Chapter 8
When it comes to swapping bodies…
The first time is strange; the second, you’re used to it.
Xiao Xuechi and I soon accepted that we had exchanged again—or rather, he required no time to accept it at all. He pulled the covers over his head and slept.
I alone stared up at the canopy, growing ever more convinced that my future was hopeless.
Then I fell asleep in that hopeless darkness.
There was no court the next morning.
I slept comfortably until the sun was high. While I was eating breakfast, Jiang Youde came in carrying a stack of memorials.
Our eyes met. Surprise flashed across his face, then was quickly and carefully concealed.
I lowered my chopsticks. “Where is the list I asked you to prepare yesterday?”
Jiang Youde bowed. “Your Majesty, I presented it to you last night.”
Looking at him, I couldn’t help smiling.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one with a trusted confidant who knew me extremely well. Xiao Xuechi had one too.
Jiang Youde was clearly testing me. If Xiao Xuechi had been inside this body, how would he have dared answer that way?
I dismissed everyone except Jiang Youde and Yuanyuan.
Then I called toward the inner room.
“Your Majesty, come out and attend to your memorials.”
Xiao Xuechi wandered out lazily, an outer robe draped over him. He yawned four or five times in those few steps. Once seated, he unceremoniously took a sip from my teacup.
Jiang Youde looked at him, then at me.
“Your Majesty?”
Who knew which of us he meant.
“What memorials?”
Xiao Xuechi lazily handed him a sheet of paper. “Read Her Imperial Majesty the Empress the things she’s interested in.”
My eyes lit up. “Surely I shouldn’t,” I said modestly.
He glanced at me with a half smile. “Then burn it.”
I hurriedly refilled his tea with a false smile.
“Your Majesty, I was joking.”
Xiao Xuechi gave a little amused snort and ignored me.
Only then did Jiang Youde unfold the list and begin reading with careful emphasis.
“Li Xiang, commander of the palace guards. Disrespect toward His Majesty. Twenty strokes.”
“Qin Feng, official of the imperial clan. Disrespect toward His Majesty. Demotion.”
“Lu Deng, Chief Justice. Disrespect toward His Majesty. Imprisoned pending execution…”
I couldn’t help interrupting.
“Wait. Why is every charge disrespect toward His Majesty?”
Jiang Youde looked helplessly toward Xiao Xuechi. “Well…”
“I couldn’t be bothered deciding on charges. Disrespect is such a useful one.”
He lifted his chin, signaling Yuanyuan to serve him porridge.
I beat her to it and handed him a bowl, all eagerness to please.
“Your Majesty, how exactly were they disrespectful?”
Perhaps I imagined it, but Xiao Xuechi seemed very pleased by my honeyed words and ingratiating manner.
He had last night; he did again this morning.
With unusual patience, he said, “I don’t remember. Jiang Youde, tell her.”
Jiang Youde bowed.
“Yes. When Your Majesty was choosing consorts before the hall, you struck the pomegranate on the commander’s head. Yet the commander begged you to withdraw your decree, claiming that his daughter was ugly. Your Majesty was furious and ordered twenty strokes as a warning to others.”
I was rather surprised. “Only twenty strokes for disobeying an imperial command?”
What tyrant? This was positively a benevolent ruler!
Xiao Xuechi stirred his porridge with a silver spoon.
“Yes. He wouldn’t send his daughter into the palace, so I had to bring his son in instead.”
Yuanyuan and I drew sharp breaths together.
“And his son is…?” I asked.
“In the cold palace, if he isn’t dead,” said Xiao Xuechi.
With excellent judgment, Jiang Youde waited for my expression to return to normal.
Only then did he continue.
“The imperial clan official—”
“I remember that one.”
Xiao Xuechi interrupted. “I told the old fool to record that the late emperor’s deposed crown prince was a pig. He refused, so I could only send him to the agricultural office to raise pigs.”
I had nothing to say.
Only you, Xiao Xuechi. Only you.
I held back for a long time.
Then I decided to leave those two, whose lives weren’t in immediate danger, aside for now.
“And why is the Chief Justice awaiting execution? Even in Yizhou, I heard he was a good official.”
Jiang Youde stammered.
“I dare not say.”
I could only look at Xiao Xuechi again.
He propped his chin on his hand. It was unmistakably my face, yet somehow it always showed a weariness that wasn’t mine.
“The Chief Justice…”
He smiled. “He denounced me before the court for murdering my father and brothers and seizing the throne illegitimately. He said he was ashamed to serve an emperor like me and meant to sacrifice his life for the nation right there in the throne hall.”
“Could I indulge him? Of course not.”
“He wanted his name remembered through the ages. So I insisted on having him executed in the street.”