Uncovered
It was, so far, frustrating.
The rebel, if he could even be called that, was named Fang Yi, not yet eighteen, parents Fang Huai and Du Yin, from Guizhou.
Er Tai had so far questioned Fang Yi, his mother and father. There was his brother, sister-in-law, and adopted brother left, and Er Tai wondered if he really would manage to get anything out of this line of questioning.
So far, all he'd learnt was that the family were merchants trading herbs and medicine, and were in Beijing to visit relatives and to trade. Both parents had claimed that their son had no prior dealing with the White Lotus Sect, and being young and unguided, had been tricked into being at the wrong place at the wrong time. According to them, the family had no rebellious intentions.
Er Tai didn't exactly doubt these claims made by Fang Huai and Du Yin. Perhaps that was what they wanted to believe. However, it was also clear that while Fang Yi, outwardly, seemed to stick to this statement, he was not quite convinced by it. His sullen and resentful tone spoke volumes. If Er Tai had to read between the lines, it was most likely that Fang Yi did harbour some thoughts towards rebellion, but now caught in a net, was trying to backtrack and save his family.
Er Tai could not exactly blame him for the attempt.
He was shuffling through the transcripts of the statements when the guards brought Fang Yi's sister-in-law into the room. Being thus occupied, he did not immediately look up to see her. She knelt down neatly in the middle of the room, and when Er Tai looked up, all he could see was the top of her bowed head.
"What is your name?" he asked.
She did not answer; instead, at the sound of his voice, her head jerked up in astonishment. She stared at him, startled. As her head was raised, and Er Tai recognised her, he couldn't help widen his own eyes in shock. He shoved his chair away from the table and was half-way through standing up and nearly exclaimed "Qing Ge Ge!" before the situation caught up with him. It would be foolish to address her as such in this room. Slowly, he sat back down and stared for a while longer at her, trying to quickly think of how to deal with this sudden development. At the same time, his mind was assaulted with a thousand different questions he wished to ask Qing Er. He had no idea where to start.
Finally, after a long time, just to keep up the pretense of an investigation,he demanded again gruffly, "Name?"
She pursed her lips together but seemed to understand the impossibility of their situation. She played along. "My name is Qing, surname Ai."
Er Tai let out a slow breath. "And what is your relationship to Fang Yi?"
She hesitated for a moment. Then, she said resolutely, "My husband is his older brother."
Er Tai stared at her for a long time. That, of course, was impossible. Her husband was Xiao Yan Zi's brother. Xiao Yan Zi only had one brother. Their parents were both dead. At least, as far as Er Tai knew, they were. Where was this other brother coming from? (The parents?!)
…but the surname was Fang though.
It looked like he and Huang Shang had been right. This was far from simple. They just didn't realise how very complicated it had turned out to be. Then again, everything seemed to grow a thousand times more complicated the moment it had something to do with Xiao Yan Zi.
He couldn't do this like this, not with so many people in the room. This situation required the utmost of discretion. He knew there was no way he could trust the many guards in the room.
"Guards, leave us!" he ordered. "I will question the prisoner privately."
A couple of the guards looked up at him startled. They hesitated a little, but as he glared determinedly in their direction, they didn't have any choice but to leave quietly. A moment too late, Er Tai wondered if by ordering the guards to leave him in a room with an obviously attractive, young female prisoner, he was forming all sorts of other assumptions about just how private the questioning would be. In the last minute, therefore, he held back Gao Xing, the court scribe and his trusted servant.
Turning to Gao Xing, Er Tai ordered, "Not one detail of anything happening here today leaves this room. Still take this conversation down, but this does not become official records until I say so. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Get another chair," he ordered, then left his desk and approached Qing Er. "Ge Ge, do stand up."
She didn't take his offered arm, but stood up herself, a tentative apologetic smile on her face. He stared at her for a moment, still not quite able to believe her presence and its implications. He gestured to the chair that Gao Xing just placed behind her.
"Qing Er," she corrected as she sat down. Er Tai nodded.
"What on earth is this about?" he asked, standing agitatedly before her.
Qing Er sighed. "It's a very long story." She looked weary but determined. He knew she would probably tell him everything if he just probed her a little longer. Whatever this was all about, it was obvious that she needed his help. He just hoped it was in his power to offer it.
It was clear that this would be a long conversation and it would also likely to be shocking. He might as well sit down before it all started. As he returned to his desk, he said, "I have a long time. Take your time."
"I must say I'm not sure whether I should be glad that you are in charge of this case," Qing Er said. "I am afraid you will be put in a very difficult position."
"I'm starting to see that," Er Tai said, his mind reeling. "But do tell."
"Must this go on records?"
"It must be transcribed, yes. I'm not trying to remember what I'm sure will be a complicated and long story to repeat to Huang Shang and Yi Fei, and I'm sure they will need to know if you are involved," Er Tai said. "But for now I will not have it go on official records."
Qing Er smiled and said softly, almost to herself, "Yi Fei." Then, looking up at Er Tai: "She is well?"
"Now? Yes. After this? I'm not so sure," Er Tai said. Then he waited as she gathered her thoughts.
"I don't know where to start, to be honest," Qing Er said.
Er Tai looked down at the papers in front of him. "Fang Huai?"
"Yes," Qing Er said with a soft sigh. "He is Xiao Yan Zi's father."
Er Tai blinked rapidly. He didn't think he needed to point out to her that as far as the world knew, Xiao Yan Zi's father – Fang Zhi Hang – was dead.
"How?" he exclaimed.
"You know of Fang Zhi Hang, I suppose?"
"Yes, Huang Shang told me, eventually."
"So. You know that Fang Zhi Hang – my father-in-law – was sentenced to beheading years ago, due to a poem that he wrote opposing the queue order for Han men. When it seemed like things would go disastrously wrong for them, my mother-in-law sent her children away to friends of the family protect them, Xiao Jian to the Su family in Yunnan and Xiao Yan Zi to the Jiang family in Beijing."
Er Tai nodded. He knew this much.
