The group traveled all night without trouble.
Their small party of a dozen people remained close to the larger merchant caravan. If anything happened, one smoke signal would bring the main force to their aid within moments.
Zhang Hua did not believe the entire journey could remain peaceful. Still, with their careful disguises and constant caution, they were unlikely to be completely destroyed.
Daylight had fully arrived when he said, “We will rest at an inn for half a day and leave again after noon. That should help us escape notice. Third Brother, take some men and contact Mother’s people inside the city. Ask for news from the capital.”
He sent the others to eat and rest, then ordered the servants to heat water and wash the “monk.”
Zhang Hua changed Princess Fang’s medicine. He cleaned her neck and arms with medicinal wine, then slowly fed her a prepared remedy. Fortunately, she could still swallow the thin medicinal broth despite being unconscious.
It took the time needed to burn two sticks of incense to feed her a single bowl.
At last, Princess Fang awakened.
Faint lines now crossed her forehead. Her cheeks, usually well cared for and strengthened by inner energy, had lost all color. Her eyes had once shone with a strange, commanding charm that could shake another person’s heart. Now they were dull, and her lowered lids made her look defeated.
Her voice had always been firm and bright, filled with confidence, life, and humor. Now it was weak and hoarse.
Something uncertain had entered her gaze. She seemed to doubt herself and even her own judgment.
The terrible wound had aged a noblewoman in the prime of life. She leaned against a pillow in a cheap inn, her disguised face covered with fine lines. White stubble had appeared across her shaved head in a single night. She looked like an old person who had endured decades of hardship, or a dead tree hollowed by the wind.
Her face was so pale that it held a blue tint, and she remained slightly dazed. Yet she still looked calm and strong. As soon as she woke, she asked for porridge.
Zhang Hua knelt beside the bed and fed her half a bowl. He watched the difficulty with which she swallowed and the deep crease between her brows.
*That blade wounded Mother’s body and heart. Her inner energy could have helped the wound mostly heal within a month. But what can heal the wound inside her?*
Mother behaved with her usual calm, but her old pride and force were gone. There was no light of revenge or recovery in her eyes. This was not the imperial princess who had charged wherever she pleased and laughed across battlefields.
This was only a woman too weak to resist, pretending to be calm.
The imperial princess who never yielded, never showed mercy once she raised her hand, and repaid every injury had died beneath the grand chancellor’s blade.
Almost no life remained in her. She did not even look twice at Zhang Hua, though the son who hated women’s clothes was now dressed as a charming young lady.
He gently tested her. “Mother, what should we do from now on?”
Princess Fang answered in a low voice, “Do everything possible to survive. Where are we?”
“Xuzhou City. Mother, where should we go? We have prepared three routes: by sea, across the frontier, or into the mountains.”
Princess Fang was silent for a moment.
“I woke too late. There is a secret passage running from the inside of the imperial palace to the outside. It contains rooms and a storehouse of grain. I recovered there after several dangerous incidents. The grand chancellor knows every other place where I might go or hide. He does not know about the palace passage.”
“How did you learn of it?”
“I served the emperor. He is a good ruler who protects those who serve him.”
Jin Wuniang pushed open the door, intending to discuss something with Zhang Hua. When he saw Princess Fang awake, he quickly shut it behind him and rushed to the bedside. His excitement left him unable to speak.
Princess Fang smiled faintly.
“Troubled times reveal heroes, and national danger reveals loyal hearts. You are both good children. Where are Chen Liang and Wang Qian?”
“Nearby, leading the main force in the guise of a merchant caravan,” Zhang Hua said. “If you want them here, I will send someone.”
“No need.” Princess Fang paused for breath. “I will not hide the truth from you. I have no inner energy left.”
Zhang Hua panicked. “I will transfer mine to you.”
Jin Wuniang quickly agreed. “Yes! All of us can give you part of our inner energy, and you will recover. We practice the same internal art. Let us do it, Mother.”
Princess Fang weakly raised a hand to stop him.
“My energy center has dried up, and my meridians are sealed. Do you understand?”
The two young men felt as if they had stepped from the top of a tower into empty air, or stood aboard a ship whose cable had snapped in the middle of a great river. They stared at her in disbelief.
At last, Zhang Hua forced out the question. “Was it caused by a drug on the blade?”
