Chapter 2

Tears brimmed in his eyes. A long time passed before he spoke.

“Nurse… sometimes she hits my palms.”

Everyone in the hall held their breath.

Xiao Yan pulled up his sleeve. Faint bruises marked his wrist, some from pinching, others from a ruler.

“When I read a character wrong, she says I’m stupid and I’ll disgrace Father. When I want to see Mother, she says you find me a nuisance.”

Nurse Lu crumpled to the floor as though her bones had been pulled out.

My chest tightened, but I kept control of myself in front of the child.

“Record all of it,” I told the Palace Tribunal officers. “Lu abused the sovereign and used her palace duties to requisition medicines and ingredients without authorization. Investigate all the charges together.”

By dusk, the findings were on my desk.

Over the years, Nurse Lu had taken a great many valuable supplies from the Imperial Kitchens and Imperial Dispensary, supposedly to nourish the emperor. Most had been smuggled out to a shop run by her son. She had also accepted bribes from the families of several court officials, carrying messages for them and reporting on the emperor’s daily life.

And she really had ordered the sprouted potatoes mixed into the soup.

She had not dared to poison Xiao Yan to death. She had only wanted to give him a high fever. Then she could blame the Empress Dowager for letting him play and eat without restraint, and use that excuse to take back control.

It was not a clever scheme, but it was particularly cruel. She was certain that a child she had raised to fear her would never speak against her.

I closed the confession and told the head of the Palace Tribunal, “Proceed according to the law. Lu was the ringleader. She is to be beaten to death. Hand her son over to the Capital Prefecture, seal the shop, and return all recovered money and property to the privy treasury. Sentence the other accomplices according to their crimes.”

He accepted the order and withdrew.

Soft footsteps sounded outside. I looked up to find Xiao Yan in the doorway, holding a pillow.

“Why aren’t you asleep?”

He hesitated. “Mother, is Nurse Lu going to die?”

“Yes.”

His eyes trembled.

I called him over and straightened his rumpled collar. “She hurt people. She has to answer for it. Are you sad?”

Xiao Yan thought for a long time, head bowed. “I’m a little scared. But I also feel… as if I won’t have to be afraid of her anymore.”

“That’s right.” I patted the bed. “You can sleep here tonight.”

His head shot up. “Really?”

“Really. Kick off the covers and I’ll send you back to your own palace.”

He climbed in carefully, taking up the tiniest strip along the edge. Even after he fell fast asleep, one hand clung to my robe.

Pale moonlight lay beyond the window. I watched the small face that had finally regained a little color, and sighed softly.

Before I could put my feet up and enjoy life, I would have to clear away the people trying to use my child as a stepping-stone.

3.

After Nurse Lu died, Cining Palace became much quieter.

I had not enjoyed even five days of peace before Pei Shouzhuo, Minister of Rites, led a group of officials to block the entrance to Chongzheng Hall.

They accused me of arbitrarily punishing an old servant of the late emperor, obstructing the emperor’s studies, and shaking the foundations of the state.

I had not intended to listen. Breakfast had just arrived, and Xiao Yan was gazing at a bowl of fresh-pork wontons with a rare concentration on his food. If I went to court, he would be left alone to face those people who never stopped talking about propriety.

So I had breakfast moved to a side hall at Chongzheng.

When Pei Shouzhuo entered and saw the little emperor spooning up wontons, his face turned black as the bottom of a pot.

“Your Majesty, this is a place for affairs of state. How can His Majesty eat here?”

“And in a place for affairs of state, may his ministers let him go hungry while they preach at him?” I wiped a drop of broth from Xiao Yan’s mouth. “Get to the business at hand, Lord Pei.”

He drew a deep breath. “I beg Your Majesty to rescind your decree and restore Grand Tutor Ge’s teaching hours. A sovereign’s education depends upon daily diligence. His Majesty is young and inclined to ease. If you do not restrain him, how can he inherit the great responsibilities of his throne?”

“What does Grand Tutor Ge teach you?” I asked Xiao Yan.

He swallowed his wonton. “The Great Learning, the Doctrine of the Mean, and policy essays from the previous dynasty.”

“What have you learned from them?”

He stared.

Pei Shouzhuo hurried to interject. “How can one rush the teachings of the sages?”

I looked at him. “After decades of studying those teachings, Lord Pei, do you know how many sections of the lower Yellow River’s dikes are damaged this year?”

His expression stiffened. “That is the Ministry of Works’ concern.”

“Do you know how much grain prices have risen in the capital region?”

“That is the Ministry of Revenue’s concern.”

