In the vast rainy night, lanterns swayed under the eaves, casting a dim, hazy glow.
The Second Prince, clad in vermilion everyday robes, sat sideways at the edge of a couch. Beside him lay an unfinished game of chess. Holding a white piece between two fingers, his mind was not on the game, but fixed instead on the autumn rain drumming on the banana leaves outside the carved lattice window.
Only when Eunuch Rongqing’s voice came from outside did he stir: “Your Highness, Lord Pei has arrived.”
At last, he had come.
The Second Prince closed his fingers around the chess piece and drew back his gaze from the window. “Let him in.”
“Lord Pei, please.”
“My thanks, Eunuch Wang.”
The lacquered red doors swung open, and soon a tall figure in moon-white robes appeared at the threshold. Like a radiant full moon, he entered with measured steps, the whole room seeming to shine brighter for his presence.
When he reached the couch, Pei Xia raised his hand in salute: “This subject greets Your Highness, the Second Prince.”
“Shouzhen, no need for such ceremony.”
The Second Prince gently rubbed the chess piece in his palm, his gaze resting upon the man before him.
Unlike the travel-worn figure from two hours ago, he was now in clean robes, his hair freshly bound, restored once more to that serene, extraordinary bearing beyond the ordinary.
“I thought, after you and your wife had been parted for so many days, now finally reunited, you would surely have much to say to one another. How is it you’ve come to me so soon?”
As he spoke, his eyes lingered briefly on Pei Xia’s dampened shoulders, brows furrowing. “It’s still raining outside.”
“Had it not been for Your Highness sending a letter and even lending me the imperial horse, my wife and I might have missed each other completely today. For such great kindness, this subject is grateful to the depths of my heart and will never forget it.”
“Shouzhen, you are too courteous. You and I fought side by side to pacify Huainan—brothers-in-arms. Knowing where your wife was, how could I simply sit back and ignore it?”
Looking at Pei Xia’s deeply bowed back, the prince lifted a hand. “There are no outsiders here. Rise.”
Pei Xia straightened slowly. “My thanks, Your Highness.”
The Second Prince smiled. “Come, finish this round of chess with me.”
Pei Xia stepped forward but did not sit. Standing beside the black-and-white board, he let his eyes sweep lightly over it.
The Second Prince fixed his gaze on him. “Shouzhen, why not sit?”
Pei Xia replied, “This subject already knows the method to resolve this game.”
“Oh?” The Second Prince raised a brow, interest flickering in his eyes. “Then tell me—how would you resolve it?”
“That depends on whether Your Highness plays white or black.”
Turning slightly, Pei Xia’s usually calm dark eyes met the prince’s directly. “If Your Highness holds white, I can see to it that white wins. If black, then black will win.”
His measured voice rang out in the quiet, rain-soaked night. After a brief silence, the Second Prince laughed.
Pointing at him with a finger, he said, “Who would have thought such arrogant words would one day come from Pei Shouzhen’s mouth?”
And yet, though arrogant, they carried conviction.
For Pei Shouzhen did indeed possess the skill to scheme and command, to stir up storms with but a move.
When the Second Prince’s laughter faded, he bade Pei Xia to sit once more.
But Pei Xia still did not take a seat. Instead, he bowed again. “This subject has come tonight, first to thank Your Highness for your grace, and second because I have a matter to request.”
The chess piece stilled in the prince’s hand. He lifted a brow. “What matter?”
“Family scandals should not be spoken outside, but since Your Highness has said there are no outsiders here, I need not conceal it. My wife’s misfortune this time was the work of petty schemers within the clan. As heir of the Pei lineage, I failed to root out the rot and uphold the family’s order—that is my dereliction. As husband to Madam Shen, I failed to protect her, let her suffer hardship and nearly lose her life—that is my failure. My remorse runs deep and cannot be hidden.”
Though bowing low, his back remained straight as bamboo. “Thanks only to Your Highness’s grace was I able to find my wife again. Yet my family has already held her funeral, and the world believes she is dead. To bring her back now, a dead returning to life, would be absurd—how could idle tongues be stilled?”
“Yes, before you came, I too was pondering this.”
The Second Prince nodded, a troubled look on his face. “Your family acted too quickly. Now that you’ve found your wife, under what name can you bring her home? Perhaps grant her a new identity—say she is someone you met in Jinling, and bring her back as your new wife, a proper second marriage?”
It was, in the prince’s view, the simplest and most workable solution.
After all, a woman—spending her life behind the inner walls—her name was not of much importance.
Besides, Shen Yujiao was the daughter of a disgraced official. It was not a name of honor; casting it aside was no great loss.
If Pei Xia agreed, by tomorrow the Jinling yamen could arrange for his wife a spotless new identity.
Yet Pei Xia said, “In this lifetime, this subject has one and only one principal wife. The one entered alongside me in the clan records is none other than the eldest legitimate daughter of the Shen family of Qingyang—her, and only her.”
