Outside the prayer hall, a light drizzle began to fall again. The weather was oppressive, and the incense rising from the Boshan censer seemed to grow heavier too, hanging low in the dimly lit space.
Qi Zhu propped her elbow on the table, watching Grand Royal Concubine An offer incense before the Buddha. Her fingertips, painted with henna, idly played with the cup on the low table as she asked slowly, "Mother, with so many people in this world praying and making wishes to the Buddha, can the Bodhisattva truly hear each one clearly?"
After finishing her offerings, Grand Royal Concubine An gently chided her daughter, "Do not be irreverent before the Buddha."
As she returned to her seat at the low table, she added, "Sincerity is what matters."
Qi Zhu lowered her eyes, still absentmindedly toying with the Crackled-ice-patterned porcelain cup half-filled with tea. The ripples made the tea leaves float and drift—whether it was the water or her heart that was unsettled remained unclear.
Grand Royal Concubine An paused in her prayer beads and asked, "Shu'er, is something troubling you?"
Qi Zhu withdrew her hand and rested her snow-lotus-root-like arms on the table, her delicate golden-orange gauze sleeves pooling on the floor like a blooming Golden lotus. Staring at the white jade Guanyin statue enshrined before the altar, she muttered, "No."
Grand Royal Concubine An pressed, "During the polo match the other day, both the Junior Tutor and Young Master Shen were injured trying to save you, weren’t they?"
Qi Zhu pursed her cherry lips. "I am a princess of Great Yin, golden branches and jade leaves. Isn’t it natural for them to rush to my aid? Besides, A Yu was there to save me."
A slight frown creased Grand Royal Concubine An’s brow. "Shu'er, when did you become so willful and impolite?"
Qi Zhu fell silent, plucking at the petals of a tiny water lily, no larger than a palm, kept in a small porcelain jar nearby.
Knowing her daughter well, Grand Royal Concubine An sighed softly. "The Shen family has been distinguished for generations. Though Young Master Shen may not compare to the Prince Regent, he is widely respected in court for his virtue and has an excellent temperament. He would be a fine match for you. As for the Junior Tutor—though he now lectures the Emperor, the Gongsun clan of Hejian has stayed out of politics for a century, earning renown only among scholars. He placed third in the imperial exams at seventeen but refused an official post, merely to prove that the Gongsun family’s legacy endures. He is close to the Prince Regent and, though not as unyielding, shares that scholar’s untamed spirit—elusive as the wind. You could never hold him."
The water lily petals crumpled into mush in her pale palm. At last, Qi Zhu replied, "I’ll heed your counsel, Mother."
Gathering her pale green silk shawl, she stepped out of the prayer hall. Grand Royal Concubine An watched her daughter’s retreating figure and shook her head slightly before kneeling before Guanyin, palms pressed together in prayer. "May the Buddha show mercy..."
...
The drizzle was gentle as Qi Zhu left the hall, dismissing her attendants. She leaned against the leaning rail along the palace corridor, lost in thought as raindrops pattered against the banana leaves outside.
Her first meeting with Gongsun Yin had been when she was fourteen, accompanying her mother on a visit to Hejian.
After embracing Buddhism, her mother had vowed before the Buddha to pay homage at every temple she encountered. When her grandmother fell gravely ill, her mother spent three months at Hejian’s famed Guangling Temple, praying for her recovery.
Temple life was dull and austere, with not a trace of meat in the daily meals. For her grandmother’s sake, Qi Zhu endured it.
But being surrounded by elderly monks chanting scriptures day after day wearied her. Most of her time was spent wandering the mountain temple, exploring its historic sites.At the mountain peak of the temple stood a pavilion known as the Wind and Rain Pavilion, said to have stood for nearly a century, serving as the resting place of the temple's founding monk. Out of curiosity, Qi Zhu had climbed up to take a look.
Born and raised in the gilded halls of the imperial palace, she had seen the grandest palaces the world had to offer, and the pavilion atop the mountain did little to impress her. However, a stone table within the pavilion caught her interest. Carved into its surface was a grid for Elephant chess, with a set of unfinished game laid out using tea-lid-sized stone pieces in blue and white.
In those times, Go was more revered, as Elephant chess, with its two armies facing off, was considered too warlike, lacking the gentlemanly virtues of Go.
Qi Zhu had always been unconventional. She had come across numerous Elephant chess manuals in the Wen Yuan Pavilion's collection. That day, she sat in the Wind and Rain Pavilion for half a day until she finally figured out a move to break the stalemate, shifting one of the blue stone pieces on the board.
For the next couple of days, she nearly forgot about it. Later, out of sheer boredom, she decided to return to the pavilion to play a solitary game. To her surprise, she found that the white stone pieces on the opposite side of the table had also been moved—exactly the countermove expected after her previous breakthrough.
