Chapter 3
Chapter 3
“Are you Rongniang, the midwife who was Physician Li’s wife?”
“This slave is she, Your Highness.”
After a year in the Crown Prince’s residence, Mother had learned its rules. She now called herself a slave.
The Crown Princess lounged indolently, but her gaze sharpened.
“You were the one who attended me during my first labor?”
Mother hesitated, then nodded.
“Yes.”
“And you are still alive. Rotten weeds truly are hard to kill.”
The Crown Princess displayed neither pleasure nor anger.
Unable to guess her mistress’s thoughts, Mother bowed to the floor without protesting or defending herself.
The Crown Princess pursed her lips, ordered a maid to bring tea, and ignored the kneeling woman.
After an incense stick had burned away, she set down her cup.
“Steady enough. Come take my pulse.”
Mother crawled forward on her knees and obeyed with the utmost deference.
“Well?”
After a moment, Mother answered honestly, “Your Highness’s body was damaged in childbirth. With careful treatment, you will certainly conceive again.”
“Insolence! How dare you presume to know what I desire?”
Mother raised her head, neither servile nor overbearing.
“This slave attended Your Highness’s labor and knows precisely where the injury lies. I am willing to ease Your Highness’s troubles.
“My late husband also possessed a secret ancestral prescription that can help a woman conceive.”
Light flickered in the Crown Princess’s eyes. Her unreadable manner vanished.
Unable to conceive, she had sent people everywhere in search of physicians. That search had led them to the widow of Physician Li, a woman known among the common people as the Lady of Fertility.
She had never imagined the woman was hidden inside her own residence—or that she had survived the torment this long.
“Is that true?”
“It is.”
Mother nodded with conviction.
“If Your Highness has not conceived within three months, this slave will pay for the failure with her life.”
Under Mother’s careful treatment, the Crown Princess conceived after only two months.
She reclined on a couch, glowing with health as she caressed her belly and looked down at Mother.
“You have done well. You deserve a reward.”
Mother crawled obediently to her side and massaged her legs with groveling devotion.
“This slave merely followed orders. It is Your Highness and His Highness who are blessed by Heaven.”
The Crown Princess sighed with pleasure.
From then on, she kept Mother close and allowed no one else to handle her medicine.
When the Crown Prince learned of the pregnancy, he came to dine and spend the night.
The woman who had lost his favor held it once more.
In the mist of early morning, rain had beaten the pale pear blossoms to pieces across the ground.
Mother waited outside with a steaming bowl of medicine. Through the dark wooden lattice, she could hear the Crown Prince painting his wife’s brows.
“Shu’er is as beautiful as ever.”
“More beautiful than Jia’er?”
“Are you jealous?”
“This wife would never.”
I could hear them.
Mother could too, yet she gave no sign. I could not tell what she was thinking.
Once, I had watched Father paint Mother’s brows and dot her forehead with the peach-blossom ornament fashionable among the capital’s wealthy ladies.
They had loved one another too.
But then they stopped.
And so they stopped loving me.
If Mother loved me, why would she help my enemy?
Why would she hurt herself?
The medicine in her hands had been brewed from eighty-eight herbs, with human blood as its catalyst.
Why?
Why would she do this?
After breakfast, the Crown Prince told the servants, “Take good care of the Crown Princess. If anything happens, I will hold every one of you responsible.”
The Crown Princess suddenly pointed at Mother.
“Your Highness, do you still remember her?”
How could the Crown Prince remember someone so insignificant?
“She was the midwife who attended my first labor. You nearly had her executed.”
At the memory of his dead child, his face darkened.
“Worthless. She would deserve it.”
“She remains useful to me.”
“Then keep her alive for now.”
The Crown Princess smiled. With a teasing lift of her brows, she called, “Come in.”
Mother presented the medicine. When the Crown Princess had finished, Mother thoughtfully offered her a candied fruit.
The Crown Princess placed it leisurely in her mouth.
“I hear Physician Li died without an heir. What is the matter? Could his ancestral prescription not save his own line from extinction?”
Mother paused, then smiled faintly.
“This slave was not blessed with the fate of bearing children.”
“Of course. Not everyone possesses the fortune His Highness and I do. I wished for an imperial son, and here he is.
“Tomorrow, you will accompany me to the palace.
“Her Majesty the Empress wishes to see you.”
The Empress summoned Mother for no reason beyond the Crown Princess’s pregnancy. She wanted to see the rumored Lady of Fertility for herself.
Adults all seemed to have poor memories.
Mother had knelt for half an hour before the Empress appeared to remember her.
“She does not look like a woman with wicked intentions,” the Empress said.
“Have her examine the Crown Prince’s other women.”
The Crown Princess bit down on her lip. She knew the Empress had planned this from the beginning.
The Empress patted her hand soothingly.
“Shu’er, I know you are understanding. Surely you appreciate my difficulty.
“The Crown Prince still has no heir. As a member of the imperial family, it is your duty to continue the bloodline.
“When he ascends the throne, this will also silence the ministers.”
“Mother’s lesson is wise.”
The moment the Crown Princess left the palace, she erupted in fury. Every servant in her courtyard knelt.
Mother entered with her medicine.
At the thought of Mother treating all the concubines, the Crown Princess kicked the bowl from her hands.
Medicine spilled across the floor. Mother dropped to her knees, trembling.
“You are too useful for your own good,” the Crown Princess hissed. “Now everyone wants a piece of you!”
When her anger had passed, Mother returned to brew another dose.
The mixture bubbled in its clay pot.
Mother pushed back her sleeve. Her slender wrist was already covered in scars from repeated bloodletting.
A sharp knife sliced swiftly through an old wound.
Mother did not even flinch.
It looked so painful.
Bright blood dripped into the medicine.
My heart ached.
The Crown Prince had so many women. Each one drank this medicine.
Was Mother going to die?
All at once, I no longer wanted her to die this way.