CH 28

“Ah, I’m just here to pass my older brother some clothes,” Lan Shanyu said. He felt that he had to explain himself when he set eyes on the crimson bird’s bright little eyes. 

“The High Priest is your older brother?” Chen Ziqi gaped in astonishment. He remembered something that he’d found strange before as he looked at the nine pearls on the High Priest’s guan. He then turned his eyes to the nine sapphires on Lan Shanyu’s guan. Other than the colour, the design of the two guan were practically identical.

He suddenly felt like he’d been enlightened.

“It’s drafty in the doorway. Dianxia, why don’t you come in and have a seat?” the High Priest said. He was his usual calm, dignified self again as he invited Chen Ziqi to come forward.

The Taizhen Palace didn’t look as spacious in winter as it had in summer. Tall wooden screens were used to block off the cold winds from outside, creating a smaller, warm space in the main hall. Wooden slats had been placed on the floor to create a short platform, and warm sheepskin rugs were strewn all over the platform. The futons on the floor had also been changed from the usual straw ones to the cushioned type, and a fire burned merrily in an incense burner that was as tall as a man. 

Chen Ziqi sat in front of the short table, and some assistants immediately came forward to place fluffy rugs over his legs. They also gave him a small hand warmer. The little red bird felt the warmth emanating from the small hand warmer, and pressed his small wings against it.

“Don’t move. If you fall into the hand warmer, you’ll turn into a roast chicken,” Chen Ziqi said, pushing the bird back into his clothes before looking up at the two adults.

“Pfft–” Lan Shanyu immediately choked on his tea when he heard Chen Ziqi describe the little red bird as a “roast chicken”. 

“Relax, I won’t tell anyone about you and the High Priest having a tryst,” Chen Ziqi said, a serious expression on his face.

“A tryst?” The High Priest’s hands faltered, and he looked at the little red bird, which had popped its head out of Chen Ziqi’s clothes again. “Dianxia, this is not a word that should be used lightly.”

Chen Ziqi scratched his head. “You’re meeting someone in private – isn’t that what a tryst means?” Chen Ziqi asked. If word got out that the High Priest of the Zhang Dynasty having regular contact with the Cloud Palace, surely that would not be good for the High Priest?

“No,” the High Priest said. “That’s not what a tryst means.”

Things had already come to this, so the High Priest decided to explain that he was originally from the Cloud Palace to begin with.

On hearing this, Chen Ziqi stood up to leave immediately. “I think I’d rather not know such a big secret,” he said. Knowledge was a dangerous commodity in the palace.The more you knew, the faster you perished.

“It’s not a secret,” the High Priest said. He couldn’t help smiling in amusement when he saw Chen Ziqi’s reaction. “The Emperor knows of this.”

“Huh?” Chen Ziqi stopped in his tracks and looked suspiciously at the High Priest.

Other people might not have known about this fact, but the Emperor certainly did. Lan Jiangxue’s allegiance had originally been to the Phoenix King before he became the High Priest. The position of High Priest was a special one that could only be fulfilled by members of the Lan family, and Lan Jiangxue was chosen as the candidate for his generation.

Most of the important ministers in the Imperial Court came from the major martial arts sects. This was something that couldn’t be helped; if you didn’t come from a major sect, you wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of education to begin with. However, it was a surprise to Chen Ziqi that even the position of High Priest belonged to someone whose loyalties did not lie entirely with the Emperor…

Chen Ziqi thought back on the time Dan Yi was living in the palace. The Emperor had asked him whether Dan Yi met with the High Priest. Clearly, the Emperor had misgivings about the High Priest being affiliated with the Cloud Palace, which was why he had asked Chen Ziqi this question.

“Big Brother Lan, how’s Dan Yi?” Chen Ziqi asked. At that time, Lan Shanyu had gone back with Dan Yi when he left for the Cloud Palace. Now that Lan Shanyu was back in the Capital, why hadn’t Dan Yi come along as well?

Lan Shanyu glanced furtively at the fluffy little bird head poking out of Chen Ziqi’s chest. “He’s… doing well,” he said evasively.

The little red bird stared hard at Lan Shanyu, then tilted its head. The two long crown feathers on its head swayed with the movement.

“Ah, I still have things to deal with in the Peacock Wing, so I’ll make a move first,” Lan Shanyu said, getting to his feet noisily. He disappeared in a trice, as if he were being chased by wild dogs.

With Lan Shanyu gone, Chen Ziqi relaxed and spoke openly about the divine chicken with the High Priest. He pulled a corner of the warm rug covering his legs toward the short table, and used the hand warmer as a weight to hold that corner on the table before taking the little bird out of his clothes and setting it down on the corner of the rug next to the hand warmer.

