Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Winter passed, and spring arrived.

Lady Song of Bodhi Cottage met many people and handled many matters.

When the weather was bitterly cold and the ground frozen solid, Lady Song quite naturally came down with a chill.

The Imperial Medical Institute immediately sent its finest female physician to treat her.

But when the female physician arrived, the patient she examined was Concubine Lin, who had been out of favor for many years.

Treating Concubine Lin required the finest medicinal ingredients.

So Lady Song brought out her own private savings and told the female physician to prescribe whatever she needed.

Deer antler, ginseng, snow lotus… Whatever the female physician asked for, Lady Song provided without so much as blinking.

Lady Song knew how to handle people. She gifted the female physician clothes and jewelry, and even sent people to the female physician’s hometown in Wuxi to visit her parents and younger brother, bringing New Year’s money for them as well.

With both kindness and leverage in place, the female physician came and went, speaking only of Lady Song’s illness and never mentioning Concubine Lin by even half a word.

Meanwhile, the people at the Marquis of Loyalty and Valor’s Estate had recently been purchasing ancient texts and polishing weapons.

Their household had served the country with utter loyalty. In the end, only the Old Marquis, his wife, and one little granddaughter remained.

That little granddaughter had once loved nothing but reading Buddhist scriptures. Recently, however, it seemed she had awakened some of her military family’s blood.

She had taken to reading about civil and military strategy, and also enjoyed wielding blades and spears.

Whenever the Marquis of Loyalty and Valor and his wife brought it up, they merely smiled and said their Ruoci had been unruly since childhood. There was no helping it; they could only indulge her.

But in the rear courtyard of the Marquis of Loyalty and Valor’s Estate, the one holding the scrolls or the sword was not Lady Song.

It was, in fact, a young man.

The young man lived in seclusion and seldom appeared before others. He had been forgotten for many years.

So when he finally emerged, everyone assumed he was some distant relative of the Song Family. No one imagined he had any connection to that ominous person of White Rainbow Piercing the Sun deep within the palace.

…

Outsiders knew nothing of these matters, but grandfather and grandmother understood them perfectly.

I had been waiting for them to summon me for questioning.

But all I received was a bundle of precious medicinal ingredients grandmother had packed for me.

And grandfather, for some inexplicable reason, started wandering into the rear courtyard to personally guide Gu Jiuyuan in martial arts.

My confusion did not escape grandfather and grandmother’s eyes.

One early spring evening, they chatted with me as if making idle conversation and began speaking of the past.

Gu Jiuyuan had grown up in the depths of the palace for many years, with no one to care for him and few who knew of him.

Perhaps many people had forgotten that his mother, too, came from a military family.

Before entering the palace, Her Ladyship Concubine Lin had been one of the few female generals in the capital.

Before the ill omen of White Rainbow Piercing the Sun, Qixia Palace had held many military secrets never passed down to outsiders-

They were gifts Concubine Lin’s father had prepared for his little grandson.

He had hoped that one day, his little grandson would also become a great general, slaying enemies on the battlefield and galloping freely on horseback.

Yet a single pronouncement from the Imperial Observatory had buried the future of that entire family.

Grandmother said calmly, “White Rainbow Piercing the Sun can signify the usurpation of imperial fortune, but it can also signify the birth of a hero. Do you know why the Imperial Observatory chose to interpret it as a bad omen?”

The year Gu Jiuyuan was born, the struggle in the harem was especially fierce.

Concubine Lin’s father was waging war on the frontiers and accumulating great military achievements.

Concubine Lin, in turn, was often favored by the emperor and showered with affection.

That year, she and Consort Yu became pregnant one after the other.

Everyone said that if Concubine Lin was carrying a prince, then the position of Crown Prince would likely go to the child in her womb.

And Consort Yu’s maternal grandfather was the Director of the Imperial Observatory.

Later, Consort Yu carried her pregnancy to term and gave birth to the Fourth Prince.

After that, the Imperial Observatory declared that the Fifth Prince was an ominous person.

Consort Yu’s daughter was the Ninth Princess.

Those mother and daughter had always been fond of using tricks like these.

Seeing that I had understood, grandmother smiled and stroked my head.

“The Fifth Prince is a man who values loyalty and affection. If you help him, he will remember the debt. With that, I can rest easy.”