Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Emperor bestowed a box of “Drunken Beauty Red” upon Consort Hua. As per custom, I was the first to test it. When applied to the lips, it was a beautiful shade of cinnabar.

That night, Consort Hua died. Her lips were pitch black.

Yet, I remained perfectly fine.

The coroner’s report stated: The poison was not in the rouge, but in the blood of the person she was thinking of when she applied it.

When this word reached the Treasure Inspection Office, I was using a silver spoon to scrape the residual red from my lips.

The woman in the bronze mirror had plain features, but her lips were as vivid as if she had just drunk blood. I stared for a long while before raising my hand to wipe the red clean. I asked the little eunuch kneeling outside the door, “Who told the coroner to say that?”

The little eunuch’s forehead was pressed against the floor tiles, his voice trembling as if he had been soaked in cold water. “Reporting to Shen Shanggong, it was the newcomer, Lady Wen.”

Lady Wen.

She had only entered the palace yesterday, yet today she dared to stand before Consort Hua’s corpse and claim the poison wasn’t in the rouge. Many newcomers in the palace understand the rules, but few understand the dead. People like her usually don’t live past three days.

I began placing the white porcelain cups used for poison testing into a box one by one. More than half the box of Drunken Beauty Red remained, sealed in a gold-lacquered round container. Carved upon the lid was a pair of twin lotuses on a single stalk.

Consort Hua hated twin lotuses most of all.

Because the Empress’s maiden name contained the character for “Lotus.”

My name is Shen Zhaoli, and I am the Head Mistress of the Treasure Inspection Office.

Every new hairpiece, sachet, ointment, and powder that enters the inner palace must pass through my hands before reaching the consorts. The palace servants privately call me the “Living Silver Needle,” saying I am more effective than an actual silver needle. A silver needle can only detect arsenic, sulfur, and realgar; I can distinguish seventeen types of toxins from a single smear of rouge.

Heartbreak grass is bitter, oleander is sweet, Crane’s Crest Red floats on the surface after being mixed into grease, and datura powder leaves a slight numbness when rubbed between the fingertips. Over the past decade, I have tested countless rewards for the Emperor, the Empress, the Empress Dowager, and the various consorts of the palace. Three poison-testing eunuchs have died, and two fragrance-mixing maids have gone mad. Only I have remained alive.

I never suffer losses, nor do I seek credit.

Everyone in the Treasure Inspection Office knows that surviving long enough to become the Head Mistress doesn’t depend on being clever-it depends on having no heart.

Following Consort Hua’s death, the Emperor was incensed. He ordered me to bring the Drunken Beauty Red to Hanzhang Hall for a re-examination. The courtyard outside was filled with kneeling servants, their weeping kept so low it sounded like a nest of birds being strangled by their necks.

The Emperor sat in the seat of honor, idly turning a string of agarwood prayer beads in his hand. He was thirty-seven years old, with gentle features and a gaze that always seemed to carry a hint of a smile. Had I not seen so many things sent out from his hands, I might have believed him to be a benevolent ruler.

“Shen Zhaoli,” he said. “You tested this rouge?”

I knelt. “Reporting to Your Majesty, I have.”

“Is it poisonous?”

“According to ordinary toxicology, it is not.”

The hall fell silent.

The Empress sat beside him with her eyes downcast, her fingertips lightly brushing her nail guards. The Empress Dowager sat in a side seat behind a beaded curtain, half her face obscured by incense smoke, her expression unreadable.

The Emperor chuckled. “It is not poisonous by ordinary toxicology. What about by the extraordinary?”

I looked up and saw a woman dressed in moon-white palace robes standing in the corner of the hall. She was young, with the corners of her eyes slightly upturned, cradling a black cat in her arms. The cat’s pupils were bright gold, staring unblinkingly at the residual red stains near my lips.

This was Lady Wen.

Lady Wen took a step forward. “Your Majesty, I can perform the test.”

Consort Hua had been the most favored woman in the harem while she lived, and her body was not yet cold. For a newly entered Lady to dare to speak over the Treasure Inspection Office drew the gaze of everyone in the hall toward her.

The Emperor did not take offense. He only asked, “How will you test it?”

Lady Wen replied, “I ask Your Majesty to grant me a bowl of clear water and a silver blade, and then request Shen Shanggong to apply the Drunken Beauty Red to her own wrist.”