#61: Sending Me to Death (1)

This day, when Luo Wei ascended the mountain, it was still a clear morning. An hour later, a heavy rain began to pour.

The rain fell on the trees, making the green leaves appear even more vibrant. Pilgrims coming and going could smell the fragrant earth and grass after being moistened.

Luo Wei sat on a meditation cushion, playing chess opposite Master Jichen, the current abbot of Xiuxiu Temple.

After Monk Jiyun’s passing, Master Jichen took over Xiuxiu Temple. He was a smooth operator and quite congenial with Luo Wei. Whenever she came to the mountain and he was there, they would always play a game of chess.

It rained in the morning, so there were fewer people coming to pray today. They were scattered, and the two were in a meditation room above the Buddha hall. Looking out from the door, they could just see the bronze censer in the main hall.

With fewer worshippers, the incense was sparse. Coupled with the rain, many sticks of incense were extinguished as soon as they were lit. People considered this inauspicious and refused to light more. The meager incense smoke was also blown away by the rain. Luo Wei withdrew her gaze, placed a white piece, and gloated, “The heavens are uncooperative. The old monk won’t collect much incense money today.”

Jichen chanted a Buddhist phrase and said earnestly, “Praying to Buddha is only about sincerity, not about money.”

Luo Wei said, “Then why do you still want to build a golden dome...”

Jichen said, “That is sincerity, sincerity.”

He hesitated with his chess piece and laughed, “The Empress used to be a devout Buddhist, but in recent years, she speaks with less and less restraint. I wonder why?”

Luo Wei deliberately said, “Not only that, I worship both Buddha and the Three Pure Ones. Anyway, I am a mortal. Whoever can protect me is my true god.”

Jichen paused at these words and mused, “The Empress sees things more clearly than this old monk.”

Luo Wei didn’t understand and was too lazy to ask. She simply looked at the sky with concern, “It’s raining so heavily, I wonder if the person I’m waiting for will still come?”

Jichen asked, “Who is the Empress waiting for?”

Luo Wei counted on her fingers, “Waiting for many people. Friends, people who are... like enemies and like friends, and also enemies. Friends will definitely come. The people who are like enemies and like friends, I don’t know when they will come. I’m just afraid the enemies won’t come. Old monk, why don’t you cast a lot for me and calculate if he will come?”

Jichen placed a chess piece and was about to answer when a sudden voice came from the door, “Empress doesn’t need to calculate. Isn’t this old subject here?”

Luo Wei turned her head and saw Yu Qiushi closing his dim yellow oiled paper umbrella and gracefully entering the hall. He was still wearing a somewhat old deep green Taoist robe with wide sleeves and a large hem, which was wet with rain. He had shed much of his officialdom’s sharpness, looking instead like a benevolent old man seeking immortality.

Jichen nodded to him from his seat and did not rise to greet him, “Grand Tutor, coming in the rain, shows sincerity.”

Luo Wei, however, smiled and surveyed him, “Grand Tutor, wearing a Taoist robe to a Buddhist temple, are you intentionally trying to cause trouble for the old monk? For lunch’s vegetarian meal, we won’t save him any. Let him eat the wind and drink the dew.”

Yu Qiushi sat down at the chess table and, hearing this, cupped his hands in apology, “This old subject is not an immortal. Please, Master Jichen and Empress, save me a bite to eat.”

Thus, the three burst into laughter together like old friends, as a breeze swept through the Buddhist banners hanging by the door.

Jichen knew the two had something to discuss. He thrust the chess box he was holding into Yu Qiushi’s hands, picked up Yu Qiushi’s oiled paper umbrella, and left on the pretext of burning incense.

In the silent sound of wind and rain, only Luo Wei and Yu Qiushi remained, playing chess. Yu Qiushi played black, and Luo Wei played white. The game had already tilted towards black, but Luo Wei calmly placed her pieces and jokingly said, “Grand Tutor came up the mountain alone. Aren’t you afraid I’ve hidden Imperial Guards in the forest, setting up a Hongmen Banquet?”

Yu Qiushi frowned at the chessboard without looking up, “Hmm, the Empress is the ruler. To kill a subject, it’s just a cup of poisoned wine. Why bother with such a grand display?”

He finally found a place to move and laughed, “Killing is easy, but striking at the heart is difficult. Granting a subject death is easy, but avoiding blame is hard.”

Luo Wei sighed, “Grand Tutor is as cunning as the old monk.”

Yu Qiushi blew on the chess piece in his hand, looked up, and suddenly asked, “Do you really know what happened back then?”

As if in response to his powerful question, a sudden clap of thunder echoed from outside the door. The wind grew strong, and the candles were extinguished one by one. From the distant back mountain, a long, resonant sound of bells and chimes carried through the wind and rain.

