The man answered readily with a single word: “Fine.”
Meng Qianzi’s head snapped up, the delight in her eyes not yet fully surfaced, when she heard him go on, “If you fail to satisfy this Prince, you won’t even get the chance to enter the Jiaofangsi.”
Meng Qianzi nodded firmly, and drops of water flung from her hair landed on the toes of the man’s shoes.
Xiao Jiuyi’s brow furrowed, an utterly undisguised look of disgust on his face, and three cold, hard words forced themselves out through his teeth: “Get out.”
Meng Qianzi flushed with embarrassment and hastily pushed the carriage door open and jumped down.
Qingzhou pressed his lips together, struggling to hide his amusement, and then drove the carriage away.
Rain fell in fat drops onto Meng Qianzi’s face. She opened her mouth and gulped down mouthful after mouthful of it.
“Why didn’t Master ever tell me this medicine was more bitter than coptis root…”
But a faint light had appeared in her heart, and its name was hope.
She knew that in her past life, tomorrow, before the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet had even begun, a great matter had occurred. The Elder Princess’s consort was discovered in an illicit affair with someone inside Yufu Palace. The Empress Dowager flew into a rage and ordered the two of them beaten to death with rods on the spot.
When the Elder Princess arrived, she saw that the husband she loved so deeply had become a mangled, bloody corpse, and collapsed on the spot. Seven days later she died of illness at the Princess’s residence.
And this Elder Princess was the person who held the most weight in Xiao Jiuyi’s heart.
She was the current Emperor’s own elder sister. In her youth she had thrown herself in front of an assassin’s blade to shield the Emperor, and the injury she took left her unable to bear children for the rest of her life.
Xiao Jiuyi lost his mother the moment he was born, and the Elder Princess had begged the Emperor to let her take him back to her own residence and raise him with great care.
In her past life, after the Elder Princess died, this man had kept watch alone at the imperial tombs for a full three months. The Emperor sent people to fetch him back again and again without success, and in the end it was only by threatening to tear down the Elder Princess’s residence that he was forced back to the capital.
By that point, even if he had been willing to help her, it would already have been too late…
Meng Qianzi pumped her fist in excitement. She had already taken the first successful step, as long as she saved the consort, she would have saved the Elder Princess’s life as well, and Xiao Jiuyi would surely help her.
The next day, the eighteenth of the eighth month.
Before the sky had even brightened, Meng Qianzi tidied herself a little, put on a half-worn maid’s outfit, and waited early outside Prince Yong’s residence.
She did not know when Xiao Jiuyi would go into the palace, and was afraid of missing the time.
The gates of the residence remained shut for a long while, but noise began to drift in from the street outside the wide lane.
What was happening?
Meng Qianzi walked a few steps to the mouth of the lane and looked out.
She saw a good number of scholars on the street across the way, walking east in twos and threes.
Only then did Meng Qianzi remember that today was the day the examination results were posted.
She was about to turn back when she suddenly caught sight of a familiar figure not far off…
Pei Yanci!
Meng Qianzi’s heart gave a sudden lurch, and a sharp light shot from her eyes.
Pei Yanci was speaking quietly with a friend beside him, his expression composed and unhurried, full of steadiness and confidence.
Meng Qianzi frowned in confusion. Pei Yanci was only nineteen at this point, and in her past life, at the same age, he had still carried a boyish greenness about him, nothing like the air he had about him now.
In her past life he had not passed the jinshi examination until three years later, and on the day the results were posted he had gotten thoroughly drunk in front of her and complained at great length. Could it be that in this life he had changed his nature and grown indifferent to fame and gain?
Recalling how he used to be, Meng Qianzi could only feel that in her last life her eyes had been smeared with dung. She looked away in disgust and retreated back into the lane.
There was no time to deal with him now, compared to her family’s fate, he was nothing.
Pei Yanci seemed to sense something, and suddenly stopped and looked this way.
But all he caught was a flash of pale blue.
The friend beside him asked in surprise, “Qinghuan, what are you looking at?”
Pei Yanci seemed lost in thought, his gaze not yet drawn back, but he shook his head and laughed. “Nothing. Let’s go…”
It was not until midmorning that the carriage marking royal status, carved with a gilded image of a qilin descending to the world, slowly rolled out of the residence.
Qingzhou was still the one driving, though now dressed in a black tunic trimmed with red satin, the whole of him as sharp and unrestrained as a blade drawn from its sheath.
