WK Chapter 52

Sword-Holding Marquis’s Mansion.

 

After welcoming Xu Jin, General Zhao withdrew the lined-up imperial guards and returned to the palace with Head Eunuch Yu to report.

 

Xu Jin rode to the front of the marquis’s mansion.

 

The main gate was tightly closed. The stone lions in front appeared smooth and clean on the surface, but there was dust in the small details. No one was around, creating an atmosphere of silence.

 

Xu Jin dismounted and walked to the main gate. His hand was raised but hadn’t yet knocked when the door suddenly opened.

 

Old Madam Hou stood properly behind the door, her eyes full of bloodshot, her temples much whiter than when the couple had last met.

 

The two looked at each other for a moment, and Xu Jin’s lips trembled slightly.

 

“Come in.”

 

Old Madam Hou only said this one sentence, leading Xu Jin all the way inside, past the main hall, to the innermost small room.

 

The place where a Buddhist shrine should have been was covered by a curtain, behind which was a small tablet. Old Madam Hou lifted the curtain, revealing the tablet with two vertical lines of characters:

 

The spirit tablet of beloved daughter Xu Yueqing, erected by mother Wu Siwan.

 

Xu Jin held his breath, his mountain-like robust body hunching for the first time. He silently moved to the front of the spirit tablet and took it into his arms.

 

Gradually, his whole body began to tremble.

 

Old Madam Hou said: “Yueqing was a consort, she cannot enter the ancestral tomb… I couldn’t snatch her from the palace, so I set up a tablet here myself. I thought, she always preferred home.”

 

Xu Jin, holding the tablet, slowly crouched down and sat askew on the prayer mat.

 

It had been over two years since receiving the news of his daughter’s death, and this was the first time seeing it again.

 

Time had not settled the pain, but rather fermented the hatred. Xu Jin’s temples were mottled, his face covered in tears.

 

“I’ll kill them!! I’ll kill them all! The Zhang family, I won’t spare a single person!!” Xu Jin’s eyes were bloodshot, “Zhang Fanming, I won’t just kill his son, I’ll kill his entire family! I’ll make him taste the pain of losing his loved ones!”

 

He didn’t believe in that damned prophecy. The Zhang family, and the unseen hands manipulating in the dark, all had his daughter’s blood on them.

 

He had smiled as he killed Zhang Shiming at the city gate.

 

Who knew the hatred in his heart at that time was like a wild beast breaking out of its cage. How could one Zhang Shiming be enough!

 

Old Madam Hou turned her head away, took a deep breath, raised her hand to wipe away the tears on her face, and exhaled tremblingly.

 

She crouched down and said.

 

“I’ve seen our little grandson.”

 

Xu Jin raised his head.

 

Old Madam Hou raised her hand, gesturing a height, “About this tall, looks very much like Yueqing when she was little. This time you’ve come to the capital, whatever you’re planning to do, you should see him first.”

 

“This child lived in Ju’an Hall for over two years, thin, small, and sickly. When Yueqing was pregnant, she sent us a message. She loved this child, just as we loved her.”

 

She held Xu Jin’s hand.

 

“See him, then make your decision.”

 

Old Madam Hou told him many things about the capital. Some she had already mentioned in her messages, but she repeated them anyway. She didn’t try to pull Xu Jin out of his grief; she couldn’t do it herself, how could she force the old man to do it?

 

Xu Jin listened, but his back remained hunched throughout.

 

In the end, Old Madam Hou had nothing more to say, all choked with sobs.

 

Xu Jin held the tablet, weeping uncontrollably.

 

“My daughter… come back, father will take you back to the northern frontier… to ride the most valiant war horse again…”

 

–

 

Astrology Bureau.

 

Zhang Chansi was grading the calculation problems Qu Dubian had submitted.

 

Still a perfect score, noteworthy, with rapid progress. Occasional detail errors, but after guidance, they were never repeated. The Seventh Prince’s talent in calculations was simply the best she had ever seen.

 

Outside, a bureau official hurriedly came in and reported: “Deputy Head, the Head has sent a message to the palace. He wants to report that the Sword-Holding Marquis killed someone at the capital’s city gate.”

