Elio’s Notes: The title is the closing line of Li Yu’s Xiang Jian Huan beginning “The forest blossoms have shed their spring red,” the same lyric that supplied Chapter 63’s title. The line compares life’s unending regret to water that never ceases flowing east.
Once they reached the outskirts of Bianjing, Zhao Kuangyin had to hurry back to the palace ahead of everyone else. He had never publicly announced that he was personally leading the campaign, so he still needed to return in secret. Chancellor Zhao Pu came with a small detachment of imperial guards to meet him on the official road outside the city gates. When he saw the long procession of carriages and horses approaching, he immediately knelt to receive him.
Zhao Kuangyin ordered everyone to rise and was about to leave first when Cao Bin suddenly asked, “Your Majesty, will tomorrow’s presentation-of-captives and surrender ceremony still follow the old custom before Xuande Gate?”
Zhao Kuangyin reined in his horse and looked back at the carriage that had remained silent throughout the journey. “The Ruler of Jiangnan has already surrendered. There is no need to present him as a captive. He can simply receive the edict in the hall.”
Cao Bin was immediately startled. “Your Majesty, absolutely not! The Song army is exhausted from this distant campaign and has only now returned victorious. If there is no such ceremony, would that not erase the merit of the entire army? The soldiers’ morale will surely be unsettled!”
Zhao Kuangyin did not answer. He looked toward the tens of thousands of troops behind him. He knew perfectly well that this ceremony was customary whenever a state surrendered. But if Li Yu were bound like a prisoner and made to kneel beneath the city walls for presentation, he would find that humiliation worse than death.
Everyone was watching this moment of hesitation.
Cao Bin could no longer bear it. “Your Majesty, our army did not suffer lightly either. How many soldiers lie buried in foreign soil? If the Ruler of Jiangnan is not treated as a captive now, and Your Majesty does not formally accept his surrender to show the army that we have returned in victory, how can the spirits of the fallen soldiers ever rest?”
Zhao Kuangyin still said nothing. He kept looking at the carriage. For the past several days the imperial procession had traveled ahead, and he had not seen Li Yu at all. Now that carriage was unnaturally quiet. He pondered for a long while and still shook his head. Just as he was about to speak, the person inside said in the same calm voice as ever, “Your Majesty, this guilty subject accepts the decree. Tomorrow, the entire clan will await Your Majesty’s judgment.”
A fingertip lightly lifted the soft curtain. Zhao Kuangyin caught a fleeting glimpse of pale, sharply defined knuckles, and his gaze immediately darkened. “Li Yu!” He had already been willing to endure the condemnation of All-under-Heaven to spare him this humiliation, yet Li Yu had lightly said only that he accepted the decree. He always had to be like this, always so calm and detached that Zhao Kuangyin could never have his way.
Cao Bin, still filled with indignation, cried, “Your Majesty! He absolutely cannot be spared!”
Zhao Kuangyin forced down his anger. “Withdraw first. Return to the army.” Cao Bin refused and continued insisting that there could be no compromise. Zhao Kuangyin immediately exploded. “I will say it once more. Return to the army! Otherwise, you will be killed without mercy!”
Zhao Pu had been silently watching the situation from the side. It was obvious that His Majesty was furious. He had no choice but to step forward and restrain Cao Bin slightly. “General Cao, withdraw for now.” He guided him aside. Cao Bin was still angrily trying to argue, but Zhao Pu lowered his voice. “Do not. His Majesty will not listen to anything right now.” He had clearly seen Zhao Kuangyin’s sword begin to hum from the force of his anger, baleful aura suddenly rising around him. The Emperor was genuinely enraged.
The people around them gradually withdrew.
In the quiet woods, Zhao Kuangyin sat on horseback and looked toward the man inside the carriage. “Li Congjia!”
“This guilty subject is Li Yu.”
“Get out of the carriage.”
