Disappointment
"Father Emperor, Father Emperor! You mustn't tell Lord Dong that Zhengzhen gave me this peace talisman of her own accord. Her family is terribly strict—if word got out, she'd surely be punished. She only gave it to me because she feared you might not believe in my devotion! I don't want Zhengzhen to be punished by Lord Dong! I won't have others slander her either!"
The Liang King spoke in a frantic rush.
The Emperor's anger flared anew, and Consort Chu hurriedly cut in with a smile.
"Your Majesty… just look at the Liang King. So utterly sincere before the wedding has even taken place—isn't it a heartwarming sight? When this humble concubine transgressed before the Empress, did you not always shield me in just this way?"
The Emperor waved a hand at the Liang King.
"Take the talisman and go. Take it! Gao Demu, drag that fool out of my sight. One look at him gives me a headache."
"Thank you, Father Emperor. Thank you, truly."
The Liang King dabbed his eyes with his sleeve, beamed, and bowed low to the Emperor before carrying the peace talisman out with him.
Watching his son's delight, the Emperor frowned deeply.
"How did a fool like that ever come from me?"
"But Your Majesty, Prince Liang has been working so earnestly to become a good son! Even this humble concubine can see his sincerity. When he went to Yanwo, he neglected his own duties in order to bring back an immortal capable of refining elixirs for Your Majesty, and though the ministers berated him for it, he bore it all in silence! And above all, since taking the elixirs, Your Majesty's health has visibly improved, hasn't it? I feel it keenly, as if it were my own skin!"
At those words, the Emperor chuckled and caressed Consort Chu's hand.
Bai Jinchi went to the Crown Prince's residence and relayed exactly what Bai Jingyan had instructed her to say. Hearing it, the Crown Prince could only stare in bewilderment.
Never in his life had it once crossed his mind that his frail, hopelessly incompetent younger brother might become a rival for his position.
"The Liang King is coveting my seat as Crown Prince? Isn't that dreaming a little too grandly?"
The Crown Prince merely sneered, deigning to give the Liang King not a moment's thought.
Bai Jinchi clenched her fists.
"My sister only advised that you keep a wary eye on matters, Your Highness. After sending me here, she went to the Dong residence. No doubt she means to warn our uncle of the Dong family so he can prepare."
Advisor Fang stroked his beard.
"Your Highness, the Gaoyi Commandery Princess speaks truly. The Liang King is His Majesty's son as well, so it is not beyond all possibility that he covets the crown. His efforts to please His Majesty and his bid to take a daughter of the Dong family as his consort might seem meaningless in isolation… but considered together, they are worth guarding against—worth a second thought, at the very least."
The Crown Prince's expression darkened.
Advisor Fang frowned, deliberated a moment, then went on.
"Lord Dong Qing'e, the Inspector of Dengzhou, has no legitimate daughter of his own. If the Liang King truly marries the legitimate daughter of Lord Dong Qingping, Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial, then Lord Dong Qing'e of Dengzhou will inevitably lean toward the Liang King's faction."
"There's one more thing that comes to mind, though I can't say whether I'm right about it."
Bai Jinchi lifted her head and looked at the Crown Prince.
"At His Majesty's banquet, when the Liang King sent Consort Chu to him, she sided with the Han King of Nando time and again, never sparing her words. Might the Liang King be secretly trying to draw the Han King to his side?"
At that, Advisor Fang's pupils trembled, and he drew closer to the Crown Prince.
"Your Highness! If he sends a woman to His Majesty, courts the Han King who holds military command behind the scenes, and now hurriedly arranges this marriage to buy over the Dong family—his intent is plain enough!"
As the Crown Prince turned his gaze toward Advisor Fang, his body seemed to stiffen all at once.
Bai Jingyan might be his own partisan, but tracing the ties of kinship, she was a Bai, not a Dong.
If the Liang King took a daughter of the Dong family as his consort, then were he ever to ascend the throne, the Dong clan would become imperial in-laws through the consort's side. It was reason enough for the family to waver.
