Chapter 2
“Your Majesty!”
Xie Chi was still trying to beg when the imperial guards dragged him away without mercy.
“Your Majesty—!”
His piercing cries gradually faded. Just as I was about to order Lady Liu’s execution, Crown Prince Ji Xingguang hurried in.
“Father!”
He must have been hauled straight out of that brothel woman’s bed. His clothes were disheveled, his face flushed, his forehead dripping with sweat.
“What has happened? Why are you executing Lord Xie?”
Thinking I had deliberately targeted him, he turned the full force of his anger on me. “I have already backed down this far. Must you still suspect me?”
I had meant to preserve a little of his dignity. Now there was no need.
“While you were enjoying yourself in a brothel, your wife was committing adultery with your teacher in the Eastern Palace.”
Ji Xingguang froze.
Stiffly, he turned to look at Lady Liu kneeling on the floor, then back at Xie Chi, who had just breathed his last outside the hall.
His face went blank. “What?”
As I said, the imperial tutor sleeping with the crown princess in the Eastern Palace would shock the world and invite universal ridicule, whichever world it happened in.
Ji Xingguang soon sprang into action, rushing over to kick Lady Liu to the floor.
“You whore!”
Shaking with rage, he hauled her up by the collar. “How dare you? How dare you commit such an outrage? How dare you betray me?!”
“Liu Biying, you are the crown princess!”
Unexpectedly, Lady Liu broke free and slapped him across the face.
“What right do you have to say that to me?”
She must have been wounded and enraged beyond endurance. “Has anyone in the entire Eastern Palace ever truly treated me as crown princess?”
“Ever since my family was convicted and exiled, I, a disgraced official’s daughter, have been worth less than the lowliest concubine there. Even the eunuchs can abuse me at will. Let alone you!”
“Ji Xingguang, have you ever treated me as your crown princess? As your wife?”
She looked her furious husband up and down and gave a derisive laugh. “From the look of you, you only just left Miss Chun’s bed, haven’t you? Oh, you’re the crown prince, after all. Countless concubines in the Eastern Palace aren’t enough. You have to spread your affections through the brothels as well.”
“Why should I, your crown princess, spend my life with you alone?”
She laughed until tears spilled down her face. “If I didn’t find another protector, those favored concubines of yours would torment me to death!”
As master of the Eastern Palace, and one of the causes of Liu Biying’s suffering, Ji Xingguang plainly could not understand her feelings.
He was simply angry, so angry that reason deserted him. He rushed forward and seized the woman’s throat. “Liu Biying! Do you know what you’re saying? You are my crown princess. How could you and my teacher…”
I sighed deeply.
Was mere incompetence enough to describe what my predecessor had done as emperor?
Had I not arrived, once Ji Xingguang took the throne, the people might well have had to seek another way out, just as Liu Biying had.
The eunuchs separated the struggling pair. Ji Xingguang’s eyes were vicious as he saluted me. “Father, hand this vile woman over to me. Allow me to deal with her myself!”
Liu Biying slumped to the floor, her face ashen. She glared at Ji Xingguang with despair and regret, but above all with a towering hatred, as if she wanted to cut him into a thousand pieces.
She understood now. As crown princess, she had committed adultery with the imperial tutor and been caught in the act by the emperor. There was no chance she would live.
Even her parents and clan, long since banished to the frontier, would not survive until next spring.
Still, I asked the prince, “How would you deal with her?”
Ji Xingguang spoke through gritted teeth. “Since Lady Liu could not remain faithful and slept with the imperial tutor, I will cut off her limbs and her tongue, then tattoo ‘whore’ across her face. Even in the underworld, she will never escape the shame of her adultery!”
Liu Biying began to shake. Ji Xingguang seemed already to see her mutilated body before him, and a satisfied smile appeared on his face.
“As for the Liu family, execute them all!”
“I’d like to see how my fine father-in-law could go on living once he knew what a disgraceful thing the daughter he raised had done!”
“Your Majesty!”
Liu Biying looked distraught. “I know my sins are grievous. I am too ashamed to go on living. But my family is innocent!”
“They will already lose their lives because of me. They should not have to endure this humiliation as well—”
“So you know what a humiliation it is!”
Ji Xingguang roared, “Liu Biying, did you think of me when you seduced Xie Chi?!”
“Enough!”
I had had quite enough of the prince’s foolishness. “When you quarreled with your wife in the street, abandoned her, and openly went to a brothel, did you ever think this day might come?”
Ji Xingguang stared, stunned by my shout. “F-Father?”
“Do you remember that you are this country’s crown prince?”
“A palace full of concubines is bad enough. But you publicly humiliated your wife and went to a brothel dressed like that. Were you afraid the people might fail to learn that their future ruler disrespects his lawful wife, neglects his duties, and is a slave to lust?”
“Father!”
Ji Xingguang fell to his knees with a thump. “I know I was wrong!”
How could I miss the resentment in his eyes?
He clearly did not think a crown prince’s visit to a brothel was anything an emperor should be angry about. Or perhaps my predecessor’s leniency had fed his ambitions.
So although he knelt there pretending to be afraid, he said, “Please calm yourself, Father. I merely lost my temper after a quarrel with the crown princess. Besides, I am the crown prince. How can those ignorant commoners presume to judge my actions?”
I nearly exploded. “And I?”
“May I, your emperor, judge them?”
Ji Xingguang fell silent.
I closed my eyes and spoke calmly. “Do you remember that I chose your wife for you?”
To abandon her in the street—was that not a display of resentment toward me, a slap in my face?
“Father…?”
At last, Ji Xingguang raised his head in dawning fear and tried to say something. But I had had enough of fools.
“I personally decreed this marriage.”
Liu Biying had to die, but her family was indeed innocent.
Let this count as a good deed on my predecessor’s behalf.
“Since matters have come to this, I will not implicate the innocent.”
Liu Biying’s eyes filled with tears. She bowed low. “Thank you, Your Majesty!”
Ji Xingguang grew even more resentful. “Father! If that whore could do such a disgraceful thing, surely her family must—”
“Silence!”
I had tolerated this idiot long enough. “Since you are so dissatisfied with me, there is no need for you to remain crown prince.”
“Go back to drinking your life away!”