“This guilty subject has suffered a slight ailment of the eyes in recent days and fears offending Your Majesty. Please forgive me. Whatever decree Your Majesty gives, Li Yu will receive it kneeling inside the carriage.”
Through the soft curtain, Zhao Kuangyin lowered his voice until every word reached Li Yu’s ear dark and heavy. “I said, get out.” The person inside simply could not be bothered to answer. After a long while, he laughed faintly. “Why must Your Majesty do this? This guilty subject has already agreed to bear every punishment.”
“You know perfectly well I will not do that, yet you insist on acting like this, don’t you?”
“This guilty subject would not dare.”
“Li Congjia, are you getting out or not?”
He still did not answer. In a rage, Zhao Kuangyin raised his sword as though to split the carriage open. The person inside suddenly spoke. “Your Majesty did not hesitate to send hundreds of thousands of troops to destroy this small Tang state. Was it not because Li Yu repeatedly refused imperial commands? And now… has this guilty subject not done everything according to Your Majesty’s will…” He began coughing. His voice had grown rough, yet he insisted on continuing. “What more… are you dissatisfied with? What else do you want… I surrendered. I am alive. I followed you north. I am willing to be a captive. What exactly do you still…”
Liuzhu’s voice kept sounding from inside. “Ruler… Ruler, do not get worked up again…” She could hear that although his tone remained level, his words were coming faster and faster. She was helpless and had no way to stop him.
Zhao Kuangyin abruptly turned his sword and slashed into one of the towering green trees nearby. As it crashed down, he did not look back again. He spurred his horse toward Bianjing, leaving only one sentence carrying through the air. “Then tomorrow, your entire Li clan will attend the surrender ceremony before Xuande Gate!”
Night settled over the Prince of Jin’s Residence. Zhao Guangyi had finally returned safely from Jiangnan, yet the moment he came back he shut himself inside the study and refused to emerge.
Jingchan had returned with him. She had originally been an orphaned girl from Wang Fu’s clan whom Wang Fu had found for him. Zhao Guangyi studied her for a long while and almost forgot that only recently he had insisted on using her to vent his anger. Remembering that she had at least helped him, he said, “Then stay in the Prince of Jin’s Residence.”
Entering the prince’s residence was no small thing. Wang Fu carefully instructed her to serve with great caution, yet Jingchan did not seem to want any of it. She had once been living an ordinary life and had suddenly been swept into this inexplicable tangle of right and wrong.
Unfortunately, she had no control over her own fate. After entering the residence and sitting for a while in the servants’ quarters, word arrived from the imperial palace: an edict had been issued ordering tomorrow’s surrender ceremony and rewards for the Three Armies.
Zhao Guangyi eventually came out to receive the edict. The moment he closed the door again, he tossed the bright yellow document onto the table without even looking at it. He had changed clothes and intended to enter the palace, yet ever since His Majesty returned to court, there seemed to be some secret within the palace. Even the Prince of Jin’s entry was obstructed again and again. Chancellor Zhao Pu tactfully explained that His Majesty had been away for many days and countless matters had accumulated, and asked the Prince of Jin to return to his residence and rest first.
What, could even he no longer enter the imperial palace now? They had better not forget… Zhao Guangyi looked toward the palace lights and thought bitterly. Back then, if he himself had not spread so many rumors to shake public sentiment and then harmed the Zhou ruler, how many more years would it have taken for Zhao Kuangyi to force the palace and seize the throne, and for everything else to happen?
Elio’s Notes: In the paragraph recalling the fall of Later Zhou, the JJWXC raw prints Zhao Kuangyi (赵匡义) in the phrase about forcing the palace and seizing the throne. Historically, Zhao Kuangyi was an earlier name of Zhao Guangyi, but within the novel’s present plot Zhao Kuangyin is the reigning emperor whose seizure of the throne is being recalled. FD preserves the source name in the English sentence and flags the resulting source-internal inconsistency rather than silently rewriting it.