“He pierced my energy center.” Princess Fang sighed. “He removed the fire from beneath the cauldron. It was a fine plan.”
Jin Wuniang cried, “Mother, let me cut down the grand chancellor! Zhang Hua keeps stopping me.”
“For the sake of my children, he cannot die.”
“Mother!”
“Listen to me.”
Princess Fang moved in her urgency. Pain twisted her face as the wound in her abdomen pulled.
She continued slowly, “My children are his children too. If I die, they still have a father. If both of us die, they become orphans, surrounded by enemies waiting to threaten, trap, and avenge themselves upon them.”
She paused again. Zhang Hua held a cup so she could drink.
“Consider my own mother. While she lived, she was an honorable hero feared throughout the outlaw strongholds. My father led the martial societies of twelve northern districts. I lived with them until I was fifteen. I enjoyed the finest food, the best amusements, the greatest prestige, and the freedom to behave as boldly as I pleased.
“After they died, many of the hardships I suffered came from being their daughter. Parents and children rise and fall together.
“While my parents lived, their fame was at its height. Everyone called them heroes. The moment they died, they became thieves and bandits in the public telling. I changed from the child of a famous house to the descendant of criminals, and the stink of that name traveled for hundreds of miles.
“The honor I enjoyed beside them was repaid several times over in humiliation. Once both were gone, I was only a weak orphan anyone could bully. I had no martial arts, no wisdom, and nowhere safe to live. Not one part of my parents’ property became mine.”
“Mother, you will not die,” Jin Wuniang insisted.
“I have no inner energy and no martial arts. I may even remain paralyzed. Could a Fang in this condition hold together the grand chancellor’s estate, inspire people to die in loyal service, or accomplish what I did before?
“When I extended five fingers and turned them into a fist, lives ended because I had the ability to make it happen. When I displayed power before others and carried myself with pride, respect followed because I had earned it.
“My fame, rank, and glory were equal to the things I accomplished. The grand chancellor and I once worked with one heart. Now I am crippled, and he has cut off one of his own arms. Everything I once maintained has moved beyond my reach. Unless I recover completely, my children’s father cannot die.
“A household of a thousand people still needs one person to lead it. I cannot trust an outsider. My eldest daughter is only ten, and none of you four brothers can carry this enormous inheritance.”
Zhang Hua protested, “Mother!”
Princess Fang looked exhausted. She sighed and spoke gently.
“Chen Liang is kind, modest, and willing to tolerate others, but he lacks the decisiveness to kill when killing is required. He could be a great judge, but never a grand chancellor, and he cannot hold my estate together.
“Wang Qian is too arrogant. He looks down on everyone, and his speech is reckless. Even if he became a general, I would worry that his careless words would offend half the court.
“Little Jin is a good child, but he is reckless, simple, and rarely careful. Besides fighting, killing, and eating, what can he do well?
“Zhang Hua… Zhang Hua, your heart is narrow, and your methods are poisonous, yet your mind is clever enough to frighten spirits. If I gave you the estate, it would flourish for a time. In the end, everyone would be furious but too frightened to speak, and none of you would meet a good end.
“I am not favoring your foster father. In bearing, he is as graceful as an immortal and as noble as a cultured hero. In tolerance, he does not waste himself on petty quarrels and can wipe spit from his face without anger. He knows how to subdue one person without killing another. In moments demanding action, he does not yield and does not spare his hand.
“He can discuss poetry with scholars and drink beside warriors. With civil officials, he speaks of the kingdom and its people. With generals, he speaks of smoke rising at the frontier. He changes his language for every person without ever appearing false. None of you can equal him.
“Even his enemies admit he is generous and righteous, a man of high morality and true learning. And that is before considering that I once stood on his side.”
“But he betrayed every kindness and duty!” Zhang Hua said.
“We did the same to others in the past. Guo Sheng once said that repaying every injury and clearly settling every debt differ only according to where one stands.”
Princess Fang sighed. “Hide. Take me somewhere and hide.”
Jin Wuniang said, “Mother, only killing that old traitor will let you recover in safety.”
Zhang Hua shook his head. “The grand chancellor is not the only person who wants Mother dead.”
“To be humiliated in a servant’s hands and die forgotten beside the feeding trough—that is not the death of Imperial Princess Fang.”
Princess Fang drew a deep breath, though her abdomen still ached.
