Chapter 1
The crown prince was just saying he would reward me
when Gu Qingxue stormed in and slapped me without a word of warning.
She called me a shameless little vixen, accusing me of swaying my hips for no reason but to seduce him. Nothing could be more base, she said.
I had only been obeying the crown prince’s orders, performing my dance as I was supposed to.
Gu Qingxue was furious all the same.
“Dressed like that, what could you possibly want except to seduce him?”
Everyone in the Eastern Palace knew how suspicious and jealous the crown princess was.
She even entertained the wild notion that the crown prince could spend his entire life with her alone.
They had been married barely two years, yet had quarreled over it several times.
It was always something: the empress wanted to give him a few concubines, or had bestowed some beautiful maids to warm his bed.
There was nothing unusual about any of it.
Especially with so few children in the imperial family. The emperor was past fifty, and the crown prince remained his only heir.
The imperial line needed descendants.
Naturally, that duty fell to the crown prince.
And Gu Qingxue had not conceived in two years.
Not only the emperor but even his ministers were growing anxious. Afraid the dynasty would have no heir, they would have liked to send a dozen beautiful concubines straight into the Eastern Palace.
Whenever Gu Qingxue heard of it, she made a scene.
Crown Prince Zhou Mu had loved her since his youth. She was the woman closest to his heart; whatever their disagreements, every quarrel ended with him softening and coaxing her.
But Zhou Mu was still a crown prince, accustomed to everyone’s deference.
Once or twice, he might find it novel. After enough repetitions, he too grew angry.
This time, he was very angry indeed.
The moment their quarrel ended, he called for dancers. That was how I came to be before him.
As soon as Gu Qingxue learned of it, she rushed over.
My cheek burned from her slap.
But I dared not answer back—
because she was the crown princess, the most exalted woman in the Eastern Palace.
Taking a dancing girl’s life
was as easy for her as crushing an ant.
She was always proclaiming her belief in equality, saying we were all people, that there was no such thing as a distinction between servant and master.
Yet when it mattered, she forgot every word of it.
“You’re nothing but a lowly dancing girl, and you dare try to seduce the crown prince? Have you no shame?”
Gu Qingxue vented all her grievances on me, though it was the crown prince who had hurt her.
I knelt and apologized over and over, eyes downcast, as meek as I could be. Not one word of protest left my lips.
I had done nothing wrong. Even so, I could not say it.
She was overbearing; I was docile.
We could not have been more different.
Zhou Mu, drinking wine in the seat above us, could naturally see it all.
He knew I was innocent. He simply did not care whether someone like me was wronged.
After all, I was an insignificant dancing girl.
But he had just quarreled with Gu Qingxue and had summoned me only to provoke her. Now that she was truly angry, each insult more vicious than the last, he made the rare effort of speaking up for me.
“Gu Qingxue, my mother gave her to me. And she’s hardly the only one. There are a dozen other dancing girls in the Eastern Palace. If you carry on fighting for my attention every day, how can you be a proper crown princess?”
I supposed Zhou Mu was growing tired of it.
However much he had loved her as a boy, they had been husband and wife for two years. She was there before him every day. At first, he had been willing to coax her, with an endless supply of sweet words.
But two years had passed without a child.
He, too, was anxious.
If Gu Qingxue could not bear one, so be it.
The world was full of women who could give him an imperial heir.
Love, and the realm.
For a man born to rule, the distinction had always been clear.
This was his duty.
Perhaps Gu Qingxue had not expected such harsh words from him.
Disbelief touched her proud face. Then two clear streams of tears slipped down her cheeks.
Even I could feel the appeal of a beautiful woman in tears.
She said nothing as she wept, only gazed at Zhou Mu. She looked so pitiful, as though she had been abandoned, with none of her usual bright confidence.
Gu Qingxue was no fool.
However much she lost her temper, she knew she depended on the crown prince.
She simply felt too wronged.
Unless she made a scene, the grievance would keep rankling.
And so she used her tears as a weapon, proving to everyone how deeply the crown prince loved her.
Zhou Mu was close to melting at the sight of them.
