Frost's Descent

After Frost's Descent, the chill came earlier with each passing day in the capital. More than half the leaves had fallen from the Eastern Palace's parasol trees. The wet nurse swept for two days without clearing them all, then simply stopped, saying she would leave them for His Highness to tread on for fun. Every day when Xiao Huaijin returned from the imperial study, he had to crunch through the fallen leaves beneath the parasol trees, only going inside once he had had his fill.

It took Zhou Rucheng nearly half a month to recover fully from his cold. On the old man's first day back teaching, he discovered that Xiao Huaijin had memorized another dozen or so pages of the Thousand Character Classic and filled a thick stack of paper with writing practice. He raised his eyebrows and offered no praise, merely assigning another chapter of homework. Xiao Huaijin did not mind-he could now judge the Grand Tutor's mood by the angle of his raised eyebrows, and today's angle suggested a good mood.

On the twelfth day of the ninth month, Consort Xian brought Xiao Yue over for a visit. Xiao Yue was quite steady on his feet now. Once through the Eastern Palace gates, he needed no hand to hold and ran straight toward the stone table. He knew there was always a plate of pastries on that table. Today it was red bean cake. He stood on tiptoe and reached for a long while without success, then turned and called to Consort Xian, "Mother!" Consort Xian deliberately remained seated and told him to find a way himself. Xiao Yue pouted, then turned toward the covered walkway and shouted, "Crown Prince Brother!"

Xiao Huaijin came over from the walkway and lifted Xiao Yue so he could reach the cakes on the table. Xiao Yue grabbed a piece and stuffed it into his mouth, his cheeks bulging round as he mumbled his thanks to his brother. Xiao Huaijin set him down, then turned to ask Consort Xian, "Your Highness, when will Fifth Brother begin his lessons?"

"Not for a while yet. He's only three." Consort Xian lifted her teacup and took a sip. "Why, does Your Highness want to be a little Grand Tutor?"

"I can teach him to recognize characters first," Xiao Huaijin said with perfect seriousness. "The Grand Tutor said my handwriting was already good enough to serve as a model. Three isn't that young-Father said you can start handling a bow at three."

Consort Xian set down her teacup and looked at him. Since turning five, the child had become increasingly coherent in his speech. When he occasionally came out with "Father said," he no longer sounded as though he were showing off, but rather stating something he considered perfectly natural. She smiled.

"Then Your Highness had better be ready. Yue'er is a little rascal who can't sit still."

She then called Xiao Yue over again and pointed at Xiao Huaijin. "Crown Prince Brother will teach you to recognize characters from now on. Will you learn?"

His mouth stuffed with red bean cake, Xiao Yue nodded vigorously. Crumbs fell from the corner of his mouth, and he caught them in his hand and stuffed them back in.

On the fifteenth day of the ninth month, Xiao Lan came. Today she brought a new sketchbook she had bound herself-she had cut the white paper bestowed by the Grand Consort into equal-sized sheets and sewn them together with needle and thread, then drawn an orchid on the cover. Xiao Huaijin turned a few pages. There was a drawing on every page: peonies in the Imperial Garden, lotuses on Taiye Lake, deer at the hunting grounds, and one drawing of three little figures, one in apricot yellow, one in royal blue, and one in lake blue, standing beside a bonfire. He pointed at that page and asked whether it was them. Xiao Lan leaned over for a look and said yes, it was the night of the autumn hunt. Xiao Huaijin leafed through the sketchbook from beginning to end and asked why Fifth Brother was not in it. Xiao Lan said she would draw him next time if he came along. Xiao Huaijin said they should invite Second Brother next time too.

