Chapter 2
When we toured the south at harvest time, the emperor brought Zheng Xinyu after all.
As the imperial palanquins passed along the broad street, the people’s cries for Zheng Xinyu rose louder than their cheers for their emperor and empress.
Listening to that endless call of “Holy Maiden,” I felt a bitter tangle of emotions.
The relief fund amounted to tens of thousands of taels. A small portion came from my economies in the inner palace; the greater share came from donations I had coaxed out of my father and brother. My own elder brother had only become a first-rank chancellor at the beginning of the year, and he complained that I had emptied his entire first year’s salary.
We had taken very little from the treasury, yet the imperial family received all the credit.
And Zheng Xinyu? She had done nothing but make trouble for me, and still the people adored her.
Late at night in the traveling palace, I sat in a brightly lit room over the account books, personally checking the distribution of relief money and grain.
Across the palace wall, waves of laughter from the emperor and Zheng Xinyu reached me. I could only give a soundless, rueful laugh.
Once the accounts were finished, I tossed and turned, unable to sleep. At last I put on an outer robe and went outside the main hall.
There I came upon the commander on guard duty—Xiao Huaixin. He was as tall and broad as he had been when we were young, stationed before the hall like a stone statue.
From a few white marble steps away, I called to him. “How late are you standing watch, Commander Xiao?”
The statue moved at last. In the cool wind and autumn moonlight, he turned his head.
When he saw me, his iron-hard expression shifted a little. “Your servant pays his respects to Your Majesty.”
He said he would remain until dawn, when his deputy would relieve him. The traveling palace was modest, unlike the capital’s palace with its layer upon layer of guards. He had to take greater care.
As he spoke, Zheng Xinyu’s coquettish laughter disturbed the night.
His brows knotted at once. “It seems Your Majesty has even more to worry about than I do. Dim candlelight will ruin your eyes. How many sleepless nights do you intend to put in for other people?”
I shook my head with a faint, bitter smile. “I only hope that laughter does not carry beyond the walls.”
I looked toward the city gates. “There are so many people sheltering from the wind over there who cannot tell where their next meal will come from. How disappointed they would be if they heard this.”
Palace women were not permitted too much contact with officials of the outer court. Only because Xiao Huaixin and I had known each other since childhood did I linger for those few words before leaving.
Back in my bedchamber, the only warmth in the empty room came from a few palace lanterns.
Jiayi grieved for me too. “When old Grand Tutor Xiao came to propose the match, Your Majesty had such lofty ambitions. You said you would marry no one but the foremost man in the realm, and refused Commander Xiao, though you had grown up together.”
“Looking at things now, I wonder whether you turned away a good marriage—”
“How dare you speak so recklessly!” I stopped her. I might have been hurt, but I had never regretted my choice over those years.
I would never forget Qi Ke’s smiling face when the beaded curtain lifted on our wedding night in the Eastern Palace.
He was seven years older than I was and wonderfully handsome then. The ever-burning wedding candles lit his bright eyes. “I hear the young lady of the Xue family means to marry the foremost man in the realm. You even chose your own formal name?”
“Xue Qingyan. From the saying about clear rivers and peaceful seas?” That had been eleven years ago, yet the man in my memory was as vivid as ever.
Every smiling glance. Every word. I remembered them all.
He held out his hand, and I placed mine naturally in his warm palm. His voice was firm as he said, “Then from this day forward, I must ask my crown princess to help me govern a realm of clear rivers and peaceful seas.”
For eleven years, I had remembered that promise. For eleven years, I had lived by it.
And throughout those eleven years, Qi Ke had treated me well. When I was weak during my pregnancy with Ju, he had even brewed the medicine to support my pregnancy himself.
He said the palace still had no prince born of the empress. My first child had been a princess, too. He hoped I would bear a son, so he would have a crown prince.
I felt wretched then, but forced a smile for him. “The baby is still in my womb, Your Majesty. You must not promise him the crown already. An heir should be chosen for virtue and ability.”
“With such a virtuous and able mother, how could the son be anything less?” Qi Ke took me into his arms. He promised me everything most exalted in the world.
Grateful that I had a place in both his heart and his thoughts, I resumed managing the inner palace before Ju was even a month old.
All those years, I had served him tirelessly.
From time to time Qi Ke favored other consorts. Susu and the others who had been there longer had grown up with me. Even the younger ones who arrived later were, in one way or another, related to us. In the end, it was passing pleasure, and a means of continuing the imperial line.
But his devotion to Zheng Xinyu was something I had never seen before.
He favored her so extravagantly that on her second night at the traveling palace, she dared challenge me to my face. “Your Majesty, you probably won’t believe me. It’s hard to explain, to be fair, so it’s normal if you don’t understand.”
“I’m not actually from here. I accidentally traveled into this world. And none of you are real historical people. You’re characters in a novel.”
“I’ve only read the beginning, but I know you’re the evil second female lead. I’m the heroine, and the emperor’s the hero. I have to win him over. So, seriously, could you stop trying to break us up? Do you have to drag me into palace intrigue?”
I understood scarcely a word. She always spoke in this muddled way.
But her constant, familiar “you” and “I” were more than Jiayi could bear. “However greatly His Majesty favors you, Noble Consort, you must observe the proper forms of address. Is this any way to speak to the empress?”
At my instruction, Zheng Xinyu was made to kneel outside my hall until Qi Ke arrived.
I knew he would come for her sooner or later. What I had not expected was that he would never once look at me.
“Don’t be afraid, Xin. I’ve come to save you.”
Save her?
A palace consort had repeatedly insulted the empress. I had given her only a light punishment, without so much as hurting her. What was there to save her from?
Watching him carry her away, I thought I must have become a villain.
The virtuous, capable Xue Qingyan must now look like a monster in Qi Ke’s eyes.