Chapter 3
Chapter 3
The edict granting Fifth Lady Cui entry into the palace was stamped with the Phoenix Seal and placed by Yan Lang’s hand.
Yan Lang scanned it nonchalantly, unsurprised.
“She’s finally willing to bow her head? How did you persuade her?”
“Did you tell her I would protect her supreme status as Empress? Or that I would name her child Crown Prince in the future?”
Ultimately, it came down to wealth, status, and honor.
After all, Cui Zhangzhu had once placed great importance on the title of Prince’s Consort.
Back when he had been framed by his imperial brother, he hadn’t had the heart to let Mingshu gamble her life alongside him.
Instead, he had chosen Cui Zhangzhu, who had just come to the Cui family to seek recognition.
An illegitimate daughter of questionable bloodline, given the chance to fly to the branches and become a Prince’s Consort, was naturally overjoyed and readily agreed.
On their wedding night, a snobbish eunuch had mistreated Yan Lang. Seeing that he had developed a high fever, the man still refused to let anyone out to summon an imperial physician.
While drifting in and out of consciousness, Yan Lang watched as Zhangzhu urgently tore off her bridal veil and went out to argue with the eunuch guarding the door.
Despite her offering a silver hairpin and pleading submissively, the eunuch merely picked his ears, completely indifferent.
In a fit of desperation, Zhangzhu pulled a wood-cutting knife from the woodpile. She pressed the rust-stained blade against her own neck, her gaze fierce and resolute.
“I am now the Fourth Prince’s Consort. If you do not report this for me, the Emperor will know tomorrow that the Fourth Prince’s Consort could not endure the humiliation of a wicked servant and slit her own throat!”
During the half-month Yan Lang was ill, even Wei Yan, the eldest son of the Duke Protector and his close friend, had been unable to send a medical attendant inside.
Yet, she had actually done it.
After a dose of medicinal soup, Yan Lang’s fever broke, and he finally looked at her closely.
She bore a seventy percent resemblance to Cui Mingshu, but her eyes were far more stubborn than Mingshu’s.
Yan Lang couldn’t help but curl his lips into a slight smile. “When you threaten someone, you should point the knife at them. What’s the point of hurting yourself?”
Teased by her husband, she pursed her lips, and her face suddenly flushed red.
“I’ve never killed anyone before. I didn’t dare.”
“Weren’t you afraid they wouldn’t fall for it?”
Zhangzhu smiled sheepishly, a hint of cunning and pride flashing in her eyes. “I am the Prince’s Consort, after all. They wouldn’t dare.”
Yan Lang found it somewhat laughable. Even he, a prince who had lost the Emperor’s favor, was looked down upon by everyone, yet she, a mere Prince’s Consort, actually took herself quite seriously.
Eunuch Zhou carefully wiped the thin sweat from his forehead.
“This servant promised to protect her position as Empress and mentioned the appointment of the Crown Prince.
“I said many soft words, but Her Majesty refused to admit her fault…
“However, the charcoal in Jianjia Palace was insufficient. When her cold affliction flared up, the pain was severe. Her Majesty couldn’t endure it and kept shedding tears…”
Yan Lang’s hand paused. The brush dipped in cinnabar was abruptly thrown onto the desk.
“Who told you to stop her charcoal supply?”
A year ago, when Her Majesty returned from the traveling palace, she did not ride with the Emperor. The shrewd people in the Internal Affairs Office had already noticed the signs that Her Majesty had lost the Emperor’s favor. Consequently, for any seasonal rewards or gifts, whatever Jianjia Palace received, the Fifth Lady’s quarters often received more than double.
A crowd of palace servants hurriedly knelt on the ground, feeling that the Emperor’s mind was unpredictable. They wondered at which watch tonight the King of Hell would come to the Internal Affairs Office to claim their lives.
“Does Your Majesty wish to go to Jianjia Palace to visit Her Majesty?”
Go see her for what?
For a couple who had been together since youth to reach this point, their meetings consisted of nothing but arguments and insults.
