry him to the extent that you’d even poison your entire family. He can bear this kind of shame, but I cannot bear it.”
“I did not kill my parents and family.” She bit her lower lip and enunciated every word, “If you want me to help you, don’t mention it again in front of me.”
He glanced at her and replied in a playful tone, “I am just relaying the opinions of others, not mine. If I choose to work with a murderer, wouldn’t it be too foolish?”
She bit her lower lip and asked in a low voice, “When did you start to believe that I didn’t kill my family?”
He didn’t answer, stood up and walked across the winding bridge on the water.
They walked along the dimly lit path to the deep of the brightly lit pavilion. At this moment, the light from the sun begins to appear at the far horizon of the dark blue sky.
Huang Zixia followed him and heard his low and deep voice, “Yes, because I had seen your palm and saw that you didn’t kill.”
She was stunned, and then immediately picked out the mistakes in his words. “The last time you looked at my palm, you clearly said from my palm print that I poisoned my relatives, so you can infer my identity!”
“I lied to you.”
“Then, how did you identify me last time?”
“You don’t have to worry about that.” He deliberately put an end to the topic just like that, “You just need to help me uncover the mystery behind this talisman, and your task will be over.”
“So, if you could see someone through by reading a palm print. Why don’t you read the palm print of the people around you one by one, wouldn’t that be much simpler for you to find out everything?” She’s not letting him get away with it.
“I’m not interested,” he answered without turning his back, “because, compared to looking at other people’s palm prints, I still prefer to see some people play the role of a little eunuch.”
So, a sad little eunuch from Prince Kui’s mansion, Huang Zixia, ..no, it should be Yang Chonggu! – followed the prince into the palace for the second time, went to Penglai Pavilion of the Great Daming Palace, and participated in the selection process of Princess Consort of Kui.
Even though it’s already April, and the peaches and plums which were in full bloom in the imperial garden could not drive away the cold and overcast sky in the palace.
“It’s strange that the Great Daming Palace, which is built on a sunny high place, seems to be colder than inside the city.”
Li Shubai, hearing Huang Zixia murmur to herself, glanced at her and casually said, “Because this is the inner palace, the most noble place in the world, and it’s the hardest place to get sunlight.”
At this time, they were standing on the platform of Penglai Pavilion, overlooking the Taiye Lake below. In the wind, the flowers and trees beside the whole Taiye Lake rose and fell, just like a huge ocean of flowers. The blue Taiye Lake was surrounded by pink and white waves.
However, such beautiful scenery doesn’t bring a pleasant feeling, in fact it’s chilly.
“The noble ladies should have arrived by now. Why doesn’t Your Highness go into the palace and see what they are talking about?” Huang Zixia asked.
Li Shubai’s demeanor seemed uninterested; he glanced sideways at her and asked, “Why are you in such a hurry?”
Hearing his words, Huang Zixia had to hold back her impatient heart to see the beauties of Chang’an and obediently waited for him to speak. She heard him ask, “Is the gift still fine?”
“Yes.” She opened the brocade box she had been holding in her arms and took a look. All the people in the palace speculated about the token of recognition that Prince of Kui would bestow to his future consort, but did not know what precious gold and jade or rare treasures was it made of. However, they did not know that what she was holding in her arms was a beautiful, blooming peony.
Huang Zixia gazed at this gorgeous and incomparable scarlet peony and said, “This morning I cut it off at the moment it bloomed as per Your Highness’s instructions. The gardener Liu didn’t know this servant was instructed by the prince, and as a result, he jumped around cursing me for a long time! Said that he had dug a tunnel with slow fire charcoal and it took him more than two months for this plant to finally bloom and it’s extremely rare to see around the year.”
Li Shubai indifferently replied, “Pacify the gardener when we are back.”
“Your Highness gave her a peony as a token of recognition, indeed a cultured man.” Huang Zixia covered the box and held it in her hand.
Li Shubai’s face was expressionless, and didn’t seem to be happy about the consort selection. She couldn’t help thinking in her mind that the beautiful flowers won’t last and would be withered. How could such a clever person like Li Shubai, the Prince of Kui, couldn’t think of this aspect? She guessed it was because other tokens can be properly protected for safekeeping. Therefore, if the prince wanted to take back his words in the future, it wouldn’t look good on him when requested for a gift to be returned.
She held the peony in her arms and thought of the piece of talisman she had seen a few days ago. She couldn’t help but feel deep sympathy for the woman who was about to be chosen as Prince Kui’s consort.
