A Figure on Jade Steps in the Wind and Snow 8

Chapter 8: Wind and Snow

When Jiang Yu left the palace and returned to her manor, the snow had started to fall again.

She carried a gust of biting wind and snow as she gracefully stepped through the main gate. As she reached the winding covered walkway, she paused.

She slowly raised her hand, pointed to a wind chime that had been hung in the flower hall at some unknown time, and asked in a faint voice, “Is she here again?”

Whenever the Emperor came to the Eldest Princess’s Manor, she forbade anyone from announcing her arrival. So Jiang Yu had made an agreement with her trusted attendant: if she came, a string of wind chimes would be hung under the eaves of the flower hall near the main entrance.

The attendant, holding her arm and an umbrella, walked with lowered eyes and replied, “Yes.”

Jiang Yu turned to leave.

The attendant hurriedly asked, “Where are you going?”

“Anywhere,” Jiang Yu said. “Anywhere is better than seeing her.”

Just as Jiang Yu was about to step out the door, two or three court eunuchs appeared out of nowhere and blocked her way.

Jiang Yu’s face was displeased. “This is my manor, yet I cannot come and go as I please. What is the meaning of this?”

A court eunuch smiled fawningly. “Your Highness, please calm down. Don’t make things difficult for us servants. We are only acting on orders.”

Whose orders, it was obvious.

Jiang Yu narrowed her eyes and stared at them without blinking.

The court eunuchs were obsequious, but they did not retreat an inch.

After a few breaths, Jiang Yu finally relented and gestured with her chin towards the courtyard. “Since you won’t let me leave, then tell me, which room is she in now?”

The court eunuchs looked at each other for a moment, and a bolder one spoke up, “We servants have been guarding outside, so we really don’t know, but the Emperor came with memorials.”

Jiang Yu turned and left, leaving behind a faint sentence, “Then it must be the study.”

The study was scented with rue and was extremely warm from the charcoal fire. Seeing Jiang Yu approaching with an umbrella, the court eunuch standing at the door quickly lifted the soft curtain.

Jiang Yu paused, patted her attendant’s hand, took off her cloak, and stepped into the room alone.

Inside the study, against the south wall, was a purple sandalwood bookcase. In front of it was a large square table made of huanghuali wood. The Emperor was sitting at the table, leisurely circling and marking with a vermilion brush. The memorials on the table were piled about half a person’s height.

“A’Yu is here,” she asked without looking up, her brush never stopping.

Jiang Yu didn’t answer and quietly watched the Emperor work for a while.

The Emperor had no awareness of occupying someone else’s study. Apart from the initial greeting, she acted as if Jiang Yu didn’t exist, not looking up at her for a long time. As she was marking the memorials, she even started humming a Kunqu opera tune.

Jiang Yu: …

Jiang Yu turned to leave, but ultimately restrained herself. She stood coolly in the middle of the room, flicked her sleeve, and said in a faint voice:

“Jiang Chu, you’re sitting there, I have no place to sit.”

The Emperor was finally willing to look up from the sea of books. She glanced around the room and said in surprise, “It’s true, your room only has one chair.”

She then looked at the pear wood snake-head chair she was sitting on, which matched the table, stood up with her hands on the armrests, and moved aside. “Then A’Yu, you sit. I’ll just stand.”

Jiang Yu: …

Jiang Yu stared at her faintly, without a word. After a moment, she walked towards the table and, without any ceremony, sat down on the snake-head chair.

Jiang Chu smiled sweetly at her, then gracefully handed over the vermilion brush from the side.

Jiang Yu: …

“Jiang Chu,” Jiang Yu sighed deeply, rubbed her brow, and asked, “Are you still going to be the Emperor or not?”

Jiang Chu shook her head, spun around in a small circle, and stood behind Jiang Yu. She suddenly leaned in slightly, her long hair brushing over the carved snake head on the back of the chair.

Jiang Chu’s presence enveloped her overwhelmingly. Jiang Yu heard the person behind her say in a low voice, “A’Yu, I’ve said it before, if you want to be the Emperor, I will hand over this throne to you at any time. You see, I never refer to myself as ‘Zhen’ in front of you.”

