The Cining Palace was the residence of empress dowagers through the dynasties, simple and solemn, imposing and grand, completely different from the luxurious splendor or elegant restraint of the Twelve Eastern Palaces and Twelve Western Palaces.
As soon as Cao Yue stepped into the Cining Palace, that thick sense of oppression hit her in the face, making it hard to breathe.
Fortunately, she was not the only one feeling it. Even the Imperial Noble Consort, who had earlier in the Qianqing Palace received the court visits and kneelings of the concubines, had become unusually obedient after entering the Cining Palace.
Cao Yue stood at the very end of the rank of concubines, side by side with the Shufei of the Hesheli clan, following the Imperial Noble Consort in paying respects to the Empress Dowager and the Grand Empress Dowager seated at the head.
The moment she lowered her eyes, Cao Yue saw that beside the Grand Empress Dowager there stood a woman dressed like a concubine, serving her. A square face vaguely carried the Grand Empress Dowager’s features, and she should be the Shufei of the Borjigit clan that the Imperial Noble Consort had mentioned.
After the proper, by-the-book greeting was finished, the Grand Empress Dowager smiled broadly, in a very good mood, like a peaceful old lady next door: “All of you may rise. Be seated, and serve tea.”
Though she said they were to be seated, the main hall of the Cining Palace was not like the Qianqing Palace. Not just anyone could get a seat in the Cining Palace.
Looking at the only two embroidered stools beneath the Grand Empress Dowager, anyone could tell they were for the Imperial Noble Consort and Noble Consort Niu.
The Imperial Noble Consort and Noble Consort Niu thanked her with smiles, and then the Imperial Noble Consort began asking one thing after another about the Grand Empress Dowager’s food, clothing, daily life, whether she was eating well, sleeping well, and whether there were any shortages in her ordinary expenses.
Somo Who one by one answered on behalf of the Grand Empress Dowager, and only then did the Imperial Noble Consort settle down, turning to joke with the Grand Empress Dowager: “Grand Empress Dowager, please don’t think this concubine is being long-winded. The Emperor has repeatedly instructed this concubine to show filial respect on his behalf when he is busy with state affairs. If not for your liking for quiet, this concubine would be aching to come pay respects and ask after you every day.”
Though the Imperial Noble Consort looked so attentive, and the Grand Empress Dowager still wore a smile, if one looked carefully, one would see that the smile did not reach the Grand Empress Dowager’s eyes: “The Imperial Noble Consort would do well to put more thought into the Emperor and the harem in ordinary times. This old woman is just an old lady now, and does not need the Imperial Noble Consort to worry over me so much.”
The Imperial Noble Consort did not expect the Grand Empress Dowager to give her such a cold shoulder, and the smile on her face inevitably became forced. Seeing this, Noble Consort Niu joined in with a smile to smooth things over: “How can the Grand Empress Dowager be just an old lady? In this concubine’s view, you are still very young. When you sit together with the Empress Dowager, you do not look like mother-in-law and daughter-in-law at all, but rather like sisters.”
Everyone likes to hear pleasant words, and the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager were no exception. Seeing the Empress Dowager smile, the Grand Empress Dowager was also willing to give Noble Consort Niu a bit of face: “Only you have such a sweet mouth. This body of yours has also been past three months, hasn’t it?”
Noble Consort Niu nodded: “You have such a good memory. It really has been three months.”
The Grand Empress Dowager’s somewhat aged eyes narrowed slightly, and her side glance swept over the stiff face of the Imperial Noble Consort. In a gentle voice, she said: “Take good care of yourself. Although the Emperor already has ten sons under his knee, sons are not something one dislikes in excess. For the imperial family, many sons and many grandsons are what bring blessing.”
“What the Grand Empress Dowager says is right. This concubine also hopes to give the Emperor another child.”
Able to outshine the Imperial Noble Consort and gain favor in front of the Grand Empress Dowager, the smile on Noble Consort Niu’s face became a little more genuine.
