Chapter 97: Reunion

At that time, Lin Yingqing had only just become Minister of Revenue, and the previous Minister of Revenue whom she'd replaced, Zhang Yaozu, had been Liu Zihe's good friend. Zhang Yaozu had died due to being too addled; at the time, Liu Zihe had a monopoly on the Ministry of Appointments, and Wu Dongmu had monopolised the Ministry of War, and though they were able to cover the heavens with a single hand, they weren't able to sway Emperor Tai's personal interest.

As for Zhan Yaozu, he'd been foolish to the point of treating the Ministry of Revenue's purse as his own, and he lived his life extravagantly, without the slightest frugality. It was such that when Emperor Tai had wanted to built a new palace, the Ministry of Revenue hadn't been able to provide the money. Emperor Tai had been furious, executing Zhang Yaozu's family to the ninth degree, and only thus had Lin Yingqing been able to take the position.

The instant Lin Yingqing became the Minister of Revenue, she'd immediately increased the income and reduced expenditures; Liu Zihe and the others naturally hadn't been pleased with her, and by chance, had run into her so-called family causing trouble. Lin Yingqing had been blackmailed, and could only "lend" the Ministry of Revenue's money to them.

Though it was "lending", the debt notes had been like pieces of paper, without any binding power at all.

"At that time, this minister nearly had her identity exposed by Liu Zihe, and it was the Princess Yu who aided this minister." Lin Yingqing bowed her head, and said, "If not for her, I fear this minister would not have been able to live until you ascended the throne. She acted wrongly, and ought to have been punished. But this minister knew that the environment of the Imperial Prison is terrible—"

"Repaying kindness, that does count as a good deed," Jiang Changbai, listening, suddenly praised. But without waiting for Lin Yingqing to thank her, she changed the direction of the conversation, and added, "But you bribed the Warden, and had a prisoner's cell changed privately, which is also a crime. Though there was a reason, We must punish you. Deducting half a year's salary—do you have any objections?"

"This minister has not the slightest objection," said Lin Yingqing, who had already prepared to return to a civilian identity, and never be an official again. Now, hearing that she'd only be punished so superficially, she was naturally incalculably happy.

But having come to this point, Jiang Changbai didn't have the faintest intent to leave. Qing An came back to herself from her dazed shock, and came into the room with water for tea, but was halted by Xun Zhu. Hearing the sound, Jiang Changbai turned her head, yet said, "Zhao-taiyi, come feel Lin-daren's pulse; We will give you a chance, to see whether or not you can tell her ailment."

Zhao-taiyi hurried forward, but when she examined her, she was once more silent.

Only after a long while, such that the water that had been boiling on the stove had cooled, did she say, "Lin-daren's pulse is steady, as if—as if there's not the slightest ailment."

"Not the slightest ailment—that's not what you told Us just now in the Palace," Jiang Changbai reprimanded sternly, yet the next moment, Lin Yingqing spoke.

"Responding to your majesty, this minister's illness was falsified through the usage of a medicine from a folk doctor."

Only now did Jiang Changbai settle her gaze on Lin Yingqing once more, and her eyes narrowed slightly. "We truly misread you; the crime of deceiving your sovereign, you really didn't do sparingly, did you."

"Your majesty, this minister—this minister…"

Lin Yingqing was still stammering, but Jiang Changbai didn't look at her again, only turning her head to look at Zhao-taiyi. "Go find the prescription; it's rare that there's a medicine that could deceive you."

"Understood."

Watching Zhao-taiyi and An Qing leave, Jiang Changbai looked once more towards Lin Yingqing. "Why did you claim illness?"

Lin Yingqing sighed heavily, and closed her eyes, and said, "Defectors came looking for this Minister, and this minister wasn't willing to collude with them in their actions; fearing that, having offended them, they'd reveal this minister's identity, this minister could only use this strategy, putting safety before matters of principle."

"Placing safety before matters of principle," Jiang Changbai smiled, "such safety before principle—as it turns out, the so-called most loyal minister is merely like this."

