Chapter 3

The Huijue had sent envoys to pay their respects to the emperor of Great Zhou.

It was an occasion to strengthen relations between our peoples.

Naturally, Father had to hold a banquet for them, proclaiming to all his subjects that the friendship between Great Zhou and the Huijue would endure.

At the banquet, I saw Zhou Jiu.

Father’s recurring headaches had troubled him lately and were particularly severe that day. Unable to leave his imperial bed, he had entrusted the entire banquet to the Third Prince, Zhou Jiu. As my brother entertained the senior ministers on Father’s behalf, he looked remarkably like a sovereign.

According to the information I had gathered, ever since Zhou Xiyue decided to abandon her position as Crown Princess to marry Gu Yuan, this brother of mine had seemed to grow intelligent and perceptive overnight.

Or perhaps he had deliberately hidden his abilities before.

With Zhou Xiyue and me there, even considerable talent would have paled beside ours.

When she relinquished her position and became a wife, the place of heir stood vacant. Zhou Jiu promptly distinguished himself from the other princes.

His old foolish manner vanished. He carried out Father’s assignments beautifully and acted with swift decisiveness. He had also married Chancellor Lin’s legitimate daughter, gaining a powerful ally in the chancellor.

With Chancellor Lin smoothing his way, everyone said Zhou Jiu was the best candidate for crown prince.

Even Father was beginning to think so.

Zhou Xiyue had willingly abandoned the throne, while I had been forced into marriage far beyond the frontier. Zhou Jiu was the only one left who seemed capable of bearing its weight.

I suspected the decree naming him crown prince would not be long in coming.

Gathering my thoughts, I glanced around the banquet once more.

Palace banquets had always been extravagantly lavish. The music and dancing never stopped. The dancers moved with supple grace, their long silk sleeves captivating everyone who watched.

Finely dressed palace maids took seats beside the ministers and Huijue envoys, pouring wine for them from time to time.

There were always drunken ministers who, emboldened by the wine and the maids’ beauty, began to grope them.

An arm around a waist, a hand stroking a cheek. The bolder ones let their hands creep lower and slip inside their clothing.

Disgusting.

But a palace maid’s station was so low that even such deliberate molestation had to be endured, tears held back.

If she displeased a minister or envoy, at best she would lose her monthly pay; at worst, her life.

No reason was needed.

Because palace maids’ lives were cheap.

Because women were born to serve men.

The scene hurt to watch, but there was nothing I could do then.

I had once had a chance to change it.

But Zhou Xiyue had won.

So I had thought she would do it.

Instead, she had abandoned it all for that elusive thing called love.

Now, as Queen of the Huijue, I merely sat in my place and drank, one mouthful after another.

Yet someone was determined not to leave me in peace.

Vice Minister Xu of the Ministry of Revenue rose unsteadily, cup in hand. “The Second Princess has been married into the Huijue for years. As another man’s wife, why does she still appear in public to serve as an envoy between nations?”

Other ministers began murmuring as soon as he spoke.

“A woman should remain at home, assist her husband, raise her children, and serve her spouse. That is her proper duty.”

“To send a woman as their envoy—do the Huijue hold Great Zhou in contempt?”

That accusation was rather more serious.

I looked at its speaker: Chancellor Lin, Zhou Jiu’s father-in-law.

This sudden attack was partly about belittling women. It was also a warning to me to stop entertaining thoughts of the throne.

After all, I was a daughter married out of the family. Naturally, I should have no chance of inheriting.

The marriage alliance had been intended to end that chance. Yet in just three years, I had built a power base among the Huijue and could even represent their king before Great Zhou’s emperor.

What if I had longer?

Might I gain control of the Huijue, then return to Great Zhou with military power behind me? As a princess of Great Zhou, I might claim a share of the throne he thought was almost his.

Who would win would once again become uncertain.

Of course he did not want that.

I had made Zhou Jiu feel threatened.

So he was using these ministers to warn me.

If I knew my place, perhaps I would live a little longer.

I had no intention of pleasing them.

I rose with my wine cup and looked straight at Chancellor Lin, without a trace of fear.

“You are mistaken, Chancellor Lin. Great Zhou’s founding sovereign was a woman. Our ancestress fought on the battlefield as a woman, the equal of any man, and won the army’s wholehearted loyalty. Only then did she found Great Zhou and bring the realm to heel!”

“She also left an imperial decree. Supreme power should belong to the most capable of the imperial children, regardless of distinctions between men and women. Our ancestress did not believe a woman’s only place was at home assisting her husband and raising children. A woman of talent could even sit upon the throne. How is it that, after only a century, Chancellor Lin has forgotten every word of our founding empress?”

Women

could support husbands and raise children; they could also govern and secure a nation.

