Chapter 52

The flash flood came on fierce, and the forest-hunt had to be cut short; the imperial carriage returned first to the central field-camp, the rest coming back one after another — but among them the crown prince and Princess Qingshan were nowhere to be seen. Little as the emperor loved these two children, he was still a father, and at once, aghast, ordered every soldier who could be mustered to comb the royal forest thoroughly and bring his two children back at all costs.

And so came Yu Yong's "timely" appearance.

Back at the central field-camp, Zhuo Siheng was worn to the edge of fainting by these several days' ordeal; His Honor Zeng, hearing he'd returned, hitched up his robe-hem and ran out in a fluster, only to see his half-dead disciple swaying on the verge of falling from the saddle. So alarmed the other half of his hair nearly went white too, he hurried to call for someone to help him down; just then the emperor, hearing his son and daughter had come back alive, ran out too to see whether they were missing an arm or a leg, and His Honor Zeng, quick-witted in the crisis, secretly gave Zhuo Siheng a vicious pinch at the small of his back — the pain toppled him to the ground, and the emperor, embracing his weeping son and daughter in their after-disaster reunion, seeing this, hurriedly detached one of the imperial physicians tending the crown prince and princess to go see how Zhuo Siheng fared.

No merit is greater than saving the sovereign. So Zhuo Siheng heard, waking only the next day, his quick-witted superior His Honor Zeng say, stroking his beard, sly old fox that he was.

"Are the crown prince and princess unharmed?" Zhuo Siheng thought he'd best show concern for this first.

His Honor Zeng felt he was indeed generous of heart, and hurried to tell him: "Both Highnesses are unharmed; only the princess seems to have taken a chill and needs good rest and care, while the crown prince is strong of body and quite all right. His Highness has already reported your rescue to the emperor, who's bestowed many things on you; once you feel better you must go at once before the throne to give thanks."

Zhuo Siheng knew the crown prince's temper — he'd surely answer as taught — so he wasn't worried about that, but a strange feeling stirred faintly in his heart: generous as the emperor always was, gifts bestowed from on high always seemed to come with terms of exchange, and Zhuo Siheng didn't know whether this time he'd have to pay more; he hoped he was overthinking it.

Seeing His Honor Zeng too worn with fatigue, Zhuo Siheng, moved and guilty, hurried to rise and cup his hands: "I've made you worry, sir. The cloak you lent me I carelessly lost in the flood; forgive me — I'll surely repay it."

Those who knew of the assassin all had to bear more risk, and Zhuo Siheng was loath to let His Honor Zeng stand beneath a toppling wall.

The muddy pool he'd waded into, fate had drawn him into in the dark; others, at least, might be spared.

"Why speak of that." His Honor Zeng helped him sit back down: "A gentleman shouldn't stick at trifles; you're a man of great ambition, and all the more should be so."

The two dared not talk much; His Honor Zeng borrowed a set of green official robes from someone for Zhuo Siheng, his own being past wearing, and to face the emperor in them would lose face. Zhuo Siheng took leave of His Honor Zeng, tidied himself simply, and went to the imperial carriage-tent to give thanks.

He'd slept from his faint clear to the next evening; the red sun slanted west but still lit all of Taicang Plain, and from afar he saw the golden-scarlet blaze of the emperor's field-tent, its corners wrapped in red-gold and hung with golden bells. Through three guard checkpoints, Zhuo Siheng could at last come near enough to see clearly the auspicious patterns openworked in the golden bells, and the thick ambergris incense slowly curling out from within. Word of his coming had already passed inside; before long eunuchs and palace women lifted two layers of curtain, and out walked a woman in splendid palace dress — yet however gorgeous the gown, it couldn't match the stately, radiant beauty of her face, dazzling in every direction.

Zhuo Siheng at once lowered his head to avoid her and bowed, but from her looks and dress had already judged this woman was likely Noble Consort Luo, favored above all the harem.

She and her sister Luo Yuanzhu did not, in fact, look very much alike.

True enough — his own looks weren't much like Xiheng's either; it was Fan Xiliang he seemed cast from the same mold with, whom a single glance marked as his brother.

Passing Zhuo Siheng, Noble Consort Luo suddenly stopped: "Attendant Zhuo has had a hard time of it." Her voice was easy and gracious, sounding a shade clearer and a shade less soft than Luo Yuanzhu's.

Zhuo Siheng still didn't raise his head, thinking within that he oughtn't meddle in harem affairs; hold to the standard of propriety and there was no need to do anything more.

