Chapter 6
Chapter 6
After being shut up in the cold palace for more than half a year, the Empress suddenly issued an edict ordering us to move to Danxia Palace.
I heard it had once been the Fifth Prince’s original residence.
That was the first time I ever saw the Empress.
She was nearly forty, yet she was extraordinarily beautiful and noble.
Kneeling on the ground, I secretly stole a glance at her. All I saw was a head full of pearls and jade, so dazzlingly splendid it made my eyes blur.
I lowered my head and noticed that even the Empress’s shoes were embroidered with gold thread, with pearls the size of thumbs dangling from them.
Good heavens. Wasn’t that just too rich?
If I ever returned to Tianxiang Pavilion and told the girls about this, wouldn’t they die of envy?
The Empress took the Fifth Prince by the hand and sighed. “Ah, your mother was lacking in virtue, but why should you have been implicated? I pleaded with His Majesty for so long, and only after his anger cooled did he agree to release you. From now on, you can live here in Danxia Palace at ease. I will make decisions for you in all matters.”
The Fifth Prince only grinned like a fool. He did not even know to answer her, and actually let his drool drip onto the Empress’s arm.
I looked up just in time to see the Empress’s face twist. My heart bloomed with delight.
Someone behind her coughed and said, “Mother Empress, it is stuffy in here. Your son will go out for a walk.”
As he left, he kicked me lightly.
I quietly slipped out as well.
Once outside, I looked around.
When I passed the rockery, someone suddenly yanked me behind it.
Seeing me so frightened that my pretty face had gone pale, the Crown Prince burst out laughing. “Look at you, like a little thieving tabby. What are you so afraid of?”
I punched his chest and said coyly, “If anyone else finds out, how is this servant supposed to keep living?”
The Crown Prince pinched my cheek and laughed. “You, oh, you. When you were seducing me, I didn’t see you being afraid.”
I pretended to be bashful and lowered my head, secretly rolling my eyes.
Bullshit!
That day, I had simply been bored to death in the cold palace and gone to the little garden for a stroll.
Who would have thought that when I turned my head, I would see the Crown Prince watching me from afar?
He was dressed in such a flashy shade of yellow. Who wouldn’t know who he was?
And that gaze of his-so direct, so hooked on me, it was practically about to strip my clothes off.
At once, I glared at him with both shyness and anger. “Lecher! Look at me one more time, and I’ll dig out your eyes!”
Then I turned and ran, deliberately dropping my handkerchief.
After that, little by little, he kept going to that small garden to wait for me.
When he confessed that he was the Crown Prince, I pretended to be shocked and afraid.
Trembling all over, I said, “Your Highness, Crown Prince, this servant…”
As I spoke, I began to cry.
The Crown Prince coaxed me. “There, there, my good girl, don’t be afraid. From now on, we’ll keep getting along just like this.”
I am no fool!
Of course I did not let him coax my body out of me.
A man like the Crown Prince had to be lured, dangled, and scolded.
Sure enough, my days in the cold palace grew better and better.
Every meal had meat and soup. I had so many clothes I could not wear them all.
If I so much as had a headache or fever, an imperial physician would come to diagnose me.
Only that fool remained silent, day after day.
In my heart, I knew that no matter how stupid he was, he probably knew I had a man outside.
Now that he had moved back to his old palace, his days would probably only get better.
It was also time for me to cut things off with him.
The Crown Prince kneaded my hand, calling me his darling and his treasure.
Irritated, he said, “War has broken out again in the northwest. If it weren’t for the need to win over that old bastard Han Chongxun, my mother, the Empress, would never have let Lao Wu out. In my opinion, we should have just left him in the cold palace to go mad and die.”
Han Chongxun, the foremost war general of Great Xia.
Even an illiterate prostitute like me knew the name of that hero.
In private, the Crown Prince had cursed him more times than I could count.
He was the sworn elder brother of the Former Empress, which made him something like the Fifth Prince’s uncle.
The Crown Prince was a petty, narrow-minded villain. If he became emperor one day, General Han would certainly suffer for it.
And if General Han died, how heartbroken would the people of the northwest be?
Alas, matters of nation and righteousness were not for a young woman like me to worry about.
Right now, all I wanted was to scrape together as much silver as I could, then coax the Crown Prince into letting me leave the palace so he could keep me outside as his mistress.
As for the Fifth Prince, I had long since stopped wanting anything to do with him.
After fooling around with the Crown Prince for a while, I returned to my bedchamber.
The moment I stepped inside, I nearly jumped out of my skin.
Everything the Crown Prince had given me had been ruined!
All those clothes had been cut to shreds and thrown across the floor!
The jewelry and headpieces were so mangled they were barely recognizable!
The Fifth Prince sat off to the side and chopped the head off a wooden doll with one stroke of his blade.
I clutched those clothes in my arms, my heart trembling.
Then I looked up and met his eyes, before looking down at the wooden doll whose head had fallen to the floor.
It was clearly carved in the Crown Prince’s likeness!
I was furious!
I cried as if my heart and liver had been torn apart!
It hurt. It hurt so much.
Through my tears, I wailed, “What madness has gotten into you?! Do you have any idea how much I had to endure the Crown Prince’s foul breath just to coax him into giving me all these good things?!”
I used to envy the Crown Princess.
But after getting close to the Crown Prince, I found myself pitying her instead.
A noble lady as pure as ice and jade, so lofty and untouchable-and yet her husband had bad breath. How awful must that be?
The Fifth Prince knelt down beside me and pulled me tightly into his arms.
Softly, he said, “Ah Yao, don’t go looking for him anymore. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you.”
It had been so, so long since we had held each other like this.
I cried even harder, pinching him, hitting him, biting him.
“Didn’t you think I was low and filthy?!”
“Didn’t you think it was wrong of me to seduce men?!”
“Stay away from me! I don’t care about you at all!”
The more I cried, the worse it became, as if my tears would never run dry.
In truth, I understood it in my heart too.
These days, I had deliberately kept my distance from the Fifth Prince, but I had not felt much better for it.
I had thought we were allies who shared both hardship and fortune.
I was a weed planted in the earth, and he was the soil that nourished me.
But when I looked up, I realized he was still hanging high in the heavens.
Only I was sunk low in the dust!
How could that not hurt?
The Fifth Prince held me and kissed the tears on my face. “I’m sorry, Ah Yao. I was driven mad with jealousy. Punish me however you like. I’ll accept it all.”
I sobbed and refused to pay him any attention.
He carried me into the inner chamber, and somehow, after all that fuss, we ended up on the bed.
Once the curtains were drawn, the Fifth Prince’s voice grew lower and lower, until only I could hear him.
And what he said grew more and more outrageous.
“Ah Yao, don’t cry. How about I let you ride me like a little pony?”
“Or you can tug on my braid, and I’ll bark like a puppy?”
“You don’t like either? Then I’ll let you kiss-”
I covered his mouth and said, both embarrassed and annoyed, “Stop talking! Fine, I forgive you!”
It had been a long time since we had been intimate. Under the Fifth Prince’s attentive care, my body went soft as water.
Looking into those beautiful eyes of his, I asked curiously, “Are you truly foolish, or are you only pretending?”
After spending more than half a year with him day and night, I still had not seen through him.
If I said he was foolish, he loved cleanliness and loved reading.
But if I said he was not foolish, he had drooled right in front of the Empress!
The Fifth Prince kissed me on the lips and murmured indistinctly, “I’m only Ah Yao’s fool.”