“Never mind.” Yan Lang set down the memorial in his hand, his brow suddenly smoothing. “How is the renovation of the Fifth Lady’s palace progressing? She enjoys watching plays; select some performers from the Pear Garden for her amusement, and assign more clever servants to wait on her.”
Having seen the life, death, glory, and disgrace behind these red walls, whenever fortune or calamity loomed, Eunuch Zhou-Zhou Daxi-often had a sharp, accurate intuition.
It had allowed him to follow the right masters time and again amidst the stormy waves, preserving his life and wealth.
Now, that same intuition stirred in his heart, making Eunuch Zhou want to ask about the testament he had seen by Her Majesty’s hand yesterday.
“Yesterday, this servant saw at Jianjia Palace…”
Yan Lang waved his hand impatiently.
“After the Fifth Lady enters the palace, there is no need to report any matters regarding Jianjia Palace.”
Eunuch Zhou lowered his head. Outside the hall, General Wei Yan requested an audience.
Wei Yan had become Yan Lang’s study companion at the age of ten. Whether in wealth or ruin, he had never abandoned Yan Lang.
After taking the reins of government, Yan Lang became suspicious and sensitive, yet he never harbored a single doubt toward Wei Yan.
“Since you’ve come to the palace this time, you must stay for a short while.
“Tomorrow, the Fifth Lady enters the palace. It is a joyous occasion worth celebrating. I wish to drink heartily with you; you are not allowed to refuse.”
Wei Yan was also somewhat surprised.
“She is actually willing?”
Cui Zhangzhu was, after all, Yan Lang’s wife. Wei Yan did not have much private contact with her.
He only knew that the hatred between Cui Zhangzhu and Cui Mingshu stemmed from Cui Mingshu’s biological mother-the primary wife of the Cui family-who had hounded Zhangzhu’s mother to death. Her mother had been a powerless mistress, a romantic debt incurred by the Cui patriarch during a trip to the south.
The primary wives of great families had clean and efficient methods for dealing with such “flowers and birds.”
He remembered when he had gone to find Cui Zhangzhu on Yan Lang’s orders.
The fourteen-year-old girl was dressed in plain mourning white, wailing in despair over her mother’s body like a young animal that had lost its protector.
Her mother’s body lay in the mortuary, with no money for a burial, nearly at the point of breeding maggots.
Wei Yan told her it was Fourth Prince Yan Lang who had stepped in, granting her mother a proper burial in the Cui Clan’s ancestral tombs.
Before Wei Yan could even state the condition-that she must marry Yan Lang-Zhangzhu had already wiped the tears from her face, her eyes filled with nothing but gratitude.
“What does the Fourth Prince want me to do? As long as he asks, Zhangzhu would die ten thousand deaths for him.”
She said it, and she truly lived it.
When Yan Lang was under house arrest, she personally tasted his medicine for poison and asked Wei Yan to borrow medical texts so she could learn how to nurse Yan Lang back to health.
Because she was literate, she also helped the palace servants and eunuchs write letters home, which once led to a misunderstanding.
A scholar outside the palace who transcribed letters thought she was some kindhearted palace maid and even asked at the end of a letter if she was betrothed.
Knowing that Yan Lang loved Fifth Lady Cui, Wei Yan never told anyone else that he deeply admired Zhangzhu’s character.
“Come and help me choose. What color rouge should I send to the Fifth Lady tomorrow?”
Wei Yan considered himself a loyal subject and felt there were things he had to say plainly: “Your Majesty, the harmony between the Emperor and Empress serves as a model for the world. Do not let people criticize you for being ungrateful and cold-hearted.”
These words drained Yan Lang’s interest in picking rouge.
Dark clouds pressed down over the palace. Eunuch Zhou tactfully presented a chessboard and ordered a maid to serve tea.
“This is newly offered tribute tea. Your Majesty has been waiting to share a drink with General Wei.”
The chessboard before him reminded him of the time he was besieged by his three imperial brothers. Zhangzhu had donned his robes and mounted the White Lion Horse.
