It wasn’t the obviously feminine look that Zhihao had hoped for, but at least Jiayi didn’t look like a boy either. Her clothing was both perfectly acceptable and practical for the occasion. Zhihao bought her several sets of clothes since they had no idea how long they would be gone. She topped off the pile of clothes with a pair of brown gloves, and he nodded his understanding. With the shortened sleeves, her hands would be exposed. She needed some sort of protection to keep her from falling into a vision whenever she touched something new.
Jiayi was obviously happy with the clothes as well. She didn’t simply accept that she had to wear them, but her face beamed. She couldn’t stop smiling. In her new outfit, she gripped her horse’s reigns and climbed up into the saddle with ease.
“Where did a girl like you learn to ride a horse?” Zhihao asked her.
“In my dreams,” she said with a smile.
With half of the day used up, but not totally wasted, the little exploring party set off on the road to Jehol.
Eight
Jiayi was thrilled with her new clothes. She had never had such freedom of movement, at least not in this life. She was reminded of how Lady Meirong must have felt during the Tang Dynasty. She could walk normally, ride a horse, and soon she would be climbing rocks and exploring caves, all things she never could have done in her old clothes.
They had lost half a day finding her new clothes, so they had to move quickly for the rest of the day. It would take them two or three days to reach the Conghua Pass, halfway to Jehol.
Zhihao was riding in the front, leading their small expedition. Jiayi was in the middle, and she was followed by Eunuch Lo, with the mule taking up the rear.
The small group finally reached their first campsite much later than they planned. It was nearly dark. Eunuch Lo worked quickly to build the tents while Zhihao worked out a plan for the next day. They were traveling too slowly and the terrain had changed over the decades. Zhihao needed to compare maps and come up with a plan for the next day while they still had light.
Jiayi took off her gloves and wandered the area collecting firewood. The gloves made her hands sweaty and she was already getting blisters from the reigns. There were sparse trees. The area was arid and rocky. While Eunuch Lo was clearly annoyed at getting dusty as he worked around the camp, Jiayi was excited to be climbing around the rocks in her new boots.
“Do not wander too far, Jiayi,” Zhihao called out to her as she slipped behind a large boulder.
“I won’t,” she called back. So far, she was only finding small dry sticks, nothing that would help them build a substantial fire. As she wandered, she eventually came to a small outcropping. It wasn’t exactly a cave because it wasn’t very deep—she could see all the way to the back from the entrance. She could tell it had been used as a shelter because there was a pile of firewood in it, an old fire pit, and some abandoned items.
Jiayi used a stick to rifle around the items. She was careful to not touch old items she wasn’t familiar with. She never knew just how old they could be and whether they would send her into a trance. Jiayi did not find much, only some old rags and torn papers with faded writing.
The sun was near setting, and the last of the sun’s rays were shining directly into the cave. Jiayi moved deeper into the cave to see if she could find anything else of use. She kicked at the pebbles on the ground and found a small coin. She bent to pick it up without thinking and promptly passed out.
“I’ll never betray the emperor!” she was shouting as she awoke.
A man dressed in court robes grabbed her arm. “You will do as you are told or else!” he yelled in her face.
“Or else what?” she asked. Jiayi had no idea what was going on or who she was, but something felt familiar, so she just let the woman whose body she was inhabiting remain in control.
“Have I not made that perfectly clear, you stupid bitch?” the man spat. “You will help us or else your whole family will suffer! Your parents, your brothers. They will all die, but not before they see you executed, slice by slice.”
He was talking about the Death by a Thousand Cuts. A horrid and barbaric way to die. It was so disgusting, Jiayi’s empress had recently outlawed the practice. But wherever she was now, it was clearly still in use. It was a death usually reserved for the most severe of crimes—treason.
“No!” she cried. “Please, please not my family! But what you ask of me, it is impossible! I’m just a bedmate for the emperor. Nothing more. How can I get you what you want?”
The man ran his finger down the side of her face. “Lady Cai, do not play coy. We all know you are far more than that. The emperor is infatuated with you. He trusts you. Do I dare say he loves you? Is he such a fool as to love a woman? A whore such as you?”
Jiayi shook her head to get away from the man’s odious touch. So, she was once again Lady Cai. But what was she doing here? And who was this man?
“I am not a whore,” she growled. “I am the consort to the emperor. The mother of his child. You are nothing, Minister Shun. If the emperor finds out what you are up to, it is you who will die by a thousand cuts!”
The man smirked. “Not a whore?” He pulled a single coin out of his pocket and flipped it at her. She caught it in her hand and looked at it. It was the same coin she had picked up from the floor of the cave. “You have already taken far more than that from me to help support your family in exchange for your compliance. Finish the job. Get me something, anything I can use to overthrow the emperor, and you will be rewarded with more gold than you can possibly imagine…”
Jiayi looked back down at the coin in her hand as the world faded to black.
