Elio’s Notes: This chapter title takes the first half of the same couplet from Li Yu’s Yu Meiren that supplied Chapter 15’s title: “The carved railings and jade steps should still remain; only the rosy face has changed.” Here, with Jinling’s palace lying in ruins, the image of enduring architecture becomes bitterly inverted.
At the camp outside Jinling, Zhao Guangyi was not seriously injured. The sudden fire had merely filled his lungs with smoke.
Zhao Kuangyin remained outside the tent. Hearing no sound from within, he assumed Guangyi had fallen asleep. His thoughts churned without end. Standing there and gazing toward the horizon, he waited until full daylight.
Zhao Guangyi had been conscious the entire time. He knew when Big Brother arrived. The guards outside had been startled and were about to announce him, but the summons was abruptly suppressed.
Yet Zhao Guangyi did not want to get up and go outside either. If he did not come out, Zhao Kuangyin did not go in. The stalemate dragged on until, in the end, they both seemed to sigh. “Why has Imperial Brother come in person but refuses to enter?” Zhao Guangyi sat up and was the first to speak.
Zhao Kuangyin abruptly came back to himself and entered the tent to see him. Guangyi’s expression was cold and hard, his hair already grown long. “As long as you are all right. This was Big Brother’s fault.”
Zhao Guangyi suddenly found it almost funny. “Imperial Brother has said the same thing again and again. Yet Guangyi failed to complete Imperial Brother’s command. I did not have anyone bring Li Yu out, and dozens of men were even burned to death inside the temple. That is a grave offense. Guangyi accepts punishment.” With that, he rose cleanly and knelt before Zhao Kuangyin.
When Zhao Kuangyin first sent men to infiltrate Guangliang Temple, his order had indeed been to bring Li Yu out at all costs once the palace fell. Zhao Guangyi, however, had devoted himself to plotting how to take advantage of the palace chaos and kill that deathly pale figure outright.
Damn Piaopeng. Zhao Guangyi had raged for a long time, yet he knew that if Zhao Kuangyin had not shown a moment of mercy and released Nüying’s party, he would never have ended up like this, trapped inside the hall by fire and nearly losing his life.
How could I let you see that man again? He should have gone to the other shore long ago with his Empress Zhaohui. You should never see him again through all your lives to come!
The instant Zhao Guangyi knelt, he almost roared aloud, but forcibly suppressed it, his hands clenched so tightly they nearly trembled. He hated this feeling of being powerless to reverse anything. In every matter, he hated the feeling of simply being unable to do what he intended.
It had begun when he watched the flood sweep everyone away before his eyes, and continued until he watched that child die.
He only wanted everything he intended to accomplish to be accomplished. He did not even know why that man absolutely had to die. It was simply because by hurting him, Zhao Guangyi could watch this so-called supreme true Son of Heaven collapse.
Zhao Guangyi simply could not hold on to certain things, so he desperately wanted to destroy everyone else’s hopes.
Your Big Brother is no different. He forgot you.
Back then he abandoned you amid the chaos of war. Now he left you inside the fires of Jiangnan.
You were never the one he wanted to save.
“Guangyi… get up.” Zhao Kuangyin was clearly moved. In the end, his voice softened. “Get up.”
Zhao Guangyi lowered his head coldly and shook it after a long while.
“This was Big Brother’s fault. Get up first.” Zhao Kuangyin’s tone wavered with irritation. “I finally saw you come safely out of the imperial palace. Why are you doing this now? Without you, Jiangnan would never have fallen so smoothly. Why would Big Brother punish you?”
Zhao Guangyi stared at the bracelet on his wrist for a long time without moving. After an extended stalemate, he finally stood. “Ever since the day Guangyi met Big Brother again, Big Brother has always said the same thing.”
Zhao Kuangyin looked at him for equally long. “If Big Brother had not lost you back then, would things between us be less difficult today?”
His younger brother’s hair lay in uneven lengths, all of it concealed beneath his armor. “There is no use saying such things today. Guangyi too… is no longer that ignorant child from back then.” Zhao Guangyi’s heart had already gone cold. He heard Big Brother sigh deeply. Just as Zhao Kuangyin was about to speak again, Cao Bin came to report from outside the tent. “All survivors inside the palace have been brought out. The Ruler has returned to the imperial palace and has ordered the gentlemen of the entire clan to wait before the palace.”