This unexpected delight left Qi Zhu deep in thought as she studied the board. After a long while, she moved another blue stone piece.
Returning that evening, she felt a quiet joy. The next day, climbing back to the pavilion, she found, as expected, that the opposing pieces had advanced once more.
For half a month, she ascended to the Wind and Rain Pavilion daily, engaging in this silent game with her unseen opponent. Sometimes, the opponent's strategy would stump her for days, but when she finally devised a countermove and shifted a piece, the white stones would respond the following day.
It was then that Qi Zhu suddenly wished to meet the person she was playing against.
The next day, she climbed to the pavilion early and waited from sunrise until sunset, but no one came.
Perhaps her last move had been too tricky, and the opponent hadn't found a solution yet? Or maybe they were simply delayed by other matters?
As Qi Zhu, filled with disappointment, prepared to descend, she spotted an elderly monk in gray robes approaching through the fading light. Seeing her in the pavilion, he pressed his palms together in a Buddhist greeting: "Amitabha."
Half surprised and half inexplicably wistful, Qi Zhu asked, "Venerable Master, was it you who has been playing this game with me these past weeks?"
The monk nodded with a serene smile. Noticing she had already made a move on the stone table, he shifted a white stone piece and clasped his hands. "This humble monk did not expect to find such a young lady as his opponent."
Hearing this, Qi Zhu felt a sense of relief. Of course—who else but a monk would be in Guangling Temple every day? Other visitors wouldn’t linger for months like her mother, devoted to Buddhist rituals.
The monk's move was cunning, and Qi Zhu couldn’t immediately think of a counter. As dusk fell, she bid the monk farewell for the time being.
There were multiple paths down from the Wind and Rain Pavilion, each leading to different halls and guest quarters below.
Not far along her usual route, inspiration struck Qi Zhu with a solution to the game. Eager to make her next move, she hurried back toward the pavilion.The Wind and Rain Pavilion stood atop a solitary cliff. Before reaching the mountain's summit, one could only glimpse jagged rocks and the corner of its upturned eaves peeking through the dense foliage from below the stone steps.
Qi Zhu heard voices drifting down from the pavilion above.
"...This old monk has fulfilled Young Friend Gongsun's request and helped that female benefactor find peace before her departure." It was the voice of the elderly monk they had encountered earlier.
Qi Zhu's feet seemed rooted to the spot, her heartbeat suddenly racing.
"My gratitude to the venerable master."
Then came a young man's voice—exceptionally warm and clear, like a spring afternoon breeze passing through a courtyard, gentle yet impossible to grasp.
The old monk sighed softly: "This old monk observed that the female benefactor possessed both beauty and wisdom, with remarkable skill in Elephant chess. The two of you formed a connection over an unfinished game at this pavilion—surely this was fate's design. Why must Young Friend Gongsun sever this bond?"
The man laughed: "Yin is but a carefree idler with empty sleeves—how dare I mislead a fair maiden? I hadn't anticipated earlier that my chess opponent would be a young lady."
Qi Zhu could no longer make out the subsequent conversation between the man and the monk. When they departed, she hid behind the jagged rocks with her palace maids, only daring to steal a glance at the pavilion's occupant after they had gone.
The setting sun burned crimson, painting half the mountain in red. Walking beside the elderly monk, the man in snow-white robes with billowing sleeves seemed like an immortal bathed in sunlight.
Qi Zhu stared blankly at that retreating figure—her heart had never pounded so fiercely before.
The old monk had called him "Young Friend Gongsun," and he referred to himself as "Yin."
In the Hejian region, finding someone with the surname Gongsun was hardly difficult.
The Gongsun family of Hejian was a prestigious clan with a century-old legacy. Though none of their members had held official positions for a hundred years, they remained one of Hejian's most prominent families. Their Luyuan Academy could even rival Songshan Academy, renowned as the empire's foremost institution of learning.
Qi Zhu soon learned exactly who Gongsun Yin was—the eldest grandson of the Gongsun family's main lineage. The Gongsun matriarch visited Guangling Temple annually for Buddhist worship each March, and he had accompanied his grandmother on this trip.
Grand Royal Concubine An had always maintained a low profile during temple visits, never requesting the abbot to close the gates to other worshippers. She had even discussed Buddhist teachings with the Gongsun matriarch.
Though Qi Zhu hadn't formally met Gongsun Yin, she had heard numerous rumors about him.
They said he had shown exceptional talent since childhood—beginning his education at three, mastering the Four Books and Five Classics by five, and composing eloquent poetry by seven. All hailed him as Hejian's foremost scholar.
