Chapter 96: Identity

When the group came to the doors of the Lin residence, the sun was already setting. This house was at the very end of the street, and it was even more distant from urban area of the city, and so even it was the time when everyone was returning home, they didn't disturb anyone.

It wasn't clear how, but when the palanquin leaned closer to this side, the group could more or less catch the scent of bitter herbs.

The remnants of the sunlight drew the shadows of the locust trees long, and the copper of the bells on the lacquered door was faded. The wood of the door was of the plainest quality, and the two characters of "Lin Residence" on the plaque were quite spirited, but the ink had long since faded a bit.

Helping Jiang Changbai down from the palanquin, Xun Zhu was about to go and knock on the door without even thinking about it. But before she could step closer to that closed door, Jiang Changbai called her to a halt, and she lowered her voice and said, "Wait a moment."

Xun Zhu hurried back, her expression puzzled. "Bixia…"

Yet Jiang Changbai waved a hand. "There's no place in this world We cannot enter; we'll just go directly in."

She hadn't even finished speaking when, head raised, she strode towards that set of doors. Those behind her hurried to follow after, and seeing Jiang Changbai's intent, the group held their breath and watched with rapt attention, not making even the slightest sound. But though Jiang Chanbgai was acting unrestrainedly now, once the door really was pushed open, she froze.

The courtyard wasn't large; if not for the folding screen separating it, it would probably be able to see everything standing in the doorway. Weeds grew up from between the cracks of the dark bricks, and though they grew in the cracks of the wall, they were bright and verdant and full of vitality.

Jiang Changbai had always heard that Lin Yingqing was an uncorrupted official, never accepting bribes, and without even half a plot of farmland to his name, relying only on his official's salary to live. But she hadn't imagined that the place he lived would be simplistic to this degree.

But even if she were more shocked, she kept it in her mind, fearing inadvertently alerting the enemy, and didn't make even a sound. Those behind her were the same as well. However, once they'd made their way around the screen, they saw a maid carrying a bowl out from the kitchen.

That maid was Qing An.

Qing An, suddenly seeing so many people, first froze, the bowl of decoction in her hands almost slipping and spilling on the ground. Immediately after, she recognised Jiang Changbai's identity from the bright yellow revealed from within her sleeve, and her mind grew panicked, and she thought the day had finally come, but she didn't forget to feign at not having recognised, and asked in a loud voice, "Who are you?!"

In the end, the bowl of medicine did fall to the ground, and the shattered porcelain shards tumbled all over, the decoction, giving off steam, splashing all about. Song Juguang rushed ahead a step to block Jiang Changbai, and a few spots of brown appeared on her pale blue clothes. She didn't pay any mind to Qing An, whose had was still outstretched, merely waving her folding fan, and the doors on either side opened along with the draft.

Only the door to the main building in from of her remained closed, and without even thinking, she knew that what was hidden within was something odd, and she advanced, pushing the door open.

Song Juguang's use of strength had been a bit much, and the wooden door couldn't bear it, letting out a wailing groan. Xun Zhu's voice rose at the same time as well, startling a few sparrows resting in the eaves.

"Her majesty has arrived—"

"Go on, get up," Jiang Changbai said, narrowing her eyes and sweeping her gaze across everyone, her gaze finally stopping on the person by the bed.

Men and women marrying wasn't anything uncommon, yet she'd never heard of Lin Yingqing's residence gaining another master. More than that, Lin Yingqing had been convalescing with illness in his residence, yet in such a tiny place, not a single man could be seen.

The next moment, that person obediently rose, two pairs of eyes meeting, and both people saw shock in the other's eyes.

Jiang Changbai saw that that person had a face remarkably similar to Lin Yingqing's, and she was greatly astonished. Similarity was similarity, but the details weren't completely identical. Lin Yingqing, though naturally delicate and graceful, was clearly a man in appearance, but the person before her had a willowy frame, quite clearly that of a woman's.

Besides Song Juguang and Xu Shuqiao, everyone else who'd come along with Jiang Changbai was equally startled. Xu Shuqiao had never met Lin Yingqing before, and naturally didn't understand why the group was puzzled. And Song Juguang was strangely calm, merely fiddling with the folding fan in her hand, as if having long since expected this.

