That night, Dan Qing slept fitfully.
She dreamed of that gentle, beautiful Imperial Noble Consort, holding her swaddled infant, her face gaunt and ashen as death, silent, not uttering a single word.
Dan Qing wanted to go comfort her, but then found Kangxi standing not far off, staring at her the whole time, and she didn’t dare take even half a step forward.
The next morning, only Dan Qing and Yinzhen came for breakfast, the Grand Empress Dowager was said to have slept poorly the night before, and hadn’t gotten up yet.
On the way to Jingren Palace, Sumalagu had a palanquin prepared for them, and the two siblings sat together, whispering to each other.
“They say Mother had a very dangerous time of it yesterday, and it gave Han Ama quite a scare,”
Yinzhen said in a low voice. “Apparently, once Mother had safely delivered little sister, Han Ama went alone to the Ancestral Hall and knelt there for a long while, probably praying for Mother and little sister’s blessing.”
Dan Qing thought to herself that it probably hadn’t been a prayer at all, but a confession.
Yinzhen went on, “It’s a relief that Mother and little sister are both safe. Once Mother’s recovered in a few days, I’ll be able to move back and live with her again.”
Dan Qing knew how much he cared about Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya and had no wish to leave Jingren Palace, so she said nothing to shatter his hopes, only thinking privately that Yinzhen would probably need to keep her company for quite a while longer yet—
After all, if the little princess turned out not to survive, Kangxi certainly wouldn’t let Yinzhen go back to Jingren Palace so soon.
Naturally, the two of them weren’t allowed into the birthing room itself and couldn’t see Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya, but they were shown the little princess.
Wrapped up tightly, lying in her cradle, the little princess wasn’t especially thin, but her face carried a pale, sickly tinge, and she made no fuss at all, only sleeping quietly.
The wet nurse, having been instructed on what to say, naturally didn’t dare speak carelessly, and only said the little princess was very well-behaved.
Yet Dan Qing felt this little sister in front of her was, if anything, a little too well-behaved. They had been standing there watching for quite a while, making no small amount of noise themselves, and yet she hadn’t reacted at all, simply lying there peacefully, not moving even a little.
Yinzhen didn’t understand any of this, and simply took the wet nurse’s word for it, peering happily over the crib rail at the little princess and saying, “She’s so small. When will she get bigger?”
The wet nurse forced a smile. “She’s not small at all, the little princess weighs a full seven catties.”
A baby girl born a full month premature, weighing this much?
Even Dan Qing, as little as she understood, could sense something was off.
Even she knew that a baby born too large could make delivery dangerous, how could no one have thought to warn Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya to watch her diet?
This was already a premature birth at eight months, if the pregnancy had actually gone to full term, just how large would the child have grown, and how could she possibly have been delivered safely at all?
Perhaps Dan Qing’s stare was too obvious, because the wet nurse broke into a sweat, not daring to meet her eyes, and hurried to usher them away. “Fourth Prince, Fourth Princess, the little princess is still very small, she can’t be looked at too much. Best let her sleep properly.”
Yinzhen, suspecting nothing, agreed at once and, reluctant to leave, pulled Dan Qing along with him back outside.
Dan Qing knew perfectly well that something was very wrong with how this little princess had been left to sleep like this, but she didn’t dare say anything.
Because it was obvious this wasn’t something the wet nurse could possibly have decided on her own, and since no one in the entire palace had said a word about it, it could only mean that Kangxi’s orders had sealed everyone’s mouths shut. Naturally, she wasn’t about to expose it either.
Yinzhen went off eagerly to fetch a net, meaning to catch some butterflies for Dan Qing, but Dan Qing had no real interest in it, and simply sat on a stone by the path, lost in thought.
Having just seen the pitiful little princess, she couldn’t help but think of Noble Lady Guo again.
Noble Lady Guo was already more than eight months pregnant herself now, probably a little over a month left before she gave birth too, and there was no telling whether things would go smoothly for her.
