The stripping of the peerage of Jiang Yunyu, who belonged to the Crown Prince’s faction, caused a huge stir in the capital.
The situation was unclear, and rumors were rampant. In less than five days, the Crown Prince’s faction retaliated swiftly, impeaching officials who supported the Third Prince over and over again. Memorials were submitted one after another, and they successfully took down two of the Third Prince’s followers.
At this point, the final veil was torn from the struggle for the throne between the Crown Prince and the Third Prince. The capital was in a state of flux, and people were terrified.
As internal strife continued, external threats struck.
The Southern Barbarians and the Northern Xiongnu secretly colluded and attacked fiercely, capturing two border cities in less than half a month.
The military generals at court volunteered to go to the front lines to fight, but most were old generals from the previous dynasty and were willing but unable to do much. In the face of national crisis, Ji Jue risked his life to submit a memorial, pleading with the Emperor to allow the disgraced Jiang Yunyu to atone for his crimes by rendering meritorious service. He requested permission for Jiang Yunyu to head north in order to expel the barbarians and bring stability back to the border.
The Crown Prince’s faction all came to his aid.
On the third day after the memorial was submitted, the emperor approved it, allocating five thousand elite soldiers and naming Jiang Yunyu a fourth-rank cavalry official. He would set off soon.
Ji Zhen read the letter sent by his elder brother word for word, feeling as if a glimmer of hope had finally appeared.
It had been a full half month since the emperor’s eldest imperial grandson’s birthday banquet. During this time, Ji Zhen had heard many rumors in the capital that were unfavorable to the Crown Prince. He lost his appetite every day, fearing that his elder brother and father would be implicated as well. Fortunately, the Crown Prince successfully brought down the opposing officials, and now Jiang Yunyu had a chance to perform a meritorious service. His heart, which had been hanging in the balance, finally eased a little.
However, the battle in the north would be extremely dangerous, and since it was Jiang Yunyu’s first time going to war, Ji Zhen couldn’t help but worry.
In the letter, Ji Jue mentioned that Jiang Yunyu wanted to see Ji Zhen, and they had an appointment tonight at Fulu Lou.
Jiang Yunyu was scheduled to leave the day after tomorrow. Although Ji Zhen and he had been estranged for years, the friendship they had since childhood remained, so it was only reasonable to see him off.
Ji Zhen folded the letter and placed it on the table. After thinking for a moment, he called a servant and said, “I’m going out. There’s no need to prepare dinner. If Shen Yanqing returns and asks about me, just say…”
Would Shen Yanqing even care where he went?
After that night, Shen Yanqing had been sleeping in a separate room. In the past, Ji Zhen would have pestered him, but he was terrified.
He was afraid that Shen Yanqing would find him shameless and even more afraid that Shen Yanqing would be so disgusted that he would actually divorce him.
For the past few days, he had only dared to glance at Shen Yanqing from a distance. Even when fate allowed them to meet, he only had the courage to ask a handful of trivial questions. Even when Yi Zhi came to the Shen Mansion, he felt as sour as if he had drunk ten jars of old vinegar but didn’t utter a word.
Shen Yanqing seemed quite pleased with how “sensible and tactful” he was, but he showed no intention of returning to the master’s bedroom to sleep.
The servant was still waiting for Ji Zhen’s instructions. He pursed his lips and said, “Nevermind. He probably won’t come here anyway. You can go.”
Lately, out of concern for his father and elder brother, Ji Zhen’s temperament had grown less spirited than it once was. Now that he finally saw a glimmer of light, he regained a little bit of his smile. He asked Ji An to bring him a bowl of chilled sour plum juice from the small kitchen.
After drinking the sour plum juice, he took a nap for more than half an hour and then asked Ji An to prepare a carriage for his appointment.
At Youshi[mfn]5–7 p.m.[/mfn], as dusk approached, the sky blazed with crimson clouds, casting a golden radiance over the entire capital. Ji Zhen lifted the curtain and dismounted, seeing Chi Jin again.
This black horse would most likely go with Jiang Yunyu on his campaign and gallop across the battlefield.
While passersby dreaded Chi Jin, fearing they might be trampled to death beneath its hooves, Ji Zhen felt no such fear. He walked toward it slowly. Chi Jin snorted, letting out a low warning sound.
“You horse has a terrible memory,” Ji Zhen grumbled. “I even petted you before.”
Chi Jin fixed its round eyes on Ji Zhen, as though comprehending his words, and its breathing gradually eased.
