#98: Falling Sick from Wine in Spring (Part 9)

After Song Lan’s figure completely disappeared into the night mist on the river, Ye Tingyan lowered his bow as if his strength had left him.

He had been holding his breath for so long, and now that he was suddenly relaxed and had no intention of holding on, he slid down the side of the boat. Luo Wei sat down with him, leaning against the side lazily. She said, “I thought you were so confident. Why are you so weak now? Could it be that your decisive shot just now was an act for him?”

Ye Tingyan did not refute her. “I am ashamed.”

Luo Wei turned her head to look at him and said softly, “You haven’t changed over the years.”

Ye Tingyan didn’t understand what she meant for a moment. “Hmm?”

Luo Wei said distractedly, “Looking at you just now, I suddenly remembered the past. I remembered how in Xuzhou and Jingchu, you went into the camp alone and killed the Ghost Commander, and how you risked offending noble families and wealthy merchants to open the granaries and help the famine victims... When I looked at you then, I always felt that there was nothing in this world that could defeat you.”

Ye Tingyan smiled bitterly. “You think too highly of me.”

Luo Wei replied, “Yes, that’s why after the third year of Tianshou... I kept asking myself, why would such a person suddenly die? He hadn’t had time to fulfill the promises we had made, to establish an eternal legacy, and he didn’t even die on the battlefield or on the path of sacrificing himself for his ideals. Why would such a person die at the hands of a petty villain?”

Ye Tingyan saw that her eyes were already red. He couldn’t help but reach out and touch her cheek, saying gently, “But I didn’t die, did I?”

Luo Wei nodded heavily. “Later, I got to know you again and realized... you were just a mortal after all. You would get angry, you would be suspicious, you would be flustered and doubt yourself, and you would also be thrown into chaos. I only saw you as a hero fighting off enemies with your arrows. Now I realize that you can be afraid, too.”

Ye Tingyan asked, “Are you disappointed?”

Luo Wei hugged him and shook her head. “I’m very happy. You don’t have to... always be a hero.”

He knelt in front of her and hugged her tightly. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly saw a patch of blood on her skirt.

Whose blood was it?

Ye Tingyan suddenly recalled a sentence Chang Zhao had said earlier.

“Fortunately, I thought highly of you.”

At that time, his heart was burning with anxiety, and he had completely forgotten the key point. This planned retreat should have happened at the ferry. How could she have saved Su Shiyu with his arrangement and successfully made it to the outskirts of the capital?

If Song Lan had intercepted the boat at the ferry, the waterway from the ferry to the main river was narrow. If they had encountered an ambush, they would not have been able to get away so smoothly.

He understood that something was wrong with Luo Wei. Ever since she had spoken, a strange feeling had been lingering in his heart.

So that was it. This hug and these words were not her comforting him, but a plea for support.

Luo Wei held him tightly and said in a low, husky voice, “When he first came to the Su family, he was a man of few words. Even after he became a sensation in the imperial examination, he refused to take a prominent official position. That’s just the kind of person he was. He never wanted people to feel that he was doing them a favor. He would rather be misunderstood than say an extra word.”

“For all these years, how many people in the court and the public speculated that we were not on good terms? The first time I asked for his help, he should have refused me. I wouldn’t have blamed him. Even if Song Lan were suspicious, he wouldn’t have taken his life. He would have just protected himself, which is the smart choice.”

Ye Tingyan said, “But you were his family.”

“Yes, family,” Luo Wei said blankly. “That’s why he was determined to go to Chang Zhao, regardless of the consequences, to find a flaw in him for us. He was already... so close to succeeding. If Chang Zhao’s face hadn’t been disfigured before, the person who died today would have been him.”

Her voice suddenly tightened. “Do you know, the last thing he told me before he died...”

“That year at the spring hunt, after he had arranged everything, he couldn’t help but see Suiyun. He told me that the meeting was very brief. He just wanted to give her the sachet he hadn’t given her before. But by some misfortune, Yu Qiushi went to look for Suiyun at that time and found that she wasn’t in the painted hall. He then asked a guard and had her taken back in a simple carriage. As they were passing through the street, they happened to run into Afie.”

“Suiyun only figured this out after Afie’s fake death. Combined with the destruction of the entire Yu clan, she had long decided to die. When my brother was communicating with her under Chang Zhao’s nose, he had already guessed her intentions. From the very beginning, they never intended to get away unscathed. He didn’t fail to smell the poison in the wine on the execution ground, but he still drank it.”

Ye Tingyan pressed her into his embrace and felt his shoulder and neck become damp.

“He held on to his last breath just to tell me this.” Luo Wei sobbed in his arms. “He told me that they were sorry for me and for Afie, and that I shouldn’t feel guilty... If they could clear the court and see a day of peace again, they would be content, whether in heaven or on earth.”

They sat on the deck for a long time, until the moon rose to the center of the sky.

