chapter 3
Last night, Lady Xie’s attempt to steal him away had failed. In her fury, she had tampered with the soup I was to eat this morning.
My nose was keen, and I had studied pharmacology—I could identify any herb by smell.
She acted so openly and brazenly, certain I would swallow the insult.
After all, the consorts she had bullied before had all swallowed theirs.
But I was different. I was the Guardian General’s sister, and some boldness on my part was only fitting.
So I took the evidence, kicked open her door, pressed a blade to her neck, and dragged her before Xiao Jingcheng.
Then I knelt neatly and began to raise a ruckus.
“Your subject has only just entered the palace, and on the very first day someone struck at me. To act so blatantly is to insult me beyond measure!
“Today it’s contraceptive herbs, tomorrow it’ll be safflower, and the day after who knows what—red arsenic or ‘crane’s crest’ poison?”
The whole performance was fluid and seamless.
After three quarters of an hour, Xiao Jingcheng’s ears had gone soft from my weeping, and he finally relented:
“Very well, my beloved consort, how shall she be punished?”
“Your subject wants her fingernails pulled!”
He hemmed and hawed for a moment:
“Jiayu… she is my wet nurse.”
I wiped away my tears, determined to make a mountain out of a molehill:
“What of it? Does being a wet nurse give one license to run rampant in the palace and slip drugs into consorts’ food?”
Xiao Jingcheng opened his mouth, then closed it again.
On one side was his wet nurse, whom he had depended on since childhood.
On the other was his newly favored consort, the general’s sister.
“Jiayu!”
He pulled me close, trying to smooth things over:
“If we pull her fingernails, won’t everyone laugh at the sight!”
I nodded sagely:
“If Your Majesty worries it will invite ridicule, then let’s pull her toenails instead. Surely no one will notice that?”
“……” Xiao Jingcheng was momentarily at a loss for words.
Seizing the opportunity, I turned around:
“Since His Majesty has agreed, what are you all standing around for? Drag her out and carry out the sentence on the spot!”
A few nimble eunuchs seized her and dragged her out.
Shrieks came from beyond the door, and after a while, all went quiet.
Xiao Jingcheng couldn’t openly stop it, so he could only make up for it afterward—granting her the right to ride a palanquin within the palace until her feet healed.
I went to pay my respects to the Empress Dowager and was kept for breakfast. Afterward, planning to walk off my meal, I set out for my own palace on foot.
Just then, a palanquin passed by me. Squinting in the sunlight, Lady Xie sat atop it, surrounded by a throng of attendants.
She seemed to enjoy asserting her authority over newcomers like me.
How fortunate—I loved deflating her arrogance.
“Stop.”
I spoke coldly from behind her:
“Who do you think you are, to presume to ride ahead of me?”
The palanquin bearers heard me and slowly set it down.
“Consort Yu.” She raised a hand lazily. “I’m a bit unsteady on my feet these days, so I won’t get down to bow. Forgive me, Your Ladyship.”
I walked around to face her:
“If your feet are unsteady, you should remember all the better who crippled them.
“Someone, drag her down and beat her.”
No one dared move.
Last time, Xiao Jingcheng had only agreed to my demand reluctantly. This time, it was anyone’s guess whose side he’d take.
Unable to offend either of us, the crowd knelt in a flurry, crying, “Please calm your anger, Your Ladyship!”
I laughed coldly.
From my sleeve I drew a stack of banknotes and fanned them in the air:
“This is a thousand taels. Twenty taels a slap, first come first served. If anything goes wrong, I’ll take responsibility.”
Finally, a young eunuch mustered his courage, walked over, and laid a solid slap on her.
I nodded approvingly: “Continue.”
More and more maids and eunuchs itched to join in, and for a time, crisp slaps rang out one after another.
After fifty slaps, Lady Xie walked toward me, supported by her attendants.
Blood dripped from her lips, her face mottled red and white:
“Consort Yu, we were strangers before, with nothing but a few chance encounters. Why must you be so ruthless, pressing me at every step?”
Hearing this, emotions surged violently within me.
This was ruthlessness?
This was pressing her at every step?
Then what of my parents, who died beneath the blades without a whole corpse? What of my sister-in-law, humiliated and violated to death?
Who would cry injustice for them? Who would avenge them?
I waved a hand dismissively:
“Pressing you at every step? It was you who provoked me again and again.”
Her narrow eyes curved, and she warned me without a change in expression:
“Your Ladyship has just entered the palace and still doesn’t understand its twists and turns. But I’m different—I’m an old hand here, and even the emperor shows me some respect.
“Allow me to give you a piece of advice: leave a thread for others to hold, and you’ll meet again without enmity.”
The last person who had dared treat her this way was Consort Lin, the eldest daughter of the Minister’s household.
Once, Consort Lin had caught Lady Xie emerging disheveled from Xiao Jingcheng’s study.
A proper young lady of a distinguished family, she could hardly stomach such a sight and pointed at Lady Xie’s nose, cursing her a “base strumpet.”
Lady Xie had said nothing at the time.
Unlike those who exacted vengeance on the spot, she was more like a patient venomous snake, lurking in the dark and watching her prey, striking only when the moment was ripe.
Two years later, the Minister was found guilty of corruption, his household was raided, and he was thrown in prison. Consort Lin was cast into the cold palace—and that was when Lady Xie began her revenge.
She gave the order that no servant was to deliver anything to the cold palace, and Consort Lin starved to death.
“Rest assured, Lady,” I said through gritted teeth, “even if I’m not the one who walks out of this last, I’ll make sure you go before me.”
“Very well.” She raised an eyebrow. “Then I shall wait and see.”