Chapter 2
Su Qing excitedly pulled me aside. “Ah Yun, Zhen Huan never lets me down. That actually worked!”
“I bet I’m the heroine of this world. I’m Zhen Huan, you’re An Lingrong, and that girl was Xia Dongchun, the expendable one!”
I frowned slightly. “Qing’er, this isn’t a novel. This is a real ancient world. You must be careful about everything, or—”
Su Qing interrupted me.
“Even if it is a real ancient world, we’re still the main characters. Didn’t what just happened come straight out of Empresses in the Palace?
“Maybe I’ll become empress dowager one day… No, I’ll be empress first. I can do what Zhen Huan couldn’t. I’m a modern woman. We’re a thousand years ahead of these people.
“And my name here is Murong Qing. Even my name sounds like a heroine’s!”
I tried again. “Qing’er, listen to me—”
But she was too excited to hear me. She went on talking. “Don’t worry, though. Even if you are An Lingrong, I won’t treat you the way Zhen Huan did. We’ll always be best friends, right?”
I wanted to keep warning her, but a eunuch called our names.
It was our turn to appear before the emperor.
Five candidates followed respectfully behind the eunuch toward the hall.
Su Qing grew more excited still. “Thank goodness I’ve watched that drama eight hundred times. I know this scene. Just watch me. I’ll make sure they keep us both.”
I sighed inwardly.
The truth was, I had never meant to stay.
If feudal society was a treacherous cliff,
then the palace was a den of dragons and tigers that devoured people whole.
The palace was no good place to be.
The moment we entered the hall, its oppressive weight descended upon us. Even the air seemed to congeal.
We were too frightened to lift our heads.
From the corner of my eye, I could just make out a man and a woman seated above us.
So this was a real emperor.
He had only to sit there, saying nothing, to make our legs tremble.
Soon, the first candidate on the left gave her name and family background.
The people above asked her nothing. Her name tablet was set aside at once.
The same happened to the second girl.
Su Qing was third.
“Your subject Murong Qing, daughter of Murong Ze, Assistant Director of the Imperial Library, pays her respects to Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager.”
Su Qing was strikingly beautiful. Even among the many beauties assembled for the selection, she stood out.
The girls before her had all been timid and shrinking. Her open confidence made her all the more unusual.
The emperor appeared somewhat interested. “A daughter of the Murong family. What are your accomplishments?”
Su Qing smiled. “I would hardly call it an accomplishment, but I enjoy studying poetry.”
“Oh? What poetry have you read?” the empress dowager asked.
“I prefer writing my own. A little poem recently came to me. If I may be so bold, I should like to ask Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager for your guidance.”
I started.
Was she going to pass off someone else’s poem as her own?
Of course. This was an alternate world. None of the poems we had learned existed here.
“Let us hear it,” the emperor said.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Su Qing dipped into a small curtsy, then recited clearly: “The river’s spring tide meets the level sea; above the sea, the bright moon rises with the tide. Its shimmer follows the waves a thousand leagues; where on the spring river does the moon not shine?”
It was Spring River on a Moonlit Night, the single poem celebrated as surpassing the High Tang.
But after those opening lines, she stopped.
I remembered how she had always preferred playing to memorizing her lessons. She probably could not remember any more.
Both the emperor and the empress dowager nodded when she finished.
“A fine literary accomplishment,” the empress dowager said, sounding pleased.
“Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty.”
Su Qing happily curtsied.
She also shot me a look that said, We’ve got this.
Just then, the fifth candidate dropped to her knees with a thud. “Your Majesty! Empress Dowager! She is lying! She did not write that poem!”
Su Qing’s expression changed. “You… What are you saying? That’s slander! I wrote it myself!”
“I am not slandering her. I have proof.”
The emperor frowned. “Speak.”
Su Qing did not seem terribly worried.
After all, who else in this world could possibly know the poem besides us?
“What proof do you have?” she asked.
The candidate raised her head. “You say you wrote it. But three months ago, I saw someone else compose it with my own eyes.”
Su Qing held back her anger. “You expect to accuse me on your word alone? How can you prove it?”
The girl turned to the emperor and the empress dowager. “I beg Your Majesty to judge fairly. The poem does not end there. There are many more lines. I liked it so much that I learned it by heart.”
Su Qing and I both stared, wide-eyed.
“Recite it,” the emperor said.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“The river’s spring tide meets the level sea; above the sea, the bright moon rises with the tide. Its shimmer follows the waves a thousand leagues; where on the spring river does the moon not shine? The current winds around the fragrant fields; moonlight on flowering woods gleams white as sleet. Frost drifts through the air unseen; the white sand on the islet vanishes… How many ride the moonlight home tonight? The sinking moon stirs longing through the riverside trees.”
Line by line, she recited Spring River on a Moonlit Night.
As she went on, the expressions on our faces froze. Cold sweat spread down our backs.
We exchanged a look and saw naked horror in each other’s eyes.
There were other people from our world here, too!
Then the emperor’s furious voice rang out. “Murong Qing! How dare you deceive your sovereign!”