Ripples of the mortal world leave the human realm empty; wind and snow leave a few remnants, a letter chilled in mist. Who turned blue seas into mulberry fields? Cherishing flowers, one lights candles and dyes the hair between them.
The sun rose. Everything in Bianjing appeared calm and undisturbed, yet inside the palace Wang Jien was quietly replacing men at every post. The eunuchs around him were all trusted men of the Prince of Jin. Tonight would decide life and death. Win or lose, everyone had reached the final moment.
And the Lantern Festival was only days away.
Yet with flowers burned and jade broken, no one had any heart left to care. Instead, stalls had sprung up through the streets and lanes, each pearl-like yuanxiao carrying hopes of abundance, their gentle warmth comforting the heart.
Zhao Kuangyin could not put his mind at ease. He sent someone out of the palace to inquire about the situation at the Hall of Honoring the Worthy. The man had barely returned before dropping to his knees. “Your Majesty! The Marquis of Disobedience left the residence yesterday and went toward the Prince of Jin’s Residence. He still had not returned by this morning.”
“The Marquis of Disobedience went to the Prince of Jin’s Residence on his own?”
“Yes. Madam Zheng says the Prince of Jin’s ambitions are plain for all to see and begged again and again that this matter be reported to Your Majesty. The Prince of Jin has long since…”
Zhao Kuangyin suddenly slammed a hand onto the desk, cutting him off. “Summon the Prince of Jin to the palace!”
The weather was oppressively overcast. Only yesterday the sun had been mild enough for Zhao Guangyi to remove his sable fur; today he wore it again, feeling the cold congealed in the air and refusing to disperse, like pent-up winter chill temporarily wrapped inside layers of satin, ready to burst through the slightest opening and bite into flesh.
From beneath the palace walls, the secluded Sandalwood Pavilion could be seen in the distance, solemn and still behind the plum trees.
Zhao Guangyi approached at an unhurried pace in his light fur robe, as composed as ever. Instead of entering the main hall, he waited outside the imperial study. When he saw that dazzling imperial yellow hurrying toward him from afar, he first bowed in greeting, then glanced up and reproached Wang Jien, who stood behind Zhao Kuangyin looking cautious and deferential. “Chief Steward Wang, the weather is bitterly cold today. Why did you not think to fetch His Majesty something lined with sable?”
Zhao Kuangyin stopped abruptly beside him and looked him up and down. “Guangyi’s stomach injury makes him sensitive to the cold. You are well prepared in that respect.”
All around them, palace attendants and guards kept their heads lowered and silently went about their duties. Under countless watching eyes, the two brothers exchanged ordinary pleasantries with remarkable harmony.
Wang Jien lowered his eyes and opened the door, then withdrew behind a lacquered pillar to one side. He glanced at the sky and heard the timekeeping eunuch call from ahead, “Si hour!”
Inside the study, Zhao Guangyi had barely closed the door when Zhao Kuangyin spoke from the seat of honor. “There is no need for hidden schemes between you and me. Big Brother summoned you today. Surely you know perfectly well why.”
“Big Brother sounds distinctly unsettled. Has concern thrown you into confusion?”
“Guangyi, Big Brother only wants to know what has happened to you these past few days.”
Without waiting to be offered a seat, Zhao Guangyi chose a chair for himself and calmly drank tea, as though he had done nothing improper at all. “Big Brother makes it sound far too serious. Guangyi’s stomach ailment has only just begun to improve, and I have not neglected my duties as Prefect. What rumors has Big Brother heard now?”
Zhao Kuangyin was silent for a long time, staring only at him. “Where is Li Congjia now?”
“Everyone at court knows the Marquis of Disobedience has been detained in the palace for days without being sent back, leaving the beautiful Madam Zheng to wither away in vain while waiting for him. Yet Big Brother comes to ask Guangyi?” He took another sip of tea. Perhaps he found the brew too strong and bitter, for his lips tightened slightly.
