The Crown Prince was quite satisfied with Zhe Junwu as she was now.
Her hair covered half her face—neither ugly nor beautiful—with only a pair of honest, clear eyes visible, which he found pleasing to look at!
At least it wasn’t grating anymore. He waved his hand, “You may leave. This is good.”
Zhe Junwu was then led out in confusion once more.
Although the Crown Prince was unpredictable in mood and had a terrible temper, it was unlikely he had summoned her specifically to check whether she had cut her hair. Her heart was filled with unease, fearing she had offended some unseen power who was deliberately making things difficult for her.
—She certainly didn’t believe the Crown Prince had called her over just to praise her. When she first entered, his eyes had been filled with anger.
Preoccupied with worry all the way back, she returned to the aviary only to find Xia Yin waiting for her. Seeing she was unharmed, Xia Yin sighed in relief and quietly revealed the truth to comfort her: “Don’t be frightened. It was Li Dacai being foolish.”
Eunuch Li was Li Dacai. Xia Yin explained the matter clearly to her, adding with a small scoff, “He’s an idiot. You’ll understand eventually. But after this, Eunuch Liu probably won’t use him anymore.”
Zhe Junwu listened nervously, feeling she had gleaned not only the discord between Eunuch Li and Xia Yin from these words but also the tension between eunuchs and palace maids.
Though Xia Yin hadn’t stated it outright, Zhe Junwu, now highly cautious, sensed it clearly!
She didn’t know how to respond. She had been brought back by Eunuch Li and presented before His Highness by Eunuch Liu, yet she now lived in the quarters for palace maids and needed to build good relations with the four “Yin” girls.
Zhe Junwu was flustered. She wasn’t the type to maneuver skillfully among different sides. Just as the village girls used to gather and chat while she stayed alone in the mountains raising birds, she was somewhat introverted.
But the village girls hadn’t liked her much either, because Brother Aniu next door treated her well, and Brother Gouzi from further down also treated her kindly, but not so much the others, so they didn’t want to play with her.
Since the girls wouldn’t play with her and she herself didn’t enjoy playing with the boys, she simply played alone. Over time, she developed this temperament.
Fortunately, Xia Yin was seven or eight years older and had grown up in the palace since childhood. Seeing Zhe Junwu’s nature, she actually felt reassured.
At least Zhe Junwu probably wouldn’t quickly learn to harm others. As for what she would become in the future, that was a matter for later.
Xia Yin then said, “Since His Highness said you look fine, keep your hair like this. I think it’s good too. Your face is too striking—even if you weren’t in Donggong, you’d attract attention elsewhere. It’s better to stay low-key.”
Zhe Junwu took this to heart seriously. “Alright!”
Xia Yin smiled. “Will you come with me for lunch later?”
Once she entered the aviary, she was under Xia Yin’s care and should naturally stay close to her. Even Chunyin would have to step aside.
Zhe Junwu didn’t understand the implication of these words at the time. She simply felt relieved: Xia Yin hadn’t pressed her further about whether she would side with Eunuch Liu or with her. That was good enough.
However, it was still quite early before lunch, so she found something to do—continuing to clean the aviary. The Crown Prince had four senior palace maids: Chunyin managed clothing and accessories inside the chambers, while Xia Yin was in charge of the aviary. It was said that aviaries in the palace were usually managed by eunuchs, but the small aviary in Donggong was under Xia Yin’s supervision.
Qiuyin was in charge of decorative arrangements, while Dong Yin was the most formidable—she held the keys to the storeroom.
Zhe Junwu later learned that although Dong Yin didn’t look very old, she was already twenty.
The second oldest was Xia Yin, who was nineteen this year. However, she wasn’t put in charge of the aviary for nothing. Everyone in the palace had their own skills, and Xia Yin, for instance, was skilled in Vocal Mimicry.
Vocal Mimicry was highly useful in the aviary. Zhe Junwu had seen her blow a whistle, and all the birds in the aviary would obediently stop chirping.
But it was clear that General, having just arrived, was not yet tamed. He was clever, even learning Xia Yin’s name. Every time Xia Yin came, he would start shouting, “Xia Yin, bring water for your master!”
