With that thought, the aged Emperor felt a deep displeasure toward the mischief-makers who had come to the palace today to stir up trouble.

But no trace of his inner feelings showed on the Emperor’s face. He turned expressionlessly to Tao Huiru and said, “You claim the Third Princess Consort was involved with someone, and say you have both human witnesses and physical evidence — did you go to Liao Jingxuan to verify the matter?”

Tao Huiru’s heart leapt with a flicker of hope at this, thinking the Emperor had taken the words to heart after all, and immediately said, “The officials of the Ministry of Works say that Master Liao seems to have been assigned to a new post and is no longer serving in the Ministry of Works — he has not even been in the capital for quite some time. Even his former colleagues are not very clear on his whereabouts. I had no way to find Master Liao to question him.”

The Emperor’s expression shifted and darkened when he heard this. “My son’s household is celebrating a joyous occasion — both husband and wife are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their child. Yet you, a relative of sorts claiming the role of aunt, choose to pick bones out of an egg, ferreting about and fishing for gossip, fabricating scandals out of thin air. You bypass the Third Prince entirely and come running to the Empress Dowager to spread malicious tales.”

As the Emperor spoke, his tone grew increasingly severe.

Tao Huiru finally sensed something was wrong in the way this conversation was going, and frantically raised her head to defend herself. “But, Your Majesty — Yashu’s months are wrong! She kept solitary vigil in the manor for several months — how could she possibly be more than four months along? Even for an aunt who might be inclined toward partiality, I cannot stand here with my eyes open and talk nonsense — I cannot allow such a thing to be hidden from Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager!”

By the count of months, Tao Yashu might have been pregnant even before she had ever been married into the manor. Even if the old Emperor was not inclined to let a palace scandal spread through the entire city, he should not be unjustly lashing out his rage at her.

She had, after all, been thoughtful enough to come to the Empress Dowager’s palace to report the matter privately rather than exposing her niece’s disgrace in a public setting — surely she had earned some credit for that consideration.

Unfortunately, the Emperor’s heart had gone thoroughly crooked in his bias, and he was determined to shield his son and daughter-in-law’s reputation.

As for this Tao woman — the Emperor had once pitied her. When the Yang family was wiped out, he had spared her and her son’s lives as a consideration to the Tao family.

Later, because the Emperor had felt some lingering guilt over his hasty decision regarding the Yang family, he had harbored a trace of shame toward them and had never specifically targeted her and her son — even allowing her son to serve as a temple official.

If she had lived her life as a quiet, law-abiding practitioner of religion, she would naturally have had a peaceful and comfortable future ahead of her.

But this Tao woman had not a shred of a practitioner’s compassion — not even toward her own niece, her heart was this ruthless.

A family scandal of this kind — who would not cover for their own family? Yet Tao Huiru had bypassed the father and the elder brother and come running to the Empress Dowager with the intention of destroying her niece utterly.

A ruthlessness this extreme could only be rooted in personal enmity. After all the years the Emperor had spent steeped in the ways of the court and its people, how could he not see through it?

On top of all that, she had also drawn the Crown Princess into it — was this not meant to set his two sons at each other’s throats?

With that realization, the last remnant of pity the Emperor had extended to the Tao woman — out of guilt over the Yang family — dissolved entirely.

He lowered his aging eyelids and said, “Tao Shi possesses not a single shred of an elder’s compassion. She sows discord and stirs up trouble within the imperial household — her intentions are worthy of punishment.”

When a man holds absolute sovereign power, he can condemn someone on fabricated charges without even needing logic or justification.

He issued his cold command: “Tao Shi spoke recklessly and spread malicious gossip. Let it be ordered that she receive twenty strikes across the mouth. She dresses in the garb of a religious practitioner yet remains mired in the affairs of ordinary households and inner chambers — her six senses are clearly not purified. Since that is the case, she will be rewarded with confinement to the temple, to sever the idle thoughts from her heart.”

With those words, a guard entered and dragged Tao Huiru out to receive the strikes across the mouth.

