Chapter 7
Chapter 7
The imperial physician and midwives arrived quickly, while I waited outside in a fever of anxiety.
Imperial Father and the Empress hurried over and asked what had happened.
Before long, the imperial physician came out and said there had been an abortifacient in the noodles. The child was already gone.
Imperial Father’s expression darkened. Coldly, he said, “Investigate!”
Then he strode inside to comfort Beauty Lin.
The Empress began questioning the palace servants at a measured pace. I was the first to bear the brunt of it, because I had made the meal with my own hands.
The Empress said, “Lock up the Sixth Princess first.”
I answered respectfully and offered no resistance at all.
The days of waiting were terribly dull. I was not especially worried about myself. I was only worried about whether Beauty Lin was all right. After all, the dose of abortifacient in that bowl of noodles had not been small, and I was very afraid it had damaged her body.
At last, after two days, the door to my room was opened.
Daylight poured in, stinging my eyes.
Beauty Lin had come to fetch me in person.
Her face was deathly pale, her eyes hollow. Only when she looked at me did a trace of life return to them.
Softly, she said, “Come out, Ah Zheng. It’s all over.”
In the end, the person arrested was Beauty Liu.
When Beauty Liu was seized, she was utterly deranged.
“If I have to suffer, Lin Yizhen, don’t think you’ll have it easy either. You’ll be coming to keep me company soon enough. If we die, we die together. No one gets to leave anyone behind.”
Then she learned that what Beauty Lin had eaten was not poison, but an abortifacient.
She screamed herself hoarse, cursing the quack who had lied to her, who had dared pass off an abortifacient as poison.
Her voice was too grating to bear.
The Empress ordered someone to gag her and drag her away.
I lowered my eyes and said nothing.
On this matter, Beauty Liu had not been wrong.
What she had added truly was poison, but I had switched it for an abortifacient.
Because this child was one Beauty Lin did not want to bear, yet could not personally get rid of. Since Beauty Liu just so happened to harbor the intent to harm her, we simply went along with it.
There was only one thing Beauty Lin could not understand: why Beauty Liu hated her so much. Beauty Lin had clearly never offended her. She had even offered her guidance all along.
She took me to the Cold Palace.
Beauty Liu was there, weeping. When she saw us, she seemed to bristle all over again and snapped viciously, “What, have you come to laugh at me?”
Beauty Lin asked, “I want to know why.”
She truly could not make sense of it.
Back then, she and Beauty Liu had been part of the same group of selected maidens.
They had entered the palace together, lived together, been neglected together. For years, they had comforted each other and supported each other as they walked on through this deep palace.
Beauty Liu had said she was unloved at home. Though she was a legitimate daughter, she had never received her father’s affection, and even the concubine-born younger sisters in her family lived better than she did.
She had sworn she would make something of herself one day.
Beauty Lin had always kept those words in mind. Even after receiving Imperial Father’s favor, she had not forgotten Beauty Liu, and had mentioned her to Imperial Father several times.
Beauty Lin believed she had done everything kindness and duty required.
Beauty Liu threw back her head and laughed. Her expression was frenzied, almost demonic, and as she laughed, tears spilled from her eyes again.
“My mother is dead!”
Beauty Lin gripped my hand tightly, as if only that could keep her from collapsing.
Beauty Liu went on:
“I schemed every way I could to enter the palace just so my mother could live a good life. Now my mother is dead. What use is all the favor in the world that I’ve earned? I will not let those bloodsuckers cling to me and rise higher step by step.”
“The crime I’ve committed is one that condemns nine generations. They abused me in the past, so now every last one of them can come down and be buried with me. Even if I die, I will never let them live on and enjoy fortune.”
“As for you? Hah! I entered the palace to stand above others, but you had to surpass me in everything. How could I not hate you? If I cannot have something, no one else should even dream of having it.”
“Only you would believe those foolish words from back then. Didn’t you want to be sisters with me? Then in the underworld, we can still be sisters. Do you want to die with me? Hahahahahaha!”
She raved like a madwoman.
In the Cold Palace, any living person confined there would soon become a hideous ghost.
Beauty Lin and I returned to the palace in silence, our hearts heavy.
We never imagined that two people were waiting soundlessly in the bedchamber.
One was Imperial Father. The other was the Empress.
Imperial Father’s eyes were as calm as still water. When he looked at Beauty Lin, there was no emotion in his gaze.
He asked, “Why?”