Time: 2013-02-24 20:46 Source: "Story Club" Author: Chen Mo\Divine Advice\ That year, the crown prince was seventeen and it was time for him to get married. The emperor's three palaces and six courts had produced only this single heir, so naturally, the crown prince's marriage became the emperor's top concern.\ One night, the emperor had a dream in which a white-bearded immortal descended from the sky, speaking with a voice like a great bell: "Your crown prince's consort must be born into a family of great and boundless fortune, and at her birth, she will bring with her a golden rice bowl. When she appears, flowers will rain from the sky, and she will ride a dragon and embrace a phoenix. Remember, remember!"\ The dream felt so vivid that even upon waking, the image of the immortal remained clear. The emperor was very excited, thinking that his son was truly blessed to the point that an immortal would intervene to guide his marriage. 'Excellent!' he thought. 'We will choose the crown princess according to the immortal's instructions!'\ The emperor got up in high spirits, squinting his eyes as he pondered the immortal's words. But the more he reflected, the more anxious he became. Why? It turned out that none of the instructions the immortal gave could actually be realized.\ The immortal said the crown princess must be born into a 'family of great and boundless fortune.' Who didn't know that in this world, only the royal family could be considered such a household? But could the royal family marry within itself? Certainly not.\ The second point said the crown princess would 'bring a golden rice bowl at birth.' That was impossible as well—who ever heard of a family giving birth to a child along with a golden rice bowl?\ The last two points were even more far-fetched: when the crown princess appeared, there would be 'flowers raining from the heavens, and she would ride a dragon and embrace a phoenix.' Since the creation of the world, who had ever witnessed flowers raining from the sky? As for dragons and phoenixes, they were mythical creatures—how could anyone ride one or embrace one?\ The emperor hung his head, feeling frustrated. Just then, a eunuch reported that the prime minister Chen Zhen requested an audience. The emperor's mind stirred: Chen Zhen, a seasoned minister with vast knowledge, might offer advice on his dream. So he immediately issued an edict, summoning Chen Zhen.\ After Chen Zhen performed the proper greeting, the emperor recounted his dream from the previous night. Chen Zhen cleared his throat and, feigning excitement, said, "Your Majesty, wonderful news! In my humble opinion, this dream is indeed an auspicious omen."\ The emperor's eyes brightened. "How so?"\ Chen Zhen straightened his posture and began speaking smoothly, "The so-called descent of a heavenly person and the birth of extraordinary phenomena mean that the crown princess is no ordinary person. Such phenomena only appear when she manifests. Since the immortal has already given clear guidance, we need only follow this to search for her. Considering the vastness of our great nation, how could we fail to find her?"The emperor thought for a moment and said, 'Ah! I am rich throughout the land; why should I worry about finding a daughter-in-law!' Then he opened his golden mouth and issued an edict: 'What you say is quite right. I will send you to find the Crown Princess!'
When Chen Zhen heard this, he almost cried, regretting that he had spoken recklessly. Now this wave of trouble had landed on his own head, what should he do? Panic struck him, his legs went weak, and he knelt to the ground.
Seeing Chen Zhen kneeling with such an impassioned expression, the emperor felt touched. He quickly helped him up with both hands and said emotionally, 'You shall not fail in your mission; within a year, you must find the Crown Princess!'
At this point, no matter how unwilling Chen Zhen was, he could only obey.
**Searching Among the People**
Back from the palace, Chen Zhen could neither eat nor sleep. He racked his brain over those few words the immortal had said. Surprisingly, after a few days, he felt a bit enlightened.
He thought, the four conditions mentioned by the immortal seemed impossible at first hearing, but with some flexibility, they could be achieved. Take the first condition, 'Born in a family of great fortune.' Which family could produce the Crown Princess? It would be the emperor's in-laws. As the saying goes, 'In-laws are as close as family.' Being as close as family to the emperor naturally meant a family of great fortune.
