Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Two boxes of rouge sat side by side on the table.

One came from the Empress’s hand, and the other from Wen Suyi.

Judging by appearance alone, even I couldn’t tell the difference. The gold boxes were aged to perfection, and the carved lotus patterns were identical. But once opened, the scents were different.

The Empress’s box had a cold fragrance, while Wen Suyi’s box had no scent at all.

Scentless rouge was the hardest to test.

The Empress stared at Wen Suyi. “Where did you get this?”

“From the Imperial Presence,” Wen Suyi replied.

As soon as those words were spoken, the wind in Kunning Palace seemed to come to a standstill.

I took a small amount of the scentless rouge and smeared it on my wrist. The color was extremely faint, almost invisible. Wen Suyi soaked a red thread in water and wrapped it around my wrist.

The surface of the water remained colorless.

“It’s not toxic,” I said.

Wen Suyi shook her head. “It’s not that it isn’t toxic. You just can’t draw it out.”

She pricked her fingertip and let a drop of blood fall into the water. The color of the water still did not change.

The Empress sneered. “It seems you are nothing special after all.”

Wen Suyi suddenly asked me, “Shen Shanggong, do you still remember who led you into the palace on the day you entered?”

I froze.

Snow. A green jacket. Blood on the cuffs.

And a hand.

That hand was very warm, the fingers long and slender, with the scent of medicine on the palm.

I tried to see the person’s face clearly, but my head felt as if it had been pricked by a needle. The pain was so sharp that my vision went black.

Wen Suyi supported me. “Don’t hide from it. Keep thinking.”

I heard a woman’s voice.

“Zhaoli, remember, if there ever comes a day when you no longer hate anything, go find that box of White Rouge.”

That voice did not belong to Aunt Qin.

“That was your mother,” the Empress said softly.

I snapped my head toward her.

The Empress continued, “Your mother’s surname was Wen.”

Wen Suyi’s eyes instantly turned red.

She looked at me like someone who had found something long lost but was afraid to confirm it. “Years ago, my paternal aunt fled to the capital with the Wen family’s Thought Poison Formula. She had a daughter with her named Wen Zhaoli.”

My hands began to shake.

Shen Zhaoli.

Wen Zhaoli.

There was only a one-surname difference.

I finally drew out the ‘intent’ from that box of White Rouge.

It wasn’t because of hate, but because of pain.

The surface of the water first turned white-a white as pale as the snow from ten years ago. Then, a speck of dark red surged from the center, spreading rapidly like someone had poured the entire night of the palace into the bowl.

I saw the face of Gao Rang, the eunuch of the Imperial Presence, as a young man. I saw him kneeling outside a secret room and heard a low voice from within: “The Wen woman will ruin things. Kill her.”

I saw fire.

I saw medicine cabinets collapsing. I saw a woman holding me as she charged through a sea of flames. She stuffed a thin scroll of a Thought Poison Formula into my robe and smeared her bloodied hand across my forehead.

“Don’t hate,” she said. “Hate will cost you your life.”

Then, another hand reached out from the darkness and pressed against the space between my brows.

It was the Emperor’s hand.

Back then, he wasn’t the Emperor yet; he was a new ruler who had just ascended the throne. He stood in the snow, watching my mother collapse with a gentle expression. He said to those beside him, “This child is useful. Wash her clean and send her to the Treasure Inspection Office.”

Wash her clean.

So, what he washed away were my memories, my hate, and everything that made me human.

I knelt on the ground, the pain making it almost impossible to breathe.

Wen Suyi pulled me into an embrace, her voice trembling. “Sister.”

When that word fell, my heart, which had been empty for ten years, suddenly felt as if it had been smashed open. It wasn’t hate that surged out first, but a sense of bewilderment. Then came a belated coldness.

I did not cry.

The Empress looked at me and said slowly, “Now you know who it is that I want to kill.”

I lifted my head.

The one the Empress hated wasn’t the Empress Dowager.

She hated the Emperor.

The White Rouge was originally a birthday gift the Empress intended for the Empress Dowager, meant to be regifted to the Emperor by the Empress Dowager’s hand during the banquet. But the Imperial Presence had swapped the boxes, hiding the one that truly carried the Empress’s murderous intent and giving her back an empty shell.

The Emperor had known from the very beginning.

He wasn’t afraid of the Empress killing him.

He was waiting for the Empress to harbor murderous intent so he could use Thought Poison to kill her instead.