In the thirty-second year of Yong’an, late at night, Jiang Ruotang, the Minister of Justice, returned to her manor after off-duty. She lay down to rest in absolute exhaustion, yet she suddenly opened her eyes in the middle of a dream. As if remembering something, she knit her brows, got out of bed, and walked over to push open the window. A gust of cold wind poured in from outside, blowing away what little drowsiness she had left.
Looking out into the vast night, she thought hesitantly: Today was Madam’s birthday, and she had actually forgotten it.
However, midnight had already passed, and the night air was chilly. If she sent someone to deliver a birthday gift to Madam at this hour, she feared it would disturb her peaceful sleep. Having heard from the manor servants that Madam had always been a light sleeper, she did not dare interrupt her.
“Master, do you have any instructions?”
Hearing the movement inside, the maid guarding outside the door had already stood up and waited for orders.
After weighing it over and over, Jiang Ruotang knitted her brows and suppressed the faint unease in her heart, speaking softly, “No.”
She then turned back toward her bed.
I will give it to her tomorrow. Since midnight has passed, what difference does it make whether I give it now or tomorrow?
Jiang Ruotang closed her eyes and thought.
Yet as the day broke with a faint light, the noisy hubbub in the manor woke her up.
Unable to sleep peacefully, she opened her eyes abruptly. She saw her personal attendant, completely disregarding propriety, stride inside from outside with a panicked and terrified expression. The moment the attendant saw her, he fell heavily to his knees on the ground, not even daring to raise his head. “Master, terrible news! Madam’s courtyard caught fire!”
Jiang Ruotang’s mind went blank for a moment, but she reacted quickly. Her pupils shrank abruptly, and she stood up violently. “How could it catch fire? Explain everything to me clearly!”
Madam’s courtyard had the most servants waiting on her. She had even specially assigned maids skilled in martial arts to protect her. How could a fire break out out of nowhere?
Is someone trying to harm me, or trying to harm her?
Jiang Ruotang’s heart sank, but before she had time to think further, she draped on an outer robe and walked out briskly.
When she reached Madam’s residence, she stared blankly ahead. Beside her ear was the whimpering weep of a maid, while all her eyes could see was a ruined courtyard still burning with unextinguished flames.
For some reason, her heart seemed to stop for a second. She asked in a deep voice, “What on earth happened? Why did Madam’s room catch fire? Didn’t I tell you all to exercise utmost caution regarding Madam’s affairs? Who was on duty today!”
On the way here, she learned that Madam was the only person inside the room that caught fire. Madam had a delicate body and a golden, precious status; how dared they leave Madam alone in the room?
However, as her voice fell, a woman with a half-familiar face raised her head, looking at her with bloodshot, hateful eyes.
Words laced with raspy hatred burst out, “If it were not for you, how could the Princess have reached such a state!”
Hearing this, Jiang Ruotang was shaken, her brows locking together tightly. She looked down at the maid, and with her keen memory, she quickly remembered who this was. This was the personal maid by Madam’s side, who had accompanied her to the State of Zhao when she was young and married over with her after returning to the country, earning Madam’s deep trust.
Why did she say that I harmed Madam and caused her to reach such a state?
Jiang Ruotang was baffled. She considered herself to have been entirely obedient, accommodating, and yielding to the Princess Her Highness, whom she had spent so much effort to marry. On normal days, they treated each other with distant respect, and she kept her well cared for in luxury in the inner courtyard.
Whichever region’s cuisine Her Highness liked to eat, she ordered people to seek out chefs from that place. Knowing Her Highness disliked talking, she spoke as little as possible to avoid bothering her. Later, when the Princess grew weary of her and did not wish to see her, she did not say a single extra word, neatly moving out to the front court. Aside from resting at night, she tried her best not to return to the manor. Even when she did return, she stayed only in the study to avoid accidental encounters that might make her unhappy. How could Madam’s maid harbor such hatred for her?
