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Translation: marchmallow
Before she fell asleep, Feng Sheng ruminated over whether or not Prince Wei wouldn’t keep his word, so much so that she lost her mind in various fancies and conjectures and ended up dreaming once she drifted into slumber.
In her dream, she returned to the time prior to her departure from the Sun family. Just like what had transpired in reality, Old Madam Sun and Sun Qing Hua had cooked up various schemes. Sensing that she should retreat, she wanted to conclude things in one fell swoop, so she simply took advantage of Prince Wei.
However, it didn’t progress as smoothly as it had the last time. Prince Wei was able to clearly penetrate her motives and even warned her not to release the hawk until she had seen the hare.1 He further disclosed that he had a very fastidious appetite, that he had to have a taste before he could judge whether or not it was worth it.
This man was truly so troublesome to deal with that she was anxious to free herself from the circumstance. At the same time, in the dream, she had also thought that it wasn’t like they hadn’t kissed before, so she yielded after making a show of resistance.
In the same waterside pavilion near the lake, there was no one around, not even Zhi Chun nor Zhi Qiu. It was just her and him. At first, he hugged and kissed her, and as he did so, he began to take too great liberties with her, even to the extent of undressing her.
She refused, struggled, and screamed.
His complexion suddenly changed, and he hauled her into the lake with little effort.
She could have swum but was somehow unable to. So much water gushed forth her nose that her breathing gradually waned until she could no longer breathe.
Just before her mind went blank, just before thinking she was going to die, he abruptly emerged from the water.
He was topless with no robe on, and he narrowed his eyes at her, asking her if she would run away again.
She told him she would never run away again.
He then rescued her, but instead of pulling her ashore, he swam over to the pavilion in the middle of the lake. A multitude of lotus flowers were blooming around the pavilion, and there afloat amidst the lotus clusters was a small boat. She attempted to clamber onto it, but he kept thwarting her. Instead, he pulled her against the boat and did naughty things.
The water was cold yet hot, and the lotus leaves were a verdant green. As Feng’er quivered softly, droplets of water trickled down their entwined bodies.
He still kept enquiring whether or not she would run away. Even though she had cried that she wouldn’t, he wouldn’t let her go.
After that, Feng Sheng knew nothing else.
……
Upon waking, she could feel the person behind her. Feng Sheng was somewhat unused to this kind of intimacy.
She was accustomed to sleeping alone, yet there was suddenly a man lying next to her. Moreover, this one had quite a domineering sleeping posture. He had his arms circled around her at all times, as if he feared she would run away.
Run away?
Feng Sheng instantly called to mind that dream, and her face unconsciously flushed.
It was much too vivid of a dream, especially the earlier parts. She had always had dreams, but none of them she could remember upon rousing the next day. Zhi Chun had once told her that, as per her mother’s words, if she felt that she had dreamt and desired not to forget it, she shouldn’t turn over if she wanted to remember that dream once she awoke. After recalling it once more, she wouldn’t forget it again.
However, she had attempted this method before, and it never worked.
She brooded over why she could remember the dream this time. Was it because she didn’t turn over when she woke up?
As she properly deliberated on it, she understood exactly why it was strange, and her face slowly glowed crimson.
Perhaps she had reached the peak of her discomfiture. The red on her face was already enough as it was.
She could hear herself gasp, and she let out a shiver hailing from deep in her bones. His hand was clutching her waist so firmly that she couldn’t resist the person.
“Awake?”
She couldn’t speak, because she knew that if she did, she would surely fall apart.
“It still isn’t bright out. Sleep some more,” he muttered huskily as he stirred and planted a kiss on her sweaty forehead.
She mustered a desperately deep breath, swallowed down her words, and sucked in a few more breaths before pleading, her voice quivering, “Then let me sleep, ah.”
“Just sleep.”
But how am I supposed to sleep when you’re like this?
Feng Sheng was driven into anger out of embarrassment, a type of feeling that carried with it a sense of shame, one where she couldn’t bear to look directly at herself. He pressed his lips against her ear, and his low breathing felt as though it carried fire, scalding her ears to the point of pain.