“Dismissed.”
Zhao Kuangyin showed no relief whatsoever at the news. If Li Yu had issued such an order, he was plainly preparing to surrender. Sitting on the couch, Zhao Guangyi watched him pace back and forth. His Majesty was actually hesitating. “Big Brother has achieved the objective of this campaign.” He deliberately gave every word weight, his tone utterly serious.
Zhao Kuangyin stopped abruptly. “Yes. I have done everything an Emperor of Song ought to do… and for all of it… someone like him… actually said the word surrender to me.” Weariness appeared between his sword-like brows. Zhao Guangyi could not bear seeing him this way. “Someone like him? What kind of person is he? Can Big Brother explain to Guangyi what makes the Ruler of Jiangnan so different? Guangyi has never seen Big Brother hesitate or worry over any other subordinate state. Only Jiangnan.”
A cold authority rose beneath Zhao Kuangyin’s sword-like brows, and Zhao Guangyi immediately fell silent. He too realized that he had gone too far. This was not a matter on which he should have spoken so much. Yet this journey to Jiangnan had pushed his patience closer and closer to breaking. Again and again, Zhao Kuangyin had done things of extreme danger, treating all of them almost like pieces in a game.
It was as though his eyes could see only that one person.
In truth, Zhao Guangyi also knew… what kind of sight that was.
A figure drenched in night rain.
At times it almost made one wonder whether he truly carried something demonic within him. It was so easy to waver because of him, an uncanny power that could bewilder the human heart. Even if that pale figure no longer wore the colors of sky and water, even if he could no longer see through anything before him, those eyes still held that clear, extraordinary amber light.
Zhao Guangyi clenched his teeth. Then Big Brother suddenly turned. “Guangyi seems always to have harbored prejudice against the Ruler.”
“Prejudice? Big Brother overstates it. Guangyi is merely offering bitter advice. This man, in the future…” He stopped. A single portrait had already implicated so many people and nearly cost lives. What, then, of Li Yu himself?
“What are you trying to say?”
“This man brings ruin to the state and its people. Sooner or later, he will ruin Big Brother’s great undertaking.” Zhao Guangyi turned his face away after speaking. Let Zhao Kuangyin rage or rebuke him as he wished. Zhao Guangyi had given his warning faithfully.
He owed at least that much to the affection contained in Zhao Kuangyin’s bowl of osmanthus porridge.
He remembered the night before departing for Jiangnan, when Zhao Kuangyin, mindful of the old wound in his abdomen, had brought him that bowl of osmanthus porridge. Warm and sweet, it had easily stirred memories of tenderness. At the time Zhao Guangyi had even tried, just a little, to quiet his heart and search for the feelings of the child he had once been.
But why must you hold everything I can never have, only to squander it so freely?
“Guangyi, when you saw him… when you saw the Ruler, how was his health?” Zhao Kuangyin suddenly asked. Sitting on the couch, Zhao Guangyi shook his head slightly. “No serious problem.”
Zhao Kuangyin was silent for a long while. “Then all of this was simply… worn out of him over these days.”
Zhao Guangyi gave a faint laugh. “Does Big Brother think this campaign against Jiangnan was nothing more than warfare on paper, costing him no effort of heart or mind? The Ruler of Jiangnan is not truly a god. He appears untouched by wind and cloud only because everyone looks up at him, so he has no choice but to hide what weighs upon him. In truth, he has carried that burden inside all along.”
Sure enough, those sword-like brows drew together, ripples moving beneath them. Zhao Kuangyin, now you are the one forcing him toward death with your own hands, forcing him to surrender.
All it drew from the true Son of Heaven was a long sigh.
He too had actually spoken the word surrender. The word branded itself into Zhao Kuangyin’s heart, carrying the desolate chill of red sandalwood burned to ash.
Guangyi was right. Had Zhao Kuangyin not forced this outcome step by step himself?
Before Weiyang Hall, Liuzhu’s hands were still trembling uncontrollably. “Ruler, you cannot go any farther. The halls have collapsed. There is nothing ahead but flying ash and fallen beams.”