Noble Consort Luo seemed to have no wish to say more either; supported by her palace women she swept away, and the eunuch in the tent now came out to respectfully usher Zhuo Siheng in to be questioned before the throne.

Within the great tent there was not the least autumn chill, warm and snug enough to make one want to sleep.

"Are you feeling better?"

The emperor didn't look up, seeming to have an important memorial to rescript; seeing Zhuo Siheng enter he only asked this one line, and waved the attendants around to withdraw.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, your servant is quite recovered, and comes especially to give thanks." Zhuo Siheng held his bow, not raising his head even when he'd finished.

For a while there were only Zhuo Siheng and the emperor in the great tent.

The emperor set down his brush, walked up to him, raised him by both hands, and said with a smile: "It's I who should thank you."

The great tent was laid with a hollow double floor, heated brick and stone set within and felt rugs over the boards, so that standing on it warmth rose from underfoot, a comfort and ease past telling.

But Zhuo Siheng couldn't relax; lowering his head further, not looking at the imperial countenance, he said gravely: "Your servant does not deserve it."

"The crown prince told me all." The emperor sighed and sat back on the throne: "Thanks to your struggling to shield them in the flood and risking your life to save them from the wolves' jaws, the brother and sister came through whole. The physician says most of your hurts are from blows, one side of your waist especially bad; back in the capital rest well a couple of days, and I'll have the physician examine you again."

Only now did Zhuo Siheng look up: "I thank Your Majesty for your care."

It seemed the crown prince had recited it well.

"Oh yes — there's one thing I'd ask you. The crown prince says he'd like you for his teacher; what do you make of that?" The emperor's tone was without a ripple.

For a moment, Zhuo Siheng thought going back to face off with the pack-leader would be far better than being watched by the emperor like this — why would the crown prince say such a thing? What was the foolish child thinking?

But soon he realized it wasn't so: the crown prince had grown at last; he knew what he was saying, had finally learned to use his father's suspicion to consider for another. So, comforted, he answered at once: "Your Majesty, in seniority and learning your servant falls short of the several academicians you chose so carefully for the crown prince; I am truly unfit for the charge."

The emperor too put on a rather troubled look, and, gazing at Zhuo Siheng, said: "But the crown prince pleaded with me so sorrowfully... you know he never dares say one word extra before me, and now that he's found the nerve and spirit, it rather moved me..."

Zhuo Siheng said clearly and calmly: "Your Majesty, had it been not the crown prince and princess I met in the flood that day, but the son and daughter of a farmer or hunter, your servant would not have let go either."

This was the truth.

The emperor seemed to understand his meaning, and signaled him to go on.

"That your servant risked death to shield the two Highnesses was, first, an unwillingness to see lives crushed between the waves and the beasts' jaws, and second, that, deeply favored by Your Majesty's grace, I dared not forget it. These two days sharing hardship with the two Highnesses, and above all seeing the crown prince set life and death aside to shield the princess... your servant... also missed my own siblings dearly. And so in our night talks the crown prince and I shared many heartfelt words; His Highness asked me of trifles of my home and siblings, and told me of childhood doings with the princess — perhaps it was this bond of talk that led the crown prince to make this plea to Your Majesty. Yet the heir's schooling should be decided not by feeling but by principle and virtue, and in both your servant has cultivation still to do; so I must beg to decline." So saying, Zhuo Siheng bowed again.

The emperor showed a touched expression, yet only after a moment spoke: "What you say is indeed reasonable; it seems the crown prince spoke rashly."

But Zhuo Siheng said slowly: "Your Majesty, the crown prince is pure and generous of heart, no rash person; that he made this plea to Your Majesty was no attempt to press you. That His Highness, at the edge of death, returned to the knee of his dearest kin, feeling in that moment weighing over reason, is the very mark of utmost filial purity. Your servant makes bold to say: at that moment, what the crown prince said and felt took Your Majesty as a father, not as a sovereign."

Some things, said between father and son, give no offense; between ruler and minister they'd breed estrangement.

The emperor lowered his head and fell silent.

Zhuo Siheng had by now learned one habit of this lord of the ninety-five supreme: when his face was truly spring-breeze mild it was often not that the words had gone to his heart and eased it; but when he pondered wordless, then indeed he was weighing and thinking in earnest, feeling something deeply.

"Zhuo Siheng, I've always liked how, when you speak, you advance and retreat to advantage, yet don't lose your own view," the emperor said suddenly. "The court within and without needs ministers like you; the crown prince is still young and needs to gain from truly great, deeply learned scholars — you'd best stay at my side for now; I'll speak to the crown prince's side."

