The Pearl in the Palm – Chapter 13
Under normal circumstances, if Zhao Yi had suffered an insult from the Crown Prince, he would have immediately found a way to fire back a sarcastic retort.
But with the Prince of Qin currently in the capital, everyone around Zhao Yi didn’t dare to act too presumptuously.
Zhao Yi argued, “This younger brother merely wants to go in and check on Miss Ye’s condition.”
Zhao Yun let out a cold sneer and stepped straight into his path. “Miss Ye is an unmarried maiden. She has the Empress to look after her and the imperial physicians to examine her. Since when is it your turn to look?”
Once Zhao Yun disappeared inside, Zhao Yi’s hands instantly clenched into fists. He shot a cold glare in the direction Zhao Yun had left, his eyes darkening significantly.
Zhao Yun walked into the inner chamber alone. Seeing Ye Lizhu completely surrounded by layers upon layers of women, smelling their suffocatingly expensive incense, and looking at their opulent, floor-trailing robes, he found it quite easy to understand why Ti Xiao harbored such a deep aversion to women.
Zhao Yun didn’t particularly like women either. These women looked so exceedingly delicate; they couldn’t be hit and couldn’t be touched, yet they spent every single day engaging in convoluted, indirect warfare. It was truly far too troublesome.
As he stepped forward, the palace maids and the two lower-ranking concubines made way for him.
Imperial Physician Xu had already fed Ye Lizhu a medicinal pill. He reported, “Miss Ye’s body is simply too frail. She only fainted this time due to the sudden shock and pain. Once she wakes up, she will be fine.”
Noble Consort Sheng had been genuinely frightened by Ye Lizhu’s deathly pale complexion. Sitting down to gently wipe Ye Lizhu’s face, she looked at Imperial Physician Xu and asked, “Will Miss Ye be able to wake up?”
Imperial Physician Xu replied, “She will wake up. Miss Ye is still breathing.”
If she had known that a simple ear piercing could actually cause someone to pass out, Noble Consort Sheng absolutely wouldn’t have acted out of spite and forced the piercing on Ye Lizhu just now.
Noble Consort Sheng stared anxiously at Ye Lizhu. A thin layer of sweat had broken out on her own forehead, and the thick, overpowering perfume radiating from her body was almost enough to knock a person out on its own.
To be perfectly honest, the incense Noble Consort Sheng used was made from incredibly precious spices. Normally, catching a whiff of it would be quite pleasant. However, she used far too much, making it overpoweringly strong. Combined with the hot weather and her slight sweating, the fragrance diffused even faster. Being densely enveloped in Noble Consort Sheng’s suffocating perfume was actually what had caused Ye Lizhu to faint.
Zhao Yun finally squeezed to the front to get a look at Ye Lizhu.
He had fully expected to see a sickly, pale, fragile woman swaying like a weak willow in the wind. Instead, what met his eyes was a young maiden with skin like ice and bones of jade, possessing a beauty that rivaled flowers and the moon.
The dot of cinnabar between Ye Lizhu’s brows burned with a dazzling brilliance, so breathtakingly beautiful that it was impossible to look away.
Zhao Yun: “…”
It turned out Uncle’s taste was exceptionally good after all.
However, to be completely honest, this little girl was even younger than Zhao Yun himself. Zhao Yun couldn’t help but feel that his uncle was an old cow grazing on tender young grass.
Empress Ti spoke up, “With everyone crowding around here in this sweltering heat, it would be terrible if Miss Ye were to suffer a heatstroke as well. Lanxin, have the servants move Miss Ye to the side hall to cool off. Also, order the kitchens to prepare some ginseng soup so it will be ready for Miss Ye when she wakes up.”
Having engaged in overt and covert warfare with Empress Ti for years, Noble Consort Sheng knew perfectly well that beneath the Empress’s amiable exterior lay a ruthless character who could eat a person alive without spitting out the bones.
Ye Lizhu’s constitution was simply too weak. By the looks of it, Ye Fu’an hadn’t been lying. Empress Ti would absolutely never allow the Crown Prince to marry such a fragile woman as his Crown Princess. The Crown Prince’s faction had this concern, and naturally, Noble Consort Sheng’s faction shared it. Since that was the case, Ye Lizhu had completely lost any value as a prize to fight over for both sides.
