The Fall of Jianlai
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Two Hundred Years Ago
Chuhen Palace
"A celebration held for seven days and seven nights…! Goodness! It's like this boy's fate emerged straight from a storybook!" A woman exclaimed in high spirits before her bottom lip protruded, and she playfully sulked, leaning toward a young boy, barely able to reach past her elbow. "And yet it takes only a single night to rip him from our hands. What a shame his life had to be planned out…the spontaneous stories have always been far more exciting. Don't you agree, my dear Shan Si?"
She slapped her thin hands against Shan Si's cheeks, squishing them enough to make him look no better than a blubbering fish.
However, he didn't budge once at this embarrassing action. He just blankly stared at the woman as she bored her eyes straight into his. The longer this continued, the more he could have sworn her eyes ignited with a newly found passion.
One that was ready to explode at a moment's notice.
"Ah!" Her smile beamed brightly, and thus she immediately began kneading the Shan Si's plump cheeks. From a blubbering fish to a flat-faced stingray, she continued to stretch those now flushed cheeks like a musician with an accordion. "How cute! Too cute! How weak I am to cute things! Such a shame he'll no longer be in our embrace! Huh?!"
Pride gleamed from her dreamily held posture as she straightened her back. Her straight hair whipped, slapping a few of the black strands against Shan Si's face as her attention fell on a woman seated on a comfortable throne, nooked in the corner of a red and gold bedchamber.
This woman emanated an ethereal aura. She was dressed to the nines, draped in thick layers of red, gold, and black, all merging into a beautifully designed robe. Her hair sheened black, falling past her shoulder and toward the ground around her seat. Though it was as straight as straight could be, she still styled it with a few buns, held together by ornaments made of gold and jade, designed in the shape of all kinds of flowers, hairpins fit for someone of great royalty.
Each part of this woman represented something important, and that something all bundled together as the pride of Jianlai.
Carried with ease, it was as if it were another day to this woman and not another night of suffering a sore neck and stiff back.
That being said…if this woman was the very definition of poised beauty worthy of gold and grace, then the opposite could be said about the other woman cheerfully kneading Shan Si's cheeks. She was charismatic, joyous—like a field of sprouting flowers dancing int he wind.
She was gentle in appearance, garbed head to toe in blue—from the ribbon that held back her hair to the robe that fell to her white boots. And her eyes, well, they were always said to attract any onlooker with how strikingly beautiful they stood out.
To Shan Si, this tender woman was akin to water in the middle of a desert. Every movement, even sporadic and excited ones, was fluidly sound.
Well, perhaps thinking of her as the water wasn't the right approach—it was she who could command the water at will and calm any roaring sea.
That alone sparkled Shan Si's black eyes as this woman, the one he'd proudly call his master for the first ten years of his life, gleefully toyed with his cheeks still.
The woman seated on the throne carefully folded one hand over the other, neatly laying them on her lap. Her eyes slowly opened, and thus was revealed a face similar to Shan Si's, only older.
It was especially similar in the colour of their eyes, and how those eyes could rival the night sky.
"Keep that up, Daoist Master Zhuan, and it'll be my son who brings you to an early grave," she jested, chuckling as she glanced up at the now pouting Zhuan.
"D'awwwwwwwwwwwh," Zhuan grumbled, her hands now laid against Shan Si's cheeks, ceasing this game of 'bread-making.' He watched as she turned her head toward his mother as she continued her playful cry, "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh."
Even complaining, her voice was melodious and pleasant to the ear. Shan Si brought his hands up and placed them against hers. The size comparison between the two was stark; despite Zhuan's being considered delicate and small, his were as good as a child smaller than most his age.
Gradually, Shan Si lowered his eyelids. Instead of partaking in the conversation between the two women, he focused on the vibrations of Zhuan's words, and the sweet conversation he'd no longer get to enjoy.
Once the day ended, all the warmth he greedily basked in would be ripped right out of his hands. Therefore, it was imperative that he soak up as much in that moment as he could.
