New Hopes Dashed to Pieces

Inside Fùchun Teahouse the fighting had died down somehow. It quickly became apparent that the royal guards and the militia knew exactly who they were looking for, evicting those of non-interest and arresting the identified faces of the anti-royalists.

In the lobby, Kiyomi expressed his gratitude to the magistrate who had sent his armed men to protect him upon seeing him threatened by some criminals.

All this chaos which had enveloped the teahouse was the successful raid of the magistrate's espionage mission. The magistrate wanted to bask in the royal favour—the reward was a posting as a provincial governor. However, to attain his goal he was under great pressure to crush the seeds of a rebellion before they could sprout. He dreaded to disappoint the cold-hearted and volatile king, for alas, the repercussions could only be his impending doom.

Privy to the magistrate's agenda, the prince resolved to act with the utmost prudence and circumspection and never to say another word about buying black powder.

Revelling in the guaranteed glory of his fruitful mission, the magistrate's mouth was still parting with words of an affectedly modest appraisal of his own efforts, when Kiyomi hurried his footsteps towards the young woman who had just stepped through the doors with a dazed look.

Her mouth slightly open expressed her intense shock. She was unresponsive and he had to call her out a few more times before she snapped out of her stupor. He felt an inexplicable feeling of hugging her.

He took another step closer, and lowered the volume of his voice. "Young miss, what happened?"

"Surely, it is a case of mistaken identity. He can't possibly know who I am." She murmured to herself, lost in thought, her voice trailing off.

"What do you mean by that?"

He noticed the hairpin squeezed in her hand.

"Did he try to harm you?"

She shook her head.

"Do you know who this man was?"

Once again she shook her head, eyes looking right through him.

Jian had stayed beside the magistrate who was still putting on a big show by boasting his achievement, and whose tongue would probably keep on doing so until the next morning sun, that he was, even now, unaware of Kiyomi's departure.

Jian was observing the interaction between the prince and the young woman whose back was facing him- - Why was His Highness so friendly with this stranger?

While Emika's mind was preoccupied, a sudden voice cheeped behind her, revealing its presence. When Jian was about to walk past her, he noticed that the girl intentionally pivoted and turned her head in the the opposite direction. She mumbled hurried words to Kiyomi before leaving, almost running despite her sore ankle.

Turning around to look behind him, Kiyomi was unsettled regarding how he should feel about this young woman.

"Who is this woman?" Jian inquired. "Why did she run away as soon as I approached?"

"She is someone who attended my lecture. And she did not run away. Because of this unexpected turn of event she is late for a previous engagement."

Jian winked a cheeky eye at his friend. "Are you going to see her again?"

"I must have met her before."

"How could you have met her before?"

"But her face seems so familiar to me just as if we had met again after a long separation."

Jian smiled broadly, then a giggle followed, nudging Kiyomi's arm with the tip of the elbow. "Hmm... She must be quite a beauty! Only beautiful women would excite in men such an intense feeling of longing."

The pair exchanged few glances with each other, and Kiyomi tread on his foot, not too hard but not too light either.

"How old are you? Stop winking at your prince."

Back at their residence, while they sat down for a good long chat over a cup of tea, Kiyomi gave a detailed account to Jian and Li Ji of what had happened at the teahouse and how there was now little prospect of obtaining the black powder.

The brilliant flame of hope alighting their revenge was the black powder, and this flame was now smothered.

Today, the tea tasted bitter.

For the last four years, Kiyomi and Jian had gone back and forth between the two worlds—the increasing number of crossings having a detrimental effect to their vital energy—to secretly probe the situation in the imperial court, and to plan a rebellion by strengthening the prince's position with his partisans and by gaining support from those who became dissatisfied with the Emperor's reign. One must be patient to find weakness, and one wrong move could irreparably ruin years of planning.

However, Empress Dowager Yū Miko successful campaign into vilifying the Second Prince—a narrative of murder and frame up, treason and patricide—and making General Yun Hishoku a martyr, had gained the Imperial Family the full support of the court, the army and the people.

It was only natural that most of the Second Prince's followers had switched alliances to save their family from execution. Thus, with very little men still on his side, unable to build a strong enough support base, this black powder was their only advantage. It was the trump card who could turn the balance of power in his favour.

Without the black powder…

…their hopes were dashed to pieces.

Li Ji went on a different topic and relayed a message sent from one of her patient, Madame Luo, that someone in town was impersonating her.

Kiyomi smiled as if he knew something that no one had ever guessed before, as if he heard something that no one else had ever heard.

"Then, I now have two pretend sisters."

It is according by the Rules of Rites that one's character is established. This code of rules of behaviour, which is the observance of morality, would give one a define place and status in society. An unmarried woman living with two men was not a virtuous woman, and unless Li Ji pretended to be his sister, she could not have become the famed physician she was now, nor could Jian and Kiyomi had benefited an esteemed status and established prime connections within the city.

When the evening grew darker, as Kiyomi rested in bed, awaiting dreams to dance, he had difficulty falling to sleep.

Night-time always awakens one's loneliness and inner thoughts. It was a chaotic jumble of worrisome and sorrowful thoughts…

… The calico cat had not yet returned from his excursion… The black powder, Big Pie Chu… The woman's begonia lips… The infamous massacre at the palace and how they had cheated death… Jian and Li Ji, those two innocents souls bound to him by the chains of loyalty and how his heart ached, yearning to fulfil his promise to avenge the death of their family… His brother Taizong stabbing him at Chunyan River and leaving him for dead… General Yun Hishoku and his son Ishirō whom he had failed to save… And his mother peeling roasting chestnuts and feeding him their tender flesh…

Unconsciously, his feet wandered into the courtyard and he stood under the forlorn willow tree. In a mournful voice the cicadas were singing and strayed fireflies teetered in the air, glowing faintly. How cold the face of the moon, lumpish and dull the stars!

Across the courtyard, the light of the lamp flickering inside Li Ji's room was clearly visible behind the sliding panel.

Kiyomi knocked on the window panel.

His voice commanded in a warm and gentle tone: "Li Ji, come along to my room and read for me."