Luo Wei was a little tired from crying. She was half-asleep and half-awake in his arms. The two of them talked for a long time in the night wind.

Ye Tingyan told her about his travels. After he recovered from his injuries in Youzhou, he first went to Jiangnan. He cleaned up the officialdom there, then went further south. On the way, he had encountered flash floods and earthquakes. He had also seen a solar eclipse once...

He talked about how the people lived by the mercy of nature, praying for rain in the spring and snow in the winter. When there was a disaster or a drought, their lives were miserable, and they would even trade their children to survive. Yet, that area was remote, and corrupt officials ran rampant. Some people traveled thousands of miles to the capital to file a complaint, but they couldn’t even enter the city gate.

He visited noble families and feudal lords in various places, gave advice to officials on how to build dams, and led the people whose land had been seized to the capital to beat the drum and seek justice. He spent three years deeply involved in the land. Before he was about to return to the capital, he finally went back to Youzhou and visited Old General Yan. When Old General Yan found out he was not dead, he cried profusely and asked him why he hadn’t come to see him sooner.

At that time, he couldn’t answer that question. Suspicion and fear had always been the demons in his heart.

Luo Wei also seriously told him about the arrangements she had made over the years. She talked about how she had personally farmed with the people during the spring sacrifice, and how she had personally poured wine for the soldiers on the high platform when the Yan family was sent out of the capital. She had suppressed the open and secret struggles between Song Lan and Yu Qiushi... It seemed that she had read about the things he had experienced in the imperial edicts, and she had even personally written replies to some of them.

After talking about all this, they talked about their youth. Luo Wei remembered the first time she saw the three young masters of the Ye family bringing their father’s coffin to the capital. She didn’t have much of an impression of the third young master, but she remembered how Song Yaofeng had blushed and given the eldest young master—that young and valiant general—a rose.

Ye Tingyan remembered the night she and his parents had a banquet. Song Qi had stolen the crown from the Crown Prince’s investiture and was chased and beaten by Song Yaofeng. His eldest brother had sent a letter from the border to congratulate the Crown Prince on his investiture and had sent his favorite flower cakes from childhood along with the letter.

Growing old in spring is like being drunk on wine. Now, half of the old friends are scattered, and half have withered away.

Luo Wei saw that he was sad and looked up at the moon in the sky.

On many nights in the past, she had looked up at the moon and never thought that there would be a moment when they would share the same moon.

Under the same moon, Song Lan, holding the bloodstained sword, knelt dejectedly in the Qinfang Hall. He looked up at the statue of the deity that he had placed on the eaves of the hall.

The statue was majestic, looking down at him and the body of the eunuch at his feet with an expression that was neither pity nor mockery.

Empress Dowager Chenghui stood behind him. Seeing the eunuch who had served her for many years being killed, her face showed no emotion. She just recited a Buddhist prayer. At this moment, she no longer looked as insane as before. She even showed a strange smile. “Zilan, let me tell you another secret.”

Outside the gate of the Qinfang Hall was the deep night of the forbidden palace. Chang Zhao walked along the red walls and passed through the dark, silent path to leave the palace. After the Empress was confined, the palace guard followed the Emperor’s wishes and was no longer as strict as before. The palace gate was still wide open at this time. Because of the bloody lessons they had learned, the two Censorate offices no longer dared to say a word.

He lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked outside. The moonlight cast alternating shadows on his face. The attendant beside him leaned in and whispered, “Should we really call back the people sent to the south to chase them?”

Chang Zhao let out a cold laugh. “We can’t catch them even if we try. Just put on a show. It’s better to leave them there. The more exhausted he is because of this, the more foolish he becomes.”

The attendant hesitated for a moment and then said, “The person who borrowed the identity of the third young master and was able to conspire with the Empress, his former master must be...”

Chang Zhao was silent for a moment. “He’s dead. What trouble can they cause? Besides, how are they any different from Song Lan? These insincere members of the royal family are all the same in the end.”

The carriage passed a silent alley. In many of the houses deep in the alley, a lamp was still lit.

Xu Dan was sitting under the lamp, writing a long memorial with a troubled heart. As he was writing, he suddenly became agitated. He wrote down half a line of Qu Yuan’s “The whole world is muddy” with a trembling hand. Before he could finish, he felt that it was inappropriate and threw it into a corner.

In the corner, there were already more than ten of his memorials. Some had not been sent out, and some had been returned.

A woman’s voice suddenly rang in his ears, asking him clearly, “Minister Xu, where is your library of books?”

The window was not closed, so the voice drifted out of the window and away.

The voice traveled downstream all the way to Jinling.

Zhou Chuyin was lecturing Zhou Xuechu when he suddenly heard a voice full of excitement. “So that’s it!” He didn’t bother to put on his shoes and ran out of the inner room, which was filled with medical books. He shouted, “I know what poison she’s been poisoned with!”

