Su Yan dreamed of the capital: one moment he was at the gate of his newly repaired mansion, meeting Shen Qi again, riding home through frost and snow; the next, he was climbing the lofty palace towers, where Emperor Jinglong stood at the railing, hands clasped behind his back, quietly waiting.
The wind howled high above the halls. He was swept into the clouds, and when the mist cleared, he found himself on an endless steppe. Hoofbeats thundered past like rolling stormclouds. The gleam of a spear-tip flashed over his head; he cried out in terror, only to hear Yu Wang laugh heartily, grab him by the collar, and haul him up onto his horse.
The horse’s gallop jolted wildly; Su Yan clutched at the dark cloak over the general’s armor, but what he felt was long, curly black hair, scented faintly with oil and spice. Braided strands threaded with gold beads whipped against his face in the wind.
Half frightened, half entranced, he asked, “Where are we going?”
The godlike rider said, “To where the wind stops.”
On which page of history does the wind stop? he wondered, turning back toward the misty, glittering capital. In that instant, homesickness struck, and as if under a spell, he fell backward from the horse, down into the smoke and fire of the mortal world once more,
The muscles in his leg suddenly cramped, and his body jolted awake from the sensation of falling. Su Yan opened his eyes, the light outside the window was faintly gray with dawn.
In Nanjing, he didn’t need to attend court, didn’t have to report to the Ministry of Rites, and even if he skipped work for several days in a row, no one dared to question where this dignified Shilang of Rites, a third-rank official, had gone. The only one with the authority to manage him was Lu Shangshu, but after his memorial was switched out and the Crown Prince’s impeachment followed, Lu Shangshu had become like a clay Buddha crossing the river: barely able to save himself. He now sat at home anxious and panicked, unsure what to do.
Su Yan had become a true salted fish in office, completely idle, yet still felt as though his mind could never rest.
After washing up, he dressed casually and went out. He ate breakfast at a street stall, then thoughtfully packed a portion for the Crown Prince, he still remembered that His Highness liked soup dumplings and soft-boiled eggs.
Taking a carriage to Donghua Gate, he strolled toward Chunhe Palace and waited for the guards to announce him. Su Yan worried the Crown Prince might still be angry or sulking about last night, refusing to see him. But he had barely stood there a few minutes before the guard returned.
“His Highness said, ‘If he brought the eggs, let him in. If not, get lost!’” The guard struggled to keep a straight face and apologized, “My lord, please don’t take offense. His Highness ordered me to repeat his exact words.”
Su Yan gave a helpless smile, shook the food box in his hand, and entered the palace.
Zhu Helin was sitting cross-legged on the luohan couch in the inner hall, wearing a dark scowl.
The first thing that caught Su Yan’s eye was the large, purplish bruise outlining his left cheekbone, it looked painful enough just to see it. Combined with the dark shadows of sleeplessness beneath his eyes, the young man looked haggard and pitiful.
…It was only one punch. Did I really hit that hard last night? Su Yan felt a twinge of guilt and unease as he went over, sat across from him at the small table by the couch, and set down the food box.
Zhu Helin lifted his eyelids, glanced at the box, and said nothing.
Su Yan opened it, took out a warm boiled egg, tapped it against the table to crack the shell, peeled it clean, and offered it with a coaxing tone: “It’s soft-boiled. Want to eat it? Or…” He mimed rolling it over his face.
Zhu Helin’s mouth twitched downward, still silent. Instead, he tilted his face slightly to the left, wordlessly presenting the bruised cheek.
Su Yan reached out and gently rolled the peeled egg over the bruise. From under his sleeve, a stretch of pale wrist, whiter even than the egg, peeked out.
Zhu Helin hissed softly through his teeth, his gaze sliding toward that glimpse of wrist beneath the sleeve.
Su Yan rolled the egg for quite a while. The bruise didn’t look any lighter, but the guilt in his heart eased somewhat. He called for an attendant to bring hot water, then dropped the egg into the bowl to soak.
Zhu Helin then gestured toward the soup dumplings inside the food box.
Su Yan shoved a pair of chopsticks into his hand and said in mock anger, “I only hit your face, not your hands!”
