In the twelfth year of Zhenyou, during the late spring in Jinling.
Xie Jing awoke from his afternoon nap and drew back the half-closed bed curtains. The room lay empty, so quiet it pressed on the senses; only a breeze drifting through the hall set the green gauze drapes beneath the lintel in motion, letting them brush softly against the brick walls and scatter a slow, emerald-hued shadow across the space.
Growing restless, he rose from the bed, slipped on his shoes, and wandered to the window. He leaned out and peered into the courtyard and saw only two young maidservants slumped on the “beauty rest” bench, dozing lightly as they worked on their needlework. He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand as he stepped out of the bedroom, moving along the covered corridor with a relaxed, unhurried stride.
Xie Jing moved with almost no sound, leaving the girls in their springtime nap completely undisturbed. The inner courtyard was perpetually quiet. Ever since the weather had warmed a few days ago, the study doors were seldom shut during the day; from his spot by the doorway, Xie Jing could see straight through to the daybed by the window in the inner chamber.
Lu Lingcong sat with one knee drawn up while his chin resting on his hand as he studied the chessboard before him. His face was expressionless, a rare display of calm and steady composure. Lu Shuqing slept beside him with his head resting on the cushion Xie Jing usually leaned against, his body wrapped in Lu Lingcong’s outer robe.
Xie Jing did not make a sound disturbing them. Just as he was about to turn away, he saw Lu Shuqing roll halfway over, open his bleary eyes, and sit up unsteadily to mumble something softly to his father. Xie Jing couldn’t hear the words, but he guessed Lu Shuqing was asking for tea, for Lu Lingcong immediately poured half a cup, blew on it, and held it to Lu Shuqing’s lips, letting him drink directly from his hand.
After drinking, Lu Shuqing went limp and tumbled back onto the pillow. Lu Lingcong did not immediately return his attention to the chess game; instead, he remained turned halfway, watching his young son’s sleeping face for a moment, then leaned down and kissed his forehead.
Xie Jing felt the warm sun on the back of his neck pressing against his skin until it was hot and slightly damp with sweat. Crossing the threshold, he casually lifted a silk fan from the curio shelf as he passed through the outer room. He walked to the side of the daybed with light footsteps and sat diagonally behind Lu Lingcong, perched on the very edge, intending to give him a fright.
Although Lu Lingcong didn’t turn around, he had long since noticed the movement. He suddenly grabbed Xie Jing’s wrist and pulled him forward, dragging Xie Jing halfway across his back until his face bumped right against the hard shoulder blade.
Hearing Lu Lingcong chuckle, Xie Jing rubbed the tip of his nose and looked up, giving him a stray slap on the back before leaning his face forward and tilting it a few inches to rest his chin on Lu Lingcong’s shoulder.
“Hey,” he nudged Lu Lingcong twice and fanned him. “Let’s discuss something.”
“Hmm?” Lu Lingcong sat up a bit straighter before freeing the hand that had been propping up his chin to gently stroke Xie Jing’s cheek.
Xie Jing said in a low voice, “News came this morning that a granduncle of the Xie family passed away last month. With that, no one from my grandfather’s generation is left in this world. The various branches are discussing how the ancestral home and estate should be divided. My branch moved to the capital long ago and hasn’t kept much in touch with the clansmen who stayed in the Chen Commandery, but we still can’t be absent for something like this. My father and elder brother are tied up with official business, so the family’s idea is for a ‘man of leisure’ like me to make the trip back.”
“That journey will take at least a month,” Lu Lingcong gestured toward Lu Shuqing with his chin. “I’m afraid he can’t be away from you for that long.”
“That’s exactly the point. Rather than me taking him alone, why don’t we all go back together? You can see where I lived and studied in my youth.”
Lu Lingcong let out a sharp “hiss,” turned around, and draped an arm over Xie Jing’s shoulder in a familiar embrace. “Why do I hear someone’s mental abacus clicking? Are you truly intent on showing me your childhood study, or are you planning a scenic tour and looking for someone to foot the bill? Eh, Young Master Xie?”
With his true intentions laid bare, Xie Jing let out a soft laugh and pressed against the other party’s chest. “Just tell me whether you going to pay or not?”
Lu Lingcong tilted Xie Jing’s face toward him. “I’ll pay, but on one condition.”
