The imperial carriage came to a stop before the gates of Renshou Palace, and Jiang Zhaoyi entered directly without announcing his arrival.
The moment he stepped inside, he heard the Marchioness Anle’s voice complaining: “The Marquis of Ningguo’s household must have known long ago about what Meng Zixu did. Yet they didn’t stop him, and let him send someone to our door to publicly break off the engagement.”
“Would that couple from the second branch truly dare to do such a thing? Don’t be too hasty in your judgment. Tomorrow I’ll summon Madam Liu to the palace and question her carefully.” said the Empress Dowager. She knew that this second sister-in-law from her natal family was now inclined to think the worst of others.
“And that Chang Ke said it was only his master’s decision alone, didn’t he? Hmph, at least he dares to take responsibility for his actions.” Just without considering the consequences.
Hearing their words, Jiang Zhaoyi approached, and those in the hall saw him.
The Marchioness Anle quickly composed her expression and knelt respectfully, tugging Ye Su along as she did so. Ye Su had no choice but to follow the pull and kneel as well: “We pay our respects to Your Majesty.”
The master of the black-gold dragon robe came to stand before them, a faint scent of medicine wafting from him. Jiang Zhaoyi’s clear, gentle voice sounded from above: “Aunt and cousin, please rise quickly. There are no outsiders here in Mother’s presence—no need for such formalities.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.” Only upon hearing these words did the Marchioness Anle straighten up, while Ye Su scrambled to her feet as fast as she could and returned to her seat.
Now that the Emperor had arrived, the Marchioness Anle yielded her seat beside the Empress Dowager and retreated to a lower position.
Ye Su did not move, and neither the Marchioness Anle nor the Empress Dowager asked her to shift. Jiang Zhaoyi took the seat yielded by the Marchioness.
The Empress Dowager sat between the two of them, yet Ye Su did not look at him.
Jiang Zhaoyi glanced sidelong at her, then suddenly smiled: “What’s the matter with cousin? You look so displeased. Could it be that the seeds I sent before didn’t meet with your approval, and you’ve come to demand an explanation?”
The phrase “demand an explanation” was hardly appropriate to use toward the Emperor, but the Empress Dowager had long grown accustomed to the dynamic between this pair of cousins. She ignored that detail and asked curiously instead: “Seeds? What seeds?”
Ye Su turned her head to look at him: “On Grandmother’s birthday, I did indeed receive some orchid seeds, but those were given to me by Eunuch Dehai. What does that have to do with you?”
Jiang Zhaoyi bared his teeth in a grin: “Those were seeds of the Cui Yipin orchid newly cultivated by the eunuchs of the imperial gardens. Fourteen seeds in total—I had Dehai deliver every single one to you, cousin, without keeping a single one for myself.”
Want her to thank him? Not a chance.
“So it was Cui Yipin. No wonder the seeds looked so familiar. I remember I once had a pot of this orchid before, but unfortunately it died for some reason, even though it had been doing so well.”
The Empress Dowager had no idea that the pot of Cui Yipin had fallen victim to Jiang Zhaoyi’s “poisonous hand.” She said: “Cui Yipin, ah. I recall the palace flower house still has two pots. Just take one back to the manor with you. There are plenty of eunuchs in the palace skilled at tending flowers—why would you need to cultivate them yourself? That’s so much trouble.”
With that, she ordered someone to fetch the flower, so that they could take it back to the manor directly when they left the palace later.
Tending flowers was a hobby, which was a completely different matter from how many flower-keeping eunuchs the palace had. However, Ye Su did not argue with the Empress Dowager, but instead gave thanks: “Thank you for your gift, Aunt.”
Jiang Zhaoyi thought to himself: When Mother gives her something, she thanks her; when I give her something, she won’t even acknowledge it. That’s just like her.
As for the orchids, Ye Su would never thank him for those. If one asked why she had disliked him since childhood, it traced back to when the two first met.
At age eight, having heard that her aunt’s son in the palace would be coming to stay at the manor for a while, Ye Su was somewhat curious about the sudden arrival of her imperial cousin.
