How is your father doing?
How is your father doing?
The Minister of the Masses, Wang Yun.
A man of Bing Province stock, like Ding Yuan, he was famed for singular integrity and a devotion to the state that ran to the marrow. He had long nursed a deep discontent with the course set by the traitors who, hand in glove with Zhang Rang, had made a plaything of the government.
Nor had mere discontent been the end of it: Wang Yun had gone so far as to plot the assassination of Ding Yuan himself, aiming to cut out the rot and set the country right.
And now,
seated in the reception room of Wang Yun's private residence with a calm smile on her face,
was the very person who had lent him the Seven Star Precious Sword, a family treasure, for the undertaking against Ding Yuan and conspired with him then—
Cao Cao.
"I am truly sorry about the matter of the Seven Star Precious Sword. Had I been but a little quicker, it might have succeeded... and instead, the Seven Star Precious Sword itself was delivered into a traitor's hands."
"Ho-ho, say no more of it. Were the traitors driven out of Luoyang in the end or not? For that alone, a single blade such as that is no loss at all."
"You have my thanks, Elder."
Wang Yun readily forgave what Cao Cao had privately regarded as a debt.
Watching her expression brighten at this, Wang Yun spoke in a markedly calmer voice.
"Well then... let us leave past matters there. I would speak of what lies ahead. There are several things I wish to ask in any case."
"Of course, Elder. I shall answer with all the sincerity I possess."
Knowing in broad strokes what questions were coming, Cao Cao allowed a quiet smile to touch her lips.
"Your purpose in coming here cannot have been simply a courtesy call or an apology. Surely... you wish for me to enter the Imperial Palace—to enter the new court?"
"That is so, Elder. We have driven out the traitors, yet the Imperial Palace lies in ruins and the mood across the land remains profoundly unsettled. Is it not precisely at such a time that we require elders of ample experience to firm up the foundations?"
"Ho-ho... even if I were to step forward, how much help could I truly be? But if help is needed, I shall lend what feeble strength I possess."
"You have my thanks, Elder."
Being a minister famed for his loyalty, Wang Yun showed every sign of accepting without hesitation.
The response was only to be expected from a man who had toiled for the state even under the Zhang Rang Regime.
That uncertainty was exactly why Wang Yun needed to know more.
"But there is something I would know first. I have heard the rumors in broad outline, yet I wish to confirm it plainly from your own lips."
"What is it?"
Wang Yun's genial expression faded, replaced by a far graver mien.
Looking her in the eye, he asked in a quiet voice:
"Speak candidly. The General Who Conquers the North, Yuan Shu—what kind of man is he?"
Cao Cao had been trying to conceal it, but in this moment she could feel it.
A thread of unease ran deep within Wang Yun's voice.
The leader of the coalition, the man who had rescued an emperor brought to the brink of death, who had succeeded in retaking Luoyang itself, whose forces under his immediate hand alone approached two hundred thousand, who simultaneously served as the effective Family Head of the illustrious Yuan Clan.
Yuan Shu was, for all intents, the man who held the real power over this very city of Luoyang and its court.
The fate of this Han Dynasty was now effectively in his grasp, and as a minister of that dynasty,
Wang Yun could not help but harbor questions and concerns about the true substance of such a figure.
Namely, whether this man called Yuan Shu would prove to be a second Ding Yuan running riot with tyranny,
or a loyal servant for the ages who would pour his strength into the Han's revival.
And to Wang Yun's question, Cao Cao answered with a measured smile.
"The answer... I regret to say that is not something for me to give."
"Wh-why not? I know well that you are close to General Yuan Shu..."
"It is precisely because I am close that I cannot. As the saying goes, 人 之其所親愛而辟焉 之其所賤惡而辟焉—people cannot help but be partial toward those they are fond of and partial toward those they despise. Anything I say here will only cloud your judgment, Elder."
"Hmm... that is true enough..."
人 之其所親愛而辟焉 之其所賤惡而辟焉.
A passage from the Book of Rites: a person cannot help but be partial toward those they are close to, and partial toward those they dislike.
In other words, the words of someone in Yuan Shu's inner circle could not help but be biased concerning him, and such words would be of little help to Wang Yun in discerning the man's true heart.
Wang Yun slowly nodded, grasping her intent in evading a direct answer.
The meaning was, no doubt, that seeing for himself would serve better than hearing it from her or from anyone else.
"I take your meaning. Then I shall enter the palace before long; let us meet then."
"You have my thanks, Elder."
"Thanks are hardly— Let me say once more: I am truly grateful for what you have done for the country. Here, stay for another cup of tea."
"Yes, Elder."
"And speaking of which, how is your father keeping?"
"He is well. He is staying in Xu Province for the moment, but I intend to bring him back here to Luoyang before long, once the situation has settled."
"Ho-ho, that is good news. I have been wanting to see that scoundrel Song's face again; be sure to send word when he arrives in Luoyang."
"Of course."
And so, leaving behind the heavier atmosphere, the two conversed in a far more tranquil mood.
Feeling, with a quiet pleasure that struck them anew, that they could meet again like this in Luoyang and share tea in peace.
