The General Star (continued)

He diligently supervised every student's coursework and made every effort to spend more time with Shen Zhiyao, but he knew exactly where to draw the line.

Knowing that Shen Zhiyao loved to read, he searched for books for her in the Hall of Revered Literature and left them where she could easily reach them.

Little by little, he too began picking up books to read whenever he had time to spare.

"Your handwriting is excellent, and so is your writing."

A woman's cool voice sounded unexpectedly behind him. Wen Yan grabbed the sheet of xuan paper before him, crumpling the essay he had only half finished.

"Not at all. I cannot compare with you, Miss Shen."

As Wen Yan spoke, he crumpled the essay into a ball in his hand.

"There is no need to be modest."

Shen Zhiyao watched what he was doing, regret and confusion in her eyes.

"You clearly... why?"

Wen Yan shook his head dismissively, then could not help asking Shen Zhiyao, "Miss Shen, would you look down on me for having no great ambitions?"

"To each their own aspirations. To spend the rest of one's life carefree and at ease is also something many people dream of but cannot attain."

Zhao Huiluan came upon the two of them talking and pulled Shen Zhiyun back out after she had already stepped into the Hall of Revered Literature. Then, seeing Rong An walking toward them, she went up to him with a smile and found a passage she did not understand to ask him about.

When Rong An had finished explaining, he told her, "The Imperial College has invited the vice director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to teach the students a class on the stars. If Your Highness is interested, you can go and listen tonight."

"Good! I think Brother Yanli will be interested."

Zhao Huiluan took Shen Zhiyun with her to find Zhang Yunchi.

Lately, Zhang Yunchi had been in low spirits. The root of it lay in the archery examination at the end of the term.

Zhao Huiluan had asked Rong An to make an exception for her, thinking that, having practiced archery for seven or eight years, she ought to be excused from the examination.

But Rong An had said, "Your Highness has practiced archery for so long. What is there to fear?"

The problem was, it was not she who was afraid, but Zhang Yunchi.

On the training field, under a crowd of expectant gazes, she had missed the target with all three arrows. Assistant Instructor Ma and the students had been stunned, and even Rong An, watching from the sidelines, had found it unbelievable.

But in Zhao Huiluan's eyes, this was perfectly ordinary, while Zhang Yunchi had practically wanted to die.

They found Zhang Yunchi listless in the Hall of Revered Aspirations.

"Zhang Yanli, don't take things too far!"

Zhang Yunchi raised his eyes to look at her, his face full of resentment.

"Jianjian, you don't understand. We masters aren't afraid of our disciples surpassing us. We're afraid they'll drag our names through the mud."

Zhao Huiluan could not hold back and burst out laughing with Shen Zhiyun.

Just then, two students passed outside the window, talking about the night's class on the stars, both curious and eager.

"This Vice Director Tao is remarkable. Years ago, he observed the stars and foretold that a general star would rise in the south and quell the troubles in Annan. Sure enough, victory reports have been pouring in from the south this year."

"I also heard he foretold that the northern general star would face the calamity of falling, and informed His Majesty in time. I was still young then, but the elders in my family said he was referring to Marquis Jingwu and his son."

"I know about that! The censors came at them with a furious wave of impeachments. If not for Vice Director Tao's warning..."

The two shook their heads and walked away.

Zhang Yunchi's expression grew somewhat more subdued.

Shen Zhiyun asked him, "Are you going to the class on the stars tonight?"

"Yes!"

The class was held on a low hill to the north, where everyone sat on the ground at their desks.

The early summer night sky was clear and high, filled with stars.

Gusts of mountain wind billowed Tao Xuanzhi's robes, lending him something of an immortal's bearing.

Stroking his beard, he spoke of the Three Enclosures, the Four Symbols and the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, then went on to the Book of Changes and the Eight Trigrams. Zhao Huiluan grew drowsy listening to him.

Suddenly, someone asked, "Vice Director Tao, may I ask whether the southern general star in your prophecy was Yunsong, Yun Fengge?"

Zhao Huiluan instantly perked up.

Tao Xuanzhi continued stroking his beard, smiling at the student who had asked, while glancing at Zhao Huiluan out of the corner of his eye.

At the time, he had merely been repaying an old debt of gratitude. It had never occurred to him to consider whether the prophecy was true or false.

Only when news spread that the censors had impeached Marquis Jingwu's Residence did it dawn on him that Princess Zhenning had used him to save the residence. At the time, he had only thought the princess remarkably clever for one so young.

In recent years, he had heard of an extraordinary young general on the southern battlefield, and it struck him that the prophecy Princess Zhenning had given him back then might actually come true.

Even His Majesty, recalling the matter, had come to hold him in higher regard.

Seeing Tao Xuanzhi smile without answering, the students assumed it was a heavenly secret that could not be divulged, and admired him all the more. They then turned to the young general Yunsong, their words full of admiration.

Yunsong, Yun Fengge...

Zhao Huiluan repeated the name silently. It had been a long time since she had thought of her previous life.

She, the most favored legitimate eldest princess of Great Yin, had worn plain clothes and no makeup or hair ornaments, kneeling prostrate in the ice and snow in the most abject posture, begging her enemy.

The guards who had once dared not look her in the eye had regarded her as no more than grass; the palace attendants who had once respected and feared her had shunned her like a snake or scorpion.

"Are you willing to die just like this?"

She would never forget how, when she was drifting in and out of consciousness, someone had vigorously rubbed her frozen arms.

She remembered the bob of his Adam's apple as he spoke, the collar loosened from holding her, and the black mole brushing against its edge.

It was Yunsong, the Marquis of Annan, who had lifted her out of despair.

It was he who had exchanged all his military merits for an imperial decree granting them marriage, keeping her safe.

It was he who had braved the emperor's wrath and asked an army physician to treat her younger brother.

And it was he who had spared himself no trouble, coming personally night after night to take her back to the Marquis of Annan's Residence after she had tended to her brother.

She remembered lifting the carriage curtain for the first time and seeing a figure sitting in the dimness. Zhao Huiluan had been stunned for a long while. But she had been too tired, dozing off as soon as she got into the carriage and rarely speaking to Yunsong.

In the end, it was also he who had charged through the encircling Brocade Guards and caught Zhao Huiluan as she took her own life.

That Marquis of Annan who had fought his way back from the battlefield-on New Year's Eve, he had pressed his hands helplessly over the wound on her neck, crying out again and again, "Zhao Huiluan, you can't die."

"Yun Fengge, why did you marry me?"

You and I had never met before. Why did you marry me?