The Second Prince was startled, staring at him, brows drawn together, not understanding what meaning lay in such insistence. It was, after all, merely a matter of adding a line in the genealogy.
Could it be that a man should speak of fidelity and undivided devotion—or that he simply thought a second marriage sounded ill?
He was quite puzzled, yet it was not his place to press further, so he only said: “This is troublesome. As you say, the dead returning to life is absurd. Moreover, the primary wife has already had her funeral rites announced. To call it all a misunderstanding would also damage the reputation of your Pei clan.”
Pei Xia inclined his head. “Yes. By my strength alone, or even that of my clan, it is difficult to restore her name and silence the rumors. Therefore I shamelessly beg Your Highness for assistance.”
The Second Prince looked full of doubt. “This… this is your family’s affair. How am I to help you?”
“I ask Your Highness, with the strength of the Yang clan of Hongnong, the Cui clan of Boling, and the imperial Sima clan—these three great families—to help restore my wife’s reputation and clear her name.”
Meeting the Second Prince’s startled gaze, Pei Xia’s expression grew solemn and earnest. He raised both hands before him. “When Your Highness ascends the throne, I further beg you to bestow an imperial title upon my wife, so that by the emperor’s grace her good name may be sealed, and all tongues silenced, that she may be protected in lifelong honor.”
As his words fell, the room sank into a long silence.
Only the wind and rain outside could be heard, along with the Second Prince’s heartbeat, growing louder and more chaotic in his chest.
What had Pei Shouzhen just said?
Ascend the throne. By imperial grace, confer a title upon his wife.
He said that he could ascend the throne.
Ascend the throne.
Pei Shouzhen believed he could become emperor!
This was something he himself dared only think in secret; even his own mother-consort did not dare speak of it openly with him. Only Pei Shouzhen, and he alone, had so plainly voiced his ambition.
The Second Prince’s heart trembled, his blood ran hot, though he strove to restrain his expression as he gazed deeply at the elegant, jade-like gentleman before him. “Shouzhen, do you know what you are saying? These words, if overheard by others, would doom both you and me to ruin without reprieve.”
Pei Xia lowered his eyes, his tone calm. “This courtyard is surrounded only by Your Highness’s confidants. If even they cannot be trusted, how can Your Highness speak of ascending the throne?”
The Second Prince’s brow twitched slightly, then he laughed.
Speaking with a clever man was indeed delightful—now he understood. Each time he had tested Pei Xia before, the man had refused to take the bait, feigning ignorance on purpose!
“You just said, with the power of the three clans, to help your wife restore her name—what exactly did you mean?”
“Her Highness Consort Xian manages the six palaces, equal in rank to the Empress herself. She is dignified, virtuous, harmonious within the harem; among all the concubines and noblewomen, none is unaware of her good name. If, at my wife’s moment of calamity, she happened upon the carriage sent by Consort Xian to deliver gifts to Jinling, and one of the palace Momos, moved with pity, rescued her, bringing her along the road to Jinling… Thereafter she was taken in and cared for by the prefect’s lady, until at last, when Your Highness and I arrived in the prefecture, husband and wife were reunited, and could be whole again.”
The Second Prince widened his eyes, staring in astonishment at the man speaking so earnestly before him. “This… can this work?”
“Why not?”
“First, why would my royal mother be sending gifts to Jinling?”
“Has not Consort Xian always sent seasonal gifts each year to her own full sister’s household? The Mid-Autumn gifts sent from Chang’an in late May arrive at Jinling in early August—the timing is perfect.”
The Second Prince was caught short. Seasonal gifts did indeed exist.
“But then—if the gift convoy recognized your wife, why would they not return her directly to your residence in Luoyang, instead taking her all the way to Jinling?”
Pei Xia’s face did not change. “When my wife was attacked by bandits, in order to preserve her chastity she attempted to take her own life. She suffered a grave head injury, and for a time her memory was in disarray.”
The Second Prince froze. His thin lips moved as though to speak, then stopped, then started again, then stopped once more. Finally, stroking his chin, he muttered lowly: “Who would have thought you had such a talent for spinning tales…”
After muttering, he still furrowed his brows. “But can this really work? It feels full of flaws.”
“There is no such thing as a flawless lie.”
Pei Xia’s lips curved faintly, a trace of cold irony hidden in his dark eyes. “Besides, whether a lie is flawless is not what matters. What matters is—whose mouth speaks it.”
The Second Prince’s breath caught, as he gazed silently into those deep, narrow eyes, fathomless as the abyss.
The man who had always seemed untouched by worldly dust seemed now like a different person—or perhaps unchanged, only showing at last a side of himself he had never before revealed.
