Taibai once wrote in a poem: “The land embraces Jinling’s might, the city curves where the river flows. In those days a million households, vermilion towers rising along the roads.” This speaks of Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties.
By the Ming Dynasty, same as Tang, the “two‑capital system” was implemented. To guard the nation’s northern gate, the Son of Heaven moved the capital to Shuntian Prefecture, bordering the northern steppe, and renamed it “Beijing.” Meanwhile, Yingtian Prefecture where Nanjing was located served as the auxiliary capital, retaining its entire set of imperial city structures, palaces, wards and streets, as well as simplified versions of the Six Ministries.
By all logic, whether in terms of geography or climate and customs, Nanjing was far more suitable to serve as the capital of a nation.
Its city walls, solid, vast, and sprawling, ranked first among all capitals in recorded history.
The entirety of Nanjing was encircled by four layers of walls: from the innermost to the outermost, they were the Palace City, the Imperial City, the Capital City, and the Outer City. Together, they formed a rare bell-shaped layout, designed according to the astrological pattern of the “Three Walls and Twenty-Eight Mansions,” in harmony with the land’s mountains and waterways.
Mount Zhong coiled like a dragon to the east, Stone City crouched like a tiger to the west. To the north stretched the vast, misty expanse of Xuanwu Lake; to the south flowed the silken curve of the Qinhuai River. Geomancers called this formation “the dragon coils, the tiger crouches, the jade belt encircles the waist”, a site truly destined for an emperor’s throne.
The grain barge Su Yan rode traveled down the Yangtze River. From afar, he could already see the Yuejiang Tower perched atop Lion Hill. Turning into the Qinhuai River, he transferred to a small black-canopied boat, passed through the Water Gate amid the rhythmic creak of oars, had his identity verified, and entered the Inner City, disembarking near Tongji Bridge.
Beyond the Tongji Gate ahead lay Nanjing’s Imperial City.
The southern main gate of the Imperial City was Hongwu Gate. To its left stood the Nanjing Five Military Command Office, abbreviated as the “Five Offices.” To its right were the offices of the Six Ministries.
This was to be his future workplace. Su Yan made a point of circling around for a closer look, and noticed that there were only five ministries, with the Ministry of Justice conspicuously missing. He wondered where that particular office had gone.
Beyond Hongwu Gate, after crossing the Outer Five-Dragon Bridge, stood, just like in the capital, the Chengtian Gate, Duan Gate, and Meridian Gate, and beyond them, the imperial palace itself.
Under normal circumstances, the Crown Prince’s residence should be within the palace. But since Su Yan had no formal summons, he could not proceed farther. He asked the gate guards to report to the Crown Prince on his behalf and then went to the Ministry of Rites to hand over his credentials.
After more than half an hour, Zhu Helin burst out of the palace in haste, no ceremonial escort, only a single fast horse, followed as usual by exhausted guards struggling to keep up, all the way to the Ministry of Rites.
Su Yan had just completed the handover of his appointment papers and received his official seal. While tidying his future office quarters, he suddenly heard a flurry of footsteps in the courtyard and a bright, youthful voice calling out: “Qinghe! Qinghe!”
Zhu Helin waved off his guards at the gate, rushed in with a gust of cold wind and snow, and upon seeing Su Yan, swept him up in a fierce embrace, exclaiming excitedly:
“Qinghe! I’ve missed you so much!”
Su Yan was caught tight between the youth’s strong arms and chest, barely able to breathe. He patted Zhu Helin’s back and said, “Let go first… take a few steps back, let me look at you.”
Zhu Helin obediently stepped back a few paces, spreading his arms wide, his brows and eyes curved in a pleased smile.
“I’ve grown two inches taller again, let’s compare?”
Su Yan looked him up and down and found it true, Zhu Helin had indeed shot up quite a bit, nearly matching his own height. But with broader shoulders and more developed muscle, the boy’s build made Su Yan look almost juvenile in comparison.
…He’d lost! It seemed he could no longer call him “little brat.”
