Su Changhe

The moment the Eldest Prince stepped into Condensing Dew Pavilion, the silence that greeted him warned that something was wrong.

He stopped, backed out through the main archway, and took a narrow path around instead.

There was a privy along this path, so the masters seldom used it. Its cobblestones were laid barely two feet wide. The Eldest Prince hurried along it and reached the side of the main hall.

Sheltered by the wall, he saw Fat Eunuch, who served before the emperor, guarding the entrance to Condensing Dew Pavilion's main hall.

The Eldest Prince's expression grew grave.

Inside the main hall, the Qi Emperor stood behind Consort Xian, staring straight at the kindly Buddha beneath the votive candles.

"People with filthy hearts all worship Buddha."

Consort Xian wore a row of fan-shaped gold hairpins. Her clothes were plain, her bearing cool without sacrificing her dignity.

"I do not understand what Your Majesty means."

"You do."

The Qi Emperor felt a deep distaste for Consort Xian.

Leaving her alone for six years had been an act of imperial mercy.

He stepped closer. "You knew where I drew the line, yet you crossed it anyway."

"Did you think I felt too guilty toward you to touch you? Or did you think I knew nothing of your little schemes?"

Consort Xian knelt, her skirt falling to the floor like a fallen flower petal. "I do not know what I have done wrong. Please enlighten me, Your Majesty."

The Qi Emperor snapped, "Don't play innocent with me! After that criminal Zhou gave birth to the Third Prince, she was desperate to regain her figure. You had someone whisper suggestions in her ear, telling her to ask Zhaoyi Wei for the Fragrance Recipe."

"You were the one who gave that Fragrance Recipe to Zhaoyi Wei. Afraid of inviting trouble, Zhaoyi Wei claimed that Zhaoyi Xiao had it too."

"The Fragrance Balm Recipe was not poisonous in itself, but excessive use caused excitement and sleeplessness."

"Lady Zhou was sensitive and melancholy. Caring for the Third Prince every day affected him, making him cry incessantly, which in turn drove Lady Zhou to lose all sense of restraint."

"You originally intended to use Lady Zhou to harm the Crown Prince. But events took an unexpected turn. The Crown Prince's visit to Colorful Fragrance Courtyard that day accelerated matters and upset your plans, so you turned your attention to the cat."

Consort Xian pressed her lips together. "I have been wronged."

"You have not!"

"Why could I deduce all this? Because the Fragrance Balm Recipe was part of the empress's dowry! I smelled it before!"

"After the empress died, the only person who could still have known that recipe was you!"

"During those years at the Crown Prince's Residence, whenever the oleanders bloomed, the empress would send you some."

"The oleander pollen in your possession was saved from that time, wasn't it?"

Rage burned through the Qi Emperor's liver and heart alike. Consort Xian's aloofness, as though none of this concerned her, was oil poured onto the flames.

"Stand up."

Consort Xian obeyed.

"Raise your head."

The instant Consort Xian lifted her head, the emperor's fury struck her across the face.

Consort Xian staggered and slammed into the tea table. A teacup rolled off and shattered against the floor with a crack.

Consort Xian held her burning cheek, her ears ringing, and looked up at the Qi Emperor in astonishment.

"You..."

The loathing in the Qi Emperor's eyes pierced the wound in Consort Xian's heart, making it ooze pus. That foul discharge washed away her reason and turned into tears that fell like beads.

Her usual breezy composure became a sudden storm, bursting out in choked sobs.

"You said you would treat me well!"

The Qi Emperor's fury settled into an unfathomable stillness.

"Yes! I did! But that promise was not made to you. It was made to Changhe!"

"Su Changhe... Su Changhe!" Consort Xian laughed miserably.

"Your Majesty has no evidence, yet you strike an imperial consort at will. Is this how an enlightened ruler behaves?"

"Chengyou is your son too!"

The Qi Emperor cut her off sharply. "He is not!"

"You shared a bed with Changhe first, then entered the Crown Prince's Residence."

"I could not bear to see Changhe's reputation sullied, so I gave him the status of a prince! Had you observed propriety, I would naturally have respected and tolerated you. But you failed to raise your son properly and plotted treachery besides. You Sitong, your ambitions are far too great!"

You Sitong. Consort Xian fell into a daze. No one had called her that in a long time.

Back then, Consort Xian had first shared a bed with Su Changhe, then consummated her marriage with the Qi Emperor after entering his residence.

Only two days had separated those occasions. That was why the Qi Emperor found her so repugnant.

The Eldest Prince had been conceived then. Whether he was truly his son or not, the Qi Emperor would never acknowledge him!

Before Su Changhe killed himself, the Qi Emperor had known nothing of his relationship with Consort Xian. It was only on her second day in the residence, when news of Su Changhe's death arrived from the Su Residence, that the Qi Emperor learned the truth from his final letter.

He had known the two Su brothers since their youth. His affection for Su Changhe had grown from the bond of kindred spirits into a youthful romantic yearning.

He was the heir to the throne and understood the responsibilities he bore. Unwilling to trouble Su Changhe, he had continued to interact with him as a friend.

