Chapter 25
Chapter 25
Naihe smiled as though the northerners before him were not capable of tearing him limb from limb, but a congregation of earnest believers.
“This humble monk is willing to guide Old Ge’s soul back to the Wolf-Headed Buddha.”
I shot to my feet.
Before the Wolf-Headed Buddha, the old man’s body had begun to rot, and the stench was unbearable. Naihe bent and tenderly embraced him.
“Here the body lies,
The soul flies into the skies.
The wolf roams a thousand miles,
Awaiting the hour of return.”
Beneath the Wolf-Headed Buddha and before every watching eye, the old man’s body slowly dissolved. A ribbon of green smoke streamed toward the heavens. Only a pool of clear water and several bones remained on the ground.
There could be no mistake.
It was a gelu’s rite of passage – the rite I had once witnessed inside the army tent.
As I stared in stunned bewilderment, every northerner dropped fearfully to their knees.
“The Wolf-Headed Buddha has come for the gelu!”
“The gelu has returned to his rightful place!”
“Heaven bless Northern Qian! Heaven bless Great Qin!”
Naihe sat upright, still gentle and serene. Yet amid the drifting green smoke, I saw a savage wolf’s head looming over him, smiling a secret, sinister smile at the northerners.
“The Wolf-Headed Buddha has shown his protection by sending us a gelu at this very moment.” Danchi laughed loudly. “You – ”
“Your Majesty.”
Chen Dong, silent until then, suddenly spoke. Unlike those around him, he neither knelt nor showed delight. “This man arrived, and then the gelu died. Does Your Majesty not find that rather convenient?”
Danchi’s smile faded slightly. He looked at Naihe again. “You say the gelu was murdered?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. Work with Chen Dong and find the killer within three days. If you succeed, you will be the gelu.”
The crowd erupted in astonishment.
Chen Dong stepped forward and enunciated each word. “Your Majesty, no outsider has ever served as gelu.”
“This is not merely Our decree. If he finds the killer, it will be the will of the Wolf-Headed Buddha.” Danchi’s craving seemed to have returned. He began to yawn and struggled to keep his eyes open. “For these three days, the imperial guard will answer to you. Is there anything else?”
I stared at Naihe, expecting him to refuse. Instead, he pressed his palms together. “Your Majesty, this humble monk has one further request. I have eaten no meat since childhood and am unused to Northern Qian fare. I ask permission to arrange my own meals.”
“Granted.” Sniffling, Danchi said to me, “Give him quarters with a private kitchen.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Convinced he had resolved every problem, Danchi hurried away to indulge in his autumn hibiscus feast.
Chen Dong looked at me darkly. As he passed, he said, “You have brought a demon into the palace.”
I had never willingly conceded anything to him, so I answered at once, “I am an evil spirit and he is a demon. Are we not perfectly matched?”
Chen Dong swept away in anger.
The early-summer breeze stirred the lotus leaves. I dismissed the attendants and personally led Naihe toward his new quarters.
“This is Green Hills Court. It stands beside the pond and has a private kitchen. It is very quiet. I used to read here in summer, but it is empty now. You may stay here for the next few days.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
The Great Qin palace had been expanded from the residence of a wealthy Nancheng family, and Green Hills Court had not originally existed. After I became empress, I had it built in imitation of my chambers in Southern Xu. Wind whispered through bamboo leaves and light rippled across the water. For an instant, I was back in the happy days of my youth, stealing leisure from my books.
I stopped beside a wall of climbing roses and turned to study him.
At first sight, his crystalline beauty overwhelmed everything else, and I had never examined his features closely. His brows were thick, his brow ridge high, and his eyes brown – all traits typical of northerners. Yet his fine, straight nose, the shape of his face, and the pale skin prized among Southern Xu beauties made those obvious northern features easy to overlook.
That face reminded me of someone.
“No gelu of any tribe would pass his sorcery to a man of Southern Xu,” I said softly.
“I am neither truly a southerner nor a northerner. My father was from the north, and my mother was a traveling merchant’s daughter. After they married, my father vanished. My mother took me to the old borderlands between north and south and supported us through small trades. It was there that I met the gelu…”
“Enough. You already told His Majesty this tale. I do not want to hear it again.”
