chapter 3

On the way home, the Zheng family’s carriage blocked mine with brazen disregard.

Two elderly maids planted themselves before us and announced haughtily that Zheng Yueru invited me to speak with her.

Zheng Yueru was ruthless. She and Zhao Yu never got along, yet she could not bear to see him favor anyone else. She had slapped consorts and beaten pretty palace maids, restraining herself only after the empress dowager scolded her.

In my first life, she tried several times to punish me, and each time I avoided her. I wanted no conflict. The empress dowager protected her, while Zhao Yu protected me; if we fought, we would only drive mother and son further apart.

Once, Zheng Yueru cornered me anyway. She advanced step by step, her long nails nearly scraping my face. I was only a noble consort then, not yet an imperial noble consort.

She hooked a finger beneath my chin and sneered. “Your looks are nothing remarkable. How did you bewitch His Majesty so completely? Wherever you learned those brothel tricks, how dare you bring them into the palace?”

Then she slapped me hard. Her nail tore my ear and drew blood. Half my face went numb and remained swollen for days.

Zhao Yu confronted her, and they quarreled bitterly.

“I am the empress!” Zheng Yueru shouted. “Every consort in this palace is mine to beat or kill as I please. If you cannot stand it, make her empress instead!”

Zhao Yu trembled with rage. “You are beyond reason! Even a palace maid must never be struck in the face, much less an imperial consort. Do the laws mean nothing to you?”

That was the tragedy of obedient children. Zhao Yu and I learned the rites and guarded our morals. Others ignored them, and we could do nothing.

Still mired in such foolishness, I audited every account of the palace bureaus, compiled dozens of Zheng Yueru’s offenses, and submitted the register to the empress dowager. I hoped she would discipline Zheng Yueru and restore order to the harem.

The empress dowager frowned with weary irritation, closed the register, and said flatly, “His Majesty has already quarreled with the empress over you. What more do you want? Will you be satisfied only when husband and wife are estranged? Let me make this plain: only a Zheng daughter may be empress. Stop stirring up trouble, or you will earn nothing but disgust.”

I left her palace in a daze.

Zhao Yu came to fetch me, and we walked hand in hand beneath the long, ornate galleries, magnificent rafters above us and desolation in our hearts. His head hung like a bedraggled dog’s.

“Zhenzhen, I am sorry,” he said. “I am useless.”

I held him gently, pitying him because even his own mother would not stand beside him.

Not long afterward, an epidemic swept through the palace and sickened more than a thousand servants. Only then did the empress dowager realize how disastrously Zheng Yueru had managed the harem. She reprimanded her and finally took my register seriously.

Later I became imperial noble consort and helped administer the six palaces. After Zheng Yueru drugged Zhao Yu and lost his favor completely, I took full charge.

Zheng Yueru cursed me every day. Years later, she feigned illness to escape deposition. Once power returned to her hands, she tormented me for twenty years.

She never forgot a grievance and possessed a rare talent for cruelty.

I looked at the two maids before my carriage and let my expression turn cold. “Miss Zheng is not yet crown princess. If she wishes to see me, she may call at my residence and present a proper card. Blocking someone in the street shows a complete lack of manners.”

I spoke loudly enough for Zheng Yueru to hear.

Furious, she thrust her head out of the carriage. “Song Yuzhen, whom are you insulting?”

I ignored her and ordered my driver to make haste for my family’s jewelry shop. As we pulled away, I had the table and chairs in our carriage thrown behind us to snarl her horses and delay her pursuit.

At the Treasure Pavilion, I hurried into the rear courtyard, plucked oleander leaves, and hid them carefully in my sleeve. Then, wearing deerskin gloves, I took the shop’s most expensive jade carving and coated it with oleander sap.