Chapter 2

I dreamed of my mother, Empress Xiaoyichun.

She sat upright on her phoenix throne, smiling with serene dignity, and beckoned me over. I laid my head in her lap and felt her hand stroking my hair.

The scene changed. Now she was lying in bed, her face white as paper.

She was coughing terribly, but still forced a smile when she saw me. Physicians and maids hurried back and forth. Panic gripped me.

“Qingye, I am all right.” She called me by my name. Whenever I was frightened, she called me Qingye, and it always calmed me quickly. This time, though, I held her icy hand, and tears spilled down my face.

I jolted awake, gasping for breath.

“Xiayu, what time is it?” I wanted some water. A long, finely shaped hand lifted the bed curtains and offered me a cup of tea.

“It is still early, Your Highness. Rest a little longer.”

I looked up into Liyang’s arresting eyes. In the moonlight, his face looked carved from fine jade, his long eyes regarding me lazily.

“What are you doing here?”

I took a sip of tea and asked the question without much interest.

Liyang was one of the male favorites I kept in my residence, but I never allowed any of them into my bedchamber. The city might call me insatiably debauched, yet nothing had ever happened between us. They merely kept me company and talked.

“Sister Xiayu caught a chill in the night, so I took her place on watch.”

He sounded perfectly earnest. I could not be bothered to challenge him. Even if Xiayu was ill, a residence this large had plenty of people to replace her. Liyang was always scheming, and I was in no mood to investigate.

“Wake me at the proper time.”

With that instruction, I waved him away.

Today was the Peach Blossom Festival. Officially, it was a gathering for royalty and nobles to admire the peach blossoms. In truth, it was a chance for the young ladies and gentlemen of the capital to look one another over as prospective spouses.

The Empress Dowager had always presided over it. With her health failing, the duty had passed to me.

Liyang woke me early as instructed, then stood beside me while the maids dressed my hair and applied my makeup.

When they reached for my hair ornaments, he gently pushed Xiayu’s hand aside and produced a crabapple-and-peony hairpin with dangling ornaments from his robes, as though by magic. He slipped it into my hair.

“This one suits you, Your Highness.” He smiled. “May you find a worthy husband this year.”

“With all of you living under my roof, who would dare become my consort?” I gave a soft laugh.

His hand paused. “We are of no importance. If Your Highness is dissatisfied, one word will send us all out of your household.”

I turned to look at him. His indolent eyes were misted over; I could not tell what he was thinking.

After studying him for a while, I reached out. My fingers brushed his chin, traveled down his throat, and slowly parted the front of his outer robe.

His smiling mask cracked. The maids lowered their heads and busied themselves. His throat moved, and the faintest flush rose over his jade-pale face. “Your Highness, this is improper.”

He spoke through his teeth.

So bold with words, and reduced to this by the slightest touch? I burst out laughing and rose to leave, waving a hand. “This is exactly as it should be.”

At the festival, I smiled as I greeted the arrivals and saw others off. Their nervous caution sometimes bored me. It was all the usual business of handsome young men and lovely young women exchanging poems and matching couplets.

“A fine shot, my lord!”

Suddenly, cheers rose nearby.

I looked over. Lin Mo stood holding a bow, speaking coolly to the people around him.

Besides displaying literary talents, guests traditionally tested their martial skills at the festival. The man at the center of the crowd was Lin Mo, heir to the Duke of Jing.

He was my age and still unmarried.

As for why he had never taken a wife—

“No wonder Princess Jiayu favors him,” several people beside me said, smiling. “The Duke of Jing’s heir truly has no equal.”

I smiled faintly and said nothing.

Naturally, the onlookers took it as the proud assurance of a woman certain she would get what she wanted.

Lin Mo heard them too. He frowned as he glanced at me, quietly suppressing the distaste in his eyes.

Yes, I had once liked Lin Mo. But that was all in the past.

Much of the reason he remained unmarried was that the noble families feared my reputation. No one dared give him a daughter.

After all, I had been the late emperor’s favorite princess. When Pei Chu first ascended the throne and his power was unsteady, I had killed a great many people for him.

Pei Chu was four years younger than me, and our father had died suddenly. Opposition was inevitable. I had crushed it at court and beyond with ruthless speed. Though I had restrained myself in recent years, the name “she-devil” had stuck.

Everyone also understood, without saying so, that I liked Lin Mo and Lin Mo did not like me.

“Her Majesty the Empress Dowager! His Majesty the Emperor! Princess Ronghua!” I turned toward the announcement and saw the three of them enter.