The second condition, 'Born with a golden rice bowl.' When a child is born, relatives and friends usually give 'birth gifts.' Presumably, when the Crown Princess was born, a golden rice bowl was among these gifts. So that would count as her being 'born with a golden rice bowl.'
The latter two conditions are easier. When the Crown Princess appears, there will be 'heavenly flowers raining down, riding a dragon and holding a phoenix.' At that moment, observing which girl experiences this phenomenon will reveal the Crown Princess!
With his mind clear, Chen Zhen calmed down. Upon careful thought, ordinary families receive porcelain bowls or wooden chopsticks as birth gifts, not such precious items as a golden rice bowl. It seemed the Crown Princess was most likely born in an official household.
Chen Zhen decided to take a shortcut. He ranked the officials in the court with eligible daughters and selected candidates one by one. In the end, many girls had received golden rice bowls at birth, but none of them exhibited any extraordinary signs during interviews. Chen Zhen grew anxious; it seemed the Crown Princess was not in an official family. He needed to search among the common people!
So Chen Zhen personally led a team and set off from the capital, travelling to various provinces. In the blink of an eye, twelve out of thirteen provinces had been thoroughly searched, leaving only a place called Peach Blossom Village in Guizhou Province.Chen Zhen arrived at Peach Blossom Village and took the roster of eligible women from the table. Seeing that there were thirty-one names in total, he nodded and, as usual, asked: "Are the families of these women all willing?" The village head accompanying him hurriedly replied, "They are all very willing. In the past few days, every household in Peach Blossom Village has been busy rendering lard, buying tofu..." "What? Rendering lard, buying tofu?" Chen Zhen did not understand. The village head quickly explained that Peach Blossom Village has always been known for beautiful women, and every family puts a lot of effort into their daughters' beauty. There is a popular saying in the village: 'If a daughter wants good skin, apply lard externally, eat tofu internally.'
Applying lard externally meant heating and cooling lard, soaking it into large cotton balls, and then using the cotton to rub the daughter's body all over. After a long time, the skin would become moist, fair, and glossy, like silk. 'Eating tofu internally' meant making tofu for the daughter every day so that the delicate tofu would nurture delicate skin.
After hearing this, Chen Zhen curiously asked, "Applying lard is understandable, but eating tofu every day—wouldn't that disgust people eventually?" The village head waved his hands repeatedly and said, "You don't know, sir. Peach Blossom Village has a special snack, 'Qi Tian Tofu,' which you could eat a lifetime without getting tired of it..."
Just at this moment, the waiting women arrived, and the village head quickly stopped talking. Chen Zhen ordered someone to bring in a woman. When he looked up, he saw that her skin was fair and her beauty extraordinary. Chen Zhen nodded. However, no extraordinary phenomena appeared when she entered, nor with the second woman... It was not until all thirty women had been assessed that no signs appeared.
"It's over!" Chen Zhen grabbed his long beard and sighed in despair, "I will have failed the Emperor's trust!" Unconsciously, he glanced again at the roster on the table and suddenly felt something was wrong: there should have been thirty-one eligible women, but only thirty had arrived. The last one, named Yuzhu, had not come.
Could she be disobeying the imperial decree to marry? Chen Zhen could not help but slam the table and shout in anger, "How dare you defy orders!" Saying so, he threw the roster in front of the village head.
The village head was terrified and hurriedly kowtowed, reporting, "Sir, Yuzhu has a mental impairment, so she cannot be summoned."
