Chapter 4

Early the next morning,

I had barely woken when Gu Qingxue came to the crown prince’s bedchamber.

She spotted me on the bed at once.

“Whore! You shameless whore!”

Gu Qingxue screamed, as though she had suffered a terrible betrayal, and reached out to drag me from the bed.

The commotion was loud enough

to rouse Zhou Mu from his deep sleep at last.

One glance at Gu Qingxue tugging at me told him what had happened.

His face went white. He shoved me hard toward the edge of the bed, flung back the covers, and got up to catch Gu Qingxue’s hand.

“Xue’er, I drank too much last night.”

Wanting heirs was one thing.

But when his beloved witnessed such a scene herself, Zhou Mu still ached for her.

Tears were already streaming down Gu Qingxue’s face. She gave me a look of hatred, turned and slapped Zhou Mu, then covered her face and ran out.

He snatched up his outer robe, pulled it on, and hurried after her.

He never once looked at me.

Otherwise, he would surely have seen the smile I could not suppress.

“So you got into the crown prince’s bed. What of it? There’s only the crown princess in his heart. You might not even live through this.”

The maid waiting nearby to help Zhou Mu wash muttered to herself.

She glanced at me.

There was sour envy in her eyes. When she caught me looking back, she glared outright. “What are you staring at? You think climbing into his bed will turn a pheasant into a phoenix? Ask yourself whether the crown princess will let you stay!”

Every word was aimed at me.

She was simply certain that the crown prince and princess loved each other deeply.

Even after I had shared his bed, Zhou Mu might not raise me to concubine. To soothe Gu Qingxue, he might even kill me and satisfy her anger.

I would be lucky merely to survive.

That was why even a palace maid dared insult me to my face.

“Thank you for the warning, Sister.”

I dressed at my leisure, nodded to the maid, and left the bedchamber.

Yes.

To turn from a pheasant into a phoenix,

I first had to survive.

So, once outside,

I pulled a hairpin from my hair and looked toward a palace maid sweeping nearby.

By the time the crown prince sent for me,

it was already evening.

The dancing girls who shared my room all wore looks of gloating delight.

“A maid saw the crown prince and princess coming back to the Eastern Palace hand in hand. It seems they’ve made up.

“Everyone knows how jealous the crown princess is.

“Shen Qingrong, what do you suppose he wants with you at a time like this? Good news, or bad?”

They went on and on.

Everyone thought Zhou Mu would dispose of me for Gu Qingxue’s sake.

There was precedent.

Zhou Mu was the crown prince, after all. There was no shortage of maids hoping to get into his bed. The empress in particular longed for a grandson and had sent him more beautiful maids than anyone could count.

A beauty set out to tempt him; he was the crown prince.

Sometimes, with both willing, things followed their natural course and ended in a night together.

But once Gu Qingxue learned of it, her eyes filled with tears. She looked so betrayed that Zhou Mu was consumed with guilt.

As for the maid who had succeeded in sharing his bed, she vanished.

Some said she had been driven out of the capital.

Others said she had been thrown down a well in the Cold Palace.

Whatever the truth, she disappeared without a trace. By the time the empress heard about it, she was far too late to intervene.

Now it was my turn, and everyone was guessing at my fate.

Would I vanish mysteriously, like the last maid?

Or rise to become a lady of the palace?

I knew which outcome they preferred.

Human nature.

Nothing was colder.