CH 23

Folk customs in the Northern Desert were rough, and Ye Zhao was used to living with coarse soldiers. The most refined person around her was Fox, but the speed with which even he gobbled up his meat rivaled Laohu’s. Therefore, she knew very little about what went on in the minds of the fragile dandies of the capital. In the end, exchanging him for the boudoir beauties she knew in her mind, she barely managed to guess where Xia Yujin’s long face came from. Carefully, to make sure, she told him, “The blade… I’ve cleaned it.”

Could you really completely clean a blade that had killed people before cutting food with it?

The look Xia Yujin gave her could only be described as bitter hatred.

Scratching her head, Ye Zhao called Qiu Shui to bring them a brand-new machete. She sliced some meat again, explaining, “It’s the first time the blade has cut anything. It hasn’t touched blood before.”

Xia Yujin stayed silent for a while, then weakly asked, “Don’t the kitchens have silver knives for cutting meat?”

“Are those things worthy of being called knives?” Ye Zhao said disdainfully. 

On her first birthday, during the birthday-grab,[1] she gave up a full room of items to crawl on her grandfather’s lap, not relinquishing her firm grasp on his “Green Wind” sword. Her grandfather, overjoyed, immediately concluded she would learn martial arts. Now that she was an adult, apart from her strong passion for fighting, her biggest hobby was to collect famous weapons of every kind. Every time she saw a new toy, she had to scratch the itch again, and irresistibly spent large sums of money. Battlefields were good places to acquire weapons, too. She currently owned every sort of weapons; short and long, projectiles to hide on one’s person, at least several hundred strange blades, all from the works of master craftsmen. Where could anyone find ordinary stuff such as meat-cutting silver knives? 

Xia Yujin shuddered when he saw the terrifying glint appearing in her eyes when weapons were mentioned, and decided not to touch this subject again. He wasn’t in the mood to eat even Lao Gao’s lamb meat, if he could eat at all, but he forced himself to erase those thoughts from his mind, picked and ate a few newly-sliced bits of meat, and then told Ye Zhao about his recent appointment by the Emperor. His grievances culminated into: “Now I don’t need your support anymore!”

“Alright,” Ye Zhao said, swiftly placating him. “Then I still expect you to support me.”

Xia Yujin didn’t like hearing those words. “Are you making fun of me?” he asked furiously. 

Ye Zhao shook her head. “Never!” 

“You’d better!” Xia Yujin replied, susceptible. 

Ye Zhao let out a sigh. “Really, I’m not.”

Xia Yujin decided not to mull any further on his wife’s train of thought, impervious to reason as it was. “The Emperor chose me to be the city censor,” he continued, giving up, “but he has to mind my status. No matter how badly I do, I’m still the Empress Dowager’s direct grandson. He has to spare me from too much humiliation, no matter who he is. Anyway, no one wants that position nowadays. If I do well, it’ll be a good surprise, but if I do badly, it’ll be just as expected. He’s making the best use of everything.”

“You’re not so useless,” Ye Zhao said. 

But Xia Yujin laughed self-derisively. “After over ten years of time-wasting, I can’t do anything but enjoy the pleasures of life and play around. I haven’t achieved anything. If it weren’t for my rank, no one would show me a shred of respect.”

“Your rank is precisely what others are falling over themselves to achieve.”

Xia Yujin disdainfully scoffed. “I was just born with it.”

Ye Zhao turned the machete in her hand and slowly asked, “I was born with my natural disposition for martial arts, and with my high rank too. If I weren’t Ye Zhong’s son, if I hadn’t relied on the prestige of the Ye family to raise troops in the Northern Desert, would so many have rallied? Would they have followed me so easily? If you weren’t the Empress Dowager’s grandson…”

“For fuck’s sake!” She hadn’t even finished talking when Xia Yujin threw the bone he was holding at her head. “You’re Ye Zhong’s daughter! Not his son! That should be clear to you! I didn’t marry a man!”

“Force of habit,” Ye Zhao said, dodging the bone. She scratched at her head awkwardly and smiled. “I was born fortunate, so being fortunate is also one of my natural dispositions. You think that the Emperor betrothed me to you so that I would crush your standing. But that’s not the case. He hoped you could back me up.”

This joke wasn’t funny. 

Xia Yujin laughed drily, feeling his face spasm. 

But Ye Zhao went on. “During the years of turmoil in the Great Qin, I, a woman, took on the position of general. There was no alternative. Nowadays, as is the rule, the officials who fill the court are all men, and even among the ranks of the military there is no shortage of men of outstanding talent. How could they agree to let a mere woman have power over them? Even if they refrain from raising the issue for a while, they’ll eventually take action if it goes on for too long. Besides, there is only one position of Great General of the nation’s forces, and everyone covets it. If I don’t fall one day, the position will never go to anyone else.”

“The Emperor’s mind is still sharp. As long as you don’t rise above your station, what should you worry about?”

