Chapter 6 There Never Was Any Savior

Chapter 6 There Never Was Any Savior

Back in April, the pears on Tie Xinyuan's tree were only as big as fingertips, some still topped with calyxes that had not yet fully withered.

Even so, someone was already plotting against them.

Lying prone on the city wall all day long, watching the Tie family's pear trees bloom, shed their blossoms, and gradually seeing the pears swell and grow larger until they finally turned golden yellow—this was the princess's most important task of the year.

The inner palace is always lonely. Even though it is filled with blooming flowers, it could never hold back the princess's yearning to look out at the world beyond.

Since the princess was underage and unmarried, she could not leave the imperial palace. Therefore, she, along with the imperial concubines and the aging palace consorts, could only stand at the highest point of Yuhua Mountain and gaze at the myriad lights twinkling outside the imperial city.

Whenever they gathered together to look at the night scenery outside the city, the princess would always feel a trace of superiority.

Because she alone could enjoy the scenery belonging to the Tie family.

Tie Xinyuan had lost a tooth, causing his speech to whistle—this could keep her amused for an entire year afterward.

Wang Rouhua had reclaimed that plot of land at Xishui Gate and built a large soup noodle shop there. It was said that business was exceptionally booming, which would lead the princess to imagine for a long time just how such a bustling business could exist at the Tie family's noodle shop.

Tie Fox got bitten by a dog, and Tie Xinyuan led Qiao'er and a group of others wielding clubs to settle scores with that damned stray dog—this would keep her awake, tossing and turning until dawn.

Unconsciously, the princess felt that the small courtyard outside the imperial palace held endless scenery, endless happenings, and endless worries to ponder over...

The imperial palace had none of this... Aside from her mother meticulously applying powder to her face every day, there was truly nothing fresh enough to warrant even a second glance.

Lately, the princess didn't even have the heart to humor her mother. No matter how exquisite her makeup or how beautiful her garments were, the Emperor would not come to her palace to spend the night.

This was no longer a secret; the Emperor favored young and beautiful maidens.

Those maidens, even younger than herself, would sweetly laugh and throw themselves into the Emperor's arms with flattering smiles on their faces.

The princess's heart was filled with panic. Little Zhu'er brought back late-blooming dark pink peaches from the Imperial Garden, but they failed to capture her attention.

It was all because of the man she had seen in the inner palace the day before. She heard his name was Li Wei, and he was said to be her cousin.

She had met this person before; back then, Li Wei was terrified of everyone, bursting into tears of fright whenever anyone approached.

This time was different. He walked behind an old woman in a blue robe, casting lewd and ambiguous glances at her.

After they met her mother, her mother became extremely sorrowful, yet began silently clearing out the princess's estate's assets...

Little Zhu'er whispered secretly that that man might well be her future husband!

She was going to marry her own cousin? This was simply absurd!

When she asked her mother, her mother only shed tears without saying a word, then abruptly smiled and asked what kind of clothes she liked for her wedding gown.

She even asked how many threads of gold she planned to use to embroider the vermilion phoenixes on the wedding dress.

Therefore, long before dawn, the princess had come to the edge of the city wall, completely unaware that the morning dew had soaked her dress.

"Hey! What are you doing standing there like a fool? Your hair is covered in water droplets—did you fall into the pond?"

***

Tie Xinyuan had just gotten up, holding a basin of icy well water to wash his face, still stirring a willow twig around in his mouth as he began to speak incoherently.

"I think I'm going to get married!" The princess did not know why she had come to the edge of the city wall, nor why she had said these words to Tie Xinyuan.

She only felt that by coming to the city's edge and looking at this household beneath the wall, she could feel a modicum of safety.

Tie Xinyuan spat out the salty water and smiled. "Congratulations. Whose good fortune is that?"

Looking at Tie Xinyuan, the princess said with a bitter voice, "My cousin Li Wei, though once I marry him, he'll become my cousin-in-law."

"Li Wei? Why him? That fellow is nothing more than a grand joke at the Imperial Academy. The joke I told you last time about 'profoundly cultured' came from this very guy.

Actually, lacking literary talent isn't a huge deal. He is, after all, your grandmother's own nephew. If his character were decent, that would be one thing, but the problem is that this fellow is a hopeless scoundrel rotten to the core with every imaginable vice. Are you sure you want to marry him?"

Tie Xinyuan felt that if the young girl who had grown up alongside him were to marry such a wretch, she would be getting a terribly raw deal, and he felt compelled to warn her.

The princess let out a bitter laugh and said, "The one who reads 'profoundly cultured'—ha, reading it as 'all the county heads are peace officers'—is about to become my husband. Brother Yuan, how am I supposed to live my life from now on?"

Frowning at the princess, who was alternating between tears and laughter, Tie Xinyuan said impatiently, "If you don't want to get married, there are plenty of ways out. Why throw a tantrum here with me?"

The princess wept, "There's no way out. No one can defy my father the Emperor's decree."

Tie Xinyuan smiled. "Can't you learn from a Tang dynasty princess? When she found out her father had betrothed her to someone she disliked, she used a knife to cut off her own finger at a banquet and swallowed it.