Xiao Yu arrived that evening. He was growing increasingly familiar with visiting the Eastern Palace. Upon entering, he first looked for pastries on the stone table. Finding none, he went to the walkway to ask the wet nurse himself. Smiling, the wet nurse brought a plate of freshly steamed osmanthus cakes from the kitchen. He took one and sat on a stone stool, swinging his little legs as he ate. Xiao Huaijin brought Xiao Lan's sketchbook out of the room to show him. Xiao Yu pointed at the little figures beside the bonfire and spent a while identifying them-this was Crown Prince Brother, this was Fourth Sister, and this was him. He looked up at Xiao Lan and said, "Fourth Sister, you drew me too short." Xiao Lan said that he was short to begin with; he was half a head shorter than her crown prince brother. Unconvinced, Xiao Yu stood beside Xiao Huaijin to compare their heights. He really was half a head shorter, so he sat back on the stone stool and continued eating his cake.

The three children chattered about Xiao Lan's sketchbook in the courtyard while the wet nurse sat in the walkway doing needlework, occasionally looking up at them. When darkness fell, Xiao Lan and Xiao Yu returned to their respective palaces. Xiao Huaijin saw them to the gate. On his way back, he stood beneath the parasol tree for a while, then suddenly said, "Nanny, I think Second Brother is happier than he used to be."

The wet nurse put down her needlework. "That's because Your Highness treats him well."

Xiao Huaijin thought for a moment, nodded, and went back inside to continue practicing his writing.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere in the Palace of Nurtured Elegance was entirely different. Shen Mingzhu sat on the heated platform in the warm chamber, an account book open before her. Shen Boyong had entrusted someone to bring it into the palace. The cover read "Details of Autumn Tax Receipts and Expenditures in Hejian Prefecture," but a thin slip of paper was tucked between its pages. There was only one line on it, in Shen Boyong's handwriting: "Around the turn of the year, the matter can be accomplished."

She drew out the slip and burned it over the candle flame. The ashes fell into the tea tray on the low table, mingling with the leftover tea. Then she closed the account book, rose, and walked to the window.

Xiao Yu had just returned from the Eastern Palace and was playing with the gray rabbit in the courtyard. After nearly a month in his care, the rabbit had grown plumper. Even when let out of its cage, it did not run off, but crouched beside Xiao Yu's feet and rubbed against his boots. He squatted on the ground and talked to the rabbit, telling it that Fourth Sister had drawn a book today, and he was in it too, though she had drawn him too short.

Shen Mingzhu watched from behind the window as her son talked away to the rabbit, her face expressionless. She knew what that line meant-around the turn of the year. In a few more months, Xiao Yu would turn four. She had to finish all of this before his fourth birthday, so that in the future he would know nothing and remember nothing.

She turned and returned to the warm chamber, taking another letter from the bottom drawer of her dressing case. She handed it to the palace maid behind her, her voice very soft. "Send this out of the palace tomorrow. Tell my father-not to rush. The crown prince's movements are too regular now; His Majesty would notice anything unusual too easily. Wait until winter. There will be more opportunities in winter."

The maid took the letter and withdrew. Shen Mingzhu sat back down at the dressing table, her face reflected in the bronze mirror. She reached out and touched the corner of her own eye in the mirror-those fine lines had deepened a little since last month.

On the twentieth day of the ninth month, Sun Jingtang submitted a secret memorial in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. He stood before the imperial desk for a long time, waiting for Xiao Lin to read it from beginning to end. Its contents were simple: during this year's autumn tax collection, the Hengtai Firm had handled two more military fund transfers, one for eighty thousand taels and one for a hundred and twenty thousand, listed respectively as "Winter Provisions for the Northern Camp" and "Repairs to Frontier Garrison Weapons." The handler was still Cui Shen, the approving officials were still those same two directors in the Ministry of War, and the silver had once again gone to that nonexistent trading firm in Hejian Prefecture. Sun Jingtang listed the accounts one by one, attaching a copy of the original voucher to each transaction. At the end, he wrote only one sentence: "Your subject ventures to ask Your Majesty: when will we draw in the net?"

Xiao Lin closed the memorial and set it at the corner of the desk.

"Not yet."

Sun Jingtang raised his head. His old face was deeply furrowed, and his eyes were bloodshot from staying up late for days, but his voice remained steady. "Your Majesty, the Shen Clan has cultivated its influence in the Ministry of War for years. I fear Cui Shen is not the only military officer involved. If we delay too long and the Shen Clan notices, once the evidence is destroyed, my death would be of little consequence, but the court's military funds-" He paused. "The court's military funds cannot simply flow into the Shen Clan's pockets."