And Cao Yue, standing in the back with her head lowered, listening to the covert sparring among the ladies in front, could not help once again sighing inwardly at the Imperial Noble Consort’s stupidity.
Before she had even finished sighing, the Grand Empress Dowager changed the topic and looked at the concubines in the hall: “You all as well. As concubines, your first duty is to serve the Emperor well, and your second is to extend the imperial bloodline. Your wombs had better be more争气.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the concubines, Imperial Noble Consort included, all knelt down in unison: “This concubine and the others thank the Grand Empress Dowager for her teaching.”
The Grand Empress Dowager lifted the Buddhist beads in her hand: “Rise and sit. I hear that Zhaopin came today as well. Which one is she?”
Having been called out by the Grand Empress Dowager, everyone’s gaze once again fell on Cao Yue.
Cao Yue, under the many gazes, walked forward two steps and knelt in the center of the hall: “It is this concubine.”
The Grand Empress Dowager looked Cao Yue over carefully. Seeing that Cao Yue’s appearance was not like Chenfei and Dong Efei’s weak and pitiful sort, but carried a naturally detached air, the inexplicable dislike from before lessened somewhat.
Originally prepared not to be liked by the Grand Empress Dowager, who would have thought the Grand Empress Dowager would act contrary to expectation and show no intention of making things difficult for Cao Yue at all. Not only did she have Somo Who help Cao Yue up personally, she even praised her with a smile as a good child.
This development was clearly beyond the Imperial Noble Consort’s expectations. She no longer cared about the humiliation from earlier, and was about to speak and trip Cao Yue up, but Cao Yue, after noticing the Imperial Noble Consort’s intent, spoke first: “Reporting to the Grand Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager, today is this concubine’s first time paying respects to you both, so this concubine specially prepared a gift, hoping it may win your favor, Grand Empress Dowager and Empress Dowager.”
After speaking, she clapped her hands. An Ning came in personally holding two embroidered works. After receiving permission, Somo Who ordered people to help spread the two pieces open one by one.
A pair of foreign-horse paintings and a pair of *Zhuoxie* paintings, recreated in Su embroidery, were displayed before everyone, causing waves of astonishment.
The concubines were astonished by the Su embroidery itself, while the Empress Dowager was astonished by the horses in the embroidery, lifelike and vivid, as if given life by someone.
Looking at these two pieces of embroidery, the Empress Dowager felt as if she had returned to the days when she rode freely and galloped across the Horchin grasslands.
Very happily, she looked to the Grand Empress Dowager and said in Mongolian: “Empress Mother, they are so much like them. Your daughter likes them very much.”
Cao Yue did not understand Mongolian, and had not even thought of learning Manchu, but from the Empress Dowager’s expression, she could still guess what the Empress Dowager had said.
Still, she remained respectfully smiling, slightly lowering her head, and did not add a word.
The Grand Empress Dowager’s expression was complicated. Cao Yue did not know what she said to the Empress Dowager in Mongolian, and then she heard the Grand Empress Dowager instruct Somo Who: “Zhaopin has put her heart into this. Somo Who, reward Zhaopin with a jade ruyi.”
Cao Yue bowed down again: “This concubine thanks the Grand Empress Dowager for the gift.”
After seeing Zhaopin, the Grand Empress Dowager did not keep the concubines long either, and waved them off to kowtow and withdraw.
Once outside the Cining Palace, Noble Consort Niu saw the Imperial Noble Consort with a dark face about to get into her heated sedan chair, and took the chance to speak loudly: “This consort has not yet congratulated Younger Sister Zhaopin. You managed to win the Grand Empress Dowager’s favor and even received a jade ruyi. That jade ruyi is tribute from Myanmar, and there are only three in all. I did not expect one of them to end up with Younger Sister. This is also Your blessing.”
Cao Yue said in sudden realization, “So that’s how it is. Thank you, Noble Consort, for telling me.”