Su Yan felt a bit regretful and muttered, “I just turned nineteen this year, I’ll still grow, just you wait…”
Zhu Helin grinned. “You grow, I grow too, and I’ll always grow faster! Just wait, after the New Year, when I turn sixteen, I’ll be taller than you.”
Su Yan had no words. He suspected this boy might even outgrow his own father. Compared to that, his own rate of development was honestly disappointing, where had all the food from three hearty meals a day even gone?
In the half-year since Su Yan had left the capital, unable to see him, the Crown Prince had not only grown taller but had also shed the last traces of boyishness. His features had sharpened, sword-like brows, star-bright eyes, clear and heroic. He hadn’t inherited his father the Emperor’s or Yu Wang’s elegantly arched brows or long, narrow eyes.
And his lips, where the Emperor’s were thin and restrained, and Yu Wang’s thin and seductive, the Crown Prince’s were fuller, a little soft, and when curved upward, shone with bright warmth.
Yet when he furrowed his brows and pressed his lips tight in anger, that same face became fierce and imperious, a portrait of stubborn pride and hot temper.
When he was younger, even his anger had been like a tiger cub scratching at bark with tiny claws. But now, after barely half a year apart, Su Yan found he had leapt headlong into youth, leaving childhood behind without a backward glance.
A complex feeling welled in Su Yan’s chest, pride at the boy’s growing maturity, and a quiet ache for the curious, wide-eyed child from the streets, clutching a bundle of trinkets and unable to stop looking around. That boy was gone for good.
“What are you staring at?” Zhu Helin slung an arm around his shoulders. “The long journey must’ve worn you out, you look thinner. Come on, I’m taking you to Shangyuan Tower for the best duck in all of Nanjing!”
Only then did Su Yan notice the casual clothes he wore and couldn’t help laughing. “So, with no emperor in sight and the heavens far away, does His Highness think he can do whatever he pleases now?”
Still holding him close as they walked out, Zhu Helin chuckled. “Right now, I’m the biggest man in Nanjing, who dares control me? Besides, it’s just a private visit in plain clothes. Call it… inspecting the people’s livelihood.”
Su Yan shook his head. “Has Your Highness forgotten my new post? Left Shilang of Rites. When any prince or royal acts out of line or violates decorum, it’s my duty, and my right, to correct him. If my admonitions go unheeded, I can always kneel before the Gate of Heaven and earn myself a fine reputation for righteous remonstrance.”
Zhu Helin didn’t take his threat seriously at all. He burst out laughing: “What nonsense! You’d play the stiff-necked censor, kneeling till you’re half-dead, while I become the fool everyone mocks? What’s the point? Come on, let’s just go eat some salted duck!”
As they stepped outside, he let his arm slide down and instead intertwined their fingers naturally, pulling Su Yan along toward the bustling, most lively streets within the city.
—
This time, Su Yan’s schedule was lenient. Even with a short detour by land due to silt blocking the canal, he arrived in Nanjing six or seven days before the Winter Solstice, plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming imperial tomb ceremony.
Since the grand rite was to be hosted by the Nanjing Ministry of Rites and presided over by the Crown Prince himself, as its Shilang, Su Yan was of course required to attend.
The Minister of Rites in Nanjing was a short old man named Lu Huaren, a man whose name suited him perfectly, for he was fond of “cultivating morality” in everyone around him. During the inaugural meeting, Su Yan had already been lectured by him to the brink of exhaustion.
But he didn’t actually need the old man’s endless reminders. Su Yan was the sort who liked to be well-prepared. He had already borrowed several books from the archives of the Ministry of Rites, recording past ceremonial protocols, and was carefully studying and memorizing them as he read.
Minister Lu had originally worried that the newly appointed Shilang was too young, “no hair on his lips, no firmness in his work,” as the saying went. But after observing Su Yan’s calm, diligent conduct, he stroked his gray goatee and nodded in quiet approval, shifting all his remaining worries to the Crown Prince instead.
In the eyes of this aged Minister of Rites, even if the Crown Prince grew another ten or twenty years older, he would still not match His Majesty’s steadiness. That free-spirited, flighty temperament of the prince’s was precisely what he disliked most.
