Chapter 131: Will you go with me?

With Xu Shuqiao having become an official, the Xu residence had long since moved. They no longer lived in the desolate alley of the past, but had moved to a large residence closer to the Imperial Palace. When Xu Shuqiao left morning court and returned home, she could hear the thump-thump of a bamboo boards arising from the rear courtyard from a distance.

Only when she grew closer did she find that her mother was using a plank of red sandalwood as a disciplining rule, bringing it down blow after blow on Xu Shuyi. Xu Shuyi, on the other hand, was sprawled atop a long bench, her moon-pale silk trousers around her knees, her rear crisscrossed with dozens of red, raised marks, her usually neatly-gathered hair in a disarray, stray strands stuck to the nape of her neck with sweat.

Conducting trade to raise her two daughters had long since caused a swift and decisive temper in Mother Xu. In these past few years, she'd been most proud of her elder daughter earning the Emperor's favour, going from official to Minister. She told anyone she met, and everyone praised her nurture for raising a good daughter who'd seized the chance and, in a single try, had passed the imperial exams.

But, while Xu Shuqiao became a more and more important official, she hadn't grown less filial than back then, and the one thing that vexed Mother Xu was Xu Shuqiao.

As Mother Xu saw it, Xu Shuyi really had been born in a good era. When she'd been a child, a female Emperor had ascended the throne, releasing restrictions on the keju, allowing women to enter the government as officials. By the time Xu Shuyi grew up, female officials had long since become common, and there were rumours that the Emperor favoured women, and if one were to enter the court, then they would be promoted more quickly than the men no matter what.

Xu Shuyi hadn't needed to study the feminine arts or feminine restrictions since she'd been a child, nor had she needed to look for a husband before she'd even reached her fifteenth year and pinned her hair,^[1] and could have peacefully studied and participated in the keju time after time. Once she were to enter the bureaucracy, she would have had an elder sister to look at her from above, and practically no one could have had it easier than her.

And yet, Xu Shuyi had refused to grow in the direction Mother Xu had expected. She wasn't fond of studying, and since she'd been a child, she would slip out of the house with the money she'd been given for a tutor to go furtively engage in business, and by now, she'd hardly studied at all, but she'd travelled practically the entirety of the Great Li from South to North.

Encountering this scene, Xu Shuqiao rushed forward, and seeing the discipline rule was about to strike again, she hurried to grab it, letting it strike her palm, raising a burning pain. "Niang, Shuyi's an adult."

"Adult? The older she gets, the less manageable she grows!" When she spoke, Mother Xu's tone carried a clear fury, and in an instant, she threw aside Xu Shuqiao's hand, and the discipline rule struck the pale tiles with a bang, even a few cracks practically appearing on the tile. "How many times has it been now that she's snuck off to go with a caravan? She ran off to Shejin without even an official pass!"

Once she finished speaking, Mother Xu paid no further attention to Xu Shuqiao, and pointed at Xu Shuyi's nose, excoriating, "Would you dare to sneak out again?"

Actually, Xu Shuyi suffering a caning wasn't a rare occurrence in the Xu residence. The Xu residence had these three masters in total; with Xu Shuqiao spending all her time at the Ministry of Works and rarely returning home, the typical day within the residence was Mother Xu forcing Xu Shuyi to study. With Mother Xu's tense temper, Xu Shuqiao often suffered canings.

But Xu Shuqiao wasn't usually as silent as she was today; she'd usually yell and shout about how "there's a master of any trade if they apply themselves" and "utterly useless scholars", saying that she was going to do business, that in the future, she'd open a restaurant even more popular than Honghailou, that she'd become the wealthiest person in the Great Li. But now, Xu Shuyi was silent, gritting her teeth and withstanding each blow.

"You can't do this no matter how hard to manageable she is." Xu Shuqiao had only ever argued with her mother when it came to her younger sister; she scooped Xu Shuqiao off the long bench, embracing her, and said, "Especially this time—it's serendipitous."

Xu Shuyi hid away in her sister's embrace, letting Xu Shuqiao help her pull her trousers back up. She'd bitten through the skin of her lower lip, and it was bleeding sluggishly.

