Beneath the expectant gazes of both Chief Eunuch Ding and the Emperor, Ling Jingshu raised her head. Her beautiful, clear bright eyes were filled with earnest entreaty. “Your servant knows herself to be slow-witted and dull, and not suited to serving in the palace. When I first entered the palace, it was because Her Majesty the Empress had shown me her favor — I could not and did not dare refuse. Now that Her Majesty no longer requires your servant’s presence at her side, I most humbly implore Your Majesty to permit your servant to leave the palace and return home to the Ling Family.”
His Majesty: “…”
Chief Eunuch Ding fixed Ling Jingshu with a glare that could only be described as seething frustration at her failure to grasp what was plainly in front of her.
What a complete and utter fool who could not read the room. His Majesty’s meaning had been laid out this clearly and openly, and she still failed to receive the message.
How, at a moment like this, could she say something so utterly deflating? Was she deliberately trying to vex His Majesty?
Of course, certain things were entirely beyond what His Majesty could ever say aloud. To do so would be beneath the dignity and propriety of the Son of Heaven. And so Chief Eunuch Ding, as His Majesty’s most trusted confidant, stepped forward without a moment’s hesitation at the critical juncture.
“Preposterous!” Chief Eunuch Ding put on a stern face and rebuked in a sharp voice. “Whatever the circumstances were when you first entered the palace — once you are in the palace, you are a person of the palace. What sort of place is this imperial palace? How can it be somewhere you may come and go as you please? Quickly kneel and beg His Majesty’s forgiveness!”
His Majesty did not fly into a rage, nor did he speak. He continued to watch Ling Jingshu.
Ling Jingshu’s heart sank again.
This Emperor who refused to relinquish his shameless desires had, just as she suspected, set his sights on her. She had deliberately feigned ignorance and spoken provocatively to enrage him, yet he had swallowed it all and kept his composure.
If she were to truly relent and yield, the only path awaiting her would be the one that led to the imperial bed.
She must stay calm. She absolutely must stay calm.
Ling Jingshu forced down the surging fury crashing through her heart and squeezed out an expression of panicked and fearful distress, kowtowing repeatedly in a frantic plea for mercy. “Your servant spoke rashly without thinking! Please forgive your servant! Please show your servant mercy!”
His Majesty’s gaze flickered, and he opened his lips with a measured air of self-restraint. “Very well. In consideration of your youth and impulsiveness, We shall forgive you this once. You heard what Chief Eunuch Ding just said. The imperial palace is the most exalted place in all the world, with the strictest rules and protocols. Now that you are in the palace, you must abide by its rules. And cease harboring thoughts of leaving the palace altogether.”
“However fine the Ling Family residence may be, how can it compare to the imperial palace?”
The last sentence was delivered in a tone that was particularly gentle.
Ling Jingshu inwardly gritted her teeth with quiet fury.
This man — blinded by his own desires and utterly shameless — was simply nauseating.
All this talk of the strictest rules, and cease thinking of leaving the palace. If he truly intended to let her leave, it would take no more than a single word from his lips. No rules stood above the Son of Heaven.
When it came down to it, he had no intention whatsoever of letting her go.
“His Majesty speaks wisely,” Ling Jingshu said, lowering her head slightly to avoid the Emperor’s gaze. “To be permitted to remain in the palace is your servant’s honor. Your servant has committed grave errors and has no face to appear before Your Majesty. I beg Your Majesty to reassign your servant to the laundry quarters or the kitchens to perform rough and heavy labor — your servant accepts this willingly and without a single grievance.”
His Majesty’s brow knitted with a measure of displeasure.
Chief Eunuch Ding’s cheek twitched several times.
Whether this Ling Jingshu was genuinely dim-witted or pretending to be, His Majesty had already lowered the dignity of the Son of Heaven to offer her a way out of her predicament, and she not only failed to climb up the way he had set before her but was asking to go off and do rough labor. She had truly reached an unimaginable level of obliviousness.
“Lady Ling, you have misunderstood His Majesty’s intentions.”
Chief Eunuch Ding forced a smile and adopted a soothing, coaxing tone. “Before you entered the palace, you were a cherished daughter of a refined household, raised from childhood in comfort and luxury. Your talents lie in the refined and elegant arts — music, chess, calligraphy, painting — and you have a special gift for cultivating peonies. Punishing you with rough, heavy labor would be nothing short of a grievous insult to you.”