Dan Qing had firmly resolved not to pay Noble Lady Guo any more mind, but now, knowing what had happened to Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya, she couldn’t help but feel a stir of worry all the same.
She wasn’t sure whether she was simply being too sensitive, but right now she felt that childbirth and child-rearing for the women of this palace was far from as simple as she had once assumed.
Even someone as favored as Consort Yi had still had to hand over her own son, the Fifth Prince, to be raised by the Empress Dowager. Yinzhen’s own birth mother was Consort De, and yet he’d been given to Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya to raise instead.
Earlier, she’d overheard the Grand Empress Dowager and Kangxi discussing how Kangxi meant to have Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya’s child given to the Grand Empress Dowager to raise, not even letting the birth mother raise her own child. What sense did that make?
And what about her own case, then? Had Noble Lady Guo really cast her out so heartlessly purely out of dislike?
Or was there, perhaps, some difficult truth behind it too, one that couldn’t easily be spoken of to outsiders?
Dan Qing laughed at herself, wondering if she was perhaps gaslighting herself now, searching for excuses to explain away Noble Lady Guo’s preference for sons over daughters.
But she quickly let the thought go, because no matter what the original reason had been, there was no turning back now regardless.
She disliked the hidden undercurrents churning beneath this Forbidden City, despised how even one’s closest kin schemed and used one another, but at least she was a princess, a princess destined to marry off to the grasslands one day.
Dan Qing suddenly felt that marrying off to the grasslands didn’t seem quite so frightening after all, at least, far from the center of imperial power, she wouldn’t have to keep up a constant performance, wouldn’t have to live in constant fear.
Even if life on the grasslands might not be as convenient or comfortable as in the palace, if she could live out her days freely, without worrying about anyone scheming against her, that would still be something worth looking forward to.
“Fourth sister, what are you thinking about?”
Yinzhen, having failed to catch any butterflies, came and sat down beside Dan Qing.
Dan Qing smiled and said, “I was thinking, once I go to the grasslands someday, there will surely be lots and lots of butterflies there, they won’t even need to be caught, they’ll just come flying around me on their own.”
Yinzhen was puzzled. “Why would butterflies come flying around you on their own?”
Dan Qing cleared her throat. “Well, that’s a story that starts with a beautiful woman who was born with a natural fragrance about her—”
…
It turns out gossip is simply human nature.
Even the future ruthless, seasoned emperor, back in his childhood years, couldn’t resist the pull of an unofficial tale of court intrigue, and compared to his tedious lessons, it was clear Dan Qing’s story held far more appeal for him.
Children, after all, are easily distracted, and Dan Qing’s story was a long one, not the kind that could be told in just a day or two. Because of it, Yinzhen stopped pushing to go back home, spending every day with Dan Qing instead, obediently waiting to hear more of her “secret court history” once his lessons for the day were done.
Dan Qing felt a slight twinge of guilt over this.
She had no idea whether telling Yinzhen stories about things that might happen decades from now could have some unpredictable effect on her future nephew, the future Qianlong Emperor, but she could only console herself that it was just an unofficial legend after all, not to be taken seriously, there was no guarantee a Fragrant Consort would ever really exist.
Yinreng, whenever he had spare time, would sometimes come and listen in too, though his expression always seemed to carry something he wanted to say but couldn’t quite bring himself to voice.
He privately warned Dan Qing not to go making up such wild stories, worried Kangxi might find out and grow angry, and yet, once back at Qianqing Palace, he couldn’t resist having someone go find out whether such a legend had actually existed in an earlier dynasty.
Naturally, when the Crown Prince wanted to know something, there were always those eager to see to it with special care. The Forbidden City had no shortage of legends, but this particular tale wasn’t among them, no matter, since the Crown Prince said it existed, then exist it must.
And so a few eunuchs put their heads together and, through considerable effort, cobbled together a so-called “palace secret” of their own invention, telling of a romantic affair between the Jiajing Emperor of a previous dynasty and a Fragrant Consort, even going so far as to have a scholar write it up into a proper storybook, which was then delivered straight into Yinreng’s hands.
