"Ah, that's a great idea. Three days later there will be a big party hosted by Brother Chun. He invites the nobles and officials from all over the country. Brother Chun himself really likes arts and literature. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I take it there."
"Of course he won't mind it, he will instead be happy to see Yuan Gong Ci."
Nowadays Zhu Su often immersed himself in parties. But that was indeed what the nobles did at that time. Ming was in its heyday, its territory and satellite states under its influence were much more than ever. All problems and conflicts could also be solved properly. So the nobles began to gather and have a lot of fun. Yet besides, Zhu Su also had another intention behind it. He kept away from the government and interactions with the people, as well as often participated in many gatherings and parties, was mainly to downplay Zhu Di's suspicions about him.
Zhu Su had learned, that Zhu Di was afraid of his brothers who had chance to get great power. Now he was the Hongwu Emperor's second eldest son after Zhu Di. In addition, he was only a year younger than Zhu Di, they were almost the same age. And only both of them were the sons of the empress, the others were the sons of the concubines. Automatically Zhu Su possessed the greatest power and influence after the emperor, and his possibility to usurp the throne was also the biggest. As Zhu Di got older, his paranoia turned more obvious than before. And in Zhu Su's opinion, Kaifeng was quite well nowadays, there were no more natural disasters, famine, or outbreaks he had to deal with. So, he decided to enjoy his boring life and had fun, imitating the other nobles that Zhu Di did not suspect with.
Even though he's a troublemaker, sometimes Yi is sensible. A gentleman should pretend to be messy or pretend to be indifferent. I mustn't appear as a leader who is too wise, Kaifeng people no longer need my help anyway. And I don't throw crazy parties that oppress the people, either. I have to do this, so as not to attract Brother Di's suspicion to me!
Zhu Su's strategy was quite useful. During these twenty years, Zhu Di was no longer suspicious of him because the emperor perceived him as a weak leader who only knew how to indulge himself. Zhu Su managed to survive the threat of death.
And thus, he could gather at Zhu Chun's luxurious residence in Chengdu, laughing cheerfully with the other nobles.
"Very well, everyone! Today our Fifth Brother, Zhou Wang, will read his poem, Yuan Gong Ci!"
Zhu Chun exclaimed in excitement. The entire audience cheered. Zhu Su stood up, read his poem, and everyone listened to him seriously.
After Zhu Su finished reading his poem, everyone immediately questioned him about this and that.
"Fifth Brother! How did you come up with such a creative idea?!"
"Even if I've drunk jars of wine or watched the moon all night long, I still don't get such the creative idea!"
"Not only creative, Fifth Brother can write it in hundreds of chapters too!"
"Ah, Chun, you are also very good at poetry, you are even better than me because you have written many literary books."
"But I've never written the same with yours!"
Zhu Su smiled broadly, he winked playfully at Zhu Chun. "Then, you have to change that style. Don't stare at the moon or drink wine anymore, instead, try to find inspiration from things you never notice before. Watching things from a different perspective can often give you great inspiration."
"Oh yeah? Can you give me the examples of the things we've never noticed before?"
This time, Zhu Su replied in a serious tone. "For example, your misery. What hurts you. What makes you so suffocated, but you can't express it."
"My misery…" Zhu Chun lifted his head, starting to think. "What can sadden me to the extent that I can write poetry?..."
Zhu Su looked at Zhu Chun who was busy thinking. A feeling crossed his mind - the feeling of envy. Chun, how happy you are, never experiences even the slightest part of hardship and by then you have to think hard for that...
Zhu Su was stunned. It seemed that when he was looking at Zhu Chun, somebody else was looking at him.
He was Zhu Quan, Zhu Su's eighteenth younger brother, who once came with Zhu Di when he just managed to complete Xiu Zhen Fang in Yunnan.
"Yes, what's up, Quan?" Zhu Su asked his younger brother, who was now over forty years old.
Zhu Quan's eyes glowed deeply and meaningfully. "I can answer your question about the inspiration that comes from sadness. It is very easy to answer - those who have passed through difficulty will find it easy to answer that."
"So what's your answer, Quan?"
"For example, the disappointment of finding that we don't get the thing which was should be ours in the end."
Zhu Su also knew Zhu Quan's story. His eighteenth brother was very talented - he was even the most perfect prince among the sons of Hongwu Emperor, because he mastered both the military and the literature while others only mastered one of the talents. There were only two sons of the Hongwu Emperor who were experts in both military and literature, Zhu Quan and Zhu Bai who had died. Having such great talent, Zhu Quan became one of Zhu Di's targets in certain. Moreover, Zhu Quan also had a big contribution to Zhu Di's victory during Jingnan Campaign. It was Zhu Quan who became Zhu Di's main advisor at that time. After winning, the people in a coalition would usually fight each other for absolute victory, that was what happened between Zhu Di and Zhu Quan. In the end, not only did Zhu Quan lose, he was also severely restricted in his movements as a Fan Wang. Even giving a little advice in government could make him be suspected. Hence, Zhu Quan, who got depressed, finally immersed himself in Health Science. He ended up writing many books about maintaining body and stamina, as well as how to process tea.
"But Fifth Brother is experiencing far more sadness than all of us. If you can write the poetry that we can't write, that's normal."
Zhu Su replied with a weak smile. Zhu Quan said again, "But Fifth Brother, you are so courageous, how can you write such this poem?"
"Huh? What do you mean by such this poem?"
"You entitle this poem "Yuan Gong Ci" - the poem about Palace in Yuan Dynasty. Everyone who looks at it will immediately think that this poem tells all about the reign of the Yuan Dynasty. It may let you be suspected of defending the Yuan government. But if that is still nothing, then the contents in your poem is more shocking. It implies that the Yuan Dynasty is not as bad as the news we've heard all this time. And that Yuan Shizu * was the wise emperor who brought his country to glory. Your poem clearly stands up for Yuan Dynasty!... Won't this lead to a perception that you don't like the current government and want to fight against it?"
Zhu Su felt that his heart almost jumped out. "But... it is only a poem?!..."
"Don't care. The important thing is this poem shows that you stand up for Yuan and dislike Ming."
"That's totally not what I mean! Do I speak bad things about Ming in this poem?! And more, I am the son of Ming Emperor, I am Fan Wang of the Great Ming! How come I want Ming to fall and Yuan to stand up?! Nonsense!"
"Brother Di doesn't see the things that exists, he sees the things that doesn't exist. He thinks you shouldn't vilify Ming frontally and instead you are arranging an implicit rebellion. And the fact that you are the Fan Wang of the Great Ming... well, that becomes an important point that makes Brother Di feel obliged to extinguish you. Actually, we are all in the same boat. I, you, and Brother Hui. We are all the same. We are all the Fan Wangs who are feared by the Emperor!"
Now Zhu Su's joy had completely vanished. He felt that his heart was being tightly gripped by a black ugly hand with long, devilish nails. Suddenly, he was out of breath. Fear had overpowered his entire mind. He started to blame himself for bringing Yuan Gong Ci here, but it was impossible for him to retract everything because everyone had known about it.
"Bad news! Bad news!"
The attention of the whole room was now diverted to a eunuch who shouted just now. Zhu Chun asked him, "What's wrong, Little Ge? What kind of bad news do you have so you should deliver it into this happy party?"
"Re... really bad, Your Highness! The Bai Lian Jiao's uprising has broken out, so great and terrible that it has ravaged the whole Shandong, and shock the entire Ming!"
...
* Shizu Emperor of Yuan = Kublai Khan.