The beating sound of hooves could be heard thumping down the main road leading into Luoyang city. At the front of the procession was Li Chu, Prince of Guangping and a delicate and charming young woman in the dress of the Hu people. That was his younger sister whom he shared the same birth mother and father as, the 2nd ranking Princess Dening. Dening’s anxiousness could be clearly seen by her constant whipping of her horse, a sharp contrast to Li Chu who calmly controlled his. Only the sharpness in his eyes, which seemed to light up the night gave the sign that he was not as composed as he was inside.
After entering the palace, passed through the Gate of Yingtian and into the inner part of the palace, they increased their pace before finally halting before the Crown Prince’s quarters. Their servants huffing and puffing as they tried to catch up. Two maids rushed forward to help Princess Dening to remove her burgundy cloak but she impatiently pushed them away and stamped her way into the building in her elaborate cloth boots. Li Chu removed his cloak, threw it to one of his page before heading in also.
The Crown Prince and Crown Princess Consort Zhang was playing a game of Weiqi/Go by candlelight. He was thin and frail looking, with weariness seeming to consume his face. Ever since he had become the Crown Prince, he was impeded on all sides and constantly attacked either directly or from the shadows. He was drained and exhausted from it all. Consort Zhang on the other hand was of medium build with a pair of phoenix eyes[1] , a perfect match to her high nose bridge which gave her an air of seduction within her elegance. When you stared into her eyes, you could almost lose yourself in them.
Before the eunuch could even finish announcing their arrival, Princess Dening had already stormed in and overturned the Weiqi board. The black and white pieces flew everywhere. At the sight of this, all the eunuchs immediately got on their hands and knees to gather up all the pieces.
“Chuo’er, how dare you!” Chuo was Princess Dening’s pet name. Even though she was his beloved youngest daughter, but her actions still angered him. After taking a look at her, her style of dress infuriated him further, “Look at you! What are you wearing? An ordinary girl can wear a dress like that, but you are an Imperial princess! How could you enter the palace wearing attire like that! Are you not afraid that His Majesty will find out?!”
“Why? Why did you betroth me to Zheng Xun?!” protested Princess Dening, she did not care about her father’s fury.
Although the Crown Prince knew she would say that, nevertheless his face quickly turned dark. Consort Zhang hurriedly helped him over to a chair and gave Princess Dening a look to warn her to not to say anymore. But Princess Dening ignored her and threw her whip onto the floor. “Father you are so cruel! That Zheng Xun is ugly and stupid, I refuse to marry him! I would rather die!” she wept.
“You are not a child anymore, you are already sixteen so you should be more mature and understanding…..”The Crown Prince continued. By this time he had calmed down.
“Your father is not cruel, he just….” Consort Zhang helped him finish, “It was because Li Linfu had specifically asked your Father many times. Zheng Xun is his cousin so your Father had no choice.”
“So what if it is Li Linfu? Even though he is the Right Chancellor but Father is the Crown Prince and I am a 2nd ranking princess why do I need to do what he wants? Why are you being so unfair?” Princess Dening wept.
For a moment, the Crown Prince was short of words. Should he tell his daughter who he had spoiled and doted on more many years that he had been blackmailed by Lin Lifu all this time and he could barely hold onto his position as Crown Prince? He could only blame himself for being so weak, he could only blame his daughter for going around causing trouble all the time, attracting the unwanted attention of Zheng Xun. When he raised his head, he noticed that Li Chu had entered too. “Chu, why are you here? Are you here to beg me for your younger sister?”
Li Chu bowed in greeting and replied, “I only feel that Zheng Xun it not a suitable match for Chuo’er.”
The Crown Prince leaned back and stared up at the roof of the building. The yellow bronze tiles carried a yellow tinge due to the bright candlelight. He had carried the title of Crown Prince for eight years already and it had exhausted him. He let out a long sigh and warned them, “The Imperial decree has been written already and will be announced in court tomorrow. There is nothing I can do now.”
“No!” Princess Dening argued, “Father you can argue your case too, just like when Elder brother wanted to marry Consort Shen! Didn’t you refuse His Majesty when he wanted to make the daughter of the Duchess of Han the Princess Consort of Guangping?”
