Chapter 5

Chapter 5

So this was where they had been waiting to spring the trap.

Two guards stepped forward and seized me, one on each side.

I wrenched myself free. I would not admit fault, and I would not kneel.

With a rustle, my skirts unfurled like the spreading feathers of a bird.

Steadying my strength, I arched my waist, lifted my leg, extended my hand, and danced the first movement.

Perhaps they had never seen anyone as brazen as me. The two guards were momentarily at a loss. They exchanged a glance and were about to come forward again to hold me down.

“Stop.” Pei Jing’s expression shifted. He snapped coldly at the guards, “Withdraw.”

There was no other reason.

The dance I was performing was none other than Noble Consort Wei’s Peacock Feather Dance from years ago.

Order returned to the palace banquet. The musicians once again picked up their instruments and began to accompany me.

Bells rang like jade shattering on Kunshan, like fragrant orchids weeping dew.

Water sleeves rose, long skirts whirled, and lotus blossoms seemed to bloom beneath each step.

The whole hall glittered with brilliance, dazzling to the eye.

When the dance ended, Pei Jing descended from the dais and stared at me in a daze.

“You actually…”

I bowed low.

“Your Majesty, these past few days, I have kept having the same dream. In the dream, there was a beautiful, gentle-looking lady who taught me a dance. She said she hoped I could perform it before you.”

“I know my dancing cannot compare to even a fraction of that lady’s grace, but her sincerity was so moving, and she pleaded so earnestly, that I dared to make a fool of myself at the palace banquet.”

“I never expected that the beautiful lady in my dream would turn out to be Your Majesty’s birth mother, or that the Peacock Gold Dress I am wearing would be her most beloved possession.”

“It must be that the Late Empress Dowager missed you too deeply. Heaven was moved, and so all these coincidences came together today, allowing me to recreate even a glimpse of her world-toppling beauty and grace from those years.”

Jiang Ruowei, did you think you were the only one who could invoke the Late Empress Dowager?

I could do it too.

No matter how hard they racked their brains, no one could have guessed how I knew this long-lost Peacock Feather Dance.

Noble Consort Wei was skilled in music and loved dance. She often studied ancient texts, restoring long-lost songs and dances of antiquity.

More than two thousand years ago, the people of the Chu State liked to imitate the habits of various animals and turn them into dances.

The most elegant and beautiful of them was naturally the Peacock Dance. To display their status, the nobles of the Chu State decreed that the Peacock Dance could only be enjoyed by the nobility and was not permitted to spread among the common people.

And two thousand years ago, I happened to be the beloved pet of the King of Chu, absorbing dragon qi and strengthening my cultivation.

After Noble Consort Wei recreated the Peacock Dance, she made only a few small changes to certain details and turned it into the Peacock Feather Dance.

Too much time had passed. Pei Jing’s memory of his mother’s dancing had long since blurred, and there was no way for him to examine the details closely. In his eyes, these two dances were nearly identical. That was how I was lucky enough to muddle through.

He gently helped me up.

“Since you share a bond with Mother, then I shall also grant you the honor she once received.”

“Someone, convey my decree. Consort Ling has pleased me greatly. She shall be promoted to Noble Consort.”

“Your Majesty, you must not!”

Jiang Ruowei stepped forward to stop him.

“Consort Ling has no children. To promote her to Noble Consort like this has no precedent in our dynasty!”

“What?”

Pei Jing’s glare cut toward her like a blade.

“Is the Empress dissatisfied with me, or dissatisfied with my birth mother?”

She lowered her head in fear. “I would not dare.”

I kowtowed in thanks.

But just as I was about to rise, my vision suddenly went dark, and my legs went weak beyond my control.

Pei Jing quickly steadied me, then lifted me into his arms by the waist.

“You’ve grown lighter.”

He weighed me in his hands, then pressed his forehead to mine, his tone indulgent. “Have you not been eating properly lately?”

The palace maid Liuhua spoke at just the right moment.

“Niangniang has been practicing her dance so diligently these days that she often forgets to eat or sleep. No matter how this servant tried to persuade her, she would not listen.”

Pei Jing carried me back to the dragon throne and pressed me onto his lap, allowing no refusal.

“Then you will sit beside me. I will watch you eat properly.”

“Your Majesty, this is against the rules…”

Amid the laughter and teasing, I saw Jiang Ruowei from the corner of my eye.

The great hall was ablaze with lamps, bright as day, yet under the candlelight, the color in her face withered inch by inch.

There was a poem that said: when the dance in the palm ended, the flute fell silent, and autumn nights stretched long through the thirty-six palaces.

Tonight, a certain group of people were destined to lose sleep.