"But at the time, my father-in-law had a cousin, named Li Xiang, who looked somewhat like him. Li Xiang was very ill, and he knew he would die within a year. His wife had died giving birth to his only son, Li Cheng An, who is Xiao Jian's age. Li Xiang knew if my father-in-law was executed, his wife would die with him, and he himself would die soon. No one would be left to take care of Cheng An. Li Xiang had been an official as well, before he resigned due to illness. He knew the prison guards and used his connections to bribe them. The guards put a sleeping draught in my father-in-law's food, and while he was asleep, they brought him out. In the cell, Li Xiang replaced him. Since Li Xiang knew he would not live long either way, he was determined to die in my father-in-law's place, to reunite him with his wife, and for the Fang family to take care of Cheng An. He knew neither Fang Zhi Hang nor Du Xue Yin would ever agree to such a sacrifice, so the sleeping draught was needed. When my father-in-law woke up, he was out of prison, with a letter from Li Xiang explaining everything. He could not go back to the prison and blow Li Xiang's cover. It would only get them all killed."
"So Li Xiang was executed instead of Fang Zhi Hang," Er Tai concluded.
"Yes."
"No one ever found out about the switch?"
"As far as we know, no. Of course, many of Fang Zhi Hang's relatives were implicated by his sentence, including Li Xiang, but since he had no other family left, and was known to be ill for a long time, it was easy to make it seem like he had died of the illness."
"What about Du Xue Yin?"
"They faked her death by setting the house on fire and left Hangzhou with Cheng An."
"So Xiao Yan Zi's parents are alive?"
"Yes."
Er Tai didn't realise until now that his body was shaking. This was impossible. This changed everything. How did anyone's life ever managed to get so complicated? Why did things like this always happen to Xiao Yan Zi?
Then again, what strange thing didn't happen to Xiao Yan Zi?
"What happened next?" Er Tai asked.
"For a while, Fang Zhi Hang and Du Xue Yin laid low, not looking for their children for fear of drawing attention to them and putting them in danger. They raised Cheng An. When they started looking for Fang Yan and Fang Ci a few years later, they could not find the Su family in Yunnan. They had moved away and changed their names in order to protect Xiao Jian. Xiao Yan Zi never arrived at the Jiang family. For a long time, it was as if they had lost trace of their children. Ten years later, Fang Yi was born."
"Yes. Fang Yi. The reason we are here."
"He…" Qing Er started, then faltered.
"Qing Er, just spare me and say it. This is enough of a headache already. I need to know how much danger we're looking at here."
"I don't excuse and don't condone anything he's done to get us here," Qing Er said. "But I do understand why. He was born and grew up with his parents more or less on the constant run from authorities, in fear that people would discover who they really were. He grew up knowing that his parents mourned the loss of his brother and sister, and the reason for the separation was because some emperor in Beijing sentenced his father to death. He grew up with an adopted brother who lost his father to this death sentence. So he resents the whole institution that surrounds the emperor."
This was more or less what Er Tai had expected, but it didn't make it easier to hear. It was as if complications were determined to pile on each other.
"After Xiao Jian and I were married, we went to Yunnan. Xiao Jian's adoptive parents died and left everything to him. His birth family – his parents, Fang Yi and Cheng An – managed to find us and recognised Xiao Jian through his sword and flute. They told the two of us this story. To say that it shocked both of us is an understatement. Xiao Jian really didn't have any idea that his parents were alive before."
"And now you are in Beijing to see Xiao Yan Zi?"
"Not quite. They don't know that Xiao Jian had actually found Xiao Yan Zi. We – he told his parents that he had tried looking for his sister but did not find her."
"So he lied?" Er Tai asked. As if things were not complicated enough already.
"It was…it was a coping strategy. I mean, consider who she is married to. It's one thing to not exactly care what Fang Zhi Hang's political leanings were when he was thought to be dead, it's a different thing to find that he is alive. We didn't know how he'd take Xiao Yan Zi's marriage. We didn't know how he'd react to something like this. It was all so confusing and unstable and neither of us really even understood what was going on. We have just met his parents, parents he hasn't seen since he was four, whom he could barely remember, whom she has no memory of. He needed time to get to know them first. It seemed like a good idea, at first, to keep Xiao Yan Zi's situation away from them, until we all knew each other a bit more."
"Then what happened?"
"Then we received words of the previous emperor passing away. That just changed things in an entirely different way."
"Yes I suppose it did."
"'Xiao Ci is married to a prince' was complicated enough, but 'Xiao Ci is married to the emperor'?"
"How does Fang Zhi Hang feel about the dynasty anyway?"
"He does not think our people have a place in ruling this country. He does not enjoy being forced into customs that he thinks are foreign and has no place being imposed on Han men, but then, who really enjoys such thing? But he understands that overthrowing an empire would only ever bring chaos and war and bloodshed and does not wish for it at all."
"Thank Heaven for small reliefs. Though I suppose you and your husband are still unsure how he would react to Xiao Yan Zi's marriage."
"Yes. It's hard to judge, because they would never imagine such a marriage for their daughter, and it is not the kind of situation where you could theorise how they would react."
"And now, Fang Yi basically does want to cause rebellion."
"He's seventeen," Qing Er said flatly. "And whatever hardship he and his parents had gone through, he spent a long time being the only son, the only heir, to parents who have suffered too great a loss. However intentionally on his parents' part, he grew up thinking that he could do impossible things. To him, the person who sits on that throne, whoever he is, is the villain in this story, and hates him for that. Ah Yi values his parents, his family above all that, and to him, the emperor tore that apart, so he wants to get retribution. He is unguided, certainly, but it does not make him wholly bad, Er Tai."
"Well, you and I both know that impulsive, stubborn, hot-headed loyalty is something Xiao Yan Zi has in spades, yet it manifests itself in such different ways," Er Tai said wearily. "I suppose part of it is circumstance."
"Yes, Xiao Yan Zi met Zi Wei first. She could have easily met Xiao Jian first and looked at the imperial family in a totally different light," Qing Er said.
"So what happened here?"Er Tai asked. "In Beijing?"