That would never do.
Just as his resolve began to falter, just as he was about to offer peace, I bent in a graceful bow to Gu Qingxue. My robe slipped from my shoulder, baring the skin beneath.
It still bore the little red marks I had pinched into it before coming here.
My skin had always been pale. Those marks looked like plum blossoms spreading across it, suggestive enough to set anyone’s imagination wandering.
“It is all my fault. Your Highness, please punish me.”
My words drew her eyes. She saw my fallen robe, then the red marks. Gu Qingxue, who had been weeping so quietly a moment earlier, flew into another rage and kicked me hard in the shoulder.
She was so angry
that she forgot to quit while she was ahead.
She glared at me. “Who do you think you are? You think you’re fit to compete with me?”
The blow caught me unprepared.
I toppled to the floor.
My shoulder hurt, but when I saw the anger in Zhou Mu’s eyes, delight filled me so completely that even the pain seemed to vanish.
Yes. Just like that.
Keep being arrogant and cruel in front of him. Wear away his love little by little, until nothing remains but endless quarrels and disappointment, without a trace of the old tenderness.
A love that began like an orchid and ended like scattered catkins. Mother had once taught me that phrase.
Zhou Mu had drunk enough to cloud his judgment. Once provoked, he was apt to say the hurtful truths he usually kept hidden in his heart, the things he dared not admit.
“I am the crown prince. I call for a dancer to ease my troubles, and you shout and scream and strike her? You have none of a crown princess’s dignity. Do you truly think I cannot do without you?”
His words seemed to enrage Gu Qingxue further.
She pointed straight at me, disgust plain in her eyes. “Fine! Take her as your concubine, if you dare. Do you think I care so much about being your crown princess?”
Their quarrel grew fiercer.
All the while, I stayed on my knees and watched in silence as Gu Qingxue drove the man she loved farther and farther away.
How wonderful.
Zhou Mu came down from his seat.
As though determined to provoke her, he swept me off the floor and carried me toward the bedchamber at the rear.
“Since you care so little, I’ll take her today!”
Gu Qingxue stayed where she was, her eyes already red with anger. Still refusing to yield, she shouted, “Go ahead! Do you really think I care?”
Then she covered her face and ran out crying.
By then Zhou Mu had carried me to the bed.
The sounds outside faded. He simply sat beside me, making no further move.
He was nursing his anger, unwilling to be the first to give in.
Yet his eyes kept straying beyond the screen, to the empty hall.
There were years of affection between them, after all.
He had cherished her since his youth, and they had only been married two years. However fiercely they fought, he still loved her.
I slowly straightened my clothes, then took the sachet from inside my robe and tied it at my waist.
I climbed down from the bed and bowed to him.
“Your Highness should rest. I will take my leave.”
My voice seemed to bring him back to himself. He glanced at me, a little curious and more than a little puzzled.
He smiled. “What? You don’t want to share my bed?”
Every woman in the Eastern Palace wanted the crown prince’s favor.
Even without a title, a woman who had shared his bed would, once he ascended the throne, become a recognized lady of the inner palace under the ancestral rules.
That truly was a sparrow rising to become a phoenix.
With a little more luck, she might bear a prince.
And if her son proved capable enough, she might one day become empress dowager, the most exalted woman in the dynasty.
So the crown prince’s favor, a chance to share his bed, was what every woman in the Eastern Palace longed for day after day.
I wanted it too. I simply could not let him see.
Amid a field of peonies, a single white lotus standing apart
would seem untouched by the mud.
Something so aloof, so separate from the world, was bound to draw attention.
People.
They were always like that. What set itself apart held their interest best.
I smiled meekly. “Your Highness’s heart is elsewhere. I would not presume to want more.”
Zhou Mu fell silent. He looked at me again, quietly. The idle glance he had given my dancing was gone; now there was something more serious in his gaze.
At least this time, he truly saw me.
He laughed softly.
Then he took my hand. “You are a sensible girl. What is your name?”
I lowered my eyes to our joined hands, suppressed the feelings inside me, and answered obediently.
“Shen Qingrong, Your Highness.”