Right now, Ye Lizhu had already suffered a mishap under her watch. Although the imperial physician said she would wake up, Noble Consort Sheng was terrified that if Empress Ti’s people got their hands on Ye Lizhu, she might just “mysteriously” never wake up again. For someone who held no political value, Empress Ti would absolutely not hesitate to strike.
When the time came, all the blame would be pinned squarely on Noble Consort Sheng.
Noble Consort Sheng hurriedly said, “Sangyu, you go along and assist Lanxin. Where is Sirou? Have Sirou come inside. Sirou and Miss Ye are of similar age, so the two girls will surely have plenty to talk about. When Miss Ye wakes up, it will be perfect for Sirou to keep her company.”
Princess Sirou’s biological mother was not Noble Consort Sheng, but rather a low-ranking Noble Lady who lived in the Noble Consort’s palace. Thus, Princess Sirou was raised by Noble Consort Sheng and addressed her as Imperial Mother.
Princess Sirou quickly stepped inside and asked, “Imperial Mother, what are your orders?”
Noble Consort Sheng instructed, “You and Miss Ye are of similar age; you two young girls should get to know each other better and play together often. It is quite hot in here; even this Palace has broken a sweat. Go to the side hall with Miss Ye. Once she wakes up, chat and laugh with her, become good sisters, and invite her to your quarters frequently in the future.”
Empress Ti shot a glance at Princess Sirou and knitted her brows, but ultimately said nothing.
Ye Lizhu had just been carried into the side hall when Ti Xiao arrived.
Under normal circumstances, a court minister like Ti Xiao would never be permitted to enter the inner palace. However, since he was Empress Ti’s blood brother, the Emperor gave him some face and granted him a special exception to freely enter and exit Empress Ti’s Zhaoyang Palace.
The moment Ti Xiao stepped inside, the air in the room instantly dropped several degrees.
Noble Consort Sheng hadn’t been there long at all, yet she immediately felt entirely unable to sit still.
Even more unsettled than Noble Consort Sheng was the Second Prince, Zhao Yi. Just two days prior, Zhao Yi had been ruthlessly dressed down by Ti Xiao right in front of all the civil and military ministers. Seeing Ti Xiao now, he was still trembling with fear.
Ti Xiao was clad in ink-black robes, his expression cold and stern. Seeing him enter, Zhao Yi and Zhao Yun both rose to their feet. After all, the two youths had not yet reached their capping age and were still quite green. Standing next to Ti Xiao, not only were they a head shorter, but their imposing aura was completely eclipsed, making them look like pearls covered in dust.
Zhao Yi cupped his hands and bowed. “Your Highness the Prince of Qin.”
As the Crown Prince, Zhao Yun naturally didn’t need to bow. He simply called out, “Uncle.”
Ti Xiao gave Zhao Yun a brief nod, his sharp gaze sweeping across the hall—hm?
Where was Ye Lizhu?
He turned to the Empress and said, “This minister pays his respects to Her Majesty the Empress.”
Empress Ti was beaming with smiles.
She and Ti Xiao shared the same biological mother and had shared a deep bond since childhood. When Ti Xiao was young, the Empress doted on him immensely. When Empress Ti first entered the palace, the Qin faction was not nearly as powerful as it was now. Back then, the Zhairong tribes frequently invaded the borders, the old Prince of Qin had died in battle, the morale of the Xianzhou army was shattered, and their mother, the Princess Consort, had died of depression…
Empress Ti knew full well that even her own biological son, Zhao Yun, at the same age, could not compare to even a tenth of Ti Xiao’s scheming mind and martial prowess.
At the age of twelve, Ti Xiao followed the estate’s generals onto the battlefield. Later, he single-handedly propped up the Qin lands and the entirety of Xianzhou. At a young age, he consolidated the military, led troops to repel foreign invaders, and viciously crippled the Zhairong tribes that had harassed their borders for decades. In just over ten years, the vast lands of Xianzhou were no longer viewed by outsiders as a backward, barbaric wasteland, and the Qin faction was no longer met with cold indifference.
