CH 3

Like buildings, people rise; like buildings, people fall.

***

When Old Madam retired, Madam Meng inquired about her son’s whereabouts.

The family steward, Zhang Da, was unable to tell where. He only reported that on the dock at noon, he and the man in question had been itemizing goods to be hauled onto the ship for tomorrow’s voyage, and a while later, he grew busier. No sooner had he turned around to look than the other disappeared with a manservant. Where they had gone, he was uninformed.

With his personality, it was only natural for Jiafu’s elder brother, Zhen Yaoting, to be bent on tagging along on their journey up north. They would set off at dawn the next day, yet at present, the other had jaunted to someplace unknown, eliciting complaints from Madam Meng. Taking it upon himself to shoulder the blame, Zhang Da said, “This lowly one has been negligent and will have someone look for them.”

Madam Meng sighed, “Forget it, I don’t blame you. He has his own two legs on his body. I cannot have you keep an eye on him all the time. Just have someone check the places he normally frequents.”

Zhang Da promptly complied, turned around, and hurried away.

Madam Meng sent her daughter back to her room and, before leaving, incessantly exhorted her to rest earlier than usual.

The night gradually deepened, and the entire Zhen Manor wallowed in serenity.

Early the next morning, they would depart up north.

The past few days, as soon as her eyes shut close, a menagerie of happenings from her previous life would surge into Jiafu’s mind like ocean waves.

She passed the night in exhaustive wakefulness.

This very moment in her past life, she could recall also spending the night without sleep, but her mood then had been entirely different.

Apart from apprehension, greater had been her delight and hankering for the future.

Had she not died once, how could her current self have known that the man she was to marry, her second biaoge from the Wei Grand Duke Manor, Pei Xiuzhi, would be such a spineless and self-seeking person, one who would readily surrender her to another man?

No one but her harbored more knowledge about the Wei Grand Duke Manor, the Pei family she was about to marry into.

The Wei Grand Duke Manor had two branch families. The second branch’s Madam Meng was her own mother’s sister, who had given birth to her third biaoge, Pei Xiuluo. Second in seniority among his generation was Pei Xiuzhi, the second son of the main branch’s Madam Xin, but similar to how she addressed Pei Xiuluo, Jiafu also called him biaoge.1 

The Pei family’s halcyon period was well over twenty years ago. Back then, Wenjing, the eldest daughter of the Grand Duke Manor’s Old Madam Pei, who was exceptional in talent and appearance, had been conferred consort to the Crown Prince. Within a few years, the Crown Prince succeeded the throne unimpeded and became the Tianxi Emperor, while she was subsequently crowned empress. However, it was a pity that heaven was envious of the young beauty. An epidemic afflicted her in the year that followed, and after over a year of convalescence in the imperial household’s monastery, she perished.

Although the first empress had gone, by virtue of imperial benevolence, the Pei family nonetheless blossomed with increasing grandeur and solemnity, maintaining it for nearly twenty years. During that period, the Pei family’s eldest grandson, the Heir, Pei You’an, gradually matured and became rightly acclaimed in the capital as a ‘young grand councillor’. For a while, the Pei family’s glory was unrivaled.

As the saying goes, ‘the moon waxes only to wane.’ One would eventually fall from the pinnacle of one’s prosperity. For the Pei family, it seemed that the death of Grand Duke Wei instigated the decline of all their good fortune.

It happened in the 16th year of Tianxi’s reign, when the northern frontier had been restless. Grand Duke Wei had received orders to lead troops to subdue them, but he fell ill and died within a year. Pei You’an, who had accompanied his father in the army, returned home with his deceased father’s corpse. Who would have thought that, shortly afterwards, a rumor about the Wei Grand Duke Manor’s Heir, Pei You’an, would proliferate in the capital? He was alleged to have defiled one of Grand Duke Wei’s beautiful young concubines, and that in shame and resentment, the concubine committed suicide. Madam Xin had expended the best of her efforts to assuage the scandal for her son by attempting to repress it, but it was to no avail, as the Censorate2 had ultimately raised the matter before the Tianxi Emperor.

