Chapter 4

Winter descended, bringing heavy snow.

The palace allotted a fixed amount of charcoal to every residence.

My mistress feared the cold, and once the Imperial Household Department learned of it, its people always sent extra to curry favor.

When one person received more, of course someone else received less.

I simply had not expected the palace servants to take it from Lady Wang, the madwoman in Qionghua Palace.

Snow whispered down through the plum garden, crimson blossoms bright against the white. A shrill scream shattered the quiet.

Her face twisted with rage, Lady Wang raised the hairpin clutched in her fist and lunged at my mistress.

“You wretched whore! May you die a miserable death!”

I stepped in front of my mistress and instinctively seized Lady Wang. But I misjudged my strength.

For an instant, time seemed to stop.

There was a splash.

Lady Wang tumbled into Plumheart Lake.

The freezing water swallowed her at once. In a heartbeat, all sound ceased.

My mistress took one look, then calmly and decisively pulled me away. “She is only a madwoman. She lost her footing and fell. It has nothing to do with us.”

She was right. Who cared whether a madwoman lived or died?

Even ants struggled merely to save themselves.

Yet without hesitation, I jumped into the lake.

By the time I dragged Lady Wang ashore, she had lost consciousness.

I was shaking from the cold. My mistress tore off her own cloak and wrapped it around me, then spoke through gritted teeth.

“I despise this bodhisattva act of yours. She brought it on herself.”

What I had not expected was that Lady Wang was pregnant.

The fall cost her the child and left her body permanently damaged.

When the emperor received the news, he hurried to the side hall beside the lake.

He sat at the head of the hall, his expression dark.

Before he could ask a single question, a young palace maid sprang forward and pointed at me.

“Your Majesty, this servant must denounce Beauty Meng! All the maids in the plum garden saw it. It was Lianwu, Beauty Meng’s maid, who pushed Lady Wang into the water and killed an imperial heir!”

I knelt motionless, already prepared to shoulder all the blame.

It was only a pity that my mistress and I had not finished yesterday’s game of chess.

And Lord Shen’s crane sachet was only half embroidered.

The emperor suddenly came over and lifted my chin between his fingers, then glanced at my mistress.

“You do resemble your mistress a little.”

He stared at me, then abruptly began to laugh.

He seemed to be in an excellent mood.

“Drag her away. Grant her death.”

My mistress’s face changed. She immediately dropped to her knees in front of me. “Your Majesty! It was all this consort’s—”

Before she could finish, the maid who had accused me was dragged away.

Panic flooded the girl’s face. She could not understand why she was the one being executed.

All the maids in the plum garden wore the same uniform. Only then did I notice the silk crabapple in the girl’s hair and the way she had altered her dress to emphasize her waist.

Her intentions could not have been clearer.

She had tried to seize the opportunity to show her face before His Majesty, dreaming of soaring into the clouds in a single bound.

“Your Majesty! This servant did not lie!”

At the edge of death, she crawled toward him on hands and knees, no longer caring whether the tear tracks on her cheeks looked delicate and pitiful.

She was not the only one who failed to understand the emperor’s decision.

“Lady Wang…” His expression was indifferent. “We had almost forgotten her.”

A thought flashed through my mind.

Lady Wang had been mad for years before my mistress ever entered the palace. His Majesty could not possibly have summoned a madwoman to his bed.

Then the child in her belly…

The father was either an imperial physician or a palace guard.

Or perhaps even a eunuch whose castration had been incomplete.

A consort had tainted the imperial bloodline. That child had never been destined to live.

The emperor waved a hand. The maid’s mouth was gagged, and the guards hauled her away.

As she struggled, her nails raked three bloody lines down her skin.

Her eyes were filled with the despair of impending death.

I remained kneeling as the emperor’s voice came once more from the head of the hall.

“You protected your mistress with loyalty. We award you one hundred taels of gold.”

I bowed to the floor, my voice still trembling. “This servant thanks Your Majesty for the reward.”