“Go spend more time with your mother.”
Su Mufeng’s voice was deep and heavy, like a stone dropped into an ancient well, stirring ripples of old memories. “Back then, I never should have agreed to the Empress Dowager and the elders’ proposal. The palace gates are like the sea had I known it would come to this, I would rather have chosen an ordinary marriage for Su’er early on…”
Inside his sleeve, Su Jizhi’s fist clenched abruptly, his knuckles whitening. Looking at the fresh frost now edging his father’s temples, bitterness surged in his throat. “My sister has been demoted to the rank of daying. In the palace she must be suffering endless grievances… I hold nothing more than a paltry fourth-rank guard’s post of low standing and little voice. I don’t even have the right to speak up for her. As her elder brother, I am truly useless.”
Su Mufeng gazed at his son, his eyes gentle yet weighted by years. “There is no need to blame yourself. This was never your burden to bear.”
Su Jizhi understood his father’s meaning. Both the late emperor and the current one had always been wary of the power of imperial relatives. When his sister had once been a noble consort, their only path to survival had been restraint and obedience. Father and son sought nothing more than the family’s safety. If Su’er was well within the palace, they had never coveted rank or power. But now that his sister had been demoted, that carefully maintained balance had, at last, been shattered.
Su Mufeng slowly rubbed the letter in his hand, his fingertips gliding over the paper, cold and rigid like a layer of autumn frost. Su Su’s handwriting once lively as apricot blossoms just opening now seemed blunted by rules and discipline. Each stroke was neat as if stamped, even the final dots at the ends of sentences carefully reined in, no trace left of that former soaring, unrestrained spirit.
Suddenly he clenched the letter tight, his Adam’s apple rolling as he forced down the sigh and heartache that nearly escaped his lips. That little girl who once hopped beneath the apricot trees, calling out “Father,” was now trapped alone within the deep palace… His Su Su had only just turned fifteen this year.
They could not sit idly in sorrow any longer. He lifted his gaze sharply, a keen light flashing in his eyes, cutting off the choking emotion that threatened to surface. “Have you finished investigating whether there are any suspicious people in the household?”
Su Jizhi understood at once. He pushed open the creaking camphorwood door and entered the study alongside his father. Placing a secret note on the desk, he said gravely, “Father, I’ve found that before my sister’s incident, the steward’s son suddenly began frequent contact with the second branch of the family something that never happened before. Moreover, he had previously owed three hundred taels in gambling debts, yet recently paid them off in full.”
Bang!
Su Mufeng’s knuckles struck the rosewood desk heavily, startling the sparrows under the eaves into flight. What a faithless, treacherous wretch… What were the steward and the second branch plotting together? Yet within the lines at the corners of his eyes, sharpness lay hidden. “Hold your position. Keep watching them. Whatever they’re plotting, their tail will show sooner or later.”
Su Jizhi bowed in acknowledgment. “Yes. I’ve already arranged for people to continue monitoring them.”
Su Mufeng nodded, then added, “And the next time you send a letter to your sister… bring more silver with you.” She was living in Changxin Palace now; her days must be difficult. Su Su’s letters always claimed that everything was fine, but as her father, how could he not understand the cold and hardship of the inner palace?
Su Jizhi had always doted most on this younger sister. Hearing this, his eyes grew warm. “Yes. Everything in the palace requires careful greasing of the wheels. I’ll prepare it at once.” Inside his sleeve, his fingers unconsciously rubbed a faded knotted charm for peace it was one his sister had tied onto his wrist with her own hands three years ago, on the night before she entered the palace, under the corridor lights, tilting her head and smiling brightly.
Inside the palace, at Cining Palace.
Over the past month, during the audiences on the first and fifteenth of each month, Su Su had always sat quietly at the very end, head lowered, listening as Consort Zhuang’s barbed words soft on the surface, sharp beneath were directed at Consort Wan. Learning that the emperor had gone repeatedly to Consort Wan’s quarters, Consort Zhuang had long been unable to suppress the jealousy in her heart and now sought to use the Empress Dowager’s authority to rein in this newcomer.
The Empress Dowager sat high upon the phoenix seat, expression unreadable, allowing her to perform as she wished.
Consort Zhuang adopted a gentle, demure demeanor and said softly, “Empress Dowager, His Majesty is the Son of Heaven and should follow Heaven and Earth’s virtue of cherishing life, letting favor spread throughout the six palaces. Consort Wan is newly entered into the inner court and may not yet be fully versed in ritual propriety, occasionally committing small lapses… I beg the Empress Dowager to offer more guidance, lest His Majesty, through momentary indulgence, stray from the ancestral laws.”
The Empress Dowager lifted her eyes slightly, a smile rippling across her lips like spring water. Within that smile lay three parts benevolence and seven parts authority, as she replied slowly, “My virtuous daughter-in-law speaks with more understanding in admonishing the sovereign than even I do. Still, in the harem, the continuation of the imperial lineage must ultimately come first.”