Tao Huiru panicked and was about to open her mouth to argue, but the guard was too quick — her mouth was stuffed shut on the spot and she was hauled outside like someone picking up an old hen, then the striking commenced without delay.

Because her mouth had been stopped, even as the pain made Tao Huiru feel as though her eye sockets would burst, she could not make a sound.

When the twenty strikes were complete and the guard pulled the cloth from her mouth, Tao Huiru’s teeth had already loosened, and along with the blood in her mouth, she spat out three teeth.

Before she had any chance to continue crying her grievances, she was dragged out of the palace and dispatched to the forbidden temple in the rear hills behind the imperial temple.

Beside the forbidden temple stood a small convent of Buddhist nuns — a place designated specifically for receiving consorts sent out of the palace as punishment. To be sent there was equivalent to imprisonment, with no prospect of freedom for the rest of one’s life.

Tao Huiru could not speak with her swollen face, and could only kick her feet frantically against the ground in desperate futility, utterly unable to comprehend what the aging Emperor had meant by this perverse and unjust ruling today.

As for the Crown Princess — in the time it took for Tao Huiru to be slapped, she had already been frightened into kneeling on the ground.

Her previous visit to the palace had left her so frightened by an uncouth brute that her vital energy and spirit still hadn’t recovered. And this time she had been coerced by the Crown Prince into coming to the palace with the Tao family’s fourth aunt to overturn everything.

The result was that she had inadvertently called down a hailstorm, and every single piece of hail had landed squarely on her own head. The Crown Princess was so terrified her nerves were completely shattered, not knowing what punishment she would receive.

The Emperor with his stern face delivered a sharp reprimand to the Crown Princess, rebuking her for being too easily led — for having her ear bent by troublemakers until she was stirring up chaos in the imperial household of her husband’s own younger brother.

If even a breath of today’s events were to reach outside ears, the Emperor would hold the Crown Princess entirely responsible.

As for the Third Princess Consort, the Emperor spoke in front of the Empress Dowager and the Crown Princess in warm, gentle tones of reassurance, telling her to return to the manor and rest well during her pregnancy.

And as for Linlang — her warning today had prevented a tragedy, and she had also previously earned merit in helping find the Third Prince, though at the time it had not been convenient to reward her. Today was the perfect opportunity to do so at once. She was granted one thousand taels of gold, and at the same time was elevated to the fifth-rank title of Lady of Propriety.

The Emperor’s favoritism was so glaring that even the Empress Dowager could barely stand to watch.

She had watched Tao Huiru receive her punishment a moment ago with bewilderment, but with the Emperor having already spoken, she had no grounds to object and had assumed the Emperor simply didn’t want the scandal to spread and was covering it up.

But to let Tao Yashu go home with a four-month belly, and when the time came and the child was born — would that not throw the imperial bloodline into confusion?

So once everyone had gone, the Empress Dowager could not wait a moment longer and pressed the Emperor to tell her what all this meant.

The Emperor sipped his tea with the unbothered composure of a sage and, with no desire to tarnish his son and daughter-in-law’s reputation, offered only a simple explanation: “Yi’er returned to the manor long ago and has been with the Princess Consort this whole time. He is not a fool — if the child in his consort’s womb were not his, could he have waited calmly until now? Mother, please set your mind at ease. I know exactly how things stand.”

A single sentence stopped the Empress Dowager’s mouth. Though she could not sort out the reasoning behind it all, the Emperor’s manner made it clear this was not something to press further.

Given how severely the Emperor had just punished people — stopping just short of having them killed outright — there must be some reason for it.

After all, it had been she, the old woman, who had been too busybodying, and had needlessly made enemies for herself.

Leaving aside the Emperor’s explanation to the Empress Dowager — as for Tao Yashu, who was being helped out of the palace by Chu Linlang, she was still trembling with lingering fear.

The smell of the abortifacient seemed to linger still at the edge of her senses. If Chu Linlang had not brought the Emperor in time, even if she had truly stabbed Tao Huiru to death, it would have done her no good.

“How did you piece it together so quickly? I hadn’t worked it out yet, and you’d already thought of going to the Emperor.”

