[Romantic Anecdotes of the Qing Dynasty Court] [49] [Author: Xu Xiaotian]

Chapter 49 Where the Red Candle Illuminates, the Beauty Dies; Under the Shade of the Green Trees, the Prince Arrives
. The day after Madam Sun returned home, the Gu family indeed sent a matchmaker to the Sun family for the second time to propose marriage. When Miss Hanfang first heard that the Gu family was seeking a match, she guessed that the young master of the Gu family must be a spoiled brat who didn't understand gratitude, and therefore, she flatly refused the first proposal. This time, seeing that Gu Shaochun was a handsome and affectionate young man, how could she refuse? Moreover, the two of them had embraced intimately at the bottom of the river; in Miss Hanfang's heart, in this life, she could only marry the young master of the Gu family. She secretly asked her sister, who also wished to marry him. That night, Miss Hanfang quietly told her mother her thoughts, and her mother then sent the matchmaker to inform Madam Hu. Madam Hu was overjoyed to hear that the Sun family had agreed to the marriages, and that it was for two people at once! Even Gu Shaochun was overjoyed, and therefore, his illness recovered quickly. Seeing that her son had fully recovered, Madam Hu prepared to arrange a marriage for him. However, good things don't always go smoothly.
The day before the engagement, she suddenly received a letter from his father in Beijing, saying that he had already arranged a marriage for his son there; the woman's family was also officials in the capital, and that the marriage would take place that year. Upon reading this, Shao Chun felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. He was so angry that he couldn't speak, and he cried all day. The next day, he fell ill and was bedridden. Madam Hu was heartbroken and quickly comforted him with kind words; at the same time, she asked the matchmaker to reject the Sun family.
When the Sun sisters, Hanfang and Sun Hanfang, received this news, they neither cried nor spoke, secretly vowing to remain unmarried for life. Fortunately, their family was wealthy, and they had no other brothers; their vast fortune was more than enough for the two of them. However, Gu Shao Chun was deeply saddened. It was now the height of summer, and extremely hot. Shao Chun moved his bed to the study downstairs, hoping to see the Sun family's dressing room across the river from his bed. Madam Hu, unaware of her son's intentions, simply went along with his wishes. After several days of sleeping there, he gazed at the dressing room across the river, its windows always tightly shut. Shao Chun wondered, "Has Miss Hanfang fallen ill too? Poor us, separated by the river, who will speak for me?" He often couldn't sleep at night, thinking of his beloved.
One night, in the middle of the night, as he tossed and turned in bed, he suddenly heard a soft knocking sound at the window. Shao Chun jumped out of bed and quietly opened the back door. In the moonlight, he saw a beautiful woman standing gracefully, who looked just like Miss Hanfang. At this moment, Shao Chun couldn't contain himself. He rushed forward, grabbed her jade-like arm, and said, "I've missed you so much!" The young lady quickly pushed Shao Chun away and said softly, "I'm not Han Fang, I'm Shu Fang. Sister, you've missed me terribly, you should go now!" Shao Chun looked and saw a small, melon-shaped boat moored at the riverbank. Ignoring his illness, Shao Chun and Shu Fang held hands and got off the boat, gently crossing to the other side. There, they saw Miss Han Fang waiting on the stone pier. The three of them sat side by side on the pier and began to talk. Fortunately, a row of willow trees provided a natural screen, so no one outside could see them. They talked until the rooster crowed at dawn before quietly returning to their rooms. From then on, the gathering at the stone pier became a nightly ritual.
As summer turned to autumn, the wind and dew outside gradually became more oppressive. Miss Shufang devised a plan, instructing Shaochun to keep watch every night. Once Madam Sun was sound asleep, they would light a red lantern on the upper floor. Upon seeing the red lantern, they would quietly cross the river, and her sister would welcome them into the house. If they didn't see the red lantern, they were forbidden to come over. Shaochun, having received this signal, would quietly cross and enter their boudoir; killing two birds with one stone, enjoying the pleasures of love. This sweet period of secret rendezvous lasted for half a year.
Then one day, disaster struck. While her sister was watching from the upper floor with the red lantern lit, a poisoned arrow flew by with a "whoosh," piercing both sisters' temples, causing them to fall to the ground. The poisoned arrow was fatal upon contact with blood; the two sisters died quietly upstairs. Shaochun remained quietly waiting downstairs until dawn, but her sisters did not come to open the door. The more suspicious Shaochun became, the more unwilling he was to leave. Later, her maid went into the young ladies' room and found them dead side by side on the floor. She rushed to inform the madam. Upon hearing this, the madam jumped up, rushed to her daughters' room, and wailed, embracing their bodies. Hearing the wailing outside, Shao Chun knew something was wrong and rushed in without thinking. He ran upstairs and threw himself on the bodies of the two young ladies, weeping uncontrollably. Madam Sun, seeing