Yinreng, curious, began flipping through it, and found himself quickly drawn in.
The eunuchs, of course, had never heard the story Dan Qing had actually told, so there was no way they could have written anything resembling it, but being shrewd enough, they’d decided the Crown Prince surely wanted something salacious and romantic, and so, in the writing, had deliberately twisted a story of pure, innocent love into something far more suggestive and vulgar.
Yinreng had never come across anything like this before, and the more curious he grew, the more he found himself unable to put it down, even getting up in the middle of the night to read it in secret, only for Kangxi to catch him red-handed one night.
These past days, Kangxi had been so preoccupied with worries over Imperial Noble Consort Tongiya and the little princess that he hadn’t given much thought to Yinreng, but that day he finally remembered it had been quite a while since he’d seen his son, and thought he’d go check on how he was sleeping, only to walk in and find Yinreng utterly absorbed in a book by lamplight.
At first, Kangxi felt rather touched, thinking his son had grown up and become diligent, applying himself to his studies, but then, feeling for his son staying up so late, straining his eyes, he strode over and took the book straight out of Yinreng’s hands, saying, “Even diligence shouldn’t cost you your sleep, do you not care about your eyes at all?”
But Yinreng flinched violently at once, his face full of terror, clearly the look of someone caught doing something wrong.
Sensing something was off, Kangxi picked up the book and looked closely, only to find it depicted the Jiajing Emperor carrying on an illicit affair with the Fragrant Consort right inside the Ancestral Hall itself, and at that instant, he felt as though struck by lightning, and without thinking, backhanded a slap right across Yinreng’s face.
Both father and son froze in the same instant.
Yinreng had been raised at Kangxi’s own side since childhood, showered with nothing but affection, let alone a beating, he had rarely even heard a harsh word. Struck so suddenly across the face, his mind went completely blank, and tears fell before he could stop them.
The moment he’d struck the blow, Kangxi already regretted it, and pulled Yinreng into his arms, saying with a pained voice, “We acted rashly in the heat of the moment, We never meant to strike you.”
Yinreng only cried, saying nothing at all.
“Baocheng, how old are you even, that you’d be reading a book like this?”
Kangxi’s heart ached with helplessness. “In another couple of years, once you’ve truly come of age, We will naturally arrange for someone to attend you properly, but that time hasn’t come yet.”
The Manchu people had always placed great importance on continuing the family line, and so married early. Once a young man came of age, his family would arrange for someone to attend and instruct him, Kangxi himself had had a palace maid attending his bed at the age of thirteen.
The First Prince, Yinzhi, was already twelve this year, and his birth mother Consort Hui had already selected a palace maid to keep at his side, waiting only for him to come of age before sending her over to attend him, in the palace, this was considered a perfectly ordinary matter.
Yinreng’s own birth mother had died young, so Kangxi had to play the role of both father and mother to him, and had inevitably worried over such things, already having had the Imperial Household Department select a few young women of suitable age to be trained and prepared.
But the trouble was, Yinreng was still only ten, the time for such matters was still a long way off.
Kangxi didn’t believe the earlier the better when it came to this sort of thing, quite the opposite, he’d always worried that some ambitious palace maid might try to seduce him for her own advancement, which was why Yinreng had never been attended by any palace maids at all, only eunuchs.
And yet, somehow, someone had still found a way to slip through the cracks, letting a book like this end up in Yinreng’s hands.
How could this not worry him!
“Tell Us, where did this book come from?”
Kangxi grew angrier the more he thought about it, his tone turning severe.
Yinreng didn’t dare hide anything, and named the eunuch who had presented the book to him.
Kangxi sent Yinreng off to kneel in the Ancestral Hall to “clear his head,” and once he’d gone, Qianqing Palace was placed under immediate lockdown, thoroughly searched from top to bottom, anyone connected to this matter was seized and interrogated without mercy.
That night, screams of agony rang out endlessly from the Office of Punishments, and blood flowed like a river.