If one does not raise the fragrant wine and laugh aloud,
How could one be worthy of such a fine hour?
Elio’s Notes: These opening lines are from Tang Yin’s Ming-dynasty poem Lantern Festival (《元宵》). They are much later than the novel’s tenth-century setting, so the allusion is deliberately anachronistic.
The first lunar month was almost here. The army had returned victorious not long ago, and after the general amnesty the people’s hearts had settled. The common people called the first lunar month the Duan month; its first day was Yuandan, also called Zhengchao or Yuanshuo. Though bitter cold had descended from Heaven, every household had begun bustling with preparations.
Beginnings ought always to be good.
Once these icy days passed, one could always hope for the spirit of flowers to return in another cycle. The seasons turned endlessly. As long as the heart still held expectation, one could keep living. People simmered broths meant to ward off evil and waited for the festival to arrive.
The palace was the same. Peach gum had been prepared early for making peach broth, leaving a faint sweetness in the air. Liuzhu, utterly helpless, waited beneath the plum trees before the pavilion. Several young palace attendants slipped out from behind, having somehow gotten hold of a handful of sticky malt candy, and with beaming faces whispered to one another to divide it quickly.
To ordinary people, another year had simply passed. Good or bad, there would always be a new beginning to welcome.
Inside the small Sandalwood Pavilion, Li Congjia had not dared think about dates since arriving there.
Hidden behind that long strip of silk, he had completely forgotten sunrise and sunset. What evening was this? What day?
The brief comforts of his life. He closed his eyes, and it seemed the faint bitter astringency of those flowering-peach petals from that day still lingered between his lips and teeth.
Outside the wooden door, before anyone could even announce the visitor, a smiling voice sounded, not loud but unusually clear. “This Prince heard that the Marquis of Disobedience’s eyes have improved somewhat in recent days, so I brought a gift…”
Zhao Guangyi held a brocade box, even choosing one in an elegant, muted blue-green. Hearing a cough being suppressed inside, he straightened his robes and pushed the door open without another thought. One look at Liuzhu’s miserable expression was enough to tell him that something had gone wrong with Li Congjia today. Besides… the jade pillow lying on the floor made the aftermath of a quarrel obvious.
He genuinely wanted to see what that man looked like when grief and fury became unbearable. Li Congjia… had he not always seemed untouched by emotions pushed to their extremes?
Once that rain-and-mist composure was broken, what pitiful state would you be in?
Zhao Guangyi stepped inside almost expecting to enjoy the sight of his collapse.
Yet beyond the hanging gauze, the man sat upright at the table holding a cup of tea, a faint smile at the corner of his lips. Silver fox fur covered him from shoulders to feet. Unhurried, he spoke. “Prince of Jin?”
“You…”
As though suddenly remembering something, Li Congjia rose gracefully. The white silk ribbon remained tied precisely over his eyes as he prepared to bow. “The Prince of Jin has come. Forgive this subject for being unable to greet you personally.”
Zhao Guangyi immediately found the whole thing dull. He set the brocade box on the table. “There is no need. Did His Majesty not excuse you from ceremony a few days ago? I am merely a prince. How would I dare…”
“Why has the Prince of Jin come today?” Li Congjia had no desire to listen to useless pleasantries. Holding his tea, he slowly sat again. Every furnishing in the Sandalwood Pavilion was made of red sandalwood, and its fragrance spread faintly through the room, never overpowering yet lingering in strands around them. Zhao Guangyi frowned and looked around. “This truly is a quiet place well suited to recovering from illness. Imperial Brother has gone to considerable trouble. I wonder whether the Marquis of Disobedience has appreciated the sentiment?” His final words dropped lower, thick with mockery. Yet the man wrapped in silver fox fur showed no anger at all. He took a sip of tea without moving. “The Prince of Jin came today… because you wanted to see how my eyes are, did you not?”
The blind man’s presence was not far from him. Zhao Guangyi paused at those words, then laughed. “The Marquis of Disobedience truly is no ordinary man. Your mind sees so clearly. No wonder you keep everything bottled up until you bring qi-stagnation illness upon yourself.”