It scared the prospective groom out of his wits, and she didn't have to marry him after all."

Hearing this, the princess burst into loud wails, gasping for breath as she said, "That was an old tale about Princess Taiping. Everyone knows she ate a finger made of dough. Trying that now won't fool anyone."

Tie Xinyuan said angrily, "You expect a guy who reads 'profoundly cultured' as 'all the county heads are peace officers' to know the story of Princess Taiping?"

"But my father the Emperor knows, and plenty of people in the palace know this allusion. Besides, I am not Taiping; I am Yanguo. I simply can't do that kind of thing."

Helplessly dropping the wooden basin in his hands onto the ground, Tie Xinyuan said, "Then what can be done? You're unwilling to marry your cousin, yet unwilling to displease your father the Emperor—where in this world is there such a bargain? Yanguo, have you ever heard the saying 'every gain has its loss'?"

The princess gritted her teeth and said, "I have one more method."

Tie Xinyuan carefully observed the princess's expression, then leaped up and cursed, "You really are heartless! Why don't you use this method on your father the Emperor, instead of saving it for me?"

The princess chuckled softly. "I feel like you care more about my life than my father does!"

Tie Xinyuan sat down on the millstone and sighed up at the heavens. "What kind of world is this?"

Leaning against the battlements just as she used to when she was very little, the princess said softly, "Brother Yuan, do you remember the time I caught a cold and ran a high fever that wouldn't break?"

Tie Xinyuan let out a muffled grunt and remained silent.

Stretching her body as far out over the battlements as she could, the princess continued, "Even my father the Emperor thought I was going to die young just like my older brothers and sisters, and placed me in the ancestral temple to let the ancestors take me away.

It was you who had Fox bring alcohol to wipe my body and forcefully brought my fever down.

From that moment on, I understood one truth: you have more solutions than my father, and you care far more whether I live or die than he does."

Sighing, Tie Xinyuan said, "Alcohol can only reduce body temperature; it couldn't cure your illness. That you managed to survive in the end, I attribute to the blessing of the heavens.

Back then, I was merely doing all I humanly could and leaving the rest to fate."

The princess jumped up and spun around, saying, "I am alive now, and that's enough. Brother Yuan, are you willing to save me one more time?"

"What if I have no way out of this?" Tie Xinyuan asked fiercely.

Seeing him like this, the princess instantly beamed with joy and said sweetly, "You definitely have a way, don't you? I don't care—if I really have to marry Li Wei, I'll jump off right here the day before the wedding."

"Better not jump. That would smash a hole in my roof, and your father the Emperor would chop off my head and my mother's. I'll figure out a way to make sure Li Wei can't marry you."

Picking up the hand towel hanging on the tree and retrieving the wooden basin from the ground, Tie Xinyuan muttered as he walked into the house, giving Fox a kick to send him flying out the door. If not for that hound, he wouldn't have had to wake up so early.

The princess plucked the silk flower from her hair, tore it petal by petal, and tossed them down from the city wall, cheerfully teasing Tie Fox as he scrambled to catch the falling petals. Her silver-bell-like laughter echoed continuously down from the battlements.

Dealing with someone cowardly, vulgar, lustful, and addicted to gambling like Li Wei did not strike Tie Xinyuan as a particularly difficult task.

The only reason this fellow had managed to survive until now without being killed by people in the gambling dens was simply because he had an imperial cousin who was the Emperor.

If those people hadn't feared the Emperor, his corpse would have been fed to dogs long ago.

To deal with such a person, one only needed to make him even worse. The rest would naturally unfold through his own actions, destroying himself completely.

There was no need for anyone to set elaborate traps.

It takes immense courage and wisdom to guide a person from evil to goodness, but if you want to make a bad person even worse, you only need to give him a gentle push.

Bianjing City had plenty of people specializing in pushing others toward evil, and as it happened, Qiao'er knew several of them.

Back when Qiao'er had shaken Bianjing with his music boxes, he had been surrounded by many such characters.

They tried to teach him gluttony, womanizing, gambling, and every worldly pleasure imaginable. If Qiao'er hadn't constantly kept his younger siblings in his heart, he would have long since become a wastrel.

Qiao'er would know who to find to completely ruin Li Wei. This might require a little money, but that was of no consequence; the princess had given him plenty of wealth over the past few years under the guise of poverty alleviation.

Though those funds hadn't quite managed to make the Tie family as wealthy as the imperial house.

Now, that money finally had a use.

All through the previous night, he had tried in vain to figure out why the cowardly Japanese were suddenly acting so arrogant in the markets of Bianjing.

They had completely discarded their usual posture of utmost respect toward the Song people, baring their fangs for the very first time.

There were many Japanese women in the markets of Bianjing, most of whom had taken shelter in brothels, awaiting the summons of scholars and gentlemen. They did not do it for money, but solely for the chance to successfully conceive a child, so that upon returning to their homeland, they could successfully marry into elite and powerful households.

Though those Japanese women possessed somewhat peculiar appearances, their gentle disposition and meticulous service still drove scholars and literati to flock to them like ducks. (To be continued.)