c19 (1/2)
Chapter 19 of Yun Zhong Ge marks the first chapter of volume 2 of the novel (in fact, Tong Hua re-starts her chapter numbering with each volume, but I’ve elected to continue the numbering for translation reference purposes). While volume 1 felt magical and expansive, like we are seeing something new and overwhelming that it takes time and patience to absorb it all, volume 2 instead turns inward. It’s a very intimate volume, with comparatively less action and more introspection. Volume 2 is my personal favorite out of the three volumes, finally tying together all the various threads established already and watching how it all plays out. If Yun Ge’s relations.h.i.+p with Meng Jue in volume 1 felt like the heady blush of first love, with pink cheeks, daydreams, and stolen kisses, then Yun Ge’s reunion with Ling gege explores another undeniable but wholly different romantic dynamic. It’s one with few words but complete emotional honesty, though it comes with a Heavens worth of baggage should she pick him. For now, let’s just make sure our Yun Ge is alright have getting stabbed through the chest. Then we can worry about all the other stuff.
Chapter 19: Post Ordeal Reunion
The eunuch dragged Yun Ge off to the side.
His movement was rough and it prodded her wound, the pain waking Yun Ge up.
She heard the faint voices of someone ordering a carriage to secretly take her to a jail cell to await interrogation.
Whether it was the pain, or the fires burning, but everything Yun Ge’s eyes saw was red and flaming. In the figures of the people around her, she saw a shadow that stood off to the side.
Everyone was abuzz but he remained silent and still.
The wind blew his robe around him, and on his waist……that jade……it appeared and disappeared with each wind gust……a dragon in flight.
Due to the loss of blood, Yun Ge’s mind was no longer fully conscious. Nevertheless, she subconsciously knew she had to crawl towards that shadow.
She tried to reach out her hand to grab that jade, and the trail of blood on the ground increased. But the distance was so far, and her strength was so little.
Try and then try, struggle and then struggle…..
She used all her might, but in the eyes of Heaven she in truth moved a few inches.
The eunuchs were checking the corpses of the dead a.s.sa.s.sins to find out any clues to their ident.i.ty, then following Yu An’s instructions to burn the bodies.
Yu An tried many times to coax Liu Fu Ling back in the carriage and leave a few eunuchs to wrap up, but Liu Fu Ling just stood there watching the flames. In the inferno around them, Yu An felt the Emperor seemed so desolate.
He couldn’t fathom what the Emperor must be feeling right now, and didn’t fully understand why the Emperor wanted to quickly return to Chang An tonight but now was standing here not moving. Based on his personality, it was impossible for the Emperor to be frightened by a few a.s.sa.s.sins.
He couldn’t figure it out so he just stood silently behind Liu Fu Ling.
The wind blew his robe around him, and Yun Ge mumbled “Ling…….Ling……” She used all her strength and thought she screamed really loud, but in the wind blowing around her, it was just a moan.
Yu An heard a noise and looked down to see a dark figure covered in blood and mud reaching towards the Emperor and crawling over. He was so incredulous that he stepped forward and kicked Yun Ge aside “You guys, stop dawdling and hurry up here………….”
Yun Ge felt a sharp rending pain in her chest.
As her body rolled, she finally saw the face of that shadowy figure. Those eyes………those eyes………
She felt so much pain, more pain than the actual physical pain in her chest from the sword wound. Before she could figure out why she was in such pain, she fainted dead away.
Liu Fu Ling stared at the fire for some time before turning and getting back in the carriage. Yu An saw the Emperor get in the carriage and then heard him say very coldly “Return to Wen Quan Palace.”
Yu An called out “Return to Lu Mountain”, but the carriage traveled a ways before Liu Fu Ling “Turn around, back to Chang An.”
The carriage turned around and traveled for a bit before Liu Fu Ling called a halt. He appeared to be having difficulty deciding what to do. Yu An had never seen the Emperor this way before so he tentatively asked “Your majesty, shall we turn around back to Lu Mountain?”
Liu Fu Ling suddenly jumped out of the carriage and grabbed an eunuch similar in size to him “You pretend to be me and return to Lu Mountain. Yu An, you accompany me into Chang An. Everyone else return to Lu Mountain.”
Yu An was shocked and tried to dissuade the Emperor, or at least bring more people. Liu Fu Ling jumped on the horse “No one will suspect I would be so rash. Those a.s.sa.s.sins must not be sent to kill me. Based on what is happening, you shouldn’t worry about my safety, I ought to be worrying about your safety. Let’s go!”