“Originally wanted you to take a break, but who told you to be dishonest?”
How was she being dishonest?
Her heart overflowed with distress and indignation, but it transformed into a whimper, “You, let me sleep.”
“En, you sleep.”
A man would speak one way and think another, his body always more honest than his mouth.
Feng Sheng didn’t know how long they were at it, but he finally let her sleep anyway.
She felt as if he had gotten up, and as if he had gone to fetch hot kerchiefs to tidy them both with. After that, she drifted off, and when she woke up again, the sky was bright.
……
“You’re not getting up?” She noticed that he was awake but chose not to move.
“There’s nothing to do today. We can get up whenever we want.”
Feng Sheng was stunned, and only then did she recall what he had done to save her. Since he wasn’t contending for the throne, he would naturally become a leisurely prince. At this point, the Jianping Emperor’s heart still probably bore anger towards him, so he certainly wouldn’t assign him a task.
She was a little uncomfortable in her heart. She actually knew what Prince Wei wanted to do and what he was doing, but all because of her, yes, because of her, it all had to stop.
To keep a low profile for two or so years, to lie low until the wind would blow over, it was easier said than done. In all things, opportunity and risk coexisted, and complacency always marked the start of regress. Two years’ time was enough for him to lag several step behind others, not to mention that, by then, even if he wanted to rise up again, he still wouldn’t know if he could.
Though she had assumed the identity of Fang Feng Fu’s sister, since she was a close relative of the enemy, would Empress Chen also retaliate against him? Even Fang Feng Sheng, a woman from the boudoir, wasn’t safe from her scheming, she feared that Prince Wei was not an exception.
This, she believed, especially after that day she learned from Prince Wei about his and her mother-in-law’s origin from the central palace. Those from the central palace had believed they could always tread on the obedient dogs underfoot. Unbeknownst to them, the dogs had grown disobedient and had begun eating someone else’s meat and bones. Could they still call them their own? They were probably inferior to even other families’ dogs. At least, other families’ dogs, their owners didn’t dare beat them casually; however, those from the central palace, they couldn’t wait to get rid of their own as quickly as possible.
Feng Sheng was a little unhappy at first, thinking that Prince Wei had been too impetuous.
She was clueless as to how husband and wife should interact, but she knew that husband and wife must treat each other as honored guests. That was how her father and mother had managed to live. However, since she married him, in just a brief two or three days, let alone in front of others, even behind their backs, he employed all sorts of means to make her happy, giving her the illusion that she was a beloved woman.
Many a time had she been overwhelmed by a sense of shame. Before heading to bed, she had wanted to stay awake to have a good talk with him. However, at this time, ensconced in his embrace, with his arms wrapped around her all night, she could no longer say anything.
She was thinking that she should treat him better.
“Not hungry?”
“Are you hungry?” He sat up, seemingly wanting to lift the bed-curtain, but she tugged at his hand.
She rolled over and lay flat on her back, during which she didn’t hold back a gasp because of the soreness from her back and legs.
“I’m not hungry yet.” Her eyes were smiling, yet the space between her brows were slightly knitted.
“Where does it hurt?” He lay back again, taking her in his arms. His hands already attacked her sides, rubbing that slender waist a little at a time.
“A little further down.”
He shifted down. As he was kneading in the right places, Feng Sheng drew a breath in the midst of extreme comfort. Were there to be a mirror in front of her now, her own appearance would baffle her.
“Once you’re truly fine, I’ll play Go with you when you get up. Can you play Go?”
Prince Wei looked askance at her. At this time, his face had a hint of that typically moody and cold-faced prince, but a glimmer in his eyes seemed to indicate that he was happy?
Feng Sheng laughed wryly. “It seems like Your Highness is a master. This one will ask you for some advice later on.”
“With pleasure.”
*
Since they had finally found something to do, they quickly got up.
After eating, they chose a place with a beautiful scenery in the prince manor’s rear garden to set up a Go match. This was the first time Feng Sheng stepped out of the main courtyard, and seriously speaking, up until now, Feng Sheng was completely ignorant of what the Wei Prince Manor looked like or what its layout was like. However, through this Go match, she would be able to enjoy the scenery from the main courtyard to the rear garden.