Luo Wei calmly replied, “What if I know, and what if I don’t?”

“You really knew all along,” Yu Qiushi observed her expression and smiled with some pleasure, “A year ago, two years ago, you went up Tinghua Terrace alone on the night of the Lantern Festival. Later, I went to take a look, and there were tear stains on the golden statue and faint knife marks beside the stone tablet—you must have hated His Majesty and me to the core long ago, right, Empress? This old subject truly admires you. You could swallow such hatred and still act as if nothing was wrong every day, even being affectionate with His Majesty. Frankly, it must have been hard for the Empress.”

“It should be hard for the Grand Tutor, shouldn’t it?” Luo Wei’s expression remained unchanged. “The day Suiyun became pregnant, I suddenly understood many things—why did the Grand Tutor send his daughter into the palace back then? After she entered the palace, she told me about her quarrels with you at home. At first, I also thought that you sent her here for the future of the Yu family, for the careers of your in-laws. Later, I thought, how could the Grand Tutor, who clearly knew of Song Lan’s coldness, say such naive words as ‘give birth to an heir for His Majesty’? With you in court, would he feel at ease letting Suiyun have a child?”

“Hahahahaha...” Yu Qiushi laughed loudly at these words, his eyes showing a hint of appreciation. “Empress, please continue.”

Luo Wei said, “That quarrel you had, you deliberately made her say it to me the night before she entered the palace, didn’t you? Grand Tutor is sharp-eared and clear-sighted; naturally, you already knew that Suiyun cared for my brother, and I had some friendship with her. Knowing her innocence, I certainly wouldn’t make things difficult for her in the palace. You used her to tell me that I wouldn’t have ‘many years of peaceful sleep,’ hoping to force me to act sooner. Besides that, of all those words, only one at the end was true: ‘Gaining His Majesty’s favor is the golden body that protects life’—you sent her into the palace to protect her life, just as you knew Shkang had impure intentions but still allowed the second young master to marry the princess. Grand Tutor, you colluded with Song Lan to commit the great crime of usurping the nation. After fighting until now, how could you discard everything you gained through so much hardship?”

Seeing Yu Qiushi unmoved, she knew that everything she had guessed was true. Her heart plummeted to a bottomless abyss: “Song Lan killed Lu Heng, killed Lin Kuishan, killed Ningle. You are so clever, you couldn’t have failed to guess that he would ultimately leave no one alive who knew about the past!”

“What does the Empress think I am seeking?” Yu Qiushi slammed his hand on the chessboard, shouting emphatically. However, after that shout, his voice softened again, “Gold and silver are but fleeting clouds in the sky; fame and power are all empty after death... What I seek, you do not understand.”

He stood up, flicking his sleeves, not minding that the wide hem swept the black and white chess pieces into a mixed heap, clattering them down. “Empress must be very curious why, before the current Emperor ascended the throne, I had already become Prime Minister, reaching the peak of power, yet I still risked eternal infamy to plot the Thorn Blossom case.”

Luo Wei said, word for word, “I wish to hear the Grand Tutor’s teachings.”

“I was a successful candidate in the imperial examination during the Chenping era, the same year as your father. However, he was the second-ranked scholar, while I barely squeezed into the first class. Even after entering the Jiongtang (Imperial Academy), I was unremarkable. After being assigned to a provincial post, I wrote a few good essays, relying on my reputation to build my qualifications. In between, I was demoted, and in Youzhou, I befriended some generals. It wasn’t until I was in my forties that I returned to the capital to serve as Minister of Rites.” Yu Qiushi walked slowly to the door with his hands behind his back, as if lost in some distant memory. Reaching this point, he looked back, “At that time, your father had already become Prime Minister.”

“What I said to Suiyun wasn’t entirely false. Because of my previous literary achievements, I entered the Zishan Hall to tutor the imperial princes. During the江南鹽案 (Jiangnan Salt Case), my eldest daughter was implicated and passed away at a young age. I was utterly despondent. One day, when the former Emperor came to Zishan Hall, I stopped him and submitted a memorial requesting to resign.”

Luo Wei’s eyes flickered.

She remembered this incident.

“It was that day, that very day!” Yu Qiushi suddenly raised his voice, his eyes gleaming with a radiant light. “I knelt before the former Emperor and said that I had lived a muddled life. Although I had high office and generous salary, I still felt my ambitions were unfulfilled; though my life was smooth, why did I feel wronged and stifled? Losing my daughter in middle age, the pain of a white-haired person sending off a black-haired one was truly unbearable. I might as well resign from office and, like the sages of old, retreat into the wilderness, perhaps to achieve a greater destiny. I spoke tearfully, and the result was...”