Pei Shuangshuang had formally been invested as Princess Ronghua, but she still did not dress like a princess. Compared with me, at least, she could scarcely have looked plainer.

She supported the Empress Dowager on one side while Pei Chu walked on the other. At first glance, they truly looked like a family.

Pei Chu seemed in good spirits. He waved everyone to their feet and took the highest seat. I approached with a smile. “Your Majesty has been unwell. What brings you out today?”

The Empress Dowager coughed twice and gave me a smile that never reached her eyes. “Happy news, of course.”

I offered her a cup of tea, still smiling. “Ronghua’s return has certainly brought Your Majesty much joy.”

She patted Pei Shuangshuang’s hand. “Indeed. It pains me to think of all those years Ronghua spent lost among the common people. I am doing everything I can to make it up to her.”

“Oh?” I sat beside her. “Ronghua is of marriageable age. Why not take this opportunity to choose her a husband she will like?”

The Empress Dowager nodded, smiling. “That is exactly what I had in mind.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Then you already have someone in mind?”

She said nothing, turning instead toward Pei Chu.

From his seat above us, Pei Chu did not look at me. He watched the murmuring guests below.

A marriage to Princess Ronghua was a prize indeed. Quite apart from her extraordinary beauty, the favor Pei Chu and the Empress Dowager showed her made the position of her consort highly desirable.

“I had intended to consider more candidates, but Ronghua has already given her heart to someone.” Pei Chu’s gaze passed over every face before resting on Lin Mo. “The heir to the Duke of Jing.”

Soft cries of surprise broke out through the crowd.

I looked at Lin Mo. His usual composure faltered. Pei Chu continued, “What does my lord heir say?”

Lin Mo stepped forward, lifted his robe, and knelt. “To receive Princess Ronghua’s favor fills me with joy. I thank Your Majesty for this grace.”

Everyone fell silent. I felt furtive glances turning my way.

When my father was alive, he had known I liked Lin Mo and sounded out the Duke of Jing. The answer had been a courteous refusal. An imperial consort could no longer wield real power. He would be condemned to a rich man’s idle life, eating and waiting to die.

Proud as Lin Mo was, how could he accept that? He had also long disliked my domineering behavior. Naturally, he had refused with every fiber of his being.

Yet now he had agreed.

I caught the brief glance he exchanged with Pei Shuangshuang. Both of them blushed.

“Congratulations, my lord,” I said with an indifferent smile. The guests quickly recovered and crowded around to congratulate him. Pei Shuangshuang leaned against the Empress Dowager, her face flushed and her eyes full of smiles.

That year’s Peach Blossom Festival ended in general rejoicing.

As I was about to enter my carriage, Pei Shuangshuang called from behind me. “Sister, wait.”

I turned. She smiled with her lips pressed together. “My carriage has broken down. Might I trouble you for a ride?”

I knew she must have something to say. I nodded, climbed in first, and told the driver to stop at Princess Ronghua’s residence before taking me home.

The carriage swayed. Pei Shuangshuang adjusted the jade ornament in her hair. It was among the gifts sent as tribute from Persia that year, most of which Pei Chu had bestowed on her.

“Sister, you are not angry about today, are you?” She blinked at me.

Reclining against a soft cushion, I played with a string of chalcedony beads. “What are you referring to?”

“Well… the Duke of Jing’s heir and me.” She blushed again. I smiled. “Oh, Lin Mo. Not at all. He is only a man. Why would I let him affect the affection between us?”

She studied my face carefully. “I am glad you are not angry. I heard people say that you had long admired him, so—”

“Now that you belong to the palace, stop gossiping like a woman in the marketplace,” I interrupted. “I grew tired of Lin Mo’s face long ago. You are welcome to him.”

Her face flushed, then turned pale. Perhaps she had not expected such bluntness.

The suggestion that Lin Mo was something I had discarded seemed to set her teeth on edge. But she quickly rearranged her expression and smiled. “How admirably carefree you are, Sister.”

We were nearly at her residence. I closed my eyes to rest, having no intention of continuing the conversation.

The carriage stopped. Before getting out, she suddenly said, “Sister, I have always envied you. We are both princesses, but you grew up in silk and luxury, while I had only coarse food and plain tea.”

I opened my eyes and met her shining gaze. “That is why Mother and His Majesty are determined to make it up to me,” she continued. “Whatever I want, they give me.”

I smiled slowly and straightened the jade ornament in her hair.

“Do you know the greatest difference between us?

“What you want, you must wait for others to give you. What I want, I take for myself.”