Sounding Her Out

Zhao Huiluan cried for a long time before she finally stopped.

Her eyes were red and she was still sniffling as she obediently reached out and wiped away the tears at the corners of the Yongzhao Emperor's eyes.

"It was my fault. I shouldn't have made you sad, Father Emperor. I won't cry, and neither should you. I know you miss Mother Empress even more than I do, and you're even more reluctant to part with her."

Those words broke the Yongzhao Emperor's composure.

He and the empress had shared ten years of deep love as husband and wife. If not for... how could he have had the heart to...

The eunuchs and palace maids filling the room withdrew outside. Hearing the father and daughter crying within, they recalled the empress's kindness and quietly wiped away their own tears.

After a while, the Yongzhao Emperor's voice came from inside.

"Have the Grand Secretariat draft an edict. As of this day, the empress's youngest son, Zhao Jin'ang, shall be named crown prince. The eldest princess, Zhao Huiluan, shall be granted the title of Zhenning and given residence in Jade Balance Palace."

In her previous life, this edict had not been issued until a month after the empress's grand funeral. This time, Zhao Huiluan's deliberate provocation had brought it forward.

It seemed Father Emperor's heart was heavy with guilt.

"Father Emperor, may I bring my little brother to live with me in Jade Balance Palace? Mother Empress gave her life to bring him into the world. I want to look after him myself as he grows up."

"Nonsense."

The Yongzhao Emperor tapped his daughter between the brows and said, at a loss for words:

"You're still a young child yourself. How would you look after your brother?"

At that, Zhao Huiluan looked down at her own small, tender hands.

That was right. In the thirty-fourth year of Yongzhao's reign, she was only seven.

What could she do?

"Ang'er is the crown prince. Naturally, people will be assigned to care for him. Besides, I have already ordered Consort Jing to watch over him day to day. She was always close to your mother, and she is a woman of quiet temperament who does not vie with others. I imagine she can treat the crown prince as her own."

Jing... Consort Jing?

Zhao Huiluan's head jerked up.

She had been hiding outside Jade Light Hall and listening in at the time. Others might not have known, but Consort Jing had seen her. When she kicked the door panel and startled the people inside, it was Consort Jing who helped smooth things over.

If Consort Jing told Father Emperor, would he still be so kind to her, still dote on her so?

[Important content warnings]

The setting is an alternate world broadly modeled on the Ming dynasty.

Both leads are virgins; no rivalry between women, no

inner-household scheming

; this is not a face-slapping wish-fulfillment novel. Its main focus is court intrigue and romance.

There are main and secondary couples, with sweetness and heartache intertwined. The author is committed to a serious ensemble drama that "doesn't force a happy ending for the sake of it" and "doesn't cause suffering for the sake of it"! Every character acts in accordance with their own personality and has their own fate. Much of the early story is devoted to groundwork and foreshadowing.

(2024.2.22)

Chapter 2: Sounding Her Out

"Jianjian, why are you looking at me like that?"

Zhao Huiluan hastily lowered her head in alarm.

The emperor's favor and her exalted status as a princess were all she had to rely on at present.

She had to, absolutely had to, hide herself first!

The Yongzhao Emperor thought nothing of it. He told Xichun to take good care of the princess, then recalled something as he was leaving and turned back.

"With the empress's grand funeral upon us, your maternal grandfather and uncle will return to the Yan Capital in a few days. Your grandfather is old and has suffered the pain of losing his daughter. You must comfort him when the time comes."

Zhao Huiluan lowered her head and said nothing.

The Yongzhao Emperor stroked her head and said patiently, "Do you understand?"

"I understand."

Her voice was muffled, and she sounded rather unwilling.

After the Yongzhao Emperor left, Xichun wrung out a cloth and brought it over to wash Zhao Huiluan's face.

"Xichun..."

Looking at the palace maid alive before her, Zhao Huiluan's eyes reddened once more.

Xichun was someone her mother empress had left to her and was five years older than she was.

In her previous life, when the Jin soldiers entered the palace to seize her and her little brother, Xichun had been unarmed, yet she stepped forward and shielded the two of them behind her. Blood had splashed onto Zhao Huiluan's face. It was the first time in her life she had felt how scorching hot blood could be.

"Please don't cry anymore, Your Highness. You'll hurt your eyes."

Though Xichun was trying to comfort her, she could not keep her own voice from thickening with tears.

"Mm, all right. Neither of us will cry."

Zhao Huiluan knew this was no time to cry. She had yet to see her little brother, and she still had to sound Consort Jing out.

The Yongzhao Emperor had settled the crown prince in the empress's bedchamber at Celestial Jade Palace.

Xichun helped Zhao Huiluan change into plain mourning clothes, and the two went together to Celestial Jade Palace, where the eunuchs and palace maids dropped to their knees, covering the ground.

Consort Jing sat by the cradle with a cloth tiger in her hand, her eyes lowered to the sleeping baby. The woman in her thirties was as unadorned as an ink-wash landscape.

Hearing the commotion in the courtyard, she looked toward the doorway. When she saw Zhao Huiluan, she smiled and raised a hand to signal for quiet.

"The wet nurse just fed him, and the crown prince has fallen asleep."

Just as in her previous life, Consort Jing always spoke in that soft, gentle voice.

Instead of looking at her brother, Zhao Huiluan cupped her hands and bowed to Consort Jing in a gesture of utmost respect.

In her previous life, she and her brother had also relied greatly on Consort Jing's care.

"Sorry for the trouble, Your Highness Consort Jing."

Consort Jing shook her head. The little girl before her was only seven, yet her dark, bright eyes seemed to conceal many emotions.

She said nothing more and turned to leave the room.

Zhao Huiluan could not help staring blankly.

The last time she had heard news of Consort Jing in her previous life was in the Imperial Prison.

A drunken prison head had said that Dowager Consort Jing had quite the fiery spirit: she had set her palace ablaze and perished in the sea of flames.

Such a quiet woman had died such a spectacular death.

But Consort Jing had not mentioned Jade Light Hall at all, leaving Zhao Huiluan somewhat puzzled.

Perhaps Consort Jing had merely thought she had wandered into Jade Light Hall by mistake and stumbled upon the emperor and his ministers discussing confidential matters, and had covered for her to spare her punishment.

Consort Jing probably did not know what had happened inside the hall.

She must not let her own guilty conscience give her away.

"Your Highness?"

Xichun called to her in a low voice. Her Highness seemed especially prone to losing herself in thought today.

Zhao Huiluan came back to herself and bent over the cradle, gently poking the baby's cheek with a finger. The newborn was all wrinkled, a far cry from the sweet, endearing appearance he would grow into later.

That little shadow of hers who would always call out "Big Sister," whether anything was the matter or not.

"How ugly..."

Zhao Huiluan grinned, but her eyes were dry and aching.

The soft sensation beneath her fingertip spoke of the little life's boundless vitality.

What a vibrant life it was.