But just a few days after he arrived, the two encountered each other in the garden one day, and Jiang Zhaoyi was holding a flower that looked extremely familiar to her.
Wasn’t that her favorite pot of orchids from the garden? It had only just bloomed after so much effort, and she had been careful even when admiring it.
With a single glance, eight-year-old Ye Su was so furious that her anger drove her to recklessness. With a cry, she pounced at Jiang Zhaoyi, who was only four years old and as frail as a little chick.
Little Jiang Zhaoyi had no idea what was happening. He stared blankly at this cousin he had only recently met, who had been so kind to him before, now charging at him with a fierce expression, her eyes fixed intently on the flower he had just picked.
He raised the flower in his small hand, thinking timidly: Since cousin likes this flower too, I’ll give it to her.
But Jiang Zhaoyi’s action of raising the flower high only further provoked Ye Su, and she charged even faster. Fortunately, both of them had nursemaids by their sides, which averted a tragedy.
Afterward, Jiang Zhaoyi’s nursemaid explained to Ye Su that the Sixth Prince had been frail since birth and had to take all sorts of precious medicinal tonics every day to strengthen his body, which inevitably left him with a lingering bitter taste.
That day, the Sixth Prince had just finished his medicine and gone to play in the garden when he was drawn by the fragrance of that orchid.
Back in the palace, the flowers in the imperial gardens were not off-limits to the Sixth Prince for picking. Seeing the orchid, he was delighted, plucked it casually, and intended to bring it to his mother to cheer her up.
The nursemaid said that in consideration of the Sixth Prince’s filial devotion, the Third Young Miss should forgive him.
Ye Su pretended to forgive him on the surface, but afterward she began all sorts of small acts of retaliation in private.
Jiang Zhaoyi was initially afraid of this cousin, but after being bullied enough times, he started to fight back.
He was frail but clever. Knowing that Ye Su loved orchids, he made it his mission to target the flowers she tended.
It wasn’t just overwatering—she would secretly catch little bugs and put them on the flowers to bite them, and in the end, she even poured her own untaken medicine into the pots.
Ye Su, however, was even more ruthless. Since Jiang Zhaoyi was an imperial prince, a Grand Tutor came to the residence every day to give him lessons, and every three days he would enter the palace to report his academic progress to the Emperor.
So she would deliberately make a ruckus around Jiang Zhaoyi whenever he was reciting his lessons.
When Jiang Zhaoyi was studying, she’d knock on the table; while he was drinking tea, she’d suddenly slap his shoulder from behind; when walking, she’d stick out a leg the moment the nanny wasn’t looking.
She’d trip Jiang Zhaoyi and then climb on top of him, raising her fist in a show of triumph—but the moment the nanny or his personal eunuch appeared, she’d quickly get up and pretend to be helping him up with a look of concern.
Even worse, when Jiang Zhaoyi spent two whole days completing an essay that was to be handed to his father the Emperor for review by the Grand Tutor the next day, she snuck into the study at night while he was bathing, stole it, and hid it away—causing Jiang Zhaoyi to be scolded by his father the next day.
Whether in physical strength or sheer ruthlessness, the young Ye Su had Jiang Zhaoyi firmly under her thumb.
Such incidents were too numerous to list, and it wasn’t until Jiang Zhaoyi turned seven and was summoned back to the palace by decree of the late Emperor that the “war” between them was forced to a halt.
Years of hostility had long made it impossible for them to sit down and talk like ordinary cousins, and even after Jiang Zhaoyi later became Emperor, Ye Su showed not the slightest fear of him.
The Empress Dowager had ascended to that title before she was even forty. Finding life in the palace lonely, and now the highest-ranking woman in the harem with no restraints upon her, she often summoned members of her natal family to the palace to keep her company.
Ye Su was the most frequent visitor, and the Empress Dowager doted on this niece of hers the most—naturally, she was protective of her.
Now she held Ye Su’s hand and said to Jiang Zhaoyi, “Your Majesty, your cousin has suffered a great injustice today. The Marquis of Ningguo’s household has truly gone too far—calling off the engagement in public for no reason and causing our Ye family to lose face. You must not let them off lightly.”