Suddenly, a book smacked Jiang Kui squarely in the forehead.
Amid the fluttering pages, she blankly looked around clutching the book, just as the tutor’s voice rang out, “Miss Jiang, please answer.”
Jiang Kui realized the tutor had noticed her inattention and called on her to reply. She had no choice but to reluctantly stand up, facing the tutor’s icy expression with utmost deference. “Honored tutor, please repeat the question.”
“Question: When the two taxes were first implemented, cash was debased while grain and cloth were expensive. Yet now, thirty years on, cash daily rises in value while grain and cloth daily fall in price. What measures can enrich the state without impoverishing the common folk, bring wandering people back to farming without worry, and provision the troops without resentment?”
Jiang Kui: “?”
What taxes, what grain, what wandering people?
She silently bowed her head. “This student…does not know.”
Princess Xie had told her to plead ignorance to all the tutor’s questions…but she really was ignorant here.
The tutor said nothing, yet also didn’t let her sit, instead calling on Princess Xie to stand: “Miss Shenbi, how do you answer?”
Shenbi was Princess Xie’s courtesy name.
Princess Xie obediently rose, hands folded as she replied, “Employ the loyal and doubt-free; screen out sycophants and flatterers; reform tax laws to collect cloth and grain rather than currency; eliminate tributary offerings to ease commoners’ tax burden; enrich border troops to guard against foreign raids; regularly summon and query officials on current affairs, keep roads open to the Guanzhong region. These six principles are the root of governance, the means by which the great peace arose…”
Jiang Kui listened thunderstruck.
…You said we’d pretend to be stupid together!
She recalled Worthy Consort Pei’s words about the candidates for Princess’s companion being unsatisfactory – no wonder, the curriculum was clearly too difficult for anyone!
The icy expression on the tutor’s face softened considerably and she nodded. “Not bad, seems you’ve reviewed the last lesson well. But you didn’t detail the tax laws thoroughly enough. Expand on it in an essay to hand in the day after tomorrow.”
She signaled for them to sit. Just as Jiang Kui relaxed, the tutor added, “Since Miss Jiang did not answer just now, she will also write an essay on this question within seven days.”
Wait. She didn’t even understand the question, how to write an essay?
Jiang Kui wanted to tear her hair out.
She regretted it now, feeling she had wrongly befriended the Princess.
A flash of inspiration – Jiang Kui decided to fake illness to dodge the assignment.
The charming little face instantly paled, red tinging the corner of her eyes as rosy lips parted, a delicate cough about to emerge from her cherry mouth—
Princess Xie hastily whispered, “Don’t—”
Too late.
Jiang Kui gave dainty pants between coughs, clutching her chest as she told the tutor, “Honored tutor, having nearly drowned recently, I’ve only just recovered at home these few days and am still quite ill, so this essay…might I be excused…?”
The tutor’s icy stare made her swallow back the word “excused”.
“I know you’re faking.” The tutor said calmly, “Since your elder brother and future husband have already used this ploy, repeating it now somewhat lacks creativity, no?”
Jiang Kui froze, hands still clutching her chest.
She remembered now.
Tutor Yu, styled Changying, was the only female tutor of the Imperial Academy.
Her prodigal third brother Jiang Yuan had once cursed all night when forced to return home, reluctantly attending the Academy the next day.
It was said this tutor was known as the cold-faced witch – all students quailed before her, obediently calling her “Teacher Changying.”
The young miss who had feigned illness for ten years finally met her match before the cold-faced witch.
Wait…
The tutor said her future husband had also used this trick…so Xie Wuyang had pretended to be sick too?
If he knew how to fake it, what of the rumor he wouldn’t live past adulthood?
Towering from the lectern above, Tutor Yu’s gaze made Jiang Kui numb from head to toe. As she wondered how to respond, a court lady made a long obeisance at the door. “Esteemed tutor, Academician Zhou pays his respects and says important business is at hand.”
“We will end lecture here today. Dismissed.” Tutor Yu glanced at the two deferential students before leaving, her icy words still echoing. “Submit your essays on time.”
Jiang Kui felt she had narrowly escaped disaster.
“Weren’t you going to sneak me out of lecture?” She turned to Princess Xie, irritated.