Zhu Helin jabbed the tip of the chopsticks into a dumpling, piercing the skin so that a thin stream of broth squirted out. “Oh, so now you’re the one with reason? This face of mine, can you hit it, huh? This is the future face of the true dragon emperor! It’s the dignity of the Great Ming dynasty!”
Su Yan couldn’t deny that a single taunting remark about “threefold chastity and ninefold virtue” didn’t quite deserve a punch in the face. But since the insult had been aimed at the father, getting hit was already a light punishment. So he pursed his lips and said, “You said it yourself, ‘future.’ Right now there’s a disaster right before us. Instead of figuring out how to break through it, you’ve got the mood for romance?”
Zhu Helin shoved a dumpling into his mouth and chewed viciously. “How do you know I haven’t been thinking about it? I couldn’t sleep last night, so I took a few guards and went to the post station outside the city.”
Su Yan immediately asked, “And what did you find?”
“I questioned the postmaster but got nothing useful. Only that the two couriers who carried the Ministry of Rites’ memorial to the capital both took sick leave and went home.”
“More likely they didn’t go home at all,” Su Yan said grimly, “but changed names and went into hiding, or were silenced, to keep us from tracing them. Did the postmaster say which Nanjing officials visited the post station that day?”
“The post station receives officials from north and south every day. The postmaster said he couldn’t remember. When I asked for the registry of visitors, he claimed it was lost and being searched for. So I dismissed him on the spot, gathered all the post attendants, and announced that whoever could recall the names of the officials who came that day would be promoted to postmaster immediately. Even a ninth-rank post is worth scrambling for, so they competed fiercely. In the end, I got a consolidated list.”
Zhu Helin pulled a few sheets of paper from under the table. Su Yan glanced at the list, and saw among the names: Lin Song, Lin Gonggong of the Divine Palace Directorate.
“It’s said he was accompanied by a young man dressed like a scholar,” Zhu Helin added. “Lin Song treated him with unusual respect, not like a servant or a retainer.”
Su Yan tapped the table with his fingers, thinking aloud. “Lu Shangshu once served in the capital and has acquaintances there. To swap out a memorial without leaving a trace, they would need someone who could perfectly imitate his handwriting. This scholar must be the ghostwriter. Whoever planned this was careful and methodical, each link connected to the next. The style feels… strangely familiar.”
Zhu Helin suggested, “Then let’s arrest everyone in the Divine Palace Directorate and interrogate them one by one. They’ll confess sooner or later.”
Su Yan shook his head. “Even if they confess, they can claim we tortured them into it, it won’t hold as solid evidence. In my opinion, the key to this case lies with that ‘Philanthropist Qian.’”
“Think about it, controlling the Directorate, bribing the Linggu Temple, building mountain roads and pulley lines, organizing mining and transport, all that takes money. Even if mining later brings profit, the initial investment must have been massive. And to hide it all under the eyes of the Six Ministries here in Nanjing requires enormous connections and funds.”
“Money doesn’t fall from the sky. Your Highness, do you know the two fastest ways to amass wealth in peaceful times?”
Zhu Helin thought for a moment. “Business? Office?”
“Exactly. If this person is a merchant, he must have trade records, traces of dealings. If he’s an official, then he’s a major corrupt one, it’s impossible he could keep that silent. So, Your Highness, if you truly want to investigate to the bottom, you must be prepared to turn Nanjing’s Six Ministries completely inside out.”
Zhu Helin slapped the table. “Then we’ll turn them over! If I don’t overturn them, someone will overturn me from the position of Crown Prince! So why should I keep pretending to be the virtuous, gentle heir? Better to destroy my enemies first!”
After that outburst, he muttered under his breath, “No wonder Royal Father favors the Embroidered Guards. If I had a secret squad of spies and assassins like that, whoever I wanted to investigate, every hidden scandal of theirs would land right on my desk. That’d be really useful…”
The Crown Prince should not have mentioned the Embroidered Guards. The moment he did, Su Yan’s thoughts drifted away. His eyes were still fixed ahead, but his gaze went unfocused, his mind carried off by the northwestern wind, miles and miles away, to the figure of the commander of the Embroidered Guards, who at that very moment might have turned to look back toward the southeast, heart stirred and uneasy.