"Xiao Jian and I know we cannot hide her parents from her forever. This trip to Beijing, to the family, is to look for Xiao Yan Zi, but really, Xiao Jian and I had planned to tell everyone – including Xiao Yan Zi – the truth. We wanted to tell Xiao Yan Zi directly, which was why we didn't stay at Hui Bin Lou. Staying there would mean we would have to explain to Liu Qing and Jin Suo the situation first. We were planning to ask Liu Qing and Jin Suo's help in getting Xiao Yan Zi to Hui Bin Lou so that we can introduce everyone and tell the story."
"That didn't happen."
"No. We were staying at Chang Chun Inn, I think it belongs to – "
"General Fu Zheng. Fu Heng's son. Fu Zheng's daughter is in the palace: Xiang Guiren."
"Xiang Guiren? I suppose that could cause difficulties?"
"She and Yi Fei…" Er Tai started, then paused. "Well, you know how Huang Shang feels and he makes it obvious enough. If you were Xiang Guiren, would you like Yi Fei?"
"No," Qing Er said. She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Okay. I'm starting to wonder whether any of this was accidental."
Er Tai smiled thinly. They exchanged a look of understanding.
"So what happened for Fang Yi to end up in that place?"
"Well, when we heard the inn-keeper tell us who the inn belonged to, Fang Yi expressed his…dislike of people of the ruling class. He told us that the next day someone approached him and talked to him about the White Lotus Sect and invited him to a meeting. The letter he was caught at was directions to the meeting sent to the member who spoke to him, and the man – Wang Xi – gave the letter to Ah Yi as identification should he attend. Ah Yi claims, and we are inclined to believe him, that he really just wanted to see what this whole thing was about. It's not exactly as if he's determined to throw himself into a fight to the death tomorrow."
"Unfortunately that really doesn't matter," Er Tai said gravely.
Qing Er sighed. "I know. How did the authorities know about the meeting?"
"They received anonymous information. Fang Yi was the only person they found at the place and the only one captured."
"You don't think – you don't think Wang Xi wanted Ah Yi to get caught?"Qing Er asked with a frown.
"I really can't say for definite," Er Tai said. "Would there be any reason for that man to frame him?"
"Ah Yi swears he's never met Wang Xi before."
"So Fang Yi loudly declared his dissatisfaction with the emperor under the roof of one of his officials, then a complete stranger came up to him, invited him to a meeting of a highly illegal group, and he went anyway?"
Qing Er just gave a wry smile and didn't answer.
So the whole thing was complicated, convoluted and absurd, Er Tai thought to himself.
"What I said earlier is true," Er Tai said, more seriously. "It doesn't matter what his intent was, or whether he was framed. He went to an illegal gathering and was caught."
"I know," Qing Er said. "I know things are not looking great for us. If it were not for the fact that it is you, if the person in charge of this case were one who would not recognise us, believe me, Xiao Jian and I would not dare mention Xiao Yan Zi at all – "
Of course. They would not want to implicate her. But now that the case was under his investigation, and Er Tai and Qing Er had recognised each other, honesty was the only way to go about this now. It didn't mean that it made things any easy to deal with.
Er Tai buried his face in his hands. "This is a mess."
He heard Qing Er sigh in agreement.
"What do you want me to even do?" Er Tai asked, looking up at her.
"What can you do?"
"I – I can't get you out of here," he said apologetically. "Seriously, I would love to, take you back to my house, but under the circumstances, I can't, not before I let Huang Shang know of the matter."
He didn't think he looked forward to telling Xiao Yan Zi that he left her entire family locked up in Zhong Ren Fu.
"I know." Something seemed to light up in her eyes. "Can you – Our family can perhaps bear the prison, but my son is only two years old. Surely there is no reason for anyone to keep so young a child in prison. Can you please take him out? Bring him to Jin Suo or Zi Wei. Please – "
"Of course!" Er Tai exclaimed, leaping up. He wondered how a child had even managed to survive thus far in the cold cell. "I will take him to my sister-in-law. Though you might want to think about actually telling the rest of them about Xiao Yan Zi."
"That would make a nice conversation while locked together in a prison."
"At least you'd have the time for it."
Qing Er had been gone for a very long time. Xiao Jian paced from one end of the cell to the other, burning with impatience. What could possibly be taking so long? Fang Yi had not taken half as long, and he was the main suspect.
He knelt down to where Zhan Er was huddled and asleep in his mother's arms and pulled his jacket closer around his child. Mother put a hand on his arm in comfort, though none of them dared wonder out loud what was taking Qing Er so long.
Sounds of footsteps made Xiao Jian stand straight up and stared out of the cell door, stopping just short of grabbing the bars to look out.
Qing Er appeared slowly from the dark, and Xiao Jian allowed himself a slow breath of relief because she looked relatively unharmed.
Someone was following her, and it was not a guard. Only when they reached the cell door did Xiao Jian see it was a man, dressed in official's robes, and his surcoat was a circular badge with four-clawed dragons.
A Beizi.
Qing Er obviously knew him. That in itself was not a shock, he supposed. Xiao Jian allowed himself to feel relieved that she did not look like she was afraid or wary of the man. However, his presence just seemed like an omen of complications.
As soon as the doors opened with the clanging of locks falling, Xiao Jian grabbed Qing Er's hand, looking her over.
"I'm unharmed," she told him quietly, then went to Zhan Er.
Meanwhile, the official was looking at Xiao Jian with a half smile. It was an expression that was neither mocking nor malicious, both which Xiao Jian would have expected in this situation. The smile seemed to speak of intrigue and curiosity, and it looked wildly out of place considering where they were and the situation they were in.
"So you are the famous Xiao Jian," he said.
"And you are?" Xiao Jian asked, guarded.
"Fu Er Tai," he answered, tilting his head in a greeting. "I have heard much about you. I would not have wished to meet you like this, however."
Er Kang's brother. This was Er Kang's brother? While Xiao Jian had also heard much of him, somehow, their paths had never managed to cross before now. Either Xiao Jian was always not in Beijing or Er Tai was always in Tibet.
And yet of all the persons to have been in charge of investigating this case, it had to be Fu Er Tai. Xiao Jian wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be glad about this. He knew that innumerable odds were stacked against his family in this case, and how much Fu Er Tai could even help remained to be seen. Xiao Jian supposed he had to think that Er Tai would want to help them.
