Inner Residence arc ー Chapter 15 (Part 1): A Single Spark of Fire
On the first of May, Labour Day, the weather changed from cloudy to fine. The temperature increased from 25°C to 30°C and it was a force 2 eastern wind which was a light breeze. it was suitable for going on a trip and one should avoid fire*.
*T/n: It seems to have something to do with some fortune-telling
On this day where even the working people should take a break, a member of the working class like me was sitting inside a horse carriage, swaying thrice with every rock as I accompanied our married Emperor and Empress couple to head for a vacation at Li Quan Palace.
Saying that the imperial family's carriage swayed thrice with every rock was really a little not kind. The carriage was spacious and comfortable with elegant interior decorations. It was incorporated with a beautiful soft couch and a fragrant rosewood bookcase and a hundred treasures cabinet*. It contained everything necessary ranging from motion sickness pills to fried beans. The gauze, tassels and leisure fragrance were specially provided for the tung oil-wall carriages** which women ride.
*T/n: I believe it's just a storage with many compartments
**T/n: The walls of the carriage were coated with oil or maybe paint. There doesn't seem to be much information on it.
Qin Feihua and I sat inside the carriage. Outside the carriage was a beautiful summer scenery with the wheat fields blown into waves of green by the wind. However, both of us didn't have the mood to enjoy it.
Qin Feihua looked around. She moistened her fingers with tea and wrote on the low tetable, 'As soon as the Empress has an important matter, she will dispatch me away. Are you sure that His Majesty is really travelling with us?'
I nodded and also wrote, "Second Elder Brother is very sure. He said a person like the Empress will definitely control His Majesty at the nearest place."
Qin Feihua's face had a worried look. 'Although I'm the Empress' court lady, the Empress is actually using me as a hostage in order to restrict your elder brother. The eunuchs and palace maids attending to both of us in the carriage today are all unfamiliar faces.'
I consoled her. 'You have to believe in Second Elder Brother.'
'You said that they have split into three routes?'
'The people on two of the routes will disguise as imperial guards and sneak into the palace and the hot springs separately to confound née Zhao's attention. After that, Second Elder Brother will bring people disguised as imperial guards to infiltrate into our convoy. They will then into three routes again with two of them shielding while Second Elder Brother goes to search for the Emperor.'
Qin Feihua wrote, 'Leaving the palace this time was done in an extremely grand fashion. There are twelve accompanying imperial carriages all of them look exactly the same. How is he going to search?'
I smiled and wrote, 'I'm not sure too but he appeared to be very confident.'
Qin Feihua heaved a sigh. She wiped away the water stains with a light worry appearing at her brows.
The convoy still slowly travelled along the public roads. As the fertile farmland gradually reached an end, we started to enter the mountain forest. This part of the road was narrow with luxuriant trees so the speed of the carriages gradually slowed down. The birds on the branches in the forest were continuously calling merrily where as soon as one subsided, another sounded. it was melodious and pleasant to the ears.
After travelling for about another two hours, I finally smelt an odd rotten egg smell. I lifted up the carriage curtains to look over. I only saw a magnificent building within the mountain col not far away from here. There was a mountain stream flowing down like a silver belt. I supposed that must be Li Quan Palace.
Qin Feihua knitted her delicate eyebrows and covered her nose. "If this kind of hot springs can beautify, I would rather be a little older and uglier."
She could have such great confidence with reason on her side. At any rate, her foundation was good. She could be a fragrant flower until she is old in this lifetime.
While talking, the convoy had stopped. A eunuch came to say that there was a Three Sovereigns* shrine up ahead and according to the customs, we had to worship for a while.
*T/n: Referring to Heavenly Sovereign (Fuxi), Earth Sovereign (Nüwa) and Tai/Human Sovereign (Shennong)
The two of us went to meet Empress Zhao and asked her if the Emperor was in good health and if the journey had been pleasant.
Having sat in the carriage for half a day, Empress Zhao, her whole face looked exhausted and she implicitly grumbled to us, "His Majesty will catch a cold with the wind so I will worship on his behalf. This Three Sovereigns shrine is newly constructed so it's just nice for us to worship for a while pray for His Majesty's speedy recovery."
I hastily licked her boots. "Your Highness is a worthy Empress of the generation and is a married couple deeply in love with His Majesty. It really makes others envious."
Empress Zhao thickened her skin to smile while pleased with herself.
Since we were just passing through, the worshipping was very simple. Empress Zhao only went to burn some incense and kowtowed. Qin Feihua waited upon her at her side while I followed the group of womenfolk to kneel faraway to attend and observe the ceremony.
The inside of the newly constructed main hall was suffused with the smell of sawdust and tung oil paint blended with the sulfur smell wafted from the hot springs, stimulating the women's sense of smell. The madams and misses were all covering their noses with a fragrant handkerchief.
Empress Zhao burned incense and kowtowed, then followed the ritual to go before the altar and lighted up the Eternal Flame*. According to Dong Qi's custom, the number of Eternal Flames lit up represented the status of the worshipper, thus Empress Zhao lighted up nine lamps.
*T/n: May also be known as 'Eternal Fire'. It is a flame that should not be extinguished once lit
The wikipedia page if you are interested:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_flame
I was gazed at her each and every move with rapt attention.
One lamp, two lamps, three lamps….
I quietly pinched the hem of my gown inside my hands.
Five lamps, six lamps……
Everything was normal.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down from my forehead. Why was there no reaction?
Seven lamps, eight lamps……
A mountain breeze timely blew into the hall from outside.
Nine lamps.
Empress Zhao stood up in satisfaction.
Right at that moment, the curtain behind the altar suddenly flared up into flames. It borrowed the power of the wind and leapt up, scuttling onto the beam of the room's roof in the blink of an eye.