“Then do you know how much sleep and food the emperor needs each day to keep his body from breaking down?”

He opened his mouth, but no answer came.

I put down the spoon. “Of course he must read, Lord Pei. We read to learn how to get things done. If you end up as a breathing pile of books, you have missed the point. The late emperor followed your prescriptions for diligent study and tireless government, and ruined his health at thirty-three. Now you want to turn that same blade on his son?”

Sweat dotted Pei Shouzhuo’s forehead, but he persisted. “Your Majesty’s accusation strikes unjustly at our motives.”

“Treating the emperor like a reading machine is what strikes at his heart.”

Xiao Yan put down his spoon. His voice was still childish, but every word was clear.

“Lord Pei, today I have read, practiced my writing, and learned how to tell from the clouds when it will rain. I have not neglected my studies.”

Pei Shouzhuo looked at him as though he had only just discovered that the little emperor could speak for himself.

I nodded to Xiao Yan.

His ears reddened a little, but his back was straight.

Just then, Tang Wushi, Vice Minister of Revenue, stepped forward.

“I would not presume to interfere with Your Majesty’s indulgent treatment of His Majesty. But the treasury is empty. Recently Cining Palace has purchased woodworking tools, flower seeds, and all manner of toys, spending over three hundred taels. The spring floods in the south are approaching, and funds are needed everywhere. I beg Your Majesty to exercise frugality for the sake of the realm.”

There it was.

I had known they would not stop at the emperor’s lessons.

Tang Wushi came from humble origins. He was capable and had an excellent reputation. Nor was his appeal for economy entirely intended to make trouble for me. The treasury really was poor, and the late emperor had left no small mess.

The trouble was that he dared to pick at the emperor’s food and a few dozen taels’ worth of wood, but not at the places where money was truly being swallowed.

“Vice Minister Tang is right,” I said.

Both he and Pei Shouzhuo stared.

“From today on, every expense of Cining Palace will be entered in a ledger and posted outside the palace gate each month for all officials to inspect.” I turned to a eunuch. “Bring the privy treasury accounts for the past several years. Draw up a list of the curiosities the late emperor collected and the treasures sent as tribute—anything that has sat untouched in storage for three years.”

Tang Wushi grew wary at once. “What does Your Majesty intend?”

“If the treasury needs money, sell the things gathering mold in the storerooms. Jewels, antiques, screens, paintings and calligraphy by masters of the previous dynasty. Find a reputable trading house to hold a royal charity auction. All proceeds go into the state treasury for flood control and disaster reserves.”

The hall fell silent.

Pei Shouzhuo’s beard shook. “How can imperial possessions be allowed into common hands? What of our dignity?”

“Will dignity rotting in a storeroom hold back a flood?” I asked.

“But—”

“Real dignity is porridge for disaster victims, dikes that hold, and supplies reaching the border army. Those things sit there gathering dust where no one sees them. Better to turn them into useful grain and stone.”

Tang Wushi frowned deeply. “There is no precedent for such an auction. Merchants seek profit. I fear it may damage imperial prestige.”

“Then Revenue will set the rules, Rites will determine the ceremonies, and the Imperial Household Department will inventory the goods and keep the accounts. Every payment will be public. Anyone who tries to profit from it will have his estate confiscated.”

I lifted my chin slightly toward him. “You want to cut expenses, Vice Minister Tang. I am offering you a way to raise revenue. Dare you take it?”

He looked at the bowl of wontons still steaming on the table, then at the young emperor sitting so straight. After a long silence, he bowed with clasped hands.

“I accept Your Majesty’s command.”

Pei Shouzhuo tried to object again, but I was already on my feet.

“The emperor’s lessons are not over, Lord Pei. If you wish to remonstrate at the cost of your life, kneel outside. Don’t block the child’s sunlight.”

4.

News of the royal charity auction set the capital in an uproar.

Some said I was destroying ancestral institutions. Some said poverty had driven me mad. Others quietly asked the Imperial Household Department when invitations would be available.

I had Tang Wushi select the most valuable items, mark their prices clearly, and invite the trading houses to view them first. I also told the Ministry of Rites to draft a proclamation: every coin from the sale would go toward flood control, public relief granaries, and assistance for wounded soldiers and veterans. Accounts would be published monthly.

Plenty of people still cursed me, but they did so with less conviction.

After all, who would openly say that treasures should rot in the palace rather than help disaster victims survive?

Xiao Yan was very curious about the auction. Leaning over a long table in the privy treasury, he watched servants pack a jadeite incense burner.

“Mother, is this very expensive?”