The little chick hadn’t come into its full plumage yet, and Chen Ziqi was afraid it would get sick from the cold. He placed his hands around the little chick to make sure it didn’t run around. “High Priest, the divine chicken’s back, but why is it that it doesn’t look like it’s grown at all? When is it going to grow proper feathers?” he asked.

“Divine creatures have very long lives. It follows that they also grow very slowly. You must have heard before that fairy children still look like children after a thousand years,” the High Priest said, smiling gently. He looked at the little fluffy chick, then suddenly remembered that his Young Master would get cold in winter when he was in bird form. He had to get someone to make warm clothes for him to wear.

With this in mind, he took out a piece of paper, dipped a fine brush in ink, and started to draw.

“Tweet!” The little red bird didn’t want to stand on the short table, and he hopped onto Chen Ziqi’s arm, flapping his wings a little. He bounded onto Chen Ziqi’s head in a trice and pecked at the strands of hair that had fallen out of Chen Ziqi’s bun, making a little nest for himself there.

The High Priest finished drawing the design for the bird’s clothes and looked up from the paper. He found that the little bird had closed its eyes as it nestled on Chen Ziqi’s head, and Chen Ziqi was in the midst of reaching up to pet it. He couldn’t help but press his lips together in an amused smile, and set his brush to the paper again. Before long, a picture of a young child with a little chick on his head appeared on the paper in flowing lines.

After Chen Ziqi plucked the little bird out of his hair and turned to look at the High Priest again, he saw the High Priest matter-of-factly stamping his personal seal on the painting he had just drawn. 

“High Priest, are you asking me to make clothes for the divine chicken?” Chen Ziqi asked, looking at the sketch of the bird’s clothes. It was a tiny little vest with furred sides, narrow at the top and wide on the bottom.

“Nn. It’s cold in winter, so you need to clothe the chicken… ahem, the divine bird, or else it can’t run around in the snow,” the High Priest said, smiling blithely.

“Tweet!” The little red bird flapped its wings in dissatisfaction.

Chen Ziqi nodded obediently. He stretched his hand out to take the sketch. “I’ll ask my mum to try making this,” he said. He wasn’t really sure if he’d succeed, however; his little fairy would probably think he’d lost his mind when he asked her to make clothes for his chicken.

The High Priest had originally thought to get Lan Shanyu to place an order for the vest, but since Chen Ziqi offered, he didn’t reject it. He smiled and nodded at Chen Ziqi. “Since the Protector-God has returned, you should keep him next to you when you practice martial arts. It will be beneficial to Dianxia’s cultivation,” he advised.

Chen Ziqi folded the sketch carefully and put it into his sleeve. He silently observed the little red bird pecking at some snacks next to the hand warmer for a while. “Is the Cloud Palace affiliated in some way to the Protector-God?” he asked suddenly. Dan Yi had taught him a new breathing method, and now the High Priest was saying that the little red bird would be beneficial to his cultivation…

“Of course. Lan Shanyu and I are servants of the Protector-God,” the High Priest said with a faint smile.

“Then what about Dan Yi?” Chen Ziqi asked, raising his head to look at the High Priest. His small hands slowly clenched into fists inside his sleeves. Did Dan Yi only make friends with him because he was the Protector-God’s chosen one?

The High Priest looked at the little red bird, who had now stopped pecking at the snacks. “The Young Master… is different from us,” he said. He did not elaborate on what this difference was.

However, this was enough to allay Chen Ziqi’s fears. Chen Ziqi secretly heaved a sigh of relief, then picked up the little bird and shook the snack crumbs off it. He put the little bird back into his clothes, bade farewell to the High Priest, and walked back to his palace, the thin layer of snow on the ground crunching under his feet.

“Mum, what are you doing?” Chen Ziqi called.

“Sigh, Ah Mu has a high fever, and I heard that he’s in a pretty bad state. I’m going to have a look,” Chang Er said. Her concern for Ah Mu was written all over her face. This wasn’t something she should ordinarily have bothered with, but the little fatty had been coming over for half a year now, and she’d started to develop some motherly feelings for him as well.

“I’ll go too,” Chen Ziqi said, moving to follow his mother. However, Chang Er stopped him.

“You’re still small, and your body’s weak. You’re not to go,” Chang Er said. She herself turned and left in great haste.

When Chang Er arrived at Chaoyang Palace, the Empress and a few other concubines were already there, scolding the palace servants fiercely. “Is this how you look after an Imperial Prince? How could you not notice that he’d pushed off his blankets in the middle of the night? Even if he froze to death, you probably wouldn’t have realised it!”

The Imperial Physician said that Ah Mu had caught a chill in the night. When small children caught chills, it was usually because they had kicked off their blankets. This also meant that Chen Zimu had been left unattended at night. 