The current dynasty was founded on filial piety. For a son who was fulfilling filial duty by mourning his father to actually commit adultery was downright atrocious. In sheer disbelief, the Tianxi Emperor summoned Pei You’an to personally interrogate him. He had wanted to convict him for a much lighter offense, but rumor had it that the other had not uttered a word, which was tantamount to admitting the crime. Left without a choice, the Tianxi Emperor stripped him of his official rank and expelled him from his position as Heir. He subsequently sallied forth from the capital and detached himself from the Pei family.

Like a shooting star streaking across the sky, the Wei Grand Duke Manor’s brilliant and exceptional Heir, Pei You’an, once noted to be distinguished and prodigious, now carried with him a stigma. From then on, he disappeared from everyone’s field of view. That year, he was only sixteen.

The imperial benevolence the Pei family once relished had been too striking, and after so many years of exulting in glory, they inevitably incurred the envy of many. For a time, such an incident became everyone’s subject of discussion behind closed doors. However, the Pei family’s decline did not completely conclude there. The changes in court that took place in the ensuing years had been the decisive factors that truly impacted the vicissitudes of fate of those high-standing nobles in the capital.

Two years later, in the 18th year of Tianxi’s reign, the Tianxi Emperor had succumbed to a grave illness and relinquished his seat to the 8-year-old Crown Prince, Xiao Yu. As Xiao Yu was young, apart from appointing grand ministers to form a regency,3 the Tianxi Emperor specifically entrusted the Crown Prince to the younger brother he most trusted, Prince Shun’an. Prince Shun’an was to provide political assistance until the Crown Prince could assume responsibility in due course.

Later, it was rumored that on the Tianxi Emperor’s deathbed, he singularly implored Prince Shun’an to guard against Prince Yunzhong, Xiao Lie, lest he would conspire a rebellion. This imperial younger brother who wielded great might and outstanding military merits had always disconcerted him. However, because Xiao Lie had accorded with the custom and law for the past many years, coupled with the Tianxi Emperor’s pliable disposition and propensity for indecision, the brothers coexisted harmoniously in peace.

As Prince Shun’an expressed his assent through a tearful kowtow, the Tianxi Emperor passed away content. At the age of eight, Xiao Yu became the new emperor of Great Wei with the reign title, Chengning, and with Prince Shun’an acting as regent.

Two more years later, in the third year of Chengning’s reign, the Young Emperor accidentally fell off a horse in the midst of an autumn hunt and met his end. With Prince Shun’an’s virtuous reputation, it was only to be expected for the courtiers to elect him as the new emperor. Great Wei thus entered the reign of Yongxi. 

However, the course of events throughout Prince Shun’an’s ascension was not at all unchallenging. Referred to as one of the late emperor’s regents, Grand Mentor Zhang, with his upright and stern temperament, had forthrightly voiced his suspicion of the Young Emperor’s cause of death, even accusing Prince Shun’an for plotting the Young Emperor’s murder. Some even assumed entirely based on wishful thinking that the Young Emperor had escaped death, rescued and whisked away by those loyal to him. However, these voices of doubt and opposition were soon silenced by hanging. The grand ministers proclaimed the regent Prince Shun’an as the new emperor, and the opposing officials headed by Grand Mentor Zhang were either killed or demoted, rapidly establishing a stable court.

Since Grand Duke Wei’s passing many years ago, there had been one less person from the Pei family who was as staunch and as devoted to the imperial court; among the younger generation of the Pei family, there was none left since Pei You’an’s departure from the capital. Furthermore, every emperor had his own cabinet of favorites. A daughter from the Pei family was once the Tianxi Emperor’s first empress, and the Pei family’s relationship with the Tianxi Emperor once ran deep. Although the Wei Grand Duke Manor exhibited not even the slightest indication of opposition to Prince Shun’an’s ascension, it was impossible to recover the imperial benevolence they previously basked in just based on this. The Yongxi Emperor was neither warm nor cold to the Pei family, and no rich and noble person in the capital was not aware that the Wei Grand Duke Manor had long been an arrow at the end of its flight——a withered flower of yesterday. Their status and prestige were no longer as glorious, and they now even had to pander to their in-laws, the Song family.

