Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Consort Yu was a young woman presented as tribute by a small foreign state.

She had snow-white skin and fragrant cheeks, but what left the deepest impression was her pair of willow-leaf brows.

Young and spirited, she was always trading barbs with the consorts of the various palaces.

She knew nothing of forming factions, nor did she understand the value of lying low and biding her time.

Whenever I looked at her, I often felt that she was the most flourishing winter jasmine in these palace walls.

The flowers bloomed with a dazzling beauty, and their fragrance spread with reckless abandon, yet they knew no restraint.

In the end, they would only invite disaster.

But Consort Yu showed no sign of reining herself in.

She continued to summon opera troupes to the palace for lively performances. She continued to leave the Late Emperor locked outside her doors on nights of torrential rain. And she continued to keep all the foreign pearls sent as tribute each year for herself.

The people throughout the palace complained bitterly, whispering about her behind her back.

But Consort Yu never cared.

Her youth and beauty were her shield.

The more she caused a stir, the more the Late Emperor favored her, until she had turned the entire palace upside down.

Consort Yu was in the prime of her beauty, with a face capable of bringing down kingdoms. He loved her gorgeous, vibrant manner, so unlike the stiff and rigid decorum of the palace consorts.

He doted on her just as he had once doted on Consort Zhen.

After Consort Zhen died, the Late Emperor considered her death inauspicious. He sent her out of the palace without even arranging an elaborate burial.

The Empress could not bear to watch and personally arranged her funeral.

Yet Consort Zhen’s remains stayed in Wantang Hall for several full days.

On the forty-second day after her death, I could not hold myself back and went to see the young woman off personally.

But Consort Yu was deeply displeased.

“You are one of the people in my palace. Why are you still thinking about your former mistress?”

So she punished me by making me kneel outside Linhua Palace for three days.

It poured every night during those three days.

While Consort Yu and the Late Emperor lost themselves in passion inside the palace, I watched the branches scattered across the ground by the wind and let out a bitter laugh.

I had only wanted to see that young girl off on the final leg of her journey.

But in this palace, even that was a grave taboo.

Once a person died, she was as extinguished as a lamp.

In the depths of the palace, once a flower withered, it was simply gone.

Anyone who mourned her was guilty of a crime punishable by death.

Three days later, when Consort Yu saw me, a trace of arrogance flashed across her beautiful face.

“Why are you still in my palace?”

I bent forward and bowed to her.

“This servant was ordered to serve in Her Highness’s palace and would not dare abandon her post without permission.”

Consort Yu gave a derisive laugh. “You saw His Majesty when he came to my palace that day, didn’t you?”

I answered her with silence.

She suddenly said, “This is the favor His Majesty has granted me. As for you, go back to wherever you came from.”

And so, I returned to Qingliang Hall once more.

Qingliang Hall was desolate and decrepit. I had heard that it had once been the residence of a Dowager Consort from the previous generation.

That Dowager Consort had been peerlessly beautiful, and her favor had surpassed that of every other woman in the harem.

Yet in the end, she had withered away because she bore no child.

Afterward, Qingliang Hall became a palace even more remote than the Cold Palace.

When I returned to Qingliang Hall, I discovered that there was an extra item in my bundle.

It was a tiny sprig of winter jasmine.

It had been dried in the sun and had withered until it was barely recognizable.