Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I didn’t know when Pei Xingzhi had arrived.

And I had no idea how much of what was just said he’d heard.

I only watched as he calmly stepped over the shattered jade scattered across the ground, the unity knot at his waist swaying gently with each step.

Song Liangyin threw herself into his arms, eyes red. “It was this concubine’s fault. I accidentally broke Elder Sister’s jade pendant…”

“As long as Elder Sister calms down, this concubine is willing to make amends however she wishes.”

Pei Xingzhi said nothing.

His eyes lowered slightly. “Pure Consort, what do you think should be done?”

His tone was cold, devoid of feeling.

I thought for a moment. “It’s only a jade pendant. Why make things difficult for Her Highness?”

In the biting wind.

Pei Xingzhi silently stared at me without a word.

Only the hand at his side gradually curled into a fist, a sign that he was angry.

I immediately dropped to my knees. The moment my knees touched the ground dusted with a thin layer of snow, a shiver ran through me.

The next second, someone yanked me back up with a force that spoke of barely restrained fury.

“Why are you kneeling?”

Pei Xingzhi dragged me in front of him, his face expressionless. “Are you afraid of me?”

Behind him, the palace maids and eunuchs were kneeling all across the ground.

I looked at Pei Xingzhi in alarm.

Our eyes met, but it was as if something had stabbed him. He turned his gaze away in visible disarray.

“Well now, what’s going on with the Emperor and Pure Consort?”

The Empress Dowager’s amused voice rang out, the Little Prince following behind her.

She slowly walked over, her gaze sweeping across everyone present before her expression turned stern. “Even if Pure Consort has done something wrong, she is still a consort of rank.”

“Emperor, no matter how much you favor the Noble Consort, don’t neglect the old ones too much and chill their hearts.”

Pei Xingzhi released me without a trace of emotion. His tall frame stood amid the frost like a pine tree.

“Take Li Pin, for example,” the Empress Dowager said with a heavy sigh. “Wasn’t it only a moment of madness that drove her to use musk to prevent the Noble Consort from bearing children? Stripping her of her title and reducing her to a commoner would have been enough. Why take her life as well?”

This was the first time I had learned the true cause of Li Pin’s death.

I froze, then turned to look at Pei Xingzhi.

His head was slightly bowed, his expression indifferent. “Li Pin deserved what she got.”

Sensing my gaze, Pei Xingzhi lifted his eyes.

We looked at each other for a few seconds.

Then he shifted his gaze away expressionlessly.

After returning to my bedchamber,

I thought about it for a long time.

Back then, the Late Emperor had been gravely ill.

The Empress Dowager’s legitimate son was still young. Among all the imperial princes, only Pei Xingzhi had reached adulthood, and he stood head and shoulders above the rest.

So the Late Emperor raised him from Prince Yu and named him Crown Prince.

The Empress Dowager was indignant, but there was nothing she could do. She could only send her grandniece into the Eastern Palace with the status of Liangdi.

That was the future Li Pin.

All these years, Pei Xingzhi had always been neither warm nor cold toward Li Pin.

He only visited her palace occasionally out of regard for the Empress Dowager.

Li Pin never seemed to care much. She would always come keep me company with that calm smile of hers.

We brewed tea, arranged flowers, embroidered, and blended incense.

She was especially skilled at making incense and had given me quite a lot of it.

Later, after Pei Xingzhi ascended the throne, he wanted to make me Empress, but the Empress Dowager stopped him.

It was Li Pin who came to comfort me, sighing helplessly. “The Empress Dowager and His Majesty are like fire and water. Sooner or later, one of them will kill the other.”

“For now, your staying at the rank of consort isn’t a bad thing.”

Later, Li Pin died, and all her belongings were thrown out by Pei Xingzhi.

Even the few boxes of incense she had left with me were not spared.

In this palace, aside from Pei Xingzhi, Song Liangyin was probably the only one who knew the real cause of Li Pin’s death.

So when Song Liangyin invited me to take a walk by the lake, I readily agreed.

But I never could have imagined it.

One moment, she was still smiling as she held my hand and spoke to me. The next, she jumped into the water.

“Your Highness!”

Luyi’s cry rang out by my ear.

She grabbed hold of me, her face cautious. “Why did she… why did she jump in by herself?”

Of course it was to frame me.

I said nothing, my hands and feet turning ice-cold.

Looking at the eunuchs and palace maids hurrying over from the distance,

I knew I couldn’t hesitate any longer. I took a deep breath and squeezed Luyi’s hand. “When they get here, you have to cry and beg them to save me. The more miserably you cry, the better.”

“Remember this: you must insist that the Noble Consort accidentally fell into the water, and that I jumped in to save her.”

“Only that will clear me of suspicion. Don’t worry. There are plenty of eunuchs in the palace who are strong swimmers. I’ll be fine.”

In Luyi’s stunned gaze, I said nothing more and jumped in, my face deathly pale.

In the instant I was suspended in midair, it seemed like someone shouted my name in anger.

As I struggled toward Song Liangyin, I saw her lift her pale face and smile at me.

“Tell me, do you think His Majesty will save you first, or me?”