Chapter 66: Clear Weather Days Chapter 45: Sixth Prince, Take Care of Yourself

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

This rain fell in a steady drizzle for two days before stopping.

After the rain, three or four sunny days baked the ground, and the muddy roads were quickly trampled firm; news from outside also came back along with it.

Shaowei learned from Ji Jin that the Wei Commandery Governor who had returned home to worship his ancestors had died.

"This lord who served as Governor in Jizhou's Wei Commandery bore the surname Qi; he was a native of Dongting. It is said he returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors every year... guess how he died?" Inside the little house, Ji Jin lowered his voice.

Perhaps from telling too many ghost stories, his every utterance now carried a few shades of suspense on its own, causing Shaowei, Qingwu, and Shan Gu to dare not let their minds wander in the slightest; each held their breath waiting for him to continue.

"At daybreak, he was discovered hanged to death in the Qi Family Graveyard!"

Qingwu cried out in fright, clutching Shaowei's arm.

Shaowei instantly straightened her shoulders and back, to make herself appear more reliable, and pressed Ji Jin: "Going by that, he committed suicide?"

"That is what they say..." Ji Jin's words held reservations: "Right now everyone outside is spreading the tale that Governor Qi sleepwalked to his ancestors' graves... some also say he did something unconscionable and summoned his ancestors to hook his soul and claim his life."

Shaowei could not help but murmur in surprise: "What did his family's ancestors do, that they could be so utterly impartial?"

Even as ghosts they act with such principle and integrity — truly unheard of.

After this matter spread, the tale of the April Wandering Soul claiming lives became even more confirmed.

Over the next few days, at the Bridgehead Crossroads Shaowei could often see several old men and women striking their left palms with the backs of their right hands, knitting their brows and lowering their voices, solemnly telling the young people a sentence that seemed agreed upon: "Look, didn't I say so..."

The Wandering Soul claiming lives — this is mostly a saying circulated in the nearby villages; some details, however, are beyond the reach of ordinary villagers. For instance, after Governor Qi's corpse was examined, though there were no knife wounds or sword wounds, multiple bones were found shattered.

This was clearly a murder.

On the night Governor Qi met with misfortune, he was lodging at the home of a solitary widow. According to knowledgeable neighbors, the two had known each other since youth and had long been secretly involved; every time Governor Qi returned home he would visit her privately, but out of awe for his official authority no one dared speak of it openly.

Staying at the widow's home, he naturally brought few servants; the sole servant who accompanied him that night was drowsy in the deep of night and had no idea when or how Governor Qi was drugged and taken away.

That widow was also drugged that night; though she was not harmed, she knew nothing when questioned, and appeared badly frightened — the man she had called a dead ghost in the night, upon waking had truly become a dead ghost; how could that not terrify someone?

The Qi family was both grieved and enraged, yet after investigating for a long time they uncovered not a trace of a clue.

As for enemies, a man who has spent years in officialdom — who doesn't have ten or eight grudges and knots? But without evidence, there was simply no way to distinguish who did it.

Governor Qi's death became a mystery, but Wei Commandery could not be without a Governor to manage affairs.

In mid-May, the former Advice Daifu Guo Ye, by imperial command, left Chang'an and went to Wei Commandery to assume the post of Governor.

This Guo Ye had an overly upright character; he served as Advice Daifu for many years, offended countless capital officials, and gradually drew targeting gazes; he had even endured several rounds of assassination attempts... Far away in Wuling Commandery, the Commandery Prince's Mansion Changshi Tang Jia often worried about this stubborn donkey of a friend; now hearing he had been promoted to Wei Commandery Governor, far removed from the capital, he breathed a great sigh of relief.

Tang Jia was one of Liu Qi's attendant officials, serving as Changshi in the Wuling Commandery Prince's Mansion, responsible for all matters great and small of the mansion.

It was just past noon; Tang Jia finished reading the letter silk sent from the capital, walked out of the study, and proceeded into the courtyard, his mind full of swirling thoughts.

The more he pondered his friend's promotion to Wei Commandery Governor, the more he felt it was like timely rain; that Qi Huaiwei had died at just the right moment...

Thinking of Qi Huaiwei's unclear cause of death, Tang Jia speculated on the various inner circumstances; his thoughts scattered several times, finally settling on a rumor he had heard yesterday — the graveyard where Qi Huaiwei hanged himself was beside the Dongting Blessed Land, and the landslide traces there had once been regarded by the common people as the Marquis's incarnation; therefore the people privately spread the tale that it must be because Qi Huaiwei's virtue was lacking, angering the Marquis's heroic spirit.

This saying sounded absurd to Tang Jia; he did not believe a heroic spirit could kill a person, even if he wished a heroic spirit could kill a person.

The only things in this world that can kill people are people; a heroic spirit cannot kill, but the people a heroic spirit leaves behind in this world can kill.

While Tang Jia was lost in thought, he unconsciously walked out of the courtyard, and happened to meet a green-robed monk walking over with sighs, his face full of worry, who performed a Buddhist rite toward him and poured out his heart's suffering.