This year in Jiafu’s new life was the third year of Yongxi’s reign, and Prince Shun’an had been the emperor for a little over two years.

She was ignorant of the specifics as to how her rebirth had come to be. Her life had clearly come to an end, and on her last breath, she had even met her father in the midst of a mirage. When she awakened, she found that she was alive once more, returning to the day of her father’s third death anniversary when she was sixteen.

Like buildings, people rise; like buildings, people fall.

Jiafu knew that it would not be long before the fate of many in the Great Wei Dynasty would undergo undulating changes.

In her past life, no later than a year after she married Pei Xiuzhi, the rivalry between two imperial brothers escalated. The Yongxi Emperor assailed Prince Yunzhong, Xiao Lie. Xiao Lie seized this opportunity to raise a banner with the words ‘Clear Sky’4 under the Chengning Emperor’s name. As the two sides plunged into battle, half of Great Wei thereupon sunk into the chaos of war.

The furor induced by the Xiao family’s struggle for imperial power completely overturned Jiafu’s fate.

At that time, when the strife had just commenced, everyone firmly believed that the Yongxi Emperor would triumph. Pei Xiuzhi, who had successfully inherited the title of Grand Duke Wei, contrived to convey his loyalty to the Emperor and to garner military merits by leading troops to quell the rebellion. But in the end, in the throes of conflict, no one had expected that Prince Yunzhong would snatch a victory out of defeat. As his army progressively pressed on towards the capital, many in court were swayed to transfer their allegiance. Pei Xiuzhi made a last-ditch defense against the rebel army in Qingzhou, the only place they had to traverse to penetrate the capital, but he was no match against them. After the city walls were destroyed, he fled with Jiafu. On the road, Xiao Yintang, then known as Prince Yunzhong’s Heir, captured them.

What transpired thereafter was self-evident.

Jiafu’s beauty sufficed to bring cities to ruin.

Pei Xiuzhi acquiesced to Xiao Yintang’s extortion of his wife.

Were it merely just that, perhaps Jiafu would have understood.

What ensued had rendered her fully despaired of this man.

She had threatened to kill herself after falling into Xiao Yintang’s clutches. Xiao Yintang did not compel her to do anything, but simply took her with him and kept her close at hand. Soon after, Jiafu discovered by chance that Pei You’an, who had distanced himself from the capital many years past, was now in Prince Yunzhong’s army.

She and Pei You’an had very few encounters during her visits to the Pei family in her childhood. After that, they had no further contact. Though she called him biaoge, it was simply because of her relationship with the second branch and nothing more. Back when she was younger, her impression of this young man was that he always had the bitter smell of medicine on his body, a faintly pallid complexion, and a pair of pitch-black eyes that manifested a detachment that not at all tallied with his age——noble and alienated. In her little eyes, he was eminent and beyond grasp. She had even feared him so much that, on the rare event she would stumble upon him along pathways, she would always evade him if given the chance. However, with her circumstances at that time, having been severely demoralized, he had become her sole beacon of hope. She devised every conceivable way to meet him to request for help. Pei You’an aided her by personally demanding Xiao Yintang for her liberation, and afterwards sending her back to Pei Xiuzhi.

What drove Jiafu to absolute despondency was her husband, Pei Xiuzhi’s following move.

Xiao Yintang was determined to have her. Although he had pledged to let her go, it was merely to give Pei You’an face. In truth, he had surreptitiously sent someone to hint at Pei Xiuzhi.

Jiafu had not the slightest inkling about what he had promised or perhaps even threatened. In any case, the final outcome was that her own husband personally offered her to Xiao Yintang.

To this day, whenever she recalled that scene, a chill would still come creeping over her.

That day, Pei Xiuzhi had set up a small table and had a drink with Jiafu. Appearing inebriated, when he gazed at Jiafu with determined eyes, his tears flowed out.

