Chapter 91 — Extra Story Two
On this day, after having had some “deep interaction” with Lord Shu in the palace, the Crown Prince still felt it was not enough. Once night fell, the Crown Prince did not stay in the palace and instead followed Lord Shu home.
Shu Changyu had originally thought that once he returned home, he would definitely find General Shu puffing out his beard, glaring at him, and losing his temper. He had long since prepared himself to let General Shu vent his anger.
But unexpectedly, when he returned home, what he saw was a scene of several members of the family happily gathered together.
General Shu was bent over a chessboard, teaching Shu Xunzhi how to play Chinese chess. Poor Shu Xunzhi could not even recognize all the characters on the chess pieces yet, and was already being taught the various ways the pieces could move. Needless to say, she was completely bewildered.
After spending the entire day together, Shu Xunzhi had also realized that her grandfather had absolutely no way of dealing with her.
Although this grandfather looked fierce and intimidating, like a statue of Guan Gong enshrined in a hall, he was actually gentle and kind, and was especially doting toward her.
Shu Xunzhi struggled with the overly complicated chessboard for a long time, yet still could not understand its rules. In the end, she simply reached over, grabbed the General from General Shu’s side, and clutched it in her hand.
“I captured your General! Grandpa, I won!”
If this had been Shu Changche back in those days, General Shu would have beaten his butt black and blue long ago.
But General Shu was not angry at all. Instead, he burst into laughter and praised her, “Xunzhi is so clever! I lost, I lost!”
As he spoke, he even bragged to Li-shi, who was beside him studying embroidery patterns with Gu Lanrong.
“My granddaughter is truly extraordinarily clever! What do you call this? No matter how many thousands of troops and horses are in front of you, just sneak into the enemy’s main camp! Back when I was young, in the eighth year of Qianning, there was one time when I went alone, single-handedly, straight into the Jin people’s general’s tent. Without losing a single soldier…”
Over there, Li-shi put down her embroidery and waved to Shu Xunzhi.
“Xunzhi, don’t listen to your grandfather bragging. Come, Grandma has some cloud-slice cake here.”
Shu Xunzhi immediately abandoned the chess pieces in her hand and scampered over to Li-shi’s knees.
Gu Lanrong, beside her, smiled and said, “Although she isn’t Jingchen’s biological child, her well-behaved appearance really does resemble Jingchen very much.”
The incessantly chattering General Shu gave a disdainful snort upon hearing this.
It was at this moment that Shu Changyu and Jing Mu returned to the General’s Residence together.
Shu Changyu was stunned when he saw the scene before him. Then he saw General Shu sitting in front of the chessboard, staring at him unhappily.
“You still know how to come home?”
When Shu Xunzhi saw him, she jumped up with a cheer and scampered over to him.
“Daddy!”
She wrapped her arms around his leg.
Then she saw the… General Brother who had followed Daddy inside.
Shu Xunzhi obediently said, “Hello, General Brother.”
This time, everyone in the room noticed Jing Mu, who had entered behind them.
Li-shi and Gu Lanrong were just about to stand up and salute when Jing Mu shook his head and stopped them.
Then he lowered his head and smiled at Shu Xunzhi.
“Xunzhi, that generation isn’t quite right.”
General Shu gave another cold snort from over there.
He rose from his couch and saluted Jing Mu.
“I did not know Your Majesty would grace my humble residence with your presence. This general failed to welcome you from afar.”
Jing Mu stepped forward and immediately supported him, smiling.
“Father-in-law, you’re being too polite.”
General Shu’s eyes instantly widened.
“What did you call me?!”
Over there, Li-shi suddenly spoke.
“He should naturally call you that.”
Then she beckoned to Jing Mu.
“His Majesty hasn’t eaten yet, has he? Come, sit down and eat with us.”
Jing Mu smiled and agreed.
During this meal, General Shu kept a cold expression on his face and did nothing but pour wine for Jing Mu. He poured so much that even Shu Changyu could not stand watching anymore.
But Jing Mu put on the attitude of an exemplary son-in-law. Whatever came his way, he accepted. Whenever General Shu told him to drink, he drank without the slightest refusal.
“Father, there are many affairs in court, and he didn’t sleep at all last night.” Shu Changyu frowned. “How can he drink like this?”
General Shu acted as though he had not heard him at all. He even peeled a large shrimp for Shu Xunzhi.
“Xunzhi, eat. The meat of this shrimp is so tender.”