Her words enraged the Crown Prince, “Who told you that? Who told you that I refused His Majesty?!” he bellowed.
“Half of the people in Chang’an…..”Before Princess Dening could finish she heard the Crown Prince scold her, “Do not listen to that nonsense. His Majesty is wise and intelligent, how could I change his opinion? Do not listen to that absurdity! Consort Zhang, take Chuo’er to the side chamber to rest!”
Princess Dening stomped her foot and wailed in despair, “Father I hate you!” before turning around to run out of the room.
“Li Fuguo, hurry take some people to follow the princess! Don’t lose her out of your sight!” Consort Zhang immediately ordered. Li Chu turned around and was about to follow them out, but the Crown Prince stopped him. “Chu, you stay here!” He then turned to Consort Zhang, “you go and rest up, I would like to speak to my son alone.”
After all the attendants withdrew from the room, only father and son were left. The Crown Prince stared at Li Chu for a moment before asking, “You turned around on your way back to Chang’an?”
Li Chu replied with a yes to confirm his position in the matter but did not utter another word. The Crown Prince let out another sigh as he studied his son who was before him. The older he grew, the more he gained the ability to remain calm and unwavering under an adverse situation, the skill that any capable ruler should have. However he also distanced himself from him more and more over the past few years. “I know that you still blamed me for cold-heartedly giving up your mother Consort Wei.” Although Consort Wei was not his birth mother, but she brought him up and was like a birth mother to him.
“I do not dare. I knew that you had no choice, Father.”
“Had no choice,” the Crown Prince repeated with a little bitterness in his tone. “Your Princess Consort is quite ill, do you know that?”
Li Chu’s eyelashes fluttered a little but the Crown Prince did not notice. “Yes, that is why I am heading back.”
“Then hurry and set off, I will not keep you.”
The air within the Qingyi Court was surprisingly mild and fresh. Shen Zhenzhu had been ill for over ten days, so he expected her chamber to be filled with the scent of medicine. Upon hearing the return of His Highness, Su Ci and Hong Rui came in and kowtowed to greet him. That was when he noticed a green china teapot on a teapot with a puff of refreshing smoke drifting out from the spout. Underneath the teapot was a small stove and he could hear the gentle gurgling of water within the pot. “You are ill, why are you making tea and not medicine?” he inquired.
“Your Highness, Her Highness caught a cold about half a month ago. She has seen countless physicians but her condition has not improved one bit, in fact it has become worse. Her Highness ordered us to stop the medicine and asked us to make her tea instead. Surprisingly, her condition has improved a lot,” Su Ci reported whilst carefully listening to the sound of the water. “Your Highness, please forgive me, the water is boiled now so I must make the tea,” she continued.
Li Chu nodded, “You may rise.”
Su Chu pulled out a small bamboo box from the wardrobe and opened the lid to spoon half a spoonful of tea in the boiling water and slowly stirred it with a bamboo stirrer. The water became like a bubbling pool that nurtured the dried tea leaves, slowly turning them into green whisps of hair that gently flowed down from the forehead like a fringe. Its gentle fragrance seemed to seep into the bones, releasing pressure from the chest. Li Chu let out a smile at the beautifully cooked tea, “That is good tea!” he praised.
“Of course, but without her Highness’ direction, this Shihua green tea from Mt Mengding[2] would be wasted.”
“So the Princess Consort taught you how to make this tea?” Li Shu asked from behind the bead curtain. He could see that the room was still decorated in red through the curtain and the person on the other side seemed to let out a quiet cough before falling silent again.
“I have only learned the basics, my skills are nothing compared to Her Highness,” Su Ci told him as she picked up two lacquered teacups that were the colour of jade with a slight green tinge. There were a prized item from Vietnam called “Like Jade” whih they had brought here with them from Wuxi, with four in the set. Shen Zhenzhu had smashed one on the day Yin’e had disappeared which Su Ci had mourned over for a while.
After removing the teapot from the fire, she poured the tea into the teacups before handing one to Li Chu. The fresh green liquid tea sank to the bottom whereas the tea flowers floated sparsely on top.
“Please take a sip, Your Highness.” Li Chu nodded and told her to put it aside for now. As he did so, he strolled into the bedchamber.
