Chapter 5: The Emperor
Shen Hantan asked again, “Setting aside the Eldest Princess Huai’an, do you still wish to see the State Preceptor?”
“Of course, I’ll see her,” Shen Zhishu said.
“But I have already declined on your behalf.”
“No matter,” Shen Zhishu said. “If she truly wishes to see me, she will naturally send another message. Speaking of which, Mother Shen, do you know which of the imperial princesses the State Preceptor favors?”
“She treats all the imperial princesses equally. She is only close to the Emperor.”
Shen Zhishu smiled, “Didn’t you say that getting close to the State Preceptor leads to a bad end?”
Shen Hantan shot her a look. “The Emperor is protected by the gods.”
Shen Zhishu let out a “Hah!” “You believe that?”
Shen Hantan was taken aback for a moment, then said seriously, “I don’t believe in spirits and gods, but I believe that man’s will determines his fate. ‘A bad end’ could be a curse, or it could be someone deliberately creating mystery. After all, no one dares to touch the Emperor, but as for the others… that’s uncertain. Just listen to me, stay far away from her, and you won’t go wrong.”
Shen Zhishu drew out her words, “I knooow,” and slumped even more brazenly into her chair.
The snow on the eaves fell silently, reflecting a warm white light under the glow of the lanterns.
The hall suddenly fell quiet. Shen Zhishu’s slightly weary face was tinged with red by the candlelight.
Dealing with people is truly exhausting, she thought.
Compared to pondering interpersonal relationships, she was probably better suited to killing people with a sword.
Shen Hantan’s attendant stood by with hands clasped. Mistress He asked casually, “What time is it?”
The attendant replied respectfully, “It’s the second watch (9-11 PM).”
Hearing this, Shen Zhishu smiled. “Alright, you two, stop worrying needlessly. I’ve lived this long, I know how to handle things. It’s late now, the carriage is ready. If you’re too lazy to move, you can rest here at the General’s Manor. If you still wish to return to the Shen Residence, I won’t keep you.”
“It’s already the second watch!” Mistress He, upon hearing this, immediately bustled about, waving over the attendants of the General’s Manor and giving a string of orders. “The wind is cool at night, don’t let your master stand outside for too long; the hand warmer must be kept ready at all times; urge your master to sleep early, and there’s no need to wake her too early tomorrow; don’t let her eat anything that might cause an upset stomach for breakfast…”
Shen Zhishu grabbed the spinning Mistress He. “Mother, since you’re so worried, why not stay and keep me company tonight? We haven’t seen each other in eight years, and I have a bellyful of things I want to tell you.”
“Not tonight.” Mistress He patted her arm, took a cloak from an attendant, and rushed out. Halfway out, she turned back and rattled off a long string of words in a flurry:
“Shu’er, take care of yourself. Your Mother Shen and I have to go. Chunying, prepare the sedan chair!”
Shen Zhishu called out, “Why not tonight?”
“I promised your aunts we’d play mahjong tonight. I’ve bet a hundred taels of silver! The game starts at the second watch. If I don’t go now, they’ll pocket the money.”
Shen Zhishu: ?
Shen Zhishu, less important than a hundred taels of silver, was left all alone, the sole guardian of the General’s Manor. In the cold wind, she grabbed an attendant for a heart-to-heart. “I think my Mother He has changed.”
The attendant patted her shoulder and said matter-of-factly, “She has changed.”
“How has she changed?”
“She’s become more beautiful.”
Shen Zhishu: …
She suspected everyone was targeting her.
But she had no proof.
**
The next day at noon, in the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Imperial Palace.
The generals toasted each other. Shen Zhishu and Xie Jin were prominently among them, their tables adjacent. They clinked their cups.
Shen Zhishu glanced at her and asked, “General Xie, have you offended anyone recently?”
Xie Jin was drunk, her tongue not quite working. “Offended… many, many people.”
“Hmm?”
“I… on the battlefield… killed hundreds… thousands of people. You… you tell me if that’s a lot.”