When Empress Ti first entered the palace, she was merely a sixth-rank Noble Lady. The Emperor looked down upon the ‘barbaric’ lands of Xianzhou, and by extension, looked down upon Empress Ti who hailed from there.
But Empress Ti was blessed with good fortune. She conceived in her very first year in the palace and relied on her wit and intelligence to safely deliver a prince, instantly jumping three ranks to become a Noble Concubine. For someone originating as a commandery princess from a declining vassal king’s family, even with a son, reaching the rank of the Four Consorts should have been her absolute limit.
However, Empress Ti had an extraordinary brother. The young Ti Xiao grew into a formidable force, heavily garrisoning troops in Xianzhou and watching the capital like a tiger. He was so young, yet possessed such terrifying ambition, power, and the absolute loyalty of the Xianzhou people. The Emperor tried every overt and covert plot but could do nothing to break Ti Xiao. Filled with deep-seated fear, even though he didn’t favor her, the Emperor was ultimately forced to crown her as Empress when Zhao Yun was seven years old.
Unlike the pampered noble youths in the capital, Ti Xiao’s status today wasn’t merely inherited—the vast majority of it had been seized with his own two hands.
Having spent years deep in the inner palace, Noble Consort Sheng simply could not withstand the suffocating, murderous aura radiating from this man. The imperial concubines were all heavily protected, living as supremely noble women. They never saw blades or bloodshed; claiming lives was always done by someone else’s hands or via covert poisons. Overt slaughter was something they never witnessed.
Coupled with the fact that Noble Consort Sheng loved to provoke Empress Ti on a daily basis, suddenly coming face-to-face with the Empress’s brother—who was striding forward with a heavy, lethal blade—naturally left her incredibly nervous.
Feeling a guilty conscience, Noble Consort Sheng kept her head down and sipped her tea, occasionally stealing sideways glances at the treasured blade, Zhongyuan, at Ti Xiao’s waist.
Legend had it that this blade was as heavy as Lord Guan’s Green Dragon Crescent Blade. It had slaughtered countless Zhairong warriors and was drenched in so much blood that even ghosts would cower at the sight of it.
—What was His Majesty thinking, allowing such a terrifying God of Slaughter to freely enter the inner palace?! Noble Consort Sheng felt deeply uneasy, terrified that Ti Xiao was here to settle accounts with her today. If he did, unlike the Empress who always kept her actions watertight, Noble Consort Sheng’s many past mistakes would be incredibly easy for Ti Xiao to seize upon.
Noble Consort Sheng forced a stiff smile. “Her Majesty the Empress, this concubine suddenly remembered that a cat from my palace ran out, and I don’t know if the maids have managed to find it yet. This concubine won’t disturb you any longer and will take my leave with Yi’er first.”
Empress Ti smiled knowingly. “Go on, then. You must keep a close eye on the cats in your palace and not let them run wild. If such a beast were to accidentally scratch someone, it would be terribly unfortunate.”
Noble Consort Sheng shot the Second Prince a look. Zhao Yi quickly joined her, and after offering one last bow to Empress Ti, the two hastily fled the hall.
The moment they stepped out of Zhaoyang Palace, Zhao Yi asked, “Imperial Mother, Sirou is still inside. Should we call her out to leave with us?”
Princess Sirou wasn’t Noble Consort Sheng’s biological daughter, and she genuinely couldn’t care less about this unfavored Third Princess.
Noble Consort Sheng scoffed, “Once she realizes she’s a nuisance to them, she’ll naturally come back on her own.”
In truth, Zhao Yi didn’t care about Princess Sirou either. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Imperial Mother, your son feels that the Ye daughter is quite excellent. If we can obtain the Ye daughter, we will definitely be able to win over Prime Minister Ye.”
Noble Consort Sheng’s heart had not completely settled down from her panic yet. Striding quickly ahead, she snapped, “We will discuss this when we get back.”
Inside, Princess Sirou had been watching Ye Lizhu. Upon hearing a maid report that Noble Consort Sheng had left, and knowing perfectly well that the Empress utterly loathed her, she abandoned her watch over Ye Lizhu and hastily slipped away with Sangyu.
