Chapter 48: The first one deceives is always oneself

Actually, when Song Juguang had left the Palace, she'd still felt that bringing master and servant into the Palace like this was not at all suitable, but she'd already agreed to this matter in front of Jiang Changbai, and wasn't willing to turn back and argue with her. So, she'd placed the decision on the two of them, thinking that if they weren't willing, then Jiang Changbai wouldn't force them on the matter of entering the Palace.

She'd gone so far as to come prepared this time, going especially to the barracks to choose a soldier who had, similarly to Wei Xiren, grown up on the borders of the two nations, to act as translator out of fear that the nanny wouldn't cooperate and deceive both parties. After all, what sort of white-haired elder over sixty would pass through ten thousand trials and tribulations on her own two legs to enter the capital? Merely hearing their account of their experiences, this nanny was clearly not a simple figure.

The nanny wanted to obstruct her yet couldn't, and could only helplessly let the woman translate Song Juguang's words for Liang Jiwen.The nanny's murky eyes had some apprehension, and she looked at Liang Jiwen anxiously. But Liang Jiwen's next words unexpectedly made her relax. She shook her head, and said, "But I don't want to go back."

The nanny's heart rejoiced, and she took the opportunity to speak. "Wangjun, what you aren't aware of is that it's the Shejin tradition that, once married off, a woman isn't allowed to return home again. As long as she's been married off, whether she's alive or dead, she has nothing to do with her birth family.

Yet Song Juguang, listening to the nanny's words, grew more and more annoyed, and said in a low exclamation, "The previous emperor has already died!"

The nanny, seeing she'd grown angry, immediately fell silent.

Actually, even Song Juguang herself didn't know why she was so angry; she only knew that she didn't want to listen to the nanny's words of "marrying off". She drew a deep breath and steadied her mind, and only then added, "The Princess' coming here to make a marriage alliance had the goal of being married to the previous emperor as a consort, isn't that right?"

The nanny wanted to say something, but what she'd thought of saying was beaten back into her stomach by Song Juguang's next words. "Now, the previous emperor has already died, and his corpse has already been buried at rest; how does the Princess intend to be married to him? Could it be that she intends to dig his tomb open, and make some sorcery to bring a dead man back to life? More than that," Song Juguang fell silent for a moment, reason holding back the words she'd been about to speak, yet she still said, "more than that, what's interred in the tomb is only the previous emperor's hat and clothes; his corpse already became food for fish at the bottom of a river who knows when; tell me, how is the Princess to be married to it?"

The soldier who'd been brought along to translate, seeing Song Juguang had paused, was just about to translate, when she saw Song Juguang wave a hand to indicate she stop. So, the mental outline she'd just made was once more swallowed back, and she could only face Liang Jiwen, staring right at her, with a somewhat helpless expression.

Yet the nanny spoke. "Wangjun, when we left, the Princess was only ordered to be married off to the Great Li's Emperor. Since the previous emperor has already died, then the Princess can only…"

"Shut up!" Song Juguang cried out, shaking the window lattices such that they trembled faintly. She didn't pay any further attention to the nanny's words, only saying with a dark expression, "So what about the customs? Shejin followed these customs generation after generation, and weren't you defeated crushingly by this regent leading troops? As long as you nod, this regent will personally command soldiers to escort you back; this regent doesn't believe that the King of Shejin can say anything about not letting her return home!" Song Juguang, having finished speaking, looked at the soldier standing by the side, and said, slowly, "Translate it for her, and persuade her."

The soldier, only having received an ordered, dared to speak; the nanny gazed at Liang Jiwen, worried and sick to the heart. In this room, only Song Juguang couldn't understand Shejinese, but listening to the solider and Liang Jiwen's back and forth, she felt that matters were developing in the direction that she'd hoped for. After all, in her mind, there was no one who would reject an opportunity to return home in style.

But the next moment, her notions were shattered; the soldier said, cautiously, "Wangjun, the Princess says she doesn't want to go back."

Song Juguang's astonished gaze fell on the soldier. The soldier bit her lower lip, and repeated, "The Princess says she doesn't want to go back. She says that the Great Li is more prosperous than Shejin, and that the Great Li's Imperial Palace is the best place in the world, and that she wants to enter the Palace."

Song Juguang blinked, seeming to have guessed something. She raised a hand, indicating to the soldier to not keep translating, and turned her head to look at the nanny. "You told her that?