She opened her eyes and the world was dark. How long was she out? She sat up and realized that she was still in the outcropping, but the sun had set. Zhihao and Eunuch Lo must be worried about her. She put the coin in her pocket and grabbed the bits of leftover firewood as she ran out of the cave.
She made it back to camp as Zhihao was giving an earful to Eunuch Lo.
“She could be anywhere! She could have been eaten by wolves or kidnapped! How could you let her out of your sight?” he yelled.
“Kidnapped by wolves?” she asked with a smile on her face as she approached them, trying to diffuse the situation.
“Jiayi!” Zhihao said, running to her. “Are you all right? Were you hurt?”
“I’m just fine,” she said, handing him her bundle of wood.
“Where were you?” Zhihao asked as he tossed the sticks aside.
“I was looking for wood, like you told me to do, and I found something.” She fished into her pocket and handed him the coin.
“A coin?” he asked, taking the coin and examining it closely. “A bit old. From the…Daoguang era!”
“How can you tell?” she asked.
“Every emperor mints his own coins. See the character here at the top? That means it was made during the reign of the Daoguang Emperor.”
Jiayi looked at the coin and nodded, as if she knew what the character he was pointing to meant. It meant nothing to her, but she couldn’t let him know that.
“But what does it mean?” Zhihao asked. “If anything? You can buy buckets of old coins in the market, and random coins can be found everywhere. And this is a common road. Anyone could have dropped it.”
“But not just anyone did,” Jiayi said with a proud smile.
“What did you see, Jiayi?” Zhihao asked.
“Who was Minister Shun?” she replied.
“He was Emperor Daoguang’s highest ranking minister,” Zhihao explained. “They didn’t get along, but Minister Shun served Daoguang’s father, the Jiaqing Emperor, and served Daoguang for most of his reign.”
“Did Shun ever attempt any sort of coup that you know of?” Jiayi asked.
“There isn’t any on record,” Zhihao said. “Why? What do you know?”
“I think this Minister Shun tried to use Lady Cai against the emperor,” she said. “And he paid her with this coin. I found it in a
cave, an outcropping of stone. Lady Cai and Minister Shun met in that cave and he told her that if she did not do as he said and help him overthrow the emperor, he would kill her and her entire family.”
“I can’t believe what you are saying,” Zhihao said. “Minister Shun was an important man. He served two emperors during a very difficult time. Lady Cai was a disgraced consort. She was only honored after her death because her son was honored by the next emperor. This is…this is shocking and completely contradicts what we know about history.”
“Maybe history is wrong,” Jiayi said.
“What do you mean?” Zhihao asked.
“I mean, what we think we know, what people have written, it could all be wrong. Lies meant to protect some people and discredit others,” she said.
“History is written by the victors, as they say,” Zhihao replied.
“What did you mean when you said Lady Cai was disgraced?” Jiayi asked.
“Lady Cai was demoted not long after the events we have been investigating,” he explained. “I don’t know why. There aren’t many records about the management of the Inner Court.”
“Maybe the emperor found out about her role in the attempted coup,” Jiayi said. “But he took pity on her because of their love or because she was protecting her family, so he just demoted her instead of having her put to death.”
“It’s possible,” Zhihao said. “But we have no way of really knowing.”
“True,” Jiayi said. “But at least we have a new lead on the seal.”
“We do?” Zhihao asked.
“What if the seal wasn’t lost,” Jiayi said. “What if she gave it to Minister Shun.”
Nine
That night, Zhihao crept out of his tent. When he arrived at Jiayi’s tent, Eunuch Lo was still awake, guarding the entrance.
“I need to speak to Jiayi,” Zhihao whispered. “I need to talk to her more about her visions. I have some more theories.”
Eunuch Lo nodded and let Zhihao enter, but he left the tent flap open a crack so he could keep an ever-watchful eye on them.
Jiayi was sitting on the blankets she was going to sleep under later. On her lap was a stack of papers and she was holding a charcoal pencil in her hand. Her face blushed when she saw him and quickly moved to hide what she was working on. She was wearing a long thick robe—even in summer the nights would get chilly north of Peking—but she clutched it closed at the neck upon seeing him, gray streaks of charcoal staining the fabric in the process.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she said as she clumsily tried to stack her pages into a folio with one hand.
“Eunuch Lo is watching us,” he said.
Jiayi pressed her lips and then nodded. “He always is,” she whispered as she pushed her folio aside. “He guards me at the palace as well.”
Zhihao wasn’t sure what to think of that or why she was telling him such a thing. It was odd that the empress felt the need to guard the girl, as if she might run away or be stolen. Jiayi had told him she was like a kept pet. Maybe she felt like a prisoner.
“Are you sketching something new?” he asked, remembering that she said she sketched the things she saw. “Something you have seen? Can I see them?”
She shook her head. “It’s nothing that would be of any use.”
He doubted that and figured she was just being modest, but he accepted her excuse for now. “I was just wondering if there was anything else from your vision you learned,” he said, folding up a blanket to sit on across from her.
“I think I told you everything,” she said. “Are you documenting what I have told you? The things about history that might not be correct?”