Xu Shuqiao looked at her mother, and said, "During today's morning court, I requested an assignment for Shuyi from her majesty. Once it's been carried out, naturally there's be no worry about entering the court as an official. Mother, think of the current Director of the Board of Astronomy, Qin-daren, Qin Anhe—didn't she enter the court back then because she'd solved the drought in Boyang?"

Hearing this, Xu Shuyi's eyes brightened as well, and she stared at Xu Shuqiao. Xu Shuqiao smiled, pinching her nose, and said, "The diplomatic convoy to Shejin has an empty space; tomorrow, you'll gather your things, and prepare to depart."

Unexpectedly, on hearing this, Xu Shuyi struggled free of Xu Shuqiao's embrace, scrambling back inside as she shouted, "I won't go!"

Baffled, Xu Shuqiao still chased after her. Only once she came inside did she find that, as if frightened by something, Xu Shuyi had curled up, trembling, in a corner of the bed, having wrapped a quilt around herself despite the heat of the day. It was utterly unlike her typically forceful character.

"If you have something to say, then say it; what great thing is it that's frightened your courage out of you?" Xu Shuqiao, arms crossed, stood by the bed, her expression grave.

Seeing this expression, Xu Shuyi knew her elder sister was angry, but she still hid away in the corner, not daring to move, and merely said, "I won't go."

"Usually you love running all about, but now that you've been given an opportunity, how come you're not willing to go?" Xu Shuqiao couldn't help but furrow her brows, sitting down on the bed as she did so. "Could it be that my younger sister is such a useless, inept person?"

"Jie!" Xu Shuyi couldn't bear to hear such words; in the end, she let out the words she'd been suppressing.

Xu Shuyi said, slowly, fear still clearly lingering, "Shejin is a place that can't be gone to; it's all the undead there. They don't fear pain or death, and not even ten people can necessarily subdue one of them.

"Luckily this time when I went to Shejin it was with one of Honghailou's caravans; there were a lot of them, and they had excellent weapons. If it were someone else's caravan, I really don't know if I could have gotten out of there alive.

"But even so, only a few of us managed to survive and get away, and most of the good were lost. I was brave enough to cut open one of the undead's stomachs, and found a little wooden tablet inside.

"The patterns carved onto the wooden tablet were dizzying to look at. I was afraid, so I didn't bring it back, and gave it to Honghailou's people. I really wouldn't dare to go again—I'll listen to you in the future, and to Niang, and I'll study with the tutor every day at home, and I won't step a single foot outside the door.

"I'll study, and I'll go participate in the keju—I'm begging you, please don't make me go to Shejin."

Actually, Xu Shuqiao had never seen her younger sister so afraid before; in her memory, she'd always been a fearless, forceful person. She turned her hand over to hold hers, and comforted, "Those were just border bandits…"

"They weren't!" Xu Shuyi said as she pulled her sleeve up; her wrist carried shocking, purple finger marks that had yet to fade. "Those are the undead; their eyes were cloudy, and even when their arms were cut off, they'd continue to fight."

Suddenly, a breeze rose in the courtyard, the draft blowing the scent of blossoms into the room. Xu Shuqiao recalled the way the majority of the ministers had cringed away during that morning's court, and a cold chill ran up her spine. Xu Shuyi typically feared nothing, yet now, she had curled up in a ball in her embrace.

"A Jie, I'm really begging you." Xu Shuyi had already cried to the point of being unable to speak properly. "I won't anger Niang ever again."

Yet a different idea had arisen in Xu Shuqiao's mind. She recalled the scene of that morning's morning court; recalled the approval that had flashed in Jiang Changbai's gaze when she'd nominated Xu Shuyi to go on the diplomatic delegation. She knew clearly that, if Xie Qianbing hadn't been willing to go, then even if this task had already fallen to her, she'd have been able to get out of it by going to beg her majesty. But she couldn't, and Xu Shuyi could even less. If she were to go beg her majesty solely due to Xu Shuyi's words, then even she would probably be implicated.

More than that, Xu Shuqiao had always believed in the dual existence of opportunity with danger—just like how it had only been by staking her life on re-examining the keju exam papers back then that had earned her her majesty's favour, and allowed her current meteoric rise. Back then, there'd been so many scholars who'd entered the bureaucracy with her, but now, not a one of them were as accomplished as her. If she'd been hesitant and cringing back then, perhaps she'd have long since vanished in the crowd by now.