He knew Zhao Kuangyin rarely said much, but in his heart he had never approved of methods like Zhao Guangyi’s. Let him disapprove. Had everything not turned out splendidly in the end? Yet this true Son of Heaven was now so ensnared by one figure drenched in night rain that he could no longer see reason, actually ready to cast aside everything already within his grasp merely to soothe that blind man!
Zhao Guangyi grew more irritated the more he thought. He had always regarded Zhao Kuangyin as a power he could depend upon. Zhao Kuangyin had taken him out of that temple and treated him as his own younger brother. But if that power was now being swayed, was there still any reason for Zhao Guangyi to cling to it so stubbornly?
In the end, I am not you.
The more he thought, the more tangled his mind became. A thought had already begun to take shape. Zhao Guangyi had drawn quite a few wavering people in court to his side in secret, and Wang Rao’s former men were scattered in every direction, ambitious and restless. He was no longer that foolish child who had once wholeheartedly believed Zhao Kuangyin was his entire sky.
And yet he kept remembering that bowl of osmanthus porridge, carrying the taste of reassurance, filling the air with the purest kind of comfort.
He had drifted alone through this world for far too long and had almost forgotten what purposeless kindness felt like.
Besides, he no longer wanted to continue living on someone else’s grace.
His thoughts were in complete disorder. He also had no idea how Yunjie had been lately. Her parents were both gone now, and she was probably suffocating from illness inside the palace. Zhao Guangyi turned it over again and again, growing more agitated, and remained alone in the study refusing to see anyone. Suddenly a voice sounded beneath the window. “Your Highness…”
It was an unfamiliar woman’s voice. “Who is it?”
“This servant is Jingchan.”
He remembered the girl. Without her, Li Yu would not have lost everything as he had today. Zhao Guangyi smiled faintly. “Jingchan, come in.”
The wooden door slowly opened. Jingchan entered with obvious fear and hurriedly bowed. Zhao Guangyi waved it away. “What is it, Jingchan? You rendered service while in Jiangnan. This Prince rewards and punishes clearly. If you have some wish or something you want, you may say so.” He assumed she had remembered some reward she wanted to ask for. People were all like this now, chasing fame or profit. Better to send her away quickly.
Jingchan hesitated again and again, then after a long while dropped to her knees.
Zhao Guangyi found it strange. “Get up. What is this about?”
Jingchan refused to rise. “Your Highness… this servant boldly saw palace attendants enter the residence just now. Is the presentation-of-captives ceremony really being held tomorrow?”
Zhao Guangyi nodded. “It is. What does that have to do with you?” His tone had only softened slightly out of curiosity, yet it still frightened the woman kneeling on the floor. Only then did he remember that the other day, simply to anger Li Yu, he had ordered her to slap herself dozens of times. Zhao Guangyi smiled. “If you have something to say, then say it.”
“Ruler… no, Li Yu…” Jingchan searched constantly for the right words. “Li Yu has always carried himself with dignity. Since he has already surrendered to our court… why must His Majesty…” Suddenly she bent all the way to the floor. “Your Highness! Whatever Your Highness says before His Majesty will surely not be refused. Please show mercy. Ask His Majesty to spare Li Yu the humiliation of being presented as a captive…”
The request left Zhao Guangyi completely stunned. What special ability did Li Yu possess that allowed him to win people over again and again? He ought to have immediately ordered someone to drag this girl outside, beat her half to death, and throw her back into the countryside. Yet at that moment he was seized by the need to argue the matter through. “Why are you pleading for him?”