 

Zhang Chansi paused.

 

“Who did he kill?”

 

“The Head said the Sword-Holding Marquis killed his son, but when the Sword-Holding Marquis killed him, he said it was a northern frontier assassin.”

 

“He was beaten and his brain doesn’t work well,” Zhang Chansi put down her brush.

 

Bureau official: “Deputy Head, do you want to go see?”

 

The Zhang family was also Zhang Chansi’s clan. Zhang Fanming was her uncle by blood. In a large clan, one thing affects everything; this relationship couldn’t be escaped.

 

Zhang Chansi: “Where is this?”

 

Bureau official: “The imperial palace, of course.”

 

“That’s right,” Zhang Chansi said calmly, “If every official in the palace who suffered injustice could directly enter the palace to find His Majesty, there would be no need for Da Zhou’s laws.”

 

Soon after.

 

A decree of rebuke reached Zhang Fanming.

 

Head Eunuch Yu: “His Majesty’s verbal order: If you have a grievance, there are the Court of Judicial Review, the Ministry of Justice, and the Capital Prefecture to investigate. Similarly, if the Sword-Holding Marquis has done wrong, there are censors to impeach him. Without evidence, you bypassed the proper channels to directly seek an audience, disrespecting procedures. Considering your unhealed injuries, go back home by yourself.”

 

Zhang Fanming said with grief and indignation: “That was my child! The corpse is gone, how can there be evidence? If you need identification, Head Eunuch Yu and General Zhao were both present. Didn’t you recognize him? Don’t you know whether he was a northern frontier assassin or if he had martial arts skills?”

 

Head Eunuch Yu looked troubled: “This servant has always been in the palace, how would I know what northern frontier assassins look like? Official Zhang, please don’t put this old servant in a difficult position. This old servant is just delivering a message.”

 

Just then, crackling explosion sounds came from various parts of the palace.

 

Head Eunuch Yu exclaimed: “That’s the firecrackers after cleaning Fengxian Hall. This old servant must hurry back. His Majesty has been tired all day and needs to rest well.”

 

With that, he turned and went back in with his people.

 

The palace gates closed heavily.

 

Zhang Fanming was still lying on a bamboo bed designed for carrying him, crying out miserably towards the palace gates: “Your Majesty!!!”

 

But he no longer held power in the Astrology Bureau. In this imperial city, with no corpse and no concrete evidence, which government office would dare to trouble the Sword-Holding Marquis at this critical time?

 

On the other side of the wall.

 

Head Eunuch Yu looked up at the sky.

 

He flicked his whisk and said with a smile: “Today is a good day. You all aren’t smiling nicely enough. Look at me, be more festive!”

 

“I always tell you to eat more, eat more. During the New Year, your faces should be a bit plumper. The nobles will be happier to see that, right? Some of you are as thin as bamboo poles. When you smile at the nobles, people might think you’re beggars.”

 

“Smile, smile, ah~ that’s right!”

 

Bundles of bamboo were cut down and placed on fire basins. The bamboo made popping sounds when heated, and the clear, bitter bamboo fragrance spread to every corner of the palace.

 

Everyone here must be smiling. All grief would be left outside the palace walls.

 

–

 

Zichen Palace.

 

After finishing the cleaning at Fengxian Hall, Consort Xuan didn’t return to Shunning Palace but followed the emperor to Zichen Palace.

 

“At tomorrow night’s New Year’s banquet for all officials, will Xiao Qi attend with me or with Your Majesty?”

 

Emperor Chongzhao was also thinking about this.

 

“I have a question. I always thought Xiao Qi was one-sidedly attached to you, and you didn’t want to raise him. Why did you suddenly decide to raise him?”

 

“Who would refuse such a child?” Consort Xuan said. “Your Majesty has raised him for so long, you should understand.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao: “Xiao Qi is indeed… hard to describe, quite different from the other princes. He’s not easy to raise, sometimes very stubborn. If he makes you angry, hit him lightly.”

