The moon shone brightly, and the stars were sparse. Everywhere, shadows of swaying branches and flowers danced.
Perhaps because two princesses had met with misfortune during the day, and the Fourteenth Princess’s body was yet to be placed in a coffin, the quiet palace seemed like a sleeping beast, inexplicably terrifying.
In Chunhua Palace, lights still blazed.
Consort Ning sat on her bed, fuming as she thought about the day’s events. This was truly an undeserved calamity!
“Your Highness, it’s time to sleep,” a palace maid urged.
Consort Ning’s eyebrows shot up. “Sleep? How can I sleep when I’m so angry? I couldn’t possibly fall asleep.”
If she slept and woke up tomorrow, she’d be interrogated like a criminal again. It was utterly humiliating.
The more Consort Ning thought about it, the more irritated she became. She slapped the bedpost. “Go fetch me a plate of roast chicken!”
The palace maid’s eyes widened. “Your Highness—”
Eating roast chicken so late at night?
Consort Ning glared at the maid, snapping, “What? Am I not allowed to eat a roast chicken now?”
What was wrong with eating something when she couldn’t sleep? She’d been worried about getting fat and hadn’t dared to eat much. Now, thinking about it, every day alive in this palace was a gain. Once she got through this ordeal, she’d eat whatever she wanted and never be so fussy again.
Scolded, the palace maid dared not say more and hurried to the small kitchen to fetch the roast chicken.
Emperor Jingming was resting in Kunning Palace, waiting for news.
A nimble eunuch in light clothing hurried in, his expression somewhat odd.
“How is it? Has Consort Ning gone to sleep?” Emperor Jingming asked.
He had thought long and hard about which of Consort Ning and Consort Xian to test first and had chosen Consort Ning.
Consort Ning was in good health, so it was better to start with her. If they began with Consort Xian, given her frail condition, she might be frightened into illness, and that would be unfair. He couldn’t bear that on his conscience.
The eunuch lowered his head and replied, “Your Majesty, Consort Ning has not yet retired.”
Hearing this, Emperor Jingming felt anger rising. He muttered, “At this hour, and still not asleep!”
After grumbling, he asked the eunuch, “Then what is Consort Ning doing?”
The eunuch suppressed the urge to twitch his lips and replied with lowered eyes, “Consort Ning is eating roast chicken.”
For a moment, Emperor Jingming was bewildered. He couldn’t help but look at the Empress.
The Empress’s face remained impassive.
Seeing the Emperor’s fuss, she thought, what was wrong with Consort Ning eating roast chicken? After spending a long time in the palace, many lonely and bored women often developed surprising habits. Consort Ning eating roast chicken was hardly worth mentioning.
The Empress’s calmness made Emperor Jingming even more confused: Had he misunderstood his harem consorts all along?
“What about Consort Xian?” Emperor Jingming asked, gritting his teeth.
“The lights in Consort Xian’s chambers have been extinguished.”
Emperor Jingming heaved a long sigh of relief. At least one of them was normal.
After pondering for a moment, Emperor Jingming instructed, “Then let’s go to Consort Xian first.”
They could go to Consort Ning, but imagining her eating roast chicken when the Fourteenth Princess suddenly appeared seemed less effective. Consort Ning was from a military family; what if she panicked and threw the roast chicken at the Fourteenth Princess?
The Fourteenth Princess was pitiful enough; she shouldn’t suffer such indignity.
In comparison, the sleeping Consort Xian seemed more suitable.
In Yuquan Palace, all the lights were out, but Consort Xian wasn’t asleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the Fourteenth Princess’s pale face and those eyes that suddenly opened and closed. How could she sleep?
Tossing and turning on her bed like a pancake being flipped, she could only see the vague outlines of furniture through the cyan-colored gauze curtains. Consort Xian felt her heart racing and her back growing cold.
What she had seen during the day had undoubtedly cast a shadow over her heart.
Knock, knock, knock — a faint knocking sound reached Consort Xian’s ears.
Consort Xian suddenly sat up. “Who’s there?”
The palace maid sleeping at the foot of the bed got up, bleary-eyed. “Your Highness, why are you up?”
“Did you hear knocking?”
“Knocking? I didn’t hear anything.” The maid looked confusedly towards the door. Seeing Consort Xian’s pale face, she slipped on her shoes. “I’ll go check—”
“No need!” Consort Xian said, lying back down.
She must have misheard. If she made any commotion that reached the Emperor’s ears, it would confirm her guilty conscience.
Knock, knock, knock —
This time, the knocking suddenly became clearer.
If the earlier faint knocking seemed to come from the outer door, this knocking sounded as if it was right at the chamber door, behind the embroidered gauze curtain.
Consort Xian lay tense on the bed, her undergarments soaked with cold sweat.
The maid scrambled up, looking somewhat panicked. “Your Highness, I heard it too.”
This wasn’t right. There were night watchmen outside. If someone was knocking, how could there be no response?
If it were palace staff knocking, they would have announced their purpose by now.
Disturbing a sleeping consort without reason was sure to be punished.
Knock, knock, knock — The knocking became more urgent, revealing the knocker’s impatience.
“Your Highness, shall I go look?”
Consort Xian nodded, her lips trembling.
If the knocking continued like this, she would surely break down. Better to let the maid check.
The maid lifted the bed curtain, lit a lamp, and walked towards the door, comforting Consort Xian, “Perhaps it’s just a stray cat from another palace that got in.”
She said this to encourage herself as well.
News of the Fourteenth Princess had spread throughout the palace, and their mistress had somehow become involved…
The maid reached the door, took a deep breath, and opened it. But before she could even scream, she vanished into the darkness, leaving only the wind from the hall to blow the curtains back and forth.
Consort Xian sat alone on her bed, staring rigidly at the door.
A moment later, as if waking from a dream, she called out the maid’s name urgently.
There was no response, but strange footsteps began to sound.
They were strange because they weren’t light at all, but seemed to drag across the floor.
Consort Xian couldn’t help but look towards the door.
A pale face slowly emerged from the darkness, with purple-blue lips.
In that instant, all the blood in Consort Xian’s body seemed to freeze. She couldn’t move at all, only able to watch as the Fourteenth Princess, who had lain stiff on a bed earlier that day, slowly approached her.
After what seemed like an eternity, Consort Xian finally found her voice and screamed, “Don’t come any closer—”
Hearing this, the Fourteenth Princess stopped, her reopened eyes staring directly at Consort Xian.
A resentful voice arose: “Why did Your Highness take my life?”
Consort Xian, terrified beyond measure, blurted out, “I didn’t! Don’t come after me!”
“You didn’t?” The pale-faced Fourteenth Princess seemed to wear a cold smile at the corner of her mouth as she suddenly moved a step closer.
A gust of wind blew in, causing the candle on the table to flicker several times before suddenly going out, plunging Consort Xian into complete darkness.
In the darkness, she seemed to feel the cold emanating from the other’s body, along with the unique scent of the deceased.
“If you hadn’t instructed Eunuch Deng to harm my Thirteenth Sister, I wouldn’t have died unjustly trying to save her… Give me back my life—”
As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Consort Xian saw those cold, stiff hands reaching for her. The thread of reason snapped completely, and she scrambled towards the door to escape.
“Don’t come near me! You chose to save Princess Fuqing of your own will, you can’t blame me—”