chapter 4
I felt perfectly calm as I did it.
For twenty years in the Cold Palace, I had reviewed my life again and again, dismembering Zheng Yueru a thousand times in my imagination and waking each time to disappointment. Now that I could finally act with my own hands, they were astonishingly steady.
As expected, Zheng Yueru stormed into the shop. She struck the jade carving from my hands and demanded, “Whom were you insulting just now?”
The carving shattered across the floor.
I shoved her, and she fell among the fragments. Everything happened too quickly for anyone to react. Razor-edged jade sliced open her palms, and screams rose around us.
Zheng Yueru stared in disbelief. She had bullied her way through the capital for years without ever being thwarted. More importantly, she believed that a reputation-conscious noblewoman like me would never do anything so crude.
“Song Yuzhen, you have gone mad!”
Servants helped her up, blood streaming from her palms. I stared at that bright red and wondered only one thing: had the poison entered her wounds?
I had awakened at the bride-selection banquet with no time to prepare. Had I returned even a little earlier, I could have devised something better. Now I could only gamble on luck.
Zheng Yueru tried to strike me, but my shop had attendants. She began smashing everything in a frenzy. My people shielded me while hers surrounded her, the two groups facing off as a crowd gathered outside.
Curious stares and excited whispers filled the street.
One of the Zheng family’s old maids sensed danger and tried to leave. I raised a hand, and my attendants blocked her way.
By then Zheng Yueru understood that I had deliberately provoked her into humiliating herself.
She lowered her voice to threaten me. “Song Yuzhen, have you lost your mind? Do you no longer want to be chosen? Crown Prince Cousin nearly gave you the crown princess’s pendant today. Offend me, and I will make sure you never become his wife.”
“Repeat that,” I said calmly to the crowd. “One tael of silver to anyone who says it loudly.”
They exchanged incredulous glances, but one tael could feed many families for half a year. At first only my own attendants repeated her words. Then countless voices joined them.
“Song Yuzhen, have you lost your mind? Do you no longer want to be chosen? Crown Prince Cousin nearly gave you the crown princess’s pendant today. Offend me, and I will make sure you never become his wife.”
The chorus surged like a tide, nearly drowning Zheng Yueru. Her face went white. Fear finally appeared in her eyes.
“Silence!” she shrieked. “You insolent rabble, all of you, be silent!”
No one obeyed. The voices only grew louder.
It was resistance without a weapon.
Water can carry a boat, and water can overturn it. It is silent in either act.