Extremely huge. That was the only impression she had.
She felt that if it was even bigger, she might need a carriage.
Carriages were not allowed in the prince manor, but there were soft sedan chairs. Seeing her gait gradually slowing, Prince Wei remembered her body and glanced meaningfully at De Wang, who hurriedly went to order someone to arrange a soft sedan chair.
So, although De Wang was not as capable as De Cai, when it came to serving Prince Wei, ten of De Cai might not be as good as him alone.
This soft sedan chair was different from ordinary sedan chairs. Because it was summertime, it was very basic and convenient. It was simply a stretcher made of two bamboos as thick as a wrist, with a chair weaved from bamboo in the middle and a footrest in front of it. Because it was used in the prince manor, it was particularly different. The bamboo was fresh and green. Some exquisitely embroidered cushions were spread out on the chair, and a sunshade of fine gauze was draped all around to provide shade.
The sedan bearers were not men, but two sturdy grannies with tall and robust builds. Feng Sheng didn’t want to sit down, imagining how strange it would look with her sitting there and Prince Wei walking beside her. Prince Wei told her that if she didn’t sit, he’d carry her away, which immediately made her concede.
Later on, Feng Sheng was quite glad that she stopped being pretentious, because it took another quarter of an hour to walk to the place. Had she been allowed to walk, she would not have been able to hold on.
……
Prince Wei was truly a master.
It was said that one could learn about the player by watching them whilst playing Go. Though not as divine as rumored, to a large extent, one could observe the true nature of a person through his Go moves.
Taking Fan Jin Chuan as an example, Feng Sheng had played Go with him quite a few times, where their victory and loss were split even, which was actually the result of her throwing the match every so often. Fan Jin Chuan’s Go path was just like the man playing, frank and righteous. Of course, to be frank and righteous wasn’t bad, but in this world, not so many matters could easily be classified as black and white, and the gray at the junctions were more prevailing.
On the contrary, Feng Sheng was the other extreme. She always preferred to calculate how little effort she needed to crest a huge payoff and took strange and intriguing routes to subvert the opponent’s expectations. Later on, Feng Sheng corrected a lot of her usual moves. While deep in the Court of Judicial Review, she had analyzed her own nature when she had nothing to do.
From the beginning, she had no chips in her hands. She had obtained all her chips little by little through scheming, so her train of thought was all about ‘scheming’.
However, Fan Jin Chuan was different from her. He was born as heaven’s favored son. This ‘favored son of heaven’ did not refer to his family background, but the course his life had taken. With his talent and honesty, even Court Elder Song somewhat regarded him with special attention. It was clearly because of this that the Jianping Emperor, who had long been dissatisfied with Court Elder Song’s group, delegated Fan Jin Chuan as the central figure in Liang Huai.
Carefully observing the trajectory of the first half of his life, except for the bitter studies in his youth, the rest after that had been smooth sailing. The six years he had spent on the cold bench at the Hanlin Academy didn’t count, because on that bench, he was able to educate the princes. With that, who wouldn’t be willing?
He had never faced a situation where he had to succeed or die trying. He had never borne the heavy burden of a single person, and he had never walked the road of risking everyone’s condemnation. His journey had been smooth and stable, so his disposition, one etched deep in his bones, was a sort of frank and righteous calmness.
Time and again had Feng Sheng wanted to learn from his calmness, as well as his frank and righteous ways. She had tried her best, yet she didn’t change much. Later, she discovered that some of the things she had experienced were engraved in the innermost depths of her being.
Returning to the subject of Prince Wei, Feng Sheng and Prince Wei only played Go twice, and she could already make out his methods.
Prince Wei was very cautious and patient. Oftentimes, as you watched him play Go, you could clearly see his intentions, but because he would move to insignificant positions, you would always question what he was trying to do. You could continue probing, and he would move as he wished, but once you relaxed your vigilance, he would take that opportunity to be vicious and unrestrained and devour you neatly.
Moreover, his Go moves were on the treacherous side, which matched the common saying, ‘not laying out one’s pieces according to the logic of the pieces.’ So, they played two games in a row, and Feng Sheng lost both matches.