Winning over the Han King with his grip on the army, and now intermarrying with the Dong clan besides? Had the Liang King truly lost his mind?
The Crown Prince clenched his fists. If the Liang King had already secured the Han King and now drew in the Dong family as well, his brother would become a hidden dagger at his back. He could not—would not—leave this be.
"Your Highness, you must return to the palace at once."
Advisor Fang continued, his face grave.
"If the Liang King truly intends to take a daughter of the Dong family as his consort, you cannot let him have his way. You must dissuade His Majesty!"
Bai Jinchi wanted to add a few words more, but remembering her sister's warnings, she silently stood to one side.
The Crown Prince considered briefly, then ordered his carriage made ready and entered the palace.
Bai Jingyan had gone with Dong Zhengzhen to call on their uncle Dong Qingping and his wife Lady Song. But before they could finish speaking, a messenger arrived from the palace bearing an order for Dong Qingping to enter court at once.
Using the excuse that he needed to change his clothes to buy time, Dong Qingping listened further to Dong Zhengzhen's account. With little time to spare, she had to convey only the essentials—and the moment she mentioned that she had given the Liang King the peace talisman she carried on her person, Lady Song's temper exploded. She summoned servants and ordered Dong Zhengzhen's maid, Haiying, beaten to death.
Though Lady Song gasped for breath in her fury, she did not lose her reason.
"Say that while my daughter was bathing, that lowborn wretch Haiying stole her belongings—and that she was beaten to death for it. Bring the girl's mother and father here to collect the corpse!"
Haiying, kneeling in the courtyard, went white as a corpse herself at those words, her whole body shaking. She crawled on her knees toward Lady Song, but a matron beside her seized her and stuffed a handkerchief into her mouth.
"Mother! Mother, please spare Haiying! You mustn't do this! I gave that thing to Prince Liang myself! I truly wish to marry Prince Liang!"
Hearing this as she panted for breath, Lady Song lost all reason and struck her daughter across the cheek. Dong Zhengzhen cried out, clutching her face, then sank trembling to her knees on the floor.
Had Bai Jingyan not intervened, Lady Song would have gone on striking her.
"You gave away a keepsake you wore against your body—to a man! Are you out of your mind? If word of this spreads, what will people think of our Dong family? To go to such lengths just to marry Prince Liang! Have you forgotten you have younger sisters beneath you? Zhengran is only six years old! If people mock that child for having a shameless elder sister, how will any marriage proposal ever be made for her? Is this what I taught you—propriety and modesty?"
Lady Song's rage boiled past all bearing, and tears spilled down her face. She stared down at Dong Zhengzhen, who knelt on the floor vowing she would marry no man but the Liang King.
"I ought to kill you where you kneel. I have no daughter like you!"
Dong Zhengran was Lady Song's youngest daughter and Dong Zhengzhen's full sister.
Supporting Lady Song with one arm, Bai Jingyan spoke up.
"Zhengzhen isn't asking to marry the Liang King this very moment. But if this reaches the throne, His Majesty may take pity on the Liang King's pitiable display and grant the marriage at once—and the Liang King has only just come of age this year, after all.
Uncle, first make your excuses and ask for a betrothal in place of the wedding. So long as it isn't an outright marriage, there remains room to turn it back. It can be put off for a year or so. In that time, Zhengzhen will think it over properly again."
Dong Qingping, whose face had gone deathly pale, steadied himself once more. He looked down at his daughter, kneeling and weeping.
"Zhengzhen, you were always the child who heeded me best. The Liang King is not the simple soul you take him for—as well you know. If you marry such a man, our Dong family will be dragged into an abyss! Your father and your second uncle will be cast as his faction, his conspirators. Unless I sever ties with you, that much is a foregone conclusion.
From then on, your father would be a thorn in the Emperor's eye, and when suitors come for your younger brothers and sisters, their very characters will be called into question. 'Dong Qingping's daughter Zhengzhen is not one to endanger her entire family over private feeling.' If you can truly say you would drive the Dong family into a fire pit for the sake of the Liang King, then your father will enter the palace this instant and accept his proposal!"
