Chapter 59: Married Away
Zheng Biyu informed Yaoying: although Tribal Chief Yelu was still on the warpath, the big wedding would still take place as scheduled. Tribal Chief Yelu’s son would take her to Tribal Chief Yelu’s encampment. When Tribal Chief Yelu returned to the tribe, the wedding would be completed in compliance with the Yelu tribe’s customs.
Yaoying nodded calmly.
She organized all the books and accounts and handed them over to the housekeeper.
Some of the silver money she had saved over the years was used to pay off the court ministers. That was why ministers that sympathized with the Xie family had forced Li De to allow Li Zhongqian to be adopted into the Xie family that night.
Yaoying had stored the rest in different places, just in case.
As for the land, residences, books, and stores, they were also taken care of by loyal servants.
When Li Zhongqian returned, all of the Xie family’s accounts would be neat and orderly, unlikely to bother him too much.
As the wedding date was getting closer and closer, Yaoying went to the imperial villa.
She was afraid Xie Manyuan would be sad. Recently, she had not come to see Xie Manyuan for some time, and Xie Manyuan was unable to recognize her.
Many ginkgo trees had been planted in the imperial villa. It was already the seventh lunar month, when the golden-yellow leaves were falling gently and spreading all over the courtyard.
The palace maids and chambermaids accompanied Xie Manyuan in collecting the ginkgo leaves under the trees.
Xie Manyuan was full of smiles, saying happily, “Erlang, qiniang, collect more. Aniang will teach you to make ginkgo soup.”
The palace maids and chambermaids laughed and answered yes.
Yaoying stood in the darkest area of the curved corridor. After watching on for a long time, she turned around to leave the Buddhist temple.
When she returned to the wangfu, the Chief Historian, who had just returned from Dongdu, wiped the corners of his eyes and said, “Erlang’s injury is much better, but he still cannot get up.”
The Southern Chu people were experts at using poison. Li Zhongqian’s poison was so intense that after he woke up, his consciousness was hazy to the extent that he couldn’t even sit up.
Wei Ming placed him in Dongdu. Yaoying sent the Xie family’s generals to guard him in Dongdu, so that when she got married and Wei Ming released him, the generals could send Li Zhongqian back to Jingnan.
Yaoying asked the Chief Historian, “Can elder brother recognize people yet?”
The Chief Historian’s eyes were red: “Erlang slips between sleep and consciousness. At times, he fell asleep for two to three days at a time. I watched over him for a few days, but he did not recognize me.”
Yaoying sat, lost in thought for a moment, then said, “When elder brother is better, don’t tell him I had married far away. He is injured now, unable to even get out of bed. If you let him know, he will get agitated. Then, how will he recover from his injuries?”
The chief historian nodded in response, “Princess… after erlang gets better?”
When Li Zhongqian became sober and discovered that Yaoying had not been going to see him, he would certainly be suspicious.
Yaoying sat in front of the window and closed the account book: “Hide it for however long you can hide it. Tell elder brother that he is my only hope. He has to be well.”
The Chief Historian cried and nodded his head.
In the blink of an eye, it was time for the wedding.
Yaoying was adorned in flower hairpins, dressed in simple but elegant robes, and done up in heavy makeup by the palace maids. Under the watchful eyes of Li De and the civil and military officials, Xie Qing supported her into a luxurious carriage decorated with gold leaf and jade.
Xie Qing insisted on following Yaoying to the Yelu tribe.
“My ambition is not to attain merit and great achievements, but only to follow Princess, to protect Princess, and to follow Princess to the ends of the earth.”
Yaoying urged him to stay.
For the first time, Xie Qing showed a resentful expression: “The princess despises my ambition? As a person who knows I am inflexible, I, Xie Qing, cannot be a loyal person?”
Yaoying was helpless. Knowing that even if she sent him away, he would still sneak out of Yumen Pass, so she could only nod her head and let him accompany her.
The wedding date, set by the Supervisor of Astronomy, was on a cloudless and sunny autumn day. The skies were clear and the air fresh, and cranes rose into the clouds.
The carriage departed from the palace gate and slowly drove out into the long street.
Xie Qing, who was riding beside the carriage, suddenly knocked on the carriage window: “Princess, look.”
Yaoying was leaning against the wall, unable to lift her head because of the numerous beaded ornaments and hanging harpins inserted in her hair. When she heard the sound, she confusedly lifted the corner of the muslin curtain to look out.
She was stunned.
Both sides of the long street were filled with people: men and women, the young and the old, delicate children, beautifully dressed wealthy youths, and poor commoners in rags.
They stood surrounding the long street, stretching from the imperial palace to the outside of the wangfu gates, forming a large sea of black as far as the eye could see. One was simply unable to make out where one person started and another ended.
There were minor officials who came from humble backgrounds and had received Yaoying’s grace.
There were the wealthy young men who used to pursue Yaoying on horseback.
There were common people whom Yaoying had saved time and again in passing.
There were victims who had asked for porridge and food from Xie’s porridge hut during times of famine.
There were women who escaped the fate of slavery because of Yaoying’s help.
They didn’t cheer, didn’t dance nor sing along with the joyful drums. They stood quietly, watching the carriage drive away, their expressions solemn with tears in their eyes.
Yaoying’s tears gathered in her eyelashes. She waved a hand at the crowd.
More than one person had asked her: Why did you go out to save these people unrelated to you?
There were heroes in this world.
And many ungrateful and unscrupulous people.
And even more ordinary people, with their own selfishness, who could be cowardly and timid, and have no regard for others. But, there also would be ordinary people who knew gratitude and returned the favor and watched out for each other.
Yaoying was also an ordinary person; a person who sought to survive in this chaotic world. She had fled with refugees, and had been saved by refugees who were complete strangers in times of danger. She had been treated with sincerity, and wanted to treat people with her own sincerity.
So, when it was within your power, why should you not save those in danger?
These people standing alive in front of her were her answer.
There were Jin Wu Wei along the road, so the people could not see what was going on in the carriage. However, some people were sharp-eyed enough to catch the hand that Yaoying gently waved.
An old woman cried out, “Seventh Princess, take care!”
A weak young girl, who married far away from home, must take care of herself!
This cry rang out like cold water splashing into a frying pan. A huge and large-scale clamor burst out.
“Seventh Princess, take care!”
One by one, people shouted this out.
One by one, people knelt down to the carriage.
Everyone looked at the carriage and said over and over again, “Seventh Princess, take care!”
They couldn’t think of any other well wishes. They only prayed for the Seventh Princess to be safe and sound.
Qin Fei, Commander-in-Chief Pei and others, dressed in armor, escorted the carriage out of the city gates.
The noise, cries, shouts, and yells converged into a torrent, ebbing and flowing. It had just receded a few moments ago, but shortly after, another wave of great momentum was set off.
Commander-in-Chief Pei looked back at the carriage.
Yaoying never showed her face, but only stretched out a slender hand, gently waving.
Commander-in-Chief Pei’s heartstrings tugged, suddenly recalling the poem verse recited by Prime Minister Zheng when he led his ministers to bid farewell to the Seventh Princess in front of the palace gate:
Great Wei’s Princess left for marriage, her body worth a million soldiers.
Author’s Note
“Great Wei… body worth a million soldiers” was adapted from the poem “Han family’s Princess left for marriage” and the opera song “one person is worth a million soldiers”