Chapter 4

Everyone in the capital knew the Princess Royal and her husband were a pair of living demons.

The prince consort was a general’s only son, lame in one leg, and the current Empress Dowager’s nephew. Arrogant and brutal, he had violated countless women.

The princess turned a blind eye. People in the capital had once taken this as proof of the couple’s devotion.

Now it seemed the princess loved someone else.

She did not want an open quarrel with her husband, but feared he would grow suspicious if he could not see her. So she used the excuse of sending him clothes to have me keep him occupied.

After all, an embroiderer’s honor was of little consequence.

But she had miscalculated. I was no ordinary embroiderer. I specialized in skinning.

With lowered eyes, I accepted the order and went to the front hall where her husband waited.

On the way, I drew an embroidery needle and slashed it hard across my face.

When the prince consort saw me and the clothes I carried, disgust spread over his face. He kicked me to the ground.

“Why are these clothes so large? What sort of embroiderer are you?” He snatched the garment, turned it over, and frowned.

Kneeling obediently, I answered, “The princess gave your servant these measurements. Perhaps I brought the wrong garment.”

He nodded. A moment later, his expression changed drastically.

I had exchanged the clothes the princess told me to deliver.

The replacement was sewn with golden thread and cut to a larger size. Unless he was a fool, he ought to work out the truth.

He smashed things for quite some time. I remained kneeling, too frightened to speak.

A long time had passed before I returned to the princess. The emperor was gone.

Seeing my battered face and bedraggled appearance, she laughed.

“Thanks to you, that useless man was kept busy. A pity about your face, though.

“Ah Qiu, you’re a resourceful embroiderer. I judged you correctly.”

Delighted, she granted me the special privilege of attending her closely.

The princess loved beauty. Besides finding fabrics and making her clothes, I had to discover ways to enhance her looks.

If I failed, the fate of the maids below would be mine.

Reclining on her couch with a smile, she pointed toward the maids kneeling in the hall.

They had all been disfigured. Not one face remained unblemished, and every woman bowed her head, naked.

The princess had ordered it.

She smiled, clapped her hands, and gave a command. Barbed whips lashed their bodies.

In an instant, the women were covered in blood, their flesh opening like flowers before peeling away.

From beauty to bare bones, in a heartbeat.

With a scornful smile, the princess joked, “Ah Qiu, I may value you, but you’d better finish my clothes soon. Otherwise, you’ll be one of them.”

The women she punished were all servants who had displeased her.

Some had offended her authority simply by being beautiful. Some had caught the emperor’s eye and provoked her jealousy. Others were embroiderers like me.

It all came down to her desire to preserve her beauty and her unique place in the emperor’s heart.

I clenched my hands and softly agreed.

…

The banquet drew near. The princess could wait no longer.

Her belly grew more pronounced, and her temper worsened with it. Once again, she had the maids and embroiderers in her household severely whipped.

Fortunately, the emperor arrived. The maids breathed a sigh of relief, thinking themselves spared.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, he remarked casually, “Ah Jie, you’ve grown a little thin.”

Kneeling at her skirts to attend her, I saw the smile at the corner of her mouth freeze.

The emperor left after a few more words. No servant in the household dared speak.

The princess gritted her teeth and hurled her teacup down.

Scalding tea spilled over me, burning my hand red.

She pulled me toward her and frowned. “Ah Qiu, he said I’ve grown thin. Is he tired of me? Has my complexion worsened?”

Before I could answer, she demanded a bronze mirror and examined her skin again and again.

The servants around her bowed their heads in terror. They all knew this was no time to speak.

But I nodded and said calmly, “Your Highness has grown a little thin.”

She whipped her head around and smashed the bronze mirror against my head. Blood immediately seeped from my forehead.

With blood running down my face, I took out a box of snowy white ointment.

“But Your Highness need not worry. To make noble ladies look more radiant in their clothes, your servant has a skin cream passed down through her family. In less than a month, it will make Your Highness’s skin exquisitely soft and delicate.”

The princess took the scented cream and lowered her head to smell it.

Before she could collect her thoughts, I began undressing her and applying the cream.

She leaned back on her couch and permitted it.

For the next several days, I alone moisturized her skin and applied the ointment. Her skin did indeed grow softer and thinner.

When the emperor next visited, I knelt outside the door and heard his astonishment.

“Your skin seems so much fairer and more translucent, Ah Jie.”

She laughed sweetly, sounding immensely pleased.

The next day, after the emperor left, she opened her door and crooked a finger at me.

She wanted me to help her dress.

“That cream of yours is quite something. Who would have thought an embroiderer knew about such things?”

In the sunlight, veins were faintly visible beneath her skin. It was as thin as transparent silk.

The other embroiderers who had come to attend her heard her praise and looked jealous.

The box of ointment was soon empty.

She herself urged me to make several more, to moisturize her skin every day.

Her skin became thinner and thinner, more easily marked with red. But the emperor visited more often too, and she was delighted.

Someone eager to flatter her wrote a poem declaring that even the thinnest cicada’s wing could not rival her skin.

She heard the poem and smiled.

I smiled too.

She did not know that the most important part of an embroiderer’s work was choosing the fabric.

A good fabric had to be soaked in ointment until it became thin and supple, easier to peel away and cut later.

I had specially blended that cream. Her skin would grow thinner and more sensitive until, like a fine piece of cloth, it was finally delivered into my hands.

And the red marks on her body lingered. She wanted to display them as proof of her intimacy with the emperor.

Little did she know they would sow the seeds of her ruin.

Someone who could no longer tolerate it was about to arrive.