A few days ago she couldn’t even get out of bed, and now she could already walk around so quickly?
Neither Emperor Longqing nor Empress Chen could believe their ears. Emperor Longqing even ran outside the hall to welcome his favored consort—with so many fields in the palace yielding nothing, Li Jiubao was his most productive plot. He couldn’t let it be ruined; he had to protect it well.
Of course Li Jiubao didn’t have the strength to walk that far. She came in a phoenix sedan chair befitting a Noble Consort’s rank, carried by twelve strong palace servants. It had a gold and copper pearl-topped canopy with gilded bronze flying phoenixes on all four sides and red brocade sedan cloth.
Besides the sedan chair, there was a complete ceremonial procession. In front of the chair were a pair of travel screens, a sitting screen, a pair of red staffs, a pair of path-clearing flags, a pair of ge spears, a pair of ji halberds, ceremonial swords, red embroidered round parasols, blue embroidered round fans, and so on—about a hundred people in total following in a grand procession.
The magnificent entourage arrived at Qianqing Palace. When it was time to dismount, Chen Jingji placed a gold and silver-inlaid footstool on the ground and helped Li Jiubao down from the sedan.
After leaving the sedan, Li Jiubao still didn’t walk a single step, instead sitting in a gold and silver-inlaid chair carried by four eunuchs into the palace, with palace servants above holding a ceremonial canopy to shield her from sunlight.
The massive procession stopped at the palace gates without entering, waiting outside while pairs of palace maids and servants filed in carrying spittoons, spitting vessels, incense burners, water jugs, wash basins, whisks, and other items Noble Consort Li might need.
Empress Chen was a virtuous and kind person, frugal and low-key, traveling simply and never using such grand ceremonies. In the palace, besides Empress Chen, Noble Consort Li naturally ranked highest, so Li Jiubao’s display today shocked the harem. Just days ago, there were whispers that Noble Consort Li wouldn’t eat or drink and was dying, but today’s sudden spectacle let the palace staff know that not only was Noble Consort Li not on her deathbed—she had recovered!
Li Jiubao sat in the chair, carried directly before Emperor Longqing. Thin as paper, she seemed tiny in the large chair, as if a gust of wind could blow her away. However, she had painted her eyebrows today and applied rouge and lip color, making her complexion look quite good.
With Chen Jingji’s support, Li Jiubao stepped down from the chair and was about to bow when Emperor Longqing stepped forward to help her up. “Beloved consort, no need for ceremony. It’s windy outside—don’t catch cold. Quickly go inside and rest.”
Li Jiubao leaned against Emperor Longqing and gave a soft moan. Emperor Longqing quickly embraced her waist, holding her to prevent her from falling. “What’s wrong, beloved consort?”
Li Jiubao covered her forehead. “I sat in the phoenix chair for quite a while. Standing up suddenly made me a bit dizzy.”
Li Jiubao was delicate and weak. Emperor Longqing easily carried her into the hall. Li Jiubao knew Empress Chen was inside, but she pretended not to know, closing her eyes and burying her head in Emperor Longqing’s embrace, not bowing to Empress Chen.
Empress Chen was in the middle of making complaints when the “defendant” unexpectedly “walked into her trap.” She didn’t love the Emperor—she loved the Empress position. Emperor Longqing and Li Jiubao’s embrace didn’t provoke her, but Li Jiubao’s failure to bow to her greatly displeased Empress Chen.
Emperor Longqing carried Li Jiubao and placed her on the couch. Li Jiubao opened her eyes, saw Empress Chen, and still didn’t bow, instead kowtowing and saying: “Your sister has just recovered from serious illness and feels unwell. Please forgive your sister’s breach of etiquette in being unable to bow and pay respects to the Empress.”
Li Jiubao had always been gentle and compliant, never daring to overstep, never making mistakes in protocol. As long as she had breath in her body, she would come down to bow. Today was too abnormal—she was clearly acting spoiled from favor, relying on Emperor Longqing’s love to be disrespectful to Empress Chen.
Empress Chen didn’t achieve her current position by being a pushover. She responded neither softly nor harshly: “If sister is unwell, then don’t come out. Rest peacefully in Chengan Palace to recover. Why knowingly violate protocol?”
Li Jiubao said: “Your sister missed His Majesty, the Empress, and our five children. We haven’t seen each other for so long—your sister missed you all terribly. Having recently recovered, I wanted to come out for a walk and a look. Though my body is somewhat tired, my mood is excellent. Being so happy today, I might eat an extra half bowl of rice.”
Emperor Longqing was generally an accomplished wise ruler, busy with court affairs, and after finishing those, he still had to cultivate and sow among the harem consorts, leaving no time to see Li Jiubao.
As Empress, Chen couldn’t lower herself to visit a consort’s palace.
As for the five children, Empress Chen used the excuse of fearing contagion to prevent bringing the children to see their birth mother.
Li Jiubao’s grand procession today was meant to tell everyone: she was still alive, she was the Noble Consort, the birth mother of the Crown Prince and four children, she was a consort of substance, she had recovered, and there was no longer any “fear of contagion” excuse to prevent her from seeing the five children she bore.
Emperor Longqing worried about exhausting his favored consort. “Just stay here with me, don’t go anywhere else. Empress, today call the Crown Prince and children over for a reunion. Our family will sit down and eat together—see everyone at once.”