"Mental impairment?" Chen Zhen sneered, "That must be an excuse! Which family is she from? Speak the truth immediately."The village chief kowtowed like pounding garlic and hurriedly replied, 'She is the daughter of the Qi Tian Da Fu family.' 'The Qi Tian Da Fu family!' Chen Zhen's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly jumped up from his seat. Isn't this the first clue the immortal mentioned? The village chief explained tremblingly, 'It is… it is the Qi Tian Da Fu family who make tofu at the east end of the village.' Chen Zhen understood. The accent of the people in Peach Blossom Village pronounced 'tofu' as 'Da Fu,' so when they said 'Qi Tian Tofu family,' it came out as 'Qi Tian Da Fu family.' Chen Zhen hurriedly said to the village chief, 'Quickly tell me in detail about this Qi Tian Da Fu family.' The village chief stepped forward and began to speak— It turned out that there was an old man in the village with the surname Qi and the given name Tian, who inherited the family business of making tofu. He was honest and sincere, always selecting the best beans, soaking them in Peach Blossom River water, and grinding them finely with a stone mill made of Peach Blossom stone. The tofu he made was white and tender like set egg whites; even if a piece was left out for a few hours, it wouldn't release water. Once put into the pot and heated, it would instantly emit a delicate, pleasant fragrance. Because it was so delicious, 'Qi Tian Tofu' became famous. But when honest people encountered troubling matters, Qi Tian and his wife failed to have children until he was forty, when they finally had a daughter. The couple was too stunned to be happy—why? Because the child was extremely ugly. How ugly was she? From birth, this daughter had rough, wrinkled, dark-gray skin covering her face, making her eyebrows and eyes barely distinguishable—how could she not look unpleasant? As for her hair, she was born with a head full of scaly, crusted, yellowish hair stuck to her scalp, and never grew a single strand. Worse, this daughter was mentally deficient and, except for occasionally calling her father 'dad' and mother 'ma,' could not speak at all. After finishing, the village chief cautiously asked, 'Sir, for the royal selection of the crown princess, a girl like this...' Chen Zhen sighed, thinking: having traveled across the country, he only had this last one left, and by a twist of fate, she happened to be the daughter of the Qi Tian Da Fu family. No matter if she was dull or foolish, he had to see her! The next morning, Chen Zhen rode in a sedan chair, accompanied by horsemen, and soon arrived near the Yu Zhu family's residence. In front of her home flowed the Peach Blossom River, with Peach Blossom Mountain at its back. The mountain slopes and the riverbanks were densely covered with peach trees.At this moment, the peach blossoms were in full bloom, large clusters covering the branches, and even the surface of the Peach Blossom River was filled with a layer of pink fallen petals.\ What a charming place! Chen Zhen admired in his heart. At that moment, the village chief pointed ahead with his hand and said, "Your honor, the one riding a dragon ahead is Yuzhu."\"Riding a dragon?" Chen Zhen was startled and hurriedly looked ahead. Not far away, he saw a winding ridge, and a small black-gray figure was straddling it, riding along.\"So that's what riding along the ridge looks like!" Just then, a gust of wind rose from the ground, blowing peach blossoms into the air. The petals twirled in the sky and fell like raindrops onto Yuzhu, who was riding the ridge.\ “A rain of flowers from the sky!” Chen Zhen exclaimed in amazement. At that moment, a large mottled rooster, startled by the wind, flapped its wings and flew up, landing right in front of Yuzhu on the ridge. Yuzhu chuckled and hugged the rooster in her arms.\"Riding a dragon, embracing a phoenix!" Chen Zhen shouted excitedly, "That's her, she's the Crown Princess!"\The local officials who had accompanied him were all shocked: this awkward and unattractive young woman was the Crown Princess? One official could not help but whisper to Chen Zhen: "Your honor, the Crown Princess should be exceptional in appearance, walk with the grace of mist over mountains, and speak with the clarity of flowing water, but this young woman does not meet any of these criteria..."\"No, she meets three out of the four!" Chen Zhen blurted out, "Now only the golden rice bowl is missing." Thinking of this, he ordered someone to call Qi Tian and asked, "In the year Yuzhu was born, did anyone give a golden rice bowl as a 'birth gift'?" Qi Tian shook his head repeatedly and said that in the year Yuzhu was born, only her mother's brother gave a tofu-making crock, and there were no other gifts.\ Chen Zhen was unwilling to give up. He sent people to search every corner of Qi Tian's house, but they still could not find a single gold item. With the one-year period for the search nearly over and no time left for departure, Chen Zhen gritted his teeth and ordered, "Someone, prepare a sedan chair for the Crown Princess to change clothes, and set off back to the capital!"\ The dazzling phoenix coronet and rosy robes, brought from the capital, were now worn by Yuzhu. Her mother, tears flowing—whether from joy or sorrow, she didn't know—watched her awkward and unattractive daughter sit in the sedan chair and be carried away by the royal guards as the Crown Princess.Along the way, Chen Zhen felt a mix of anxiety and worry. Although this Yu Zhu coincidentally met three of the immortal's conditions, there was still one golden rice bowl that hadn't been secured. If the emperor asked, how would he explain it?
