Chapter 9
Edward Quan ·
“This is merely an old domestic affair from years ago. Why must Madam Xiao keep dragging it before the court?”
“I know you’ve always been competitive. Today I’ll grant you a first-rank title as an imperial lady, and choose an auspicious day for your birth mother’s memorial tablet to enter the Lu family shrine.”
“Let her enjoy the incense offerings of her descendants and rest in peace. That would be the true way to show your filial devotion.”
Lu Yunchu stood behind the Empress.
Her eyes were red with hatred, yet she still forced a smile and reached to steady me.
“If you have any grievances, little sister, we can return home and talk them through behind closed doors.”
I knocked her hand away.
“Talk about what? Should I grant you both a strip of white silk, or send you a flask of poison?”
She staggered and fell. I bowed my head to the floor again.
“Your Majesty, I have one more crime to report!”
“The mistress of the Lu household plotted to murder my birth mother!”
The entire hall erupted.
The Empress’s face darkened as she shouted to stop me.
“Second Miss Lu, that’s enough!”
“How much longer are you going to keep this up in front of His Majesty?”
“Xiao Che, are you just going to stand there pretending to be dead? Take your wife away!”
“Don’t let her keep slandering people in the throne hall!”
Xiao Che bowed with perfect decorum, but did not yield an inch in his words.
“If Your Majesty only wants to silence my wife, then you may as well consider me dead, too.”
“Besides, it was His Majesty himself who invited us to state what reward we wanted.”
“The Emperor’s word is law. He cannot take it back.”
“His Majesty will surely see justice done for a meritorious subject.”
The Emperor’s expression turned cold as well.
“Xiao Che, are you threatening me?”
“What if I refuse to see that woman’s case through?”
In the silent throne hall,
an old but commanding voice came from outside.
“Then I shall see it through for them!”
The Empress Dowager, who had been claiming illness for a long time, entered the throne hall in her imperial robes.
The Emperor and Empress both changed color and had no choice but to rise and salute.
The Empress Dowager ignored them and looked only toward the officials.
“If someone who has rendered great service cannot even have a grievance heard,”
“how can Your Majesty speak of fairness to the people of the realm?”
The Empress gave the Emperor a subtle look.
He pressed a hand to his forehead and feigned illness, trying to adjourn the court and buy time.
“That is enough for today. Everyone may withdraw.”
“Minister Xiao has rendered meritorious service in the campaign. His reward will certainly not be withheld.”
“Let me consider how best to give you justice.”
“Now that the war is over, however, Minister Xiao must remember to return the military tally to the court.”
Xiao Che pretended to fumble around inside his sleeve for a long while.
“Oh dear, I seem to have left the military tally at the frontier!”
“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I’ve brought fifty thousand elite troops and stationed them outside the imperial city. They’ll be sure to keep you safe!”
The Emperor pointed at him, his finger trembling.
“You—you!”
Xiao Che immediately hid behind the Empress Dowager and smiled with an innocent face.
“Grandmother, what’s wrong with my imperial uncle?”
“Your Majesty, Tri’er has won a great victory. Could he be so overjoyed he can’t speak?”
The Emperor still did not know
that the life-saving benefactor he had happened to promote after an assassination attempt during his travels years ago
was the sole surviving bloodline of the former Crown Prince’s household, whose entire family had been assassinated.
The Empress Dowager had found Xiao Che long ago.
But the Emperor had already ascended the throne, so she had endured in silence for years.
She had laid out this game
to wait for the Emperor to return military power “to” the true heir of the imperial line with his own hands.
Xiao Che and I had known each other since childhood.
The first time I entered the palace,
the Empress Dowager exposed my identity after one glance at my hands.
“A young lady raised in comfort would never have hands this rough.”
“Are you the child born to that Lu family maid? Years ago, your grandmother asked me about you. I was the one who told her to keep you.”
“You risked your life by throwing yourself against the coffin just so I would notice you. What terrible injustice are you carrying?”
I knelt and begged the Empress Dowager to see justice done for my mother and me.
But even she could not interfere in a subject’s household without cause.
She taught me to fight for what I wanted. More than that, she taught me to wait.
“You’re so young, yet you dared to wager your life as a piece on the board. You have courage and a sharp mind.”
“I can give you a path straight to the heavens. The only question is whether you dare make a big move with me!”
From then on,
I became the messenger between the Empress Dowager and Xiao Che.
Over the years, the Empress Dowager taught me how to scheme and always made me remember two things.
“Don’t waste all your strength over a single slap. If you strike back, make sure your opponent never gets back up.”
“One Madam Lu is nothing. If you want the entire Lu family brought to justice, you must wait until the moment you can close the net around them all.”
That was why I approached Gu Jingchuan and used the imperial marriage decree to enter the aristocratic families’ field of view.
Then I broke with the Empress Dowager over my lie.
At last, I married Xiao Che, a man unwelcome among the aristocratic clans.
A domineering woman whose actions dragged her husband into trouble, both of them exiled to the frontier—