CH 30

Cheng Jieyu was speechless. When she finally processed what Chen Zimo had said, she snatched up the bamboo cane next to her and leapt to her feet. “Goddamn you! Who do you think you are?!” she shouted angrily.

Chen Zimo thought about what Chen Ziqi said earlier as he gazed at the vicious-looking woman in front of him. 

“If the person who hits you loves you, then cry with all your might, cry until her heart breaks for you. If the person who hits you doesn’t love you, then run, so that she can’t hit you.”

Cheng Jieyu’s heart would never break for him. Chen Zimo knew this like he knew the sun would rise in the east. Crying never worked; this had been true since he was just a three-year old boy. Just as the bamboo cane was about to make contact with his body, he turned tail and ran.

The benefit of growing up in the Suxin Sect was that he had learnt a bit of martial arts. In the very least, he knew qinggong, and he ran much faster than your average person.

“Catch hold of him!” Cheng Jieyu screeched. 

The two eunuchs standing at the doorway immediately reached out to grab hold of Chen Zimo. Concubines were not allowed to abuse the princes, and they were complicit in this crime, having witnessed but not reported Cheng Jieyu’s ill-treatment of Chen Zimo. If the Emperor knew about it, they would also be severely punished.

Chen Zimo used all his strength to kick the two eunuchs in the chest, knocking them flat on the ground, then charged out of the residence at top speed.

“Niangniang, should we ask the Jinwu Guards to come and help catch the Sixth Prince? We can tell them that he’s been possessed and gone crazy…” the eunuchs said, trembling in fright.

“Shut up! You’re the ones who are possessed,” Cheng Jieyu scolded them in a cold voice. How she brought up this child was her problem, but she could not let other people think that he was mad. A mad prince would not be entitled to his own fief and could not leave the palace as such. Now that her uncle was an invalid, her hopes to avenge the Cheng family were all pinned on this child.

“Then…” the eunuch’s voice trailed off. They were still very afraid of Cheng Jieyu.

“The hougong will be locked soon. He can’t have gotten far. Come and help me look for him,” Cheng Jieyu said with a contemptuous smile. She led a small group of eunuchs and palace maids to chase after Chen Zimo.

Chen Zimo ran as if the devil himself was nipping at his heels. Because he was a prince, no one dared to stop him, and he ran all the way to the external palace.

The path he took was one of the more deserted palace roads leading to the guards’ residence. That uncle of his, Cheng Zhou, lived in one of these guards’ residences. 

Cheng Zhou remained in the palace because had agreed earlier to work faithfully for the Emperor for ten years. Now that the meridians in a hand and leg had been destroyed, he couldn’t work as a guard. The Emperor gnashed his teeth in frustration at this outcome, but finally asked him to teach martial arts to the Jinwu Guards. He could be considered a coach of sorts.

Cheng Zhou’s sworn brother, Xue Lang, had suffered very severe injuries, and Cheng Zhou had been busy looking after him these past few days. He had not started coaching the Jinwu Guards as a result.

Chen Zimo stood outside Cheng Zhou’s residence. He clenched his fists tightly as he stared intently at the tree branches poking above the residence wall. He wanted to go in and ask where his mother was, who his mother was, and where she was right now. Also, who was that demon of a woman that he had lived with all this while?

“Brother Xue…” An anguished groan suddenly sounded from inside the house. The voice sounded like Cheng Zhou’s. 

The next morning, Berry Brown was rather out of it when Chen Ziqi saw him at Chunxi Hall.

“What’s up with you?” Chen Ziqi asked, patting him on the back.

“I met Cheng Zhou last night…” Chen Zimo began, then suddenly shut his mouth halfway.

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“Wef Ojcu lr vfjv…” Dfggs Dgbkc rjlv tfrlajcais. Lf rffwfv ab tjnf ecrqbxfc mbcmfgcr.

“Tweet?” Dan Yi poked his head out of Chen Ziqi’s clothes. Xue Lang actually died? Then again, he had been shot through with eighteen of Lan Shanyu’s peacock needles, and Lan Shanyu had always been savage in his attack; he had probably shot through all of Xue Lang’s important meridians. Even if he didn’t die, he would have been incapacitated. His death wasn’t really all that surprising when one stopped to think about it.

“He said he would teach me martial arts,” Chen Zimo said. He looked at Chen Ziqi, hesitated for a moment, then moved closer and whispered in Chen Ziqi’s ear, sharing what Cheng Zhou had told him the night before.

Three years ago, when the Cheng family had been massacred, Cheng Zhou, the most powerful member of the Cheng family, had not been at home. He had gone to the Western Regions to look for martial arts treasures. The legends told of secret martial arts manuscripts hidden in the ruins of Loulan in the Western Regions. Not many people knew about this. Xue Lang found out about it by chance, and asked Cheng Zhou to go with him to the Western Regions to try his luck. 

