The Xiao Family

Life in Capital City had not been easy for the Xiao Family these past few years. By rights, it should not have been that way. The Xiao Family had produced an empress; they were proper imperial in-laws. Even if imperial in-laws did not throw their weight around, they ought at least to have enjoyed some standing at court. Someone should have put in a word for them during the Grand Secretariat's deliberations, someone should have remembered the Xiao sons when the Ministry of Personnel reviewed meritorious service, and gifts from the palace should have streamed through their gates at festivals and the New Year. That was what it meant to be imperial in-laws.

But the Xiao Family had none of it. From the day Empress Xiao Luo entered the palace, she had never asked for a single favor for her birth family. Back when the Xiao Family had gone to such lengths to send their daughter into the Eastern Palace as a secondary consort, they had hoped she would win favor and help her clansmen rise. Later, when she unexpectedly became empress, the Xiao Family thought it was a heaven-sent opportunity. The old matriarch laid on three tables of wine and food at home and invited everyone of influence in the clan. During the feast, she declared, "Our Xiao Family has finally made it." Before half a year had passed, those words had gone utterly cold. After Xiao Luo became empress, she never answered the visiting cards the Xiao Family sent into the palace. When members of the Xiao Family entered the palace to pay their respects, she had them wait in the Side Hall. After four hours, Fu Shun finally came out and said Her Majesty was feeling unwell today and asked them to leave. The visitors never even saw the empress.

Xiao Luo did not take revenge on them. Revenge took thought, and she was unwilling to spare the Xiao Family any thought at all. She had simply uprooted them from her life. No one read the winds better than the people in the palace. If the empress was so cold toward her own family, there was even less reason for anyone else to approach them. At first, the imperial consorts had thought of cultivating ties with Jiaofang Hall, sending the empress gifts at festivals and the New Year. Later, when they discovered that everything they sent was returned unopened, they gradually stopped. The palace maids and eunuchs whispered among themselves that Her Majesty had a cold face and a cold heart. Others disagreed, saying that someone with a cold face and a cold heart would not stew pears with Sichuan fritillary bulbs for the Fourth Prince every day.

De'an never joined in these discussions. He merely remembered how, back when the late empress was still alive, Xiao Luo had been a young girl who sat beneath the osmanthus tree embroidering with Yang Ning. Yang Ning embroidered peonies; she embroidered bamboo. Yang Ning said bamboo was too plain. She said bamboo was good; the wind could not blow it down. Later, Yang Ning was gone, and she had gone on embroidering bamboo all these years.

Qi Xiao had never mentioned court affairs to Xiao Luo. But every official in the Ministry of Personnel had two pairs of eyes. Three sons of the Xiao Family held government posts. The eldest was Xiao Luo's older male cousin, a fifth-rank bureau director in the Ministry of Works. Back then, he had managed to secure a substantive post by choosing the right side in the Xiao Family's internal struggles. These past few years, his position in the Ministry of Works had been solid as a rock, but whenever he sought to move up, nothing ever came of it at the Ministry of Personnel. He asked several people to make inquiries. At last, someone told him privately that the minister had originally intended to promote him, but then word had spread that, on one occasion, His Majesty had been reviewing the Ministry of Personnel's list of candidates in the imperial study and had lightly tapped the desk twice upon seeing his name. The minister of personnel had turned the page. Those two taps alone told the Xiao cousin that he would probably remain at the fifth rank for the rest of his life.

The other two sons of the Xiao Family fared little better. One was a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue and had worked for ten years without a promotion. The other was a minor eighth-rank official in the Ministry of War, whose annual evaluations were always average. It was not that the Xiao Family lacked sons with scholarly ability, but anyone surnamed Xiao invariably received an appointment one rank below the others after the palace examination. It was not that the Ministry of Personnel deliberately held them down; the ministry knew His Majesty would not spare anyone surnamed Xiao a second glance. In time, even the younger men of the Xiao clan grew reluctant to sit the examinations. Taking them would be pointless. They might as well return to their hometown and manage the farmland.