The empress and Su Changhe had been childhood sweethearts and were about to become engaged, but the Great Ancestor intervened with a marriage decree, and the Qi Emperor married her instead.

Consort Xian's marriage to the Qi Emperor had also been decreed. A few days before she entered his residence, the Qi Emperor had drunk with Su Changhe.

While drunk, the Qi Emperor had revealed his feelings for Su Changhe. This, too, had been one of the reasons Su Changhe killed himself.

The Qi Emperor put himself in Su Changhe's place.

Your good friend stole your childhood sweetheart.

Your good friend was in love with you.

Your good friend was about to steal the second person you loved, too.

Anyone subjected to that would have suffered a terrible blow.

And this "good friend" was the imperial grandson, the future emperor.

Su Changhe had cuckolded the emperor.

It was the final straw that broke the camel's back.

Disloyal to his sovereign and faithless to his friend, Su Changhe could only take his own life in atonement to keep his family from being implicated.

The Qi Emperor could not blame him, so everything about Consort Xian displeased him instead.

Qi Chengyou was still in the womb. From the imperial family's perspective, the child could not be allowed to live. But for Su Changhe's sake, the Qi Emperor accepted the cuckold's green hat.

He left the choice to Consort Xian. Whether she kept the child or aborted it, he would not stop her.

The child was born, but his temperament bore no resemblance to Su Changhe's, and Consort Xian had raised him crooked besides.

Now Consort Xian had actually uttered something as absurd as "Chengyou is your son too."

How could the Qi Emperor not be furious?

"Changhe was as clear as a fair breeze and a bright moon. Where does Qi Chengyou resemble him in the slightest? You Sitong, how could you ever deserve Changhe?"

That undoubtedly plunged a knife into Consort Xian's heart, and she spoke without restraint.

"We loved each other! If not for you, why would he have killed himself?"

The Qi Emperor said, "Great-grandfather decreed that marriage. You had long since been promised to me as a secondary consort. Had you upheld virtue and propriety, you should never have fallen in love with Changhe and brought ruin upon him!"

"If you still claim that you and Changhe loved each other, then quietly raise his child and live as his widow."

"I can tolerate Qi Chengyou, but that does not mean I can tolerate you. There are things you had better not let me hear a second time!"

"You know perfectly well whether you poisoned Zuo'er. I need no evidence to kill a guilty consort. The only reason I am sparing you this time is still for Changhe's sake."

"Spend the rest of your life here praying for him."

Fat Eunuch guarded the main hall of Condensing Dew Pavilion closely. The Eldest Prince could only hide behind the wall and wait, faintly hearing the sound of porcelain shattering inside.

The Eldest Prince had thought he would be worried. Strangely, not a single nerve responded with concern. All he felt was curiosity about the secret and a desire to uncover the truth.

He heard only one declaration.

"Strip Consort Xian of her title and demote her to Lady. Without my decree, she is forbidden to set foot outside Condensing Dew Pavilion for the rest of her life!"

The Eldest Prince drew farther into hiding and watched the imperial entourage leave.

His father had most likely come here today because of the little Crown Prince. That command laid the truth bare before him.

His mother had administered the poison.

Why?

The Eldest Prince was bewildered.

Instinctively, he searched the memories of his previous life.

In his memory, his mother had been a silent Buddha statue. Mother and son had been like tenants beneath the same roof, and she had loved Buddhist scriptures more than she loved him.

He had cried and made a fuss, yet received scarcely a few embraces from her.

Jealous that the Crown Prince could be held and coaxed by their father, he had become obsessed with fighting for his father's attention.

From his early, dim obscurity to his final descent into madness over their rivalry, he had prided himself on how the others needed the harem's schemes against the Crown Prince to gain an advantage.

The Third Prince, for instance, had seduced the Crown Princess and put a cuckold's green hat on the Crown Prince.

And the fifth prince's mother, Consort Yin, had whispered into the emperor's ear in bed.

He had been different. He had relied only on himself, which was why he alone had stood evenly matched with the Crown Prince.

But looking back now, had that really been true?

In his previous life, had Consort Xian truly never intervened in his struggle against the Crown Prince?

There was no reason his mother would act in this life yet have kept her hands entirely clean in the last.

The mere thought of that possibility left the Eldest Prince feeling insulted.

His mother had her own secret.

There was a hidden compartment beneath the Buddha statue in Little Buddha Hall, with several letters inside. That was his mother's secret.

He had discovered it by accident in his previous life, but he had not read them. Who did not have a few secrets?

His instincts told him that this secret was the reason his mother was so impatient to target the Crown Prince.

After nightfall, the Eldest Prince slipped silently toward Little Buddha Hall.

The votive candles on either side of the Buddha statue had burned halfway down. The Eldest Prince lifted the statue and tapped beneath it. The hidden compartment gave a hollow sound.

It was still there, just as he had expected.

The Eldest Prince pried open the hidden compartment with the dagger he had prepared and took out the letters inside.

There were four in all.

The Eldest Prince opened one and examined the writing by the light of the votive candles.

It was a final letter.

The writer was named Su Changhe.