His smug demeanor vividly captured the look of a petty person reveling in newfound power. Xia Yin had more than once called him a parrot possessed by the spirit of a petty man.
After Xia Yin went to inspect the other birds—the Crown Prince truly loved keeping birds, as there were at least forty or fifty in the aviary, and Xia Yin was kept busy serving these feathered lords—Zhe Junwu would scold General.
“You’re bullying others like this. Be careful, or one day you might fall out of favor and end up in her hands.”
General would then nuzzle her hand with his head and happily drink water and eat. At such times, he was just a normal bird again—unable to understand human speech.
After cleaning his cage, Zhe Junwu waited to go for her meal.
In truth, if the Crown Prince’s temperament were a bit better and the palace weren’t so terrifying, this place would actually be quite nice. They provided food and shelter, and generally, no one starved.
Zhe Junwu sighed, glanced at the sun outside, and waited for the eunuch who would take over her shift. The aviary required someone to be on duty around the clock.
But before anyone arrived, she and General were summoned by the Crown Prince. To be precise, after finishing his lunch, His Highness wanted to see General—she was merely an afterthought.
General could enter the study, but she couldn’t. She had to wait under the eaves outside. Eunuch Liu wasn’t there, but she did see Xiao Sheng.
Xiao Sheng was carrying a broom toward the adjacent courtyard. He gave her a small smile and then left, silent and unnoticed, as if he had never been there at all.
Standing under the corridor, Zhe Junwu’s thoughts began to wander. She thought about how all the servants in the palace walked on tiptoe, making no sound at all. She could do it too—on the way into the palace, the matrons had taught them how to walk quietly.
But she imagined that masters probably didn’t need to walk quietly, because the Crown Prince’s footsteps were heavy, and when he was angry, they were even heavier.
Zhe Junwu decided to train her ears well, hoping to develop the skill of discerning the Crown Prince’s mood from the weight and pace of his footsteps.
Lost in her thoughts, she suddenly heard General inside the study angrily shriek, “You wretch!”
Zhe Junwu was startled, a chill running down her spine. Anxiously, she looked toward the study but didn’t dare enter. After all, a parrot was just a parrot—no matter how clever, it didn’t understand where it was. Clenching her hands, her entire body tensed up.
Soon, footsteps echoed from inside. Zhe Junwu pricked up her ears and noticed the steps sounded muffled, not as clear and bright as the Crown Prince’s. It must be Eunuch Liu.
Sure enough, Eunuch Liu appeared at the doorway and called out to her, “Junwu, come in quickly and take General back.”
Zhe Junwu hurried inside. The first person she looked up to see was His Highness, who didn’t seem angry at all. Instead, he was watching with amusement a brown parrot lying pitifully on the ground, pretending to be dead.
General had already flown up to the roof beam, looking quite triumphant.
Zhe Junwu was puzzled. Then she saw General fly down upon spotting her. However, it didn’t come to her side but instead angrily pecked at the brown-feathered parrot a few more times, clearly furious.
Zhe Junwu dared not stop it, for the Crown Prince was visibly pleased. Since he didn’t intervene, she didn’t dare either.
Only the poor brown-feathered parrot on the ground suffered, rolling around from the pecking. Once, pecked too hard and in pain, it tried to fly up but was slapped back down by General’s wing.
The Crown Prince laughed at General.
He wasn’t laughing at anything else but at the brown-feathered parrot.
This parrot had just been sent by his eldest brother, the First Prince, who claimed it was very clever and thus gifted it to him. The Crown Prince accepted it outwardly but sneered inwardly. He immediately ordered someone to bring General over.
Sure enough, upon seeing another creature occupying its usual perch, General swooped down fiercely, pecked the brown parrot, and even cursed it as a “bitch.”
The Crown Prince was delighted: Exactly, a bitch!
His eldest brother was just like this brown parrot—incapable yet always trying to provoke him. Outwardly pretending to be a good older brother, while inwardly, didn’t everyone know what their relationship was like?
But because he was the eldest, the Emperor’s first child, he received more favor. Yet he wanted to lead the younger brothers in front of him.
The younger ones were no better, each with their own schemes. Some even openly studied under the eldest brother, which infuriated the Crown Prince whenever he thought about it.
