Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Push, Your Highness!”
“Breathe deeply!”
“Hot water!”
Mother tied back her sleeves and felt the Crown Princess’s belly. Her face changed at once.
“The baby is lying sideways.”
Everyone gasped. An elderly imperial physician began, “A transverse birth like this may be…”
The child might not survive.
Outside the door, the Crown Prince flew into a rage.
“I do not care whether the child is sideways or upright. I know only this: if anything happens to the Crown Princess or my son, every one of you will join them in death!”
“Mercy, Your Highness! Mercy!”
Everyone dropped to their knees, trembling.
I was delighted.
Good!
Let them all die!
At last Mother was going to die too.
The Crown Princess’s breathing grew weaker. Even her cries dwindled to almost nothing.
Everyone knelt in silence.
The Crown Prince’s cruelty was common knowledge.
Mother alone was unafraid. She saw only the patient before her. Ignoring his fury, she stood and said, “Place a slice of ginseng beneath Her Highness’s tongue.
“This commoner will turn the child.”
“Turn it?” one physician asked in surprise.
Mother massaged the Crown Princess’s belly and answered humbly, “My husband was a physician. He taught me the method.
“Because propriety forbade him from attending women in labor, he would instruct me while I used my hands.”
As she spoke, Mother pressed down hard.
The Crown Princess screamed.
The sharp-eyed midwife shouted, “It has turned! The baby has turned! I can see the head!”
Everyone on their knees sighed with relief and wiped the sweat from their brows. Then they began praising the prince in unison.
“His Highness is the heaven-appointed heir, blessed beyond measure! Heaven will surely protect the imperial son and bring him safely into the world!”
“Congratulations, Your Highness!”
If the Crown Prince truly carried Heaven’s mandate, then why could I meet the gaze of the tiny soul before me?
The baby glared with naked malice.
He could not speak. He only babbled furious insults that no one else could hear.
I stuck out my tongue to frighten him.
Then Mother, trembling all over, lifted a blood-covered infant from between the Crown Princess’s legs.
Her face went white. With tragic force, she cried to the room, “Stillborn!
“The Crown Princess has delivered a stillborn child!”
“A stillbirth!”
“An evil omen!”
“Heaven is punishing the people and the realm of Great Yan!”
Silence swallowed the chamber.
The Crown Princess could not bear the shock. She fainted.
“Useless, every last one of you!”
The Crown Prince kicked Mother savagely.
Mother had never recovered from giving birth to me. Her health had always been poor.
Without thinking, I threw myself in front of her—then remembered my own body beneath his horse’s hooves.
Stupid.
I was so stupid.
How could I feel sorry for Mother? I should bite the Crown Prince to death.
Rawr!
Mother fell to her knees in terror, clutching her chest as she coughed.
“Mercy, Your Highness.”
The Crown Prince swept a cold gaze over the people trembling at his feet. A vicious smile twisted his mouth.
“Guards! Kill them.
“Kill them all. Send them to accompany my son in death!
“What use are worthless creatures like you?”
A guard immediately dragged the foremost midwife outside.
His blade rose and fell.
There came one terrible scream. Her head struck the ground, and blood sprayed in every direction.
The guard expressionlessly wiped the blood from his face and hauled away the next person.
I shook from head to toe.
They were more frightening than ghosts.
The hall filled with countless cries and pleas for mercy. Mother alone neither struggled nor begged. She quietly wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
Then she closed her eyes and waited for death.
That night, corpses lay everywhere across the Crown Prince’s residence. Blood ran in streams. It was no different from hell on earth.
“Her Majesty the Empress has arrived!”
Just as a bloody blade touched Mother’s neck, a eunuch’s shrill announcement rang out.
Surrounded by servants, the Empress entered in stately splendor, every inch the mother of the nation.
The Crown Prince knelt, his eyes red.
“Mother, that was my son. I waited for him with such joy, and yet…”
The Empress sighed and helped him to his feet.
“Grieve if you must, but you should not make such a public spectacle of killing.
“Look at the mess you have made. Tomorrow the court will impeach you again for bloodthirsty cruelty.”
The Crown Prince scowled.
“Am I simply supposed to swallow this?
“They could not even save an imperial son. What use are they?”
The Empress was a fine mother. No one knew better how to soothe her child.
She said understandingly, “Why not keep them here in your residence? You may deal with them however you please later.
“If household slaves commit some offense and are beaten to death in private, what can the ministers say?”
The Crown Prince’s expression eased.
“Then we shall do as Mother says.”
With a single sentence from the Empress, Mother went from a commoner to a slave in the Crown Prince’s household.
Two other midwives and four maids who had attended the Crown Princess were enslaved with her.
Everyone in the residence was vicious and cruel. Since the Crown Prince wanted them dead, the lightest punishment was abuse and the harshest a flogging.
Within a month, some were crippled and others dead.
Their bodies were rolled in straw mats, carried to the mass grave, and abandoned—sometimes without their heads.
Mother was difficult to kill, and her heart remained soft. She removed her jewelry and gave it to the dead women’s families, whispering, “Amitabha.”
Spring passed into autumn. Snow wound through the winter night.
The Crown Princess did not conceive again that year, and the Crown Prince took many more concubines.
Servants bustled to flatter their masters. The women vied for the Crown Prince’s favor, jealous and scheming.
His residence was livelier than ever.
No one remembered Mother. She survived by keeping her head down.
One day, after another beating, she dragged her battered body back to her room and began applying medicine.
The door flew open with a bang.
A maid had barged in without warning. At the sight of Mother’s back—covered in a hideous lattice of new wounds and old scars—she flinched.
Mother hurriedly pulled on her clothes and knelt.
The maid covered her nose, frowned, and drew her foot away in disgust.
“The Crown Princess wishes to see you. Move quickly!”
Why would the Crown Princess summon Mother?
Did she mean to kill her?