Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Every time Pei Jing spent the night with me, Jiang Ruowei would suddenly be plagued by one illness or another. If it was not a headache and fever, it was palpitations and nightmares, as though she were on her last breath, and she would send someone to summon him.

When the palace attendant came in to report, Pei Jing was reviewing memorials.

As for me, I was lying behind the bed curtains, hugging a huge round pillow with both arms and legs as I rolled around and played with it.

“Her Majesty the Empress’s head ailment has flared up. Would Your Majesty go and see her?”

Pei Jing did not answer at once. He propped his head on one hand and sank into thought.

I knew what he was hesitating over.

The Empress was the love of his youth, while I was the one he had fallen for at first sight.

At this moment, his new favorite was in his arms, and his old love stood in the way.

He set down his brush and looked toward the bed curtains.

“Does Ah Zhi want Us to go see the Empress?”

He wanted to see me get jealous and fight for his favor.

Naturally, I could not let him have his way.

I climbed out of bed barefoot, pattered over to the desk, and gave him a rather improper curtsy.

“This concubine respectfully sees Your Majesty off.”

Pei Jing clearly had not expected that answer. A trace of displeasure flashed across his face.

He gripped my chin.

“Is Ah Zhi that eager to drive Us away? You will not even fight for favor?”

I gazed up at him pitifully. “What does fighting for favor mean?”

He froze. “You do not know?”

I shook my head and explained earnestly.

“Before Your Majesty, Ah Zhi had never even spoken to a man. As for fighting for favor, I know even less about that.”

Pei Jing’s breath hitched, and even his voice trembled slightly.

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

“Master forbade us disciples from having contact with outside men. If Your Majesty had not fallen into the water in front of me that day, I would never have run over to save you, and I certainly would never have told you my name.”

With that, I shot him a look that was half reproachful, half coquettish.

“It is all Your Majesty’s fault. You made Ah Zhi break the rules.”

The gloom on Pei Jing’s face vanished without a trace.

Though he was an emperor, he was no different from all the foolish men under heaven. They all loved gaining a sense of achievement from women.

If they were given one of your firsts, they would feel immensely satisfied and proud.

He sent the people the Empress had dispatched back where they came from, then reached out and swept me up in his arms with a loud laugh.

“Good, good, good. It was Us who made Ah Zhi break the rules.”

“Tonight, We shall make it up to you properly.”

In the past, the record for the most favored woman in the harem was three months.

But my favor never waned.

After living for several thousand years, if I did not even have a few tricks for handling people, how could I ever face the venerable elders of the Fox Clan in the future?

For example.

Most of the women in his harem were noble young ladies trained by great aristocratic families.

Reserved, gentle, but also rigid and dull.

They feared Pei Jing and obeyed him. I did not fear him. Not only did I dare talk back, I even dared kick him out of bed.

He laughed despite his anger.

“Everyone in the palace looks up to Us, fears Us, and tries to please Us. Only you, beloved consort, dare show Us such a face.”

“So what?”

I was utterly shameless. I swallowed the lychee he had peeled and fed to me in one bite, then leaned against the couch and laughed merrily.

“Do they not all curse this concubine behind my back as a ‘fox spirit’? Then this concubine must belong to the foxes. Unlike them, who belong to the dogs.”

Another example.

The beauties of the harem painted their faces heavily and vied with one another in splendor.

Pei Jing had long grown tired of all that riotous color.

So I insisted on going utterly plain, wearing a pure white dress and dancing beneath the moon.

As the saying goes,

If you want to be pretty, dress all in mourning white, no?

Besides, it would stir his memories of the first time he met me all the more.

A bewitching beauty in snow-white monk’s robes.

Our first meeting by the pond, that one breathtaking glimpse.

The little sisters in the harem were so sour their teeth nearly fell out. They gathered together and cursed me viciously.

“Pah, fox spirit. Why pretend to be pure and harmless? Who does she think does not know what she is plotting?”

“Even if she told us those lowly tricks of hers, we would never use them.”

“Exactly.”

Yet within a few days, someone among them defected. She began imitating my clothes and style, dancing among the flowers, beneath the moon, or along the path the emperor had to take after court.

After a few more days, more and more consorts in the palace were wearing white dresses and dancing.

Pei Jing finally could not bear it anymore and rebuked them.

“What exactly are you all trying to do?!”

“This is the imperial palace, not a funeral hall. If there is a next time, every last one of you can get out of the palace!”

After that, no one could withstand my radiance.

Pei Jing doted on me to the utmost and took me wherever he went. I attended him at banquets and in bed without a moment’s leisure, enjoying spring outings by day and monopolizing his nights. Truly, I had become a disastrous Wicked Concubine who bewitched the emperor’s heart.

The Empress no longer targeted me on purpose either, allowing my limelight to grow brighter with each passing day.

But I knew she would not let the matter rest there.

Beneath the calm surface of the water, an even greater storm was brewing.

I had been waiting for it for a long time.