"What are you doing?" Xiao Jian asked, as Qing Er bundled up Zhan Er.
"Er Tai is going to take Zhan Er to Zi Wei," she answered. "He'll be safer there."
As if on cue, Er Tai removed his cloak and gave it Qing Er, who wrapped the sleeping child in it. Somehow, the gesture made Xiao Jian feel both grateful and dread. It was really only trust in Qing Er, and in the fact that this was Er Kang's brother, that allowed Xiao Jian to let this happen, even when irrational bouts of panic and distrust was bubbling inside him, telling him not to let his child out of his sight.
The more rational part of him told him he should be grateful. This prison was no place for Zhan Er. He was going to Zi Wei, where undoubtedly he would be taken care of. There could be no room for doubt on that. He would trust Er Kang and Zi Wei with his own life, with his son's and those of all his family. It really shouldn't be any different with their brother, especially when all he'd ever heard about Fu Er Tai from everyone from Qian Long to Xiao Yan Zi's maids was that he was as honourable and loyal to the imperial family – and more importantly, to Yong Qi – as Er Kang.
"Who is Zi Wei?" Father demanded, looking from Qing Er to Xiao Jian.
Fu Er Tai was watching it all, silently.
"Our…friend. Fu Er Ye here's sister-in-law," Xiao Jian answered hesitantly.
"You have just met him. You would give Zhan Er to a perfect stranger?" Father asked.
Before Xiao Jian could answer, Qing Er said, "He's not a stranger to me. I trust him. Please, Father, trust me on this. I will explain, I promise."
For a moment, Xiao Jian wondered if his father would. His parents was fond enough of Qing Er, but right now, he was dreading that this would all change if they ever find out who her family really was. Still, no one stopped Qing Er when she placed Zhan Er in Er Tai's arms; it took Xiao Jian all his power of rationality not to.
"Thank you," she said.
"Qing Er, don't worry," Er Tai said. "My hands are pretty tied in most of this right now, but at least in this I can help."
What he said did not particularly bode well for they who remained in the prison, but that was not a surprise. Xiao Jian only needed Zhan Er to get out of this safely. If that meant giving him to a man he only knew by reputation and trusting him to take care of his son, then Xiao Jian would have to deal with it.
"You have friends in high places, it seems," Father commented once Er Tai had left with Zhan Er and their cell had been relocked, the sounds of metal still ringing slightly in the air. Xiao Jian recognised the edge that made it clear that Father's suspicion was mounting.
Qing Er did not answer but looked towards the way their son had just left. Xiao Jian wondered if she was contemplating whether they'd see him again. It was something that Xiao Jian himself was trying not to think about. But if they were to die as a result of all of this, Xiao Jian would rest more peacefully implicitly knowing that Zi Wei and Er Kang would take care of Zhan Er, no matter what.
"Who is he, really, and what is going between you?" Fang Yi asked forcefully, grabbing Qing Er's arm.
She pulled herself away and turned to face him.
"Just what are you trying to insinuate in that tone?" For a moment, Xiao Jian reminded that she was, after all, a princess, and would not take well to anyone questioning her honour.
"Excuse me if there are certain conclusions I draw when a strange man my brother's never met before calls my sister-in-law by her diminutive name!"
"Seriously? That is your concern right now?" Her face was flushed, and only Xiao Jian recognised that wasn't entirely in anger. There was something there. Perhaps Ah Yi had managed to unwittingly hit the nail on the head. Xiao Jian forced himself to keep calm. This was hardly the time to question it. There was no other reason to doubt Qing Er. He trusted her. "He is a very dear friend of my family, my cousin's best friend, brother-in-law to another cousin, and that is all."
"What did you tell him?" Xiao Jian asked, both to stop Fang Yi's next line of questioning and out of anxiety.
"The truth," she said, looking up at him seriously. Just that look told Xiao Jian enough. She had told him everything.
"Qing Er!" he hissed.
"What else could I have told him? It would have been well and good if it was someone I didn't know, but if it had to be someone I do know, then I am glad it was either him or his brother! I don't imagine either of them could rewrite the law, but at least they would protect us as much as possible, and they need information to do that. Besides, Er Tai would not have accepted any less."
"So now what?"
"Now, we tell everyone what they need to know," she said calmly.
"You can't be serious," Xiao Jian said, staring at her.
"Xiao Jian, when we thought we could keep her out of this, maybe it was a good idea not to tell everyone the truth. But now, we won't be able to keep her out of this. So they need to know. Just as they will need information to help us, our family also need to know the whole truth to not do anything else…foolish."
She shot Ah Yi a pointed look.
"What is Er Tai going to do?"
"What do you think? I didn't tell him just so he could keep it to himself."
Xiao Jian stared at her and wanted to ask, "Can you trust him?" but he knew what the answer to that was.
"Will the two of you stop speaking in code and just explain what exactly is going on?" Father interrupted before Xiao Jian could say anything else to Qing Er.
Xiao Jian hesitated. Yet, he knew that Qing Er was right, that she really couldn't have fed a lie to someone she trusted and knew could help them. Now that they knew Xiao Yan Zi would know of their story, it was time to tell his parents about Xiao Yan Zi. It didn't mean that he could help the irrational wish to protect Xiao Yan Zi a little longer, even when he knew protection was out of his power.
"Xiao Jian," Qing Er said, softly, but earnestly. "It's time."
It had always been significant that in the last few years, Qing Er was the only person who called him Xiao Jian. To the world, he was Fang Yan; to his parents, he was Yan Er; to Ah Yi and Cheng An, he was Ah Yan. Now, the alias just seemed to emphasise just how much he had hidden from his parents all these years.
Taking a deep breath, he said finally, "I need to tell you about Xiao Ci."
Xiao Ci was alive. Her baby girl was alive.
After years of futile searching, after years of hopes upon dashed hopes, Xue Yin now felt weak and dizzy with the news. She only allowed one truth to swirl around in her mind, that Xiao Ci was alive.
The relief couldn't help being off-set by other concerns, however. Why had Yan Er stayed silent about it? Why had he felt the need to lie? Why had he thought it necessary to keep Xiao Ci away from her family?