Yu An didn’t understand what the Emperor meant, but after they rode for awhile, he suddenly realized what was going on. All of the Emperor’s concerns back there was for that yet-unseen Zhu Gong Zhi. The Emperor was afraid his actions would put Zhu Gong Zhi in danger, so he wanted to return to Wen Quan Palance. But he could not stop longing to see her, which caused his weird behavior back there.
The wind was howling outside but the owner of Qi Li Xiang was sleeping peacefully in his bed.
He dreamt that he was embracing a giant bag of gold and he was surrounded by more bags of gold. The owner of Yi Ping Ju was his waiter. He was laughing happily when he was suddenly rudely awakened. He thought it was his concubine and he reached out to grab her, only to touch a wide rough hand that was ice cold. He immediately woke up.
Standing before his pallet was a very menacing person, but for some reason, Uncle Chang’s attention was completely on another person standing in front of the window.
It was only a shadow, but in the darkness it showed a man who commanded attention.
Uncle Chang initially wanted to scream for help, but his voice disappeared back into his throat.
How could there be such a person in this world, who could make one feel fear or comfort, all without moving or even saying a word?
To have an intruder in the night meant a thief or a robber, but because of that shadow, Uncle Chang knew his life was not in danger.
The person standing next to the pallet appeared annoyed and flicked his wrist so that his sword was on Uncle Chang’s neck. Uncle Chang finally turned back at the person in front of his pallet.
The person’s face was concealed under a wide brimmed hat and he coldly stared at Uncle Chang “We’re not here for money or your life. I ask one question, you answer one question.” Uncle Chang blinked a yes with his eyes.
The man moved the sword away a few inches “Is Zhu Gong Zhi a man or a woman?”
“A woman. Everyone thinks its a man, but its actually a young girl.”
“Real name?”
“Yun Ge, Yun as in white cloud, Ge as in song. At least that is what she told me. I don’t know if its a real name or not.” Uncle Chang saw the person standing next to the window appear to wobble slightly.
The sword holding man didn’t ask any more questions and the room descended into dead silence. Some time later, a cold and clear voice rang out “Is she……is she well?” His voice was suppressing so many things, and in the simple word of “well”, it felt heavier than a lifetime of waiting: long, hard, painful, longing, joy…………
Uncle Chang was used to reading people as he ran his business, but right now he couldn’t read that person at all. Should he answer in the positive or the negative? As he was thinking, the sword holding man ominously said “Tell the truth.”
“Yun Ge is well. If you sirs are looking for her, go out of this house and turn left. Down the alley there are two courtyards next to each other. The larger one is Lui Bing Yi’s home, the smaller one is Yun Ge’s home.”
Liu Fu Ling silently turned and walked out. Yu An used his sword and tapped Uncle Chang’s head “Go back to sleep and think of this as a bad dream.” Uncle Chang vigorously nodded his head. By the time Yu An sheathed his sword, his body had leaped out the door, as fast and silent as a phantom.
Uncle Chang incredulously rubbed his eyes and curled back into the blanket. He kept repeating “Bad dream, bad dream, its just a bad dream.”
Coming here they were in a rush, but now the person is right around the corner, Liu Fu Ling instead walked slowly. Under the Emperor’s casual demeanor, he appeared both happy and sad.
Yu An wanted to remind the Emperor that it was almost sunrise and they needed to hurry, but he sensed the Emperor’s odd vibe and decided to silently walked behind him.
“Yu An, what are the Heavens thinking? I actually already tasted her cooking. And you suggested I bring her into the Palace at that time. But I…….” Liu Fu Ling thought to himself that he felt the chef was a kindred spirit and he wanted to respect her wishes to be free. And at Gan Quan Palace, it was he who ordered her kicked out, so that Yu An was never able to find the singer.
Liu Fu Ling swallowed the rest of his words. Yu An knew how cold and cruel the reality it was for the Emperor to go from a playful mischievous little boy who played pranks with him into the seemingly dispa.s.sionate Emperor sitting on the dragon throne. Despite it being luxurious, but it was not comfortable. It was also precarious so a quick movement one would topple off.
“She’s been in Chang An for over a year. At the Princess’s Estate, we were separated by a wall. At Gan Quan Palace, we were mere steps from each other. In this not too small but not too large city of Chang An, how many times did we miss each other?” Liu Fu Ling was asking these questions filled with regret and sadness.
Yu An did not have an answer. He knew now that this Yun Ge was the person the Emperor had been waiting for since he was twelve years old. He knew the importance of Yun Ge in the Emperor’s heart.