The nanny didn't speak, her gaze shifting down as if thinking about something. The soundproofing of the room was excellent; even with the most bustling street in the capital outside the window, at this moment, the room was silent. Only after a while did the nanny nod hesitantly, and laughed, as if at herself. "You've managed to guess even this."

Song Juguang grew interested, and leaned forward a bit. "Why say so? Who was it who told you?"

The nanny shook her head. "Wangjun, this servant doesn't want to say."

Song Juguang raised a brow. "This is beyond your control. How do you know what the Great Li's Palace is like? Who told you? And what did they want you to do? Tell the truth, and this regent will consider giving you a good ending."

The nanny didn't speak; seeing this, Song Juguang added, "The wealth and status that others can give you, this regent can give you as well; once you return, this regent will personally speak with the King of Shejin, and arrange an official position for you. The Great Li pays particular attention to falling leaves returning to their roots; with your age, are you truly willing to stay forever in a strange land?"

The nanny's expression changed, and when she spoke, her voice trembled. "Falling leaves returning to their roots, falling leaves returning to their roots. Of course this servant isn't willing to stay forever in a strange land, but this servant was originally from the Great Li!"

Song Juguang had come at haste, only thinking of hurriedly persuading the two of them, master and servant, to not enter the Palace; she hadn't had the time to investigate them. Now, suddenly hearing the nanny say this, she was a bit shocked. After all, the nanny's nose bridge was as high and her eyes as big as Liang Jiwen's, no different in appearance from a native Shejin elder.

Since the nanny had spoken, she no longer concealed her thoughts. Seeing Song Juguang wasn't speaking, she explained herself. Her aged voice spoke of the dust-covered years past at length, and the nanny's enter figure seemed to have gained some more traces of time; she said, "This servant was born in the Great Li, and raised in the Great Li. My father was a cavalry general under the Su Emperor, and my mother was from Shejin."

Song Juguang watched the nanny, the sincerity in her gaze increasing. Emperor Su was Emperor Tai's father's elder brother; Emperor Tai's father had killed his own elder brother to ascend to the throne, and only after that had the Imperial Throne passed on to Emperor Tai. And now, with Jiang Changbai on the throne, thinking it over carefully, in the decades of this nanny's life, the Great Li had actually had three emperors.

The nanny continued, "This servant's appearance is like that of my mother's; from childhood, others assumed me to be from Shejin. That year, during the selection,^[1] this servant wasn't willing to enter the Palace, and intentionally was discourteous before the Emperor, and had my tablet discarded. But I still didn't have the luck to escape entering the Palace, and entered as a palace maid. First I waited on the Empress, and once the Empress gave birth to young Princess, this servant went to look after the Princess.

"Before the Princess grew up, Emperor Su passed away, and the Princess was sent by the new Emperor to make a marriage alliance in Shejin. This servant knew some of the Shejin language, and had looked after the Princess from childhood, and so naturally I followed along to Shejin. Since I went, it's been about thirty years." Murky eyes were filled with grief, yet the nanny didn't cry a single tear. She spoke and spoke, the corners of her mouth carrying a self-deprecating smile, her gaze shifting to the window. "When this servant entered the Palace, this street still only had stall-keepers."

Yet Song Juguang watched her with cold eyes. "Then, you weren't willing to enter the Palace, and now, you're deceiving others to enter the Palace?"

The nanny closed her eyes, not looking at Song Juguang, and daring even less to look at Liang Jiwen. "This servant doesn't have any other options. If the Princess wasn't willing to remain on this path, this servant would have had no way to return to the capital. Falling leaves returning to their roots—ah, this servant just wants to be a falling leaf returning to its roots."

Though Liang Jiwen couldn't understand what Song Juguang and the nanny were saying, she could see that now, the nanny was unhappy. So, she pressed her lips together, and came over to the nanny's side, raising her hand to lightly stroke her shoulder, still speaking in Shejinese as she said, "Don't cry, don't cry."

Song Juguang tilted her head, looking at the soldier she'd brought along; after learning what Liang Jiwen's words meant, she rose, and took a step to the side, looking down at the nanny haughtily. "She believes in you so, yet you want to push her into a living hell."

