Chapter 2

Chapter 2

His Majesty was only seventeen, and this was the first time he had ever met a young woman so perfectly to his liking.

Often, he loved her so much that it seemed he no longer knew how best to treat her well.

Whenever His Majesty stayed the night, I, as a palace maid, would keep watch outside the bed curtains until dawn, waiting for my masters to summon me.

On those nights, even my ears went soft hearing the tender things His Majesty murmured. How much more so for the person wrapped in them?

Behind the bed curtains, His Majesty never called Pei Yunruo by her rank, nor by her name. In that clear, youthful voice of his, blurred with intimacy, he would call her, “Sister.”

It was enough to be the death of a person.

To be honest, His Majesty could never be called a man addicted to women. He had grown up in a harem full of beauties, and who knew how many lovely women had thrown themselves into his arms along the way?

His Majesty was already considered restrained. He never behaved recklessly. Yet when it came to Pei Yunruo, he was forever breaking many of his own principles without meaning to.

One night, the two of them carried on until daybreak. When it was time for morning court, His Majesty had no choice but to rise. Before leaving, he reluctantly dug Pei Yunruo out from under the quilt and kept pestering her. “Sister, kiss me one more time.

“Just one more.

“Only one…”

Pei Yunruo could do nothing with him. Still half-asleep, she laughed, closed her eyes, and kissed him lightly on the lips. “Your Majesty, stop teasing me. Let this concubine sleep a little longer.”

But His Majesty was not satisfied with such a fleeting taste.

After more teasing and fussing, another soul-melting moan rose from within the hall.

With that, His Majesty naturally had to wash and dress all over again, and so he missed the hour for court.

But I heard that even after the Grand Tutor reprimanded him that day for neglecting state affairs, the smile at the corners of His Majesty’s mouth still could not be hidden.

When the sun was high, I helped Jieyu Pei rise. I only felt that this woman had grown much more beautiful than when she first entered the palace.

Her eyes were full of springtime charm, her skin even more luminous. As she lazily dressed before the morning light, her whole person exuded an irresistible allure, like a rose blooming at its peak, gorgeous and dewy.

As I combed her hair, a young eunuch hurried in to report.

“His Majesty sent this servant to say that he has invited Grand Secretary Wen to remain for the midday meal, so he will not be coming to keep Jieyu company. Tonight, he asks Jieyu to go to Mingzheng Hall and dine with him there.”

In truth, ever since Pei Yunruo entered the palace, almost every meal had been taken by the two of them together. Day and night, they had to cling to each other, even more inseparable than an ordinary newlywed couple.

When His Majesty occasionally could not come because of state affairs, he even had someone report it to her. I could not help sighing from the heart, “His Majesty treats Your Ladyship so well.”

At that, Pei Yunruo gave a contemptuous smile. Before the mirror, she gently pressed her rouge paper to her lips. The woman in the mirror was in the prime of her youth, so dazzlingly beautiful that no words could do her justice.

She said, “Auntie, how can you believe in a man? Especially when he is an emperor.”

I was startled, and nearly failed to hold the rhinoceros-horn comb steady in my hand.

Seeing my reaction, Pei Yunruo only smiled as calmly as drifting clouds and a light breeze.

“Auntie, why be so surprised? I know you look down on my methods and my background.

“But I am a lone orphan girl, with no one to rely on. If I did not use a few methods to hook myself a future, I would only end up meat on someone else’s chopping block.

“Besides, although Auntie does not like me, I like Auntie very much.” Pei Yunruo patted my hand, her smile warm and moving. “Yunruo is all alone. In the palace, I tread as if on thin ice. When I saw Auntie, I felt close to you at once, and only wished to respect you as one of my own elders.

“With Auntie helping Yunruo, Yunruo will not be like a blind, deaf, and mute woman, feeling her way through this palace in complete darkness.”

I immediately knelt. “Your Ladyship gives this servant too much honor.”

But Pei Yunruo personally helped me up. “I said it already. I respect Auntie as I would an elder of my own family. As for the eldest uncle and his family who sold Auntie into the palace, I have already sent people to seize them and bring them to the capital.”

My eyes filled with tears as I looked up. Pei Yunruo placed a stack of indenture contracts into my palm and patted it lightly. “Auntie and I are both women. Women understand women’s suffering best.”

I thought back to my childhood. My father died early, leaving me and my mother, an orphan and a widow, to guard a vast stretch of farmland. My eldest uncle’s family set their eyes on it.

Just because Father had only me, a daughter, no one in the clan stood on my side. They even colluded with my eldest uncle to scheme over the land in my mother’s hands and mine.

In the end, Mother was forced to throw herself into the river, and I was sold into the palace by them. Only by watching every step carefully over all these years had I survived until now.

The resentment and grievance I had accumulated for so many years suddenly came surging out. I cried so hard it shook heaven and earth.

Pei Yunruo placed a hand on my back and patted me gently, carrying the pity and tolerance of one in a higher position. “It’s all right. It is all in the past now.”

Through my tear-blurred eyes, I looked at Pei Yunruo and felt only that her face was as compassionate as a bodhisattva’s.

I kowtowed solemnly. “This servant will be loyal to Your Ladyship for the rest of my life, and never harbor a second heart.”