Chapter 3
When the Noble Consort came looking for me, I was crouching in a corner of the Cold Court, watching ants carry grains of rice.
Her surname was Xie. Her father was the Marquis of Zhenbei, and her elder brother commanded the Western Camp. She had been in the palace for years and never lacked favor, but she had no children.
She stopped me in the Imperial Garden, her smile cold.
“Selected Lady Wen has quite a reputation these days. Why don’t you tell my fortune? When will I bear His Majesty a son?”
Everything around us fell silent.
A vicious question.
Say she would, and I was making presumptuous claims about the imperial succession.
Say she wouldn’t, and I was cursing the Noble Consort.
I looked at the sachet at her waist, caught the faint medicinal scent on her, and sighed.
Prepared rehmannia root, angelica root, dried tangerine peel—familiar ingredients in fertility tonics.
“Your Ladyship, stop drinking your fertility tonic first.”
Her expression changed.
“What nonsense are you talking?”
“You’re puffy beneath the eyes, and your nails are dark at the roots. It looks as though you’ve been taking rich tonics for too long. You’ve stuffed tangerine peel in your sachet to hide the bitter smell as well. Not hard to guess. There’s an extra ingredient in your tonic: trumpet-creeper flowers. A small amount stimulates the blood, but taking it for a long time harms the body. Drink it for another three months and never mind a prince—even your monthly courses will be disrupted.”
The maid behind her went white.
The Noble Consort stared at me. “How do you know I’m taking a fertility tonic?”
I pointed at her nails.
“The tonic contains prepared rehmannia. Take it long enough and the roots of your nails darken. And you’ve put tangerine peel in your sachet to mask the bitterness. Not hard to guess.”
She swept away on the spot.
That night, I was invited to Changle Palace.
Not invited. Marched there under guard.
The Noble Consort sat in the main hall, her face grim. A maid who prepared her medicine knelt on the floor.
“Wen Zhaoshui, how dare you bribe my servants and tamper with my fertility tonic?”
The maid pointed at me through her tears. “It was Selected Lady Wen! She told me to add the flowers. She said the harem would only be peaceful if Your Ladyship had no children.”
I yawned, sleepy beyond words.
“You dare yawn?” the Noble Consort snapped.
“Your Ladyship, your maid has the wrong person.”
“The evidence is all here!”
“Where?”
She had someone bring out a packet of dregs from the medicine.
I glanced at it. “This was brewed today. But your trouble has been developing for at least two months.
“Two months ago, I was eating greens in the Cold Court. I didn’t even know the steward of the Imperial Kitchens. How could I have bribed someone in Changle Palace?”
That stopped her.
I pointed at the medicine cabinet in a corner of the hall. “The blue-green porcelain jar on the left of the third shelf. Open it.”
The attendants didn’t move.
“Open it,” she said coldly.
As soon as the lid came off, the smell of trumpet-creeper flowers drifted out.
“They’ve gone damp and clumped together. They weren’t put there recently. Check the purchasing accounts, Your Ladyship. Whoever changed the key to the cabinet two months ago is the culprit.”
“And if I’d ordered it, why hide the flowers in a cabinet in your own palace?”