Chapter 8
Spring sunlight shone outside the shrine.
At some point, a black-clad figure had come to stand quietly at the door.
“Xiu, who was it you just said”
“you would strip and parade through the streets?”
Yuan Xiujin had not yet noticed anything wrong. He stepped forward, full of righteous indignation.
“Father, you’ve come at just the right time!”
“Look at this bitch. Pregnant before marriage, and she won’t tell us her lover’s name, even under threat of death!”
“I say we strip her, parade her through the streets, then put her on the wooden donkey! A whore like her deserves to have all Chang’an see how vile she is!”
He grew more animated as he spoke. “Once she’s dealt with, I’ll ask you to make Mingzhu crown princess.”
“Mingzhu is wellborn, educated, and gracious. She’s the kind of woman worthy of the Eastern Palace.”
“Those coarse Mengs aren’t fit to carry her shoes!”
Yuan Zhaoyu ignored him.
He walked straight to me and sent the guards retreating with a single look.
Before everyone, he took off his cloak and wrapped it around me.
“Does it hurt?”
I shook my head, but could no longer keep my tears back.
Yuan Xiujin finally sensed something was wrong. His triumphant expression slowly froze.
“F… Father…”
Yuan Zhaoyu looked at his son.
“Weren’t you just saying”
“you would castrate the adulterer and beat him to death?”
“Here I stand.”
“Try it.”
Something seemed to explode in Yuan Xiujin’s head. He stood rooted to the spot.
Yet Yuan Zhaoyu was not finished.
Everywhere he looked, people fell to their knees.
They trembled. No one dared speak.
Yuan Xiujin finally recovered. “Father… I didn’t know…”
“Had I known, I wouldn’t have dared, even if you killed me!”
Yuan Zhaoyu drew me into his arms and regarded his son with icy eyes.
“To my ears,”
“you sounded as though you were enjoying yourself.”
One look chilled Yuan Xiujin to the spine.
His knees buckled before he could think. “Forgive me, Father. I was wrong.”
The day was fading. A cool breeze made me shiver.
The next moment, he lifted me into his arms.
I huddled against him, watching his gaze grow colder by degrees.
“When she was at Fengyi Palace, you humiliated her in every way.”
“Now she’s at a convent, and you want to strip her and put her on the wooden donkey.”
“Crown Prince, did all the benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness I taught you go to the dogs?”
Each sentence struck harder than the last.
Yuan Xiujin could no longer lift his head.
“And you! Do you think having the crown prince’s protection gives you leave to swagger about?”
Yao Mingzhu was so frightened she could barely stay on her knees.
She had never imagined that the supposed adulterer would be the emperor.
Still less had she imagined
that Yuan Zhaoyu would trample the Eastern Palace’s dignity in public for my sake.
All she could do was defend herself shakily. “Your Majesty, I was only concerned for the imperial family’s reputation. I didn’t mean to make things difficult for Miss Meng.”
Yuan Zhaoyu gave a soft laugh. “You lay with the crown prince without a marriage arranged.”
“And now you think you’re fit to speak to me of the imperial family’s reputation?”
He stopped looking at her and carried me outside.
Passing those guards and noble ladies, he casually ordered,
“Twenty strokes.”
“Next time, go to the Punishment Bureau yourselves to receive your death sentence.”
They bowed their heads to the ground over and over, too frightened even to breathe loudly.
I leaned against him, breathing the familiar ambergris scent, and at last my breathing steadied.
His imperial carriage was already waiting outside the mountain gate.
When I arrived, they had been pressing me down as though to drown me.
When I left, I was held in someone’s arms.
How quickly things changed in this world.