The wind swept through the courtyard from the river, carrying the chill peculiar to early autumn and lifting the hem of his robe ever so slightly.
Shi Huai’s mind churned with all kinds of emotions: shock, anger, sorrow, and, more than anything else, an absurdity he could neither explain nor shake.
“So you knew everything from the very beginning?” Shi Huai raised his head and looked into Shi Yuanping’s eyes.
“I started laying the plans before you were even born.” Shi Yuanping lifted his teacup, his fingers trembling faintly. The tea rippled inside the cup, reflecting his blurred face.
“I spent three years arranging for your uncle to go to that village to recuperate, and another nine months waiting for you to be born. I spent four full years setting up this game of chess.”
Shi Huai placed the flowerpot on the stone table, folded his hands over his knees, and sat perfectly straight, like a student listening to his teacher.
“And what about Madam Liu? What role did she play in your game?”
Shi Yuanping set down his teacup, an unreadable smile curling at the corners of his lips.
“I deliberately arranged for your uncle to marry Madam Liu.”
Shi Huai’s hands paused slightly.
“Back then, when the old marquis wanted to arrange a marriage for your uncle, the original choice was the second daughter of the Vice Minister of Rites—gentle, virtuous, learned, and well-mannered.”
Shi Yuanping’s voice was soft, as though he were recounting a carefully woven tale.
“I worked behind the scenes to ruin that match, then had someone bring Madam Liu to the old marquis’s attention. The Liu family may not have come from a prestigious lineage, but Madam Liu was beautiful, and your uncle took to her at first sight.”
“Why did you choose Madam Liu?”
Shi Huai tilted his head, looking like an inquisitive little child.
“Because she was jealous, because she could not tolerate anyone else, and because she would turn the marquis’s estate upside down.”
Shi Yuanping’s smile deepened, carrying a cruel satisfaction.
“Only a divided marquis’s estate could be conquered. If the household remained united, I would never have had a chance.”
Shi Huai drew a deep breath. He closed his eyes, then opened them again, as though trying to digest all this information.
“So Grand Madam was part of your plan too?”
Shi Yuanping shook his head. The coldness in his eyes faded somewhat, replaced by complicated emotions.
“Mother was not. She was the only variable in this game of chess.”
“My original plan was to have someone leave you at the gates of the marquis’s estate when you were three or four.”
“But your uncle, after listening to who knows whose instigation, went to bring you back as soon as you were born. He abandoned you in a side courtyard and left you to fend for yourself. When Mother found out, she stepped in personally to save you. I never anticipated that.”
“But you took advantage of it,” Shi Huai said softly, though every word was like the edge of a knife.
“You took advantage of Grand Madam’s kindness, letting her raise your child for three years and making her feel guilty toward you until the very end of her life.”
Shi Yuanping’s expression finally changed.
“Do you think I felt good about it?” His voice suddenly rose. His eyes reddened, and he struck the stone table hard, making the teapot clatter.
“She may not have treated me as well as she treated my elder brother, but she raised me all the same! Do you think I wanted to scheme against her? Do you think I wanted to see her feeling guilty even as she lay dying?”
His voice trembled, and his entire body shook like a leaf on the verge of being torn from its branch by the wind.
Shi Huai watched him quietly without saying a word.
After a long while, Shi Yuanping finally calmed down. He wiped the corners of his eyes with his sleeve, his voice hoarse, as though sandpaper had been dragged across wood.
“Enough. There’s no point telling you these things. You’re only seven. You shouldn’t have to bear any of this.”
“I’m already bearing it.” Shi Huai jumped down from the stone stool and stood in front of Shi Yuanping. He had to tilt his head back to look at him. His body was small, but his back was straight.
“From the day I was born, I’ve been bearing it.”
Then he asked the question that had been troubling him all along.
“So you hate the old marquis?”
Shi Yuanping froze for a moment before laughing. His laughter was filled with bitterness and resentment.
“Hate him? Of course I hate him. He abandoned my mother, leaving her to suffer alone outside. In the end, she died all alone in a dilapidated house beside the Huai River.”
“But what I hate more is myself. I knew where she was, yet I didn’t go looking for her sooner. By the time I found her, she was already gravely ill. She barely had the strength left to speak.”
Shi Huai was silent for a moment before asking, “What about the Marquis? Do you hate him?”
Shi Yuanping shook his head.
“No. My elder brother is innocent. He knew nothing about any of this.”
Shi Huai nodded. The final missing piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
The entire story was now clear.
The old marquis had abandoned his first wife. She had given birth to Shi Yuanping beside the Huai River, and Shi Yuanping had been taken away. After growing up, he found his mother, learned the truth, and swore to take back everything that should have been his.
He had spent four years laying his plans, arranging for his elder brother to father a son outside the household: Shi Huai.
Then he had used Madam Liu’s jealousy and Grand Madam’s guilt to send Shi Huai into the marquis’s estate, step by step.
Now, the final move in the game was at hand:
Let Shi Huai grow up as a young master of the marquis’s estate, pass the imperial examinations, and inherit the title in due course.
“So what do you want me to do?” Shi Huai raised his head and looked into Shi Yuanping’s eyes.
“I want you to take the imperial examinations.”
Shi Yuanping reached out and stroked Shi Huai’s head. At last, his hands had stopped trembling.
“I want you to stand in the Golden Hall and have the emperor personally name you the heir of the Marquis of Yongning’s estate. I want Madam Liu to see how the bastard in her eyes climbs, step by step, to the highest position.”
But why should I do that?
Shi Huai did not ask the question aloud, because he could see that Shi Yuanping had gone mad.
His eyes were filled with fanaticism. He would not listen to anything Shi Huai said.
Besides, Shi Huai was still young and had no means of protecting himself. If he resisted Shi Yuanping recklessly, he would only put himself in danger.
For now, the most important thing was to grow up and become strong enough to say no.
So Shi Huai put on his usual obedient smile and said, “I understand.”
After returning from the estate, Shi Huai changed considerably.
On the surface, he was still the same child who studied and practiced calligraphy every day and spent his time swinging in the garden.
But Qinghe noticed that the young master was spending more and more time lost in thought.
Sometimes he would hold a book and stare at it for half a day, his eyes completely still. No one could tell what he was thinking.
“Young Master, is something troubling you?”
Qinghe entered the study carrying a plate of sliced fruit and set it beside him. She tilted her head as she looked at him.
Shi Huai came back to himself and smiled at her, revealing two small canine teeth.
“No. I was just thinking about the essay Master Meng discussed yesterday.”
Qinghe gave him a suspicious look but did not press him. Instead, she pushed the fruit toward him.
“Have some fruit. Nanny Wang specifically had someone bring it over from the estate. It’s very sweet.”
Shi Huai picked up a piece of melon and took a bite. The sweetness made his eyes narrow with pleasure.
He really was thinking about something, but not about the essay Master Meng had discussed. He was thinking about everything Shi Yuanping had said that day.
This game of chess had lasted four full years.
No—not anymore.
By now, it had already lasted eleven years.