Venturing deep into enemy lands, flirting with peril before the bandit army’s lines, was Qilang safe and sound?
Zhu Helin waved a hand in front of Su Yan’s face, but the other didn’t respond. The prince began to suspect he was lovesick.
All I did was mention ‘Royal Father,’ and he’s already daydreaming? So deep in forbidden passion that he couldn’t even restrain himself before me, utterly intolerable! The crown prince’s face turned so green with jealousy that even the bruise changed color. In a dark, heavy voice, he said, “Forever lamenting that the floating clouds obscure the sun?”
“…For in Chang’an unseen, the heart grows sorrowful,” Su Yan finished the line reflexively.
Zhu Helin seized his collar. “What is it you mourn, then, that the floating clouds block the sun, or that the sun itself can no longer shine?”
“Floating clouds blocking the sun” was a metaphor for petty men surrounding the ruler, slandering and harming the virtuous. But the phrase “sun no longer shining”, the first “sun” referring to the ruler, the second… to, Su Yan realized the implication, flushed, and snapped, “What kind of filthy talk is that!”
“The filthy deeds you two have done, you won’t even let me say one word about it?”
Su Yan resisted the urge to land another punch on that right cheekbone. Instead, he fished the egg from the bowl of hot water, the one that had just rolled over the prince’s face, and shoved it into Zhu Helin’s mouth. “Eat your soft-boiled egg and shut up! You’re just like it, full of runny yolk inside!”
—
The brawl in the bath had been fierce, but after the egg incident, they had more or less reconciled. Though the Crown Prince would still, from time to time, open his “sauce shop”, serving sour, bitter, spicy, and salty remarks all at once, Su Yan treated his outbursts like a dog’s random barking. Aside from official matters, he no longer bothered to argue.
Each time Zhu Helin vented, he would feel a little regret afterward, but seeing Su Yan’s unwavering loyalty toward his “traitorous lover” always reignited his anger.
Fortunately, a few days later, the Crown Prince’s secret guards brought news that distracted him,
They had traced the movements of the palace maid Taoling, who had escaped from the palace.
The matter began with the water-carrier eunuch who had helped smuggle Taoling out hidden inside a water cart. The eunuch had received a hefty bribe, enough to retire home in comfort, but greed got the better of him. Before leaving, he went back to retrieve the valuables and stolen relics he had stashed away from the palace, and was caught red-handed by the crown prince’s men.
Under interrogation, the eunuch confessed everything he knew, but he was only a petty accomplice, bought off by Taoling, and knew little of the larger scheme.
Still, even small fry can trip up great schemes.
The eunuch revealed that after leaving the palace, Taoling changed into servant’s clothes and headed east from the South Gate.
Nanjing was strictly divided by class, scholars, farmers, artisans, merchants, into four quarters. The southeastern district of the southern city housed the mansions of nobles and officials. So the eunuch had wondered: You’re from a craftsman’s family, claiming your widowed mother has died, and you no longer wish to serve in the palace but plan to elope with your betrothed, so why not go west to the merchants’ and artisans’ quarter, but instead east, toward the homes of the powerful?
Could it be that this maid’s lover was a scion of some distinguished household? Escaping the palace was a grave crime, if he caught her, he could blackmail her lover endlessly, squeezing silver from this golden goose.
So the eunuch followed her in secret. He saw her enter an alley, and never come out.
The guards had him lead them to that very lane, called “Changliu Alley.” After identifying the spot, he returned to report to the Crown Prince.
Meanwhile, over at the Ministry of Rites, Lu Shangshu, eager to prove his innocence, borrowed account books from the Ministry of Revenue’s Tax Division and organized a whole team of idle clerks to comb through them day and night. They did uncover several wealthy merchants surnamed Qian living in Nanjing.
To avoid alerting the target, the Crown Prince ordered that all these “unlucky” men named Qian be arrested at once on charges of tax evasion, to be detained first and questioned later.
Su Yan objected. “Isn’t that too extreme? Arresting them all without question, if none of them are guilty, they’ll suffer for nothing.”
The Crown Prince looked at him, puzzled. “If they’re innocent, we’ll just release them. What’s the big deal? They’re only merchants.”