Zhou Chuyin was stunned. Before he could say anything, he heard Zhou Xuechu shout in cooperation, “What poison?!”

Bo Sen Sen did not answer. He just said with a triumphant look, “‘A rare poison in the world,’ ‘a rare poison in the world.’ No wonder Song Lan is so confident... My master once told me that the poison ‘Shuailan’ was created by his senior brother. There were only three in the world. One was lost, one was hidden in the deep palace, and one was taken by Lingye...”

“So she’s also poisoned with ‘Shuailan’?”

“No, no...”

“Then why are you so happy?”

Bo Sen Sen said, “To cure her, you need blood mixed with ‘Shuailan’ as a medicinal guide.”

He ran back to the inner room excitedly, accidentally knocking over an old medical book. The cover of the old book was wrinkled, and a pair of slender hands picked it up.

The moon was still the same moon, but under the moon were the towering city walls of Youzhou.

Yan Lang was wiping his spear and glanced at the hands. “Your Highness has a lot of new calluses on your hands.”

Song Yaofeng lowered her head and examined them herself. “Yes. Practicing archery is so hard. My soldiers on the border work hard every day. It’s even more difficult for them.”

She stood up and walked toward the window, reminiscing as she walked. “When I was young, I saw another young general from Youzhou’s archery skills... When he first arrived in the capital, a group of noble youths were taunting him. He shot an arrow casually, and it pierced the iron target. I was so amazed that I pulled Luo Wei along with me to practice martial arts, but I didn’t stick with it. She, on the other hand, became very skilled.”

Yan Lang was listening with great interest when a young soldier came into the tent and cried, “Young Master, the general is not doing well today. He wants you to come and talk to him.”

Old General Yan had been sick for many days. The entire army was in a state of gloom, but fortunately, the news had not leaked out, and there was no movement in the northern border.

Yan Lang dropped the spear in his hand and ran to the main tent. Before he could enter, he heard a mournful cry from inside the tent. His legs went weak, and he knelt in front of the tent.

The moonlight was cold and desolate, shining on his iron armor that he had not yet taken off.

“Young Master, this is what the general left for you.”

Yan Lang looked up and took the heavy military seal and a worn brocade bag.

He heard light footsteps behind him. Song Yaofeng placed the black cloak on his back and knelt down silently to bow her head.

The black cloak fluttered in the wind of the border.

The wind was also strong on the river. When Qiu Xueyu came out with the same black cloak, Luo Wei’s eyes were blurred by the wind. She came to her senses when she was wrapped in the cloak.

She reached out and wiped away the tears on Ye Tingyan’s cheek, which might have been hers or his. She smiled and said, “Seeing Afie, I suddenly remembered another story from our youth.”

Many years ago, on the night of the seventeenth day of the eighth month, on East Mountain, Luo Wei and Song Yaofeng met Qiu Xueyu, who was galloping on a horse. They immediately became fast friends.

Although the Mid-Autumn Festival had passed, the moon was still round. On that day, Zhou Xuechu was in the capital and was brought along by Luo Wei to the banquet. Zhang Buyun from the Lingjin Academy also happened to come with her to take measurements for the Duchess of Yue.

After a few cups of wine, Luo Wei was in high spirits. She moved a small sandalwood table into the garden and said that she wanted to pray to the moon with them.

Song Yaofeng readily agreed. Zhang Buyun was shy but did not object. Although Qiu Xuechu and Zhou Xuechu were a little disdainful of this ritual, saying that the Mid-Autumn Festival had passed and praying to the moon was useless, they couldn’t resist everyone’s pleading.

The girls placed a few plates of pastries and snacks on the table, filled their wine cups, and knelt side by side under the moon.

Luo Wei lit some incense with a serious expression, cleared her throat, closed her eyes, and began to recite, “May the Moon Goddess protect us, so that we may quickly ascend to the palace of the moon and climb the laurel tree...”

Song Yaofeng asked in confusion, “Is something wrong? Isn’t that a wish for men?”

Qiu Xuechu retorted, “I think it’s very good. Women should also have such a wish.”

Luo Wei opened one eye. Just as she was about to speak, she saw the shadow of another girl behind a tree not far away. She quietly leaned in closer and realized it was Yu Suiyun.

Yu Qiushi was close with Xue Wenming, and he was at odds with Lu Hang, Qiu Fang, and Song Ling. So, Yu Suiyun saw them from a distance but didn’t dare to come forward.

But Luo Wei didn’t care about all that. She enthusiastically called out, “Sister Suiyun, since you’re here, it must be fate. Why don’t you pray to the moon with us?”

Before Yu Suiyun could react, she was pulled and dragged to their side. She was happy, knelt down properly, put her hands together, and prayed with them devoutly.

“May the Moon Goddess protect us, so that we may have the beauty of Chang’e, the roundness of the full moon, quickly ascend to the palace of the moon, and climb the laurel tree!”