Joy of Life

The Crown Prince tilted his head and dodged the incoming slap. In response he grabbed his mother’s cold wrist and stared calmly at her.

The empress wasn’t expecting the always meek prince to have such a sharp gaze. She impulsively shuddered and pulled back her hand. She said slowly, “Do you believe your mother to be in the wrong?”

The Crown Prince frowned. “I wouldn’t dare.”

The empress suddenly raised her voice, “Do you not know Fan Xian is meeting the Second Prince on his boat?”

The prince suddenly raised his head and stared directly into the empress’s eyes. He said calmly, “Mother, will you allow me to handle these matters? As a leading poet, it isn’t unusual for Fan Xian to meet with Second Prince.”

The empress was angry and frustrated, but she didn’t know how to respond.

The Crown Prince looked at her and continued: “I have often wondered; can you not be so sensitive? You will only chase my potential allies away to join my brothers.”

The empress clenched her teeth. “As the mother of this nation, what’s wrong in punishing a mere subject? Does he dare to hold a grudge?”

The prince said in faint ridicule, “Mother, you shouldn’t have let Minister Han do that the other day. There is no way you would really have Fan Xian beaten to death. Why make enemies out of the Prime Minister and the entire Fan clan? I believe Minister Han will lose his standing in a few days. The number of officials, the ones with real power, who would willingly get involved with the Eastern Palace are already few in number, and you just had to stomp on your own foot. I really don’t know what you were thinking.”

The empress frowned. “Han Zhiwei is a proper minister. And on that day, he was acting under Imperial order. What can the Prime Minister and Fan Jian do? With the Eastern Palace’s protection, His Majesty should save face for him.”

“Don’t forget; Fan Xian is the Commissioner of the Overwatch Council, and Lord Father always liked him very much,” the prince spat out. He frowned and sighed. “This time, Han Zhiwei severely angered too many people. You should know that it was Lord Father’s idea to rework the examination. It will be impossible for us to protect him.”

The empress jeered, “And you must not forget Fan Xian also alienated many officials in the capital; even the Imperial Censorate. Although your aunt is now far away in Xinyang, her remaining influence will not go idle in the court.”

“Do not bring her up.” The Crown Prince seemed to dislike Eldest Princess. “She has been acting so strangely for the last two years, being so bold as to conspire with Northern Qi. What happened to Qing’s dignity? As for that Guo-whatshisname of the Imperial Censorate, he is a mere bookworm; the Eldest Princess’s toy. Even if he gets assassinated by the Overwatch Council, she would not bat an eye.”

Despite the fact that the Eldest Princess had been close to the Eastern Palace in recent years, after Fan Xian’s propaganda fell upon the capital like snow, even the Crown Prince started to become wary of her. Of course, there were other reasons as well.

The empress painfully said, “We have no other help to rely on; only the Eldest Princess.”

“We shall rely on Lord Father,” the princess replied calmly. He, who had always appeared somewhat meek, finally exhibited political judgement and senses befitting a prince.

The empress slowly closed her eyes, “In any case, I do not like Fan Xian. He must die, somehow.”

The Crown Prince slapped the table in anger. “Die? Did you forget he is Chen’er’s husband? Please do not listen to everything the Eldest Princess says. That woman is insane; a psychopath! Do you know that? Do you want to be a psychopath and get chased out of the palace too?”

This enraged the empress. She began to tremble uncontrollably. Pointing at the prince’s nose, she said in a shaking voice, “What do you know? What do you know? What do you know? You... what do you know?” Perhaps what the prince said really hit the empress where it hurt. She repeated the same question four times.

The eunuchs and palace girls had already left this heated exchange. Only the mother and son remained in the Eastern Palace. After an extremely long period of silence, the empress stood up. Feeling weak, she swayed. The Crown Prince immediately stood up and held her steady. Without much choice, he begged her pardon.

The empress was heartbroken as she watched her son. Wrinkles already appeared around her graceful eyes. “Throughout history, the Crown Prince has always had the most difficult position. You have to watch out for those in front of you and behind you. There is no one else on my side of the family. The unrest twelve years ago—I doubt you have memories of it, but I do, clearly. Things that belong to you, if you don’t struggle for them, others will take them from you.”

The Crown Prince softened his tone. “I understand. Mother, please go rest for now.”

The empress shook her head. “You don’t understand. You don’t... I’ve had this feeling recently that something unfortunate will happen... Just like many years ago, when that woman entered the capital.”