“You remember me now?” Ji Zhen’s face lit up with a smile. He took a couple of quick steps forward, stroked Chi Jin’s large head, and praised it, “Good horse, good little horse, good Chi Jin…”
The warm air from Chi Jin’s nostrils brushed against Ji Zhen’s face. His smile faded a little, and he leaned his left cheek against Chi Jin, whispering, “You have to be careful in the north. You must learn to distinguish between ally and enemy. When you come back with your master, I’ll secretly feed you the freshest spring grass.”
He paid no mind to whether Chi Jin understood him and went on talking incessantly. Finally, he patted Chi Jin’s strong back and said goodbye, “I’m leaving.”
Ji Zhen hurried into Fulu Lou, and a servant led him to a private room.
He pushed the door open as he always did and called out, “Gege, I…”
His voice faltered, and the words stuck in his throat when he realized that only Jiang Yunyu was present in the room.
Outside the half-open window, clouds gathered like brocade. The setting sun poured into the clean and elegant room, covering Jiang Yunyu with a shimmering light, making him seem radiant.
He sat in the orange-red twilight. After only half a month, his handsome face no longer held the sharp, arrogant expression it once did. But when he faced Ji Zhen, it was as if he immediately put on his armor and helmet, hiding his despondency completely.
Ji Zhen stood outside the door, hesitating.
Jiang Yunyu raised an eyebrow and said, “What’s wrong? Are you afraid to come in?”
His tone was easy and unrestrained, as though they had gone back to the carefree days of their playful youth, with no trace of resentment between them at all.
Ji Zhen took a step forward. “Why would I be afraid?” He walked over to the empty table. “Why haven’t you ordered any food?”
Jiang Yunyu called a servant and casually ordered a few dishes: “Squirrel” mandarin fish, buddha jumps over the wall, rouge goose breast, crab roe puff pastry, gold and silver pigeon meat, sandalwood fan duck feet, and a portion of jujube paste and yam cake.
The dishes he ordered were all Ji Zhen’a favorites, which surprised him. “You…”
Jiang Yunyu raised an eyebrow and looked at him. Ji Zhen suddenly didn’t know what to say. Maybe it was just a coincidence.
The servant left after receiving the order, and Jiang Yunyu brought up a jar of apricot wine from the floor.
Ji Zhen saw the character for “Zhen” written neatly on the wine jar and remembered the origin of this wine.
When he was twelve years old, he visited the Jiang Mansion. It happened to be the time when they were opening the wine cellar, so they each chose a jar of wine to bury, planning to open them years later. While digging, Ji Zhen accidentally knocked over his own wine jar, spilling the fragrant wine all over the courtyard. He squatted under a tree, crying in frustration.
Jiang Yunyu nudged him with his foot. The boy who always used to tease him said with a hint of awkwardness, “It’s just a jar of wine. What’s there to cry about? You can have mine, so you won’t complain that I bullied you again.”
Ji Zhen’s tears turned into a smile. Afraid that Jiang Yunyu would go back on his word, he wrote his name on a piece of red paper and pasted it on the jar. “You promised it’s mine now. You can’t go back on your word.”
“This young marquis keeps his word.”
The tightly bound red cloth was removed, and the apricot wine that had been buried for a full eight years was opened. The private room was filled with its fragrant aroma.
The longer the wine was aged, the mellower it became, but time had passed so quickly, and the boys who had laughed and played together back then had grown further and further apart.
Thinking about how Jiang Yunyu would be leaving the capital he grew up in the day after tomorrow, Ji Zhen felt a pang of sadness. He stood up to pour the wine, and with a flourish, he raised the cup and downed it in one go. “This first cup is to thank you for the wine you gave me back then.”
He filled the porcelain cup again and drank it with his head held high. “This second cup is to wish you a safe journey.”
He took a breath, raised his hand a third time, and his voice rang out clearly, “This third cup is to wish the Cavalry Commander an early victory in subduing the frontier and a triumphant return to court.”
Jiang Yunyu’s phoenix-like eyes were lowered as he watched Ji Zhen silently.
With three cups of wine down, Ji Zhen’s cheeks were flushed. He steadied himself with both hands on the table, his tone sinking. “Jiang Yunyu, that day in the Southern Garden, you were simply audacious…”
Jiang Yunyu closed his eyes and drank from the jar, then slammed the empty jar down on the table with a clatter. “If it were you, what would you have done?”
“I don’t know,” Ji Zhen said, shaking his head in fear. “But I’m afraid of death.”
Jiang Yunyu stood up abruptly. “So you think I should have obeyed the imperial decree and married Princess Lingyue to save my life?”
Ji Zhen, whose eyes were slightly red from the wine, said, “Do you have to risk being beheaded for defying the decree? Lingyue is gentle and mild-mannered…”
Jiang Yunyu interrupted him sharply. “What do you know?”