"Who are you?" Jiang Changbai asked.

The woman was clearly a bit panicked, her gaze avoidant, but she still said, "This subject is Minister Lin's younger sister, and currently lodging here. It's my fortune to meet your majesty; for my insufficient etiquette, I hope Bixia can forgive me."

"Younger sister?" Jiang Changbai smiled. "How is it that We have never heard that Lin Yingqing had a sister who looks so similar to him?"

The woman still sought to explain. "This subject's older brother has always kept a low profile, and his interactions with our family have always been few, and that no one in the capital knew isn't strange—"

Before she'd finished speaking, she was cut off by Jiang Changbai. "Do you really take Us for a fool? If you really were a younger sister living here away from home, why would you be able to live in the main building? This residence has two beds in total—don't tell Us that your 'older brother' is sleeping together with that maid while ill?

"More than that, those moles on your hands—even if you were identical twins, you wouldn't be able to have the same birthmarks, would you. Ah, Lin Yingqing, Lin Yingqing—We really never could have guessed that you're actually a woman."

As matters had already come to this point, the haze of doubt of before could be entirely dispelled. When the edict to allow women to participate in the keju and enter the court as ministers had been released, what Jiang Changbai had worried the most about was Lin Yingqing's opposition. After all, it was as if the ancient texts were all hidden away in his stomach, and the most inflexible, most hidebound to convention was him; if he'd insisted on opposition, then it would most certainly have caused a fierce debate.

But at that time, Lin Yingqing had only said a single sentence.

"Bixia, please forgive me!"

With her identity exposed, Lin Yingqing's complexion immediately paled, and without even thinking, she fell to her knees, kowtowing unceasingly.

"This minister has deceived her sovereign, and ought to die for the offence, and I beg Bixia to punish me."

The suspicion on Jiang Changbai's face mingled with puzzlement, and she found herself a chair to sit down in. She drew a deep breath, and felt the bitter scent of herbs enter her nose. "The first thing We did on ascending the throne was to allow women to participate in the imperial exams and become ministers, so why did you do this?"

She suddenly caught a glimpse of a bridal case set up atop an ancient book on the table. Well, she called it a bridal case—actually, it was a wooden case that couldn't be simpler, and what was laid out within it were a few things of shoddy makeup, which must have been what was used to alter Lin Yingqing's appearance regularly. Vaguely, she felt that she wasn't simplistic; merely using such poor items, she'd managed to deceive so many people, and deceive them for so long.

Lin Yingqing knelt on the floor, not even daring to raise her head. "This minister—this minister didn't dare. After all, the crime of deceiving one's sovereign—"

Jiang Changbai was so furious she nearly laughed, and she pinched some of the makeup up. "Now you know the crime of deceiving your sovereign—how is it that just now, feigning at being your 'sister' to play Us for a fool, you didn't know the crime of deceiving your sovereign?"

"This minister—this minister was momentarily muddled."

"Momentarily muddled," Jiang Changbai laughed, and flipped through the ancient book as she did so. Her gaze swept across it at a thought, and she felt its contents were cryptic and difficult to understand, and in some places, even the characters weren't distinct. "As We see it, you've been muddled all along.

"Before, a woman could only remained trapped in a residence, so if you wished to be an official, you could only dress as a man—We can understand that. But now that those restrictions don't exist, and even We are a woman, what were you doing still concealing yourself? Hiding your head but showing your tail like this with half truths, it's like the rats in the sewers."

Having finished speaking, Jiang Changbai struck the table heavily. The table was old, and being struck like this, it swayed and trembled groaningly. The ancient book had been set to the side, and with such a swaying, it tumbled to the ground, and a letter fluttered out from within.

"Bixia, please don't be hasty," Song Juguang suddenly said, and as she spoke, she bent over to pick up that thin letter. "It would be best to hear what the difficulties of this rat's are."