“Which woman?” The Crown Prince was curious.

At that moment, the heavy doors of the Eastern Palace were pushed open.

“Who is it?!” the prince asked angrily.

An old eunuch, with his back hunched over, walked in. He said respectfully, “Hong Sixiang, at your service. I’ve come under the order of empress dowager to invite the empress to Hanguang Hall.”

The empress had a fleeting expression of fear before she took on a bright smile. With the help of some palace girls, she followed that hunched over eunuch to where the true matriarch of the palace resided.

The Crown Prince frowned. While he disliked the insolence of that old dog, he knew that eunuch was the closest servant of his grandmother. Not even his mother would want to displease Eunuch Hong, so why would he do anything unnecessary?

As the candlelight started to dim, Crown Prince Li Chengqian recalled that absurd scene in the Ministry of Justice. Inside, he was even more troubled; he couldn’t figure out why his mother was so obedient to Eldest Princess. As soon as he thought of his young and enchanting aunt, the prince felt a wave of heat rush to his heart. While he appeared to be slightly fearful, in his eyes there were faint signs of lust.

He walked to the back hall. Moments later, suspicious groaning could faintly be heard. As he breathed heavily, he wondered why all the beautiful women must play such tricks instead of obediently staying in bed.

It was spring. The flowers were blossoming and the birds were singing. Yang Wanli’s group of four—now newly-appointed officials—visited Fan Manor, hoping to be graced by Sir Fan’s presence. However, Sir Fan was not in the manor today. Even more frustrating was that Sir Fan was on official duty, and was to leave for Northern Qi tomorrow.

Second-degree scholars do not go to the Imperial Academy. Going by usual customs, they could be appointed anywhere. With the Board of Civil Office sending an envoy soon, it was unsurprising that the other three—aside from Shi Chanli—would come to ask Fan Xian for orders. After all, during this year’s spring examination, they had gotten to this point entirely thanks to Fan Xian’s power. So naturally, they believed Fan Xian would have them do something.

Fan Xian could not meet with them. He left them two letters. One was for the three newly-appointed officials who had to leave the capital soon. The other was for Shi Chanli who would return home to prepare for the next spring examination.

The four sat in Fan Xian’s study. Disregarding any formalities, they opened up the letters.

The letter for the three officials had only two sentences:

“Do your best as a person. Do your best as an official.”

There was one more sentence for Hou Jichang. Fan Xian wrote, “Jichang, don’t be so spineless.”

That was an inside joke only Fan Xian understood, so the three new officials focused on the former two sentences. While simple, they were very true. To be an official, they must first learn to conduct themselves as people.

Those two sentences had another meaning. It was unclear which one of them realized it—”do your best as a person” did not necessarily mean to be a good person, and “do your best as an official” did not necessarily mean to be a good official.

After reading that letter, Yang Wanli was curious to see Shi Chanli’s. So far, only Shi Chanli was rather silent.

A bit unsettled, Shi Chanli opened up his letter. Upon seeing what Fan Xian had written for him, he almost laughed aloud.

“I know things aren’t going well. Life is decided more by fate than by men. Do not worry that there will be no friends to share an umbrella with. Enjoy your time leisurely. ”

The last three characters of the letter hinted that Shi Chanli should wait for Fan Xian’s return, as Fan Xian’s name was a homophone for leisure.

Currently, Fan Xian was at the estate he had bought. Frowning slightly, he ran his fingers across the hollow belt and felt the pills Fei Jie had given him long ago. His teacher said that should there be something wrong with his overpowering zhenqi, those few pills were there to save him. After coming to the capital, there hadn’t been any mishaps, and Fan Xian almost forgot about the pills until now. So many years had passed, he didn’t know if the pills were still effective.

Wang Qinian sat across from him and said respectfully, “We’ve found the person.” Raising his head, he continued, “The likeness is there. With some careful makeup, there shouldn’t be any observable flaws from a distance. But the flaws are still there.”

“What flaws?” Fan Xian asked. “Didn’t you say the likeness is there? It’s been a month. The skin tone more or less matches.”

Wang Qinian answered lightly, “Sir, to find someone as striking and attractive as you among those men is already difficult enough. Even if the appearance were to match, he still has to be able to act out your learned, scholarly demeanor. That would be exceedingly difficult.”

Fan Xian was surprised. He jeered, “You’re a real joker. Your skill at brown-nosing is getting deadly.”