After much effort, they’d actually succeeded in finding the secret manuscripts. However, when he returned, the Cheng family was no more.

The manuscript they’d found was called “Open the Heavens”. It was an instruction manual of a divine-class martial art practised by a general in Loulan three hundred years ago. They intended to take this manuscript to the Cloud Palace and exchange it for news about the Cheng family’s massacre, but unexpectedly, the Cloud Palace didn’t give two hoots about the book and tossed it carelessly onto the ground. The Cloud Palace gave them a Return Tablet instead, and the price of the answer was the death of the Suxin Sect’s leader, Sect Mistress Wuyin.

Cheng Zhou thought to master the techniques in “Open the Heavens”, then get his revenge, but Xue Lang was infuriated at being humiliated by the Cloud Palace, and had dragged him off to kidnap Dan Yi.

The rest, as they say, was history. 

“He intends to pass ‘Open the Heavens’ on to you?” Chen Ziqi asked, raising an eyebrow. This was interesting – it was exactly like the stories sung about in the theatre, where you met a relative that hadn’t been seen for eight hundred years, and that relative passed on some superior martial art to you, after which you went on to become invincible.

“Nn,” Berry Brown said, nodding. Cheng Zhou said that he would be stuck in the palace for ten years, and had no one else to pass this technique on to, so he might as well pass it on to Chen Zimo. Since Chen Zimo was also half a Cheng, the solemn duty of avenging the Cheng family naturally had to be passed on to him, and accordingly, the divine technique contained in “Open the Heavens” should also be taught to him.

Chen Ziqi rubbed his chin. The Imperial family all had not succeeded in mastering the Divine Dragon’s Howl, and the female martial arts Cheng Jieyu made Berry Brown learn was also inappropriate. If Berry Brown could learn a high-level martial art from Cheng Zhou, that wasn’t a bad deal at all.

“Tweet.” Dan Yi was not interested in “Open the Heavens” at all, and nestled back into Chen Ziqi’s clothes to sleep on hearing this book mentioned. Chen Ziqi found the bird’s little puffy vest too thick and unwieldy to wear when he went out with the bird in the day, so he didn’t bother putting it on. The little red bird was very happy about this anyway. Sleeping without a stitch on next to Chen Ziqi’s underclothes was the cosiest. 

“If he’s willing to teach you, then learn from him conscientiously. Don’t mention that stuff about your mother first,” Chen Ziqi said, clapping Chen Zimo on the shoulder.

If there were benefits available, it was best to reap them first. However, because the princes were not allowed to practice any martial art other than the Divine Dragon’s Howl, it was best for Chen Zimo to keep this a secret for the time being.

“Then what about my mum…” Chen Zimo frowned. He wasn’t that concerned about whether he could learn martial arts or not. He just wanted to know where his mother was.

“We can still work on Cheng Jieyu. Just wait for now,” Chen Ziqi hooked a finger at Chen Zimo, asking him to come closer. 

Because Berry Brown now was in Cheng Zhou’s favour, and was secretly learning “Open the Heavens” from the latter, Cheng Jieyu behaved herself for a good period of time. She stopped abusing him physically, and also fed him properly.

Before anyone knew it, the new year was nearly upon them again. The women of the hougong were very busy preparing for the new year celebrations. Ordinarily, the Empress was the one who organised the new year celebrations, but this year was different. Now that the Guifei’s son had been made the Crown Prince, the Guifei’s status in the hougong had also increased greatly. The concubines in the Guifei’s camp didn’t really listen to the Empress any more.

One day, the Empress called all the concubines, princes and princesses to Fengyi Palace to instruct them on matters pertaining to the new year celebrations.

“On New Year’s Eve, the celebrations are exclusively for the Imperial family, and arranging professional dancers may be a bit over the top. I’ve heard that Cheng Jieyu knows how to do a sword dance. How about we have Cheng Jieyu perform for us, together with Wang Meiren and Zhao Meiren?” De Fei suggested, smiling. She had obviously spoken on the Empress’ behalf. 

The Empress nodded slightly on hearing this. “This is a good idea. Cheng Jieyu, would you be willing to do this?” she asked, looking at Cheng Jieyu.

Cheng Jieyu raised her head to look at the Guifei, who was sitting right in front of her. The Guifei’s eyes were fixed firmly on the floor, and she remained silent. At the side, Shu Fei made some hand signals at her. Cheng Jieyu got the hint. “Replying to the Empress’ question, pinqie is from the Suxin Sect and primarily practiced Qi martial arts. I only learnt a little bit of swordsmanship, certainly not enough to perform anything for such a big occasion. I don’t want to embarrass myself in front of all the concubines. Empress niangniang, please forgive my inability to contribute to the celebrations,” Cheng Jieyu said. Her voice had always been on the shrill side and sounded rather mocking when she spoke, which unfortunately sounded very annoying.

