Nightfall

One of the largest upheaval in the Great Tang of the year Tianqi was happening right in the Palace of Counsel. Within each administrative office, minor officials were making frightened guesses about what will happen to their superiors. Meanwhile, the lad in the Imperial study looked around him excitedly. Chao Xiaoshu who was standing at the edge of the Leaving Sea in the Imperial gardens looked like the matter did not concern him at all. He smiled at the colorful fish jumping around, breaking the surface of the water and over the dragon gates before landing into the lake happily. They waved their tails around, sighing occasionally.

Ten years ago, he had been a young scholar who had entered the city to gain entrance into the Academy only to be brought into the Chang’an Jianghu world by the Emperor. Ten years later, he could kill without so much as waving his sword, becoming a force to be reckoned with on the streets of Chang’an. He reminisced and planned for the future as he stood by the edge of the lake. He did not feel that the path to officialdom was in anyway alluring to him. He only wanted to return to those days when all he was focused on was cultivation.

The jangling of bracelets penetrated through the silence at the lake. The young princess with clean features walked towards him slowly with her two personal maids. Lee Yu’s eyes landed on his pale green robes that looked almost white from one too many washes. She blinked in surprise before bending in a half bow smilingly. In a gentle voice, she said, “How do you do, Uncle.”

Lee Yu was the much adored fourth princess of Tang. She was greatly respected and doted on. She would only greet the prince blandly and would only call him by his title prefixed with Uncle. Why would she greet this man so intimately?

“This commoner dares not.”

Chao Xiaoshu angled his body away, allowing her to walk past him. While he claimed that he did not dare, his body language did not seem so. He was only being on guard and held her at a distance politely.

Lee Yu’s hands which have been at her hips froze slightly upon witnessing Chao Xiaoshu’s reaction. The palace maid and nanny behind her watched with trepidation. Without waiting for them to react, Lee Yu said smilingly. “Father used to take me out to play. We’ve met several times at the gambling den. It is just that they’ve slipped my memory since I was so young then. You’ve carried me around before, why are you being so formal now?”

“Your Highness, your words make me fearful. What great deeds have I done to claim a position senior to yours?”

Chao Xiaoshu replied with a slight upward tilt to his mouth. The light reflected off the lake and onto his handsome face, illuminating it. There was no hint that he was being deliberately humble, but only the expression of a subject who kept to the rules. There was a line between the royalty and commoners that he would not cross.

Chao Xiaoshu rebuffed Lee Yu’s attempts at being friendly in the most neutral manner. The atmosphere at the lake became unbearably tense. Lee Yu looked at the middle-aged man quietly and thought of the anger displayed by her father since yesterday and his attempts to protect and court this man. She was very certain that this man held a very important position in her father’s heart. She waved a hand to stop the maids at her side, and continued, “I brought some barbarian bodyguards with me from the grassland. I heard that there was someone named Chen looking for information about them. Is he your man?”

Chao Xiaoshu was quiet for a moment before replying, “His name is Chen VII, he is my man.”

Lee Yu smiled upon hearing that. She turned her gaze towards the lake that looked like a sea, watching the lotus leaves that were being nudged around by the moving fish. She asked, “Is the lad useful?”

“Your Highness, I did not use him, but asked him for help instead.”Chao Xiaoshu replied.”We were working together, he wasn’t being used.”

“If you were working together, is he one of your men then?” Lee Yu turned around, asking him with furrowed brows.

Chao Xiaoshu thought about the noodles with fried eggs from the Old Brush Pen Shop and Ning Que’s answer. He said self-deprecatingly, “Some people are more jaded by the world than I am.”

Chao Xiaoshu He looked at Lee Yu’s furrowed brows and said seriously, “Your Highness, he does not wish for anyone to find out. Please keep this secret for him.”

Lee Yu was startled. She replied sarcastically, “Did that idiot think that we can hide this forever? That he can keep his identity a secret just by wearing a black mask and putting his hair up in the style of the Yuelun Kingdom?”

Chao Xiaoshu replied, “He will enter the Academy soon and will enter the second floor. He will not fear that someone will plot against him then.”

Lee Yu thought about what the old man Lyu Qingchen had said about Ning Que and asked with knitted brows. “Why do you all think so highly of him?”

Chao Xiaoshu replied with a smile, “Because he is worth it”.

Her expression softened when she thought of the glint his knife made at the entrance of the North mountain, the shadow behind the flames and the story told by the fire. However, her voice remained frigid and full of sarcasm. “I gave him a chance then, but he chose not to grasp it. I thought that he was a weirdo who cared naught for power and wealth, but it seems that he only thought that the method of gaining it was not fanciful enough. He wants to enter the Chang’an scene in a manner like this.”

“No matter what, he is mine since I brought him into Chang’an City…”Lee Yu looked at Chao Xiaoshu with an indiscernible expression with a half-smile on her face. “Uncle Chao, shouldn’t you let me know beforehand that you were going to use one of mine so savagely?”