Jiafu knew that he had always wanted to revive the Pei family’s prestige, thus, he suffered grievances after accepting all sorts of demands from his late wife’s family, the Song family, who had gained power for supporting the Yongxi Emperor’s ascension to the throne. Then, he received orders to pacify a rebellion. It was a perfect opportunity to acquire merits, but it had such a dismal end. The momentum was extinguished, and all his dreams and lofty aspirations vanished in a puff of smoke.

As the sole witness to his dejection, Jiafu consoled him in every possible way. He held her and howled bitterly like a child, wailing that he had disappointed her and that he was not worthy of being a man.

That moment, Jiafu had not fathomed the meaning of his words. Seeing him so crestfallen, she could only scorn herself for being useless, for being incapable of bearing her husband’s burdens, and could only shed tears with him.

When the night ended, he carried her intoxicated self back to the bedchamber. When she arose, she found that the man next to her had switched. Xiao Yintang had her locked in his arms, still deep in slumber. She had not even an inch of thread on her body, and her head was aching terribly.

From that point on, Jiafu lost her freedom.

She had turned from Grand Duke Wei’s Madam to Xiao Yintang’s exclusive property,5 one never to be seen in the light of day.

Prince Yunzhong won the war and scoured for the Young Emperor, Xiao Yu’s whereabouts, whether dead or alive, with great fanfare. Once there was proof of his death, since the country must not be without a ruler, with the support of all civil and military officials, he was heralded emperor, that being Shizong. He subsequently proclaimed a general amnesty and treated the old ministers from the reign of Yongxi with leniency, this including Pei Xiuzhi. From then on, Jiafu never again saw her former husband.

For many years, Xiao Yintang fervently doted on her. After he became emperor, just because her name contained the character “Fu”,6 he had cotton rose hibiscus planted all over Jinbi Palace where she had lived. When the hibiscus flourished in autumn, as beautiful as her name, it seemed as if an immortal palace had descended on earth.

Thus, she had to repay him. The ultimate reward the forbidden woman could bestow the monarch was probably to follow him in the underground palace and be buried alongside him.

The rim of Jiafu’s eyes grew hot and her nose clogged. For a while, her breathing was erratic.

The moon listlessly unfurled from the clouds, its oblique illumination piercing the window to her west. In that hazy room, her ears could pick up the indistinct sound of the night watch from the watchman hitting his clappers, intensifying the night’s quiescence.

It was the period of the boar.7

She sat up from the pillow. Her head of black hair cascaded down her shoulders and tenderly enveloped her body. After sitting still for a long time, she rolled out of bed, dressed, and plodded to the outer room.

Tanxiang had slept there. The maid on duty with her tonight, Muxiang, was sleeping soundly, but Tanxiang was a light sleeper, so she awoke when Jiafu gently called her.

“Come with me.”

Jiafu instructed.

Translator’s Note:

Here’s a poorly made family tree of the relationships so far. There are about four emperors mentioned here so it can get pretty confusing.

Footnotes:

1 Jiafu’s actual first cousin here is only Pei Xiuluo, her maternal aunt’s son, but because she visited the Grand Duke Manor a lot as a child, she ended up addressing other young masters the same way.

2 The Censorate surveyed and assessed the work and conduct of imperial officials.

3 Regency (shezheng 攝政) was a legal means to hold up government affairs for a child emperor or if an emperor was seriously ill. It was executed by one or several persons. Source

4 There might be some wordplay here. Snowy speculates that 昭天 (clear day) might allude to Prince Yunzhong’s title 云中 (in between clouds), basically saying that he would no longer hide in between clouds and “protect” Xiao Yu / Chengning Emperor’s legacy. Raising his banner means that he’s convinced that the Yongxi Emperor murdered their nephew.

5 禁脔 (jìn luán): a chunk of meat for one’s exclusive consumption; one’s exclusive domain

6 The ‘芙’ Fu character in Jiafu’s name means hibiscus.

Cotton Rose Hibiscus

7 亥时 (hài shí): 9-11 pm (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times).