Chapter 1

The Noble Consort was reclining on her couch, crying again.

She had been quarreling with the emperor for a month over the woman outside the palace.

I knew who the girl was.

The Grand Preceptor’s legitimate daughter: highborn, and famed throughout Chang’an for her youthful brilliance.

While the late empress dowager was still alive, she had selected the girl to be his empress.

Yet after ascending the throne, he had given her no title at all, leaving her waiting outside the palace.

All it had taken was someone seeing them together at West Lake a few days earlier, drinking and laughing.

The Noble Consort had demanded an explanation ever since.

I brought in the lychees, their scarlet skins cool on the porcelain plate.

“Your Highness, these are Consort’s Smile lychees, rushed eight hundred li from Lingnan. The very first portion came straight to our Cheng’an Palace. His Majesty clearly holds you in his heart.”

She glanced at them, and fresh tears fell.

“Last year, he peeled them for me himself. Now he sends someone else to coax me.”

Watching her leave fresh lychees to rot, I felt as though I were watching her use up the emperor’s little remaining patience.

A little at a time, until nothing remained.

He had stayed away for three days, and she had cried for three days. Whenever she finished, she asked me,

“Qingtang, why does he treat me this way?”

I had no answer for her.

An emperor having a harem was perfectly ordinary.

But this emperor was devoted. After taking the throne, he had left Lady Shen outside the palace and rescued my mistress from the palace labor quarters, where she had been reduced to servitude, raising her straight to Noble Consort.

If she could set an example and govern the harem properly for these two years, she would be made empress.

To be fair, she treated her servants generously.

She never withheld our allowances, and she did not punish mistakes harshly.

In this palace, where people devoured one another, finding such a mistress should have been an extraordinary blessing.

The trouble was that she was simply too stupid.

Here in the inner palace, you could be wicked. You could be vicious. The one thing you could not afford was stupidity.

She held every advantage, favored above all the other women, yet she thought of nothing but how much the emperor loved her today and how much he might love her tomorrow.

Household affairs, festival arrangements, the currents stirring at court—she could not be bothered with any of them.

Or perhaps those eyes, swollen from soaking in tears, could no longer see such things.

After crying for a long time, she finally tired and raised a languid hand. “Tell His Majesty I have no heart for the prayer ceremony in three days. He can decide what to do.”

Then she turned over, sulking.

By asking her to oversee the imperial clanswomen’s prayers, the emperor was allowing her to accompany him as his future empress.

It was an enormous honor, and she meant to squander it in a fit of pique.

She had always been like this.

Last winter, the emperor had missed a single day’s visit because he was busy with the imperial examinations.

She claimed illness and refused to attend the palace banquet, embarrassing him before his officials.

Then last month, with the Yellow River flooding and the emperor overwhelmed, he forgot a promise to dine with her.

She barred the gates against him and smashed a great many priceless treasures, throwing the whole palace into an uproar.

Every time, he had yielded first.

Every time, she thought she had won.

But this time was different.

These prayers for the war at the frontier were crucial to showing the emperor’s care for the border army and securing the generals’ loyalty.

If the preparations went wrong, it was the court that would lose face.

Using this to vent her temper was like pressing his patience against a knife.

I returned the teacup to the tray. “Yes, Your Highness. I will go at once.”

As I stepped out, I ran into Matron Cui.

She stood under the eaves, her brow tightly furrowed. She had plainly heard everything.

“Qingtang, is Her Highness having another tantrum?”

I nodded.

She sighed and straightened my collar. “She speaks in anger. When you reach Taiji Hall, soften the message.”

I smiled. “Do not worry, Matron. I understand. Go and help Her Highness settle down to sleep.”

Matron Cui patted my hand. Turning away, she muttered, “When will there ever be an end to this…”

I watched her go inside, exhaustion written across her face, then drew my cloak closer and set off for Taiji Hall.

Taiji Hall blazed with light.

The emperor sat behind his desk, memorials piled like a small mountain.

Without looking up, he asked, “What is it this time?”

I knelt, raising the half-finished register of imperial clanswomen above my head.

“Your Majesty, Her Highness is unwell. She says that though she wishes to oversee the prayer ceremony in three days, she lacks the strength. Rather than jeopardize your important undertaking, she asks you to appoint someone more capable.”

He did not rage. He merely tossed his vermilion brush onto the desk and closed his eyes, saying nothing for a long time.

After two years, he was past anger. He was simply tired.

At last, his voice came from above me.

“Get up and speak.”

I rose and presented the register.

The farther he read, the deeper his frown became.

The whole ceremony was for the soldiers at the frontier, yet General Zhao’s wife was absent from the list.

And the daughter of Grand Secretary Zhou, who commanded immense respect among the scholars, had been placed last.

I had advised her about both women.

But the Noble Consort had said, “That old bastard Zhao Chen was the one who called for my father and brothers to be executed. Why should his wife attend? I hope every man in his army dies!”

“And Zhou Zimei—her eyes were practically glued to His Majesty at the last banquet. If I put her near the front, she is sure to seduce him.”

The emperor rubbed his brow. His gaze stopped on the hour chosen for the prayers: noon.

I had all but begged her. “Your Highness, noon is the hour reserved for the Son of Heaven to sacrifice to Heaven. The Censorate will impeach you for this.”

She had laughed dismissively, until her eyes reddened again.

“Noon is exactly when I shall hold it! I want him to know that I, Ye Lanzhen, am no plaything he can summon and dismiss at will!”

“He gives me work to do while keeping the Grand Preceptor’s daughter outside the palace! What does he take me for?”

Looking at her flushed face, I had felt the sky collapsing over my head.

In her mind, he had asked her to organize the clanswomen’s prayers for one reason alone: to make her happy.

And if she was unhappy, she was entitled to vent her temper on the arrangements.

The emperor stared at the register for a long time before speaking.

“Even now, she does not understand why I took such care to place you and Matron Cui at her side.”

Matron Cui was a trusted senior attendant from his own household.

I had been trained by the empress dowager herself.

He had given us to the Noble Consort to assist her, smoothing her path to the empress’s throne.

Sadly, she was too shortsighted and too foolish to understand even now.

He flung the register onto the desk. “Take it back and draw it up again. If she will not go, have the eldest clanswoman stand in for her. Bring the revised list directly to me.”

I stepped forward and respectfully took it from his desk.

I was about to leave when he said, “Wait.”

I turned and found his gaze resting on my collar.