With billows of thick smoke rising, Jiang Ruotang kept a cold face and had no time to pay mind to this inexplicable maid for the moment. She simply ordered people to rush and extinguish the fire, even though the roaring flames almost explicitly signaled that no one had survived.
The blazing fire was fought for a full half-hour.
The imperial court was furious upon learning of this, issuing successive decrees to reprimand Jiang Ruotang, all of which she accepted completely.
Her Highness suffered an accident in her manor; this was inherently her responsibility.
She should have been more careful. She shouldn’t have feared disturbing Her Highness’s peace and left the birthday gift for tomorrow. If she had sent someone to deliver it that night, startling the sleeping Madam and maids, then perhaps everything could have been avoided.
Regret quietly spread in her heart. Jiang Ruotang sat in the courtyard of Mingyue Residence, quietly gazing at the ruins filling the yard.
It was not until yesterday’s maid appeared again, holding a box of gathered belongings, that she cast another look of intense hatred at Jiang Ruotang. Her knuckles gripped the wooden box tightly, turning white from the force. After a long moment, she handed it over to her.
She then lowered her eyes to conceal her crying tone and hatred, her voice even raspier than before, “Sobbing. This was given to me by Her Highness the day before yesterday, telling me to keep it safe, saying that if you come to our place next time, I should give it to you.”
At that time, she had thought that perhaps Her Highness was too shy to give it to the Prince Consort in person, which was why she asked her to deliver it. Little did she expect that it was actually…
If only she had urged Her Highness a bit more that day.
The maid was filled with regret. She hated the Prince Consort, and she hated herself as well.
Jiang Ruotang received the box of items in a daze. With a light click, she opened it. Inside were pouches and tassels, arranged neatly from rough craft to exquisite details in a thick stack, showing just how long she had spent making them.
Yet she had never seen any of these before, nor had she ever imagined that Meng Fushang would make pouches for her.
The high and mighty Princess Her Highness. Jiang Ruotang originally just wanted to keep her well provided for at home without letting her suffer any grievances, protecting her on ordinary days and treating her with distant, formal respect. She had never expected her to do such intimate things that only ordinary, deeply affectionate young couples would do.
Jiang Ruotang reached in to take them, only to realize that the box was very deep and held many embroidered pieces. Yet she had only been married to her for three years; had she made this many?
“Are these for me?”
She heard her own unbelievable voice asking.
Sobbing and dropping tears with every sentence, the maid spoke without any of her past respect, her tone exceedingly piercing, “If not for you, who else could they be for? You heartless woman, you married my Princess only to deliberately neglect her, betray her, and cause my Princess to grow sick with longing and wither away day and night! Jiang Ruotang, I see right through you now! You married the Princess merely for wealth and glory, without a single shred of sincerity toward her! Poor Princess, her deep devotion was given to the wrong person; at just twenty years old, she was driven by you to wither away alive.”
The maid’s every word bled with accusation, speaking of things Jiang Ruotang could not understand. What did she mean by “sick with longing” and “withering away day and night”?
In the past, when I returned to the inner courtyard every day, was she not very unhappy, always throwing things and losing her temper as if she did not want to see me at all? That was why I moved out of the inner courtyard to live in the front court. Could she miss me?
Having learned of hidden truths she had never seen clearly, Jiang Ruotang’s mind went blank. She stood frozen as she listened to the maid cover her face, weeping while speaking of how much Madam usually liked her, until people from the palace arrived and took everyone in the courtyard away, leaving her still unable to regain her senses.
In the dead, silent night, the maid of the Jiang Manor saw that the Master was reluctant to leave for a long time. While clearing away the remains, she raised a lantern beside her, lest the night grow too deep and prevent the Master from seeing things clearly.
Jiang Ruotang’s scallion-like, jade-soft fingertips gently rubbed the embroidered items in the wooden box. Her thin lips pressed into a tight line, a breath pent up in her heart. She sat there in a daze for a long time until midnight, when she finally rose silently, her lonely silhouette gradually merging into the dark night.