“We… ask you once more. Where is the Marquis of Disobedience now?”
Zhao Guangyi slowly returned the teacup to the table and straightened his clothes. “Presumably Imperial Brother already knows that he left the Hall of Honoring the Worthy of his own accord and came to my residence.”
“He is still at your residence?”
“Yes.”
The air around Zhao Kuangyin seemed to gather into a cutting chill. He shot to his feet. “Let him go back.”
“The Marquis of Disobedience rarely honors me with such extraordinary face. How could I fail to entertain him properly with a banquet?”
“Zhao Guangyi!” In a flicker of movement Zhao Kuangyin was already before him, brows drawn tight. “Do you think I do not know what you intend? I have yielded to you again and again. Even if you are my own younger brother, this time you have gone too far!”
Zhao Guangyi rose as well and met his gaze directly. “What do you mean by too far? Li Congjia is a condemned subject, a prisoner of our dynasty. As Prince of Jin, I ought to concern myself with the state and its people. Yet merely detaining him is enough to make Big Brother this furious. Do you think no one else understands what lies behind all this? They see it every day… and now…” He actually laughed. “You have all but lost the people’s hearts. Big Brother knows that better than anyone. If even a ripple appears on the lake’s surface, the depths beneath have long been raging with waves. Trying to calm them is already futile!”
“You!” Zhao Kuangyin’s anger had not subsided. “What have you done to him? His illness from long-suppressed grief has troubled him for so long…” Zhao Kuangyin knew better than anyone how Li Congjia bore every violent rise and fall of emotion alone, never willing to let others see it, leaving his illness of coughing blood to relapse again and again without ever healing. Zhao Kuangyin had spent half the day forcing down his fear and now dared less and less to imagine what might have happened.
He remembered the look in Zhao Guangyi’s eyes when he shot Consort Huarui dead with an arrow.
He had already gone mad. Zhao Kuangyin could not be certain what Zhao Guangyi might do.
Zhao Guangyi’s smile deepened. “Big Brother, do not worry. The Marquis of Disobedience is proud and pure to the bone. He merely played a piece for Guangyi and drank a little… wine.”
Zhao Kuangyin repeatedly tried to read something in his gaze, but found nothing except a surge of ruthless resolve. He could still remember the timid yet curious eyes of the child beneath the tree all those years ago, saying that everything would follow Big Brother, that whatever Big Brother wanted was what he wanted too. They had carved two bracelets together hand in hand, and such tiny trinkets had been enough to fill the child with genuine delight.
Now this man was steeped in killing intent, and every word he spoke left others speechless.
“Zhao Guangyi.” Zhao Kuangyin turned his back. “What you are doing already amounts to forming a faction and becoming a threat. Big Brother could have you bound and taken away right now and would be entirely justified. You know I do not want us to reach this point… Let Li Congjia go.”
“No!” This time the answer came cleanly and without hesitation, shattering the bitter scent of tea filling the room. Perhaps the attendants had not known His Majesty would arrive so suddenly and had had no time to replace it with a fresh brew. The air itself tasted dry and sharp.
“Fine! You are the one forcing me!” Zhao Kuangyin looked at the empty wrist beneath Zhao Guangyi’s fur robe. He had long since stopped wearing that token. “Zhao Guangyi! Must you truly go this far?”
“Anger harms the body, Big Brother. What a strange thing to say. Guangyi would rather ask whether Big Brother truly intends to turn against me for his sake?”
“He… he has nothing to do with what you are planning! Let us speak plainly, Zhao Guangyi. You want this realm, do you not?” Zhao Kuangyin raised one swordlike brow and looked at the child he had worried over for more than a decade, now standing here threatening him and trying to seize everything he valued. “You have things you want for yourself too. Big Brother actually overlooked that all this time.”
He was still like this, forever waiting to stretch out a hand and bestow some favor upon Zhao Guangyi.