Jingchan gathered her courage. The words were already spoken, and at worst she would die. “He is already blind… Jingchan carries guilt in her heart. His punishment is already enough… Your Highness, please ask His Majesty to show mercy and spare him. Besides, while we were in Jiangnan… the Queen also treated me kindly…”
Zhao Guangyi burst out laughing and slowly paced in front of her. “This Prince has never understood how Li Yu manages to manipulate people’s hearts again and again… and now even a little servant like you dares come speak for him. If I truly had sent you to serve him from the beginning, would you have… regretted everything long ago?” His anger suddenly erupted, frightening Jingchan into kneeling motionless with her head bowed. “Do you think this Prince was too cruel in making his eyes like this?”
“No… no…” She herself could not explain what she felt. She only remembered that day when palace walls collapsed and everything was swallowed in flames. Far away, a single thread of clear light had descended slowly from Yuxiao Pavilion, neither startled nor grieving, as though he ought always to have looked like that, untouched by anything in this world.
That was why she had suddenly run forward to stop him. Amid the struggle and slaughter of that night, which had looked like hell in the mortal world, only that figure in plain white had remained as clean as ever. In that instant, she had not wanted him to die.
She remembered the tenderness in Li Yu’s eyes whenever he looked at Liuzhu. He treated everyone with the same sincerity. Why, after losing everything today, did he still have to endure this calamity? Gentle, elegant, unchanged in every detail. Why did something so beautiful have to be destroyed?
She felt a little sad.
Zhao Guangyi walked over and lifted her face to examine it. “A perfectly good face. If you had simply followed this Prince obediently, your whole clan might one day have risen again. How is it that everyone sent to Jiangnan returns changed?” His tone was entirely calm, almost puzzled. “His Majesty went through twist after twist on this campaign and finally destroyed Tang. If it had dragged on much longer, Jiangnan would have become a land full of demons! Such a tiny patch of ground… truly capable of bewildering the human heart…”
He released her, straightened, and dusted off his clothes. “Someone!”
Jingchan immediately shook her head in terror. “Your Highness…”
“Everything was perfectly fine. Would it not have been more practical to come ask for a reward? Yet you insist on saying all these useless things just to anger this Prince!” His voice abruptly sharpened, every trace of his earlier calm gone. “Since when was it your turn to speak?”
Jingchan felt that the Prince of Jin’s temper had become worse and worse in recent days. She had once heard that he treated people courteously and, though his riding and archery could not compare with His Majesty’s, still knew how to win people’s hearts. But now… his violence arrived without warning. No one could ever imagine what he might decide in the next instant. She lowered her head and murmured, “Your Highness… after returning from this journey… you are different too…”
Jiangnan, Jiangnan. Ascending to immortality or falling into demonhood, elegant refinement or extravagant splendor, all of it was only the soft songs and little tunes drifting from painted pleasure boats on the Qinhuai. What mattered was which road you walked and which heart you chose to follow.
And what Buddha did you worship?
For an instant Zhao Guangyi went blank. He remembered the day he burned every scripture in the Buddhist hall. He had long since lost any hope of understanding Chan or reaching the Pure Land. Jingchan’s single sentence forced him toward something he could not face, and irritation surged through him even more violently. “Someone! Find a quiet place…” Before he finished, men entered and seized Jingchan.
This time she was truly frightened. “Your Highness… Your Highness, Jingchan knows she was wrong!” She was about to be dragged away and killed for no clear reason. Jingchan did not want to die after all. She had been sent from place to place at others’ orders, drifting in every direction. Now that she had finally settled somewhere, she was about to lose her life over one simple truth. Tears filled her eyes. “Your Highness, spare Jingchan… Jingchan will never speak carelessly again…”
Zhao Guangyi waved a hand, ready to ignore her. One fewer person alive meant one fewer worry. But Jingchan’s raw scream suddenly sparked a thought. “Bring her back! The rest of you, withdraw.”
No one understood why. They dragged Jingchan back, threw her onto the floor, and closed the door behind them.
Jingchan trembled without stopping. “Your Highness, spare Jingchan’s life. Jingchan will leave the residence at once and return to her village home. I will never speak carelessly again.”
