Chapter 8
It wasn’t until we returned to Zijin Kingdom.
The king stepped forward to embrace Queen Jinsheng.
But the ministers around them looked grave.
I finally realized.
Why—why wasn’t she wearing her five-colored cloud robe?!
In the original story, when the king embraced her, the robe was supposed to hurt him. Then Immortal Ziyang would appear and tell everyone that the robe he’d given her had kept the demon from touching her, so her chastity was intact. And everyone lived happily ever after.
Seeing my expression change, Queen Jinsheng smiled boldly in the king’s arms, but the vicious gleam at the corners of her eyes chilled me.
Oh no. Oh no. I didn’t think Queen Jinsheng had come back for a happy reunion.
The king felt guilty enough toward her to put the question of her chastity aside for the moment. The ministers, however, could not sit still.
Rumors spread through the palace and then among the people with astonishing speed.
After just one night, everyone knew Queen Jinsheng had returned to the palace with her chastity lost.
The king was so furious he fell gravely ill again.
My brother and I went to see him.
His face was pale, his eyes full of bewilderment. “She won’t forgive me,” he murmured.
“She hates me.”
Her return to the palace had been a secret.
Now everyone knew.
Only she could have done it.
I couldn’t help going to find Queen Jinsheng.
“Did you spread those rumors?
“Why?”
She sat before her mirror, arranging her hair and makeup, every smile and movement incomparably lovely. “From the day he pushed me out, everyone knew perfectly well what would happen to me.
“Why should the pain and suffering I endured be painted over as if all were well? Everyone ought to know how I paid for their three years of peace, free from demon attacks.”
She smiled mockingly. “They despise me as low and unclean, yet they have all benefited from me.
“Tell me, isn’t that funny?”
I paused, then sighed. “Where’s your five-colored cloud robe? If you wore it, the Golden-Furred Hou couldn’t touch you.”
She froze, and her face darkened. “You know about my robe?”
She flicked her sleeves, looking as though she might be laughing or crying. “He couldn’t touch me, but he could refuse to feed me. He could lock me away for a month without letting me see daylight.
“What good was that robe? That immortal gave me a five-colored cloud robe, yet refused to rescue me. Do you all think my life is worthless compared with my chastity?
“That rather than live after losing it, I should have died at the demon’s hands?
“I refuse! I chose to take off that robe and stand here with my head held high.
“The people who pushed me out and benefited from it feel no shame. Why should I?”
Well. She really hadn’t come back for a reunion.
She’d come to tear the place apart and collect what she was owed.
A dark version of Journey to the West.
Terrifying.