 

“?” Consort Xuan was puzzled, “Why would Your Majesty think I would hit a child? In all these years, except for killing pests when farming, I’ve never raised my hand.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao was silent for a moment, then tried hard to express tenderness: “Well, let’s consider it compensation for the child we lost back then…”

 

Consort Xuan interrupted with a smile: “Your Majesty, back then, you and I were originally just friends. Entering the royal family was by the previous emperor’s decree, an unavoidable arrangement. Even if there were some feelings later, they disappeared with the child’s departure. We both know each other’s temperament, no need to put on an act.”

 

“If not for Xiao Qi’s matter, Your Majesty and I might never speak again in this life. Your Majesty feels awkward, and so do I. It would be better to interact as we did before I entered the palace.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao covered up with a couple of coughs.

 

“That’s a bit too direct.”

 

Consort Xuan took a sip of tea. It was cold. After so many years, he still had this bad habit. The red date milk tea that Xiao Qi sent tasted better.

 

“I’m not his birth mother, so there will always be a difference. Xiao Qi depends on Your Majesty. You and I can have a cooperative relationship, working together to raise this child well.”

 

With these words, Emperor Chongzhao’s thought of finding a mother consort for Qu Dubian and then passing on the burden instantly vanished.

 

He sighed: “Xiao Qi indeed can’t be without me. Let’s do it this way.”

 

“Raising a prince requires registration with the imperial clan. It will have to wait until after the New Year. It’s not proper for him to attend the banquet with you. Let him follow me for now.”

 

Consort Xuan: “That’s fine.”

 

While they were discussing the child’s issues in Zichen Palace, in the West Warm Chamber on the other side.

 

Qu Dubian was counting the ostrich feathers he had picked up.

 

Not many, but ostrich feathers are good material for making clothes, even more expensive than down jackets in later times, with almost no static electricity. In his previous life, one of his dance costumes was made of ostrich feathers.

 

“One, two…”

 

Da Hei sniffed around, and Qu Dubian gently pushed its head away, “Da Hei, don’t mess around.”

 

The thickest and warmest clothes in Da Zhou now were cotton clothes. He really wanted to introduce down jackets, but the premise for down jackets to benefit the common people was that industrial technology could already support large-scale processing of duck down, goose down, and other materials. Otherwise, it would still be something only the nobility could enjoy.

 

Moreover, he had heard Tutor Fang mention during lectures that common people had long used bird and beast feathers as padding for clothes, called feather garments or beast garments, used for warmth. But the smell was hard to accept, so they weren’t very popular.

 

He was just a child now. Knowing too much would make him seem like a monster.

 

Counting ostrich feathers was just because the feathers were beautiful, and he wanted to make a shuttlecock. He had a good appetite and ate well, which had led to Sister Zhiyi eating a bit more recently too.

 

Noble Lady Guo was worried that her daughter might get indigestion, but she didn’t want her to eat too many hawthorns, as eating too many would harm the stomach.

 

He wanted to make a shuttlecock for Sister to exercise more, and they could play together.

 

It would definitely be the most beautiful feather shuttlecock in the back palace!

 

He was quite serious when doing things. Only when it got dark and it was time for dinner did he realize he was supposed to go to Shunning Palace for a meal, but Emperor Chongzhao didn’t tell him to go.

 

Tomorrow night would be the New Year’s banquet. Consort Xuan was attending for the first time in several years, and she had some things to busy herself with, so it wasn’t convenient to bring a child.

 

After dinner, Qu Dubian continued to fiddle with his half-finished shuttlecock on the bed.

 

Emperor Chongzhao took out a few round, cute gold ingots and placed them in front of him.

 

Qu Dubian: “?”

 

Emperor Chongzhao snorted: “Take them to spend, reward whoever you want, but don’t damage my bed posts anymore!”

 

“Father Emperor, you’re so generous,” Qu Dubian praised while putting away the gold ingots, hiding them all in his little socks, which made Emperor Chongzhao’s face twist, “I’m giving them to you, and no one will steal them. What’s wrong with keeping them out in the open?”

 

Qu Dubian didn’t say anything, slowly moving to the position of the bed post, and chuckled.

 

“But this seems to be more valuable.”

 

Emperor Chongzhao: “…”

 

---

 

(advanced chapters available on kofi)