As the drinking continued, even the battle-hardened General Shu began to feel unable to hold his liquor.
But today, he seemed determined to teach this foolhardy brat who had delivered himself straight into his hands a lesson. He did not even bother maintaining the demeanor of a gentleman anymore and simply substituted tea for wine, continuing to make Jing Mu drink.
Li-shi did not interfere either. When Gu Lanrong tried to stop him, she pressed him back down.
At the very end, General Shu said coldly,
“Your Majesty truly cannot do without my son?”
By then, Jing Mu’s drunkenness had already surged up.
Upon hearing the old General Shu’s question, he curled his lips. His voice remained steady as he said,
“I ask General Shu to forgive me. No one else can enter my eyes. Even in my previous life, I was determined to have no one but him.”
Shu Changyu was startled, afraid that he would accidentally let something slip while drunk.
However, everyone else in the family assumed that these were exaggerated words spoken while he was intoxicated, and no one took them seriously.
General Shu snorted coldly.
“Then you absolutely must not let me find out that you’re the sort of man who takes someone up and then abandons him. Although I am old, if something happens, there are still some matters I can take charge of.”
After saying this, he stood up and turned to leave.
Li-shi was stunned for a moment. Then she turned toward Shu Changyu and said,
“Your father has behaved this way because he has no other choice but to agree. From now on, if anything happens, the two of you will have to face it yourselves.”
After saying that, she took Gu Lanrong and Shu Xunzhi and also walked out.
Just as they reached the door, Li-shi heard a thud behind her.
She turned around and saw that Jing Mu had already slumped into her son’s arms. He was happily acting spoiled, one arm hooked around Shu Changyu’s neck, tilting his head up to kiss her son’s lips.
Her son had not even noticed that she had turned around. One hand was protecting Jing Mu so that he would not bump against the table, while he lowered his head and allowed Jing Mu to whimper and beg him for kisses.
Li-shi’s face flushed bright red.
Beside her, Gu Lanrong gave a soft laugh. With one hand, she covered Shu Xunzhi’s eyes as the little girl curiously looked back. With the other, she gently bumped Li-shi and whispered,
“Mother, shall I escort you back?”
Li-shi hummed in agreement and hurried away with Gu Lanrong.
——
On the seventh day of the sixth month, Emperor Qianning was buried.
After Emperor Qianning’s burial, Jing Mu unexpectedly issued a lengthy self-accusation edict of more than a thousand characters.
In it, he wrote about how miserable his circumstances had been after he had wandered among the common people, how he had often gone hungry and consequently remained ignorant and uneducated.
After returning to the palace, he had been fortunate enough to receive Emperor Qianning’s generous treatment and the instruction of his teachers, yet he still did not understand the Way of being a ruler.
Later, the brothers had turned against one another. In order to preserve an era of peace and prosperity, he had been forced to cruelly kill his own younger brother and the former Empress Dowager, causing himself to be tormented by regret and self-reproach every day and unable to sleep at night.
In short, he said that he was without virtue and without talent and could not be emperor.
Therefore, he simply refused to ascend the throne and passed the position to his fifth younger brother, Jing Cong.
The entire court erupted in an uproar.
Ever since Shu Changyu had left, Jing Mu had revealed his full brilliance, and there were his people everywhere throughout the court.
After Emperor Qianning’s death, those people knew that Jing Shao was without virtue or ability and would not be able to remain emperor for long. They had all been waiting for him to return.
Now he had returned, and he even possessed Emperor Qianning’s final edict. At long last, the turmoil caused by the succession between the old and new emperors could subside.
They could also consider themselves to have chosen the correct side and would not have decades of painstakingly built careers destroyed by the change of emperors.
And yet this man wasn’t going to be emperor?
However, even though Jing Mu abdicated, he did not completely hand over his power.
He knew that Jing Cong was intelligent, but he had been accustomed to neglecting his studies and accomplishing nothing since childhood. If he handed the entire country over to him at this time, he would simply be pushing Great Qi toward ruin.
Therefore, although Jing Mu allowed Jing Cong to ascend the throne, he used the excuse that Jing Cong was still young to become Regent.
As for the culprit Shu Changyu, who had been fishing in troubled waters among the ministers, he remained silent and simply went along with the tide, compromising with Jing Mu alongside the other officials.
The Regent naturally wielded overwhelming power.
But firstly, Jing Mu had originally been supposed to become emperor as a matter of course. Secondly, regents had historically never ended well.