Even though he had already stated to Jiayi why he was there, she naturally spoke around the topic at hand, making polite conversation first. Zhihao often found this sort of tradition annoying—he was a busy man who liked to speak plainly—but he found that he enjoyed his conversations with Jiayi, so he did not push her to tell him more about her visions until she was ready.
“I have been,” he said. “But I am not sure what I will do with the information. I don’t have any concrete evidence to back up my claims. This isn’t like any of the digs I went on in Egypt.”
“What is a ‘dig?’” she asked. “And what is Egypt?”
“Oh, sorry. I mean an archeological dig, where we look for old artifacts and cities buried under the ground. Egypt is a country in Northern Africa. That is where there are pharaohs and pyramids. Lots of exciting things are being unearthed every day. The excavation model being followed in Egypt is something China should look to. Our thousands of years of history should not be lost.”
Jiayi smiled as though she was uncomfortable. “Forgive me. I must be terribly stupid. I only understood half of what you were talking about.”
“Not at all,” he said. “You should forgive me. I am used to speaking to men and women who are in the same field as I am and understand the lingo.”
“There are women in your field?” she asked. “Women…archeologists?”
“Sort of,” he said. “Few women go to university, and even fewer are willing to battle the elements of the desert or attempt to survive in an alien culture. But some brilliant women are linguists…err, people who study language, or women who try to fix old paintings or sculptures. Those sorts of jobs seem naturally suited to women.”
“I would be willing to learn such things,” Jiayi said. “I want to learn many things. I feel like my mind is empty and begging to be filled. I have already learned so much from you.”
“We can hope that the end of our expedition will not be the end of our—” He wanted to say friendship, but that would have been too personal. “Of our…adventures together.”
Jiayi nodded. “I do hope,” she said. “My visions are like dreams. Have you ever had a dream so real, so vivid, that you thought you were living in it? And when you awoke, you thought you would never forget it? But later, when you try to tell someone about your dream, you cannot hardly recall it at all?”
Zhihao nodded.
“My visions are like that,” she said. “If I do not relay them immediately, I forget.”
“You should try writing them down,” Zhihao said. “Not only so you can use the details to find artifacts, but just because they are interesting. And what if there are links between your visions? Or patterns that could help you deduce when or where you might travel to next. They would be fascinating to analyze.”
“I do suppose you are right,” she said with a tight smile and then looked back at the lantern instead of having to make eye contact with him.
“Do you remember anything else from your vision earlier?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I just remember that Minister Shun was very intimidating. He was frightening. He threatened Lady Cai with the Death by a Thousand Cuts.”
“Well, she wasn’t put to death, we know that,” Zhihao said. “So we know his threats came to nothing.”
“Oh, I wanted to ask,” Jiayi said. “You are sure you don’t know anything about Lady Cai being disgraced?”
“Records from the Inner Court, the court of the women, are sparse,” he said. “I suppose historians and scholars don’t think the lives of women are important enough to include in official records.”
Jiayi scoffed, and Zhihao laughed a little.
“I didn’t say I agree with it, just stating their viewpoint,” he clarified. “After all, women exert a lot of influence over their husbands and often run the household while the men are doing other things. It would be interesting to know just how the women of the Inner Court have influenced government policy throughout history.”
“I don’t think many men could handle the shock,” Jiayi said with a smirk.
“Perhaps not,” he agreed. “Your vision today was probably before the seal was lost,” he said, changing the subject. “Minister Shun could have threatened Lady Cai here, after their first day on the road, telling her she needed to find something to use against th
e emperor. Two days later, they are attacked at the Conghua Pass. The emperor gives Lady Cai the seal. Lady Cai realizes that Minister Shun could use it against the emperor and gives it to him.”
“Or she didn’t give it to the minister,” Jiayi said. “There is no record of a coup, and she wasn’t executed for treason. Maybe she hid it or gave it to someone she could trust.”
“Perhaps,” Zhihao said. “But if that was the case, why not retrieve the seal later?”
“When we find the seal, I am sure we will find out,” she replied.
Zhihao laughed. “Indeed. When, not if.”
Ten
The next morning, as Zhihao and Jiayi were eating bowls of congee by the fire, Eunuch Lo approached and motioned for Zhihao to follow him. Zhihao did so, and Jiayi followed as well. He led them a few feet from the fire and pointed at the ground. There were boot prints and a small scattering of spent cigarettes.
“Someone was in the camp last night,” Zhihao said. “And it looks like he was watching us for a while. Did you see anyone last night?”
Eunuch Lo only shook his head.
“We must be more careful, then,” Zhihao said. “Don’t leave anything unattended. Make sure the horses are secure. And someone should be on watch at all times during the night. Eunuch Lo and I will have to take shifts.”
“Who do you think it could be?” Jiayi asked.
“No idea,” Zhihao said. “Could be anyone. I’m sure there are other travelers or bandits hanging about.”
“Bandits?” asked Jiayi, alarmed.
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