chapter 1
chapter 1
On the day of the empress’s enthronement ceremony, Noble Consort Yuan announced that she no longer wished to live.
She rammed her head against a wall, threw herself into a lake, and refused both food and water until she had finally tormented herself to the edge of death.
The moment court ended, the emperor rushed to her bedside. He gripped her hand, his eyes bloodshot.
“There are eighty servants in Yunfu Palace. If you refuse to eat today, I will kill ten of them. Refuse tomorrow, and I will kill twenty.”
At those words, the noble consort began to cry.
A single tear slid from her beautiful, unfocused eyes. She looked utterly desolate, fragile enough to shatter.
“The greatest regret of my life was falling in love with you.”
Then, with a sweep of her hand, she knocked the bowl of hot congee from my grasp.
“Zhao Yan, do not threaten me with other people’s lives. You are unworthy of me.”
The emperor flew into a rage. He said “good” three times, then pointed at random toward the servants by the door.
“Drag them out. Beat them until they are dead.”
When the emperor said ten, not one person fewer would satisfy him. The last one dragged away was Peach, the maid who had been serving tea beside me.
She shook like a sieve. Tears covered her terrified face as she screamed in despair.
“Your Highness, please, just take one bite! This servant is Peach. I have served you since we were children. Save me, Your Highness, please!”
“Your Highness! I took a blade for you when I was little!”
Noble Consort Yuan only wept harder, tears pouring down her pale cheeks.
“Your Majesty! Are you satisfied now? You have beaten my dearest maid to death and left me all alone. Are you satisfied? May I die now?”
For a long time, the emperor said nothing.
Outside the hall came the dull thud of wooden staves striking flesh, mingled with the servants’ broken pleas.
Even then, they did not give up. Between muffled sobs, they begged His Majesty for mercy and cried for the noble consort to save them.
I lowered my head. My back was pressed hard against the curtain post behind me, and beneath my skirts my legs trembled so faintly that no one could see.
At that moment, I suddenly remembered something the noble consort had said many years ago.
“No masters and servants in my palace. We are all equal here. If anything ever troubles you, you can always tell me.”
The emperor finally stormed away, his face livid.
“If the noble consort dies, every one of you will be buried with her.”
The servants inside and outside the palace dropped to their knees in unison.
Under the blazing noon sun, Peach and several others had already stopped breathing.
The men carrying out the punishment were experts. Every stroke caused grave internal injury, yet each victim coughed up only a little blood. There was nothing too frightening to look at, and not much to clean.
In no time at all, the bodies had been rolled in mats and carried away. The punishment benches were stacked three high, and young eunuchs came with basins to scrub the flagstones.
Soon the courtyard looked neat and spotless again.
By the time I returned to the bedchamber, the noble consort had stopped crying. She lay on her couch, fuming as she spoke to someone I could not see.
“System, I want out of this body. Love is a lie. All those stories about an emperor dismissing his harem for one woman are lies too. He would not even make me empress. He does not love me at all!”
“If I could start over, I would stay far away from the palace and live as a wealthy woman with all the freedom in the world.”
“What? It costs that many points to switch into the daughter of a rich merchant?”
“Then give me Cherry. She is timid and loyal. Once we trade bodies, she will be so grateful that she will do anything I ask. I will have her give me a fortune and get me made a commandery princess or something.”
“As if she would dare rebel against me.”
“The world is vast. I refuse to believe I cannot find one pure, true love!”
“That awful bastard!”
There were no words for what I felt.
Confusion. Terror. Heartbreak. Hatred. Despair.
The blood Peach had left behind had only just been scrubbed away. Nine others had died with her.
Every one of them had served the noble consort with absolute loyalty and the utmost care.
Almond had once been sent to the Office of Punishments in her place. Her ten fingers had been crushed in the finger press, the joints broken and twisted. Even after the bones were set, her hands remained deformed. She could no longer hold a pair of chopsticks.
Quanfu, the food-tasting eunuch, had sampled a poisoned dish. It burned his throat so badly that he lost his voice. Just now, he could not even cry for mercy. All he could do was stare with wide eyes and weep.
I could not spare a thought for the strange things Noble Consort Yuan was saying.
One question filled my mind.
Were servants truly not people at all?