Chapter 10
The next morning, I went to pay my respects to Mother. When I looked up, her neck was mottled not only with red marks but even with… tooth marks.
She began to rise from where she knelt, meaning to beckon me closer, but her body suddenly gave way and she sank back down. A rare look of embarrassment crossed her face.
I said nothing. I simply went to her, wrapped my arms around her waist, buried my face against her, and wept in silence.
Mother was about to speak when a servant announced that Fu’an, the emperor’s chief eunuch, had come to take me to the private treasury to select my satin and jewelry.
A shudder of fear went through me. I looked up at Mother. She stroked my head reassuringly. “Don’t worry. Go ahead.”
I nodded, wiped away my tears, changed into respectable clothes, and followed Fu’an.
Choosing ten bolts of tribute satin was easy. The “assortment of gold and jade” proved much harder.
The treasury glittered with gold vessels, jade ornaments, and jewelry of every kind, more than my eyes could take in. Chests and cases stood in high, layered stacks.
Fu’an told me to take my time choosing, then withdrew.
There were fashionable ornaments and exquisite pieces of jade in abundance. After seeing so many, I began to find them unremarkable.
The old things beneath the stacked cases were more interesting. I moved aside boxes of recently acquired treasures and opened dusty cases of red sandalwood. Inside were many objects that plainly had some age to them; the years had given them a simple, distinctive beauty.
I was turning a jade hairpin between my fingers when a lazy voice sounded behind me. “I thought we’d been robbed. I was wondering what brazen rat had dared come rummaging through the private treasury. Why is it you again?”
I glanced back. “Then Your Highness had better call someone to arrest me.”
Prince Chun was left speechless again. After a long silence, he came closer and inspected the hairpin in my hand with exaggerated wonder. “Just look at those trinkets you’ve chosen. Fit for a grandmother.”
I gave a scornful laugh. “His Majesty granted me gold and jade and told me to choose any style I pleased. In your eyes, if I stayed away, I’d be ungrateful. If I came, I’d be getting above myself. If I chose something valuable, I’d be greedy. If I chose something unfashionable, I’d have dreadful taste. Whatever I do displeases Your Highness. Why not leave? Out of sight, out of mind. Wouldn’t that be better?”
He narrowed his eyes and snorted. “Do you think I enjoy looking at you? My mother has something important she doesn’t want handled by servants, so she sent me to fetch it myself. Move. Don’t block my way.”
Unwilling to argue further, I pressed myself against the shelves behind me and gestured for him to pass.
He swaggered by, deliberately bumping me with his shoulder.
I instinctively dodged backward. I avoided him, but forgot that I was already tight against the shelves. As I pressed back, something shifted behind me. I had pushed the whole shelving unit over!
Thinking of all that precious jade, I was terrified out of my wits. I spun around and reached to catch it.
The next instant, the jade objects rattled and swayed, then came to a steady halt.
And a pair of arms had closed tightly around me.
My mind went blank. I turned, but before I could see Prince Chun’s expression, I saw Fu’an hurrying in at the noise.
His eyes widened like bronze bells. He looked us both over, mouth hanging open, utterly stunned.
Prince Chun hastily let go and straightened his clothes. “Don’t misunderstand. We…”
Without his hands supporting it, the shelving unit tipped again. I pulled desperately but could not hold it. Just as I thought, I’m finished, a pair of strong hands appeared, gripped the middle of the unit, and hauled it firmly upright.
As Prince Chun steadied the shelves, he also moved me clear of them.
“I saw nothing!”
Fu’an’s protest only made things worse. He turned and vanished in a flash.
Prince Chun moved aside while I bent to tidy the cases I had disturbed. We both tried desperately to pretend nothing had happened.
Clothes rustled. I assumed he had gone to fetch whatever the empress dowager wanted. I had just breathed a sigh of relief when I looked up and found him on the other side of the shelves, looking at me past a jade vase. “My mother wore the thing in your hand when she was young. Are you really going to choose it?”
The object seemed to burn my hand. I quickly drew it back and put it aside, then reached for another case. I had barely opened it when he clicked his tongue. “Even better. That belonged to Prince Huai, who rebelled at the beginning of the Jingyuan era. Very auspicious.”
Startled, I snatched back my hand and set that aside too. I turned to a crystal incense burner on the other side. He sighed softly. “Consort Miao of the previous dynasty adored that ornament. A peerless beauty, Consort Miao. Pity she didn’t live very long.”
I had had enough. I turned to leave, only to hear him laughing on the other side of the shelves. “You actually believed me? I made it all up.”
Had he really?
Whatever the truth, I would not choose those things now. I picked up a few ordinary gold and silver pieces, said I was finished, and left.
When I returned to Changqing Palace, the emperor was sitting in the seat of honor, smiling. He beckoned to me with great familiarity. “Rourou, come here.”
The jewels in my arms nearly scattered across the floor.