.Chapter 126: Ruptured relations
Feng Puzhi didn't respond, and turned, leaving the warm room.
"Jie, don't listen to what Shifu said," Qin Anhe only dared to mumble quietly after watching Feng Puzhi go far away. "Any good plan has something overlooked; what if Shifu's wrong?"
"I know." Chen Xun raised a hand, placing it over Qin Anhe's, but her voice was desolate.
The heavy scent of medicine floated in the wing of the relay station; only when Su Ya made it to the doorway did she suddenly feel that this room was one she'd been in when she'd arrived to the Great Li as Envoy back then. But things had changed with the passage of time, and now, it was she who was entering from outside.
Su Ya pushed the door open without knocking; when she entered, Qin Zhixun was half-reclining on the gold-embroidered pillow, and she reached out, picking up the bowl of medicine on the low table.
"Shejin's eye for selecting envoys has gotten worse and worse." Su Ya brushed off the nonexistent dust from herself, and then, without asking, sat on the round stool. "Back then, I wasn't this wretched."
Though Su Ya had lived so long in the Great Li, her previous temperament had mostly been ground away—but now, seeing someone from her homeland, she once more put on the airs of the princess she'd been.
Qin Zhixun's fingertip traced a circle around the rim of the bowl of medicine. "Your highness truly wasn't as wretched as me back then, but after so many years, you haven't been able to return."
Su Ya, her tender spot prodded, fell silent in an instant. Her gaze flickered over Qin Zhixun for a long while, and in the end, she asked, "Jiwen, did she…have anything to tell me?"
"Her majesty is very busy," Qin Zhixun pushed the bowl away, and said, "the filth remaining in the court from before have only just been cleansed, and right now, there is much left to be done. When I left, she didn't have anything for this minister to tell you."
Seeing the disappointment on Su Ya's face, Qin Zhixun's mouth curved in a smile, and she added, "If Sheng-daren hadn't come to tell me the day before yesterday, this subject wouldn't even have known that such a Shejin princess as you remained in the Great Li."
The Northern wind outside the window rustled the branches, making them strike against the window; the burning coal in the brazier crackled with sparks. Though the Spring Festival had already passed, some of the eager branches had already begun to grow tender shoots, but it was still cold. Su Ya shot Qin Zhixun a glance, and then suddenly rose and pushed the window sash partway open, the cold wind spilling in and dispersing the medicinal scent.
"Qin-daren, your ability to sow dissension is far better than your martial skills," Su Ya said, standing by the window, looking at the withered tree still standing in the courtyard; that tree had been just as withered the year she'd arrived, and showed not the slightest hint of life, but even after all these years, it was still standing.
Precisely because of this, she didn't notice the smile on Qin Zhixun's face. The cold breeze spilled in with a whistling, but Qin Zhixun, wearing merely an unlined garment, seemed not to sense the cold in the slightest. She sat with a straight spine, not seeming as if she'd been injured.
"Your highness jests," Qin Zhixun said, as she gathered the moon-pale sleepwear she wore, "this subject wanted to ask you—I've heard it said, the Great Li has two masters, now?"
Su Ya suddenly turned, the ornaments on her waist striking the wall and making a jangling sound. "What are you asking that for?"
"Just curious," Qin Zhixun said, taking out an oilpaper parcel from a satchel, "try it, I brought it from Shejin. Your highness can't return to Shejin, so you may as well try something from your homeland."
Within the oilpaper were wrapped a few pieces of jerky, but the jerky wasn't the kind that Su Ya had bought from the market in the Great Li a few days prior.
Su Ya grabbed a piece and put it into her mouth, but she couldn't taste the flavour of that from her homeland. Her eyes burned uncontrollably. "Jiwen, did she…really not say anything about me?"
Qin Zhixun stood up from the bed, wearing merely an unlined garment, and unhurriedly put the cups away. "Your highness has been away from Shejin for so long, so you must not know what's happened in Shejin."