Having come to this point, the chill in Xu Shuqiao's gaze grew. She stroked Xu Shuyi's back as gently as she usually did, but the words she spoke were utterly ruthless. "It's precisely because you'd seen it before that you must go."

Xu Shuyi raised her gaze to look at her, and saw the gravity in her usually gentle elder sister's eyes. She felt it alien, and couldn't help but crawl backwards.

The two sisters were just facing off when, from outside, a maid's voice suddenly called out, "Daren, Xie-daren's arrived."

At this time, there was only one Xie-daren who'd come to the Xu residence, and Xu Shuqiao didn't have to guess to know it was Xie Qianbing. She rose, ordering the maid to welcome Xie Qianbing in, and then turned her head to look at Xu Shuyi. "Wipe your face clean and neaten your clothes, and come greet our guest with me."

Xu Shuyi had never seen such a bearing on Xu Shuqiao before—swift and decisive, her tone brooking no argument.

By the time Xie Qianbing saw the two sisters in the guest hall, Xu Shuyi's demeanour had changed entirely. She was clad in flamboyant red attire, her hair neatly bound up, no trace of the wretchedness of recently having been pressed over a long bench and been "served by familial discipline" visible. It was just that, when she sat on the chair, she couldn't help but try and flinch away a bit.

"Xie-daren, you've come so quickly," Xu Shuqiao called out, pressing Xu Shuyi back into the chair as she did so. Xu Shuyi's eyes widened with pain, but she didn't dare make a sound.

"Since her majesty instructed this matter, it ought to be handled with urgency." Xie Qianbing nodded with a smile, her gaze taking measure of Xu Shuyi, and she said, "Your honourable younger sister looks rather lively."

"She's only so patient," Xu Shuqiao said as she poured Xie Qianbing and herself tea, "Xie-daren, please praise her a bit before her majesty; after all, Shejin is a distant place, and Shuyi's meritorious contribution is also a trial."

Xu Shuqiao had barely finished speaking when Xie Qianbing cut her off, setting her teacup down, causing ripples to spread out through the tea. "I'm going as well."

In the end, Xu Shuyi couldn't stand it, and she asked, "Do you know?"

"The undead? And the tablets which cause people to go insane?" Xie Qianbing rubbed the green jade ring on her thumb, her gaze full of disdain. "And what of it?"

"Aren't you afraid?" Xu Shuyi asked, eyes wide. As she saw it, Xie Qianbing was a frail scholar through and through, her constitution probably not as robust as her own, and even she was afraid—so how come Xie Qianbing wasn't?

"There's nothing to be afraid of," Xie Qianbing's eyes were sharp and penetrating. "We're supported by the Great Li and her majesty—how could we be compared to that caravan of traders of yours?"

Even the most wealthy merchants were only merchants, and as Xie Qianbing saw it, those so-called undead dared to attack a trading caravan, but wouldn't dare to touch a diplomatic convoy from the Great Li.

Seeing Xu Shuyi had stopped speaking, Xie Qianbing added, "If you're afraid, then I'll go tell her majesty that your temperament is still too childish, and that you aren't fit for going with the diplomatic convoy."

Psychological methods were the most effective towards youth, but perhaps because those "undead" had cast too great a psychological shadow on Xu Shuyi, she still asked hesitantly, "Then, what if they dare to attack even a diplomatic convoy?"

"Then we'll fight." Xie Qianbing paused, and said, "As long as we step over the border, we represent the Great Li's prestige, and her majesty's prestige. The food we eat is grown by the Great Li's common people, and the titles we carry are the salary issued by the Great Li's court, so naturally we have responsibility to protect the Great Li's prestige. We can't be afraid, nor do we need to be."

Xie Qianbing spoke decisively, and the words, in Xu Shuyi's eyes, seemed to gild her with gold. The heroism buried deep in her heart was aroused, and Xu Shuyi felt herself overwhelmed by emotion.

Seeing this, the corners of Xie Qianbing's lips curled, and she tilted her head towards her. "Will you go with me?"

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Translator's notes:

[1]: In traditional Chinese culture, the coming of age ceremony for girls (known as 笄礼 or "hairpin ceremony") was typically performed at age fifteen, marking the transition from childhood to adulthood.