She wore no makeup, and her eyes were as bright as the torch in her hand. In the dark of night, she left a searing mark on both his and Wei Yan’s hearts.
She had said, “Your Highness, I can die for you.”
When she loved him with all her heart, she was willing to die for him.
And over these years, he believed he had treated Zhangzhu quite well.
He was even willing to wait five years for her to bear an heir before bringing the Fifth Lady into the palace.
He had even been willing to give her the death-faking pill offered by Sorcerer He of Penglai Mountain to help her avoid trouble.
“Even if I am willing, where is the path for me to step down?”
Wei Yan placed a chess piece and sighed.
“The rouge you picked just now was beautiful; she would likely have liked it too.
“Recall Censor Li to the capital. He was, after all, the man she selected. He is an upright official who does not flatter superiors or oppress subordinates.”
Yan Lang stood up and instructed Eunuch Zhou, “Forget it. To Jianjia Palace.”
In the dead of night, a little eunuch delivering news of a death ran in a panic, accidentally tripping and falling.
The mourning bells tolled four times. Ignoring the slush on his clothes, the little eunuch scrambled up and cried out:
“The Empress has passed away-!”
As the news reached the hall, the box of rouge crashed to the floor.
“Your Majesty?”
“Your Majesty, watch out for the slippery snow-!”
Snow fell outside the hall, soft as cotton.
Yan Lang stumbled into the snow.
The world was a vast expanse of white, like a game of Go where the black pieces had lost everything.
“Wasn’t she fine yesterday? How could she suddenly…”
Heng’er understood nothing. Terrified by Yan Lang, whose eyes were wide with such agonizing intensity they seemed ready to burst, the boy burst into loud wails.
“I don’t know, Heng’er doesn’t know anything…”
There were three instructions left on the desk.
She reminded the Medical Bureau that this winter was not cold, so they must guard against spring epidemics and disasters.
She asked the Internal Affairs not to delay the palace maids’ departures for marriage because of the Empress’s funeral rites.
She asked for Heng’er to be sent back to his mother’s side, so they would not be cruelly separated again.
There was not a single word for him.
While the entire palace was in mourning, Yan Lang was the only one who didn’t feel sad; he was merely annoyed.
Annoyed that Zhangzhu had a huge argument with him half a month ago and still hadn’t bowed her head to admit her mistake.
Annoyed that the tactless Ministry of Rites was kneeling outside the hall, saying they didn’t know how to determine the Empress’s posthumous title, write her biography, or arrange her entry into the imperial mausoleum.
Memorials piled up on the desk like snow on the eaves. The officials tried to guess the Emperor’s mood from the imprisonment of the Internal Affairs officials, filling their pages with lavish praise.
They suggested the posthumous title ‘Virtuous, Moral, Gentle, and Respectful,’ yet she had once chased a eunuch through three streets like a shrew, brandishing a knife because he had withheld Yan Lang’s food. She had wept bitter tears of grievance for the hungry Yan Lang.
They described her life as ‘Noble and Carefree,’ but he remembered that after his ascension, Zhangzhu did nothing but argue with him or act out of spite.
She always seemed to be crying, always crying.
As for the imperial mausoleum, Yan Lang finally recalled a bit of Cui Zhangzhu’s merit. For the sake of their marriage, he was willing to grant her posthumous glory, permitting her to share a tomb with him.
Before the vermilion ink for the joint burial could be applied, Aunt Sun, the head of Jianjia Palace, knelt respectfully outside the hall. She said the Empress had requested a final favor before her death.
Yan Lang could roughly guess what it was.
Eighty percent chance she wanted to bow her head and admit her mistake, then ask for an honorable posthumous title, a posthumous promotion, and for him to forbid Cui Mingshu from entering the palace.
“No.
“The Empress said she does not wish to be buried with you. She requested to be buried in the concubines’ tombs.”
Yan Lang froze.
“The Empress said this life was too wretched. Whether in the blue vault of heaven or the Yellow Springs of the underworld, she never wants to see you again.”