Yu Zhu inside the sedan chair didn't care about any of this. At the moment, she only knew she was uncomfortable — it was too hot! She had a thick skin and was naturally afraid of heat, and now she was stuffed into a sedan chair with no air flowing from any side. How could she bear it? During the first few days, the attending women had secretly lifted a small gap in the curtain to let her cool off. Later, as they got closer to the capital, the women no longer dared to care for her, and the curtains were drawn tightly. Yu Zhu was sweating profusely and felt itching discomfort. She instinctively scratched herself, and to her surprise, she scraped off the thick rough layer of skin on her face, revealing a baby-like fair and tender face! Then she felt the rest of her body itchy and uncomfortable, so she stretched her hand under her clothes and scratched vigorously. In just a few scratches, the hard rough skin all over her body was completely gone.
Without the rough skin, Yu Zhu felt much cooler, but her head was still unbearably hot. So she reached up to scratch the scaly patch on her head. With one scratch, the crusty scab came off entirely, revealing beneath it a head of jet-black silk-like hair...
There was such a commotion inside the sedan chair, yet no one outside knew. At this time, the chair had reached the palace gate and crossed the arch bridge. According to protocol, the sedan chair was to stop at the top of the bridge. The crown princess would have to descend on foot to enter the palace and pay respects to the emperor.
The curtain of the sedan chair was lifted. Under the scorching sun, a golden light flashed, and people couldn't help but look inside. When they did, everyone was stunned: sitting inside the chair was Yu Zhu with a Guanyin-like face, skin like snow, hair like dark ink, and in her arms, a shiny golden rice bowl.
"So the golden rice bowl was always on her head!" Chen Zhen was overjoyed. Seeing everyone standing there in shock, he quickly instructed: "Hurry, help the crown princess down from the sedan."
Yu Zhu, being somewhat naive, was delighted when the curtain was lifted. She lifted her leg to step out but accidentally stepped into empty space, rolling down from the top of the bridge, spurting a mouthful of blood.
Chen Zhen felt as if the world was spinning: falling from such a height, even if she didn't die, she would surely be crippled... Suddenly, Yu Zhu slowly got up under the bridge, gracefully walked over to Chen Zhen, and respectfully bowed: "Yu Zhu greets Lord Chen!"Chen Zhen was stunned: it turned out that Yuzhu was actually a person of extraordinary talent. Thanks to that fall, the dormant blood from birth that clouded her mind was shaken out, just like polishing a raw jade to remove its outer layer, restoring her natural intelligence.
Chen Zhen couldn't contain his joy. Everyone surrounded and escorted Yuzhu into the palace. As soon as the emperor saw Yuzhu's appearance, his face lit up with delight, and he ordered a banquet as a reward.
After the banquet, Chen Zhen returned home in great splendor. His wife had already been waiting for a long time. She had worried all year, and seeing her husband return in glory, she couldn't help but sigh: “Heavens be blessed, I never thought you could truly find the crown princess.” Chen Zhen proudly patted his chest and said to his wife: “Who am I? Is there anything I can't accomplish?”
Just then, they heard a eunuch outside loudly announce: “The emperor has decreed that Chief Minister Chen Zhen should immediately enter the palace in a golden canopy sedan.” Chen Zhen glanced back at his wife and smiled: “See, this must be the emperor's reward arriving.” He then quietly asked the eunuch delivering the decree: “What honor will the emperor bestow upon me?”
The eunuch shook his head like a rattle and said: “No, just now His Majesty dozed off, and he had another dream ……”