Xie Jing leaned his ear in, but halfway through Lu Lingcong’s whisper, he slapped his thigh. “In broad daylight! Have you got no shame?”
Lu Lingcong raised his eyebrows. “You don’t agree? Then I won’t pay. You two can go back by yourselves.”
Xie Jing spat back, “Taking advantage of a person’s crisis! You’re simply relying on—”
Lu Lingcong looked down at him, his gaze steady. “Relying on what?”
“Relying on the fact that I can’t bear to leave you all alone in the Prince’s Mansion!”
What made Xie Jing feel bashful wasn’t the fact that he was blushing, but that Lu Lingcong had noticed it. He broke away from Lu Lingcong’s embrace, turned his back, and gently patted Lu Shuqing. “Qing’er, wake up now.”
Actually, Lu Shuqing had already been somewhat awake when he drank the water earlier, but he always dawdled a while when waking from his morning or afternoon naps. Hearing his mother call him, he opened one eye as if in trance.
Xie Jing rubbed his soft little belly a few times. “Get up and wipe your face. Didn’t we agree to make inkpad paste together this afternoon?”
Only then did Lu Shuqing remember this important business before solemnly repeating, “Make inkpad!” He then slowly put on his shoes and socks before heading off to his own room to wash his face and clear his head.
Xie Jing went to the outer room to gather the dried pomegranate petals before calling out to Lu Lingcong, “Clear the table. Your son is clumsy when he does this kind of work; be careful he doesn’t scuff that huanghuali chessboard of yours.”
Lu Lingcong gave a word of agreement and cleared the desk. As he passed Xie Jing while leaving the study, he gave his lower back a playful, mischievous pat. Met with Xie Jing’s glare, he straightened his expression and said seriously, “Remember we have to go to the palace for dinner tonight. I’ll find an opportunity to mention the trip to Emperor Father then.”
Collecting fallen blossoms in spring to make his own inkpad was a habit Xie Jing had kept since his youth, brought into Prince Zhao’s Mansion along with various other scholarly refinements. When Lu Shuqing had seen him along the path in front of the mansion gates gathering fiery red pomegranate flowers that day, he had volunteered to use the hem of his robe as a sack, scurrying behind Xie Jing to catch the petals for him. Afterward, he had insisted again and again on reaching an agreement to be summoned when it was time to make the paste.
When Lu Shuqing returned, he was carrying a tiny mortar, one that Xie Jing had specially had the mansion’s craftsmen make to suit the boy’s strength. Using both hands and feet, he clambered onto the daybed. “Ready!”
Xie Jing frowned at his water-slicked cheeks, drew him close, and roughly wiped him with his sleeves. “Your face is soaked; be careful, or it’ll get messy in no time.”
Making an inkpad is a long, painstaking “leisure task” that demands both time and patience; it’s no simpler than brewing plum blossom snow wine. Traditional methods typically use cinnabar for color, but Xie Jing found its red too dense and heavy, so he substituted it with the brighter hue of pomegranate blossoms. The petals were first washed with shaojiu and dried, then ground into a fine powder. Castor oil, white kaolin clay, moxa fibers, and borneol were added to the mortar, and the mixture was pounded into a paste. It was then placed in a wide-mouthed celadon jar, covered with glass, and left to bask in the sun for a full seven days. With occasionally stirring using a bamboo stick, the rich, gorgeous color would finally emerge after three months.
Xie Jing had originally intended to just follow Lu Shuqing’s whims and let him play around, but seeing him so earnestly poking away with the pestle, he couldn’t help but say teasingly, “Qing’er, do you know what you look like?”
Lu Shuqing tilted his head to look up at him, and Xie Jing gently tapped the boy’s nose with his pinky. “Just like the rabbit pounding medicine in the Moon Palace.”
“Then Mother is Chang’e flying to the moon.”
“But Chang’e longed for home every night in the Moon Palace, cold and lonely all alone. If I were that far from home, what would you do?”
Lu Shuqing remained focused on “pounding medicine.” “Aren’t the Jade Rabbit and Chang’e always together?”
“But the Jade Rabbit isn’t Chang’e’s child.”
“Then I’d better ask Hou Yi to shoot the moon down too,” Lu Shuqing said with great gravity. “I think the silver bow in Father’s study is very good; we can lend it to him.”