“If the account of my wife’s ordeal is spoken by Consort Xian herself, with the two great families of Yang of Hongnong and Cui of Boling as witnesses, and with Your Highness, the famed Worthy Prince today, and in the future the Worthy Sovereign with all under heaven in your grasp—if you yourself saw my wife reunited with me, and one day bestow the decree upon her by your own lips—then I ask you: under heaven, who would dare defy Consort Xian, or the Yangs, or the Cuis, or the Peis? Who would dare dispute your golden words, and place themselves against a loyal, innocent woman?”
Having spoken at an unhurried pace, Pei Xia lowered his gaze, lifted his robe, and knelt before the Second Prince. He bowed in the full form of a vassal to his sovereign, his voice low, resolute, and fervent: “If Your Highness is willing to grant me this favor, Pei Xia swears to follow you all his life—devoting all that I have learned, all my strength, exhausting my heart and mind, laying bare my very liver and gall—certainly I will help Your Highness ascend as emperor and secure the realm for eternity!”
Ascend as emperor, secure the realm for eternity.
Looking at the noble gentleman of the Pei clan kneeling before him, at last willing to submit, the Second Prince felt his very blood boil.
For the promise of Pei Shouzhen, what was the reputation of a single woman that he could not protect?
The white chess piece in his palm was already damp with sweat from his excitement. He had known it since that evening, when Pei Shouzhen, upon hearing his wife was to be married to another, had rushed headlong to snatch her back regardless of consequence—he had known then.
That woman would become the flaw, the blemish, on this flawless piece of jade…
And moreover—his weakness.
Now, of his own will, he had placed his weakness before him, as a pledge of loyalty.
“Shouzhen, good, Shouzhen.”
The Second Prince set down the chess piece on the board, hurriedly rose to his feet, and in two strides helped Pei Xia up. His eyes shone with fervor, brimming with lofty ambition: “With your aid in my great undertaking, success will come twice the speed with half the effort! When the day comes that I truly sit upon the throne, you shall be my grand chancellor, and your wife shall be granted the rank of first-class lady of title. You and I, ruler and minister, will govern the world together—wise sovereign and worthy subject, our names inscribed in history. I will never fail you!”
Pei Xia looked at that hand gripping him so tightly. His long dark lashes lowered, and his deep voice carried a faint, hidden bitterness that none could detect: “I too will not fail Your Highness’s great trust.”
—
Night deepened, and the rain grew heavier.
When Pei Xia returned to his lodging under an umbrella, he saw, at the gate of the courtyard, two figures lurking in secrecy.
His attendant Jinglin lifted a lantern and gave a heavy cough.
The two figures froze at once, then quickly turned around.
When both sides saw clearly who it was, they were equally taken aback.
Pei Xia’s brows drew faintly together, his tone cold and distant: “It is late and raining hard. Why is Miss Cui not in her chamber at rest, but wandering the guest quarters instead?”
Those two were precisely Cui Wenyin and her personal maid.
Caught red-handed by Pei Xia, Cui Wenyin flushed in embarrassment. She made a proper curtsey before speaking awkwardly: “Pei Langjun, I heard that your lady has been found and returned, so I wished to see if she was well.”
Hearing her intent, Pei Xia also knew that it was thanks to this Sixth Miss Cui’s warm heart and careful aid that he had recovered his wife today. His tone softened somewhat. “My wife is well in all things. Only she is weary today and must already be at rest.”
Cui Wenyin responded “That’s good, that’s good” in quick succession, then added with some embarrassment: “I was only thinking—she and I are both women, and close in age. If she lacks for anything, or has any difficulty, I thought I might ask… Since you are guests in my home, I should at least do my duty as hostess.”
“My thanks to Sixth Niangzi.”
Pei Xia cupped his hands. “Your kindness I will pass on to my wife. But it is dark and the ground slick. Miss, you had best return to rest early.”
Cui Wenyin knew as well that to wander outside at night was indeed a breach of propriety.
But her curiosity had gotten the better of her, so she had come rashly.
Now that he had given a clear dismissal, she could not bring herself to linger. She quickly bent her knees in salute. “Yes, I shall return at once.”
Pei Xia stepped aside, lowering his gaze to the ground, letting her pass first.
Cui Wenyin, head lowered, felt she had lost all face, and quickened her steps.
Watching her figure recede into the rainy night, Pei Xia’s brows and expression returned once more to cool indifference, and he turned into the courtyard.
Meanwhile, Cui Wenyin had just reached the covered walkway connecting the inner and outer courtyards, when she saw, beyond the moon-gate, a blaze of lantern light.
At this late hour, why were there so many people?
Cui Wenyin frowned and signaled her maid with her eyes: “Go and ask.”
The maid thought, My lady, you are far too nosy, but seeing the flurry of activity over there, she too grew curious. Lifting her skirts, she trotted over to inquire.
Soon she came running back, apricot eyes wide. “Oh heavens, my lady, we must hurry back to your room! They say a thief just climbed over the back wall, and now the whole household is searching for him!”
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