Noble Consort Niu wanted to say something else, but the Imperial Noble Consort had already climbed into the heated sedan chair in anger. At the Imperial Noble Consort’s signal, a little eunuch from the Qianqing Palace shouted, “Lift the sedan chair.”
The voice was loud and clear, carrying right into the main hall of the Cining Palace.
The Grand Empress Dowager slapped the sandalwood Buddhist beads onto the kang table: “It’s getting more and more outrageous with Yilijiashi.”
Seeing her anger, the Borjigit Shufei hurriedly rubbed the Grand Empress Dowager’s back: “Please calm your anger.”
The Empress Dowager handed over a peeled segment of mandarin orange and also coaxed in a good-tempered voice: “Mother, calm down. It’s not worth getting into it with the Imperial Noble Consort.”
The Grand Empress Dowager took the mandarin orange segment, intending to eat it, but when she heard the Empress Dowager’s good-tempered words, she got angry again and set the mandarin orange segment back on the plate. She pointed at the Empress Dowager in exasperation: “What was I making Yilijiashi lose face for? Wasn’t it for you? Your temper is so soft that it’s no wonder Yilijiashi, relying on her status, doesn’t put you in her eyes.”
Earlier, Yilijiashi had seemed all kinds of filial to her, but word for word she had not mentioned the Empress Dowager seated to the side at all. Such different treatment, how could she not be angry?
It was just that if she truly argued with a younger generation over it, she would be somewhat losing status. Better to use force against force. Since Yilijiashi did not like Noble Consort Niu and the Cao family, she would deliberately elevate them.
The smile on the Empress Dowager’s face faded somewhat, and she did not even eat the mandarin orange anymore: “Then what can your daughter do? After all, your daughter is not the Emperor’s birth mother. That I can now have the rank of Empress Dowager is because the Emperor is filial, and also because you have protected your daughter. As for more than that, your daughter would not dare to ask for it.”
To put it less pleasantly, if she now calmly and properly remained her own Empress Dowager, then after the Grand Empress Dowager’s passing, the Emperor would also, for the sake of her obedience, grant her the dignity owed to an Empress Dowager. But if she now, relying on the Grand Empress Dowager’s backing, acted recklessly, then what would await her in the future? She did not dare think about it.
How could the Grand Empress Dowager not understand the Empress Dowager’s thoughts? It was precisely because she understood that her guilt toward the Empress Dowager grew even deeper: “It is this old woman who has wronged you.”
If not for strengthening the connection between Horchin and the Qing, how would she have let the Empress Dowager marry into the Forbidden City and spend year after year guarding a lonely Shoukang Palace?
Bitterness spread from the Empress Dowager’s mouth. She hurriedly picked up the mandarin orange and stuffed it into her mouth. The sweetness of the orange juice suppressed that trace of bitterness, and she shook her head: “This is all your daughter’s fate.”
Seeing this, the Borjigit Shufei also could not help lowering her head in gloom.
The Grand Empress Dowager took a deep breath. The Empress Dowager’s life would only be like this, but Urna was still young. She had to give Urna something to look toward: “Rest assured, I will find an opportunity to let you serve the Emperor and move out of the Cining Palace.”
The Borjigit Shufei was overjoyed and kowtowed to the Grand Empress Dowager: “This concubine has troubled you.”
Even though the Borjigit Shufei knew the chances were slim, she still could not help but feel a glimmer of hope. After all, which young woman of a flower-like age would want to spend her life as a living widow?
Cao Yue returned to the Jingren Palace in her heated sedan chair, ate a few bites of breakfast to fill her stomach, then lounged on the heated kang bed, with the jade ruyi that the Grand Empress Dowager had just bestowed placed beside her hand. She called An Shun over: “On the first and fifteenth of every month, does the Emperor go to the Qianqing Palace?”
This question had too much uncertainty in it, and An Shun had no way to answer it, so he only said: “The Emperor does not go to the Qianqing Palace every time. It depends on whether the Emperor is willing to give the Imperial Noble Consort face.”
