Golden Stage Chapter 3

I'm trying to squeeze out chapters between my exams, which is pretty difficult since they are coming every 2 weeks…

Please let me know where my translations can be improved, especially the many historical t.i.tles!

Chapter 3 – Entering the Official Residence

It was evening at the capital camp garrison in the western outskirts one hundred Li outside of the capital.

The Sharp Wind Camp commander Zhong He came out personally to meet their entourage, and Xiao Xun stepped forward to salute. Before he even finished the ceremony, Zhong He had already left him behind, hurriedly rus.h.i.+ng towards the carriage and bowing in salute: “This lowly general1 of the Sharp Wind2 camp, Commander Zhong He, greets General Fu!"

The Sharp Wind Camp was ranked first among the five major military camps of the capital. Zhong He was a third-ranked3 official and therefore already very respectable himself, but he was even more reverent in his treatment of the Marquis of Jing Ning.

A bandaged hand lifted up the curtain, and the strong scent of medicine slowly spread through the air. Fu Shen did not wear armor, only robes. His chest and arms were fully wound with bandages, and the blanket covering his legs hung down to his feet. His complexion was pale with a green tinge, his lips completely bloodless, and his hair was scattered down his shoulders. His entire person seemed to only hang by a single breath, so weak as if he would topple over to a gentle breeze.

(Credit: Lusankan at )

Fu Shen nodded towards him in greeting: “Commander Zhong, I trust you have been well since last we met. Forgive this humble one's4… cough…inconvenience moving, I cannot get up to return the salute.”

Zhong He had long since heard the news of how he had been seriously injured and could no longer walk, but he could never have imagined Fu Shen's injury was actually this severe. He originally had not truly believed the rumors of "Fu Shen being truly disabled.” However, now seeing this scene with his own eyes, he had no choice but to believe it. Given Fu Shen's current look, don't mention recovering his original appearance——it seemed that even safely and steadily living a few more years would be a problem.

Zhong He's vision darkened, and he felt a chill run down his body from head to toe. Even his manner of address changed from grief: "Jingyuan5, this injury of yours… You…"

His voice trembled as he trailed off and his eyes reddened, as if Fu Shen was not injured but about to die very soon. The corner of Fu Shen's lips couldn't help but twitch, and he sighed: "Many thanks for Commander Zhong's concern and care. It truly is just a leg injury and not life-threatening." He sighed, "Zhongshan, hurry and find a handkerchief for Commander Zhong to wipe his tears.”

Many years ago, Zhong He had once served in the Yuan Prefecture military. He had been acquaintances with Fu Tingzhong and Fu Tingxin, and somewhat counted as a senior6 to Fu Shen. Unfortunately, later on Fu Shen took over the Northern Yan Iron Cavalry, and after spending many years immersed in Northern Xinjiang refusing to come back, these old friends.h.i.+ps with those of his father's generation had gradually faded away.

However, at this moment, he was seriously injured and looked extremely wan and sallow. This appearance suddenly made Zhong He forget his status. He could only remember that vigorous and lively boy who had always followed behind Fu Tingxin. He then considered how Fu Shen was completely solitary, without any parents above him or any children running around his knees; he actually did not even have a single close friend by his side to aid and a.s.sist him. Seeing how he had suffered an incurable disability at this young age, Zhong He could not help but be overcome by sorrow and grief: “It is all because of our incompetence. We couldn't stop you from entering the battlefield back then, so disaster was able to strike in the present. When I go down to the underworld in the future, what face will I have to see your father and uncle!"

“Commander Zhong,” Fu Shen felt a headache coming on and supported himself on the side of the carriage, “Don't mention those events that have already pa.s.sed. I am fine, there is no need for you to be in such grief.”

He refused to call Zhong He “n.o.ble Uncle7” from beginning to end, so while Zhong He remained in low spirits, he also felt Fu Shen was truly very cold and indifferent. The sky had already darkened and Fu Shen's party was hurrying to enter the capital, so the two bid farewell here. After changing, the fine Northern Yan riders continued to gallop in the direction of the capital so as to enter before the city gates closed.

The last time Fu Shen had returned to Beijing was three months ago. The capital had not changed, still bustling and prosperous with lights everywhere like always. The accompanying Northern Yan soldiers rarely had the chance to come to the capital, so they looked around as they walked and the speed of their entourage gradually slowed as a result. Their party of travelers on the street was really too conspicuous. Fu Shen considered the situation over, before he waved to call Xiao Xun over and whispered an order: “First send me back to my official residence, then you can take them out to stroll around as they please. No visiting prost.i.tutes or gambling, no making trouble. Put any expenses on my account. Now go.”

Xiao Xun didn't even think to refuse: “No way!”

“I told you to go, so go,” Fu Shen seemed to be lacking in strength and his voice was very quiet, but his words were goading and insulting enough to make one's fists itch: “Xiao Zhongshan, if you keep orbiting around my feet and following my every step, I won't be able to keep up my reputation ——If I cannot marry a wife, you will have to be my dutiful and filial son by my bed in the future.”

"I…."

Xiao Xun could not beat this mischievous general at this game, and could only accept his orders in embarra.s.sment.