Thus, several days in advance, he wrote out the entire sequence of the upcoming ceremony on paper and handed it over for the crown prince to memorize.
The Crown Prince took one look at the densely packed script, his eyes nearly going blind. After skimming through it half-heartedly, he replied, “Got it memorized.”
Minister Lu, who had lived too long in placid Nanjing with nothing better to do, rarely had chances to shine like this. Naturally, he treated the upcoming ceremony as his life’s greatest pride and joy.
With such a mindset, seeing the crown prince’s perfunctory attitude was intolerable. He tried gentle persuasion a few times, but the crown prince brushed him off each time, or replied with: “As long as the order of the ceremony doesn’t go wrong, it’s fine. Why fuss over the tone when reciting the prayer text, or which exact finger should rest atop which during the bow? What’s the point of such nitpicking?”
Minister Lu was so angry he nearly fainted, but couldn’t openly rebuke him. So he brought along a troop of ceremonial officers and attendants to rehearse with the crown prince.
The Crown Prince refused to cooperate, so they simply stood out in the square, facing the cold wind and snow.
In the end, Minister Lu even dragged the newly arrived Su Shilang to stand in the square as well. With no other choice, the crown prince donned his heavy ceremonial robes and accompanied them for three straight days, nearly collapsing from exhaustion and frustration.
When no one was looking, Su Yan tugged lightly on the crown prince’s wide sleeve and whispered, “Endure it. Once the ceremony’s done smoothly, we’ll go soak in the hot springs at Tangshan to relax. Oh, and I haven’t had a proper look around Nanjing yet, come explore with me afterward?”
The moment the Crown Prince heard that, his expression immediately brightened. Whatever the tone or gesture was supposed to be, he performed them all flawlessly.
Minister Lu, seeing this, finally let out a long sigh of relief.
—
On the eve of the grand tomb-sacrifice ceremony, the Crown Prince tried and failed to get Su Yan to stay over at the palace. So he sneaked out of Nanjing Palace again under cover of night and slipped into the small courtyard Su Yan was renting.
Su Yan was bathing at the time.
The crown prince quietly bypassed Xiaobei, the young servant dozing by the corridor while waiting to clear the bath, tiptoed into the main room, and suddenly covered Su Yan’s eyes from behind, lowering his voice: “Robbery!”
Startled, Su Yan instinctively hurled the towel and soap backward, hitting his assailant squarely.
Fortunately, the crown prince’s reflexes were quick; he braced one hand on the tub’s edge and twisted aside, narrowly dodging the “flying weapons”, though his sleeve was completely soaked.
Realizing it was Zhu Helin’s prank, Su Yan’s irritation and helplessness mingled. “Your Highness, shouldn’t you be in the palace purifying yourself for the ceremony? What are you doing here?”
The Crown Prince glanced around, dragged over a round stool, and sat beside the bath, complaining pitifully, “I’m starving. Three days of purification, only two meals a day, and no meat. I’m about to turn into a monk.”
Su Yan covered his lower body with a towel and said, “It’s not so bad. I’m fasting too, vegetable broth with tofu balls, winter bamboo shoots with mushrooms, and rice. Quite good, actually. The only issue is eating just twice a day, so I make sure each meal is twelve parts full and move as little as possible afterward.”
It wasn’t the first time they’d seen each other bare-chested, yet Su Yan still felt faintly awkward, though he kept a calm demeanor.
The Crown Prince, on the other hand, was even more self-conscious than during their last bathhouse encounter at the Disaster Relief Bureau. Pretending to be casual, he sat beside the tub, acting as if he had no interest at all in the half-naked official before him, but his eyes kept darting toward Su Yan’s chest, waist, and the towel-wrapped area below.
His gaze strayed, his thoughts wandered, and his tongue kept moving, truly multitasking at its finest.
“I’m too hungry to sleep. Have your servant cook two bowls of noodles, with egg and shredded, no, sliced meat.”
Su Yan chuckled helplessly. “If Your Highness is that hungry, best to stick with vegetarian noodles.”
