Chapter 7
Several hours had passed since I humiliated His Majesty at the banquet.
Though we shared the same chambers, I always slept in the bed while he took the low couch. I tossed and turned, too shaken to sleep. I did not know what my husband would think, but it was obvious that I could not remain in this palace.
Beyond the bed curtains came the voices of His Majesty and the Right Chancellor.
The chancellor said, “Your Majesty used Xie Chi’s insolence to cripple him and reclaim his military seal at the same time. Dealing with the great clans will be much easier now. Your Majesty is wise.”
His Majesty was silent for a long time. “Soon, all under heaven will be at peace.”
He sounded weary. Before long, everything outside fell quiet.
Footsteps approached. His Majesty gently lifted the curtain while I lay with my back to him, pretending to sleep.
I waited for him to speak. After a long time, all I heard was a low call: “Wanniang.”
Nothing followed.
I uncovered my face from the brocade quilt. It was wet with tears.
His Majesty did not look surprised.
My voice was hoarse as I pleaded, “Your Majesty, will you ask my husband to come and see me? Only once. I miss him. I promise I will not interfere with his work.”
I had just realized in horror that I had forgotten what Yunnu looked like. I had not seen him for so long that even his face was gone.
My voice choked. “I am so frightened. I want to see him.”
His Majesty looked down at me, white hair spilling over his shoulders. He reached out and wiped the tears from my face.
Liu Liang coaxed gently, “Wanniang, when this spell of rain ends, I will let Yunnu come and see you.”
I could not wait any longer. I had already spent too long in the palace, and my thoughts seemed to grow more confused by the day.
His Majesty had treated me terribly before. Who could say he would not kill me someday?
I was afraid that one day I would go mad, my recovered memories and forgotten ones tangled together until I could no longer tell truth from illusion.
I caught his hand and all but begged, “Then please let me leave, Your Majesty. Let me return to Yin County on my own. Please tell my husband that I will wait for him there, in our little courtyard. Will you?”
Slowly, His Majesty pulled his hand from mine. He remained silent for a long while.
“No, Wanniang,” he said.
The mood in the palace had grown tense. Even idle gossip had nearly disappeared.
Perhaps the storm outside was simply too violent.
With thunderous speed, His Majesty arrested the three great clans of Xie, Cui, and Yang. Every crime their families had committed in recent years was gathered as evidence. The men were executed or exiled according to their guilt, and the women were consigned to the imperial entertainment bureau.
Fortunately, Luoyang’s spring rains were plentiful. Otherwise, the blood might never have washed from its streets.
Empress Xie was not spared.
As I walked through the inner palace, someone suddenly crashed into me.
Xie Ying—the legitimate-born daughter of the Xie clan and reigning empress, once so far above me—was wild-haired and disheveled, with Jinwu Guards in pursuit. Palaces and pavilions had collapsed in the space of a few nights.
Empress Xie stumbled at my feet, badly startling Ah Ruo.
She raised her head. Her eyes were bloodshot, though whether from hatred or disbelief, I could not tell.
Xie Ying seized my ankle so hard that I nearly cried out. Then she burst into laughter. “Zhao Wan, thanks to you, His Majesty moved against my Xie clan ahead of schedule. But do you think forgetting will let you remain carefree forever? Can you truly bear to keep forgetting? I will tell you something.”
I held my breath as my insides twisted.
I knew Xie Ying had always hated me. Even at the point of death, she would make certain I did not live in peace.
Whatever she meant to reveal would surely bring my whole world crashing down.
I waited for her to speak.
Someone covered my ears from behind. In the same instant, the Jinwu Guards’ blades and spears pierced Empress Xie’s body. Her lips kept moving as blood poured from her mouth and wounds.
Empress Xie collapsed and fell silent forever.
Only then did His Majesty uncover my ears. “Take her away and bury her,” he ordered coolly.
I asked, “Your Majesty, what was Her Highness trying to tell me?”
His jaw trembled faintly as he studied my expression. Finding nothing unusual, he said, “Nothing. Only obscenities.”
He turned and walked ahead. Behind one ear was a tiny mole.
By coincidence, my husband had a tiny mole behind his ear too.
His Majesty had covered my ears, so I truly had heard nothing. But I remembered the shape of the empress’s moving lips.
Slowly, I retraced them, piecing the words together one by one. Xie Ying had said,
“His Majesty’s childhood name is Yunnu.”
I stared at the broad figure walking ahead. My mind reeled, and agony seized my heart.
I stopped dead and screamed after him in hoarse disbelief, “Yunnu!”
He turned around instinctively.
I pitched forward and struck the ground.
My husband had been here from beginning to end.