"What are you saying?" her husband demanded. "What do you mean you have found Xiao Ci? Why have you never mentioned it? Why are you saying it now? What is this trip about? You told us – "
"Father, please, let me explain," Yan Er said patiently, while exchanging looks with Qing Er.
It was clear to Xue Yin now, whatever secret Yan Er was keeping, Qing Er was in on it, which probably explained their cryptic conversation this day. Qing Er looked nervous, and Xue Yin had never seen her daughter-in-law so flustered before. Then again, they had all just been thrown in jail, even the coolest head could not be blamed for panicking.
"Xiao Ci's situation is…complicated," Yan Er said slowly, "and I didn't know how to tell you before, so I lied. I'm sorry, I know…I know there is no excuse for it, but honestly for a long time I didn't know what to do, or how to tell you about her…"
"What could be so difficult about the phrase, I set out to find my sister and I found her?" Zhi Hang demanded.
"It's not so much that I found her that was difficult to tell you," Yan Er explained. "It's how I found her and where and with whom. You know that she was never taken to the Jiang family. It took a stroke of luck, really, that led me to her."
"Where is she?" Xue Yin asked.
"Here, in Beijing. Last time I was here, I was planning to tell her about you all – and prepare her for this meeting – but I…couldn't. It wasn't the right time. She was…in mourning for her father-in-law, so it hardly seemed like an appropriate time. Now that some time has passed, I wanted all of us to come here to see her, but I didn't want to have you anxious the whole trip, so I wanted to wait until we were here to tell you. I didn't think we'd get into this mess before I got the chance."
"She is married?" Cheng An demanded, staring at Yan Er.
Yan Er gave him a look that could only be called pity. "You are honestly surprised about that?"
"I – " Cheng An looked lost for word.
Yan Er looked like he was contemplating saying something, but then thought better of it and just shook his head.
"Let us talk about that later. I just won't understand the need for secrecy, Yan Er," Zhi Hang said.
Yan Er and Qing Er exchanged a look that Xue Yin could only call ominous.
"It's complicated," her son said.
"You've said that already," Zhi Hang said.
"I don't know where to start," Yan Er said flatly.
"The beginning might be useful," Xue Yin said.
Yan Er exchanged another look with Qing Er. "Where on earth is that?"
"Who is she married to?" Cheng An asked. He clearly was still insistently bothered by this piece of information.
For the last couple of decades, Xue Yin had only ever been concerned with actually finding out whether Xiao Ci was still alive first to have ever thought much about any possibility of actually fulfilling the engagement that she and Zhi Hang made with Cheng An's father when her daughter was born. Such a promise was made under the assumption that their families would be close to each other, that the children would grow up side-by-side and Xiao Ci would always have someone to depend on should anything happen to Zhi Hang and Xue Yin, just as Cheng An always had them to depend after Li Xiang sacrificed his own life to save Zhi Hang's. Things were so different now.
"That is really not a good place to start this story," Yan Er said resolutely. "I only found this out years later, but the nurse who was supposed to take Xiao Ci to the Jiang family fell ill in front of a temple called Bai Yun Si. When she recovered, for whatever reason, she left Xiao Ci there to be raised by the nuns at the temple and she, herself, left."
"What? No," Xue Yin cried. "She wouldn't do that! She was there was Xiao Ci was born, and she took care of her all that time – "
"Mother, I don't pretend to understand why she left, but when I spoke to the nun who took Xiao Ci in, she told me that the nurse was very distraught at having to leave her. I don't know why she did, but it did not seem to be out of malice."
Xue Yin couldn't understand it either. She would never have left her baby to go so far with someone unless she trusted them implicitly with her own life – and Xiao Ci was even more than that. So what could explain the abandonment? Why leave her baby in the hands of strangers?
Yan Er did not seem overly concerned about his sister's current state now, so Xue Yin supposed she had reason to hope that everything turned out all right in the end for her daughter, but how much did she suffer before that? There was no reason to think that she did not suffer, abandoned like that.
"I don't know if this was intentional by the nurse, but Xiao Ci grew up not knowing her name or who her family was. She grew up with the name I'm pretty sure she gave herself as a child – Xiao Yan Zi. I don't know what she ever imagined about her family. I suppose in some ways I was too afraid to ever ask her, too afraid that what she imagined wouldn't be flattering and it would hurt to hear it."
"But she is all right?" Zhi Hang asked. "She never suffered or was hurt?"
"She is all right now. I think, right now, at least, she is content enough. Growing up, I am sure she had been through much hardship, some she had shared with me, some I don't think she ever would," Yan Er said slowly. "When I found her, she had left the temple for a while. This is where it gets complicated."
He took a deep breath and then looked over at Qing Er, who gave him an encouraging look. Xue Yin did not think this was a particularly good omen for what was to come.
Yan Er then proceeded to tell them about how Xiao Ci – or rather, now he was calling her Xiao Yan Zi – met a lost princess, tried to help the princess reunite with her father, only to get mistaken as the princess herself, spent months posing as a princess, and then ended up being engaged to a prince, and that was how Yan Er found her.
"So when you said she is married," Zhi Hang said slowly, looking aghast, "you mean she is married to a prince?"
From his tone, it was clear that Zhi Hang thought the idea was preposterous. Impossible. Insane.
And Xue Yin had to agree with him.
Yan Er and Qing Er exchanged another look.
"He was a prince when she married him, yes," Yan Er said, and Xue Yin could hear the nervousness in his voice. "As I said, when I was here last, her father-in-law, by whom I mean the previous emperor, had just passed away. Her husband is now the emperor."
Maybe Xue Yin needed to redefine impossible and insane.
For a moment, the silence seemed deafening in the cold prison cell.
"The emperor?" Zhi Hang repeated while Xue Yin could not think of anything to say, and both Yi Er and Cheng An stared at Yan Er. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that Fang Ci is now Yi Fei, consort to the current emperor."
Of all the things she could possibly imagine, of all the things she could have expected Yan Er to say about where Xiao Ci was, this was the last thing Xue Yin could ever possibly imagine.
"What?" Zhi Hang asked, his voice scarily low and quiet.