"I know."

Xiao Lin looked at this veteran official who had served him for more than a decade, his tone gentler than usual. "Precisely because so many officers are involved, if we move against Cui Shen now, the others will cut off their tails to survive. What I want is not one Cui Shen, but the Shen Clan's entire web within the Ministry of War. I have kept all your memorials and remembered every transaction. When the day comes to draw in the net, I will let people know-it was Sun Jingtang, Minister of Revenue, who guarded the court's purse."

The corners of Sun Jingtang's mouth moved slightly. He lowered his head and asked no more. Taking another document from his sleeve, he placed it on the desk-it was the general account for this year's autumn taxes. He stepped back twice and walked to the hall doors, then glanced back at His Majesty, who had resumed reviewing memorials behind the imperial desk, before withdrawing.

At the end of the ninth month came Fourth Princess Xiao Lan's birthday.

Consort Jing laid out a small family feast in her palace. The dishes were simple: steamed perch, lotus root stuffed with glutinous rice and flavored with osmanthus, and lotus seed soup, all homestyle fare. Xiao Lan sat in the birthday girl's seat, wearing a newly made rose-red padded jacket with a silk flower pinned in her hair. The children piled their gifts before her-Xiao Huaijin gave her a new charcoal pencil and a stack of trimmed drawing paper, Xiao Yu gave her a clay rabbit he had shaped himself, and Xiao Yue gave her a piece of his favorite red bean cake.

Xiao Lan picked up the clay rabbit and turned it over and over, smiling as she said that Second Brother's rabbit really did look like a rabbit. Xiao Yu proudly puffed out his chest and said he had modeled it after his gray rabbit. Beside him, Xiao Huaijin added that he had made it three times; the first two had collapsed, and this was the third. Xiao Lan's smile deepened, and she placed the clay rabbit on top of all the other gifts.

Holding her wine cup, Consort Xian watched the four children sitting together and sharing the osmanthus-flavored stuffed lotus root, then suddenly gave a soft sigh. Consort Jing asked what was wrong, and she put down her cup.

"Nothing. I just feel that-the crown prince really is a good child. All these children in the palace cling to him."

Consort Jing said nothing, merely lifting her wine cup for a sip. She knew the unspoken second half of Consort Xian's words-such a good child, yet someone could not tolerate his existence. She did not want to discuss such things today. Today was Lan'er's birthday.

After the meal, the four children sat beneath the covered walkway in Consort Jing's palace, looking at the moon. Xiao Huaijin suddenly stood up, told them to wait, and ran out. A short while later, he returned carrying a bow-the little ox-horn bow he had asked the wet nurse to bring from the Eastern Palace. He raised it toward the moon and drew it halfway. There was no arrow nocked; he merely let the bowstring hum once in the moonlight.

"Sister Lan, last time you said you could make a wish if you hit the divine deer. There isn't a divine deer today, but there's a moon-wishing on the moon is just the same. Hurry and make a wish."

Xiao Lan stood and walked over to him, closed her eyes briefly, then said she had finished wishing. Xiao Yu asked what she had wished for. Xiao Lan said she could not tell him; it would not come true if she said it aloud. Xiao Yu ran over too, getting closer to the moon, then briefly closed his eyes as well. Seeing his older brother and sister closing their eyes, Xiao Yue followed suit, though he did not know what he was wishing for.

Xiao Huaijin drew the bowstring one last time. It hummed in the night breeze, then fell silent. Moonlight fell on the osmanthus tree in Consort Jing's palace and on the children's faces.

Consort Jing stood in the walkway watching them. Her daughter stood beside the crown prince, and the two were arguing over whether there really was a rabbit on the moon.

Consort Xian leaned against a pillar, holding her wine cup.

"If only these children could keep growing up slowly like this."

Consort Jing was silent for a moment, then softly said two words.

"They will."

Her tone was firm as she spoke those two words, as though making a wish even harder to fulfill than the rabbit on the moon.