Princess Xie stuck out her tongue. “I wanted to, but I’ve never succeeded before.”
“What about the essay? I can’t write essays.” Jiang Kui pressed at her temples, a headache coming on.
“I can’t help you either,” Princess Xie said, also grabbing her hair. “I can barely finish my own. And if I helped ghostwrite, Teacher would recognize my writing style and catch us for sure.”
She paused, then pulled Jiang Kui’s hand in comfort. “Don’t be mad, sister. Let’s not think of that now. Lecture’s over, I’ll take you to the Eastern Palace for fun!”
So Princess Xie furtively led Jiang Kui from the westernmost corner of the Imperial City all the way east through a deserted side gate into the Eastern Palace.
“Sister, didn’t you say you’d show me Xie Wuyang? But I haven’t even seen him and we’re already eating his lotus roots!” Jiang Kui nibbled on a lotus root. “Though the Eastern Palace ones are delicious.”
The rear gardens of the Eastern Palace contained an expansive lotus pond, water diverted from Qie River east of the city, connected northward to the Imperial Hunting Park. It was now late summer, early autumn. The pink lotuses had shed, baring fresh green lotus roots peeping out between the broad lily leaves still laden with dewdrops.
The two girls tucked up their skirts, waded barefoot into the cool afternoon waters, and frolicked hand-in-hand gathering lotus roots. They had picked the shallows clean, leaving a small mountain piled at water’s edge.
When the early autumn chill arose, they left the water to sit shoulder-to-shoulder on the stone bank, feet swaying as they crunched lotus roots. Dewy silver ripples shone around their trailing toes.
Jiang Kui tasted the sweet, refreshingly summery flavor of the best lotus roots ever.
“Don’t worry, Xie Wuyang will be here soon.” Princess Xie said indistinctly around a mouthful before swallowing. “It’s taboo for newlyweds to meet before the big wedding, and I can’t bring you directly to him. These Eastern Palace lotus roots are just too delicious.”
Now Jiang Kui was certain Princess Xie’s sole purpose in sneaking her into the Eastern Palace was to steal lotus roots.
“Here he comes!” Princess Xie suddenly whispered, shoving Jiang Kui’s head down with lotus-scented hands.
The two girls huddled together, peeking out between the dense foliage toward the center of the pond.
In the distance, a winding Nine-Bend Bridge connected the central pavilion to the blue-tiled waterside gazebo. A youth in white carried a guqin, leading another gentleman dressed in white slowly along the winding bridge toward the pavilion.
Xie Wuyang had shed the vermilion gossamer robe he usually wore as Crown Prince, dressed simply in a white silk tunic and outer changshan in moon-white, as if feeling the deep winter’s chill despite the early autumn.
Clad in snowy white, he tread step by step, a silent figure beneath the crisp sunlight, as though walking amidst the faintly cool moonlight.
“Well? Isn’t my brother good-looking?” Princess Xie whispered from afar.
Jiang Kui thought: He’s too far away to clearly see.
Yet she answered, “Good-looking.”
The attendant set the qin on the table in the pavilion then respectfully stood aside. Xie Wuyang tidied his clothes before kneeling properly beside the qin, plucking the first notes.
Autumn seeped through the waters like molten jade, the lotuses a stretch of emerald. The gentle burble of flowing water joined the gentle burble of strings, leisurely, slowly pulling out the long summer afternoon. Occasionally a goldfish broke the surface with a plop, blossoming a small silver? [flower].
The world seemed to have stilled, save for the melody as if in narration.
Jiang Kui lightly blinked.
“He’s playing for you,” Princess Xie whispered.
Seeing Jiang Kui’s expression, she hastily waved both hands. “No no, I don’t mean he knows you’re here eavesdropping. I mean this qin song is played for you.”
Realizing she was confusing things more, she added, “Xie Wuyang plays qin here every afternoon but won’t let us siblings listen in. He says this qin song is played for the lady of his heart. Since you’re the lady he loves, isn’t this song played for you?”
Not waiting for Jiang Kui’s reaction, Princess Xie excitedly continued, “Although now everyone in court knows Xie Wuyang is smitten with you, I was the first to realize it! Guess how I found out so early?”
Jiang Kui instinctively asked, “How?”