He showed no surprise at seeing Meng Qianzi, only grinned, flashing a mouth of white teeth, and tilted his head to signal her to follow behind.
The heart Meng Qianzi had carried through the night settled back into place, and she walked quickly into the line of maids and attendants behind the carriage, heading toward Zihuan Palace.
Meng Qianzi was no stranger to that palace with its high walls and many gates.
Before she turned six, before she had left home to study under her master, she had gone into the palace with her mother more than once.
Sometimes it was to attend a palace banquet, sometimes it was because her aunt had summoned her.
Today was different from before, thanks to Little Prince Yong, there was no need for inspection, no need to wait to be summoned, and once inside the palace, her way was clear all the way through.
The carriage rolled slowly through the long passage beneath the high walls, and stopped outside the Plum Garden on the eastern side of the palace city, where Shi Cha, the attendant who had served the Empress Dowager his whole life, came to greet them in person. “This old servant has come by order of Her Majesty the Empress Dowager, to invite Your Highness over.”
Xiao Jiuyi stepped down from the carriage and, as if on a casual whim, pointed at Meng Qianzi. “You bring the food box. Qingzhou, walk with this Prince.”
Shi Cha, as though he had known already how this would go, hurried forward a step with an ingratiating smile. “Her Majesty has been speaking of Your Highness for quite a while now. Why doesn’t Your Highness go to Yongshou Palace first for some refreshments before…”
Xiao Jiuyi’s expression stayed cold, and he walked straight on toward a path to the west lined with blooming hibiscus. “Tell my Imperial Grandmother for this Prince that I won’t be long.”
Shi Cha did not dare say more, and bowed his back, lowering his head, and withdrew to the side. “This old servant sees Your Highness off.”
Meng Qianzi, quick on her feet, at once lifted the food box down from the carriage and hurried to catch up with Xiao Jiuyi and Qingzhou.
After only a few steps she understood, this man was going to Fengyi Palace, the former Empress’s palace, to mourn his birth mother.
Remembering the stories about the former Empress, Meng Qianzi could not help feeling a pang of sorrow.
The former Empress and the Emperor had been childhood sweethearts, and their deep affection for each other was told as a fine story.
But it was a pity that this most noble woman under heaven had been frail from childhood. While pregnant with Xiao Jiuyi, she had fallen into water by accident, and it happened to be the depths of winter. The imperial physicians used up every precious medicine to keep her alive until her son was born, and before the month was even out, she passed away.
Xiao Jiuyi’s illness had come with him from the womb, and several times before he turned three he had nearly died. That stretch of time was the darkest the Imperial Medical Academy had ever known, the physicians’ very heads were tied to this prince’s fate.
The Emperor never took another Empress after that, and though Fengyi Palace had lost its mistress, it remained just as it had always been, swept and tended with care every single day.
Xiao Jiuyi walked into Fengyi Palace as though returning home, familiar with every turn.
Qingzhou did not follow him in, and gave Meng Qianzi a look, signaling her to go after him.
Meng Qianzi carried the food box and kept close on Xiao Jiuyi’s heels, working out how to bring up what she needed in a moment. She had to hurry to stop the consort from making his mistake, she could not wait for him to finish mourning his dead mother.
Xiao Jiuyi lifted aside layer after layer of jade-green gauze and walked into the former Empress’s bedchamber. Inside, the floor was laid with gold and jade, and orchids wound around the beams, luxury so extravagant it left Meng Qianzi speechless.
The man pushed the window open with one hand, and golden sunlight poured in, dyeing him in a pale gold glow that made him look all the more magnificent and handsome.
He did not turn around, and ordered, “Set out the refreshments.”
Meng Qianzi came forward and took out plate after plate of delicate pastries from the red-lacquered food box, setting them on the spotless, carved rosewood round table, date-paste cakes, sesame candy, osmanthus syrup cakes… every one of them cloyingly sweet.
She then withdrew to the side and said in a low voice, “This subject…”
“Get out!” Xiao Jiuyi gave her no chance to speak at all, and his tone alone made it clear his mood right now was far from good.
Meng Qianzi had heard how unpredictable his temper could be, and knew she should not provoke him now of all times, but afraid of missing the chance to save the consort, she had no choice but to steel herself and speak up.
“Your Highness, this subject said yesterday that she would give you a condition that satisfies you. This subject needs a token from Your Highness.”
Xiao Jiuyi turned around at once, his face, backlit by the sun, dark as still water, and the sheer weight of his presence dropped the room into a dangerous silence.