Xue Yin really had no idea how she, herself, felt about such a revelation, let alone had the energy to wonder how her husband did. She only leaned against the wall behind her and looked breathlessly at her elder son.
"That's impossible!" Yi Er exclaimed, looking furious, an expression that Xue Yin did not like amidst the already confusing situation. "You must be joking, how could something like this be true?"
"You think I am insane enough to joke about something like this?" Yan Er asked seriously. "As if this family isn't in enough danger of losing all our heads already – again. How could I even begin to make something like that up?"
"How could you allow her do that? How could you let her marry such a man?"
Yan Er laughed tersely. "You are under the impression that I can allow Xiao Yan Zi do anything. Believe me, I don't. And what do you know of him that you would say 'such a man' is not one for her to marry?"
"What do I know of him?" Yi Er said hotly. "That family is our enemy, the ones who ordered Father's death and tore our family apart! Of all the families in the world to marry, you let her marry into that one?"
"Again," Yan Er said with forced patience, "Xiao Yan Zi has never required my permission to let her do anything. The situation is a lot more complicated than you're making it out to be! It's not that simple, Ah Yi!"
"How? How is it not simple?" Yi Er demanded.
Yan Er was about to reply, but Zhi Hang cut them off sharply. "Enough!"
Both of them fell silent; Yan Er looked frustrated while Yi Er fumed. Qing Er looked distinctly uncomfortable. Cheng An seemed unable to accept what he was hearing and simply looked dazed. As for Xue Yin, she just didn't know what to make of the information she just heard.
There were so many reasons for her to echo Yi Er's questions right then, though she knew for a different reason than her youngest child was demanding answers from his brother. Even if such thing were somehow ever remotely possible in her imagination, she would never have wished for her daughter to spend her life in the palace, trapped away from the world and as only one of the so many women who belonged to the emperor. Even in the short days after she was born and when Zhi Hang was still a respected official, such thing had always seemed impossible. They lived so far away from the capital, for one thing. Their family was not ranked high enough, for another. Even if she never thought about a marriage other than to Li Cheng An for Xiao Ci, she could never have imagined something like this.
"She really is the emperor's consort?" Zhi Hang asked Yan Er, his voice struggling to keep even. His lack of reaction so far made Xue Yin's insides twist in concern. He was not happy about this, she knew, but then, how could any of them be truly happy at such a revelation?
Many other people would be happy, Xue Yin thought. To many others, perhaps such a position was something one could only dream of. Xue Yin, on the other hand, never had so much ambitions for her children. Zhi Hang's relationship with the throne and the power that sat on it was complicated enough that even if he were still an official, he would not have desired this either.
"Yes," Yan Er said. "And before you say any more against this, Father, Mother, please know that it took me a long time to accept this as well. She married him because she loves him, and honestly, I like him as well."
"You like him?" Zhi Hang asked, both skeptical and guarded.
"Yes," Yan Er insisted. "And unlike my sister, who never had any preconceived notions against him when she met him, I did, and I didn't want to like him. For a long time, my purpose coming to Beijing other than finding my sister was to seek revenge upon the man who would become her father-in-law, so I resisted against every positive idea of his son. Believe me, when I first met Xiao Yan – Xiao Ci, and found out who she was engaged to, the idea made me sick. But the more I got to know him, as a person, not as Qian Long's son, not as a prince, and certainly not as the emperor he is now, the harder it was to keep disliking him. He loves Xiao Yan Zi way too much for his own good, and if only you knew what he did for her, would do for her, you'd find it hard to not at least appreciate him as well."
"Like him? Appreciate him?" Yi Er exclaimed. "After everything our family has been through, you dare say such thing?"
Yan Er sighed. "Look, the only reason I'm not trying to fight this blatant prejudice you're displaying against him is because I know what it feels like. Heaven, do I know! I don't expect any of you to love the idea of who Xiao Ci is married to, or her current position, but it is the reality now. I just beg that you reserve judgement until you meet them. For myself, eventually I find that Ai Xin Jue Luo Yong Qi is impossibly hard to hate and yes, Qing Er, I know I can't call him that – "
The last part was said swiftly as at the sound of the emperor's personal name, Qing Er gave a strangled gasp of warning, looking around furtively. The jail guards were nowhere within earshot, thankfully.
"Meet them?" Xue Yin asked, not sure how she was supposed to feel about this. "How is that even possible?"
"Honestly she is the only hope we have of getting out of this alive," Yan Er said wearily. "But even despite that, I would have rather our being here does not get linked back to her in any way, because it would also put her in too much danger."
"So that was what all that conversation between you and Qing Er was about," Xue Yin said.
"Yes," Qing Er finally spoke up. "If was anyone else in charge of this investigation, I would never have mentioned her name. But as I said, Fu Er Tai's brother is married to my cousin, and he also happens to be one of the emperor's closest and most trusted friends. I know he would be discreet about this, which might give us a small chance of surviving this."
"You did not tell us that your family had quite so much power," Zhi Hang said to Qing Er.
She smiled awkwardly and said, "I – I did not think it particularly relevant in Yunnan. It did not seem appropriate to elaborate about such things, and when I married and left my family, I did not expect to ever be able to take advantage of any benefits they could give me any longer."
Zhi Hang was still looking at Qing Er curiously, and Xue Yin knew he saw, as she did, that the look Qing Er and Yan Er exchanged now meant there was still much more to be said on this matter. That immediate moment did not seem to be ideal to discuss Qing Er's situation further, however, not when every one of them were so much more preoccupied with the recent reveal about Xiao Ci.
"This is not how I intended to tell you about Xiao Yan Zi," Yan Er said ruefully, momentarily distracting them from the issue of Qing Er's family. "This is definitely not how I intended Xiao Yan Zi to find out about Father and Mother being alive. I wanted to tell her in person, which is why I brought everyone up here. I certainly did not want for her to read it in a court transcript, for Heaven's sake."
"Well, likely Er Tai won't be quite that callous and would actually talk to her instead of sticking a bunch of paper in her face," Qing Er said. "Or, Huang Shang would."