Throughout Consort Zhuang’s verbal thrusts, Consort Wan’s expression remained pale and calm, without a ripple. The Empress Dowager’s gaze pierced her like a fine needle, her voice cool as silk covered in frost. “Consort Wan, since you enjoy His Majesty’s favor, you must always remember that ‘a single tree does not make a forest.’ I hope you will persuade His Majesty to bestow his grace evenly, and soon provide heirs for the imperial house.”
Consort Wan remained composed and answered calmly, “This concubine will keep the Empress Dowager’s teachings in mind.”
Seeing her aim achieved, a hint of satisfaction rose at the corner of Consort Zhuang’s lips. Consort Wan was, after all, not the Empress Dowager’s blood niece; naturally, the Empress Dowager would not shield her excessively and allow her alone to monopolize imperial favor.
After the rites concluded and the others dispersed, the Empress Dowager slightly turned her phoenix head and spoke softly to Nanny Duan beside her. “These days, when I look at Su Su, she seems to have reined in all her sharp edges. Could it be that the previous punishment was too severe?”
Nanny Duan bowed and replied, “Perhaps after experiencing such matters, Lady Su has learned to understand restraint and no longer behaves as willfully as before.”
The Empress Dowager sighed lightly, her tone tinged with pity yet retaining its authority. “She grew up at my side from childhood. Leaving her cold-shouldered for these days is enough. If she truly has…”
“If one aspires to the position of Empress, one must understand that an emperor’s heart never belongs to a single person alone. To cling stubbornly to exclusivity would only be to sever one’s own future.”
Nanny Duan understood at once and replied respectfully, “Her Majesty is compassionate and far-sighted. Lady Su will surely comprehend your painstaking intentions.”
On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month of the first year, New Year’s Eve arrived.
Su Su had her head lowered as she embroidered a handkerchief. Beside her, Chunlan hesitated several times before finally speaking softly, “My lady, this year… I’m afraid you won’t be able to attend the New Year’s banquet. Why don’t I cook some dumplings, and we celebrate the New Year quietly here in our room?”
The silver needle in Su Su’s fingers never paused. She had never cared much for the banquet anyway. In past years, when she accompanied the Empress Dowager, all she saw were the consorts competing in splendor, each using every trick at her disposal just to win a single glance from Li Qianche. The undercurrents of rivalry were even more exhausting than the performances on stage, and one could hardly manage a peaceful bite of food. Thinking of this, she curved her lips into a faint smile. “This is quite nice now peaceful, at least. Go tell Xiao Anzi to prepare some ingredients. I’ll make dumplings with you.”
Seeing how unconcerned her mistress was, Chunlan’s brows immediately relaxed. “I’ll go take care of it at once.” Before her words had even finished, Qiuju had already hopped toward the door like a little sparrow, delighted. “Let me go! I run fast!” And off she dashed, disappearing in a flash.
Su Su and Chunlan exchanged a smile, warmth filling their eyes.
As dusk deepened, golden light washed over the window lattice. The three of them sat around the table, slender hands moving deftly. Before long, the bamboo tray was lined with dumplings shaped like little ingots. Su Su suddenly laughed softly and pressed a finger lightly on one of them. “Inside this one, I hid a silver coin.” Chunlan caught on and quietly slipped copper coins into a few others.
“Whoever eats the silver coin this year will have the greatest fortune,” Su Su said, a mischievous glint flashing through her eyes. Qiuju was already smiling so hard her eyes curved into crescents, her hands moving even faster. Steaming vapor curled upward, blurring the smiling faces of the three.
In the misty warmth, Su Su felt a little dazed. She remembered her childhood, following the Empress Dowager. That dignified woman had taught her the ways of being an empress while also ordering people to teach her cooking. “If you want to hold a man’s heart, you must first hold his stomach.” The words still rang in her ears. Yet back then, the soups and pastries she personally prepared and sent to Li Qianche earned her nothing more than a bland, “Not bad.”
The steaming dumplings were set on the table, and the three of them began to eat together. Su Su lowered her head, stirring the jade-white ingots in her bowl, silently praying: May I break free of this cage in the coming year. May my parents be safe and well. May all those I care for find smooth paths ahead. Just as she thought this, her teeth lightly struck something she had bitten into the dumpling with the silver coin hidden inside.
A smile was just forming on her lips when she noticed Qiuju beside her, cheeks puffed out, struggling to stuff three or four dumplings into her mouth at once, eyes wide and round, exactly like a greedy little squirrel.
Her eagerness to find the silver coin was so earnest it made one laugh.
Su Su couldn’t help laughing aloud. Fine glimmers of moisture gathered at the corners of her eyes, sparkling like morning dew on apricot blossoms under the candlelight.
She was extraordinarily beautiful: an oval face glowing softly, brows like distant mountains touched with ink, eyes like spring water rippling with light.
With the candle’s red glow swaying, faint dimples appeared at her cheeks, adding a touch of innocent sweetness.
Qiuju stared, transfixed, forgetting even to chew.