"Now…" The seated woman gently laughed again. "What is it this time, Daoist Master Zhuan?"
"Aaaaaaah, My Kai, oh My Kai…how could My Dear Wan Kai, she who has my heart and my trust," Zhuan started but paused. She tilted her head and played the damsel in distress with twice the effort. "Not only are we losing our dear Shan Si to his tenth birthday, but now my most dearest…she insists on being so formal still! Why!? Why must you do this? I'm but an old woman."
She squinted a single eye in her direction, now probing. "If I referred to my Dear Kai as Empress Wan, My Kai would be evermore sad. Unacceptable!"
The effort flew right past Empress Wan's head, and her soft smile remained intact. "Appearances and titles must always be upheld, Daoist Master Zhuan. Otherwise, just what are we teaching my little Shengkai as his maternal elders? He must be prepared for the changes that'll rear its unearthly heads."
Shan Si's eyes clenched, creasing the corners of his pale skin. He'd promised himself that ahead of his master and mother on their final night together, he wouldn't cry. But the more they brought it up, the harder it was.
"Ah, you're sounding more and more like your older brother with each passing day. Boring!"
"If not for my brother backing your request, Shengkai wouldn't be with us for the first ten years of his life. We're fortunate, as all of his other siblings were taken away to be raised appropriately by their wet nurse. Maternal means nothing under the rule of the Imperial."
"Hmmm," Zhaun dawdled, her head flipping from one side to the other. "I suppose we do have Brother Mie to thank. Ahh, I'm just glad it'll be him guiding Our Shan Si and not those useless Imperial Teachers."
Empress Wan chuckled, her eyes falling on Shan Si, who seemed more troubled than he tried to show. It's as they always said, nothing escaped a mother's knowing stare.
And nothing pained a mother more than to see their own child silently suffer. Therefore, Empress Wan changed the subject.
"Speaking of the Imperial Teachers…Daoist Master Zhuan, I heard His Majesty has taken great interest in that little cultivator of yours…Weng Jing was it? The one you raised?"
Zhuan's expression relented, her attention falling down on Shan Si. Rubbing his head, she replied, "Ah yes, that His Majesty has. Though I…I don't know what to think, Wan Kai. My Little Disciple seems happier than ever before…haha, he's even more affectionate to me than he was as a child. How peculiar…"
To most, like Zhuan, who saw themselves as a motherly substitute, having those they deemed their children would have been considered a good thing; however, as Zhuan twirled her fingers through Shan Si's hair, she didn't seem like her usual self. She smiled, sure, but that smile never reached her eyes.
"I sent Rucun off with him should anything happen," her smile deepened at the mention of her subordinate; a man who stood by her for as long as she traversed the Great Zhonglai. "He's more capable than anyone I know. That Rucun…he knows my only wish for Weng Jing is that his heart remain pure. I'm sure things will be fine."
"…" Though Empress Wan couldn't say the words, it was clear in how she avoided Zhuan in her averting eyes that she wholeheartedly agreed. The problem was with the man she called her husband.
To lift the mood, Zhuan bent and slapped her hands against Shan Si's cheeks once more. Forcing his already reddening eyes to snap open in shock, his breath hitched at how close Zhuan face was to his.
"What…?" he wearily asked. "What is it, Master?"
"Ah! Ahaha! He finally speaks!" Zhuan beamed. Now poking his cheeks, she sang, "My Little Shan Si, My Shengai. Isn't it exciting?! One day my dear disciple will be your Imperial Teacher, and side by side, the two of you will be the future of Zhonglai! I couldn't dream further if I tried."
"Eugh…" His face crumpled in disgust. "I hate him. He creeps me out."
"Such a youthful response…yes, you'll come to smile when thinking back on these moments," Zhuan heartily laughed. Though she understood well that neither her disciples got along, it didn't stop the woman from dreaming. "But I can see it now…the world will be within Shan Si's hands, and thanks to his upbringing, he'll grow to be Zhonglai's most cherished emperor."