Princess Xie smiled mysteriously. “It was at an autumnal feast several years back…”
That autumn feast of the fifth Jingde year hosted by Prince Wen had set up the banquet by Qie River. As the Jiang Manor’s only daughter, Jiang Kui had reluctantly attended at her father’s behest despite her lack of interest in the elegant chatter of young ladies. So she had secluded herself in a corner that night.
She only recalled the fine poetry declaimed by the newly selected jinshi graduates at that autumn feast but had no impression whatsoever of Xie Wuyang.
“Xie Wuyang kept secretly glancing at you all night.” Princess Xie narrowed her eyes in a smile. “Very furtively, only I happened to notice by chance. From then on, I suspected my brother had taken a liking to you.”
So a long-forgotten memory resurfaced. Jiang Kui vaguely recalled the alluring autumnal scenery that night, the strum of strings ever-present. When she had looked up, the young lord at a nearby table upset his golden wine ewer, the clear aroma splashing the ground.
In the hubbub, it seemed there truly was an intent gaze focused silently upon her.
Jiang Kui shook her head and decided to ask Princess Xie about something more important first: “Sister, do you happen to know who is hosting the biggest autumnal feast in Chang’an this year?”
Princess Xie froze. “You mean…my royal brother Prince Qi’s feast?”
Jiang Kui also froze.
The only one Princess Xie addressed as ‘royal brother’ was Prince Qi, Xie Meng.
The autumnal feast…was Prince Qi’s banquet?
Had Master Pu Liu deduced the culprit behind her plunge into the pond would attend Prince Qi’s feast?
“Imperial sister-in-law, I shall accompany you there.” Princess Xie nodded then seemed to recall something, giving Jiang Kui a thoughtful smile. “Xie Wuyang’s health has been poor recently so he might not attend normally – but now that the lady of his heart is going, he will certainly attend as well.”
Amidst the drifting notes, Jiang Kui turned to gaze at the figure playing qin within the pavilion.
Dappled light and shadows wavered upon the ground before the pavilion, dim and hazy.
“What are you two discussing here?” A clear youthful voice softly asked from behind all of a sudden.
Princess Xie and Jiang Kui were badly startled. They saw a gentleman in brocaded robes with a refined visage picking his way carefully around the piled lotus roots. “Prince Zhiyuan! You nearly frightened me to death! I thought we were caught by the Eastern Palace guards.”
Princess Xie lowered her voice. “I snuck in, what about you?”
The youth also whispered back, “I snuck in too, sister. Mother said my qin playing is atrocious so I slipped in to listen to royal brother’s playing.”
Princess Xie rapidly introduced them. The boy was the Virtuous Consort’s third son, Third Prince Xie Kuan with the courtesy name Zhiyuan. At Princess Xie’s urging, Prince Kuan respectfully addressed Jiang Kui as “imperial sister-in-law.” Then all three sat in a row at the pond’s edge solemnly listening to Xie Wuyang’s qin song.
Unfortunately the music abruptly ceased.
The three exchanged glances.
“I think he’s noticed us…” Prince Kuan mouthed.
“Run! Hurry!” Princess Xie grabbed one of each of their hands. “That guy hates people eavesdropping his playing! Don’t let him catch you!”
They scrambled helter-skelter out the side gate with the Crown Prince’s guards already giving chase by the time they reached the secluded wooded path behind the palace.
Hurried steps scattered like an autumn gust whirling leaves, rushing heedless past the tranquil forest trail, sending birds darting in fright, brushing past the distant glazed roof tiles.
Jiang Kui blinked. She was always getting chased down Chang’an’s streets and now within the palace too?
The three raced through the sprawling Imperial Hunting Park. Soon Princess Xie was panting hard while Jiang Kui pretended to pant just as hard since Prince Kuan had already ran out of breath yet still strained to point the way ahead. “Sister…beneath that hill is a stone cave…hide inside for now…”
They crammed inside the cave, all breathing hard simultaneously.
Outside, the spring burbled on. Inside, only their raspy breaths echoed off the walls.
Abruptly, Jiang Kui sensed something wrong.
A stone slab crashed down, sealing the cave entrance. Then – the shrill whistle of arrows hurtling straight toward them!
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