Ye Zhao shook her head. “Rumors can obscure the truth and constant slander can ruin someone. No one can say what the future holds.”

What she couldn’t add was that, from time immemorial, it was safer to dispose of someone once they’d served their purpose. A good general who’d accumulated merits and didn’t conceal his strength forged his master’s suspicions and rarely ended well. Those days, she held great military power and had won the people’s sympathy. Even though the current Emperor was wise and discerning and had full confidence of her loyalty to him, there was no guarantee that each and every one of her descendents would be so loyal and devoted. And she couldn’t be sure either that the Crown Prince, once he ascended to the throne, wouldn’t take back his authority on the army and thoroughly clean its ranks. 

Remembering the fate of the ministers who had founded the dynasty, Xia Yujin’s heart held the same doubts. His first impulse was to curse angrily, but then he remembered again that the people he wanted to curse were his own ancestors and, wishing to avoid a beating when he met them in the afterlife, prudently shut his mouth. 

“But luckily our Emperor is benevolent, governs rightly, and understands my situation. He’s always been called wise.” Feeling that the time was almost right, Ye Zhao happily told him everything. “After we secured our victory in the Northern Desert, I immediately wrote to him to confess my crime to and beg for forgiveness for deceiving my sovereign and the whole nation. At the time, I had the people’s sympathy, and the officials were all bragging that the Emperor knew how to choose and direct his subjects. Even if he was dissatisfied, he would not go against the general wishes and kill me on the spot. Then I sent him a second letter, thanking him for his favor, telling him I wished to marry and live as a woman, to assuage the souls and spirits of my deceased parents.” Here Ye Zhao paused, a smile on her face. “And tell me… Who could the Emperor marry me to?”

Even though Ye Zhao was willing to hang up her armor, all the soldiers and officers in the Northern Desert army had braved countless dangers at her sides. They revered her as a god and followed her blindly. No matter who took over after her, they would never be able to convince the troops.

The gifts from the Emperor—the black iron whip, the jeweled head ornament, the land deeds—were all unimportant. Her real dowry was the five hundred thousand men of the Northern Desert army, the prestige of the Ye family, and the glory of having defeated the Man Jin. Regardless of who she married, the imperial family would never rest easy—but matching her to the unambitious Xia Yujin was sending this dowry directly to the throne. 

From then on, she could not only be the Great General of the nation’s armies, but also the princess consort of Nanping, an in-law of the imperial family, and one of the mistresses of the Xia family. Sons taking on their father’s status, any children of hers would inherit the title of prince of Nanping, rather than the Ye family’s military power. Moreover, she could leave the Northern Desert, be promoted through her marriage, still be in charge of the realm’s forces, and control the troops in the north from a distance, so that the newly-appointed officers by the court would not encounter too much resistance, and they could slowly take over. Then, at the end of her life, it would be perfectly justifiable to hand her military authority back to the throne. She and the Emperor would be known as a devoted servant to a wise ruler. 

Ye Zhao sighed. “The Emperor is a good and wise man. He married me to you to protect me. Anyone who tries to scheme to isolate and frame me will have to take my double status into account. If I’m removed from my position as Great General, I can make use of your name and use the title of princess to go against them.”

Xia Yujin was no fool, but he’d been blinded by anger. After he untangled his thoughts and processed everything logically, he realized that:

First, they were both borrowing each other’s prestige.

Second, they were each other’s back-up. 

Third, the Emperor was a weasel, who did not squander an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. 

However, if they divorced and Ye Zhao lost the security of her status inside the imperial  family, what would she do? 

Ye Zhao waved her hand, unperturbed. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. I’ll eventually find a solution.”

The dowry problem was tricky. She had no choice but to get married again. The imperial family wouldn’t stop worrying about their young, talented and outstanding children, and the daughter of the Duke Protector’s main wife couldn’t be someone’s concubine either. Her only other options were remarrying an old seventy- or eighty-year-old widower prince, or an imperial bastard with a disgraceful temper in every capacity. In the end, there would be no good match awaiting her. 

Although this woman was a terrible wife, she was a meritorious general of the Great Qin. How could this be her fate? 

Was she actually bringing about someone else’s downfall, or her own? What a quandary… 

Ye Zhao smiled and raised her cup to him. “Stop thinking about it. A toast! Cheers!” 

Xia Yujin reached and gently clinked their cups. He didn’t dare look at her youthful face again. 

That overwhelming feeling lightly spread from his heart, a ripple on the water.

There we have an explanation for the marriage! It was interesting, and not something they made explicit in the show, so I was glad to have it.

[1 ^] Lit. 抓周 zhuāzhōu, “custom of placing a variety of articles (writing brush, abacus etc) before an infant on its first birthday to see which one he or she picks up (The article chosen is supposed to be an indication of the child’s inclinations, future career etc.)” (MDBG).