The nanny's head fell, her hand covering up Liang Jiwen's hand on her shoulder. "But even if there wasn't this servant, the Princess would still need to make a marriage alliance, whether coming to the Great Li, or going to some other nation. Ah, even if the Great Li's Imperial Palace is a cage, it's still a golden cage."

Song Juguang was somewhat disdainful, and she paced over to the tightly-closed window. She extended a hand to push it open, her gaze watching the people coming and going on the street below. "This regent isn't an unreasonable person. How about this: you two live here temporarily, and once this regent ascertains your identities, I'll find a reason to tell Shejin that you've died. At that time, I'll give you some money, and shop, and you can change your identities and live in the capital. In the Great Li, women can be do business and be officials; even without being married off, they can live well. You just need to tell her highness that you're not willing to enter the Palace—how's that?"

The nanny didn't speak, as if without her translating, Liang Jiwen could be kept in the dark forever. However, the next moment, Liang Jiwen came over to Song Juguang's side, and spoke haltingly in the language of the Great Li. "You, don't want to let me enter the Palace?"

Song Juguang hadn't thought that Liang Jiwen could understand this either; she turned her head to look at her, and then nodded calmly.

Liang Jiwen asked, "But why so?"

When Liang Jiwen spoke, it was incredibly slowly, even moreso than a young child learning to speak, as if each and every word was thought over for a long time before being spoken. Even so, her accent was still somewhat strange.

But these stammering, halting three words unexpectedly stumped Song Juguang. But even though she'd been stumped, Song Juguang didn't grow angry, but rather shook her head, undisturbed. "This regent doesn't know."

Liang Jiwen had used up all the words in the Great Li's language she'd stored up in this moment, and when she spoke again, she spoke in Shejinese. Now, when she spoke, it wasn't as stammering as it had been before, but frank and easy, self-assured. Even Song Juguang could see a rarely-seen emotion in the eyes looking at her. It seemed like pity.

But Song Juguang quickly felt this thought was absurd to the point of comedy. Tossing everything aside, she was the Regent of the Great Li, and had led troops to defeat the Shejin forces countless times. Liang Jiwen was merely a princess who'd lost everything but an identity yet to be confirmed; how could she be the one pitying her? Song Juguang turned her head to look at the soldier she'd brought along to act as translator, but on the soldier's face, she saw hesitance. She glared at her, and scolded, "If you can understand then say it quickly; quit hemming and hawing like a man."

Only then did the soldier speak. "The Princess is asking, since you're so unwilling to allow them to enter the Palace, why don't you tell her highness yourself?"

Song Juguang's face, the matter weighing on her having been struck, revealed a rarely-seen mood. Liang Jiwen had been unfavoured since childhood, and that also signified that she'd lived, since childhood, by watching others' expressions. As a result, even if in this moment Song Juguang didn't speak, she could obtain the answer from her face. So, Liang Jiwen spoke freely, and the soldier, trembling with fear, translated. "The Princess says, she says that, where they are doesn't actually matter that much. The two of them can't live in somewhere too large, nor can they consume that much. Though she came to make a marriage alliance, even if her highness is a woman, this marriage alliance would more or less be fruitless. So, regardless of whether you don't want to be disobedient towards her highness, or if what you said was useless, now, having come to this room, it means that you're unwilling for anyone to be by her highness' side other than you."

"That's enough," Song Juguang said softly, halting her, her palm lowering to indicate the soldier stop speaking. Only then did the soldier let out a long breath, as if relieved of a great burden, and lowered her head, retreating to the side. She'd only ever seen Song Juguang leading soldiers in battle and felling enemies unwaveringly; how could she have seen her like this? She'd even just then begun to doubt whether, if she were to continue translating, she would be able to return to the barracks standing.

Song Juguang turned around, looking at Liang Jiwen frankly. "If you wanted to pry into this regent's mind, I fear that you don't have that ability."

Yet Liang Jiwen was still talking, not paying any attention to whether or not Song Juguang could understand. She'd just finished speaking when the nanny, who'd been silent for so long, finally spoke. "The Princess' Consort Mother was someone who came down from the snow-capped mountains; in the mountains, there's a saying—translated, it says that, 'the first one deceives is always oneself'. Wangjun, the Princess says she won't satisfy your wish and tell her highness anything about not wanting to enter the Palace; she wants to go to the Palace to have a look."

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Translator's notes:

[1]: 选秀 (xiu xuan); a selection of beauties from the common people, often in order to select concubines or consorts.