Chapter 7
Chapter 7
The Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet was held as scheduled.
Despite the recent deaths of three imperial consorts, the banquet was exceptionally grand. Red candles illuminated the golden hall like broad daylight, and the layers of music were so heavy they seemed intent on pressing any vengeful spirits deep into the earth.
The Empress presented the rouge according to protocol.
The Empress Dowager accepted it with a smile, saying, “The Empress is most thoughtful.”
Seated upon the dragon throne, the Emperor’s gaze swept over the crowd and landed on me. He maintained that same gentle expression, as if everything were firmly within his grasp.
I stood at the position designated for the Treasure Inspection Office, holding a tray containing the swapped White Rouge.
According to the rules, when the Empress Dowager bestows a gift back to the Emperor in public, I must test it first.
As expected, the Empress Dowager said, “The Emperor has been overworked lately, and his complexion is pale. Although this box of rouge is a lady’s item, its color is elegant and light; it could serve well to add a stroke to the eyebrow-painting portrait by the Emperor’s side.”
Laughter rippled through the hall.
The Emperor also smiled. “Since it is a gift from Imperial Mother, I shall naturally treasure it.”
The White Rouge was handed to me.
Wen Suyi stood in a corner of the hall, with Black Tongue crouching at her feet. The Empress lowered her eyes in silence, but her fingertips inside her sleeves were clenched white.
I opened the lid, took a small amount with my fingertip, and smeared it on my lips.
Everyone in the hall watched me.
Nothing happened.
The smile in the Emperor’s eyes deepened. “Shen Shanggong is still Shen Shanggong.”
I knelt. “Reporting to the Emperor, this item is non-toxic.”
He said, “Then present it.”
Carrying the White Rouge, I walked toward the dragon throne step by step.
When I was three paces away from him, I suddenly caught a very faint scent of medicinal herbs. It wasn’t the scent of the rouge; it was the fragrance left by the hand that had led me through the snow in my memories.
My mother.
Before she died, she didn’t tell me to seek revenge.
She only said, “Do not hate.”
I stopped in my tracks and looked up at the Emperor.
“Your Majesty,” I said, “there is one more thing I have not verified.”
The Emperor’s eyes darkened slightly. “What is it?”
“The source.”
I flipped the rouge box over, aiming the bottom toward the lanterns in the hall. Hidden within the patterns of the withered lotus was a line of extremely fine characters that would never have appeared if the Thought Poison had not been drawn out.
That line of text read: *All who are suspected may be killed.*
The entire hall erupted in an uproar.
The smile on the Emperor’s face finally faded.
The Empress Dowager suddenly sat upright. “What is this?”
Wen Suyi took a step forward. “It is the Source Thought. This box was not made by the Empress; it was cultivated by the Imperial Presence using the Wen family’s Thought Poison Formula. Consort Hua, Concubine Li, Consort De, and even all the deaths in the inner palace over the past ten years, were all triggered by thoughts drawn out by imperial gifts.”
The Emperor gently set down his wine cup.
“Lady Wen,” he said, “spreading inflammatory delusions is a capital offense.”
Wen Suyi knelt, but she did not lower her head. “I dare to die, and I dare to ask the Emperor to verify it personally.”
She picked up Black Tongue.
The black cat let out a low purr from its throat and suddenly opened its mouth, spitting out a blood-stained jade bead. It was the bead Gao Rang had swallowed before he died, and inside it was hidden a half-piece of gold foil.
The gold foil was unfolded, revealing the Emperor’s own handwriting.
*All rewards must first pass through Treasure Inspection. If the Treasure Inspector is heartless, all will be safe.*
The Empress Dowager’s face turned pale.
The Empress closed her eyes.
I knelt in the center of the hall, staring at those words.
*If the Treasure Inspector is heartless.*
So, I wasn’t a survivor. I was an instrument he had cultivated using the blood of the Wen family and imperial power. Others used silver needles; he used me.
The Emperor stood up. “I suspect the inner palace because everyone in the inner palace has selfish motives. If they had no intent to kill, how could the Thought Poison become toxic? I have merely allowed their evil thoughts to take shape.”
These words sounded far too much like a justification.
Some consorts in the hall were already so terrified they prostrated themselves on the ground. Of course they had selfish motives, jealousies, and unfulfilled desires. But these thoughts should have only been the thorns grown to survive in the deep palace; they should not have been ground into blades by someone else and then stabbed back into their own chests.
I suddenly laughed.
The Emperor looked at me. “What are you laughing at?”
“I am laughing because Your Majesty is wrong,” I said. “For Thought Poison to kill, it needs hatred as a trigger. But I have no hatred, which is why I have tested them for you for ten years without dying.”
He narrowed his eyes.
I took a silver needle from my sleeve. It was an old needle left by Aunt Qin, long since saturated with Empty Thought.
“But a lack of hatred does not mean a lack of memory.” I pricked the line of White Rouge on my wrist with the silver needle. “Your Majesty erased my hatred and my fear. A person without hate or fear is the most suitable to be a poison tester, and also the most suitable to be evidence.”
When the White Rouge met the blood, it suddenly flared with a brilliant light.
All the imperial gifts in the hall began to tremble simultaneously. The hairpins on the consorts’ heads, the bracelets on their wrists, the sachets at their waists, the wine cups on the tables, and even the agarwood prayer beads in the Emperor’s hand all began to emit a blackish-red smoke.
That was not the killing intent of any one person.
It was the suspicion the man on the dragon throne held toward everyone.