"It's not that this minister wasn't willing to be loyal to you in the slightest, only that they used this minister's identity as blackmail; the matter of a woman dressing as a man to be an official for so many years truly is a shock far too offensive to the whole of society, and this minister—this minister feared—"

"What shock to the whole of society?" Jiang Changbai indicated Xu Shuqiao, waiting outside the door, as she spoke. "She dressed as a man to participate in the keju as well, and did We judge her as guilty? All those books you drilled into your head, how is it that a few words were able to deceive you?

"The emperor who forbid women from taking official positions is buried, and We have never been so strict, so what did you fear? If We weren't to have discovered your identity today, until what point were you planning to conceal it?"

Lin Yingqing bowed her head, not daring to look directly at Jiang Changbai, and stammered, her voice as thin as a fly's, "Until—until the day this minister died."

"What a great 'til your dying day'," Jiang Changbai said, voice suddenly rising, "then in the histories and paintings of the future, did you also want yourself to be repeated for all eternity with the identity of a man?"

Lin Yingqing was halted by Jiang Changbai's questioning, and for a long while, she couldn't say anything.

"Since you're not ill, then tomorrow, come to court," Jiang Changbai, largely unwilling to keep arguing with her, ordered coldly. "Put away all those disguising items of yours; as long as it's a day We are on the throne, it's a day that women can stand honestly in the court."

Lin Yingqing, the Minister of Revenue who'd been ill for almost half a year, returned to the court as a woman, and everyone was shocked, but no one dared to say much. Yang Zhuofei was buried according to the standards of a princess, but there wasn't a single character of Prince Yu's "Yu" anywhere to be found, and the former Minister of Appointments, Liu Zihe, and the former Minister of War, Wu Dongmu, were judged as conspirators against the state, their possessions and assets seized, and their families banished to the Northern border.

At this point, no one in the court dared to say the slightest word against Jiang Changbai. As for Liu Zihe later asking for herself to be sent away from the capital, to serve as the prefectural magistrate of Hailin in the south of the Great Li, that was a matter of two years later.

The undercurrents of the court had shifted, but to Liang Jiwen, it was as if nothing had happened at all. In this period, Jiang Changbai had already let down the guard she had up against her, and besides not being able to live outside the Palace, Liang Jiwen was quite at liberty in the capital Now, when Liang Jiwen left the Palace, she wouldn't only go find Bi Yushuang to entertain herself.

The final heatwave of the eighth month swept over the streets, and Liang Jiwen wandered them aimlessly. Those living in the Rear Court grew fewer and fewer, and Jiang Changbai had reduced the stipend to the Rear Court, and the dowager consorts and concubines who were more flexible in their views had all moved out of the Palace. Now, the common people of the Great Li were growing more prosperous with each passing day, and even the hawkers selling things in the capital were earing enough money to eat their fill and keep themselves clothed.

But those needles largely took pricked the Rear Court, where most of the people were of advanced age. They didn't usually much like walking about, and largely stayed in the ritual halls, kneeling throughout the day. Naturally Liang Jiwen didn't have any common topics of conversation with them; when she wanted to entertain herself, she had to leave the Palace, and go into the capital.

As a result, even though the weather was so hot, she didn't stay within the Palace.

This street was the capital's most bustling street, and those who came and went weren't just the Great Li's citizens, and the items laid out on the stands were each stranger than the last. Of course, the prices were each higher than the last, and the money that Liang Jiwen had received in the Rear Court couldn't buy anything at all.

She could only look. She looked at the kaleidoscopes laid out on the stands; just looking through it, she could see countless sights, as if she'd been entirely transported. But this time, before she'd even picked it up, she heard a familiar voice.

It was someone speaking Shejinese.

The people of Shejin had, for generations, lived on the steppes, and made a living through nomadic animal husbandry. Though there wasn't a lack of blue-eyed, fair-haired people in the capital, Liang Jiwen had never before met a second person from Shejin. To say it, it was meeting an old friend in a foreign place, and though Liang Jiwen hadn't heard of such a quote, she could, at this moment, understand its feeling. She hurriedly set the kaleidoscope down, and immediately and unceasingly went looking in the direction of the voice.