“Then what does Your Majesty wish to hear?”
I clenched my fingers so tightly they turned almost blue-white. As I looked at him, an absurd possibility struggled to break free in my mind.
“There was once someone more important to me than my own life. He was my last living relative. In the final moment before his death, he told me he would become the clear wind and bright moon and remain forever at my side…”
I fought for control, but could not stop trembling. “He had brown eyes. He… also studied under a gelu once…”
Naihe studied me in return. Sky and water reflected in his eyes, making them almost dazzling. When he opened his mouth, I thought he would call me Aunt Xihe.
He did not.
He pressed his palms together and said softly, “To have lived in Your Majesty’s heart for so many years – even as a solitary wisp of a soul – that person is fortunate.”
“No! That is not it.” Abandoning all restraint, I seized his sleeve and nearly begged him. “When we first met, and again at the banquet on the third-floor terrace, you clearly had something to tell me!”
He paused in surprise. “I thought Your Majesty was drunk.”
“What were you going to say? Tell me!”
“That day, this humble monk only wished to ask on my master’s behalf whether you were Princess Xihe…”
“Nothing else? Think again! Did I not seem familiar when you saw me?”
“Yesterday was the first time I met Your Majesty.” He remained perfectly calm. “Other than brown eyes, did the person you remember have any distinguishing marks?”
“Of course…”
In my confusion, I saw Xia Wan as a little boy. From birth, he had borne a red mole between his brows, like a bodhi seed. I used to tease him that with such a mark, he could never be lost no matter where he went.
Naihe, however, seemed carved from flawless jade. Not a single blemish marked him.
I released his sleeve and slowly crumpled to the ground.
The greatest pain was not despair. It was growing accustomed to despair, then suddenly glimpsing light. What had I been hoping for? Xia Wan had died before my eyes with a long blade through his chest.
“Your Majesty…”
He reached to help me. I rose on my own and forced a smile. “Rest… I am going back.”
In the end, I was simply ridiculous.
I stumbled back to my sleeping chamber in a daze and sat before the dressing table. When I raised my eyes, I saw the woman in the bronze mirror.
She was terribly ugly in the grip of her obsession.
I sat there lifelessly for a long time. At some point, Youchun entered and spoke to me, but I did not hear a word.
I did not know how much time passed. Sunset faded, leaving the room dim. A hand settled on my shoulder.
“What are you doing sitting here?”
I looked up and saw Chen Dong. He wore loose clothes for the house, as if he had just risen from an afternoon nap, and casually draped an arm around my shoulders.
“You – ”
I was startled, yet everything seemed separated from me by rippling water. His hand and his face were both hazy and unreal.
“Sulking?”
Before I could react, he turned me toward him and examined my face. Then he casually picked up a brow pencil from the dressing table. I flinched instinctively.
“Hold still,” he murmured, and began drawing my brows.
That hand – the hand of a celebrated general who had killed countless men – lifted my chin with infinite gentleness. His brows were furrowed, yet his gaze was tender as sunset on a lake.
I watched him in a daze. Something blurred, while something else slowly took shape from the haze.
When he finished, he held up the bronze mirror. In its reflection, he embraced me from behind, our faces pressed intimately together. He whispered in my ear, “Just as on our wedding day, my lady is still the greatest beauty in Northern Qian.”
I stared at him.
Of course. When I was sixteen, Northern Qian and Southern Xu sealed an alliance through marriage, and I traveled far from home to wed Northern Qian’s First Prince. At first, I despised him for his barbarity. But after everything we endured together, we became the devoted husband and wife we were today.
“Why are you crying?”
He wiped away my tears.
“I had a nightmare,” I murmured. “In it, I could never find you again.”
“How could that happen? You are my wife and the mother of my child. Where would I go?”
Like any young husband easily stirred by his wife, he turned and kissed my cheek, then my neck. At the same time, his hand slipped inside my clothes. I lowered my eyes to watch it roaming beneath the fabric – and only then realized I was wearing sky-blue embroidered brocade.