Zhao Guangyi hated it to death.
He did not want to spend his whole life surviving on things other people chose to give him. Everyone had desires. Zhao Guangyi could no longer control his own. He did not know when he had begun wanting to overturn everything that appeared peaceful, needing to destroy something.
Only then could he feel that the person he was now was still alive.
“Stop talking about those old matters! They are useless. You and I are standing here today with no road back. Since Big Brother has spoken plainly, Guangyi will speak plainly too. The Marquis of Disobedience drank poisoned wine at my residence at the third watch last night. Once a full day has passed, twelve double-hours, not even an immortal elixir could save Li Congjia. So… Big Brother, even if you still have the power to condemn me for the moment, if I do not return to the Prince of Jin’s Residence, not only will the forces on every side rise immediately, but for the men in my residence to kill him would be no more difficult than lifting a hand.”
“Factions on every side plotting usurpation, poisoned wine as blackmail. Good! You truly have used every means available to you!”
“Big Brother understood these things perfectly well in those days. For the sake of this realm, who has not exhausted every possible means?”
“Even if it means… severing the bond between brothers?”
Zhao Guangyi’s gaze shifted slightly aside. He no longer looked at him. “…Even then.”
“How did you gather such a faction and make them utterly loyal to you?” Zhao Kuangyin turned toward the desk and took something from behind it.
“Big Brother sits at the pinnacle of imperial power and has long forgotten the old days. Wang Rao… once condemned, yet he too was once a military governor who dominated an entire region. The remnants of those forces have been stirring, and they are men of military background as well. If Big Brother tolerates me for even a little longer, they will immediately grow into towering trees. Thinking it over now, Guangyi may not necessarily have lost anything at all…”
Zhao Kuangyin held a brocade box wrapped in yellow silk. “All you want is this gilded seat!” His fingers lightly struck the back of the dragon throne. “Big Brother has prepared this succession edict. Today I swear to place it behind the golden plaque in the main hall. In the future, the throne will pass to the Prince of Jin, Zhao Guangyi.”
Zhao Guangyi looked coldly at the brocade box containing the edict. He watched Zhao Kuangyin open the door and order Wang Jien to present it to Chancellor Zhao in the front hall. “Big Brother seems to have thought this through.”
The man who ordinarily tolerated not the slightest offense, much less a threat, truly wrote the imperial edict and had it placed behind the plaque in the main hall. With his back to Zhao Guangyi, he said, “I have always felt as I did then. Big Brother and you should never have been divided from one another. This realm should have passed into your hands in the future…” He sighed deeply. “Now you can rest easy. Let him leave your residence.”
Dim light filtered through the seams of the auspicious dragon-patterned doors and fell across Zhao Kuangyin’s face, one half shadowed, the other almost regretful. Why was it that after gaining everything, he discovered that none of them were who they once had been?
He had wanted to keep Zhao Guangyi, but he lost him. When he finally found him again, he was no longer the same person.
He had also wanted to protect Li Congjia, to see him smile faintly with a lifted wrist beautiful enough to topple a city, to see him drink in the wind, his double pupils bewitching. Yet Zhao Kuangyin himself had destroyed everything he possessed, leaving him to struggle beneath the blood debt of tens of thousands with no way free.
At the summit of layered peaks, with everything seemingly held within one palm, Zhao Kuangyin slowly closed his eyes. There were still things he could not hold onto.
Laughter suddenly sounded behind him. “An imperial edict meant for a hundred years from now in exchange for one life. Does Big Brother think Guangyi will be satisfied with that? If I cure his poison today and let you save him, how difficult would it be for you to immediately go back on your word and have all of us strangled to death?”
Zhao Kuangyin kept his eyes closed. “I will not.”
“I want you to abdicate today!”