“Enough to buy several thousand shi of grain, probably.”

“Then why has it been sitting here?”

“Because people used to think hiding expensive things away proved how impressive they were.”

Xiao Yan thought about that. “But you can’t eat it or wear it.”

“Exactly.”

He pointed to a jeweled gold cup. “Are we selling that too?”

“Yes.”

“Will the late emperor be angry?”

I handed him the list. “If your father truly cared about his people, I don’t suppose he would.”

Xiao Yan studied the writing closely. There were many characters he did not know, so he followed them one by one with his finger. Suddenly he took a little key from his sleeve.

“I have things too.”

He had a small red-sandalwood box. Inside were a few little gold ingots, two jade pendants, and pearls of various sizes.

“This is my New Year’s gift money. Nurse Lu said she would keep it for me. I only got it back after Mother had the storerooms checked.”

He pushed the box toward me, his gaze resolute. “Sell these too. Buy grain for the disaster victims.”

For a moment, I had nothing to say.

A child’s small hoard was not much. In a rich household, it might amount to no more than a box of snacks. But these were the first things that had truly belonged to him.

“Have you thought it through?” I asked.

“Yes.” Xiao Yan pressed his lips together. “Mother said things are only worth something if they’re useful. I don’t want people to go hungry.”

I pushed the box back. “Sell one pendant. Keep the rest.”

He did not understand.

“Doing good doesn’t mean giving away everything you have,” I said. “Wanting to help is enough. When you grow up, you’ll have many more ways to make sure people can eat. For now, keep a few pearls so you’ll have money when you want a dough figurine.”

Xiao Yan smiled.

It was the first time I had seen him smile so brightly, without holding back or first checking anyone’s expression.

On the day of the auction, Vermilion Bird Avenue was packed.

I kept Xiao Yan out of public view. His pendant stood on a table of its own, with a sign reading: Donated by the Emperor for Spring Flood Relief.

The Xu family, the capital’s largest grain merchants, paid five thousand taels for it on the spot and donated another twenty thousand shi of grain from the previous harvest. The other merchants competed to bid. Even the great families, normally so eager to flatter the throne, could hardly go home without contributing.

Three days of auctions brought in two hundred and seventy thousand taels in cash, along with countless supplies of grain, cloth, and medicine.

Tang Wushi practically flew into the palace with the accounts.

“Your Majesty, we have the money for flood control, and we can replenish the public relief granaries. As you instructed, I have had the accounts posted at the city gates. When the people saw them, many knelt in gratitude to His Majesty.”

Xiao Yan was squatting on the ground, watering a newly sprouted seedling. He looked up.

“Why are they kneeling to me?”

Tang Wushi regarded him with a complicated expression.

I answered for him. “Because you gave something of your own in exchange for food that can save lives. But remember, they have the grain and the people doing the work to thank—not just an emperor sitting in a palace.”

Xiao Yan nodded and went back to watering with his little wooden dipper.

Before leaving, Tang Wushi gave me a solemn bow. “I used to think Your Majesty was spoiling His Majesty. Today I see how limited my understanding was.”

“Vice Minister Tang,” I called after him. “The next time someone uses economy as an excuse to fret over a child’s bowl of meat or a block of wood, tell him to start by explaining the dubious entries in his own household accounts.”

His ears reddened slightly. “I understand.”

5.

We had solved part of the money problem. Finding capable people was still a gaping hole.

Grand Tutor Ge, the emperor’s teacher, was a particular headache.

He was over seventy, genuinely learned, and a fine writer. But his way of teaching Xiao Yan was little different from Nurse Lu’s. He had merely traded the ruler for lofty principles.

That afternoon I went to collect Xiao Yan from the study. As I reached the window, I heard Grand Tutor Ge’s voice.

“Your Majesty, what is the foundation of good government?”

Xiao Yan recited, “Let the ruler be a ruler, the minister a minister, the father a father, and the son a son.”

“What is the way of a sovereign?”

“Benevolence.”

“What is benevolence?”

Xiao Yan was silent.

Grand Tutor Ge tapped his ruler. “We covered this only yesterday. How have you forgotten already? Your Majesty’s mind is frivolous. It is all these objects you have been playing with lately.”

I pushed the door open.

“Grand Tutor Ge, We… no, I have a question for you too.”

He hastily rose and bowed.

“If rain keeps falling in the capital region, the river overtops its dikes, and the people’s fields are ruined, what will you do?”

He paused, then stroked his beard. “Practice benevolent government, open the granaries, and comfort and provide relief for the victims.”

“Is there enough grain in the granaries?”

“Well…”