无限风光在险峰 (wú xiàn fēng guāng zài xiǎn fēng) - boundless vistas seen from a perilous peak, i.e. the exhilarating joy felt after a hard-won victory.
If only.
Zéyì recited the precepts of the Still Heart school in her mind, concentrating hard to ensure her sweet little daydream did not show on her face. It was difficult when the person she was dreaming of kissing was stood right next to her, the petrichor scent of her hair wafting around her.
"I'm sorry, Gong Dze, you were saying?"
"I was... Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Please continue."
"I was saying that I felt so guilty about it, as if I was somehow responsible for Maan Dzi King's actions."
"Which you are not."
“Well, that aside, I... I've been anxious... that...”
What she was anxious about was not to be known, as a knock on the door of the anteroom interrupted their conversation.
“Yes?” Zéyì called out, annoyed to hear her voice quaver. To her surprise, Yuān Mù appeared through the open door.
“Shi fu, you... uh... you don't have to knock. I mean, you don't usually... um...”
“I'm sorry to interrupt,” he said apologetically, looking guiltily away from Gong Lau Yan, who was glaring daggers at him. “But I thought you would like to know that Shǔ Kuí has given birth.”
All else was forgotten. In a flash, both Gong Lau Yan and Zéyì were headed to the palace clinic.
Cheng Guk Lung was smiling sleepily from a chair in a corner, having evidently just arrived and fallen into the most comfortable spot he could find. Shǔ Kuí, eyes bright, was sat up in bed, her head and Yáng Jìn's bent over the small creature in her arms. Yáng Jìn looked dazed with happiness as his eyes found Zéyì and Gong Lau Yan. "He's perfect..." he murmured, heedless of etiquette. "We agreed on the name 'Wú Xiàn', as in 'wú xiàn fēng guāng zài xiǎn fēng' – exhilaration following a hard-won victory."
Looking exhausted, stray strands of hair plastered to her face by sweat, Shǔ Kuí held her son out. "Your Majesty, could you...? It would be... the greatest honour."
Zéyì had been about to protest, but the look on Shǔ Kuí's face made her swallow back the words and approach. The child had darker skin like his mother, but a sort of squashier approximation of his father's face. Zéyì looped her fingers into the baby's tiny fists and smiled at the sight of a faint dusting of fine dark hair on his head. She leaned closed and whispered gently, "Yáng Wú Xiàn, may you grow up healthily."
Shǔ Kuí's head and Zéyì's were almost touching, the two of them and the child ringed in the light of dawn, creeping through the windows.
"Your Majesty," Shǔ Kuí murmured softly, a soft smile on her lips.
"Shǔ Kuí?"
"There is a significant problem. You cannot leave with Lady Gong."
Gong Lau Yan had gone. Alone.
At first, without any change of expression, Zéyì had asked coolly as to what Shǔ Kuí meant.
"Is there anyone listening in?" Shǔ Kuí's lips moved almost imperceptibly. Zéyì's taijitu eyes scanned the area. Only Gong Lau Yan noticed, but she merely very slightly raised an eyebrow.
"No one nearby."
As the Head of Intelligence explained, Zéyì's expression grew darker and darker, until at last she closed her eyes and laughed softly.
"Ah... Of course... It was all running too simply, wasn't it? It seems my naivete is incurable." She smiled at Gong Lau Yan. "You should go, Lady Gong. I'll sort this out."
There was nothing to say. As much as Gong Lau Yan wanted Zéyì to come with her, or to stay and help, finding Dzue Yi-sang could not wait any longer. She bowed. "Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty. I will return as soon as possible."
"I'll be waiting for you."
Stay safe until I return.
I will.
Night crawled over Qianbian, and Zéyì, Cheng Guk Lung, Yáng Jìn and Shǔ Kuí were still in deep discussion, although Yáng Jìn and Shǔ Kuí would occasionally paused to check over Wú Xiàn.
In short -
"I heard two of the doctors speaking when I went into labour. I suppose they thought I was too distracted by pain to notice them whispering." Shǔ Kuí smirked proudly. "Who do they think I am? I trained to be clear-minded under torture. As if I wouldn't notice.
"They mentioned how opportune the current situation is – with Lady Gong and yourself about to leave, and myself distracted by a child. As soon as Yáng Jìn and Cheng Shi di arrived, I had Cheng Shi di investigate the two doctors.”
“Your Majesty, the loyalties of the palace and the government are hugely divided,” Cheng Guk Lung supplied, rubbed his eyes. “A few reports have begun to come in from some of the operatives I sent out to dig discretely. As far as I can tell so far, many of the government reports and records we have been examining have been tampered with.”
“How so?”
“To make former Regent Chun Yīlè look worse than she was. That's not to say she wasn't a terrible person, but the image that was presented to us was of a tyrannical ruler who was driving Chun into the ground. And it seems... that this was perhaps not entirely true.”
Zéyì automatically checked again for eavesdroppers, before saying, “So someone wants us to think... And by us, I mean the four of us here, that Mo- Chun Yīlè was a worse ruler than she was...”
“The four of us, and those loyal to us. I casually mentioned a few things to Wù Māo and she looked confused as usual,” Yáng Jìn said.
“The suspicious ones are in three places,” Shǔ Kuí said quietly. “The Ministry of the Household, the Ministry of Justice, and the Office of the Grand Mentor.”
The Chun government was based on the Three Lords – Nine Ministers system, with three high officials who worked most closely with the Regent, and nine ministers who managed the country's affairs.