Except for Princess Rui’an who was still nursing, the other four children could all sit at table to eat.
Empress Chen went to make arrangements while Li Jiubao presented lotus seed cakes and other foods. “Your Majesty, these were made by your concubine’s small kitchen. Doctor Wei won’t let your concubine eat sweet or greasy foods, fearing damage to my hard-won recovered spleen and stomach. Your concubine craved sweets, so the small kitchen reduced the sugar and oil by more than half and tried repeatedly until finally succeeding. Your concubine finds them acceptable and digestible, so I brought them to offer His Majesty a taste.”
Emperor Longqing ate a piece and found it rather tasteless—with so little sugar and oil, it was too bland to be called pastry. Clearly, the tastes of someone just recovered from serious illness differed from normal people.
But seeing Li Jiubao’s expectant gaze, Emperor Longqing still gave face and praised: “The taste is good. The small kitchen was thoughtful—I shall richly reward them.”
Since there were rewards, that tacitly acknowledged the existence of Chengan Palace’s small kitchen. Emperor Longqing still hoped this plot of land could yield another great harvest.
Li Jiubao didn’t care about culinary pleasures—the small kitchen symbolized her unique imperial favor. For a concubine, a man’s love was power; even the legitimate wife had to give some face. Of course she had to preserve it.
Palace rules naturally placed the Empress supreme; a Noble Consort was just a concubine of higher status. But above rules were greater rules—that of male superiority over female, the ultimate rule. The Emperor and Empress were essentially unequal; the Empress had to comply with the Emperor’s will and preferences.
The Emperor’s favor backed up favored consorts, compensating for consorts’ natural disadvantage when facing the Empress. A favored consort’s “favor” could only be demonstrated through the concubine’s “courting death” and “arrogance.”
So, as a concubine, a consort, a breeding tool, if she wanted to borrow the Emperor’s power to become strong and prevent outsiders from bullying her, she should act up, be proud, even constantly push boundaries challenging the Empress’s authority to display her “favor”—this “favor” was a symbol of power.
Being gentle and virtuous, wise and kind—that was the mask a legitimate wife or Empress should wear.
As a concubine or breeding tool, if she also wore this mask—not acting up, not competing, not occasionally provoking the Empress—she would place herself in irredeemable circumstances.
Letting the Emperor exploit her reproductive capacity, letting the Empress slaughter her, letting her claim the children she labored to conceive and birth. All palace staff would think her easy to bully because she had no aggression, like dough to be kneaded round or flat at will.
There’s a common saying: “Better to offend a gentleman than a petty person”—this was the principle. Someone too reasonable would be ignored or bullied by everyone under survival-of-the-fittest rules. Since offending her brought no retaliation, why not step on her?
Li Jiubao only understood this principle when her five children were taken away, her spleen and stomach weakened, she lost appetite, nearly starved herself to death, and faced mortal danger.
She hadn’t converted favor into power, couldn’t borrow the Emperor’s authority. Learning from examples of virtuous consorts, she trapped herself in rules, digging her own grave, willingly becoming an emotionless breeding tool.
No one respects an object.
At the evening imperial family banquet, seven-year-old Crown Prince saw his long-ill birth mother appear, his innocent eyes seeming to light up, showing he still had feelings for Li Jiubao.
The other four children, too young when taken to Empress Chen for raising, still had no memories and remained naive. Though naturally drawn to their birth mother Li Jiubao by blood ties, they were restrained by protocol, only performing ceremonial bows and greetings without affectionate gestures like acting spoiled.
The youngest, Princess Rui’an, had just learned to crawl and hadn’t seen her birth mother since leaving the womb. She cried upon seeing Li Jiubao, clinging desperately to Empress Chen’s clothes, refusing to let Li Jiubao hold her.
Empress Chen handed the crying Princess Rui’an to wet nurses to be fed.
Li Jiubao felt sad inside but kept smiling. “The Empress truly knows how to raise children—each one plump and healthy. The Empress has worked hard.”
Empress Chen said: “Raising one’s own children isn’t hard work.”
Empress Chen regarded the children as her own, carefully nurturing them. In polygamous environments, both law and custom held that foster grace exceeded birth grace—the legitimate mother was the true mother of concubine-born children, while concubines merely served as surrogate wombs.
After dinner, Li Jiubao returned to Chengan Palace utterly exhausted. Today’s grand procession was like declaring war—though physically weak, she had to maintain full ceremony, supported by sheer willpower.
Wei Caiwei had brewed qi-tonifying ginseng soup, preparing it early. After Li Jiubao drank the ginseng soup, she said: “Empress Chen has already ordered the female officials to write this palace’s name back into the roster, awaiting His Majesty’s summons. But this palace doesn’t want to bear more children. Prepare contraceptive medicine for this palace.”
Li Jiubao was determined to become a strong favored consort rather than an obedient breeding tool. Enough!
Resuming bedroom duties so quickly? What beasts! And Li Jiubao actually wanted to sever her reproductive ability—showing how deeply she now feared childbearing.
Wei Caiwei said: “Medicine exists, but given Your Majesty’s current physical condition, you cannot take such harsh medicine—it would ruin your carefully restored health. This subject will speak with the female officials. Your Majesty must restore regular menstruation before being able to bear children again. Until then, you may accompany His Majesty but cannot serve in the bedchamber.”