These words were polite, but Cheng Jieyu had definitively rejected the Empress’ suggestion. It had to be pointed out that the people in the Empress’ camp, who were from Sword Alliance sects, all didn’t come forward to perform a sword dance; they instead requested that someone who wasn’t from the Sword Alliance come forward to do this. They were clearly just waiting to watch her embarrass herself.

The Empress suddenly clenched the teacup in her hand and stared coldly at Cheng Jieyu. Part of the reason why De Fei came up with this suggestion was because Cheng Jieyu had previously performed a sword dance for the Emperor. Cheng Jieyu’s quick rejection of her suggestion that she perform a sword dance was obviously meant to be a slap to her face. 

“Cheng Jieyu’s neili has already been dispersed – she doesn’t have the strength to wield swords anymore. De Fei’s quite accomplished at the Yandang Mountain swordsmanship style, why doesn’t she get a few Meiren to accompany her to perform the Southbound Geese Jianfa* for us?” the Guifei said in a measured, mocking tone.

*T/N: Jianfa means swordsmanship, but specifically a set of choreographed pattern of martial arts steps meant to be practiced alone. The Japanese call this kata, and the Koreans call this poomsae. There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent in English.

The Southbound Geese Jianfa was the Yandang Mountain Sect’s signature set of moves, and De Fei was born in the Yandang Mountain Sect. In the martial arts world, the Southbound Geese Jianfa had a very good reputation, and there was no reason to turn it into something as frivolous as a performance.

The Second Prince’s hands clenched into fists inside his sleeves as he stood next to the Empress. The Third Prince, who was standing next to him, was even angrier. “My mufei is a first-ranked Imperial Consort, how dare you suggest that she perform a sword dance like a common concubine?” he retorted. 

“A third-ranked Jieyu and a first-ranked Imperial Consort are both concubines at the end of the day,” the Fourth Prince countered, joining in the argument.

“That’s enough!” the Empress said, slamming her teacup down on the table.

After that, everyone dispersed on this bad note.

Chen Ziqi looked around. He noted the Third Prince scowling angrily and the Second Prince’s bottled-up frustration. A flash of inspiration hit him. 

The princes had a break from lessons the next day. Chen Ziqi took the little bird with him to Fengyi Palace to visit the Second Prince.

The Second Prince was due to move out of Fengyi Palace after the New Year. He wasn’t sixteen yet, so he had the choice of building a residence in the Capital, or asking for a fief to be bestowed on him and going there directly.

“Dianxia, this way, please,” the eunuch leading the way said. He led Chen Ziqi toward the garden. The Second Prince was practising his swordsmanship in a flat patch of ground in the garden.

The youth dressed in a dark yellow martial outfit held a long, slender sword in one hand, practising a simple set of jianfa. It was simple, but effective; every stroke would have drawn blood had a real life opponent been opposite him. The sword hummed with a metallic sound as it cut through the air. 

The Second Prince seemed to be aware that he had an audience. He began swinging his sword faster and faster, transferring his neili into the sword, then slicing down hard at a large rock near him.

“CRACK!” The sharp sword sliced off a large piece of the rock.

“Well done!” Chen Ziqi shouted, clapping enthusiastically.

The Second Prince stopped practising his swordsmanship and kept his sword. He looked at the little boy standing in the corridor. “Little Seventh, do you know swordsmanship?” 

“Not really…” Chen Ziqi scratched his head, smiling a little shamefacedly. “However, I can see that Second Brother’s swordwork is… umm… how do you say this… something about clouds and water? What I mean is, it’s definitely high-level jianfa!”

“You mean ‘like floating clouds and flowing water’,” the Second Prince said, beaming from ear to ear. He flicked Chen Ziqi’s forehead playfully, then brought him to the water pavilion to eat some snacks.

“I’ve just found out a secret, so I came to report it to my Second Brother,” Chen Ziqi said mysteriously, pinching a bit of cake with his fingers.

The Second Prince suppressed a laugh. He thought to himself that this little fellow was really serious about being in his camp, and was amused that Chen Ziqi had actually bothered to come and share some secrets with him. “What secret is this? Tell me,” he said. 

“It’s about Cheng Jieyu…” Chen Ziqi said in a low voice. He looked meaningfully at the Second Prince.

The Second Prince had been suppressing his anger since the day before, and when he heard  Chen Ziqi say “Cheng Jieyu”, his interest was immediately piqued. “Oh?” he said.