Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Everyone in my family knows how to fight a war.

Never mind my grandfather and my father. Even my older brother and I are highly skilled in martial arts.

But he can go to the battlefield. I cannot.

When my brother won yet another battle, the decree from the palace arrived too.

“The Chen Family’s second daughter is dignified by nature, virtuous and quiet in filial devotion…”

Whether or not I was filial was one thing. Those few lines were the real joke.

I was neither dignified nor quiet.

Every day I practiced martial arts, ate meat, drank milk, and spoke with sweeping confidence.

My mother’s face was so dark it looked ready to drip water, but I still accepted the imperial decree with trembling hands.

I made only one request.

I wanted to bring my Little Red Horse into the palace.

The palace attendant looked troubled. “Your Ladyship, bringing people or belongings would be one thing, but bringing a horse…”

I lovingly stroked the little horse’s nose. “When His Majesty fell in love with this Noble Consort at first sight, this Noble Consort was on horseback.”

I was talking complete nonsense.

The palace attendant hesitated.

“Since it is a token of love between His Majesty and Your Ladyship…”

And so I rode my little horse into the palace.

The night before, my mother had looked at me solemnly. “Our family has too many merits and too good a reputation. That is why the emperor is wary of us.”

I understood that.

Then she sighed. “In terms of talent and intelligence, you are even a step above your brother, yet you have to be trapped inside the palace.”

I was very calm. “It’s all right.”

“I am the public face of our family, after all.”

Back when I was still naive and ignorant, I once asked my mother, “Isn’t our family’s reputation built on fighting wars? Why is it that when I enter a martial arts competition and win, they say I’ve disgraced our family completely?”

My mother let out a long sigh. “Those incapable people want face too.”

But since they lacked ability and could not outcompete others, they had no choice but to compete through their wives and daughters.

They could not control an army, but surely they could control one little woman.

If a woman showed even an inch of skin, they would go mad.

If a woman took one wrong step, she would bring shame upon her entire family.

I not only rolled my sleeves up to my arms, I also wielded a long saber with a force that could stir the wind.

When my brother did it, he was a gifted young hero. When I did it, I was an utter disgrace.

Now that I had entered the palace and become the arrogant, domineering Noble Consort Chen, my father and brother had gone from feared military commanders whose achievements threatened the throne to pitiful men people could sympathize with: “They are fine at fighting wars, but unfortunately their daughter/sister doesn’t know her place and has no sense.”

If they ever truly made a mistake, people could also say, “It was all because that arrogant, willful daughter/sister corrupted him!”

I was my family’s life-saving talisman.

I was my family’s safety net.

I was a woman.

That night, the emperor came.

“I hear someone has been spreading gossip about you again?”

I gave an awkward smile. “It’s all right. I’m used to it.”

He laughed. “Keeping you confined in the palace has wronged you.”

I poured him a cup of tea, and he took it from me with practiced ease.

“Your brother and I grew up together. The person he worries about most is you.”

I was silent for a moment. “My brother has served at Your Majesty’s side since childhood. That is his good fortune.”

The emperor held my hand. “Since I promised your brother I would take care of you, you need not worry about anything in the palace.”

“If anything happens, come to me.”

There was a smile in his eyes. “I can still make decisions in the palace.”

He did not mention Noble Lady Liang. Only when he left the next morning did he lean close to my ear and whisper, “Anyone who disrespects you disrespects me.”

“A-Yuan, trust me.”

I kept my eyes shut and pretended to be asleep.

The emperor gently pressed a kiss to my forehead.

“Since you like riding, I will have the Imperial Household Department build you a new riding ground.”

My lashes trembled lightly.

I heard his soft laugh.

“You cannot even pretend to sleep properly.”

I did not get out of bed until after he left.

In truth, consorts were generally supposed to help the emperor dress and wash.

But in order to maintain my arrogant and domineering persona, I never did.

Today was another boring day.

I let Xiao Tao paint and powder my face, then arrange my hair with countless gold hairpins and jade rings.

I was bored out of my mind.

“My Lady! My Lady!”

Outside, a palace attendant shouted for me from beyond the curtain, breathless. “My Lady, Noble Lady Liang – ah, I mean Attendant Liang, the one demoted to the Cold Palace yesterday – she, she miscarried!”

I whipped my head around. “What?”

The palace attendant trembled. “I heard… I heard it happened while she was being punished by My Lady, kneeling and reciting scriptures…”

I closed my eyes.

Ah. There it was.