Not long after, a female official from the side of the empress came to say that everyone had arrived, and the prince could proceed to the hall.
Li Shubai then motioned to Huang Zixia to follow him into the inner hall.
It was a common practice in that dynasty that when a prince chose a consort, the candidates would be the daughters of important officials in the court or the daughters of aristocratic families. They were all women of noble status. Naturally, they would not be meeting face to face* with the prince and to be examined one by one. Before choosing the consort, although everyone knows it well, they won’t say it. They only held a banquet in the front hall. The prince secretly scrutinizes the candidates at the back hall through the screen. If the prince had taken interest in anyone, he could tell the female official. The girl would then be invited into the back hall and given a keepsake by the prince himself. She would ask for her name and identity, and nothing else, then the marriage agreement is settled.
(*Unmarried girls or women are not allowed to be seen by men beside their family members.)
Huang Zixia followed Li Shubai into the side hall. She saw the banquet hall was heavily surrounded with silk curtains, and the front and back doors were shut. The deep and brilliant red rustic wood doors are carved in auspicious patterns on it. He could see all the people in the front hall clearly, but the people in the front hall could only see his silhouette.
Feeling him watching from behind the screen, the movements of all the girls were a little unnatural. Only a girl sitting on the right hand side of the empress was acting leisurely and free without any formality.
Huang Zixia’s eyes fell on the empress. She was dressed in a red dress decorated with an auspicious clouds pattern. Her face was very beautiful. Her eyes were sharp and clear, and when she looked up there seemed to be a kind of glow coming from within her body. Her face was shining.
She was the second empress from the Wang family. After her sister died, she was married to Prince Yun, when Prince Yun was enthroned as the emperor and made her the empress. She should be twenty five – twenty six years old, but she looks like someone in their early twenties.
All the women in the hall were dressed up with great care in splendid clothes and surrounded the banquet hall like flowers. However, no one could steal the luster exuded by the empress in the slightest. Huang Zixia amazed, thinking that when she went to the palace to meet the empress three years ago, she was just a kid who didn’t know what ‘a beauty caused the befall of a country and a city’ is, but now that she is getting older, she finally understands that the charm of a beauty can actually be so.
The girl next to Empress Wang should be the cousin, one of the Wang’s daughters whose name is Wang Ruo. Wang Ruo and Empress Wang sat together. Although they were cousin by patrilineal, they did not look alike at all. As her name suggests, Empress Wang’s name is Wang Shao (peony flower), her red dress is like an extraordinary peony, elegant and beautiful. However, Wang Ruo’s lotus flower colored skirt today was just like peach and plum, fragrant and charming. Although it was not as good as Empress Wang’s color and temperament, she was young, delicate and charming after all.
The rest of the women, although not bad in their own rights, were by contrast all eclipsed by the presence of these two women. Huang Zixia found a young girl in a moonlight-coloured dress. Her cheeks were slightly rich, and her almond shaped eyes were beautiful. However, her chin was always slightly raised, which made her temperament seem outstanding. Therefore, she emanated a kind of natural pride. Huang Zixia thought that this girl must be the Princess of Qi Le who wanted to marry Prince Kui by every possible means.
Princess Qi Le comes from the line of the Prince of Shu, whose relationship was far from the royal bloodline. However, Prince Shu had great contributions to the official court, in which his daughter was bestowed with a princess title. Now Dowager Consort* Zhao was in charge of the palace. It was said that Princess Qi Le bribed the palace people in order to get close to Dowager Consort Zhao by helping her to copy the Buddhist scriptures. She seemed to be looked upon with favour by the dowager consort, therefore she requested that she be betrothed to Prince Kui. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out and became a joke in the capital city.
(Dowager consort = Consort of the previous emperor.)
In the middle of thoughts, Huang Zixia saw Li Shubai beckoning the female officer to come over. He pointed to Wang Ruo and said, “It’s her.”
Huang Zixia was surprised. Isn’t that too fast? How could he choose an important life event such as the prince’s consort selection, by just a quick glance at the person and settling it?
But she could only say, “Don’t you want to think over it anymore?”
Li Shubai’s tone was flat, “It’s just from a group of people that I don’t know at all and by picking one among them to spend a lifetime with me. Do I need to consider it?”
“But there must be something unique about the woman who would be chosen by Your Highness.”
He turned his face and looked at her. The corner of his lips rose slightly. He seemed to be smiling, but there was no joy in his eyes. He said faintly, “Yes, of all the candidates, she is the most beautiful.”
Cloud Manor 