The figure in white quietly bent down instead. He reached toward the ground and slowly found the collapsed wall and rubble with his fingers. All the gold and jade that had once dazzled the eye were now nothing but handfuls of blackened earth and ash. This had once been Jinling’s famed Weiyang Hall, a lingering legacy of a golden age.
Li Yu said nothing. He slowly rose and insisted on entering the ruins. Nüying finally could not bear it. “Ruler, please stop hurting yourself…”
He insisted on going in. With no other choice, everyone carefully surrounded him as he entered the fallen ruins. Fine brocade worth a fortune, thin as smoke and mist, spread without care across rubble and ash. Suddenly Li Yu spoke in a low voice.
Everyone was crying.
“Piaopeng…”
Liuzhu abruptly dropped to her knees. “If the Ruler cherishes Piaopeng’s devotion this time, then please… take care of your health. You must… live well…”
Elio’s Notes: The JJWXC raw prints 切勿保重身体 here, literally “by no means take care of your health,” which contradicts both the sentence and Liuzhu’s plea that he live. FD follows the clear contextual sense, “please take care of your health,” rather than reproducing what appears to be a source typo.
Li Yu smiled with peerless grace. He was a patch of pure white clarity at the end of all that dust, his lucid elegance sweeping away the desolation of an entire palace. “Piaopeng… if I ever want to write again, would you still remember to spread out Maiguang paper for me…” His heart felt like dead ash. No tears would come anymore. He could only reach out and touch each inch of ash beneath his fingers. “Dying here in my place… Piaopeng…”
Elio’s Notes: Maiguang paper (麦光纸) is an old name for a fine paper. Traditional sources preserve the term simply as the name of a paper type, so FD keeps the historical name rather than replacing it with a generic “writing paper.”
Nüying came forward to help him rise. “Ruler… please get up.” She was afraid any further agitation would harm him. Beneath his cloak, the stains from yesterday were plainly still blood.
His fingers moved weakly over the ruined wall and timbers. “Foolish child… why go this far… This life of mine has left harm behind until today. What good does it do to keep living uselessly? It cannot undo anything.”
Nüying quietly watched his grief. “As long as a person is alive… there is always hope.”
He turned slightly toward her. “Hongxiu, Elder Brother Hongji, Ehuang, Piaopeng. Too many people have died because of me… and then there are the tens of thousands of Tang soldiers who died in battle. Every drop of their blood now lies on me… Sometimes…” He closed his eyes. “I truly wonder why they insisted on doing all of this… It is terribly irresponsible of me to say so, but I need to know…” His voice rose almost to a roar. “Was it worth it? Was I worth it?”
Nüying crouched beside him and wrapped an arm around his back without speaking. “There is no worth it or not worth it… You are hope.”
He was silent.
“The power of hope, Ruler. As long as you are alive, there is still hope in this world.”
He actually leaned against her and covered his own eyes. His grief could no longer be contained, yet he still refused to let anyone see it. He trembled faintly. Nüying simply tightened her hand around his.
Cold as the wreckage covering the ground.
Yet she refused to let go. “As long as we live, Elder Sister and Piaopeng… live too.” Her voice reached clearly beside his ear. He kept his eyes tightly covered. “Nüying…” He had always thought she was still a child.
In truth, he himself was the greatest fool, living in the past all along. Only after the people he could see left him one by one, leaving because of him, did the person he had always failed to see finally come.
Yet now there would be no seeing again.
He could no longer see him.
After so great a sacrifice, after severing this whole stretch of Jiangnan’s mountains and waters, I… still cannot see you.
Amber light, yet no tears could fall.
Nüying leaned gently against him. “It is the same as when you asked why I returned to the palace. If you had truly died here yesterday, I would certainly have stayed and died with you. You have never understood… how important you are in people’s hearts… In this life…” She smiled faintly. “I will always remember that night rain when I was eight years old. The world was still so confusing, but you were without equal.”
He shook his head, unable to speak.
“Do you know… you possess something no one else can obtain… So there is no question of worth or not worth. We simply do not want hope to be destroyed.” Nüying slowly released him and helped him rise.
