Chapter 5

chapter 5

For a moment, the room fell silent. Only the laughter and drum music carried in on the wind could be heard. Imperial Grandfather sighed and helped me to my feet.

“You had been born less than five hours when the National Preceptor prophesied that I would die by your hand. The entire court, civil and military officials alike, urged me to guard against you-to send you to some remote place under strict watch, or to strike first while I still could.”

“But I did nothing. Jiaojiao, why do you think that was?”

I thought for a while, then finally shook my head. “I wondered about it once. I thought perhaps you had some other plan in mind. To know your fate and not avoid it-I have always admired you for that.”

“I had no plan. I simply felt that whatever I did would be wrong. If I killed you, my son would hate me. If I imprisoned you and kept you under guard, you would only suffer for it and become all the more determined to kill me.”

“So I thought, why not do nothing at all? I would let you grow up properly. I would treat you the same as all the other children, so that such a thought would never take root in you.”

I understood him even less. Puzzled, I asked, “But what if, in the end, I still-still become the one who kills the sovereign?”

“Then that is fate playing tricks on us. It has nothing to do with either you or me.”

Imperial Grandfather was already past sixty, yet those eyes that held the welfare of the whole realm were still keen and bright.

“A prophecy is the result, not the cause. To change one’s life because of a single prophecy is to put the cart before the horse. Rather than fear it, one might as well make use of it.”

Make use of it? Make use of fate?

He looked out the window. The capital was peaceful and prosperous-the fruit of thirty years of his labor.

“No one can hide from fate. No matter where one conceals oneself, one will always be found.”

“Since I am destined to die by your hand, then before that day arrives, I may as well live a little more boldly.”

Fireworks roared outside the window, loud enough to shake the sky, yet to me it all felt distant and insubstantial, as though separated from me by a glass dome.

In my heart, Imperial Grandfather had always been the most loving and generous of men. So much so that I had almost forgotten the side of him I had never seen-the decisive, ruthless man who had once cut his way through the former court.

All at once, I understood. The hardest part had never been deciding how to deal with me in order to avoid the ending where I killed the sovereign. The hardest part was that he had to accept this fate with equanimity.

I was the one foretold to hold the blade, and yet even I feared fate, deluding myself into thinking I could shut myself away here and hide. He was the one destined to lie upon the chopping block and be butchered by my hand, yet his state of mind was so detached.

Not because there were ten thousand ways to escape a fixed destiny, but because he was strong enough. Strong enough that even if he were to die tomorrow, he could still hold fast to his own heart and not be frightened into retreat by fate.

Only without fear could one be without worry.

Fireworks burst outside the window, sending shifting colors of light through the room. My reflection in the teacup changed from red to yellow to purple to green, yet my eyes alone were bright to a frightening degree.

“Lingyi understands. I deeply thank Imperial Grandfather for his guidance.”

He took his first sip of tea that night, and a smile full of deeper meaning appeared on his face.

Many years later, I gradually came to understand that smile. He was happy because I would surely grow into-a peerless sword, unmatched beneath the heavens.