Back in the main hall, Consort Xian and the two lower-ranking concubines, fearing that Ti Xiao and the Empress had important political matters to discuss, quickly found excuses to excuse themselves, not wanting to be in the way.
Once everyone was gone and only their own people remained in the hall, Empress Ti finally spoke. “Ti Xiao, Miss Ye is far too delicate and frail. I truly do not believe she is a suitable match for the Crown Prince.”
Ti Xiao replied flatly, “The Crown Prince’s marriage can be discussed another day. Did Ye Lizhu return home?”
Empress Ti explained, “Just now, the Noble Consort tried to gift her earrings and insisted on personally putting them on her. Miss Ye had no pierced ears, so after the palace maids pierced them for her, she feigned a fainting spell. She isn’t a foolish girl at all, and is actually quite endearing. She is currently resting in the side hall.”
Zhao Yun piped up to Empress Ti, “Imperial Mother, Miss Ye’s beauty is truly peerless and world-toppling. In fact, she is quite a perfect match for Uncle.”
Empress Ti flicked Zhao Yun sharply on the forehead. “Utter nonsense! See if your uncle doesn’t beat you for saying that!”
Ye Lizhu was such a delicate, water-tender little girl; no matter how one looked at it, she was a terrible mismatch for Ti Xiao. Ti Xiao was never one to be tender and protective toward women. If he applied even a fraction of his strength, he would eighty percent likely crush Ye Lizhu to pieces. No matter how Empress Ti tried to picture it, she simply couldn’t believe that a man like Ti Xiao—who had crawled out of piles of corpses—would ever like such a fragile little girl.
Ti Xiao’s eyes darkened profoundly, though he didn’t utter a word.
Empress Ti sighed and returned to serious matters. “Just now, Imperial Physician Xu gave me a signal indicating that the Ye daughter will likely not survive past next year. Ye Fu’an…”
Before Empress Ti could even finish her sentence, Ti Xiao cut in. “I am going to go see her.”
Not wanting to sit around and listen to Empress Ti’s political nagging either, Zhao Yun immediately declared, “I’m going too!”
His little aunt-to-be was incredibly pleasing to the eyes; stealing a few more glances would certainly be quite nice!
Ti Xiao shot him a single, icy glare. A violent chill instantly shot up Zhao Yun’s spine, and he abruptly stopped in his tracks. “Actually, never mind. I’m not an imperial physician anyway, so I wouldn’t be of any help if I went.”
Pinching a string of white jade beads in her hand, a flash of confusion crossed Empress Ti’s eyes, though it only lasted for a fleeting moment.
Ti Xiao and Ye Lizhu… it was truly, incredibly difficult to associate those two completely opposite people together.
Although Empress Ti was Ti Xiao’s older sister, she had absolutely no control over Ti Xiao’s personal affairs.
After all, Ti Xiao relied on her for nothing, while she and the Crown Prince relied heavily on him.
But Ye Lizhu was a tragic beauty destined for an early grave; there wasn’t a single thing about her that was suitable for Ti Xiao.
Once Ti Xiao left, Empress Ti cast a glance at Zhao Yun. “Yun’er, how do you view this matter?”
Zhao Yun wiped a handful of cold sweat from his brow. “It is not good.”
No matter what angle you looked at it from, it was not good.
Zhao Yun added, “But Uncle definitely thinks this matter is absolutely wonderful. After all, this is Uncle’s very first awakening of love. It is the first time he’s ever fallen for a woman.”
…
Ti Xiao stepped into the side hall. Not knowing why the Prince of Qin had come, two palace maids quietly reminded him, “Your Highness, the Ye family’s Miss is resting inside.”
Ti Xiao ordered, “This Prince knows. All of you, step down.”
Although the maids were bewildered, Zhaoyang Palace was the Empress’s territory, and they did not dare disobey Ti Xiao’s commands.
Once everyone was gone, Ti Xiao finally walked into the inner chamber.
Although it was a May day with the scorching sun blazing like fire outside, the side hall was delightfully cool and refreshing.