To be honest, losing in such a way made her a little unconvinced.
“Play again.”
After that, they played five more rounds, of which Feng Sheng won only two.
“It’s almost dark, let’s go back,” said Prince Wei as he threw the Go pieces into the Go jar.
Feng Sheng did not answer.
“We’ll play again tomorrow.”
Only then did she stand up.
*
This was how they spent the first month of their newly married life.
Apart from fooling around in bed, they were also fighting on the Go board.
However, the reciprocity in their match was actually quite enjoyable. Feng Sheng would quickly reverse the situation after losing straight ahead, but Prince Wei also wasn’t a vegetarian. His strategy would adapt according to the game’s flow, and every time, it would be a novel confrontation.
Of course, it wasn’t that Prince Wei had nothing better to do. In all seriousness, he was actually quite busy.
Although Feng Sheng did not ask in detail, she had fathomed from De Wang and De Cai’s remarks and phrases that the Wei Prince Manor was supporting several proteges. Furthermore, there was also Liang Huai, where Prince Wei had long buried Gou Qing as a nail. There must be many other places like this, but she knew nothing about them.
Prince Wei seemed to be occupied with such affairs lately. Because he wasn’t doing any official tasks, the time he was away was very irregular. Sometimes it would be in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening, and sometimes, he would even discuss until midnight.
Feng Sheng guessed that, because Prince Wei had disrupted his plans, he was now remedying omissions and correcting mistakes, but she couldn’t ask the specifics if he didn’t talk about it.
When Prince Wei was busy, she was really bored, so she took the initiative to find herself something to do.
She thought of the time Prince Wei informed her of the household matters. After the night she broached the subject to Prince Wei, De Quan delivered everything to her the next day.
De Quan was the chief steward of the Wei Prince Manor, in charge of all its trifles.
Unlike De Wang’s loquacious mouth, or De Cai’s reserve and competence, De Quan was like a hardworking and sincere old ox, much older than they were. Though he didn’t appear conspicuous, he was very steady and exuded a tranquil aura.
His character was apparent from the way he spoke to Feng Sheng, which was extremely deferential, succinct but refined. Presuming that Feng Sheng didn’t understand the affairs of the prince manor, he methodically divided the contents, from the various parts of the rear court, to the recent occurrences in the manor, as well as the imperial bodyguards’ station, the proteges in the manor, and so on. This also included the previous years’ usual practice and how these trivialities were dealt with.
It took him nearly two hours to break it down and enumerate it to Feng Sheng, who was sitting above and listening steadily.
When he finished, Feng Sheng first ordered the maid to serve him tea.
De Quan repeatedly pushed it back, but he nevertheless accepted it.
Only after De Quan downed his tea did Feng Sheng say, “I think that Chief Steward De is doing a great job. You’ve clearly managed all the affairs in various places of the manor, so please continue to work hard in the future.”
De Quan was confounded, not at all anticipating such a response from Feng Sheng.
“Princess Consort, His Highness has explained to this slave to entrust the household matters to you.”
Feng Sheng smiled and replied, “His Highness is just saying that, but I think Chief Steward De has been doing a great job. Why must I interfere?”
“But……”
“I will speak to His Highness about this matter. Chief Steward De is already doing well.”
De Quan suppressed a bellyful of doubts and puzzlement and withdrew with his people. In order to hold these books and keys, he especially brought two people with him. Now, he had to move them back as they were, unable to decipher what this Princess Consort was thinking.
It wasn’t only De Quan who didn’t understand, Zhi Qiu also didn’t. When De Quan left, Zhi Qiu pried, “Princess Consort, why didn’t you take the things? You should’ve taken them, ah.”
Zhi Qiu was a bit apprehensive.
She was still a little unaccustomed to addressing her as Princess Consort, so it was extraordinarily awkward to say. And what she meant, Feng Sheng understood. Even if she had never eaten pork, she had seen pigs running.2 Back when they were still in the Sun family, she observed how, in order to take charge of the family through managing the household, Old Madam, Eldest Madam, and Second Madam’s schemes were in conflict against one another.