"My son will most certainly grow to be quite the formidable man. Yearly we get his deviation done, and every single one prophesied Jinalai's prosperity through this child. Some even say past the age of gold and straight into divinity."
"Oh, how splendid…" Zhuan wistfully murmured. "But you know…there's something far greater than just prosperity."
The tips of Shan Si's ears brightened red and his face crinkled. He was stuck between embarrassment and trying not to fold under his emotions. His hands, clammy, grappled at the hem of his robe, twisting the fabric between his fingers.
"Aren't you curious, Shan Si?"
"…" Shan Si shook his head.
"Ah! Now, now! Is that anyway for the future son of heaven to act?" Jokingly, she crouched, and baring her teeth, she cheekily giggled. "Go on, ask this old lady what she means. Go, go, ask!"
Shooting his now flustered face towards his mother, who just smiled apologetically at him, he asked, "Mother?!"
"Well!" Zhuan let Shan Si go, straightening herself. "This boy is immune to beauties it seems! Be it jade, gold, heavenly…peerless! He simply doesn't care! My, my…what have you created, Dear Kai?! A monk?"
Patting her lap, Empress Wan calmly beckoned her son as if offering him an escape. Of course, this young boy immediately took up the opportunity, ripped himself away from Zhuan, and dived right into his mother's lap.
A tale as old as time, so they say—the lap of his mother would always be the one place his heavy heart eased.
"Is it really I who bears the fault, Daoist Master Zhuan? I'm not the one who speaks of purity and cultivation. You've made him starry-eyed against the Emperor's wishes. Had it not been you of all people, then the perpetrator would have been found with a sword right into her chest," Empress Wan quipped, her hand smoothing down Shan Si's hair.
Focused on her son, she watched as he dug his heated expression right into her lap. In a tenderly delicate voice, as soft as a whisper, she said, "It's no wonder His Majesty has grown to hate you. It's a miracle I can keep you in my palace as it is."
Zhuan smiled proudly, as if to say she was noble in her antics and would gladly wear it atop her head for all to see. It was certainly an awful job well done!
Known as Zhonglai's most proficient cultivator, Zhuan was the immortal of all immortals, bewitching in beauty, with eyes as mythical as a field of peach blossom trees. Rather than celebrated, Zhuan was often damned by many men, and yet none could lay a single finger on her.
Father's far and wide, from north to south of Zhonglai, had always said to watch out for the bewitching beauty in blue.
They'd often say, "Do not look her in the eyes, and for fuck sakes! If you love your daughters, keep them away from her!"
Hands on her hips, Zhuan let out a sigh, one so satisfying her shoulders forcefully lowered. Truly, she adored these titles, and especially basked in the fear of men who couldn't fathom a strong woman.
It was fuel!
Midway through their discussion, the door slowly creaked open, and in approached a middle-aged woman. She held both hands ahead of her plain skirt and calmly announced, "His Majesty asks that I take His Highness. This humble subject offers her sincerest apologies to Her Majesty."
"…" Empress Wan, rubbing Shan Si's back woefully smiled. She could hear the regret hidden in the woman's voice. It was the hymn only known to mothers, and mothers who were on the verge of losing their only child.
Therefore, she couldn't fault this servant for following orders.
They were all forced to follow protocol one way or another under the rule of Emperor Xingcai.
"It's all right, Qian Jue. You're only doing as you're told," she responded. Leaning closer toward Shan Si, Empress Wan whispered, "You mustn't give Qian Jue a hard time. She means well and her heart is good. Do you understand, my son? Mother sees great things in you."
Tightly, Shan Si hugged onto his mother's lap, tears dampening the silky fabric. However, no amount of strength that day could have stopped the Imperial Palace from removing the ten-year-old Crowned Prince of Jianlai from his place of comfort.
Chapter end.