“Zhao Guangyi! Do you even know what you are saying today? I have already tolerated crimes great enough to reach the heavens. What more do you want? Do not think that because you have been indulged you can do absolutely anything!” Zhao Kuangyin spun around in fury and stared directly at him, only to see that his anger seemed to make Zhao Guangyi even more delighted. “Big Brother, you are finally angry… You still cannot bear to part with it, can you? You cannot bear to give up this power and this realm, so you are willing to give him up instead…”
“Do not push your luck!”
“And what if I do? Then please, Your Majesty, grant this subject the crime of rebellion against his sovereign!” Zhao Guangyi stood there at ease, utterly fearless. “If I do not return to my residence after nightfall, you will never see Li Congjia again for all eternity!”
“If you harm even a hair on him, I swear I will…” Zhao Kuangyin stopped.
“What will Big Brother do? Kill me for his sake? One life for one life? Your own flesh-and-blood brother is worth less than Li Congjia… Or does Big Brother simply think he is less important than this realm?”
Zhao Kuangyin walked toward the dragon throne. As he passed Zhao Guangyi, his heart finally went cold.
“You have always wanted this realm?” Seated above him, Zhao Kuangyin once again looked exactly as he always did, as though he were only waiting for Zhao Guangyi to answer before bestowing another favor upon him from on high. Zhao Guangyi’s voice suddenly rose. “Stop speaking in that tone! What are you planning to hand down to me this time? Give me an edict naming me your successor and graciously pardon my ambition? Why must you always bestow favors upon me? Zhao Kuangyin, today I want you to abdicate! There is no room for discussion and no need to delay. Will you agree or not?”
He took a slight step backward, somewhat losing his composure, but his eyes remained fixed on the man upon the dragon throne. “Will you give it up or not? The realm you fought so hard to win… and Li Congjia. Which one do you choose?”
Zhao Kuangyin did not speak for a very long time.
The silence became absolute. Neither man yielded an inch. When they finally reached the moment when heaven and earth seemed ready to split apart, it was far less tragic and magnificent than either might have imagined. Zhao Kuangyin simply sat above him as usual. He was the emperor. He still was.
That only made Zhao Guangyi suffer more. “Will you choose or not?”
At last the figure in imperial yellow closed his eyes. “I choose him.”
The daylight dimmed.
In a cold pavilion in the gardens of the Prince of Jin’s Residence, two guards had spent the entire day watching Li Congjia’s every movement. This silver fox, carrying a lifetime of legend upon him, had not spoken a single word. Most of the day had passed. He merely sat there with his eyes closed, seeming asleep and yet as though he had been awake all along.
Do not choose.
Just this once, Zhao Kuangyin, I beg you.
Whether this life was infatuation or a karmic debt misplaced, I concede. I beg you. Harden your heart just this once. Do not keep holding back because he is your younger brother…
He suddenly frowned, not knowing why grief rose within him.
Covering his mouth, he began to cough softly. He had never felt anything like this before.
He was lost. He did not know what to do. He did not care whether he himself lived or died, but he knew Zhao Kuangyin too well. He could not imagine that man, who could lift his brows and smile upon mountains, rivers, sun, and moon, one day surrendering everything with his own hands. Nor could he imagine all the hardship and regret along Zhao Kuangyin’s road, together with the guilt of a lifetime, being cast into running water.
He did not know what Zhao Kuangyin looked like when he was heartbroken. It seemed he had always forgotten that Zhao Kuangyin could be hurt too.
His heart was in chaos, so badly that Li Congjia began to feel afraid. The cold around him left him rigid in the chair, unable to move. Even the faint warmth in his own fingers felt unbearable. He remembered the day after the surrender ceremony, when Zhao Kuangyin suddenly entered the Hall of Honoring the Worthy. He could still remember the warmth of that body. The more he thought of it, the colder he became, until it seemed all the blood in his heart had frozen.
Every fraction of time was enough to drive a person mad. Never had a single day passed so slowly.
The parasol trees had withered.
Zhao Guangyi burst into laughter. “A hero bends at the waist. Li Congjia may be no good at being an emperor, but when it comes to bewitching people’s hearts, no one can compare with him!”
