Chapter 7: The Little Diviner Saves Her Clan

"Your father still cares for you as his son. At worst, he'll strip you of your rank and exile you somewhere cold."

"The hundreds of people in the Eastern Palace can all live."

"Otherwise…"

"Otherwise what?"

The Crown Prince cut me off.

Fear, arrogance, and contempt flickered through his eyes in turn.

At last, he forced them all down.

"You think I'll believe a five-year-old's nonsense?"

He glared at me, his face twisted with rage.

"If I back down today, that really will be the death of me!"

He suddenly hoisted me high.

Wind drove the slanting rain into my face.

"Die!"

I opened my mouth and bit down hard.

"Aah!"

He let go in pain.

The instant my feet touched the ground, I ran.

Two or three steps took me into the imperial carriage nearby.

Never mind the blood inside. I burrowed straight into the soft cushions.

A long flash of lightning split the sky.

Boom!

Thunder shook the heavens.

The Crown Prince convulsed.

In an instant, his eyes rolled back and his rigid body crashed to the ground.

I clicked my tongue.

"I kindly suggested you spend a few hard years in Ningguta."

"But no. You just had to get yourself killed."

See?

Now he hadn't even kept his life.

"Your Majesty, forgive us for coming too late!"

I poked my head out of the carriage.

Soldiers had surrounded the gate tower so tightly that not a drop of water could have got through.

My gaze passed over the crowd.

Then stopped.

A tall, imposing figure broke from the mass of men and strode toward me.

"Third Brother!"

Ignoring my call, he scooped me up roughly.

Then plunked me onto his shoulders.

His hard armor dug painfully into my bottom.

I hastily grabbed his helmet.

"Third Brother, I've avenged you!"

His steady voice reached my ears.

"Keep your voice down."

"His Majesty is grieving."

Right.

The Crown Prince had been sleeping with the Consort, and someone in the Privy Council had intercepted Eldest Brother's secret report.

The Emperor had suspected something long before.

He simply hadn't wanted to believe it.

His own beloved son, committing adultery with his consort?

Then the Consort had mysteriously miscarried.

That had implicated the senior physician of the Imperial Medical Office.

Next, the eastern pearl had been stolen.

Then rebellion had broken out on the frontier…

Charge after charge. Every one aimed at the Xies.

At last, the Emperor secretly left the palace and visited Xie Yunli that very night.

Knowing no amount of explanation could clear him, Xie Yunli knelt at his feet and begged only that his wife, children, and the old and young of his household be spared.

"Yunli."

The Emperor looked at him.

"I want the truth."

He didn't use the royal "We."

He had reigned for thirty years.

The empire was his. The realm was his.

Yet through all those long years, he hadn't had a single friend who dared speak honestly to him.

Except his old friend Xie Yunli.

Xie Yunli abruptly lifted his head.

Beyond the frost at the Emperor's temples, he seemed to see the splendidly dressed young man on his fine horse again.

That night, the Emperor and the Xies reached an agreement.

They would lay a trap and lure the Crown Prince into it.

"Your family will have to suffer a little for this."

Xie Yunli tucked the blanket around his sleeping youngest daughter.

"Little Wu cannot see."

"I'm afraid she'll be frightened."

"I beg Your Majesty to show her a little extra consideration."

And so the entire Xie family joined the Emperor in staging this grand performance.

The outcome was plain.

The Crown Prince had violated every moral bond and led troops to murder his father.

In the end, Heaven had punished him.

The watching crowd had seen the lightning strike with their own eyes.

"The True Dragon has manifested his power!"

I shook my head.

Such superstition.

I'd clearly opened my Heavenly Eye and summoned the thunder myself!

Consort Yu's body was hung from the city wall for the people to revile.

The Crown Prince's body was rolled in a straw mat and thrown into a paupers' burial ground.

No one dared come to pay their respects.

In a special act of mercy, the Emperor spared the Crown Prince's wife and children from punishment for his crimes.

His wife, concubines, and children were all reduced to commoners and forbidden ever to enter the capital again.

Meanwhile, joy filled the Xie residence.

The Emperor conferred the title of Grand Celestial Master on Father.

Mother went from an ordinary woman of the marketplace to a titled lady of the first rank in a single leap.

Whenever the Empress Dowager or the Empress summoned her, she could enter the palace to chat and drink tea with its noble ladies.

My brothers all received rewards and promotions too.

"Father, what else did the decree say?"

I'd been getting ready for my afternoon nap when the eunuch arrived to read it.

Kneeling to receive the decree, I'd been so sleepy that my head kept nodding.

"What about me?"

I woke right up and hurried anxiously around him.

All I wanted in this life was to be a young lady of leisure.

I didn't want to do a scrap of work.

Father reverently clasped his hands and bowed toward the east.

"His Majesty wants you to…"

I clapped my hands over my ears and shook my head frantically.

"I'm only five!"