“The answer is already obvious from Your Highness’s visit. My eyes have not recovered.” His tone was cool. He tossed out the words and said nothing more. Yet Zhao Guangyi could not stand that detached air, as though gods and demons alike could not touch him. He turned toward Li Congjia. “Though the Marquis of Disobedience has gone blind… the eyes of your heart are very clear indeed… Tell me… how am I supposed to feel at ease?”
Li Congjia could clearly sense Zhao Guangyi drawing nearer. He did not move. Suddenly Zhao Guangyi seized his wrist with one hand and pinned that snow-white wrist hard against the tabletop so he could not move it.
Li Congjia had been warming his hands around the cup, so he had no choice but to release it. He neither pulled his hand away nor struggled. A low laugh rose from him. The white silk over his eyes made his slightly pale face look even more refined. Only at such close range did Zhao Guangyi suddenly notice how startlingly red his lips were.
The faint fragrance of red sandalwood drifted through the air, and someone’s mind grew unsteady, almost bewitched.
Zhao Guangyi nearly loosened his grip. Then he caught sight of the brocade box he had brought lying on the table, and strength immediately returned to his hand. He thought the elegant, distant man seemed to have furrowed his brows, yet he still did not move.
Wrapped in silver fox, he looked almost unbearably bewitching.
Zhao Guangyi stared at him for a long while. “The Marquis of Disobedience’s old injury seems much better?” His fingers brushed lightly across the wrist. “A scar like that should not fade so easily… Did you use some priceless tribute medicine? He truly is willing to give up anything for you…”
At last Li Congjia spoke. “Your Highness, conduct yourself with dignity.”
Zhao Guangyi caught his wrist and tried to pull him to his feet, but Li Congjia did not move at all. Zhao Guangyi could only hold him there, arm suspended between them. “Was it after seeing him… that you found the name Li Congjia again?”
“Li Congjia or Li Yu, Your Highness may call me whatever you wish. It is only a name.” Only the faintest mark remained on that wrist. Zhao Guangyi looked it over almost appreciatively. “What a fine wrist you have. The Marquis of Disobedience has such elegant bones throughout… truly a grace difficult to find…” Li Congjia abruptly pulled his arm back, stirring the silver fox fur.
“You cannot see it, can you…? Silver fox is exceedingly rare. Once its fur is made into clothing, it must be extraordinarily warm. And he gave it to you…”
“Prince of Jin, there is only one thing I do not understand. I am now a prisoner beneath another’s steps, a surrendered ruler. By reason and circumstance, I can no longer pose any threat to Your Highness. Why do all this? What is the Prince of Jin…” He took another sip of hot tea and spoke with perfect calm. “…afraid of?”
Zhao Guangyi immediately stepped back and raised his voice. “What would this Prince have to fear!” Suddenly his gaze fell upon writing brushes and ink laid on a side shelf, and an idea stirred.
Li Congjia remained serenely seated at the table, slowly drinking his warm tea. Tea fragrance and sandalwood mingled, spreading and rising until the whole room seemed warm and soft. Hearing Zhao Guangyi flatly deny it, Li Congjia said nothing more. He softly recited a few lines. “A thousand lights shine from the trees of lamps, seven-branched blossoms open in flame. I fear I shall have no chance to see it…”
Elio’s Notes: The lines are from a Lantern Festival poem by Sui emperor Yang Guang, written centuries before the novel’s setting. The poem describes a dazzling palace lantern display, making Li Congjia’s blindness especially pointed here.
Zhao Guangyi suddenly stepped forward and flicked away the silk covering Li Congjia’s eyes. The color in them was still empty. Li Congjia startled too, but quickly smiled again. “This guilty subject’s eyes cannot bear light. The snow glare was too strong a few days ago, so I covered them with silk.”
Zhao Guangyi examined his double pupils carefully. After not seeing him for some time, he found that they truly had regained a little of their deeper color. “Now that the cause has been found, it seems the Marquis of Disobedience’s eyes will soon recover.”