The Xiao Family's old matriarch was not yet muddleheaded. She had messages sent into the palace several times, asking to see the empress. Xiao Luo finally agreed once. On the day the old matriarch entered the palace, the attendants at Jiaofang Hall led her to the Side Hall as usual and brewed tea. The old matriarch waited for an hour before Xiao Luo came over from the main hall. She wore an everyday robe of raven blue, with no phoenix crown on her head, only that old silver hairpin.

The old matriarch began by saying how difficult things had become for the Xiao Family, how the clan's sons were being held down at every turn in court. Everything she said hinted that she wanted the empress to put in a word for the Xiao Family before His Majesty. Holding her teacup, Xiao Luo listened until she had finished, then gently set it on the table. The cup made little sound against the tabletop, but the old matriarch fell silent.

"Back when you pushed your daughter into the icy river, did you ever think the Xiao Family would come to this?"

The old matriarch's expression changed. "That was an accident."

"It was not an accident." Xiao Luo's voice was as flat as it always was, not raised in the slightest. "The person who pushed me is still alive, managing the farmland belonging to that branch of the family you cherish most back home. I have not taken revenge on her, nor have I taken revenge on you. You can still sit here drinking tea today because my surname is Xiao. But all I can do for you is let you sit here and have a cup of tea."

After the old matriarch left, Xiao Luo picked up the barely touched cup of tea and flung its contents onto the soil beneath the osmanthus tree outside the window. Fu Shun watched from beside her, not daring to say a word. The palace maids whispered among themselves that Her Majesty had tipped the tea leaves beneath the tree as well, and that the osmanthus had bloomed more profusely this year than in any previous year. Who knew whether the tea leaves deserved the credit.

Later, the Xiao Family approached several more people. They tried Xie Ting, whose answer was very direct. While he was practicing with a staff on the Drill Ground, their messenger stood nearby and relayed the Xiao Family's wishes. Xie Ting set his staff on the rack and said, "I do not concern myself with matters of the inner palace." The messenger wanted to say more, but Xie Ning came over from the side and handed his father a waterskin. Xie Ting took it, tipped his head back, and drank. Seeing this, the man knew there was no hope. He cupped his hands in farewell and left.

They also approached the Duke of Min. The Duke of Min did receive their visitor, but he merely drank with him and exchanged a few inconsequential pleasantries. He belonged to the old hereditary nobility and had deep roots at court; there was no reason for him to offend the emperor for the Xiao Family's sake. Once they had finished drinking, he saw the man out, then turned and instructed his steward to say the master was out whenever anyone from the Xiao Family came calling.

Gradually, the younger members of the Xiao Family understood as well. The empress would not help them, the emperor had no liking for them, and the dukes, marquises, and earls in Capital City wanted nothing to do with them either. They were imperial in-laws in name alone, worse off than an ordinary official's family. The older cousin idled away his days in the Ministry of Works, reporting for duty and carrying out his assignments each day, then going to a teahouse after work to listen to storytellers. The clerk's son had been studying at the Imperial College, but later withdrew of his own accord, saying his fellow students all knew he belonged to the Xiao Family and slighted him both openly and behind his back. His father said nothing. The next day, he packed his son's luggage and sent him back to their hometown. The old matriarch was still alive, and the family had not yet scattered. But everyone could see that once she passed away, the Xiao Family would truly be nothing in Capital City.

Xiao Luo knew about all of it. She never asked or made inquiries. Occasionally, Fu Shun caught wind of something from the palace attendants and hesitated over whether to tell her. Sitting on the couch before the window, holding the old book she had read several times over, she said without lifting her head, "There is no need to tell me." So Fu Shun said nothing.

She sat before the window. Most of the blossoms on the osmanthus tree had already fallen, leaving only a sparse scattering on the branches. Before long, they would all be gone. She lowered her head and continued reading. There was a faded ink stain on the old page, left by a drop Yang Ning had accidentally spilled many years ago. Yang Ning had cried, "Oh!" and said she had dirtied the book. She had said it did not matter; it could still be read even if it was dirty. She turned the page, and the ink stain passed over to the next page, still there. She gently touched the stain with a finger and read on. Outside the window, an osmanthus petal fell onto the sill, followed by another.