Chapter 9

After court, even his close friends avoided him like the plague.

One, seeing that he didn’t understand, was willing to brave public disapproval and explain.

But the sight of General Li Yue approaching with his sleeves rolled up sent that friend fleeing too.

Only after Pei Yan had been beaten did Lady Wei, the Empress’s official, leisurely appear.

Li Yue was fined a month’s salary and went home thoroughly refreshed.

Pei Yan, his face bruised and swollen, swayed as he clasped his hands in greeting.

“Lady Wei, please explain what happened today.”

He didn’t understand.

He had only wanted a woman.

How had it ended with his reputation destroyed and his career in ruins?

Lady Wei smiled.

“Li Shenbi entered the Ministry of Works under the Empress’s decree. Everyone knows that. Why are you the only one who doesn’t?”

If Shenbi lacked the ability to win people’s respect, lost her post, and willingly retreated to the inner chambers, some man might indeed gain control of her.

But before she herself admitted defeat, anyone trying to force her out of office was opposing the Empress.

Pei Yan had tried to use a struggle between two factions to satisfy his private desire.

He had never imagined that the first person crushed in that struggle would be himself.

Distraught, he walked along Chengtian Gate Street.

From a distance, he saw a crowd of officials gathered excitedly outside the Ministry of Works.

A woman in blue official robes sat astride a wooden horse as tall as a person. She operated its mechanism, making it walk back and forth.

Then she smiled at the crowd.

“Vice Minister Ning, what do you think of my horse for transporting grain and fodder?”

“You gave me three months. I’ve taken only three days!”

Sunlight poured down.

Her smile was bright and unrestrained. Beads of sweat glittered on her forehead, but no one cared whether she was behaving with perfect decorum.

Summer’s heat was approaching.

The drooping crabapple blossoms in the Pei garden had long since fallen.

Summer trees were flourishing, and soon would spread their shade.

I asked Minister Du for a day off. Once home, I slept until the sun slanted westward.

The horse the workshop had made was only about an arm’s length.

Its hollow belly could hold little. It was useful only as a toy or ornament.

I had long planned to make a mechanical horse that could transport grain and fodder.

But to astonish Vice Minister Ning, I had worked for three days and nights without sleep, racing to finish work that should still have taken a month.

“Brother, you should have seen how embarrassed Vice Minister Ning was today.”

“When we made the wager, I agreed to resign if I failed. If I succeeded, he had to walk on his hands up and down Chengtian Gate Street three times!”

“He tried pretending he’d forgotten. Minister Du said that if he could forget something he’d said only three days ago, he could hardly be entrusted with ministry work in future.”

“He had to do it. But he’d barely turned upside down before he toppled over!”

My brother roared with laughter.

For dinner, the kitchen had prepared botuo soup with lamb.

As I lowered my head to drink, a hand gently stroked my hair.

“If Mother knew you’d accomplished what she couldn’t, she would be so happy.”

I couldn’t remember how old I’d been when Mother first told me about the Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse.

Holding me in her arms, she said our forebears’ ingenuity was almost miraculous.

But over the generations, so much knowledge had been lost. What remained was incomplete.

Back then, I hadn’t understood regret.

I only knew that her arms were soft and warm.

Tears fell into my bowl. I complained indistinctly, “The botuo soup is too salty today.”

My brother pushed a plate of cakes toward me.

“Then have a few Lizhi Haolangjun cakes to sweeten your mouth.”

“If that’s not enough, I bought Touhua cakes too, and cherries soaked in sugarcane juice…”

I obligingly demanded to try every one.

At the Pei house, no one was in the mood for pastries anymore.

Since returning home, Pei Yan had drunk day and night, sinking into oblivion.

The matriarch and Lady Pei, frantic and angry, sought help from every acquaintance they had.

All they received was an imperial decree dismissing him from office.

The matriarch suffered a stroke on the spot and became bedridden, requiring Lady Pei’s care every day.

They blamed and tormented each other. Neither had any attention left for the household.

The entire residence descended into chaos.

An anxious servant knelt outside the study, begging Pei Yan to deal with it.

After half a day, only one cold, self-mocking sentence came through the door.

“It’s all retribution.”

Morning sunlight entered the room.