The battle of words really hinges on one’s psychological balance. Fourth Princess Lee Yu is one of the best in her generation. However, before Old Chao who was much more experienced, she was really just a child. Chao Xiaoshu smiled gaily, “Would a little shop like that make things difficult for him if he really belonged to your Highness? I believe your Highness can see that he will never become anyone’s man. He is his own man.”

Lee Yu fell silent as her attempts at trying to find out more information was rebuffed. She had not even managed to find an opportunity to mention about proper business. She waved the maids behind her away and looked at him seriously. “Uncle Chao…”

Chao Xiaoshu bowed slightly and repeated, “This commoner dares not.”

Lee Yu shook her head and said gravely, “Everyone knows that Old Chao of the Spring Breeze Pavilion will never be the commoner hidden out there by the Emperor after today. He is no longer Chang’an city’s number one gang leader. There will be a place for you in this world no matter if you become the head of the royal guards, become an official or are allowed to leave the city.”

“Those officials used to tout the Empress and my name to bait and threaten you when you were Old Chao of the Spring Breeze Pavilion. Are you going to just let things be now that you’ve jumped out of the sea?”

Lee Yu looked at him silently, her tone cordial and her intentions clear. “The Empress is an intelligent woman. I am not stupid either. We will not do anything that displeases my father. But there are some things that we have to do.”

“I hope you can support me.”

“You’ve carried my brother and I when we were little. You’ve met my mother. Could you bear to see my brother’s throne be taken away from him? To watch my mother cry in the netherworld?”

The fight for the throne in Tang hinges on the Emperor’s thoughts and words. While the Emperor looked weak-willed, he was extremely clear headed. He would never allow his wife and children to do anything that would harm the country or the fight to escalate beyond his control. However, he did want to see who performed better in this fight.

There was rarely any royal family like the Tang who are so transparent across time in this world. But the words that Lee Yu had said to Chao Xiaoshu by the lake today had made it seem that she had openly declared her intentions. This differed greatly from the impression people usually had of palace schemes.

Chao Xiaoshu was silent for a long time. He looked at her and said gently, “Your Highness, you bear much resemblance to your mother. You are intelligent and beautiful. You understand that veiled attempts to find out more and to seduce me with power and money means nothing to people like me from the Jianghu world, and so you used a Jianghu speech. However, this is something that can only be decided by the Emperor. I am only a small fish in this large sea called Tang. I am not of much use even if I have jumped across this sea.”

“Uncle Chao, you’re being modest. All these years, I’ve never seen Father trust in a man so much… Furthermore, he must feel guilty towards you for hiding such a talented scholar about to enter the Academy in the depths of the East city for so many years.”

Lee Yu looked at him determinedly. “The most important thing is, you’re in this sea called the great Tang. Even though you might have jumped out of the sea, you’ll still land back into it eventually. One day, you will have to choose which direction to swim in…”

Chao Xiaoshu smiled handsomely and waved at the large lake, interrupting her before she could complete her sentence. “I might be a small fish, but I don’t like staying in a pond even if it might be as big as the sea. It is after all still a pond. If I had to choose which direction to swim in, I might end up choosing the shore.”

Lee Yu furrowed her brows. “A fish will die of thirst on shore.”

Chao Xiaoshu smiled. “At least the fish can breathe in sufficient air before it dies.”

“Uncle Chao, why are you so certain that the court is a pond? Can you find a bigger pond than the great Tang in the world?”

“The Jianghu world might be small, but I feel more at ease in it. Conversely, I’m certain that I rather be a small fry in the Jianghu than a big fish in court.”

Lee Yu looked at the scholar in green robes standing by the lake. She realized, in that moment, that she could not understand some people. She sighed, “The Jianghu world is dangerous.”

Chao Xiaoshu smiled lightly and replied, “But it is far enough. It is freedom.”

Lee Yu shook her head, “What kind of freedom can you have?”

Chao Xiaoshu looked at the young princess somewhat pityingly and said, “The freedom to not choose.”

…

…

Ning Que’s hands itched. It was an itch that had been cultivated for many years. It was so deep in his veins and into his bones that he cannot get rid of it but can only bear with it uncomfortably.

The imperial study was quiet. He walked from the door to the table, from the table to the shelves and from the shelves to the door. His sleeves hid his right hand and his twitching fingers. He could not stop the itch that had burst forth from deep within.

The writings by masters on the wall made him itch. The paintings laying around haphazardly made him itch. The unique scent of Chenzhou ink made him itch. The sensation of the slight wrinkles of Xuanzhou bud paper made him itch. When his gaze landed on the words the Emperor had written, the itch made his eyes water and his face scrunched. He could no longer control himself.

The only way to remedy this itch, was to write.

Messing with the writings of the Emperor in the imperial study is a dumb choice. He might be punished heavily, or might be sentenced, but the itch was terrible… As Chao Xiaoshu talked about choosing freedom by the edge of the lake, Ning Que was trying to make a painful decision.

“I’ll tear it up after writing.”

Finding a good excuse, Ning Que gave a jovial shout and rushed at the writing desk like a starving man. He grinded a little ink and held up a brush, appeasing the itch and turning it into joy. With a quick wave over the paper, he wrote six words.

“The flower blooms on the shore astride.”

…