Chapter 7
My stepmother saw her relatives off with a frozen face.
Midafternoon, she suddenly summoned me, took my hands, and reddened her eyes.
“The palace devours people whole. How could I bear to send you there?”
The familiar speech only amused me.
For a nobleman’s daughter to be raised by the Empress was an honor.
For a mistress’s child like me, it would give even those who scorned my birth something to fear.
Could she truly not bear to see me gain the smallest advantage?
When I said nothing, she looked still more sorrowful.
“Your father holds great power, yet even he treads on thin ice whenever he attends His Majesty. What chance would you have?”
I drew back my hands and answered shyly.
“I know you worry for me, Mother.”
Sensing me give way, she immediately pressed on.
“You’re a sensible child. When your father returns, I will ask him to petition His Majesty to withdraw the order.”
Oh? Who had just said Father walked on thin ice at court?
“You mustn’t, Mother.”
“You foolish child!” Her expression changed.
“So young and already dazzled by wealth! If I let you go, I would ruin your life!”
I knelt and moved closer on my knees.
“You have always taught me to leave room for others. Today Her Majesty issued two edicts. If Father asks His Majesty to overrule both, wouldn’t that humiliate her?
“I am not coveting the palace’s riches. I am thinking of you.”
She fell silent.
A noble concubine bestowed by the Empress could neither be beaten nor scolded. Far more troublesome than an ordinary one.
Otherwise she would never, in my former life, have fed Father that vile idea and ruined thousands of innocent palace maids.
By comparison, surrendering a little advantage to me was the better bargain.
She touched her handkerchief to her eyes.
“I only fear Her Majesty may be displeased and make things difficult for you.”
I took her hands again and reddened my own eyes.
“I would willingly sacrifice myself to soothe her anger, if only she does not turn it against you.”
So we were acting?
Rest assured, I would not need to fan any flames. The Empress would spare neither you nor your precious Marquis.
The lamps in the main house burned all night.
The following day was not a court day. Father sought an audience on official business, only to learn His Majesty had suddenly developed a high fever during the night.
A few days passed. As the date for receiving the concubine approached, my stepmother donned her titled lady’s formal robes and crown and requested an audience with the Empress.
What followed, the Empress later told me herself.
My stepmother began with flattering speeches. Then she explained that during Father’s recent campaign in the northwest, he had discovered many soldiers approaching thirty still unmarried. Meanwhile, the palace was enormously expensive, and its thousands of maids lived lonely lives.
Why not send them to the frontier to pair with those soldiers? Two problems solved at once.
The Empress fell into a rare silence.
In my former life, I too had been speechless with shock when I first heard it.
Normally only serious criminals were exiled to the frontier. Had these maids become criminals in my stepmother’s eyes merely because they might someday be given to powerful men as concubines?
If saving money was the point, why not simply send them home?
Emboldened by the Empress’s silence, my stepmother continued.
“Your Majesty, one of His Lordship’s deputy commanders is still unmarried. He would suit Miss Jinxin perfectly.
“It isn’t jealousy. These men have delayed marriage to fight for their country. If they then see His Lordship take a concubine, won’t it chill their hearts?”
“What have the maids done to deserve losing their futures and their lives?”
The Empress struck her armrest and gave a cold laugh. “Are you not afraid of chilling their hearts, Lady Jingwu?”
My stepmother’s eyes shifted uneasily.
“Your Majesty is merciful. But the soldiers… I only meant, a man granted a palace maid would surely be capable, with prospects. No ordinary ranker.
“If a wife serves her husband devotedly, why would he not treat her well?”
The words struck the Empress’s deepest wound.
She had endured more than a decade of hardship beside her husband in remote, impoverished places. No one could accuse her of lacking devotion.
He had occupied the throne for only three years, yet already wanted her dead.
“The northwest is bitterly cold, filled with wind and sand. What crime have those girls committed to deserve such a life?”
The Empress stared at my stepmother, her authority all the more imposing without anger.
“Or is the Marquis so eager to make his men grateful that he would spend other women’s lives and futures to buy their loyalty?”
Sweat poured from my stepmother. She knelt and repeatedly knocked her head against the floor.
“His Lordship means nothing of the kind! It was my stupidity. Please punish me, Your Majesty!”
The Empress was unmoved.
“His Majesty’s fever has persisted for days. Instead of easing his worries, you propose this vicious scheme. How can frightened maids serve him with peace of mind?”
She steadied her breathing and rose.
“To pray for His Majesty’s swift recovery, he and I have decided upon a general amnesty.
“Every palace maid aged twenty-five or older who wishes to leave will receive money for her journey home.”
My stepmother prostrated herself, shaking uncontrollably.
“Your Majesty is compassionate and has considered everything.”
It was settled.
I was practicing calligraphy in my courtyard when I heard the amnesty announced.
A heavy black teardrop of ink fell unnoticed from my brush.
I heard many maids had gone in groups to kneel outside Zhengyang Palace and give thanks.
Bandits comb a place bare; soldiers rake it cleaner still.
Lonely as palace life could be, the maids at least earned wages through their own labor.
Unless their mistress was particularly cruel, they could survive.
But in an army camp, what would soldiers capable of treating civilians more brutally than bandits do to an unarmed “wife,” a thousand miles from home, bestowed by the Emperor as their private property?
In my former life, the sick Empress had sensed her husband’s growing distance.
Thinking of her own future and her children’s, she decided to give a few maids to his closest ministers as concubines.
She had not wished to act too harshly, so she first invited their wives to the palace to inform them.
My stepmother conceived her splendid idea. Before the Empress’s decree could be issued, Father secured an imperial order releasing two thousand maids and marrying them to northern soldiers.
I remembered her triumphant words.
“For girls who want a settled life, a difficult beginning is nothing. If husband and wife work together, what hardship can’t they overcome? Far better than selling their looks as concubines.
“And as for the restless ones… Hmph.”
I had been shut in my own courtyard, nursing my hands.
Hearing it brought a strange, suffocating grief.
Those maids were living people too.
Because the Marchioness of Jingwu thought they obstructed her, a few careless words turned them into tools for pacifying the army.
The palace had two thousand fewer mouths to feed. Two thousand soldiers on the northern frontier received wives and slaves of their own.
Those women could have had better choices.
Why must they suffer this?
Why should my stepmother walk over their blood and misery to win Father’s love and respect, and praise from the Emperor himself?
I had not forgotten those maids I had never met.
Since coming back, I had kept thinking how to help them.
As long as they remained at the palace, she could propose that wicked scheme again.
He Jinxin had to be the bait that drew the snake from its hole.
When I thanked the Empress for her decree admitting me to the palace, I told her what my stepmother would plan.
And so His Majesty had suddenly developed a fever.
Apart from the “Heaven-sent match” of the Marquis and He Jinxin, the older maids would simply be sent home. Under cover of a general amnesty, His Majesty agreed.
That was enough.