Shen Zhenzhu was still asleep at this point. After Yin’e’s matter, her elder brother, Shen Jiefu had visited her to bring some fresh tea leaves that his wife, Mistress Gongsun had got someone to bring back. Brother and sister talked through the night by candlelight and when he left, she saw him off from the main door and caught a cold in the process. She had always been healthy and strong so did not think much of it, so she did not even see a physician, thinking that she would recover naturally soon. But who knew that her condition only got worse and worse. After four and five days, she could not even get out of bed. Liu Run had brought all the physicians from the palace and Chang’an city to look at her but none of them managed to improve her condition and no medicine worked.
Lying on the bed, Shen Zhenzhu looked weak and fragile. Her beautiful soft hair was tied up into a loose bun, half of which was spread on the pillow and her shoulders covering her alabaster neck. Her soft and delicate face was sickly pale, her eyebrows slightly furrowed, probably from the pain of her illness. Li Chu felt a sliver of guilt and a tinge of pity for her and could not help but gently hold her fingers resting on the duvet. He was shocked to find that her hand was icy cold, completely devoid of temperature. He turned around and yelled for Liu Run.
Liu Run came in with his back stooped and ready to listen to his orders. “Hurry go to Prince Jianning’s manor and invite the Princess Consort of Jianning here,” he ordered. He pulled out a crimson name card[3] from tucked between his outer and inner robe. “Tell them that I am inviting the Princess Consort of Jianning to treat my wife.”
“Yes, I will go now!” Liu Run replied, overwhelmed with joy. Prince Jianning and Prince Guangping grew up together in the Baisun court and were extremely close. The Princess Consort of Jianning was known for her skill in medicine and was just as skilled as the Imperial Physicians. But without Prince Guangping’s invitation, she would not treat just anyone.
Liu Run had just stepped out of the manor whilst someone danced into the bedchamber like a butterfly. “Eldest Brother!” she yelled before approaching the bed to look at Shen Zhenzhu. Seeing that it was Princess Dening, Li Chu asked in a surprised voice, “Why are you back in Chang’an so quickly? Father and Mother have been looking for you everywhere!”
“Sister-in-law is so beautiful, you are so fortunate, elder brother!” she teased. She then went to touch Shen Zhenzhu’s face before touching her own. “Heaven, you are so unfair! Why couldn’t you give me a face like that?”
“I think you have gone mad. A few days ago, you said you wanted to die in front of Father and Mother but today you are being a nuisance. Can you not see that your sister-in-law is unwell?” Li Chu chided sharply.
“Of course I am mad!” Dening replied, “I am mad with happiness!” As she was still attired in the dress of the Hu’s, so a belt was tightly wrapped around her waist, revealing her figure so she jumped up with ease and wrapped her arms around her brother’s shoulders. “Have you heard? I don’t need to marry now! I don’t need to get married! Zheng Xun is dead! Ha! Ha! Ha!” she chortled.
“What? How could he be dead? He was fine a few days ago,” Li Chu rebuked.
Princess Dening let out another gleeful laugh. “That’s why I want to formally introduce you to someone today elder brother, he was the one who helped me,” she revealed before pushing Li Chu to the outer room.
[1] Phoenix Eyes: eyes that were narrower in height and curving upwards at the end. The ancient Chinese believed phoenixes had eyes like that. See below
[2]Mt Mengding: Is one of the most famous and beautiful mountainous areas in Northwest Sichuan province. Because of the environment there, mild humid weather with a lot of mist, tea that is produced in that area is known to be on the of the best and only the rich and noble could afford it because it is so rare prized. Shihua tea which is mentioned in this chapter is actually a yellow tea despite having a greenish appearance. According to the 16th century scholar Li Shizhen who wrote the Bencao Gangmu or Compendium of Materia Medica which is an encyclopaedia of Chinese medicine and herbology, natural history, tea produced from that area was “warming to the body and could treat diseases” unlike other teas which are cool in nature.
[3]Name card/name plate: It’s like an ancient form of a business card. When the nobles or ministers want to pay someone a visit, they would first tell their servant to visit the person they want to see first and give them their name card which will tell them their rank/position and their name. The other person would then tell the messenger when they would like to meet. In the Tang Dynasty, this was often red.
Productive Procrastination 