Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Taking advantage of the lull at the tower these past few days, I stepped into the Grand Princess’s estate for the first time.

Li Zuiwan carved out a moment from her busy schedule to see me. Her eyes curved in approval as she said, “You did very well.”

She was so beautiful when she smiled that even the carved sandalwood screen behind her, inlaid with South Sea pearls, seemed to lose its luster.

Dazzled by the sight of Li Zuiwan, I lost my head and, as if possessed, reached out to tug at her sash.

But Li Zuiwan shook her hand and stopped me. “There are people in the room.”

“What is there to fear from maids? It isn’t as if they haven’t seen us rolling around together, forgetting heaven and earth…” I pouted, utterly unconcerned.

Then I saw the Prince Consort walk out from behind the screen, and I fell silent.

No.

When women were talking, what was a grown man like him doing lingering in the inner chamber?

Did he not realize how redundant and in the way he was?

Some people looked like the Grand Princess’s lawful spouse, but in truth, they had no shame at all, standing there fighting a whore from Yujing Tower for favor.

I had never seen such a cheap man in eight lifetimes.

I felt not the slightest guilt about poaching from the Prince Consort. Instead, I was so furious that I shot him several vicious glares.

“This concubine will take her leave.”

With my good time ruined, my face was so dark it could have dripped ink. I could not even be bothered to perform a proper curtsy. I turned and left.

Blind, tactless dog.

He was a Tanhua who had fought his way through thousands in the imperial examinations, yet did he have even the slightest self-awareness?

When he saw someone else stealing the Grand Princess, should he not have shut the door, waited respectfully for the other party to finish and leave, then gone in to clean up the aftermath?

All he knew was how to stand there being an eyesore. Was he a pillar? Standing, standing, standing?

Still seething, I crushed a cluster of white peonies blooming beautifully in the Grand Princess’s garden into a pulpy mess. Only then did I vent some of my spite.

Watching those jade-white petals ground into a shapeless paste, my urge to destroy was satisfied, and my heart instantly felt much lighter.

Where there is birth, there must be death. An early end is no great tragedy.

No matter how beautifully and brilliantly you bloom, sooner or later you will become flower mud anyway. This young lady merely sent you on your way ahead of time.

No thanks needed.

I adjusted my silk shawl and straightened the hairpin at my temple. Just as I was about to leave the Princess’s estate with my head held high, a young servant stopped me.

“The Prince Consort wishes to have a word with Miss Lei.”

Have a word? Reminisce?

I did not recall the Prince Consort’s mother being one of the whores at Yujing Tower. What old times could we possibly have to reminisce about?

I was just about to refuse when two guards stepped out from behind the servant, both with their hands resting on their sabers.

Fine, fine, we’ll talk. If I, Lei Jingchun, do not finish discussing every last one of the Prince Consort’s eighteen generations of ancestors today, then I will not leave!

I had only just stepped into the flower hall and had not even taken a good look at the Prince Consort, who was practicing calligraphy, when someone kicked me from behind.

After the old nanny behind me forced me to my knees with that brutal kick, the Prince Consort glanced at me calmly. “So you do know how to pay your respects.”

Oh? So he had mustered all his strength to put me in my place.

I was just about to scramble up and tear that face of his to shreds when Li Zuiwan’s voice came from behind me.

“What great authority you have, Prince Consort, to dare lay hands on someone at my side.”

She had come in such a hurry that the white jade hairpin in her coiffure had not been secured properly. It hung precariously beside her cheek.

For some reason, the grievance and fury in my heart instantly settled.

Li Zuiwan gave me a look. I understood and cleared out of the flower hall, leaving it to her for the confrontation with the Prince Consort.

The female official at her side, Yinshuang, hurriedly led me away and applied medicine to my knees.

After Yinshuang lowered my skirt for me, she escorted me out of the estate. On the way, she finally could not help asking, “Why go out of your way to provoke the Prince Consort?”

“Because I felt like provoking him,” I answered with a beaming smile.

Then I added silently in my heart:

Of course it was because the Prince Consort’s surname was Chen.