“Empress niangniang, please investigate this carefully! We servants have not been slacking off, but it snowed suddenly last night, and the little prince has a weak constitution, which is why…” the palace maid in charge of Ah Mu’s care said, trying to explain herself.

“These two days have been cold! Is there a difference whether it snows or not? You mean to say that you would give him a thin summer blanket if it doesn’t snow?” Chang Er retorted, cutting the palace maid off. She couldn’t tolerate listening to this palace maid any more.

The Empress didn’t reprimand Chang Er for cutting in, which indicated that she agreed with what Chang Er had said.

A few of the palace maids started to shiver in fright, and didn’t say any more.

After Chang Er returned to the Qingyun Palace that night, she still felt very dissatisfied with the whole situation. She held her rice bowl in one hand, looking at her son slurping down hot noodles with great gusto. She hesitated for a bit, then spoke up. “Little bratty bastard, your old mother wants to discuss something with you,” she said.

“What?” Chen Ziqi gulped the soup in the bowl down noisily, then extended the empty bowl to Chang Er.

Chang Er took the bowl and ladled more noodles and soup into it. Even though she was now a Pin, she still dismissed the servants during mealtimes because she felt more comfortable eating without them waiting on her. “I went to see the little fatty, and he was burning up like a stove. He kept calling out for his jiujiu and gege, and my heart really goes out to him,” she said.

“And so?” Chen Ziqi asked, accepting the refilled bowl. He took a big slurp of noodles and stuffed a piece of pork elbow into his mouth.

“I’m thinking, now that I’ve been promoted to Yue Pin, my monthly allowance has also increased by a lot, and I can afford to support one more person. How about I ask to adopt Ah Mu? He can be your brother…” Chang Er said, a little torn. In the past, there was no way she would have even considered doing this – it was a lot of work for little or no reward. It had also been very difficult to raise one son on her own, let alone take in someone else’s child.

It was different now, though. As a Pin, she had the right to adopt other princes. Furthermore, for Chen Ziqi to live well in the palace, he needed to have people on his side. If she was already going to extend some kindness to Ah Mu every now and then, she might as well just adopt him and officially make him one of their own. Over and above all these justifications, it had to be said that Chang Er really pitied little Ah Mu.

“Tweet!” The little red bird now had its own small bowl to eat from, and was pecking noodles from it. When it heard Chang Er’s suggestion, it looked up immediately and chirped in dissatisfaction. If Chang Er adopted the little fatty, didn’t that mean that he would share a bed with Chen Ziqi?

Chen Ziqi put down his chopsticks and considered this silently for a few moments.

Chang Er looked at her son. “If you don’t want to, I’ll…” she began tentatively. 

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Chen Ziqi said, his face serious. He pulled out a piece of paper from his sleeves. “Make this for me, and I’ll say yes.”

Chang Er opened the folded piece of paper. A small, chick-sized vest was drawn on it… A resounding smack landed on Chen Ziqi’s head. “You little bastard, are you trying to make fun of me?”

The next day, Chang Er went to seek an audience with the Zhenlong Emperor. The Emperor wasn’t really particular about who took care of the princes – to him, the princes could be taken care of by whoever wanted to take care of them. He agreed to Chang Er’s adoption request with a dismissive wave of his hand. 

When Ah Mu next opened his eyes, he saw Chang Er sitting by his bedside, dressed in soft robes. He looked around him in confusion. The room was unfamiliar, and didn’t look like his room at all. “Why am I here?” he asked.

“The Emperor agreed that you’ll be my son from now on,” Chang Er said, reaching out to flick his pink little nose gently. She couldn’t help smiling. Children around three to four years old were the most fun. Older kids like Chen Ziqi, on the other hand, were at that irritating age where even dogs didn’t want to play with them. He wasn’t fun at all.

“Really?!” Ah Mu sat up straight, staring at Chang Er in disbelief with his swollen, watery eyes. “I have a mother now?”

“Yes, I’m your mother now.”

“I have a mother… mummy… boohoohoo… is this real? You’re not bluffing me, right? Boohoo…” Ah Mu asked over and over again. He started crying as he repeated the questions over and over again.

Author’s note: Mini-theater

Chang Er: You’ll have to change how you address me in future. What should you call me?

Ah Mu: Mummy!

Chang Er: Good boy. (Points at Qiqi) What about him?

Ah Mu: Big brother!

Chang Er:  Very clever! (Points at the little red chicken) What about him?

Ah Mu: Saozi*!

*T/N: This is how you would address your brother’s wife.

Chang Er: … Wut?

Beansprout: Urgh, who cut onions in here? Anyway, this is one of my favourite chapters in the book! Dear little Ah Mu finally has a mum!

Also, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone! I hope you’ll have some time today to drink tea and savour a mooncake while appreciating the beauty of the round, round moon! 中秋节快乐！