Chapter Ninety-Three: Sudden Tidings of Misfortune

Zhu Hao slept very deeply that night and did not wake until the following afternoon. Only when Wei Xiaobao came into the room and gently shook him awake did he slowly open his drowsy eyes and murmur, “Xiaobao, what is it?”

Seeing that Zhu Hao had awakened, Wei Xiaobao hurriedly said, “Your Highness, why are you sleeping on the floor? Please get up at once. Something terrible has happened outside!”

At Wei Xiaobao’s words, Zhu Hao rubbed his eyes and replied with mild indifference, “Something terrible? Has the sky fallen?”

Hearing Zhu Hao’s half-asleep answer, Wei Xiaobao froze for a moment, but then he still said honestly, “Well, Your Highness, the sky has not fallen, but it is nearly as bad.”

Seeing how serious Wei Xiaobao looked, Zhu Hao knew he was not joking. He forced the last traces of sleep from his mind, sat up, and asked, “What exactly happened?”

At last seeing his master wake fully, Wei Xiaobao quickly replied, “Your Highness, this morning the court ministers and Lady Li clashed outside the Palace of Heavenly Purity. The ministers wanted to see the Crown Prince and discuss the enthronement ceremony, but Lady Li said they must first agree that once the new emperor ascends the throne, she is to be made Empress Dowager and granted the right to rule from behind the curtain. The ministers would not accept her demands, so Lady Li refused to let them see the Crown Prince. In the end, after a long stalemate, both sides parted in anger.”

After hearing this, Zhu Hao cursed inwardly. Damn it, that Lady Li really was up to no good. If only he had known sooner, he should have placed her and the Dowager Consort Zheng under strict guard from the start and spared himself all this trouble. It was all his own lack of foresight.

Yet as he brooded over this, he quickly calmed, because he understood one thing: he had only five thousand Imperial Guards under his command, and it was simply impossible to watch over the tens of thousands of people in the entire palace. More than that, most of the guards had been tied up watching the ministers at the Meridian Gate and sealing off the palace entrances. There was no spare force at all. The fact that Consort Zheng had managed to escape from custody was proof enough of that. In the end, it all came down to this: he simply controlled too little power.

With a faint sigh, Zhu Hao collected himself and asked, “What is the current attitude of the ministers? What do they plan to do next?”

As soon as he finished speaking, Wei Xiaobao hurriedly answered, “I have already sent someone to inquire, Your Highness. Right now the ministers are leaderless because the Grand Chancellor has been placed under control. Each man has his own opinion, and none can persuade the others. There is still no clear solution.”

The matter of Huarong had already left Zhu Hao restless, and now that he heard yet another obstacle had arisen in his elder brother’s accession, he could only curse the ministers for incompetence and Lady Li for shamelessness.

But curses alone could not solve anything. He knew very well that if he did nothing, his elder brother’s enthronement would likely be delayed indefinitely.

Thinking thus, Zhu Hao made up his mind and instructed Wei Xiaobao, “Xiaobao, I understand this matter. You may go for now. Keep a close watch on the movements of every palace.”

Wei Xiaobao immediately bowed respectfully. “This servant takes his leave.” With that, he withdrew from Zhu Hao’s room.

After Wei Xiaobao left, Zhu Hao stood up, shook the stiff neck that had grown sore from sleeping on the floor the night before, and then left his chambers and headed out of the palace.

Once outside, he did not hesitate. He went straight to the Guo Residence, the family home of the Guo Empress and the mansion of the old Grand Secretary Guo.

Zhu Hao’s purpose in going there was to invite the old Grand Secretary out of retirement, for only with the old man’s standing in court could the current political chaos be stabilized, allowing the ministers to reach a single consensus and jointly force Lady Li to hand over Zhu Hao’s elder brother so that he could ascend the throne smoothly.

Zhu Hao had thought it through well enough, but when he knocked on the Guo Residence gate, he was blocked at the door. He knew he was asking a favor of others, and since he did not put on any prince’s airs when he arrived, the obstruction was not because he had been overbearing.

On the contrary, when the creaking gate of the Guo Residence opened, Zhu Hao lowered himself and said very politely, “Zhu Youjian requests an audience with the old Grand Secretary Guo.”

The one who opened the door was a little boy of five or six, fair and delicate, utterly adorable. Hearing Zhu Hao’s words, the child blinked his large eyes and looked him up and down so intently that Zhu Hao felt his scalp prickle. Only then did the boy say in a childish voice, “You are Zhu Youjian? My father says you are a bad man. You caused Sister Mengdie’s death, and your father caused my aunt’s death. Your whole family is bad, not a single one of you is good. My grandfather will never see a bad man like you! Hmph!” With that, he slammed the Guo Residence gate shut.

