Chapter 6: The Year We Saved the Marquis's Daughter

Yet the Emperor, who always made a show of loving the Empress, turned a blind eye.

He even began considering deposing the Crown Prince as stupid and incompetent, and replacing him with Consort Zhao's son, the Second Prince.

The Empress Dowager heartily approved.

She also proposed framing the Empress for witchcraft. Depose the mother first, then move against the son.

When the Emperor and Empress Dowager secretly discussed this, an informant I'd placed in her palace overheard and reported it to me.

I immediately sent word to the Empress.

Deeply worried, she came quietly to my chambers.

"What do you think I should do now?"

I drew a hand across my throat.

"The Emperor can't be allowed to remain. But the Empress Dowager meddles too much. We can't let her become Grand Empress Dowager. Better deal with her first, then act against him."

The Empress immediately found her direction.

"What she cares about most is her family. I'll write at once and arrange for her brother and nephew to die suddenly. Let's make her ill with rage first."

I said at once,

"Then I'll personally nurse her. I'll make certain she breathes her last within two or three days."

When an opportunity appeared, I had to grasp it.

As long as I followed the right mistress, I could keep climbing.

The Empress was very pleased and rewarded me with a box of jewels.

"But that isn't enough. While you nurse her, tell her you want to adopt the Seventh Prince, whose mother has died.

"You need a son to rely on. Otherwise, once the Emperor dies, someone may suggest you accompany him into the grave."

My eyes lit up.

The Empress really did think further ahead than I did.

That very night, fire broke out at the residence of the Emperor's maternal uncle.

The uncle and his son were trapped in the flames and burned to charred remains.

Uncle Zheng and his family had committed countless evils over the years.

Abducting women, oppressing commoners—there was no wrongdoing they hadn't tried.

When father and son died, the whole city breathed easier.

That counted as ridding the people of a scourge.

The Empress Dowager took to her sickbed the moment she heard the news.

I volunteered to nurse her.

Under my meticulous care, her illness grew steadily worse until she was critically ill.

With his mother in such a state, the Emperor had no attention to spare for plotting against the Empress. He only hoped she would recover soon.

That was when I spoke.

"I'd like to bring Her Majesty some auspicious joy. Perhaps her illness will lift without medicine.

"I hear the Seventh Prince has lost his mother. I'd like to become his mother."

The Empress Dowager agreed.

"Consort De is filial. I think that's excellent."

The Emperor had no objection either.

The Seventh Prince was still in swaddling clothes, only a tiny newborn.

If I wanted him, let me have him.

So he was formally registered as my adopted son.

That same night, the Empress Dowager felt a little better.

She wanted to get out of bed and walk. But her legs failed her, and she fell and broke one.

A few days later, she died.

She was gone. No one was left of her family either.

The Emperor was devastated, as if he'd lost an arm.

I seized the opportunity to take soup to the imperial study every day and comfort him.

He told me,

"I suspect the Empress had a hand in Mother's death. That poisonous woman!"

I leaned against him, looking deeply indignant on his behalf.

"She's gone too far! If she dares plot against the Empress Dowager, then later, with Your Majesty, won't she…?"

He immediately held me tight.

"You're quite right, my beloved consort. So you must help me."

I asked innocently,

"What would Your Majesty have me do?"

"I want to depose the Empress and Crown Prince. I'll make Consort Zhao Empress, and her son Crown Prince.

"In the next few days, find a chance to push the Crown Prince into the rockery as he passes through the imperial garden. Leave a scar on his face."

They said even a vicious tiger wouldn't eat its cubs.

He was worse than a tiger.

Suppressing my disgust, I pouted.

"You've chosen Consort Zhao as Empress. What about me? You want me to do something so dangerous. Surely I deserve a reward?"

He took the bait, his mood excellent.

"What do you want?"

"I want to be Noble Consort. Preferably by tomorrow.

"Give me that position, and I'll deal with not only the Crown Prince but the Empress too. My family and grandfather aren't people to trifle with."

Thinking of my background, he didn't refuse.

"Very well. Tomorrow, I'll issue a decree promoting you to Noble Consort."

The decree came that morning.

That afternoon, the Emperor was poisoned and began vomiting blood.

This time, I hadn't done it.

The Empress said: