Chapter 9
Chapter 9: The Prophecy of Rebirth
After paying respects, Luo Ning stayed in the West Main Courtyard to keep Old Madam company as she picked Buddha-counting beans.
Old Madam asked Luo Ning to tell the story of what had happened that morning one more time.
She wanted to hear Luo Ning’s version.
Luo Ning told the truth.
Just now, when the Marquis of Zhen Nan and the others spoke, they had glossed over the key points. They had not said that Luo Yin had been the one to raise his hand first and try to hit Luo Ning.
Grandmother said: “You should not have argued with him. In the future he will inherit the title, and once you marry out you will still have to rely on your maiden home. We women cannot stand on our own without someone to lean on.”
These words were meant kindly.
Even if they were harsh to Luo Ning’s ears.
The kindness the Luo family could offer her was terribly thin, but Luo Ning did not pick it apart and accepted all of it.
She nodded along with Old Madam and said: “Thank you for your teaching, Grandmother. I understand.”
Old Madam said nothing more.
The next day, word came that Luo Yin had fallen ill. He had caught a severe chill and even developed a fever.
But he was a man in his twenties. However frail a scholar might be, there was a limit. His fever broke after one night.
Luo Ning’s body, on the other hand, was not so strong.
The people in Wenqi Courtyard also feared that the Eldest Young Master would take revenge, and they told Luo Ning to be careful in everything.
On the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, the envoy from the Tujue Realm came to court, and the Emperor held a banquet with music in Longfu Hall.
Before the feast, the Empress Dowager went to the Emperor’s bedchamber to speak a few words with him.
The Empress Dowager knew well that the Emperor was lost in women and trusted a Daoist priest. He often took so-called immortal pills.
Now that he was the ruler of the realm, even if his mother worried over him constantly, she could not lecture him about taking care of himself at every turn.
The Empress Dowager said: “This time, with the envoy from the Tujue Realm entering court, Your Majesty must be careful in every matter. Longfu Hall may catch fire. You should prepare firefighting supplies in advance.”
The Emperor could not help laughing when he heard this and said: “Imperial Mother is too cautious.”
He added: “The Tujue Realm was beaten so badly by Seventh Younger Brother that they have no strength to fight back. They would not dare stage an assassination.”
The Empress Dowager thought of Luo Ning’s words.
Luo Ning had told the Empress Dowager that there might be a fire in Longfu Hall on the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month and that Longfu Hall should be on guard. If this prediction came true, she asked that the Empress Dowager remember it as a merit for her.
Longfu Hall was a banquet hall only used on big occasions, such as the New Year’s Day Court Audience, the Winter Solstice, or when an envoy came to court.
When the Empress Dowager heard Luo Ning’s words, she had been a little puzzled.
She had thought that Longfu Hall would definitely not be used in the near future.
Yet in a few days she heard that the envoy from the Tujue Realm was coming to court.
“Do you think A’Ning’s guess will be right?” the Empress Dowager asked Eunuch Wei.
Eunuch Wei said: “If Longfu Hall really caught fire, it would endanger Your Majesty. It is better to believe it than to take it lightly.”
The Empress Dowager was doubtful, but she also felt that Luo Ning was not someone who spoke recklessly, so she gave her orders.
She also personally warned the Emperor.
The Emperor had great respect and fear for his Mother. Even though he found her nagging troublesome, he did not argue. He only nodded and said: “I will assign more bodyguards.”
That night, Longfu Hall was bustling with noise.
However, among the dancing girls, someone tried to carry out an assassination. The target was not the Emperor, but the envoy from the Tujue Realm, the second imperial prince of the Tujue Realm.
Because the Emperor had already doubled the number of bodyguards, even though the incident broke out suddenly, they were prepared. That dancing girl was shot dead on the spot.
The lead dancing girl suddenly set herself on fire and then threw her torch toward the wine jars and the other court ministers at the feast, plunging the hall into chaos again.
Fortunately, firefighting supplies had already been prepared. Normally, those buckets of water were kept outside, not in the hall itself.
After the chaos ended, the Emperor went to the Empress Dowager’s Longevity Palace, still shaken.
“These dancing girls were trained for a long time by the Noble Consort. I have always let down my guard around her. If we had not been prepared, and the envoy from the Tujue Realm had died, the peace talks would probably have fallen apart again,” the Emperor said.
No one wanted war.
At thirteen, Prince Yong, Xiao Huai Feng, had gone to the borderlands. Over seven years, he had beaten the Tujue Realm back to the mountains, leaving them with no power to strike back. The Tujue Realm had promised to offer tribute each year in exchange for twenty years of rest and recovery.
But if the envoy died in Shengjing, it would likely stir up hatred in the Tujue Realm, and within two years trouble would rise again in the borderlands.
As for the second imperial prince, he was very friendly toward Shengjing and had always advocated peace. He also had a hope of succeeding and becoming the new khan.
