Consort Shu

Biodata

Background / History

Consort Shu comes from wealthy Jiangnan families connected to imperial textile production and commerce. When she first met the emperor, she wore robes embroidered with gold-thread chrysanthemums; her continued extravagance subsequently became familiar to the court 45.

She was still a Noble Lady when Zhou Yunshen married his childhood betrothed. According to the system, her jealousy drove her to cry so violently that she miscarried, and she secretly killed his first wife. Her attraction to Zhou persists alongside her support for the Fourth Prince, whom she regards as a potential future emperor 3 41.

Court Rank

These are court titles, not cultivation realms. The later promotions belong to the original novel’s predicted future.

Foretold Crimes and Fate

• Framing the empress: Three years after the banquet’s current timeframe, she falsely accuses the empress of adultery with a guard who is actually her own former lover 45.
• Silencing witnesses: After the emperor executes the guard, she has his entire family killed, including his six-month-old son, to prevent the truth from escaping 45.
• Destroying the empress: Beneath a public display of sisterly loyalty, she hates the empress and eventually has her limbs cut off. The system later clarifies that the emperor’s decision to send the empress to the cold palace was intended to protect her during the succession crisis 45 50.
• Supporting attacks on Zhou Yunshen: She permits the Fourth Prince to act against Zhou despite her own attraction to him 45.
• Death over Zhou’s remains: After Zhou is killed and his body preserved, she fights the Fourth Prince for possession of his corpse. Her adoptive son kills her with his own hands 3.

Appearance

• Gold-heavy clothing: Her lavish outfit prompts Jiang Shuyue to compare her to a “walking gold ingot” 45.
• Elaborate entrance: She arrives at her birthday gathering with a grand procession of palace attendants 45.
• Overwhelming fragrance: Heavy aromatics disguise odors from her body and preferred foods; the system states that her back molars are stained by their use 45 46.
• Damaged tooth: During the forced sisterhood ceremony, she clenches her teeth hard enough to crack a back tooth, then secretly swallows it rather than risk public gossip 48.

Personality

Consort Shu is ambitious, status-conscious, and skilled at maintaining a courteous façade while harboring hostility. She outwardly defers to the empress while secretly hating her, and considers Jiang Shuyue’s rural background beneath the dignity of a sworn sister 45 49.

Her cruelty extends to her attendants: after Ji Ruhua’s mission fails, she destroys objects in her bedchamber and whips two maids. Her confidence in manipulating marriages also rests on the belief that men inevitably tire of their existing partners and seek new women 42.

Public pressure can nevertheless force her to retreat. Fear of provoking Zhou Yunshen makes her abandon Jiang Liuli’s attempt to embarrass Jiang Shuyue, and she repeatedly suppresses her anger to preserve appearances before the banquet guests 47 48 49.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Small leather whip: Used to beat two maids after her failed interference in the Marquis’s Residence 42.
• Aromatics and fragrant mouth rinse: Used extensively in her bedchamber and mouth to conceal unpleasant smells. The system attributes her infertility to prolonged exposure and says poplar-blossom baths cannot reverse the damage 45 46.
• Decorated riding crops: Jiang Shuyue commissions a hundred whips, then presents a suggestively decorated collection as a birthday gift. She claims to have carved them herself and frames the gift as recognition of Consort Shu’s supposed interest in riding 42 48.

Relationships

• Fourth Prince — Adoptive son and intended beneficiary of her political schemes. In the foretold future, their shared fixation on Zhou Yunshen ends with him killing her 3 41.
• The emperor — Her imperial partner. He punishes her interference in the Marquis’s Residence and later restricts palace aromatics after learning about her eating habits 42 45.
• Zhou Yunshen — Object of her jealous attraction, but also a perceived obstacle to the Fourth Prince’s accession 3 41.
• Jiang Shuyue — Target of her household sabotage; later becomes her unwanted sworn younger sister 41 48 49.
• Jiang Liuli — Invited banquet guest who seeks her favor. Liuli joins the sworn sisterhood, unintentionally undermining her own prospects of marrying the Fourth Prince 38 48.
• Ji Ruhua — Agent placed among the emperor’s gifts to Zhou Yunshen, tasked with disrupting his marriage 41 42.
• Empress Murong Ling — Publicly treated as a close sister, privately hated and targeted in the original novel’s future 45 50.
• Unnamed guard — Former lover whom she later uses to frame the empress, then sacrifices along with his family 45.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Failed Household Infiltration

• Consort Shu selects Ji Ruhua, a brothel woman, to attract Zhou Yunshen and sow discord between him and Jiang Shuyue. She believes ordinary palace women may be too reserved to interest him 41.
• Ji Ruhua fails to gain access to Zhou and instead provokes Jiang, who has her beaten and sent to the House of Ten Thousand Flowers 42.
• Consort Shu complains to the emperor, emphasizing that Ji was officially his gift. He instead questions how she obtained information from inside the Marquis’s Residence and withholds three months of her allowance 42.

Birthday Banquet

• Her banquet attracts noblewomen and young ladies from the capital’s prominent families 43.
• Jiang Shuyue’s thoughts expose her political ambitions and private habits. A report reaches the emperor, whose disgust prompts him to drastically reduce palace aromatics and threaten anyone who hoards them 45.
• She seats Jiang Shuyue at the bottom of the arrangement to slight her, but Jiang cheerfully interprets the distance as protection from the consort’s smell 46.
• When Jiang proposes a dangerous “boulder-smashing on the chest” performance, Consort Shu praises it instead of allowing it to proceed, avoiding responsibility for an injury that could anger Zhou 47.

Forced Sworn Sisterhood

• Jiang Shuyue turns Consort Shu’s reluctant praise into an agreement to become sworn sisters, then brings Jiang Liuli into the public ceremony 47 48.
• The arrangement makes both Jiang sisters the Fourth Prince’s social elders. He recognizes that pursuing Liuli would now invite condemnation and threaten his political reputation 48 49.
• After the prince attempts to punch Jiang Shuyue, Consort Shu excuses his behavior as childish impulsiveness. The guests then pressure her to acknowledge Jiang as “little sister,” forcing her to reaffirm the unwanted bond 49.

Trivia

• She especially likes full-bearded men and enjoys combing and braiding their beards, removing white hairs, and picking out trapped grains of rice 45.
• Her preferred foods include stinky tofu, fermented bean curd, rotten salted eggs, fried cicadas dipped in fermented bean curd juice, and durian. She also intends to try earthworm noodles 45.
• Before her birthday gathering, she eats durian and rinses her mouth with three cups of fragrant water 45.
• Jiang Shuyue mocks the banquet’s stinginess after finding only six slices of meat on a plate, contrasting it with the empress’s lavish hospitality 49.