Ye Lizhu was still asleep.
She was dressed in a pale green gauze gown. The color was incredibly light and tender, like the very first sprouts of spring grass tinged with a hint of soft yellow. Despite being layered seven or eight times, the fabric was as thin as cicada wings, perfectly accentuating her skin that was whiter than snow. Her small hands, resting gently over her chest, were long and incredibly slender, with a soft, flush pink at her fingertips—a sight that effortlessly tugged at a person’s heartstrings.
The moment Ti Xiao entered, Ye Lizhu had actually woken up as well. However, she kept her eyes firmly shut.
Once again, Ye Lizhu felt her body miraculously improve, becoming vastly more comfortable. This feeling was exactly identical to the previous few times.
She heard footsteps approaching.
Ye Lizhu wasn’t sure if she should continue to feign unconsciousness. Judging by the heavy, steady tread of the footsteps, it didn’t sound like a woman. But since this was the Empress’s palace, there shouldn’t be any unrelated men wandering around, so it was most likely an imperial physician coming to check her pulse again.
Sure enough, a hand grasped her wrist.
Feeling reassured, Ye Lizhu continued to play dead, planning to wait until the Empress arrived to properly ‘wake up’. If she woke up now, Noble Consort Sheng would eighty percent likely try to force those earrings into her raw, freshly pierced earlobes again.
As her wrist was gently caressed a couple of times, Ye Lizhu’s entire body tingled with a shocking numbness, feeling as though a breath of pure life force had just been breathed into her dying body.
Ye Lizhu had never felt so unbelievably light and vibrant in her entire life.
She thought in awe: This imperial physician is incredibly skilled! Just by pressing a few acupoints on her hand, he actually managed to make her body feel this miraculously relieved!
However, the one having a soul-stirring experience was not only Ye Lizhu.
It was the very first time Ti Xiao had ever touched a woman this gently. As it turned out, her skin was so impossibly soft, sending such bizarre, electrifying sensations coursing through him…
He had touched her hand; as far as he was concerned, their marriage was now officially set in stone.
Suddenly remembering something, Ti Xiao lowered his head to inspect Ye Lizhu’s earlobes.
Her earlobes were round and delicate, slightly red and swollen. A thin tea stalk was threaded straight through the fresh piercings.
Ti Xiao reached out and plucked the tea stalks right out.
Instantly, Ti Xiao clearly noticed Ye Lizhu’s long eyelashes flutter. She was definitely awake.
Ti Xiao commanded softly, “Open your eyes.”
Hearing the voice, Ye Lizhu realized something was horribly wrong. She cautiously cracked one eye open to take a peek.
The man’s features were striking and handsome, his gaze terrifyingly cold, exuding the suffocating aura of a towering, snow-capped mountain.
Ah, this wasn’t the imperial physician.
It was that awful man who hated her and had viciously glared at her!
Was it too late for her to just play dead now?
It seemed it was a bit too late.
Ye Lizhu couldn’t guess this man’s true identity. She reasoned that someone who could freely enter the Ye estate, force palace eunuchs to their knees, effortlessly enter the inner imperial harem, and look this young must possess an extraordinary status. Perhaps he was some sort of supreme imperial bodyguard with the right to bear arms in the palace?
She didn’t dare cry out for help. Without fully understanding the situation, screaming and causing a scene would be highly improper for a noble lady, and she feared the scandal would spread like wildfire through the capital.
Ye Lizhu’s little brain spun and spun, yet she couldn’t come up with a single solution.
She quietly squeezed her open eye completely shut. Slipping her left hand silently into her right sleeve, she pulled out a handkerchief and suddenly slapped it right over her own face, refusing to let him look at her.
The raw silk handkerchief was incredibly thin. Though it covered her face, the dazzling dot of cinnabar between her brows remained faintly, enticingly visible through the sheer fabric.
Translator’s Anecdote:
Ti Xiao: (Touches her wrist to check her pulse)
Ti Xiao: “Ah yes, we are basically married now.”
Ye Lizhu: (Throws a napkin on her face to escape this terrifying situation) 🥺(o_O)