“Go eat. We leave as soon as you finish.”
Zhang Hua asked, “Mother, do you want to die in a storm that shakes the world, or make your enemies die that way?”
Princess Fang studied the shadow beyond the window and sighed.
“That is not mine to decide. You will understand soon, Tenth Lady. You are still too young. I protected you too well, so you never encountered anything truly vile. Have the food brought here. We will eat in this room.”
Zhang Hua looked displeased but did not wish to argue with her.
Jin Wuniang called for the inn worker to bring their meal. They continued discussing plans while they ate.
Princess Fang lay quietly, then suddenly asked, “Tenth Lady, what was the poem I asked you to remember for me?”
Zhang Hua put down his bowl and chopsticks.
“In declining years, the remnant of life is cold as water…
“A chill, ah, stars stream across the wilderness; stars hang over the level fields, the heart like water…
“With the woman, one family beneath reeds and moon.
“Mother, I heard only broken pieces at the time. Those are the only lines I remember. Why?”
Princess Fang looked thoughtful.
“When I was young, I met that wandering priest once. He said I had a connection to immortality but would have to suffer a deadly trial before leaving the mortal world behind. Even now, I think he was talking nonsense.”
“Of course it was nonsense. Pay no attention to him, Mother. With your beauty and bearing, you must be destined for the celestial Jade Pool. A deadly trial simply means dying, and priests always claim people become immortals after death.”
“No. That priest could turn stone into gold. I received two ounces of gold from him. Otherwise, I was too busy finding my next meal to listen.”
“Turn stone into gold?” Jin Wuniang lifted his dark face from his yellow rice, grains still stuck around his mouth. “Mother, did you learn how?”
“I asked him to teach me. He called me greedy and shameless, then stormed away.”
Zhang Hua laughed. “If he refused to teach you, he was clearly a fraud. It must have been a trick.”
“No trick could turn half a coarse corn bun into an identical piece of gold that I spent over the next six months.” Princess Fang sounded deeply regretful. “If he had taught me, I would have followed him and become a priestess just to earn my meals. Without all my later wealth and glory, perhaps I would not have met this end.”
Her words sounded bleak, but Zhang Hua and Jin Wuniang saw her rub her bald head and manage a smile. Some of her humor had returned, half serious and half teasing.
Zhang Hua quietly relaxed.
As long as Princess Fang’s spirit remained unchanged, she could rise again even after losing everything. If the conqueror Xiang Yu had endured the death of Consort Yu and returned east, he might still have destroyed the King of Han.
A person could lose anything except the will to fight.
Yet when they prepared to leave that afternoon, every attendant had collapsed. Purple bruises stained the corners of their eyes, darkness covered the points between their brows, and blood ran from their ears.
Only Princess Fang, Zhang Hua, and Jin Wuniang remained unharmed.
From inside her room, Princess Fang spoke in a calm, cold voice that carried into the deathly quiet next door.
“They are all dead, aren’t they?”
Zhang Hua had not expected the killers to move so quickly. Panic seized him for a single moment. Then he remembered that Princess Fang was awake and could take command.
“Yes, Mother. What should we do?”
“Bring me my saber.” Her voice remained flat. “Perhaps the attacker did not want to kill you. Perhaps they did not want to kill me. We cannot know. From now on, eat and sleep beside me. If one of us carries some blessing, let everyone share it. Even an ant struggles to live. If anyone wants to seek another path to survival, I will not stop them.”
Jin Wuniang shouted, “I would rather die than leave Mother! That old traitor and I cannot live beneath the same sky!”
Zhang Hua said, “As long as Mother lives, I am willing to die for her.”
Princess Fang nodded faintly and beckoned. “Come closer.”
When they bent near, she whispered, “Wuniang and Tenth Lady, both of you leave and abandon me here. Wuniang, return in secret and hide among the rafters of this room. Watch for anyone who comes. Tenth Lady, go investigate. If my guess is right, Chen Liang and Wang Qian need you to save them at this moment.”
She closed her eyes and calculated for a while.
“Remember, use your mind. Do not meet strength with strength.”
Zhang Hua hurried to find Chen Liang and Wang Qian.
At their inn, bodies covered the ground. More than a hundred skilled fighters had died.
Chen Liang and Wang Qian were nowhere to be found, alive or dead.