The green-robed monk had the intention to convert the Sixth Prince Liu Qi, but the other's speed of creating karma far exceeded his ability to convert; he chanted sutras until his mouth was worn and the wooden fish until it would be smashed; yet this morning he again heard that a palace attendant had been beaten to death, the reason merely being that the travelogue he had collected did not suit the Sixth Prince's taste.

How tyrannical, how karma-creating!

The green-robed monk felt deeply disappointed and pained, and wanted to write a letter back to the capital to pour out his bitterness to Middle Attendant Guo Shi.

Knowing this green-robed monk often sent letters to Guo Shi, Tang Jia subconsciously wanted to dissuade him, but thinking of something, in the end he let him go.

Tang Jia's thoughts were somewhat adrift.

That palace attendant beaten to death this morning — he had an impression of him; he had noticed the attendant's behavior was suspicious, and the day before yesterday he had even been ghostly entering and leaving the Commandery Prince's study... He had specifically warned the Sixth Prince about this, but the Sixth Prince did not care in the slightest; he was quite stifled with anger, and was just about to investigate that attendant thoroughly, when today he heard the man had been beaten to death.

Perhaps subconsciously he was never willing to believe that the child raised by the Marquis and the Ling Empress together could truly grow into a helpless trapped beast gone mad; a thread of hope rose unbidden in Tang Jia's heart, and his originally near-dead heart tentatively stirred with faint life again.

With his heart slightly revived, Tang Jia went to Liu Qi's residence; hearing an attendant say "The Commandery Prince is reading in the garden pavilion," his heart could not help but warm, and he felt hope all the more.

The child is only fifteen, precisely the age when wild rebellion should end; if a good teacher guides him, he might not be unable to return to the right path.

In the afternoon water pavilion with its fine scenery, a youth in a wide silk green robe leaned back against a low table; beside him knelt two attending palace attendants, one pouring wine for him, the other head bowed peeling seasonal fruit.

Smelling the wine scent in the pavilion, Tang Jia felt displeasure; but seeing the youth's brows and eyes showed no great drunkenness, he temporarily suppressed his feelings, bowed, and proposed: "This official has no urgent business today; why not have me lecture the Prince on some classics, history, or poetry?"

Liu Qi smiled faintly, eyelids drooping, gaze falling on the low table before him: "It happens to be boring; Changshi may just pick whatever from among them to lecture on."

Seeing many bamboo slips piled on that table, Tang Jia answered "Yes," tucked his robe and knelt down, solemnly picked up one scroll, unfolded it to look, and his expression instantly changed drastically.

He forcibly suppressed his wildly jumping brow, turned to another scroll, then another — they were all much the same, nothing but obscene poems and lascivious verses unfit for refined company!

Tang Jia was a gentleman renowned for his virtue; at this moment his whole face flushed red with shame and anger; he lifted his face, but saw in that youth's cold, gloomy, beautiful brows and eyes a sudden smile appear; the youth leaned back, the smile in his brows turning into unconcealed laughter — the laughter of a youth who had succeeded in a prank; though the laughter was clear and bright, falling in Tang Jia's ears it was exceptionally vile.

Those two palace attendants also kept their heads low, holding back laughter.

"Who presented these obscene items before the Sixth Prince? Simply harboring malicious intent!"

Tang Jia rose in anger; seeing no one answer, no one even listening to what he said, he was so angry his beard trembled: "Sixth Prince, take care of yourself!"

He threw down those words, turned and walked a few steps, then strode back in great strides, his face flushed red, gathered all those slips into his arms, and took them away to burn.

Liu Qi was no longer smiling, but neither did he stop him; he merely watched from the side as he drank, observing Tang Jia's furious loss of composure.

Tang Jia carried this pile of bamboo slips away, already a bellyful of fire; who would have thought that midway he would again see a palace attendant leading two beautiful songstresses carrying instruments, and upon asking learned these two songstresses were presented by a county official under Wuling Commandery, and were just about to be brought before the Sixth Prince to perform.

Tang Jia was simply angered to the point of laughter: "You lot... the Sixth Prince is not yet sixteen!"

The Crown Prince Gu indeed also married at fifteen or sixteen, but that was a proper marriage to continue the line; what is this now? Moreover, can the Sixth Prince's situation be the same? — His spirit is already so twisted; at least his body must be preserved!

Though he has already entered a wrong path, he need not walk every wrong road early and thoroughly; a person cannot, at least should not, degenerate so completely!

Tang Jia drove those two singing girls away on the spot, demanded to see the county official by name, and hurled several bamboo slips about to fall from his bosom at the feet of the eunuchs, demanding to know who had summoned them.

Just then the monk in green robes returned to fetch the wooden fish he had left in the Water Pavilion; hurrying along, he feared his poor wooden fish would be smashed by the Sixth Prince if he were late, only to see Lord Tang, usually mild-mannered, flying into a rage here—

All around was in utter chaos; the monk in green robes subconsciously thought to take advantage of the disorder and grab a share. He performed a Buddhist rite, trying to admonish Lord Tang to lay aside worldly anger and soon see through the Red Dust.

