Chapter 4

Jiang Bao’er’s illness lasted until the seventh day.

At last, under her father’s reprimands, she reluctantly took a seat by the window.

“I’ve heard all about it. Everyone sent out of the palace this time was a servant the emperor despised. Feng Chun’er must have been driven out too!

“Otherwise, why would she have a guilty conscience and ask Father not to mention her to anyone?”

The maids and older women waited for a spectacle. Jiang Bao’er lifted her chin at me like a smug little rooster.

Neither angry nor annoyed, I looked at her quietly.

“That’s right. His Majesty despised me and drove me out of the palace.

“Do you know what kind of woman His Majesty despises?”

Jiang Bao’er froze, then stammered:

“I—I don’t know, and I certainly don’t need to! I have a good family and a sweet tongue. Father says nobody could dislike me!”

Seeing she hadn’t embarrassed me, she flung down her book and ran off in a temper.

“Bao’er is an odd child. Please don’t take it to heart, Aunt Feng.”

Jiang Mingzhu looked at me with a trace of unease.

“But, Aunt Feng, what sort of women does His Majesty dislike?”

As we spoke, snow drifted down outside.

In the year Rongqi turned twenty-seven, the late emperor fell gravely ill.

The princes took turns attending his sickbed. I had to instruct the newly arrived maids and seldom served in the emperor’s presence, so I no longer saw much of Rongqi.

The last time I saw him, he was flying a kite with Xu Wanzhen.

He said something in her ear that made her lower her head and laugh behind her hand, unable even to hold the kite string steady.

The kite wobbled and fell at my feet. Seeing me, Rongqi smiled awkwardly.

“Aunt Feng, would you kindly bring that over?”

Xu Wanzhen saw me and smiled gently.

“Rongqi has mentioned you. He says you’re a very loyal servant.”

I must have been the last person in the palace to learn that Rongqi and Xu Wanzhen had once been promised to each other.

But Noble Consort Rou’s death and the upheavals that followed had broken that childhood betrothal.

Xu Wanzhen had waited for him all these years, remaining unmarried well past the usual age. Her devotion was plain to see.

Now that they had reunited, they treasured each other all the more.

Besides, Rongqi owed his accession to the late emperor’s longing for Noble Consort Rou, his guilt toward Rongqi, and the support of the Xu family.

There was therefore no question that Xu Wanzhen would be made empress.

What everyone wondered was what His Majesty would give Aunt Feng, to whom he owed so much, or what Aunt Feng would ask of him.

That day, as I brought tea and refreshments, I heard Rongqi say:

“Feng Chun’er is a loyal servant. I don’t know what to reward her with.”

“Loyal, but far too calculating,” Xu Wanzhen said with a smile. “Quite remarkable for a mere maid to be so clever, to know just how to sway people. One sentence moved the late emperor. Even after four years in the laundry bureau, she managed to make him remember her and promote her to serve tea in his presence. Then she backed Your Majesty’s accession. Her gamble certainly paid off.”

Rongqi sounded displeased.

“I expect she’ll ask to be a consort, or at least an imperial concubine.”

“Why not put her to the test?”

I sat beneath the palace wall and thought for a long time.

I didn’t even notice the rain soaking my skirt.

I wasn’t sad. I was merely calculating how long it would take to start over and save for a little house, a bed, and a table.

I wasn’t as clever as Xu Wanzhen claimed. It was such simple arithmetic, yet I sat in the rain working it out for so long that my eyes began to ache, and still I couldn’t find the answer.

Later Rongqi came to my room and said he could grant me one wish. But he warned me against unreasonable ambitions: any rank must be below that of consort.

I had foolishly dreamed of becoming Rongqi’s wife, but I had never presumed to dream of becoming the emperor’s concubine.

Just as I was considering whether to ask for a house in Suzhou or a courtyard home in the capital,

the sound of a servant being punished came from outside.

Eunuch Chen had accidentally broken Xu Wanzhen’s favorite glass cup and was being given twenty strokes of the paddle.

I thought for a moment, then looked at Rongqi.

“I don’t want my wish. Rong—Your Majesty, please pardon him.”

Xu Wanzhen half hid her face behind a round fan. Looking at Rongqi, she gave a knowing smile.

“Retreating to advance when you can’t get the rank you want. Clever indeed.”

Advance or retreat, it made no difference.

The eunuch was being beaten so terribly, crying out for his mother. I couldn’t bear to listen.

“You don’t want anything else?” Rongqi looked at me urgently. “You can be a consort. With a title of honor too, you’d be respected—”

I didn’t wish to explain any more. I shook my head.

“I want nothing. If Your Majesty remembers our old affection, I humbly beg permission to leave the palace. I was betrothed as a child, and he is still waiting for me to return.”

With every reference to myself as his servant, Rongqi’s face darkened a little more.

But perhaps to him this was another move in my game.

He knew I had no home to return to, and nobody waiting for me.