Su Ya fell silent, not saying anything further. But Qin Zhixun didn't intend to let her go, and feigned at carelessness, asking, "Is Dianxia familiar with the Regent?"
Su Ya didn't understand why she would ask such a thing, but the hurt in her heart had yet to dissipate, and she clearly didn't have the mind to answer.
Back then, when Liang Jiwen had left the capital, she'd agreed that, one day, she'd definitely bring her home. Even if she'd known in her heart that she and Liang Jiwen didn't have any sort of deep relationship, back then, Liang Jiwen had said that; it had most likely been merely a thoughtless mention, but she'd still believed it; had, in the end, waited seven years.
Though the Great Li was progressive, and women's circumstances were significantly better than in Shejin, all of these was merely the reflection of the moon in the water for Su Ya—she could only look.
"I've only met the Regent a few times," Su Ya said, coldly. "I've lived in the depths of the Palace for many years, and don't know about the matters the previous regime."
But hearing this, Qin Zhixun let out a sneer. "Dianxia must think this subject is a fool; even if this subject has only been in the Great Li a short while, I know that the current Emperor of the Great Li's Rear Court has been empty for a decade. How could there be such a thing as living in the depths of the Rear Court and not meddling in politics?"
"Even without the Rear Court, naturally there's no such thing as not meddling in politics." Su Ya, hearing the words, laughed, and said, "But with the place empty except for maids and concubine dowagers and consort dowagers, who would there be to discuss politics, hm?"
Qin Zhixun pursed her lips. "But how come this subject has heard it said that the Regent spends day after day in the Palace?"
Hearing this, Su Ya's eyes widened, and her mind whirred. "Qin-daren is quite well-informed of such rumours."
"I just listened to some casual conversation while free," Qin Zhixun smiled, "a number of people say that the Regent and the Emperor of the Great Li's relationship isn't the ordinary kind."
Su Ya shot her a glance, and threw open the half-opened window. "Qin-daren, this relay station doesn't face the street, and yet your eyes watch everything and your ears hear all."
"Dianxia jests," Qin Zhixun shrugged, her gaze flickering, and then she asked, "I hear it said that her majesty's breakfast is brought to her by the Regent every morning?"
This scene had been spread and described in great detail in folk tales, and in an instant, Su Ya guessed at where Qin Zhixun had heard it. She stared out the window, letting the cold breeze strike her face, and in the end, she asked, "What, exactly, do you want to ask?"
"Dianxia, can you not guess?" Qin Zhixun came to Su Ya's side, and said, "This subject wishes to ask, are the Regent and her majesty having an affair?"
Su Ya was startled by these words, her pupils shaking, and she glanced about, not daring to believe it. After a long while, she forced out, "You're quite brave. Even Liang Jiwen has to bow her head as vassal to the Emperor of the Great Li, but you can make baseless remarks?"
"So what if I make remarks?" Qin Zhixun shrugged. "There's so many rumours among the people; could it be that the Emperor can kill them all?"
"You!" Su Ya, at a loss for words, couldn't say anything further. She didn't know what Qin Zhixun intended to do, but she could guess that it wasn't anything good for the Great Li. Su Ya had never felt any gratitude for Jiang Changbai, but now that the reality was laid before her, she was a bit hesitant.
"Ah, don't be anxious, Dianxia," Qin Zhixun seemed to have long since expected Su Ya's reaction, and she said, unhurriedly, "how about we make a deal?"
When Qin Zhixun saw Song Juguang again, it had already been three days.
"Shijie." Before Song Juguang, Qin Zhixun naturally wasn't as arrogant as she'd been before Su Ya, but rather, she was docile. "I'll leave in two days; are you willing to return to Shejin with me?"
Though Qin Zhixun's head was bowed when she spoke, there was hope in her expression. Yet Song Juguang, opposite from her previous bearing, looked at Qin Zhixun with a determination to sever ties in her gaze.
