Chapter 519 — Departure

Song Han, burning with shame and fury, folded his arms and hunched his shoulders, and started for the city gate — only to be stopped by the guards. "Second Master Song, it's not that we'd deny you respect, but the Eastern Depot has sent down its orders: you're not to enter the city again. Anyone who gives you so much as a thread or a strand will be reckoned a traitor. Pray don't make it hard for us!"

How could this be!

He was struck dumb.

How was he to live from now on?

Panic seized Song Han, and casting all caution aside he made to force his way in.

The same guard who had been so courteous a moment before showed him no mercy now, and gave him a kick. "Shameless! You still think you're the Second Master of the Yingzhenguo Mansion? You dare turn a deaf ear to my words! A lesson is what you need — without one, I doubt you'd even know what you are!"

Song Han staggered and sprawled on the ground.

Laughter erupted on every side.

Someone said, "This young gentleman looks tender and fine-skinned — what can he have done, I wonder? You fellows are a crude lot!" And with that he reached out to pull Song Han up. "Poor creature, stripped of even his clothes. My shop happens to be short a man to serve tea and water. Why not come along with me? No silks or satins, maybe, but you'll have a full belly and warm clothes..."

Before he could finish, someone laughed aloud with malice in his voice: "Old Lai, of all the tea-boys you've taken in, which one hasn't ended up as your money tree?"

The crowd roared with laughter, lewd and coarse.

Song Han fled in confusion.

*****

The western warm chamber of the study in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.

The Crown Prince was reviewing memorials.

Cui Yijun tiptoed in and poured fresh tea.

The Crown Prince suddenly laid down his brush. "I hear the Duke of Yingzhenguo has fallen ill?"

"Indeed!" Cui Yijun said, smiling. "Song Han had an affair with the Duke's concubine, and the Duke drove him from the house. The ancestral hall was opened and he was called to account — who would have thought that Song Han, like a dog at bay, would fly at him and fasten his hands around the Duke's throat..." And he recounted the whole affair from beginning to end.

"So Song Han has been driven out of the house, and the Duke still lies unconscious?" the Crown Prince mused.

"Yes!" Cui Yijun bent a little at the waist, more deferential than was his wont.

The Crown Prince pondered for a long while.

At any other time Cui Yijun would have asked outright; but ever since the Crown Prince had begun reviewing memorials on his own, he had never again ventured a word unbidden.

He stood quietly. His eyes upon his nose, his mind upon his heart.

The Crown Prince said abruptly, "That matter I asked you to look into last time — how goes it?"

Cui Yijun considered, then said, "You mean the business of Lord Song and Lord Ji?"

The Crown Prince nodded. "Though the affair of the Prince of Liao is not to be bandied about, the Embroidered Uniform Guard is without a commander now. I have been wondering whether to send Song Yan — only the Jinwu Guard can scarce spare him. Yet never has any man held at once the posts of Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and Commander of the Jinwu Guard. And then there is Ma Youming of the Shenji Camp: had he not braved such personal peril, who can say under whose hand that day would have ended? Since Wang Xu, Commander of the Shenji Camp, is in poor health and begs to retire, I think we might as well let Ma Youming take command of the Shenji Camp..."

In other words, the Crown Prince meant to put Song Yan to weighty use.

And Song Yan and Ji Yong did not get on!

Cui Yijun's heart gave a leap.

Did the Crown Prince mean to play one against the other?

Cui Yijun bent lower still.

He said, with the utmost respect, "Lord Ji and Lord Song are enemies over a stolen wife!"

"Oh!" The Crown Prince came alive at once, his eyes gleaming. "Tell me, tell me — what exactly happened?"

Cui Yijun said, "Though both families keep it quiet, the Dou and the Ji are great and ancient houses, with kin on every side — Lord Ji above all, who to this day has taken no wife. Whoever goes to him with a proposal comes back insulted, and so some things could not be hidden forever. They say Lady Dou and Lord Ji were sweethearts from childhood; Lord Ji set his heart on marrying her, and the Dou family were well pleased with the match. But who could have guessed that Lord Dou, serving in the capital, knew nothing of the Ji family's intentions, while the Ji family thought it enough to have spoken with Old Minister Dou. By a twist of fate, Lord Dou gave Lady Dou in marriage to the Yingzhenguo Mansion..."

"There is such a thing?" The Crown Prince listened with delight and could not help laughing. "I hear Ji Jianming and Lady Dou are cousins. Do the two families still have dealings?"

"They do!" Cui Yijun said, smiling. "Not only dealings — Lady Dou is most forthright. Whenever Lord Ji comes to the Song house as a guest, Lady Dou comes out in person to greet him!"

The Crown Prince nodded along as he listened, and afterward told the whole thing to the Crown Princess as a joke.

The Crown Princess had not expected there to be such an injustice in it. "I never took Lady Dou for an ordinary woman," she said. "No wonder Lord Ji looks down on everyone these days."

The Crown Prince laughed. "Shall we make a match for Ji Jianming?"

The Crown Princess smiled. "That depends on how Your Highness means to employ Lord Ji. If you wish only to win over the Ji family, then to bestow a marriage upon him — there is nothing more honorable or more glorious. But if you mean to make use of him, I would leave the matter alone. A man so obstinate is hardly one to be easily brought round; a hasty decree would only leave him feeling stifled."

The Crown Prince had spoken only in passing, but the Crown Princess was exceedingly shrewd in the handling of kin and clan; since she judged it unwise, he did not press it, and turned instead to Song Yan and Ji Yong. "I mean to have Song Yan hold concurrently the post of Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Ji Yong to be Scholar of the Heir Apparent's Household and Chief of the Court of Receptions."

Thus the civil and the military would go their separate ways, and each could hold the other in check.

The Crown Princess smiled. "Has Your Highness thought of having Song Yan also command the Shenji Camp?"

The Crown Prince started, then clapped his hands. "That is an excellent idea. Song Yan to command both the Shenji Camp and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Ma Youming the Jinwu Guard, and Dong Qi the Five Cities Garrison."

Dong Qi's relations with Song Yan were no less strained — a thing known to every man in the Jinwu Guard.

The Crown Princess smiled faintly.

The Crown Prince asked after the Empress: "How is she now?"

He had heard a few days earlier that the Empress was ill, but every prescription submitted by the Imperial Medical Office consisted of calming, sedative remedies, which filled the Crown Prince with suspicion.

The Crown Princess lowered her voice and whispered, "The Empress Dowager says the Empress was made ill by the Prince of Liao's anger. How would the imperial physicians dare prescribe anything else?"

The Crown Prince understood and changed the subject. "The Mid-Autumn Festival is almost here. Besides the usual ingot pills and such, for the Yingzhenguo Mansion let us also bestow some delicacies and fragrant waters; it will show warmth."

The Crown Princess answered "Yes" with a beaming smile.

But the next day the Crown Prince summoned Song Yan to the West Warm Pavilion for a talk: "How is Lord Zhenguo's health now?"

Song Yan smiled bitterly. "He has regained consciousness, but his throat is ruined and he cannot speak. He still runs a high fever from time to time. The imperial physicians say he will need at least two years of quiet convalescence before his health gradually improves."