My heart thumped as it fell back to its original position.
This fire started abnormally. It burnt ferociously and had already burnt the pillars in just half a minute. The womenfolk inside the hall had never undergone evacuation drills . At this moment, they were all frightened until they were at a loss repeatedly screamed in terror, fleeing in disarray everywhere like disorganized flies.
I opened up my throat to shout at the top of my lungs, "Protect the Emperor! Protect the Emperor!" On the other hand, I pulled up Qin Feihua who was already dumbstruck like a wooden chicken and ran towards the side door.
The imperial guards outside dashed inside while the noble women and daughters fled outside, immediately blocking up the door until not even a drop of water could trickle through. Cries of anguish fell lingered ceaselessly on the ears. It was just like performing a disaster film.
When Qin Feihua saw this scene after escaping outside, she was frightened until her face turned green, then white and fell into my my arms unconscious.
Just nice. I originally even wanted to tell her to pretend to faint.
I hastily pushed her to the maidservant's hands and took advantage of the chaotic situation to dive into the crowd.
Empress Zhao had yet to come out. The palace servants outside were all running helter-skelter in panic while the timid palace maids had started to bawl in each other's arms. I didn't know if they were crying for their masters or if they were scared to be buried with the dead.
I tried my utmost to push away everyone and walk towards direction of the horse carriages, my eyes continuously searching among the sea of people. Just as I was raising my head to look up, I suddenly felt someone pulling my hand stuffing something inside my hand. I turned my head around only to see the rear profile of an imperial guard before I was instantly squeezed by the crowd to one side.
The imperial guards outside the hall were also not stupid. They torn down the hall's door neatly and quickly. The nobles hastily ran out one after another. After that, Empress Zhao was also carried outside by people.
She wasn't dead. She had only passed out.
Making use of the chance while the imperial physician was working on pinching her philtrum, I had already already hid the strip inside my hair, then returned to Qin Feihua's side.
Qin Feihua was already awake, her beautiful face ashen pale. I whispered to her, "Quickly continue to be unconscious!"
"What?"
"If you don’t want Empress call you to account for not coming to her rescue after she wakes up, then quickly continue to unconscious."
Qin Feihua was not stupid. Her two eyes instantly rolled back. With her vivid depiction and abundant skills of display and persuasion skills, she was a good young successor for the Golden Rooster Awards*.
*T/n: Awards for film given in mainland China
I didn’t pretend to be passed out. I helped the imperial physicians pinch the philtrum for the madams and miss. Those noble women, every single one of them were usually brave and ferocious when scheming against each other like King Kong*. However, as it happened, with just a sign of trouble at the mere rustle of leaves in the wind, their brains would have insufficient blood supply. This could also be considered as one of the special cases in anthropology. I was happy to pinch them fiercely and pinched until they woke up with a blood-curdling scream. They even had to thank me.
*T/n: It can be either King Kong or Buddha's warrior attendant
Just like that, the chaotic situation of chickens flying and dogs jumping in disorder continued for an hour. The huge fire was extinguished. Those who fainted were pinched until they woke up. The injured were carried away to apply medicine. Empress Zhao was frightened until she gained a few more wrinkles. She was trembling as she said, "Return to the palace! Return to the palace!"
A eunuch who was heedless of the consequences asked, "Which palace are we returning to?"
Empress Zhao gave him a dressing-down right from the beginning. She cursed until the heaven and earth changed colours, every kind of animal ran away and clear skies boomed with thunder. It really thoroughly overturned her usual dignified and virtuous image of the mother of the nation. In the end, it was Worthy Consort Li who was unable to watch on any further and braved death as she stepped forward to urge the Empress to stop.
Everyone returned to their convoy once again. They wearily cleared the way to return to the capital in a sorry state and ended this famous trip which name would be recorded in the annals of history.
The speed of the carriages was very fast for the return trip. Qin Feihua and I were jolted around until we got dizzy. What even I felt was a miracle was that I actually didn’t even get motion sickness.
We were almost reaching the capital when Second Imperial Prince, Xiao Li, brought along the ministers to welcome the Emperor. Everyone knelt before the Emperor's dragon carriage and kowtowed while confessing their crimes.
The Three Sovereigns shrine had actually ignited spontaneously when the Empress was worshipping. if this wasn't a coincidence in the innate law of things, then it must be a shocking conspiracy that shocks the heavens. However, the numerous simple and superstitious working people wouldn't think as such. The first thing they would think of would be whether that née Zhao had done anything that don't abide by the standards women should behave, thus provoking the ancestors of late emperor who had long ascended to heaven to fly into a rage and rain down a massive fire to punish this witch.
Allow me to sympathise with Empress Zhao a little. Although she was very detestable, she was also not so evil to the point that she needed to be burnt to death. Actually, most of the time, she too was just a component of her family machine.
I originally thought that the Empress was paranoid. Even if she didn’t mention to interrogate me in court for trial, she would also detain me in the palace as a guarantee. However, probably because she had been overly frightened as she said not even one word about my name. But even if she couldn’t remember, her elder brother, may not necessarily be unable to remember. Hence, I took the advantage of the chaotic scene where everyone was meeting their relatives to find Xiao Li who was dealing with aftermath of the incident, flattered him hypocritically with sweet words as I called him a Elder Brother-in-Law a few times, cajoling him until he instantly arranged a carriage and personal bodyguards to send me back to the Xie residence.
When I reached home, it was exactly the time when the veil of the night had closed and the smoke spiralled from the kitchen chimneys. The main door was shut tightly and the lanterns were hung high up. It was so normal that it was really not normal.
Translated and Edited by: HaruOngy and LalaKurouds