All these years, day in and day out, year in and year out, he saw it all. No one knows how much the Emperor waited for her. No one knows how strong the Emperor’s conviction was in waiting for her.
During the day, regardless of enduring any treatment from Shang Guan Jie or Huo Guang, when the Emperor stood on top of Shen Ming Tai and looked up at the stars, he returned to normal.
To lower taxes and lessen punishments, the Emperor upset the power structure of the n.o.bles and each step of his reforms was strongly opposed. But now matter how difficult the progress was, every time he finished viewing the stars, he would continue down his chosen path.
Because of Shang Guan Jie and Huo Guang, the Emperor was forced to take an Empress when he was just thirteen years old. The Han dynasty ruler, because of his one promise to a little girl, to this day has not consummated his marriage to his Empress, and has not touch any other woman as well. At twenty-one years old, most men would have wives and concubines, plus many kids already.
In an commoner family, the kids would be old enough to work in the fields. In a n.o.ble or royal family, the kids would be old enough to shoot a bow and arrow, ride a horse, and maybe even plot against siblings. Because of its importance to dynastic succession, the princes in the royal family typically focus on generating progeny. The former Emperor had his first woman when he was twelve years old. Other princes were already wedded no later than fourteen or fifteen, and then started having kids right away.
But the current Emperor has never even had a woman spend the night with him.
The Emperor could not oppose the will of everyone, he could not oppose fate, but he used his own methods to keep true to the promise he made.
Yu An finally said “Didn’t the Heavens let Your majesty find her now? Good things take time. Now that you’ve found her, everything will get better.” A smile appeared at the corner of Liu Fu Ling’s mouth, a genuinely happy smile despite the undercurrent of bitterness “You’re right. I’ve found her.” And with that last word, he quickened his footsteps.
Yu An also sped up and the arrived at the house Uncle Chang mentioned. Yu An wanted to knock but Liu Fu Ling stopped him “I’ll knock myself.” But he stood in front of the door for some time and didn’t move. Yu An teased “Is Your majesty feeling shy? Let me do it.”
Liu Fu Ling smiled at his own nervousness and then started knocking.
Because she had things on her mind, Xu Ping Jun couldn’t fall asleep. Liu Bing Yi next to her appeared to also have a lot on his mind, and he kept tossing and turning. It was late into the night before Liu Bing Yi fell asleep, and Xu Ping Jun could no longer stay on the bed. She got up to do some ch.o.r.es.
She was about to chop some food for the chickens when she heard knocking from the other house. She put down the knife and walked to the door to listen. The knocking wasn’t loud, as if the knocker was afraid of alarming the person inside the house. But the knocking was persistent, even knowing now that no one could be inside the house. The knocking continued, as if it would go on forever so long as no one answered the door.
Xu Ping Jun quietly walked over and softly asked “Who are you looking for?” Liu Fu Ling’s hand halted and Yu An turned around “Madam, we are looking for Ms. Yun Ge.”
Xu Ping Jun knew everyone that Yun Ge knew in Chang An, but these two people she had never seen before “You know Yun Ge?” Yu An smiled “My young master knows Yun Ge. Can we ask where Ms. Yun Ge went?”
Xu Ping Jun could only see Liu Fu Ling’s side profile but it was enough to convince her that this man had an incredibly regal aura. It made her feel in awe and afraid, so she decided to tell the truth “Yun Ge left Chang An already.” Liu Fu Ling turned around suddenly and stared at Xu Ping Jun “What did you say?”
Xu Ping Jun felt like his gaze was swift as lightning, not angry but powerful, so it made her take a few steps back “Yun Ge left Chang An last night. She said she missed home, so…..” Xu Ping Jun couldn’t finish her sentence anymore.
She was so startled by him earlier that she finally got a good look at his face. Even though his eyes were different than Liu Bing Yi, but there was a striking similarity. Yu An saw that Xu Ping Jun was just staring at the Emperor so he walked forward and moved into her line of sight “Did Ms. Yun Ge say when she was returning?” Xu Ping Jun shook her head. Yu An asked again “Do you know where Yun Ge’s home is?”
Xu Ping Jun shook her head again “Her family appears to love traveling, and they have residences in many places. I only know she’s headed to Xi Yu now.” Liu Fu Ling turned and leaped on his horse, flying forward like a shooting arrow. Yu An also jumped on his horse and followed. Xu Ping Jun stood there staring dumbly as Liu Fu Ling disappeared from view.