“Yes, I don’t know,” Ji Zhen retorted loudly. “But I do know that the north is dangerous. The Xiongnu cavalry has thirty thousand men, yet His Highness only gave you five thousand elite soldiers. This journey is filled with innumerable hardships and perils, a matter of life and death…”
He felt a wave of sorrow. “Jiang Yunyu, what’s the difference between this and being sent to your death?”
He may not be well-read, but he wasn’t so foolish as to be completely ignorant.
Jiang Yunyu glared at him, then suddenly waved his hand and smashed the apricot wine jar. The jar shattered with a loud crash, and the wine it held spilled all over the floor, the strong fragrance filling the room and becoming pungent.
Startled by the sudden clamor, Ji Zhen stepped back, yet his clothes were still stained with wine.
“You think I had a choice? The Crown Prince and the Third Prince…” Jiang Yunyu paused, his eyes bloodshot. “Without my peerage, I’m no different from a commoner. This is my only chance to turn things around. Even if I die, I want to die on the vast desert battlefield, not waste away in this four-walled capital where I can only look up at a patch of sky. Ji Zhen, what do you know?”
Ji Zhen took two more steps back.
Jiang Yunyu jabbed a finger at the broken wine jar on the floor, gritting his teeth and enunciating each word clearly. “This jar of wine was meant for our wedding night, yet you were the one who ended our engagement first.”
He grabbed Ji Zhen’s shoulders. “If you hadn’t broken off the engagement, how could His Majesty have allowed the marriage to me, and how would I have ended up defying the decree and in this predicament?”
Ji Zhen’s eyes widened in shock.
Jiang Yunyu said with a cruel voice, “For the past three years, I’ve always wanted to ask you one thing, how am I inferior to Shen Yanqing, that you would disregard twenty years of friendship just to break off our engagement?”
Ji Zhen was terrified, as if he didn’t know Jiang Yunyu anymore. After a long pause, he said softly and blankly, “Neither of us wanted to be married. Wasn’t breaking off the engagement exactly what you wanted?”
Jiang Yunyu was stunned at first, then burst into frenzied laughter. “What a wonderful ‘exactly what I wanted’!”
He laughed until tears filled his eyes, then released Ji Zhen limply and stumbled backward, repeating, “Exactly what I wanted.”
Ji Zhen had never seen Jiang Yunyu so dejected. He stood frozen in place and called out, “Jiang Yunyu…”
Jiang Yunyu rubbed his forehead hard, muttering “enough” three times in a row. He then said, “Ji Zhen, whether I win or lose, I have no other choice. The Ji family…”
Before he could finish, the door to the private room was suddenly pushed open. Ji Jue stood at the doorway, his voice cutting through their quarrel, “Enough.”
—
“My Lord, the Old Madam would like to see you.”
As dusk fell, a maidservant greeted Shen Yanqing as soon as he entered the mansion.
He nodded slightly. “I’ll change my clothes and go see Mother.”
Yu He followed close behind while whispering, “The Old Madam has found out about you and the Young Madam sleeping in separate rooms.”
Shen Yanqing hummed in response.
Earlier today, his father had already asked him about it on the way to court. He hadn’t said anything else, only that Shen Yanqing hadn’t been as focused on his official duties as before and subtly hinted that a family could only be at peace if the couple was harmonious.
Shen Yanqing and Ji Zhen had been married for three years. In the beginning, his parents were indeed displeased with Ji Zhen because of the Ji family’s forced marriage, but as they were from a scholarly family, they had never truly mistreated their daughter-in-law. Lately, Ji Zhen had been well-behaved and dutiful, and Mother Shen no longer brought up the matter of taking a concubine. In a few more years, it might even be possible for them to let go of their past grievances.
He figured that his mother’s summons was most likely for the purpose of reconciliation.
Shen Yanqing walked leisurely into the main courtyard but didn’t see Ji Zhen peeking at him from the entrance of the main bedroom as he usually did.
He paused for a moment, then went into the east wing to change his clothes. When he went out to see his mother, Ji Zhen was still nowhere to be seen. He saw an attendant pass by and asked casually, “Where is the Young Madam?”
“Answer My Lord, the Young Madam went out and has not returned yet.”
“Did he say where he was going?”
“This servant does not know.”
Shen Yanqing frowned. He walked a few steps away, then turned back to the main bedroom.
The room was empty, and there was a letter that had been opened on the mahogany desk.
It was not a proper thing to secretly read someone else’s letter, but a husband and wife shared one heart, so there was nothing that couldn’t be seen.
Shen Yanqing stood silently for a moment, then finally opened the rice paper that Ji Zhen had not put away properly.
The author has something to say:
Lord Shen: Where did my wife go? Urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent!!!