However, an even greater joy was waiting just behind her; before she'd taken many steps, two familiar faces appeared before her.

The last time they'd seen each other was when Liang Jiwen had left the Shejin Royal Palace with the marriage alliance princess' convoy. At the time, they hadn't gone through the chaos of war, and Liang Jiwen had carried a carriage full of her dowry and a few familiar people to step forward along the road to the Great Li's capital.

And these two were those who had lost contact with Liang Jiwen during the first battle, their whereabouts unknown. Before this, Liang Jiwen had always assumed that they'd lost their lives. She hadn't imagined that, after a few years, they'd once more meet.

"Princess!" That tall woman recognised Liang Jiwen quickly, her eyes full of joy, and she hurried to tug at the round faced woman by her side to rush towards her.

If Jiang Changbai had been here, she would have been able to recognise them at a glance as well. These Shejin women were He Miao and Tao Li, whom she and Song Juguang had met in the old tea seller's residence at the foot of Mount Tongshan.

"How are you here?" Fearing that those around her would grow suspicious, Liang Jiwen spoke in Shejinese as well. Perhaps because she'd been in the Great Li for too long, but when she spoke Shejinese, it was a bit halting.

"That's a long story…" He Miao's round, bright red eyes, seeing Liang Jiwen, were already brimming with tears, and she stared at Liang Jiwen.

Liang Jiwen realised this wasn't a place to be talking as well, and she hurriedly took them to look for a tea shop to sit down in. This tea didn't count as cheap; normally, Liang Jiwen would have rather walked further, and wouldn't have come in here.

"This servant had never imagined she'd be able to meet you again so quickly," Tao Li, her expression one of emotion, said, unable to help her hands from shaking, spilling the tea in her cup on the table.

"Don't rush, speak slowly. How did you come here?" Liang Jiwen, at this moment, was more steady than before, and though her heart was equally as emotional, her expression didn't show hardly any movement.

Only now did Tao Li explain the story in full.

As it turned out, when they'd lost contact with the convoy during the battle, the two had had nowhere they could go, and could only follow the road back to the Shejin Royal Palace. Having lost their master, naturally their lives in the Shejin Royal Palace weren't good.

But now—

"You mean, my Royal Father's fallen ill?" Liang Jiwen blinked, somewhat disbelieving.

"His highness fell off his horse while hunting, and after that fall, wasn't able to stand up again. The princess have all been gazing ambitiously at the King's throne, and everyone in the Palace naturally feel in danger; the two of us really couldn't survive any further, and only such fled here, hoping to find you," Tao Li replied quietly, but when she spoke, her eyes were full of grief.

Their lives on the way hadn't passed easily; at the start, they'd only known a bit of the Great Li's language, and later, disguising themselves as locals hadn't been difficult. But only once they'd established themselves at the foot of Mount Tongshan, and were surrounded by the chat of villagers, did they realise that they'd had a relatively easy journey.

They didn't dare to imagine what tribulations Liang Jiwen, who had limped out of the battle and headed towards the capital, had had to endure.

"Having lived steadily for so long, that counts as his gain as well." Now that her Royal Father had been brought up once more, Liang Jiwen's expression wasn't benevolent. After all, the times the two had had truly been few, and when she'd been in the Shejin Royal Palace, she hadn't received her Royal Father's consideration much, either.

The paternal-filial affection between the two of them wasn't comparable to the depths of her friendship with Bi Yushuang.

Liang Jiwen thought for a moment, and then said, "But since you fled the Palace, why didn't you stay in Shejin, but rather left home to come to the Great Li? With the chaos of the Royal Palace, no one would probably have had the mind to capture the two of you average maids."

"We heard that the Great Li's customs were open-minded, and that women could be officials and merchants the same as men," He Miao, who'd been silent for a long while, spoke now. "If were had remained in Shejin, we could only have looked for a family to marry into. But in the Great Li, we have much more freedom."

"That's right," Liang Jiwen, when this topic was raised, nodded agreeably. "To say nothing of officials and merchants, in the Great Li, even the Emperor is a woman."

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