Ever since Kan’er had been transferred to the tea room a month ago, her daily job had been to stand by the brazier and boil water.
A brazier was a stove used for brewing tea.
It was shaped like a ding, with three legs and two handles, and held burning charcoal inside.
Kan’er’s job was to add charcoal to the brazier and make sure the fire never went out all day, so the tea room would always have hot water ready.
It was easy work.
She didn’t have to stand the whole time; she could sit whenever she liked. And if she wanted tea, she could brew some with the leftover leaves the masters didn’t want.
It was about as easy a job as anyone could ask for.
The medicine the Crown Prince had given her was good. In just one night, the finger marks and burst blood vessels on Kan’er’s face had faded.
With no need to spend time covering them with powder, she was the earliest to arrive at the tea room that morning.
She first checked the fire in the brazier. Seeing that it was burning a little too fiercely, Kan’er used the tongs to take out two pieces of charcoal, then added water to the kettle.
She had barely finished when someone came from the main residence.
Kan’er paused as she set down the copper kettle. She immediately guessed why Zheng had summoned her at this hour.
She found it faintly amusing, put the kettle down, and followed the servant to the main residence.
She entered the inner chamber.
Zheng Mingzhi sat on the heated kang, which was covered with a cushion embroidered with a brown-and-yellow pattern of tortoiseshell medallions and linked balls. Her dowry maid, Shuangyue, was helping her change her shoes.
Her other dowry maid, Shuangyun, was using this year’s spring tribute of duck-egg powder from Yangzhou to touch up her makeup. A faint jasmine fragrance drifted through the air.
“This servant pays her respects to the Crown Princess.”
Kan’er quickly surveyed the room, stopped more than a zhang from the kang, and bent her knees in a respectful curtsy.
“Kneel.”
Zheng Mingzhi examined her freshly painted nails and spoke indifferently.
The difference in their status was undeniable.
Kan’er wasn’t foolish enough to throw an egg at a rock. Without making a fuss, she promptly knelt and performed the formal kowtow.
Only then did Zheng Mingzhi look at her. “Lift that thing on your neck for me.”
Knowing Zheng had phrased it that way deliberately to humiliate her, Kan’er put on an embarrassed expression and timidly raised her head.
In truth, she hardly needed to act. Her present body instinctively feared Zheng.
Kan’er didn’t need to pretend at all.
All she had to do was let that fear show, and she could pass it off as genuine with ease.
Seeing that the little strumpet still looked so spineless, shrinking timidly before her, Zheng Mingzhi felt a measure of satisfaction.
So what if she was pretty?
She was still nothing but Zheng’s servant.
Zheng Mingzhi gave a cold sneer, her scrutinizing gaze sweeping over Kan’er’s face.
Others might not know it, but though Zheng Mingzhi had yet to consummate her marriage with the Crown Prince, she was no innocent.
A woman…
She could tell at a glance whether a woman had been bedded by a man, and how often.
Seeing no trace of the Crown Prince’s favor on Kan’er’s face, Zheng Mingzhi’s gaze shifted to her chest. Her tone brooked no argument.
“Take it off.”
Kan’er’s eyes widened.
Zheng Mingzhi hadn’t forgotten the body beneath the little strumpet’s clothes—so white it was dazzling, and so wanton it practically reeked of seduction.
The thought that the Crown Prince might have touched that body last night—or that the shameless maid had revealed her true nature where Zheng couldn’t see, using that indecent body to seduce him— sent Zheng Mingzhi into a rage.
It had nothing to do with love or jealousy.
She was the Crown Prince’s lawful wife, married to him in a grand bridal procession of sixteen palanquins. She was the mistress of the Eastern Palace!
She would see for herself whether the Crown Prince had touched this maid last night!
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
Zheng Mingzhi looked down at the person kneeling on the floor. Her dignified, kindly face seemed to wear a compassionate, almost pitying expression.
Kan’er found it ridiculous.
In her previous life, she and Zheng had been entangled for nearly twenty years. Their feud had finally ended when Zheng drank that cup of poisoned wine.
In the many years that followed, time had erased every trace of the past.
Kan’er believed that if Heaven had sent her back to the starting point of her fate, it wasn’t so she could bring into this life the vengeance she had already exacted and the resentment she had already vented in her last one— and spend another lifetime consumed by hatred.
But if Zheng insisted on making an enemy of her, Kan’er didn’t mind fighting her again.
“Your Highness.”
Kan’er met Zheng Mingzhi’s gaze, seeming to summon every last bit of courage. “Forgive this servant, but I cannot obey.”
“How dare you!”
Shuangyun shouted.
“Do you even know where you are? How can you defy the Crown Princess’s order? Bow your head and beg forgiveness!”
Zheng Mingzhi hadn’t expected Kan’er to be so bold as to defy her so brazenly.
For a moment, she was stunned. Then she smiled.
It was a smile that never reached her eyes.
“Who would have thought you were so ungrateful? You haven’t even been favored yet, and already you dare disobey. What will you be like once you have?”
“This servant wouldn’t dare.”
Kan’er didn’t try to suppress her body’s fear of Zheng, but her eyes, shining with unshed tears, remained clear.
“It is only natural for a servant to obey her mistress. Your Highness has shown this servant favor, and I would never repay your kindness with ingratitude.