Shen Zhishu: …
Shen Zhishu patted her shoulder, her eyes crinkling into a smile. “General Xie, you really are drunk.”
“I’m… I’m not drunk!” Xie Jin slumped onto Shen Zhishu. “Help me up, I can still drink!”
Shen Zhishu: …
Shen Zhishu shook her head, peeled the drunkard off her, and said to the attendant standing behind Xie Jin, “Help your master outside to get some fresh air and sober up.”
As she said this, she also pushed herself up from the table, grabbed Xie Jin’s right arm, and added lightly, “I’ll go for a walk with you as well.”
Outside the corridor, the winter snow lay deep. The birdcages hanging under the eaves were empty. Shen Zhishu, wrapped in a cloud-fox fur robe, teased the empty birdcage for a moment, then heard Xie Jin’s laughing voice from behind her—
“General Shen is in a fine mood.”
Shen Zhishu stopped and turned around, clicking her tongue. “I knew you weren’t drunk.”
“Hmm?”
“In the past, when you were in the mood, you could drink ten catties without your face turning red or your heart skipping a beat. Now you’re down after three cups? Who are you fooling?”
Xie Jin smiled and shook her head, waving away the attendant. She took a light step forward, her smile suddenly vanishing as she said seriously:
“That waist token is indeed real. I don’t know how it ended up in that assassin’s hands. After the banquet, I’ll go back to your manor with you to see what the assassin looked like.”
Shen Zhishu leaned against a pillar of the corridor, her arms crossed, and raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised. “Is that so? I thought it was a forgery. If it’s not a fake, then it’s even more troublesome. Could it be that you have a spy in your residence?”
“It’s hard to say.” Xie Jin sighed and looked up at the sky. “I’ve been away from the capital for too long. Many people and things don’t add up, and I’m clueless about the minor happenings in my own residence. It’s like being in a cold pond right now, unable to see the bottom.”
“Who isn’t,” Shen Zhishu said with a smile. “I’m in a worse situation than you. I see Hantan (Cold Pond) every day.”
Xie Jin gave her a push and laughed as well. “Alright, stop being a smart aleck. You know the ‘cold pond’ I’m talking about is a metaphor, not Minister Shen.”
Shen Zhishu nodded, picked a withered leaf from her fur collar, and casually put an arm around her shoulder. “No matter, we’ll just keep investigating. We won’t die anyway. If we didn’t die on the battlefield but end up dead in the capital, we can only say it’s bad luck.”
Xie Jin sighed again and walked down the corridor. “Did you notice the situation in the hall just now? The State Preceptor didn’t come today, but the Eldest Princess Huai’an, who is usually uninterested in all kinds of banquets, did. She sat there with a straight face, head down, just drinking tea and eating, occasionally glancing down at the seats, but always looking in our direction. I really don’t know what she means by it.”
… The Eldest Princess?
She hadn’t noticed.
Or rather, she had noticed, but didn’t want to think about it.
The Eldest Princess’s indifferent expression was the same as ever. When their eyes occasionally met, she couldn’t discern any other emotion.
They would just look away from each other, pretending not to have seen or known.
So Shen Zhishu said, “I really didn’t notice. Could you have been mistaken? No one in our circle knows her, why would she keep looking over?”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Xie Jin frowned in thought, then a flash of inspiration struck her, and she grabbed Shen Zhishu’s arm. “I know!”
“What do you know?”
Xie Jin, with a look of having discovered the truth, slapped her thigh. “Our Zhishu is talented and handsome, elegant as a jade tree in the wind. Just sitting there, she’s like fragrant orchids and cassia, valiant and heroic. It’s only natural for the Eldest Princess to take a few more glances.”
Shen Zhishu: …
Shen Zhishu turned to leave, but Xie Jin grabbed her by the outer robe. Xie Jin winked at her as if she had discovered something and asked, “Why are you leaving, Little Lord Shen? Did I hit the mark?”
Shen Zhishu only said mildly, “There’s nothing of the sort.”