With that, he turned and bent toward the Emperor with a smile. “Your Majesty, this servant ventures a bold suggestion: might we allow Lady Ling to remain here in the Zichen Palace in service? Though Your Majesty has no shortage of palace maids attending you, there is not one among them with the learning and intellect that Lady Ling possesses. She need not undertake anything laborious on ordinary days — keeping Your Majesty company in conversation and providing some pleasant diversion would be quite sufficient.”
This suggestion aligned perfectly with what His Majesty had in mind.
His Majesty’s brow smoothed, and he nodded with a smile. “What you say is quite reasonable — let it be as you suggest.” Truly, it was Chief Eunuch Ding who understood his heart best.
Chief Eunuch Ding suppressed the smugness rising within him and acknowledged the command with proper deference. He then turned to look at Ling Jingshu, wearing another broad smile. “Lady Ling — will you not kneel and give thanks for the imperial grace?”
When the moment was upon her, the surging fury within Ling Jingshu’s heart had paradoxically stilled into a kind of eerie calm.
What was destined could not be avoided.
His Majesty had already spoken the imperial word — there was no room left for her to deflect or refuse. If she must stay, then stay she would. She would act as circumstances demanded and exercise caution in all things. And if the worst came to worst, she still had her final “protective talisman.”
Even the Son of Heaven himself could not compel a woman afflicted with that “strange ailment” which prevented her from drawing near any man.
Ling Jingshu drew a slow, deep breath and knelt to give her thanks.
Her figure was slender and willowy; even kneeling, her bearing remained graceful and elegant.
The Emperor half-narrowed his eyes, gazing upon the lovely, delicate young woman before him — as tender as a flower in bloom — and his mood brightened greatly. “That will do — kneel no more. Chief Eunuch Ding, give the order now to have suitable quarters prepared for Lady Ling.”
Chief Eunuch Ding responded with bright and spirited enthusiasm. “This servant obeys.”
His Majesty, with more than a little tender regard for a delicate beauty, continued further still. “Lady Ling’s rank remains unchanged. Assign several palace maids to attend her. The flowers and plants within the Zichen Palace are also to be entrusted to her care. She has been confined to the Imperial Prison for two months — let her rest and recover for five or six days before taking up her duties.”
Chief Eunuch Ding smiled and acknowledged each instruction in turn, his heart inwardly clicking with amazement.
His Majesty’s exceptional and extraordinary favor for Ling Jingshu was unmistakable. Such honor and indulgence was not something an ordinary female official could expect to receive.
Chief Eunuch Ding led Ling Jingshu out of the Zichen Palace, his smile now markedly warmer and more welcoming than before. “Congratulations, Lady Ling. To have received His Majesty’s personal favor and been kept here at the Zichen Palace in service — that is a fortune others could only envy and never hope to share in.”
Ling Jingshu laughed coldly in her heart, yet replied with modest deference, “I have only just arrived and know nothing of the Zichen Palace’s customs and protocols. I must rely on Chief Eunuch Ding for his guidance and instruction.”
“Guidance and instruction are far too grand words for it.” Chief Eunuch Ding’s face bloomed with a smile wide as a chrysanthemum in full flower. “Whenever Lady Ling has a question, simply ask me directly.”
Then, after a brief pause, he added with a hint of pointed suggestion: “When all is said and done, we are all servants who attend upon those above us. There is only one thing that needs to be done — to serve our master wholeheartedly and with all one’s effort, and to keep our master pleased and in good spirits. That is the duty of us servants.”
“Given Lady Ling’s intelligence — having served Her Majesty the Empress so well in the Jiaofang Palace — I have no doubt she will serve His Majesty equally well here in the Zichen Palace.”
Ling Jingshu suppressed with the last of her self-control the overwhelming urge to deliver a sharp slap across that insinuating, smiling face, and tugged the corners of her lips into a faint smile.
In Chief Eunuch Ding’s eyes, Ling Jingshu had understood his hint perfectly — and he felt quite satisfied with this.
At that very moment, a tall and well-built young man came walking toward them from the opposite direction.
Chief Eunuch Ding looked up, and his face immediately broke into a welcoming smile as he stepped forward to greet him. “Imperial Physician Wei — you’ve finally arrived.”
Wei Yan exchanged a few cordial words with him, then his gaze drifted past Chief Eunuch Ding and settled on the young woman standing behind him.