“But this servant now belongs to His Highness. If the Crown Princess orders me to undress, I can do so—but I cannot bear the charge of divulging His Highness’s private affairs or profaning the dignity of the imperial family.
“If Your Highness insists on prying into His Highness’s private affairs, please send someone to seek his permission, or punish this servant here and now. I ask only that my body be left intact.”
As she spoke, a tear slipped from her lashes.
Kan’er bowed her head to the floor with the utmost respect. Her upper body trembled as she lay prostrate, looking entirely at the Crown Princess’s mercy.
The sight of it—
Anyone who saw it would think the mistress had gone too far in bullying her servant, who had no choice but to suffer the injustice and accept her fate.
Nanny Pang was stunned.
So were Shuangyun and Shuangyue.
The servant who’d been too frightened to utter a peep in front of their mistress had actually come out with all that?
Zheng Mingzhi, too, was taken aback.
Then her fury erupted beyond all restraint.
“Very well. Very well…”
She laughed in her rage.
“What a sharp tongue you have! I had no idea you could talk like this. Now you’re even trying to threaten me.
“You served His Highness for one night, and already you put on these airs. Do you really think I can’t do anything to you?”
“This servant wouldn’t dare.”
“Oh, I think you dare plenty!”
Zheng Mingzhi slammed her palm down on the kang table, then snatched up a teacup and raised it to hurl at Kan’er’s head.
Kan’er kept her head bowed as she knelt.
But from the corner of her eye, she had been watching Zheng through the gilt copper mirror inlaid with pearls behind her.
In the blink of an eye—
Just as Zheng was about to throw the teacup and Kan’er prepared to dodge, Nanny Pang rushed forward and stopped her.
“Please, Your Highness, you mustn’t!”
Zheng Mingzhi was furious, her chest heaving.
“Mustn’t? Why mustn’t I? That wretched girl clearly has no respect for me. How can I let her get away with this?”
Kan’er was at a loss for words.
Zheng had married into the Eastern Palace less than two years ago. As for cunning and political savvy, she was nothing like the woman she would become a few years later.
Kan’er had indeed used the Crown Prince’s name to vex her—but what she’d said was also true.
If the private affairs of the Crown Heir or the Emperor were disclosed, it would be deemed an affront to imperial authority and a crime of great disrespect.
Zheng’s order that Kan’er undress so she could see what the Crown Prince had done the previous night was a serious taboo.
And Zheng didn’t even realize it.
No matter. Zheng might not have caught on, but someone else would make sure she did.
“Please calm down, Your Highness. Just calm down.”
Nanny Pang kept soothing Zheng Mingzhi while Shuangyue stepped forward and took the teacup from her mistress’s hand.
“Your Highness, you still have to pay your respects to the Empress at Kunhe Palace. You can’t let this little strumpet make you late.”
Nanny Pang kept giving Zheng Mingzhi meaningful looks.
Then she turned to Kan’er and scolded her.
“The Crown Princess is merciful and will let this matter pass today. If you ever defy your mistress’s orders like this again, I’ll skin you alive! What are you still standing there for? Get out!”
Easy to say.
Kan’er sneered inwardly, but hurriedly scrambled away.
Watching the beaded curtain sway, Zheng Mingzhi still couldn’t contain her anger. She grabbed a rose cake from the kang table and flung it toward the doorway.
“Look at the way she carries on! To my face, she’s like a mouse that’s spotted a cat, but she clearly has no respect for me!
“She’s been noticed by His Highness and thinks I won’t dare touch her! That vile, lowborn wretch!”
Nanny Pang rubbed Zheng’s chest to soothe her.
“Those lowborn creatures are all alike. The moment they catch a noble’s eye, they want to announce it to the whole world. You shouldn’t get upset over someone like that, Your Highness. You’ll only harm your health.”
“But there is one thing that wretched girl said that’s true.”
Zheng Mingzhi glared at her.
Nanny Pang continued, “I’m not taking that little strumpet’s side. But since His Highness didn’t send her away last night, she is indeed one of his people now.
“It wouldn’t be hard to strip the skin off her back. The problem is, His Highness has touched that wanton body of hers. Since this concerns His Highness’s private affairs, we can’t just decide to inspect it ourselves.
“If you ask me, it’s better that she didn’t undress. Otherwise, if word of this reaches His Highness, it could go badly for you.”
Zheng Mingzhi sneered.
“So I should thank her, then?”
“That’s not what I mean, of course.”
Nanny Pang smiled placatingly.
“I only mean that whatever His Highness did with her last night, you needn’t take it to heart. She’s just a plaything we sent to serve him.
“With His Highness’s status and temperament, apart from the Empress, when have you ever seen him care about any woman? Perhaps he only casually told someone to send that little strumpet back. You truly needn’t be upset over this.”
Zheng Mingzhi calmed down.
Only then did she belatedly realize that she had indeed acted inappropriately.
But she had been proud and high-strung since childhood. She would never admit she was in the wrong—least of all when the one who had provoked her was a lowly servant.
“So you’re saying I should just let her get away with defying me?”
What else do you expect to do?
Nanny Pang thought to herself, while pretending to consider it.
“Your Highness means…”
Zheng Mingzhi ground her teeth.
“I’ll make sure she understands: once a slave, a slave for life!”