Only then did Su Yan realize just how low the social standing of merchants was in this era. No matter how rich, they were despised by the scholar-gentry, let alone by imperial power. He could not change the social hierarchy with his own hands, so the best he could do was help the crown prince find the true ‘Philanthropist Qian’ quickly, to spare the innocent.
While the interrogations went on in prison, he turned to the Tax Division’s property and land deed records, checking ownership of the houses along Changliu Alley, and found something suspicious.
One mansion had no official registration. Locals said the residents had just moved in recently, which meant the property had changed hands privately.
Ordinary citizens who bought or sold homes relied solely on paper deeds; if those were lost or stolen, endless disputes followed. Thus the government required citizens to file their deeds and pay tax upon purchase.
Commoners, disliking bureaucracy and unable to afford the registration fee, often skipped it and bore the risk themselves.
But official families weren’t short on money, and government clerks wouldn’t dare to delay their paperwork, so such families always registered.
Why then had this newly transferred mansion, so easily and safely registered, chosen instead a private sale?
Su Yan raised the question.
The Crown Prince, true to form, slammed the table and said, “Search the house!”
“What?” Su Yan frowned. “We can’t just raid someone’s home without cause. If the owner files a complaint with the Ying Tian Prefecture, saying the Crown Prince seized his property by force, you’ll be impeached again. Shouldn’t we find proof before passing judgment?”
Zhu Helin bared his teeth in a grin. “Who says I’m seizing anything? Clearly this homeowner forged papers and took possession of the deed to my mansion. I’m simply reclaiming what’s mine!”
…Well, in theory, that could work. After all, in this era, unregistered deeds listed only the seller, the broker, and the witness, but not the buyer’s name. So if someone found such a deed, they could easily claim to be the rightful owner and demand the current resident move out.
If the dispute went to court, and neither the seller nor the witnesses could be summoned, there’d be no way to tell whose house it truly was.
It could be seen, then, abiding by the law, going to the yamen for notarization and record filing, and honestly paying the property transaction tax, was of utmost importance!
Su Yan was speechless. Finally, he waved his sleeve and said, “Go on then, go be a bandit.”
And so the Crown Prince, vigorous and decisive as ever, led a large group of guards over, stormed into that residence, and declared himself a scion of the Wang family from Wuyi Lane. He claimed he was the true owner of the house, that someone had picked up his lost deed and taken over his property, then beat up the house guards who tried to stop him.
A search was carried out, and sure enough, the fugitive palace maid Tao Ling was found hiding there. Without another word, they bound her on the spot.
Meanwhile, the owner of the house received an urgent report from his servants, that some arrogant, domineering noble youth had brought a troop of guards to seize his home, claiming the deed was one he had lost, and daring them to take it to court if they were not convinced.
The owner was first startled, then burst into furious laughter. “The Wang family of Wuyi Lane? They’ve long gone out of fashion! A pampered young fool who can’t tell heaven from earth, trying to swindle the wrong man! Does he not know whose territory Nanjing is? Taking it to court, is he? I’ll send any disciple or underling to the Yingtian Prefecture yamen to utter one word, and even the grandest noble house will have to bow and beg forgiveness before mine!”
The constables of Yingtian Prefecture came in a great commotion to Changliu Alley, iron chains and cangues in hand, not recognizing the Crown Prince disguised in white dragon-embroidered robes. They instead put on an impressive show of authority.
“Boy, you’re done for! You’ve provoked Yan Gonggong, the Nanjing supervisor! Your whole family is finished!”
Zhu Helin stood on the steps before the main hall, legs spread, hands on his hips, and said to the group of glaring constables, “You’re the ones who are done for! You’ve provoked me! Your young master, and even Supervisor Yan Yiyi of Nanjing, are all finished!”
Su Yan did not involve himself in the Crown Prince’s rogue antics. He was in the prison, listening in on interrogations, lest the Crown Prince’s men, eager for merit, use torture and create false confessions. Suddenly, an attendant from the Eastern Palace came to report: the Crown Prince had truly flushed out the master of that residence. The person himself had not appeared, but his identity had been exposed.
Su Yan was somewhat stunned.
A string of brawls, smashing punches, and sheer audacity, through five hundred years before and after, could one ever find another Crown Prince this unruly, thuggish, and fierce?