Hearing An Shun mention face, Cao Yue suddenly let out a soft laugh: “Then today, the Emperor must not be in the mood to give the Imperial Noble Consort face.”
When they were in the Cining Palace, An Shun had been waiting outside and did not know what had happened in the hall, so he was completely baffled.
An Ning covered her mouth and laughed, then told An Shun about the Imperial Noble Consort’s behavior. Only then did An Shun understand, and there was disdain in his eyes for the Imperial Noble Consort’s lack of brains:
“No wonder. The Emperor rules the realm with benevolence and filial piety. Although the Empress Dowager is not the Emperor’s birth mother, the Emperor is also very filial to her. In fact, so as not to leave the Empress Dowager lonely and without support, he even had the Fifth Prince born by Imperial Consort Yi taken under the Empress Dowager’s knee to be raised. The Imperial Noble Consort treating the Empress Dowager with such disregard, it is no wonder she got a cold reception before the Grand Empress Dowager.”
Cao Yue smiled slightly without caring. Perhaps the Emperor’s filial piety toward the Empress Dowager was not genuine, but was instead to avoid giving people ammunition, an act for the world to see.
Still, what a pity. Even if it was just an act, the Imperial Noble Consort had not performed it well, and had even indirectly slapped the Emperor’s face.
“Enough about her. Tell this consort about the origins of this jade ruyi.”
If the jade ruyi did not have a story behind it, then Noble Consort Niu would not have used it to provoke the Imperial Noble Consort in front of the Cining Palace gate.
An Shun glanced at the jade ruyi beside Cao Yue, flawless all the way through with not a trace of impurity, and slowly recounted what he knew.
At the Qianqing Palace, just after Kangxi had come down from the morning court and changed out of his court robes to sit in the warm pavilion drinking tea, Liang Jiugong seized the gap and reported in meticulous detail everything that had happened during the morning greetings to Kangxi.
When he heard that in the Qianqing Palace, Concubine Xi had used the excuse of her injured foot to refuse the return courtesy and put Zhaopin in an awkward position, Kangxi set down his teacup and leaned back slightly, his expression calm: “Go. Pass on my oral decree, telling Concubine Xi to rest and recover in peace. When her foot injury is healed, then she may come out again. Otherwise, if the injury worsens and is still not fully healed by the New Year, it would only add more bad luck.”
With just a light sentence, he confined Concubine Xi to her quarters, without even specifying a time limit.
Liang Jiugong was not surprised at all. On this matter itself, Zhaopin was in no way at fault, let alone the fact that the Emperor had just obtained Zhaopin Lady, and at this moment was precisely in the phase of treasuring her like a precious gem. How could he allow people to bully Zhaopin without backing her up?
After answering with a yes, Liang Jiugong began speaking about what had happened in the Cining Palace. He had originally thought the Emperor would get angry and find a reason to reprimand the Imperial Noble Consort, but who knew the Emperor would remain silent for a long while without speaking.
Finally, when Kangxi did speak, it was an instruction to reward Noble Consort Niu: “The Noble Consort is working hard while pregnant. Reward the Noble Consort with one bolt of kesi satin, one bolt of cloud brocade, eight bolts of zhuanghua satin. Also order the Imperial Household Department to make a set of playthings and send them to Yongshou Palace for the Tenth Prince to use in play.”
“Yes, sir. This servant will go handle it right away.”
Thus, less than an hour after the greetings ended, news that Noble Consort Niu in Yongshou Palace had received a reward and that Concubine Xi in Xiushou Palace had been confined had already spread throughout the six palaces.
As for how Concubine Xi was throwing a tantrum in her own palace, that need not be mentioned for now. Noble Consort Niu looked at the exceptionally precious kesi satin and cloud brocade in front of her, but did not feel the joy the concubines had imagined.
Ziyan ordered people to put the gifts into the storeroom, then said in puzzlement: “The Emperor rewarded Your Ladyship, but this servant feels like you do not seem happy?”
