Chapter 3
Once we were inside the inner chamber, I changed into Zhao Lanxin’s clothes and tied him up.
I shook out the clothes I was wearing and asked, “Who am I?”
The Crown Prince tilted his head at me. “The Crown Princess.”
Satisfied, I pounced on him, seized his cheeks, and kneaded them this way and that.
Then I pulled out a little willow switch I had hidden and whipped the Crown Prince’s bottom!
The Crown Prince stared at me, his eyes round.
“You…” He squirmed on the bed and looked at me accusingly.
I pinned him down, gripped his chin, and said, “I’m bullying you. Do you understand?”
Aggrieved, the Crown Prince nodded.
What a good boy.
I stroked his face and whispered, “Don’t be afraid, and don’t cry out. I promise I won’t really hurt you. All right?”
The next day, the Empress came to see the Crown Prince.
He immediately rushed over, rolled up his sleeve, and showed her the welts the willow switch had left on his arm.
Then he wheeled around, pointed at Zhao Lanxin, and complained, “Mother, bad woman hit me!”
The Empress was both furious and heartbroken. Through clenched teeth, she ordered, “Li Fu! Lock this wretch in the prayer hall and take very good care of her for me!”
Uncle Weeping Ghost’s eyelid twitched. Bowing at the waist, he said, “Your Highness, this way, please.”
Zhao Lanxin dropped to her knees with a thud, her face drained white with fear. “Your Majesty, I didn’t… I…”
There was no way she could explain herself!
I lowered my head and avoided the look she shot at me.
“My poor son. Zhao Lanxin had such a virtuous reputation in the capital. I thought she could enter the Eastern Palace and care for you. I never imagined she was such a venomous woman.” The Empress was so distressed that she began to cry.
She reached for the marks on the Crown Prince’s arm.
He hid his arm behind his back, avoiding her touch.
The Empress sighed. “You still dislike being touched by others.”
In the end, the Crown Prince’s foolishness could not remain hidden.
The Emperor flew into a royal rage and sent the entire Imperial Academy of Medicine to examine him.
Every imperial physician trembled as he declared that the Crown Prince’s strange mental affliction was exceptionally rare.
After all their explanations, it came down to one thing: they could not cure him.
As Zhao Lanxin listened, her expression grew uglier by the moment.
The Emperor ordered the physicians to do everything in their power, but in the next breath, he moved the Crown Prince out of the Eastern Palace.
Our entire party was driven away to the remote Wutong Court.
The palace maids and eunuchs all feared for their futures. Some whispered that the Emperor intended to depose the Crown Prince.
The Empress was placed under confinement, leaving the Crown Prince with no one to look after him.
Zhao Lanxin nearly died of rage.
She smashed a vase in her room and snarled through clenched teeth, “Am I supposed to waste the best years of my life on this fool?”
After being punished by the Empress again and again, something in Zhao Lanxin had twisted.
Terrified of her, the Crown Prince stood pressed against the wall, motionless and too frightened to speak.
A shard from the vase had cut the back of his hand, and it would not stop bleeding.
I happened to be beside him, so I quietly took out my handkerchief and wrapped it around his hand.
“They say whores have no hearts and actors no loyalty. Yet after sleeping with him for only a few nights, even a brothel whore like you has learned to feel sorry for him.” Zhao Lanxin sneered. “The man is already an idiot, but every night you still romp around until there are marks everywhere. Even the maids changing the sheets blush when they see them.”
She was now utterly convinced the Crown Prince was finished. She even dared say such things openly.
I kept my head down and thought, How is that my fault?
Every time the Empress came, she dosed the Crown Prince with an astonishing amount of medicine. Neither of us got a moment’s sleep all night.
The bedding had to be changed again and again. If this continued, I suspected the Crown Prince might drain himself dry and die.