Lanshu Pavilion was a small three-story building nestled amid a stretch of green shade, the place Emperor Xianzong most often frequented in his leisure hours.
When Yu Xiaoxiao led Wang Momo into a spacious room on the pavilion's third floor, only one palace-dressed beauty was seated inside, with several palace attendants standing at her side. Emperor Xianzong was not in the room.
"Princess, you've arrived," the beauty said, spotting Yu Xiaoxiao as she entered. She hurriedly beckoned to her. "Come, come sit over here with me."
Even without an introduction, Yu Xiaoxiao knew who this was. This beauty, charming in both looks and manner, was Consort Zhao, who before long would become the Empress. "My father—no, I mean, my Imperial Father—where is he?" Yu Xiaoxiao asked, looking at Consort Zhao.
Consort Zhao said, "His Majesty had some unexpected business and left ahead of schedule. He asked the Princess to wait here for him a while."
"Then I'll come back later," Yu Xiaoxiao said, turning to leave.
Consort Zhao hurriedly said, "Child, why are you in such a rush today? Come sit with me. I have words for you."
Yu Xiaoxiao walked a few steps forward. "Speak."
Consort Zhao dabbed her eyes with the brocade handkerchief in her hand. "These past few days, for your sake, Princess, I haven't closed my eyes for nights on end."
Yu Xiaoxiao said nothing, only stared at Consort Zhao. Nights without sleep—this one was definitely brewing something wicked.
Consort Zhao said, "You are, after all, betrothed to the Gu family's Third Young Master, and it was the late Empress Dowager herself who made the match all those years ago. All these years, the Empress regarded the Gu family's Third Young Master as your future husband. But now that the Gu family has committed so grave a crime, how can you still marry down into that house, Princess?"
That was a lot of information to take in at once, and for a moment Yu Xiaoxiao's brain cells couldn't keep up. The tyrannical Empress's husband—that ethereal, immortal-like Consort—was called Wen Fenglin. So how did a fiancé surnamed Gu pop up out of nowhere? So Consort Wen wasn't even the original match!
Wang Momo flew into a panic the moment she heard this. Thudding to her knees, she cried, "Consort Zhao, the Gu family's Third Young Master has already had both his legs crippled! The Princess cannot marry down to him!"
Yu Xiaoxiao did a quick mental review. The tyrannical Empress's lovers were nearly enough to fill out a Hundred Family Surnames, yet not a single one of those young gentlemen was surnamed Gu.
Consort Zhao didn't let Wang Momo rise either. She just looked at Yu Xiaoxiao and said, "Princess, how could the Empress leave us like this? Even now, even now when I think of it, I want to weep aloud."
While Consort Zhao was proclaiming her longing for the Empress, a torrent flowing on and on without end, Yu Xiaoxiao's gaze drifted to the lattice window behind her. Beyond the window lay a pond of jade-green water. It was early autumn, and the water still held a fair number of withered lotus blossoms—no fewer than in midsummer. A breeze stirred, and the pond rippled gently. In the apocalypse, the environment had been so polluted—where could Yu Xiaoxiao ever have seen scenery like this? So even though it was only a small corner of the beauty of the mortal world outside the window, Yu Xiaoxiao stared at it, utterly entranced.
Consort Zhao carried on her lyrical performance for quite a while, but seeing no reaction from Yu Xiaoxiao, she felt a flicker of doubt. This Princess, who always snuggled up to her all warm and chummy whenever they met, chattering away—was she being a bit too cold today? "Princess, I only mean well for you," Consort Zhao said, taking Yu Xiaoxiao's hand, the rims of her eyes red. "The Gu family has committed a capital crime, so it is only right that you marry another. But for a young lady, choosing a new husband and remarrying will damage your reputation all the same. After thinking it over these past days, I believe the Princess should go somewhere and lie low for a while. Once the matter of the Gu family has passed, the Princess can return."
Yu Xiaoxiao looked at Consort Zhao. She smelled the stench of a conspiracy.
Consort Zhao said, "Have His Majesty grant the Princess a fief. The Princess will go to the fief first, and if she's worried about leaving the Seventh Prince behind, she may bring the Seventh Prince along. Rest assured, it won't be for long. Once His Majesty has executed the entire Gu household, I will most certainly remind His Majesty to summon the Princess back to the capital as soon as possible."
Yeah, right!
Scenery and the beauty of the mortal world no longer mattered. Yu Xiaoxiao was furious now. So this was why, whenever that emperor styled "Xianzong" who was not one bit worthy of the name made his mistress his Empress, he had to drive his own daughter from the house—because this foolish daughter had been conned by that mistress!
"Princess," Consort Zhao dabbed at her tears with her pinky raised delicately, weeping, "I truly cannot bear to see you go."
Yu Xiaoxiao narrowed her eyes at Consort Zhao. If she said right now, "Consort, I accept," this woman would absolutely take charge of every arrangement for her journey to the fief. Then, once she was on the road, she would discover that of those hundred-odd chests, Consort Zhao had packed only a few bolts of cloth—and when she turned back to find Xianzong, she would find all four gates of the capital guarded by Consort Zhao's people, with no way home. And then she could just wait to starve to death on the roadside.
"Princess, you cannot leave the palace!" Wang Momo knelt on the floor, calling out to her Princess. She was a clear-headed one. The Gu family's Third Young Master could not be married, true, but the Grand Princess must not leave the palace either. If she was not kept before the Emperor's eyes, Consort Zhao would surely lay murderous hands on the Empress's two children.
Yu Xiaoxiao walked right up to Consort Zhao. To scheme so painstakingly against two motherless children—she deserved every bit of having her skin flayed alive by the tyrannical Empress. "Do you want to die?" Yu Xiaoxiao asked Consort Zhao.
Just then Consort Zhao saw Xianzong walking in through the doorway. With no time to wonder why the Grand Princess was asking whether she wanted to die, she wailed, "I do want to die! How I wish I could walk the Yellow Springs road in the Empress's stead!"
Yu Xiaoxiao seized Consort Zhao by the collar and hurled her out the lattice window. She wanted to die? Then Yu Xiaoxiao would oblige her.
A note to readers:
A new story from Meiguo—please bookmark, please click, all the please's, kisses to you all^^