Permission Granted
Dong Zhengzhen felt as though her throat were burning.
"You can march to war like any man, Elder Sister. Though a woman, you became a fierce general whose name rings through the realms and makes kingdoms tremble. None of that comes easily even to men. I envy you so much. You can shape your own life however you wish — you can chart your own course, wherever you choose to go!"
Dong Zhengzhen had once visited the Bai Manor as a child and watched Bai Jingyan and Bai Weizheng dueling with bamboo swords in the garden. After returning home, she too had grabbed a bamboo stick and jabbed at everything in sight, only to earn herself a thorough scolding from her mother. She had wanted to learn horsemanship; her mother had forced her to learn embroidery. She had wanted to train in the martial arts; her mother had pressed a musical instrument into her hands instead.
Not once in her life had she lived as she wished.
Before Prince Liang had ever appeared, she had assumed that mastering the four refined arts of qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting, learning the running of a household from her mother, and then, when the time came, marrying, bearing children, keeping peace with her husband and his family, and managing his concubines would be the whole of her existence.
And that… was the life of every woman in Jin.
Dong Zhengzhen smiled and dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief.
"I have already made up my mind. How could I ever know whether this road is right or wrong without walking it first? Of course… Prince Liang may well be an ambitious man coveting the throne. His weakness and incompetence may be nothing but a mask he shows the world. But unless I see it for myself, I will never know the answer."
Dong Zhengzhen rose to her feet and performed a formal bow before Bai Jingyan.
"If Prince Liang truly loves me and wishes to take me as his wife, then I have won! But if he intends to marry me merely to wield my second uncle's governorship and win the support of my cousin, the fierce general of Jin… then I will never let him have his way! The Dong family repays sincerity with many times that sincerity — but if that sincerity is betrayed, the end is jade and stone burning together!"
"Did your mother and father raise you like gold and jade only so they could watch you burn together with a beast no better than a dog or a pig?"
Bai Jingyan could not suppress the fury seething in her chest, and her voice rose.
"Zhengzhen — even after everything I said today, you still cannot give up the thought of marrying Prince Liang?"
Dong Zhengzhen clenched her teeth.
"Elder Sister, just this once, let me have my way! Please, don't tell Father and Mother. Even if the day comes when I must prove myself before the Emperor, I will say that I want Prince Liang. If it comes to that, the honor of every woman of the Dong family will be dragged through the mud. I don't want to go that far."
Bai Jingyan's fist clenched tight. It felt as though the situation had slipped beyond her reach, leaving her helpless.
Even with Prince Liang holding Dong Zhengzhen's peace sash, everything could still be undone — so long as Dong Zhengzhen herself turned her heart.
But if she stubbornly insisted on marrying Prince Liang, no scheme in the world would avail.
All that remained was to hope the Crown Prince would enter the palace in time to stop it.
Bai Jingyan slowly unclenched her fist and wrestled her reason back.
"It will never come to jade and stone burning together! The Emperor has seen your peace sash, but he won't rashly decree a marriage over it. And Uncle is not a man who will simply stand aside.
If you truly insist there is no one for you but Prince Liang, then get betrothed first and watch him for a year or two. If even then you believe him trustworthy and good, marry him! But if his feelings prove insincere — if you were nothing but a means to an end — cut him off quickly, once and for all!
Zhengzhen… there is no greater folly than wrecking an entire life with a single act of willfulness! And what if the marriage produces a child? Don't tell me you intend to burn together with a child in your arms?"
If she could not break Dong Zhengzhen's stubbornness outright, then she had to guide her to tell Uncle the truth herself. Only then could he prepare his countermeasures in advance.
Even if Dong Zhengzhen's resolve to marry Prince Liang never wavered — even if matters spiraled toward the worst — a betrothal, at least, could still be undone.
Prince Liang hungered desperately for the throne, yet had not even secured the position of Crown Prince. If anything befell the Emperor, who was daily swallowing elixirs, the one to ascend would naturally be the Crown Prince. So how impatient must Prince Liang's heart be right now?
An impatient heart is bound to stumble.
"Can't you even wait a year or two?"
Bai Jingyan asked once more.
Dong Zhengzhen shook her head — then, after a moment's hesitation, nodded.
"I'm going to tell Father and Mother right now! Elder Sister… will you come with me?"
She seemed frightened, wringing her handkerchief in her hands.
"Yes."
Bai Jingyan nodded.
Word arrived that Prince Liang had entered the palace and urgently requested an audience with the Emperor. The Emperor, who had been watching Consort Chu play the seven-stringed qin, took it for some terrible calamity and rose to his feet at once.
Prince Liang knelt before the Emperor and wept loudly, launching into a rambling explanation — that he had mistaken Bai Jingyan for the noble maiden he had cherished in his heart since childhood, and it was for that reason he had intended to take her as his wife. And that, not long ago, he had found her again — that maiden who, even seeing him filthy as a child, had handed him her handkerchief without the slightest hesitation and told him to wipe his face.
Afterward, he explained, he had not managed to tell the Emperor the truth, nor to petition for a marriage decree — for he had first set his sights on that maiden in the household of Grand Preceptor Zhen. And the Grand Preceptor had gone to call upon Old Madam Dan, wife of the retired official Dan, to ask her to arrange a match for Zhen Cuilu — on and on he poured out a mountain of words.
Sensing that some tangled thread bound it all together, the Emperor felt a flicker of interest.