"When you say that she is our best hope of survival, what does that even mean?" Zhi Hang demanded. "You really think that our lives and her life could be spared when the emperor finds out who her father is, and the death sentence I escaped from all those years ago, on top of this current situation we are in?"
"Oh, he knows," Yan Er said.
"He knows?"
"Well, he knows whose daughter she is, how you were supposed to die, and why. Of course, neither of them knows that you escaped from the beheading, but since Qing Er has now told Fu Er Tai, I gather he will know that soon enough. I hope he tells her before she finds out through some other means."
"You cannot be serious," Zhi Hang said. "How could he still make her his consort when he knows about me?"
Yan Er answered with a small smile, "That's what I meant when I said he loves her too much for his own good, Father. That is why I can trust him to do everything to protect her now, and it would mean protecting our lives as well. I am sorry, though, that it will mean he will be put in between a rock and a hard place as a result. And if it's worth anything, the previous emperor also found out about our family eventually, and he was able to accept Xiao Yan Zi as his daughter-in-law."
Xue Yin could not believe her ears, and it seemed that Zhi Hang could not either, because he spent the next few minutes interrogating Yan Er on the matter. And even at the end of it, Zhi Hang looked as disbelieving and shocked as Xue Yin felt about everything their son had just told them about their daughter.
It was all almost too much to take in.
What was he talking about?
It was too much to take in.
Fang Zhi Hang didn't know when his life had started to unravel. Perhaps it started the moment he listened to his father and pursued the imperial examinations for officials. His family had participated in civil service for generations, stretching back to the Ming dynasty, serving the people rather than emperor, who changed with the will of Heaven. When the Ming dynasty was overthrown and the Manchu took over, his ancestors had kept their heads down and did not resist against the changes, though they were far from happy about it. And so it continued in their family, all the way down to Zhi Hang. He proceeded through each level of the examinations, his name not quite bearing first in the final state examination in Beijing, but it was enough to be assigned a position in his home town. It had been the start of a road that led down to this day.
Everything Fang Yan had just told him, just put new meanings to a conversation they had once, when they first found Fang Yan – or was it Fang Yan who found them? It hardly mattered.
"Father, can I ask you something? That poem…the poem, did it mean anything?"
"What do you mean by that, exactly?"
"Did you have any intentions to go with that poem, or was it just a poem?"
"Would it make any difference?"
Fang Yan had hesitated a long time. "I do not know," he had said finally, though Zhi Hang could see clearly that it was not sincere. There had to be a reason his son was bringing up this subject. Zhi Hang couldn't figure out what the reason was then, but it was clear as day now.
"If I told you it wasn't just a poem, would you despise me?"
"I would not dare, Father."
This was the moment when Zhi Hang turned to look his son – whom at the time he barely knew – in the eye. "Would you support me?"
"I would not dare," he said again, much more softly now. A silence stretched between them. "Forgive me, Father, but our family had paid too hefty a price for those four lines, the total amount of which none of us could quite begin to calculate. I just wish I cared more about some things, and less about others, so that I need not hesitate in telling you I would support you, even to the extinction of our family line, for a greater good."
"But you do hesitate."
"I hesitate, because the past has taught me what I have to lose and made me wonder whether what could be gained would even be worth it, especially when I know what those who we may seek to oppose would lose as well. I wish I could say I would rejoice in the losses of those who put our family in this current situation, but I would not. It would seem like their losses would be my losses as well."
It became clear now, that then, Fang Yan wasn't speaking in broad abstract terms. He must have been thinking of specific people when he said those words.
The truth was, in many ways, it was just a poem.
An expression of a crazy dream, a dream of a world so different from the one they lived in, one where people were actually free to choose their rulers. Yet every dynasty had been established in war and bloodshed and takeovers. Since when did normal people who wished to live in peace ever really had a say in the matter?
If there was something Fang Zhi Hang reluctantly understood, it was that overthrowing an empire was not as easy as anyone made it out to be. Unless Heaven put a true tyrant on the throne to test the will of the people, enraging a large enough number of the population enough rise up and rebel, any arbitrary discontent he felt regarding a group he considered foreigners ruling over his country would just be adding salt to an ocean: a useless act. People in general were always wont to avoid conflict and world-shattering changes, unless the status quo proved to be even more horrifying than said conflict.
His discontent, expressed in what he thought were private writings, when exposed by enemies, had been disastrous for his family, condemning many relatives to slavery or death. When Li Xiang saved him from death's doors all those years ago, after all the grief and the guilt he felt for having been the reason for the suffering of so many, the reason to push his friend to a death before his time, he had vowed that he would not squander such sacrifice. He would take care of Cheng An, he would live a quiet life with Xue Yin, and any other children they may have, and Heaven willing, he'd find his lost son and daughter again. Then they could all just be together, no longer involving their lives in the murky waters of politics, no longer caring who was on the throne.
Except now, apparently Heaven was forcing him to care.
His only daughter was adopted by the very man by whose law Fang Zhi Hang had almost died – should have died. As if only to pile more mockery on the matter, she then married his son, who now held Zhi Hang and his entire family's life in his hand; indeed, he held far more power – both in general and over him – than Zhi Hang ever thought he could be comfortable with in a son-in-law. How did one even deal with the idea of such a person for a son-in-law?
(Son-in-law wasn't even that correct a descriptor, Zhi Hang thought. After all, from the look of things, Xiao Ci wasn't and would never be the man's official wife. That alone left a bitter taste in Zhi Hang's mouth.)
"All this makes no sense," Fang Yi was saying to his brother, drawing Zhi Hang out of his thoughts. "How could you have not told Jiejie about who the emperor was to her?"
"How could I have?" Fang Yan argued. "When I met her, she was already engaged. It would have been a right pleasant conversation to tell her that the man who loved her as a daughter, whose son she was engaged to, was the reason for our father's death."
"Of course it would not have been pleasant!" Fang Yi scoffed. "But as you said she was engaged, it's not as if she was married yet, why wouldn't you want to save her from such a marriage?"
"Because I saw early on that she didn't want to be saved. She wanted that marriage. No one forced her into it. As she chose to love the previous emperor as her father, she chose to marry his son and I'm sorry if you can't understand how I could not bear to break her heart over something in the past that I thought could never be changed!"