Xie Jin shook her head and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “Lying is not what good children do. I see you’re not in a hurry to get married at all. Speaking of which, when I was your age, my child could already run. What do you call that?”
Shen Zhishu said deadpan, “I call that impressive of you.”
Xie Jin: …
Whenever Shen Zhishu put on that “so what” expression, Xie Jin was at a loss. Once, during the battle of Ganshan, their rations had run out, and reinforcements had yet to arrive. When a subordinate brought the last bowl of porridge to Shen Zhishu, she immediately gave it to a wounded soldier, wearing the exact same expression on her face.
Although a wife and army rations were theoretically in no way similar, Xie Jin inexplicably felt that in Shen Zhishu’s eyes, the two were probably of a similar nature:
If you have them, you have them. If you don’t, you can always gnaw on tree bark.
You’ll survive either way.
This Little General Shen always had a “as long as I can live” attitude.
For instance, right now, she slowly began to speak, “If the Eldest Princess has taken a liking to me, I’m afraid I won’t be in the Emperor’s good graces. Have you heard? The Eldest Princess is very close to the Second Imperial Princess, and our Emperor hates factions the most. But it doesn’t matter, I won’t die anyway. She can do whatever she wants, I’ll just walk my own path.”
Xie Jin was surprised. “I really haven’t heard that.”
Shen Zhishu was also surprised. “Didn’t your retainers tell you?”
Xie Jin squinted and pondered for a long time, then slapped her thigh and laughed. “That’s right, I hadn’t seen them in a long time yesterday, so I was too busy drinking with them.”
Shen Zhishu: …
The two chatted for a bit and then returned to their seats. On the way, Shen Zhishu played with the trees and teased the sparrows, her fingertips turning bright red from the cold. After returning to the hall, she tucked them back into her wide sleeves.
But as soon as she entered, the Emperor, seated at the head, spoke up, “When did my dear minister leave the hall? Was there something important?”
Shen Zhishu had no choice but to take her hands out again, bow, and reply, “Nothing important, really. General Xie was just drunk and talking nonsense, spouting things about love and affection. I was afraid it would offend Your Majesty’s ears, so I escorted her out. She’s just sobered up.”
The entire hall erupted in laughter, the sound startling a flock of crows perched on the roof.
Shen Zhishu, having replied with a straight face, hid her merit and fame and tucked her hands back in.
… The back of her hand was a little itchy.
She glanced down and frowned imperceptibly.
Shen Zhishu had been exposed to the elements for eight years, enduring countless hardships, and was in excellent health. However, she had one minor problem—she was prone to chilblains.
But very few people knew.
After all, the Northern Desert was dry, and the snow was like sand, unable to clump together. No matter how cold it was, chilblains were rare.
But the Kingdom of Nan’an was different.
Nan’an had a long coastline, and the capital was by the sea, so the humidity was high on snowy days. Having been out in the cold just now, she was afraid her chilblains would act up again.
But Shen Zhishu still had that “I won’t die anyway” attitude. She simply asked the attendant behind her for a freshly heated green coral hand warmer, then sat down leisurely, clinked cups with Xie Jin, and watched the performance with her wine cup in hand.
By now, the banquet was halfway through, and the atmosphere had reached its peak. People were toasting each other, and several military officers had drunk themselves under the table.
Perhaps flushed from the heat, Shen Zhishu idly rubbed her teacup. If someone came to toast her, she would just raise her wine cup in a token gesture, feeling too lazy to move.
She had intended to take Xie Jin straight home after the banquet, but unexpectedly, she was called upon again by the one seated at the head.
Shen Zhishu, who had been resting with her eyes closed, shot up her head. For some reason, she saw a hint of a smile in those firm and sharp features.
She thought to herself that this was not good. A beat too late, she stood up, strode to the center of the hall, and stood still, just in time to hear the Emperor ask:
“Does my dear minister have a sweetheart? Taking advantage of this auspicious day, how about I bestow a marriage upon you?”
