Chapter 083
Chapter 83: The Astronomical Bureau Returns
After she laid things out with Lin Qing Xuan in the dream that night, Xiao Man spent the whole next day wandering around the residence.
She waited and looked, checked everywhere, but did not see even half a shadow of Lin Qing Xuan.
Where did he go?
Was he avoiding her? That did not seem likely.
Puzzled, she stopped a passing page she knew.
“Shi Tou, where did the Eldest Grandson Young Master go?” she asked.
Shi Tou was carrying a stack of clean monk robes. He stopped, scratched his head, and answered honestly, “Miss Xiao Man, the Eldest Grandson Young Master left early with our Fahua Temple’s old Abbot. They were invited by the Chief Astronomer from the Astronomical Bureau.”
He added, a little unsure, “They said… to discuss an important matter.”
Astronomical Bureau?
Xiao Man’s gossip radar lit up at once.
[Well now. If the Astronomical Bureau came in person to invite a monk, this must be big.]
[In dramas, the Astronomical Bureau handles Star Reading, divination, and Foretelling the Realm’s Fate. If the Chief Astronomer himself shows up, nine times out of ten something huge happened in the Imperial Palace.]
She pressed her palms together and sent a quick prayer upward: [Peace for the realm, please. Peace for the realm.]
Please do not let anything crazy happen. She still hoped to leave the residence one day and go lie flat in some place with clear mountains and water.
Lin Qing Xuan was gone for three full days.
Bored, Xiao Man counted them off on her fingers in the courtyard.
One day. Two days. Three days.
[Three days already. No bath, no clean clothes. He must be sour by now.]
She was pinching her nose in her head with mock disgust when a set of familiar footsteps sounded outside the yard.
The steps were tired but steady.
It was Lin Qing Xuan.
He stepped through the gate and, before he could take in the scene, Xiao Man’s Heart Voice about him being “sour” drifted to him clear as day.
He paused, half crying and half laughing.
He cleared his throat and called toward the yard, calm but hoarse with weariness: “Shi Tou, prepare hot water. I will bathe,” then added, “Xiao Man, please brew me a cup of jasmine tea.”
Xiao Man’s eyes lit up.
Like a little rabbit, she bounded out of the room in a few quick steps and saw him standing under the old tree in the yard.
His moon-white monk robe was full of creases. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and pale stubble showed along his smooth jaw.
He looked very worn out. The cold calm he carried was dulled by fatigue, and some loneliness clung to him.
[Goodness, how many nights has he gone without sleep? I feel tired just looking at him.]
Her heart stumbled, but her mouth moved fast and bright as she called back, “Got it! Tea is coming right up. You go wash first. When you come out, it will be ready.”
She ran toward the little kitchen with quick, happy steps, but a thin ache spread in her chest.
Sour and tight.
The tips of Lin Qing Xuan’s ears twitched.
He felt her “heartache” flow into him like warm water, washing away the heavy gloom and tiredness he had stored up over the past days.
His body still ached, but his heart grew light.
[She feels for me.]
That thought worked better than any pill.
He lowered his head and hid the smile tugging at his lips behind his wide sleeve.
No. He could not let her see him in this messy state.
He made up his mind: he would take a long, clean bath, shave, change into a new robe, and then go see her in his best state and talk with her properly.
On the wall, the black cat Tuan Tuan crouched lazily, tail flicking now and then. Its golden eyes were full of bored disdain as it thought, [So this is what mortals mean by “a short parting is sweeter than a new wedding”?]
[One of you is tired like a dog, and the other is fussing like a little daughter-in-law.]
[So sour. Humans really know how to make a scene. So dramatic.]
In the bathhouse, steam curled and water murmured.
Lin Qing Xuan slipped out of his robe and sank his well-shaped body into the warm water, letting out a long breath.
The mist blurred his features and also blurred the heavy worries.
From the sleeve of the robe he had taken off, he carefully drew out a secret letter wrapped in bright yellow silk.
He unrolled it. The strokes were strong and dark, the words powerful, and the content made one’s heart jump:
“Your servant Fang Li, while devoutly observing upon the Observatory Terrace, saw the heavens change sharply. The signs point to unrest within the inner court. I fear a disturbance may touch the Sacred Person!”
It was a memorial written by Fang Li, the Chief Astronomer of the Astronomical Bureau, in his own hand for the current Emperor.
When the Emperor received it, his face changed.
That very night, Fang Li was summoned into the palace by secret decree. In the Imperial Study, he presented the hexagrams from the divination casting he had done through the night:
“The Purple Tenuity Enclosure is dim, the Emperor Star wavers, and a baleful star invades the throne, near at hand.”
“The Heavenly Market Enclosure is in turmoil, scandals lurk, the Supreme Palace Enclosure is struck, and power will split.”
With each word, the Emperor’s expression grew worse.
At “the Emperor Star wavers,” the sovereign was so shocked he rose from the Dragon Throne. He did not sleep the whole night, and even his long-standing toothache flared.
The calming medicines from the Imperial Infirmary were useless.
Helpless, the Emperor urgently summoned the venerable Abbot Ru Hai of Fahua Temple with his favorite disciple, Lin Qing Xuan, hoping that the power of Buddhist Dharma could remove the disaster.
So Abbot Ru Hai and Lin Qing Xuan stood on the highest Observatory Terrace in the palace and held rites for three days and nights without rest.
They chanted the sutras over and over, and the ritual instruments rang again and again.
But what truly kept the Emperor from eating or sleeping was another line in the augury:
“A baleful star invades the throne, near at hand.”
Clutching Lin Qing Xuan’s sleeve, eyes bloodshot with suspicion and fear, his voice shaking low, the Emperor demanded: “Buddha’s Chosen, tell Us: who is this baleful star? Is it… is it hiding among Our dearest kin?”
Faced with the near-desperate question, Lin Qing Xuan only lowered his eyes, rolled the prayer beads between his fingers, and recited the Heart Sutra again and again. He would not answer.
He had seen and heard too much of the House of Wang turning brother against brother.
Not until midnight last night, when the rites ended, did Fang Li, the Chief Astronomer of the Astronomical Bureau, take Lin Qing Xuan alone down to a hidden room beneath the Observatory Terrace.
Star charts and compasses covered the chamber, and the candle flames shook.
Fang Li pointed to a strange trail of blue light across the center of the star plate and said, unable to steady his voice: “Buddha’s Chosen, please look… This star’s path crosses the Purple Tenuity Enclosure, the Supreme Palace Enclosure, and the Heavenly Market Enclosure. Its danger is like nothing I have seen before.”
He drew a deep breath, as if it took all his strength to speak the last words that could overturn everything: “It is neither demon nor fiend… It is a woman.”