Noble Consort Niu leaned against the embroidered cushion, lightly stroking her still-flat abdomen, and let out a soft sigh: “Do you think the Emperor’s rewards are so easy to take? The Emperor only learned of the Cining Palace matter and is using the elevation of this consort to make the Imperial Noble Consort lose face.”
Ziyan did not quite understand: “But we were already not on good terms with the Imperial Noble Consort. Isn’t this a good thing?”
“Of course it is good. But the premise is that Bintiu must not be dragged into it.”
Noble Consort Niu’s breathing turned somewhat heavy for a moment: “Bintiu carries the blood of the Niohuru clan, and is also the son of a Noble Consort. His status is already the most noble among the princes besides the Crown Prince, and that is already enough to draw attention. Yet at this moment, the Emperor has openly rewarded Bintiu, making Bintiu the target of everyone’s arrows among the princes.”
But she could do nothing about it, and could only let the Emperor both elevate her to fight a contest with the Imperial Noble Consort, and use Bintiu to remind her.
Perhaps this was the price one had to pay for being born into the Niohuru clan.
Noble Consort Niu furrowed her brows in pain. Ziyan hurried forward to serve her, carefully massaging Noble Consort Niu’s temples: “Then what are we to do?”
Noble Consort Niu closed her eyes, feeling the firmness beneath her palm, and said heavily: “Tell the wet nurses looking after Bintiu that there is no need to rush teaching Bintiu to talk and walk. Let everything take its course.”
If Bintiu was to grow up safely, this was the only way.
And this child in her belly had better be a princess. If it were another prince, then for the Niohuru clan, that would not be glory, but a death warrant.
From this day onward, the Imperial Noble Consort’s illness became a bit more serious. As for whether she was truly sick or whether it was all in her mind, no one cared except herself and the imperial physician who attended her.
Kangxi took time to see the Imperial Noble Consort once, and after coming out he issued an oral decree on the grounds that the year-end affairs were complicated, ordering Consort Hui to assist the Imperial Noble Consort in managing palace affairs.
Aside from having been to the Qianqing Palace once, Kangxi, amid his busyness, also turned over the green-headed placards a few more times. Each of the Four Consorts got one turn, Cao Yue got two turns, and the rest of the time he had no spare moment to step into the rear palace again.
In the blink of an eye, Cao Yue had already entered the palace for a month. In another two or three days it would be New Year’s Eve, and Kangxi finally sealed his brush the day before yesterday, writing the fu characters to be bestowed on the front court and rear palace on the first day of the new year.
After writing for about half an hour, Kangxi suddenly thought of the decorative letter paper he had once seen in Cao Yue’s boudoir, and then with a thought he instructed Wei Zhu to go to the Jingren Palace to deliver an imperial order, summoning Zhaopin to the Qianqing Palace to keep him company.
Two quarters of an hour later, Wei Zhu returned, but there was no sign of Zhaopin.
Kangxi frowned: “Where is Zhaopin?”
Because he had run all the way, Wei Zhu had gulped down a bellyful of cold wind, and at this moment his stomach was somewhat cramping with discomfort, but he still forced himself to answer: “Reporting to Your Majesty, the chief eunuch of the Jingren Palace said that Zhaopin Lady is a little unwell, so she is not convenient to come and keep Your Majesty company.”
“Zhaopin is ill? What happened?”
An ice-cold, sharp gaze fell on Liang Jiugong, and Liang Jiugong could not help shivering: “This… this servant has not heard of the Jingren Palace summoning an imperial physician.”
Kangxi kicked Liang Jiugong hard in anger and shouted, “Useless fool.”
Then he hurried out of the Qianqing Palace.
Liang Jiugong hurried after him, calling for the sedan chair while lowly scolding Wei Zhu: “Quickly go to the Imperial Medical Bureau and call an imperial physician over.”
Wei Zhu answered repeatedly, got up from the ground, adjusted his crooked hat with both hands, brushed the dust off his clothes, and ran off in a flash to the Imperial Medical Bureau.