The Matriarch of the Lei Family-the woman who sold my mother into Yujing Tower-was also surnamed Chen. The Prince Consort was her own nephew.

If we were going by the proper order of legitimate and concubine-born branches, then as Chancellor Lei’s daughter by a concubine, I would have no choice but to address the Prince Consort as Cousin.

The Chen Family and the Lei Family were bound by marriage and by shared interests. In court, they advanced and retreated together, and both stood in the way of Grand Princess Li Zuiwan’s control over the government.

So I wasn’t afraid of him.

What was there to fear from a dead man walking, no matter how high his rank or how great his power?

Besides, why put on airs in front of me, Cousin Prince Consort?

If Grand Princess Li Zuiwan didn’t like me, would I ever have gotten the chance to climb into her bed?

And since we’re all family, why talk as if we belong to two different households?

When Cousin Prince Consort looked at me like I was some kept mistress, it truly chilled my heart.

If Cousin thought it was wrong for me, Lei Jingchun, to be someone’s mistress, then he could separate from Grand Princess and hand Her Highness over to me.

Then I wouldn’t be a mistress anymore, would I?

Though my leg hurt, my mood still lifted considerably as I imagined how Li Zuiwan might quarrel with Cousin Prince Consort.

But when a maid handed me the Liu Family’s neatly written visiting card, my expression changed in an instant.

Feng Niang’s maiden family had opened a path through the authorities. They wanted to redeem Feng Niang and Miss Zhao.

Liu Fengxian had been sold into Yujing Tower for more than ten days now.

Official families valued their spotless reputations above all else. Once they redeemed her, what then?

Drown her in a wicker cage? Give her a length of white silk? Shave her head and lock her away as a nun in the family temple?

Feng Niang understood her own situation as well. Her elegant, beautiful face went pale at once, and she looked to me as if pleading for help.

When she had first been sold into Yujing Tower, she had indeed wanted to die.

But after failing to kill herself, she had quickly become numb and indifferent, as though nothing in this world could still weigh on her heart except her daughter.

“Do you hate me for treating you like a prostitute?” I did not avoid her gaze.

Feng Niang’s lips moved for a long while before she said, “I do not hate you. My late husband thought far too highly of himself. He controlled the Censorate, such a vital throat of the court, yet while His Majesty was old and ailing, he seized the chance to keep choosing sides and placing bets among the different factions. For me to end up like this is nothing more than being dragged down by him.”

Good. At least she understood.

I spoke coldly and instructed the guards, “Drive out everyone from the Liu Family.”

That meant I intended to protect Feng Niang’s life.

Feng Niang let out a breath of relief and forced out a faint smile. “Thank you, Lei Niangzi.”

“The summer solstice is almost here.” I slowly breathed out the gloom in my chest. “I’m planning to take Ah Rong to the mountains to escape the heat. Do you want to come?”

“Lei Niangzi, aren’t you afraid I’ll take the chance to run?” Feng Niang asked curiously.

I laughed softly. “Your family property has been confiscated, your name entered into the lowborn register, your husband’s family has fallen, and your maiden family will not accept you… The world may be vast, but where could you possibly go?”

In truth, those words were not only meant for Liu Fengxian.

Once, I too had thought of taking my mother and fleeing Yujing Tower.

Giving up hatred, leaving the capital, building a small courtyard in the countryside, raising chickens and ducks, and living by farming and weaving.

But once your name was entered into the lowborn register, you were lowborn wherever you went.

There was no escape.

I had run away with my mother before, but in the end, all we gained was three months of freedom.

After a neighbor discovered our lowborn status, the village head reported us to the authorities. The officials came in person to arrest us and dragged us back to Yujing Tower.

If my mother and Ah Rong had not wailed as they kowtowed to Bitao, begging for mercy and admitting fault, that vicious beating would have been enough to take my life.

So, for a prostitute, what was right? And what was wrong?

If.

I mean, if.

If no matter what you did, you would still be humiliated and abandoned.

Then in my eyes, in the eyes of me, Lei Jingchun, at the very least…

Anything was allowed.