Chapter 256: Vow Before Buddha
On the day the great army set off, Xue Sui rose early and knelt before the Buddha, diligently refilling the lamp oil.
Xue Yuechen, supporting her pregnant belly, stepped over the threshold, her fur collar dusted with fine snow, her face pale.
“Sixth Sister, have you heard?”
Her voice trembled slightly, “His Highness the Crown Prince volunteered to lead the troops. This morning, he led thirty thousand elite cavalry out of the city to reinforce Chishui Pass. This battle will be difficult. My mother’s maternal nephew served on the border two years ago and said the blizzards could freeze off a person’s ears. Alas! The Crown Prince, raised in the Capital City, with his precious and noble body, how can he endure the hardships and cold outside the pass?”
“Princess Consort, please come and sit here!” Xue Sui steadied her, her fingertips feeling ice-cold.
“The wind and snow are fierce outside, why aren’t you taking care of yourself? The court’s affairs are for the generals to plan; Princess Consort, you should rest and nurture your pregnancy. Why trouble yourself?”
Xue Yuechen looked at her, managing a weak smile.
“Sixth Sister, you may not know, but the Prince sent word that he will visit me at the nunnery later today. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, and there are things we need to discuss… Sister, I don’t know if I’m saying this right, so I’ve come to seek your advice…”
Her words held a mix of anticipation and unease.
Xue Sui remained silent.
She didn’t know what to say.
For a woman to tie her entire life to a man’s favor, how humble and wistful she must feel when pregnant…
–
As dusk seeped through the paper window, a pigeon fluttered in, crashing against it.
Xue Sui untied the letter tube from the pigeon’s leg and unfolded the letter paper. Li Zhao’s handwriting was like a drawn sword, falling before her eyes.
【Greetings, as if we were face to face. The snowstorm blocked the road, and I couldn’t bid farewell. Take good care of yourself, and we’ll trim the west window together upon my return. 】
Snowflakes gently tapped the window lattice.
Xue Sui leaned by the window, adorned with frost flowers, gazing at the distant mountains, and brought the letter paper closer to the candlelight.
The tongues of flame licked the corner of the paper, igniting tiny sparks…
The bell of Shui Yue Nunnery echoed through the mountains. Spirit Feather flapped its wings, plucked a plum petal from the windowsill, and placed it before the carrier pigeon.
The two pigeons pecked at each other, grooming each other’s feathers, like lovers showing affection on a cold night…
“What is your name?” Xue Sui leaned in and asked.
“…” The pigeon did not answer.
“Has your master named you?”
“Coo coo…” The pigeon seemed to understand, tilting its head instinctively.
“Alas!” Xue Sui smiled, “I suppose you don’t understand. Poor little thing, you can stay at the nunnery.”
–
As night fell, Xue Sui tossed and turned on her bed.
The solitary lamp cast shadows. She couldn’t sleep no matter what, so she picked up a lantern and went out to look at the budding flowers on the branches in the nunnery’s plum grove.
The accumulated snow weighed down the plum branches, and a faint fragrance drifted into her nostrils, much like the light kiss that person had placed on her forehead when they parted.
She suddenly came back to her senses, her heart tightening.
She suddenly heard the sound of boots crunching on snow behind her.
She stopped, and saw Li Huan walking towards her, clad in a moon-white fox fur coat, the hem sweeping across the snow, approaching her.
Xue Sui raised the lantern higher, the light casting flickering shadows on his face.
They looked at each other for a moment.
Li Huan took off his cloak and offered it to her.
“Put it on.”
“Your Highness need not do this.” Xue Sui took a step back, bowed, and was about to turn away, but he forcefully draped it over her shoulders.
“Why do you always avoid me?” he suddenly asked, his voice laced with suppressed anger. “You clearly could…”
“Could what?” Xue Sui looked up at him, a snowflake landing on her eyelashes. “Be Prince Duan’s consort, or an eyesore to the Eastern Palace?”
After speaking, she maintained her distance, her expression growing even colder.