“Shut up!”
Zhao Guangyi continued laughing. The man before him seemed both ridiculous and pitiable. What had he spent his whole life fighting for, only to abandon everything at the end? If so, he might as well never have struggled so bitterly in the first place. Suddenly he thought of Yunjie, and a dull pain struck his heart. “You choose him… very well. Before midnight tonight, I will bring him into the palace. You will abdicate in front of him, and before midnight I will save him…”
“You should understand this clearly. If you do not save Li Congjia, I can still kill you.” Zhao Kuangyin’s voice had turned glacial, each word thrown at him separately. Zhao Guangyi had finally exposed his true nature completely. He had deliberately chosen the very last moment before the poison took effect to enter the palace, leaving no time for delay, forcing Zhao Kuangyin openly and unmistakably.
“I naturally understand the advantages and consequences. There is no need for you to say more!” Having heard Zhao Kuangyin’s answer, Zhao Guangyi tried to find some shred of comfort in it, only to discover there was none. The dull pain in his stomach had been ignored again and again, yet the deliberate effort to endure it made it increasingly unbearable. He had no choice but to press a hand tightly over it. For the last time, he bowed to the man upon the dragon throne. “This younger brother… takes his leave.”
“Before midnight, you must let me see Li Congjia.”
The imperial study fell silent after a battle of inner demons.
From afar Wang Jien saw the Prince of Jin suddenly emerge and knew the matter was most likely settled. He had just started toward him when he noticed the Prince’s expression was poor. “Your Highness, are you…”
“After nightfall, you must watch everything inside the palace carefully. And there must be no mishap with the edict behind the golden plaque.”
“Yes.” Wang Jien stopped and watched the Prince of Jin walk away one step at a time.
A person truly had to be pushed before anything could be accomplished. Wang Jien carefully brushed a speck of dust from his clothes, then looked up at the sky, still oppressively overcast. “By tomorrow morning, I fear… heaven and earth will have changed masters.” He sighed and glanced toward the imperial study. No wonder both sun and moon were hidden. It certainly was no auspicious omen.
Empress, one death in exchange for a true Son of Heaven. That should count as worthwhile, should it not? Smiling furtively in satisfaction, Wang Jien withdrew as though nothing had happened.
The imperial study stood empty. Zhao Kuangyin sat alone in silence as well.
Looking back over his life, he realized he had forgotten many of its smaller details. Human memory was extraordinarily good at healing. Once something had passed, the hardship of the process was quickly forgotten.
War, bloodshed, beacon fires, life and death. That year he had left home with a sword, crossed north and south, and glimpsed the realm over cups of wine.
No matter when, he had always remembered that there was still a blood relative he had not found. He could not die. He had to keep going for the sake of that child.
Later, their meeting beneath the tree became a sight he had never imagined in all his life.
A smile that made the flowers of March fall, robes of splendid brocade, a figure so light and clear he seemed ready to disappear into the wind at any moment.
Zhao Kuangyin had known with perfect clarity that he wanted it all. He wanted everything held within his grasp. He wanted the realm. He wanted him. He wanted all things taken to their utmost.
Li Congjia had nothing left. When no one else was present, Zhao Kuangyin always remembered the emptiness in his eyes that day, his plain white robes bloodless with cold before Xuande Gate. Zhao Kuangyin had destroyed everything he possessed. He could not destroy his loves and hates as well.
So he would exchange it.
From far away came the call of a palace timekeeper. “Wei hour!”
Zhao Kuangyin rose and closed the door of the imperial study for the last time, heading toward his sleeping quarters at Shouyuan Hall. The road was still lined with parasol trees, but their branches were bare. So be it. In such a scene, where could there be any leaves to see?
Spring was near, yet spring had still not arrived. He wondered whether, when Qixi came, he would still be able to drink freely with him beneath the flowers.