He ordered Zhe Junwu to take General away. After a moment’s thought, he felt that sending this pitiful parrot back to the First Prince’s residence now would be too arrogant and might anger the Emperor. So he decided to let Zhe Junwu take it back as well.
“Find a random cage for it. Just don’t let it die.”
But there was no need to take good care of it.
Zhe Junwu didn’t catch the latter part, but Eunuch Liu understood and quickly tried to lead her out. However, the unpredictable Crown Prince paused again and asked Zhe Junwu, “Are you from Yunzhou?”
Zhe Junwu nodded.
The Crown Prince was currently reviewing a Memorial submitted from Yunzhou. He no longer disliked her beauty—with half her face covered, he found her quite pleasing. So he had her stand aside to answer.
“Did the local county office provide porridge relief for you?”
Zhe Junwu shook her head.
But she added, “We lived in a village. Our area wasn’t too severely affected by the drought, and every household had some surplus grain. It wasn’t until March that we ran out of food.”
Three days after running out of food, she was sold.
Seeing her expression, the Crown Prince knew what she was thinking. This young palace maid hadn’t been in the palace long, and everything showed on her face. He asked, “How many people are in your family?”
Zhe Junwu replied, “Eight.”
She said, “There’s my father, mother, grandmother, two older brothers, and two younger sisters.”
The Crown Prince thought her family had quite a few children. She was neither the eldest nor the youngest, yet she was the one sold.
Without any sense of rubbing salt in her wounds, he asked, “With five children in your family, why were you the one sold?”
Zhe Junwu had actually wondered about this herself.
She was sold too quickly. When she was sold, aside from her mother, no one else was home.
Later, in the quiet of the night, she had actually pondered the matter of her being sold, realizing there were two possibilities.
One was that the entire family knew she was going to be sold, had kept it from her, and avoided seeing her, all hiding away, so only her mother was at home.
The other was that they didn’t know she was being sold, and her mother alone wanted to sell her, fearing opposition from the others, so she sent them all away, leaving only her mother at home.
The Crown Prince asked, “Which do you hope it was?”
Zhe Junwu thought for a moment. “The second, I suppose? At least that way, there would be a few more people who cared for this servant.”
The Crown Prince clicked his tongue, thinking this was a pitiful little thing—sold by others yet still hoping her family was good-hearted. He scoffed, “You’re just burying your head in the sand.”
Zhe Junwu didn’t understand but dared not ignore his question, so she explained, “This servant didn’t bury her head, nor did she steal any bells.”
The Crown Prince: “…”
Never mind. What was the point of talking to an ignorant little palace maid? He had no interest in asking her about Yunzhou anymore—she was truly too ignorant, and the Crown Prince couldn’t be bothered to inquire further.
So he dismissed her and went to read memorials on his own. Eunuch Liu watched as Zhe Junwu left, a green-feathered parrot perched on her shoulder and a brown-feathered one cradled in her arms. Only after she had departed with the two parrots did he slowly regain his composure.
Just now, while the Crown Prince was speaking kindly (compared to his usual demeanor, it could indeed be considered kind) to Zhe Junwu, Eunuch Liu had suddenly realized something.
The Crown Prince had actually inherited the preferences of the Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and the Empress—deep down, he appreciated beauty. This could be seen in his insistence that utensils and decorations be exquisitely beautiful. His pursuit of beauty wasn’t just a slight preference; it was an obsession with perfection.
Yet, due to events from his childhood, he despised those who flaunted their beauty to curry favor. As a result, even he himself believed he disliked beautiful people. But in truth! The Crown Prince despised ugly people. When he saw someone unattractive, he felt uncomfortable.
This was an affliction.
Eunuch Liu had once heard that such afflictions could be physical or psychological, commonly referred to as a “heart ailment.” How could a heart ailment be cured? Zhe Junwu had inadvertently become the remedy.
—The Crown Prince knew she wasn’t ugly, knew she was beautiful, so he felt no discomfort. And because she covered half her face, concealing the beauty he thought he disliked, the combination made Zhe Junwu exceptionally pleasing to him.
Eunuch Liu now knew exactly how to select people in the future.
He thought, he would have them all cut with thick, straight bangs.