Chu Linlang was equally shaken from the aftermath. At the time, though she had sensed something was wrong, she hadn’t been able to simply state the real situation to the palace attendants.

So she had first made up an urgently important matter for the palace staff to relay, drawing the Emperor out. When the Emperor received her, she had pulled out her fortune-teller’s routine — spinning a tale about drawing a divination today that showed the Emperor was due for a stroke of good fortune, except the good fortune was located in the Empress Dowager’s sleeping quarters, and if he missed the right moment, the window would close.

Fortunately, the Emperor had been growing tired from reviewing memorials and was looking for a reason to move about. Seeing Lady of Comfort from New Plum speak with such animated enthusiasm, he had grown curious for a moment and simply rose to his feet, taking her with him toward the Empress Dowager’s palace.

“I was thinking that if the Empress Dowager’s palace turned out to be perfectly peaceful and undisturbed, I’d have to rack my brains and invent some ‘joyous occasion’ to avoid getting beaten by the Emperor. Thank goodness your fourth aunt really is a first-rate troublemaker — she saved me from having to spin another deception.”

Tao Yashu knew perfectly well what a clever creature her dear friend was. Even if the Empress Dowager’s palace had been entirely calm, she probably would have found a way to smooth it over.

But now, Tao Yashu felt only the profound relief of someone who had survived a brush with catastrophe, and boundless gratitude.

If not for Linlang’s loyal and fearless help, there would have been no saving the child in her womb.

“When the child is born, would you be willing to be the godmother?”

Hearing Tao Yashu’s words, Chu Linlang laughed and said, “Of course — I couldn’t ask for anything better. If I become the godmother of a proper imperial grandson, won’t I walk with even more swagger from now on?”

Even as Tao Yashu said it, she regretted it. She was afraid her thoughtless words might have stirred up Chu Linlang’s sorrow.

But Chu Linlang was not the sort to be so sentimental — she simply laughed and took up the remark, looking entirely unbothered.

Yashu sighed quietly in her heart. What a wonderful woman she was.

Perhaps heaven had seen her as too perfectly capable and accomplished, and so had to give her this one imperfection.

With that thought, Yashu felt a pang of sorrow on Linlang’s behalf. If Lord Situ treated Linlang well, that was the best possible outcome. But if he did not — then Tao Yashu, even if she spent every last resource she had for the rest of her life, would never allow Linlang to suffer the smallest bit of unhappiness.

Linlang laughed at Yashu’s words. “What grievance could he cause me? Please don’t wrong Lord Situ unfairly.”

Tao Yashu allowed herself only a faint, bitter smile, uncertain whether she should mention something to Linlang.

This trip to receive the peace-marriage procession should by rights have been the business of the Ministry of Rites officials — yet the ones sent had been the Third Prince and Situ Sheng. Had she not noticed anything was off about that?

But the words rose to her lips and she swallowed them back. Some things were better left until they were truly about to happen.

To say them now would only add worry for nothing.

—

As for the Crown Princess, after receiving the Emperor’s reprimand, she drifted home in a daze.

The Crown Prince had been pacing circles in his study for quite some time already.

The moment he saw the Crown Princess return, he pressed her impatiently. “Well? Did the Empress Dowager summon the person to question? Is Tao Yashu truly with child?”

The Crown Princess said flatly, “She is — four months along.”

The Crown Prince could not suppress his exhilaration and clenched his fist in triumph. “Excellent! And did the Empress Dowager report it to the Imperial Father? And what was done to Tao Yashu?”

The Crown Princess wrinkled her mouth and began to cry. “The Emperor rewarded the Tao family’s fourth aunt with twenty strikes across the mouth and had her locked up in the silent meditation convent beside the forbidden temple… And punished me — confined to the Crown Prince’s manor for three months.”

What? The Crown Prince’s eyeballs nearly dropped out of his head. He suspected he had missed something.

But after hearing the Crown Princess recount everything in detail, all that remained in his heart was bitter anguish — Imperial Father, your heart is so shamelessly biased. Anything that belongs to the Third Prince — you’ll shield it even if it’s his bastard offspring, won’t you?