"Mumbling and sniveling like that, how is anyone supposed to follow you… So which family's maiden is she?"
"Father, that maiden is Dong Zhengzhen, the legitimate daughter of Lord Dong, Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial!"
Prince Liang frantically raised the peace sash high above his head.
"This is Zhengzhen's peace sash. Zhengzhen gave it to me because she feared you would not believe that we want each other! Father, I beg you! If it is not Zhengzhen, I will never take a wife in all my life! Father, please grant your permission!"
Prince Liang pressed his forehead to the floor and kowtowed.
Consort Chu, standing at the Emperor's side, sniffled at precisely the right moment, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief.
"Your Majesty, the story of Prince Liang and Lady Dong is so moving that even I am choked up. Your Majesty, please grant them your blessing."
Watching his son — a boy who had always been spineless to the core — begging him like this for a woman's sake, the Emperor narrowed his eyes and leaned back against the dragon-embroidered cushion.
"You and this Lady Dong… is it hearts alone you share, or bodies as well?"
"No, Father! Never that!"
Prince Liang kowtowed again, mortified to his very core.
"Father, Zhengzhen is a wise maiden who keeps every propriety and rite. After I wronged the Zhenguo Commandery Princess, she gave me the keepsake she always carried on her person, fearing you would not believe that we want each other! Father, render a wise judgment!"
"Your Majesty!"
Consort Chu tugged playfully at the Emperor's sleeve.
"Your Majesty, Prince Liang has clearly had a terrible fright! His love for Lady Dong must run very deep. Your Majesty, please grant the marriage decree."
"Father, I was born such a coward that I spent my whole life fleeing from everything! But when it concerns you and my brothers, a strange courage wells up in me — courage I never knew I had. And it is the same with Zhengzhen. How fortunate I am to have found her, the one who treated me so warmly when I was a child. Zhengzhen does not despise me for my incompetence. She did not cast me aside — a worthless thing, good for nothing…"
"What nonsense is this! You are my son. Who dares call you worthless!"
The Emperor's temper flared when Prince Liang called himself a piece of junk. The boy was his son. Even if he were worthless, only the Emperor himself had the right to say so. How dare anyone — how dare his own son — call him junk.
"Father…"
Prince Liang lifted his head and looked up at the Emperor, his face smeared with tears and snot.
"No one says it aloud, but everyone thinks it!"
"Father, dull as I am, I am no fool! I know perfectly well that people slander me both where I can see and where I cannot!
When Dong Ji was still at my side, he guarded me with his very life. I knew how you toiled over the affairs of the realm, and I would not add my troubles to yours — so I said nothing and simply endured it.
But Dong Ji has gone to the world beyond, and now no one remains to shield me. And in the midst of all that, I found Zhengzhen, after such great difficulty. I am terrified of losing her, terrified of being left with no one at my side. That is why I have come running to you so recklessly. Father, I beg you — grant your permission."
Prince Liang kowtowed on the mirror-bright floor until the blows rang out. Consort Chu tugged at the Emperor's sleeve once more.
"Your Majesty… Prince Liang shows such sincerity. Accept it. Grant the marriage decree. Joining together two people who love each other — is that not a fine and righteous thing?"
Seeing his son so pitiful, so desperately pleading, the Emperor found himself remembering his own youth.
He had been this weak and this incompetent once. Cowardly, full of fear. Unfavored by his father, he had been a prince, and yet even slaves of slightly higher station had dared treat him with contempt. On his birthday, his own sister had groveled before the eunuchs of the royal kitchen just to procure him a single good meal. A prince and a princess, no less!
Images of that bitter childhood flickered through his mind. The Emperor clenched his fist — then slowly unclenched it.
To have to beg his father so pathetically just to gain one woman! A prince, no less! The Emperor's own son! How could anyone live so stifling a life!
His own road had run smooth and untroubled, and for a long while now he had lived having forgotten the humiliations of the past. Seeing his son's pitiful, weak state, rage and pity surged up together and welled in his chest.
"You are a prince! My son! And yet you blubber and carry on over one mere woman? Get up!"
The Emperor took his frustration out on Gao Demu.
"What are you standing there gaping at! Hurry and help Prince Liang up, won't you!"
Gao Demu scurried over in quick little steps and helped the prince to his feet.
"Your Highness, get up quickly. You are a prince of the realm. Who would dare steal the maiden Your Highness has chosen? Even Grand Preceptor Zhen would not dare take the maiden cherished by the Son of Heaven's own son."
Tears glistened sorrowfully on Prince Liang's face. He looked at the Emperor, sniffling.
The Emperor plucked the handkerchief from Consort Chu's hand and tossed it to the floor.
"Wipe your tears! Look at the state of you!"
Prince Liang picked up the handkerchief, wiped his face, and rose with an expression of wounded grievance.
"I… I don't cry outside. Only before you, Father…"
"Your Majesty, he is before his father, after all. A few tears are nothing to mind."
Consort Chu hurried to add that much, fearing the Emperor might take offense.
The Emperor's agitation subsided a little. Prince Liang was exactly like him in his childhood. And yet this child was weaker and more fearful than he had ever been, and more incompetent still. Perhaps that was precisely why his nature was kinder, more honest — a boy without a shred of guile.
Above all, the Emperor believed that Prince Liang's devotion to his father was genuine.
"Enough. Over one mere woman…"
Leaning askew against the cushion, the Emperor fiddled with the tassels at its edge as he went on.
"Go summon Dong Qingping! And leave that peace sash here!"