“Your Highness, your future in the Imperial Court is boundless. I have already pledged myself to the Buddhist Gate to sever worldly ties. Our paths are different, and we are as far apart as heaven and earth. Why must you still force this?”
Hearing her restrained anger, Li Huan took half a step forward, enveloped in the cold, shaking off the accumulated snow from a branch.
“Come back to the mansion with me.” He reached out to brush the snow from her shoulder, his tone gentle. “This war, who knows how many years it will last. The Crown Prince is heading to the front lines thousands of miles away, with no return date. If you stay here unprotected, how will you protect yourself in this chaotic world…”
Hmph! Xue Sui sneered.
“Your Highness has overstepped.”
“Do you still remember our game in the dungeon?” Li Huan lowered his voice, as if afraid of startling something. “You said the most brilliant part of a ko was making the opponent hand over the piece that would resolve it. I lost that game, and after replaying it a hundred times, I finally understood your hardship for sacrificing yourself and making that risky move…”
Xue Sui was stunned.
During that game in the dungeon, she played white and trapped his black pieces. At the time, Li Huan thought she was just being stubborn, but he didn’t know she had already calculated that he would, for his Imperial Mother’s reputation and his own future, personally reveal the truth about Ping Le…
“I used Your Highness, but I never harmed you.” Xue Sui closed her eyes, letting the wind and snow rage as if to sweep away the last trace of warmth.
“It was Your Highness who turned the incomplete game into a dead end.”
“Do you think the Crown Prince truly loves you?” Li Huan suddenly exerted force, gripping her shoulder, his fingertips almost digging into her flesh.
“He wants the Old Mausoleum Swamp. As long as you live, you are a chess piece in his hand!”
Xue Sui looked at him, her eyes as calm as a compassionate ancient Buddha.
After a long moment, she let out a soft laugh.
“Your Highness comes here late at night, is it out of pity for me, or pity for yourself for miscalculating your moves and almost ruining your ambition that would have no good end?”
Li Huan choked.
His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed the words left unsaid.
Xue Sui slowly pushed his hand away, her expression resolute.
“Your Highness, please return. We are already even.”
“Ping An…” Li Huan suddenly embraced her from behind, resting his chin on her cloak, his voice muffled as if blocked by accumulated snow. “If I were to change the chessboard, would you play another game with me?”
“Your Highness, the Princess Consort is still waiting for you at the nunnery.”
Xue Sui abruptly broke free, pressing her palm against his chest and pushing him away forcefully.
Li Huan stumbled back half a step, then stubbornly reached out to embrace her again.
*Plop!* The accumulated snow from the plum tree fell to the ground, making a dull thud.
Accompanied by a chilling cold laugh, “Well done, Prince Duan!”
They both turned their heads simultaneously.
Li Zhao had arrived at some unknown time, leaning against the gnarled, iron-like plum tree, his boots crushing thin ice.
“So, you’re a scoundrel who takes advantage of the situation!”
His dark armor was still on, and the beast head on his scabbard was frosted over. His smile was colder than the howling wind and snow.
Didn’t the Crown Prince lead the army to war?
Xue Sui’s pupils contracted sharply, looking at him in disbelief.
Snowflakes scattered from the plum tree. Li Zhao pressed his palm to his sword and drew it with a *clang*.
“It seems even this holy Buddhist ground cannot cleanse worldly defilement…” He then turned the tip of his sword towards Li Huan’s face, his gaze slowly shifting, locking onto Xue Sui’s cold and clear face.
“Xue Ping An, you are a nun with impure roots.”
Xue Sui closed her eyes and clasped her hands: “Amitabha.”
Li Huan’s face turned ashen. “What does His Highness the Crown Prince mean by this?”
Li Zhao: “My Imperial Brother knows what I mean.”
Li Huan slightly curved his lips, tilted his chin, and stared coldly at him without speaking.
Li Zhao moved his sword forward half an inch. “I want you to swear before Buddha…”
Li Huan frowned, his Adam’s apple bobbing, but he did not respond.