Zéyì had only met a few of these officials in passing. She remembered some of them from her first return to Chun; the Minister of Ceremonies, or Head Priest, had been the one who asked if she was a ghost, and the Grand Preceptor had been the one who had asked about local asylums. She remembered them both vaguely as middle-aged men with long beards.
Of the nine ministries, only the Ministers of the Imperial Treasury, the Household and the Imperial Servants had formally appeared before Zéyì. The Grand Mentor had claimed illness for her inability to visit. Yáng Jìn, as Head of Security, technically had the titles of both Minister of the Imperial Guards and Grand Protector, although he hated both, and Cheng Guk Lung had been in the process of working with the Minister for the Household to recruit a suitable candidate to take the position of Minister of the Imperial Guards. The position of Minister of the Imperial Clan stood empty; Zéyì was the last of her family, so what need was there for such a position?
“I assume their goal was to cause trouble while I was gone?”
“Presumably.” Cheng Guk Lung stretched. “After all, you're the Divine Lotus, but who am I?”
“A distant relative.”
Cheng Guk Lung rolled his eyes.
Zéyì thought of the Minister for the Household, a young man who went by the oddly cute but fitting nickname of Yuè Yuè1跃跃 (yuè yuè) – Literally 'Jump Jump', indicates immense eagerness.. Bright and enthusiastic, he appeared to be of Cheng Guk Lung's age, and the pair worked well together, people joking about the lethargy of one and the energy of the other.
“I would suggest that you should at some point still 'join' Lady Gong on her travels.” Shǔ Kuí leaned back in her bed with a groan. “When we have more of the pieces in our hands, you pretend to leave, and we see what the troublemakers have to say.”
“Yes, well, before that, we'll need to comb through the Ministries. Let's see... It would take... at least six months for someone to do a sweep of the remote provinces of the country. I think it's highly likely that this has been planned for a long time, as there's no sign of any loyalty to former Regent Chun Yīlè. They would have plenty of time to plant the seeds of discord in the remote regions...”
“This is my failing, Your Majesty.” Shǔ Kuí clumsily emerged from her bed and bowed to the floor.
Zéyì hastened her to stand again as Wu Xian began to cry hungrily. “But I doubt anyone else would have had the ability to gather data whilst giving birth. Shǔ Kuí, make up for this oversight by helping us out of this situation. We still have time.”
“We will have to bide our time,” the Grand Mentor said.
On the outskirts of Qianbian, where the city met a rare outcropping of white granite jutting from the the fertile basin where the city was built, three people sat in a building that resembled, from the outside, an unremarkable wooden house, sandwiched between other, similar buildings.
The interior, however, was a well-furnished entertainment house, and it was within one of the inner rooms that the Grand Mentor, the Justice Minister, and the Household Minister now sat.
Usually, the Grand Mentor was a delicate woman, pale-skinned and thin-wristed, with soulful eyes and pin-straight hair, but she was currently disguised with the skin-mask of a much older woman, with a white-haired wig and far more jewellery than she would usually wear.
The Justice Minister was a glum-looking man, even with his padded merchant costume, a poor attempt at trying to appear larger than his actual bony frame. He had a long wispy beard that he kept accidentally dipping into his wine.
The Household Minister had made the least effort in his disguise, opting to shave the usual manicured moustache and beard that he wore, and tying his hair loosely so that it framed his face, rather than the usual way that he tied it all in a neat bun on the top of his head.
“Min- Ugh. Yuè Yuè, you haven't even made any effort,” the Justice Minister grumbled, beard dipping into his cup at each word.
The Household Minister sneered in response. “I still have my looks, old man, unlike some senile old fool who can't keep himself clean.”
“Don't argue,” the Grand Mentor said mildly. “I know things haven't proceeded as expected, but we can take our time. We've waited this long, after all. What's a few more weeks?”
“That woman should have just left with the demon hunter,” the Justice Minister whined, blotting his wispy beard with a cloth.
“Well in case you haven't noticed,” Yuè Yuè said sarcastically, “she didn't. So let's focus on reality and not hopes and wishes, hm?”
“You-!”
“Old Áo2鳌 (áo) - a mythical sea turtle., how can you be so reactive?” the Grand Mentor chided gently. “We know that Regent Zéyì still plans to leave that unknown child as acting ruler to go travelling, so we must simply be patient. How go your investigations?”
Old Áo sniffed and waggled his head, dragging his beard through his cup of wine again. “There is no record of a familial link between Regent Chun Zéyì and Sir Cheng Guk Lung. The Halls of Justice are whispering with dissatisfaction regarding the legitimacy of Sir Cheng as Acting Regent. Further, the decision to hand over former Regent Chun Yīlè to the Palace of Tin Yeung Wong, without proper trial or process... Let's say our current Regent has made herself the target of some harsh criticism.”
“Yuè Yuè?”
“The last few batches of scholars to enter the household are all young revolutionaries with strong ideas about government and imperialism. Whether it's a Zéyì or a Yīlè or even a dragon on the throne, they will aim to knock over that throne. They're a good bunch.” He drained his wine in one go.
There was a knock at the door, and it slid open, revealing a pretty serving girl bearing a flask. “Honoured guests, will you be requiring a refill?”
Yuè Yuè smiled, making the girl blush. “What good timing! Come and put that on the table.”
She walked to the table and placed the flask down, her leg brushing the Household Minister's as she did. Daringly, she glanced sideways at him under her lashes.
A moment later, a hand seized the hair on the back of her head and slammed her face down against the carved edge of the table.
Yuè Yuè smashed the new flask of wine onto the ground and dropped the girl's lifeless body on top of it. “What a clumsy attempt. If they wanted to spy on us, they should have picked someone who could act better.”
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