The prince’s brow arched in displeasure, a look he’d clearly inherited from Yu Wang. Then, hearing Su Yan add, “Shall I cook it for you?” his eyes lit up immediately.
“Make extra, I’ll take one back to the palace for breakfast.”
“Must you sound so pitiful? You’re the Crown Prince of the realm, not some wilted cabbage,” Su Yan muttered, but still got up to cook.
The moment he moved, Zhu Helin craned his neck to sneak a look into the tub. Su Yan’s expression darkened. “No impropriety, please. Your Highness, turn around and leave the room.”
The crown prince dragged the brazier closer to the bath for warmth, turned his back as told, but didn’t go far, just sat in the outer room. His grumbling voice drifted through the screen curtain: “I’m not peeking. Nothing to see anyway, everything you’ve got, I’ve got too. Mine’s just bigger.”
Su Yan looked down at his own not-so-impressive limbs, his mild-mannered chest, and the indecisive outline of abs, then sighed silently.
He quickly dried off and layered on his clothes, three over three, until he finally felt warm.
When he came out, the Crown Prince had taken off his cloak. “Aren’t you cold?” Su Yan asked.
Zhu Helin replied, “I’m young and strong, full of energy, how could I be cold?”
“…”
“I don’t need a heated bed or a hot-water bottle either, they burn my feet.”
“…”
“What’s with that face? Changed your mind about cooking? Fine, I’ll do it myself.”
“Don’t, leave it to me!” Su Yan protested immediately. With your cooking, one half-boiled bowl of garlicky noodles would have me vomiting twice.
As they left the room, Xiaobei woke with a start. Seeing the Crown Prince visiting in the middle of the night, he showed no sign of surprise, simply bowed and went in to clean up the bath.
The crown prince praised him with a grin: “That little servant’s got some of his master’s calm composure.”
Su Yan suspected the Crown Prince was subtly mocking him for being thick-skinned, but he had no proof.
The kitchen cupboard was well stocked with ingredients, and there was some dough already kneaded from earlier in the day. Su Yan pulled out a few long strands of noodles, tore off a handful of dough pieces, and cooked them together with vegetables in a large pot.
He used dried shiitake mushrooms and winter bamboo shoots to make a savory topping, added black fungus, carrots, and frozen tofu for texture, then finished with minced scallion to draw out the fragrant blend of vegetable oil, sesame oil, and a hint of white pepper spice. The simple vegetarian noodles turned out even more delicious than egg and shredded pork noodles.
Zhu Helin, truly starving, devoured two huge bowls in a flurry of slurps before finally letting out a satisfied belch.
Su Yan was hungry too, but wary of eating too much before bed and feeling bloated, so he ate slowly and stopped after one bowl.
After the meal, Su Yan didn’t want to wash the greasy dishes, and Zhu Helin clearly had no concept of dishwashing at all, he simply dumped everything into the iron pot and filled it with water to soak. Whether the pot would rust by morning was, in his mind, the servant boy’s problem.
Full belly, sleepy mind, or rather, full belly, lustful thoughts… no, sleepy thoughts. The Crown Prince didn’t want to go back to the palace. He wanted to freeload on Su Yan’s bed.
But Su Yan, whose feet were still icy despite hugging two hot-water bottles, had no desire to share a bed with the vigorous, hot-blooded crown prince. He still clearly remembered the emperor’s stern warning to his son before they left the capital: “If you can’t accomplish this task, don’t bother coming back in this lifetime.”
So after much coaxing and polite refusal, Su Yan finally managed to usher the crown prince out of the house and send him back to the palace.
If Su Yan truly had the gift of foresight, as he had once bragged to Shen Qi, perhaps he would have kept the Crown Prince there that night, so they could set off together for the imperial tomb the next morning.
But, alas, he did not.
He watched Zhu Helin’s departing figure, seeing in those broad shoulders, narrow waist, and long legs a glimpse of the man he would one day become. A little envious yet also proud, Su Yan clicked his tongue, pulled his heavy cloak tight around him, turned, and closed the door.
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