After turning through a small alley, they arrived at a clean and tidy street. This area was comprised solely of mansions for meritorious and high n.o.bility, built with exquisite elegance and emitting a majestic aura, quieter and more tranquil than the homes of ordinary people. The residence of the Marquis of Jing Ning was located at the northeast corner. The old housekeeper servants dismantled the threshold to welcome the carriage into the door, and all the servants waited in the atrium. Upon seeing the master of their mansion being carried out by his subordinates, they all hesitated and shrunk back to the side, not daring to go forward.

After Fu Shen had been sealed as Marquis, he was cut off from the Duke of Ying official residence to live separately. He had not cared at all about this large mansion. The servants had been old, weak, or sick ones pulled by his stepmother from her maiden family of Qin, each working around for four or five years after being sent here. Fu Shen very rarely used this home and had no friends.h.i.+ps or bonds with the servants. On the rare occasions where he actually did return here to live for a short period of a time, this group of people behaved like mice who had seen a cat, timidly hiding away in the kitchen and the servant rooms. Aside from any absolutely necessary tasks, they never emerged to enter his eyes.

Fortunately, although the servants feared him, they had not abandoned their work and ch.o.r.es. Xiao Xun carried Fu Shen back to the bedroom and asked the servants for hot water. He took off Fu Shen's robe for him, wiped his face clean, and supported him to lie down on the bed. The moment Fu Shen had been cleaned up, he promptly burned his bridges8 and kicked Xiao Xun straight out, "Go do what you're supposed to do. Have someone leave a door open for you at night. The rear court is entirely composed of wing rooms, you may all sleep there as you wish. Forgive me if there is any incompleteness in treatment.”

Xiao Xun saw Fu Shen could barely conceal the tiredness and exhaustion on his face any longer, so he did not say another word and tactfully left.

The pills he had taken in the afternoon had a very strong soporific effect, and Fu Shen had forced himself to resist the urge to sleep this whole time in order to socialize with the men in the capital garrison. At this moment he could no longer hold on; almost the exact moment Xiao Xun pushed the door to leave, Fu Shen fell straight into a drowsy dream.

From outside the window, an old servant perked up his ears to listen for a while. Only when long and even breath sounds came from inside did he tiptoe out of the inner court. He let the cook prepare some easily digestible congee and keep these warm on the stove, to serve when the master woke up.

Fu Shen and his entourage had traveled light, and had walked into the capital using the proper roads. The news of their arrival was thus quickly transmitted into the palace and to the ears of the courtiers. Still, no one should be visiting at this moment, so after the old servant sent away Xiao Xun and the others, he closed the main entrance and left only a corner gate open. But who could have expected that not even an hour after Fu Shen fell asleep, a burst of urgent and powerful door knocks came from outside the Marquis of Jing Ning's official residence.

The doormen did not dare to be irreverent and hurried inside to report. The only useful old servant in the house dragged himself over as fast as he could on his unwieldy legs. As soon as he made it, he was shocked stiff by the sight of a group of block-clothed men riding heavy horses with personal swords hanging off their waists. The old servant was utterly stricken with terror: “May… May I ask these gentlemen…”

The crowd of people parted on their own volition, and man of tall and imposing stature emerged from the throng, stopping his horse in the light outside the shadow of the eaves. That very moment, the cloud patterns on his dark blue clothes flashed and flickered like flowing water, and the silver-embroidered pegasi on the back of his outer robe spread their wings in preparation for flight. The moonlight and lamplight illuminated a beautiful face with smiling eyes and thin lips.

“Old man9, there is no need to panic.” He politely nodded in greeting, but his tone of voice was full of arrogance: “Flying Dragon Guard Royal Inspector Envoy10 Yan Xiaohan, following His Majesty's decree to specially invite a famous doctor to see to the Marquis of Jing Ning's wounds. If I may bother you to go notify the Marquis."

The old servant could not tell between the uniforms of different officials, but he had served in two official residences for several decades and was as such very familiar with the name “Yan Xiaohan." His heart suddenly thumped in his chest, and he tried to stall with evasive words: “This… my master has just completed a long and arduous trip, and his body is also injured. Just now he already fell asleep, Sir11, you see——”

From the court to the countryside, there was not a single person who did not know the Flying Dragon Guard had always acted with overbearing tyranny, and there were even fewer who dared to stop them. Yan Xiao glanced condescendingly down at him. The hand holding the horse reins was pale and gaunt, and the sleeves of his robes slipped to reveal a small ice-cold bracer made of wrought iron. With a faint imitation of a smile on his face, he asked: “What, is this old man9 very afraid of me meeting your Marquis?”

He was indeed right on.