“Recently the dizziness has lessened, but I still cannot see anything before me.”
“Cannot see…” Zhao Guangyi picked up the brocade box. “This Prince even brought a gift specially for you. I had not expected the Marquis of Disobedience’s eyes still to be unrecovered. What a pity…”
The box opened, and the object inside was plainly laid before him.
Li Congjia’s fingertips tightened slightly, yet his expression remained as calm and distant as mountains. “I am afraid Your Highness prepared it for nothing…”
Zhao Guangyi remained silent for a long time, then snapped the lid shut.
“Since you cannot see it, I will tell you. The Hall of Honoring the Worthy is already completely under the control of the Prince of Jin’s residence. Madam is still in the bloom of youth… Can the Marquis of Disobedience really bear to part with her?”
He waited to see Li Congjia become angry. The man heard every word clearly, yet still showed not the slightest fury. He spoke as ordinarily as if discussing nothing of consequence. “Prince of Jin, since we are both people who understand the situation, let us speak plainly. I already considered certain things when the city fell… Has Your Highness forgotten something extremely important?”
Zhao Guangyi answered impatiently. “What are you trying to say?”
“Does Your Highness remember why I first met you in the Jinling imperial palace?”
Zhao Guangyi suddenly began to understand. “You…”
“You possessed the true surviving fragment of the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe Dance score.”
“So what!”
“That day I asked whether you knew Jiang Zheng.”
At the name, his heart jolted violently. “I do not know him!”
“So now you do not know him? That day the Elder said… he was an old acquaintance.” Li Congjia finished his tea, took a brocade handkerchief from the side, and, screening the movement with his sleeve, elegantly wiped away the tea stain. “Your Highness’s mistake was not knowing one thing. I personally went to Andong Temple to ask about the whereabouts of that score, so…”
“Shut up!” Zhao Guangyi suddenly yanked him from the chair and slammed him against the wall. Yet those empty eyes made him shudder uncontrollably. “What do you know? You went to Andong Temple?”
Li Congjia showed no concern at all for the fury that had erupted in an instant. Leaning lightly against the wall, he smoothed his sleeve. “The Prince of Jin… is not Zhao Guangyi at all, is he… ngh…”
A hand clamped brutally around his throat. An icy voice, cold to the extreme, brushed his ear. “This time… you truly have to die… Li Congjia, do not blame me…”
He still smiled with a gentleness like polished jade, the room filled with the long-lost scent of red sandalwood. “If I… cough… have guessed correctly, Your Highness still fears His Majesty. If I die here today…”
“Yes… Imperial Brother has not yet questioned me over your eyes. That alone is fortunate…” Zhao Guangyi’s fingers hesitated. Li Congjia shoved him away. “There is no need for Your Highness to lose composure like this. Will you hear me out?”
“To put it plainly, the reason Your Highness has trapped everyone in the Hall of Honoring the Worthy and come here today to threaten me is simply that you are afraid I will tell His Majesty about what you did in the southern kingdom, is it not?”
Zhao Guangyi neither confirmed nor denied it. “I still need some time. Right now, for whatever reason, I cannot provoke him and risk something going wrong, so I have to endure for a while. Otherwise I would have killed you just now, Li Congjia!”
Li Congjia gradually heard the implication beneath his words. Alarm struck his heart at once, but he forced it down. “Prince of Jin… if that is so…”
“Knowing too much is not good for you…”
Li Congjia truly changed direction. “Then it seems that many things in the southern kingdom were not done on His Majesty’s orders?”
“Yes. Is that what you have wanted to know all along? Li Congjia… you truly are extraordinary. No matter what happened, he refused to hurt you. Even during the siege he hesitated again and again…”
After hearing the original truth of things, the man in silver fox seemed only more desolate. Slowly he stepped back to the couch and leaned against it, suddenly exhausted beyond measure.
So many things had been wrong, yet now none of them could be explained cleanly.
And there was still that score, and the bracelet Zhao Kuangyin had personally fastened onto him. Those things could not be blamed on anyone else. Li Congjia had stubbornly seized upon Zhao Kuangyin’s sins and refused to let go, and now everything had come to this…
How was he supposed to tell himself that he had been wrong from the very beginning?