I, for one, had only ever wanted the latter.

I had used our ancestress’s words against him. However furious Chancellor Lin felt, he had to swallow it.

She was our ancestress, after all. We who came after her could only obey.

His face looked dreadful. Only after a long silence did he sneer, “What a sharp tongue Your Highness has!”

I gave him a small bow.

“You flatter me, Chancellor.”

The banquet continued. I had thought that exchange would make Zhou Jiu give up, but I had not expected him to turn his attention to Zhou Xiyue instead.

The Zhou Xiyue whose very arrival had once eclipsed every other imperial child.

“Since the Huijue envoys are here, I should do my duty as host. Would the Huijue appreciate a dance from a princess of Great Zhou as a gift?”

Zhou Jiu smiled at me. He spoke so casually, as though he were not grinding Zhou Xiyue’s dignity into the dirt.

Or perhaps he remembered how her appointment as Crown Princess, above all the princes, had humiliated him.

Now that he could trample on her pride, how could a man as proud as Zhou Jiu let the chance pass?

Great Zhou’s eldest legitimate princess, dancing before foreign envoys.

Put kindly, it strengthened relations between our peoples. Put plainly, it meant a princess of Great Zhou was so lowly that she could be made to perform like a dancing girl.

Great Zhou had been founded by an empress. How had women’s standing sunk so low in merely a century?

Was a princess of the realm no different from a dancing girl?

I did not know why Zhou Xiyue would agree to dance. She had always been a superb dancer, but she had always been proud.

I had thought she would refuse.

Until I saw her enter in a dancer’s costume with the other women.

I stared at her. “Zhou Xiyue, you really have gone mad.”

She danced all the same.

The ministers and envoys watched in rapture. There was nothing innocent in their eyes.

What I saw most was desire, and it sickened me.

She did not dare meet my eyes throughout. Only after the dance, just before withdrawing, did she glance up at me.

Her eyes held a tangle of emotions.

When the banquet finally ended, I dragged her straight to the garden.

I still could not believe the radiant, confident Zhou Xiyue of years past would willingly stoop so low.

“Zhou Xiyue, are you mad? A princess dancing at a banquet like this—have you no pride left?”

She twisted her handkerchief. Perhaps my shouting had made her feel guilty; after a long silence, she explained, “My husband and our third brother are close friends. Dancing today helped him, which helped my husband too.”

Gu Yuan again.

I could not imagine how an heir whose talents and looks were both inferior to mine had won Zhou Xiyue’s heart.

After all our years as rivals, I had thought her standards might be a little higher.

Instead, she had proved blind.

“Trapped at home, burdened by love, abandoning everything you wanted since childhood. Zhou Xiyue, are you truly happy?”

Before she could answer, Gu Yuan emerged from the shadows.

He watched me warily and took her hand right in front of me. “Consort of the Huijue King, you seem to be meddling rather too much.”

He was reminding me of my position.

I laughed.

“I am also a princess of Great Zhou, and Zhou Xiyue’s younger sister. If I ask whether my sister is happy, what can you possibly do about it?”

“Xiyu!”

Zhou Xiyue stepped forward, shielding Gu Yuan with her small body. The sight stung.

And I hated seeing her throw herself away.

“He is your brother-in-law,” she said. “You owe him respect!”

Hah. Not everyone deserved to be my brother-in-law.

Seeing my expression unchanged, she turned to the man she loved. “Husband, let’s go home.”

Gu Yuan still looked at me with hostility, but she had spoken. He nodded, took her hand, and walked straight past me.

Watching her retreating figure, I could not stop myself asking the question lodged in my heart.

“Zhou Xiyue, have you really forgotten what we said as children?”

Had the girl who took my hand and climbed the city walls with me, who gazed over the realm and spoke of her ambitions, truly vanished?

No. I refused to believe it.

She had seen the suffering of the world. She knew how difficult this age was for women. More than that, she knew that if either of us took the throne, we could do everything in our power to change it.

Her steps faltered briefly. She did not turn, but I thought I heard a note of lightness in her voice.

“That road is too exhausting. I’m only a woman. All I want is to grow old with the man I love. Xiyu, I hope you won’t be too stubborn either. A vast realm is beyond a woman’s control, after all. Better to choose a good man to spend your life with. You’ll be happier.”

With that, she pulled Gu Yuan away.

“Just because you can’t do it, how do you know I can’t?”

I stared coldly after her. Suddenly, the oath we had sworn as children seemed a joke.

But I could not accept that.

She could forget the realm we had looked out upon, the grand ambitions we had cherished in our small bodies. I would not.

I must not.

I gradually mastered my feelings. Just as I turned to return to the palace, Father’s eunuch blocked my path.

“Your Highness. His Majesty summons you.”