Jiang Changbai rather wanted to speak but hesitated, and in the end, she merely took the letter that Song Juguang passed to her. Having looked at it, she felt even more vexed, and thoughtlessly crumpled it up. "You'd best recount everything in detail; perhaps if We are in a good mood, We'll leave you alive."

"Understood."

As it turned out, in her youth, Lin Yingqing hadn't been so inflexible as now; she was a troublemaker of the region. She'd assumed an alias to take part in the imperial exams, and on the first time she'd been able to be in the court, she'd run into an imperial censor impeaching Prince Ling, saying that he'd allowed an official who'd committed a crime to work as a teacher in his residence.

This "official who'd committed a crime" was naturally He Leyong. The young Lin Yingqing had been frightened by this incident, and afterwards, in secret, had asked about about the matter of He Leyong, and the more she'd listened, the more fearful she'd grown. After all, she'd only participated in the keju because of her indignation, indignation that her family paid the salary of a private tutor for her older brother, yet didn't allow her to study. She'd not considered the aftermath at all. She could only study like a madman, and brainwash herself like one too.

But she'd never forgotten that she was a woman, and in these years, there wasn't a single moment she hadn't been on edge.

"You have a family," Jiang Changbai sneered, "We'd assumed you were an orphan."

Yet Lin Yingqing didn't have the slightest emotional reaction, merely saying with a faint smile, "I long since became an orphan."

She remembered that time when her father had said she could "only be sold at a loss",^[1] yet Lin Yingqing had felt that, in her entire family, there wasn't a single person who was more intelligent than her.

Her assumption was correct; her old and young brother had paid tuition to a private tutor, yet they were incompetent and ignorant in school. Once she'd become the Minister of Revenue, her most impressive younger brother hadn't even managed to pass the country level imperial exams. As for her older brother, who'd entered school before her, he'd long since died from fighting while drunk.

She'd originally cut off contact with her family from early on, but somehow, afterwards, she'd been found by her family, who'd bothered her to give her younger brother a position. She hadn't agreed, and her family had threatened to reveal the matter of her dressing as a man.

Having come to this point, Lin Yingqing paused; when she spoke again, her tone was entirely undisturbed. "This minister, in her ten years as an official, has only done three selfish things. The first was sending soldiers to kill the family looking to make trouble; the second was borrowing from the public purse to give to the treacherous and traitorous; and the third, bribing the Warden of the Imperial Prison to secretly protect the Princess Yu, and not let her suffer hardship in prison.

"Though these matters had their reasons, this minister knows that all of these ought not have been done by this minister. Now that it's been exposed, presumably these events ought to have some retribution. This minister knows her guilt, and if your majesty wishes to kill me or maim me, do as you see fit."

The sparrows that had flown away just before had, at some point, returned, and they were twittering, as if defending Lin Yingqing as well. But Jiang Changbai didn't have the slightest intention to deal with her, and only said with a smile, "That book of yours, We just flipped through it, and at a single glance, saw countless 'filial's. You didn't brainwash yourself fully, did you—the most disgraceful of matters, you did them all. Though those people shared the same blood as you, what they did couldn't be counted as 'blood relatives', so in this matter, We do not mark you as guilty.

"There's two more matters that, if you can explain them all clearly, not only will We not take your life, We will wish you to continue being a minister—how's that?"

"That…" Lin Yingqing raised her head in disbelief, the eyes looking at Jiang Changbai full of gratefulness. She'd originally assumed that today was a situation she'd most certainly die in, and only thus had dared to expose what she'd prepared to take to her grave, but she hadn't imagined that Jiang Changbai would be so benevolent.

"This minister—thanks your majesty for the grace," Lin Yingqing said as she devoutly kowtowed.

"Don't rush to thank Us for grace," Jiang Changbai said with a smile, "We came today for the matter of Yang Zhuofei. If you don't explain it clearly, this head of yours will roll regardless."

"This minister understands," Lin Yingqing hurriedly replied, and only after gathering up her words for a while did she continue, "actually, these later two matters both have a relationship to the previous matter."

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Translator's notes: 

[1]: 赔钱货 (pei qian huo), used to refer to daughters because they required a dowry for marriage.