The Vow of Mountains and Rivers - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

My second year in the palace.

Seeing me drag Wen Zhao into all sorts of mischief, the Empress Dowager summoned several young ladies from noble families into the palace and hired an old scholar to teach us.

In class, the old scholar asked us what kind of person we wanted to become.

I thought for a moment, then lifted my head with firm conviction.

“I want to become someone like my eldest sister and second sister.”

“Someone like them, someone who makes the Shen Family and my father immeasurably proud…”

The moment I finished speaking, the whole classroom burst into laughter.

The one who laughed the loudest was Chancellor Jiang’s daughter, Jiang Fu.

She and I had never gotten along. She dressed like a gaudy peacock every day, and whenever anything happened, out came the same line: “My father is the chancellor.”

She laughed at the Shen Family’s misfortune.

She laughed at my eldest and second sisters for ruining their reputations, then laughed at me, a little fool spouting nonsense.

When I heard her laughing so loudly, I went mad, pinned her down on the grass, and hit her again and again.

The spring rain had just stopped, leaving the grass muddy.

That belligerent little peacock clawed mud out of her hair and off her face while sobbing and shrieking, “My father is the chancellor! He is the Minister Entrusted with the Orphaned Heir! How dare you hit me?”

Your father! Your father! Always your father!

I hit you precisely because you kept hiding behind your father.

The little peacock gritted her teeth, stamped her foot, shook the mud from her body, then ran off crying to find her chancellor father, who happened to be in the palace.

Before she could even finish telling him what happened, her own father gave her a vicious beating too.

When Chancellor Jiang hauled his daughter over to apologize, Wen Zhao and I were kneeling in punishment in Huai’en Hall by order of the Empress Dowager.

Wen Zhao had always been obedient in the imperial study, so this matter originally had nothing to do with her.

But when I was hitting Jiang Fu, she had dumped mud all over Jiang Fu too.

This was a quarrel among the three of us.

Yet Chancellor Jiang made Jiang Fu kneel on the ground and kowtow in apology to the portraits covering the walls of Huai’en Hall.

That day, Jiang Fu, who had been beaten twice, shed mud with every kowtow.

When she reached the two brand-new portraits of women in the hall, she burst into tears with a loud “waah.”

“Shen Wanci, why did your eldest and second sisters have such bitter fates?”

Because of that one sentence, the three of us decided to swear sisterhood in a peach garden and seal our oath with blood.

Apricot blossoms bloomed and fell. Birds flew south, then returned again.

Before we knew it, the three of us were already twelve.

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, Jiang Fu took us to the Long River to release lanterns and make wishes.

Watching the wishes placed beside the wicks drift farther and farther away with the current, Jiang Fu asked me, “What wish did you make?”

For some reason, I thought again of Huai’en Hall that year, and of my father and eldest brother far away at the border.

“I want to become a woman general who sweeps across the battlefield, to follow my father and brothers, reclaim lost lands, and fight in war.”

Jiang Fu turned to look at me, her expression a little lost.

“You don’t want to be empress?”

When she saw me shake my head firmly, starlight seemed to bloom in the girl’s eyes.

“Then when I grow up, I’ll be empress. You will guard the border for the people, and I will keep the empire with the emperor.”

When we were eight, the portraits covering the walls of Huai’en Hall were branded into my fate and hidden in her heart.

It was a palace hall built at the founding of Great Zhou, and inside hung countless portraits of meritorious subjects.

They were all loyal bones of the Shen Family who had died serving the nation, staining its lands with their blood.

My great-grandfather, my grandfather, my third uncle, my eldest uncle…

And the last two portraits that made Jiang Fu sob uncontrollably were of my eldest sister, who had eloped over a wall with a scholar, and my second sister, who had fled the capital on horseback overnight.

The world would rather laugh until their teeth fell out than believe the truth.

Great Zhou’s realm today…

had been paved by those two supposedly disgraceful daughters of the Shen Family, who destroyed their own reputations to make it happen.

When the Late Emperor fell gravely ill, I was carried into the palace in a sedan chair.

A marriage to ward off misfortune, vying for favor… it was all fake.

My imperial uncle, who had loved and doted on me, had been gone long before then. He had died half a month before I entered the palace.

The Son of Heaven had passed, but his death was kept secret, because Prince Ning, who commanded troops and defied the throne, had led one hundred thousand elite soldiers to besiege the capital in an attempt to usurp power.

My eldest sister, said to have eloped with a scholar, had in truth received a secret letter from the Late Emperor and gone to rescue Crown Prince Wen Yu, who was trapped in Dingzhou.

My second sister, said to have fled overnight, had in truth taken Father’s military tally and mobilized the Tiance Army, which was stationed closest to the capital.

Father led his troops to defend the city gates and made a secret agreement with the Empress Dowager.

When I entered the palace, reinforcements would arrive. When the funeral bell rang, the rebels would be slain.

In the First Year of Jinghe, blood drenched the palace gates. Everyone fought with their lives to protect the young emperor’s ascension.

It was also that year that my eldest sister and the deputy general disguised as a scholar were shot dead by a rain of arrows.

My second sister, who had broken through the encirclement with the reinforcements, was also gravely wounded and died despite treatment.

Five years.

It had been a full five years since that earthshaking palace coup.

Even though the historians recorded their deeds, even though the Empress Dowager personally set up their spirit tablets…

still, no one believed it.

No one believed everything the two daughters of the Shen Family had done for the realm of Great Zhou.

Simply because they were women.

What world-shaking feats could women possibly accomplish?

In the gossip that filled the streets and alleys, all that remained in the end were the scandals of elopement and flight.

The night sky stretched vast and boundless, sprinkled with stars.

Gentle, obedient Wen Zhao clasped her hands together too, bowing again and again toward the river lantern drifting away.

But no matter how Jiang Fu and I pestered her, she refused to say what her wish was.

When we had exhausted ourselves fooling around, the three of us leaned against one another and watched the river lanterns carrying our wishes drift farther and farther away.

Those truly were happy, carefree days.

An imperial princess, a daughter of a military family, and the descendant of a loyal minister…

All of us longing to grow up quickly.

Once we grew up, we would follow our fathers and brothers to guard the empire, reclaim lost lands, and cleanse the court…

Children are children, after all. They always imagine life to be far too simple.

They only love flowers that never stop blooming, never thinking that people may someday part.

Only when they look back do they realize the world has already changed beyond recognition.