Fortunately, he had not died.
And if Longfu Hall had truly burned, many people might have died as well.
The Empress Dowager’s heart trembled too: “The Feng clan still harbors treacherous thoughts!”
The Noble Consort came from the Feng clan and had deep ties to the former dynasty. The Empress Dowager had never liked her much.
But the Emperor favored her.
A son would be rebellious. The more the Empress Dowager disapproved, the more the Emperor spoiled the Noble Consort, so the Empress Dowager simply stopped mentioning her.
The Noble Consort had been deeply favored for many years, yet she had dared go this far. The Emperor had already sent her a cup of poisoned wine.
“Imperial Mother, you have solved a great problem for your son,” the Emperor said with feeling. He stood up and bowed to the Empress Dowager. “Your great kindness, your son will never forget.”
The Empress Dowager asked him to sit down again.
Smiling, she said to him: “It is not my credit. It is A’Ning’s.”
“A’Ning?”
“Three years ago, she took a knife for me. She is General Luo’s daughter, now the legitimate Miss of the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s manor,” the Empress Dowager said.
The Emperor finally remembered.
He had been on the throne for only five years and had granted the title of Lord Marquis to only three men. The Marquis of Zhen Nan was one of them.
But the Marquis of Zhen Nan’s foundation was thin and his military merit shallow. The Emperor had little use for him and had slowly cooled toward him, to the point that for a moment he could not even recall who he was.
“She has such ability?” the Emperor asked in surprise.
“A’Ning knows a bit of esoteric calculations,” the Empress Dowager said.
“I must reward her.”
The Empress Dowager thought for a moment and said: “How about granting her a marriage with an imperial edict?”
“Imperial Mother already has someone in mind?”
“Your Seventh Younger Brother,” she said.
The Emperor was a little taken aback.
Ever since childhood, Seventh Younger Brother had excelled in both letters and martial arts, the most outstanding among all the princes. Even as his biological brother, the Emperor was wary of him.
When they studied, the Emperor needed three days to memorize an essay, while Seventh Younger Brother only had to glance at it once to recite it backward. In martial training, Seventh Younger Brother had extraordinary talent. He could hold a horse stance for two hours without his legs shaking, while the Emperor could not last even half an hour.
When the Late Emperor was alive, his love for his youngest son had been deep to the bone.
The court officials had started to stir as well.
When the Late Emperor fell ill, the Empress Dowager had been afraid the officials would split into factions and that her two sons would grow apart, so she strongly urged that the youngest son go to the borderlands to serve.
When he left, the Late Emperor had granted him the title of Prince Yong.
It had been seven full years.
In those seven years, Prince Yong had returned to the capital to report on military affairs only three times. Only after he beat the Tujue Realm until their soldiers and horses were in ruins did the Empress Dowager feel the court was stable enough to call him back.
His temperament was cold. The Empress Dowager and the Emperor were not very close to him.
Had he grown resentful?
After all, someone who had been dressed in silk and fine food since childhood had been sent to a bitterly cold place to temper himself for seven years. How much pain he had endured, the Empress Dowager and the Emperor could not know.
The Emperor felt somewhat guilty toward his youngest brother; so did the Empress Dowager.
So the Emperor had always thought that the Empress Dowager would choose an excellent noble young lady for Seventh Younger Brother. In both character and looks, and in family background, she should be top-tier.
In Shengjing there were eight great prestigious clans, with Madam Cui at their head, and countless precious daughters for him to choose from.
“Imperial Mother, can Miss Luo be a good match for Seventh Younger Brother?” the Emperor asked, sounding her out.
The Empress Dowager said: “Her character and looks are both excellent. It is only that her family background is a little weaker. It does not matter. She is now a proper young lady of the Marquis Manor, even if the foundation is a bit shallow.”
The Emperor thought it over and was naturally satisfied.
His mother’s decision still suppressed Seventh Younger Brother a little and put the Emperor at ease.
Who did not want their mother’s special favor?
If the Emperor felt at ease, Seventh Younger Brother would also be safer. This was likely his Mother’s thinking as well, afraid that Seventh Younger Brother’s great achievements would one day overshadow the ruler.
Prince Yong had been back in the capital for half a year. His behavior was wild and unrestrained, and the Censorate impeached him almost every day.
By rights, the Emperor should have erupted once or twice and reprimanded Prince Yong, calling on him to rein himself in, but he had not done so.
The more he indulged him, the more frightened the Empress Dowager became.
The wife Prince Yong married had to come from a noble household of only middling power.
Luo Ning was truly gentle and beautiful, and she was proper and dignified. The Empress Dowager was very pleased with her.
“I will ask Seventh Younger Brother first, then issue an imperial edict to grant the marriage,” the Emperor said. “Imperial Mother, you should also speak to Seventh Younger Brother. If he refuses the decree, I would not know what to do.”