The vermilion brush spun three times in that person’s hand, yet it still rested steadily on their fingertips, poised and ready.

Jiang Yu lowered her head, didn’t take the vermilion brush, and closed the memorial. “If you don’t want to be the Emperor, then abdicate to the Second Princess. You can be a carefree Retired Emperor.”

Jiang Chu said in a deep voice, “She is not yet worthy.”

“Am I worthy then?”

“Of course. A’Yu has been clever since she was a child. If it weren’t for the fact that A’Yu was too young when our mother passed away, this throne would not have fallen to me.”

Jiang Yu’s hand, hidden in her sleeve, clenched into a fist, and was finally released after half an incense stick’s time. Her head was bowed, and her face, half-hidden by her hair, showed no expression. “By acting like this, are you being worthy of our mother?”

“How am I acting?” Jiang Chu laughed. “I cherish my younger sister. Our mother would be overjoyed to know this in the afterlife.”

Jiang Yu’s fingertips tapped twice on the armrest. She suddenly turned her head slightly and her serene eyes met the gaze of the person behind her. “You know very well what you are thinking.”

Jiang Chu nodded. “I am very clear.”

Very clear…

Then it was intentional.

This sentence was no different from a provocation in Jiang Yu’s ears.

Jiang Yu suddenly stood up and called loudly for the court eunuch waiting outside the door. “Pack up your Emperor’s memorials. The study is closed to guests today.”

The court eunuch waited on the ground in fear, not knowing whether to obey, and secretly glanced at the Emperor’s reaction.

But Jiang Chu smiled. “If the study is not receiving guests, I will go to the flower hall.”

Jiang Yu’s expression did not change. “The flower hall is open to the north and south, and the cold wind is strong. I’m afraid it will freeze Your Majesty.”

Jiang Chu’s eyes widened. She lowered her head slightly and asked in pleasant surprise, “A’Yu, are you concerned about me?”

Jiang Yu: …

The court eunuch retreated, his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart.

Jiang Yu couldn’t take it anymore. She turned around, took a deep breath, and asked, “What do you intend to do?”

“Nothing,” Jiang Chu sat back down on the huanghuali wood chair. “I just want to find a quiet place to mark some memorials.”

“The Imperial Study has everything, and the charcoal fire is stronger than here. Isn’t it more comfortable than here?”

Jiang Chu frowned and thought for a while, then realized, “Is A’Yu saying that the Eldest Princess’s Manor is running out of charcoal? I will immediately send someone to deliver some.”

Jiang Yu: …

Jiang Yu was at her wit’s end. She left behind a sentence with a blank expression, “Then you stay here alone. I’ll go somewhere else to be quiet.”

Jiang Chu said nothing else and reopened the memorial, only reminding her, “It’s cold now, A’Yu, don’t stand in the wind.”

**

The wind and snow did not stop, and the day grew late.

Jiang Yu sat in the pavilion for half an hour, then returned to her inner room to admire a painting for another half an hour. Unable to sit still, she summoned an attendant and asked, “She hasn’t left yet?”

The attendant shook her head.

“What’s wrong with her, not staying in the perfectly good Imperial Study,” Jiang Yu frowned.

The attendant, who had been waiting quietly, suddenly took a step forward and said in a low voice, “This servant heard that the Emperor was displeased when she returned to the Imperial Study from the banquet. The Pure Consort happened to enter the hall at that time and brought a pot of red bean porridge, but for some reason, it angered the Emperor. That’s why the Emperor left the palace.”

“This has nothing to do with the Pure Consort. Anyone who came at that time would have been in for it.” Jiang Yu’s brow furrowed. “This matter started because of me. The Pure Consort must be so sad after she returns. Have someone open the treasury, pick some top-quality hairpins and jewelry, and send them in the Emperor’s name to comfort her.”

The attendant didn’t understand. “Your Highness, why do you say this matter started because of you?”

Jiang Yu took the tea handed to her by another trusted attendant and looked down at the pale mist in the cup. “I invited General Shen to act in a play with me, to act intimately, just for the Emperor to see.”

