Chapter 7

Her face was deathly pale as she sat on the edge of the bed. With a cold laugh, she asked, “Little sister, do you truly think you’ve won?”

I stood still. “How do you intend to win now, Elder Sister?”

She suddenly pulled a dagger from beneath her pillow and slashed deeply across her arm. Fresh blood immediately poured out.

She seized my hand and pressed the bloodied hilt into my palm.

Then she smashed the bowl of medicine. Beneath her skirt, a patch of red quickly spread.

She threw back her head and shrieked, “Help! The Empress is trying to kill me!”

Pei Yan burst in faster than I had expected.

He looked at the blood covering the floor, and his steps faltered.

Gu Yunshu crawled over to clutch at his robe, wailing, “Your Majesty, my little sister hates me. She wants to harm our child…”

But this time, Pei Yan did not bend down to lift her up.

He stepped over the pool of blood and strode straight toward me, gripping my shoulders with one hand. “Are you hurt?”

He repeatedly checked both my arms, then anxiously asked whether she had injured me.

I let him examine me. The bloodstained dagger remained in my hand as I silently watched him.

If this had happened before, he would have ordered someone to drag me out and punish me already.

Gu Yunshu was still kneeling on the floor, wailing.

Pei Yan turned to look at her. Yet there was no trace of his old sympathy in his eyes—only cold disgust.

I watched the scene without emotion.

16

Pei Yan shouted toward the outer hall, “Summon the imperial physicians!”

The Chief Physician, who had been waiting outside for some time, nearly crawled in.

Pei Yan stared at him and ordered, “Examine Consort Gu’s pregnancy.”

There was not the slightest warmth in his voice.

Gu Yunshu shrank toward the bed in panic, covering her lower abdomen tightly. “Your Majesty, I’m in so much pain. Our child can’t endure this torment…”

Several matrons stepped forward and held her down.

The moment the physician took her pulse, his face turned deathly pale. He immediately knocked his head hard against the floor. “Your Majesty, forgive this servant! The Consort has no pregnancy pulse at all. For the past few months, it was all an illusion produced by the medicines she took. The bleeding today is also caused by the potent drugs she used…”

Gu Yunshu went limp beside the bed and could no longer utter a word.

The blood still covered the floor, but the first thing to die was the lie she had painstakingly maintained for months.

Pei Yan squeezed his eyes shut.

When he opened them again, he looked at her as though she were already dead.

He enunciated each word. “Deceiving the throne. Plotting against the imperial heir.”

Pei Yan questioned her, “Gu Yunshu, was everything I gave you not enough? How dare you deceive me like this?”

Elder Sister crawled over and clung to his boots, first crying, “Your Majesty!” then hurriedly trying to explain, “I only loved you too much. I was truly afraid of losing your favor…”

Pei Yan kicked her away, then turned to look at me.

His eyes were full of regret. He reached out as if to pull me close. “Wanning, I trusted the wrong person. All the grievances you suffered were my fault…”

I stepped back to avoid him and casually let the dagger fall from my hand.

Metal struck stone with a clear, ringing sound.

I said calmly, “Since the matter has been investigated, I’ll return to the side courtyard.”

I did not look at Elder Sister’s wretched state, nor at Pei Yan’s reddened eyes. I turned and walked away.

Pei Yan did not stop me.

At last, he understood that I was no longer someone he could keep by simply reaching out.

17

That night, Gu Yunshu was stripped of her title and reduced to a commoner, then imprisoned in the Cold Palace.

The medicine she had taken was too potent. The imperial physicians concluded that she would never be able to bear children for the rest of her life.

When the Imperial Household Department inventoried Zhaohua Palace, they also uncovered evidence that for years she had skimmed the side courtyard’s allotments and framed me.

Pei Yan laid the pile of evidence out in the Imperial Study and sat alone with it the entire night.

The next day, he carried a thick stack of case files to the side courtyard. In just a few short days, he had grown visibly thinner.

He called to me cautiously. “Wanning.”

He placed the files on the table, his voice hoarse. “It was my fault that your child could not be saved. If I had investigated the truth sooner, you would not have suffered so much…”

I only glanced at them and said nothing.

He took a step closer and tried to soothe me in a low voice. “I know you hate me.”

He hurried on, “If you want to curse me, then curse me. If you want to hit me, then hit me. Gu Yunshu has been deposed. From now on, you’ll be the only one in the harem. We can start over. Will you?”

I looked at the emperor standing humbly before me.

He was like a young man who had made a mistake and was waiting to be forgiven. But my heart no longer stirred in the slightest.

I suddenly smiled. “All right.”

He froze. Then overwhelming joy lit his eyes, and a rush of questions spilled out. “You forgive me? Wanning, are you truly willing to return to my side?”

He wrapped his arms around me, squeezing so tightly I could hardly breathe.

As he held me, I looked past his shoulder at the dark, gray clouds beyond the window.

Pei Shuo’s troops had probably reached the outskirts of the capital by now.

18