Yet before the anguish had even fully run its course, the Emperor’s decree of censure had already arrived at the Crown Prince’s manor, summoning the Crown Prince to the palace at once to receive a dressing-down.

The Crown Princess knew the Crown Prince’s temperament well, and with no time left to feel wronged or weep, she could only hastily urge him, “Your Highness, when you go before the Emperor, please do not argue about right and wrong anymore, and above all do not bring up the Third Prince’s household affairs. Push everything onto me — just say that this was women’s gossiping, and that you knew nothing about any of it.”

But the Crown Prince stomped his foot in bitter indignation. “Why should I? Just because the child who dropped from Lady Fang’s belly is his biological flesh and blood — am I, the eldest legitimate son, something that was picked up off the street? Is the Imperial Father so incapable of telling right from wrong in his dotage?”

These words were so dangerously treasonous that the Crown Princess frantically clapped her hand over his mouth.

The Crown Prince seized her hand and pulled her close, then, like a child, broke down into loud, heaving sobs.

What a joke — he was supposed to be the exalted heir to the throne, yet he had brought his good and virtuous principal consort to be humiliated in the palace over and over again.

While Old Third’s consort, carrying what everyone should have called an illegitimate child, had managed to get the Emperor himself to stand up for her.

In that moment, the Crown Prince felt sorrow and grievance — for himself, and for his own consort.

But after crying it out, there was nothing for it but to wipe away those useless and dismal middle-aged tears and obediently enter the palace to receive the reprimand.

The Emperor’s dressing-down was thoroughly blunt, and extended to a comprehensive condemnation of the Crown Prince’s recent political incompetence.

Though emperors had always been demanding and strict with their heirs apparent, they still generally allowed the future ruler a degree of dignity.

But the Emperor’s scolding of the Crown Prince in front of several senior officials showed quite obviously that he was no longer holding back.

Moreover, the Crown Prince now held almost no real authority. The government affairs he had previously handled were being transferred by the Emperor piece by piece into the Third Prince’s hands.

What this signified — which of the seasoned old foxes at court could fail to catch the scent?

Although there were some obtuse veteran officials who worried the Emperor might do something as destabilizing as deposing the eldest in favor of a younger son, and had submitted memorials of remonstrance early on, the Emperor’s reply had been cold and flat — three characters on the memorial amounting to nothing more than “Noted” with no trace of any reaction.

This left those veteran officials helpless, because even though the Crown Prince no longer held real power, he still carried the title of Imperial Heir — there was nothing to criticize.

And the Crown Prince seemed to have grown accustomed to his father’s cold neglect, quietly retreating into his manor and keeping his head down like a tortoise pulling into its shell.

Compared to the relative calm of the Crown Prince’s manor, the Tao household was considerably less peaceful.

Why had Tao Huiru gone to the palace with the Crown Princess of her own accord, and how had she managed to bring down the full force of imperial rage and end up confined in the silent meditation convent? Even Duke Taoguo himself was at a complete loss.

He sent people to make inquiries, but everyone inside the palace was keeping tight-lipped, and no one would say a word about what had happened that day.

Tao Haisheng, on hearing that his sister had been beaten in the palace to the point of losing teeth, was so distressed he nearly stamped his foot through the floor, and came very close to entering the palace to plead before the Emperor, begging him to show mercy to Tao Shi and withdraw the imperial command.

Wu Shi was so alarmed she hurried to hold her husband back, urging him not to meddle — and received a slap across the face from Tao Haisheng for her trouble.

“My own blood sister’s affairs — how is this meddling? She was premature at birth, so small she made everyone cry when held, and only lay quiet in my arms. As her elder brother, how can I do nothing?”

Wu Shi had suffered no shortage of troubles on account of Tao Huiru over the years, and today she had received a slap on top of it all. Her temper finally snapped. “Your own blood sister? Why is it I never see you keep her behavior in check? If the Emperor could punish her so severely, it shows what manner of catastrophe she caused. And you don’t read the situation — you want to go into the palace and plead for her? Aren’t you afraid of being packed off to the forbidden temple to shave your head and become a monk? Is she still that frail infant lying in your arms? The scheming mind on that woman could frighten people to death. As I see it, she’s already exhausted her husband’s family’s fortune, and has come back to exhaust her own.”