Whether Zhao Kuangyin had intended it or not, the result was the same. In the end, he had destroyed everything.
“Prince of Jin, then let us make an exchange. I will not tell him what I know, and you will not think of threatening the surviving people of the southern kingdom in the Hall of Honoring the Worthy into helping whatever scheme you are planning.”
Zhao Guangyi thought furiously for a while, staring only at Li Congjia’s eyes. He had originally intended to use something belonging to Nüying to provoke him, only to discover that Li Congjia still could not see and that his mind remained painfully clear, far clearer than Zhao Guangyi had imagined. In the end, Zhao Guangyi closed the box and held it. “Fine. But understand this, Li Congjia. If you speak… you will only force what I intend to do to happen sooner. Since the Marquis of Disobedience’s eyes have not yet recovered, I will keep this gift and bring it again to congratulate you when they do.”
Leaning there, Li Congjia retied the silk over his eyes. “…He treats you as his own younger brother. That day, to save you, he even risked himself and turned against Li Hongji.” His words held neither grief nor joy, not a trace of emotion, yet their meaning could not have been clearer.
Zhao Guangyi turned away with the box and swept out.
You have no road back, and neither do I. His kindness was never because of me.
Inside the brocade box was the object Nüying had worn close to her body, the blood-jade stone.
After leaving the Sandalwood Pavilion, Zhao Guangyi was still unsettled. He had originally lost all intention of going to see Zhao Kuangyin, but then he saw Wang Ji’en waiting in the distance. When he approached, the eunuch spoke first. “His Majesty was just about to send someone to summon the Prince of Jin into the palace. Since Your Highness is already here, you may go directly.”
“Why has His Majesty suddenly summoned this Prince?”
Wang Ji’en glanced around to make sure no one was nearby. “Perhaps it concerns the Marquis of Disobedience’s eyes. This servant saw the imperial physician enter the hall just now as well.”
Zhao Guangyi understood at once. He slipped the brocade box into his sleeve, hid it, straightened his robes, and followed Wang Ji’en as though nothing were unusual.
Faint strings sounded in the distance. It was already time for the palace musicians to begin preparing for the Shangyuan Festival.
When Zhao Guangyi entered the hall, Zhao Kuangyin was listening to the imperial physician report on the Marquis of Disobedience’s pulse that day. Seeing the Prince of Jin, he raised a hand to stop the report. “Everyone else wait outside. Guangyi, there is no need for ceremony.”
Zhao Guangyi glanced at the imperial physician hurrying away under orders. “Imperial Brother suddenly summoned an imperial physician. Is Your Majesty unwell?”
Zhao Kuangyin sat on the dragon throne and shook his head. “No. I summoned you because I also want to understand clearly what happened to the Marquis of Disobedience’s eyes.”
Anger rose inside Zhao Guangyi, but he forced it down. So Imperial Brother could not hold it in after all. He still wanted the whole matter explained. “Big Brother may speak plainly.”
“The Marquis of Disobedience’s eye illness appeared suddenly, precisely while you were in Jiangnan… Besides, I know that while you were in the southern kingdom, you tampered with his prescription.”
Zhao Guangyi laughed. “Big Brother’s words sound almost as though you are blaming Guangyi. If the Marquis of Disobedience had not lost his sight, Jiangnan would never have collapsed so quickly. It was something that had to be done.”
“What did I instruct you before you left?”
“Big Brother instructed me that, no matter what, I was not to harm the Ruler of Jiangnan.”
“And what did you do?”
“Big Brother! You truly cannot distinguish black from white anymore. You have been completely bewitched by a demon!” Zhao Guangyi immediately found Zhao Kuangyin’s words absurd beyond measure. “Li Yu stands opposed to our dynasty in the end! Preserving his life at all was already because Big Brother had scruples in his heart. Otherwise, what would have been wrong with letting him burn to death in that hall?”