Qi Zhu sought out and studied his widely circulated poems and essays. The more she learned, the stronger her desire to know him grew.
In that hazy encounter, she had fallen for the person who played chess with her.
Now that shadowy figure gradually came into focus—she knew his name was Gongsun Yin.
He likely didn't know what she looked like either. That day in the pavilion, he had only glimpsed a woman's retreating figure before leaving, subsequently entrusting the temple monks to relay his message.
A month later, when Luyuan Academy reopened, Qi Zhu requested permission from her mother to visit her maternal grandparents' home. Knowing her daughter's restless nature, Grand Royal Concubine An considered a month's seclusion on the mountain already remarkable and granted her leave to return to the An family.
But Qi Zhu had no intention of dutifully remaining at the An residence. The An prefect had a wayward son named An Xu—not inherently wicked nor guilty of major offenses, but perpetually occupied with cockfighting and dog racing, utterly uninterested in studies. The prefect had swallowed his pride to secure his son a place at Luyuan Academy, only for the boy to constantly play truant.Upon hearing that Gongsun Yin was also at Luyuan Academy, Qi Zhu hatched a plan with her unreliable cousin to pull off an impersonation scheme.
She disguised herself as a man to attend the academy in An Xu's stead, while An Xu falsely claimed she had gone to the countryside for leisure, thus covering for her with the An family and the Grand Imperial Dowager Consort's people.
Though skilled in Elephant chess, Qi Zhu paled in comparison to the students who had studied diligently in poetry and literature. Fortunately, An Xu was already known as a dunce, so she managed to scrape through the entrance exams.
All students at Luyuan Academy lived on campus, most sharing rooms in pairs. With enough silver, one could secure a private room—Qi Zhu naturally spared no expense and successfully obtained her own quarters.
The academy divided its students into three teaching divisions: the Outer Dormitory, Inner Dormitory, and Upper Dormitory.
Perhaps due to Prefect An's influence with the academy's teachers, An Xu—utterly lacking in scholarly merit—was somehow placed in the Upper Dormitory.
Most students here were of lofty character and held little regard for those who gained entry through family influence or bribery. On her first day of lectures, Qi Zhu received no shortage of scornful glances.
Unfazed, she scanned the room, searching only for the figure she had glimpsed that day at the Wind and Rain Pavilion.
Yet after surveying the entire classroom, she found no trace of a similar silhouette and immediately frowned.
A portly son of a wealthy merchant, also thrust into the academy like An Xu, was assigned as her desk-mate by the teachers. The young man, assuming they were cut from the same cloth, nudged Qi Zhu's arm with his brush handle when he noticed her looking around. "What are you searching for, Brother An?"
Qi Zhu replied, "I heard... the eldest grandson of the Gongsun family, renowned as the 'Worthy of Hejian,' is also in the Upper Dormitory. Why don’t I see him?"
The chubby boy ducked under the desk to take a bite of the chicken leg he had smuggled from the dining hall that morning before answering with greasy lips, "Ah, you mean Young Master Yin. The students here call him 'Little Teacher.' The academy's headmaster is his great-uncle, and his knowledge rivals many of the instructors. Next class is with Teacher Han—he’s probably been summoned to help grade assignments."
Sure enough, when the old bell-ringer struck the bell hanging from the locust tree in the courtyard, every student in the room sat rigidly upright—even the chubby boy dared not nibble on his hidden chicken leg.
Qi Zhu watched as the locust blossoms of early March swirled wildly in the breeze outside the open door. Behind a stern-faced elder walked a young man in a white robe gilded by pale golden sunlight. He carried a stack of thick scrolls, his fingers long and veins pronounced, his features clear and bright, the corners of his lips slightly upturned as if bearing a hint of a smile.
Qi Zhu stared dumbfounded, feeling her heart jolt violently.
Was this the man who had spent nearly a month with her at the Wind and Rain Pavilion, slowly unraveling that unfinished game of chess?
Perhaps her gaze was too intense, for when Gongsun Yin entered the classroom, his spring-like eyes swept over her, pausing imperceptibly for a breath. His brows faintly furrowed before he calmly averted his gaze.
The chubby boy whispered to Qi Zhu, "Don’t let Little Teacher’s gentle demeanor fool you. Though he greets everyone with a smile, he grades assignments even stricter than the instructors. If you get a 'Ding' grade, you’re in for a world of trouble!"As soon as the chubby boy finished speaking, Qi Zhu heard the stern-faced instructor declare, "I have finished grading the entrance examination papers. All those who received a 'D' grade must copy the Academy Regulations twenty times in the Imperial Library after class!"
As he spoke, he picked up the top sheet from the stack of papers and raised his head, his expression noticeably harsher. "An Xu, D grade!"
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