Luo Wei interjected softly, “The former Emperor recited your examination essay from that year, word for word, in front of you.”

Yu Qiushi nodded and smiled, “Does the Empress still remember? Did the former Emperor mention it?”

Luo Wei said, “The former Emperor often spoke of it.”

“Good, good,” Yu Qiushi repeated. “On that day, the former Emperor told me that when I took the imperial examination, I was too sharp and too prominent. If my official career had been smooth, I might have lost my way. So, over the years, he deliberately tempered me, making me cultivate myself in the Jiongtang and observe the lives of the common people during my provincial assignments. It was then that I suddenly realized why I held a minor position in the Ministry of Rites but could enter the Zishan Hall to tutor the imperial princes—for so many years, the former Emperor had always regarded me as a talent for a chief minister!”

“When he recounted everything, I felt utterly ashamed. In my youth, I clung to petty disputes and felt inferior due to my family background, living a mediocre and self-degrading life. That day, it was the former Emperor who held up the sun, moon, mountains, and rivers for me to behold, allowing me to gain a new perspective. This grace of recognition, I will never forget, and I am determined to repay the former Emperor and the world with my life!”

At this point, Luo Wei could barely suppress a cold laugh. Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears, and she only said bitterly, “So, this is how you repay the former Emperor’s grace of recognition?”

“I told you, you don’t understand what I seek!” Yu Qiushi turned around and roared, almost with a look of madness. “The former Emperor was benevolent, raising the crown prince and imperial princes like an elder raising young children. Crown Prince Ling was the legitimate eldest son of the Empress, a favored child of heaven, raised with countless doting. Father and son, ruler and subject, fraternal discord, the intrigues of the harem—he understood nothing! Your father and Fang Hezhi were also pedantic scholars, teaching him to be utterly pure, benevolent, and courteous. Is that good? Of course, it’s good! If it were during a prosperous era, if he had been born fifty years earlier, as a descendant of the sagacious Emperor Ming, born in the early years of the former Emperor’s reign, that would have been even better.”

Luo Wei abruptly stood up.

She finally understood what the other person meant.

And Yu Qiushi continued, “At that time, the Western Wilderness had just been pacified. The court had Su Chaoci and the three Zhangs in the Political Affairs Council. The military had General Zhuozhou and the two Lius, big and small, who pacified the west and south. The Great Yin court was filled with brilliant stars, a glorious and peaceful era! The nation had fought the Western Wilderness for so many years and needed a period of recuperation. It was a time when gentlemen were abundant, and free speech was the right path—if he had been born in that era, he would certainly have become a sagacious and enlightened ruler, earning the posthumous title of ‘Ren’ (Benevolent).”

“But Empress, that era is over.”

“It will never come again... The northern tribes are stirring, border trade has ceased, and talent in the court is dwindling. Even though the former Emperor tried his best to save it, he was still overwhelmed by border troubles. Crown Prince Ling and the former Emperor are too similar. Here—” Yu Qiushi slumped back into his seat, pointing to his heart, and smiled bitterly, “They are too soft-hearted.”

“When he led troops to pacify the rebellion in the south, the ‘Killing Ghosts’ cult was utterly evil, yet he only executed the leaders and enlightened the masses. This is why Yang Zhong, Zuo Chenjian, and Liu Fuliang had their identities in the Thorn Blossom case. Lu Heng was by his side for so many years; he might not have been completely ignorant of Lu Heng’s actions, but out of a sentiment that a ruler should not possess, he merely reprimanded him once. That’s why there was that knife on Tinghua Terrace, and also the current Emperor—”

Yu Qiushi looked up at Luo Wei and slowly said, “When the current Emperor first met you in Lanhuan Garden, was it truly an accident? If Crown Prince Ling wanted to care for him, why didn’t he first inquire why his birth mother was confined, what the eunuchs who served him all these years thought of him, or why the Fifth Prince and he argued in the Zishan Hall?”

Luo Wei felt her jaw trembling uncontrollably. She opened her mouth to say something but only felt a chill running down her spine, freezing her to the point where she couldn’t utter a single word.

Seeing her like this, Yu Qiushi was even more delighted. He stroked his beard and laughed heartily, bending over. “Empress, you say the Grand Tutor was the culprit in the Thorn Blossom case. This old subject doesn’t want to deny it, but since you said today you want to hear my teachings, then I will enlighten you. In this matter, every moment, every event, every person, every object was your own fault. To say it was an assassination is less accurate than to say it was a test from this old subject—if you can’t even handle such a thing, how can you be a qualified sword-wielding ruler for this vast empire?”