“Zhao Guangyi!” Zhao Kuangyin stood at once and stared straight at him. Zhao Guangyi did not move, meeting his gaze from below without speaking.
It did not last long, only an instant of frozen air, yet the pressure was so tight it became hard to breathe.
Outside the window, the elegant song had just completed one round. The sudden silence felt hollow and empty.
Zhao Kuangyin shook his head and looked into Zhao Guangyi’s eyes. “Let us set this matter aside for now. No matter what, Big Brother will not pursue it further. But… since it was your medicine, now you must still help cure him.”
Only then did Zhao Guangyi understand why he had been summoned. Zhao Kuangyin was still trying every possible way to heal Li Yu’s eyes. “I assume Big Brother has spent these days trying to restore his health. His coughing of blood comes from depletion of the heart-blood. If he does not become agitated, he will be safe for the time being. As for his eyes… the cause has already been found. Treat the cause, counteract the henbane, and they will recover. Even without Guangyi troubling himself over it, the Marquis of Disobedience will be fine.” His voice had turned utterly cold. The bright imperial yellow he wore suddenly felt like a joke. This man now thought of nothing but how to make amends to Li Yu. It was simply…
It made Zhao Guangyi look down on him.
Zhao Kuangyin saw his expression change faintly before returning to normal. “Guangyi, Big Brother knows what you are thinking. But I cannot let go. I have to cure him…”
Only the voices of the two men echoed through the deep hall. At the highest point, the dragon throne gave off a faint dark-gold gleam. Zhao Guangyi stared at it without looking away, then smiled. “Big Brother, Guangyi has warned you again and again. This man is destined to ruin your great undertaking, and you still insist on this?”
Zhao Kuangyin suddenly turned his back, clasped his hands behind him, and stood in silence for a long time.
“Big Brother, sparing his life already exhausted benevolence and righteousness. His Majesty has tolerated and honored the Marquis of Disobedience again and again, and the whole court and realm have seen it. Does Big Brother truly insist on gambling?”
“For one person… even for a man… Big Brother still wants to gamble? And the stake is these mountains and rivers, this realm beneath Heaven?”
That man’s back still yielded to no one. Even the smallest movement carried a striking, commanding bearing, not merely ruthlessness but unmistakable force.
Yet at this moment, he suddenly did not dare turn around.
Reaching out to steady himself against the dragon throne, Zhao Kuangyin finally spoke. “I command you… cure his eyes!” The certainty in his voice had lost none of its old force.
Zhao Guangyi bowed to accept the order. “This younger brother will do everything he can.” He too turned and left without another word.
After the evening meal, it was time for medicine again. Zhao Kuangyin once more personally came to the Sandalwood Pavilion as the dose arrived.
That day Zhao Guangyi had personally inspected every medicinal ingredient. He certainly was not willing to let Li Congjia truly come through unharmed; this was only a performance made complete. After checking everything and finding nothing amiss, he merely said that taking the medicine for three days should show results.
The Prince of Jin then left the palace, unwilling to waste any more words on Zhao Kuangyin.
In truth, Zhao Kuangyin’s behavior had already stirred objections from every side. He ordered someone to carry the medicine and followed it into the Sandalwood Pavilion. He had lost, completely and utterly. He wanted Li Congjia restored to the way he had been before.
Li Congjia with wrists white as gathered snow, clad in blue-green robes beautiful enough to topple a kingdom.
The musicians’ melody slowly rose again through the night. Zhao Kuangyin remembered that the Shangyuan Festival would soon arrive. “A thousand gates unlock, ten thousand lamps shine; in the middle of the first month, the capital shakes with revelry…”
Elio’s Notes: The chapter title and closing line come from Tang poet Zhang Hu’s Lanterns on the Fifteenth Night of the First Month (《正月十五夜灯》), a poem about the brilliance and noise of the Shangyuan lantern celebration. The novel prints 正月中旬动地京; received versions commonly read 正月中旬动帝京. FD follows the novel’s wording rather than silently replacing it.
The song fell silent. Medicinal fragrance spread through the room, and there was no sigh one could let out.