“Will you live?”
He gave no answer.
Nüying slowly lifted the hem of his white brocade cloak. How could such peerless bearing be allowed to touch the dirt? “This time, live properly for yourself. Will you?”
Li Yu remained silent for a long while. Across the four wilds, the banners stood deathly still and flowers bloomed from white bones.
He nodded. “All right.”
At heart he was still guileless as a child. He truly had never been as untouched by joy and sorrow as he seemed.
Nüying and Liuzhu slowly followed him out of the ruins toward the sleeping chambers. Liuzhu carefully supported his arm while Nüying spoke softly from behind. “Yesterday, the suzerain detained our party at first.”
Li Yu paused slightly but continued forward without speaking. Nüying went on. “He let us come back.”
“So I am expected to be grateful to him?”
“No… the suzerain hesitated. Nüying could see it. Although I do not know what happened between you in the past…”
Liuzhu sensed that continuing this conversation could do no good. She glanced at Nüying, something hidden in her eyes. Nüying still shook her head. At this point, what was there left that could or could not be said? “The suzerain is not as we imagined, nothing but a man of slaughter without virtue.”
“The moment this war began, there was no turning it back. Even if he did not wish to massacre anyone, bones still cover the fields.” His voice was cold. When they reached the doors of the sleeping chambers, he seemed to remember something. “What else did he say to you?”
Nüying thought back. At the time, the firelight had made every heart unsteady. “He asked me… whether I liked you…” She said it softly and smiled before she could help herself. Li Yu said nothing. After thinking a moment, she continued, “I told him I wanted to return to the palace, or else you would immediately set the fire… He did not even stop to think before racing straight here.”
Li Yu entered the sleeping chamber. “Enough.” He sat coolly on the couch, long hair falling loose and veiling one side of his face. Raising a hand slightly, he ordered someone to bring fresh clothes. “Wait a little longer. Then I will go out and surrender.”
Nüying had already thought it through as well. “Yes.”
He fell silent again. Sitting there, the emptiness in his eyes made joy and sorrow even harder to read. Suddenly he seemed to remember something and slowly traced the patterns on his robe with his fingers.
Now he wants to see me show weakness. He wants to see me surrender. Then I will give him what he wants.
You won everything.
Except me.
Li Yu smiled faintly. He still remembered the first time he saw surprise stir in Zhao Kuangyin’s eyes: the porcelain cup chilling to the bone, himself dressed in Mountains-and-Rivers Brocade, raising his cup with a smile and clearly seeing the shock in the eyes of that impossibly arrogant man.
He should have possessed the bearing of a king standing above mountain peaks and commanding All-under-Heaven. Yet back then, the slightest lift of Li Yu’s wrist, like a startled swan in flight, had shaken him to the core.
Now there was no turning back. “Parting is easy… meeting again is hard…” Li Yu murmured, sinking once more into sorrow. “Liuzhu?”
“Yes.”
“Bring me the Mountains-and-Rivers Brocade.”
Liuzhu froze. She had almost forgotten that peerless robe herself. Only when the Ruler suddenly mentioned it did she remember that it had been stored safely in these sleeping chambers. Fortunately the fire had never reached this place. Liuzhu hurried to retrieve it and presented it in both hands. Li Yu slowly accepted the robe and let its weightless folds rest across his knees.
He smiled sorrowfully, the dull pain inside his heart impossible to suppress. “What a pity… I cannot see it anymore.” He had grown used to dimness and blur and had truly believed he did not care, but now it became harder and harder to bear. “Long remembrance cannot be dispelled; alone I grieve and sigh in pain. Deep rain makes autumn desolate; sorrow only deepens illness. Choked by grief, I think before the wind; dim and blurred, flowers swim before my eyes. May the Empty King remember me; this poor son has lost his way home.”
In Green Willow Lane, a red plum tree bloomed desolately, as though its flowers had opened from his blood.
It was winter, the eleventh month of that year. Jinling had fallen, and the imperial palace had nearly burned to the ground.
The Ruler of Jiangnan, Li Yu, led more than three hundred members of his clan and his close ministers out of the city, offering the imperial seal and requesting surrender.