Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Noble Lady Feng burst out laughing.
The empress looked puzzled. “What are you laughing at, Noble Lady Feng?”
“Your Majesty, this concubine merely remembered an amusing story and could not help herself.”
“What story?”
Noble Lady Feng said, “My brother once kept a Ferghana horse in the northwest. When it first reached the camp, it was so wild that it kicked anyone who came near.
“My brother put a saddle inlaid with gold and jade on its back. Surely, he thought, such a magnificent saddle would be worthy of it. But once the horse wore the saddle, it kicked even harder.
“Only later did my brother understand that the horse did not care whether its saddle was covered in gold. No matter how costly it was, a weight on its back remained a weight. The horse did not acknowledge its value.”
She paused and looked at the empress.
The empress’s face darkened.
The pearl-and-three-phoenix crown pressed down on her head. Every word mocked her.
“Whom are you describing, Noble Lady Feng?”
Noble Lady Feng blinked. “A horse, Your Majesty. Whom did Your Majesty think I meant?”
Noble Lady Zhou hid the corner of her mouth behind a handkerchief.
“Insolence!”
The phoenix crown was too heavy, and the empress rose too quickly. It lurched downward and pulled at her scalp.
She reached to steady it, but it was already too late.
The crown slid from her coiffure and tumbled to the floor, dragging strands of hair with it.
Jewels scattered. The golden phoenix bent. A large eastern pearl rolled across the floor and stopped beside Noble Lady Feng’s riding boot.
Every maid in the hall panicked.
The supervising matron lunged for the crown while two senior maids rushed to support the empress.
“Your Majesty!”
“Is Your Majesty hurt?”
The empress shrieked. The young maid tugging at her caught hair flinched, and when her hand opened, several broken strands clung to her fingers.
Tears of pain sprang into the empress’s eyes. She struck the maid across the face.
“Idiot! You pulled my hair!”
The young maid dropped to her knees, clutching her cheek. Another hurried to untangle the trapped strands and accidentally yanked one of the empress’s earrings.
The empress screamed again.
Noble Lady Zhou and Noble Lady Feng exchanged a glance.
Noble Lady Feng nudged the pearl at her boot toward Noble Lady Zhou. Understanding, Noble Lady Zhou kicked it back, but her aim was poor. It struck the leg of my chair instead.
At that moment, a cry came from outside.
“His Majesty arrives!”
Yuan Xingjian entered to find the hall in chaos.
Maids knelt everywhere. The empress sat above them, half her coiffure undone, eyes red, one hand pressed to her scalp.
“What happened?”
The empress stumbled into his arms and looked up accusingly.
“Ah Jian! These wretches joined forces to bully me!”
Noble Lady Zhou said, “Your Majesty, please judge fairly. This concubine merely praised Her Majesty’s Huizhou ink. I said that only three such sticks existed.
“Your Majesty uses one, an elder statesman of three reigns owns one, and Her Majesty owns one. It shows how greatly Her Majesty weighs in Your Majesty’s heart. Every word was respectful. This concubine does not know what Her Majesty misunderstood.”
Noble Lady Feng immediately followed.
“This concubine only told an amusing story about a saddle to entertain Her Majesty. If Her Majesty heard mockery in it, then this concubine must be clumsy with words. I beg Her Majesty’s pardon.”
She kowtowed without hesitation.
The two women knelt with perfect posture and spoke with perfect courtesy. Not a single fault could be found.
Yuan Xingjian went to the empress and brushed a finger over her nose.
“I wondered what great disaster had occurred. These were only ordinary morning greetings. Why dress so formally and exhaust yourself?”
Somehow, that made her furious. She flung his hand away.
“If you refuse to defend me, fine. But now you think I embarrassed you too, don’t you?
“They act respectful to my face, but behind my back, they all laugh at me for being a village woman.
“I will wear this! I want them to open their damned eyes and see that this village woman stands above every one of them now!”
She cried as she spoke. Tears cut tracks through the powder on her face.
Yuan Xingjian’s expression darkened by degrees.
Three years of quarrels and reconciliations, repeated again and again, had worn him down.
He closed his eyes and spoke despite the others in the hall.
“Yuke, you are the empress now.
“I defied the entire court and overruled every objection to raise you to this position.
“You could not read a single character, so I found the finest female officials to teach you.
“Once you learned, I seated you beside me to listen to affairs of state and understand how this realm is governed.
“I wanted to give you half the world. But Yuke, when will you grow up?”
When he finished, neither Noble Lady Zhou nor Noble Lady Feng could smile.
A man like him could not be found twice among ordinary noblemen, let alone emperors.
Yet he remained forever beyond their reach, claimed first by a village woman.
The empress laughed. Still laughing, she began plucking pearls from her phoenix crown.
“Who wants any of this?
“Yuan Xingjian, if I could choose again, I would rather you never recovered your memory. We would spend our whole lives in Tianshui Village, farming, raising chickens, and growing old together.”
Yuan Xingjian’s face changed.
She was forcing him to choose.
His empire or the woman he loved.
What he could not understand was why she insisted upon a choice when he believed he could have both.