*
After Cao Cao had departed,
Wang Yun straightened his attire in his study and was briefly lost in thought.
A moment ago, Cao Cao had evaded any mention of Yuan Shu.
The meaning had not simply been to go and see for himself.
'Put another way, it must also mean that from her lips, one can expect nothing but favorable accounts of General Yuan Shu...'
In the course of reaching that realization, Wang Yun could not help but raise his estimation of this Yuan Shu a further notch.
The Cao Cao he had observed up to now was a person of many schemes and a nimble tongue, yet at the same time possessed of a temperament like that of a stubborn lone wolf, a person with exceedingly firm convictions of her own.
Had she not, in the matter of assassinating Ding Yuan, carried out every part of the plan alone to the very end, save for borrowing the Seven Star Precious Sword?
If a figure was enough to make such a Cao Cao go so far as to say such a thing and acknowledge him, then the likelihood was very high that he was by no means an ordinary individual.
'His ability is clearly far above the common run... the question, though, is what resides inside that man's heart...'
As his questions and his interest in the man grew ever sharper, Wang Yun finished his preparations to go to the Imperial Palace.
At that moment.
"Father. Are you entering the palace at this hour?"
A voice that was soft and carried a sense of tranquility reached his ears.
His solemnly set expression easing at once, Wang Yun turned his gaze toward her.
A woman possessed of lovely green eyes and black hair.
His adopted daughter, a child who managed the household's affairs large and small in place of his late wife.
Diaochan.
Looking upon this daughter, who even at the young age of seventeen bore a beauty in fullest bloom, Wang Yun felt, if only for an instant, a sense that all the world's cares had grown still.
"Indeed. Has the coalition not entered Luoyang? They were good enough to summon me, so I ought to go and show my face."
"If it is the coalition... then you are saying it was General Yuan Shu who summoned you."
"Well... one could see it that way. He is the one leading the coalition as its head."
A wry smile touched Wang Yun's face at Diaochan's unvarnished words.
Seeing that, Diaochan asked in a voice tinged with quiet curiosity:
"Has something happened? The traitors have been brought to justice by loyal servants, yet it seems some distress still weighs on you, Father."
"... Haha. As expected... I could deceive the serpent-like eyes of Zhang Rang, but I cannot deceive yours."
Wang Yun gave a slightly helpless laugh, mixed with a measure of surprise.
Then, before setting out, he briefly unburdened his heart to his daughter.
"As you say, General Yuan Shu, who has come leading the coalition, is clearly a figure known as a loyal servant. Yet though one may know the water is ten fathoms deep, one cannot know what lies a single fathom inside a person's heart. Now that he holds not only Her Majesty but also this city of Luoyang itself in his grasp, I cannot help but be concerned as to where his true heart might lie."
"That cannot be! His Excellency would never—! ... Ah..."
"Hm? What is the matter?"
For an instant, Diaochan had inadvertently raised her voice.
But she soon composed her expression and continued in a calm tone once more.
"Forgive me. I merely feared that you might be harboring excessive suspicions of General Yuan, Father, when he is renowned across the land as a loyal servant."
"Renowned across the land as a loyal servant, you say... Looking only at General Yuan Shu's deeds thus far, one can certainly say so. But you see, a person's true heart is not a thing to be affirmed so easily."
He had led the vanguard in the suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, wrestled against Zhang Rang's faction in Luoyang and rescued the emperor,
and in the end had even retaken Luoyang itself—a hero, Yuan Shu.
Yet history was replete with examples of men who began as loyal servants and, the moment they grasped power, revealed their true colors and transformed into rebels, traitors, the worst of villains.
That arch-traitor for the ages, Wang Mang, who brought down the Former Han, had been such a one; and Ding Yuan, who had just been driven out, had likewise been known before his entry into Luoyang as a loyal servant who had smashed the border tribes and rendered service to the state.
And now, Yuan Shu had seized a greater power than Ding Yuan had.
What course he would take henceforth would decide the fate of this country.
And depending on the case, the possibility could not be entirely ruled out that a villain surpassing Ding Yuan—surpassing even Wang Mang—might yet be born.
Thus Wang Yun spoke of matters that, though he wished them to prove idle worry, he could not set his mind at ease about.
At that moment.
"If that is so... Father, if it troubles you so greatly, what would you think of this?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
His adopted daughter Diaochan, young as she was, possessed a keen intelligence beyond her years.
Wang Yun began to show interest in the proposal that fell from her lips.
"Hmm... the idea is not a bad one, certainly... but will you truly be all right? I will be watching from close by, of course... yet as I have said, the man now holds the reins of this country as surely as if they were already in his hand. Trouble might arise for you..."
"Is it not for the sake of the nation? To repay the kindness of you who have raised me, Father, I am prepared to lay down my life."
"I will not permit matters to go so far. Still... very well, I have taken the measure of your resolve. I shall set this in motion."
"Thank you, Father."
And so, immediately after his conversation with his daughter ended,
Wang Yun, bearing his own resolve, began to make his way toward the Imperial Palace.
And then.
As she watched Wang Yun's retreating figure,
a quiet smile began to steal across Diaochan's lips.
A smile of a somewhat different shade than the one she had worn just moments before...