Chapter 8

Word spread that my stepmother had angered the Empress.

Father had to grit his teeth and accept both decrees.

Before I left, he pressed a stack of banknotes into my hands and spoke kindly.

“The palace is dangerous, my child. You must not disappoint Her Majesty’s teaching.

“Always remember your family. However great your future, never forget that your father’s house is your support.”

At my first audience after moving into the palace, I told the Empress what he had said.

She was pruning a Buddhist pine. Casually, she asked what I thought of it.

She did not look at me.

But I knew my opportunity had come.

I stepped forward, asked pardon for my presumption, and pointed to the tree before her.

“Everyone calls the thickest branch the trunk, and says the others live by depending on it. Yet to me, it also takes their sunlight and rain, forcing them to accept less.”

The Empress gave no sign of agreement.

I clenched my fists in secret and continued.

“Cut off a side branch, plant it in suitable soil, and give it sunlight and rain of its own. It might grow strong enough to support itself.”

She set down her shears and looked at me with a cold laugh.

“Such a young girl. Such bold talk.”

Her authority bore down on me. I hurriedly knelt.

Cold sweat slowly gathered in my palms.

Forcing myself to stay calm, I answered clearly.

“Your Majesty, Gan Luo served as an envoy at twelve. Xun Guan broke through a siege to save her father at thirteen. I am foolish and dare not compare myself with the great figures of antiquity. I have merely used a few petty household tricks to protect myself.”

She watched me. Suddenly she smiled and clipped off the slenderest branch, turning it in her hand.

“Enough. Petty or grand, if a method achieves its purpose, it has its use.

“A newborn calf knows no fear of tigers. It is good to be ambitious while young. Only do not become all fine words and no substance.”

A maid brought in a flowerpot. The Empress planted the cutting.

“Take this back and tend it, Huaiyu. I shall wait to see whether it grows.”

I kowtowed in thanks.

I nearly stumbled on the way out. Only then did I realize my legs had gone weak.

I had taken a gamble.

I was betting the Empress was not the sort of wife who, on learning her husband meant to kill her, would abandon the world and die beautifully just to make him regret it.

I had heard many stories about her in my former life.

Once, she too had ridden freely through the country, settling gratitude and grievances as she pleased. Once, she and the Emperor had loved and relied on each other.

But after they rose to power, the life they had shared became a past he did not wish to remember. Her help became evidence that she might someday “endanger the realm.”

Even then, she had never given up in my former life.

Everyone thought she raised noble girls at Zhengyang Palace to win princes and ministers through marriage.

I knew that even during her final illness, she had worked to recommend them for posts as female officials in the inner palace.

She wanted to guide them toward a different road. Her early death had destroyed it before it could be built.

The girls she had educated so carefully ultimately perished in the palace’s bloody struggles.

This time, she was forewarned. And my stepmother had not cut off my own road forward.

I had to take the gamble.

Until then, the Empress had thought I sought her favor to use her power against my stepmother.

I hated the cruelty behind that woman’s smiles. I hated my brother for repaying my sacrifice with ingratitude in my former life. But I could handle them within the household. The person I hated most lay beyond my reach.

My own father, Ye Cheng, the Marquis of Jingwu.

He had been the young rake who kept a mistress and fathered me. Yet once transformed into a reformed prodigal, he laid every fault upon my mother and me.

She was lowborn and restless, they said. She had used every trick to seduce him, then schemed to bear his child.

Ridiculous. Had my mother tied this formidable martial artist to a bed and forced him?

Half the blood in my veins was his. He despised me like mud beneath his feet.

He himself had suffered in the women’s quarters as a child. In my former life he knew my stepmother plotted against me repeatedly. Yet for his pride and reputation, to prove his loyalty to his beloved wife, he willingly married me to Nanny Xu’s grandson.

I hated him more than the woman shut within the household, reduced to fighting other women.

He had helped the Emperor win the throne and enjoyed his trust. Bringing him down would be no simple matter.

I had to stand beside those who held power. Only in a wider world could I find the chance I needed.