Ever since he had snatched one of the emperor’s personal seals during his first birthday “one-year-old catch” ceremony, Lu Shuqing had become a regular visitor at Shenlong Hall. Putting aside the empty title of “auspicious,” the emperor’s favor toward him was obvious to everyone in the palace. He would have Lu Lingcong and Xie Jing bring the boy to the palace two or three times a month to dine with him.
Lu Lingzhen had just turned fourteen and was beginning to carry herself with the grace of a young lady. Coming back from the drill grounds outside the palace, she wore a freshly tailored riding habit and a whip-style hat typical of Hu women before bursting into Shenlong Hall with bold recklessness. The emperor merely frowned upon seeing her, and the empress chided her for looking “neither proper nor fitting a category,” but she simply stuck out her tongue, unbothered.
While the emperor was still reclined in his seat teasing Lu Shuqing after the meal, Lu Lingcong briefly explained the plan to leave the capital for the Chen Commandery. He added, “Qing’er cannot be apart from Zhiwu. If he stayed in the palace, Erchen feared he would disturb Emperor Father, and Erchen would not feel at ease letting the mother and son travel the road alone.”
The emperor remained silent. Xie Jing’s heart hammered slightly; the emperor might not be willing to let Lu Lingcong leave the capital for so long, or he might suddenly propose having Lu Shuqing sent into the palace instead.
However, the empress suddenly spoke up, “Zifeng has been working with the Ministry of Works lately and just returned from the riverworks at Jingkou at the start of the month. By all rights, he should take a breath and rest for a while.”
Lu Lingcong and Xie Jing exchanged a look. Over the past few years, the emperor had occasionally given Lu Lingcong some responsibilities, but they were all relatively minor chores. Furthermore, he was rotated through the Six Ministries so that he never stayed with one department for too long. The empress had always been wary, but since Lu Lingcong was indeed well-behaved and lacked any dazzling “political achievements,” she had not said much.
This time, supervising the construction of the canal embankments at Jingkou could barely be considered a major task. Lu Lingcong had completed it without earning either praise or blame, so the empress couldn’t contain herself and wanted to keep him away from the emperor’s presence for these past few months.
The emperor pondered for a long while before saying slowly, “In that case, take good care of Qing’er along the way, and return to the capital no later than the Mid-Autumn Festival.”
Lu Lingcong hurriedly gave his assent. The empress rose from her seat to follow the dmperor to the side hall to attend to him, leaving only the younger generation in the main hall. Lu Lingzhen immediately sat up with renewed energy and began cracking open nuts to eat.
As soon as Lu Shuqing clambered down from the rmperor’s lap, Lu Lingzhang picked him up, holding him a bit stiffly. He carefully tried to feed the boy some eight-treasure milk curd, only remembering to glance at Xie Jing and ask once the spoon was at the child’s lips, “Can Qing’er have sweets…?”
Xie Jing reached out with his chopsticks to pick the pit from a honeyed date and said, “Let him eat just a few bites.”
Lu Lingcong leaned slightly against Xie Jing and whispered into his ear, “Emperor Father was probably reminded by Empress Mother and also feels he’s used me a bit too much over the past year or two. Wary of a change in the court’s mood, he agreed so readily.”
Xie Jing reached out and plucked a bunch of cherries before placing one in Lu Lingcong’s mouth and taking one for himself as well. “In any case, as long as we can go.”
Lu Lingzhang looked up and asked timidly, “Imperial Brother, how do you plan to make the journey back?”
Lu Lingcong thought for a moment. “We will likely take the water route to Xuzhou first, then switch to carriages and horses on the official highway toward Kaifeng.”
Lu Lingzhang sighed softly with envy. “I’ve never even been on a boat before.”
Xie Jing cautioned him, “Since Your Highness the Second Prince is going to the Imperial Academy to study these days, the old masters there will inevitably be rather rigid in their ways. Be sure not to clash with them, lest you make Her Highness the Empress angry again.”
“All right, enough of that,” Lu Lingcong said before standing and stretching lazily. He hoisted Lu Shuqing up with one arm to cradle him against his side. “Lingzhang wouldn’t dare contradict a teacher anyway, he’s not our Eldest Princess.”
Hearing this, Lu Lingzhen picked up a fruit peel from the table and pelted him with it before chasing him out of the hall. “Remember to bring Yi Yun to the palace for me before you leave!”