Zhao Guangyi smiled faintly, his voice gentler now. “Enough. I was only frightening you. Raise your head.” She was a fairly delicate-looking woman. Jingchan lifted her tear-streaked face. “Thank you, Your Highness…”
“Jingchan, are you a person of Jiangnan, or a person of Song?” He knew the answer perfectly well. Jingchan could only reply, “A person of Song.”
“Do you follow Li Yu, or do you follow this Prince?”
“Naturally, this servant follows the Prince of Jin with all her heart.”
“Good.” He extended a hand and let her rise. Jingchan vaguely felt that something was wrong, but no longer dared say much. “Your Highness… is there… something else you need Jingchan to do?”
Zhao Guangyi remembered what had happened earlier that day when Nüying learned Jingchan’s identity. The people around Li Yu always seemed to have an excess of kindness they were eager to bestow on others. That would serve nicely.
“If you do not want to die, listen carefully to what I say. If there is even the slightest mistake, it would not be difficult for me to quietly wipe out every last one of you. The Wang clan should have been destroyed together under the former dynasty long ago!”
“The Prince of Jin showed grace to my clan. I will never forget it even in death!” Jingchan hurriedly lowered her head. “Please give your command, Your Highness.”
“Nüying is no fool, and that girl Liuzhu is even sharper. Once they settle down, they will certainly start thinking about how you were planted in the southern state. Sooner or later they will try to discover the source of Li Yu’s sudden blindness…”
Jingchan was instead confused. “What does Your Highness still have to fear now? We have already returned to Bianjing. Li Yu and his people are captives. Even if they realize that what happened to his eyes was connected with Your Highness… there is nothing they can do.”
Zhao Guangyi smiled even more contemptuously. “Of course I am not worried about that. What can he do now that he is a prisoner? I simply still need you to deliver a message.”
Jingchan became even more uneasy. “But Jingchan has already been exposed. I fear I cannot…”
“Do not worry. There will naturally be an opportunity during the surrender ceremony. Come here and remember exactly what I tell you.”
“Yes.” She could only move closer. Zhao Guangyi sat in the chair, staring fixedly at a strip of daylight on the floor. “The matter of damaging his eyes had already been decided when His Majesty sent this Prince south.”
All of it had been Zhao Kuangyin’s intention.
Jingchan nodded. “It was His Majesty’s instruction.”
“Remember this. If they press you for answers, say only that His Majesty gave the order long ago, intending that Li Yu never see again for the rest of his life.” Jingchan did not know what this could accomplish, but seeing the Prince of Jin insist that everything had been His Majesty’s command, she committed the story firmly to memory.
Since he could not openly kill Zhao Kuangyin’s man, then letting him live a life worse than death would do just as well. In any case, Zhao Guangyi refused to let Zhao Kuangyin have what he wanted. Furious, he arranged for Jingchan to be watched closely, then shut himself inside the study again.
You care about him so much. If he comes to hate you to the bone from now on, I want to see what you can possibly do.
Inside Chongde Hall in the imperial palace, Zhao Kuangyin stared in shock. “The Empress… she…”
Zhao Pu could barely contain his own grief. “Your Majesty… please restrain your sorrow. The Empress was gravely ill, and medicine was of no use. Fortunately, she suffered no pain at the end. She simply remained unconscious and then… passed away.”
Zhao Kuangyin had only just returned to the palace when he heard this terrible news and could hardly believe it. When he left, Yunjie had still been speaking with him inside Zichen Palace. He had clearly told her that once he returned, they would face everything properly together. How could she suddenly…
It felt too unreal.
He truly had never imagined things would end this way. “The Empress… when did she die?”
“Several days after Your Majesty left. Her high fever would not break, and then she suffered a stroke in Zichen Palace. The imperial physicians did everything they could…” Zhao Pu sighed bleakly. “Your Majesty’s journey south was far too dangerous. This subject boldly suppressed the news and did not dare announce it to All-under-Heaven. Otherwise the army’s morale would have wavered, while Bianjing had no sovereign present…” Zhao Pu slowly knelt. “For delaying the Empress’s funeral rites, this subject accepts punishment.”