The two attendants exchanged a look and dared not say anything more.

Jiang Yu looked down at the painting of Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, her hand brushing over the seal with the Emperor’s name, and suddenly let out a sneer.

She spoke in a low voice, it was unclear who she was talking to, “Why do you think she is like this?”

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

After a long time, an attendant carefully comforted her, “Perhaps the Emperor dotes on Your Highness, loves her own sister, and is afraid that Your Highness will be tricked away by someone.”

“Loves me?” Jiang Yu snorted coldly. “Loves me, so she drugs me?”

“Your Highness, please don’t worry. The drug may not have been given by the Emperor…”

“Nothing happens when she’s not here, but when she comes, I get drugged. Don’t make excuses for her anymore.” Jiang Yu said with a blank expression, “Speaking of which, General Shen was implicated because of me. I must make things clear with Jiang Chu today.”

The General Shen in Jiang Yu’s mouth was currently at home, rotting away.

Having had enough of the crowded life in the military camp, all she wanted now was to sit quietly by the fire with Mother He and chat. So she feigned illness and declined all social engagements, admiring plum blossoms and drinking wine during the day, and watching the moon and sipping tea at night.

She was brandishing a sixty-six-catty broadsword with impressive vigor when she suddenly heard a commotion at the door, followed by a report—”General Xie has arrived!”

As the words fell, Xie Jin burst in in a flurry, stopping abruptly in front of Shen Zhishu and wailing, “Youzhi, save me!”

Youzhi was Shen Zhishu’s courtesy name.

Shen Zhishu stopped her broadsword, raised an eyebrow leisurely, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Tomorrow is the birthday banquet of the Princess of Su. The mother of the Princess of Su is good friends with my mother, so my mother insists that I go.”

“Tomorrow is the birthday banquet of the Princess of Su? Why didn’t I receive an invitation?” Shen Zhishu asked the attendant waiting by her side.

The attendant replied respectfully, “…You did receive one, but you have been feigning illness and refused to look at any invitations. You ordered me to burn them for warmth as soon as I received them.”

Shen Zhishu: …

Xie Jin laughed so hard she almost lost her breath.

Shen Zhishu turned to Xie Jin and smiled. “I’ve made a fool of myself. But speaking of which, just go if you have to go. It’s not a big deal, why do you need me to save you?”

Xie Jin said in a low voice, “Do you know why? Four years ago, I rescued a girl who was cornered by villains on the edge of a cliff on a mountain in the northwest. The girl was extremely grateful and has been very attentive and affectionate towards me ever since, looking as if she’s determined to have me. After I took her to the post station and arranged for her to be escorted home safely, I found out that she is the younger sister of the Princess of Su!”

“Since I returned to the capital, she has come to my door five or six times, but I have turned her away each time with the excuse of being busy. This time, I can’t avoid it anymore. General Shen, help me this once. I won’t say thank you for this great favor, I’ll be a horse and cow for you in my next life.”

Shen Zhishu clicked her tongue. “It doesn’t have to come to that. Tell me, what do you want me to do?”

Xie Jin said, “Act in a play with me, just pretend that we have feelings for each other, to make that girl give up.”

Shen Zhishu: “…Again.”

Xie Jin didn’t understand. “? This is the first time I’ve asked you for this kind of help, where does ‘again’ come from?”

Shen Zhishu: …

She sighed and said, “You could have found anyone to act with you, but you had to find me. If rumors about us spread in the future, wouldn’t it be ridiculous?”

Xie Jin thought of that scene and got goosebumps. She rubbed her arms and said, “I will ask that girl not to spread the matter. Just say whether you’ll help or not.”

Shen Zhishu thought for a moment and said, “Then you’ll have to be a horse and cow for me for two lifetimes.”

“I don’t see you drinking, but you’re already flushed?” Xie Jin said with a smile. “You won’t listen when I ask you nicely, you have to make me use force, right? Let me tell you, the Eldest Princess Huai’an is also going tomorrow. If you don’t agree, I’ll report you to her.”

Shen Zhishu: …

Why is it the Eldest Princess again.