Chapter 1
When the prince stepped into my courtyard for the seventh time that month,
I knew I had little time left to live.
The vast inner household stood empty and deserted.
Of its many concubines and secondary consorts, some had died, and others had been sold away.
Only Concubine Liu and I remained.
Her face had been utterly ruined. She looked more frightening than a ghost.
Though the prince remembered their old affection, he never visited her courtyard again.
He merely instructed his wife to see that she was properly fed and clothed and suffered no neglect.
The prince was thirty-three now, and his interest in women had waned.
Instead, he devoted all his attention to his sons’ studies.
Only his wife had borne children in this household: two sons and two daughters.
There was not a single child by a concubine.
My elder sister’s position could hardly have been more secure.
Wine jug in hand, I sprawled in a rocking chair, heedless of appearances.
After a few gentle sways, I tipped back my head and drank.
The wine burned my throat, bringing tears to my eyes.
I understood perfectly well that a hunting dog was killed once the rabbits were gone.
I had simply never had a choice.
My maid Qiuyue could bear it no longer. She reached out and caught the jug.
“My lady, please stop drinking.
“Any more, and you’ll be drunk.”
Smiling, I took it back and wiped the tears from my face.
“Why shouldn’t I get drunk once, when I’m about to die?”
Qiuyue stared at me in horror. In an instant, every trace of color drained from her face.
I sat up slowly and studied her.
She had served me since she was five, my personal maid from childhood.
But she was more than my maid.
She was someone else’s daughter, someone else’s sister.
Her whole family worked under the first wife.
Let it go.
She was only another unfortunate soul, no different from me.
“Miss!”
Qiuyue dropped to her knees with a thud, clutching her handkerchief and refusing to meet my eyes.
“You—you knew, didn’t you?”
How could I not?
I had always been observant. I was hardly going to miss something being slipped beneath my pillow.
“Miss, I… The first wife made me do it…
“Miss, why don’t you run?”
Gritting her teeth, she raised her face and looked at me with desperate resolve.
“Take your silver and go as far away as you can.”
I gave a bitter smile and drank again.
What a foolish girl.
I could run, but Mother could not.
And what of Qiuyue’s whole family? How were they to escape?
These were troubled times. A beautiful young woman traveling alone with a fortune in silver
would be lucky to survive at all, much less lead a decent life.
“Concubine Man! Their Highnesses wish to see you!”
Qiuyue still wanted to plead with me, but there was no time.
Nanny Gui swept into the courtyard at the head of a crowd.
The maids and serving women had come armed with ropes and clubs.
“You vicious woman!”
Gu Zheng slapped me across the face, his eyes brimming with wounded indignation.
He was trained in martial arts and immensely strong.
My cheek swelled at once. Half my mouth went numb.
I lowered my head to spit out a mouthful of bloody saliva, then knelt with my back as straight as ever.
“Shen Ruman! I’ve treated you generously. Is this how you repay me?
“When Qingyue told me, I thought someone must be slandering you.
“I never imagined you could be so… so vile!”
He pressed a hand to his chest, his face livid, as though he were the one who had been struck.
Through clenched teeth, he dragged in harsh breaths.
At last, he forced out a few words.
“I’ll ask you one last time. Did you truly do those things?”
Shen Qingyue glanced at me impassively and lifted a hand to touch the gold hairpin atop her head.
Her arm was slender and porcelain-pale, like a tender length of lotus root.
A jade bracelet gleamed deep green upon her wrist.
Mother never took that bracelet off.
It was Father’s first gift to her.
She treasured it beyond anything else.
She was the only mother I had.
I bowed my head. Inch by inch, my rigid back gave way.
At last, I lay prostrate like a dog.
“I did it all.
“Concubine Liu’s ruined face, Secondary Consort Tang’s miscarriage, Concubine Zhou’s fall into the water—all of it was my doing.”