This provoked Tao Haisheng’s fury and he raised his hand again to strike Wu Shi.

But at that moment, Duke Taoguo stepped in, and without a word, delivered his son a resounding slap. “Is this a household of common country folk? You cannot exchange two words without raising your hand against your own legitimate wife — are you trying to drag our family’s face through the mud? And where did Wu Shi say anything wrong? Tao Huiru has always had to destroy anyone she takes a disliking to — and who raised that temper in her but you, her elder brother? You’d do better to spend that energy going to the Third Prince’s manor to see Yashu, and asking what in the world actually happened.”

Tao Haisheng did not dare put on airs in front of his father, and could only lower his eyes and comply meekly.

Duke Taoguo called his son into the study, and only when it was just the two of them did he speak with a grave expression. “Set your sister’s matter aside for now. Whatever she did together with the Crown Prince, the two of them together managed to provoke the Emperor’s displeasure. As I see it, the Emperor may well have already developed thoughts of deposing the Crown Prince — the only question is when the decree will be issued.”

Tao Haisheng was thunderstruck and immediately asked, “Then, in your father’s estimation, who would become the next heir apparent?”

Duke Taoguo stroked his beard and said, “Whoever it may be, it doesn’t matter. Our Tao family has stood firm across several reigns — we have our own foundations. Whoever comes to power, we must know how to shelter under a great tree for shade. Only this Third Prince does not seem to understand this. It’s one thing for Yashu to be at odds with her family, but he should not have let himself grow cold toward the Tao family on her account along with her. I think in a few days, you as the father-in-law should lower your head a little, invite the husband and wife to come home together, and everyone sit down to a meal of reunion.”

Tao Haisheng nodded in understanding. And at the same time, a thought took shape in his mind: Tao Huiru’s situation was not one for most people to stick their neck out over. But if he were to ask the Third Prince to intervene on his behalf, he believed the Emperor would surely grant his beloved son this modest consideration.

—

It was not until the day after this palace drama that the Third Prince and Situ Sheng returned from receiving the peace-marriage party.

Having heard about what had happened, the Third Prince went specially to the palace to thank the Emperor for his protection of Yashu.

The Emperor said, “If Lady of Comfort from New Plum had not come to inform me with her shell-reading and fortune-telling, I wouldn’t have known there was happy news in your manor. Why didn’t you tell me sooner? It would have saved the Empress Dowager from misunderstanding the situation.”

Liu Yi naturally made his apologies to the Emperor, only saying that the timing of the pregnancy was awkward, and that Yashu felt some embarrassment and had not known how to bring it up before the Emperor.

The Emperor had no intention of interrogating his son and daughter-in-law over it, and the conversation naturally shifted to the matter of their trip to receive the peace-marriage procession.

The Jin kingdom’s peace princess had been escorted into the capital by the Third Prince and Situ Sheng.

The Jin kingdom had evidently placed great importance on this peace marriage — the princess they had sent was the youngest daughter of Angu, named Adana.

This was the same young princess that Yang Yi had specifically asked Situ Sheng, during their encounter in the north, to give special attention to.

The so-called special attention meant that Situ Sheng was to ensure this young princess entered the imperial harem and became one of the Emperor’s consorts.

The reason Situ Sheng had gone to accompany Liu Yi in the first place was the leverage Yang Yi held over him.

Before the princess’s peace-marriage delegation had even reached the capital, someone had sent a letter to Situ Sheng asking him to find a way to request that the benevolent Emperor personally go out to receive her.

When he read that letter, Situ Sheng found the murderous intent rising in his chest difficult to suppress.

He had no desire to comply. But tucked within the letter was a lock of long hair woven through with silver strands, and Situ Sheng could not help but fear that this was his mother’s severed hair.

Left with no alternative, he had no choice but to accompany the Third Prince on the journey.

And after the princess arrived in the capital, she was not summoned into the palace by the Emperor, but was for the time being settled in the guesthouse.

The Emperor wished to consult several of his close ministers on how to handle this hot potato.