"But she knows now, yes, who Father was – is?"
"Yes, but it wasn't my choice to tell her. The circumstances which led to her knowing was forced on us, and seeing the pain she suffered for knowing, I wish I never had to tell her."
"To be fair, not telling Xiao Yan Zi things has generally not led to very great consequences," Qing Er said.
"Not helping, Qing Er," Fang Yan grumbled. Then he turned back to Fang Yi, looking like he was forcing himself to be calm. "Look, Ah Yi, you are looking at this like there's just our family and the enemy. To you, the emperor and his family are the enemy, Heaven knows you've proven that view point already since that's how we got into this mess! But to Xiao Yan Zi, it's not like that! To her, they are her sworn sister, her husband whom, for reasons that Heaven help me, I understand, she loves, and the man who was the only father she ever knew."
"So what you're saying is that she took the enemy to be her father – the ultimate unfilial act – and you would defend her?"
Fang Yan buried his face in his hands and groaned. "This is like my past self coming back to haunt me." He shook his head and looked up at his brother and said, frustrated, "Heaven, Ah Yi, it's not that black and white!"
"How is it not?!"
"People – even emperors and princes and princesses, yes – aren't just bad because you want to make them into the villain of your story! Life happens, and yes sometimes it leads to things like your sister meeting and marrying the last person you expect or want her to love, but could you wait until you meet at least one of them to condemn her?"
Watching this conversation between his two sons, Zhi Hang could not help but wonder how odd it was, that for two brothers who placed much value in the same things – ultimate loyalty – they could end up having so different opinions about the same issue. How was it possible that they could apply that loyalty in so wildly different ways? At that moment, all his own misgivings about the match aside, the rational part of Zhi Hang told him he should at least give Fang Yan's view of things more credit, since of all of them in this cell, aside from Qing Er, he actually knew Xiao Ci and the man she married. Besides, if Fang Yan had a point, it was that he should at least attempt to reserve judgement until he met his daughter and the man she apparently married. He did not particularly wish to give the emperor any benefit of the doubt, but trying to imagine either of them right now mostly likely would just give him a headache.
As he tried not to think too much about his daughter's marriage to the emperor (the emperor, really?), Zhi Hang also looked over at Cheng An in concern. He had been much too quiet for Zhi Hang's liking. It was strange, because engaged since Xiao Ci's birth she and Cheng An were, all these years, none of them could quite bring themselves to hope strongly enough that Xiao Ci was really alive to much imagine the possibility. This was why neither Zhi Hang nor Xue Yin were against Cheng An marrying his first wife, Shi Yu Lan, despite the fact that he had always been engaged to their daughter. Now, the table was quite turned; Yu Lan was no longer living and Cheng An was quite free to marry Xiao Ci now they knew she lived, but she was impossibly out of Cheng An's grasp now. Cheng An's quietness now showed that the whole idea of Xiao Ci being married bothered him more than was probably healthy, considering how she had been an abstract concept to him most of his life.
The whole thing was too confusing from all fronts, and it did not help that they were all stuck in this small cell now, with the future seeming murkier than ever.
"What will happen now?" Zhi Hang asked, putting a temporary stop to his sons' argument which looked likely to carry on forever.
"I do not know," Fang Yan said. "Qing Er, what did you say to Fu Er Tai? Or what did he say to you?"
"Well, clearly he can't just release us, not on his own authority anyway. I suppose as soon as he tells everyone who needs to know about us, we'll get out of here one way or another," Qing Er said.
"You are so very sure about that?" Zhi Hang asked.
"We definitely would not be allowed free, but I don't expect Huang Shang to leave us here," Qing Er said, as if that was the simplest thing in the world.
Zhi Hang was skeptical. It didn't seem possible that the emperor would just decide to release them from jail considering why they were in jail in the first place, regardless of how much he loved Xiao Ci as Fang Yan seemed to claim. (That was still something that Zhi Hang was still having trouble wrapping his head around. The fact that he could hardly imagine his own daughter now – in the situation his son described – probably didn't help the matter either.)
"This is still going to put him in a hell of a position, though," Fang Yan said ruefully.
"Yes," Qing Er said, sighing, "Though it is hardly the first time. Granted, last time, it was just only one of you instead of so many of us, even if then we had decidedly less control over the whole thing."
"I rather think we still don't have much control now. Sure, there is no longer Lao Fo Ye to demand our heads, but this is not an obscure case that is easy to hush up. If anything, the manner in which we were taken seemed rather all too public. You cannot tell me he could just let us go merrily on our ways without having to answer to the officials in court."
"Of course not, but you know he would not let us suffer either, not for Xiao Yan Zi's sake, also not for our own," Qing Er insisted. "You trust him enough to believe that, do you not?"
"Of course," Fang Yan said wearily. It was not a particularly comforting tone to Zhi Hang's ears, and only seemed to foreshadow great struggles still to come. He wondered whether Fang Yan really believed it.
"You both think we would get out of this alive?" Zhi Hang asked.
Fang Yan seemed to understand his skepticism, because what he said more firmly, "I do believe we are not going to die by my sister's husband's and my friend's orders. How much that is going to be due to his position as emperor, I cannot say. We could just end up faking all our deaths again for all I can guess."
"We've gotten out straits just as dire before," Qing Er mused.
"Some with more desired results than others, I might add," Fang Yan muttered and if the look he gave Qing Er was any indication, the comment was getting at some long-standing disagreement between them that they could not resolve, because Qing Er looked exasperated, even if she didn't answer.
"What we are trying to say, Father, Mother, is that I wasn't trying to court death when I told the person in charge of investigating our case the truth that we would otherwise wish to conceal," Qing Er said gently. "I was trying to do the opposite. I trust Fu Er Tai to think of a way to save our lives, or at least, to take it to the one person who could at the moment."
"And you believe he would save our lives – this emperor?"
"Yes," both Fang Yan and Qing Er said at the same time.
And as if to prove a point in favour of Qing Er's judgement, there was suddenly the sound of footsteps. From the darkness appeared some people who apparently were sent by Fu Daren to bring in blankets and warm food for the Fang family.