No matter how young the little emperor sitting on the throne was, there would always come a day when he grew up, and sooner or later he would have to break free of the Regent’s restraints.
The ministers all had their suspicions.
They were all waiting for the day Jing Mu would pay the price for this decision.
Unexpectedly, as these ministers waited and waited, they waited year after year.
They waited until the young emperor grew up and became capable of standing on his own.
They waited until the Regent gradually handed over his power to the young emperor, then washed his hands of affairs and enjoyed his leisure.
They even waited until the former top scholar, Shu Changyu, climbed step by step to the position of Chancellor, took control of great power, and assisted with the affairs of state.
The ministers waited until their hair turned white.
They waited until they themselves retired and returned to their hometowns.
And they still never saw the day Jing Mu suffered the consequences of his own decision.
Later, one day, a Western painter came to the palace.
The painter was extremely skilled, and it was said that the people he painted looked exactly like their reflections in a mirror.
At the time, His Majesty the Emperor was having portraits painted of the famous ministers of the Wenyuan Pavilion. The first among them was naturally Chancellor Shu Changyu.
At that time, Chancellor Shu was already forty years old, yet he still had a clear, handsome, and refined appearance, showing little sign of age.
The painter poured his heart and soul into painting a full-body portrait of him.
But when Chancellor Shu saw the portrait, he was not satisfied in the slightest.
“The painters of Great Qi have always emphasized a person’s character and bearing rather than his outward appearance when making portraits,” Chancellor Shu said to the painter at the time.
“You only focused on the person’s eyebrows, eyes, and expression. You have merely captured a layer of flesh and skin, but you have failed to capture the person’s true bearing.”
The painter seemed to understand but not quite understand.
He changed the painting several times.
In the end, he finally comprehended the true meaning behind Chancellor Shu’s words—
He simply needed to make him uglier, painting him as a good man whose appearance was nothing remarkable.
In the end, Chancellor Shu was finally satisfied with the appearance.
He had seen portraits of famous ministers from dynasties throughout history, and they were all like this—unremarkable in appearance, yet possessing their own noble bearing.
He was embarrassed to have the painter display his outstanding looks.
Only by painting him like this would he look like a famous minister whose name would be remembered throughout the ages.
Later, Jing Cong specifically dug the Regent out from the Chancellor’s Residence, where he spent all day tending to flowers, birds, and fish and raising several cats and dogs, and had the Western painter make a portrait of him as well.
After all, Jing Mu had originally been supposed to become emperor. Although he had not ultimately ascended the throne, he had still abdicated it, and after his death, he would receive a temple name and be counted as an emperor.
Jing Cong had Jing Mu put on imperial robes and had the Western painter paint his portrait as well.
Although he had spent several years tending to flowers and plants, the Regent’s lingering authority was still formidable. The dignified, sharp, extraordinarily handsome Regent sat on the imperial throne and looked at the surrounding portraits of people who were all ugly in one way or another.
He frowned and asked,
“Where is Chancellor Shu?”
The painter, speaking in halting Mandarin, pointed at one of the ordinary, thin old men.
“This one.”
Jing Mu frowned.
“Are you blind?”
The painter looked aggrieved.
“The Chancellor wanted to change it to look like this.”
As he spoke, he even presented the first draft to the Regent.
“Originally, it should have looked like this.”
Jing Mu opened the scroll and saw the lifelike image of his own Chancellor Shu inside.
Sure enough, such a refined and handsome appearance really should not be shown to other people.
Jing Mu happily put away the scroll.
“Paint it.”
Then he added,
“Paint him ugly.”
Thus, the dark-faced, sturdy Regent and the thin, ordinary-looking Chancellor Shu were hung side by side.
More than a thousand years later, these two portraits, one uglier than the other, appeared on the same page of a history textbook.
However, the original portrait of Chancellor Shu also happened to survive.
Unofficial histories always contained records praising Chancellor Shu Changyu for his extraordinary appearance and bearing. They said that Regent Jing Mu had flown into a rage for the sake of a beauty and had even been willing to give up the imperial throne for Chancellor Shu.
Thousands of years later, The Chronicles of Qicheng Emperor Zong, adapted from the story of the two men, became a trending topic.
The still photograph of the two actors together would have caused anyone from a thousand years ago to be astonished if they had seen it—
The two people in the photograph were astonishingly the two legendary figures who had once held such influence over the imperial court.
Author’s Note: The mystery of those ugly portraits in the history books has finally been solved!