This was no secret in the capital. Yan Xiaohan, the Left Divine Martial Army12 General and Flying Dragon Guard Royal Inspector Envoy, was the mightiest and most dangerous official in the capital in recent years. He was also the lackey of the imperial court who everyone did their best to avoid, the eyes and ears of the emperor himself. Even more terrible, he and the Marquis of Jing Ning Fu Shen were born to clash with each other. They had long since been incompatible, a pair of arch-enemies set in stone. It was said that any meeting between them would end in a fight, and even the emperor could not stop them. Just this year, at morning court three months ago, the two men came into conflict over the matter of the imperial court dispatching envoys to reside in and supervise all military garrisons. In front of all the great ministers, they actually derided each other for half an hour, and almost descended into a bout of fisticuffs in public. The emperor was so furious he smashed an imperial ink stone. Only after punis.h.i.+ng both men with a fine of half a year's salary and hurriedly sending Fu Shen back to Northern Xinjiang was the matter resolved.

Now the wheel of fortune had reversed; Fu Shen had returned to the capital in dire straits, while Yan Xiaohan still possessed that same high status and powerful position. If he decided to pursue revenge for those private affairs, how could their Marquis's body bear it!

The old servant had a guilty conscience, and terror and fright showed on his face: “This insignificant one does not dare. It is just that my Marquis is truly incapable of bearing any torment, may I ask Sir's forgiveness."

Taking advantage of this speaking time, Yan Xiaohan looked around the Marquis of Jing Ning's official residence. The courtyard was tidy yet desolate. He could see the traces of the servants' maintenance, but it still seemed to lack the air of actually being lived in. He let out an unnoticeable sigh, and made a concession: “I did not come to make trouble for him… Never mind, you do not need to notify him, I will just go in to glance him over, and then leave.”

The old servant insisted, but he was truly out of his league and could only retreat to let him in. He lit a lantern and led the way in front. Yan Xiaohan had his accompanying Flying Dragon Guard stay in the forecourt to avoid the presence of excessive people and movements causing any misunderstandings. He only brought a young man with a meager and gentle scholar-like appearance to enter the inner court.

The enormous Marquis's residence was completely empty. There were a few trees planted in the yard. Their fallen leaves had built up extensively during a period without cleaning, as if the entire capital's bleak autumn had all landed in this courtyard. The sky was dark at this time, and the other courtyards were silent and uninhabited. Pitch-black darkness covered the residence. Only a weak and faint yellow glow seeping from the main room window seemed to add a hint of desolation.

Yan Xiaohan was still able to restrain himself, but the young man walking next to him had already shaken his head again and again, whispering: “The Marquis of Jing Ning is of such background and merit, how is his home so…”

The old servant sympathized and sighed deeply: “The Marquis has guarded the border for many years, and often cannot return home for three or five years. There is no wise and kind wife in the family who can preside over and manage the housework. All that remains is us old useless ones, incapable of sharing the Marquis's cares and burdens…”

As he rambled on and on, he reached out to open the door of the main hall for these guests and invited the two to take a seat. He lit all the lamps and then ordered others to prepare tea: “The two of you please wait here, I will go invite the Marquis.”

He had barely finished speaking when a m.u.f.fled thud sounded from the inner chamber on the west side, as if something heavy had fallen from a height onto the ground. The old servant's hand trembled. He had not yet reacted when the Flying Dragon Guard Imperial Envoy who had just been standing beside him moved as fast as the wind, flas.h.i.+ng into the inner room in the blink of an eye.

Footnotes:

1. 末将: I'm not too sure about this, but I think this is an archaic humble term of self-address used by a general to a superior.

2. 锐风: 锐 = “sharp”, 风 = “wind”

3. In ancient China, the positions of officials were divided into nine ranks, with first rank as the highest. Zhong He is the third rank (三品), which is indeed pretty impressive.

4. Fu Shen calls himself "傅某"lit. "A certain Fu". This is a humble way to refer to yourself (inserting your last name in place of Fu of course), basically divesting yourself of any claim to t.i.tles or honors.

5. 敬渊 (jìng yuān): 敬 = "respect, salute"; 渊 = "deep abyss". This is Fu Shen's courtesy name! Everyone besides Fu Shen's close friends and family will refer to him using this (as "Fu Jingyuan"), especially if they wish to show respect.

6. Given Chinese culture's focus on respect for one's elders and taking care of one's juniors, saying someone is your 长辈 lit. "elder or senior" also implies a mentor relations.h.i.+p.

7. 世叔: I think 世 refers to being of a n.o.ble house, and 叔 means uncle (specifically a man who is of the same generation as one's father but younger). Zhong He wanted Fu Shen to call him using this since it has a greater focus on the relations.h.i.+p between their n.o.ble families, as opposed to the impersonal military "Commander.”

8. 过河拆桥 lit. "after crossing the river, dismantle the bridge" basically means to abandon one's benefactor once their help is no longer needed.

9. 老人家 is a polite term for an old woman or man. I was kind of unsure how to translate this since "old man" seems a bit informal, but oh well.

10. Whoo boy. 飞龙卫 literally translates to "Flying Dragon Guard", which I think is the term for the direct imperial guard for this emperor. 钦察使 I had trouble looking up, but decided to translate each individual character which vaguely became "Royal Inspector Envoy."

11. 大人 (dà rén) is a t.i.tle of respect used towards superiors. I decided to translate it as Sir for now.

12. The 神武军 or "Divine Martial Army" was one of the Imperial Guard troops during the Tang Dynasty, with two leaders who were basically supposed to be the Right and Left Hands of the throne respectively.