She said only, "Safe travels."
"Ah?" Qin Zhixun's gaze flashed with bafflement. "Are you not coming with me?"
"I will remain here," Song Juguang said, firmly.
"Even if the mission is a failure?" Qin Zhixun's words carried a dissatisfaction.
Yet hearing this, Song Juguang sighed, and when she spoke again, her words were sincere and heartfelt. "You know as well that there are two Emperor Stars in the heavens. Don't tell me you're certain that Liang Jiwen is the brilliant sovereign the people have hoped for?"
"Even if she were worse, she's still better than Jiang Changbai!" Qin Zhixun seemed to have grown a temper, and her voice rose a few degrees. "Shijie, have you calculated the astrology charts while in this world? Before I came, the Emperor Star over the Central Plains had already been swallowed halfway by the Greedy Wolf Star!"[1]
Hearing this, Song Juguang's heart inexplicably shook. Calculating the astrology charts required a massive expenditure of energy; if she were at the sect, then it would naturally not be any concern for her. But in this world, the strength she'd saved up for all these years wasn't even enough to calculate it once.
But she remembered clearly that, when she'd calculated it a the sect back then, there hadn't been a Greedy Wolf Star over the Central Plains.
Where had she gone wrong?
Seeing this expression of Song Juguang's, Qin Zhixun believed she'd been swayed, and she said, even more insistently, "Everything has its difficulty. Shijie, the time for the King of Shejin to take the major role has already arrived; though the Great Li appears to be flourishing, it's merely in its final, gasping days."
But unexpectedly, when she finished speaking, Song Juguang suddenly stood from the stone stool, the gaze she looked Qin Zhixun with carried some disgust. "Shut up!"
"Shijie!"
Qin Zhixun wasn't afraid, though, and she stood up as well, meeting Song Juguang's gaze. "In the past, you taught me to not indulge in romantic matters, and said it would detrimental to my cultivation. Yet now, are you going to hold yourself back for a mortal?!"
Even if Su Ya were more cut off from news, in the past seven years, she'd still heard a good deal of rumours about Song Juguang and Jiang Changbai. When the two had struck a deal that day, she'd told everything to Qin Zhixun.
Actually, Qin Zhixun had long since guessed at it; after all, she'd read histories before as well, and in the Great Li's past, there'd never been an example of a Regent who'd stayed day after day in the Palace. Adding onto that the rumours among the common people, her suspicions had grown. That day, when she'd heard Su Ya say it, she'd grown certain of her guess. She couldn't help but grow furious, and though she pitied her misfortune, she was still angered that she hadn't struggled.
"Who told you that?!"
She hadn't imagined that, hearing this, Song Juguang would grow angrier, the veins that pulsed on the back of her hands seeming as if about to burst.
Qin Zhixun naturally knew that this situation didn't have any further room to turn around, and so she revealed what she'd been thinking in her heart. "It's all written in the folk tales; even if I didn't want to know, I'd have to work for it. I never saw you love anyone before, Shijie, so how come now you've learnt to love?
"From the time I was young until I grew up, I always did as you taught. Whatever you had me do, I did it, and whatever you told me not to, I didn't even think of doing. You were always my model. But we had too many shijies and shimeis, so many that I didn't even know whether or not you'd remember my name.
"When Shizun told me I was to come here to help you, I was overjoyed; I thought that, with only the two of us here, we ought to grow a bit closer. I hadn't imagined that—I hadn't imagined that you'd consort with that Emperor so ambiguously.
"But Shijie, we'll always have to return in the end. You and she aren't on the same path; listen to me, and break it off as soon as possible."
Qin Zhixun's words had left the rims of her eyes red, and even her voice had begun to tremble.
But Song Juguang seemed not to have heard what Qin Zhixun had said, and when she spoke, she only said one word.
"Leave."
Translator's notes:
[1]: 贪狼星 (Tan Lang xing), known better as Dubhe in English.
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