Since their goal was simply to enjoy the spring scenery along the way, they brought no maidservants or attendants. Traveling light, they hired a medium-sized passenger boat at Xuanhua Ferry. The boatman was a man from the Wu region, specifically Changzhou County; his Mandarin was none too fluent, so Lu Lingcong had to be the one to negotiate with him.
Xie Jing sat sideways at the stern, letting Lu Shuqing stand on his knees to get a fresh look at the various people coming and going at the ferry crossing. There were merchant boats selling fruits and vegetables, music boats with performers singing and playing instruments, and even a boat with a large, bright green parrot tied in front of its canopy. Upon seeing it, Lu Shuqing cried out excitedly, “Lu Ai!”
Perhaps it was because their names shared a hidden harmony, or perhaps because they had grown up together day and night; in any case, Lu Ai was infinitely patient with Lu Shuqing. Ever since the boy got his own bedroom, the parrot would quietly keep watch by his pillow every night. At first, Lu Lingcong had been afraid his son might accidentally smother the “Side Consort” in his sleep and wanted to stay with them for a few nights. He soon realized the two of them were the best of friends and there was no room for him to interfere, so he had no choice but to retreat to his room, not without a touch of gloom; to find his rightful Princess Consort instead.
Xie Jing listened intently for a moment and said with a touch of regret, “It knows far more words than Lu Ai does.”
Someone tapped his shoulder. Xie Jing looked back to see Lu Lingcong approaching with the boatman. The boatman looked at Lu Shuqing and asked, “Your younger brother?”
Xie Jing could still understand a few short phrases; he cut in before Lu Lingcong could speak. “We are both his younger brothers.” He then pressed Lu Shuqing’s small face tightly against his own and asked with a smile, “Do we look alike?”
The boatman squinted, pointing at Xie Jing and Lu Shuqing. “You two look alike.” Then he pointed at Xie Jing and Lu Lingcong. “You two do not.”
Though the pier was noisy with the clamor of people, everything fell silent the moment they set off. Only the sound of the river wind and the surging Huai River remained, sending the small boat briskly away from the shore. Xie Jing watched as Jinling gradually shrank in his vision and let out a long, silent sigh of relief. He had thought he might never have another chance to leave the capital in this lifetime. Although life within Prince Zhao’s Mansion was comfortable and easy, within those four walls of the city, he ultimately had no way to completely sever ties with the Imperial family.
Lu Shuqing was an exceptionally easy travel companion. He wasn’t picky about food or clothes; as long as he was with his parents, he was perfectly content. Because he was so small, Xie Jing had no trouble carrying him, and the boy also seldom cried when tired, he would simply tilt his head and doze off wherever he was.
Lu Lingcong bent down to enter the cabin, bringing with him a faint, savory scent. Xie Jing’s nostrils flared slightly as he turned to see a lotus leaf wrap in Lu Lingcong’s hand; inside was sticky glutinous rice enveloping egg yolk and duck meat that was still steaming hot.
“When did you buy this?” Xie Jing asked in pleasant surprise. He had noticed a merchant boat selling them earlier and had half a mind to try one but refrained, worried that Lu Shuqing’s delicate stomach might not take kindly to something unhygienic.
There were bowls and chopsticks from the boatman on the table. Lu Lingcong fed a small bite of glutinous rice to Lu Shuqing and went to hand the lotus leaf to Xie Jing, but the latter frowned and shook his head. “I won’t touch it, it’s awfully sticky. You eat first, then push the rest into the bowl for me.”
Lu Lingcong took a taste. “The duck smells a bit gamey; it certainly doesn’t match the palace kitchens, and it wasn’t cheap either.”
“You ought to be more easily pleased. In a few days, when we return to Chenliu and find only plain tea and simple food at my home, I don’t know how we’ll manage to entertain Your Highness properly.”
“I don’t care about that,” Lu Lingcong said, tucking a lock of Xie Jing’s wind-mussed hair behind his ear. “I had originally intended to go out and show the world that I’d married a beautiful wife. Unfortunately, someone insisted on being my ‘younger brother,’ so we’ll have to settle things properly between brothers; I’ll be taking back every last piece of gold and silver from you.”
Xie Jing looked at him warily. “How are you going to reclaim them?”
Lu Lingcong shrugged. “I already laid out my condition.”
Xie Jing gave him a pinch and said softly, “How ambitious of you! But let’s clear the unpleasantness first: my old bed from my youth is both worn and small. If—don’t you dare blame me.”