Li Zhao gave him a cold laugh, watching the sword’s edge cut the skin on Li Huan’s neck, and said in a deep voice.
“You swear, from this day forward—”
“You shall not approach Xue Ping An under any pretext, nor send people to spy on her, nor pester her with excuses, nor coerce her with power, and even less…”
Li Zhao’s voice was as cold as ice. With each word he spoke, the sword descended a fraction.
“You shall not touch her, not even a hair!”
Li Huan looked at the bloodline staining his palm and suddenly let out a low laugh.
“I am not a despicable person. If she is unwilling, why would I force her?”
“I told you to swear!”
Li Huan looked at the arc of his sword, raised his arm, and firmly gripped the hilt, refusing to back down.
“I do not need to swear—”
Finally, he slowly added another sentence.
“Ping An is someone who came from my Prince Duan’s Mansion. I will naturally protect her.”
“I told you to swear!” Li Zhao shouted, repeating himself, the tip of his sword pressing against his throat, as if ready to take his life at any moment.
The blood welling from his neck formed dark red lines on the sword’s spine.
It was a shocking sight.
This man, when enraged, feared nothing in heaven or earth, and could even disregard his own life!
Li Huan took a slight breath. “Alright, I swear. If she is unwilling, I will never force her.”
“If I break this oath, I shall be struck by lightning and torn apart by five horses.”
“Good. If I break this oath, I shall be struck by lightning and torn apart by five horses.”
Outside the plum grove, someone called out in a low voice, “His Highness the Crown Prince.”
After calling out three times, Li Zhao’s brows suddenly furrowed.
“Xue Ping An, the military situation is urgent, I must go…”
Xue Sui looked at his dark armor, dusted with flying snow, her heart clenching slightly.
In the middle of winter, braving the wind and snow for hundreds of miles, just to see her, and to make Li Huan swear a poisonous oath?
It was true that this man was willful and reckless…
It was even truer that he was foolish and stubborn.
Xue Sui lowered her gaze, her eyelashes fluttering, and bowed deeply to him.
“Crown Prince, take care!”
Li Zhao’s throat tightened. He suddenly raised his hand, his fingertips brushing Xue Sui’s frost-reddened cheek. Disregarding the sharp pain in his shoulder and back, he forcefully threw aside her cloak, and in front of Li Huan, he cupped her neck and waist, lowered his head, and kissed her fiercely…
Xue Sui felt as if struck by lightning. She took half a step back, only to be pulled back forcefully by him.
The lantern slipped from her hand, and the candlelight cast a circle of warm light on the snow.
The scent of blood mixed with the plum fragrance on her lips, spreading in the wind and snow.
Xue Sui let out a faint sigh and slowly closed her eyes.
Li Huan trembled all over, clenching his fists, his knuckles turning white.
Outside the plum grove, Xue Yuechen leaned against a tree, gazing at the flying snow, and quietly wiped her eyes…
“He said he came to see me, but it looks more like he came to catch us in the act.”
Fei Cui whispered to comfort her.
“Princess Consort, don’t overthink it.”
Xue Yuechen shook her head.
Suddenly, as if struck by an idea, she fiercely grabbed Fei Cui’s wrist.
“Didn’t County Princess Minghui say she wanted to come to Shui Yue Nunnery to worship Buddha? Send someone to prepare vegetarian meals and treat her well, don’t be negligent…”
“Yes.”
In the cold night, the wind and snow intensified. The plum branches swayed in the night breeze.
The departing figure of a person and a horse trampled through the silver frost and cold jade, like an arrow shot from a bow, rushing towards the war-torn Chishui Pass, turning the Zen heart and snowy serenity behind them into a thread of longing on their journey.
Li Zhao: I will definitely return, no chanting allowed.
Xue Sui: …Some people won’t admit defeat even if they die. I might as well be a nun for a lifetime.
Reader: Today’s certain big shot is really like a wagging golden retriever!