Everything happened so fast that Zhu Hao had not even reacted before the door was already closed. He stood there, utterly stunned. He had not even learned who the child was. What shocked him even more was the boy’s words: Your whole family is bad, not a single one of you is good. Wasn’t that cursing the entire imperial clan of the Zhu family? The child truly had no fear at all. The people in the Guo family were anything but ordinary.

Just as Zhu Hao was marveling at this, he suddenly realized what the boy had said earlier, and his shock deepened. The boy had said that Zhu Hao had caused the death of his Sister Mengdie, and that Zhu Hao’s father had caused the death of his aunt.

Zhu Hao thought in alarm: My father caused the death of his aunt? Then his aunt must be the Guo Empress. The Guo Empress indeed died because of my father. But who is this Sister Mengdie he speaks of? Guo Mengdie? Could something have happened to Guo Mengdie as well?

The moment that thought struck him, it was as though a thunderclap had burst in his mind. His whole body seemed drained of strength, and he collapsed limply before the Guo Residence gate, unable to rise for a long while.

He thought of Guo Mengdie’s appearance and voice, of their two meetings, of that unreasonable yet innocent and lovely girl. His eyes turned red. In the next instant, he pounded wildly on the Guo Residence gate. His hands were already swollen and flushed from the force he used, yet he felt no pain at all, because the pain in his heart was far worse.

He struck the gate in a frenzy, and a man’s voice came from within. “Who is it? What audacity! Do you not know what place this is, to behave so wantonly?” As the voice fell, the Guo Residence gate opened once more.

The instant the gate opened, Zhu Hao and the man at the door looked at each other and both froze. For a long while neither spoke. At last, Zhu Hao came to his senses first. He rushed forward, seized the man by the collar, and asked urgently, “Guo Zixuan, I am asking you: what happened to Mengdie? Where is she now?”

The one who had opened the door was none other than Guo Zixuan, Guo Mengdie’s uncle, whom Zhu Hao had once briefly met in his own chambers. Startled by the grip on his clothing, Guo Zixuan recovered himself. Hearing Zhu Hao’s words, he slapped Zhu Hao’s hand away from his collar, then snorted heavily and said, “You still have the nerve to ask about Mengdie? Mengdie is gone! How could she have suffered such a calamity?”

After saying this in anger, Guo Zixuan’s tone grew somewhat calmer. He continued, “Fifth Prince, this is the Guo Residence. We do not welcome you here. Whatever business you may have, please leave. No one in this house wishes to see you again.”

Though his words held no overt rage, the coldness in them was enough to drive a person back a thousand miles.

After receiving the answer he feared most, Zhu Hao once again collapsed like a heap of mud, his whole being sinking to the ground. The blow was simply too great. When Mengdie had been injured that day, he had wanted someone to inquire after her condition, but after his father’s passing and the series of upheavals in the palace, he had been too overwhelmed to spare attention to it and had temporarily forgotten. Now, hearing from Guo Zixuan that Mengdie was already gone, how could he possibly accept it?

Thinking that his parting with Guo Mengdie that day had in truth been their final farewell, Zhu Hao could not even say what flavor now filled his heart. It was as though an all-encompassing despair had risen from within and swallowed him whole.

Seeing Zhu Hao sitting on the ground in helpless stubbornness and refusing to leave the Guo Residence, Guo Zixuan stepped forward, seized him, and dragged him more than ten meters away from the gate before turning back toward the mansion. Zhu Hao, dragged such a distance, remained entirely oblivious.

Just as Guo Zixuan turned to go back, a long sigh drifted out from within the Guo Residence. Immediately afterward, an aged voice recited:

“Thin clouds drift across the vast sky,
And the silver river keeps the autumn tryst through endless ages.
How many joys and sorrows, and how many partings,
Are joined together on this one night, year after year.”

It was the poem “The Seventh Night,” by the Tang poet Bai Juyi, a seven-character verse that spoke fully of the joys and sorrows of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, and of the author’s own deep sympathy.

As the poem came to an end, an old man with white hair and a youthful face appeared before the Guo Residence gate. He wore a scholar’s robe and had an ordinary appearance, but from time to time a keen light flashed in his eyes, giving him the bearing of a man long accustomed to high office.

Seeing the elder, Guo Zixuan immediately bowed with respect. “Father!”

With that single word, the visitor’s identity needed no further explanation. He was none other than the father of the Guo Empress and Guo Zixuan, the grandfather of Guo Mengdie, and the old Grand Secretary Guo, once a man of immense power in court and still a figure of great influence now.