In the hearts of the women in the rear court, managing the household was the mistress’s job. Only if you were in charge of the household were you the mistress; otherwise, you were not.
But to Feng Sheng, she felt that they were putting the cart before the horse. What mistress? Shouldn’t it be the master who was in charge? What was the use of vying and scrambling for it? The master could retract it with a single word, so why bother?
However, Prince Wei was also indifferent by nature, and there were no concubines in the manor, saving her a lot of effort. Furthermore, she had always believed that this place wasn’t short of capable people. If the person above did the work of the person below, what else would the person below do?
Prince Wei quickly received word from De Quan, but he said nothing when he returned.
He said nothing, and Feng Sheng didn’t ask anything, continuing to be Princess Consort Wei with her big heart.
Having a ‘big heart’ was how De Wang and Zhi Qiu perceived Feng Sheng. For now, Prince Wei expressed no opinion about it, seemingly unconcerned about whether she was in charge of the household or not.
Feng Sheng was quite gratified.
*
On this day, Feng Sheng bid Zhi Qiu to hold the Go case and proceeded to the study to find Prince Wei.
This study was an inner study right across the main courtyard. Feng Sheng had never been here before, but Prince Wei had told her that, if she had nothing to do, she could drop by to find a book to pass the time. The servants never obstructed her. She was simply there on a whim, but when she arrived, there were people in the study.
There were quite a few people, and they seemed to be in the middle of a discussion.
De Wang covered his forehead and stood at the side, wishing he could turn invisible.
He also wanted to stop the Princess Consort, but he really didn’t dare. The last time, he had stopped the Princess Consort and told her that he had to go in to inform the master. Afterwards, the master let him withdraw by himself to receive five lashes. Since then, he had learned his lesson.
De Cai was right. He was stupid. His Highness ceased vying for the great throne because of the Princess Consort. Now, these people were all talking about the Princess Consort, so him stopping the Princess Consort wouldn’t be putting the cart before the horse.
The reasoning was right, but being watched by a room full of eyes, De Wang’s heart was still apprehensive.
“Why are you here?” Prince Wei had regained his composure after the initial accident.
Feng Sheng was a bit ill at ease and replied, “It’s nothing. I was originally here to play Go with Your Highness. Since Your Highness is occupied, you can continue. I’ll leave first.”
She thought that her etiquette was still in place, but she actually had some lapses. Noble as the Empress was, she still had to refer to herself as ‘this concubine’ when facing the Jianping Emperor, but she was accustomed to using ‘I’ with Prince Wei. Prince Wei never corrected her. Between the two of them, it could be regarded as normal, but in the eyes of others, it was not so.
She was particularly used to socializing with people outside. She habitually smiled and nodded to everyone while talking to Prince Wei. This kind of calmness emanating from deep within her was very peculiar to others.
At least, on a woman, it was very peculiar. However, it also made people feel weirdly harmonious.
Everyone in the room stood up in succession and bowed to Feng Sheng in greeting, but she could only nod her head with another smile. Just as she was turning to leave, Prince Wei called out to her.
“If you want to listen, you can stay.”
This time, Feng Sheng was really a bit astounded. She blinked and confirmed, “Really?”
Prince Wei looked at her and nodded.
She pondered for a moment before saying, “Let’s hear it, then.”
Amidst a room full of strange gazes, De Wang brought along two young eunuchs and placed a wooden armchair a little further back to the right of where Prince Wei was sitting.
Feng Sheng paced over and sat down.
Someone served her tea, and when she noticed that no one was speaking, she pressed her skirt to arrange it and said, “You can all go on. Don’t mind me.”
She had an ineffable calmness that others couldn’t break, and she sat there on her own in an impressive and dignified manner.
To those unaware of her origin, Prince Wei was merely favoring the Princess Consort, which was also why she was allowed to be present on this occasion. To those aware, their eyes merely flickered profoundly.
1 不见兔子不撒鹰: you don’t release the hawk until you’ve seen the hare (idiom); one doesn’t act without some incentive
2 Didn’t experience it first-hand but had a rough idea based on observation