With that, Dong Qingping went to change his clothes.
Standing in the study, Dong Zhengzhen's face held not a trace of color. Her father had always been a tender, attentive parent. But the words he had just hurled had struck her square and buried themselves in her heart. They were nothing less than a fierce rebuke.
Dong Qingping had cut off every path in a single stroke—she could not even promise never to harm her family, could not even speak of severing her ties to the Dong house.
How could she claim she would drag the Dong family into peril for the Liang King's sake? To speak those words aloud would be to shove her parents and siblings into that abyss with her own hands.
Bai Jingyan had said something similar to her only a short while before. But Bai Jingyan belonged to the Crown Prince, so Dong Zhengzhen had convinced herself it was said only to defend his claim—meant to preempt the Dong family's support of the Liang King. Her words had barely registered.
Overcome with grief, Dong Zhengzhen at last broke down and wept aloud.
Dong Qingping, having changed in the side chamber, walked to the door of the study. He did not enter; he only asked through it.
"Zhengzhen, have you thought it through? Your father is entering the palace now."
At his words, Dong Zhengzhen wept more bitterly still. But she never answered.
"Very well. Your father will enter the palace this very moment and accept the Liang King's marriage proposal! Endangering the whole family—if that is truly what you want, then so be it. May you never feel the bite of conscience for the rest of your days."
With that, Dong Qingping walked out into the courtyard.
"Well done! Very well done! What a magnificent daughter I raised with these two hands! Now the whole family must bear the weight of a sin you committed alone!"
Lady Song's fury bored into her heart like a blade, and she began to wail until her voice tore.
"What karma is this, that I should have given birth to such a thing!"
When Dong Qingping emerged from the side chamber and Dong Zhengzhen did not follow, he felt an crushing disappointment settle over him.
That she had given away the talisman she carried on her person was already beyond explaining—and now the matter had spread all the way to the throne. Worse, his daughter harbored a stubborn resolve to marry the Liang King. What difference would his opposition make now?
Thankfully, thanks to Bai Jingyan's foresight, he did not expect to be caught entirely off guard even once he stood before the Emperor.
But Bai Jingyan was far less pessimistic than her uncle. The Crown Prince would have entered the palace by now. He would hardly stand by and simply watch the Liang King take a daughter of the Dong house.
Listening to her uncle's words to Dong Zhengzhen, Bai Jingyan could tell he understood as well: once entangled in a war over the throne, there was no pulling free.
Even in the worst case, a betrothal—so long as the wedding rites were never performed—could still be undone.
Lady Song, her rage over the talisman surging again and again, wept aloud several times before Bai Jingyan could barely manage to calm her.
When telling her parents the truth, Dong Zhengzhen had hidden nothing at all. The children of the Dong residence could not have known exactly what was happening within the family, but they would certainly have felt the weight in the air.
When Dong Qingping arrived at the palace, the Crown Prince, unexpectedly, was already there.
The Emperor told Dong Qingping of the affair between the Liang King and Dong Zhengzhen, and Dong Qingping started violently—as though hearing it for the first time—and bowed low. He then declared that it was utterly impossible that his daughter had exchanged private affection with the Liang King; it could not be so.
His daughter and the Zhenguo Commandery Princess Bai Jingyan were as close as true sisters, and—forgive him for the indelicate words—when the Liang King had committed that great crime and nearly brought the Bai family to ruin, how could his daughter possibly have fallen for such a man?
The Crown Prince chimed in beside him, asking the Emperor whether some misunderstanding might be at play.
Whereupon the Emperor replied that Dong Zhengzhen had given the Liang King the peace talisman she wore on her person—proof enough that the two harbored feelings for one another.
Dong Qingping put on another look of violent shock and bowed his head to the floor.
"My daughter lost her peace talisman only days ago, and it was only today that we learned the thief was one of her own maids! That maid was beaten to death this very day!"