Tang Jia was furious enough to flick his sleeve and leave, but his arms were full of obscene things and had no leisure, so he could only grit his teeth and coldly laugh, mercilessly saying: "Great Master wishes to preach conversion—saving the waste of time is one thing, but one day you may lose your very life here!"

For a monk who wanted to build a temple, these words were indeed extremely venomous. The monk in green robes wore an expression on the verge of breaking, feeling the imagined Buddhist temple in his fantasy had been ruthlessly smashed to pieces by the other. Though his trembling hands still firmly pressed together, the look of pity on his face could hardly be sustained.

By this point, whether one had hair or not, whether man or woman or neither man nor woman, all had been indiscriminately harmed by Tang Jia.

Lord Tang himself was not faring well either. When he came, his heart had still been faintly alive; now this heart had died again, not to mention, and had been dirtied besides.

Tang Jia burned all those bamboo slips that made people's hearts yellow and filthy to ashes in public in the garden, and strictly forbade anyone in the Commandery Prince's Mansion, high or low, from searching for such things again.

Watching those things burn to ash with his own eyes, Tang Jia still felt his hands filthy. He ran to the edge of the Lotus Pond, rolled up his wide sleeves, and scrubbed his hands fiercely.

The disturbed water surface twisted and deformed the reflection of that face, yet a pair of tear-filled eyes could still be faintly seen.

Tang Jia felt heartache.

He had some reputation abroad, but was not entirely successful. Because he was sufficiently loyal to the sovereign, the sovereign chose him to accompany the Sixth Prince to Wuling, hoping he could make the Sixth Prince continue to grow into a loyal prince.

These are known to outsiders, while little known is that he had once received the grace of the Ling Empress and the Marquis...

He was a man loyal to the sovereign, with no intention of subverting anything, yet he always harbored a deluded wish to vindicate his benefactor. And even if this wish was destined to be hopeless, he could not bear to see the child left by his benefactor fall into depravity like this.

Raising a child is truly difficult!

Ten thousand threads of thought finally turned into this bitter sigh.

Lord Tang felt that if he poured all his resentment and bitterness into this pond, it would probably poison and kill all the lotus and fish in the pool, turning it into a swamp bubbling with green bubbles.

In fact, two fish, raised to be unafraid of people, thought he was feeding them and swam over cheerfully to beg for food.

Tang Jia was annoyed and waved them away: "Go, go, go, a few fresh scales eating for free dare to come see this official's joke..."

The fish flicked their tails and left, stirring up a mass of ripples.

Guo Shi also loved growing flowers and raising fish; in his private residence in Chang'an City he had raised many carp with bright scales.

Two colored carp fry just delivered were swimming in the green glazed pot, and Guo Shi looked on with great delight.

He had just finished reading the complaint letter sent back by the monk in green robes from Wuling.

In the letter, the monk in green robes helplessly complained of the young commandery prince's sinister nature, suspicion, unpredictable joy and anger, refusal to listen to advice; even Lord Tang Changshi, usually steady in temperament, had repeatedly been angered and lost decorum, bluntly saying he was unteachable.

"Sounds flawless..." Guo Shi used silver chopsticks to stir the bowl of green shrimp held by his adopted son, sighing as he said: "But over there I have lost quite a few good children."

His people, quite a few, had been uprooted.

Everyone says that child has unpredictable joy and anger, but he has observed until now and always worries this is a disguise... after all, he was raised in the Jiaofang Dian.

If it is truly an act, that would be too terrifying. How could a child achieve such a degree?

However, there is no need for him to handle it; a mad dog will surely be unable to sit still.

Zhu Zhi's mad dog accompanied that Red Yang Immortal Master to search everywhere for immortal herbs and heavenly secrets... since searching for heavenly secrets, it is also investigating the emperor's movements in all directions; this is precisely the duty of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The group traveled from the Eastern Route to the north, and it is said they will go to the Western Regions, go to the Western Regions, and surely will go to the Southern Regions; it is only a matter of time.

When they arrive in the Southern Regions and see that child, Zhu Zhi will not be able to help but go up and tear and bite... that glance when the child left back then was engraved in Zhu Zhi's heart. To endure until now is all because he was held back at the side; the timing was not right then, so of course he had to hold him back.

But after Zhu Zhi goes to the Southern Regions, with the sky high and the road far, he will no longer be able to hold him back.

The green shrimp thrown into the fish basin struggled and jumped out. Guo Shi cried out in surprise, reached out and pinched the small shrimp, smiling as he said: "Such a small thing, not worry-free."

As he spoke, he exerted force with his fingernail and pinched the small shrimp into two pieces, throwing it into the fish basin for the fish to share: "After all, it's still this kind of end..."

Guo Shi smiled and washed his hands with the copper basin at hand.

The young eunuch serving at the side hurriedly placed the shrimp bowl he was holding to one side, took a towel, and wiped his adoptive father's hands.

Another live green shrimp jumped out of the shrimp bowl.

By the riverbank, several green shrimp were jumping about wildly, and one jumped into a stone crevice.

Shaowei and Shan Gu netted a bagful of river shrimp, splashed them into the fish basket they had brought, hurriedly covered it with a bamboo lid and pressed it tight, to prevent them from continuing to jump out.