Zhuo Siheng was about to give thanks, but the emperor gave him no chance and went on: "By next spring you'll have been three years in the Hanlin Academy; your daily care and focus I've seen with my own eyes, and Zeng Xuandu and Bai Cong praise you highly — barring the unexpected, your assessment will surely be 'superior,' and I'll choose you a fitting post to season yourself; I hope that when you return to my side you'll have gained something."

Zhuo Siheng smiled bitterly within, thinking: man proposes, Heaven disposes. His Honor Zeng had meant, at his three years' end, to find him some vital post near the center; who'd have thought the emperor had other plans for him.

Having thanked the emperor's grace, he at last got the order to go back and recover; but reaching the tent-door, the emperor suddenly called him back:

"Yunshan — one more thing. Did the crown prince speak to you of the assassin?"

Zhuo Siheng's heart went cold, but his movements stayed unhurried as he returned the courtesy: "The crown prince told your servant that the assassin wore guard's armor, his face indistinct and his origins unknown — vicious and fearsome to the bone."

"Nothing more?" The emperor's voice seemed to drift from far off, with an air of unreality.

"His Highness also said the assassin was highly skilled, fighting his and the princess's attendants alone without falling behind; but just because of that, when he caught up to the two Highnesses he was already spent — and the crown prince said that otherwise he'd never have found the chance to kill the enemy by his own hand."

The emperor nodded: "I understand. You may withdraw."

Zhuo Siheng was sometimes rather impressed with his own ability to lie and to cover a lie.

When he walked out of the great tent night had fallen thick, the autumn wind still vexing, especially as it blew over the cold sweat he'd just broken into — that icy, pressing chill drew him taut.

The eunuchs serving before the throne were most respectful to him, and Zhuo Siheng dared not slight them either. After he'd taken his leave he saw, far off, two round heads looking his way, ringed by a crowd of people; in the dark that was all he could make out.

Zhuo Siheng smiled helplessly, thinking: back here, he was only Attendant Zhuo, no longer the crown prince and princess's "Attendant Zhuo, big brother."

The hunt's storm settled fast; the forest-hunt had been unsatisfying, so everyone threw themselves into the ring-hunt to seize the crown. Zhao Ting'an found time to visit Zhuo Siheng once, and spent all the rest wholly on training to take first place.

But come the day of the ring-hunt, it was still Yu Yong who placed first in the end, grinding Zhao Ting'an's teeth to bits; helpless against a better man, he could only silently swear to wash away the shame next year.

Zhuo Siheng found Yu Yong more and more an eyesore too: that day the man had clearly arrived long before, yet insisted on standing by to watch and test him, treating the crown prince's and princess's lives as a game — Zhuo Siheng could hardly bear it, and in his fury had rarely so lost his composure; but looking back now, he didn't regret it one bit.

Zhao Ting'an, hearing from somewhere that Zhuo Siheng had actually grabbed Yu Yong by the neck to question him, was so thrilled he brought yellow wine and insisted on becoming sworn brothers with Zhuo Siheng, saying there's no friendship more reliable than a shared enemy.

Zhuo Siheng agreed with the saying, but still said: I'm already sworn brothers of a sort with your brother-in-law; to swear with you too would be far too tangled.

This storm too left much guesswork behind; the flash flood came strangely, and many memorialized for a thorough inquiry, but in the end two hunting-ground idlers who'd been drinking that day instead of patrolling the dikes were charged and arrested — that served as an accounting.

As for who the assassin was and why he struck, the emperor only said he'd do his best to investigate, yet set up no special task force to handle it, as if it wouldn't matter were it botched. At first some fawning-and-trampling petty men reckoned the emperor didn't value the crown prince and so wasn't willing to make a great to-do, and grew negligent again; this time the emperor didn't pretend not to see, but reprimanded them harshly and applied the law besides — a rare stroke of severity.

On the way back, the emperor bade the crown prince and Princess Qingshan ride with him in the imperial carriage; these sixty-four imperial horses that had drawn the emperor and Noble Consort Luo on the way out now had new passengers on the way home.

Zhuo Siheng thought: if meeting this calamity really let the emperor see in the crown prince a shadow of himself risking death to shield the grand princess back then, it might not be a bad thing for the crown prince and empress.

Only, his own fate had become an unresolved riddle, its answer known to none but the supreme Son of Heaven.