Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Chu Yao and I were born only three days apart, and I had risked my life to save her. Noble Consort Lan had no suitable reason to refuse to raise me.

Now that I had caught Imperial Father’s attention, she at least had to keep up appearances.

Thus, I was never deprived of fine clothes or delicacies, and she even allowed me to study music, chess, calligraphy, and painting alongside Chu Yao.

Chu Yao often sneered at me. “Like mother, like daughter. You’re every bit as lowborn as that dead mother of yours.”

“You’d better behave yourself. Don’t do anything improper and embarrass Mother Consort and me.”

But while my life appeared glamorous on the surface, no one knew how much I suffered behind closed doors.

Noble Consort Lan had no shortage of devious ways to torment me.

For instance, my clothes were made from the finest fabrics, but they were soaked in fishtail palm sap, which made the skin itch on contact.

She would make me wear them to grand occasions like the Mid-Autumn Banquet. The itching bored into my bones, but I could neither take off my clothes nor scratch myself. By the end of the banquet, sweat would be pouring off me like rain.

Then there was the time she ordered me to copy Buddhist scriptures for the Late Empress. The number of scrolls was perfectly reasonable.

But the shaft of my brush had been cast from copper and was extraordinarily heavy.

After copying several scrolls, my wrist felt ready to snap.

Not to mention, if I caught a chill, the servants would add cooling ingredients to my food.

If I suffered heatstroke, they would prepare foods that aggravated internal heat.

Xiao Liu often wiped away tears in secret. “How can she torment Your Highness like this? When will this ever end?”

I asked her, “Xiao Liu, do you think a three-year-old child could chop down a tree so thick it would take five people holding hands to encircle it?”

“How could that be possible?”

“It is possible!” I smiled. “The child will grow. As long as they keep chipping away at it year after year, never giving up, even the largest tree will eventually fall.”

I could do it.

Until I became strong enough, until the right opportunity arrived…

I had to endure.

Although Noble Consort Lan hired renowned teachers for me, I was “slow.” I showed no particular talent in music, chess, calligraphy, or painting.

In Imperial Father’s presence, I was timid and meek, nowhere near as charming and poised as Chu Yao.

One year passed, then two, then three…

Noble Consort Lan gradually discovered my value: I made the perfect foil for Chu Yao.

My mediocrity and timidity served to highlight Chu Yao’s intelligence, poise, and noble bearing.

More importantly, whenever Chu Yao made a mistake, I could take the blame.

After all, I was meek by nature. No matter how much filth they threw at me, I would never dare utter a word in protest.

Chu Yao also discovered how useful I could be.

I may have been hopeless at music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but I was skilled at embroidery and adept at making all kinds of Jiangnan pastries.

Whenever Noble Consort Lan’s birthday, Imperial Father’s birthday, the Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year’s Eve, or any other important occasion came around, I would prepare a gift by hand.

Chu Yao would snatch those gifts away and claim she had stayed up all night making them herself.

Then she would belittle me.

“Mother Consort and Imperial Father don’t praise these gifts because you made them well. They praise them because I’m the one who gave them.

“If you presented them yourself, they probably wouldn’t even bother to look.

“So you should be grateful to me. Thanks to me, all your heartfelt effort didn’t go to waste.”