this was indecent, ordered Shao Chun pulled up and reported the incident to the authorities. When the magistrate of Jiangdu County heard of the murders, he personally came to investigate. Finding Gu Shao Chun suspicious, he took him back to the yamen for questioning. Seeing his beloved dead, Gu Shao Chun wished he could die with them. When questioned by the magistrate, he immediately confessed to murdering them. However, when the magistrate asked him why he murdered the young ladies of the Sun family and how he did it, he could not utter a word. When Madam Hu saw that her son had been arrested by the county magistrate, she was so anxious that she spent a thousand taels of silver to bribe officials at the yamen and wrote a letter to the capital, urging Gu Dachun to rush back to Yangzhou to file a complaint. At this time, Emperor Qianlong returned from Hangzhou and was in Yangzhou. Upon receiving Gu Dachun's complaint,
he ordered the Yangzhou prefect to release Gu Dachun. Meanwhile, Madam Sun, seeing Gu Dachun released, was unwilling to give up. She also brought her petition and went to the river to file a complaint. Emperor Qianlong returned her petition, claiming that he pitied the young Sun family's daughter who had died a violent death, and sent the Yangzhou prefect to offer sacrifices. He made no mention of the pursuit of the murderer; even the local officials were baffled.
Later, after Emperor Qianlong returned to the capital, two young women, dressed very brightly, suddenly went to the Sun family to visit Madam Sun. The young women said they were two sisters, the elder named Qianxia and the younger named Jiangxia. Originally, she had been favored by Emperor Qianlong in a brothel. Later, when the emperor went to Hangzhou, he instructed her and her sister to light a red gauze lantern at the top of the building when they returned to Yangzhou, so that someone could be sent to fetch them to the capital. Her family lived near Zhuangyuan Bridge, and there was a willow tree under the riverside building of Zhuangyuan Tower. Now, the Sun family's back building also has a willow tree, and a red gauze lantern is lit at the top of their building. Could it be that the emperor mistook the Sun family for Qianxia's family, and instead of shooting Qianxia and her sister, he shot the Sun family's sisters? This was a guess they had made. Even Qianxia herself didn't know why Emperor Qianlong wanted to kill the two sisters. Now, let the author tell them the story.
Because Emperor Qianlong was constantly on guard after Xiaomei assassinated Wang Rulong, he suspected that the Qianxia sisters were also there to assassinate him. Therefore, he dared not linger and quickly sent them back to their quarters. His promise to take them to the capital was merely a joke; Emperor Qianlong originally did not intend to kill them. However, he suddenly remembered that if he didn't take them back to the capital, they might resent him. In the past, when the emperor favored the sisters, he had shared all sorts of intimate secrets in bed, and he deeply feared that their resentment might lead them to reveal palace secrets. Therefore, he conceived the idea of murdering them. On the return journey through Yangzhou, he secretly sent a guard with a poisoned arrow to kill the sisters.
As fate would have it, the Sun sisters were having their secret rendezvous there, and a red lantern was lit at the top of the tower. The guard mistook it for the Qianxia sisters' dressing room; coincidentally, two beautiful women were also leaning side by side at the top of the tower. The guard, thinking he had the real target, shot an arrow, sending the two beautiful sisters to their deaths. The Qianxia sisters, having learned of this tragedy at the Sun family's residence, knew the emperor intended to take their lives. They quickly removed the red lantern and hid in the sisters' house in another courtyard. Only after the emperor returned to the capital did they emerge to visit the Sun family. Mrs. Sun, after hearing the sisters' story, was both heartbroken and frightened, and had no choice but to leave the case unresolved. However, Gu Shaochun, true to his word, took the coffins of the Hanfang sisters back and buried them in his ancestral graveyard, considering them his first wives, and the woman he married in Beijing his second wife. He also took Mrs. Sun into his own home, serving her as if she were his own parents. The two families were pitiful; all because of the emperor's single thought, they were ruined and killed. But Emperor Qianlong had long forgotten about it.
When he returned to the palace, the forty scenic spots of the Yuanmingyuan, commissioned by Heshen, were completed: all the famous sights of the land were built in this one garden; all the treasures of the world were displayed in this garden, and Qianlong went back to indulging in his extravagant and decadent life. To find out what happens next, please read the next chapter.

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[Romantic Anecdotes of the Qing Dynasty Court] [49] [Author: Xu Xiaotian]

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