Zhao Kuangyin slowly turned away. Sitting on the dragon throne for so long had brought endless troubles. He had promised Wang Rao that he would keep Yunjie safe… but now…
It had happened too suddenly. For a moment Zhao Kuangyin did not even know what could possibly count as proper. The army had returned victorious, yet Yunjie would never see it. “Seal the palace gates. Do not announce this matter yet. Come with me to Zichen Palace. Wang Ji’en?”
Wang Ji’en slowly stepped forward, grief on his face. The sight immediately angered Zhao Kuangyin. “If you knew how to grieve, why did you not take proper care of Zichen Palace? If the Empress’s illness could have improved…” He stopped himself. “Forget it. Forget it.” Zhao Kuangyin turned and left the hall first. She was already gone. What use was there in venting his anger on one eunuch now?
A long, faint sigh. Yunjie… in the end, she had not waited for him to return.
Wang Ji’en hurried after him. “Zichen Palace has been sealed under the Chancellor’s order ever since the Empress passed.”
Zhao Kuangyin understood Zhao Pu’s intentions. Vanishing for months like this had truly been far too dangerous. When he left, he had refused every attempt to stop him, almost as though possessed by an inner demon. Now that he had returned, blaming others was useless. “I… will go back and see her.”
The jade palace, abandoned steps, cold ground, and traces of withered branches were desolate. The central palace was so bleak that it seemed poorer than an ordinary courtyard in the marketplace. At least the streets and alleys held simple lives and simple desires: sunlight meant enough food and warmth, darkness meant want. The mortal world was in truth much easier than the human heart, because when the world could not be changed, one could only submit to it. But the human heart… she had kept hoping all along. Within this deep, secluded palace there would never again be the playful girl of their youth. Once she had followed him while he practiced with a sword, accidentally striking his bracelet, and felt guilty about it for a very long time.
Now there was nothing but wind passing over a lonely couch draped in white silk. A human death came too easily.
So easily that he barely knew how to express the shock or regret within him. Once someone told you she was gone, she simply was. Even if you commanded the Six Armies and united All-under-Heaven, you could not make her remain inside this cold, lonely palace any longer, hoping that one day you might finally turn back and look at her.
Zhao Kuangyin closed the wooden doors of Zichen Palace’s sleeping chamber and ordered everyone to remain outside.
When he saw her coffin standing in the center of the room, he suddenly began to understand the human heart to which Li Congjia had clung so stubbornly. Life was simply too short. What could not be held would ultimately escape every grasp. Gaining power for one day did not mean you could assume peace for an entire lifetime.
He had thought that making her Empress would at least leave her free of worry for the rest of her life. He had never known that from that day onward she worried every day, to the point that she would rather Zhao Kuangyin had never rescued her when her family estate was confiscated.
“Yunjie…” Zhao Kuangyin laid a hand upon her coffin. The sharpness in him softened, and guilt entered his slow voice. “I wanted to come back and speak properly with you…” A little dust had gathered on the coffin lid. He quietly brushed it away. “Once I returned victorious, we were supposed to talk about everything that happened over all these years. I always wanted to find a chance to tell you…”
It was cold. This palace had been cold for a very long time. He had somehow never noticed that she lived in a place this chill and shadowed.
“Actually, I saw the embroidery on that handkerchief.”
It was only that back then, I thought that if I pretended not to see it, you would give up those feelings and find something better. Those were still the days when everything remained unchanged. You were still the treasured daughter of a powerful household, while I was only a young military officer beginning to make a name for myself. Once I went out to war, I might die on the battlefield the very next day. What good would it have done to acknowledge what I saw? It seemed better not to see it at all.